15218 réponses à ce sujet

[corey_russell]

Very insightful once again Alesia! You could become a professor of BG Sciences, or bundle your posts in a handbook about the game. Your encyclopedic knowledge of the game seems to be fully intact.

I do dislike the fact that Improved Alacrity, which I consider to be meant for spellcasting, allows the stacking of HLAs such as Critical Strike and GWW, though I concede that in all likelihood I'd merrily do it myself with a Fighter/Mage or Thief/Mage.

As to the pics behind spoiler tags, I've become a proponent myself, and I like Corey's approach to use spoiler tags whenever he has 8 or more screenshots to share. Personally I think I'll apply an even lower threshold.

@Blackraven: Actually, I personally never have 8 screenshots with full image inserted - I would have links to some and only the most important (maybe 3, or final post perhaps 4) - now though I probably  will have all spoiler except one perhaps (my favorite screenshot or whatever).

[Matuse73]

So, yesterday started poorly and went downhill from there. Going into the Kuo-Toa area of the underdark, first the demon knights managed to get through protection from fear and kill Minsc, Aerie, and Imoen, then after Jaheira rezzed them, some kind of low-hp trigger script kept cutting in where Jaheira would interrupt every second (literally, characters would take 2 steps and then Jaheira would chime in again). Took almost 20 minutes to get her to shut up.

 

Then Minsc got charmed by a Monitor, and the Flail of Ages is a bad weapon to be hit with. RIP me.

 

The timing works out ok though, because Pillars of Eternity launches today. The death mechanic doesn't seem to lend itself to no reload play, but I'm still looking forward to it.

[Alesia_BH]

So, yesterday started poorly and went downhill from there.

 

Sorry to hear that Matuse. As you may be aware, I hate Kuo Toans: hate'em!

 

I think I once endured that Jaheira bug as well, many years ago. It sounds very familiar.

 

Good luck with your next run. And until then, have fun with Pillars!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grond0]

 

My approval doesn't matter of course. What matters is whether you are enjoying yourself and achieving your goals.

Your smiley is pretty accurate - though I had my tongue firmly in my cheek in making the original comment .

 

Were you casting from your book or were you using a wand of Spell Striking?

 

If you were casting from your book, you likely encountered lich immunity to L1-L5 spells, which includes Breach in many installs.

I was casting from book.  I realised after casting that it had been blocked by spell immunity, but I can never remember at the right time the different rules in my various different installations ...

[Aasim]

Barin, 1st BG2 update

This is him.

 

In addition to my regular install, I added two things. One, Kagain is imported from BG1; and second, an NPC mod called Adrian. He's a sorcerer. His stats are nothing gamebreaking, but 16 WIS.... He  also has lovely HP, regardless of 10 CON.

I altered his portrait, original is more BG-like.

 

His spellbook is weird,  to say the least. He has some odd picks for a sorcerer like Dispel, Aganazar Scorcher, and Fireball. Fireball is actually quite a decent replacement for Skull Trap with Spell Revisions - damage type is worse, but it has more range, bigger AoE, and it's easier to protect people from fire than magic damage. Most importantly, it's cast way faster than its skullish counterpart.

As so far, Barin has assembled his core troops (only Edwin missing from game plan), and dealt with CC slavers and Suna Seni.

 

Suna almost got the best out of Kagain, but all was well. Dwarf lives on.

 

To end the session, we roasted some spiders.

 

Now, Edwin should be aquired. I hate having him underleveled.

[Alesia_BH]

 

Your smiley is pretty accurate - though I had my tongue firmly in my cheek in making the original comment .

 

Yeah. I picked up on that.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Arcadia's Game: Managing Spell Memorization with Low Intelligence

 

Some of you have probably noticed that Arcadia's lowest stat is intelligence, which may seem odd for a mage. That was done on role playing grounds, in part, since I wanted it to be clear that some of Arcadia's capacities come from Captain Swarmi, but it also had a strategic basis. In my install, charisma is important, since a natural, unmodified charisma threshold must be met to recruit Balthazar for the final battle. Of the remaining stats, all are useful for an F/M, assuming you intend to use Wish spells, but intelligence is distinct from the others in that it is not needed during combat and is readily adjustable. So, the question becomes how low can you go?

 

If you look at the memorization chance chart, you can see that the benefits of increasing intelligence start to diminish at 19. At that point, following two large jumps of 10 points from 17 to 18 and from 18 to 19, memorization chance increases by just 1% with each point of intelligence, until limiting out at 24.

 

So, according to the chart, with a base intelligence of 12, a Potion of Mind Focusing and a Potion of Genius can get you most of the benefits of high intelligence. Planning ahead and memorizing spells in batches helps mitigate costs.

 

The inability to memorize spells with 100% probability is perhaps lamentable, but that's a problem that can ultimately be worked around via Wish. One of the options is raise all party members' characteristics to 25 for 4 rounds.

 

It works as advertised, allowing even the dimmest PC -or the dimmest party member- to memorize spells without risk of failure, sans potions.

 

Of course, you have to memorize Wish first. And like all Wish options, you aren't guaranteed to get the 25 stat option on any one casting. But since spell memorization occurs out of combat, you have the luxury of time: you can try as many times as you need to. The higher your wisdom, the better your chances of getting good options. Note also that if you haven't used Wish before -and even if you have really- it's a good idea to do your wishing in a safe environment devoid of blue circle NPCs who could turn hostile: it's very easy to anger an entire map area with the wrong wish option.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Btw. Rather than using the Spoiler tags, I think I'm going to go with small jpegs embedded in the text. The jpegs I uploaded were 60k-90k

[Alesia_BH]

Glad to see you back in Amn, Aasim!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Aasim]

Glad to see you back in Amn, Aasim!

Good to be here, but I'm gonna retire Barin for some time. I want to try something else other than point-and-click characters. Probably a f/m/c + sorcerer duo. That should be quick I guess...

[Alesia_BH]

Good to be here, but I'm gonna retire Barin for some time. I want to try something else other than point-and-click characters. Probably a f/m/c + sorcerer duo. That should be quick I guess...

 

Sounds fun. You are playing with the XP cap, right? Do you have any experience with a capped F/M/C in SCS/Ascension?

 

I did an F/M/C solo once, but that was in Improved Anvil, which is a capless world. It's not clear to me how a capped F/M/C would work out at high levels in SCS/Ascension.

 

Would the sorcerer or the F/M/C be the Bhaalspawn?

[Alesia_BH]

Arcadia, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage: The Oasis

 

Oasis

• n. A fertile or green spot in a desert or wasteland, made so by the presence of water.
• n. A situation or place preserved from surrounding unpleasantness; a refuge: an oasis of serenity amid chaos.

 

Definition one may apply to the locale where Jamis Tombelthan and his army confronted Arcadia. Definition two certainly didn't- at least not for Arcadia's foes. Arcadia, however, did find serenity amid chaos. And she found it quickly.

 

Arcadia arrived at the Oasis unbuffed and visible. Nonetheless, using Improved Alacrity along with Contingencies and Sequencers, Arcadia was quickly able to reach the point of virtual invulnerability. Keep track of Jamis's footsteps to estimate the time.

 

Jamis, on sight, begins to stride towards Arcadia. Arcadia casts Improved Alacrity.

 

Arcadia's Contingencies fire.

 

Arcadia pulls her Sequencer. By this point, she is immune to all weapons and immune to all energy attacks: magic damage, electricity, acid, cold, fire, and poison. As you can see, Jamis has barely moved.

 

Buffed and un-unbuffable, Arcadia then went to work- starting of with a GWW/Critical Strike.

 

Expecting a short fight, Arcadia made room for Malison, seeking extra disintegrations.

 

She ended up getting a lot, including this newly Stoneskined mage. I'd never use a spell slot on Disintegration, but making enemies save to avoid disintegration multiple times within each round -without using your aura- can be fun and helpful.

 

Saved the Critical Strikes for the range weapon equipped archers just for fun. This is Arcadia best critical yet.

 

Draconis will be next.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Good info again Alesia. I've never used Wish much, but taking the stat raise option into account as well as the fact that you're soloing, your 12 INT seems enough.

You've reached the point with Arcadia where I simply can't see her fail. I'm sure you think differently, which is exactly why I have faith in a new no-reload trilogy success for you.

[Aasim]

Sounds fun. You are playing with the XP cap, right? Do you have any experience with a capped F/M/C in SCS/Ascension?

 

I did an F/M/C solo once, but that was in Improved Anvil, which is a capless world. It's not clear to me how a capped F/M/C would work out at high levels in SCS/Ascension.

 

Would the sorcerer or the F/M/C be the Bhaalspawn?

Yes, I have 8 million cap. I have 0 XP with f/m/c Ascension (fwiw, I played through Ascension with solo fighter/thief, a berserker (failed, regardless of reloading - couldn't pull it through, Monk (Megamod, don't remember if succeeded), and probably something else I can't remember - fighter/mage multi or dual. I forgot, many years have passed.)

One thing that is very limiting for a f/m/c is the lack of PFMW scrolls on my install. There's only 6 of those in my game, and all must be bought apart one in Umar dungeon. While money isn't an issue in non-IR game, it's a big issue with IR. Scrolls are incredibly expensive to get.

Another issue I can forsee is lack of Planetar summon. Sorcerers with Refinements loose that uber spell. I guess Gate is nice enough, but Planetar is more useful imo.

f/m/c would be (actually, already is) a Bhalspawn. I should have named them Hansel and Gretchel.

Will post on their BG1 progress tomorrow.

[Aasim]

Buffed and unbuffable

[Nishiki]

Haer'Dalis was rescued from Mekrath, then everyone took a deep breath and went to the planar prison...

 

The opening area was a cake walk.  The next area with the two thalls was even easier. 

 

Then things got hard because of stupid AI pathing.

 

The plan to handle the wyvern and salamanders and yuan-ti mage with web/cloudkill.  What really happened was this:

 

Shea dead, Vanja and Nalia nearly so, and Isa nowhere to be seen.  It all started well, with Isa and Nalia getting off thir web/cloudkill combo.  Then Vanja and Shea were supposed to move up and block the salamanders from exiting the webs.  Vanja got into position but Shea...got warped into the prison cell with four 'warriors'.  Who immediately slept her and killed her.  And then came out of their cell to attack Vanja.  Nalia and Isa went invisible; Yuan-ti mage -- for the one second it *wasn't* held by webs -- used true sight.  Then chaos.  Isa failed her save, wandered off to the left somewhere.  Vanja is now soloing four warriors and two salamanders with Nalia providing cover fire with arrows.  The salamanders, thankfully, are too stupid to move out of the webs, so they are periodically held, yuan-ti mage spends most of the rest of the battle held along with the wyvern.  Cloudkill slowly eats away at their HP.  Yuan-ti mage fires off skull traps.  Warriors go down, finally.  Vanja quaffs potion of xtra healing, continues to slug it out with the Salamanders.  Web wears off.  Wyvern closes in as yuan-ti mage fire off it's second skull trap.  Wyven and salamnders go down.  Vanja and Nalia finish off the yuan-ti mage just as Vanja's second rage expires.

 

 

We head north to take on the pair of thralls; this time Nalia gets hit with chaos and alerts the master of thralls.  He sends his air elementals to deal with us, we deal with them, and then go after him.

 

Yeah, sorry master of thrall, Vanja doesn't care what you throw at her.  She's going to kill you either way.

 

 

 

All done. And now Shea has a shiny new staff of air!  Woo hoo!

 

 

Um, at least it was the same one they fell into before...  stupid pathing

 

 

So we destroy the ball thingy that controls the thalls, sit back, and wait to see how things play out.

 

...

 

Wait, what?  Huh, never seen that before.

 

 

 

Mopping up the last of the salamanders and yuan-ti. (Those mages sure to love to commit suicide with skull traps).

 

 

Sure you can Raelis.  I'd accept gold, or silver, or platinum, or your first born...

 

 

Edit: And woo!  Isa gets her first 6th lvl spell: PW:Silence.

[Alesia_BH]

f/m/c would be (actually, already is) a Bhalspawn.

 

Will post on their BG1 progress tomorrow.

 

Noted. Good luck with that.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Btw. Congrats on rescuing Haer'Dalis, Nishiki!

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Arcadia's Game:

 

Draconis is down.

 

I'll post on the fight soon.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Nishiki]

Btw. Congrats on rescuing Haer'Dalis, Nishiki!

 

Thanks.  Wasn't too exceptionally worried as I had both rods of rez, but still, as Murphey said, anything that can go wrong....

[Alesia_BH]

Good info again Alesia. I've never used Wish much, but taking the stat raise option into account as well as the fact that you're soloing, your 12 INT seems enough.

 

Thanks.

 

Both Wish and Limited Wish are excellent spells. They're worth exploring.

 

Wish is at its best in the hands of a sorcerer, but other arcane casters can make use of it as well.

 

You've reached the point with Arcadia where I simply can't see her fail. I'm sure you think differently, which is exactly why I have faith in a new no-reload trilogy success for you.

 

That's kind of you to say.

 

Arcadia is an F/M. Prior to this run, I had never played an F/M, but I understood what they are capable, and based on that understanding, I expected Arcadia to make it deep into ToB, even if my play was off. That's how it has turned out. Arcadia has never been in serious danger. I'm not even certain she has taken any damage at all in ToB yet. She definitely hasn't in the main fights: Illasera, Gromnir, Yaga Shura, and Draconis.

 

Is she capable of successfully navigating the endgame? Of course. But the issue is that I've never done it before with this class and the final battles will present challenges that Arcadia hasn't faced yet. In an earlier post, I mentioned that it takes 40-60 rounds or a lot of spell slots to kill Arcadia. Mel and the Five will have that- they'll have windows of opportunity. The question is whether I'll have the planning and timing to keep Arcadia alive in what will be a novel tactical environment for her. It helps that I'm familiar with the battle -even if I am rusty- but there's always a learning curve with each new class and it's the tiniest little details that matter. Arcadia is "powerful" -whatever that means- but that doesn't imply that she'll succeed. Even the most power character can fall because, for example, they were counting on Spell Deflection to protect them from Implosion and they didn't realize that Melf's Minute Meteors had eaten through it, or they had mis-read an incantation and used their aura at the wrong time. It's the tiny stuff that counts. Even the powerful can fall on account of minutiae.

 

Since Arcadia has such robust defenses in short to moderate length fights, I've had a lot of margin for error in this run. That has obscured rustiness which is apparent to me, even if it isn't apparent to others. Arcadia and the Captain can do it. I'll just have to have a solid plan and be on my game. That may happen, it may not. We'll see how it plays out.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Okay, I need a little help before I come over to this side.

 

My SOA/TOB install seems dorked up. It'll come up but when it asks me to 'insert' disk, it won't read it.  If I put the disk in like I'm going to install again, it opens up but then freezes.  

 

No biggie I don't think. Intellectually I don't see how it will hurt my Tutu install to delete my SOA/TOB install and reinstall...but I just want to check.  

 

I DO not want to lost Sir Gawain who is saved in my Tutu install.  

 

So what I'm asking is can I safely delete my SOA/TONB install w/o affecting my Tutu install?  CKT

[Alesia_BH]

I'm going to defer to someone else on this since I'm a mac user and I'm not familiar with the installation protocol on PCs.

 

The only possible problem I could imagine is that the SoA/ToB install program might write to the same directory that the Tutu install is in and overwrite files. I can't say whether that is even a vague possibility, however, since, as mentioned, I'm not familiar with the install program on PCs.

 

Given your connection to Sir Gawain's game, I'd advise backing it up on another disk- at least the save game folder. That wouldn't be a bad idea even if you weren't re-installing SoA/ToB.

 

I'm sure someone else will offer more guidance. I just hope you get it straightened out. We're looking forward to seeing Sir Gawain in Amn!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

@CKT I was writing pretty much what Alesia just said (I'm a BGT user, so can't help you). But yes, please make a backup copy of your Gawain BG1 Final Save.
@Alesia, I understand what you're saying. It'll be interesting for me to see whether Arcadia (or at least the way you play her) has the stamina for Mel and friends. Of course I'm hoping it!

[Nishiki]

Well, doing the Unseeing Eye next... I've never actually completed the entire quest; I usually just walk in, cloud kill everyone, then swat the beholders.

 

I'll be doing the full quest this time.  Which means I'll be walking into it blind.

 

How ironic.

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia, I understand what you're saying. It'll be interesting for me to see whether Arcadia (or at least the way you play her) has the stamina for Mel and friends. Of course I'm hoping it!

 

That's the thing. I'll have to play her different in the final fights. I may even have to play her different against Sendai and Abazigal, to an extent (I still haven't worked through my plan for those battles, and no: I'm not taking them for granted).

 

The name "Arcadia" means a quiet serene place. I selected that name for my F/M, because I knew she'd have a bubble of magicks around her to keep her safe throughout her adventure: a safe haven within her spells. That bubble is robust, but it can only last so long, and it does require management. At the Throne -where Arcadia will have to keep her aura clear for Focus activation and where there will be constant attacks on her magical defenses- maintaining that bubble won't be practical. For a sorcerer, sure: Alanis and Alicia both did it, but for an F/M it's a very different story. If Arcadia makes it to the Throne, she'll look like a very different character there than she has to date. I haven't decided how, exactly, she'll fight, but it will be different.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

I wish I could help with you with some good suggestions, as you did for me with Glorydd, but my knowledge of that part of the game is minimal (even vanilla). All I can do is wish you the best of luck in the endgame.