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[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barabrian: Anadramatis

 

I had composed a semi-long post critiquing Anadramatis and his presence in SCS. But then it occurred to me that Anadramatis may have been a labor of love, a cherished creation, and I have no desire to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm grateful for David's work, and I'm glad to see him flexing his creative muscles.

 

I may, however, refrain from installing the Abazigal Improved Enclave in the future. I'll leave it at that.

 

I didn't know what to expect here. Not really. I hadn't fought Anadramatis, nor had Arkona. And yet we both benefitted from the intelligence of an intrepid monk named Veyal. Were it not for Veyal's recon, Arkona may have fallen here. My thanks to Gate70 for the detailed reports.

 

Anadramatis is a yellow dragon, not unlike Pontifex from the Tactics Ritual. His breath weapon does piercing damage, he is resistant to fire, missile, and piercing damage. He has 750HP, an AC of -8, and a THAC0 of -8. He lacks the disablers of Tamah, but aside from that he is, to my way of thinking, clearly the toughest of the SCS Ascension dragons: he has the most formidable basic statistics, the most useful resistances, and the toughest breath weapon to stop. He lives in a tiny cave, from which there is no escape. He is unavoidable. He is, no doubt, a hurdle.

 

Since I am at best ambivalent about Anadramatis's presence to begin with, I wasn't inclined to take chances here. I leveraged Gate70's advice, and gifted Arkona a safe win.

 

I wasn't 100% sure where to expect Anadramatis. I knew he would be defending the breath potion liquid and I knew that he would appear in a cave that looks identical to the one the ice salamanders appear in in vanilla. Perhaps Anadramatis would spawn in immediately, after the player exits the tunnel? It made sense to prepare for anything.

 

 

Upon diving thorough the tunnel, Arkona found not a dragon, but a collection of lizard men. Lizard men: yay! Chunky fun!

 

But wait a minute...These aren't like any lizard men I've ever seen...

 

Greater Whirlwind? From a lizard man? Huh...

 

Arkona was caught off guard, but, in the end, she discovered that these lizard men chunk up nice just like all the others- even if they do have HLAs.

 

Arkona then went through the passage way, expecting to find Abazgial's cozy little study with the fountain. Instead she discovered this: Anadramatis, the most fearsome dragon of all.

 

The furnished room is gone. Instead, there are too connected identical caves. The breath potion fluid is now in the body of water to the north of the cave. The potion can not be collected until Anadramatis has been defeated. The cave can not be exited until Anadramatis has been defeated. Arkona was trapped, but she still had the advantage of Veyal's recon. She knew to expect a Wish- I wish for my enemies magical defenses to be utterly destroyed, followed by a piercing breath weapon. She clutched the defender and then immediately broke for Veyal's preferred turf: a nook to the east beyond Anadramatis's reach.

 

Arkona would not be safe there- not entirely. Since Anadramatis's breath weapon does piercing damage, it could not be foiled, only cushioned. The best that Arkona could hope for was to attain 80% resistance and only then while running Hardiness, an HLA that can be Breached away. Anadramtis would also use Incendiary Cloud and Magic Missile, lesser problems, but problems nonetheless. 

 

Here we see Akrona in Veyal's nook. She's running Hardiness, she's clutching the Defender, she's wearing the Belt of Inertial Barrier to guarantee saves.

 

Let's see that breath weapon, shall we?

 

Ok. We can handle seven damage per hit. But victory was still far from assured. Arkona's supply of Hardinesses was finite. How many Breaches did Anadramatis have? Could Anadramatis be killed with ranged weapons, given his resistances and possible regeneration rate? And if he could only be  killed in melee, where might a wing buffet send us? Unanswered questions remained. Veyal's reconnaissance was comforting. But the knowledge that Veyal reloaded 6 times on this fight was not.

 

Seeking to draw Arkona out of the nook, perhaps to deploy a Wing Buffet, Anadramatis cast Improved Invisibility. 

 

Arkona would not fall for that ruse, and instead used the time to layer on buffs, including Stoneskins from the Gargoyle Boots. 

 

If felt nice to have the skins but thanks to ATweaks, they can be Breached away. They offered no promise of victory. Anadramatis promptly tried to remove them.

 

Anadramatis was clearly getting frustrated. Surely he would deploy his Incendiary Cloud soon. Time to prepare.

 

And time to begin working on his defenses

 

Magic Missile? The ever reliable Shield Amulet.

 

By now Anadramtis had spent his Removes attempting to clear the path for his Incendiary Cloud. Each Remove was countered, and by the time the Incendiary Cloud hit, Arkona was ready. Let's get to work with Seeking, shall we?

 

 

And time to refresh Hardiness.

 

It's only a matter of time now.

 

Victory.

 

Arkona moves on.

 

The quadruple dragon battle is next. That one was fun.

 

Best,

A.

 

Btw. Note the dialogue panel after Anadramatis's defeat. The defeat of Anadaramtis can be played in three ways. If you are magnanimous, you get an amulet which protects against wing buffet- invaluable, given the upcoming battles. If you kill Anadramatis, you can claim his scales and forge armor which confers 50% resistance to missile and piercing damage, something sure to be useful later on. If you are pointlessly rude, you get nothing. Since I dislike mod added items, I chose to be pointlessly rude. Arkona did, nonetheless, end up claiming Anadramatis's scales. You'll see how and why soon enough. 

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barabrian: The Quadruple Dragon Battle

 

​The Enhanced Abazigal Enclave has it's disadvantages, but also its merits. The quadruple dragon battle is one of the merits. There's some clumsy dialogue here, and the method of setting up the encounter feels contrived, but the sheer joy of fighting four dragons makes up for any of the awkwardness. It's kind of like a bad date that ends with great sex, making it ultimately something other than a bad date. Who cares if he talked about his mother all night and wore Abecrombie? Am I wrong?

 

We'll get to the dragons soon enough, but first some preliminaries. 

 

Upon exiting Anadramatis's den, Arkona was greeted by demons: two pit fiends and a crew of cornugons. They were harmless.

 

ATweaks makes the water elementals mobile. That's nice, I'd say.

 

Not as nice as vorpalling Kuo-Toans, but nice. 

 

Eventually Arkona found a monk. He doesn't have rope. You have to go to Amkethran. This is an excuse to get you outside.

 

Outside, you find this. They appear when you return to the enclave with rope in hand.

 

These guys are black dragons, like NIz. They have excellent ACs, decent THAC0s, and high APRs but they're resistances are unimpressive and they're light on Abjuration stuff. Their breath weapons do acid damage. They're not dangerous if you know what you're doing, but they do have 600 hitpoints. It takes awhile to kill them.

 

We did most of the work with Seeking here in the interest of conserving HLAs and, counterintuitively, in the interest of saving time. With two dragons  on the field, melee is slower rather than faster, since you waste time getting wing buffeted all over the place. Anadramatis's amulet would have helped. It would have made the encounter more pleasurable and less annoying. I suppose I see the logic in introducing it- even if I am, in general, unfond of mod added items.

 

The regrettable thing about this encounter was that I missed my spot with Olinissimous, destroying my would be circular dragon pattern. It's really a pity because both of them had died with their heads to the left, as I had hoped they would.

 

Onto the next wave. There are two dragon here. One is green, the other is red. You fight them one at a time. There is some dialogue. I prefer to say happy nice celebratory things about mods so I'll refrain from commenting on the quality. I'll just say that this was more mommy talk.

 

We took some damage from the green dragon due to the quirky Ring of Gaxx/Helm of the Rock interaction.

 

As a reminder, if you equip the Helm of the Rock after the Ring of Gaxx, your poison resistance gets set to 25%. You have to re-equip Gaxx to get back to 100%. Problem solved.

 

With that squared, this became a standard Arrow of Dispelling->Seeking->melee finish dragon kill

 

This took time due to two Heals, decent physical resistances, and a hitpoint total of 702 

 

But the outcome was never in doubt. We even killed Ithy in the right spot. Perfect placement.

 

By time Carnifex arrived, our dragon slaying tactics were well honed. Carnifex had more abjuration stuff, but not enough to pose a threat. We saw some Breached, some Removes, some ProMWs- nothing we couldn't handle.

 

Fire resistance, Shield Amulet, movement rate advantage, ranged damage. Hardiness + Defender for the finish. A few representative shots.

 

Dispel.

 

A desperation ProMW.

 

A well placed finish with a left hand fall. Good times.

 

A fun encounter. I'm glad I tried it- even if I may skip the Improved Abazigal Enclave in the future.

 

Abazigal and Tamah will be next, followed by Sendai. The Ascension battles will follow this evening.

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Corthief V the human level 11 thief/level 9 berseker with this fellow thief berserkers - update 2

Traveling with: Joshua, Misty, Wewa (she's level 7 berserker, otherwise same as others), Hanna, Forrest

 

Corthief V decided to work on the Maevar Quest - it looks like the party can unlock their berserker skills once this quest is complete. The key quest was of course Rayic Gethras. Mephits went OK, and backstabs helped kill the stone golems reasonably fast. But of course, the key fight was against Rayic Gethras. Misty opened with silence from the Namuraa and went downstairs - we had 6 snares waiting for Gethras. Rayic didn't follow so tried to silence again but Rayic just did vocalize and then he appears downstairs with the party. Rayic does a nice play, horror, and everyone but Misty and Wewa are running in fear!

Spoiler

Wewa saved vs. Finger of Death - a spell we have little defense too, with our human saves. Wewa caught a break and saved though, even though she was more likely to fail her save with that spell. However, shortly later, she got stunned, which was a bit silly because she was the one person in the party that could have enraged. Amazingly, Misty slays Rayic before he can kill anyone, though we certainly take lots of damage.

 

The rest of the Maevar quest was pretty straight-forward. Maever and goons were heavily weakened by snares, and direct attack brought them down. Namuraa used again to sillence the enemy cleric. Yes, when reporting to Renal we are level 10 thieves and can use our berserker skills once again. We go to our barrel in Wauekeen's Promenade to get our old gear, and of course helmets...

 

Corthief V decided the two front-line backstabbers (Misty and Joshua) should get good shields so they can survive after their backstab. So we purchased fortress shield for Joshua. Wewa is now using the staff spear, since she has **** in Quarterstaff and * in two-hand weapon fighting. The Thac0 and hitting power of the group has vastly in increased with the regain our fighter skills and proficiencies. Misty needs a good shield too, so the group went to Umar Hills to do the quests there, primarily to get the Shield of the Lost. Once that was done, Joshua and Misty have -4 AC - not bad, they can survive hits after backstabbing now.

 

Wewa is our "tank" for now, since she has full plate. The ranged party members (Forrest, Corthief V and Hanna) are using plate mail, but surely could use full plate too. So the party heads to Captain Dennis. We do few potion buffs, enrage, and move in.

 

Joshua and Misty are in the shadows and move behind Captain Dennis. The ranged party members have their best anti-mage ammo (bolts of biting, arrows of biting, etc.) and fire at the enemy mage - amazingly the mage dies before he could erect his defenses! Great!

Spoiler

 

 

Ok, time to backstab Captain Dennis - two backstabs finish him.

Spoiler

 

That worked great, so Misty and Joshua move into the hallway to hide and backstab again - this time another melee falls to a backstab.

Spoiler

 

The resistance is ended, and the 3 full plates are ours. This battle is much how I envisioned the party, with 4 party members keeping the enemy busy and targeting enemy mages/clerics, while two of the party backstab, hide and repeat. Since our buffs were still running, decided to got after Reijek Hidesman.

 

It was nice to give the Rune Assassins a taste of their medicine, as Misty one-shots an assassin with a backstab of 94 damage. Forrest used his 100% detect illusions the whole fight to make it bit easier.

Spoiler

 

While this party certainly has its weaknesses, primarily weak against save or die spells like petrify or FoD, but otherwise they are plenty dangerous to our enemies.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 83 - (update 7)

Pasha, half-elf druid (Grond0) & Rholfre, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

Not entirely smooth sailing, but this pair have seen off the threats in Athkatla for the moment and arrived in Spellhold.

 

Their starting position was always a nice one - staring at the body of a dead dragon.  After reporting to Garren Windspear they returned to Athkatla and bought a few bits of equipment before heading for the Unseeing Eye.  On the way they saw a locked door in the Temple Sewers, but after searching their backpacks for a key in vain just shrugged and continued on their way ...

 

The beholders by the bridge were dealt with using summons, wiltings and insects on the way to pick up part of the Rift Device.  Around this point there was another inventory glitch (there seem to have been quite a few of those this run) when the ammunition case showed as empty in Rholfre's bag - but when moved into Pasha's the contents reappeared!

 

The undead on the way to the Eye included a couple of greater mummies and a lich.  Some summons tempted various undead out to their doom and then absorbed a few of the lich's spells, but there was still a nasty period when it was casting at Rholfre.  The tide turned when she managed to interrupt an attempted touch spell with the Crimson Dart and most further spell attempts also failed as the lich fell.

Spoiler

 

In the main beholder area summons again proved helpful to pin the beholders in place for a few spell assaults.  Pasha was held twice, but both times when only a single beholder was left, which shortly died - and in any case the first one immediately released her with an anti-magic ray, while the second was fooled by Rholfre's invisibility 10'.

Spoiler

Plenty of summons were used to distract the Unseeing Eye, though Pasha still subcontracted the use of the Device to Rholfre after a previous run ended here.

Spoiler

 

After returning the Device and giving Gaal their best regards

Spoiler

the duo reported back to the Temple.  That finally got Pasha to level 15 and a huge increase in power - not only getting her first HLA, but increasing her 7th level spells from just one to six.  After resting to put those into effect the Guarded Compound offered a tempting target.  The plan for upstairs was for Rholfre to get off a mordy sword to occupy melee attacks while Pasha unleashed insects on the casters.  That worked extremely well and after a couple of follow-up wiltings there wasn't much left to clean up.

Spoiler

 

Buoyed by having a good plan come together the duo decided to do the same to the Twisted Rune.  However, things were not to prove smooth sailing there.  Perhaps the fact that on the way a mugger spotted a mug and walked away with a fortune in gold was an indication that concentration was getting patchy ,

Spoiler

but that warning was unheeded.  The opening problem there was when both characters used PfU scrolls - meaning Shangalar would not talk to them.  He also refused to have a conversation with a summoned dog, resulting in Pasha casting dispel magic which got rid of PfU on both of them.  A bizarre conversation followed when Pasha asked Rholfre to re-establish PfU on her: Rholfre said she had no more scrolls and Pasha pointed to the 2 sitting in her inventory before finally accepting Rholfre's assurances that those were the ones originally used and no longer visible to her.

 

Eventually summons were produced and Rholfre went to catch Shangalar's attention. That prompted an immediate time-stop as his conversation triggered and Rholfre collapsed from the effects of a banshee wail.  

Spoiler

That looked like very bad news for Pasha, but luckily the deva came up trumps by destroying Shangalar.

Spoiler

The next hurdle was Vaxall who had quickly put some bears to death and moved up to do the same to Pasha.  I thought that the Shield of the Archons might protect her from beholder rays, but it was almost immediately dispelled by an anti-magic ray.  However, Pasha had just used the RoR on Rholfre and an invisibility 10' stopped the torrent of rays just before Vaxall died anyway of a combination of damage from the deva and a creeping doom spell cast as the timestop ended.

Spoiler

 

 

The remaining enemies were then no problem and the duo decided to end the session by travelling to Spellhold.  Perth failed to survive an opening assault

Spoiler

- leaving behind a book of Spell Turning - and the duo moved on straight to the Asylum.  Pasha has just completed the dream sequence there - successfully using a fake-talk on the demon to prevent it from implementing the promised reduction in her intelligence (which is already lacking thanks ). 

 

Stats:

Pasha, druid 16, 67 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 241 kills

Rholfre, dragon disciple 18, 69 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone), 545 kills, 3 deaths (+1 in BG1)

[Dyara]

Just a minor update with Mazzy taking revenge on the Shade Lord (and Dyara becoming a dragon slayer)...

 

Dyara, elven Fighter/Mage/Thief (BG2 take 2, update 1)

After returning from De'Arnise Dyara agreed to work for the Cowled Wizards and hunt down Valygar Corthala, a murderer who had killed two Cowled Wizards and who might hide somewhere in the Umar Hills. Reaching Imnesvale in the Umar Hills at midnight the party witnessed a gathering of scared villagers. Apparently some of the villagers had been disappeared, probably killed and no-one knew the cause. Of course Dyara agreed to help. In the search for the local protector  Marella the party encountered Valygar Corthala in his cabin. Dyara decided to team up with the ranger (Valygar replacing Yoshimo) and then the party set out for a forested area several hours north of the Imnesvale region. Inside a ruined temple the party freed the halfling fighter Mazzy and Dyara let her join (replacing Jaheira). When walking past the Shade Lord's guardian Dyara tripped and lost the ward stone unfortunately...

Spoiler

... but besides a few minor injuries (and Valygar becoming confused - but cured by an arrow of dispelling) the party prevailed unharmed...



and then it was on Mazzy to take revenge on the Shade Lord personally...

Spoiler

Via De'Arnise Keep (where they spend the night) the group returned to Athkatla...

Name: Level|Game Kills XP|Game Kills|Strongest Kill Name|Deaths
Dyara: Fighter(9)/Mage(10)/Thief(11)|337,857|167|Thaxll'ssillyia|-
Korgan: Berserker(11)|270,139|119|Giant Snake|-
Anomen:  Fighter(7)->Cleric(11)|64,652|56|Statue|-
Xan: Fighter(10)/Mage(11)|11,600|14|Spectral Troll|-
Valygar: Stalker(9)|17,940|17|Skeleton Warrior|-
Mazzy: Fighter(9)|35,420|5|Shade Lord|-

Former party members:

Jaheira: Fighter(9)/Druid(12)|21,137|19|Skeleton Warrior|-
Yoshimo: Bounty Hunter(13)|29,480|31/Mephit Portal|-
Minsc: Ranger()|118,370|79|Statue|-
Imoen: Thief(7)->Mage(8)|1,970|7|Ogre Mage|-

To be continued...

[corey_russell]

Corthief V the Berserker/Thief - FINAL Update!

 

Thaxxy gets me again. I really thought with our decent weapons and 7 snares we could take him - but I was wrong. Apparently we needed some-one to breach Thaxxy, but of course no one could....back to the drawing board...

 

   

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barbarian: Abazigal

 

Arkona's destruction of Abazigal achieved a score of 6 out of 10 on the lame-o-meter. She made partial, if not complete use of the hidey-hole despite being fully capable of defeating Abazigal and Tamah in the open. By this point, I guess I just felt that Arkona deserved to complete her destiny. In her upcoming v30 run, I intend to play her with more style and aplomb. We'll see how that goes.

 

Let's talk about Lycanth's lair first. 

 

This looked largely unchanged in the opening encounters, save some stronger summons.

 

But then an army of beholders showed up. These were death tyrants and tyrant golems.

 

The word "golem" implied the possibility of physical resistances, so we decided to go for vorpal kills with Ravager. That proved both effective and unnecessary: we got some vorpals, but the tyrant golems proved vulnerable to physical damage anyways.

 

Since I wasn't sure what to expect from Lycanth in this install, we outsourced the gauth eye stalk recovery to Bondari. He succeeded, although I wasn't certain this was entirely safe. (Is it?)

 

To Abazigal's lair. We had to do this twice due to a bug. In my prior v15 runs, Abazgial and Tamah appeared as they should. But with the Improved Abazigal Enclave installed, the bug found in recent versions of SCS appeared. Interestingly, the resolution was precisely the opposite of the solution for later version of SCS: DRAGBLUE.BCS had to be swapped for ABAZDRAG.BCS instead of the other way around. In the end, we got to fight both Tamah and Abazgial and they both had the right scripts. that was good.

 

The drakes can be a nuisance. For Arkona, they were a semi-nuisance: she defeated them with Foebane and the Defender, but took a lot of damage in the process.

 

Human Abby was flipped with the sling.

 

At which point I got boring and lame and headed for the hidey-hole.

 

We wore Roranach's for Tamah's breath weapon and the Cloak of Reflection for Abazigals: both good calls. The Greenstone Amulet, and or Rage, were run at most, if not all, times in the interest of foiling Tamah's sleep effects.

 

Once we were in the hidey-hole, it was simply a matter of deploying counters and building up buffs for the kill. Remove + Malison was countered with a Potion of Invulnerability

 

Magic Missiles, were countered with the Shield Amulet. A Strength potion was layered in for the kill. A Shadow Door elicited a Book of Infinite Spells True Seeing cast.

 

I was kind of surprised when a greater earth elemental inexplicably rushed to Arkona's aid. Apparently the engine treats Abazgial's Shockwave as an Earthquake, or something? I had never seen this before. 

 

I was even more surprised when the elemental was almost immediately nixed by Tamah's breath weapons: I had no idea she was that close...

 

Let's take a peek, shall we?

 

Yikes! That's definitely her. She immediately put us to sleep with her breath weapon. Fortunately, Roranach's and the hide-hole kept us safe as planned.

 

Since Tamah was so close, Arkona decided to exact some revenge on behalf of my two warriors, Ashoka and Alessandra, who fell to the purple dragon. We induced her to switch positions with Abazigal and then took her down in melee under Hardiness.

 

Tamah is dangerous due to her unusual sleep inducing crushing breath weapon (the sleep effect does not allow a save), but she only has 450 hit points and lacks exceptional resistances. If you manage the sleep and crushing threats, she'll fall quickly. Rage and Roranach's were the perfect tools here.

 

Time to finish Abazigal. With Tamah out of the way, Arkona no longer had any fear: Abazigal himself is harmless enough. We fought him toe-to-toe out in the open.

 

Hardiness + Defender + Belm + Improved Haste + Critical Strike for the finish.

 

No shot of the kill, I'm afraid, but this is essentially how it ended. Victory for Arkona.

 

Immediately after Abazigal fell, Anadramatis appeared to congratulate Arkona.

 

I really didn't think he belonged here and I had become curious about the Yellow Dragon Scale Armor so we killed him.

 

Here are the stats on the armor.

 

It's not as bad as I originally feared. The AC is poorer than that of White Dragon Scale Armor, which can be worn by the same classes. More importantly, the resistances are not as overpowered as I feared at first. Melissan wields a spear. And if you look at the ITM file, the initial description suggests that it does piercing damage, like all other spears do. But as it turns out, Melissan's spear slashes rather than pierces, making the Yellow Dragon Scale less over powered. I decided to try it and see whether or to what extent it is unbalancing in the endgame -especially when worn by a barbarian. More on this later. 

 

Sendai's enclave is next.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Condolences, Corey. 

 

Good luck with your next run!

 

Best,

A.

[corey_russell]

Condolences, Corey. 

 

Good luck with your next run!

 

Best,

A.

Thanks Alesia! I could have retreated, as Corthief V was the last survivor, but I just wasn't prepared mentally to do a "rebuild" - I was using equipment that a pure thief could use, there would be lilttle/none left once I left and did resurrections and came back. Would have to fight like berserkers rather than thieves, and that wasn't why I was playing this run.

[ussnorway]

Well put Corey... best of luck with the new run mate.

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barbarian: Sendai's Enclave

 

Today is Sunday. And today is the day when I should (or at least expect to) finish covering Arkona's Classic/SCS v15/Fixpack v10/ATweaks run. 

 

The Improved Sendai's enclave was long enough and interesting enough to warrant two posts. The first will cover the Woodcutter fight through Diaytha. The second will cover Sendai herself.

 

While I have reservations about the SCS's Improved Abazigal Enclave, I am wholeheartedly a fan of the the Improved Sendai Enclave. The Improved Sendai Enclave introduces no new items (in fact, it nerfs the potion drops). It introduces no new dialogue. It adds no new named antagonists and it introduces no new encounters. And yet it succeeds in its goals of enlivening combat within the enclave and making Sendai herself a worthy opponent. It achieves these ends with minimum intrusion, minimum disruption to the narrative, and minimum aesthetic compromise. It makes Sendai's enclave realistically difficult and makes Sendai herself realistically intelligent. That, to my mind, is SCS at its best, SCS as it should be. No Anadramatis's, no clumsy dialogue: just smarts, subtly, and added realism. That is what I hope to find in SCS. That's what it does well.

 

Speaking of Anadramatis, here we see Arkona clad in Yellow Dragon Scale Armor.

 

The icon is identical to the one used in the Tactics mod. The armor looks like plate, but it's actually studded leather. Druids can wear this, which is interesting and, in fact, the only reason why I think the Yellow Dragon Scale Armor may have a place in the game world: it can help solo druids stand up to Illasera and  the fallen solars at the Throne. I don't think it belongs on a barbarian, even if it does have its limits.

 

Arkona's first battle in her new armor was the Woodcutter fight. An early Time Stop sent Arkona to the north.

 

There she was reminded of one of the limitations of her new armor.

 

Wearing Yellow Dragon Scale, any warrior can attain 100% resistance to missile damage. But that will not stop on hit effects, such as those from Called Shot, nor will it stop dispel effects or vorpal effects from the fallen solars. The Reflex is still relevant, although in this particular battle weapon enchantment immunities may have kept Arkona safe.

 

With the Reflex in hand, Arkona dispatched the northern warriors.  

 

Returning south, we had some fun with summons. A Malison was countered by a Potion of Invulnerability. A Nabassu was Foebaned. A Mordy was Deathblown.

 

Cutting through the southern warriors now

 

Gesen Power Attack for the mage. Gesen is especially great against drow since the Gesen lightning damage ignores magic resistance checks, unlike that from Bolts of Lightning or elemental arrows.

 

Inside the enclave, we decided to have a little fun with vorpal weapons. The Ravager doesn't allow a save. The Axe of the Unyielding allows a save v death at -4 but it can be used with Belm in the offhand. We went with Ravager here.

 

And we were pleasantly surprised when Thelynn'ss was killed by a first strike.

 

In the slave tunnels, Arkona made her bid for membership in the Foebane assisted 500 hitpoint club. 

 

She fell just short, although she would have made it had she shifter her items around

 

Since I was expecting a bigger fight here, one with demons and drow, I had Arkona cast True Seeing. Nothing was revealed.

 

But the demons I had been expecting did show up. They were defending Odamaron's lair.

 

One glabrezu left. Pit fiend incoming. None of these demons are dangerous, but they do look cool.

 

Last kill.

 

Finally we arrived at Odamaron's lair. This is a fun fight with the SCS Improved Sendai Enclave component installed. Odamaron needed a boost, no doubt. by this stage of the game, a solitary lich isn't a challenge (or at least shouldn't be). The Improved Enclave component adds a second lich, a Tanova like vampiric F/M and a pair of skeleton warriors. The changes don't make a minor encounter major. They just make a minor encounter memorable. That's good. That's right. I like it.

 

Odarmaron opened with a Time Stop and a planetar

 

The planetar had just enough time to toss a Symbol: Fear before the apprentices Time Stop kicked in

 

Once time resumed, Arkona Whirlwinded her way through the planetar, the skeleton warriors, and the vampiric apprentice.

 

 

The iMod did most of the work, but Arkona faded and used Azuredge against the mage.

 

Odamaron's Dragon's Breath was foiled with a Potion of Fire Resistance quaff. Comet does less damage than Dragon's Breath and it does not ignore magic resistance. Nonetheless, it is often the more dangerous spells simply because the animation is quicker.

 

Protected by ProMW, Odamaron and his remaining apprentice sent a constant stream of demons Arkona's way. This would have been far more interesting with SCS fiends or with alternate ATweaks fiend settings.

 

There were efreetis, too. The Wave.

 

Finally -finally- Odamaron ran out of ProMWs. Smite->Power Attack->GWW finish.

 

Cleaning up summons now. As an FYI, these gelugons are refusing to attack, due to Arkona's 100% piercing resistance. This is Yellow Dragon Scale at work. 

 

Power Attack->GWW for the remaining apprentice

 

Upon exiting Odamaron's lair, we were ambushed by drow and beholders. I wasn't expecting this: not at all. 

 

Unrested -and thus short on HLAs- Arkona did not relish the prospect of facing such an army. 

 

One of the beholders was taken out quickly, but the army grew.

 

And grew.

 

There was a lot of evil to face here, and Arkona lacked the resources and tactical footing to dispatch her foes with ease. Seeking to remedy the situation, Arkona quaffed a Potion of Invisibility and headed west. Perhaps a different perspective on the battle field would help?

 

Help it did. The remaining beholder wandered off to the edge of the battlefield. he was picked off with ease.

 

The pit fiend TWEed to Arkona's position. He was vorpaled. 

 

Fire elementals incoming: time for a Wave Whirlwind

 

Let's finish this.

 

Onto Ogremoch. I didn't expect trouble from Ogremoch, given Arkona's Roranach's enhanced crushing resistance, but I was surprised that he fell as quickly as he did. Had ATweaks nerved him? I recall seeing more out of Improved Enclave Ogremoch when Alesia was here.

 

The Diaytha encounter was arguably improved by ATweaks creature abilities, but I think I would have prefered the straight SCS version instead.

 

A Seeking Whirlwind removed the vorpal threat.

 

I did, however, err in allowing Arkona to be level drained by the nabassu. That was a potentially dangerous error since in this install, shorty save bonuses are lost when a character is level drained (Does that happen in other installs, too? I rarely play shorties so I hadn't noticed this before.)

 

An old friend, the Shield of Harmony, protected Arkona from that incoming Chaos.

 

Soon after, a Restoration scroll brought back Arkona's shorty save bonuses and the nabassu was slain

 

Just clean up and Diaytha now. Death Blow for the cambion, Azuredge for the ancient vampire, a post Physical Mirror Seeking Whirlwind for Diaytha.

 

 

And, finally, the hive mother. I should note that I broke my rule about meleeing high level casters here and I was punished for that transgression with discomfort. The hive mother was casting something with a very long casting time when she fell. She didn't incant, so I don't know what she was casting, but I intend to keep my distance from now on. I do not trust that Imprisonment will not be used on the PC. Anomalies occur.

 

 

I'll post on Sendai herself soon. 

 

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Sorry about your news Corey.

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barbarian: Sendai

 

I love Sendai. She's my favorite character of the Trilogy. She's got style. 

 

No one in my real life knows I play Baldur's Gate. It's my little secret. Nonetheless, the time I've spent with the game bleeds into my daily life occasionally. For example, when I meet someone I don't like -someone I find arrogant, or boorish, or whatever- I'll smile and nod, and say things like: "Hmm. Interesting, I hadn't thought of it that way." But at the same time, I'll do the little hand gesture that my bounty hunter, Alesia, does when she tosses a maze and I imagine that the source of my annoyance has disappeared for 4d4 -or maybe 5d4- rounds. I feel comfortable doing this around anyone because I'm pretty certain that no one- not even a Baldur's Gate player- would recognize the gesture.

 

Around people I'm certain don't play Baldur's Gate -or any other DnD game- I might use quotes. Sendai is one of the NPCs I'll quote. So, a conversation between me and a non-gamer might go something like this.

 

Acquaintance: I can't believe William is getting married! Do you think I should get a hair cut before the wedding?

 

Me: Sure. If you wish to feast on the brains of those who Bhaal enslaves, then yes: you should definitely get a haircut.

 

Acquaintance: Yeah. That's what I was thinking...Wait: What did you say? Something about brains?

 

Me: Oh, nothing. I just think you should get the haircut. It's the right thing to do. You're looking all nature boy shaggy now. Like you might start ranting about tomatoes at any moment. 

 

Acquaintance: Tomatoes?

 

 

Ok. So I don't actually quote Sendai in real life. But I should start. Today.

 

While I like Sendai as a character, I've long found her fight problematic. The vanilla version can be underwhelming, even with the SCS script. The statues are particularly unimpressive. This is Sendai's trap, Sendai's master plan? An underpowered cleric, followed by a slug footed dual-wielder, followed by an archer with +1 arrows, and a few mages in between? It's not enough. For some weaker classes in solo play, perhaps, but for most of my play-throughs Sendai doesn't meet the mark. 

 

Enter Davd's simple solution: let the statues activate every two rounds, whether the prior statue has been killed or not. It's a subtle change, but it adds drama and urgency to the encounter. It makes Sendai's trap more of a trap. It fixes the problem with minimal intrusion. It's perfect. Improved Enclave Sendai is my Sendai from now on.

 

To the battle.

 

Knowing that time was of the essence -but looking to conserve HLAs- Arkona dual-wielded the Axe of the Unyielding and Belm under Improved Haste in the early going. This worked out nicely.

 

The early statues, save the mages, fell within the allotted 2 rounds.

 

Eventually, summons, lackeys, and Sendais started to amass.

 

Backstab immunity helped keep Arkona safe...

 

until a Ravager Whirlwind could clear a path

 

Eventually, all that remained were the mages and the archer. Arkona chose to be patient here- preferring to wait out the many Mordy swords rather than waste Whirlwinds and Deathblows on them. Potions of Invisibility bought her the time she needed.

 

No more Mordies. Let's get to work. Arrow of Dispelling.

 

Ok... 

 

Let's see what the other mage is up to...

 

Gesen finished C/M Sendai. Time to clear the rest.

 

Onto the real Sendai.

 

The final confrontation was a little anti-climactic. I've gotten better fights out of Sendai in v15, mostly due to my use of SCS Fiends in prior runs. Nonetheless, Sendai hung around long enough to be a nuisance, if not a threat.

 

Chained Deva->Improved Alacrity->Fallen Planetar->Malison

 

The Malison was countered with a Potion of Invulnerability. The celestials were taken down under Hardiness. Ice Star was equipped for the additional fire resistance, in the event that Sendai launched a Comet.

 

Ready to go on the offensive now: Whirlwind for the planetar...

 

and another for the Deva.

 

Just Sendai now. A ProMW cast elicited a unenchanted dart assault.

 

Once the ProMW expired, Arkona finished with a Seeking Whirlwind.

 

The end.

 

All in all a satisfying encounter. I definitely prefer Improved Enclave Sendai. I intend to use this component going forward.

 

Since Balthazar was recruited, there's little else to cover aside from the Throne. If no one minds, I'll skip the uneventful Pocket Plane Challenges and move on to Ascension Irenicus.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

 

 

[Gate70]

Multiplayer Quad session 10(ish).

Strofe, Corheal and Wewa tried to remember what had happened a couple of weeks back while they waited for Brazil, the sword, armour and boots Wewa wore gave a clue that Mae'Var had died. Onward...

 

The Graveyard District

Corheal braved the Crypt King without any protection from fear and made his save while Brazil and Strofe stood outside wondering why the cleric of Lathander hadn't bothered buffing against such an eventuality. Wewa remained silent and claimed the kill. Once the surface crypts were cleared, it was time to descend deeper and deal with the spider problem below. Brazil helped her insect plague eat their way through spiders and the handful which were left could not save Pai'Na.

 

De'Arnise Hold.

Wewa used flame arrows to quell a troll uprising before using her Crimson Dart to bring an Iron Golem crashing down after it had poisoned Brazil.

Spoiler

TorGal was drawn out alone, Corheal using Sanctuary to successfully draw the troll onto an unsuspecting Wewa, but she evaded the beasts claws and the Hold was safe.

Spoiler

Trademeet

Corheal survived a couple of petrification attempts before the Dao Djinn were diced and sliced (and crushed).

 

Druid Grove

After clearing a troll mound, the party called it a night so it should be easy to remember what remains next time.

 

A good session: No deaths, a couple of levels, plenty of loot and some decent gear.

 

Strofe, Stalker 10. 424 kills, Spirit Troll.

Corheal, Priest of Lathander 10. 102 kills, TorGal.

Brazil, Fighter 9 /Druid 12. 298 kills, Vampiric Wraith.

Wewa, Thief 12. 79 kills, Crypt King.

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barbarian: Ascension Irenicus

 

Perhaps I erred in revealing the outcome of Arkona's run? Perhaps that robbed her final updates of the drama and suspense they deserved? But in truth, there was plenty of drama at the Throne- more than I expected.

 

Here we see Arkona's inventory prior to the opening battle.

 

Arkona decided that acid resistance would be more valuable than cold or piercing resistance here and so we went with Shadow Dragon Armor. The green scrolls are out because, well, when else are we going to use them?

 

This battle should have been straightforward. Should have been. Unfortunately, a random event thwarted Arkona's plan. Balthazar was lost.

 

Here's the opening. Jonicus, Bodhi, and Fallen Solar 1 to the west. Slayer Imoen on top of Arkona, and Fallen Solar 2 to the east.

 

Balthazar is a more powerful ally than Bodhi, but in a fight between the two, Bodhi wins, due to Balthazar's lack of Negative Plane Protection. Oh how I wish I could lend him Spectral Brand.

 

The plan had been to evade Jonicus's opening Time Stop and then swing back south to rescue Balthazar from Bodhi and the fallen solars, the logic here being that Jonicus's Time Stop would interrupt any assault before a kill could be achieved, and so remaining south would have had no effect other than to expose Arkona to an arcane assault. Was that the right call? I'm not sure. I'd need to test to find out and I'd prefer not to do so. What I do know is that it didn't work in this particular case.

 

A fallen solar followed Arkona north. Only partially buffed, Arkona hastily tried to dispatch the fallen solar. She failed. The fallen solar TWEd to the south: surely it would cast Heal.

 

Regardless, Balthazar still needed rescuing. Arkona headed south but then -to her horror- she was picked up by Irenicus's Teleport Field and lifted on to the southwestern essence pool platform. 

 

What now? The walkways between the essence pools and the main arena only become active after Irenicus and Bodhi are killed. Arkona was forced to watch helplessly as Balthazar faced down his more powerful rivals.

 

Only the slimmest portion of the Teleport Field overlapped with the essence pool area. Arkona waited there, patiently, hoping to be lifted back into the fight. Distracted, thrown off my game, I allowed a Comet to strike Arkona while she waited. Moments later, Irenicus Dimension Doored to the essence pool. Arkona had a fight of her own. Balthazar was still out of reach.

 

Hang on Balthazar. I'll be with you in a second...

 

Right. Now all we could do was finish Irenicus, hope Bodhi would linger in the south, and hope that the walkway would form as expected.

 

Arrow of Dispelling->Asp's Nest quickly tamed Irenicus.

 

Gesen finish.

 

Now how about Bodhi, is she still to the south? Can she be finished with Seeking?

 

Yes. But the walkway still didn't form.

 

A fallen solar showed up. Let's try killing her. Seeking again, this time with +4 bullets.

 

Finally the walkway formed.

 

The last fallen solar was dispatched.

 

Arkona moved on though, sadly, without her Bhaalspawn ally.

 

I'll post on the demon battles soon.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Bartholomew, 6th BG2 update

Bart could still hardly believe it himself, but he still hadn't died. Maybe it was time that folks started calling him Lucky rather than Dandy. 

 

Mazzy saw her sister survive her hardships in Trademeet while Jan, Aerie and Bart dispatched a band of Fallen Paladins in Athkatla,

Spoiler

Mazzy later rejoined.

 

Mook, a Shadow Thief the companions had been asked to protect, didn't survive a Vampire attack. Two Shadow Thieves that were about to sell out to the other guild were done in by Bart & Co, as was the rival guild contact.

Spoiler

Arledrian, another 'Shadow Thief' (in reality an Elven spy, but Bart kept his secret) was aided against a number of Vampires near what turned out to be their lair.

Spoiler

The Vampires were members of the rival guild, which pretty much consisted entirely of Vampires.

 

Aran Linvail asked the friends to deal with the bloodsuckers. This was no light task. Bart administered a number of nice backstabs, and an Aerial Servant dished out significant damage as well, but one of the Vampires (Gellal) wouldn't die.

Spoiler

Three times it was brought down to near death, at which point it would hide en fully heal until at one point it simply disappeared. (This worried me because as far as I knew, Gellal had to be staked, along with Durst and Lassal in order for Bodhi to appear.)

 

The companions picked up a Mace of Disruption, and saw it upgraded by Cromwell, so that Mazzy would be more of a threat to the Vamps. When they returned at the Vampire den, they ran into a spellcasting variant, Tanova she called herself. This Tanova had powerful magics at her disposal: she summoned a Mordenkainen's Sword and gated in a Glabrezu, prompting the companions to retreat. But then the Glabrezu PW:Stunned Aerie.

Spoiler

(Not buffing was still RPing on my part. I knew Tanova was a spellcaster. Bart and companions didn't know spellcasting Vampires existed. However I must say I felt I had reached a point where I might have to compromise on the RPing so as to decrease the likelihood of a soon and sudden ending of the adventure.)

Thankfully, an emergency Otiluke's Resilient Sphere kept the Elf from harm.

Spoiler

Mazzy, brave as always engaged the female, and Bart hung around detecting illusions. Both wore Helms of Charm Protection. Aerie or Jan then Breached Tanova from a safe distance, causing the Vampire to shapeshift into a wolf. Mazzy meleed it, and Bart slew it with backstabs.

Spoiler

Other Vampires proved no threat to Mazzy with her upgraded MoD.

Spoiler

Bart staked two vampires in their coffins (Lassal and Durst). Much to his surprise and mine, since Gellal hadn't been killed/staked yet, Bodhi appeared in front of him.

Spoiler

Tired from battle and unprepared, he applied an oil of speed and retreated. Apparently Bodhi was in no mood to go look for him.

Spoiler

 

Bart & Co decided not to return to Aran Linvail yet, expecting that Bodhi might return at some point. They freed Haer'Dalis, an enslaved Tiefling Bard, from a wizard named Mekrath at Quayle and Aerie's behest. 

Not without difficulty btw. Three Yuan-Ti Mages was a lot to handle for the quartet. They managed to slay one with Aerie Breaching and Mazzy pelting acid arrows, but had to flee soon after. More Breaches and elemental missiles finished the remaining Yuan-Ti Mages; their warriors and a pack of Goblins were less of a threat.

Spoiler

Kitthix webbed Mekrath, allowing for an easy kill of the evil wizard and ending the enslavement of Haer'Dalis. In his search for a gemstone the Tiefling had been after, Bart overlooked a trap and nearly died because of it (1HP).

Spoiler

The companions helped Hare'Dalis and his troupe open an interplanar portal but stayed out of a fight the Bards got themselves in with a band of bounty hunters. They might have a look at the portal sometime later though.

 

They traveled to the Windspear Hills, initially to help one Lord Firkraag. But when it turned out that the latter had tricked them into killing innocent people, the companions worked against him. Bart delivered the acorns he had taken from Ilych in Irenicus' Dungeon to a Dryad.

Aerie, Bart's sweetheart but otherwise a meek, reserved member of the party thus far, was gradually becoming a more confident, assertive woman, much to Bart's pleasure.

Spoiler

It was in the Windspear Hills that Bart accomplished his first 100+ backstab btw (his backstabs had not been very impressive until then in spiteof priestly buffs).

Spoiler

The companions' search for Firkraag led them to undead-infested ruins.

There the party overcame several dangerous foes including:
- a Ruhk Transmuter (that injured Mazzy and killed an Aerial Servant with triggered Skull Traps, before he got webbed by Kitty),
- Vampiric Mists (slain by Mazzy with the iMoD).
- two lines of Orcs (soloed by Bart with the Reflection Shield and Holy Smites),
- a Juggernaut and two Iron Golems (dispatched by an Aerial Servant),
- a room full of Vampires, Mummies and Ghasts (taken care of by PfU Mazzy),
- six guardian Genies (buffed with HP/DUHM/RM, Bart could insta-kill them with Staff of Striking backstabs)
- a Director Beholder (Jan's and Bart's traps), and 
- a Guardian Fire Elemental (which injured itself by opening an acid blob trapped door before Mazzy and Bart dispatched it).

With all this hard work the companions had to rest a few times. One such time they decided to rest in a small room where they had found an enchanted blade and shield. However their rest was disturbed by Wraiths. They rested again, this time with Bart's and Jan's snares near them. When they got up they were accosted by an adventuring party that wanted to kill the friends for their possessions. The snares triggered and insta-killed a wizard. The other enemies fell to the snares' delayed poison damage.

Spoiler

(I definitely didn't expect this. First of the range of the traps was larger than I expected, and secondly, the ambushers seemed to all have turned hostile at pretty much the same time.)

Additional rests were required to kill three Greater Werewolves (and later two more) with traps. The party had no other means of dealing with those monsters. Aerial Servants dispatched two more Iron Golems, and Mazzy finished a bottlenecked Adamantite Golem with Tansheron's Bow. The Aerial Servants were also very effective against resurrected Tazok and some Orogs. 
The companions encountered Firkraag in his true, Dragon form, and negotiated with him the release of a hostage. They were told to secure the key from his lackey Conster, a wizard. Conster was not willing to hand over the key, so battle ensued. His buffs were too many for the companions to prevent him from casting dangerous spells such as Sphere of Chaos and ADHW, but good movement allowed them to mitigate most damage. (Jan got Confused for a moment, and both the Gnome and Aerie suffered limited damage from the ADHW.) As soon as he was Breached, Conster had no answer to Mazzy's and one Aerial Servant's attacks.

Spoiler

When they left the ruins, one of Jan's many cousins accosted the trickster, telling him of his lost live Lissa, who was staying at the Jansen's home with her diseased child. Although there was no hard evidence, the culprit seemed to have been Lissa's husband Vaelag, a cruel and abusive Gnome.
The companions needed the help of a Mind Flayer, the Hidden, to get the child healed, and - as part of Jan's Extended Quest - resorted to tarnishing Vaelag's reputation (replacing a valuable telescope that Vaelag had stolen and promised to a buyer, with a mundane one) and setting him up against the Shadow Thieves he had been associated with, before they killed him. 
Vaelag was a wizard and he had two Guards and not one but two Assassins aiding him, as Bart learned in a most painful way. He had been tanking the Guards, with difficulty, in order to allow Mazzy to pelt Vaelag. One of the Assassins was already down, when shluck the other Assassin thrusted his blade deep in Bart's innards.

Spoiler

As with the trap in Mekrath's abode, Bart escaped with 1 HP. There was still one Guard though, and the Assassin. And Bart's aura was unclear from a Holy Smite. He was lucky neither of his attackers used ranged weapons. He limped away and managed to swig an invisibility potion, and witnessed how Aerie, Mazzy and Jan dealt with the remaining enemies.

Spoiler

A short time before Jan's affair Valygar Corthala, a mage hunter, had joined the party. He was to grant the companions access to the Planar Sphere in the Slums, to kill Valygar's evil forefather, Lavok.

[Blackraven]

Acquaintance: I can't believe William is getting married! Do you think I should get a hair cut before the wedding?

 

Me: Sure. If you want to feast on the brains of those who Bhaal enslaves, then yes: you should definitely get a haircut.

 

Acquaintance: Yeah. That's what I was thinking...Wait: What did you say? Something about brains?

 

   

 

LOL

Will catch up with the rest of your writing later today.

 

Belated condolences to Corey. Hopefeully your new straight Thief can avenge your crew.

[Grond0]

I did, however, err in allowing Arkona to be level drained by the nabassu. That was a potentially dangerous error since in this install, shorty save bonuses are lost when a character is level drained (Does that happen in other installs, too? I rarely play shorties so I hadn't noticed this before.)

Looking at the values I suspect you were still benefiting from your shorty bonus.  However, level drain adjusts saving throws by ignoring all bonuses added by equipment and that makes a big difference to stats.

[Blackraven]

​The Enhanced Abazigal Enclave has it's disadvantages, but also its merits. The quadruple dragon battle is one of the merits. There's some clumsy dialogue here, and the method of setting up the encounter feels contrived, but the sheer joy of fighting four dragons makes up for any of the awkwardness. It's kind of like a bad date that ends with great sex, making it ultimately something other than a bad date. Who cares if he talked about his mother all night and wore Abecrombie? Am I wrong?

 

More lolz! Thanks for this Alesia.
On-topic (though off-topic can be very good as you just showed), how long do those dragon fights take Arkona? I wonder whether Arkona's fast and deadly or calm and resilient. The fight with the yellow dragon suggests the latter. Is being max level and having all the HLAs enough to outlast 700+ HP dragons? I find it hard to imagine myself beating or even slinging the cr*p out of those monsters.

 

Are all Dragons vulnerable to arrows of dispelling (as soon as any PfMWs or Improved Mantles wear off)? 

 

I'm playing with the hardier Dragons component for the first time, and Bart and I think they're scary.

[Alesia_BH]

However, level drain adjusts saving throws by ignoring all bonuses added by equipment and that makes a big difference to stats.

 

That makes sense, since the minuses are missing. Further, the math works that way.

 

That has to be it.

 

I had just casually looked at the first row (save v death), noted it was off by 5, and assumed that shorty bonuses were missing. That made sense to me since shorty bonuses are recalculated on level up. Further, I had never noticed this effect before and had recently installed a component related to shorty saves.

 

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

How long do those dragon fights take Arkona? 

 

They weren't short fights.  

 

SCS dragons wing buffet a lot and I'm not accustomed to fighting them in melee. It's possible to juke their wing buffet by staying just out of range, but I'm not very good at that yet. I found the sling faster, not slower, in most cases due to constant wing buffeting.

 

(Based on the times on the screenshots, the quadruple dragon battle took an hour and a half. But note well: I have all the auto pauses active and I may have taken a break or two in between dragons. Note also that Anadramatis's amulet would definitely speed things up)

 

I wonder whether Arkona's fast and deadly or calm and resilient. 

 

She can be either, depending on the circumstances. That's what makes barbarians the ultimate single class warriors, in my opinion. From a defensive standpoint, they are the toughest both in melee and at range, and they can hit harder than most since they can easily buff their strength to 25. With the game's equipment and spells, they're overpowered, really.

 

If you take the evil path in the last Ascension Pocket Plane trial they're egregiously overpowered.

 

The evil path physical resistance Bhaalspawn power should not exist. The Defender probably shouldn't exist. Foebane should be nerfed. Roranach's and the Yellow Dragon Scale should also be nerfed. 

 

In the alternative, Hardiness should work like the Magic Resistance HLA: It should set physical resistance to 40% rather than stacking with other bonuses. 

 

Are all Dragons vulnerable to arrows of dispelling (as soon as any PfMWs or Improved Mantles wear off)? 

 

Yes. Dragons are immune to non-magical arrows but they are vulnerable to magical arrows. Dispelling arrows are no exception.

 

The primary purpose of dispelling arrows in those fights was to remove haste effects. For some classes, that is mission critical.

 

Arkona could have skipped the dispelling arrows, but they made the encounters safer.

 

 

I'm playing with the hardier Dragons component for the first time, and Bart and I think they're scary.

 

 

It takes longer to kill them: that's for certain. And longer fights mean more opportunities for errors.

 

Stay focused, stay patient, stay on your game, and they'll fall.

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Blackraven]

The evil path physical resistance Bhaalspawn power should not exist. The Defender probably shouldn't exist. Foebane should be nerfed. Roranach's and the Yellow Dragon Scale should also be nerfed. 

 

Noooo, don't say that. I need that kind of stuff In all seriousness, being able to capitalize on a class/kit's niche of advantages and abilities ensures that many roads lead to Rome (or the Throne of Bhaal for that matter). I like that flexibility.

Besides I think the items/abilities you mention may overpower a (well-played) solo Barbarian, Paladin or Warrior/Cleric (because of their AoF), but they aren't as influential for other characters, especially if they have to share them in a party. For example, if Bart is going to stay alive a bit longer, he'll probably end up using Jan's Armor and the DoE, so that with AoF he'll have good physical resistances. But he'll have less than half of Arkona's HPs and he might sometimes consider it wiser to let Mazzy use the DoE and/or Roranach.

 

Good to know about the dispelling arrows. Thanks.

Hour and a half for those fights is huge! You have my deepest respect for your patience and focus. Thumbs up!

[Gate70]

Kaxir has started his escape, taking maybe 30 minutes so far.
On Core rules for SoA.

(edit: Not sure I posted his BG:EE ending - not much to say as it was fairly straightforward apart from Rahvin and Carston making a real fight towards the end and then running into Tamoko while still badly wounded and having to resort to ranged attacks against her)

This time he's less of a Kensai and more of a Skaldsai.
** Long Sword
* Axe
* Dagger
* Flail
* Two Weapon Style

 

He'll probably take one pip in mace, bastard sword, halberd, two handed sword, spear and war hammer before seeing what is left. 

Kaxir is caught by a mighty blow but before he can turn to run his own blade removes the need to retreat.

Spoiler

This area is almost clear with just Malaaq in his plane and the area to the east of the otyugh left to visit Dumping of excess spoils is about to commence as inventory is filling up.

Spoiler

 

[Alesia_BH]

Noooo, don't say that. I need that kind of stuff In all seriousness, being able to capitalize on a class/kit's niche of advantages and abilities ensures that many roads lead to Rome (or the Throne of Bhaal for that matter). I like that flexibility.

 

I respect that view.

 

 

 

Besides I think the items/abilities you mention may overpower a (well-played) solo Barbarian, Paladin or Warrior/Cleric (because of their AoF), but they aren't as influential for other characters, especially if they have to share them in a party. 

 

I agree that context matters.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Arkona, Halfling Barbarian: Demon Battle I

 

Demon Battle I ended up being far more dangerous than it should have been, mostly because I didn't know what to expect. I was expecting a peculiar fight against an assortment of nerfy ATweaks PnP fiends. What I got instead was a non-trivial battle with the far more powerful SCS/Ascension fiends. This divergence between reality and expectations led to difficulty immediately and imperiled Arkona throughout the fight. I didn't know what to expect, what to assume. I was forced to guess, and my guesses weren't always right.

 

As soon as the battle began, we knew we were in for a fight. The instant Arkona touched the pool, she was hit by an Implosion. There was no incantation; no counter window: just an immediate strike. For some characters, this surely would have been fatal. For Arkona, it was a warning.

 

Danger true was only moments away. While the Implosion suggested that we were dealing with Ascension fiends rather than ATweaks fiends, I wasn't certain. When a glabrezu TWEd to Arkona -and showed that it had its Ascension immobilize without a save on hit ability- it was clear that we weren't dealing with ATweaks fiends. But could we safely assume that they had no ATweaks abilities what so ever? Could they be hybrids? And if so, wasn't that balor who just TWEd to an immobilized Arkona a potential mortal threat? Unsure of what to believe, what to assume, Arkona was faced with a difficult choice: Whirlwind into the balor's Aura of Flaming Death without 100% fire resistance, or risk being vorpalled. Arkona chose to Whirlwind the balor. It worked, but it led to the most harrowing moment of the adventure. Here we see Arkona mortally wounded, just after having broken free from immobilization and entrapment. The balor is down, but yet more fiends are gating in.

 

Arkona healed and regrouped, but as she did, the demons were replacing their losses. The succubus gated in another balor.

 

That balor, in turn, gated in more creatures. Arkona was in danger of being overwhelmed.

 

Summoned skeletons and a surplus of demons made movement difficult.

 

Eventually Arkona was trapped. Here she showed her strength, her durability. Boxed in, facing full SCS/Ascension demons -with yet more demons gating in, and with skeletons piling up, restricting movement- Arkona executed an impossible breakout. Hardiness, the Defender, the Reflex, and Whirlwinds were the keys to her success. 

 

The balor fell first. The cambions -with their range 2 weapons- then became priority targets. Players tend to ignore the range and speed factors of weapons but there are situations when those variables are more important than damage. Arkona's attention to range was among the reasons she survived this fight.

 

Here we see Arkona Immobilized once again as yet more demons gate in.

 

Steadliy the demons fell. Arkona mitigated risk with resistances, but also by managing incoming APR. Note that the Reflex was kept in the offhand to keep the bows of the alu fiends and cambions out of the action. Note also that Arkona was carefully eliminating skeletons in such away as to keep her at least 2 clicks away from the range 1 marilith.

 

The range 2 cambions, on the other hand, had to be kept at range 1, to allow Arkona to kill them with the Defender in hand.

 

Wearing Roranach's, with the crushing glabrezu at her side, with the alu fiends halted by the Reflex, with the range 2 cambion one click away, and with the range one marilith at least two clicks away, Arkona has every advantage here. The cambion is beginning to figure that out.

 

With the cambion down, Arkona was free to eliminate the harmless crushing glabrezu.

 

Then, with the range 1 marilith still blocked out, Arkona could safely use her ranged weapon to finish the alu-fiend and babau.

 

Just the marilith remained now.

 

The mariliths ProMWs and Stoneskins posed a problem. The marilith seemed to cast ProMW every 5 rounds or so. And she'd frequently refresh her Stoneskins while ProMW was active. How then could a solo barbarian -who lacks Breach- kill her? 

 

Gesen? No: 100% electricity damage immunity. Energy attack resistances and weapon enchantment immunities would foil other ranged weapons as well.

 

But what about the Ravager? At range 2, it could poke through the skeletons to reach the marilith, and vorpals can take effect through Stoneskins. It could work. It had to work.

 

And it did.

 

Now that Arkona knew to expect SCS/Ascenion fiends, the remaining demon battles were completed with ease. Only one challenge remained: Melissan and the Five.

 

Best,

 

A.