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[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, newest entry:

Exploited up to 9 600 000 PC experience. Levels at this stage:

Astarta and Alia - both lvl 31. New sorceress spell picks: Contingency (at lvl 30) and Protection from the Elements (at lvl 31). Have all mage HLAs and are picking Alchemy and Scribe Scrolls at level-ups.

Saros - level 37, has 12 Critical Strikes and 5 Hardinesses. Grandmaster of Flails and Shortswords, and **** in Bastard Swords.

Bane - level 27, **** Warhammers, ** Shortswords, grandmaster in Longswords. 2 Hardinesses, 5 Criticals.

Captain Jack Sparrow - levels 27-23, Grandmaster of Two-handed swords and Halberds, **** in Quarterstaves. 2 Hardinesses, 4 Criticals, 1 Smite.

And Torham, levels 28-18, enough proficiencies of all types, and more than enough spell slots (seven 7th lvl slots, that is with the Holy Symbol equipped). Has all clerical HLA spells.

The party travelled first to Trademeet's crypt. Buffed with undispellable buffs, and entered.

Inside, party buffs are dispelled, and arcane casting is prohibited. Torham cast Iron Skins too quickly, and those were dispelled as well. However, Alia could support him with her Trigger.

Both Riskbreakers succcessfully activated their Improved Haste abilities, however Bane was hurt badly by the enemy, and used Risk Decrement to both heal himself and get rid of the minor skeletons. The Founder of Trademeet was on very little health afterwards and fell with the subsequent strike.

Loot: a green scroll of Protection of Level Drain (lasts 3 turns, grants undispellable NPP for the duration), the Staff of Rynn +4 for Jack, some potions and gems.

Next in line was the Illithid compartment in the sewers. The way was previously cleared by defeating Tarnor's party.

Upon entering the compartment, there is no going back until Alhoon and his Greater Elemental Golem are slain. At least resting inside is possible.

The party buffed well. Summons were deliberately few (only one Planetar), because as helpful as they are, they usually block the way for the party fighters. Best leave multiple summons for open area fights.

Armament was important. Jack could switch between several good weapons, so he's okay. However Bane, lacking a good warhammer, had to rely on a Club +3 and Belm off-hand with lousy 6 APR, for some melee support versus the Gem Golems and Skeleton Warlords. Otherwise, Bane was armed with a +3 Longsword created with the Enchanted Weapon spell. Torham's off-hand was also occupied by a +3 weapon - that is a +3 morningstar forged previously by Cromwell from a +2 one looted in the Planar Prison.

The party slew very quickly a Gem Golem, while the Planetar was distracting the rest of the enemies. The Planetar withdrew a bit, and the enemy Assassin snuck by, only to be chopped to pieces by the four party fighters. Bane immediately looted his corpse, and found the Boneblade dagger +3, a buckler +1 and the Blade of Roses +3, which he immediately equipped. Torham took some hit from enemy Mage's Melf meteors. Saros and Bane released simultaneously their Risk Decrements, with great effect. Torham refreshed his Iron Skins, but was almost immediately hit by a Breach spell and had to withdraw (in the meantime the enemy cleric released Storm of Vengeance on Alia). In the meantime, a couple of enemies had been slain, and once again the two Riskbreakers applied massive damage to everyone near them. Alia could successfully cast her spells under Mirror Image despite the Storm of Vengeance, and Astarta was standing out of the area of effect of the storm, and could support the party with an occasional Remove Magic. Only a couple of seconds after the second Risk Decrements, there were no melee enemies around. The party fighters slew the Fallen deva, however Saros somehow was Held, and on very low health at that. Still, there was just one enemy Fighter alive, and Bane + Jack finished him quickly with Criticals while Torham managed to cast Greater Restoration. The Mage had already wasted 1 of his proMW scrolls (the nerve), and now resorted to other defensive means. However, this only delays the inevitable for him.

Loot:
Robe of Vecna - Alia equipped it for now.
a Wish scroll - for Astarta
the Boneblade dagger +4 and the Blade of Roses +3 mentioned previously
some potions, priest scrolls and gems

The party rebuffed somewhat and eliminated the random mindflayer + ulitharid + umberhulk encounter in the next chamber. The biggest threat here was Torham himself. Falling victim to enemy Umberhulk's Confusion glance, he almost killed Jack Sparrow (hardiness waned). Still, everyone survived.

The party rebuffed a bit. Using Farsight, Torham read the enemy numbers and positioning. Jack Sparrow alone went to challenge the enemies. All except Alhoon followed and were defeated swiftly.

Afterwards, the party prepared very well, after resting for a day (to wait for Alia's Chain Contingency 24-hour interval so that the spell could be used again if need be). Alia cast the last buff she needed and entered alone, with only a Planetar at her side. Alhoon said something, gated in his Greater Elemental Golem ally (who immediately shot Purge Magic at Alia), and erected his own protections. Alia's CC kicked in right after her buffs were dispelled, and she was neatly protected by Protection from Energy. The fighters entered, but it seems they forgot how important Hardiness is, and had to activate it now. Bane, Jack and Torham engaged the Greater Elemental Golem, while Saros engaged defenseless Alhoon. Despite Alia's efforts under Alacrity (multiple Rays at a Gem Golem, multiple LMD at the Greater Elemental golem himself and several RRR + Remove magics at Alhoon), Alhoon managed to refresh his ProMW, but Astarta helped with Remove Magic, and he fell. BTW, turns out that the Greater Elemental Golem is immune to magical damage as well - so LMD and Vampiric Touch are useless. In the meantime, the Planetar fell, and the Greater Elemental Golem turned to Torham. Two hits did notning special, however the third successful enemy hit dispelled Torham's specific protections. But it was too late for the golem, who had been showered with Critical strikes for quite some time now, and when Saros joined the pounding, the golem almost immediately fell.

Afterwards, Bane looted the Hammer of Thunderbolts from the treasure pool, and used it vs the still-alive Gem golem. There was one more gated golem - a Coin one - who was also slain swiftly.

An enormous treasure trove here:

A Permanency Scroll
A Manual of Elaboration
A Spell Trigger scroll - for Astarta
The Hammer of Thunderbolts +3 - for Bane
a robe of Cold Resistance
a Barbarian Essence Potion
the periapt of Proof vs Poison
the Ring of Air Control (cannot be used by Necromancers)
the Ring of Human Influence
The Master of Disciplines amulet - an excellent item for Jack.
And also, a Hand of Undoing scroll from the Greater Elemental Golem's corpse - for PC.

Also, Torham hit clerical level 29.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 25 juin 2011 - 01:17 .

[Alesia_BH]

kenng wrote...

Just curious, you meet lazarus again in Amethakran. Will he still be hostile to you, or be effectively resetted as a neutral npc? If the former, than that sucks.

I'm not sure- I've never been caught by Lazarus before.

Also, why the need to resort to stealing scrolls? Shouldn't you end up with more than enough gold to splurge on whatever you need?

Greed. And he's always been easy pickings in the past. I've wiped out his stock on a number of occasions- never been caught. Alesia's pickpocket skil was at 170. Historically, that's been adequate.

I contemplated buying the mission critical scrolls and then attempting to lift the rest.Of course, with 20-20 hindsight that seems like the right move.


Best,

A.

[saros_shadow_follower]

As far as I've tested, there is always some small chance to be caught when stealing, despite the skill. My guess is that chance is 1%. So I wouldn't steal from important merchants. Not that stealing in IA is possible

[Alesia_BH]

ussnorway wrote...

@Alesia, How many times have you gone SLAYER... is it not something you want to try?

I've never been especially fond of the Slayer form. The immunities are nice -no doubt- however, the dialog delay in activation, the criticallity of round counting, and its glitchy-ness lead me to shy away from it.

I typically find that there are simpler and or more affective alternatives in the majority of circumstances.

It's a good way to evade Imprisonment before getting Avoid Death, but at this point I'd prefer Avoid Death.


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 02:10 .

[Alesia_BH]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

As far as I've tested, there is always some small chance to be caught when stealing, despite the skill. My guess is that chance is 1%. So I wouldn't steal from important merchants. Not that stealing in IA is possible

That's my understanding as well: a 1% chance of failure. She failed on her 2nd scroll.

Tymora is not an ally it seems...

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

Encountered a weird bug with polymorph self where Ashley simply stayed in her polymorph form(bear) literally forever.

Yeah. I've noticed that one as well. It's un-fun...


A.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

Encountered a weird bug with polymorph self where Ashley simply stayed in her polymorph form(bear) literally forever.

Yeah. I've noticed that one as well. It's un-fun...


A.

The bug is primarily this: Each shifting in form is considered to be a spell with casting time 1. And is subject to all spell penalties or bonuses. For example, if one wears the Amulet of Power and tries to change shape, it will have casting time 0. The shapeshifter's aura has to be clean in order to activate this ability. It won't work in Dead magic zones and may have a different than intended effect in the Wild Magic Zones. It won't work if the character is Silenced or under Spellcasting failure (Miscast Magic, Anti-Magic ray) of some sort.

Also, there is one form of each type in the special abilities menu. If the shifting in form (to human form) is interrupted (as per Spell Failed: Casting failure due to damage upon the caster or other effect), the human form is lost forever (well, until resting or until spell duration expires), and the character stays in the selected form. The only thing which may help in this situation is another shapeshifting, like maybe the Cloak of the Sewers, since that way a new human form will appear in the special abilities menu (from the cloak this time).

There are numerous glitches with the Polymorph Self spell and Shapechange spell. Like instant healing. If a character is wounded, under Alacrity and under Polymorph self, with auto-pause on Spell Cast, he can switch forms and will after several shiftings regain full health, thanx to the difference in Constitution of each of the forms. The glitch is similar to the equipping/unequipping the Axe of Unyielding or Malla's soul stone. Of course, this is useless most of the time, and can be helpful mostly to fighter/mages soloers.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 25 juin 2011 - 02:51 .

[Shadow_Leech07]

In that case I think the solution is to buy a scroll of polymorph just in case one transforms indefinitely, that way one has a backup "human transform." In my case I was being lazy and thought that the bear form would go away once I rested. Apparently the silly thing replaces the human form(transformation).

I've moved back to my swashbuckler to fighter, I think I've gotten my fill of backstabs for the day from my assassin.

Later-Now playing an archer...I'm very indecisive.

Modifié par Shadow_Leech07, 25 juin 2011 - 05:10 .

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alesia's Game:

Alesia just paid a visit to Nyalee. She made a mess of the Wraith Gorion fight by ranging to far into the Skeleton Cleric's territory in search of shadows. She ended up doing both fights at the same time. I think some may find that battle interesting since it includes a lot of examples of spell countering through potion and items usage. I'll post it when I get the chance. For now, I'll just provide a couple footnotes on Alesia's run.

FN1: Mazzy's Sword has become one of Alesia's most used items due to its Stun and Slow immunity effects. Alesia's weapons change frequently, however,  her standard weapon slot setup is Mazzy's Sword and Blackrazor in the Main Hand positions and the Shield of Harmony in the Offhand.

FN2: The two biggest mistakes I've made in this run have related to theft. I mentioned the Lazarus incident. Another theft has come back to haunt Alesia as well. Long ago, when gold was tight, Alesia swiped the Staff of Striking. And while she bought the other one from the Temple of Lathander, that one was lost due to carelessness. The problem here is that she can't recharge her Staff at the moment because she doesn't have access to a fence. That has deprived her of one of her most important offensive tools.  


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 05:33 .

[Thailog]

Alesia_BH wrote...

FN2: The two biggest mistakes I've made in this run have related to theft. I mentioned the Lazarus incident. Another theft has come back to haunt Alesia as well. Long ago, when gold was tight, Alesia swiped the Staff of Striking.

You might want to try Rogue Rebalancing's Revised Thievery component for some future run.

It gives you some leeway on failing a pickpocket/steal attempt and introduces more fences to the game, including a few in BG1 (Black Lily and co.) and one in ToB (the Amkhatran smuggler).

[Alesia_BH]

Thailog wrote...

You might want to try Rogue Rebalancing's Revised Thievery component for some future run.

It gives you some leeway on failing a pickpocket/steal attempt and introduces more fences to the game, including a few in BG1 (Black Lily and co.) and one in ToB (the Amkhatran smuggler).

Yeah. I haven't used that component but the description sounds nice.

Thanks!


A.

[Shadow_Leech07]

Learned something new about stealthing with the archer. It works like set trap, if the character stealthing is blinded, he/she can stealth pretty much anywhere there is shadows just as long as he/she doesn't see the enemy/someone.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Okay, so the exploiting has ended. Levels:

Astarta - Necromancer level 33.

Alia - Sorceress level 32. Spell Picks:

Lvl 1: LMD, MM, Chromatic Orb, Shield, Armor
Lvl 2: MI, Blur, M's Acid Arrow, Resist Fear, Invisibility
Lvl 3: Remove Magic, Haste, Vampiric Touch, ProFire, Lightning Bolt
Lvl 4: Stoneskin, Minor Sequencer, Emotion, Ice Storm, Ray of Fragmentation
Lvl 5: Sunfire, Spell Immunity, Lower Resistance, Breach, Soul Armor
Lvl 6: ProMW, Contingency, GOI, Improved Haste, Giant Strength
Lvl 7: RRR, Spell Sequencer, Mordy Sword, ProElements, Mass Invisibility
Lvl 8: Spell Trigger, Monster Summoning VI, ProEnergy, Foreknowledge, ADHW
Lvl 9: Chain Contingency, Wish, Monster Summoning VII, Recast Vital Energy and all mage HLA spells

There is yet another spell lvl 9 available at lvl 36, and I am currently thinking about two possibilities - Shapechange or Absolute Immunity.

Saros - Riskbreaker level 39, grandmaster in Bastard Swords, Flails and Shortswords. Has 13 Criticals and 6 Hardinesses. ** Two-weapon style.

Bane - Riskbreaker level 30, grandmaster in Warhammers and Long Swords, and ** in shortswords. Has 7 Critical Strikes and 3 Hardinesses. ** Two-weapon style.

Captain Jack Sparrow - level 30-23 Fighter-Assassin. Grandmaster in Halberds, Quarterstaves and Two-handed swords. Has * in two-handed weapon style, which is sufficient for +1 Critical and damage modifier.

Torham - level 31-18 Cleric-Ranger. Has ** in almost all weapon types and fighter styles available to him, and *** in two-weapon style.

First stop - Watcher's keep, level one. After defeating some vanilla guardians and some improved random monster spawns (one undead spawn and one spider spawn), the time came to challenge the powerful skeletons and golems, guarding the fireplace.

The party buffed well...oops, not exactly, so the fighters fell back a bit so that Alia could cast Resist Fear on everyone. Also, 4 Greater Yuantis were summoned by Alia, but they stood away from battle at first.

The four fighters alone challenged the enemies. After killing a couple of Skeletons, the fighters managed to slay the dangerous Greater Bone Golem, and now they could safely fall back and let the Yuantis take care of some of the enemies. Not to mention that the only ones capable of effectively hurting the Skeleton Grandlord are the Yuantis and Jack with his +4 quarterstaff. Well, not exactly. Risk Decrement also helps. Still, Jack did the main job in this case.

Well, no more enemies? But we counted only six. Or seven. There are supposed to be 10-11. Here are the rest. Bugged. Can't move. But surely they can strike. Well, Risk Decrement from a safe distance works as an ADHW spell. However, the golems are quite damage resistant, but the skeletons aren't. Jack arrived after the skeletons were slain, and from a safe distance with his polearm slew the Coin Golem. The Gem Golem was finally free to move only to fall in the waiting arms of all party fighters.

The fireplace was lit. The old Priest was defeated (no, I don't intend to give away the slippers, they grant 25% cold resistance). The two Fanatic spirits guarding the Bell and the Candle were defeated. The one guarding the bell is vulnerable to Piercing damage. And the level was finally completed.

The party descended to lvl 2 of the keep, and opened it to the outside.

Now the party could finally go and challenge Pai-Na for her treasure trove. The improved spiders in the corridors of the catacombs were easy. The party also cleared the lvl 2 of the catacombs (vanilla enemies, a lone Vampire Bride is the improved one here).

Pai-Na herself was easy to defeat. Bane and Saros once again used together their Risk Decrement abilities simultaneously and killed almost all of the Sword spiders.

Loot:
The Black Spider Figurine
The Pale Green Ioun Stone - finally, a great helmet for Bane. No more would he fear critical strikes.
and of course, a Spell Immunity scroll for Astarta.

Torham hit clerical level 32 here.

Well, that's it for now. Next - have to kill Valygar to gain entrance to the Planar Sphere. Bad. For Valygar, that is.

[Alesia_BH]

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

Learned something new about stealthing with the archer. It works like set trap, if the character stealthing is blinded, he/she can stealth pretty much anywhere there is shadows just as long as he/she doesn't see the enemy/someone.

Yeah. I've always viewed that as an engine limitation. That's the main reason why I made Alesia's personal item (The Quick and the Dead) grant immunity to Blindness: getting Blinded can a huge (and non-sensical) boon for thieves- especially for a specialized trapper like Alesia.

Of course, others should feel free to take advanage of it. It can be fun to turn an enemies "success" against them:)

I don't blame you at all for doing it with an Archer. Blindness is not exactly helpful for them...



Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 07:55 .

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alesia's Game:


Alesia is currently seeking hearts at the Fire Giant Temple. Through tactical trapping, she nearly completed the first Fire Giant battle without being seen at all- not even for a split second. One was left at Near Death when she finally had to resort to stab-n-go Backstabbing.






Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 08:08 .

[Shadow_Leech07]

Alesia_BH wrote...
Yeah. I've always viewed that as an engine limitation. That's the main reason why I made Alesia's personal item (The Quick and the Dead) grant immunity to Blindness: getting Blinded can a huge (and non-sensical) boon for thieves- especially for a specialized trapper like Alesia.

Of course, others should feel free to take advanage of it. It can be fun to turn an enemies "success" against them:)

I don't blame you at all for doing it with an Archer. Blindness is not exactly helpful for them...



Best,

A.

The mephits have proven to be a useful learning tool. The truth is I have never noticed any other enemy using blind, I guess they all have better things to do...like cast magic missile or something.

I've noticed that you're not using Simmy, is that a personal restriction?

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta's new adventures:

Well, the Planar Sphere will have to wait...here's what Torham found via Farsight:

One
Two

These are the two groups respectively in the Ice and Lightning laboratory, lvl 2 of Watcher's keep. To the right is the Elemental Golem, to the left is a Steam Elemental Prince. Still, the party managed to lure only the random golem spawns in the central room and defeat them there. Each group consisted of 2 Greater Bone Golems, 2 Gem and 2 Coin ones.

The elemental golem was killed next, without any casualties. He dropped the katana +2, Malakar, and also the Girdle of Fortitude. The girdle will be useful for the Riskbreakers in order to raise their Constitution to 18. Plus, in the Air lab was an Air Library note, and a Manual of Elaboration.

The party also cleared the Slime lab of the random slightly tougher enemy spider spawn (2 Mutated, 1 Killer, 1 Spirit, 1 Lesser Spirit and 2 Vortex ones). Found several items, most importantly the Paladin Bracers for Jack. +10 HP is always useful for him.

Next, Astarta and Alia challenged the Steam Elemental Prince. Both mages stepped forward under thorough buffing and under Alacrity. First enemy's  magic resistance was lowered, next he was showered with low-level spells by Alia. In the meantime with a single blow the prince killed the Elite troll. After Alia's low-level spells ended, she transferred the Amulet of Power to Astarta, who continued with the barrage. And the Prince fell.

Loot from the Ice lab - a Note, and a Scroll of Memory Boosting.

Finally, was stormed the Fire lab, where a lone Elite Fire Giant stood. He was a tough adversary, and the party underestimated him a bit, that's why Bane fell in this fight. Still, he wasn't chunked. Loot from the Fire Lab - a Permanency scroll, among the static items.

Well, that's it. Now it's really time for the Planar Sphere. And Umar Hills before that. Ugh. A long quest.

[Alesia_BH]

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

I've noticed that you're not using Simmy, is that a personal restriction?

Simmy Alesia has made a couple appearances: against Irenicus and against Illasera. In other fights, I've skipped her simply because she wasn't needed. No one has gotten an attack role against Alesia since Nyalee's Swamp.

In my prior Ascension Solo with Alesia, her Simmy played a more prominent role because I was pretty liberal with duplicated scroll use. I intend to refrain from taking that approach this time.

Quote me on that though when it's time to take on Tamah and Abazigal...

As of now, I plan to invest many of Alesia's high value scrolls in that fight and then rely on Focus and movement in the final battle. We'll see though: I may chicken out.


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 10:00 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

A short note:

Astarta & party have cleared the vanilla quests in the Umar Hills area, and also had to kill Valygar. For the armor, and for his body, to gain entrance inside the Planar Sphere. They also defeated the Halflings, constructed a Guardian golem, defeated Lavok and his 2 Gem Golems + 5 Skeleton Lords, uncovered a Giant Strength scroll, defeated three demons in the Demon plane, recovered the hilt of the Truth longsword + a scroll of Disrupt Undead, and are currently going to challenge Tolgeras and after that - clean the Power Core level from the golems that guard it. There have been several level-ups as well.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alesia's Game:

Alesia just completed the SCS Flaming Skull, Burning Man, Fell Cat battle in Yaga Shura's lair. It wasn't untill after the fight that I realized how potentially dangerous that encouter can be for solo No Reloaders. I'll post this summary by way of warning. Those who want to avoid spoilers should skip.

For Alesia, the battle was fairly simple, she tried to Maze everyone. The Flaming Skull was the only one that remained. She fought him alone. 

The Flaming Skull tossed a ton of Fire Damage spells, however, Alesia's resistance was above 100% so it wasn't a problem. Weapons didn't seem to do any damage to the Skull (perhaps due to a Stoneskin like ability) but, Alesia was able to put down a Time Trap, activate Improved Haste, and Dex drain him to death with Haer Daelis' Chaos Blade. The Burning Man came back from Maze soon after that. He cast Fire Damage spells (naturally) and also attempted to Blind Alesia. She was immune of course. He tripped a Time Trap and was then dispatched. Finally, the Fell Cat came back. He was superfast, but not terribly difficult on his own.

Here's the thing: the Fell Cat lowers Fire Resistance on hit and isn't easy to get away from due to his speed. The Burning Man Blinds -making it difficult to run- and there are loads of Fire Damage spells flying around. They see through invisibility as well.

In sum, it would be pretty easy to get cooked there. Alesia's ability to seperate her foes in time with her Maze Traps made the fight fairly simple but it isn't hard to see how that encounter could cause problems for some soloists.

Be careful out there...

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 juin 2011 - 11:19 .

[corey_russell]

Candar the dwarven berserker
Planar Sphere, Illithids (sewers), Bodhi (2nd encounter), Suldenessar, Tree of Life, Hell, Illsaera

Candar's party made a lot of progress since we last heard of them.

Most of the party is 15 plus - at these levels, none of the planar sphere was very difficult. The demon fell ridiculously easy. Haerdalis is using the sword of mask/kundane, wihle Candar is using Flail of Ages/Celestial Fury.

Finally the party was ready to fight Bodhi. With all the help I enlisted, it wasn't very difficult. I had Jaheira tank Bodhi with her iron skins which worked fairly well. The casters put 4x lower magic resist, then bolts of glory/magic missile/chromatic orb finished her off.

This run EXTREMELY strapped for cash. I was so strapped I had to fight in Suldanessar, loot, then return to Cromwell to make my Crom Faeyr and red dragon armor.

I got a nice result turning in the lanthorn:


While in Suldessar Jaheira was using the anti-golem staff we got in Ust Natha, and it was working well. We ran into a little problem with that mage guarding Dermin, however. First, our summons utterly failed to take down the pit fiend. So the party moved up, killed the pit fiend, but in response the mage fired some kind of fireball and did this:

Yep that's right, Haer'Dalis is CHUNKED!  Now no one will be able to use spike traps for ToB (drats). Since Jan is chunked also, Yoshimo dead, Imoen has to be our thief by force. Time to regroup. Since we had the Carsomyr just sitting in our bag of holding and also since an inquisitor is quite handy vs. mages and dragons, we left Suldanessar to recruit Keldorn. Btw, should be noted that for some reason I also lost all of Haer'Dalis equipment. This was some of the things lost:
* Sword of Mask
* Kundane
* The drinker
* Glasses of Identification (for some reason whatever character that carries it always seems to get chunked and I lose this item in my games)
* Gauntlets of Dexterity (really miss this, Keldorn would have loved these)
* Belt of Fortitude (helpful for Aerie if she ever tanks anything)

At this point in the game, still didn't have enough money to make Crom Faeyr (10k). So once Keldon joined we headed off to battle Nizi. Fortunately our arch mage Nalia could summon a planetar. We also summoned a couple of mordy swords (these things seem real effective decoys against dragons), and two fire elementals. The party members fired at range while the summons distracted Nizi. Candar was doing lots of damage with the dwarven thrower hammer (he got the killing blow in fact). The casters did 4x lower magic resist, breach, bolts of glory, magic missile. For the first time EVER (in my games at least) Nizi did NOT cast the insect swarm at my party members. During the battle also summoned another mordy sword to keep Nizi busy. Success!


The rest of Suldanessar battles were pretty unremarkable, except for the Suldanessary temple battle. I had Nalia fire a horrid wilting, Imoen a fireball, Aerie Storm of Vengeance, Keldorn got in the mage's face, and Candar burned down the Rakshaksha via whirlwind attack. The battle was over VERY fast, quickest victory every against this group for me.

Next the group pursued and battle Irenicus at the Tree of Life. No thief traps (oh well). It was a lot longer than expected, because Keldon was so low  level compared to Irenicus that he couldn't dispel Irenicus's buffs like he could normally if he had been with me from the beginning. So the mages did a lot of true sights/breaches/pierce magics/spell thrusts. Even so Imoen/Jaheira/Aerie all died. Keldorn got in Irenicus face, and tanked great. Just to be safe, Candar kept his distance and used his dwarven thrower hammer, though he did have buffs like death ward on him and kept up his berserker rage when he could to prevent mazes. We did have a planetar assist us as well, though it was eventually killed. Success!


Candar did all the good routes in hell. We sent a planetar with globe of blades active to whittle down the beholder numbers, then the party finished them off.

Now for Irenicus himself. Summoned 5 summons, buffed everything that made sense and here is our opening deployment against Irenicus in Hell:


I consider the pit fiends more dangerous than the baldors, so concentrated on them first. The demons went down VERY fast, though the horrid wilting/storm of vengeance might have something to do with it. Here's the battle at that point:


Keldorn, Jaheria, and Imoen all managed to get stunned (and in fact, were stunned for the rest of the fight!). So much for Keldorn helping me against mages. So I had no choice to tank Irenicus with Candar for a while until Aerie and Nalia could get a another bunch of summons going. Candar stayed in one piece, and once the summons were in place he switched to his dwarven thrower hammer. The mages kept up their true sights/breaches and Irenicus was taking a lot of damage as you can see here:


With all the breaches going on, Irenicus couldn't get a good offense going and succumbed:


No screen shots of Illsaera battle, but the enemies were killed easily. Next was the 1st challlenge. With some summons as backup, was no problem as you can see here:


So when we next hear from Candar he will be in Saradush.

Modifié par corey_russell, 26 juin 2011 - 12:54 .

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats on finishing SoA Corey_Russell.

Good luck in ToB!

Best,

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alesia's Game:

Alesia has nearly completed the Improved Fire Giant Lair- just the final fight left. I suspect that one may be formidable.

The Beren fight included a couple of Red Dragon like things. I didn't even realize there were two at first since they came out of Maze at different times. The first fell to Time Trap->Improved Haste-> Chaos Blade. The second was Endless Mazed. Beren was dropped with Time Trap->Improved Haste->Assassination.

Roranach's Horn + Adventure Wear + 127% Fire Resistance covered the defensive end against the Fire Giants. The dragon thingies never got a chance to touch her.

The Fell Cats were the trickiest part of the battle- even the Harp of Pandemonium couldn't create space to trap once they were on her tail. Backstabbing them was nigh impossible. They wouldn't have been such a nuisance if Alesia weren't conserving Oils of Speed for the Throne Battles, but since she was, they were a pain. She basically had a choice: use an Oil of Speed or some healing potions. And since the healing potions supply is ample, she chose to take that route.

I'll probably cover the entire lair if and when Alesia finishes it.


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 juin 2011 - 02:04 .

[Alesia_BH]

Alesia at the Fire Giant Lair

Alesia has retrieved the hearts and is on her way to visit Nyalee.

I thought SCS's Improved Fire Giant Lair was balanced well- it was interesting, but not so difficult as to consume resources that might be needed elsewhere.

The opening battle was more-or-less the same as in vanilla. The main difference being that the Fire Giants used HLAs (Hardiness and Critical Strike) and also consumed potions. Alesia basically Mazed them all, placed traps at their positions and then, and then finished with a few backstabs. Screenshots were provided earlier, I'll merely repost one that provides a flavor of the action for those who might need a reminder. 


The next interesting battle was the Flaming Skull, Burning Man, Fell Cat encounter mentioned earlier. This one was described earlier so I'll be concise here: Maze Traps allowed Alesia to seperate her enemies in time, and then dispatch them. In concert, they may have been dangerous. Again, just a taste of the action: the death of the Flaming Skull.


On the otherside, there was a pair of Fell Cats and a Fire Lich. The Fell Cats were on top of Alesia as soon as she stuck her nose in the room.


Fortunately, the Harp of Pandemonium allowed her to create the space she needed. She was able to Maze them and then take them down.


That left the Fire Lich- who had been content to summon Mordy Swords while Alesia was battling the Fell Cats. Belatedly, he decided to Dimmension Door to Alesia.

Now if that had happened woth the Fell Cats in play, it could have been a problem. But since the kitties had used up their lives, it wasn't an issue. Alesia dropped a Maze Trap at her feet as soon as she heard the Lich cast Dimmension Door. He ended up taking a one way trip to nowhere.




Onto Berenn.

Alesia snuck up and saw this.

Yeah. A whole lot of ugly. And that's not even half of it. She prepared to fade and Maze, but some Fell Cats were on her once again. She ran. This ended up being fine since it allowed Alesia to use conventional spatial seperation to deal with the potential Lower Fire Resistance->Firebreath threat.

Meleeing the Fell Cats was a bit of a bloodbath, but eventually they croaked.

Back to the dragon-thingies. Of course, Alesia opened with a Maze Trap. Then, she prepared a welcome back present along with Simmy Alesia.


He arrived, set of the Traps, and went down to Badly Injured (It's worth nothing that Firkragg was killed by a smaller trap dose). Alesia re-Mazed him.


Shortly thereafter, the Wyrm returned -or so it seemed- but something didn't quite add up. The first time, he was Mazed for lots of rounds. This time, he apparently came back quick. Plus, the one in front of Alesia now was Uninjured- suggesting an insane regeneration rate if it was the same one.

Fortunately, Alesia had already set a fall back Time Trap, so she simply used that. She opted to use Haer Daelis's Chaos Blade in case it was the same one and it did have a ridiculous regen rate.


Alesia's suspicions were confirmed soon after when the Badly Injured one returned from Maze. Alesia was ready for him though.



After climbing over the carcasses, Alesia found Yaga's favorite Cleric. With some potions buffs and 75% Crushing Resistance, she was able to take him down with and Improved Haste->Assassination (Kudane in the off hand).


Just clean up duty after that.


Oh yeah. One more thing. Imix. Imix was more worthy of the title Elemental Prince. Alesia waltz into this with zero prep and low expectations and ended up getting blindsided.


Alesia survived. But so did Imix. Alesia had the hearts, and Imix seemed like more trouble then he was worth, so she just left him alone- no reason to squander resources or court danger there.

And that was it. Nyalee will be next.


Best,

A.


Edit: Removed a bunch of typos...

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 juin 2011 - 04:17 .

[Shadow_Leech07]

An intro to my archer as current

Rachel Woods female half-elf chaotic good
Archer level 9
Str 18/79 Dex 18 Con 18 Int 10 Wis 15 Char: Ring of human Influence

An interesting thing occurred, as Rachel was able to recruit the mage in the Druid Grove to aide her against the Shadow Druids. She(the mage) was able to do some impressive things, like skull trap, lightning bolt, and melf's acid arrow. Just a bit of good stuff from the ring of human influence. The mage also acted as a meat shield.

Tactics at Windspear

The archer does not wade into battle, she does not feel the lust for blood, to see her enemy up front and close. There is much risk involved and such a thing should only be done if there is no alternative. Rachel Woods uses the efreeti bottle she found off a dead Dao Djinn to act as something of a decoy for her to herd the enemies aimlessly about. With this decoy she is able to destroy her enemies(monsters) at Windspear and the accompanying bandit attack. She on occasion had used potions of heroism, and oil of speed and wields the Tansheron bow that way she does not need to collect ammunition endlessly.

Slaver Compound

Rachel buffs an oil of speed potion, two green scrolls of acid protection, heroism potion, DUHM, mirror image, improved invisibility, and potion of defense and goes straight into the slaver HQ. She gets her efreet pal to distract Captain Hagan while she goes and gets the Priest of Cyric. Poor guy could barely get off his dispel magic. The priest is quickly disposed off as Rachel and her efreet concentrate on the next big threat, Hagan. The battle goes smoothly, a bit of rough and tumble here and there but a hasted Rachel is a big threat. The two trolls are disposed off with fire arrows picked up in the Druid Grove.

Mencar Pebblecrusher

This fight was actually quite difficult for Rachel. In fact so difficult she needed to retreat. The problem is of course the mephit Pooky who has charm, and the thief who had backstabbed Rachel for at least eighty percent of her life points which scared the hell out of her not to mention she ran out of the room quickly. The efreeti served as a target for Pooky so Rachel needed to equip the shield of harmony. Because this wasn't the outdoors, Rachel was at a severe disadvantage. After the two meatshields of Mencar's party(including Mencar himself) chased after Rachel, abeit very stupidly, Rachel was able to off them both. After a rest Rachel managed to finish off the remainder of the group as well and sell loot she didn't need. This was the first time Rachel faced severe adversity. She charged up the necklace of missiles.

Entrance to Nalia's Keep

There is a large group of trolls, umberhulks, and spirit trolls in the main room of the De'Arnise Keep, and Rachel had to use stealth and invisibility(and rests) in order to defeat this group one by one, in particular the umberhulks which had caused her to switch constantly between a shield of harmony set up and her Tansheron bow.
After assembling the flail of ages, Rachel decides that this would be a much preferable set up then the alternative.

A New Trick and of Targal

Rachel Woods had the necklace of missiles prepared for the massive group of umberhulks just up Torgal's alley. She buffed her second level fire/cold protection spells ready to go. She bombarded the umberhulks with the necklace of missiles. However, she only managed to kill one and needed to retreat. This was a very long and very drawn out battle with Rachel stealthing to retreat. She would eventually overcome the umberhulks and realize a new strategy against the giant trolls in the next room with Targal.
For this battle Rachel buffed with oil of speed and potion of heroism. Targal himself didn't last very long, as Rachel used the efreeti as bait. For some reason the enemies don't seem like melee damage more then missile. Targal and the efreeti died around the same time leaving Rachel to contend with the two giant trolls. At first Rachel considered retreating and resting, however she chanced upon a new trick. Because of the circumstances of this particular building, and Rachel being hasted, she was able to move in and between rooms of this area very quickly, much quicker then the enemy trolls could react. So what occurred was Rachel moving into another room and stealthing then returning to fire another arrow at one of the giant trolls, once fired she returns to another room to stealth once more. Essentially the trolls couldn't do much against this strategy, being not hasted, and not having missile weapons of their own. So the remaining two trolls went down using this method. Ironically this would probably be a perfect place for Rachel to have a stronghold seeing how easily she could defend it. In any case, Rachel goes back to Nalia and considers her next move.

Modifié par Shadow_Leech07, 26 juin 2011 - 10:57 .