73 réponses à ce sujet

[Guilebrush]

Nice going so far. As a request do you mind posting your Aerie's level at the end of each update? This way it's easier to compare tactics and follow the thought process behind your approach to situations as well as combat and spell decisions.



As for future Troll or similar tough packs one thing you could try if your Aerie's level would allow it would be to set up skull trap choke points. At higher levels you could try to sequence a pair of holy smites (completely wrecks trolls and the like with 0 risk I find.) Then again at that level you'd probably be able to use stuff like cloud kill or something similar to handle such mobs...



Keep up the good work. I'm sure a lot of people read your posts (I also read your Korgan playthrough on the old forums) but since there's little to argue about in topics like this there really isn't much purpose to random interjection, don't be discouraged.

[Argent77]

Carinna wrote...
Probably due to Aerie's relatively high level for this quest, the main hall contained 4 regular trolls, 1 giant troll, and a spirit troll, which is the largest and most powerful group of trolls I've ever encountered here

Spririt trolls are powerful indeed. They are invisible and drain your strength with each hit (which kills you if it reaches zero).

My general strategy when fighting packs of trolls is to cast a slow spell first (they are immune to everything else). Then order your summons to attack them while you tackle the trolls with spells from the distance.

…but the stupid peasant it had been terrorizing didn't know when to shut up and screamed "help me, please," which reminded the troll that it was there, so, ignoring the panthers for the moment, it went back and chunked the peasant anyway.

Unfortunately, this scene is scripted. It will even trigger when you are invisible. I have managed to avoid his death once, but it didn’t make a difference. The peasant has no dialog line at all and stands around indefinitely.

Guilebrush wrote...
Then again at that level you'd probably be able to use stuff like cloud kill or something similar to handle such mobs...

I don’t know if trolls are weak against this spell. But it works very well agains the umberhulks in the dungeon.

Modifié par Argent77, 21 juillet 2010 - 04:45 .

[Carinna]

Guilebrush wrote...
Nice going so far. As a request do you
mind posting your Aerie's level at the end of each update? This way
it's easier to compare tactics and follow the thought process behind
your approach to situations as well as combat and spell decisions.

Will do, although I'm sure it will also show how badly I play the game. 

Argent77 wrote...
My general strategy when fighting packs of trolls is to cast a slow spell first (they are immune to everything else). Then order your summons to attack them while you tackle the trolls with spells from the distance.

I thought to try that, but unfortunately the slow spell takes up the same level spell slot as melf's meteors, which also affects them.  I decided to go with the spell that did damage.

Unfortunately, this scene is scripted. It will even trigger when you are invisible. I have managed to avoid his death once, but it didn’t make a difference. The peasant has no dialog line at all and stands around indefinitely.

Yeah, I know.  I've managed to save them a couple of times and they just keep repeating that line if you try to talk to them.

Anyhow, to continue:

D'ARNISE KEEP SECOND FLOOR:

(Aerie has been and still is a level 10 cleric / level 11 mage for this entire dungeon.)

Library:  Upon reaching the second floor, Aerie found an empty bedroom and rested for 8 hours to recharge her spells.  When she awoke, she cast melf's meteors and opened the library door.  The ice troll fell to one meteor and a second finished it off.  She crept inside so as to only disturb one thing at a time, and got the big troll's attention.  It followed her out and back into her bedroom where she pounded it with melf's meteors until it split (renewing her stoneskin once), and then wiped its children out with two castings of sunfire.  With this behind her, she stood just inside the library door and tossed a silence 15' radius into the far corner of the room and silenced the yuan-ti mage in the corner (this worked on the second try; the first time, she silenced herself as well).  Then she walked into the room and unloaded the remainder of the melf's meteors into the mage, followed by an acid arrow.  Since it had been silenced and not permitted to gloat, it remained non-hostile no matter what she did to it, however it was also impossible to tell how much she was hurting it (although it was definitely taking damage, according to the text window).  She quit using up her spells on it and started whacking it with regular bullets.  Finally, it dropped dead.  She helped herself to the key and backtracked to Lord d'Arnise's bedroom.

Glaicus:  She killed the troll in front of Lord d'Arnise's bedroom with a single casting of melf's meteors.  To her surprise, the locked and trapped door opened via knock without the trap being set off.  She was ready with a scroll of charm for Glaicus.  She cast it and he saved against it.  In desperation, she moved away and tried once again, this time with the charm from the ring of human influence.  That worked; he became charmed; however, he could not speak as charmed creatures do not speak.  I remembered this reverting to bug status during my last attempt to charm him (ever since I installed BGT, even though I also have the fixpack installed), so in preparation for having to kill him, Aerie cast monster summoning II (two bears), and 2 animate deads (3 skeletons), which she used to surround him.  Then, when the charm finally wore off, he was FRIENDLY, apologized, and gave her the flail head!  No clue why the game behaves this way (on the last game when the charm wore off, he was hostile again!).  Of course, no idea what would have happened during Korgan's run since Korgan attacked first and asked questions later (if at all).

Flail of Ages:  With Glaicus' flail head in hand, she ran and got the second out of the golem room (after being unreasonably polite to Nalia's aunt (who was alone as for some reason her bodyguard did not spawn, although it made no difference and didn't interrupt the game), then headed back downstairs for the last one and to make the Flail of Ages, which AERIE DOES NOT HAVE THE STRENGTH TO USE!  Well, unless she's got her strength enhanced, but that's another story.

Golems: Aerie had left her 3 skeletons in the golem room while she went and made the flail (they last 8 hours).  When she returned, she arranged them around one of the flesh golems and instructed them to attack while she slung bullets at it from a distance.  It managed to badly damage one of the skeletons and then fell.  Aerie healed the skeleton fully and then used the identical tactic on the second flesh golem.  She no longer had a heal spell available, but they were all still standing and she arranged them around the clay golem.  They managed to kill it, but not before one of them was dead and the others injured; in addition, Aerie found out that missiles of any flavor did not harm it in the least.  Bravely (or foolhardily), she arranged her damaged group of 2 skeletons around one of the stone golem, cast holy power and DUHM and started attacking it before realizing that it was only vulnerable to +2 weapons or greater, which none of them had.  Reload - as they were all badly damaged or dead by the time this realization set it.  On the second try, she used the same tactics, EXCEPT she switched to the flail of ages once she had the strength to swing it.  Both skeletons died and Aerie used up the rest of her stoneskins, but the golem died in the process.   To reward herself for her effort, she helped herself to the hammer of giantkin.

[Carinna]

D'ARNISE KEEP BASEMENT (Aerie still level 10 cleric/11 mage)

The Three Trolls:  Before taking on the basement area, Aerie rested in Delcia's bedroom.  Then she made sure stoneskin was still active, opened to door to the 3 troll room, and ran in.  The trolls swarmed her; she cast sunfire twice, moved a little to the side, and they all fell down.  One acid arrow each and they were all dead.  She ran into the next room and looted it (even to casting knock on the locked chest), but didn't feel confident enough of tackling Tor'gal just yet without a full range of spells.

Golem room, redux:  To use up some of the spells she still had, she went back upstairs to the golem room, where she cast animate dead twice, got two skeletons, and then holy power and DUHM, just as she had before and directed the skeletons to attack the other stone golem.  This time it did not work; the golem squashed the skeletons and came after her.  I reloaded, and got the same result - two more times.  The last time, she left the skeletons (3 this time) to distract the golem while she grabbed Frostreaver out of the container, and, since she didn't think coming back would be an option, she grabbed the elven court bow too, and made a mad dash for the door.  The iron golem couldn't fit through it to chase her, however she hadn't thought far enough ahead to realize the stone golem could and would do so.  It chased her out through Delcia's bedroom into the hall, down the corridor and through the library to the bedroom she'd spent the night in earlier, managing to cast golem slow on her twice in the process.  Her stoneskins went down twice with it beating on her back; she brought them back up with minimal damage.  In the bedroom, she ran around some piece of furniture and back out the door the way she had come.  When she got to the other side of the library, the golem slow finally wore off and she could go a little faster, so that by the time she was back in Delcia's bedroom she had enough of a lead on it to slam the door in its face.

Exhausted, she rested 8 more hours.

Tor'gal: This fight took about three tries to get the tactics right.  Before opening the door, she cast animate dead twice.  For the final fight this produced four skeletons (though that turned out to be irrelevant).    Then she opened the door and listened to Tor'gal's speech without getting the two giant trolls in view.  When he was finished, and started after her, she ran back into the previous room past the skeletons.  These tactics were the same for all three tries, except for the second, she also hasted herself.  Attempt #1: Once she was safely past the skeletons and Tor'gal was distracted by them, she cast summon efreeti from a scroll, then cast monster summoning II and got two bears, then cast holy power, followed by righteous magic at the same time Tor'gal reached her after swatting the last of the summons.  Her stoneskin protected her through righteous magic, but fell on DUHM, which failed.  She swung at him, but he had already ability score drained her, and even with holy power, she wasn't able to deal enough damage to make a dent in him.  Attempt #2:   She ran back into the room past the skeletons, hasted, and they were so fast they swarmed Tor'gal before he even got into the room.  She followed them out into the temple room, cast the summons and began casting the buffing spells described above, with the same effect, except that by the time he'd interrupted her on DUHM, the two giant trolls had arrived to join in the fun.  Successful fight:  She ran back past the skeletons (NOT hasted) and into the room where she'd fought the three trolls and slammed the door, leaving the skeletons and Tor'gal together behind it.  She did not summon anything else, but cast holy power, righteous magic, and DUHM, then opened the door just as he killed the last skeleton.  Using the flail of ages (with her increased strength), she whacked him down to injured and then let go a sunfire, renewed her stoneskin, and pounded some more.  He got to near death and she cast sunfire again and he fell down.  One acid arrow later and he was dead.  She didn't want to spend the night just to fight the two remaining trolls, so she left it at that and went back upstairs.

Last fight:  I wasn't sure if the stone golem would still be out in the corridor after Tor'gal died, since the ones in the temple room usually disappear (along with any unclaimed treasure).  Just to be on the safe side, I saved before she opened the door, and sure enough, there he still was!  So, after reloading (since she was not completely prepared),  she cast stoneskin before opening the door.   Her buffs were still mostly active (I think righteous magic was gone), but she was able to still hit him effectively with the flail of ages and flattened him even though she took a hit without a stoneskin in place.  Then she left to collect her reward, not fighting anything else so therefore leaving all the trolls that weren't directly in her path.

[Incantatar]

Just a sidenote: with the right buffs and weapon the small golems should be no problem in melee at your level. SS, Mirror Image, Blur, Haste, Holy Power, DUHM, Righteous Magic. Use Flail of Ages, a good staff or the warhammer against giantkin in the golem room, depending on your proficiencies. Let your hasted skellies attack "after" it's targeting your M/C. For the (stucked) bigger ones and with better summons MMMs or Sling of Everard do the deal.

[Carinna]

Incantatar wrote...
Just a sidenote: with the right buffs and weapon the small golems should be no problem in melee at your level. SS, Mirror Image, Blur, Haste, Holy Power, DUHM, Righteous Magic. Use Flail of Ages, a good staff or the warhammer against giantkin in the golem room, depending on your proficiencies. Let your hasted skellies attack "after" it's targeting your M/C. For the (stucked) bigger ones and with better summons MMMs or Sling of Everard do the deal.

Actually, as you can see by my post, the buffs worked sometimes and sometimes they did not because while they do increase her THAC0, they certainly do not increase it enough for her to hit on every swing (which is more important for her than an actual fighter as her stoneskin will wear off (unlike armor) and her THAC0 will expire (unlike the actual fighter's).  But the major problem I have with your suggestion is that, at the level Aerie is now, to use all those buffs for a single fight would clean out her spell book, taking up room maybe better used for other spells.  Haste takes up room I could use for another melf's meteor; mirror image and blur would wipe out acid arrow (rather necessary for the trolls in this particular dungeon).   And while she could conceivably fight one golem - rest - fight another golem - rest - fight another golem - rest, etc., it is boring for me to play it that way if it can be avoided.

As for the skeleton warriors, they did absolutely NO damage against the stone golems, since those golems require a +2 weapon or better to hit, which the skeletons do not have; they were there as a distraction only, to keep the golems off Aerie until they were killed, so having them attack while the golems were focused on Aerie would be pointless.  And the flesh and clay golems were not really all that difficult without the super buffing.

But thank you for the suggestion.  As she gets higher in level, I'm sure I will use more of the "tank" Aerie you describe for magic resistant creatures such as these, and I appreciate knowing the sequence of spells that will allow her to succeed at it.

[Irrbloss]

Carinna wrote...

As for the skeleton warriors, they did absolutely NO damage against the stone golems, since those golems require a +2 weapon or better to hit, which the skeletons do not have; they were there as a distraction only, to keep the golems off Aerie until they were killed, so having them attack while the golems were focused on Aerie would be pointless.  And the flesh and clay golems were not really all that difficult without the super buffing.

Summoned Skeleton Warriors should be able to damage Stone Golems. They weapons are +3 (unlike normal Skeleton Warriors).

[Guilebrush]

Argent77 wrote...
I
don’t know if trolls are weak against this spell. But it works very
well agains the umberhulks in the dungeon.

Most Trolls like Umber Hulks are within the hit die kill range of Cloudkill, it's a nice alternative to using multiple spells to handle pesky groups. Although I usually prefer Holy Smite it does compete with Animate Dead for level 3 Cleric Spell slots which are proving invaluable in this run.

Speaking of Umber Hulks I assume you just Sanctuaried/Invisibled around them and used the dog stew? No mention of them at all in the write up?

Carinna wrote...
Golem room, redux:  To use up
some of the spells she still had, she went back upstairs to the golem
room, where she cast animate dead
twice, got two skeletons, and then holy
power and DUHM, just as
she had before and directed the skeletons to attack the other stone
golem.  This time it did not work; the golem squashed the skeletons and
came after her.  I reloaded, and got the same result - two more times. 
The last time, she left the skeletons (3 this time) to distract the
golem while she grabbed Frostreaver out of the container, and, since she
didn't think coming back would be an option, she grabbed the elven
court bow too, and made a mad dash for the door.  The iron golem
couldn't fit through it to chase her, however she hadn't thought far
enough ahead to realize the stone golem could and would do so.  It
chased her out through Delcia's bedroom into the hall, down the corridor
and through the library to the bedroom she'd spent the night in
earlier, managing to cast golem slow
on her twice in the process.

Not trying to second guess you or anything but unless you're against taking advantage of the Golem AI in this situation why didn't you just use a (wand of) cloudkill to handle this room? Golems are pure murder to casters at these levels since as you pointed out trying to fight a group that large [fairly] would deplete pretty much all your resources, and even then victory wouldn't be a given.

As an aside, no I'm not obsessed with cloudkill! It's just insanely efficient in De'Arnise keep given the layout and monster composition.

Modifié par Guilebrush, 22 juillet 2010 - 09:23 .

[HoonDing]

I'm not sure how early Death Spell is available in BG2, but it's very effective against Umber Hulks & trolls.

[Guilebrush]

virumor wrote...

I'm not sure how early Death Spell is available in BG2, but it's very effective against Umber Hulks & trolls.

It sure is. It's a level 6 spell though (mage level 12 for your first slot on that level) so it's a farily limited option for multiclass mages early on. Compare that with your first wand of cloudkill which is readily available in the opening dungeon. It's almost a perfect storm for that precious wand, given the dungeon composition, there really are few other places where it will ever prove as useful as in De'Arnise keep. Ok that's the last I'll talk about Cloudkill this week I promise!

Modifié par Guilebrush, 22 juillet 2010 - 09:50 .

[HoonDing]

I always use up the Wand of Cloudkill to kill Pebblecrusher and his cronies right after Irenicus' dungeon.

[Carinna]

Irrbloss wrote...

Carinna wrote...

As for the skeleton warriors, they did absolutely NO damage against the stone golems, since those golems require a +2 weapon or better to hit, which the skeletons do not have; they were there as a distraction only, to keep the golems off Aerie until they were killed, so having them attack while the golems were focused on Aerie would be pointless.  And the flesh and clay golems were not really all that difficult without the super buffing.

Summoned Skeleton Warriors should be able to damage Stone Golems. They weapons are +3 (unlike normal Skeleton Warriors).

Oops!  My bad.  At Aerie's present level (cleric level 10 / mage 11) she is not able to summon skeleton warriors, just plain old skeletons, which cannot damage the golems.  I don't know why I wrote "skeleton warriors."

Guilebrush wrote...

Speaking of Umber Hulks I assume you just Sanctuaried/Invisibled around
them and used the dog stew? No mention of them at all in the write up?

Oops again.  Yes, Aerie actually drank an invisibility potion and used the dog stew.  I think I did manage to mention she killed the dogs and made the stew, but forgot about what she did with it.  I was too focused on how she fought what attacked her, I guess.

Not trying to second guess you or
anything but unless you're against taking advantage of the Golem AI in
this situation why didn't you just use a (wand of) cloudkill to handle
this room? Golems are pure murder to casters at these levels since as
you pointed out trying to fight a group that large [fairly] would
deplete pretty much all your resources, and even then victory wouldn't
be a given.

Hmm.  Wasn't it obvious?  I had no idea they were even vulnerable to cloudkill, so haven't bothered to buy back the wand yet.  Most other spells I ever tried never worked, so I figured that wouldn't either.  Nice to know for future reference.

Modifié par Carinna, 22 juillet 2010 - 10:52 .

[Morbidest]

Another, more cowardly, technique would be for Aerie to cast Sanctuary on herself and simply take the loot. But then you don't get any XPs for golem killing.

[HoonDing]

Sanctuary + Aura of flaming death/blade barrier, not to mention Mislead + Spell immunity:divination/abjuration + do-whatever-you-want-hahaha are great strategies for the future as well.

[Carinna]

virumor wrote...

Sanctuary + Aura of flaming death/blade barrier, not to mention Mislead + Spell immunity:divination/abjuration + do-whatever-you-want-hahaha are great strategies for the future as well.

No doubt, but aura of flaming death, blade barrier, and mislead are beyond her capability at the moment.

[Carinna]

SOLVE THE SKINNER MURDERS  level 10 cleric / level 11 mage

Aerie had reported the results of her investigation to Inspector Aegisfield  a couple of days before, like a lawful good girl should, but when she hadn't seen him around for awhile, she began to worry about him and went into the tanner's shop herself.  Of course, the tanner ran out the basement exit, leaving some ghasts, thieves, and his murdering comrade to greet her.

And this time, after Vellin Dahn gave his speech, he left Aerie a nice little present of a bone golem to deal with as well.


This fight took several reloads before I got the strategy right and even then it was unreasonably tough and she died on the first attempt with the winning strategy.  For the second attempt, she just got a little luckier.

Aerie pre-cast stoneskin, free action, protection from evil, and holy power (she did not pre-cast righteous magic or DUHM as they would have worn off before the bone golem got to her anyway), then entered the basement dock area.  I have the game "autopause upon seeing enemy" and while it was paused, she cast sunfire, severely damaging the two ghasts.  Vellin Dahn gave his speech, teleported out, and teleported the bone golem in.  While it was walking over towards her, she cast sunfire again, killing the two ghasts, and then started swinging the flail of ages at the bone golem.

She could not hit the side of a barn even with holy power active (THAC0 of 8 with the flail of ages, since she has no proficiency with it), but she did manage to strike it one time (in three swings) before her stoneskin went down (one of the thieves was backstabbing her at the same time).  She recast stoneskin and ran up the stairs.

This is where she got lucky on this attempt because only the bone golem followed her (previously, all three had followed).  She swung and missed and swung and missed and swung and missed.  Yes, holy power was still active (I checked).  Finally she hit it and with a critical hit.  Then she missed a few more times and her stoneskin came off so she had to recast it.  She managed to hit it about three more times, and even managed to slow it from the flail's special attack.  But her last stoneskin came off so she cast mirror image and continued to swing at the air in front of and beside it.  When she had only one double left, holy power wore off.  The flail was too heavy for her to use then, so she switched to her +1 mace, swung a couple of times, got about half her hit points knocked off, and - FINALLY - killed it.

She dug Aegisfield's body out of the stove and had to stuff it into her bag of holding because he was too heavy for her to drag, but she took it to the council of six building where Brega gave her a reward and she leveled up as a cleric.

I'll probably have her go back and fight the two thieves now that the bone golem is out of the way and she's been able to recharge her spells as she didn't get any loot at all from the quest other than Brega's reward, but I haven't yet done it.

She is now a level 11 cleric / level 11 mage, and can for the first time cast one level 6 priest spell.

RE: THE SANCTUARY SPELL

I tried to use this on a previous attempt to give her time to cast the three pre-melee buffing spells, but it does NOT protect against physical damage like knives and crushing bone golem fists.    All her casting got interrupted and I had to reload.  Doubtful it would be of much use in the d'Arnise golem room either (for the same reason) except as protection against the gas cloud (maybe) put out by the iron golem.

Modifié par Carinna, 24 juillet 2010 - 03:43 .

[wise grimwald]

When I'm a little too weak for this battle, I go down the stairs until I am spotted by one or two enemies.

I then run away upstairs and fight them there.

Divide and conquer.

If necessary, you can go for a rest in a nearby inn between enemies.

If they don't follow you upstairs straight away, pop down again, shout "Yah! Boo! Sucks!" and run again.

[Incantatar]

You should try Spirit Armor. AC 1 and -3 to saves vs. spells. I rarely had to recast Stoneskin with it in my solos.

[Carinna]

Incantatar wrote...
You should try Spirit Armor. AC 1 and -3 to saves vs. spells. I rarely had to recast Stoneskin with it in my solos.

The problem with spirit armor is that it takes up a spell slot that could be used for another stoneskin.  And stoneskin, while it lasts, is 100% effective, while with spirit armor, she'd still have a spell failure rate, especially with something like a bone golem hitting her.  Right now she is AC -2.  I did a check with shadowkeeper (since she really doesn't know the spell yet) and with that active, she'd be AC -4.  A little better, yes, but I don't think it would improve the situation enough to warrant using it instead of casting stoneskin an additional time (which doesn't mean I won't try it sometime when she's learned the spell).

SAVE HAER'DALIS FROM MEKRATH  Aerie level 11 cleric / 11 mage

Sewer area:  She entirely took out the first group of goblins with a single skull trap, continued on to Roger and he asked her to Kill Roger's Sea Troll.   She made it to the sea troll, amazingly, without meeting a slime or an otyugh or both.  At that time, I realized she no longer had her spells memorized for troll killing, so she took out her trusty fire wand and unleashed two agannazer's scorchers on it.  In the middle of the second scorcher, a mustard jelly found her, so she cast animate dead, got two skeletons, and kept it busy with them while she finished off the troll.  She cast acid arrow, ran around in a circle while it took effect, and the troll finally fell down.  Another acid arrow and it was dead.  Meanwhile, the skeletons had nearly killed the mustard jelly, so she stood back and watched while they finished it.  One of them didn't make it, but the other followed her back to Roger while she collected the reward money, and then on up the tunnel until she found FOUR slimes (two green slimes, and two ochre jellies) and an ooze mephit at the next junction.  She set the skeleton on the ooze mephit while she escaped its gas cloud by running forward on the opposite side of the circle from the slimes.   They closed in, and the skeleton and ooze mephit killed each other.  Since the skeleton was now dead, Aerie unleashed a sunfire, which instantly killed all the slimes.  She continued on, met Keldorn and sent him to the Radiant Heart, and then threw a skull trap into the next group of goblins, and killed all of them just as she'd killed the first group.

Mekrath's Lair:  She ran around the staircase to attract all three mephits to her, then cast sunfire.  The ice mephit died instantly.  The dust mephit and lightning mephit were "immune to her damage."   She managed to cast minor spell turning, and then ran into the laboratory to meet two more mephits, a fire mephit and magma mephit, neither of which was likely to be affected by sunfire either, but she cast it anyway as it was the only AOE spell she had that would not harm her.  And, of course, it did not harm anyone at all.  In desperation, she ran to the corridor on the other side of the room and unleashed a charge of the cloudkill wand (yes, she took everyone's advice and bought it back), then backed away from its effects, suffering only minor damage.  All the mephits died.  Relieved, she continued on to Mekrath and got his quest.

Getting the mirror: Thankfully, she did not meet anything on the way back to find the imp.  When she had passed Roger, she stopped and cast holy power, then DUHM, and got out the flail of ages, since she needed better than her +1 mace to hit the earth elemental.    For once, she managed to clobber it and kill it without swinging and missing like she was blind.  Since she was on a roll, she used up the rest of the DUHM to clobber the imp as well (though she tried a magic missile and it practically bounced right off of it).  When finished, she picked up the mirror and went back to Mekrath uneventfully, helping herself to his rod of resurrection and some other stuff (well, he was surely evil, so why let him keep it?)

Gem guards:  She told Haer'dalis to go home and then cast chaotic commands on herself to prepare for the battle with the yuan-ti mage.  She also pre-summoned an aerial servant to battle the salamanders for her and then went into the bedroom to lure them back out in the open.  To her suprise, there were no salamanders or yuan-ti mage.  Instead, there was a minotaur and FIVE umber hulks (so the chaotic commands at least still came in handy).  FIRST TRY:  She lured the minotaur out by itself and the aerial servant made quick work of it.  Then she went back after the umber hulks; they refused to come out one by one and all rushed her, confusing the aerial servant in the process, so that it wandered off into the library or somewhere.  Aerie managed to petrify two of them with chromatic orb, but that was all she had memorized of that spell.  She tried using a scroll to summon an efreeti, and actually got him to appear, but the hulks killed her before the efreeti could even go into action.  SECOND TRY:  Instead of an aerial servant, she summoned two skeletons with one cast of animate dead (hoping they were immune to confusion since they had no brain), then went to lure out the minotaur.  As she approached the bedroom doorway, she noticed that none of the monsters within could see her, but she could see all the way to the center of the bedroom.  So she took out the wand of cloudkill and tossed a charge inside, and ran back out of the antechamber to wait.  It didn't take long.  All five umber hulks and the minotaur keeled over.  The skeletons had nothing whatsoever to do (thank you to whoever suggested this!)  She cast mirror image to get past the traps in the altar room and recovered the gem.

Opening the conduit:  Although she had rested before going back to see Rialis, she was not very successful at battling the planar creatures.  She tried magic missile and chromatic orb against the quasits, doing on very minor damage due to their magic resistance.  By then, a fire elemental and shadow fiend had joined them.  She summoned an aerial servant, but the bounty hunters showed up and killed all the monsters for them.  Haer'dalis (fighting independently) had just become paralyzed by the shadow fiend, so it was probably a good thing overall (I've played it once where Haer'dalis died during this scene).

[Carinna]

NPC QUESTS - Aerie level 11 cleric / level 12 mage

Aerie went back to Mekrath's Lair to knock a few more containers open.  She didn't think she was a high enough level to challenge him directly, but wanted to put a dent in his evil doings.  As she left, she decided to head through the center of the sewer and precast holy power in case she met anything difficult.  Sure enough she encountered a rakshasa and some kobold minions.  When she saw the first kobold, she threw a skull trap as far as she could towards it, but it had already hopped out of range and she was still too far from the pack to damage any of them, so it was wasted.  She ignored the kobold swinging a sword at her (she had stoneskin active), moved closer and tossed a skull trap down into the pit area.  All the kobolds within it died.  By then the rakshasa had come up to meet her, so she took out the flail of ages and killed the two still-surviving kobolds with him first, then started swinging at the rakshasa.  He wasn't difficult to hit, and it didn't take her long to kill him.  When she did, she gained a level in mage and picked up the cloak of the sewers.

As stated a few posts back, although this is a solo run, Aerie will be picking up those NPCs whose quests can be done immediately so that they are not involved in anything other than their own quest.  Jaheira's curse quest has already been completed (see previous description).

Keldorn:  Aerie took Keldorn to his home and found out his wife was cheating on him.  She advised him to talk to his wife, but he said that was not an option.  She thought the only sane thing to do in that instance was to go to the courts and get it over with.  (The only other dialogue option you get after you tell him to talk to his wife is to encourage him to take revenge on Sir Whateverhisnameis, which would have been out of character for Aerie.  But she's lawful good, so condemning Maria this way seemed appropriate as that followed the law.)  Incidentally, you do not receive any XP for completeing the quest this way.

Anomen:  (If you hire Anomen as soon as you see him and then fire him immediately, you can complete his quest just by waiting the required number of days between events and hiring him again.  Aerie had hired and fired Anomen on her first day in the Copper Coronet).  Aerie counciled Anomen not to take revenge for his sister's murder and he reluctantly agreed that was the right thing to do.  (She then fired him again and will pick up later).

Cernd: Aerie went back to the druid grove to get Cernd.  She wasn't inclined to fight through a boatload of trolls again, so she cast invisibility as soon as she got there and walked to his location in peace.  During the confrontation in the stepfather's house, there didn't appear to be an option to settle the whole thing peacefully, so they ended up fighting for the kid.  I had to reload once as they both got confused the first time and Cernd had already spent half his hit points being stunned and Aerie was silenced.  The second time, Aerie precast chaotic commands on herself before they entered.   When the stepfather went hostile, Aerie threw out a chromatic orb, but he had a spell trigger of spell deflection that fired just before that so it did no good.  Cernd changed into werewolf form, but as before, got stunned halfway through the change.  Aerie cast shadow door and walked closer to the stepfather, who continued to target Cernd as he couldn't see her anymore.   She cast animate dead, got one skeleton, and the stepfather vaporized it with a death spell.  She cast it again and this time it didn't disappear, but started attacking.  By that time, Cernd had shaken off the stun and came charging at him as well.  A couple of hits and his stoneskin came off.  He screamed for help, but the lich told him no.  He didn't last long after that and Cernd recovered his son and went back to the grove.

[Carinna]

FALLEN PALADINS - Aerie level 11 cleric / level 12 mage

This was actually quite easy.  Aerie spoke to Reynald after she had the cup.  While he was getting Anarg, she moved into an auspicious position and cast spell immunity: evocation on herself.  Then she refused to join, Anarg attacked her, and Reynald left the group.  She moved a little farther into the area to give Reynald time to get away, then cast death fog (she already had stoneskin up).  While they were coughing and choking, she cast invisibility on herself so they wouldn't follow her out of the cloud (and so they would stop chopping at her stoneskin), and walked just outside the cloud area.  They stayed in a clump, regrouping once every round, but never leaving the cloud.  Before it dissipated, two or three of them died (I didn't count how many were originally in the group).  As soon as the cloud blew away, Aerie (still invisible) walked up beside them and unloaded a sunfire.  That killed everyone else except Anarg, who was badly wounded.  She tried again, this time with a fireball from the wand.  Oops!  That was a conjuration, not an evocation, and she took 11 damage (saving against the worst).  Unfortunately Anarg saved also and only took 12 damage.  She had to renew her stoneskin, and then tried to petrify him with chromatic orb, but he saved against it.   She moved away a little bit (he followed, of course, but she had a slightly faster movement rate), and cast agannazer's scorcher from a scroll (not the wand this time), walking around and away from him as the spell continued.  That finally took him down to near death, but the magic missile she followed it up with, although it did respectable damage, did not kill him.  She recast her last stoneskin and tried an acid arrow, hoping it would work over time.  It killed him instantly.

[corey_russell]

Carrina are you using emotion spell? It's often great against enemies like this. Then you could kill them at your leisure. Another idea is to put up minor globe of invulnerability and cast a few fireballs, from wand or spell, You take nothing the mobs eat it. : ) You could even web first, then fireball away at your leisure this way (poor enemies...)

[Carinna]

corey_russell wrote...
Carrina are you using emotion spell? I

I thought of using emotion, but the gas cloud worked better as it did actual damage.  She can't hit the side of a barn, so even if they'd all failed their saves she'd have spent so much time trying to clobber them laying motionless on the ground that the spell would have worn off before she was finished.  And since it probably wouldn't have worked on all of them, she'd have been busy trying to contain the others before that.

CHAPTER 3 - Aerie level 11 cleric / level 12 mage

Help Mook guard the shipment: Aerie had finally scraped enough money back up to pay Gaelan Bayle, so advanced to chapter 3 and got the amulet and +2 ring.  She had to give up a level 2 mage spell slot (metaspell influence amulet) but it was worth it to get permanent negative plane protection.  She is now AC -4.

Before heading down to see Mook, she precast stoneskin and chaotic commands.  As soon as Lassal killed Mook, she cast holy power, picked up the flail of ages, and started whacking Lassal.  This actually worked fairly well; she was able to hit him maybe 20% of the time and he wasted some rounds trying to level drain her which didn't work due to the amulet.  As a result, he gave up and ran away without even taking down one stoneskin.

Meet with defectors:  She did this quest without resting after guarding the shipment.  Before opening the door to their room at the Five Flagons Inn, she precast aerial servant.  Then they both went in and the defectors turned hostile.   One targeted her and the other targeted the aerial servant.  She ran out of the door and the one that had been after her switched to the aerial servant, so she just waited outside the door and in moments, the fight was over.  She went back in to collect her aerial servant, walked back out into the hall, and the contact showed up.  He turned hostile and the aerial servant attacked him.  The only negative thing about the entire encounter was that the contact panicked and she (and the aerial servant) had to chase him down all over the the upstairs of the inn.  He finally fell to one of Aerie's bullets.

(Vampire crypt saved for a later time.)

Helping the Trademeet genies:  As she had with meeting Cernd for his quest, she cast invisibility upon entering the druid grove so as to not be bothered by any lingering trolls on her way to the rakshasa's cottage.  When she got to just outside the cottage door, she precast stoneskin, chaotic commands, free action, and protection from evil.  This took two tries as the first time she got trapped in the corner and died.  I realized then that she was probably not going to be able to take on all three of them in the same battle (at least with me playing it; I realize many of you could do this blindfolded).   So, instead I had her fight only Ihtafeer for the second try, since she was the subject off the actual quest.    She went inside and cast holy power, picked up the flail of ages, and started swinging it as soon as Ihtafeer went hostile.   After casting chain lightning, Ihtafeer cast some sort of gas cloud (ADHW?) and Aerie countered it with sweet air.   Ihtafeer recast ADHW (or whatever it was), and Aerie again dispersed it with sweet air.  By then Ihtafeer's thugs had joined her in the fight; Aerie cast spell immunity: conjuration just as Ihtafeer's ice storm took effect.   In between all the castings, Aerie kept hitting her with the flail and actually slowed her with it once (Aerie renewed her stoneskin once or twice as well).  Finally Ihtafeer fell and Aerie scooped up her head, ignoring the two uninjured rakshasa, and ran out the door.  They didn't follow.  She took the head back to Trademeet and now has the Shield of Harmony.

Helping Tiris in Trademeet:  When Aerie was not fooled by Rejiek's disguise, she ran somewhat away from them (so as to not hurt the girl) and cast sunfire twice (the first time it had little or no effect).  By the second casting, Rejiek was dead and the skindancer was near death.  An acid arrow finished him.  I actually had to reload for this because the first time Aerie wasn't far enough away and accidentally killed the girl with the sunfire.

Dueling families of Trademeet:  By now Aerie is able to destroy simple skeletons with turn undead, and that's what she did with the original two and the one the skeleton warrior summoned.  She used repulse undead to keep the skeleton warriors away from her and summoned an aerial servant to fight them after unsuccessfully trying to damage them with a skull trap.  She returned the mantle to the mayor.

After defeating the skeleton warriors, she went to level 12 cleric / level 12 mage.

[Irrbloss]

Carinna wrote...

She can't hit the side of a barn, so even if they'd all failed their saves she'd have spent so much time trying to clobber them laying motionless on the ground that the spell would have worn off before she was finished. 

THAC0 doesn't matter in that situation. Immobile targets are hit automatically.

[Carinna]

Irrbloss wrote...
THAC0 doesn't matter in that situation. Immobile targets are hit automatically.

Well, maybe it's supposed to work that way, but back in Irenicus' dungeon (I think; it was sometime early on), she wasted a lot of time swinging and missing trying to hit something that she hit with a hold spell.  It was not just the animation; nothing was going on in the text area telling me anything was being damaged, either.  And it was not something with stoneskin or ironskin.  I'm thinking it was the duergar.