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[Pingwin1]

My latest attempt at a no reload - Pingvyn the Fighter who would mostly be using two handed swords and longbows.

Made it all the way from Candlekeep to Baldur's Gate without much trouble except for Minsc getting killed by hobgoblin archers on the way to the Gnoll Stronghold and Kivan getting killed by a lone skeleton crossbowman after stepping into the web spell intended for Bassilius and his skeletons. Minsc was no great loss as he was going to leave along with Dynaheir but I originally intended a party lineup of Xzar, Monty, Kivan, Kagain and Viconia. Luckily Garrick was hanging around still in Beregost and took Kivan's place.

Things went a bit wrong in the Blushing Mermaid when the "reversed party" bug put Garrick next to an ogre bounty hunter who killed him with one blow. Normally I don't bother resurrecting dead characters as it seems a bit cheesy that you can raise the dead for a few hundred gold pieces (or 1500 in this case) but I made an exception for Garrick as he would have been fine had the party appeared the right way round in the inn.

Made it as far as the party outside of Sarevok's lair without any more problems and there it all went completely wrong. Kagain and some summoned skeletons charged the party but the skeletons were soon destroyed and Kagain failed to save against a hold person spell. He died the next round. One of the archers in the enemy party then fired two arrows of detonation which killed everybody else apart from Pingvyn. Pingvyn won the fight in the end, mostly using hit and run tactics with acid arrows but he then had to face Sarevok alone. He spent his last moments running through countless explosions, either from fireball traps or attacks from Sarevok's allies before getting trapped in a corner and killed by Sarevok.

[Grond0]

Better luck next time Pingwin1. You might want to consider taking a few potions of invisibility for the final fight with Sarevok. It's quite fun for a solo character to use one as soon as a fireball explodes - any enemies then attack the fireball originator.

[Pingwin1]

Interesting idea... there should have been some potions of invisibility on whatever was left of Montaron. My original plan involved Garrick summoning a small army of monsters to block Sarevok in while everyone else fires whatever missiles they have.

I'll reload I think to get some practice in at taking on Sarevok ready for next time. A very long time ago I completed the game but the furthest I have got for years was the spiders area of Cloakwood so I am quite surprised that I made it as far as I did, having basically forgotten everything about the game beyond Cloakwood.

I was also surprised by how useful the wands of fear are. I never really bothered using them in the past but Viconia firing the wand of fear at any remotely dangerous looking group proved very effective. The mountain maulers, the group on the top floor of the Iron Throne building and the group of ogre mages near the harbour were a few of the fights where I was expecting a challenge but the wand of fear made it a walkover.

[corey_russell]

Veeton Update 3:

@Gate70 - grats on getting your Kensai through
@Gate70, Grond0 - sorry to hear of shocking story of your impossible defeat in Candlekeep

Veeton continues to make great progress. The party just beat the mages on the 2nd floor of Sorcerous Sundries (group haste and resist fear were all that were needed). Run's been pretty clean. When the party can open 2x fireball (from spell), that really changes a lot of encounters.

* Sendai - we walked within visual range and opened with fireball x2 - this wiped out Sendai's archers, so needless to say Sendai went down shortly there-after
* Neira(!) - I didn't realize that I hadn't gone into the Nashkel Inn at all (we've been using the Carnival to rest), and we encountered her the party was level 6! Needless to say, Neira got wiped out quickly, she cast hold person on Shar-Teel, who had Spider's Bane equipped so that wasn't a great play by Neira...
* Centeol - this encounter is much different than solo - the enemies are powerful, so is our party, the enemies were destroyed simply, with no problem encountered.


Forgot to mention that I noticed Imoen won't get back her thief abilities in time, so Safana has joined the group with reasonable traps/lock scores.

*** EDIT ***
* Drassus - Since we were a full party and have no realiable scouts, I acted like I did NOT know Drassus and goons were present and we walked right up to them completely unbuffed. 1st Round - Veeton - casts fireball, Imoen - casts fireball, Branwen - casts silence, Shar-Teel - gulps potion of magic protection, Kagain gulps potion of invulnerability, and Safana, well uses her light crossbow on Drassus.

The result was fantastic - both enemy mages were dead, they couldn't survive fireball x2. Needless to say, without their mage backup, and Drassus and Genthore had no chance and were defeated without a lot of effort.
*****

* Hareishan and her goons - Hareishan and her goons resistance was broken by 3 potions of explosions thrown by Kagain - Kagain of course was protected from both lightning and fire


The mages on the 3nd level were beat by Kagain pretty much via potion of invulnerability. Should mention we were short on cash so we looted everything that was more than 1 gp in worth, so we took a lot of trips back and forth and also of course a lot of ambushes, which we stayed to battle. No deaths in that respect.

Vanilla Daveorn has a big problem when a single character approaches via improved invisibility (cast by Veeton on Kagain) - Davaeorn jumps around, then tried to out melee Kagain with Davaeorn's staff - needless to say, that didn't work out for Davaeorn. What's amazing is we triggered the battle horror traps on purpose for the experience, and for that fight I had Shar-Teel use a stamina potion and her health jumped from 44 to 84! What a difference, will probably use for Sarevok fight.

Most of the party is level 6 and 7.

Modifié par corey_russell, 25 mars 2013 - 03:58 .

[Grond0]

Tiamat, elf wild mage (Update 4)

Rather sloppy play recently, but Tiamat has had a slice of his predecessor's luck and is still going.

Killing some half-ogres for Bjornin got Tiamat to level 7 and he purchased the Claw and Horn of Kazgoroth.  On the way to Ulgoth's Beard he read two acid protection scrolls and used the amulet of shielding to force the ankhegs to roll criticals to hit.   Naturally they did that regularly and Tiamat ended up using all 14 of his healing potions and having to make a first use of the wand of monster summoning to finish off the last of the 3 ankhegs preventing easy access to the treasure.

Gave a bowl back to Tenya on the way to Ulgoth's Beard where he bought staff +3, greenstone amulet and cloak of displacement.  That used most of his available funds, so more saving will be needed to afford the ring of invisibility.

Using green amulet and amulet of shielding Tiamat meleed Tarnesh in order to be able to return Landrin's goods.  Then headed for the coast for an appointment with some sirenes.  The 2 amulets again gave protection while the necklace of missiles helped with some opening damage.  Tiamat did need to be lucky though when I miscalculated how long running around between the first 3 fireballs had taken and his amulet protection expired as a charm was being cast (he had a required saving throw of 6).

Tiamat was also lucky with the flesh golems.  I let the quasit out of the backpack (to be able to carry more loot) assuming it wouldn't be noticed at the door while Tiamat went to grab the treasure - big mistake!

In Nashkel Neira died from a first use of the wand of paralysation allowing Tiamat to rest up before her assault on the mines.  His -11 adjustment to missiles meant the kobolds were easy enough to take down by sling and Tiamat got to level 8 (+5 HPs) by beating up some spiders on the way. Mulahey was another to be drunk (or at least paralytic) on duty.

The shield amulet protected Tiamat against Nimbul, allowing him to just wade in with his staff.  Next on the list was Tranzig; a necklace of missiles blast and a slingshot made him run and, although he tried to make a stand at the bottom of the stairs, he just ended up making a mess.

At the bandit camp Chill were taken down with the sling, bandits by staff (running back a few steps whenever they switched to swords) and Taugosz by paralysation.  Inside the tent there was another immediate error - that invisibility ring's going to be expensive!  Raemon and Britik were pulled outside the tent and finished by sling;  Raemon gave one critical hit before receiving another.  Back inside, the final charge of the necklace of missiles almost killed both Venkt & Hakt and both quickly died from sling bullets.

I put equipment into storage and went to properly loot the pirate cave, ankheg nest and bandit camp.  Did a few more sundry encounters and then took out Zargal & co on the way to confront Bassilus.  Unfortunately, none of his undead died by script, which made Tiamat vulnerable even after paralysing Bassilus and he had to beat a hasty retreat.  After healing up he returned and worked his way around killing as many of the skeletons as possible before attempting Bassilus again.  A charge of the green amulet (only 1 left now) and some summons did the trick.  The temple bounty and selling equipment got Tiamat to over 34,000 gold and he went to buy the ring of invisibility, which cost a mere 31,500.

The run has taken rather longer than I'm used to so far (at least in recent times) as a result of the predominant use of sling (960 bullets used to date).  That probably increases my tendency to sloppy play.  However, from this point on most enemies are likely to be avoided, while items will be used more heavily when Tiamat is fighting, so that should speed things up considerably.

Wild mage level 8, 53 HPs, 197 kills

Modifié par Grond0, 25 mars 2013 - 07:07 .

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

Tiamat, elf wild mage (Update 4)

Rather sloppy play recently, but Tiamat has had a slice of his predecessor's luck and is still going.

Killing some half-ogres for Bjornin got Tiamat to level 20 and he purchased the Claw and Horn of Kazgoroth.  

Wow level 20! Your wild mage should easily be able to destroy all opposition...except at the end of the post you say you are level 8, how did you de-level so much? /smile

[Grond0]

I think we can safely add sloppy posting to the previous admission of sloppy play, though quite how I arrived at 20 is a mystery to me ...

[Blind_Visionary]

[ALAIN'S JOURNEY CONTINUES: TREASURE HUNTING.]  [PREVIOUS EPISODES HERE AND HERE.]

"I don't know if this was such a good idea, Imoen," Alain said, attempting to brush some of the dust and blood off of his cloak, but mostly just making a larger mess.

"Treasure hunting in general, or specifically coming to this fisherman's lake?" Imoen asked while rooting around in her pack for more arrows.

"Both," Alain replied, fingering a long gash across his pant leg. "That pack of gibberlings and xvarts almost trapped us in that canyon we had to walk through on the way here. This place is crawling with half-ogres and ghouls -- and maybe worse things. I'm pretty beat up."

"Look on the bright side," Imoen said. "You learned some new tricks. I'm impressed with those magical dart-things you figured out how to conjure up - you don't seem to miss with those, ever."

"I guess," Alain said. "It just feels so inadequate. Against one or two little xvarts, sure. But against a whole pack of kobolds launching burning arrows?"

"And you figured out how your pet dragon goes invisible," Imoen noted. "That's a neat bit of spellcasting, there. I wish I could do that."

"Fisk is the only reason we are still alive," Alain replied. "I still can only make one thing go invisible at a time."

"And those half-ogres were carrying a pile of jewels," Imoen said. "I bet Feldepost will buy them from us for a pretty penny. We'll be able to stay the night at inn!"

"Not tonight," Alain said. "I'm exhausted. I couldn't cast a thing right now. We're going to have to find somewhere safe to rest out here in the forest."

"Fine," Imoen said. "But just for tonight. Tomorrow we sleep like queens. Or kings, as the case may be. Or... I guess I'd just settle for a straw-filled bunk like the ones we had at Candlekeep."

"If our money will get that far, I think I'm going to need a new cloak," Alain said. "And maybe some new skin. These cuts really hurt."

"You're just being a baby," Imoen said, with a grin. "Those gibberlings barely scratched you. Let's get out of here."

She refilled her quiver with arrows and slipped quietly into the trees, eyes open in anticipation of ambush.

Modifié par Blind_Visionary, 25 mars 2013 - 09:42 .

[Blind_Visionary]

Editorial aside: sorry for the delay in the tale. I had to put some extra hours in at work last week. Rest assured however, that Alain's epic novel will continue (until he meets an untimely end). At this rate, Grond0 and Gate will probably run a half-dozen characters to Spellhold (and likely beyond) before I manage to earn another level. And Alesia may take her beastmaster all the way to the throne... 

Anyway, I have a quick request for advice from anyone who uses SCS and relies a lot on invisibility: I've been trying to avoid random encounters by going invisible before any travel, but my last one was pretty scary. I decided to break invisibility, because at first glance, I thought I could take on 6 xvarts. But then a second wave of ghouls showed up, and then a third wave of gibberlings. Alain managed to go invisible again and Imoen hid in the shadows in the canyon somehow, but the enemies swarmed around the characters anyway, making it hard to move anywhere. Imoen got trapped, but Alain managed to get to the edge of the screen, fortunately.

Does anyone have any advice for how to keep from getting surrounded and pinned down while invisible? Or is this just something I'm going to have to anticipate with every journey?

Modifié par Blind_Visionary, 25 mars 2013 - 10:01 .

[Alesia_BH]

It's good to hear from you Blind Visionary!

Blind_Visionary wrote...
Anyway, does anyone have any advice for how to keep from getting surrounded and pinned down while invisible? Or is this just something I'm going to have to anticipate with every journey?

I see the same behavior in my install. And yes: it is dangerous.

If you expect enemies to converge on you, then you can usually micro-manage your character out of the trap. This won't always work though (due to player error or the spacial arrangement of the battlefield, for example) so it's wise to have a fallback plan in case you do get cornered.

In BGI, I typically keep a Potion of Fire Resistance and a Protection from Fire Scroll on hand along with some form of item generated fireball (Necklace of Missles, Potion of Explosion, Oil of Fiery Burning, etc.). If I get trapped, I quaff, apply the scroll, and then blast my way out. It works.  

In BGII (or with a sorceress late in BGI) Teleport Field is an excellent solution. AoE energy attacks remains an option as well of course.

Others may want to chime in with additional options: these are just the ones that have worked for me.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 mars 2013 - 10:09 .

[Blind_Visionary]

Alesia_BH wrote...
It's good to hear from you Blind Visionary!

Likewise. Allow me to take this opportunity to express my awe over Alicia's final battle(s) at the throne. Brilliant work. So so so very close to perfect. I was sad to see her fall to Illasera's arrows.

I'm looking forward to watching Ashanti continue to navigate the hazards of life as a Bhaalspawn.

it's wise to have a fallback plan in case you do get cornered. [...] In BGI, I typically keep a Potion of Fire Resistance and a Protection from Fire Scroll on hand along with some form of item generated fireball

Thanks for the tip - that sounds toasty and quite practical. If only I hadn't decided to install the Hard Times economic crisis... I only have myself to blame. It makes for good storytelling, though. I have a feeling Alain will need to earn his fortune without risking any further random encounters until he can afford a backup strategy. Apologies if the story slows down here while the duo earns money a gold piece or two at a time.

[Gate70]

SCS II v8 has this comment "General AI bugfix: we no longer home in on invisible creatures" and "We make slightly more effort not to follow invisible creatures."

No such comment in SCS though, other than Slythe and Krystin told not to be so persistent. Maybe the BG1 ambush encounters don't follow the general rules either?

[Grond0]

I don't really have experience with that behaviour with a party. Solo I've found the key is to keep constantly moving so the opposition never gets a chance to surround you. Use the pause key regularly to give yourself a chance to consider where to move next (to avoid getting into a dead end situation for instance).

[Blind_Visionary]

Interesting. Thanks for the tips, folks. I'll try to find some affordable firepower somewhere before I decide that it is time for more .... experiments. *grin*

[Alesia_BH]

Blind_Visionary wrote...

Likewise. Allow me to take this opportunity to express my awe over Alicia's final battle(s) at the throne. Brilliant work. So so so very close to perfect. I was sad to see her fall to Illasera's arrows.

That's kind of you to say. 

Thanks for the tip - that sounds toasty and quite practical. If only I hadn't decided to install the Hard Times economic crisis...

My understanding is that Hard Times does in fact make times hard- I can see how it might preclude liberal use of Potions of Fire Resistance and such (Note below though...).

Grond0 wrote...
Solo I've found the key is to keep constantly moving so the opposition never gets a chance to surround you. Use the pause key regularly to give yourself a chance to consider where to move next (to avoid getting into a dead end situation for instance).

That pretty much sums up the avoidance method I use with my characters as well. And to be clear, it's exceedingly rare for my characters to end up forced into using the fallback method. When they do use it, it's typically half by design: They're taking advantage of the convergence behavior to catch more enemies in the AoE of their fireballs.

Careful movement will work 99% of the time.


Best,

A. 

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 mars 2013 - 12:15 .

[Blind_Visionary]

Alesia_BH wrote...
Careful movement will work 99% of the time.

Hmm... You may be overestimating my ability to avoid "player error" or "terrain traps". But I appreciate what I am choosing to interpret as a vote of confidence! 

[Alesia_BH]

Blind_Visionary wrote...

Hmm... You may be overestimating my ability to avoid "player error" or "terrain traps".

Indeed. And putting a number on a guess-timate like that is almost always foolish. 
Ultimately, I was just trying to say that careful movement usually works once you get the hang of it. 
 

But I appreciate what I am choosing to interpret as a vote of confidence! 

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 mars 2013 - 12:42 .

[corey_russell]

Veeton Update 4:
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Kagain, Branwen, Imoen, Safana

City of Baldur's Gate quests going smooth. We had a fun battle against the 5 ogre mage assassins - the party lined up against the wall and opened with 5x fireball (spells, potions) and a silence - it was devastating, the enemies could cast nothing - the silence landed when the enemies were long dead.


Kagain wanted a better axe, so we had a battle with the Mountain Maulers. We had just battled Degrodel's minion's recently (I never pass that fight with a full paty), so we were pretty spent as far as defensive spells go. We had a some summons though, so decided to give it whirl. Yep, Branwen and Shar-Teel fail their save vs. horror. It doesn't matter though, as the archers and fighters of the party did great damage. Wand of paralyzation actually worked against the enemy mage even, first try.


Because we needed both experience and gold, we did upper levels of Durlag's Tower, and that did in fact help with both. With a divine user and two full mages, this went very smooth. Safana did good trap work here, only getting really hurt when she fired a poor shot with her necklace of missiles at a ghast. Also interesting is the chest with the dire charm trap, with spell saves at 2(!) Veeton failed his save! 95% chance of saving and he didn't...fortunately nothing bad happened as a precaution, the party was far away. Against Durlag's ghost buddy, he got a chaos in, but Branwen used a dispel magic to get rid of it and that worked - good thing, because Veeton failed his save, and a single shot form his long bow got Safana to 1/2 life.

Party is level 8, except fighters are still level 7.

Modifié par corey_russell, 26 mars 2013 - 06:53 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

The Story of BlackStrider & The Motley Crue (Update #9): 
(Areas explored: Baldur's Gate City).

There are lots of tasks in the City and we made nearly all of them (we left Ogre Mages assassins, Niemain, Oulam, Wheber Ott and William Garst at the second floor of Sorcerous Sundries as well as some thieves alone at this time). Not much issues with the rest but there were some casualties  though... Desreta and Vay-ya can't stand long vs multiple Flamestrikes and now, with Gauntlets of Ogre Power Krimlor's punch is even more hard to endure. When we fought Yago a stupid misclick from my side ended with Cassia hit Krimlor with Flame Strike. To our relief Krimlor's anger turned onto Yago who was smashed into the miriads of tiny pieces. Then he poured out his fury in Ramazith's Tower soloed it from the bottom to the top. But in nearby house the first casualty awaits us - Drelik cast Sunfire and incinerated Pot instantly. Alesia (with the same base HP and the same Robe of Fire Resistance equiped) survived due to her passion to potions (of fortitude particularly) and successful save vs. After elimination of Jardak Cassia wear Helm of Glory alone with Nymph Cloak to have *natural* Charisma of 20 for the best shopping discounts. Then we fought some hi-exp foes in Degrodel's house and obtained Ring of Wizardry for Pot. 

  

  

  

  


There wasn't much point to fight Gretek and his Maulers of Undermountain but that was fun nonetheless. Alesia killed Wilf with Vampiric Touch and ended the battle with 83HP total - more than anyone else in our party!

  


The Iron Throne fight was ... a mess. I tried Engor's approach (Protection from Magic scroll + Potion's buffs) with Krimlor (the rest of the party resides in the back room on the 4th floor) but as it turned out SCS changes the things considerably here. A well placed Dispel magic stripped all potion's buffs in a blink of an eye so Krimlor was ought to rebuff. And Protection from Magic scroll doesn't protect vs. Sunfire... Diyab, Naaman and Alai quite soon realised that their magic is useless vs protected Krimlor so they left him to fight Zhalimar Cloudwulfe, Aasim and Gardush and went downstairs in search of more vulnerable targets. And they found us! Diyab fell rather quick, but then Grond (an archer!) missed Naaman with dispelling arrow. Meanwhile Cassia chanted Call Woodland Beings but Naaman charmed her right during the chant so she summoned a hostile Nymph! Knowing that Nymph like to cast Hold Monster BlackStrider, Alesia and Grond gulped invisibility potions while Pot cast Improved Invisibility on himself and we tried to retreat onto the 3d floor. Alai followed us, while Naaman kept watch over Cassia (and Charmed her once again when she recovered from the first charm). Meanwhile Krimlor eliminated his opponents and rushed to help us, but at the moment Pot's improved invisibility expired so he was horrified, slowed, power word:slept and killed just as Krimlor landed the final smack on Zhalimar... Krimlor was furious of his friend's demise so Naaman and Alai doesn't outlived him long.

  

  

Now after our thinned potions supply was replenished we a en-route back to the Candlekeep.

Current state:

BlackStrider: Blade(8), 382 kills (Doomsayer);
Alesia The Curious: Mage(6)/Thief(7), 137 kills (Vampiric Wolf);
Grond The Pathfinder: Archer(7), 575 kills (Greater Basilsk);
Cassia The Furious: Shapeshifter(9), 260 kills (Davaeorn);
Krimlor: Fighter(6)/Cleric(6), 418 kills (Jalantha Mistmyr);
Pot The Selfless: Mage(8), 51 kills (Sword Spider), 7 death (1 to Shoal).

to be continued... 

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 26 mars 2013 - 12:02 .

[Grond0]

Sounds like an exciting fight at the Iron Throne Serg! 
Are we going to run a sweepstake on which location Pot will die next?

[Serg BlackStrider]

Grond0 wrote...
Sounds like an exciting fight at the Iron Throne Serg!  

Yeah, that was a non-trivial fight at all and the need to continuously switch between characters on different floors is definitely not add peace of mind and confidence in my actions.

Are we going to run a sweepstake on which location Pot will die next?

Looks like I must apologize to Potty because of that...  I try to take care of all the Avatars equally (well... almost equally... ). 

[Alesia_BH]

Glad to see your Avatars are still in action Serg!

Best,

A.


Btw. That reminds me: I should resume my Avatars run once Ashanti's is finished.

[Serg BlackStrider]

@Alesia: Thanks! =) They are a bit slow in progress but no one could be too cautious in no-reload... (and I'm not that familiar and confident with SCS as of yet...)

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 26 mars 2013 - 02:34 .

[Blind_Visionary]

Serg, nice work making it through the Iron Throne! It sounds like Pot suffered just about every different kind of abuse possible. Poor Pot.

Corey, that fireball looks really scary. Veeton and party must have gotten quite the sunburn standing so close to the conflagration...

[Serg BlackStrider]

Blind_Visionary wrote...
Serg, nice work making it through the Iron Throne! It sounds like Pot suffered just about every different kind of abuse possible. Poor Pot.
.

Thanks, BV! =) And I hope Pot will have the opportunity to express himself in the future. He laughs best who laughs last...

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 26 mars 2013 - 04:19 .