16405 réponses à ce sujet

[corey_russell]

Bummer there Fred. As you probably realize now, before you go to cloakwood, you want everyone to have lots of antidotes equipped. Especially the PC.

[ussnorway]

Yikes, their dropping like flies! For the solo runs I'd suggest Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief or Half-elf Fighter/Mage/Cleric because IME single thieves max out LONG before the end of SoA & find ToB boring... the only thief that continues to improve is the Bounty-hunter. If you want more of a challenge then Gnome Cleric/ thief is where I'd go but it's always your game... better luck (to all of you) next time guys!

[ussnorway]

Spence final

Spence has joined the list of failed adventures… he was trying to loot Ramazith’s tower when a lucky guard stunned him. My next attempt will be a solo run… change makes a nice holiday.

[Shadow_Leech07]

The Fred wrote...

Ouch. Unlucky both of you.

I also seem to be suffering from the pause-game-interrupts-enemy-casters bug. It only seems to pop up sometimes, normally against Clerics, but because my normal response when I see someone casting is to pause, I think I may be making the game easier for myself by accident. A lot of the time I would have been attacking them and hopefully interrupting them anyway, but I'm pretty sure that sometimes this wasn't the case. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Sometimes if your character is out of spell range, they will be interrupted. Just to test it, go up a caster and start pausing and see if it has any affect on their casting.

Sorry for your loss BTW. Always carry antidote potions around, that's what I've learned. Antidote potions, healing potions and the potion that protects against bassilisks. Mirroring eyes or something.

[The Fred]

Yeah. My normal tactic is not to let the ettercaps get near me - skeletons were well used at the start, and it turns out they're actually vulnerable to Entangle (I thought they were immune or something, but I think they just have good saves). I did also have anti-poison items, but I used up my Elixir of Health (and only had one) and Viconia's Antidote had gone vs the assassins. The main problem was the web traps - because I'd already killed some of the ettercaps and had skeletons to spare, I decided to run through the web and take refuge on the other side. The problem was that when I had to flee, I was forced into a second web trap, and everyone kept getting Held. I'm quite annoyed because even so, I managed to survive - it was just the Phase Spider, which I suspect could have come from anywhere on the map thanks to SCS, which finished me off. I'm thinking I may revise that component.

[The Fred]

I'm bit sick of creating new characters to I might retire this guy to the minimal reload challenge for a bit - see if I can do the game with only the one reload. That said, I am quite tempted to create my own party via multiplayer (know that I know how to make it not crash), so we'll see.

[The Fred]

OK so I guess I'm just a sucker for punishment. Instead of doing work, as I'm suppose to be, this has happened:

Two new mods.
"Harder Spiders (SCS): The Fred's Revision" (Ettercaps do not web, which I had, and Phase spiders only teleport if their nearest enemy is with 30 feet (how far actually is that in game terms?)).
"BG2-style Specialist Wizards" - removes the second opposition schools from spells (so Invokers and Transmuters don't stink so badly).

New party.
Aon, Chaotic Good Human Male Invoker L1
Stats: 10, 18, 16, 18, 15, 10
Small Swords: +
Mage Armour, Blindness, (Magic Missile)
Main character, general firepower mage, high lore

Praesa, Chaotic Good Half-Elven Female Conjurer L1
Stats: 18, 18, 16, 18, 10, 11
Small Swords: +
Mage Armour, Chill Touch, (Sleep)
General purpose support mage (everything except Divination), going to be attempting some melee.

Xyla, Chaotic Neutral Human Necromancer L1
Stats: 10, 18, 16, 17, 16, 10
Missile Weapons: +
Sleep, Larloch's Minor Drain, (Magic Missile)
Support mage, meddler in dark powers

Ilsani, Lawful Neutral Elven Enchantress L1
Stats: 8, 19, 15, 15, 10, 18
Missile Weapons: +
Sleep, Charm Person, (Blindness)
Party face, buffer and enchanter

Modifié par The Fred, 21 août 2011 - 10:48 .

[ussnorway]

I’m entering Kelly as my solo attempt… back to basics for this run i.e. vanilla (GOG) BG!
Candle keep; 3 years ago.
The young hopefuls assembled at the door to the great library to see who would be picked as Gorion’s new apprentices.
Gorion: “Young Tony, Dreppin -of course I want you lad & that girl at the back… looks like she’s not worth a spurt!”



Kelly has ‘Friends’ & ‘Identify’ as her two starting spells.

Running around Candle keep in vanilla BG (on a laptop) Urg, I kept the longsword in case she used up all her arrows. The guards at FAI helped me kill Tarnesh and I side stepped a little on my way south to pick up two nice belts.



Beregost & Nashkel;
I really tried hard to save Algernon but he still spotted my clumsily pickpocket attempt… looks like I’m getting the evil powers this run after all. I did the usual housekeeping quests before feeding Mulahey my new ‘wand of frost’ & charmed my way into the hearts of four assassins waiting to ambush me upstairs.



I sweet talked a gullible ranger into tanking Nimbul for me before hitting the shops… sorry Boo!

Modifié par ussnorway, 22 août 2011 - 02:08 .

[corey_russell]

Vintral the level 5 half-elf bard entering the trilogy no-reload challenge...

@USSNorway - wow interesting stat roll you got there. If you can make it all the way to final battle in SoA with those stats solo I will be VERY impressed! Try not to get too close to ogres, they can one-shot you even not critical with those HP!

I've been playing this character for a while. Seeing if I "die early" with him, but no he's still alive. While I have heard of solo bards by other players in BG 1, the run I remember this happening was VERY convuluted, mainly consisted of selling/buying back the wand of monster summoning and using for almost every fight. Since I have never no-reloaded BG 1 with a bard, and also since never been a bard kit in BG 2 either, decided I would give it shot - but with a party.

Vintral's Character Sheet
Vintral's equipment and configuration

Party Status:
Ajantis: Level 4 Paladin, 33 HP
Branwen: Level 5 Cleric, 39 HP
Imoen: Level 5 Thief, 26 HP (she'll be dualed to mage immediately at level 6)

Since I wanted to dual Imoen at level 6 immediately, I wanted to be sure I wasn't in the middle of something that required thief abilities when she leveled to 6. Therefore, immediately when she hit level 5 we attacked the bandit camp, since her thief abilities will be in high demand there.

At the bandit camp we encountered Khosann Tausgoz - Branwen managed to hold him, also Vintral sent 3 magic missile orbs at him for good measure. Strength is a big issue for this party, so Vintral had to cast strength spell on himself to carry the full plate. We then headed immediately to Beregost to sell and drop the full plate in a barrel. Eventually Branwen will use this, but not until we get strength gauntlets otherwise she won't be able to loot anything.

In Tazok's tent, Vintral took some big pain, I think from the mage, it dropped Vintral to 1/6 of his life. So he left the tent to heal and then once fixed up came back in to assist the party. The party was eventually victorious. We found out the Iron Throne has a mine in the Cloakwood. However the party needs much more experience before we attempt that. We need upgrades as well. One glaring weakness is we don't have the greenstone amulet. I've been waiting to do that, as most of the party can be one-shotted by the Ankhegs. Branwen got level 5 in Tazok's tent (animate dead x2 now available), so think we can risk it now.

Once we get that amulet, then we can risk Bassilus and the Amazon assassins. Sirenes would also be a possibility.

After the bandit camp loot, purchased the crossbow of speed for Vintral, been wanting to get that for him for a while. His Thac0 still stinks, even with the bracers of archery - bard thac0 I guess.

We've done most of the far southern areas. Lot of wilderness left to explore however. But with our animate deads, should be much safer.

[ussnorway]

Thanks & good luck to you corey_russell since this is your first bard I’ll toss back some tips but feel free to ignore them.

1. I’m not a fan of crossbows because you DON’T get a strength bonus… I’d give him the +1 shortbow.
2. It’s worth your while to learn & cast ‘friends’ before shopping.
3. IMO A bards true power comes from wands & while Polymorphing* is the best you should consider grabbing the ‘wand of monster summoning’ from the Ghast tomb in the valley of the tombs… you can get it without much risk by leaving the Nashkel Mines map (right hand side or east) to unlock & arrive in Gibberling Mountains… head north (up) to unlock the valley and you should arrive bottom centre. Now follow the map edge right until the end and cast a single ‘sanctuary’… as long as she doesn’t decide to engage the ghasts then it should always last long enough for Branwen to slip in and swipe the loot.

*rewarded for completing the Bogeyman quest in NWGate (same map as the helm and cloak).

Modifié par ussnorway, 22 août 2011 - 03:56 .

[corey_russell]

1. Thanks for that info about strength bonus. I'll stick with the crossbow the crossbow bolt of lightning is very effective in vanilla (8 dmg + 4D4). And with 2 attacks per round, well that's lots of damage.
2. Prices aren't much a problem with my high rep, but you are right might as well learn friends before shopping for big stuff.
3. I never use the polymorph wand. Wasn't sure if I'd lose the loot. As for the monster summoning wand, well I always use that. If possible prefer to sell and buy back but it can get pricey. The wand is extremely useful in the Cloakwood ambushes.

[Belloc]

Update for Lilith:

Just wandering the south-west gathering experience and loot. Nothing particularly dangerous, though the gibberling horde triggered by the paladin quest was rather exhilarating. When Edwin's third and last web expired and 25 more appeared from beneath their web traps the battle seemed less than half-over. But by that point the enemy was only coming from one direction, and the fighters could now guard the others effectively. Frustratingly the Paladin had turned hostile, presumably because trapped in the web. Since the party was already low on reputation, since, lacking charisma, we had already slaughtered the other fellow on the same map for his Boots of the North before he dematerialized, we chose to run. Shar-Teel got more low hp throws. She's a level 4 fighter with only 25 hp. First time I've used Edwin. He is proving his worth already.

Lilith - L3
Imoen - L4
Shar-Teel - L4
Viconia - L4
Kagain - L4
Edwin - L3

Modifié par Belloc, 22 août 2011 - 06:10 .

[ussnorway]

Kelly ud1

I side stepped to Spider Wood for the ring of energy before taking on the bandits, simply used the cloak to recruit peons then played piñata with Taugosz. After gathering up the various loot I popped potions of speed and fortitude, 16-29 hit points (thanks for the reminder corey_russell) & entered the tent. I tried to king hit Venkt with the ring but he survived it so plan b was to turn Hakt and Britik whilst running around Raemon… worked like a charm!



I can’t recharge the frost wand yet so had to settle for my necklace but I sweet talked Erdane into a discounted ‘wand of fire’… failed to scribe ‘Horror’ & only got ‘Ghoul Touch’ as my third power.

Modifié par ussnorway, 22 août 2011 - 07:52 .

[The Fred]

I just remembered I was going to roll up a Bard character too, since Bards can use any weapon and are a bit less squishy than mages. Four is enough though - playing them all from the start will eat up a lot of XP.

With hindsight I probably should have spread out my team's alignments a bit, for the use of the Robes of the Archmagi, but I don't like to have too unlikely a squad (two evil, one neutral and one good make the best sense). Still, I haven't actually started yet, so I suppose it's OK if I at least SCK the necromancer to evil... It's not like it's going to make a difference until Ch 5 anyway.

[corey_russell]

The Fred wrote...

I just remembered I was going to roll up a Bard character too, since Bards can use any weapon and are a bit less squishy than mages. Four is enough though - playing them all from the start will eat up a lot of XP.

With hindsight I probably should have spread out my team's alignments a bit, for the use of the Robes of the Archmagi, but I don't like to have too unlikely a squad (two evil, one neutral and one good make the best sense). Still, I haven't actually started yet, so I suppose it's OK if I at least SCK the necromancer to evil... It's not like it's going to make a difference until Ch 5 anyway.

Your install allows bards to wear the robes of arch magi? I can't do that in mine.

[The Fred]

The Bard bit and the alignment bit were two different things. I was saying I would have liked to have had a Bard as a melee character since Bards can use all weapons, get better health, and level faster.

As it is I have an all-mage team but in such a situation, spreading your alignments out is better because Thalantyr has only one Robe of the Archmagi for Good and Neutral and Daevorn has one for Evil. You could kill Shandalar for a Neutral one but I probably wouldn't try it in a no-reload, and I think The Grey Clan adds an evil one on one of the enemies. If all your team at Good you only get one, though. I'm not sure it's all that big of a deal, mind, since they'll be able to use Bracers of Armour and suchlike.

[The Fred]

corey_russell wrote...
@USSNorway - wow interesting stat roll you got there. If you can make it all the way to final battle in SoA with those stats solo I will be VERY impressed! Try not to get too close to ogres, they can one-shot you even not critical with those HP!

Yeah, was that a custom restriction or something? because 12s are pretty useless. Most of the time you can take them down to 10s for the same benefit, and put the points elsewhere. I'd also rather have 15 Int instead of 18 and put the points on Con for at least a +1 hp/level.

[The Fred]

I did change my necromancer's alignment to evil. This came back to haunt me though when she decided to begin her unholy war on fat people by killing Algernon in Beregost. I fled (though I did pick up a nice cloak on the way...).

Minor quests in Beregost were completed. A single L1 mage is pretty weak but four of them have a pretty decent firepower. That's eight L1 spells, and you can cast four at once. I have been having some of them use Mage Armour, however, for a little safety net.

We rescued Melicamp from a wolf (two attempts - the first time he saves vs three Sleeps and a Blindness) but the injured Praesa was finished off by a critical hit from a skeleton. So that she got a share of the XP I left Melicamp 'till after I raised her, but forgot halfway through and finished off the Slime Quest. She's a little behind everyone else now (though the way XP is shared, the top people get a little more anyway). In some ways, though, I'd rather get one person to L2 sooner so that at least we have a little more firepower, and wait for everyone else.

Melicamp survived, a lost necklace was found, Karlat killed (Blindness) and we headed south to Nashkel. I still haven't taken Mirianne her letter, but I did kill Neira, thanks again to Blindness (though she took ages to dart to death). It seems that whilst mages are more vulnerable to being killed, they are better at taking out other spellcasters early on since they can interrupt and counter their spells with their own.

Gained the Larloch's Bhaalspawn power, rested up, and refused money from Oublek. Also had a chat with Noober. Everyone is now on about 1600XP, so I need just short of another 4k to level people up. One thing I will say is that mages are cheap to run, even with Hard Times, since they need no weapons or armour. I haven't been able to splash out on scrolls yet, though.

Speaking of which, I want to take out Tarnesh, but if he gets ANY Magic Missiles off, I'll lose someone, since they all have 5-6 health and he throws about three each time if I remember correctly. I could probably win by chaining my own Missiles to interrupt his spells, but it's too risky I think. Next stop is probably the Carnival or the Ogre on the Coast Way for the belt - bandits could equal instant death for me right now, even with Sleep.

[ussnorway]

Yes you could say that. I take the first roll unless the points are needed for character concept eg. Ranger dualed into cleric. I wanted 18 dexterity for the thieving skills & high intelligence for the scribing, that didn’t leave a lot of room for constitution… I could have skimped the charisma but then corey_russell would complain that she is too pretty so she has average hit points besides elves aren’t supposed to be physically imposing.
p.s.
Bards can’t use Composite Long Bow or Throwing Axe… at least not in vanilla.

[amanasleep]

The Fred wrote...

Speaking of which, I want to take out Tarnesh, but if he gets ANY Magic Missiles off, I'll lose someone, since they all have 5-6 health and he throws about three each time if I remember correctly. I could probably win by chaining my own Missiles to interrupt his spells, but it's too risky I think. Next stop is probably the Carnival or the Ogre on the Coast Way for the belt - bandits could equal instant death for me right now, even with Sleep.

Have your party memorize and cast Shield, which gives immunity to Magic Missile.

[corey_russell]

ussnorway wrote...

Yes you could say that. I take the first roll unless the points are needed for character concept eg. Ranger dualed into cleric. I wanted 18 dexterity for the thieving skills & high intelligence for the scribing, that didn’t leave a lot of room for constitution… I could have skimped the charisma but then corey_russell would complain that she is too pretty so she has average hit points besides elves aren’t supposed to be physically imposing.
p.s.
Bards can’t use Composite Long Bow or Throwing Axe… at least not in vanilla.

What's this? USSNorway's gimp HP are somehow my fault? Believe me, if I'd known you only took the first roll, then by all means gimp your CHA and give yourself some CON! I don't know about you, but even with my good CON I still somtimes can get gimp HP when I randomly get HP on a level up (which is fine, that's the risk I take playing on CORE rules). I remember Minsc got 1 and 2 HP from levels 2 and 3 level ups - think he eventually got chunked...

Besides the ONLY reason I even mentioned CHA that time was because you said Hanna CHA was too low at 5, yet the next submission your character's CHA was 4, and certainly your character had as much as Hanna did!

Modifié par corey_russell, 22 août 2011 - 04:30 .

[The Fred]

ussnorway wrote...
Yes you could say that. I take the first roll unless the points are needed for character concept eg. Ranger dualed into cleric. I wanted 18 dexterity for the thieving skills & high intelligence for the scribing, that didn’t leave a lot of room for constitution… I could have skimped the charisma but then corey_russell would complain that she is too pretty so she has average hit points besides elves aren’t supposed to be physically imposing.

I still then would have put the points from Con into Cha or Str, perhaps along with some of the Int (carrying capacity is always nice). That said, I probably wouldn't play with 3 Wis, it's sort of like my own restriction (I just don't like having chars with penalties from their scores).

Bards can’t use Composite Long Bow or Throwing Axe… at least not in vanilla.

Oh no, I don't think they can. They can use things like Two-Handed Swords, though, which gives them a lot of options. Even Long Bows are better than most other ranged weapons, anyway.

amanasleep wrote...
Have your party memorize and cast Shield, which gives immunity to Magic Missile.

That's a good point; I'd forgotten that. However, I'd need my party to learn Shield first, and one of them is an Enchanter and so couldn't anyway. Probably I'd be OK with just one person to soak up the Missiles, provided s/he didn't get hit by Horror...

In other news, Aon and co. did a few more things:
- Killed an Ogre on the Coast Way, and got a couple of belts.
- Killed the FAI hobgoblins for Joia.
- Retrieved Gurke's cloak from the Cloakwood.
- Fled from Ettercaps on the way back from the Cloakwood.
- Killed Arghain and his Half-Ogres to the East of the Beregost-Nashkel road.
- Gained a level each (with the exception of Praesa).

Luckily, both Aon and Ilsani rolled max HP, putting them on 12 and 10 respectively. Xyla got 10 too, despite having +2 from Con and starting on 6. Critical hits, or even normal hits, can still take them down in one, but at least taking 3 damage from a wolf is not quite such a worry any more.

[corey_russell]

The Fred wrote...

amanasleep wrote...
Have your party memorize and cast Shield, which gives immunity to Magic Missile.

That's a good point; I'd forgotten that. However, I'd need my party to learn Shield first, and one of them is an Enchanter and so couldn't anyway. Probably I'd be OK with just one person to soak up the Missiles, provided s/he didn't get hit by Horror...

Don't forget about the level 2 mage spell Resist Fear, pretty sure Thalantyr has one. That should take care of your horror "fears".

[The Fred]

I need to be L3 first, though. Druids and Clerics get Remove Fear at L1 which I'm jealous of, but there you go.

[corey_russell]

The Fred wrote...

I need to be L3 first, though. Druids and Clerics get Remove Fear at L1 which I'm jealous of, but there you go.

I'm sorry but your analysis is incorrect - you can cast from a scroll, even level 1.