15226 réponses à ce sujet

[Golden28]

@Grond0, Corey, and Wise...

 

Thanks for the condolences/ comments. You guys mind giving some input on the new Eren on the bg1 thread? I put a post in there yesterday.

 

Cheers!

[Grimwald the Wise]

Diary of the Gnice Gnomes

 

We investigated a house in the docks area and came across some cowled wizards. Before I had time to think Viconia was dead. (Those wizards are new!! I was therefore not buffed.)

 

We killed the wizards and learned the location of Valygar. We then went looking for him after going next door to get Viconia raised.

 

Sunar Seni gave us good advice and Valygar ended up joining us.

 

We sorted out the problems in the planar sphere. (Things were a bit different there too)

 

Valygar then returned to the Umar Hills. We then went shopping and became poor again, though everyone in the party now has good equipment.

Re-entering the sphere, we discovered something else that was new. The Knights wanted help in getting home. We had to sell yet more equipment in order to pay for the help. . Whilst awaiting the help, we came across a mage who would improve our equipment. Unfortunately, we had already sold some of the ingredients needed.   What is more each improvement costs over 10000 gold pieces. We have 2000 gold pieces so that bit of shopping will have to wait. We also need to wait for the mage to arrive at the planar sphere.

[Matuse73]

My first run in quite a while (6-8 weeks ago) was brought to an end in the slaver ship...Haegan refused to roll anything lower than a 19 (seriously, 7 in a row, all 19s and 20s) and just went on an absolute rampage. This wasn't even with any notable mods like SCS. He just ate my lunch and kicked sand in my face.

 

But this series of playthroughs have seen a lot of that. Another run was ended at the Irenicus Spellhold battle...I had him at Near Death, smacked him for another 85 points of damage just to be sure, and then backed the party off so his "Screw you guys, I'm going home" speech would kick in, and instead he threw a disintegrate at CHARNAME. First time I've ever lost that fight.

[The Potty 1]

Hi all. I've been lurking here for well over a year, but you seem to be having far too much fun for me not to get in on the action

I've dabbled in BG1 no-reloads, previously in Tutu/scs, and more recently in vanilla BG:EE, but I don't know (or like) BG1 well enough to pull this off. So, BG2 it is.

I'm running on an old linux/XP dual-boot computer, because it's hard to boot my son off the speedier laptop. Unfortunately the video card's pretty rubbish, which was a big reason why I chose the original BG2 over EE, which lags horribly.

My experience with BG2 has for the last 10 years been almost always modded, first Tactics/Ascension, then SCS2/Ascension. However I really couldn't face spending a couple of hours installing first BG-Tweaks, and then SCS2, so I just installed the official patch, Ascension, and the BG2-Fixpack. What a pleasure.

I've chosen a solo barbarian, because many tactical decisions come down to .. hmm .. yup Rage. I chose female in the hope that some part of me will absorb an ounce of sense from my character, which would be a change from my normal playstyle. Because males seem to have have an innate complex .. OK a simple relationship with danger

The name is stolen from here: http://www.qwantz.co....php?comic=2079

So, meet Thon.

 

 

I didn't even bother posting until I got out of the initial dungeon, but she blasted through like a winner. Note I have since changed her to Chaotic good, because I forgot about Azureedge.

 

 

Wait, is that a cat? Yup, enter my loose adherence to rules. I edited the Famcat.cre & Famcat25.cre files to push all the thieving skills up to 90, apart from detect illusion to 60 and set traps to 0. I then loaded my save in shadowkeeper and added a summon familiar scroll. Finally I drank a potion, and swapped the scroll into place. Sorry. I'm taking the XP from traps and locks as a boost against my rubbish memory for fights. I also cheated in a set of containers, which translates into more loot and therefore extra cash. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I'm still gonna die horribly.

 

Yes on the subject of poor decisions taken early, here's one:

 

 

What could go wrong

 

Finally, I was afraid of this fight, given only 1 apr with an unfamiliar weapon, so left it for last, went for full buffs, and planned to cut out and run for the portal if I ran out of healers and my HP dropped below 30. Fortunately it dropped first.

 

 

I then wasted a rage on the vampire, but left it too late and it got away.

 

Entering the promenade, I sold stuff off, cleared the circus, visited the slums, and then headed to the docks. There I grabbed a +1 axe from a chest, and looted all the chests in both thieves guild buildings. Finally I headed back to the CC, cleared the sewers (except the myconids), freed Hendak, and bought some proper gear. The +3 fire axe and azureedge are my melee and ranged weapons, and I bought the +2 flail of sleep for blunt damage. Actually, I haven't seen the CC bonus merchant yet, and I kinda want the defender of Easthaven.

 

Anyway, some back story:

 

Gorion looked down at Thon with a slight frown on his face, and said 'let's try again shall we.' Thon sighed, then nodded. Perching on the back of a chair, Gorion continued 'You're walking down the coast way, when suddenly you hear yipping, and a group of kobolds bursts through the foilage. They see you, three move in to melee, and five more ready their bows. What do you do?' Thon smiled nastily, and said 'Well .. Oow, you hit me'. Gorion glared, and said 'I swatted you with a newspaper, which is less than you deserve. However, please continue, I'm sure you weren't about to do anything stupid'. Thon glared back and said 'THIS is stupid, they're just kobolds, I could kill them with my teeth. I could kill them with a wet sock'. Gorion said nothing, but his posture straightened, and his foot started tapping rapidly. Thon sighed again, and said 'Right, yes, I dive for the bushes, and run like a .. frightened rabit you said? Yes, like that.' Gorion's posture eased, and he said '.. and then ..?' Thon continued ' .. and then I head for civilisation, and attempt to .. yes alright .. make friends with someone who looks like they could beat a werewolf to death with a pair of angry kobolds yes?'. Gorion glared a bit more, then his face softened, and he said, 'yes, that's exactly right'. 'Bloody stupid' muttered Thon to hereself darkly.

[Alesia_BH]

But this series of playthroughs have seen a lot of that. Another run was ended at the Irenicus Spellhold battle...I had him at Near Death, smacked him for another 85 points of damage just to be sure, and then backed the party off so his "Screw you guys, I'm going home" speech would kick in, and instead he threw a disintegrate at CHARNAME. First time I've ever lost that fight.

 

That's a heart breaker, Matuse.

 

Have you considered sharing your runs here?

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Hi all. I've been lurking here for well over a year, but you seem to be having far too much fun for me not to get in on the action

 

It's great to see you again Potty 1!

 

Best of luck with Thon!

 

A.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Yeah, nice to see ya, Potty! All the best for Tho®n! 

[Alesia_BH]

Arcadia, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage: Fire Giant Temple, Part 2- The Letdown in Lavaville

 

So, I spent sometime looking over the remaining screenshots from Lavaville, trying to think of ways to make Arcadia's time there seem interesting. After about 15 minutes I thought: "Nope, I've got nothing." Yeah. Not much happened. Arcadia's ice storm of chaos and disaster was pretty fun, but after that, Arcadia's time in the temple was just a letdown- hence the name of this post.

 

I guess I'll start with a few reminders for the SCS players. First, the Fell Cats: Watch out for them. They lower fire resistance on hit, and that's dangerous. Arcadia took them down under ProMW. Each time the appeared, they were priority targets.

 

Second, the Wave: Bring it. It will insta-chunk the burning men and the salamanders but, more importantly, the potentially dangerous Imix.

 

And that's all I've got basically. Nonetheless, I'll jot down a few notes on the Fire Lich, Berenn, and Imix.

 

The Fire Lich

 

The Fire Lich caught a opening Power Word: Blind, followed by a Khleben's, a Breach, and a Seeking Whirlwind. Not a peep out of him.

 

The PW:B

 

The Khelben's

 

The Breach

 

The Seeking Whirlwind

 

The efreetis were Smite stunned to foil their oh-so-irritating gaseous form transformations.

 

Berenn and the Brimstone

 

This was the biggest letdown of all. This is actually a potentially great fight. There's Berenn, of course, and then there's a pair of fell cats alongside an army of fire giants. There's also a dragon called a brimstone. With an expansive and open venue, it has the potential for great combat.

 

Unfortunately, it never works out that way when I play it. I invariably muck it up and end up retreating to the entrance way, where I become trapped and forced to fight enemies one by one. I hate that. I'd prefer to fight it out in the big arena, but I always get it wrong somehow. If there is one fight in ToB that vexes me, it's this one. Not because it's difficult, but because I've yet to figure out how to complete it in an interesting fashion.

 

The problem is two fold. First, there are the fell cats. Those things scare me. Having your fire resistance lowered with a red dragon around is a sure way to get roasted. Whenever I see the fell cats, I panic. The second issue is the Brimstone's wing buffet combined with the knowledge that there are traps in that room -including a maze trap. How -exactly- does the wing buffet effect interact with traps? Whenever I see that dragon, I get this terrible vision of my character flying across the room, straight into a Maze Trap. I'm guessing the odds of that actually happening are pretty low. But still it's not hard to see how a wing buffet could lead to grief in that arena. I'd hate to be trapped in a corner, what with the giants and the dragon. That sounds dangerous, and the thought of it makes me run.

 

The plan, this time, was to use a See Enemy Wilting Chain to take out the fell cats quick, and to then cast Improved Alacrity while protected by Contingency: See Enemy- ProMW. Improved Alacrity would be followed by buff->debuff (Brimstone)->Time Stop, with the Time Stop being used to punk the dragon in melee while protected from wing buffet. Sounds like a good plan right? It failed in every way imaginable.

 

First, the Wilting Chain missed the fell cats, and instead caught the giants. That was a huge problem because with the fell cats in play, the arena is far less safe, and the door becomes more tempting.

 

Arcadia proceeded with her plan nonetheless. Improved Alacrity was cast, and Arcadia's buffs were taken. She then went to work on the Brimstone's protections with Ruby Ray -> Breach.

 

Ok. Let's bring the Time Stop.

 

Everything looked rosy at this point, but then Arcadia's blade hit nothing but stoneskins. Sigh. I've noticed that some creatures appear to have un-breachable stoneskins in my install. The Brimstone is apparently one of them. Arcadia did work her way through the stoneskins, but the Brimstone's 552 hitpoints insured that he would survive the Time Stop.

 

Time resumed, with the Brimstone at Injured.

 

Arcadia was then wing buffetted. Guess where she ended up?

 

Bummer. The battle was finished from there, leading to yet another anti-climactic end to the Improved Fire Giant Temple. It's a shame. Next time, maybe.

 

Imix

 

Remember: bring the Wave.

 

I'll post on Nyalee soon.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

 

Btw. For those who'd like a sense of the potential of the Berenn/Brimstone fight, check out this old post, featuring awesome wide screen captures, from Wierdo's run:

 

http://forum.bioware...llenge/page-116

[Aasim]

Wow. I'm gone for three days, so much stuff going on here...plenty of catching up to do.

 

Anyways, I'm very time-limited today, so I'll read tonight, and post some yesterday's progress on Kevmorn, the halfling barbarian.

Last time he was seen in Alkathla, disposing of the Slaver's trash in the boat. Yesterday he had some boring stuff that needed to be done on the menu. Since Edwin is needed, Shadow Thieves would be next. This means Rayic.

He appears to be an Enchater on my install now (this is determined randomly at install time with SCS). Anyhow, Kivan did not survive him. Triple Skull Trap loaded sequencer had him dying instantly.

 

Some time later, charmed Mazzy kills Viconia

 

But then it was done. Having expended his most damngerous offensive spells, and with him Prismatic Mantle expiring, Mazzy's sling shots proved way too much for him to handle. I raised the dead at local temple, did the rest of the quests, and then it was time to take on Mae'var.

 

That was rather swift. With Jan dispelling illusions, and barbarian tanking his backstabs, he only managed to release a Chain Lightning before he died (in addition to standard set of Remove Magic/Breach.) No disables on him this time.

 

Next, Fallen Paladins (no problems there, but they did drop a large number of nice potions including two Magic Shielding potions!)

Upon returning to collect the reward, we take a detour to the sewers, where we fight Tarnor's gang. 2xChaos to open + a Greater Command. Gaius in untouchable due to his Deflection, but nvm. Most of his comrades are in some bad state effect, and aren't likely ever to come out of it.

 

Killing Gaius took a while- he summoned Wraiths which drained some of Edwin's levels. I don't speciffically rewrite memorized spells, but some Secret Words would have definitely been helpful here. 

 

With his Prismatic Mantle expiring, he was opened to arrows and bullets, which got him down quickly. Viconia can't yet Turn Wraiths, but they run away, which does help a bit.

 

I left sewer Rakshasa for another day.

Now, the second hostile group with nice loot to sell - Mencar. Amon was killed instantly, with no chance of retaliation.

 

Two Chaos castings did the others, but I forgot about Orcslicer, who killed Edwin after chewing his Stoneskins quickly. This could have ended much worse than it has, he hits for huge damage and chunking is a danagerous possibility.

 

The thief died to Mencar, who died to Kivan, and that was mostly it. We cleared them out quickly.

 

Next, I payed Shadow thieves, did first two quests, revisited WK, finished level 1 and level 2 (placed the scepter keys and ran out. This can end rather ugly with BG2 pathfinding, but all was well this time around).

[Aasim]

Kemvorn, 4th BG2 update

 

Nalia's keep

 

Unfortunately, since the party currently assembled is something I want for the rest of the game, we couldn't squeeze Nalia in. That deprived me of 10k gold, but what can you do. It was rather straightforward with some minor bumps, but Yuan-ti mage wasn't one of them. Kivan stealthed his way into the room, use Trip shot on him, and he never regained his balance.

 

Torgal was otoh bumpy. We had summons, we had buffs, but we had little way in protecting our buffs - Edwin is still low-leveled and Yuan-ti regulary remove his buffs on fighters, same as Viccy's. We failed to disable Yuan-ti mages with Chaos/G.Command castings - this usually leads my gangs to suffering some losses in this fight.

 

Fear immunity is a must here, and must take predecence over any other buff.

 

Killing Trolls, Umber elder or Torgal lasts a while, thus we focused the firepower on Yuan-ti first.

We managed to down one quickly, as soon as his PfMW expired. Jan did a lot of tanking for now, allowing Kivan and Mazzy to use their ranged expertise on them.

 

Unfortunately, killing the 2nd Yuan-ti took a long while, and jan died to his Flame Arrow.

 

Edwin died to two rampaging trolls, but at least the Yuan-ti is debuffed.

 

Debuffed equals dead in less than a round with archers around.

 

Trolls are next. With them down, Torgal is left solo, Viccy manages to cast a Heal at Kevmorn, and that was it. We rest, Viccy raises the dead, report back to Nalia, and take the keep as our own. 

 

Following the success at De'Arnise, Trademeet is next. No problems, even the Rakashasa battle was made very short - Kivan and Kemvorn killed him before his buffs triggered.

 

We took his loot, his head, and ran out, not bothering with the other two.

Druidic bunch was dropped with Chaos + G.Command, and I had to take Cernd (Jan dropped temporary) so he could kill Faldorn. We're now heroes of Trademeet, where we bought Girdle of Inertial barrier for Kevmorn and Cloak of Displacement for Kivan.

 

I suppose Shadow Dragon should be next. I'm usually reluctant to fight dragons before Spellhold, but Kivan has an apsurd THAC0 with his kit/weapon/17 DEX and should be able to hit him fairly reliably.

[Alesia_BH]

Arcadia, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage: Nyalee

 

Arcadia's battle with Nyalee was mercifully quick. Arcadia decided to show her blaster-caster side in this fight and that spelled instant doom for Nyalee.

 

Predictably, Nyalee opened by using her Mirror of Opposition on Arcadia. The Mirror of Opposition duplicates the target, creating a hostile foe.

 

But what happens when the Mirror of Opposition effect hits Spell Turning? Nyalee gets duplicated instead.

 

Interesting, although it didn't matter in this case really: anyone who stood with Nyalee was destined to fall soon. Wilting Chain + Skull Trap Sequencer + Sunfire Spell Trigger + Dragon's Breath. The Greater Earth Elemental was all that survived the initial barrage, and a Greater Whirlwind/Critical Strike fixed him.

 

Yaga Shura is next.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Glad to see you back in action, Aasim!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grond0]

The second issue is the Brimstone's wing buffet combined with the knowledge that there are traps in that room -including a maze trap. How -exactly- does the wing buffet effect interact with traps? Whenever I see that dragon, I get this terrible vision of my character flying across the room, straight into a Maze Trap.

Does spell immunity work against those traps?

[Blackraven]

Lots of great stuff here! Good to see you back in action Aasim!
Alesia, still very much in control I've no idea about the Maze traps. Do they work in the same way as a Bounty Hunter's maze traps?

[Aasim]

Well, it felt good to play again, but I'm afraid Kevmorn's days are over. Mind you, this was a pretty darn good game - we even killed Firk with only 3 healing potions used:

 

Kivan = awesome.

 

Ulitharid Lich? No problem.

 

The troubles started in Planar Sphere. I should have never entered the damn place. First, we lost Jan forever. Chunked by Marilith's 6 apr after PW:Stunned by the damn Glabrezu. Why I even fought this I have no idea- other two demons were already dead, and I had the heart in inventory. Meh.

 

 

Ok, we still did the Glabrezu and his gated snake without further losses. But Tolgerias....ffs. I haven't fought him this hard - ever. He gated a Pit Fiend, and summoned a Planetar asap.

Buffs dispelled in Time Stop.

 

As if one demon wasn't enough, here's another.  This "Apsolute Immunity" he's using is, per it's namesake, *apsoulte*. There's no damage or weapon that bypasses this spell.

 

Can it get worse? Sure. Pit fiend hastes all. See the status effects on my party.

 

Mazzy gets held, and demons are quick to gang up on her, killing her swiftly. There's still a chance! Kivan is operational, and so is Kevmorn.

 

Flashy effects blind Kivan. Bad, bad. Now he can't shoot anything.

 

Kevmorn gets held as well. VICCCY!!!

 

Phew....Potion of Freedom ASAP.

 

Can't move to disease. Crap, crap. He's a sitting duck, while demons are chasing Viconia.

 

She dies. I can no longer raise anyone, regardless of how this battle ends.

 

Total disaster follows. Chaos. All affected, since Tolgerias is such high leveled, no save is allowed at all. (if the difference in between caster and target is <5 levels, Chaos doesn't allow a save to be rolled).

 

We're done for. Kivan dies first, Kevmorn gets charmed by the Pit Fiend. At least demons don't attack him anymore

 

Edwin, confused & frightened, tries to hide in the corner, but demons teleport at will, smacking him down. Since Kemvorn is charmed, that's game over - not that it would matter much if he wasn't - he'd die quick enough regardless.

 

Fin!

[corey_russell]

@Aasim: Sorry to hear the end of Kevmorn. For my parties, I often reserve planar sphere for chapter 6 - I consider it a dangerous place. For my soloers, I almost always skip it, unless I have a good defense to the maze casting guys in there. Shield of Harmony, Lilacor and Aegis Hide are all good defense to chaos, which seemed to be the spell that did you in.

[Aasim]

@Aasim: Sorry to hear the end of Kevmorn. For my parties, I often reserve planar sphere for chapter 6 - I consider it a dangerous place. For my soloers, I almost always skip it, unless I have a good defense to the maze casting guys in there. Shield of Harmony, Lilacor and Aegis Hide are all good defense to chaos, which seemed to be the spell that did you in.

I was greedy, since the place is loaded with items one can sell. Aeger won't protect vs Chaos on my install, Liracor was sold, and Mazzy had Harmony. It doesn't protect against Hold on my game (still does vs Charm & Confusion), and that fact did her. I'd take it for Kevmorn, but my protagonist couldn't move since his strenght was lowered by Symbol:Pain + Pit Fiend's Disease attack. 

Anyhow, even if mages didn't use Chaos, you can't run from aTweaks Fiends. They teleport to your most vulnerable characters as they please, preventing spell use and rangd attacks. After Viccy died, Kivan would never be allowed to shoot from range, hence the battle was lost far before Chaos.

[Alesia_BH]

Does spell immunity work against those traps?

 

I would expect it to, yes. I would expect SI:C to work. I'd also expect Spell Deflection and Spell Trap to work. "Expect" is the key word here, however. I've tried those approach with maze traps, but not the specific ones in Yaga's temple. They could be coded differently.

 

I should probably do some testing before my next run through the temple. SI:C is not somothing my characters would typically run in that location, but Spell Defection is.

 

 

Alesia, still very much in control I've no idea about the Maze traps. Do they work in the same way as a Bounty Hunter's maze traps?

 

Not exactly. The game's static maze traps are single target, like the spell, whereas the bounty hunter special snares are AoE. A more interesting difference is that the game's static maze traps launch a spell targeted on the individual who trips the trap, whereas the bounty hunter special snares launch missile projectiles that apply a spell effect on hit. If you look closely at the special snare animation, you'll see little arrows flying when the trap trips. The engine actually treats those like arrows in some ways: the Reflection Shield and Physical Mirror will send them back. The game's static maze traps ignore the Reflection Shield and Physical Mirror, but they can be foiled by Spell Protections.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Sad to see Tolgerias claimed another victim (one of my no-reload runs ended there as well, SCS but sans aTweaks though.)...  If he allowed to gate Fiends the events quickly run dire at low/mid levels... so I prefer to load him full of Cloudkills as quickly as possible.

[Alesia_BH]

 

 

 

 

 

And Kevmorn was looking so good.

 

What's next?

 

Best,

 

A.

 

EDIT: I just read the battle report. That was a lot for your party to handle at this stage.

[Aasim]

 

And Kevmorn was looking so good.

 

He was indeed.  Honestly, I didn't see him failing. Exellent AC, great HP, resistances, party, he had it all.  Apart Mind Shield effect.

 

 

What's next?

I'm not sure.  I *think* my best attempt (even if it wasn't the longest run I've had) was with a dwarven fighter/cleric, who died to a very stupid mistake of not having level drain protection vs Thaxy, so I'm thinking about retrying something like that (I think that little guy could go all the way actually). 

KR Stalker is interesting, but his treats do squat vs demons, and I need something which packs a punch vs them. Maybe fighter/druid...but he's so vulnerable to Breach/Dispel attacks it isn't even funny.

Regardless of what I choose, I'll likely be going as a custom 4-member party. With a sorcerer included. 

[Matuse73]

Shield of Harmony, Lilacor and Aegis Hide are all good defense to chaos, which seemed to be the spell that did you in.

 

I long ago stopped really caring about the Shadow Dragon Armor in favor of Aeger's Hide. The confusion immunity is just too good to give up. My basic assumption with magic is that all of my characters will always fail every save, and the monsters will always make every save. Chaos is one of the spells that just wrecks me far too frequently. All it takes is one melee character to be confused and start bashing on other party members for the casualties to bloom. Aeger's also has nice acid/fire/cold resist, which is useful.

[Aasim]

Sad to see Tolgerias claimed another victim (one of my no-reload runs ended there as well, SCS but sans aTweaks though.)...  If he allowed to gate Fiends the events quickly run dire at low/mid levels... so I prefer to load him full of Cloudkills as quickly as possible.

I generally avoid use of Clouds....especially Cloudkill . There's very little for AI to do against those, hence I'm reluctant to use it. I do use them (if applicable) in BG1 final battle, and that's it.

[Blackraven]

Thanks @Alesia for clarifying.   

Aasim, ouch, that was one fierce battle. I've also never had Tolgerias summon a Dark Planetar and a Fiend at the same time. And that Chaos with no save is just nasty... I have no advice for you here in terms of tips for future playthroughs. I sometimes retreat from the room if things don't look good for my characters. (That's mostly experience from soloing though; a party may seem to have more options.)
Good luck with deciding on your next Charname. 
 

[Grimwald the Wise]

Diary of the Gnice Gnomes

 

Now that we are gnice, Anomen decided that he wanted to join us. We finished the Innershade quest and we are now in Riatavin investigating assassins there. We came across a blacksmith who charged us a lot of gold to make blue scale armour. Upon discovering the quality, I discovered that it is little better than the armour we already have. A waste of gold, which is currently in short supply.

 

We are currently investigating areas which are completely new to me, so there is always the possibility of making a fatal mistake.