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[Grimwald the Wise]

Is it pure coincidence that all fighter/druids are as thick as two short planks? Or is it that being a druid necessitates lack of intelligence?

[corey_russell]

Is it pure coincidence that all fighter/druids are as thick as two short planks? Or is it that being a druid necessitates lack of intelligence?

It is just very, very hard to roll for them, as they don't have a dump stat. Either fighting or intelligence stats has to be sacrificed, I chose intelligence.

[corey_russell]

Cordruid the half-elf fighter/druid and his band of fighter/druids - Update 2

Traveling with: Rachel, David, Venita, Michael, Crystelle

Everyone is level 2 fighter/level 2 druid, except Crystelle is currently level 3 fighter (she duals to druid later)

 

The party adventured this morning, still seeking their elusive first level. We need a big chunk of experience, so Cordruid decided to investigate Prism, even though the party is still level 1. We defend Prism from Greywolf. The plan was to do doom x2 and entangle x2. This is a bit risky as it will prevent us from escaping, but our hope is only one person dies. Rachel drew the short straw so she kept Greywolf's attention while the rest of us were pumping missile weapons into him. What Rachel really did is consume lots of blue potions - however this strategy worked, Greywolf falls! We can't use his sword, but will make good money when we sell it.

 

Next, we returned a dog to is owner, taking out some xvarts and skeletons on the way. By the way, for most fights, Rachel uses a scimitar, David a +1 dagger, Venita uses a spear, and Michael uses a +1 staff, while Cordruid and Crystelle use slings.

 

Next area a cave bear and a wolf approach - the party unloads missile weapons into it and just barely manage to kill it as the wolf arrives, then switching to melee weapons. We had to deal with Krumm and his pal - they hit us hard, so we used some blue potions and continued our assault. Venita had cast bless for this fight, so our victory was sure. Picked up a magical halberd in a cave and a dead cat in a waterfall. The cat was returned to its owner and she gave us a protection from undead scroll - how nice!

 

The party finally gets to its destination, the Gnoll Fortress. Venita is tired, so we rest - we got ambushed several times before it was finally successful. The entire Gnoll Fortress, upper and lower levels was destroyed. Carrion Crawler defeated by missile weapons. As we were leaving, we got our first levels of the game. In an ambush on our way to Nashkel (another cave bear), we got the rest of the levels for the party. We sold our junk and ended the session here.

 

Plan will be to do 2 rep quests (which would put us to 20) and then start getting things we need/want like the full plate from Thunderhammer Smithy.

[Grimwald the Wise]

It is just very, very hard to roll for them, as they don't have a dump stat. Either fighting or intelligence stats has to be sacrificed, I chose intelligence.

I was joking. I knew that was the case. In my games it is usually charisma that is the dump stat except for Paladins when it has to be Intelligence also.

 

In my current game with a drow Wizard Slayer charisma was the dump stat, but because she is an elf, couldn't take it down that far so both wisdom and intelligence were affected too.

 

Still, because of the mods installed, there are a few extra tomes. Sadly by uninstalling Dark Horizons, I lost some of them.

 

We killed all the bad guys in Garroten and returned to the sword coast where we rescued Duke Eltan using stealth, dealt with the Iron Throne with divide and conquer, luring two of them down a floor.

 

The battle with Slythe and Kirstin has never been easier. Summons to distract Slythe while web was cast then attacked him with characters who could not be held. Wizard Slayer used a bow to avoid the web.

 

A summoned gnoll killed Kirstin!

 

At the Ducal Palace summons were again used, then when the doppelgangers showed themselves, web followed by sleep. After that easy!

 

Now for Sarevok. I've changed my mind about Drizzt. It means doing Durlag's Tower which is a drag since items are lost anyway. One day I will do it.

 

All four are at the experience cap now anyway. Resisted the temptation to add a cleric and a thief.

[corey_russell]

I was joking. I knew that was the case. In my games it is usually charisma that is the dump stat except for Paladins when it has to be Intelligence also.

 

In my current game with a drow Wizard Slayer charisma was the dump stat, but because she is an elf, couldn't take it down that far so both wisdom and intelligence were affected too.

 

Still, because of the mods installed, there are a few extra tomes. Sadly by uninstalling Dark Horizons, I lost some of them.

I've made a ton of characters in the past with 2 or 3 CHA, but druids require 15 CHA so not much use as a dump stat. If I sacrifice wisdom, I make them a lousy druid (which for various reasons I actually did that for a few of the party members), or sacrifice DEX, CON, STR I make them lousy fighters. Or I can just make them stupid...it seemed lesser of the evils. Crystelle is the only person smart enough to use a wand, but there aren't many wands in BG 2.

[Blackraven]

Jianson: steady progress. you're very thorough (I would simply run from the kobols and undead at Ulcaster).
Corey: best of luck!

***

In the city of Baldur's Gate, Gylliane first resolved to enrich herself. With a few potions of Master Thievery she looted the Silvershield Estate, and pickpocketed the Cloak of Balduran from Quenash, a Tome of Understanding from Chanthalas Ulbright, some jewelry from Arkion and Nemphre, Halbazzer Drin's Nymph Cloak (which she would sell for 30,000 GP, making Gylliane feel truly rich for the first time in her life), and another Tome of Understanding from Ragefast whom she didn't kill after he rued his actions. She did kill his rival Ramazith, blinding him (before he would teleport upstairs), and finishing him off with ranged attacks.

Upstairs she found a few good scrolls, and the Robe of the Good Archmagi. For AC purposes she's using that robe now instead of the Mage Robe of Practical Protection that Thalantyr had made for her before. On Ramazith's body she found the Bracers of AC7. Gylliane travelled to the High Hedge where Thalantyr merged said bracers together with a pair of Gauntlets of Weapon Skill she had found in the Baldur's Gate docks and the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise she had found on Tazok, into the Gauntlets of Grandmastery. It cost her 5000 GP and a potion of Defense.

For Scar she cleared the Seven Suns of their Shapeshifter presence, and the sewers of an Ogre Mage (who was, again, blinded). She fought Battle Horrors, Helmed Horrors, and Invisible Stalkers, which cost her about ten healing potions, and proceeded to take on Degrodel in the hopes of finding another Tome (she still hasn't found the Tome of Clear Throught and the Manual of Quickness of Action). He didn't drop one though, as Gylliane discovered after she had waited for his spell protections to expire, successfully cast Blindness (in three instances), and slain him with Arrows of Biting and normal arrows.

Gylliane returned to Scar and agreed to "investigate" the Iron Throne. The battle nearly ended her life.
She entered, spoke with Cloudwulfe, retreated and returned stealthed to cast a Stinking Cloud. However, before she could finish casting that spell, one of her foes Enfeebled her as soon as she became visible. (This seemed unfair to me because both Stinking Cloud and Ray of Enfeeblement have a casting time of 2.) She got severely injured within seconds (left with 14 hitpoints out of 65). Gylliane should have probably dropped everything except her Robe and her Familiar to flee downstairs, but instead she quaffed a Potion of Invibility. One of her foes, I think Aasim, had already cast Invisibility Purge the first time she arrived upstairs. So she hoped that no dispelling magic would follow this time. Her hopes were idle: Gylliane did have the time to fully heal herself, but before the Enfeeblement had worn off Naaman cast Detect Invisibility, to which Gylliane responded by quaffing a second Potion of Inivisbility right away.

The Enfeeblement wore off soon after, allowing Gylliane to flee downstairs where she buffed herself with Blur and Mirror Image, an Oil of Speed and a Potion of Clarity, and later Shield. She managed to disperse the group with hit and fade tactics, so she would only have to deal with one or two foes at a time. (She was reluctant to use AoE spells because of the merchants who were walking around in the middle of the ruckus.)
She had no difficulty melee'ing her foes, although she escaped when Alai cast Emotion: Hopelessness against her. The spell stranded on Gylliane's 30 Magic Resistance (Cloak of Balduran plus Robe of the Good Archmagi), and that was a good thing because I think the Potion of Clarity doesn't protect against the spell's sleep effect. (I should have used a Potion of Magic Blocking, but I didn't want it to cancel her buffs.)

The main spoils are a Wand of Lightning, a Ring of Protection +2, a Ring of Free Action, a Cloak of Displacement and three scrolls she hadn't encountered yet (Polymorph Other, Minor Sequencer and Cone of Cold).

She'll try and take on the butler and the fighter in one of the houses (again, hoping to find Tomes or a Shield Amulet that Thalantyr can enchant so that it givs a permanent AC4 effect). After that, supposing she survives, she'll reurn to Candlekeep.

[Serg BlackStrider]

In the city of Baldur's Gate, Gylliane first resolved to enrich herself. With a few potions of Master Thievery she looted the Silvershield Estate

 

I skipped that Estate in my run (even though I knew that Randomiser put some items there) - I think, it was quite tricky to be not caught there, no?

[Grimwald the Wise]

Stavemistress

Last and Final Update

 

The end is nigh. Val has told me that it is time for her to return to Amn. Ajantis is looking forward to our marriage. Imra is looking forward to becoming a knight. However before all that can happen I have to deal with Sarevok.

 

The enemies on the way to meet him were trivial.

However once in his chosen arena things promised to be not too easy.

 

We dealt with some guards first and then Val used her wand of summoning to entice Tazok. Much to our horror, Sarevok was also enticed out to meet us. however he and Tazok concentrated on the summons. We retreated and only just in time as Semaj teleported herself next to us. We attacked immediately whereupon chaos was cast and I lost control of both Val and Ajantis who attacked each other.

 

Someone also cast cloudkill but we braved it in order to fight at close quarters. This proved to be the correct tactic as Angelo then attacked us with arrows of explosion that did our enemies far more harm than they did us.

 

Upon killing all the cohorts apart from Angelo, we retreated drawing him away from Sarevok before closing on him quickly. We killed him and shortly afterwards Chaos wore off and we spent some time glugging potions of healing until we were fully recovered as we were all badly hurt.

 

Val cast haste and Melf's minute meteors and we closed in. She then summoned some more monsters and we all attacked simultaneously. I thought afterwards that Isra and Ajantis should have used potions of strength, but that proved unecessary. Sarevok fell and we all collapsed with exhaustion from the ordeal, relieved that it was all over.

 

Do not expect me in Amn for a few days as I have to decide on mods and install them.

 

Final stats: Str 19, Dex 20, Con 19, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 10. Could have levelled up to 9 during the battle.

[Blackraven]

I skipped that Estate in my run (even though I knew that Randomiser put some items there) - I think, it was quite tricky to be not caught there, no?

Not if you're skilled in avoidance The only chests that may casue trouble are those in Skie's room. The trick is to first unlock all of them, then loot them as fast as possible and run away (boots of speed), and leave the building.

@Grimwald, bravo! You made a remarkable comeback there! All the best for Amn

[corey_russell]

Not if you're skilled in avoidance The only chests that may casue trouble are those in Skie's room. The trick is to first unlock all of them, then loot them as fast as possible and run away (boots of speed), and leave the building.

@Grimwald, bravo! You made a remarkable comeback there! All the best for Amn

Is there actually any reason to take the risk? I always skip that in my runs. What I mean, anything like unique items like free action ring, fire resistance ring, etc.? For my good aligned parties, I am usually flush with gold at the end, so I need a good reason to go in this place.

[Blackraven]

Is there actually any reason to take the risk? I always skip that in my runs. What I mean, anything like unique items like free action ring, fire resistance ring, etc.? For my good aligned parties, I am usually flush with gold at the end, so I need a good reason to go in this place.

If you play with Item Randomiser, you might find great loot there. In my run with Grynne the Wizard Slayer (a run I never continued due to problems with my game setup) I found one of the stat increasing tomes. I don't need all the best loot, but I have a hard time not searching for tomes I know are around somewhere...

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

After a rest I was off to the compound I saw in the Cloakwood. It’s getting harder & harder to get into the deepest parts of the Cloakwood w/o encountering monsters. Gotta pick those battles carefully but keeping Shar-teel happy means fightin’ anything/one, anytime, anywhere & she will w/o me puttin’ the reins on her when necessary, Kagain too for that matter. Still, I choose which battles can benefit me before I let us go swingin’ wildly.

 

The compound I saw was the Cloakwood Mines, mentioned in the letters I discovered when I defeated the Bandits. I had the party reconnoiter around the mines before assaulting the compound to make sure we weren’t ambushed by BTE or Chill or both. I ended up killing some 15 BTE/guards, the latter not as formidable. There were some Dread Wolves & wolves, maybe two of the former/four of the latter.  This required a few trips back to the FAI & the camp to unload loot, especially sets of Splint Mail. Didn’t want to drop those & lose out on the gold @ 25 a set.

 

Key Event: When I was ready to attack the mines I sent Safana forward Hidden in Shadow to see what was waiting there. She slipped past two guards into a courtyard where she spotted what appeared to be two mages & two fighter types or clerics (they were wearing Splint). When she slipped back to the lines she was spotted by the guards & they attacked but she was heads up & drew them out to us @ the far end of the bridge. This allowed us to finish them before I sent Quayle up, w/Invisibility on himself, to use his Necklace of Missiles to drop a Fireball in the courtyard, alerting them to my presence in a painful manner. That brought the two armored men & one mage forward to the bridge. I cast Chaos on myself & moved to deal w/the mage on the side of the bridge closer to the compound while Shar-teel & Kagain tag teamed one of the armored dudes @ the other end where the two Guards already lay dead. Viconia cast Command @ the mage but it didn’t work so she cast Miscast Magic on him. Quayle cast Blindness @ my enemies while tossing sling-stones, as was Viconia. Safana moved around behind the mage to drop a back-stab on the other armored man who’d come up next to him…never saw either of them try a spell so I guess they were just fighters. The enemy mage managed to cast a Monster Summoning spell & brought some other big oaf to his aid. The mage died before he did & I took him & the other armored guy down w/help from Safana who has hitting & running. Shar-teel & Kagain finished up their dude & came up to help too. Once all of them were dead, Safana reminded me that there was still another mage, or was. I had us move forward in attack in ‘V’ formation w/me trailing so I could see & direct the battlefield. I had Quayle use a Wand of Lightning he’d picked up & he hit the mage but the bounce backs hit Safana killing her. The mage turned out to be a pushover & I/we wasted him quickly before cleaning out the bodies of the four, who turned out to be more assassins & the two guards. Then we killed four more guards between the barracks & the mine entrance & some punk in a little storehouse. We cleaned them out & a few chests/trunks but Safana was unable to get the largest one & neither Kagain, nor I, could force it. Then it was back to the FAI to ID some loot & take a rest before entering the mines.

 

 

[/URL]

THE BATTLE OF CLOAKWOOD MINES BRIDGE

 

[/URL]

LEAVING BODIES IN MY WAKE...

 

When we were returning to camp Shar-Teel told me she was feeling strange, queasy stomach. I realized she might be pregnant & told her so not in so many words. My heir already in the oven! Oh, & w/these genes what a little bad-ass he will be!

 

I’ve not heard from my Overlord Demoness since she sent me to add Shar-teel, Safana & Quayle to replace my deceased former subordinates . Starting to wonder what I should be doing but I guess w/the mines looming, I will be busy for a while. 

 

Treasure of Note: Morning Star +1 (sold); two mage robes (Cold Resistance (sold), Travelers Robe (Quayle); Potions (still unidentified)

 

Current Disposition: Resting @ camp

Next Steps: Descend into the mines

 
Level Up: None

 

Current Party: (Reputation: 4 - Despised)

Ironside: Ftr/Fallen A-Pal//6, F/P/Mail (L/Shield +1) wBoots/Avoidance, Girdle/Bluntness, Spiders Bane**,

                B/Sword+1/+3 vs SSs**,  (THWS**); (Sirine)

Viconia: Cleric//6, S/Mail w/S/Shield*, Mace*, Slg*; (Phase Spider)

Shar-teel: Ftr//6 w/P/Mail w/2 L/Swords*** (2HWS***)(Sirene)

Safana: Thf//6 w/S/Leather, Dgr* & Dart* (S/Swd*)(Giant Spider)

Kagain: Ftr/Bkr//5 w/S/Mail & Battle Axe*** (or Throwing Axe***)(2WS**)(Sword Spider)

Quayle: Mage/Ill//6, Dgr*, Slg*(Hobgoblin)

 

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

 

Blue Font: New information;

Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)

(Best kill)

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

iT TOOK ME A WHILE TO GET THIS POSTED.  I'VE BEEN PAYING TO USE 'IMAGE SHACK' BUT THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON-EXISTENT. I OFFICIALLY GAVE UP ON THEM TODAY, DELETED MY ACCOUNT & HAD MY BANK RETRIEVE THE FUNDS I'VE SENT THEM.

 

I GAVE THEM A WEEK TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, THEN SWITCHED TO PHOTOBUCKET.  SEEMS EASIER AND APPEARS TO BE FREE OF CHARGE...FOR NOW.  

 

BE CAUTIOUS IF YOU USE IMAGE SHACK. THEY'LL TAKE YOU $ AND NOT PROVIDE THE IMAGE SERVICE OR REQUEST YOU UPGRADE AFTER YOU ALREADY HAVE AND ARE UTTERLY UNRESPONSIVE TO REQUEST FOR HELP.  BE WARNED.  CKT

[Blackraven]

iT TOOK ME A WHILE TO GET THIS POSTED.  I'VE BEEN PAYING TO USE 'IMAGE SHACK' BUT THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON-EXISTENT. I OFFICIALLY GAVE UP ON THEM TODAY, DELETED MY ACCOUNT & HAD MY BANK RETRIEVE THE FUNDS I'VE SENT THEM.

 

I GAVE THEM A WEEK TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, THEN SWITCHED TO PHOTOBUCKET.  SEEMS EASIER AND APPEARS TO BE FREE OF CHARGE...FOR NOW.  

 

BE CAUTIOUS IF YOU USE IMAGE SHACK. THEY'LL TAKE YOU $ AND NOT PROVIDE THE IMAGE SERVICE OR REQUEST YOU UPGRADE AFTER YOU ALREADY HAVE AND ARE UTTERLY UNRESPONSIVE TO REQUEST FOR HELP.  BE WARNED.  CKT

CKT, you and I both post on the Baldur's Gate Forums, as well as on here. What I usually is post first on the BG Forums where you can upload your pics from your computer. After posting, you can copy and paste your post here. It will include the pics. (If you hide your pics on the BG forums behind a spoiler button, you need to "unhide" the pics first). Hope this helps.

[Grond0]

Well done Wise.  Best of luck in Amn - once you get there ...

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well done, Wise! Safe travels in Amn.

 

@Blackraven: thanks for the tips about Estate. Will keep'em in mind for the future.

[corey_russell]

Cordruid and his band of fighter/druids - update 3

Everyone is level 3 fighter/level 4 druid, except Crystelle who is level 4 fighter - she will dual to druid at level 7.

 

Cordruid realized with the help of some magical bullets and magical weapon summoning spells, they could clear out the vampiric wolves and such in the Temple of Beregost area, so the party did so with no trouble. At this point the party was level 3 fighter/level 3 druid, we though we should be able to take on the enemies in the Valley of the Tombs map.

 

First challenge was the amazon assassins. We didn't have any immunities - we opened with doom and charm person on both of the thieves - both thieves were charmed! Now it's 8 on two, not surprisingly the enemies were utterly destroyed with this huge coup.

 

Next up was Narcillus and his jellies. All along I knew the party had to be very wary of jellies, both because most of our weapons don't work (spears, daggers) and also our less than stellar saves. First we dealt with Narcillus - with 6 fighters using range weapons on Narcillus, Narcillus could neither cast a spell or surive and thus died fast. We had SOME magical weapons memorized, summoned those and tried to kill these mustard jellies. It didn't go well, Corduid got poisoned and Rachel too and slowed. We did what we could to keep everyone alive. Then Michael was one-shotted. As it turned out, our summoned weapons poofed before could even kill a single jelly - with one person able to hurt them, that's not enough - retreat! (after looting of course).

 

We resurrect Michael and change our spell sets - this time EVERYONE had shilleagh x2 memorized - we had some people out of the fight last time as they had nothing to help with - that wont' be happening this go around! We return to the scene of the crime, cast our shilleaghs and charge - this time we kill both jellies. We killed the ghoul in the 1st tomb easily enough. Crystelle soloed the 2nd and 3rd tombs, forgetting that even though she is the only person who can cast green scrolls, pro undead scroll allows any target you want - woops, oh well, she still got the job done.

 

We are ready for the Nashkel Mines we press into here. For traps, we just walked into them if unavoidable. Fortunately, if you are careful you can avoid setting off the 3 traps just before Mulahey's level so we did that. For Mulahey, the plan was the 4 melee guys stayed near entrance, while Cordruid and Crystelle pressed into the cave. Mulahey tried to run but was charmed. We immediately unload all his dangerous spells on his own kobolds. By the time it wears off, he has nothing dangerous left and we defeat him easily.

 

We rest/sell at the carnival then talked to the Mayor - drats we accidentally left Mulahey's holy symbol on the ground! We returned to Mulahey's cave but it is gone, so we don't get the quest reward for clearing the mines, oh well. For Nimbul, the plan was for Rachel to buff with shield amulet and only show herself. This meant only she was affected by Nimbul's horror. The party and the nearby guards starting unloading massive number of missile weapons into Nimbul. Nimbul wastes time trying magic missile on Rachel who is immune - yes after about 4 rounds we get enough criticals Nimbul finally falls. We immediately take out Tranzig as well, and he was of no trouble.

 

This is my first single player BGT run - In EasyTutu I can sell as many winter wolf pelts as I want to Nashkel Merchant, and also to Officer Vai - but in BGT Nashkel Merchant only takes one and Officer Vai refuses to buy them too. So had to settle for 250 gold each at Feldeposte's. I have also noticed the spawns are much easier to deal with - e.g., In EasyTutu I might have 3 bears or 3 ghasts, but in BGT only one ghast and other creatures. This makes it considerably safer.

 

Somehow we managed to save Melicamp. We also take on Bassilus. Another difference in BGT - though we showed ourselves and could see most of the undead, and despite doing the correct options, the undead did not disappear - this meant we had a huge battle on our hands. As much as we could we unloaded our range weapons into Bassilus, but Michael is dying and in melee, so he had to switch to his staff. Corduid had to stop and heal him - mid-battle, MIchael stole David's boots of avoidance to help him survive all these crossbow bolts coming at him. Bassilus did cast a spell at Rachel but she saved twice. Bassilus then falls and once the party melees switch to their melee weapons, the skeletons start falling much faster.

 

When we arrived at the Beregost Smithy to sell, he told us the ankheg armor on order was done - gave to Michael, he needs the AC boost. Decided to end session here, I got my 4 way MP no-reload tomorrow morning.

[Shadow_Leech07]

@ serg and corey

 

Thanks for the support!

 

So long story short I have been playing the game for several hours, and I have in fact two different tutu installations...the thing is I've become obsessed with playing with munchkin characters, I guess that's the flavor of the moment for me. Here's a summary listing of the games I'm playing:

Solo sorceress, solo archer, palindrome team(characters with ability stats of 11), randomly generated characters(party of six), a party full of monks, and finally I will begin a new party of munchkins(no leveling up). So, first off my party of munchkins ended up getting killed by two ogre magis.

 

I'll explain what is going on with my tutu installations. I've figured out that I probably won't be able to succeed with my munchkins, and palindrome parties on a SCS heavy installation so I created a vanilla-ish tutu version. Everything is played on core difficulty. I'm probably not going to play my randomly generated party anymore because that party doesn't have a thief and I am worried about stuff like that. I haven't gotten around to writing daily log entries but I will summarize what happened in my first munchkin game:

 

The party consisted of three archers, a thief, and two totemic druids. The BG2 kits are incredible in the original Baldur's Gate and they definitely shine here. I have tried a munchkin game in the vanilla BG1, and that didn't go very well, ending in the Xvart(spelling?) village. The game as I mentioned before ended at the hands of the two ogre magis that like ambushing around the areas near the Gnoll Stronghold and the archaelogical digs. I actually got a bit overconfident and instead of running away from them, just had to try and kill them...big mistake. One thing I did notice while playing was that I had no mages or sorcerers...basically anyone that could use wands or spell scrolls and that I think was a big mistake in the construction of the party. So I'm thinking of replacing the archers with F/M/T and rolling with that. The archers are definitely great and I chose them because of how easily my solo archer had been rolling through the SCS game...however I have a feeling they could become obsolete later on. I'm also considering a priest of Talos but haven't really decided. I know munchkin games have been done, I think...so I guess it's just a learning process. I don't know if I want to use Algernon's cloak. I do know I will use the amulet of missiles and any other item I can get my hands on to survive. It looks like I'll probably be devoting most of my BG playing time on the munchkin scenario rather then the other games, but we'll see...

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 1 - (update 2)
Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

The second weekly instalment of this run saw generally good progress, though with the first fatality.

 

After having cleared the Nashkel mine last time the run started by reporting to the mayor and teaching Nimbul a lesson.  With reputation at 20 the group wandered up towards Ulgoth's Beard.  The ankheg nest was easy enough, although a group of 3 ankhegs in the main area did make Ratic run out of range after taking a couple of quick hits.  A priestess also received some good news before we purchased the Cloak of Displacement and the Greenstone Amulet.

 

Heading down to the coast the first target was Shoal.  Rather than sacrifice one of us, Kivan was recruited to lay down his life for a good cause - he was then pensioned off immediately Ogre Droth had been defeated.  The ogres were treated to some carnage on the way to tackle a group of 3 sirines - Yuledan testing out the amulet there.  Down the coast there were more sirines offering easy XP - Wewa tanking them while berserk.  She also acted as target for the golems in the cave - they made no impression on her through a potion of absorption and Girdle of Bluntness.

 

In Beregost Silke was blinded and some spiders slaughtered.  Then a wolf pack in the temple area was put down on the way to a more serious challenge at Durlag's Tower.  The first 2 battle horrors were tacked individually - they lasted a while without posing too many problems.  At the Tower the tome was recovered and a ghost and some more basilisks killed pretty easily.  However, on the way out it was decided to have a go at the battle horror on the battlements.  It proved hard to hit, while Wewa was out of rage and more vulnerable.  She tried to move away when HPs got low and Grond0 also paused the game - however, neither of those actions prevented the horror's sword from licking out one last time.

 

After resurrecting Wewa the group returned to Ulgoth's Beard to pick up the wand of the heavens there - that would have been useful against the battle horror.  Then it was back south to get Meilum's bracers.  Iskvael decided to spice things up a bit by blinding Wewa there, but he was at least dissuaded at the last moment from filling her full of magic missiles.  While in the area the group decided to show Kahrk who's boss.

 

In Gullykin Ratic showed himself to Molkar before the rest of the group were ready.  However, with 2 characters raging the enemies were quickly cut down anyway - Morvin dying well before his corpse was blinded!

 

Tranzig was asked for directions to the Bandit Camp and managed to mutter those in between screaming about the 2 traps he stepped on.  Teven then provided a lift to the camp, where Tazok made the mistake of wandering round for too long after greeting the group - donating another pair of bracers of weapon expertise to Ratic.  The remaining bandits found themselves outclassed as the Quad Team cleared the area.

 

Stats:

Grond0 - Ratic, barbarian 6, 58 HPs, 159 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, berserker 6, 75 HPs, 97 kills, 1 death

corey_russell - Yuledan, fighter 5 / cleric 5, 57 HPs, 87 kills, 0 deaths,
Gate70 - Iskvael, mage 5 / thief 6, 29 HPs, 41 kills, 0 deaths

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - you forgot to mention what happened with Silke. nice write up though. EDIT: er, meant that part of the group was going to do the other quest, and other part just wanted to kill her lol.

[Blackraven]

Final Update:
Gylliane got killed in the final battle by what seemed to be an insta-kill effect, which is very remarkable because she had around 60 hitpoints and an ioun stone to protect her against critical hits. She had finished off Angelo and was in the process of taking down Tazok with hit and fade tactics. I saw her get hit once by Sarevok, paused, had her gulp a potion of extra healing, unpaused, saw her drink the potion and had her and run away (at double speed: boots + potion) to hide in shadows. And then all of a sudden it was game over. Maybe simultaneous hits by Sarevok, Diarmid (ranged) and Semaj (some damage deal spell) could have killed her?

A bit of a sad and unsatisfying - clueless as to what hit me - end of an otherwise decent run by my standards.

Candlekeep, and return to Baldur's Gate had gone very well. I've got lots of pics, the battles with Cylandria and with Krystin were quite great, but now that my run has ended, I don't feel inclined to post about them.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear that Blackraven. We do know that in some installs, the opponents cash flesh to stone, or even the death spell. Death spell in particular is rough, as its instant death if you are below level 8, which you might be since you are multi-class. By far best defense to this stuff is a pro-magic scroll on your PC. Granted you wouldn't be able to use your spells, but you can still use your wands and potions.

[Blackraven]

@Corey, hm that's insightful. Gylliane was a level 7/8 Mage/Swashbuckler conform the XP cap. I had ProtMagic scrolls, but hadn't used them because I still wanted to cast a couple of Skull Traps. Next time I might decide otherwise... Thanks!

[corey_russell]

Cordruid and his band of fighter/druids - update 4

Entire party is level 5 fighter/level 6 druid, except Cyrstelle who is a level 6 fighter (she duals to druid next level)

 

Even though the party can't cast level 3 druid spells yet (at this point), we wanted to attempt Kirian's party - we were hoping our charms would make a difference like it did with the Amazaon assassins. We finally can see the edge guy (Birian? not sure name), the fighter I think. We try 6 times until he's finally charmed - but apparently that was a waste of time, as he immediately went hostile after talking to Kirian - ah guess we should do after battle starts, woops! So instead entire party uses missile fire on Kirian - good she falls fast. Meanwhile, Michael gets held. Now most of party (except Rachel whose being attacked by the fighter) uses missile fire on the cleric - who in turn casts hold at Michael, who is already held - hmm that was a waste of a spell. The party kills the enemy cleric, and the rest is just mop up.

 

We get a protection from petrification scroll and David tries to clear the map by himself, but uses a ton of blue potions. Mutamutin was in particular nail-biting, as David ran out of spells and was hurt, but david kept attacking with his +2 dagger - finally, Mutamutin out of spells and attacks with his staff - the writing is on the wall. Mutamutin's body has some blue potions which are used immediately to take on the remaining basilisks. David is forced to return to the party to get more blue potions and finish off the map.

 

We badly need magical weapons for Rachel (scimitar user) and Venita (spear user). There are magical versions available, but tricky to get. We decide to get the +1 spear first. Poe has our spear, but killing him is -10 rep - we don't want that! What to do, what to do...we eventually try mass charms, after like 6 attempts he's charmed. We have him attack Melium but Melium ignores Poe and attacks us, uh oh. Poe then does a color spray and goes hostile and 1/2 the party is put to sleep - yikes! Melium is killed and we have a single charm left - it works first attempt! Time for plan B, even though the entire party hasn't recovered yet, we can't wait Poe's charm won't last long. So Rachel and Poe talk to the lady in the desert and Kahrk appears - Poe attacks Kahrk while Rachel runs for her life back to the party. Rachel manages to get out of sight - Kahrk in response one shots Poe. But now to get the spear we have to deal with Kahrk. We put a potion of invulernability and potion of absorption on her and the rest of the party assists with Crystelle spamming her magic missile wand - success! Okay, Venita now has her spear, hope she likes it...

 

For the scimitar, we need to go to Durlag's Tower. But first, we have to go to Ulgoth's Beard to get potion of mirror eyes - we get greenstone amulet while we are here. We eventually get the wisdom tome here, then Rachel buffs to the max (STR 23 potion, haste, potion of mirror eyes) and solos the baslisks in the area. We then set off the trap here and get the magical +2 scimitar that's in a pillar. Good everyone now has a magical melee weapon, although much of the party still must summon shilleaghs when dealing with jellies.

 

We then clear the two sirine areas with the help of the greenstone amulet, nothing noteworthy happened, was smooth here.

 

NOTE: In this new install of mine, the weather (lightning) now does damage - Cordruid got hit to 1/3 health with one strike and that was him wearing the boots of grounding. If he wasn't wearing those boots, it would have been game over. There were multiple strikes that immediately followed, he was maybe luck not to be targeted twice in succession, as even with the boots that would have been fatal as well.  I didn't know this about my new install, glad I survived "learning" this detail.

 

The party cleared the Ankheg Nest/Farm and also Ulcaster School with no problems. Shilleaghs had to be used on the jellies here. Corduid set off two traps that can't be avoided - he had a hunch his 70% fire resistance would keep him alive and it did.

 

We need a lot of experience, so some grinding to do. Party is thinking of doing ice island. If memorize insects, mages can be neutralized that way, and we will use a character with a pro magic scroll to set off the traps away from the party. I better get lots of blue potions, just in case...

[Jianson]

Jianson: steady progress. you're very thorough (I would simply run from the kobols and undead at Ulcaster)

And miss out on >2000 exp, are you crazy?
Other than the XP thing, Hard Times also has a big part in my completionist approach. Every little ring, gem, necklace or gold pile may be the difference between being able to buy something powerful or not. And if you can find a vendor you haven't sold any to yet, those poisonous kobold guard daggers are actually worth 37 gold each. Money is an issue through the whole game under Hard Times, and since I find less cool stuff, I need to buy more.


Great update regarding Gylliane vs. the Throne guys.
EDIT: Sorry about her death.
Yeah, Flesh to Stone is a likely killer, or maybe a Chromatic Orb sequencer (I think Semaj is level 12, which means his Orbs can petrify).


Glasya, half-elven Sorceress with random spell picks, adventuring in Chapter 4 with Branwen, Minsc, Edwin and Jaheira

More druid business in Cloakwood

Laskal was actually pretty civil. He gave us a potion and left us in peace, despite Jaheira's harsh comments. Next run I do this quest, I'll pick a fight with him, just to see what he can do. He is probably more advanced than most other shadow druids here since he is worth almost 10x the XP compared to the 120 you get for the basic goons.

We found Amarande upstairs in his treehouse. Imoen did a little hide and seek. One of the acolytes followed downstairs, and then did a weird move where it looked like he disappeared into the closet (did he think I had a Narnia mod or something). Imoen drew out some spells with long casting times by moving downstairs. Amarande summoned a nymph which Imoen tried to poison with arrows. Nymph saved every time but the arrow damage added up and still killed her. Amarande hit her with a Chromatic Orb (ah, he must be an Avenger, good for her that she saved) and followed downstairs. Thus, Imoen could backstab the acolyte upstairs.


I sent in Minsc with ice arrows to whittle down Amarande's Iron Skins (btw, is there any fast way in BG1 to remove those other than Resist/Remove Magic from a high-level caster, Dispelling arrows and Breach cast by a Sorcerer?) while at the same time interrupting spells. Worked well for a while but suddenly no longer at all:


Broken armor, does that mean his 'statue' has shattered!!? I sent in Imoen with a stone to flesh scroll. Yay, there he is! He got de-stoned, fled outside, healed and equipped with a spare plate mail. Minsc resumed the fight. Amarande shifted to salamander quite often, so it was a bit of a hit and run (Minsc has speed boots). The fire shield retaliates even arrow hits, if Minsc is too close. Amarande had moral failure and ran outside. He got his wits back, drank a greater healer and Edwin blinded him.

Here is where I made a huge micromanagement mistake, one reason was overconfidence on my part. I mean, what can he do while blinded, right? A whole freaking lot. While I gathered Imoen and Minsc up and directed them outside, this happened:


That was a critical hit as a spider while Glasya was holding her sling. And do you see that he has started a spellcasting? I forgot that you can cast single-target spell even while blinded, if you get close enough. I can just imagine WHAT spell he still has memorized, one that would have been useless earlier in the fight. Glasya has just cast a Burning Hands in an attempt disrupt the spell. BH is sometimes very dangerous for you, though, since you get stuck in place for the next round. We tried our very best to disrupt him. MM from Edwin as you could see in the screenie, fire arrows from the archers, etc. STILL no disruption despite several hits. How does that work, exactly? I often get my spells disrupted when any wussy diaper monster as much as farts on one of my characters...

Tried to drink health elixir. No go. Tried to run. No go.
OH NO, I am poisoned and hurt and it's coming. IT'S COMING!!!




KABLAMMMM!!!



"You hear the howling of the CwnAnnwn"
That would have been the message if I was playing Nethack now.






Her most important save this far, eh?
I see now, as I write this, that she had protection from moral failure. Must be the Emotion she tried earlier. She may well have been running from that massive damage otherwise, and that could have been fatal. It's not certain Jaheira or Branwen would have been able to cure her before the poison had killed her.

She pulled back, suffered two more poison ticks (thank goodness that shapeshifted-spider poison isn't stronger!) until a health elixir took effect. Amarande at near death now. Just as he dies, a second lightning strikes, at the very spot Glasya was standing earlier! Probably saved by the Blindess. She drank an Absorption potion in case the skies were still angry.


We have been waylaid by wyverns at least three times. That's nice, 2800 Xp and 2000 gold for each of those fights. It's not without danger, though:


This was the tactic for these fights - Branwen tanks one wyvern, one character kites the other one around and the other four shoot it down. Still haven't been waylaid by giant spiders.

Since the Hamadryad was almost sure to see us when we approached the captured druid Beador, I let Minsc take her on first. She did not understand he was charm protected, so she wasted all three Dire Charms on him. But the combo of Entangle and Physical Mirror still made her no pushover. And then she had two Hold Person and the second one struck:



I sumoned skeletons. Bad move, I should have attacked instead. It took a long time for the skeletons to reach the fighting spot, because of multiple Entangles. Fortunately, it took even longer for Hamadryad to damage Minsc enough for it be more than mildly dangerous.

The Druid fight, however, was practically over in seconds. They attacked Beador but I knew he had Iron Skins up. All five druids were hit by Emotion, and four of them also Held. I let my skellies kill them. Only one druid survived the Emotion duration (but was killed anyway).

Time to rescue Maretha and thus fight Andarthe and his associate. Edwin summoned big monsters, the druids summoned animals and a total of three (!) nymphs. Wow, dangerous to get within sight of any of that. A nymph Confused most of my monsters, so my two ogre berserkers were not so useful anymore. My mages had kept busy casting Malison and a couple of Emotions, making sure to stay out of sight of all casters. Insect Plague and Call Lightning were my most dreaded spells from them (yeah, and the multitude of save-or-else spells from the nymphs). The lesser druid and two of the nymphs were soon asleep. Andarthe had started to cast something. Edwin knew he was out of sight of that, so I had him step in and cast Feeblemind on Andarthe. Turns out that was not needed, because Glasya's next Emotion had pretty much sealed their fate:


Physical Mirror? OK, Imoen and Minsc, hack up the big guy in close combat!
Branwen meleed the other druid, while Jaheira darted the nymphs (with some help from my mages):


Total annihilation, a perfectly fought battle from our side. Very nice.
We said goodbye to Seniyad and sent Jaheira back to Nashkel. Time to recruit Coran and hunt some spiders and wyverns!


The fifth (and last) phase spider came to us this time. Easy to kill when alone.
We killed the rest of the outside enemies quite easily, too. One Animate Dead brought enough skellies for both giant spider packs. Huge spiders and Ettercaps were tanked by Branwen and shot down. (Coran is Specialized in Crossbows and has the Light Crossbow of Speed).

A quick visit (with Free Action on) in the nest by Branwen brought out most critters. (This is one fight that is easier with Tutu than in vanilla (where they don't follow you out).) Two thief traps, a few remaining skeletons and a Monster III pack were waiting for them outside. Yeah, and all my archers.

Major mistake coming up. Why oh why did I have to bring Edwin into the nest! Idiot...
He experienced the embrace of Auril in doses way beyond what he could handle:



I could only watch in horror as he shattered into a lot of ice shards.
Now who's going to be my main mage? He had so many good spells in his book! I did not lose many items, but I did lose the Claw of Kazgaroth (so it must have been quite unlucky that he failed that save vs wands), two +1 weapons (dagger, sling), a Traveller's Robe and some potions.

I settled for Dynaheir, as both Xan and Xzar can never get a decent number of HPs. Not only have they no CON bonus, their rolls have also been below average. Also, the Tutu version of Dyna is better than in vanilla because she can now cast Conjuration spells.

I spent a couple of days gathering some good scrolls for Dynaheir, plus I found two Raise Dead scrolls for sale at Nashkel temple. There are two more at UB Inn but they are a lot more expensive. I also donated to Kelddath enough gold to get our rep up to 18. If I make it to BG, I plan to shop like crazy, and the upside of not having any evil NPCs is that I can get the maximum discount. Another Bhaal Horror be damned, the discount feels more important (especially since also Dynaheir can now cast Horror).


Imoen scouted out the perfect spot for off-screen Emotion bombing of the Drasus party. They did not react to the first one. Alright, here comes three more! All four enemies fell asleep, awesome!

Even though it worked in this fight, I really missed Malison here. I know there is one scroll that I can buy back from Nashkel store, but that would be one-use only since it can't be scribed by Dynaheir.


Mopped up the two BTE packs on this map, and all guards up to and including those on the first mine floor. I then went out to the map edge (in case I would need to flee) and rested. Was disturbed by soldiers twice but we won those fights pretty easily (gained a few potions, too).

I will try to complete the rest of the mines without resting. Probably won't be easy. I would be a lot more confident if I still had Edwin's large spell meny (sigh!).


Glasya, level 9, 44+6 HP
Branwen, level 8, 64 HP
Minsc, level 8, 63 HP (rolled a sucky 2 on the d10)
Dynaheir, level 5, 25 HP
Imoen, level 9, 56 HP
Coran, level 5/6, 23 HP (100% in Detect Illusions, building up stealth, has ** in Crossbow and Scimitar and * in Single Weapon Style)