16405 réponses à ce sujet

[BelgarathMTH]

After5CST wrote...

(And Doh! I just realized the Spider's Bane is going to be of little or no use to an Inquisitor... or is it?  Something in the back of my mind says Inquistors are not immune to Web and similar spells, even though they would seem similar to Hold Person...)

Inquisitor Hold immunity does not protect against being Held by Web. Therefore, Spider's Bane is actually VERY useful to an inquisitor backed up by a sorcerer casting Web. Many, many battles can be won by having the party stay back, and the sorcerer casting Web while the inquisitor wielding Spider's Bane finishes the enemies.

Another good tactic is to have a cleric or mage cast Hold Person while the inquisitor fights, since the Hold cannot hurt the inquisitor in friendly fire.

@Grond0, How did you deal with Semaj and Angelo in your successful run?

Modifié par BelgarathMTH, 07 avril 2012 - 12:37 .

[Grond0]

Ignored them totally. Lilo used scroll of magic protection so their spells were useless and she didn't stay in the same place for more than a few seconds at a time (while pummelling Sarevok) so Angelo didn't have a chance to zero in on her in melee.

[Blackmalkin]

BelgarathMTH wrote...
Another good tactic is to have a cleric or mage cast Hold Person while the inquisitor fights, since the Hold cannot hurt the inquisitor in friendly fire.

Hold Person affects only enemies.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Grond0 wrote...

Ignored them totally. Lilo used scroll of magic protection so their spells were useless and she didn't stay in the same place for more than a few seconds at a time (while pummelling Sarevok) so Angelo didn't have a chance to zero in on her in melee.

In SCS you can't ignore them, since they both cast high-level remove magic, which successfully bypasses Protection from magic.

Anyway, a bit of input on my own run:

Visited the basilisk area. Cleared it entirely. The enemy group in the middle fell to the Web + Free action ring combo, the enemy mage being taken out by a poisoned backstab. Loot: Golden Girdle.

Next was visited the spider forest, and battled some Red wizards in the midst. Again, the most dangerous one fell to a poison of a successful backstab, and the rest were webbed, and with the help of Remove magic - quickly slain. Loot: Ring of Energy and some scrolls (including Teleport Field).

From here the brave party went straight for some Winter wolf hunting. Hunted 80 pieces, sold their hides in Nashkel for 40k gold pieces. Used the gold to recharge the Wand of monster summoning, and to buy two powerful robes for the party casters - one of the Good, and second of the Neutral archmagi.

Traveled back to Durlag's tower for some more experience. When party mages hit lvl 9, the party attempted the final fight on this level - Love, Pride, Fear and Awareness. Sorceress' new spell picks: Stoneskin, Blur, Vampiric Touch, Improved Invisibility. After some buffing, Aerie gave the bottle of wine to Love, and the fight began. Astarta had summoned some monsters beforehand (she can now cast 5th lvl spells), which distracted Fear. Avarice shot Cloutkill strangely enough near PC, who was away from the battle, and thus the cloud had little effect - it hurt only Yoshimo and PC, who immediately ran away of the cloud (they were both invisible thanx to Aerie's pre-cast). Improved invisible party rangers were aiming to kill Love, who shot a Dire charm at a nearby Ettercap, when Minsc was backstabbed by Avarice for quite some damage. Invisible Astarta ran by the cloud and gave some Extra healing potions to Minsc (who was at 10 HP by that time), and he managed to quaff one right when Love finally fell. Next in line was the enemy thief, Avarice, but he kept hiding so he wasn't an easy prey. Fortunately, he chose to backstab some summoned monsters, and Astarta kept those coming with the Wand, while Aerie was keeping Pride busy via Mirror Image + Stoneskins. Finally Avarice fell. Fear managed to hurt Minsc, but fell soon enough. The last and toughest enemy, Pride, was charged by Minsc and Drizzt, only for them to find that if they exchanged blows in such a way, they're gonna perish sooner than their enemy. So instead they pulled back, drew their bows, Astarta donned the magical sling, and with fire and ice arrows and enchanted sling bullets Pride soon fell.

The party stayed on this level for some time, enough for the rangers to obtain lvl 8 and be able to at least cast Armor of Faith or another 1st lvl spell.

The party looted the above levels of the tower, killing a mage-ghost (easy with a party, especially with illusion-detecting thief), a couple of basilisks (found a +2 scimitar as an off-hand weapon for Minsc), a succubus (after completing her quest and while she tried to Dimension Door away) - a Staff spear for the socreress, and some potions. Also looted a Wisdom tome, read by Minsc.

Next stop - Ugloth's beard. The party accepted Shandalar's quest and traveled to the Ice prison. The battles with different mage groups (which I recall to be extremely tough for a soloer) were extremely easy for a party. Used the monsters inside as a meat shield (charmed), but that was hardly necessary. Enemy illusions were dispelled easily by Yoshimo, and well buffed party rangers took care of the rest. In the fist fight (with Andris) - maybe the toughest one, two summoned and hasted Ogre Berserkers took a Confusion and Remove Magic spell, before party fighters charged for the win. Of course, Aerie was shooting an occasional Remove Magic from the back, and Yoshimo was in the room, invisible, detecting illusions. Andris teleports away during that battle and returns re-buffed, but the party had the time to do the same and greeted him accordingly. He shoots a Lightning bolt, but the mages were not in the room, and the fighters were arranged in such way that the bolt really hit just one of them once.

An occasional Greenstone amulet charge was used when someone in the party was target of Chaos or Confusion type spell, while the rest of the party ran as far away from that party member as possible. As a result, no one from the party members was ever confused or charmed.

Used two Invulnerability potions in the Andris fight as a precaution. Those are easy to come by after killing Flesh golems in the 1st lvl of Durlag's labyrinth.

Loot from the ice prison: Remove magic + Stoneskin scrolls for PC (very important ones), as well as second Paralyze wand and some other not so significant spell scrolls.

Yoshimo hit lvl 10, and his detect illusion skill is at 100%. Thus, everyone in the party hit the xp cap.

The party will now head for Nashkel Mines and complete chaters 2 and 3.

A quick edit: Cleared the mines, killed Mulahey, killed Nimbus.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 07 avril 2012 - 03:51 .

[Blackmalkin]

Update on Dhanushka:

After resurrecting the party and receiving the reward for Bassilus I decided to do some reputation quests to do some shopping with all possible discounts (Melodia already learned Friends spell). Among those quests was the one with Brage – his sword will come in handy, but for now I armed Grunkh with +1 sword acquired from half-ogre bandits. Back in Beregost composite bow +1 was bought for Dhanushka and Dagger of Venom for Shari. The dagger caused a lot of troubles (when fighting weak creatures mostly), but also a few amusing situations. On a screenshot below Grunkh is fighting with a chunked kobold:



And here’s a winter wolf that dropped his pelt:



Cursed sword of berserking was first used on sirines (rather early, when Grunkh was at level 3). Enraged barbarian was dealing massive damage, and quickly chunked one of the sirines, but was then shot. I was much surprised by the amounts of damage they could do with simple short bows – even 12 in one hit. Maybe it’s "arrows of biting receiving strenght bonus" bug? Rest of the party finished the job (meaning the remaining 2 sirines, not the other 3). Resurrecting Grunkh was cheaper then removing the curse, so there wasn’t much mourning. Some levelling later I returned to the coast and killed rest of the sirines, this time with Dhanushka supporting the barbarian from a safe distance. Half-orcs cleared the cave (Shari dealt with traps, Grunkh with golems, felling two of them with single critical hits). Dhanushka raised her constitution to 18. After removing the curse from Grunkh I returned to the cave and traded large amounts of +1 arrows for experience (a golem appears at almost every rest attempt).

After some more travelling through the wilderness party raised enough gold to buy a full plate mail, Shadow Armor and Crossbow of Speed (Grunkh chose crossbow as his secondary weapon). Dagger +2 was acquired for Shari and she started using it with Dagger of Venom when she got one proficiency point in dual wielding. When she reached 70% in open locks and 80% in find traps (at level 4), she started investing in detect illusion. Vaitali reached 2nd spell level, learned Web and then Enfeeblement.

When party was at levels 5–6, I decided to clear the Nashkel mines. No problems there, I even managed to advance to chapter 3 without console command. This time I didn’t avoid Nimbul and killed him much easier then expected (at the beginning of the second round). While killing some wildlife, party was ambushed by Maneira, Telka and company. I made a mistake and did not run. Vaitali’s Web caught one of the rogues and one of the clerics. The second rogue backstabbed her, but she wasn't chunked. Strange – she had 25 HP and took 39 damage. When all visible enemies where dead, party regrouped, so that the second assassin had to hit Grunkh, when she freed herself from the Web.



Back in Beregost I bought the Claw of Kazgaroth for Shari (that’s why she have 18 constitution) and Robe of Archmagi for Vaitali. Melodia reached 3rd spell level and failed to learn Skull Trap from a bought scroll (but she already knew Dispel Magic). On second level she have Web, Horror, Invisibility, Detect Invisibillity and Deafness. I killed Tranzig and went to Larswood to get to the Bandit Camp. I webbed Tazok only to find out that he is immortal in this version of the game. When party rested, Molkar and comapany attacked, but they were easily killed, even though only their mage was webbed. After another rest I killed the gnolls in the cave and positioned the party inside. Grunkh killed the hobgoblin guard outside and retreated, while spellcasters started weaving Webs.



Plan wasn’t perfect, as bandits had usually a chance to fire one shot before being webbed, so some damage was taken by the party. Also, the bandits from the tent didn’t come out. So I commanded a rest and then went to attack them. After seeing those additional Black Talon and hobgoblin elites inside, I decided to retreat (knowing that they all would have targeted Vaitali). Once outside, enemies had to switch to melee weapons and were easily defeated. Vaitali reached 3rd spell level and chose Melf’s Minute Meteors. Melodia was armed with Long Bow of Marksmanship.

Party status:
Dhanushka – archer 6, 55 HP, 489 kills
Grunkh – barbarian 6, 65 HP, 207 kills
Samadarshin – fighter 5/cleric 5, 54 HP, 185 kills
Shari – swashbuckler 7, 38 HP, 114 kills
Melodia – skald 7, 41 HP, 18 kills, fav. spell: Friends
Vaitali – sorcerer 6, 28 HP, 11 kills, fav. spell: Sleep

So far the party is as overpowered as I expected, but the main challanges still await.

[Blackmalkin]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...
From here the brave party went straight for some Winter wolf hunting. Hunted 80 pieces, sold their hides in Nashkel for 40k gold pieces.

In Nashkel? I thought SCS prevent that. In my game only one pelt can be sold there. I had to clear the mines to sell others to officer Vai.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Dunno. Never checked in my previous runs - always sold pelts to other merchants. However, I just sold 3 more, so it's either a fluke, or my SCS version allows it. This makes very little difference however, since it just saves me time - a SCS party needs a lot of gold to be equipped properly after all.

[Grond0]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
Ignored them totally. Lilo used scroll of magic protection so their spells were useless and she didn't stay in the same place for more than a few seconds at a time (while pummelling Sarevok) so Angelo didn't have a chance to zero in on her in melee.

In SCS you can't ignore them, since they both cast high-level remove magic, which successfully bypasses Protection from magic.

Remove magic can't dispel the scroll of protection from magic itself (SCS or not) and therefore you can just ignore them.

Blackmalkin wrote...
Cursed sword of berserking was first used on sirines (rather early, when Grunkh was at level 3). Enraged barbarian was dealing massive damage, and quickly chunked one of the sirines, but was then shot. I was much surprised by the amounts of damage they could do with simple short bows – even 12 in one hit. Maybe it’s "arrows of biting receiving strenght bonus" bug?

The sirenes use not only arrows of biting, but also arrows of piercing.

Modifié par Grond0, 07 avril 2012 - 05:44 .

[BelgarathMTH]

@Grond0, interesting. What about Angelo's arrows of detonation? They go through Magic Protection, or at least they do in my setup.

@Blackmalkin, loved your wild mage runs. On core rules setting, Hold Person affects everybody within five feet, including friends. I know because I've accidentally cast it on my melee fighters before. Maybe there's a difference in our setups.

I'm enjoying following everyone's runs. I look forward to seeing what happens in your final battles.

[Blackmalkin]

BelgarathMTH wrote...
On core rules setting, Hold Person affects everybody within five feet, including friends. I know because I've accidentally cast it on my melee fighters before. Maybe there's a difference in our setups.

Spell description mentions enemies only. I think I'll run some experiments to check this (I play on core rules too).

Edit: Spell description is inconsistent -- it says: "Area of Effect: Target and anyone within 5 feet" and then "Every enemy within 5 feet of the target is also affected".

I tried casting Hold Person on an enemy while Grunkh stood beside. No effect on Grunkh. Also no effect when I tried casting directly on him (not even a saving throw or any graphical effect). That was a cleric spell, maybe arcane version works differently. I'm almost sure that Hold Person have friendly fire in Icewind Dale, though.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 07 avril 2012 - 06:14 .

[Grond0]

BelgarathMTH wrote...

@Grond0, interesting. What about Angelo's arrows of detonation? They go through Magic Protection, or at least they do in my setup.

That's true and I agree they could potentially be a problem in some people's installations (though fire resistance will still block most of the damage).  In my installation the SCS script for Angelo gives priority to spells rather than missiles.  As he realises that his spells won't work through the magic protection he stays invisible until they will - meaning he doesn't use his arrows.  If you stay still near him he will appear and come into melee, but it's fairly rare for my characters to stay still long enough for him to activate like that.

[BelgarathMTH]

@Grond0, hmm, interesting. Whatever my setup, he consistently puts an MGoI on himself upon sighting us and then immediately starts firing arrows of detonation. That particular script is making my final battle almost as hard as Mel in ToB.

@Blackmalkin, thanks for helping us get to the bottom of the Hold Person issue. Did you check the scroll in the actions window to see if your friends made a save against the spell? I guess I could check this myself by deliberately casting the spell on friends in a safe place. Perhaps I got the wrong idea because, during my disasters with Hold Person, an enemy had cast it at the same time as I, and I only thought my own spell had done friendly fire damage.

Modifié par BelgarathMTH, 07 avril 2012 - 11:30 .

[PicklePepperPiper]

News of BGEE has stirred the no-reload beast in me, I'm giving it another whirl with a favourite character:

Jacamo, Beserker->Mage, Human, Chaotic Good.
92 was the best roll I got after 15 min so:
S: 18/34
D: 18
C: 18
I: 18
W: 5
CH: 9

Bit disappointed with 18/34 but no matter. STR tomb will sort him out for BG2 if he survives.
Dual wielding long swords, aim to get a party of 4, Imoen, Jaheira and Khalid. Emphasis on role play and some exploration but will only do side quests if they find me or I stumble on them.

Update soon.
-PPP

[saros_shadow_follower]

My no-reload group is in chapter 5, Baldur's gate city, and has done much in the city (except following the main quest). They have also just completed the chess battle, and it was a beautiful, altough a very short, fight. More about chapters 3,4 and 5, and levels 2 and 3 of Durlag's tower - tomorrow when I wake up.

[PicklePepperPiper]

Candlekeep cleared, no complications. Imoen is enlisted and the party heads north to bury Gorion. Xzar and Monty are also enlisted but in a matter of moments Xzar loses his head completely and runs right into a gibberling horde, needless to say he doesn't last long. Imoen's given Monty's studded leather but unfortunately he's the target of multitude bandit attacks and dies quickly.

Jacamo downs a oil of speed to kill the bandits before they can shoot him too. In retrospect a bit of a waste but better safe than sorry. Imoen and Jacamo head south to Beregost which is closer than FAI. After calming down Marl, meeting up with Firebeard and resting a bit, it's decided that the Inn is probably the next place to go, despite the fact that Gorion's murderers probably read the note on his body and there may be an ambush.

Journey north happens without incident. As Jacamo approaches the inn entrance, expecting an attack from any side, his nerves tip over his already temperamental nature and he begins to slip into a beserk state. Imoen tries to calm him, but a wizard stops by to talk. Jacamo is exceptionally rude to him, and the wizard reveals himself to be an assassin. Big mistake. Tarnesh is chunked by an ultra-aggressive Jacamo and Imoen hurriedly ushers the beserker inside before the guards get upset.

They spend the next day resting up at the inn and searching for Jaheira and Khalid, whom they find immediately. The party hears rumours of an ogre with a belt fetish and a Beregost house infested with spiders. Jacamo convinces Jaheira to sell her potion of invisibility so he can get a beautifully made set of plate armor.

After retrieving the ring from the hobgoblins (Imoen finds the ring of wizardry as they search the grounds), the party heads south for some orge hunting. But then it happens. Attacked by wolves, Jacamo is hit twice but surives and downs a potion of healing. Only a couple of minutes later I notice his sprite isn't wearing armor. The bloody 900gp plate mail was broken after two hits! Jaheira offers her chain suit and makes a snide comment which upsets Jacamo.

He is furious at his misjudgement and goes beserk. He runs out from the party and right into the path of a huge ogre. Jaheira is super horrified and Imoen just manages to mutter "he does that sometimes..." before the other 3 desperately dash after him. After a few minutes a well-aimed bullet of Jaheira's lodges itself into the ogre's head and he topples over. Predictably, Jacamo is injured badly but a healing potion reduces his garish wounds into ugly bruises.

The party decide to rest for the night as it is already too dark for anyone to figure out how far they've strayed from the road.

Party so far (EDIT*):
Jacamo lvl 2
Imoen lvl 2
Jaheira lvl 2/2
Khalid lvl 1

-PPP

*Played for 5 minutes longer and ran into Kagain's bandit party. This levelled up Jacamo and strangely Jaheira who apparently has over 4000XP - curious.

Modifié par PicklePepperPiper, 08 avril 2012 - 03:51 .

[Grond0]

I've generated a new character.  After my recent demise in BG2 I'm just going with a standard dwarven berserker - who won't bother trying to recover treasure from all those trapped chests!

[Serg BlackStrider]

Oh, even more veterans are in action! Safe journeys, PicklePepperPiper! What is your install btw? Do you play vanilla or some heavy modded setup?

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 08 avril 2012 - 07:47 .

[PicklePepperPiper]

Should have mentioned - Tutu install with a ton of tweaks and quest mods including NPC project. Main annoyance was installing breakable armor evidentally!

Main things are allowing Cloakwood access prior to Chapter 4, unlimited arrow/gem/potion stacks, Unfinished Business and another questpack (can't remember the name), Grey Clan episode 1, Gavin NPC mod and changed the locations of Alora and Eldoth (or whatever his name is, I never use him). Still yet to venture into SCS waters but I'm starting to feel encounters like Tarnesh and Silke are way easier than they ought to be.

Also I hope you're not referring to me as a veteran with Grond0 in the same sentence! I've never even completed BG2!

Party mowed down Karlat and Silke without a problem, Jacamo scoring critical hits both times. Only a slight complication with spider house, Jacamo getting poisoned and without an antidote I had to sit there nervously with Jaheira routinely healing, hoping that it wasn't the poison that could slay per round on a successful die roll (is that giant spider poison?). Anyway, it wore off, he survived, had to make two trips to FAI to get the reward because I stupidly forgot to pick up the spider's body (do'h!). Kept the ogre belt, sold the ring of wizardry and bought plate mail sets for both Jacamo and Khalid - please don't break in 5 seconds this time.

Another update soon, no levels gained this time but Imoen's looking right into level 3's eyes...
-PPP

Modifié par PicklePepperPiper, 08 avril 2012 - 09:25 .

[Gate70]

BelgarathMTH wrote...
@Grond0, hmm, interesting. Whatever my setup, he consistently puts an MGoI on himself upon sighting us and then immediately starts firing arrows of detonation. That particular script is making my final battle almost as hard as Mel in ToB.

Same here.

My answer is to have two rings of fire resistance (80%), cloak of displacement and girdle of piercing. If I have a party I would add the helm of defense but not an option in solo. Then I run around them with boots of speed and a scroll of protection from magic to stop Semaj and his 3-4 fatal spells. When Angelo casts remove magic I can then buff so then run the length of the room to reduce his chances to shoot arrows as they still hurt.

The buffs are typically those like potion of fire resistance or scroll of protection from fire, mind focusing, cloud giant strength, heroism, oil of speed. Maybe change a fire resistance ring for the +2 protection ring if still > 100% and helm to Balduran. Then hit and run on Angelo, using regeneration and healing potions if needed. Once Angelo is down the game is a lot easier.

Semaj is no danger to a solo character with the magic protection scroll active but he will teleport to the party and cause havoc so keep arrows of dispelling ready to kill him quick.

Tazok is tough in melee, usually starting with a concealed attack. Best to keep moving and hit/run with him.

Then Sarevok. If you can dispel his haste, have good attacks and good defence (full plate, golden girdle, shield, buffs as above) he can be slugged out but typically hit run and heal work best.

Harder to do this approach in a party but thinking about it I'd use two protection from magics, and have one person play the remove magic target then switch a fully buffed character in to do the damage while getting the first to retreat.

[PicklePepperPiper]

@Gate70 - past the days of spamming Wand of Summoning?
-PPP

[PicklePepperPiper]

Messed with Greywolf a little early - survived but on wafer thin ice and all stock of healing potions gone. I'm not complaining, Jacamo has his nice shiny sword and finally the opportunity to hit something with a not-appalling THACO. Had to fall back on the cheesy one-person-run-around-like-crazy-whilst-the-party-peppers-Greywolf-with-ranged-attacks strategy.

In the carnival Zordral was also problematic. No one was hitting anything and after the mage got his mirror image up this was especially problematic. Three Melf Acid Arrows and all Jaheira's healing spells later, plus numerous LMD that kept Zordral around for as long as possible he finally was killed.

Plate armor hasn't broken but it hasn't helped much. I swear Jacamo's getting hit more often than when he had splint. Oh well - Greywolf gave Jacamo a level up and party currently stands at:

Jacamo - 3
Imoen - 3
Jaheira - 2/2
Khalid - 2

Have a tonne of cash from the ol' ring of wizardry so *probably* should stock up on some healing potions before tackling the mine.
-PPP

[PicklePepperPiper]

After buying 20 healing potions I was pretty confident that the party could handle the mines. Clean sweep through although wasted probably 15 minutes on the 3rd level bridge because I could have sworn there were 3 traps, not 2. It's been a while... Mulahey was fine, he let off a hold person a split second before Jacamo crit-hit him and sent him fleeing. Jacamo failed his save but Mulahey couldn't do much and it was all good. Left the mines via grey ooze street (no problem there) and left the new map asap. Didn't want to tangle with anyone there too soon.

Nimbul was mowed down - the stock-standard trick of getting everyone in melee because ranged will have a hard time hitting. Remove fear sure is a staple in these early assassin encounters. The party heads to Gnoll stronghold - very few problems on the way (ignoring xvart village and various encounters on the two bridge map for now). And because we're good people, we even escorted Dyanheir back to good old Minsc but didn't enlist either. Keeping it small and sweet. Khalid now has a respectable DEX and Jacamo is slightly better in his role as party leader.

Next stop, old mate Tranzig and various Beregost related quests - also an aim to get the nice gauntlets from Firewine Bridge map.

Jacamo - 4
Imoen - 4
Jaheira - 3/3
Khalid - 3

-PPP

[saros_shadow_follower]

@ Grondo - you can open lots of locked chests using DUHM or potions of giant strength, as for avoiding traps - the Berserker is most probably the best at it from all the warrior classes, since he can evade lots of nasty effects while enraged. The others can be coped with protective potions. Well, there are several lethal traps...

Well, here is my group's report:

Chapter 3: Killed Tranzig. Rested in the tavern. All guys invisible, went to the Temple (0 travelling hours). The four amazons (usually positioned in the Valley of tombs) appeared and huddled around Astarta. That gave the other party members all they needed to buff a bit farther (so that the amazons don't see them), and the amazons were wiped out out of nowhere in just a second.

The party travelled to Raiken, and 'joined' the bandits. However, this doesn't allow them safe entrance inside the bandit camp - not with SCS. Still, the party is too high-leveled. Named enemies fell fast, as for the rest - a couple of Fireballs from PC cleared them. Loot: tons of items, most importantly a Full Plate for Minsc, and a warhammer +1 as an off-hand weapon for him.

The party cleared the main tent without resting. Big mistake, since that triggers a fight with another mercenary group. Still, the party had no trouble taking them down as well.

Chapter 4, the Cloakwood forest:

Uncovered Gurke's cloak of non-detection in Cloakwood Lodge. Traveled invisible between areas. Was intercepted a couple of times by spiders/ettercaps with Web traps. Invisibility saved the party.
Spider part of the forest - used mainly Drizzt to bypass webs and to fight the Spider Queen. He was under Cold protection as well, since the queen uses the Wand of Frost. Reward: Spider's bane, which was used by Minsc to evade webbing on several occasions.
Druid part of the forest - bypassed.
Wyvern part - fought some wyverns in a cave, got some heads.
Cloakwood Mines - the fight with Drasus:

While Rezdan's Detect Invisibility didn't affect Yoshimo, it unfortunately affected the far-away party members, dispelling their Improved Invisibility. Aerie quickly cast 2 more on the fighters. Enemy's remove magic was success for most of the part, leaving Yoshimo visible and Torham with no buffs as well, but enemy illusions were also dispelled by Yoshimo. Party rangers focused on Drasus, who soon fell, and Astarta shot a greater malison from behind. Astarta was thinking about finishing the fight with Emotion, but she had to guard herself with the Greenstone Amulet vs Chaos. Aerie summoned some monsters via a wand when Yoshimo was charmed. Well seeing he was given order to stand and detect traps, he really didn't do anything more in the fight, which soon ended after a successful Emotion.

Loot: Boots of Speed went to PC.

Lvl 2 of the mines: Yoshimo uncovered all traps/secret doors and the party snuck from behind. Hareisan tried to detect Yoshimo. Then 2 fireball charges flew at the enemies...at least they were supposed to, but Aerie had trouble with her shooting - couldn't get a clear shot due to party members blocking her view. Thus the fight got a little mixed up, but Yoshimo still managed to dispel enemy illusions, and the 2 rangers successfully disrupted Hareisan spells. Again, Emotion came in very handy.

The party rested on this level under Invisibility, and went down straight to Natasha's headquarters. Here was also a lot of planning, but decided to try and surprise Natasha via double Paralyze wand...which actually worked. The rest of the enemies from this level were waited in that same room, which is almost ideal for foiling ambushes, since enemy hobgoblins can't get a clear shot when the entrance's blocked. Looted the entire level. From this and the previous level got scrolls of Haste and Slow. Killed the Ogre mage on this level as well.

And finally, the fight with Davaeorn. His Detect invisibility foiled the Invisibility on the faraway party members, forcing his guard to interrogate them. He fell, but fortunately Davaeorn didn't notice, so the party had enough time for buffing. Drizzt is immune to fire, so ProFire was cast on Minsc. Davaeorn teleported a bit, shot a Stinking Cloud + web, but Drizzt could operate almost freely in that, and Minsc stood out of the cloud's range. Once again, Yoshimo's skills dislpelled enemy illusions, and Davaeorn fell after trying 2 fireballs at the fighters (silly). He drops a Stoneskin and a Remove magic scrolls, and has some less significant scrolls stored in containers.

Freed the slaves and flooded the mines.

Chapter 5: Did a lot of subquests in BG city:

Marek and Lothander - Marek was defeated via backstab + party fighter hit before even turning hostile. So Yoshimo got a nice +2 shortbow. Also, a second wisdom tome for Minsc.
Temple of Umberlee's other subquest  - got the Shield of Falling Stars.
Ragefast, Ramazith and the Nymph - freed Abela, sold lock of hair, looted Ramazith's tower. Got RoP +2, Metaspell influence amulet, Tome of Clear thought and other useful items.
Obtained 2 pairs of Weapon expertise gloves - one from Lark, the other from Umberlee temple.
Got a second Ring of Wizardry from SW Baldur's gate.
Sorcerous Sundries - bought lots of items, including all arrows of dispelling and all arrows of detonation, bought the arrows from Black Lily too. Didn't deal much with the thieves, just got the Tome of Dexterity, which Yoshimo read.
Battled a group of wizards on the 2nd lvl of the Sundries. Well precisely they didn't know what was happening since party wiped them out under Invisibility. Spider Spawn scroll looted here.
Got an axe +2 from the Helm and Cloak tavern fight. An excellent off-hand weapon for Minsc.
Got Balduran's helm and cloak.

Travelled back to Durlag's tower. Level 2...seems I have forgotten the tricks on this level. The lone Greater dopplegangers were no biggie, but the fight in Kiel's throne room sure was. Forgot how to open door number 3, thus the 2 rangers + party sorceress were fighting the enemy while PC and Yoshimo stood behind the door. The 2 rangers dealt with the dopplegangers (with Greenstone charges and pre-buffed resist fear), but Cloudkill took care of Minsc before Bane could remember how to open the closed door in the lever room. Door was opened allright, the party left the tower with Minsc's gear, and resurrected him at a temple. Then they returned, and yoshimo disarmed all traps in the Torture chamber. The party successfully teleported while being chased by 2 greater dopplegangers. Arrows and magic missiles solved this part of the fight, since enemies couldn't come close. Still one of the enemies in Isalanne form managed to cast Horror on the entire party - no one saved vs that  - but the effect waned before something could happen to them.

Killed some ghouls, disarmed some traps, found the Wardstone, opened the secret door. Prior to looting Kiel's treasures, the party accidentally triggered the fake staircase fight - twice in a row - which meant they had to deal with 6 skeleton warriors. They managed to do it.

Kiel's buckler is ideal for Yoshimo, because of the dexterity bonus.

And finally, the party eliminated 3 dopplegangers in the bridge room. Actually, 2 of them went to the invisible PC, leaving the rest of the party to deal with just one, and then with the other 2 as well. Loot - some clerical scrolls.

Party had to rest on this level - they did so under Invisibility. No sleep disturbances.

Lvl 3 of the catacombs: Yoshimo entered the eastern room invisible and disarmed all traps. Then the two rangers entered and killed all Greater Ghouls. Also looted Bala's axe - for Minsc. The 2 demon-thieves were the hardest, since they managed to backstab for quite some damage first Drizzt, then Minsc. Yoshimo was called to deal with their almost permanent hide in shadows, and the rangers finally managed to kill the 2 abominations.

The party then traveled through the cleared region, and rested under Invisibility near the elemental challenges. Then under Invisibility and with proper anti-fire protection the 2 mages and 2 rangers positioned themselves well in the skeleton archer room. The idea was to kill the archers fast so that they don't waste many Arrows of Dispelling. Almost worked. 9 arrows were saved. Presumably 3 were wasted.

The fight with greater wyverns - used Alia + summoned monsters as cannon fodder while the rest of the party shot the wyverns with good ranged weapons (Minsc has the Composite bow +1 bought in Beregost). Also killed the 'summoned' champions and got some potions.

Elemental challenges - first the party did the Fire, Air and Ice challenges (more accurately, Minsc and Drizzt won the fights), then rested, buffed with longer-lasting buffs and entered the Earth challenge. While Astarta dealt with the Fission slime using Aganazer Scorcher wand charges, Aerie buffed party with Haste, and then Improved Invisibility. Astarta hid under Invisibility potion when the slime died.

The party was transported to the chess battle 3 rounds after the slime died. Wasting no time, they started the fight. The effect of the three Detonation arrows + 2 Fireball charges was devastating. Since no one in the party is protected from missile fire, most dangerous enemies are the 2 rooks. Of course, could pre-buff with ProMissiles at least PC, but then again, there would not be enough ProFire buff spells, and those are important when everyone shoots with Detonation arrows and Fireball wands. Now as enemy's right flank has been eliminated, the enemies from the left flank approached. 3 more Detonation arrows eliminated the second Rook + more pawns, while Alia and Astarta switched to Scorcher charges to deal with the Pawn and Knight that survived. The King was subject to ranged weapon attacks + summoned monster attacks, combined with sorceress' Remove Magic, which at least dispel his Mirror Image. And he fell. Never seeing the Queen, one Knight and one Bishop, most probably those were killed by the collateral damage of the Detonation arrows. 12 arrows wasted in this fight. Loot: some clerical scrolls and a +3 two-handed sword plus some +2 arrows.

[PicklePepperPiper]

Argh - absolute shame. An unlucky hit with a vampire wolf and my only character capable of dealing any real damage to them was held. Just happened to be Jacamo and despite Jaheira's healing efforts he was killed. I had done quite a bit too since my last update, was just about to move onto Firewine Bridge then Bandit Camp when I ran into that. Jacamo was 4 XP off level 5. It hurts. Plus he had a missile AC of -15 after a trip north for cloak of dis. so Bandit Camp and sirine beach was ripe for the picking.

Think I'll continue him in a minimal reload - not interesting enough to start again but I'd like to see him through to the end. Itching to get him through to BG2 and have him dual class, never really saw that one through the gazillion amount of times I've started this character. Probably will roll an assassin for another no reload because I've never played one before. That'll happen in the next few days.

-PPP

Modifié par PicklePepperPiper, 08 avril 2012 - 12:45 .

[Gate70]

PicklePepperPiper wrote...
@Gate70 - past the days of spamming Wand of Summoning?
-PPP

While that works in vanilla to some extent I got fed up of creating an undead army and then have Angelo incinerate them with 1-2 arrows. I'm not certain but believe the BG2 engine 5 summon restriction still applies to wands?

Oh, and sorry to see another loss due to hold.

Modifié par Gate70, 08 avril 2012 - 12:58 .