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[Grond0]

Final update for Heedless

Another hour and a bit of gameplay saw Heedless off to Athkatla. 

From the bandit camp he obtained a few things at Ulgoth's Beard and then ran through the Cloakwood avoiding enemies.  At the mine he pulled Drasus away and was able to finish him off before running from the rest.  He then went invisibly down to Daveorn and dealt with him using potion of magic blocking and rage.

Arriving at the city I mis-clicked in conversation with Scar and told him Heedless had nothing to do with the Iron Throne.  Interestingly this meant that one future conversation with Scar was no longer required - could save a few seconds there if I ever do another speed run.

Picked up tomes, eagle bow and Helm of Balduran without any problem and investigated the Iron Throne invisibly.  Back at Candlekeep used scroll of magic protection and storm giant strength to loot the tombs and then asked Prat nicely for his throwing axe.  He didn't seem all that keen, but Heedless had a very persuasive axe of his own.

Back in the city Heedless buffed up for Slythe (who didn't last long) and the palace.  At the palace I wanted to defeat the dopplegangers fairly if possible.  Initially 3 of them attacked Heedless, which was a good result and shortly 2 of those were dead and the battle effectively won.  The XP from the dopplegangers also gave Heedless level 8.  The level up screen looked particularly nice due to DUHM being active, but was good anyway - taking his basic HPs to 91 (compared to average of 88.5).

In the final fight Sarevok and Angelo were pulled away.  Initially I planned on persuading Sarevok to kill Angelo, but decided I wanted the XP to get up to around the normal 161k cap (finally finished just a few hundred above this).  With Sarevok on his own Heedless buffed up similarly to the battle with Slythe referred to above and then actually met Sarevok in a fair fight and defeated him.  When Sarevok gave up Heedless was badly damaged, but could still safely have taken another hit before needing to run.

[corey_russell]

Jianson wrote...

As it turns out, Ulgoth's Beard was our life-line - 35 heal potions in stock!

There is one more temple pre-BG you didn't mention: Temple of Yondalla & Alvanhendar's Fine Wines.

Oops, you are quite right! That would have been 20 extra potions...I usually forget about that Temple...can be tricky to get to (you can trigger a basilisk ambush on the way sometimes)

And congratulations Grond0! My mage/thieves need to get into gear and catch  up with you all, they started before you and Gate70.

Modifié par corey_russell, 06 septembre 2012 - 10:25 .

[Gate70]

Well done Grond0.

Comparing solo berserker/stalker to a party needing massive micro-management is doing yourself an injustice corey_russell - my party games with charname +5 NPC's usually take 5-10 times as long as my solo runs (and you've got a party that probably need more attention than the typical party too). Oh, and Erdane should have 20 or so potions - only need to visit the Durlags map and not the tower itself.

[corey_russell]

 Corthief the level 6 illusionist/level 7 thief and fellow thief/mages - FINAL BG 1 update

It was time to take on the 5th floor Iron Throne baddies. Decided the best defense is a good offense. So the whole party had various kinds of fireballs, including arrows of detonation for Stabber and Corthief. After the initial salvo, the bowmen kept firing their fire, while the other 3 concentrated spells on Gardush, the only melee that managed to approach -- this won the battle with no casualties!

Next up Candlekeep. We didn't fight the Iron Throne leaders. In the catacombs, the dopplegangers were just killing Trapper, even with mirror images. Am glad I decided to avoid most fights here, it could have been ugly. We did have to fight the phase spiders -- one went right to Corthief! Fortunately Corthief went invisible via spell and then backstabbed the mean spider dead. No casualties against spiders, whew (but easily could have). Corthief gets the tomes. We do take out the ghasts in the area, then move to the next level, kill a doppleganger. Then the famliar invises the party and we get out of here. Locke did kill the basilisks out of sight using her fireball wand repeatedly at the ground.

After escaping, we head to the City. What we did is use invisibility 10' to get to our destinations, whether it be the store or story events, then invis via spell to a tavern, rest and repeat! This way we did not have to travel the sewers nor did we have to fight any flaming fist or get arrested.

* Cythrandria - defeated basically by hasted summons
* Slythe - dispelling arrows and magic missiles and burning hands was just a bit too much for him - Krystin didn't survive hasted summons either.
* Duchal Palace Fight - various spells, but the whole party put summons inbetween the Dukes and the dopplegangers. The key spells however were those cast by Cothief. Corthief cast, in order: 1) dispel magic 2) haste (on our summons) 3) slow (on the dopplegangers). This was very effective. Trapper had to take ONE doppleganger was getting just thrashed! He even had to run, despite using heal potions...fortunately everyone else's magic missiles finished the pesky doppleganger. Victory was shortly after that.
* Thieve's Maze, UnderCity - We skipped this entire thing, again using the familiar invis 10'. Trapper of course de-trapped along the way. Jellies are extremely dangerous to this party, so would be the skeletal warriors, so just passed. We probably could have defeated the Iron Throne Undercity party, but we didn't need the loot, nor would it give us any levels, as we just recently leveled.

Sarevok Battle
* Prep - a few buffs, lots of fire protection of course, magic shielding and haste on everyone. Potions of perception and haste boots on Corthief, in case he was the last survivor and he needed to backstab Sarevok dead. Summons placed in center.
* Initial play - Charissy fired a necklace of missiles shot from the left, out of sight, at the dais and retreated to the party
* Only Sarevok came, at first. Unloaded magic missiles into him naturally. Our orbs are only 3, so it's slow going. Semaj eventually appears, only to have his protections get dispelled by Corthief and Stabber. Semaj falls shortly there-after.
* Tazok and Angelo start joining the battle. Angelo is lighting up the summons with fire, however we concentrate spells/fire on Sarevok and he is near death!

The party continues to concentrate fire, either +2 bullets, darts of stunnig, or +2 arrows or magic missiles -- success, Sarevok falls!



Thoughts about this run:
The party finished with about 89,000 experience. It was necessary to skip a lot of content, either to just survive, or due to resource reasons. We skipped the entire Cloakwood and most of Cloakwood Mines for example. The most critical tool in our kit? The invisibility 10' of Cortheif's familiar. Without that, the party probably would failed. Somewhat ironically groups of mages were not a threat to this party, but being surrounded sure was (we ran from many a fight). Against strong melees, mirror images were completely insufficient - improved invisibility might have helped but that would be late,and the party never was able to cast level 4 spells anyways. Just like my party of cleric/mages, massive micro-managing required. Our Thac0 sucked. In the early going, there was a TON of running around, with who-ever not being chased shooting ranged weapons, but was painfully slow due to poor Thac0. Disabling enemies, if at all possible, was a must. Many battles were impossible without blindness.

Irenicus dungeon going to be interesting - we can't even cast stone-skins!

Modifié par corey_russell, 07 septembre 2012 - 05:54 .

[Jianson]

Well done corey, that was a really cool party.

[Grond0]

Good luck in Amn Corey - things should start to become easier with the protective spells you'll get there.

[corey_russell]

Thanks Jianson and Grond0 -- as Grond0 says, hopefully with the new defenses in Amn, we will do better but only time will tell...

[corey_russell]

 Vaquen the dwarven level 4 fighter entering Trilogy no-reload challenge...

The intent is to solo Vaquen through BG 1 but party in BG 2 since I have to face SCS there.

SETUP:
EasyTutu
Tales of the Sword Coast
Official TotSC patch
Core rules
no other mods



I am happy with his level ups so far. If he can keep it up that's 100 HP at the end.

[Gate70]

Good luck corey_russell. I've been drawn into a random character run which will be fun while it lasts - Grond0 will no doubt be along with his same-stats character soon but here is mine using BGT, core fixpack and generalized biffing.

The random character generator drawn by Grond0 was a male half orc assassin;
STR 15
DEX 15
CON 13
INT 12
WIS 15
CHA 13

I fancied my chances with a half orc assassin but then Grond0 asked about weapon proficiencies and I said let's randomise them too. Hence;
* katana
* single weapon style

With no katana available in Candlekeep he kept hold of the starting quarterstaff and spent all his money on a shortbow. So, here is Trug

[corey_russell]

Sounds interesting Gate70. Solo or party? Good luck to you too, you will probably need it.

[corey_russell]

 Vaquen the level 6 dwarven fighter continues his adventure...

In getting his upgrades that he will use prior to the City of Baldur's Gate, Vaquen is now level 6. He is now working on the main story-line. He's usually out-classed the opposition, although he did have to retreat at least once. One ambush in particular was interesting...3 ghasts appeared and I was carrying Samuel and overburdened! Vachen ended up dropping his plate mail and running, as he could easily replace it with the 2 winter wolf pelts he was carrying. He upgraded to full plate shortly thereafter anyways, at least it wasn't something critical...

He has ** in axes, ** in two hand sword and ** in long bow. Here is his equipment configuration now.

[Grond0]

Introducing Ganger the assassin

Ganger had not had a happy childhood growing up in Candlekeep.  His foster father, Gorion, was OK but Ganger had always felt there was something out of kilter with the world.  It was as if he didn't belong there, or perhaps as if someone else did.  I'm sure that feeling had a lot to do with his choice to learn the skills of an assassin as he grew up.

When an urgent message from Gorion arrived that they needed to leave Candlekeep Ganger knew he only had a short time left to practise his skills.  His fears were justified as Gorion was cut down in an ambush leaving him all alone in the world.  Though there might be something comforting in travelling with companions Ganger did not trust others easily (and the feeling was usually mutual) so it is likely he will continue on his own.

Seeking out some dark alleyways Ganger made for Beregost.  On the way he was accosted by some gnolls and had to shoot many arrows to deal with them {note to self: travel more at night}.  Arriving in town he found himself impressed by Marl's anger and took the unusual step of talking to him to find out what caused it.  That gave immediate benefits - +2 HPs and improved stealth.  Also in town he looked up Firebead to tell him what happened to Gorion, but the old man wasn't interested in anything except books so Ganger went away again.

Seeking a place to rest Ganger was set upon by a dwarf, but he was able to dodge behind some pillars in the inn to hide and quickly smear some paste on the end of his staff {note to self: don't pick up the staff by the green end}.  Shortly afterwards Karlat was dead and Ganger was also able to find a good home for the sword he removed from the gnolls.  Once again he felt he was getting to grips with this adventuring business - +2 HPs and improved stealth.

Unsure of what to do next Ganger gently drifted south.  Some ogrillons that tried to impede his progress were filled full of arrows and a letter they carried was returned to a grateful owner.  Ganger also made a great discovery when a hobgoblin corpse was found to be wearing some quality boots - freshly oiled in order to make no sound when he is creeping up on something.

His good deed for the day week month year was saving a cow from some hungry xvarts.  The cow's owner had some sage words of advice for Ganger.

South a bit more and Ganger arrived in another town.  A nice surprise there was a suit of armour lying in the ground.  The mysterious material it was made of seemed to have resisted the damp well and the local shopkeeper paid him a good price for it.  While in the area he sought out a man called Oublek that he'd heard commissioned jobs that might suit an assassin.  However, Oublek seemed to think he was someone else and Ganger left him in disgust.

The road south led into mountains, which looked rather too forbidding, so Ganger headed back north.  Coming across an ogre he tried applying poison to his arrows for a change.  He had been worried that there would only be enough poison for one arrow, but fortunately he found so little was needed that he seemed to have enough to poison as many arrows as needed to get a solid hit.

Moving on to the Friendly Arm Inn he had another nice surprise - this time discovering a valuable antique ring hidden among some tree roots.  Some hobgoblins clearly liked rings and tried to take this one off him, but it was night-time now (the assassin's friend) and all they could do was add to Ganger's experience - +6 HPs, improved stealth and the ability to use his staff properly.

Her found a home for one ring with a grateful Joia.  Then, looking for a bath and a change of clothes, Ganger found someone blocking the door of the inn.  Tired and in no mood to talk he had soon removed the blockage!  With his room door securely locked and a few traps set for any intruders Ganger was finally able to relax and as he drifted off to sleep he dreamed of what his life might have been like if he had made different decisions on the road.

Dopple Trug the assassin
Done the Candlekeep chores.
Dumped Imoen. Conned Xzar and Montaron.
Grabbed diamond, ring of protection +1, ring of wizardry.
Marl. Level 2, 6>10hp. +10 ms, +5 his. Firebead.
Mirianne's ogrillions.
Zhurlongs hobgoblin.
Ankheg plate.
Noober. Level 3, 10>12hp. +5 ms, +10 his.
Cave bear (ambush).
Brage.
Tell Oublek I am trug not Greywolf.
Unshey's ogre (poison arrows). Level 4, 12>16hp. +5ms, +5his, +5traps.
Cave bear (ambush, poison arrows).
Zal (arrow range > dart range, shoot from shadows, step/hide).

Here is Ganger's current record.

Modifié par Grond0, 09 septembre 2012 - 05:43 .

[corey_russell]

Just a quick update about Vaquen - he is level 8 now, 90 HP. He is about to deal with the Cloakwood Mines problem. Upgrades/story from here-on in.

[Jianson]

Grond0 wrote...
Zal (arrow range > dart range, shoot from shadows, step/hide).

Nice move! I haven't thought of that...
Good write-up. Assassins have the potential to be cool characters.


Ivy, elven Wild Mage, continues to beef up without advancing main plot

I finally decided that my big-time shopping had to wait and went to lower my rep so I could dump Branwen and she'd still be around for later. Thought of which innocent victim would be the most profitable to kill. "Come here, buddy".
Branwen's last task before leaving was to loot the Nashkel Garrison under Sanctuary (Imoen had opened the locks earlier). Hard Times had removed the +1 short sword, but I found some gold a decent potion.

The first area my weak but levelling-hungry trio decided to try their luck on was - Basilisks! First part of the plan was to scout out and remove all non-significant enemies (gnolls, tasloi, gibberlings, etc.) so they wouldn't get in the way when I needed to move fast between basilisk fights (so Korax could be at his most useful). I was very careful doing this. Ivy was left somewhere safe while Faldorn followed Imoen's scout directions. Faldorn can tank low-threat foes quite well and Imoen is a decent archer.

Korax was recruitred, Imoen used the (expensive!) long-lasting protection scroll and the duo went to work. All southern and central basilisks were easily slain, with just a scratch on Korax. By my count, there should now be two with Mutamin and another two further to the north. I had hoped to be able to lure the two away from Mutamin but that does not work with SCS - the psycho gnome showed up (is he permanently Hasted, what's up with that?). Imoen backed away to avoid spells. I figured this would be the end of Korax. But Korax scored a hit on Mutamin, who didn't save. Really?! Imoen peeked from the shadows. Ha! Jackpot, I'd say. The charm effect on Korax lasted long enough to finish off all the basilisks. Soon afterwards, he turned enemy and one arrow was enough to drop him. Excellent.

I had more trouble with Lindin's party. I did manage to break the pack (not easy with SCS) so only Lindin (fighter) followed. She proved to be too tough for Faldorn to tank, but thankfully Lindin failed a save vs. Blindness so we could shoot her down without problems. Kirian (bard) hit Imoen with this. As soon as the spell was flying, Imoen ran as far as she could and tried to stealth. Failed, as you can see. But this was a lowly Charm Person which lasts only a few rounds and Kirian didn't find her during that time.

Ivy cast a Horror against the two remaining guys, and Peter (cleric) failed the save. The other guy, Baerin (archer) was a real piece of work. Faldorn tried to close the distance so he'd be forced to melee or be at a disadvantage. But he had applied an oil of speed and was really threatening to kill Faldorn. He damaged her far quicker than she could heal herself with potions. Ivy had no good spells left for the situation but she had a wand of lightning - an item we had found in a very surprising place: on a random gnoll on a 'waylaid' map. (I love that kind of random loot! It had 4 charges when I found it). The wand functions differently than what I am used to (BG2 style?): I got to select four targets. All four on Baerin, of course. Have at you!

Back-to-back fighting The Horde. Imoen was using a Short Sword +1 she isn't proficient with because she had just broken one of the two long swords we had and I didn't want to risk breaking the last one. Laurel did a good job on that side anyway. Her weapon broke midway through the fight so she could just punch the gibberlings to sleep. Actually a tiny bonus for me (more XP...).

The Neville fight was quite bothersome for us. This may lead you to think we were home free but unfortunately the mental domination does not continue from beyond the grave...
Neville had applied an oil of speed and was very dangerous, chasing Imoen. Once again, this excellent spell saved the day. Imoen loved the loot on him - a Long Sword +1.

Doomsayer. (Doomed - how fitting) What a horror for us this creature turned out to be! Skull Trap was good against it but Call Lightning did nothing. Once Ivy was out of Skull Traps and Imoen was out of elemental arrows (4 cold, ~15 fire, manged to do damage with about 3 arrows in total...), we couldn't damage him any more in a way that was safe for us. Ivy tried one last move which nearly cost her her life. For some reason, her feet didn't obey my directions. She seemed to be stuck in some way. And of course, with a spell just cast she wouldn't be able to drink an inviso potion during the next seconds! Finally, she got moving and we fled off the map.

Second attempt failed also. I had prepared a 3x Skull Trap trap and had planned to lead Doomsayer into it by circling around the skulls (careful to keep the distance!). But Imoen (and I) lost track of Doomsayer after she had fled out of visiual range and hid again. Doomsayer had wanderer away a bit and suddenly, Ivy was nearly dead again, from a hit! Ah, so that's where it went...Instant inviso potion, and we fled off the map again.

Third attempt was a total success. Doom again and then the Nymph triumphed. 

I had now cleared out all the easy maps and decided to play the first four levels of Nashkel mines. The improved SCS kobolds (originally from DSotSC) humiliated us. First, we had to flee up to level 2 before we were even close to wiping out the kobolds. This was VERY close for Faldorn - the life you see is after the Mass Cure...

Then my stupidity (and maybe a little underestimation) caused Imoen's first death. When she was scouting, she failed stealth at a really bad time and the kobold shaman near the exit Charmed her. That was no problem as long as our dread wolf was still around because the kobolds ignored Imoen when they fought the wolf. When it died, they attacked Imoen. I panicked and did a really stupid move: I had the nymph cast Hold Person on them (note to self: charmed party members count as enemies as far as spells go...). I think you can guess the result.
Imoen didn't last long against the Chieftain's poisoned arrows.

Now followed some frustrating fighting (with Imoen gone, our damage output in fighting with weapons goes from mediocre to flat-out pathetic...). Faldorn got poisoned and very hurt twice, which took a toll on our potion supply. I had her make a strategic retreat and Ivy used her final Skull Trap to good effect. Only the shaman was left now. After its spells were gone, Faldorn could (slowly) melee it to death. We had a scroll of Raise Dead with us, so Imoen could be around for level 4 (we went back up and out of the mine to rest first, though).

Visited Gullykin next, and did the part of the Firewine dungeon that doesn't involve fighting Lendarn and crew. Imoen received Invisibility and de-trapped the whole place. Then disaster struck! I decided Ivy needed better protection from Kobold Commando arrows, in case they managed to get a surprise shot in at her. This happened. My gold plummeted from 16k to 3k. Do you know how much 13k gold is with Hard Times on? A bloody fortune, that's what it is! Damn, damn, damn...

The Undead Knight was very dangerous for us and caused a lot of damage to Faldorn. Imoen had already backstabbed it and had it trip into both of her traps but that hadn't damaged it much. The fight got easier when its weapon broke. But there went even more gold - with my mod setup, I think that was the cursed +3 spear 'Backbiter'...

I was now running out of 'easy' things to do. Without Branwen's skeletons I have no good way to fight sirines, and Ankhegs still feels too nasty. Don't like the idea of fighting advanced mages either...

So, Durlag's Tower it is! Well, at least selected early parts. Random loot had given Ivy a Protection from Petrification scroll. The duration of that spell is long enough to fight the basilisks on the tower roof. I figured I needed some capable warrior, so I picked up Minsc. Familiar cheesy tactics was used to get to the tower. Things went really well early on, even though the loot in those areas is quite sparse with Hard Times on.

Imoen had great success because she managed to pickpocket Kirinhale as she was DDing out of the place. You have to be quick for that. The reward: staff mace +2! (the one usually found on Balduran island) That's a great weapon for many classes. Riggilo proved to be a mouthful. The annoying bugger had several inviso potions and went backstabbing the crap out of Minsc and Faldorn. And even after he was out of inviso potions, he could still hide in shadows. Not even Blindness kept him from hiding. No backstab deaths, though, and he could finally be overwhelmed with a pack of summoned dogs/wolves.

I had not originally planned to fight Daital the Ghost Mage at this stage but Faldorn sent in her dread wolf alone, mostly just to see what he would do. That got Daital to waste a Cloudkill, two Lightning Bolts (the wolf is immune to both of these things) and several more spells that he couldn't even get off because of the Cloudkill. Even though he didn't take any damage, the cloud still interrupted him. The wolf got him to cast an initial Protection from Magical Weapons and another Stoneskin, too. He killed the wolf with a 2x Magic Missile Minor Sequencer.

Ivy throwed a Skull Trap into the room but that didn't do anything. Imoen's traps didn't either (Stoneskin, I suppose). Minsc and Faldorn took turns fighting him, causing him to cast Stoneskin again, and they triggered a Contingency Stoneskin. He replied with some Magic Missiles and Chromatic Orbs. To my surprise, one of the Orbs killed Minsc when he wasn't even that hurt. Hmm, he must have failed his save against the instakill effect of a 12th-level Orb. Finally, it looked like was running out of spells. He had MMMs going as well. They were dangerous to Imoen but Daital had trouble hitting Faldorn with them. Imoen was more useful as a stealthy blocker as long as he had MMMs left.

On our way out, a Doppelganger fight went horribly wrong. This is regular Doppelgangers, but SCS boosts them with spells normally reserved for the Greater ones.
I was pissed now.
Take that, scum!
And that!
The animals caught up to the third one soon (it was scared from a Horror) and finished it off.

I screwed up quite a bit on the four warders level. Imoen tripped a trap going into the wine press room and it killed her. When Minsc went to retrieve her stuff, it happened to him too! Crap. Oh yeah, most traps remain here even after they have been triggered the first time. I kind of knew that but I thought Minsc would have enough HP to survive anyway. What to do now? We have no Raise Dead scroll with us, and going to a temple and back takes a long time. Sigh, no choice but to use a Protection from Magic scroll on Faldorn so she could pick up the gear. Ivy stood close by so she could be given gear. The combined weight of the things was a bit too much so I stashed Imoen's armor in a barrel close by.

The Battle Horrors were killed using two invisble blockers in a doorway and Minsc with his long range Halberd +1 to poke them from a safe distance. This tactic didn't work against the Skeleton Warriors because they have the same range (two-handed swords). I solved this by having Faldorn as bait a bit inside the room and Minsc hide in shadows around the corner, score one hit, pull back, hide, rinse and repeat. It's a good things these particular skelly warriors do not come equipped with bows.

Another clumsy Imoen death when she was trying to kill the two mustard jellies with backstabs. She retreated (to be able to hide in shadows) into the very hallway you should never walk in. Minsc sneaked to it, killed it and brought Imoen's stuff back. It's tough being Imoen in my parties. 4 deaths now (so CON is down to 12).

After another temple visit, Imoen could finally open up the many chests and bring out some phat loot:
* several nice potions (including our first Freedom potion)
* Greenstone Amulet (4 charges)
* Several very nice 4th and 5th level mage scrolls.

We have not dared to touch the room with the three greater doppelgangers, so only two of the warder's tasks have been completed (gong plate is in that room, and Love must be done last).

Random positive thing: Flesh Golems can be hurt by fire arrows. The fire effect does nothing but the regular arrow part works perfectly fine. Nice for me who has stocked up in Firewine dungeon.

Random negative thing: Ivy failed to scribe her Emotion scroll, despite Genius potion. 96% chance of success, and she blew it! Bugger, that spell was to be an ace up my sleeve against the two assassin ambushes after Mulahey is dead.
You could also add the fact that Melium had nothing interesting on him (well, other than a plain Katana worth 250gp).

Ivy's scroll wish list right now:
1. Emotion
2. Stoneskin
3. Melf's Minute Meteors
4. Invisbility 10' Radius
5. Spider Spawn

Areas and things left to do outside main plot and accessible pre-BG:
Areas not visited yet: Larswood, Peldvale, Valley of the Tombs, Lighthouse, Shipwreck's Coast, Ulcaster, Spider Wood, Cloakwood Wyverns, Ice Island
Areas with main part of fighting left to do: Ankheg Farm, Cloakwood 1-3, Lendarn fight in Firewine dungeon
Particular fights left: Kahrk, Silke, greater doppelganger room in Durlag's Tower -2
(four warders battle and beyond is for the REALLY late game...)
NPC project quests: Coran, Kivan, Xan, Garrick (Jaheira's and Xzar's quests are out because they are no longer in the game)
7 chests scattered around the world map that are still unopened

Ivy, level 8 Wild Mage, 19+6 HP
Imoen, level 8 Thief, 28 HP (4 deaths, CON=12)
Faldorn, level 9 Druid, 38 HP
Minsc, level 6 Ranger, 43 HP (2 deaths, CON=13)

Only Minsc has had HP rolls above average.

Faldorn just reached level 9 when we cleaned out the undead on the outside of Durlag's. That brings some interesting possibilies for sirine/doppelganger fighting (Chaotic Commands), spellcaster fighting (Insect Plague) and stealth travelling (Pixie Dust). Super fierce competion among spells for that 5th-level slot. Animal Summoning II is also very nice but all those other spells do specific stuff we can't do without spending items (that we hardly have).

Imoen closes in on her dual-classing. My pick for temporary thief is definitely Coran because he is a good warrior, too. Monty could have been considered but he's not around anymore.

Modifié par Jianson, 09 septembre 2012 - 08:28 .

[Grond0]

Jianson wrote...
Doomsayer. (Doomed - how fitting) What a horror for us this creature turned out to be! Skull Trap was good against it but Call Lightning did nothing. Once Ivy was out of Skull Traps and Imoen was out of elemental arrows (4 cold, ~15 fire, manged to do damage with about 3 arrows in total...), we couldn't damage him any more in a way that was safe for us. Ivy tried one last move which nearly cost her her life. For some reason, her feet didn't obey my directions. She seemed to be stuck in some way. And of course, with a spell just cast she wouldn't be able to drink an inviso potion during the next seconds! Finally, she got moving and we fled off the map.

Sounds like a interesting run.  There is a short period after casting Agannazar's Scorcher where the caster is stuck - I think this is intended to reflect the need to concentrate on the spell to allow it to be maintained for 2 rounds.  The spell can still be very useful as it can do a lot of damage to parties of enemies, but you do need to make sure you cast it in situations where you don't immediately need to run.

[Jianson]

It was indeed an interesting run - but now it's over.

Played the Lighthouse map and decided to side with Sil for once. Imoen entered the pirate house and picked a fight. She backed out, hid in the shadows, in again and backstabbed the archer down to Badly Injured. She got cornered (the wild mage cast Horror but Immy had protection from that) and had to save herself with our last inviso potion. All pirates except the archer left the house, where the Dread Wolf was waiting. Faldorn cast a Call Lightning, then another. Minsc focused his shooting at the mage and disrupted a spell. Ivy (with Shield up) cast a Horror which got 4 out of 5 people running around like headless chickens. One pirate saved against it, but I couldn't see where he was. Another pirate died from a second burst from the first Call Lightning.

Pirate - attacks Ivy

"What...where..."

SPLAT!

Oh, he was the one that saved. The most important one (well, the Old Man seemed to have similar abilities...)

He backstabbed away all of my 25 HP. I don't know if it was a critical or not but that wouldn't have mattered because I was wearing a Ioun Stone (works as a helmet).

So many things I could have done better:
- have Improved Invisibility on (it was memorized)
- use Mirror Image (I gave priority to other 2nd level spells)
- have summoned the Nymph also, and have it use Hold Monster as soon as they got out of the house
- have Imoen set some traps outside the house (I'll make sure to do this if we make it to this fight again!)

Oh well...I sort of knew my low HP would always be a risk factor...


I think I'll try an elven Beast Master now. Planned party is Imoen, Faldorn and Edwin.

Modifié par Jianson, 09 septembre 2012 - 03:34 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Feel sorry for your loss, Jianson... It was a pleasure to follow Ivy's run. Let wisdom guide your next one. 

Grond0 wrote...
There is a short period after casting Agannazar's Scorcher where the caster is stuck - I think this is intended to reflect the need to concentrate on the spell to allow it to be maintained for 2 rounds. The spell can still be very useful as it can do a lot of damage to parties of enemies, but you do need to make sure you cast it in situations where you don't immediately need to run.

Or you can just use it from Wand of Fire and move without *stuck* period.

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 09 septembre 2012 - 02:18 .

[Grond0]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
Or you can just use it from Wand of Fire and move without *stuck* period.

Indeed.  For non-casters potion of firebreath can also be used, though like the spell there is a short static period at the start to watch out for.

[corey_russell]

Vaquen the level 8 dwarven fighter - micro-update

Vaquen successfully dealt with Drassus and pals. The mages were slaughtered using necklace of missiles, straight melee took down Drassus and Genthore. Vaquen was using sword and shield style for this battle.

Vaquen didn't have any invis potions, but whenever possible, avoided fights, primarily as he was at the cap and also had basically no looting room. Also to conserver heal potions, as the battle horrors always seem to put a beating on my melee characters. He did use a potion of magic blocking against Heirashan and necklace of missiles, otherwise it was straight melee with this Spider's Bane.

As for Davaeorn's level, he used extensive potion buffing, potion of fire resistance, regeneration, heroism and frost giant strength. Despite all this, one of the battle horrors still got him to 1/2 life. He moved forward VERY slowly, to be sure to get the horrors just one at a time.

As for Daveorn himself, just potions of cold and absorption were added to the prior potions oh and greenstone amulet charge. Somewhat suprisingly, the acid arrows were devastating! They were hitting Daveorn despite his mirror images, disrupting his spells and even killing him.

However, Vaquen must DELAY his quest. Why? Well, I found out that whenever my laptop gets on the internet, our router loses its Internet! BUT, if I disable my wireless (meaning my laptop would not be on the net), then we don't lose Internet. I know in the US sometimes ISPs disable customers Internet if they have certain kinds of malware. Despite my repeated malware scans, I think I may have a rootkit. Unfortunately, the only solution is a factory restore -- which means reinstall of BG and restore the saves from my USB stick (which is slow). But before I can do any of that, will of course have to put on windows updates and anti-virus, which takes hours just for that.

In any case, Vaquen will resume, once my laptop is operational again...

[Grond0]

Sorry for your technical woes Cory. Hope to see Vaquen in action again soon.

[Gate70]

Jianson wrote...
It was indeed an interesting run - but now it's over.

Pity that, I was enjoying reading the things I don't bother with in a no-reload (charming Oublek presumably as the Phoenix guards appear, looting the garrison - years since I did that, the enhanced horde with Laurel, converting wild mage loot into premature gold).

[Gate70]

Maybe ask your ISP if that's the case before spending all that effort (I would have thoght your ISP should at least confirm one way or the other unless they are as helpful useless as my previous one).

[Jianson]

Gate70 wrote...(charming Oublek presumably as the Phoenix guards appear)

No Phoenix Guards involved, since getting the reputation loss was part of the plan. I just wanted Oublek away from the streets so the soldiers wouldn't turn hostile when we killed him.

[Grond0]

Ganger, assassin 6

Ganger was something of a mixed-up kid.  Not only was he not quite sure who he was, but he also had contrary impulses about what he should be doing.  Half the time he seemed to be trying to help people and the other half laughing as he watched them writhing in agony from poison!

Killing a wolf for a chicken fell into the former category and Ganger went further by doing a spot of skeleton hunting at the request of a mage.  However, all this work got scant reward as he ended up with only a bit of extra dinner for his efforts.

Further south he tried again using a mixture of backstabs and shooting to deal with 4 half-ogres.  This time he did get a tangible reward - Bjornin was so grateful he gave Ganger his shield (Ganger did wonder if Bjornin isn't quite as keen to get back in the action as a paladin should be).  While in the area he shot up some spiders and then took the goods they were guarding back to Landrin at the Friendly Arm.

Deciding he was now up to the rigours of trekking through the mountains Ganger headed down to the Cloudpeaks.  His first task was to track down and rescue Rufie (level 5 - +6 HPs, improved stealth), but the dog got left behind by his owner and had to be put down.  Ganger pulled Sendai well away from her companions, with a view to shooting her without alerting them.  However, his archery skills needed a bit of polishing and he used 50 or so arrows on Sendai (wasting both poisons in the process) getting her to only injured status.  He finally resorted to running round a rock for a couple of backstabs to finish her off. 

Vax took a bit less time as Ganger didn't try so many arrows, but he again wasted both poisons before striking with backstabs, which also allowed Vax the chance to talk to him.  That meant  Zal was already hostile, but after another day's rest his second poison backstab attempt struck home on him and Zal soon keeled over.  His bracers make stealth shots a bit easier and produced an immediate change of luck as both Delgod and Alexander fell victim to a single use of poison weapon.  Both survived, but at near death, and were soon finished off.  His second poison for the night damaged a winter wolf and a few normal stealth shots got it ready for a new life as a cloak.

The bracers continued their good work as a single use of poison weapon accounted for Caldo with one hit and Krumm with two more.  The reward from the Dryad was a bit disappointing though and she didn't stick around long enough for Ganger to pickpocket anything.  On a roll now Ganger found that both Gnarl and Hairtooth have tender constitutions. They donated another pair of bracers with multiple uses - they should make melee combat a bit more attractive as well as improving Ganger's ability to use thief skills.  Trying them out he sneaked down to pick up the tome of charisma.

Back in civilised territory Ganger paid a visit to the carnival to try his luck at the shooting booths there.  His repertoire included some normal shots at Oopah, some poisoned ones for Vitiare and stealth shots with poisoned magic arrows for Zordral.  The latter looked like he wanted to say something to Ganger, but couldn't get the words out due to constantly screaming in agony.  That grisly experience gave Ganger a feeling of greater control over his destiny - +1 HP, improved stealth.  Bentha then shared the same fate. 

Finally moving on to the mines area Greywolf sucked up a couple of poisoned arrows, but still needed 4 backstabs to make him lie down.  In the mines Ganger intended to stay out of trouble, but carelessly moved too quickly and set off one trap on a bridge, though the other was safely deactivated from the shadows.  With average stealth of over 90% wearing the bracers of dexterity Ganger found it fairly easy to hide down there and avoided the rest of the kobolds.  Mulahey was shot from the shadows without talking - he was running scared after being poisoned 3 times and 1 more shot finished him.

Feeling he was due for a rest Ganger relaxed at the carnival and idly wondered what his life might have been like if he'd made different decisions during his travels.

Trug
The list of assassinations is growing. Caldo, Krumm, Tarnesh, a winter wolf, Hairtooth, Gnarl, another cave bear, Greywolf. This little lot pay for tomes of leadership and bodily health, a cloak of displacement and a greenstone amulet. On top of that I've borrowed a dagger from Hentold (* in dagger at level 4). I borrow another dagger but it is useless so hand it on to Miner Kylee.

A pair of snares on a bridge are disarmed without three kobolds spotting me. Three backstabs account for a pair of huge spiders then I sneak along to three more snares and remove them too. A lone kobold is backstabbed and I carelessly add his arrows to my quiver then try to backstab a kobold commando with my bow - oops. I retreat into the shadows without injury and backstab the commando as it follows. One more kobold is backstabbed and a second meleed, forcing me to rest in shadows after killing it.

Four kobolds are inside the final part of the mine, I shoot them as I retreat towards a pool. Then I play hide and seek with Mulahey but miss as does a follow-up arrow. I remove his six skeletons one by one and cast a minor healing, then do the same for his kobolds and glug one healing potion. My second poisoned backstab attempt works and my follow-up is better. My backpack has just enough room for the loot taken from his body and a nearby chest.

[Grond0]

Ganger, assassin 6

Returning to Nashkel Ganger found a home for Joseph's ring and one of the emeralds left on Prism's body before reporting to the mayor.  An initial shot against Nimbul failed (unsurprisingly considering he's not very accurate even against people without magic boots), but a follow-up backstab was much more effective against someone carelessly equipped with a missile weapon while an assassin is around.

Tranzig produced a bit of a surprise by somehow managing to choke out a spell with two lots of poison coursing through his veins.  However, as it wasn't a charm Ganger was happy to stand there and take it in order to watch Tranzig's last struggles.

At the bandit camp, the boys with the bows were tempting targets for backstabs.  However, when one bandit turned and avoided backstab damage, while another came into view at the wrong time Ganger was hit twice and forced to take his first healing potion of the run.  Taugosz was badly damaged by a poison arrow and quite a bit of running later Ganger's second successful backstab finished the job.

In the main tent Ganger decided not to give a sucker an even break, so used stealth shots from the doorway.  His first poison weapon allowed 4 +1 arrows to be fired at Venkt, but all missed.  His second poison weapon allowed 4 more attempts - and all missed again.  His third lot allowed 5 attempts - all missed, but this time Venkt saw enough from one of them to follow Ganger out of the tent.  That obviously improved the sight lines as on his fourth lot he hit with his first attempt and then again with his second - the latter proving too much for Venkt.

After a bit more resting he poisoned Raemon, but then decided to speed things up by using the potion of firebreath that Taugosz dropped.  That finished off Raemon, sent Hakt running and left Britik at near death and soon after the tent was clear.  With far more loot than he could carry Ganger used a potion of fortitude to add 50% to his hits and then opened the chest (couldn't even detect the trap with his miserable skill).  With Mulahey's boots on he only took 7 damage and would have survived comfortably even without the potion.

He sold a few items picked up at the camp as well as boots of grounding and boots of avoidance and will next make his way up to Ulgoth's Beard before heading on to the Cloakwood.  First though he had a think about how his alter ego might be getting on.

Trug
Ex-Mrs Joseph has a ring to remember her husband by, then I stop to collect my dues from Berrun Ghastkill. Nimbul is stood waiting as I turn him into poisoned chunks. Assassin 6: 20>25hp, +5% HIS, MS, Traps. Tranzig survives a poison backstab but not a poison arrow. Ardenor Crush falls to a poisoned backstab and a dozen or so arrows, while I miss Taugosz Khosann with two poisoned backstabs. I rest for 24 hours and return the next night, and land two good backstabs with my first application of poison to kill him. I have to dump his armour as I cannot carry it.

After selling everything I own looted from my victims I can afford to upgrade my equipment.

Credus and three more bandits are dealt with then I step inside the main bandit tent. Venkt is a dead man walking so I quickly hide didn't expect this, might be able to stay inside the tent then switch to Hakt as the mage collapses. He is badly wounded and double poisoned but I cannot hide again and instead poison Raemon with an arrow then run from Britik. Raemon hits me so I glug a potion should have the avoidance boots on, almost switched but decided that was unfair mid battle, then we both miss and I hit Raemon for a second time to badly wound him. I move to obscure his view for the few seconds until he expires, then a second application of poison sees Britik takes two arrows but he staggers on until a third lands. I switch boots and glug a potion of insulation before remembering I can disable the trapped chest. Doh.