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[Serg BlackStrider]

Thanks Serg, but according to my information Oin is Nain's father - so here he is .

 

A bit off topic but AFAIK Óin was the older brother of Glóin, cousin of Dwalin and Balin, and uncle of Gimli, while Nain was son of Gror and grandson of Dain I.

 

In any case, I hope/wish he (Oin) will finally succeed in his quest so all those fallen dwarven brothers will rest in peace at last!

[Grond0]

That's the problem with the dwarvish tendency to re-use names.  The Oin you're looking at is not the direct ancestor of Thorin Oakenshield - see http://tolkiengatewa...f_Durin's_Folk)for more detailed genealogy.  

 

In any event Oin won't be proceeding further and any family vengeance would have to pass upwards to Gloin - though I'm not intending to do another kensai immediately.

 

Oin - dwarf kensai (2nd and final hour)

 

I was continuing to push things with Oin and that eventually proved costly.  He killed Mulahey, despite having run out of throwing axes, and went to sort out Tranzig.  He did not disclose the location of the Bandit Camp, but Oin got a lift there with Teven anyway.  At the Camp I thought the exterior was clear before Oin went inside.  Rather than jump in and out to split the opposition up he stayed in until Venkt was dead, although that meant he was badly wounded.  He then made a run for it, which looked like being successful when he was out of sight of the opponents, only for him to run into an bandit unexpectedly.  He tried to take him out quickly, but that gave Raemon time to catch up from behind and one more arrow from him proved fatal.

[Aasim]

Kira, 4th BG1 update

 

Traveling around Nashkel and gatehering/selling loot got Kira and his gang enough money to buy most of the important loot from U.Beard. We decided to play with our alignment and kill the dwarf there. Nice loot, nice exp, and only a slight rep drop.

 

Now we definetely needed some Fire Wands. First we get the one in Ulcaster (avoid everything under invisibility) and next the one in Ankheg Farm, who we fight. Kira got hit by a nasty critical once, but Flame Arrows did most of the work.

 

Now with two Fire Wands, we clear most of the tougher enemies quickly.

 

Basilisks were taken care of with poison arrows. Unfortunately, Kira's THAC0 is quite poor despite Archery bracers and only a few of those are left to be bought in Beregost.

 

Now we're in process of clearing the upper Durlag floors. Two Horrors there were killed with magic attacks.

 

Inner Ghouls with Fireballs, and the upper basilisks with the rest of the spells we had memorized. Everybody in party is at level 6, Kira still has 15K to go to reach level 7.

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter, 3rd update

After the smooth rides through the Nashkel Mine and the Bandit Camp, the Cloakwood Mine would provide a more challenging experience. Still protected by his two potions of magic protection, Norgath found himself in no rush to cast PfM from a green scroll on himself. Ever frugal, he also decided to rely on stealth rather than (potions or ring-charges of) invisibility, partly because he would have to speak with different folk which would dispel any invisibility.

He entered and snuck toward a slave that was willing to flood the mine if given a key to unlock a river plug. On the second level he must have taken too long between seeing his stealth fail due to the area transition and finding a new spot to hide while still invisible. (This is difficult to keep track of with the Claw of Kazgaroth equipped; it blurs the user.) One or more of the guards noticed him, and while Norgath did manage to hide after that, the SCS better calls for help had already been made, and the Dwarf was soon cornered by a multitude of guards and black talons causing him to immediately quaff a potion of defense. As the majority of his foes were behind him, he decided to try and fight his way forward. With luck he'd only have to kill one or two of them. But then Hareishan made her appearance to dispel the effect of the potion of defense. The Dwarf still had fairly good AC against missiles, thanks to various items, but arrows of biting (guards) and cold (black talons) started to injure him nonetheless. He chose to go invisibile, drink an elixir of health, heal with his innate Bhaalpowers (which in my setup gradually increase in power, similar to a Paladin's Lay on Hands ability), and quaff a potion of magic blocking. As in Centeol's den, the Necklace of Missiles provided the means for the Dwarf to release himself. He took a few more arrows, but didn't bother with confronting surviving attackers. Instead, he rushed toward a prison where he organized the evacuation of the slaves, and onward toward the level exit, hiding in shadows at the earliest occasion he saw.
Norgath enjoyed his new found freedom and made sure not to become visible again to any guards before he made it two levels down, into Daveorn's lair. This cautiousness didn't stop a number of guards from following him. They came in one or two at a time. Norgath used another charge of his Sandthief's ring to go invisible, cast PfMagic on himself and drank a potion of defense before he went looking for Davaeorn. The wizard's Web / Stinking Cloud trap disabled many of Norgath's pursuers but Davaeorn failed to cast Sunfire, Lightning Bolt or Fireball on them when Norgath placed himself near them (as I've seen him do in other playthroughs). The Dwarf should have probably thrown a few Fireballs at the guards himself, to prevent them from impeding him later on, but he focused his attention on Davaeorn instead, trying to pelt him with acid arrows. Thus the guards survived their predicament long before Norgath could finish off Davaeorn. Norgath eventually decided to fireball most of the the guards until they were dead, because they'd been in his way too much. (I think two or three charges of the Necklace of Missiles were used.) When Davaeorn finally started showing his fireworks, one of the Battle Horrors hit by the fire took offense (inspite of being immune to fire damage), and attacked Davaeorn. Its anger soon subsided but that was irrelevant in the larger scheme of things, for Norgath had enough room to manoeuver and strip Davaeorn of his magical protections with acid arrows before he would do the mage in with a fatal backstab.
Norgath took Davaeorn's treasure, flooded the mines, and traveled to Baldur's Gate. The Dwarf had a great time in the big city. He made a couple of new friends at the local Thieves Guild, most prominently Narlen Darkwalk and Rededge with whom he went burgling, and Black Lily who sold him some nice gear and items at reasonable prices: the Sparkburst shortbow +2, arrows of dispelling, Alathis' Guard (cowl that grants immunity to backstab and poison while equipped), potion of power. He also did a job for the guildmaster, only to be betrayed by him in favor of Resar the mage. Norgath's buddy Narlen intervened to deal with Resar but the cutscene didn't completely play (bug), and Norgath had to deal with Resar himself. This he did, using an oil of speed, Black Lily's arrows of dispelling and acid arrows. Other Mages that had no answer to Norgath's ranged firepower were Ramazith and Marek, even though the latter had complicated things a bit by removing the Dwarf's Magic Shielding and by casting a Stinking Cloud that could have proven fatal had Norgath found himself in its area of effect. These adventures yielded the Dwarf tomes that would increase his DEX, INT, and WIS. Other adventures included a heist at the High Hall of Wonders, a cleansing of the Seven Suns, and an excursion into the sewers to get rid of an Ogre Mage and its Carrion Crawler friends.
Norgath's last accomplishment before he would leave Baldur's Gate was defeating a a bunch of Iron Throne higher-ups at their local headquarters in the Docks District. The latter encounter was facilitated for Norgath with a green scroll of PfMagic (of which he still had more than enough), but complicated by the many hostile, stealth-impeding merchants. With some patience, and relying on ranged attacks he managed to take his opponents down one at a time. Their leader, Zhalimar Cloudwulfe, fell to a backstab on the roof of the building, the very same place where Norgath's unknown brother had murdered someone as well. The last one to fall was Naaman. Like many SCS mages he seems to be scripted to remain invisible and wait till a green scroll's PfMagic expires. However, Norgath's 25 Detect Illusions sufficed for Naaman to become visible, after which the Dwarf's many enchanted arrows meant the end of the mage. Norgath proceeded to speak and deal with Faldorn, reported to Duke Eltan and traveled to Candlekeep (sneaking past Ogre Magi at the entrance). He met Koveras, left the Iron Throne management alone, but got framed for their deaths anyway.
With Tethtoril's help the Bounty Hunter escaped through the catacombs below Candlekeep. He looted three chests, but kept an otherwise low profile. A fight with four Phase Spiders that enclosed him could not be avoided, but with a potion of defense Norgath had little trouble dealing with them. In the caves Norgath circumvented Prat's gang, but slew two Basilisks (he still had two scrolls or PfPetrification) as well as a few Phase Spiders. Upon completing his escape, Norgath decided to pay Durlag's tower a visit (for the WIS tome and for more Basilisk killing), and to a vendor or special potions at the Nashkel Carnival (to buy the red and violet potions).

Back in the Gate Alathis' Guard (the cowl that gives immunity to backstab and poison when equipped) and a scroll of PfMagic made Norgath's encounter with Slythe and Krystin a relative breeze. The only problem was that Krystin too, was one of those mages that tend to hide when they're facing a foe that's protected from magic as per the green scroll. With the nifty Short Sword of Backstabbing, an invitation to Sarevok's coronation party and some incriminating evidence against the latter, only two hurdles remained for Norgath to save the Sword Coast from war.

Edit: Nice soundburst Aasim, and tough luck Grond0.  
 

[corey_russell]

@Blackrave: Almost there! Don't lose focus!

@Grond0: Sorry to hear of another Kensai death.

@Aasim: Good to see you're still going strong.

[Aasim]

Tnx Corey. Wish I had more time.

 

Anyways, Kira's slow adventure through BG1 continues. Exploring Durlag's was rather fruitful, with one nasty moment when Kira got critically struk by a skeleton.

 

That made me play much more carfully and Viconia's summoned skeletons tanked from that point on.

 

We didn't finish all of that floor, namely Greater Dopplegangers & Guardians are beyond our power level for now.

Then, Bandit Camp. SCS makes the tent a party-required area, we go in invisible to avoid any combat. Unfortunately, Kira gets hit by Glitterdust the moment he opens the chest. If this save was failed, he'd be unable to turn invisible for a few rounds - and very likely dead.

 

Just in time...

 

Now, Cloakwood. We kill Aldeth, all spiders, then avoid any and all combat until Davaeorn. He has to die ofc, and hitting him was a chore.

He did good vs his own troops however.

 

Also managed to kill Edwin. I wanted to keep everyone apart Kira (Pro Magic scroll) invisible, but the number of troops wading in was too high for Kira to handle.

Sheer luck - Edwin is recoverable.

 

Xan dies  as well, Black Talon Elites smacked him full of arrow (didn't take long with his HP pool)

Kira succesfully (after what seemed as an eternity) removed Davaeorn's invisibility.

 

Next he gets hit by 2(!) criticals in a row. He drank a big potion in between - but if Heroism potion wasn't on him, he'd be a gonner here.

 

Now the big choice - heal up with another potion, or drink invisibility to recover. I decide to risk it, drink another potion, and keep shooting.

3 consecutive hits send Daveaorn to hell and his troops to scatter. Yey!

 

We turn invisible, gather what we can from Edwin&Xan, raise them, and travel to city. There a misclick cost me Ogre Strenght gauntlets. Sigh.

 

Other stuff was easy and fast, kill the Basilisk, kill some priests, kill some mages, kill everything that has a remote chance of turning hostile.

 

Next we will deal with the Marek's poison thing and finish Belt's first quest to clear out the doplegangers.

[Blackraven]

Thanks Corey!   

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter, 4th and final update

When Norgath cheated his way into the Ducal Palace with Slythe's invitation, Sarevok's coronation ceremony was about to begin. There was a lot arguing going on though; violence seemed imminent. Norgath didn't know who to trust, so he set four traps amongst the seemingly hapless members of the crowd. (He was a bit lucky there because with the Masterbelt he "only" had 90 Set Traps which he could have easily increased to 100 with a DUHM I forgot to cast.) He then quickly buffed himself to the max (in ways I had never done before). He started off with casting PfMagic on himself, followed by the violet potion followed that gave him 25 STR but set his DEX to 4 (thanks to Deep Red Ioun Stone's +1 to DEX) and his CON to 1 (due to the Claw of Kazgaroth's -2 CON penalty) for 24 hours. Potions of agility, fortitude, and mind focusing (2x) then upped the Dwarf's DEX and CON to 25 and 16 respectively. Potions of defense, speed and power provided further boosts. All the buffing transformed Norgath into a true juggernaut. When battle broke out, and many of the visitors turned out to be bloodthirsty Greater Doppelgangers, Norgath saw his snares do their jobs of hurting his foes. He poisoned his arrows of dispelling with a vial of poison bought from his friend Black Lily over at the Thieves Guild, and dispelled all the Greater Doppelgangers' Hastes, poisoning many of the creatures in the process.

To their credit the Greater Doppelgangers still managed to kill ever impassive Liia Janneth, but as soon as Norgath started to use the recharged Sandthief Ring and his upgraded Cloak of Non-Detection's two daily charges to go invisible and deal out backstabs, their battle was a lost one. When all the Greater Doppelgangers seemed to have fallen, an eerie silence ensued for a moment. Both Norgath and Blackraven feared something had gone wrong (a bug, or maybe a problem with the paperwork required to complete the quest), but then Norgath went upstairs and encountered the last of the Doppelgangers. He slew it, went downstairs, and witnessed Sarevok being attacked by Flaming Fist mercenaries until Winski Perorate came teleporting in, and out again taking Sarevok with him.
All in all, I was quite pleased with the way Norgath handled this situation. The coronation battle is one of the trickiest parts of BG1 and perhaps even the entire trilogy for a solo no-reload character as the Greater Doppelgangers are hard-hitting creatures with dangerous disabling abilities and good saves, and it can be really hard to protect not Charname but NPCs that you don't have any control over. It's deinitely the place that ended more of my no-reload runs than any other place. Unlike other classes, solo Thieves don't need the violet potion to bash the lock of the chest containing the STR tome below Candlekeep, so the Ducal Palace is probably the best place for them to use it. I wasn't sure whether the potions of agility, mind focusing and fortitude would (temporarily) annul the DEX/CON penalties, and if they hadn't, I would have probably rested 24 hours, because Norgath needed good DEX to reliably launch his arrows of dispelling.

 

Duke Belt teleported Norgath to the Thieves Guild where he apologized to his friends for not staying for a chat. He was in too much of a rush to go after Sarevok who had just entered a maze below the guild. Norgath was very content with his tremendous but temporary power, so he decided to try and waste as little time as possible in his pursuit of Sarevok. Tamoko would represent his only delay. Without Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence, Norgath was insufficiently becoming for the Kara-Turan priestess to be convinced of his good intentions. She did not live to regret her superficial outlook.

 

Time for the final showdown. Norgath chose to show himself to Sarevok, provoking the latter and his adherents to attack, rather than attempting to take down the adherents one at a time, which is more tedious but arguably safer. Still exceptionally dexterous, Norgath needed no more than a single arrow to dispel Sarevok's haste. The brute was then parked in a corner, so that Norgath could focus on dispelling Angelo's protections (with arrows) and invisibility (with detect illusions) before dispatching him. Arrows of dispelling and backstabs then took care of Diarmid. Semaj was fireshielded but nevertheless untargetable due to invisibility (Norgath's detect illusions didn't work there), but fortunately Tazok showed up with a failed surprise attack to keep the Dwarf busy. Like Diarmid, Tazok fell to Norgath's backstabs.

A time of waiting followed because Semaj was yet another one of those mages who don't show themselves to characters that are protected from magic by the green scroll. Norgath wasn't too happy with that, because the clock was ticking and the boost to his DEX from the potion of agility would expire at some point. It would seriously inhibit his marksmanship. (He found he had no more potions of agility, only two potions of fortitude; though a potion of magic blocking might have canceled all the stat changes). As time went by, and the expiration of his green scroll's sphere of protection from magic became imminent, the Dwarf made sure to stay protected from magic by potions (shielding/protection), so as to remain invulnerable to Semaj's spells. As soon as the sphere dissipated, Semaj removed all of Norgath's buffs, including the violet potion's effect. The Dwarf retreated, quaffed a potion of magic shielding and took on Semaj with arrows of dispelling and acid arrows. (Considering the wizard's many Stoneskins, Norgath even cast a second PfMagic at some point, just to prevent unfortunate timing from getting him into trouble.)

When Semaj was out of the way, repeated backstabs meant the end of Sarevok. Norgath returned to the the surface, celebrated with his friends at the guild and bade them goodbye to go on a mission to Amn for Belt.

[Aasim]

Kira, 5th BG1 update

 

We wrapped up things in the city succesfully. A small mistake killed Xan when Edwin threw a Skull Trap at an evil mage; but the rest was done flawlessly

 

Killing Marek gave Kira a speldid weapon - IR Eagle Bow.

 

We stole the documents from Iron Throne via invisibility, and are now in Candlekeep catacombs; after succesfully slaying Iron throne leaders.

[Aasim]

Gratz Blackraven & GL!

[Blackraven]

Thank you Aasim! GL to you as well with the final chapters. Hope to see Kira soon in Amn

[Grond0]

Well done Blackraven - keep it going in BG2.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Pretty nice performance there, Blackraven! All the best in Amn!

[Aasim]

Kira, 6th and final BG1 update

 

Things more or less went as planned in catacombs.

Both Sakul and Prat got smitten by Hold via wand, turning them useless, while Kira disposed of the others with detonation  arrows. Rest of the are was easy.

 

Ever since Davaeorn's death when Xan got a Stoneskin scroll, he's my main tank. This is his critical on a spider - epic!

36 damage!

 

Back in the city - troubles ahead. Krystin and Slythe are hard. Very hard in some cases due to limited access to Clarity potions.

Kira decided to tackle them alone under a Pro Magic scroll. Slythe doesn't care about it, and does a nice little stab on him.

 

This gave Krystin time to summon. And summon. 6 ogres, 2x Ogre Magi. Kira goes invisible and prays no divination spells will follow. Krystin decides to poke around and gives Edwin a Flame Arrow. Xan uses her Wand of Paralyization, and she's held. Slythe is nowhere to be seen.

Kyra's locked in place and can't move due to ogres around him. Viccy summons some meatshields.

 

With Krystin being held in place, Edwin pokes his head out to throw darts at her. Slythe reveals himself, and splats Edwin!  

 

At least Kira could move now, which he does, and kills Slythe (apperantly he had no more invis potions left) quickly.

 

We take what we can from Edwin and high-tail it to ceremony to take advantage of Pro Magic scroll while it's still in effect.

At the ceremony, Xan releases Chaos from scroll (the poor soul is still level 7). Total success, only the dope mage and one regular dope weren't affected by mayham.

 

We ramp them up quickly.

Now, we rest, buy Oils of Speed from a temple, activate invisibility mode, go through maze, and are up to meet Sarevok. 

As for Sarevok, Kira is to be the hot-shot today.

He buffs up, triggers the fight, runs around until Remove magic comes, and goes invisible.

 

Now, illusion dispelling.

 

Next, AoE detonation bombarding + invisibility potion hiding.

Semaj dies first.

 

Angelo and Tazok are next.

 

Followed by Diramid & skeleton warriors (unlike Sarevok, skeletons pawn summons very quickly so they must die.)

 

With everything dead, Xan puts Wand of Monster Summoning to good use.

 

Poor Sarevok doesn't stand a chance anymore, and he succumbs to Kira's Acid Arrows.

 

Kira will enter BG2-No Reload challenge some time later tonight.  As a sidenote, if Edwin is available in BG2 (I don't know how quest NPCs work in BGT - if Jaheira or Minsc die a permanent death they won't be available in dungeon) I'll probably pick him up again. If not, then Nalia will have to take his place.

[corey_russell]

Congrats Aasim! Best of luck in BG 2.

[Blackraven]

Thanks all for your congratlations, and nice work Aasim! Have fun in Amn.

I think Edwin has to be available, as you say for the Thief Stronghold quest. You can ask him: aren't you supposed to be dead? 

[Epsil0]

So... I'm back again, though my time in the first reload thread is going to be short as usual. Most of the effort I want to put into the BG series is right now occupied with trying to figure out how to not get a party completely murdered in SCS2, and so I'm running more or less vanilla on BG1. This is thus both a first and final update for my attempt:

 

Qin-Tai, Human Barbarian (A class added by the Enhanced Editions, IIRC.) It's functionally a Fighter, with these restrictions/bonuses:

- Cannot use armor heavier than Splint

- May not exceed Specialization

- May achieve Specialization in any fighting style and put three pips in two-weapon style

- Moves 2 points faster than other characters

- Immune to Backstab

- May use the Rage ability once a day, starting with one, gaining one use every four levels. Rage adds +4 STR, +4 CON, a +2 penalty to AC, +2 vs Spell, in addition to immunity vs Charm, Hold, Fear, Maze, Stun, Sleep, Confusion, and Level drain... spells. It lasts only 5 rounds.

I don't know if this means if I'm flat-out immune to level drain under Rage, or only spells that inflict level drain which is... Nothing? Nor have I tested this out against a Ghast's or Ghoul's claws.

-d12 hitdice.

- At level 11, gain 10% resistance to piercing, bludgeoning, slashing, and missile damage. Gain an additional 5% at level 16 and 21.

 

The plan is to dual at level 11 to Thief in BG2. I considered 13, but with only Specialization this leaves me at 7/2 attacks dual-wielding, which Haste would bring me up to a 4, same as if I didn't gain the bonus half-attack. 9 is the usual dual-point, and if someone can convince me that 10% resistance to weapons isn't THAT important, I'll dual then instead.

 

The route I usually take is deviated by a short bit: my starting funds weren't enough to purchase a longbow, much less the composite longbow I want. A diamond and a trip to Beregost fixes this, and Shoal falls soon after. Melicamp bites the dust, but the spiders grant Qin-Tai his 4th level. FAI to return Landrin's items and a belt and to get Evermemory for funds, Greywold for the sword, and finally a short shopping spree for all the necessary items: shield amulet, One Gift Lost, and a Pro. Petrification scroll. Basilisks are finished for the 5th level and a fair bit into 6th.

 

Mulahey is absolutely crushed as his spells bounce off Qin's Rage. Tranzig falls similarly. A combination of Ankhegs, Sirines, and Flesh golems gets Qin to level 7. Bandit camp is also finished under Rage. Onto the Woods, I had a scare as I was fighting the guy with the boots of speed. With only Splint armor, I took far too many hits and had to retreat to heal, abusing Rage's temporary boost in CON to regenerate while resting. Second try killed him. Another tense spot in the mines when I tried to rest and got ambushed while I only had 30-some health: there was enough space to run, though, and Qin again escapes. Davaeorn in comparison is easy under a Fire resist potion, Rage, and potions and amulets launching fireballs at the battle horrors.

 

Three Carrion crawlers are enough to give Qin his 8th and last level while reclaiming a ruby ring in the sewers, and the cap is basically hit in the Iron Throne. A few reports back and forth to Scar and Duke Eltan, and we're at Candlekeep where we choose to not kill the Iron Throne leaders. No DuHM is required to get the STR tome under Rage's +4 bonus, so that's achieved relatively quickly, and the maze is stealth'd out of. Qin rests several times in Baldur's gate to get the two DuHMs, and goes on a potion-drinking spree in preparation for the end of the game. Slythe is taken out, and his letters stolen, and the Doppelgängers with the Duke fall laughably quick this time under 25 Strength, 4 attacks per round, and a Potion of Heroism. I had taken around half my health in damage from Slythe that I used a potion of Regen on: it seems I wasn't hit a single time in the Duke battle, since I was full by the end.

 

Elemental resistances are applied for the Undercity maze, and that's simply invis'd through. Final battle was fairly routine: Sarevok is pulled, I quaff a potion of Magic Protection to gain automatic saving throws, and arrows of Dispelling takes away his Haste, though for some reason I couldn't hit him until my last arrow (!). His minions come to try to save him, but amusingly enough Tazok ends up killing one of his allies due to a rogue Lightning bolt that hit him while he was invisible. Qin-Tai running at x3 speed is simply too much for Sarevok, and he eventually keels over.

 

Final stats are: 19/19/19/11/10/10, with a frankly ludicrous 107 HP, meaning that this was a roll of 55 on a 7d12, so I'm above average by... 13.5? Nevertheless, Qin-Tai will be advancing into SCSII with Randomization...

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Key Event(s) The foray to the Shipwreck Coast should have been just another like all those previous. Instead it shattered all of us to the core. We lost our noble companion Dynahier.  Our immediate grief had to be put aside b/c we’d also lost both Imoen & Minsc. We buried Dynahier in a shallow grave and collected as much as Khalid, Jaheira & headed to The Temple of the Morning to raise Imoen & Minsc. Minsc was killed before Dynahier was chunked so he would wake to the painful news of her death. Khalid, Jaheira & I agreed that he would know how her remains should be handled IAW the practices of Rasheman.  

SOBERING VICTORY...

It all happened when we stumbled on three Sirine’s which we’ve always handled w/ease. The difference this time was that I came under one of their Dire Charm spells. I actually thought about the fact that I had no potions of magic protection & it gave me pause, just not enough to halt. The rest is gone to me except that I came to standing near the beach w/Dynahier lying, obviously un-resurrectable, @ my feet. Khalid & Jaheira remember it like this: The battle started as usual, Minsc & I rushing to melee w/the Sirine’s while the remainder fired arrows, stones or cast spells. The first time the group realized I was charmed was when I attacked & injured Minsc pretty badly. He immediately knew to reposition himself & did so. I’m told I then moved toward my other companions & they all tried to shift their positions to continue to attack the Sirine’s while they awaited the spell affects to wear off.  Imoen had already been injured & when she tried to avoid me I cut her down, before returning & finishing Minsc. By now, only one Sirine was dead. Dynahier was blasting them w/spell after spell & had moved around behind them. Khalid finished off a second but not before he saw one of them hit & poison Dynahier w/an Arrow of Biting. She managed to quaff a Potion of Healing & tried to retread to the beach to reach into her pack for an Antidote. I then headed toward Dynahier, still Dire Charmed, & began attacking her while the remaining Sirine continued shooting, & hitting, Dynahier w/her arrows so she was taking poison damage & arrow damage simultaneously. Khalid agreed that I’d been swinging @ her also but said, “There’s no way to know if it was your sword that killed her or another arrow from the Sirine. Dynahier was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from the arrows. One last arrow could have done the same thing as your blade. Don’t blame this on yourself.” I’ll never know for sure but I’m not ready to talk about it w/Minsc yet. Not while he is grieving so. Khalid finally killed the last Siring using Arrows of Fire & we returned as I described above. Minsc was pleased we’d buried her as we did, rather than bringing her back. He took us back to the spot & but we had no tools to build a boat to cast her off to sea in where Khalid would shoot an Arrow of Fire. Instead we built a funeral pyre, uncovered her remains, and placed her gently upon it. We placed rings on her fingers, a necklace around her tiny neck & dressed her in her dress & then Minsc insisted on lighting the pyre himself.  We watched until the pyre burned out & then returned to town, rested & then, w/much reticence we approached Thalantyr about another Mage that could willing to travel w/us as we all agreed you need a Mage in Faerun. Thalantyr said the pickings were slim for Mages that were not purely evil. I thought Jaheira might preach balance or something but she didn’t…I think she might be changing her views a bit. He said, “You will find a Mage @ the Nashkel Carnival. He’ll be a Gnome Illusionist w/a sarcastic, cranky disposition & few helpful spells. He can cast every type of Invisibility, including Improved & 10’ Radius. He’ll also be able to cast Blindness, Spook & Deafness but will never be able to reach the more powerful spells except w/a scroll.” We found the Gnome but its obvious Minsc is uncomfortable w/his presence so soon after Dynahier’s passing… but we all agree that we can’t go forward w/o a Mage.  

 

We finished up @ the Shipwreck Coast afterward. In all, we fought & defeated: six Ghouls; an Ogre Mage; two Ogrillons & three Ghouls together; six Carrion Crawlers; three pairs of wolves & four pairs of mated Dire Wolves; a Dread Wolf mated w/a Wolf; three Kobolds; three Ogre’s & then a group of four Ogre Berserkers, three Ogrillons & a Half-Ogre (without a scratch to any of us).

 

Treasure of Note: (Purse = 2,461 gold) Bought Imoen Shadow Armor; three pearls; Moonstone Gym; Waterstar Gym

 

Current Disposition: Recuperating, recovering, resting, resupplying in Beregost @ the Red Sheaf

 

Next Steps: Lion’s Way, Coast Way, Mutamin’s Garden

Level Up: None

 

Current Party: (Reputation: 20 – Heroic)

·         Gawain: Ftr/7; Full Plate w/Large Shield +1, Cloak of Protection +2, Helm of Defense, Boots of Grounding, Girdle of Bluntness, Rings of Fire Resistance & Free Action; Bastard Sword +1/+3****, Mace +1, (SSS**) (Greater Doppelganger)

·         Minsc: Barbarian/7 w/Splint Mai w/Boots of Avoidance, Girdle of Bluntness &Spiders Bane***, Flail 1/THWS**(Spellcaster Defend)(Davaeorn)

·         Khalid: Ranger (Archer)/7 w/Studded Leather +1 w/Bracers of Archery & Boots of the North, Longbow****, B/Sword* (TWS***)( Sword Spider) (Ranger Ranged)

·         Jaheira: Priestess of Sylvanus/9 w/Leather +1 w/Gauntlets of Ogre Power & Cloak of the Wolf; Sling*, Club +2 (Eye of the Storm)*, (Sirine)(Druid Summoning)

·         Imoen: Thief (Charming Rogue)/8 w/Shadow Armor, Cloak of Non-Detection & Gandolar’s Lucky Ring w/Short Bow*, Short Sword +1* Dagger +1*, (Sword Spider)(Thief Def)

·         Quayle: Mage (Illusionist)/8) w/Bracers of Defense AC6, Sling* & Dagger +2*, Ring of Energy, Necklace of Missiles, (No kills)(Wizard Defensive)

 

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)

 

Blue Font: New information;

Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)

(Best kill)(Current AI)

* Name Levels are ancient, AD&D titles that used to represent each new level in a class

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Figure I'll play on the torture Minsc takes from Irennicus in Baldur's Gate II to have him be a little delusional about what happened to Dynahier. 

[Grond0]

Well done Epsil0 - best of luck with your modded expedition in BG2.

 

 

Qin-Tai, Human Barbarian (A class added by the Enhanced Editions, IIRC.).   I don't know if this means if I'm flat-out immune to level drain under Rage, or only spells that inflict level drain which is... Nothing? Nor have I tested this out against a Ghast's or Ghoul's claws.

Barbarian was in the vanilla game.  Rage gives you immunity to any level drain effects; also to any hold effects (including ghast etc).

 

 

The plan is to dual at level 11 to Thief in BG2. I considered 13, but with only Specialization this leaves me at 7/2 attacks dual-wielding, which Haste would bring me up to a 4, same as if I didn't gain the bonus half-attack.

Standard dual wielding would give you 7/2 and haste would then bring that up to 9/2 in my installation, but that may be just a function of having the Fixpack installed.  

 

 

Final stats are: 19/19/19/11/10/10, with a frankly ludicrous 107 HP, meaning that this was a roll of 55 on a 7d12, so I'm above average by... 13.5? Nevertheless, Qin-Tai will be advancing into SCSII with Randomization...

7d12 would be average 7 x 6.5 = 45.5.  So only 9.5 above, but still a nice throw .

[Grond0]

I've done a new installation of BGT, incorporating the following mods (in installation order):

Ascension

Fixpack

Oversight

BGT

Secret of Bonehill

Grey Clan

BG1 NPC

BG1 UB

Chosen of Mystra Encounters

Unfinished Business

Solaufein

G3 anniversary

Strategems v30

BGT Tweaks

Turambar Fixes

BG2 Tweaks

Item Pack

aTweaks

Polytweaks

Randomiser

Generalised Biffing

BG1 Level Cap Reinstator

Widescreen

 

As its a while since I've played with most of those I expect the numerous game changes made to catch me out a few times.

 

 

Esher - human amazon (update 1)

 

I started a new character with the aim of building up a full evil party for her of Edwin, Viconia, Shar-teel, Kagain and Montaron.  Here's a summary of the amazon kit.

 

In my first attempt she didn't get out of Candlekeep - a result of the nobleman upstairs somehow transmitting a call for help downstairs despite being rendered unconscious by a single punch before Esher kicked open the chest in his room.

 

After reloading, Esher set about recruiting her chosen companions - that didn't go so well when trying to get Viconia though and she had to settle for Tiax instead.  She has now though got everyone together and done a bit of adventuring - covering territory from the FAI down to Nashkel and then through the Cloudpeaks.  She's just arrived at the Gnoll Stronghold where Dynaheir is likely to have a little accident.

 

No-one has been killed yet, although Edwin was hit by an arrow by one of Sendai's companions which I suspect would have killed him except that he was only level 1 at the time and had his maximum HPs.  Edwin was also responsible for a mini-crisis when his color spray spell aimed at Neira sent the Nashkel inn hostile.  Fortunately only 1 of the occupants ran outside and there was no-one else there at the time - allowing Esher's party to quickly round them up and herd them back into the inn to avoid the rest of Nashkel going hostile.

 

The other change that caught me out a bit was Dunkin going hostile and attacking the party after Montaron mouthed off at Marl causing him to attack.  Unlike Marl killing Dunkin caused a reputation loss, which is a bit off given that he was the one that attacked.

 

The only worthwhile equipment found so far was the Girdle of Bluntness that one of Sendai's supporters had.  The only spell-caster attacked so far was Tarnesh and he died almost instantly of a combination of backstab and ranged attacks.  The toughest combat so far was with Karlat at a stage when Esher only had Montaron and Edwin with her.  Karlat used a potion of defense meaning that Esher needed a critical to hit him and there was quite a lot of micro-management to keep Karlat chasing the others until she finally got the second of those needed.

[Aasim]

CKT, good to see you around. I don't know why, Dyna never really got under my skin...

@Grond0 - what's an Amazon? I've heard of an Amazon kit...

[Grond0]

@Aasim.  Traditionally the amazons were warrior females.  A screenshot showing the major features of the kit was in my earlier post.  In addition to Esher as the PC Shar-teel is also an amazon in this installation.

 

Esher - human amazon (update 2)

 

The party cleared the Gnoll Stronghold without problems - finishing with Dynaheir.  However, just after they had just finished eradicating a plague of gibberlings in the area to the north (color spray being helpful there) Edwin complained about not killing Dynaheir - that might be a bad sign for the installation, though they've been going a while longer now without any more complaints.

 

At the xvart village I took a bit of a chance by attacking Borda.  Spreading out the party meant 2 sleep spells only caught one victim each, but he was taken down only just in time when targeting a spell on Edwin.

 

Most of the other southern areas have now been vacuumed.  That included teaching Greywolf to take his business elsewhere and a bit of tactical use of color spray - even if any kobolds had remained active there the expectation was that they would not attack sleeping characters due to the SCS AI treating those as secondary targets.  However, that mindset resulted in the first party death when Edwin tried using the spell on a group of bandits.  Being wary of their arrows, he obviously didn't get quite close enough and the only person slept was Kagain.  Initially all the bandits attacked him - although other party members were visible, they would have been at extreme range which may explain why the AI didn't switch to start with.  Esher tried rushing forward, but was just too late to save Kagain.  Since that Edwin has tended to use web rather than color spray on groups of enemies, e.g. the large numbers of kobolds that regularly spawn.

 

Esher, amazon 4, 44 HPs, 233 kills

Kagain, fighter 4, 48 HPs, 77 kills, 1 death

Montaron, assassin 4, 21 HPs, 51 kills, 0 deaths

Shar-teel, amazon 4, 31 HPs, 182 kills, 0 deaths

Tiax, cleric 3 / thief 3, 19 HPs, 25 kills, 0 deaths

Edwin, conjurer 3, 15 HPs, 26 kills, 0 deaths

[Blackraven]

Loved the drama CKT, very good installment!
And nice to see you do something I'm not used to seeing you do (exotic kit, party play, couple of mods I don't even know). Good luck  

[Grond0]

Esher - human amazon (3rd and final update)

 

As I sort of predicted taking on harder challenges at low level and forgetting about the differences in AI led to Esher's downfall.  

 

While continuing to tame the wilds her party obtained the shield amulet from Ioin Gallchobhair.  In this installation that is active when equipped, rather than having charges.

 

On the way to Firewine Bridge a basilisk ambushed them, but autopause on sight gave them just enough warning to run away before it could focus its gaze.  Meilum was silenced for easy disposal, but that meant he couldn't tell Shar-teel that the apparent +1 spear he was carrying was actually a cursed backbiter.  That required a trip to the temple to sort out before returning to Firewine.

 

After carefully working through the ruins Montaron attempted to sneak up on Lendarn, but was detected and this combination looked dangerous.  Edwin used a cloudkill scroll to make Lendarn retreat rather than following up with something lethal like a bouncing lightning bolt, but unfortunately in the narrow corridor the cloudkill effect wasn't visible and Montaron didn't realise he was walking into it - becoming the second party death.

 

Worries over NPC deaths were short-lived though after Tiax took over the scouting and then successfully silenced Lendarn.  In going to melee him though I forgot about the improved AI in this installation.  The ogre mage first came to investigate the noise - prompting Kagain to attack him thinking that would occupy him briefly.  Meanwhile Edwin cast web at the ogre mage and the various other enemies there, but found himself on the receiving end of a sleep from the ogre mage that had ignored the attack by Kagain.  That resulted in the entire party being webbed, slept or dead - or a few seconds later just being dead!

 

I was partly being aggressive as I'd failed to get the originally intended party together.  I'll restart Esher to see whether she can manage it next time ...

[Grond0]

Esher{2} - human amazon (1st and final update)

 

This time Esher concentrated on gathering together her party immediately.  There was a scare when a bandit ambush occurred early on doing that, but Kagain clung on to life long enough to get to the edge of the map.  However, when the group went to collect Shar-teel she proved to be unkillable.  I was running Kagain round and throwing axes while trying to talk to her every now and then and presume I must have hit her again after she had been trying to give up early in the fight.

 

I'll see if it can be 3rd time lucky to get the party gathered ...