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[Alesia_BH]

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

Rachel Woods female half-elf chaotic good.

I'm glad you found a character you're comfortable with Shadow_Leech. Good luck with her. Fleet footed archers can be dangerous!


Best,

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alesia's Game:

Alesia has returned the hearts and defeated Nyalee. She will faced Yaga-Shura soon.

The battle was changed modestly- it included an Alesia clone. Aside from that, it was basically the same.

Alesia's standard tactics sufficed.




The Tougher Yaga-Shura fight may be troublesome. Historically, Alesia has had trouble with large groups of foes. Fingers crossed...


Best,

A.

[touch_of_the_void]

Alesia I remember you mentioned you were going to Watcher's Keep between SoA and ToB. How far did you go through through the keep in the end? Maybe I've just missed where you wrote about it.

And regarding Oils of Speed, can't you make more using Alchemy?

[Shadow_Leech07]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Shadow_Leech07 wrote...

Rachel Woods female half-elf chaotic good.

I'm glad you found a character you're comfortable with Shadow_Leech. Good luck with her. Fleet footed archers can be dangerous!


Best,

A.

Thank you.  I've learned alot from her. Somehow I need to get the boots of speed for her but I'm a bit wary of going to Planar Prison at the moment. I may just settle on buying several oil of speed potions instead. 

[Alesia_BH]

touch_of_the_void wrote...

Alesia I remember you mentioned you were going to Watcher's Keep between SoA and ToB. How far did you go through through the keep in the end? Maybe I've just missed where you wrote about it.

To the Crimson Dart...

Alesia doesn't really need much there and I was eager to face Illasera. She may go back.

And regarding Oils of Speed, can't you make more using Alchemy?

Yes. That's possible. However, it would take quite a lot of resting to make a substantial supply and would cost an HLA. I'm not sure I want to go that route.

Alesia is currently at Level 39. She hasn't taken Alchemy yet. I'm considering selecting it as her last HLA precisely for that purpose.


Best,

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Alesia v. Tougher Yaga Shura

Alesia has defeated Tougher Yaga-Shura and is headed to Amkethran. As is often the case, she had a focused assassination plan which allowed her to escape with minimal injuries.

The Plan: Arrive at Yaga Shura Siege Camp and then scout out a secluded area. Set 3 Time Traps in a line. Cross the bridge, injure Yaga-Shura, and then wait out his army Hidden in Shadows. When Yaga-Shura returns, summon Simmy Alesia and have her break for the Time Traps- leading Yaga-Shura's troops to them. All the while, keep the real Alesia right on top of Yaga-Shura with the Chaos Blade in the Main Hand and Kundane in the Offhand. Once the Time Traps begin triggering, activate Improved Haste, and assault Yaga-Shura. He should die from Dex drain within a few rounds.

Execution: The battle went according to plan with only a few hitches. Alesia failed a Move Silently check while waiting for Yaga-Shura. This wasn't much of a problem- she simply activated her Ring of Invisibility. Aside from that the Yaga-Shura Mage unloaded a Comet on Simmy Alesia as soon as she appeared. The real Alesia wasn't hurt due to Fire Protection items, but Simmy Alesia was brought down to Badly Injured. She carried out her task nonetheless.

Here we see Alesia setting up her Time Trap line on the northeast corner of the map- it seemed an unlikely place for wandering soldiers to go.


With the Wand of Frost, Alesia nipped Yaga-Shura. He had caught her with a Fire Ball earlier.


Then waiting.


Opps...


Yaga Shura returned, and Simmy Alesia was summoned. Yaga-Shura's Mage unloaded his Comet. Simmy Alesia broke for the Time Traps, the real Alesia got on top of Yaga-Shura.


The traps tripped, and Alesia dropped the Giant.


Fin!

Best,

A.


Btw. Some of you may be wondering about the Wand of Monster Summoning in Alesia's Quick Slot. In the event that the soldiers wouldn't follow Simmy Alesia, Alesia planned to cast Farsight on the Time Traps, have Simmy Alesia Summon Monsters and then shoot them- making them Hostile and triggering the Time Traps without the soldiers.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 juin 2011 - 03:56 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta's recent adventures:

The Planar Sphere:

As mentioned earlier, Valygar was killed. No room in the party for him, otherwise I'd avoided it. His body granted the party access inside the Planar sphere. The party killed the Clay golem to the left and initiated planar travel. Next they met with the Solamnic knights, found a Khelben's warding whip scroll for PC in this room and engaged some improved Halflings afterwards:

Togan can use Dimension door, and is armed with the Ripper longbow and multiple Arrows of Piercing (which in IA are of +4 enchantment). Still, he's predictable. Alia under Alacrity took good care of the enemy spellcasters. The party fighters very quickly eliminated first Togan, then Entu. Loot - two rings +1, some minor scrolls (including some Improved Mantle ones from Togan), and the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength of course. Entering deeply inside the sphere, the party fighters defeated a random spider spawn in the Guardian Golem creation room. Not a very tough one (2 Mutated, 2 Vortex, a Killer, a Spirit and a Lesser spirit one + an Ettercap). Jack disarmed some traps (at fighter lvl 30, he started to disarm traps for the maximum xp 3250 and pick locks also at maximum xp 1550). The party fighters killed quickly the slightly improved Taibela + Necre inside the furnace room, and switched all furnaces on.

There was a random tough golem group in the clockwork room, guarding the golem's head. 1 Greater Bone Golem, 2 Gem ones and 2 Coin ones. Easily dispatched. So the guardian golem was constructed and dealt with an Elder orb. Well, the golem was more of a distraction while Torham killed the Orb.

The party descended to Lavok's chamber. Alia and the fighters rushed forward, while Astarta was left behind. Under Alacrity, with Robe of Vecna, Amulet of Power and Foreknowledge, Alia is a spellcasting machine. She quickly released a RRR at Lavok, followed by her sequencers and triggers, and all of her Rays of Fragmentation at a nearby Gem Golem, who was at near-death at the end and fell to the party fighters quickly. Alia kept Lavok busy and disrupted his spells with LMD while the party fighters quickly disposed of the second Gem Golem. In the meantime, Alia had managed to even summon a Planetar in order to halt somewhat the five Skeleton Lords assault. The lords quickly slew the Planetar, however they're very vulnerable to Crushing damage, so they were all at Badly Injured after 2*Risk Decrement, and all fell soon after. Party - all buffs active, all in great health. Lavok - no protections, no allies, no nothing. Poor guy.

The party agreed to help him, and stormed the nearby rooms, finding a scroll of Giant Strength and a Potion of Storm Giant Str in a nearby chamber.

Then all went out of the sphere in search of a demon heart. Well, they found three altogether. A wide-mouth demon lord soon met his end. Still, his Remove Magic dispelled the Potion of Defence buffs on the Riskbreakers and the Assassin-Fighter. However, his three Skeleton Warlords are also quite vulnerable to Crushing damage, and fell quickly to 2*Risk Decrement and melee strikes.

In addition to the three demon hearts, the party also got the hilt of the Truth longsword and a mage scroll of Disrupt Undead spell - for PC.

Next in line was Tolgeras. Ample preparations - short battle. Those Riskbreakers are natural killers.

Loot - some scrolls, like Pierce Magic and Pierce shield for PC.

The fights in the Fire and Ice power chambers are quite easy. The party got some scrolls (an Ice storm one for PC) and the Staff of Fire (it's surely good to have the fighters surrounded by a Fireshield now and then).

The Power Core, however, is guarded by 2 Coin Golems, 2 Gem Golems, and 2 random Golem spawns. At present levels, each of these random groups consists of a Greater Bone Golem, 2 Gem and 2 Coin ones. However, Sikret's improved monsters can follow each other, and thus the party had to fight all 14 golems at once. Only the narrow corridors saved them not to be crushed.

The party immediately took strategic positioning. While Astarta and Alia blocked the corridor to the left (will serve as impenetrable wall with their ProMW spells), the fighters took battle formation in the northern corridor. While the fighters with Critical strikes engaged the golems, Alia turned once again into a spellcasting machine, showering the Coin golems with anti-golem spells. Vampiric Touches and Larloch's Minor Drains included this time. Astarta was less of a machine, but with the Amulet of Power transferred to her after she finished Alacrity, she at least managed to release her Sequencers and Trigger, and LMD spells in a flash. Alia then received back the AoP and started Wishing, and got lucky with the first one. This really changed the flow of combat only a little, allowing Alia to once again release all of her anti-golem spells at some Coin Golems, allowing the fighters to finish them quickly. The battle was over soon after.

The party charged the sphere with one heart, and went back to Lavok. Lavok died afterwards, but before that gave the sphere to Astarta. Loot from Lavok: a Ring of Protection +2, some scrolls, a Ring of Acuity, the Amulet of Charon, a scroll of Memory boosting (third one so far), the Corthala's family scabbard.

The party next entered the sphere, talked to Teos, went to Ribald, paid him 9000 gold to return the Solamnic knights home, waited for Kolynuus Paac inside the sphere, and once the party got their reward for helping the Knights, they quickly eliminated Paac. The Knights *will* stay. And there is the revenge for that outrageous amount. 9000 gold. Please!

Anyway, the party got the Golden Girdle of Urnst. They afterwards supervised the construction of the Wand of the Apprenti, the ADHW scroll and the Robe of the Apprenti. Also, they met with Marvella the Prophetess, and learned about the magical container. Checked it (twice) - it contained both times 3*ProEnergy, 2*Contingency, 3*Lower Resistance and 2*ProMagicalEnergy. Good. Now Astarta has two good 8-th level spells to choose from - proEnergy and ADHW.

The party left the Planar Sphere after the students graduated. With the help of Cromwell was created yet another +2 ring and also the Memory of the Apprenti robe. For now, Alia equipped the powerful robe.

The party travelled to Windspear hills and back. They rested a bit and buffed well in the Graveyard district exit. Then they travelled back to the Docks district and had a strange meeting with a powerful adversary. Limak is a high-level F/M/C (40/31/37 lvl), with reduced casting time of at least 3, dual-wielding +3 morningstar and flail, with great THAC0 and very good physical resistances. However, his mage buffs were quickly dispelled. Of course, some moron appeared to question the party why they're using magic. Such insolense won't go unpunished! But for now, let's focus on Limak. Loot: a +2 cloak, some 9-th lvl scrolls (Wish, Chain Contingency, Bigby's Crushing Hand), a +3 Morningstar, a +3 Flail, some other scrolls and potions, and Limak's Brain.

The party immediately travelled back to Cromwell, and forged the Phosphorous morningstar (using their two +3 morningstars and Mauler's arm, and their last Permanency scroll). Using Limak's brain, they also forged this potion, which Astarta consumed and afterwards scribed as many scrolls as possible.

There have been several level-ups in the meantime. All except Saros raised a level.

Next adventure - the party cleared the rest of Watcher's keep, level 2 (the vanilla scepter guardians). And finally challenged the improved Chromatic Demon.

Alia and Astarta took positions, while the rest of the party hid safely in the Slime Lab. Now Astarta wears the Robe of the Apprenti. Both mages cast Alacrity and then released the demon. Contingencies kicked right away, so Alia had to speed it up with her trigger. Astarta's trigger failed (was loaded with triple Cone of Cold) for some reason, however it was soon a blizzard. Astarta managed to release all of her 12 Ice Storm spells, refreshed ProMW and Alacrity afterwards. Alia did the same, but since her casting speed is reduced by only 1 (Foreknowledge), she was somewhat late. Astarta continued with her six Cone of Cold spells while Alia was releasing her remaining Ice Storms. Both mages had some cold spells left when the demon fell. A Fire Salamander Prince and a Hybrid mist were dead as well, while the Frost salamander prince and the Amber golem ran away after the demon fell. Loot:

Circlet of Netheril - for PC
Poison Flail head
Tuigan Bow +1
Blade of the Truth longsword
the key to the next level

The party entered lvl 3 of the keep, followed Yakman, found his journal and in the meantime had a conversation with Helm's supreme golem. He forced them to leave and to return 'when they are more experienced'. When is that - at level 50?

The party left the keep, went to Cromwell and forged The Truth , the great longsword. The weapon is only useable by single class good-aligned warriors, and is certainly unuseable with UAI ability. Still, it's a great weapon for Bane.

Also, they travelled to De'arnise hold and used the forge to add the fourth flail head. Now the Flail of ages is a +4 weapon, and all party fighters have a good +4 weapon at their disposal.

Current levels:

Saros - 39
Astarta - 34
Alia - 33
Torham - 33-18 (nearing clerical lvl 34)
Jack - 32-23 (7 Criticals, 1 Smite, 4 Hardinesses)
Bane - 32 (9 Criticals, 3 Hardinesses)

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 26 juin 2011 - 03:56 .

[ussnorway]

Can you still turn your own summons hostile... I thought that got patched?

[Alesia_BH]

ussnorway wrote...
Can you still turn your own summons hostile... I thought that got patched?

You can certainly do it with the Efreeti Bottle in my install- Alesia tested that in SoA.

Of course, Djinnis, Efreetis and such are more tempermental then other summons so it's possible it won't work with garden variety ones.

I didn't bother to test the Wand since this was a contingency for a pretty unlikely scenario, an afterthought.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 juin 2011 - 04:08 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, Samia's fight:

Samia and her group were nothing special. The battle is usually harder thanx to the three Skeleton Warlords that appear from King Strohm's tomb, however this time the party strategy was peerless. Well, almost.

Last party buffs, and Alia looted the tomb. The enemies appeared, and Alia blocked the door leading to the tomb. She would serve as impenetrable wall for the Skeleton Warlords with her ProMW so that they cannot join the fight until all enemies from Samia's group are slain. While the party fighters engaged Akae, the two mages released various dispellation magic. Akae fell, followed by Samia. However, Kaol managed to waste one of his Absolute Immunity scrolls. Still, the party fighters quickly eliminated Chak and Kaol. Ferric chose an inappropriate time to activate his Assassination HLA, and was chopped to pieces without Hardiness to guard him. The cleric, Legoril, fell last, followed by the three enemy Skeleton Warlords, who now were let by Alia to face the party fighters. Not so mighty when fighting on themselves. The party looted everything and on the way back, sat in a moment of silence by the corpse of their fallen comrade, Temp, who had been chunked near the entrance of this level by a powerful golem.

Loot: several rings +1, several scrolls (arcane and green ones), the Scarlet Ninja-to +3, the Circlet of the Woods(can be used with UAI), a katana +3, the Girdle of Hill Giant Str, the belt of Inertial Barrier, another pair of Worn Out Boots, some potions, some Magical Blossoms, and some other items.

The party travelled to Cromwell and forged two more +2 protection rings and the Girdle of Lordly Might - for Jack Sparrow.

[corey_russell]

Candar decides the only way to continue is to face Gromnir. Below is our initial deployment:


We fired off storm of vengeance, horrid wilting at the mages/Gromnir. Candar fired off a firestrike against Gromnir. I sent Keldorn against the mages. Jaheira fought the enemies by the stairs. Sarevok used an invisibility potion and did some backstabs. (note: I really wanted spike traps - so dualed Sarevok immediately to thief and attempting to get him high enough to do so). He took Imoen's place. This strategy ended up being effective, as you can see.


After Gromnir was defeated Melissan said we needed to take down Yaga-Shura's invincibility first. So we haded to Forest of Mir and met and defeated a Gorion doppleganger. A sunray via daystar and a storm of vengeance were more than enough to deal with the shade enemies, as you can see:


We were VERY careful at the Yaga-Shura temple area (surface), as we had some chunked characters last time I made it. This time no bad incidents, enemies cleanly defeated.

Next up were all the elite fire giants guarding the temple entrance. I LOVE the moving music during this fight. We did some horrid wiltings/storm of vengeance/holy smite and it was just too much for the giants. Keldorn and Candar tanked very well.
Opening attacks:


Battle won with minimal damage taken:


For the temple area, I got Keldorn to 90% fire resistance and Candar to 127%. Battles went mostly smoothly here as well, using summons/horrid wiltings/storms of vengeance as applicable. Sarevok even set some traps and got some backstabs in. Here is our battle against the mass of giants in a side room:


Next up a fierce battle with the Greater Fire Elementals - they managed to kill (though not chunked) Aerie - I have been intentionally putting protection from fire on her in this area to prevent her being chunked by a fireball (which has happened to me before). Success!


The rest of the temple went very smoothly, thanks mainly to Sarevok's excellent thief work. We got the hearts, headed out, and then Candar took a massive beating and almost died:

Fortunately he managed to run away and heal himself with his rod of resurrection. Keldorn took a beating took and had do the same trick. Fortunately, at this point everyone has haste except for Nalia.

For some reason thumbnail didn't work on this image. We took no chances against Nylee either, we did have character chunkings here. Candar was tanking, but was using ilbratha for mirror image, as well as hardiness and he tanked fine.
http://i550.photobuc...yleefight-1.jpg

Finally we headed to Yaga-Shura's siege camp. We did usual summons, mordy swords, planetar, fire elementals, haste and charged. Thanks to horrid wiltings and storm of vengeances, the adds were no problem. Yaga-Shura himself went down to Candar's greater whirlwind.


We dealt with the Oasis ambush easily. Only Aerie had to be healed (she ate some magic missiles from a mage). We did the Amethrakan quests EXCEPT the lich. I have problems with that guy even WITH reloads.

Next up: Abizigail's Lair.

[corey_russell]

Candar's Battles Draconis

This guy is always really tough for my parties (except, strangely for my 6 paladin party that breezed through ToB and beat Melissan). We dealt with his invisibility OK, but we forgot about his spell turning and we did NOT have any pierce magics memorized - yikes!

Most spells were therefore useless, except summons (lots of them even during the fight), area effects that don't harm the party, and of course breaches. Initially had Sarevok and a planetar engage the human form of Draconis but the planetar got feared (what!?). Wasn't looking good, but the 2 of them eventually forced the dragon to appear.

As usual, Mordy swords very helpful to keep the dragon busy, but we lost a lot of summons and had to replace them mid-battle. Keldorn tried to help with his dispel magics and then tanked Draconis for part of the battle.

Candar got Draconis attention a few times and had to run/resurrection heal himself a few times. Eventually, however we were finally started damaging Draconis. I got this great idea, why not whirlwind/greater whirlwind with Candar's throwing hammer? As you see in the final screenshot, it worked! Only Jaheira died (though wasn't chunked). We still had a lot of invisible stalkers to deal with, but they are a heck lot easier than Draconis.

Early part of the battle vs Draconis:


Part II


Part III


Draconis Defeated


Next, Abizigail's lair

Modifié par corey_russell, 26 juin 2011 - 10:12 .

[ussnorway]

@corey_russell congrats on the draconis battle... what level mage caster is Aerie?

[corey_russell]

Candar's party at Abazigal's hideout and Sendai's Enclave (surface) - some major setbacks:

@ussnorway - Not 100% sure but think Aerie was something like 16 mage/17 cleric. But doesn't matter because Abazigal chunked her.

Well a lot happened, though most of it not good except for I guess that the run is still active.

The Abazigal lair was mostly straightforward. The sentinels almost gave me a scare, after the "adventuring party" got my eyestalk I forgot that several days had passed and the sentinels respawned. Keldorn took care of business with his magic mirror cloak.

The battle with Abazigal was a LOT easier than Draconis -- however, he kept interupting my caster spells. He also said immune to my damage on several of my characters, with Sarevok and Nalia dead, Aerie chunked , everyeone else charged with their melee weapons. A mordy sword got Abazigal's attention, which gave us time to kill him without needing to heal.



Next was Sendai's Enclave (surface). This was FAR more difficult than I remembered, I took it far too casually, even though I did cast two summons and set 3 snares with Sarevok. The party got FEARED! with 1/2 the party got the enemies whittled down some then Nalia got CHUNKED! . Eventually it came to everyone dead except Keldorn is stunned, and a finger of death headed toward Candar:

For course with Candar's awesome saves, it did nothing. So then Candar rolled up his sleeves, and put the beat down on 5 drow left, including a mage, and then resurrected the party members and trying to loot everything.

Anomen replaced Aerie, and Imoen replaced Nalia. Imoen cannot do a level 9 spell yet, not sure how this will work. But the run isn't over, so guess that's a bright spot.

Next up: Sendai's enclave (interior)

[ussnorway]

lol just put her at the back with a huge pile of scrolls!

[Saint of Sinners]

I've been busy lately but I ditched my assassin in favor of the blade. Alesia is doing a mighty job with her bounty hunter and since with RR installed, there is not much of a difference between the two (except for the alchemical traps of the BH and the higher multiplier and the Death Attack of the assassin), I went for the blade.

The blade this time around is a master of sound, so much so that most of the blade's HLA's are all about sound-based moves (Enthralling Melody, Sound Burst, etc.). They're pretty good as they are unaffected by MR.

Anyway, initial screencaps. The following are just before exiting the starting dungeon.





Cheers and good luck to everyone!

EDIT: Adjusted the pics.

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 27 juin 2011 - 03:32 .

[Saint of Sinners]

The obligatory opening quests. Note that I did most of these in pure speed mode. I literally just whipped up my defenses and went insane with my DUHM + Offensive Spin and Weapons Display. Stoneskin + Mirror Image was the key to most encounters. Add some Skull Traps and/or Fireballs here and there and the blade is pretty much fending off for himself.

First, we take care of the thugs outside CC...



And then the thug inside CC...



We take Nalia's quest...



And we send her away...



Then we crash backdoor for some battle...



Weapons Display sends some running and we get some nice bonuses...



Left destruction in our wake...



We play the chaotic neutral madman that we are and ****** the Beastmaster off...



He should really have been a little less wordy...



Blah, blah, blah, we end up running around invisible in the sewers, getting some stuff...



Really can't wait until I get II and then the low-level buffs are complete...



Offensive Spin ends with the shaman's death...



3, 1, 2, 4. Probably the one thing in all BG2 I can do without really thinking...



We go for a rampage worth telling by those 'other' bards. Pffft.



Big dumb troll no reach small puny human through small stupid door. Me still attack...



... But me still die. Boo.



And all of that to get a low, low price at your local family-unfriendly establishment!



There we go. Now, Monty the Bard rests while I go come up with an efficient path of solving quests so that I don't run into a mess. Also, Weapons Display, despite the one-whole-round-to-perform casting time is too awesome. I can't wait for UAI and Amulet of Power, if ever. This will come handy for those areas where SCSII just sends a multitude of weenies to add to the blood-on-the-blade-raaarrgh-bhaalspawn destiny.

Mighty good luck to all. Corey, I feel really bad about you getting all those party members chunked. When I think about it, if I ever get my companion in such a position that she gets blown to a thousand bloody pieces, I might have looked for Balthy earlier than usual and given him my life. And Alesia is mighty fine as usual with her bounty hunter. I'm pretty excited for the Ascension now. Might I know what decision you made with Sarevok (geas or no?).

Cheers everyone!

[corey_russell]

Candar Update: 3rd Pocket Plane Challenge + Sendai Enclave (Interior)

@Saint of Sinners: I did not require a Geas of Sarevok.

For the 3rd pocket plane challenge, I summoned 5 summons, haste/bless/chant and just had my character run away from the Slayer while everyone else laid into it. Slayer died with Candar taking no damage, very smooth.


Speaking of smooth, Sendai's enclave went MOSTLY smooth. No chunkings, so all good there. since I had 2 characters understrength (Imoen, Anomen) I played the initial area VERY safely. That is, Sarevok would go under stealth to open the fog of war and then back off, and then Imoen would fire off a cloudkill via a fully charged wand (leftover from SoA). Did this numberous times. I played VERY carefully. Did lots of summons for safety, and pocket planed often to restock my spells. Keldorn, with his +6 holy avenger, and Candar dual-wielding Yaga-shura's hammer (which is +5) and the foe bane in the off-hand (+6) do a massive beat-down on the drow.

Gilgamesh:
I have a strategy I really like here. I first had Sarevok pull the greater earth elementals (2) and we killed them easily. THEN I cast 3 mordy swords, hasted them, and sent them against Gilgamesh. While they weren't dying at all, they weren't killing him either. So just brought my 4 ranged people and had them unload on Gilgamesh, who completely ignored the party. He fell, giving Sarevok a level.

The priestess/hive mother/demon knight
If my party were to charge this would be EXTREMELY dangerous (she casts an insect swarm if I remember right). So sent in about 3 groups of summons. THEN the party entered the priestess room and she was the sole survivor (because she stays blue to talk). Needless to say, she fell easily by herself.

Illithids:
These were no problem, mainly because Candar is a VERY smart berserker (17 INT). Even had him in the front lines. Did haste/bless/chant and clean victory. Well did chaotic commands Kedorn/Candar just to be safe.

Sendai Strategy:
Thanks to Keldorn, using breach spell is NOT necessary. I did lots of buffs before entering not for Candar or Keldorn, because when they are in melee range Keldorn's dispel magic will remove their buffs anyways, BUT it will help defend the weaker people in the back (especially Imoen who has no fire resistance) - this proved prudent, as Sendai did manage to fire off some area effects. The main plan was to have mordy swords/Devas to keep the small fry drow busy. This didn't work perfectly as the deva died without having summons ready to replace it. So the whole party fought the drow while Keldorn and Candar destroyed all the Sendai clones. The inquisitor/berserker combo proved overpowering for the Sendai mage clones ( and was even worse for the melee Sendais). This succeeded, with only Jaheira dying (not chunked).

[Shadow_Leech07]

Nice job corey_russel, you're nearing the end.

[Saint of Sinners]

Monty the Blade Update: The Keep and Early Hitches

So, I decided to go for the FoA as it is going to be an integral part of my plan and general beatdown tactic (Defensive Spin + Haste + Flail's Slow, then switch to something quick later on like Belm, Kundane, whatever). However, Suna Seni, Poison Encounter, and the darned Slavers + Orog encounters all showed up in ONE attempt. Talk about bad luck.

Anyway, on the the adventure!

Here we have the Suna Seni encounter. Again, my favorite spot is behind that box at the top. Hiding there is enough to get off an Oil of Speed or Stoneskin.



Suna Seni falls after much running around and alternating between OS and DS...



And then finally the assassin-slaver. Hard to detect at this point but Horror works best to pinpoint the location.



We encourage Aulava and Tiiro, being the bard we are.



Rylock and the poison encounter. The mage was god-awful here so he had to go ASAP, then the two fighters. DUHM+OS killed the mage...



... and DS+Haste from Arbane for the fighters.



We agree to bring Rylock, but...



... here comes the freaking Orogs.



... Stupid Teleport Field + Web. Oh, hey, the wizard's held! Let's go!



... Why am I coming from the right now? To hell with this encounter!



Nalia, I'm being sarcastic. Tss.



I just survived three encounters without resting, you stuck-up brat. I can do this well without you, thank you.



Kill here, kill there. Open drawbridge: kill more.



DS+DUHM+Haste+Stoneskin+narrow doorway = dead trolls, one atop the other.



... Activate the Yuan-Ti's mage defenses, close the doors. Count to 90 seconds and, bam, less defenses. Ribbons via OS.



You drive me mad, lady, when I'm already a madman. And the worst thing in your world right now is a mad madman getting madder at you, madame.



You failure of a guard! You got CHARMED BY A TROLL?!



The only hard part was stealing the hammer. Everyone falls to OS (but not at the same time).



Death by doorway.



GLITCH ALERT! GLITCH ALERT! I reviewed my pictures from this point onwards. It seems that since I killed this Umberhulk while under confusion, the game refused to reward me with XP, even after killing TorGal! Since I've saved over my games, I just resorted to giving myself a lower XP via console. I'm gaining XP properly now. Just a warning to everyone!



Enfeebled TorGal using Ray of Enfeeblement just before his Barbarian Rage comes up.



My stats after buffing up with everything I have. -14AC, what the hell.



Death by doorway yet again. Stupid XP glitch. I should have really watched out for that one.



Save for the glitch, my game is fine now. I will look forward to any mind flayer/umberhulk areas and see if this was just a freak occurrence or whatnot.

Good job with Sendai, Corey. Seems like you're going to crawl a bit slower this time around, eh?

Good luck, everyone! Cheers!

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 27 juin 2011 - 06:41 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, newest adventures:

The party travelled to the Temple Ruins, killed the Shadow Jailor (a very easy fight at present levels - he's a cleric and has only 2 Skeleton Lords as supporters), killed two tough Undead monster spawns (a Shade Lich, a Skeleton Grandlord, a Warlord, and 2 Skeleton Lords) and some vanilla monsters. The Shade Lich in IA 6.0 uses Spell Immunity Necromancy (versus the new anti-undead spell, Disrupt Undead), however this makes them quite vulnerable to Remove Magic - don't even have to waste a Ruby Ray to strip a lich from SI:Abjuration.

A +2 morningstar was obtained from the Shadow Jailor, and Mazzy was freed. And ditched.

With the level fully cleared, the party went forward to challenge Traxi. Three fighters stood at three different sides around Traxi, and the spellcasters was out of the dragon's sight. A Limited Wish for NPP ensured that at least the first breath attack of Traxi will be neutralized. Traxi of course had far bigger problems. Almost immediately after being challenged, he was brought to Badly Injured with Criticals and was forced to use his Trigger. Alia kept dispelling the dragon's ProMW spells with her Remove Magics off-screen, but she decided to step in for a RRR, and maybe a Breach afterwards. Well, Traxi immediately tried to silence her with his Greater Silence, but he was already dead by the time the silence took effect.

Loot - vanilla items, a scroll of Vocalize, Shadow Dragon Tooth and a Permanency scroll.

Next challenge was the Shade Lord. Not much of a challenge, really, despite his two Skeleton Grandlords.

Okay so the party assembled the items lying around, including a Manual of Elaboration and a green Scroll of Protection from Lvl Drain (now the party has a total of 2 of these).

The party travelled to Cromwell and forged the Amulet of Hades for PC. The bonus spell slots are really wasted on her, since she already has maximum of 12 slots at levels 2, 3 and 7.

Astarta and Torham gained a level - now the Necromancer is lvl 35, and the R-C is lvl 34-18.

The party also started the 'Squrreled away' quest, by talking to three squirrels in the Promenade, Umar Hills and the Bridge district. They also killed a group of three Prime Assassinators stalking Lord Balthis' estate, and got three +1 rings from their bodies. The lord was somewhat grateful, and told the party of a villain group taking residence in a nearby house (Pitre and Valeria's home). And that the entrance wards can be broken only by Adamantite dust. Figures. Anyway, the party left to defeat Borinal and his Amber golem. Dawn ring returned, another +1 ring obtained, as well as a chunk of amber (first one). Using their last six +1 rings, the party forged two more +2 rings. That's all for now.

[Saint of Sinners]

@Saros

Is IA6.0 very difficult compared to the earliest versions? The ones from a few years ago? It seems to me that every other post you have features some Skeleton Grandlord or whatnot. Weren't those kind of overpowered with regards to even SCSII? Also, is there any message board dealing with IA strategy? It seems like even David and the others don't play this (I used to be an observer at the G3 forums some time ago) anymore, what with some kind of feud. You're the only active person I see playing it, so much so that searching Improved Anvil on Google will basically net your name somewhere in them. )

Anyway, good job with your run. Though I don't understand what's happening half of the time, I can basically see what is what. Still, Helm's Supreme Golem = crazy. I just don't understand that one. It's pretty much enough for that golem to kick Ascension's Demogorgon's arse without breaking a sweat. And *they* still need you to seal the Prince of Demons. Yeah, right.

[Saint of Sinners]

Monty the Mad Blade Update: Trademeet and the Druid Grove

Last time, we agreed to oversee Nalia's estate for her. This will keep us well-funded for the whole chapter while we weed out the tasks necessary for our more noble pursuits later on. After selling everything that is of remote or no use at all from the keep, we attend to the trouble in Trademeet. This was necessary, as with the FoA forged, I need a faster weapon to enhance my Spin strategies. Haste+OS/DS+Belm later on will guarantee me 5 attacks per round at maximum damage for four rounds. That's 20 attacks, and that's more than enough to guarantee a decent kill rate, especially with DUHM combined (I'll miss you come Slayer time, sniff).

Anyway, let's go to Trademeet!

(I'll return to using thumbnails as the pictures need to be dragged or opened in a new tab to make sense. The resolution's too high, I suppose.)

First off, Monty does not feel that the djinns are justified. He kills them all.




Then he proceeds to the Druid Grove. First batch of trolls fall to standard buffing and Defensive Spin.



Assaulted their mound. Spirit trolls were powerless against Defensive Spin and MGoI+Stoneskins+Mirror Image.



Ooooh, a troll sunflower!



Third batch of trolls, still to DS and buffs.




Elementals and some trolls fall to direct assault.



Ungrateful bastards.



Oh no, you're not running away from me, fool. I don't care whether you fought because you were commanded by the Grand Druid, you're still going down for the count. MURDER IS A COMMITMENT, you buffoon!




Lalala~~~ A bridge of 'shrooms. We gonna weed them out!





We clear out Ihtafeer's inventory with our hard-earned blood money from the last quest and we proceed to kill her and the gang for some extra experience and a nifty amulet.





The Shambling Mounds did not stand up to five attacks per round courtesy of OS, Belm, and Haste.



Hello, bellboy. Bring me to your mistress!



Challenged Faldorn via rules of ascension. Yes, I acted like I'm a druid.



Come up close, go buff, activate DS and Weapon Display, and let loose a flurry of fists.




Hnngrr, unconscious. A fireball finished her off and restored balance to the Grove.



Since I was already lvl14, which is enough for challenging for ascension to Grand Druid, I issued a duel...



And now I am Nature's champion. Dude, awesoooome.



Winning and the politics of warring clans ensue upon return to Trademeet...



But nothing beats a solo statue at the square for our soloing squire.



Lvl15 and finally getting a kick out of owning enemies.



Now that the strategy for attack is pretty much cemented, I need more of other equipment. BoIB must wait even though I'm in Trademeet as only less than a thousand gold remained after relieving out the rakshasa of her goods. Perhaps a Planar Sphere is in order, as a lot of scrolls and miscellanea are there. Anyway, the bard needs to write down his life story first so a rest is in order.

Cheers! Good luck to everybody!

[Aldain]

Alright, huge happenings since last update, as Odrelomp and his merry band are rapidly cleaning out the remaining sidequests and areas. Let's see if I can be concise for once. Unlikely.

Having cleared Trademeet of it's problems, Windspear Hills is next on the chopping block. We arrive, kill some ogres, are accused of wrongdoing despite our innocence etc.. the standard stuff. The funny thing is that the opposition outside Firkraag's dungeon actually consists of regular Orcs and Goblins. You'd think they'd be a little tougher giving our average levels...

Anyway, we enter the dungeon, clear some more hobgoblins that aren't even worth wasting a single magic missile on, and proceed forthwith. The Orc Archer ambush is handled by the entire party going invisible, Imoen picking the locks on the hidden doors, and an angry Minsc is finally sent in to deal with the rabble.

Here we have some appropriately scaled encounters. An Adamantite and two Stone golems greets us as we push further inwards. The Stone golems are rapidly dispatched, while the Adamantite takes a minute, due to it's absurd damage resistance and us not memorizing any Lower Resistance. Still, we're never in any danger (it's Poison Cloud can't reach Minsc, and our fine Skeleton Warrior is immune to it)


We clear some more hopelessly outmatched Hobgoblins, but wise to the possible existence of further dangers, have Valygar scout. Now that is one big undead spawn...


They fall surprisingly easy though. Dual Fireballs and some prudent sword swings by Minsc wearing the Amulet of Power sees to that (although one of the vampires, for reasons unknown, homes in on Jaheira, and we have to Restore her levels). There were also half a dozen shadows in the southern room, but a Sanctuaried Odrelomp literally chunks them all by means of Turning. It's nice seeing Turn Undead actually having a use beyond novelty.

We press onwards. The Tomb of King Strohm isn't even worthy of a screenshot: Minsc kills the Guardians with immunity to their spells from his extremely cheesy Cloak of Mirroring. If poor Odrelomp eventually falls, I think I'll institute a self-kept ban on using some of the more ludicrous items for future runs, including this cloak. Anyway. We reassemble the mask, kill the guardian, as well as the rogue adventuring party led by Samia. They're all levels 10-12 and as such can't really do anything but fruitlessly beat on Minsc as they are rapidly dismembered.

Another random spawn in our way, quickly disposed of (some Greater Wolfweres and minor wolflings). Though they do manage to hurt Minsc a bit, it's alright, as we got healing magic to spare (and some 50 odd Healing Potions we're simply not using).  We eventually run into a third Adamantite golem (the second one was spawned with two Stones outside the Orog room). This time we give it an honest shot at hurting us, and move into the room to take it on. Odrelomp manages to Slow it with the FoA, which makes it a lot easier to handle


Almost got this level cleaned. Mighty Odrelomp mops up some doggies


Notice he's actually dualwielding in that picture. I've found it works very well: Holy Power -> Righteous Magic -> DuHM, along with +3 weapons in each hand means that the THAC0 penalties are completely irrelevant.. he hits with every swing regardless, and the extra attack is nice (1 regular attack, 1 from Boon of Lathander, 1 from Dualwielding, 25 str and max damage with every hit due to Righteous Magic. He's essentially a fighter when he wants to be).

Anyway! Tazok is Doomed, Enfeebled and chopped into tiny pieces. We go downstairs, demand the key, go back upstairs, take care of Conster, and free Garren's child


Feeling confident we have the arcane/divine might to do it, we go after Firkraag. I love the dragon battles in BG2; Even though they're not always 100% challenging and dangerous, they always FEEL very epic, and are a great excuse to just unload all your most powerful spells in a single encounter. We don't use any special protections apart from the Mage Protection from Fire which easily lasts the entire battle. Imoen has to take over tanking Firkraag as even though the dragon can't seem to dispel our protections, he still hurts Minsc too much in meele


Moments later, he falls.. huzzah! Loot for all (or well, the loot is slightly underwhelmning, though those scales will certainly come in handy)


Hail the conquering hero! We return to the city and take out the lich at the gates. As tends to be the case in Vanilla, he wastes pretty much all his spells on the Pit Fiend he summoned...


Snapshot of a buffed Odrelomp. I like those saves


Next up for neutralizing: The Sewer party. We apply standard buffs, a few Spell protections for our mages, then go to town. Odrelomp and Valygar are tied for the first kill


Tarnor likewise cannot stand before Odrelomp's squeaking fury, and falls. In the meantime Valygar has been cutting his way through the group's cleric support, and the party is now down to two people. They don't last long past this screenshot


I somehow manage to talk my way into losing Mekrath's quest, and he instead turns red and attacks. Bummer. Even more of a bummer is that he protects himself from lightning, Imoen sort of accidentally dispels it with Breach.. and he, as so many enemy mages have before, succeeds in frying himself with his own lightning bolt. Xp stealer!


Time for some Flayer fun. The first group isn't that difficult once their accompanying Mind Flayer is removed from the equation (their mage, for reasons unknown, bugs out and just stands there, doing nothing)


The second group is a tad tougher. 5-6 or so Flayers/Ulitharids and a couple Umberhulks. A group of Summons are conjured into being, hasted and sent to dispatch them


This works, though not exactly the way I was expecting. Two Skeleton Warriors charge in, kill a Flayer but are then destroyed in turn. Meanwhile the two Aerial Servants are stunned and completely block the corridor. Strangely, the Flayers ignore them and try to get at Minsc and our remaining Skeleton Warrior, who are behind the now defunct Servants. Naturally they can't reach, but Minsc and the Warrior can.. they are swiftly chopped down


Just the Alhoon and his chronies left. We summon a few more Skeleton Warriors, apply the standard regime of buffs, and send summons under the supervision of Minsc and Valygar to finish things. Imoen helps with a Death Spell to clear the Umberhulks


Easy pickings! We swiftly clear a path down to the Cult, and agree to retreive the rod for them. Some minor encounters later, we run into three Beholders and three Gauths, ugh. Firestorm, Fireball, Fireball proves successful once again, and the party stops for a bite of Grilled Beholder


Here I am successful in accidentally tripping that damn Flesh to Stone trap. Thankfully Imoen makes her save.. though I sure jumped a bit at the sound of the trap springing


With part of the rod in hand, we naturally decide to betray Gaul and his Unseeing Eye. We make our way through the undead-infested lower areas, Odrelomp assisting by means of Sanctuary and Turn Undead


Going inside the dome on the hunt for some dexterity-augmenting gauntlets, we run into a Lich. Seems a bit silly for a creature like that to just stand around all day in a dump like this, but hey..


The lich and his chronies don't deserve our full attention! Firestorm is more than enough to deal with them


Thankfully there aren't a lot of Beholders in the Unseeing Eye's lair. We only run into one larger spawn, and some Fireballs along with Minsc's cloaky cheesiness sees to them. The priests are easily handled with the help of a few strength/THAC0-boosting spells on Odrelomp


Here something amusing happens. We tackle the Shade Lich the honest way, spell protections and whatnot up. Since Imoen doesn't really have any single-target spells high enough to affect the lich, I say what the hell and fire a Finger of Death at him.. which he fails his save against, and subsequently dies to! Thought Liches would be immune to that spell


With the Unseeing Eye quest turned in, we now have a stronghold. But we're not done in the Temple district yet. Time to tackle the Guarded Compound. The bottom floor goes by smoothly (the summoned demon, not knowing what to do as the party is protected from evil, instead tears into the other summons). We buff heartily and ascend the stairs.. and Firestorm once again proves how awesome it is, taking out 4/6 of the enemy group almost by itself


The only danger in this fight is Ketta. She has a seemingly endless stack of Invisibility Potions that she's not shy about using. Jaheira is backstabbed for 65 damage (leaving her only about 15 hp), at which point Ketta immediately goes invisible again and retargets Jaheira.. thankfully we manage to confuse her with other targets until Aerie can get a True Sight up and the annoying rogue falls


Second post to follow shortly.

[Aldain]

Continuing from the last post, with Haer'Dalis rescued, the party opts to go into the Planar Prison. So we hand over the gem, and follow when the troupe is abducted. Not really sure what to expect, we apply our broad-spectrum buffs.
Of course, the group at the entrance proves relatively easy, so we conserve our spells and simply take them down, Odrelomp-style


Although there is an Improved Yuan'Ti spawn along the way (three mages, two Yuan'Ti, one Greater Yuan'Ti) we make our way to the Master of Thralls without incident. Again we expect a harsh battle, again we are denied.. the demon falls before poor Odrelomp can even get a Bolt of Glory off


We incinerate the control orb, leading to the Thralls in the Warden's room all dying horribly without managing to do anything. We make our way over and fight the Warden, who despite seemingly having Finger of Death castable at will, is more or less a pushover at this stage


The troupe is saved! We may as well keep cleaning up this part of the city. Valeria and her goons are disposed of (very nice damage roll on that Flame Strike, ouch)


Alright, here we have a choice. We can be cautious adventuring professionals, opting out of taking on the Twisted Rune.. or we can be the chaotic dogooders with a blind trust in Tymora that we are, and take them on! We go for the second option. Buffs are administed in ridicolous quantities, and we enter..


Shandalar does his little speech, and the battle is joined. Into the fray we leap!


We're a bit confined here, so we don't open with the customary Fireballs/Firestorm. Instead, Imoen unleashes a Horrid Wilting, in the wake of Odrelomp's and Aerie's Holy Smites. This proves adequate in dealing with two of the three most threatening enemies; the Beholder and Layenne fall.


However, in the meantime, Shyressa the Vampire has taken a huge chunk
out of Jaheira. She has lost 8 levels! Wanting the Vampire dead NOW, never mind how, we resort to Minor Sequencers with Magic Missiles. She falls


Now that we have the space to move around a bit (only Revanek and Shandalar are still alive), it's high time for that old favourite, Firestorm. I'm not sure what Shandalar is doing here... I think his Time Stop got interrupted by the Firestorm, and then he just started casting protections? Anyway, Revanek falls to a Holy Smite, and Shandalar is all that stands between us and triumph


Since we came prepared for battling several high-level spellcasters, we for once do have the spells to tear down protections. Shangalar is Ruby Ray'ed, Breached, Dispelled.. everything, while a few summons hold his attention.
A Bolt of Glory from Odrelomp finishes the vile undead, and we have victory!


I was a little nervous there before going in, and it seemed like things would go slightly south with Jaheira (not only getting drained so badly, but she also somehow got every single one of her protections dispelled.. an unfortunate Fireball would've spelled the end for her). Still, the party as a whole were never in danger of dying, and we now have the Staff of the Magi. I'll try not to abuse the invisibility at will.

While we're here, we may as well kill the Elemental Lich. He's peanuts compared to the Twisted Rune, and, much like the Gates Lich, spends a lot of energy killing his own summoned demon. Miracolously he actually succeeds in this, as his own Pit Fiend falls to a Finger of Death. We simply charge afterwards and cut him down


Around here we finally got Jaheira to leave the party and return to the Harper Hold, following her conversation with Denim (Derim? Something like that). In my case it apparently wasn't enough to rest, I had to rest outdoors for it to trigger. Anyway, the mercenaries are not even worthy of a screenshot; We simply kill them with a Horrid Wilting and continue on our merry way. Following this, we do the Limited Wish adventure for the sheer novelty of completing everything. There's almost no combat involved here.

Now there's really not a lot left to do! The Graveyard (we'll clear that after having dealt with Bodhi), the Docks, those tiny areas in the Tethyr forest, and that pesky Shadow Dragon we left alone the first time around. Time to rectify the latter.

We head to the temple ruins, buff up properly, and drop the Shadow Dragon wardstone on the ground. I couldn't remember what his breath does, though I do seem to recall Level Drain is involved somehow. Fortunately Odrelomp is protected 24/7 with his Amulet of Power, and Minsc now wields the Improved Mace of Disruption when dealing with undead, so we have some protection. Anyway, off we go to do battle! Odrelomp deals a very impressive 45 damage with a Flamestrike even though the dragon makes his save


Turns out the breath weapon is almost harmless. It seems to be single target, *and* it is stopped by spell deflection/spell turning. Not a single character suffers any drained levels throughout the fight, and though the dragon drags (hehe) things out by continually applying PfMW on himself, he can't hurt us, and so is eventually bested!


Some minor loot. I won't bother with Crom Faeyr; There are +5 weapons available in ToB, and I really need all the strength-boosting gear I can get. The Shadow Dragon armor likewise isn't any use to me, but I have Cromwell assemble it anyway for old time's sake.

We also finish up Odrelomp's stronghold quests, and prepare for one final bout of adventuring before it is time to give Irenicus his just desserts. Odrelomp is now a level 21 Cleric of Lathander, and has more spell slots than you can shake a stick at