16384 réponses à ce sujet

[Aasim]

Alt Gr + PrtSc keys together on my laptop. Most of f-keys have 2 functions, on my laptop tuning the 2nd key function requires holding down Alt Gr key.+ (right Alt key).

[Jianson]

Could anyone tell me how to screen shot bg? I have tried the standard print screen button but it wont apply here, and if I paste it on windows paint it will show up black.

The default setting is that if you use the print screen button, the images will appear in a folder named ScrnShot. They are bitmap images, about 1.4 Mb in size. I open them in Paint, rename them and save them (I keep a separate folder for each character) as JPEGs to make them smaller.

[Jianson]

Edwin made us all invisible and then I rested in the Undercity. Viconia cast PfE using her necklace. She stayed invisible, that's good.

For those not familiar with the 'improved' SCS final battle, here is the short version:
- There is another fighter/mage (kind of like an 'Angelo light') in the fight: Diarmid
- Sarevok can't be damaged before one of the other four is dead
- Sarevok can't be killed before all the other four are dead
- When each one of the other four dies, he is resurrected as a skeleton warrior

Imoen looked for traps along the lefthand side but did not find any. SCS change? She walked up to trigger the conversation with Sarevok and could watch Diarmid dimension door in. He eventually walked to the rest of the group. Okay, let's see what this little "friend" can do:

(the Cacofiend scroll was picked from Winski earlier.)

The arrival of the nabassu triggered Angelo's and Semaj's buffs and had them both use up a Chaos spell. This confused the demon, and that was that:


Oh-kay...

Angelo came running, all the way down to Viconia:


Well, can I be so lucky that he willingly separated himself from the others? After a while, he got suspicious:


Hehe, nice one, Viccy, and apparently that spell does not have a large radius of effect. I was of course ready to hide anyone that would become visible. I waited out his obvious buffs. I was sure he was having Stoneskin up (next mod setup, I will leave the Stoneskin graphic alone. The beauty of the characters is not quite worth the lack of info about enemies' Stoneskin status. Would have loved a mod that would only remove the graphic from my characters) and I can't wait that out if I am ever going to get through this.

Hm, if I protect Viccy from fire and adds a Magic Protection potion, he should not be able to do much to her, even if he has detonation arrows and Sunfire. A scroll and two potions later, she had 100% resistance to both, and she attacked with her trusty 'Ashideena'. Behold, our first point of damage to the five:


Viconia had to spend a bunch of healing potions. Mostly small ones, but a few large as well. This fight dragged on, and I was wary that the potion boosts would expire. Eventually, Angelo felt he was losing, so he went a-hiding:

That wuss...

Viconia Inviso Purged him, and the fight continued down by the entrance door. Between hammer swings and potion drinkings, she pumped all her three Hold Person and a Silence at him. MR blocked one and he saved against the other three. But he must be out of mirror images by now (she had torn down his 3rd or 4th, I lost count). Still wary what would happen if her fire + magic resists would go down to 50%, I decided to let some of my other characters in on the action. Eileth was pretty succesful with ice arrows (the cold part has no save, and it is not stopped by Stoneskin). Oh crap, he got a Confusion off at three of my characters!

No way I can have characters randomly walking around, stumbling into traps and letting the other enemies see them! As cheesy as it is, I decided to have Eileth rummage through our potion case, and distribute protective potions to all three characters for instadrinking. Clarity for Eileth, Magic Shielding for Imoen and Magic Blocking for Edwin (I figured he could easily recast Stoneskin and Invisibility if needed). Okay, that worked nicely. Shar-Teel got into the action as well with ring of Energy. Now out of Stoneskins, Angelo was shot down in short order, by his own daughter, no less.

Time for our first group brawl:

(it looks more dangerous than it is - an extra healer got her back to full)

Looting Angelo's corpse gave me a large stack of these:

Very nice, as I had only 3 dispelling arrows left.

Hidden in shadows, Imoen scouted out the other enemies. Found all four very tighly grouped on the altar. She cast a Skull Trap just outside their range of sight. Decent damage, then nobody did anything except drink healing potions. Are you going to allow us to stealth bomb you like crazy? Seriously?

I threw every bomb I had. 6 Explosion potions and three charges of Necklace of Missiles. Last shot from the necklace, and I was very relieved to see this:


Great, I feared him the most. His big damage spells, disabling spells, de-buffing spells, Flesh to Stone, you name it. Only the 'junior' of the three mages left now. And to top it off, that skeleton warrior ran down towards the entrance, saw the fully visible Viconia and we had our next melee brawl (with an initial backstab from Shar-Teel) without anoyone else interfering.

Eileth equipped detonation arrows, hid in shadows and managed to get only Tazok into view. On her second stealth shot, more carnage ensued:


Eileth and Shar-Teel used oils of speed. Edwin threw Malison at Sarevok. It stuck. Eileth approached in shadows and shot dispelling arrows at Sarevok. She missed her first two shots and had to run. Viconia cast Doom at Sarevok and it stuck. So now his saves are at -6, perfect! I now had 16 chances to turn him into a squirrel: 14 bolts (Shar-Teel, with 5 apr!) and two wand charges (Edwin). Rodent-esque victory on bolt number 3!!!

"Pardon me for ignoring your nibbling at Viccy's toes, we have more serious foes to care about":


In fact, that dude with the bow was seriously annoying, as he insisted on running back to that trapped skull area. For some reason, I could not get Viconia to drink an invisibility potion until it was almost too late:


Eileth and Shar-Teel took turns tanking and both had to drink potions. Kind of sloppy of me that I hadn't put on their heavy armors before going after Sarevok. But we eventually defeated the bone squad. Sarevok could hit Viconia without needing criticals but he must have needed rolls of 19 or so. and he never hit harder than 2 points, hehe...

Shar-Teel was curious about the loot on the other three, so she checked it out. Diarmid had some pretty cool stuff: a +3 Ring of Protection and some nifty arrows called Black Dragon arrows or something like that. They worked like Biting arrows (save or suffer 30% of max HP poison damage) and they did 2d6 acid damage (save for half).

A shower of Darts of Wounding ended Sarevok's misery:



Eileth and Imoen moves on to BGII, with just shy of 400k experience. Imoen ended up as Thief 9 -> Mage 10, with 55 HP, and with tome-boosted stats of DEX 19, INT 18 and CHA 18. I never did find any 5th-level spell scrolls for her.
Eileth is a level 9 Beast Master, with 88 HP if you subtract the bonus for having a familiar. I will have to remove those 6 points with Shadowkeeper, before she summons a new (and better) familiar.


Fun rating 1.4 of 10? Hardly! This run was awesome.

[Mr_Goldbeard]

^{That is what I have been doing, but unfortunately it does not work.  Still black screen.}

[Blackraven]

About a tenday ago my solo/duo no-reload run with Teyl the NE halfling Cleric/Thief (kitted as a Strifeleader of Cyric) ended abruptly when he got dire charmed by Hareishan, a female wizard in the Cloakwood Mines and namesake of a vampire in Amn. Charm equals death for a solo character in this game. It also meant the end of his journal on here, in which he related his progress.

Since I really liked both the character and keeping his journal on here, I decided to start anew, to speed my way through the game, again no-reload mode, until I reached the same point in the Cloakwood Mines, to continue my journal.

This is the order in which Teyl completed various quests.
Beregost quests => Melicamp/Thalantyr (lucky anti-chikenization) => Nashkel: Neira + purchase of Boots of the Cheetah from Karaea => Friendly Arm Inn => Cloudpeaks => Basilisks => Red Canyons / Bassilus => South Coast: Brage and Nib => Prism => Deviously recruited Minsc solely to serve as my decoy in a room full of undead in Nib's (mod) quest in hidden Firewine chambers, allowing me to acquire Elven Chainmail of the Firewine after which I dumped him => Lighthouse Area => Ankhegs North of FAI => Nashkel Mines => North Coast / Shoal (not recommendable to take her on at early levels because she's got charms and hold spells in my setup) => Bandit Camp => Cloakwood.
There are a number of outside areas Teyl still has to cover (Drizzt, Red Wizards, Ulcaster), if only due to Item Randomization.

Strategywise Teyl, though being a Cleric/Thief multi, behaves mostly as a Thief (Assassin) type of character. This wasn't planned but it simply happened, evolved that way. The only thieving abilities he's trained have been HiS/MS and set traps [except for one level up in which I put 25 skillpoints in his find traps ability]. For any locks/pockets he wants to pick and harder traps he needs to disarm, he uses potions of master thievery and perception respectively. (Most traps until late game have really low checks, so Teyl has hardly used any potions of perception).
His weapons of choice are darts, daggers and clubs. Both the dagger of venom and a returning frost dart +1 (which does +1 cold damage) have been really useful in taking on mages. His club is mainly for enemies with high piercing damage resistance. Teyl's most used spells are Sanctuary, Command, Silence, Hold Person, Animate Dead and occasionally Holy Power.

Here are a number of screenshots with my commentary, to give an idea of how Teyl has run through the game, up to the Cloakwood Mines:
 

In his earliest adventuring days, Command + Darts (if necessary poisoned) would help Teyl with defeating Mages like Tarnesh:


Once he became aware of his excellent hiding and sneaking skills, Teyl started to rely heavily (and successfully) on backstabbing, being able to take down strong foes like Tazok:


In Tazok's tent, where Teyl the First's run had almost ended against an overwhelming majority of foes, especially hard-hitting Black Talon archers, Teyl the Third applied a (somewhat cheesy) trick. He entered hidden and found a corner in the tent where Raemon wouldn't see him. There he summoned a small skeleton army to his aid, cast Protection from Evil 10' Radius, took down their mage with a backstab, and successfully fought the remaining enemies together with his undead allies.


Sometimes, Teyl discovered, it's better to run. When he left Tazok's tent, he tried to murder heavily armoured Taugosz, the Black Talon leader, but his backstab attempts failed and he soon saw himself surrounded by bandits. He tried to lure Taugosz into a few traps he had set. But he had to observe how another much less imposing bandit tripped the snares and suffered severe damage but didn't even die. This was the signal for Teyl to leave the bandit camp behind.


In the Cloakwoods and outside the Cloakwood mines, Teyl would operate at dusk so as to take optimal advantage of his stealth skill. Thus druids, wild animals and Iron Throne guards that dared hinder Teyl's path were dealt with in devastating manners.


The Arch Druid [sic, mod enemy: a level 13 Druid with 100+ hitpoints, OP gear, Insect Plague and 2 Conjure Animals] was succesfully silenced in two attempts, after which Teyl's skeletons and backstabs consumed the Druid's Ironskins and finished him off.


Teyl then proceeded to enter the mines, without encountering much resistance at the first level, until he reached the second level with Hareishan and many, many guards.

This is the point where I will continue his journal.

[corey_russell]

Congrats Jianson on your successful run. Good luck with Amn.

@Blackraven - good luck with your run, glad you are having fun

[Grond0]

@Mr Goldbeard.  Are you using the Enhanced Edition? - see http://forum.baldurs...enshot-is-black

Do you have nvidia - see http://www.bgtscc1.c...hp?f=25&t=39422

 

@Jianson.  Well done for taking out Sarevok; good luck with Irenicus.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congrats, Jianson and safe/fun travels in Amn!

 

And all the best with your favorite character, Blackraven!

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (update 1)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
 

The quick ending to run 42 yesterday gave us the opportunity to make good progress with a new entry (as usual character classes chosen randomly from those we have not yet attempted.

 

There was one nasty moment early on when the duo were ambushed for the second time on a journey by a ghast that arrived next to Waltz.  She didn't react quite quick enough to run out of reach, but saved against hold.  After that the basilisks provided some easy XP, though Lindin hit Hallie with a critical and forced a rest (to use stinking cloud on Kirian and Peter).  The sirines in the lighthouse area then gave some more quick XP (Hallie being protected by potion of clarity).  

 

With reputation at 20 Ulgoth's Beard offered a few cheap items for sale before moving on to the Nashkel Mine.  Disdaining the use of the Greenstone Amulet Waltz attacked Mulahey and got confused in the process.  However, she had done significant damage and Mulahey ran himself rather than try and take advantage.  After coming to her senses she finished him off with a vampiric touch.

 

The amazons held Hallie - twice.  However, she was both times out of sight before being held and not pursued.  At Nashkel Nimbul did successfully cast a couple of MMs at Hallie, but she nipped into the inn, hid before Neira noticed her and came back out to frontstab Nimbul through his mirrors.  Tranzig was feeling pretty sick at the sight of traps exploding underfoot and failed to survive a vampiric touch. 

 

Hallie led the way through the bandit camp, using boots / cloak / belt to require archers to roll a critical.  All the external bandits have been dealt with and the duo are poised outside the main tent ready for an assault on the leaders.

 

 

Stats:

Waltz, bard 7, 44 HPs, 107 kills
Hallie, swashbuckler 7, 37 HPs, 111 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Riss - elven wild mage (first and final update)

 

The last few wild mages I've done have played very safe in BG1 by not casting spells and travelling using familiar invisibility.  This time I decided to let Riss take risks and see what happens.  That policy was immediately put into practice by blinding Shoal (level 3 - +10 HPs).  

 

After picking up Bhaal healing at the Carnival Riss blinded and killed the Great Gazib - suffering a reputation drop in the process (but soon got a bit back for saving Arabelle).  Meilum was also blinded and (eventually) darted and the same fate befell Silke and Karlat (level 4 - +3 HPs)

 

Riss moved on to the basilisk area and darted the beasties (level 5 - +6 HPs) before recruiting Korax to paralyse Mutamin.  He managed to do the same to Kirian's party (helped by the fact that Lindin, Baerin and Peter were all blinded) before Riss gave Korax the coup de grace (level 6 - +5 HPs).

 

In the Nashkel mine Riss made her first use of invisibility to travel down to Mulahey.  However, an attempt to blind him went wrong when he was polymorphed - that allowed him to run after Riss quicker and (unlike the PC) he was still able to start talking while shape-changed.  To compensate for taking so many more risks generally I'm allowing Riss to use healing potions and she took one of those while beating up some attacking skeletons.  She then successfully scared Mulahey from out of sight before applying the finishing blinding touch.

 

The amazons were all blinded except Lamalha.  She was webbed, but managed to break free and there was a nasty moment when Riss surged while casting invisibility - but the spell worked anyway.  She was able to finish Lamalha off when she got stuck in the web again before dealing with the others.

 

After raiding the tombs Nimbul was webbed and finished off with some help from the guards before Tranzig was surprisingly blinded at only the 3rd attempt.  After picking up an ogre's belt and the ring of wizardry Riss moved on to the Bandit Camp.  Lots of sleep there accounted for the bandits, while Taugosz was blinded.  Inside the tent the others were blinded before Raemon was webbed then blinded.

 

At the Cloakwood mine there was a similar result with the others being blinded before web allowed Riss to blind Drasus with her last attempt - though she had 3 hold persons available as well (level 7 - +6 HPs).  After going down invisibly to Daveorn, Riss blinded the guard then used 2 shots each from the wand of frost on the battle horrors.  Some summoned gnolls used up Daveorn's spells before Riss tried a couple of webs - neither managed to hold Daveorn at all, but he had no answer to some summoned hobgoblins.

 

Sil and her 2 pals were blinded (level 8 - +4 HPs) without fuss, but some summoned gnolls were needed to help with the other group of sirines.  Riss then did a number of reputation quests to get that up to 20.  That went smoothly with the exception of this multiple surge against Greywolf.

In other circumstances holding himself could have been nasty, but Greywolf was already blinded here, so it was the loss of about 40,000 gold that was painful.  By the time she got to Ulgoth's Beard Riss had robbed an ankheg nest and rebuilt her fortune enough to buy scrolls, cloak and amulet.  Some more scrolls were purchased in Baldur's Gate and the red potion used to ensure they could be learnt.

 

The tomes were quickly acquired - Jalantha, Ramazith and Marek all being blinded for safety (level 9 - +3 HPs).  

 

Back at Candlekeep the tombs were looted with MGoI, knock and mustard jelly.  Before leaving, I couldn't resist trying out cloudkill for the first time.  There was an oddity there when a wild surge appeared to happen spontaneously while Riss was just waiting for the cloudkill to do its work.  The final tome (Riss was ignoring charisma) was picked up from Durlag's Tower on the way back to Baldur's Gate, along with the Claw/Horn of Kazgoroth and the pantaloons.

 

Slythe was softened up with summons and finished with a scorcher, though a mis-click did mean he got into range for an attack first.  Riss then left a bit quickly and the guard got killed by the scorcher - fortunately there was no loss of reputation (that will teach him to try and extort an entrance fee).

 

The fight at the palace didn't start well with the attempt to put improved invisibility on Belt surging.  Belt took a fair amount of damage over the next couple of rounds, but malison + chaos successfully confused all the dopplegangers!  They didn't last long then - both Belt and Liia survived.

 

A protection from magic scroll and invisibility took her through the maze and into the temple.  Sarevok was pulled out with a magic missile wand into some summons.  An initial attempt to use a vampiric touch scroll only got Riss a painful blow, but she was successful with 3 more attempts before switching to a couple of skull trap scrolls.  After that, 5 magic missile scrolls took Sarevok to near death.  Riss still had plenty of spells of her own, but the scroll of magic protection was still operating so she just kept alternating summons with use of the magic missile wand and throwing darts until Sarevok had had enough.

[corey_russell]

Nice work with Riss, Grond0. Hope Riss can  make it far in the next leg, maybe have Riss stop at Melissan?

[Jianson]

I am very impressed, Grond0.

My last run before Eileth was with a wild mage, and I could not keep her from dying about half a dozen times going through BG1, with a party. After the first death, I played her with minimal reloads rules, i.e. if I thought the rest of my party would have been able to win the fight, I reloaded and then donated the appropriate gold amount to a temple and lowered her CON by 1 each time. I think no death was a result of a bad surge, though.

[Matuse73]

Only thing about your suggestion Matuse is there's a lot of traps in the maze, even if the monsters are dead, so I'm not so sure CTRL + J is appropriate in this case, since you would skip them.

 

If there are still active traps, then the area isn't cleared. What exists in some other portion of the maze outside of the direct line through it doesn't concern me - autopathing wouldn't take the party through those sections anyway since it doesn't like to go through areas still under the fog of war.

[Grond0]

My last run before Eileth was with a wild mage, and I could not keep her from dying about half a dozen times going through BG1, with a party.

I suspect a wild mage is actually easier to play solo so you don't have to worry about the impact of surges on your party.  There are plenty of magic items you can use to make progress in BG1 pretty much risk-free if you want, though this time I chose to play Riss as a normal spell-using mage and accept the danger of surges.

[Blackraven]

Grond0, impressive as ever!

Thanks Serg and Corey

Here's my next installment, I hope it won't be too long/boring for your taste.

***

When I entered the Cloakwood Mines I had a vivid, terrifying vision: right here in this mine I was up against an overwhelmig number of guards and a beautiful female enchanter mage who managed to enter my mind with her magic, leaving me but a helpless prey for the guards. This must have been my Dread Lord warning of what may happen to me if I stray from His path. I would have meditated more on the meaning of all this, if I hadn't been accosted by a guard. Regardless, I shall make sure to be doubly careful here. I'm sure all manner of stupid mouse traps await my toes in the dark. The guard told me I had no business in the mines, and proceeded to attack me. His attempt at my life was pathetic, so I took his with little difficulty. The first floor was practically unguarded. I spoke with an enslaved miner who told me that the easiest way to deal with the Iron Throne operation would be to flood the mine, but for that I needed a key to open a lock plug. This key was supposed to be in the hands of the leader of the operation.
I headed one level down, and there the vision returned. Or so I thought. Until I realized this was no vision but harsh reality: about 20 guards and Black Talons, possibly more, and the stunning sorceress, a woman named Hareishan, gathered together by the entrance. I fled back upstairs and hid myself. Various guards had followed me, but hitting and fading I had little difficulty taking them on one by one, sometimes even fighting two at a time. I descended a second time, thinking I might pull off the same trick again. When I arrived I saw the mage right in front of me. Still hidden I tried to stab her to death, but my attack didn't hurt her in the slightest. She must have had some magical protection up, a Stoneskin most likely. I retreated before she could do anything and attacked a second time, and in the same way a third, a fourth, even a fifth, but without any result. Sometimes a few guards would follow me upstairs, where I had no difficulty dispatching them. I started to worry that the woman might be untouchable, but at one point her protection must have worn off; my dagger killed her in two instances.
 

Spoiler:

I finished off the remaining guards, and said a silent prayer to my Lord of the Three Crowns for his warning. My exploration of the floor was otherwise uneventful although I ran into a few more captured miners, amongst whom a dwarf who was willing to lend his Warhammer to my cause. Well actually I would have to lend him an enchanted Warhammer I had taken long before from Bassilus' corpse, since the Dwarf had no weaponry, no armour, no helmet, nothing. I thanked him for his offer but I made it clear to him that I prefered to work alone. This dwarf's lack of finesse and dexterity would only cause me trouble I reckoned.
Thus I sneaked my way down to the third level of the Mine. This level too was populated with all kinds of Iron Throne lackeys, including an Ogre Mage, another sorceress, more guards, and many Hobgoblins. My boon was that they were all scattered. The exception were the Hobgoblins who appeared to work in small groups of three to six, but these creatures were the least of my worries. I silently cleared out the entire floor until only the spellcasters remained. Then I quaffed a potion of speed, which increased not only my movement speed but also the velocity with which I would be able to launch my frost dart at my opponents. I felled the sorceress first. She was protected by Stoneskin, but the frost damage came through everytime my dart hit her, keeping her from casting any spells my way.
 

Spoiler:

The Ogre Mage was initially more difficult to handle due to his invisibility. I was hidden as well when I (unknowingly) approached him in a room filled with decaying corpses. He nevertheless spoke to me, threatened me, apparently perceiving my presence. Having no way of attacking him either physically or through my Cyric-given magic, I threw an oil of fiery burning in his general direction, betraying my exact whereabouts but also hurting my foe. He became visible when he started casting a spell at me, a Charm. The spell couldn't hurt me as I was protected against charms by my Helmet of Charm Protection. I retreated and hid, which provoked the Ogre to pursue me. My Frost dart tore down his magical defenses and two sneak attacks did him in.
 

Spoiler:

With the entire level cleared, I descended yet another level, and came upon the leader's lair. A guard tried to stop me from entering but he went down in no time. I cast a Sanctuary and started looking for traps. My skills at detecting and disarming traps are mediocre at best, but to my surprise I found three and managed to disarm two of them.
This made me realize that I've become an Assassin more than anything else. I'm no regular thief; I hardly know how to pick a lock or detect a trap, and my few attempts at picking peoples' pockets have all failed. Neither am I a typical adherent who tries to spread his Faith to others. All I do is follow what guidance the Dark Sun may give me. And so far he seems to approve, given His bestowal of increasingly potent divine powers upon me. Perhaps it's because my path isn't that different from His when He walked the Realms in His mortal days as an Assassin as subtle as He was deadly. Maybe I am who I am due to the life I've been leading ever since I left Candlekeep. I've had to hide a lot, I've been persecuted, I've faced many foes and learned their tricks: ambushing my foes like Molkar and his gang did with me, using backstabs rather than open melee just as Nimbul did in Nashkel, poisoning my enemies whenever I get the chance. Stealth, subtlety and quick, effcient deaths have beome the tools of my trade, together with the occasional debilitating spell my Dread Lord allows me to cast.

Anyway the invisible chief executive of the operation, called Davaeorn spoke to me in clear terms: I was to die by his hand. His invisibilty told me he was another magic wielder. By his side he had two Battle Horrors.
 

Spoiler:

I retreated and triggered the trap I had failed to disarm, but fortunately it didn't harm me. Knowing my safety from harm while I was sanctuaried I tried to invent a plan to take on my three foes. However Davaeorn helped speed up my decision-making as he somehow cast a simultaneous Web/Stinking Cloud/Teleport Field my way, and then teleported right toward me. I retreated further, back to the previous level, and hid myself. Daveorn, blind to my presence, had followed me upstairs but the Battle Horrors hadn't. I decided to leave Daveorn where he was and descended a second time to take on the Battle Horrors without having to worry over Davaeorns tricks. Both creatures fell to my backstabs.
 

Spoiler:

[Note that I uninstalled a mod component called 'Pnp Battle Horrors' because I disliked their ability to see through invisibility and most of all the fact that they attack and hurt even sanctuaried charnames.]

Apart from the Battle Horrors the floor housed another mage and a Mustard Jelly. Both fell to my backstabs.
 

Spoiler:

Mustard Jellies have no backs, but they sure can be backstabbed. I had to use my club though, the Root of teh Problem, because my Dagger of Venom had no effect on him.

Upstairs I used the same strategy I had used with Hareishan to take down Daveorn, hitting with my dagger and fading, hitting again and fading, until his Stoneskin wore off. My first actual hit, a poisoned backstab, meant his death. First I looted his body, and found some correspondence between Davaeorn and Iron Throne superiors from Baldur's Gate. I checked some more letters I'd saved, including one from Davaeorn to Tazok, and Davaeorn was the one the one who had hired Nimbul to lay me down. There seems to be a relation indeed between this Iron Throne and the attemps on my life. I think I'll need to get into Baldur's Gate if I want to know more of what's going on, but I recall the last time I went there the City guards had barred the gates and wouldn't let me in.
Before I left, I drank a potion of master thievery to allow me to loot many chests on the two lower levels I had failed to unlock before. I didn't bother with flooding the mine, and with an ample selection of magical items I made my way back up toward the open sky, certainly none the poorer.

 

...

My second attempt to enter Baldur's Gate was more successful, although at the gate I was held up by an officer of the Fist, who somehow suspected that I had been involved in the Iron Crisis. I told him I might have been. I didn't want to be too frank with this stranger. He granted me access to the city and asked me to investigate the Seven Suns for him. I've no idea where this is, but I might look into it later.
The city is large and very entertaining with a wealth of inns and taverns, a couple of good stores, and new allies. I associated myself with the Shadow Thieves' Guild. Hopefully their network of spies and informants ma help who can be of use to me in this City, and who to watch out for. I managed to gain the benevolence of one of the Guild's most popular members, a friendly enough fellow by the name of Narlen Darkwalk. This night we did to two break-ins together, one where I had to keep watch, the other with me doing the burgling. What my friend Narlen doesn't know is that I'm a lousy burglar and that without a Potion of Master Thievery I wouldn't have been of much use to him, but what Darkwalk doesn' t know won' t hurt him either.
 

Spoiler:

Either way, I'm aware of my standing in the Guild. The leader, Alatos, has even asked me to do a job for him as well, so that's what I'm going to do next.

[Jianson]

Here's my next installment, I hope it won't be too long/boring for your taste.

It was a great read. I get a very good idea as to what's going on.

If I am ever going to try a no-reloads solo character, it will absolutely be a multiclassed Thief/caster.

Quadruple backstab damage, huh? Starting to get advanced. What level is Teyl now? Is he far away from Cleric level 9?
(BTW, if you're doing a full clear of the game, you'll end up somthing like Thief 14, Cleric 12. Maybe one level lower if you aren't picking up temporary NPCs for their quests)

The spell couldn't hurt me as I was protected against charms by my Helmet of Charm Protection.

Sounds like a fantastic helm for a solo character. I don't know what happened on Eileth's run, because I didn't find any of those. The run before I had 2-3 of them...
 

Daveorn, blind to my presence, had followed me upstairs but the Battle Horrors hadn't. I decided to leave Daveorn where he was and descended a second time to take on the Battle Horrors without having to worry over Davaeorns tricks.

Great turn of events. Separate the brawlers from the caster and half the job is done.

Mustard Jellies have no backs, but they sure can be backstabbed. I had to use my club though, the Root of teh Problem, because my Dagger of Venom had no effect on him.

Yup, keep track of the last direction they have 'slimed' to and you will know where the "back" is.
Also: "Him?"


Teyl's last name is 'Rain star' in German, right?

[Blackraven]

It was a great read. I get a very good idea as to what's going on.

Thanks, I appreciate your reading this, and your comments!

If I am ever going to try a no-reloads solo character, it will absolutely be a multiclassed Thief/caster.

Thief/Caster is great in BG1 thanks not in the least to HiS/MS. In BG2 I think Thief/Mage may be more durable. I'm very curious as to how Teyl will evolve in SoA/TOB (supposing he makes it there). Backstabs and poisons, and even stealth, will eventually lose their effectiveness, so I hope Cleric spells are going to be helpful.A drawback is that the Divine Remix mod gives each different Cleric kit less spells (in order to differentiate these kits), and I don't know yet if there are useful spells I'd miss out on.

Quadruple backstab damage, huh? Starting to get advanced. What level is Teyl now? Is he far away from Cleric level 9?
(BTW, if you're doing a full clear of the game, you'll end up somthing like Thief 14, Cleric 12. Maybe one level lower if you aren't picking up temporary NPCs for their quests)

Teyl is level 8 Cleric / 10 Thief with circa 370k XP. He'll need another 75-80k for Cleric level 9, so that might take a while. Do you think he'll become very OP by then? Thief 14/Cleric 12, that's 1.8 million! Would make most of SoA a lot easier I guess. I think I've never gotten beyond 500xp in BG1, but that's because on no-reload the TotSC quests might best be avoided for the purpose of survival (though I think I could tackle Shandalar's island quest).

Sounds like a fantastic helm for a solo character. I don't know what happened on Eileth's run, because I didn't find any of those. The run before I had 2-3 of them...

In my setup I got one random drop, Tuirom always has one for sale at his smithy, and one from Molkar's gang (I think the dwarf) drops the Ebon Helm, which has the same effect.
I agree that it's a great helm for solo, a lifesaver. Better even than the Helm of Glory and Balduran's Helm. My first run with Teyl ended because he still had the Helm of Glory (+1 CHA) on, which he'd used for shopping, instead of that of Charm protection ... This time Teyl doesn't take the latter helm off, even when he goes to bed
 
Great turn of events. Separate the brawlers from the caster and half the job is done.

It is, battles are so much easier if they can be fought on your own terms, Unfortunately this isn't always easily accomplished.

Yup, keep track of the last direction they have 'slimed' to and you will know where the "back" is.
Also: "Him?"

Yes, I didn't know. And 'him' should be 'her' of course kidding, 'it' it is, my mistake.

Teyl's last name is 'Rain star' in German, right?

That's true. His first name is inspired by Till Eulenspiegel, but his manners aren't (a CN Swashbuckling type would have made more sense for that purpose).

[Jianson]

Teyl is level 8 Cleric / 10 Thief with circa 370k XP. He'll need another 75-80k for Cleric level 9, so that might take a while. Do you think he'll become very OP by then?

No, but getting access to a higher level of spells to choose from is always interesting. There's some good stuff at level 5, like Chaotic Commands (long lasting 'mind buff') and some strong summon spells.
 

Thief 14/Cleric 12, that's 1.8 million! Would make most of SoA a lot easier I guess. I think I've never gotten beyond 500xp in BG1, but that's because on no-reload the TotSC quests might best be avoided for the purpose of survival

I've been slightly higher only once for the main character, but that is because I prefer playing with a party (which means the XP gets "diluted"). 1.8 million is roughly what's there to "harvest", if you do everything without returning much to kill respawned critters. Teyl needs 1.35 million get get a 6th-level spell slot. That's pretty reasonable (although I think you need to at least dive into a bit of Durlag's for that).
 

In my setup I got one random drop, Tuirom always has one for sale at his smithy, and one from Molkar's gang (I think the dwarf) drops the Ebon Helm, which has the same effect.

The time I found some, I found one that the Randomizer had put somewhere, and I bought another from Feldepost's. This is of course very mod dependant.


Even without the randomizer, I love the random rare loot. Like when you get potions and scrolls instead of jewelry and gold. On Eileth's run, a random xvart dropped a 3rd-level mage scroll. I also found a 4-pack of Bolts of Biting twice this run (especially cool because I had bought all the ones for sale in shops).

[Alesia_BH]

Hi all. I'm glad to see so many players making progress.

 

BTW: While players are free to exceed the BG1 experience cap if they desire, I'd encourage observing the cap. It leads to better balanced and more challenging playthroughs. I personally prefer playing and reading capped games. That's just my preference, though. Feel free to do as you choose.

 

Many of us play with capped installs. Those who do not have caps on often refrain from levelling up once they reach the BG1 level limit. Again though, this is all left to player discretion.  

 

Good hunting everyone! And finish strong Blackraven!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Hey thanks Alesia and Jianson. I'm also inclined to not level up any further. I had planned to give myself one extra level of each class, which means for x4 backstab modifier as a thief;as a cleric it means an extra level 4 spell but as I'm hardly using level 4 spells (except for an occasional PfE 10' Radius) that doesn't make much of a difference. The only thing with reaching and abiding by the level cap, is that takes away the impetus in me to do anything more than the absolute necessary (plus maybe a few quests for specific gear).

@Jianson, yes random loot can be amazing. I remember my Cleric/illusionist being quite desperate for Knock, and she never got it until Sorcerous Sundries, and then in my next game with a thievish character, guess what one the Gnolls near High Hedge dropped

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Hi all. I'm glad to see so many players making progress.

 

BTW: While players are free to exceed the BG1 experience cap if they desire, I'd encourage observing the cap. It leads to better balanced and more challenging playthroughs. I personally prefer playing and reading capped games. That's just my preference, though. Feel free to do as you choose.

 

Many of us play with capped installs. Those who do not have caps on often refrain from levelling up once they reach the BG1 level limit. Again though, this is all left to player discretion....  

 

Well, now I feel like I have a disease or something.  This is the first time I've removed the CAP.  I just wanted to see what would happen so I selected the 'remove experience point cap' option this time.  Now, I'm a bumb!  

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Mordred, a servant & Black Guard of Asmodeus. Asmodeus finally led me to descend into the Nashkel Mines. After giving me a chance to reconnoiter the outside of the mines a few weeks ago he then led me to wipe out the Gibberling Mountains, The Dryad Forest, The Gnoll Stronghold, Bear River, Fisherman’s Lake, The Temple,  Ulcaster & Ulcaster Ruins before returning me to descend into the Nashkel Mines. Whatever his reasoning in leading me away from the mines when I was right there, it is evident now that it was ingenious. I tore thru the mines like a hot knife thru butter. Nary was a scratch laid upon any me or of my subordinates. The place was four levels deep w/a cave that served as the location of the master of the mines in the center of the 4^th level. I rarely had need to use any strategy other than to press the Kobolds that served as the minions of the master of the mining operation so that when they showed themselves I was coming after them as soon as they did. No time to load up their little Short Bows, or Arrows of Fire, just rush them w/my Berserker Sergeant & allow my Bard/Herald/Sage to fire his Short Bow to provide cover. This carried me deep into the mines, taking only one break after the second level to return to the Nashkel Carnival to sell loot & buy a few ranged weapons, e.g. Throwing Axes, Arrows, Sling Stones.

 

After that the third level presented little challenge save a few traps that we expected to trip @ one point or another. My Berserker Sergeant & I led, knowing that we would likely handle whatever damage came from the traps, even up to Fireballs or Lightning Bolts. Luckily, those we found were not even that effective & we shook off the effects w/a short rest after & then moved onward. On the 4^th Level, I beat  down three Kobold Commando's, a Ghoul,  a Grey ooze & a Green Slime.

 

Key Event: We then entered the cave of a half-Orc named Mulahey who ostensibly ran the operation that was tainting the iron coming out of the mines. We killed about five Kobolds quickly as we entered the mine, then rescued another Mage, this one an Enchanter & I added him to my entourage for now. With me & my Berserker Sergeant whoopin’ butt up front & three mages of different types casting spells from their various schools at my enemies simultaneously & my Bard/Herald/Sage casting spells of his own & shooting Poison Arrows & the like to back me up, oh well, it’s got to be painful to face me.  Ask Mulahey. He lasted long enough for my Doom, my Conjurer to cast Melf’s Acid Arrow, My Illusionist to  cast Blindness, my Bard/Herald/Sage to cast Magic Missile & then move into position to fire a Poison Arrow. He was dead.  My Berserker Sergeant had to settle for mopping up a few Kobolds & some Skeleton’s Mulahey had summoned up. My newest Mage, the Enchanter only had a couple of spells memorized @ the time. One was Color Spray & he used it to knock out a bunch of Kobolds & put ‘em to sleep for easy pick’ens. Easy in. Easy out. Praise Amsodeus

 

ANOTHER MASTER VICTORY FOR ASMODEUS' GLORY!

 

 

Treasure of Note: Tome of Leadership & Influence (Me); Wand of Fire (Conjurer); Potion of Absorption (Illusionist), Scroll of Shield (Bard/Herald/Sage); 790gps

 

Next Steps: I’m to return to the Valley of the Tombs 

 

Level Up:  None. My Enchanter joined @ Level 6)

 

Current Party: (Reputation: 4 – Despised)

Black Guard of Asmodeus: Fighter (Blk Gd)/6; Plate Mail w/Lg Shld & RoP+2, +1 B/Swd** & +1 Flail*

                (SSS**)             

Kagain: Fighter (Bkr)/6; Splint Mail w/RoP+1 & B/Axe*** & T/Axe** (W/Hammer*)

Eldoth: Bard/6; Chain Mail, Sh/Bow* & BoArchery, +1 S/Swd*, Dgr* (Arm,MM,ChOrb,Mir Img,Knock)

Edwin: Mage(Cjr/5); Mage Robe or ER & +1 Q/Staff* (Arm,Greasex2, C/Per,LMD,B/Hands,MelfsAA x3,PWS,F/Arrow x3)

Quayle: Mage(Ill/5); Mage Robe of FR, Slg* & Dgr (Ref Img, Blind x4,Blur,Inv,Mir Img)

Xan: Mage(Ech/6); Moonblade (Amr, C/Perx2, Slp, Frnds, RoEnfx2, Luck, D/Chrx2,H/Per))

 

Mods Used: HardTimes-v2; BG1UB_v12; bg1npc-v20; X0black101 (Blackguard); MegaModKits v1.01L; level1npcs-v1.9; bg2_tweaks-v14; Randomizer-v68; scs-v21 (- Tactical Challenges)

 

Reloads: 0

 

** Self-imposed restriction: I require my mages to ALWAYS select spells from their school to learn & memorize in spell slots. They can use others, only one of each from other schools, but after writing all the spells they can for their intelligence, if they find one from their own school, they have to choose one to remove in deference to the spell from their school. Same w/memorization, they must learn spells from their school first before others which I only allow them to learn one of. Any extra memorized spell slots have to go to spells from their school.  Bards & plain vanilla Mages aren’t restricted in this way. 

[Grond0]

Well, now I feel like I have a disease or something.  This is the first time I've removed the CAP. 

If you can get above the cap with a party then you deserve to enjoy the spoils .  Let's hope Mordred can make it!

[Aasim]

Iirc, finishing all BG1 quests w/o exploits/rest abuses or mod-added content will net you around 1,200,000 exp. Divide by 6, 200k per character.

[Jianson]

Iirc, finishing all BG1 quests w/o exploits/rest abuses or mod-added content will net you around 1,200,000 exp. Divide by 6, 200k per character.

Is this with or without TotSC? With or without fully exploring (mapping out) all wilderness maps?


@Alesia: The removed XP cap makes me want to play everything in the game. However, I see the point of refrining from using some of the late level-ups if one thinks that makes a character overpowered. That way we can still collect the XP but wait with the level-ups until later in the saga.

I get enough challenge as I play (look at those NPC deaths, even at high levels that I had on my last run) from mods (Hard Times, SCS, Randomizer) and my house rules of reducing CON when someone is resurrected and my 'keep the best of 5 rolls without stats redistribution' method of character creation.

For non-warrior characters without CON bonus to HP, I think they really need all the 'die roll' levels to be reasonably strong in the late game. A level 10 mage will still only average 26.5 HP (32.5 if it's the PC with a familiar). Yes, there are Fortitude potions but a limited amount, and the effect might get dispelled in some encounters.

Of what I have seen so far, the only really overpowered thing if you remove the XP cap and level up is when a Druid reaches level 11. But one can choose not to summon fire elementals.
I can imagine a Sorcerer getting level 6 picks could be quite powerful as well (although some of the most advanced arcane enemies in the game also use level 6 spells).