15228 réponses à ce sujet

[Alesia_BH]

Saint of Sinners wrote...

Ooooh, everyone's running BG1!/

Yeah. There are at least 5 active runs over there now: Gate70, Grond0, ToV, V, and myself. There are a few others who may hop back in soon.

Anyhoo: best of luck SoS and Corey!


A.

[Saint of Sinners]

I've never visited the BG1 boards until now. :/

Anyway, done with the demon heart hunt. Compressing and will be uploading in a while.

Time to finish the Planar Sphere. Only Tolgerias to go.

EDIT: Tolgerias down. Wow, I almost got killed by an Efreet because of my own attacks. Innately-cast Fireshield is such a pain to deal with. Anyway, will upload the videos and write about them soon enough. I don't think there are battles of any consequence at this point (even if golems do spawn at the power core, an invi potion is more than enough to separate and destroy them).

Cheers to everyone and good luck!

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 08 juillet 2011 - 01:31 .

[Alesia_BH]

BelgarathMTH wrote...

@Alesia, aww come on, give yourself a little more credit.

I am giving myself credit- more than I deserve in all likelihood. I'm assuming I would have found the book before Shank stabbed me to death. That's a stretch: how would I have known to look in the bales of hay?


Best,

A.

[Saint of Sinners]

Re-read everything that I can get my hands on to pin down the Shadow Dragon fight sans Amulet of Power.

Apparently, Rogue Rebalancing adds a dagger named Silverblaze that casts NPP 3x/day. It can be gotten from Arledrian, the fence in Gaelan's second floor. I was able to use Insight and steal it from him with a pickpocket score of 127.

Add to that the Cowl of Acuity which protects from all types of blindness that can be bought from the Secret Fence and I pretty much pinned down a very powerful and surefire way to defeat Thaxy.

Videos still taking forever to upload so I might as well record some more.

Good luck to everyone!

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 08 juillet 2011 - 02:09 .

[Saint of Sinners]

Update: Just defeated Firkraag. Quite a scary battle but Monty pulled through with lots of ProMW, potions of superior healing, and the right buffing. Outrunning Firkraag is much safer than trying to have him "pin" you down. His Wing Buffets get more frequent as he nears death.

[corey_russell]

Zallon the berserker 9 (active!) > cleric 10 - Good news and Bad news

When we last heard from our heroes we were going to try to take down Maevar's guild. Here is our preparation before entering. The buff that made the most difference was the group haste - once the thieves showed themselves they died so fast they coudn't do much damage to anyone.

If I had Jaheira in the group (which I often do), Maever becomes trivial - her fire elemental requires +2 to hit and think only one person even has a magical weapon. However we didn't have her or any summons, but Zallon and M insc are well armored so we just charged and fired off a cloudkill.  So far, so good. Battle rages on, Zallon tries some hold persons and silences on the casters. Jan got a level in all this.. Maevar and friends just couldn't put up enough offense and fell.

Zallon got in several battles with thugs about this time. One he was even by himself (he was buying a protection from undead scroll to use against the gate lich). However with his fortress shield, full plate (-8 AC) plus the -3 piercing defense that full plate grants, the thugs could only hit on a critical. Their defeat was certain if a bit slow.
Docks thug battle
Zallon vs 4 thugs battle

We finally got around to dealing with the slavers in the moored slave ship. No real trouble here. But thought would give jan 18/50 STR and use the sword of backstabbing and see what kind of backstab he could do, since it would be pretty safe against the yuan-tis here. His backstab was pathetic considering he's using a 4x multiplier.

Just for something different, decided Nalia and Jan would solo Captain Haegan and his bodyguard. With 2x cloudkills, 2x webs, and a fireball, the party's mages won cleanly.

We went back to the temple above the Coronet to buy a potion of genius for Jan so he could memorize 2 spells. Jan still managed to fail to scribe despite having 20 INT that moment...

We sold our junk and reported to Hendak our success and finally got the good news I was hoping for - Zallon got to level 10 and got his berserker abilities back! I should've remembered the law of physics - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Well I got good news here, but almost immediately we get some bad news.

We bought the glasses of identification from the vendor above Gaelen and tried to get to the gate district. However, we got the worst vampire ambush - 3 vampires with one being Tanova (requires +2 to hit). At this point most my party is VERY low on spells (Jan only had 2, none were offense) - the plan was to rest at the gate district inn. And finally the bad news happened: Minsc was chunked!

Zallon got level drained to 6, and decided he better call it quits and zoned out and escaped. However, in the vanilla BG, if your character is chunked by LEVEL DRAIN and not -10 HP, then in that case you also lose all the equipment that character had (with exception of quest items). These were the items I permanently lost from Minsc's chunking:
* Full Plate
* +1 ring
* Frostfire Axe (the one from Nalie's keep)
* Stonefire
* Cloak of Non-detection
* Arbane short sword
* Lilacor
* Helm of Balduran
* Helm of Charm Protection
* heartseeker long bow
* ring of earth control

In the battle Minsc got charmed, which is ironic because he had the helm of charm protection in his inventory and could have equipped it if I had been thinking clearly. In any case, needed a tank type. Korgan is a possiblity but I just lost both +3 axes so that might not work out so well. Keldorn and Anomen are possible, but they both have dexterity issues. (yes I know you can get the gauntlets of dexterity but you have to do a lot of dangerous work to get them). Decided was time to get Mazzy.

I did follow through with my oringal intent and battled the gate district lich. I admit my method was cheesy (protection from undead), but I had just lost minsc, and we are stll relatively low level, I don't need to take any more unnecessary chances thank you.

Modifié par corey_russell, 08 juillet 2011 - 02:52 .

[Saint of Sinners]

@Corey

That was sucky. I hate those vampire encounters because it forces a very lopsided choice on a character roleplay-wise. There were times that I had to have Sansuki killed because I cannot declare allegiance (seriously, four vampires?) for fear of getting level-drained.

So sorry to hear about Minsc getting chunked. Those were a lot of items right there. I must say Korgan is much better personally but at this point, it's not even a question of who's better. Anyway, nothing cheesy about ProUndead. Darn liches have access to insane spellbooks, why shouldn't we be able to have something against them?  Good luck on your run.

Anyway, an update:

Firkraag, Thaxlll'ssllyia, and the Shade Lord all has fallen. I feel Chapter 2 coming to an end. The only remaining powerhouse is Kangaxx, and perhaps the whole of Watcher's Keep (Demogorgon!!!).

[corey_russell]

@Saint

Thanks for the consolation. It sounds like you are doing well, wish you luck. Be careful in Watcher's Keep (there's a maze trap in there - in a party not so bad but bad for a solo no-reload run).

[Saint of Sinners]

corey_russell wrote...

@Saint

Thanks for the consolation. It sounds like you are doing well, wish you luck. Be careful in Watcher's Keep (there's a maze trap in there - in a party not so bad but bad for a solo no-reload run).

Doing quite well, yes, but I don't know if I'm going to cheese Kangaxx and the liches. They're too stressful, to be frank, as it's all a battle of magic attacks and whatnot. I think I'd give up weapons on those battles and stick to MMM instead so that I can go 10APR that's a sure hit as well.

As for Watcher's Keep, I'm not really worried about traps and all. I usually play carefully the first time around disarm everything using a Tri-Souled Sapphire or whatever's at hand. It's only after that I go for the kill. Still, I seem to not quite remember where the Maze trap is. I would appreciate if someone else pointed it out. Also, would SI:Abjuration stop this particular Maze?

Anyway, massive update to follow. Monty's on a roll doing the big boy quests.

[corey_russell]

Sorry don't remember where - I just remember Gorolim had a very powerful fighter/mage doing a no-reload and his run ended to a maze trap in Watcher's Keep. Don't know more than that.

[AnonymousHero]

corey_russell wrote...

Sorry don't remember where - I just remember Gorolim had a very powerful fighter/mage doing a no-reload and his run ended to a maze trap in Watcher's Keep. Don't know more than that.

That was my character, Gorlim. (Well, remembered, btw!)

@SoS: IIRC, the Maze trap was set on one of the containers in the Illithid room on L4. Unfortunately I haven't noted its precise location.

Also, you need SI:C to guard against Maze (whether from trap or not). Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Trap and such should also work, but I prefer SI:C since these other spells can wear off rather easily without you noticing.

Modifié par AnonymousHero, 08 juillet 2011 - 04:02 .

[Saint of Sinners]

Monty the Blade Update:

Massive update, guys. Last time, Monty's just defeated Lavok. Now comes the hard part: actually getting a demon heart. We could have settled for one, but we're not going to leave this plane uncleaned of any demonic presence. So, yes, we're going to deal with high-level PnP versions of the demons here who attack with level drain and go ethereal when severely damaged.

After that, we deal with some biggies to get some more powerful items and have access to smaller quests which give nice rewards. This brings us closer to Kangaxx and, hopefully, Watcher's Keep (again, DEMOGORGON!!!).

Monty vs Demons

Strategy:

Buff up, go out, and kill. Seriously, that's all there is to it. In all reality, Sound Burst was much needed to kill off the mephits by the dozens. True Sight was for the demons when they go out of the Material Plane. They're untouchable during this time and they regenerate to full health, which means you have to find a way to stop them from casting that the moment they hit Badly Injured or Near Death status.

Monty vs Tolgerias

Strategy:

Next battle is Tolgerias. He's actually quite a cinch, and I had more trouble dealing with his Efreeti than with him (but that's because I was getting lazy of thinking with the Efreeti).

Anyway, buff up, Monty goes invi, and he attacks Tolgerias rather quickly so that he's down to low health immediately. Couple of magic attacks, Sound Bursts, and physical attacks later, and Tolgerias and his fellow mage falls.

Monty vs Firkraag

Strategy:

Now that we've finished the Planar Sphere and is nearing the completion of almost every available quest to a solo character in Chapter 2, we hunt for a very important piece of equipment: Carsomyr. This means we have to take down Firkraag, which is not as easy as it sounds.

Monty buffs up with his usual stuff and adds ProFire to the mix. He tries a surprise attack on Firkraag which doesn't work because of his Stoneskin. Firkraag replies by stripping Monty of his ProFire and going for a Wing Buffet. Monty replies with Remove Magic, which works, and goes on from there.

Run, heal, attack, run, heal, buff, attack, run, heal, ProFire, attack. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Firkraag falls and Carsomyr is ours.

Monty vs Thaxlll'ssillyia

Strategy:

First, Monty picks Arledrian's pocket for the Silverblaze, which grants NPP 3x/day. We then bring out the Cowl of Acuity we bought from the Secret Fence which protects Monty from all sorts of blindness. Some restoration scrolls are also in order.

We buff before entering the lair. However, Imp. Haste was cast inside the lair which made Thaxy aggro immediately. This was a messy onslaught. He successfully drains a couple of times, but it's useless against NPP and restoration. Throwing us around with Wing Buffet proved to be his undoing, as we can safely use the scrolls and Silverblaze out of his line of sight. When he goes invi, we just answer with Remove Magic.

A couple of attacks and flying away later, Thaxy falls. It helped that Scarlet can cause Poision in dragons. This interrupted a lot of his spells.

Monty vs Shade Lord and Shadow Patrick

Strategy:

Meh. Buff and beatdown. The shadows are easily repelled by Fireshield: Red, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and ProMW. Shade Lord dies first, then the altar. A Sound Burst and Remove Magic was necessary for initial damage and dispel, but physical attacks are more than enough for them to handle.

That's all for now, as I am really tired of all this affair with insomnia and editing videos and figuring out what to do. It's almost lunchtime here and I only had two or three hours of sleep! Talk to you people later!

And if there's any comment on how I could have done the battles better, please do say something. I feel like I just powered my way through them (which I did, actually) and the lack of grace and finesse is quite disturbing. But, hey, it works. 

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 08 juillet 2011 - 04:24 .

[corey_russell]

Looking at your videos Saint, how the heck is a non-magic user supposed to have a chance in all these battles? (excluding bounty hunters - thinking like a plain-jane fighter kit)

[Grond0]

AnonymousHero wrote...
@SoS: IIRC, the Maze trap was set on one of the containers in the Illithid room on L4. Unfortunately I haven't noted its precise location.

Also, you need SI:C to guard against Maze (whether from trap or not). Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Trap and such should also work, but I prefer SI:C since these other spells can wear off rather easily without you noticing.

I've had two solo characters killed by maze traps - one in BG2 and one in a modded BG1.  Maze takes a while to activate, so if caught by surprise you may still have time to put up protection.  Magic resistance could also be useful in addition to the above list (potion or scroll of magic protection).

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...

Looking at your videos Saint, how the heck is a non-magic user supposed to have a chance in all these battles? (excluding bounty hunters - thinking like a plain-jane fighter kit)

Use of the appropriate potions and equipping the right magic items can give you immunity to virtually any spell.  The fighter then just needs to keep a close eye on what's being cast, while hammering the opposition in the way he / she knows best. 

[Grond0]

Saint of Sinners wrote...
Ooooh, everyone's running BG1! Gah, I really need that game! :/

See my private message to you if you're interested.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

corey_russell wrote...

Looking at your videos Saint, how the heck is a non-magic user supposed to have a chance in all these battles? (excluding bounty hunters - thinking like a plain-jane fighter kit)

Use of the appropriate potions and equipping the right magic items can give you immunity to virtually any spell.  The fighter then just needs to keep a close eye on what's being cast, while hammering the opposition in the way he / she knows best. 

You don't understand. I'm not talking about enemy spells, but about the sheer amount of enemies at once. In the demon heart video for example, at several points something like 10 mephits spawn at once. Torgal battle has multiples of very powerful enemies. The fighter doesn't have stoneskin/mirror image/blur/defensive spin. Yes he gets hardiness but only after 3mil experience, what does he before then?

[Grond0]

For some opposition area effect magic might still be effective, e.g. through necklace of missiles, but normally I reckon soloing just requires lots of manouverability in order to cut down the number of opponents faced at once.  My characters for instance routinely jump in and out of buildings.  I know some people class this as cheesy, but to me it just reflects what would happen in a real-life chase.  In the case of Torgal there are several opportunities to split up opponents by opening and closing doors.

I similarly don't see a problem in moving between map areas where there is no travel time involved (such as levels in a dungeon).  Using SCS a lot of opponents will follow you, but not necessarily all - which can be helpful.  It also gives you more options about where to run, which is also important.

I do feel a bit bad about running between maps where there is travel time involved, but occasionally do that as well - a common instance is when attacked by a teleported group of assassins (Molkar or Amazons).

Modifié par Grond0, 08 juillet 2011 - 06:38 .

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...

You don't understand. I'm not talking about enemy spells, but about the sheer amount of enemies at once.

Don't get hit.

You can accomplish a lot with a good Sling.

If you use the Sling of Sleeking + Reflection Shield you'll be immune to ranged fire. Movement can negate melee attacks. Items and potions can foil spells. So long as you maintain a movement rate advantage and don't let yourself get boxed in, you win conventional fights. You can also use zero speed factor melee weapons against most melee fighters because they are too slow on the draw.

SCS makes things trickier by giving NPCs Oils of Speed. It still works though. My solo Beastmaster was doing fine with it. She only died because a Beholder stole the Shield of Balduran from her .

After my Priest of Lathander run, I may run a Hafling Fighter using this approach.

Good hunting everyone!


A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 08 juillet 2011 - 07:09 .

[Saint of Sinners]

@Corey

That's exactly why I can't seem to really deviate from arcanists or their hybrids. You have to often accept that some quests require a spellcasting component to them to be finished. The Improved Fiends mod actually ups the ante because even magic is not enough. See the times when they go ethereal? As per PnP, no magic nor attacks on this plane can harm them. And they regenerate to full health. Even if pure fighters find a way to bring it down, they have to deal with those demons phasing in and out... And that's not counting the mephits who, as per PnP rules, got their stuns, suicide attacks, and original resistances back up.

Anyway, Alesia is right. Since slings are the strongest ranged weapons in the game, it's not far off to play with a grandmastery with them (other proficiencies save for what you want to master only need two, max three, anyway) and just use them to snipe from afar. I don't rightly know. Fighters have always been a hard class for me to play. Heh.

Anyway, update: City Gates lich fell to a massive overdose of ATTACK. Died in less than 20 seconds. Time to hunt down Kangaxx's body parts.

EDIT: Elemental Lich is also down.
EDIT2: Shade Lich down. Kangaxx is next.
EDIT3: After an epic battle that lasted 12+ minutes, Kangaxx has fallen.

Write-up to follow soon enough. I'm still shaking because of that last fight. We were both refreshing buffs like mad, it's almost unbelievable. The blade is my favorite class now, alright.

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 08 juillet 2011 - 10:17 .

[Aldain]

corey_russell wrote...

<snip>
We went back to the temple above the Coronet to buy a potion of genius for Jan so he could memorize 2 spells. Jan still managed to fail to scribe despite having 20 INT that moment...
<snip>

I'd always boost int to at least 24 (think that's enough for 100% chance to scribe spells). It's simply not worth saving a few hundred gold on the extra Potion of Genius if it means you lose a scroll. Of course this usually means you have to pick and choose when you want to put the money down for scribing, especially early on.. but hey, you'll just have to be creative with the spellbooks NPC's come with

[Saint of Sinners]

Monty the Blade Update:

Took on four liches in succession today, and successfully came out alive from all of them. Since I was going for a trusty method this time around, I did not rely on Azuredge even though it worked for me twice before. That was pure luck, and I had to find a way to navigate around lucky scenarios.

Luckily, right after the City Gates lich battle, I discovered that liches are subject to Scarlet's poison. This is enough of a boon for me because it measn less spells cast at the beginning of the battle for the lich. Anyway, the premise is simple enough. Pause right before they talk, issue an attack, and let it flow from there.

Since these four liches are the most dangerous undead mages available in Ch. 2 of non-WK SoA, I did not intend to pull any stops on any of them. Maximum buffs, all available scrolls, potions, HLAs--nothing was spared if it was necessary. Resources are second only to glory in this run (and, seriously, having 300,000+ gold means I don't have to worry about resources anytime soon).

Anyway, here goes:

Monty vs City Gates Lich

Strategy:

Boy, oh, boy. This one was the most dangerous in terms of locale. I wanted to use a ProUndead scroll on this one but I wanted to find a way to take him down without resorting to total blockage. Since this one summons three fiends in a row and goes for three comets during a Time Stop, I had to resort to a quick Remove Magic and pure attacks. Luckily, the poison kicked in and he was killed by a string of 1's. This was the hardest part until Kangaxx himself.

Monty vs Elemental Lich

Strategy:

Monty was buffed up disgustingly for this fight (as he is for every major fight): Spell Turning, Spell Shield, ProMagEnergy, Imp. Haste, every blue spell that is worth it's dime for stoppong enemy mages--they're all there. Anyway, took quite a while because this one used a lot of buffs himself, keeping himself hidden and/or protected from weapons, etc. Take one protection down with Warding Whip and he replies with invisibility. Use Remove Magic, he goes for ProMW. Eventually resorted to two Sound Bursts to kill him. Booyah.

Monty vs Shade Lich

Strategy:

Not as dangerous as the first two, but much easier. Usual buffs, usual tactic of beating him to the punch and poisoning him just before he finishes speaking. Monty hits for 22, then a critical 44 (I really must turn off the screen shake during critical hits), and the poison did the rest. I even looked quizically at the message log to see if I did see correctly what happened. Just MM'd the hell away on the Magical Sword.

Monty vs Kangaxx

Strategy:

After watching the video, you'd know I screwed up my intended strategy so badly. I had a lot of useless Remove Magics, consumed a lot of potions, and resorted to scrolls and utilizing the fog of war. The lich form was easy, it fell within 4 minutes. The real failure here is that, in his demilich form, his contingencies triggered just in time to save him from a Carsomyr whirlwind. He was already at Badly Injured status then.

After that, it was a long tango of refreshing buffs and baiting him to empty his spellbook. He summoned fiends, copies, used Time Stop by the dozen, covered the area with Cloudkill. We attempted to keep up by using the necessary buffs until we almost used up all important spells and resorted to Limited Wish.

The second mistake is that Sound Burst was supposed to kill him, but because of the distance and the ongoing chaos on which buff to prioritize, he went through my defenses and cancelled my last Sound Burst.

With Carsomyr trying to keep up with dispelling him, we run around and heal while he uses the last few spells he has. With Kangaxx finally visible, unbuffed, and using only MMM for damage dealing, we know he has come to his end.

Monty activates Offensive Spin (4 rounds), then Resonating Weapon (2 rounds), then Whirlwind (1 round). A couple of unpreventable magic damage-imbued attacks later and Kangaxx falls. More booyah here.

At this point, I have defeated a total of... 6 liches. There were two inside the Temple Ruins but they were vanilla-ish. They were a threat only because they were summoner types and not the Comet-type, which the others here were. I know I'm already too high a level for these guys, but I'm actually only at par because, a) we fought mano-a-mano with them and they had insane resistances and immunities, not to mention the perfect type of contingencies.

Anyway, since all of the major enemies have been dealt with, it seems like Monty has to do his proper stronghold quest. The Warden, according to aTweaks' readme, should be improved because he's a Demon Knight, after all. If he's not, then the Master of Thralls most probably will be.

Also, a remaining challenge would be Demogorgon and the rest of Watcher's Keep. It's kind of tiring and brutal at this point to take on them and it might be refreshing to go after Irenicus but, meh, until the Final Irenicus Battle, nothing seems to be of any excitement getting there at all.

Anyway, good luck to everyone else! Woohoo! Some progress for me!

Modifié par Saint of Sinners, 08 juillet 2011 - 01:55 .

[Alesia_BH]

Saint of Sinners wrote...

Anyway, Alesia is right. Since slings are the strongest ranged weapons in the game, it's not far off to play with a grandmastery with them (other proficiencies save for what you want to master only need two, max three, anyway) and just use them to snipe from afar.

Yeah. Slings won't do the most damage per round under all circumstances. The thing that makes them great is that they are quick and allow you to carry a shield in the offhand- usually the Reflection Shield or Harmony.

If I use a bow in BG2 for something other than launching tactical use arrows (ex- Arrows of Dispelling) it's usually on stylegrounds.


Best,

A.


Btw. Nice work SoS! Monty is rolling now!

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 08 juillet 2011 - 11:27 .

[Saint of Sinners]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Yeah. Slings won't do the most damage per round under all circumstances. The thing that makes them great is that they are quick and allow you to carry a shield in the offhand- usually the Reflection Shield or Harmony.

I was thinking of that in terms of Sling of Seeking, which is perhaps one of the best early-game (and even late-game) weapons when forced to take up ranged tactics. Anywho, what I said wasn't really meant as a set-in-stone fact, haha. I'm just seeing slings as better than arrows, especially when you're trying to go toe to toe with possible disablers because--as you said--Harmony, or Reflection Shield.

Just a quick query, though. Does a Reflection Shield reflect MMM?

Alesia_BH wrote...

Btw. Nice work SoS! Monty is rolling now!

Yes, he actually is. Thank you for the support all this time.

[Alesia_BH]

Saint of Sinners wrote...

Just a quick query, though. Does a Reflection Shield reflect MMM?

No, sadly. Spell Turning will but it will only sends the fire portion of the damage back. And it won't last long since each Meteor counts as a 3rd level spell for absorption purposes.

The Reflection Shield will send Flame Arrows back though not MAA .


Best,

A.