16390 réponses à ce sujet

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats, Epsil0. And nice work Grond0!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Golden28]

Congrats on piloting the newest Eren through BG1, Golden!

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Thank you

 

Awesome Golden! Love the portrait and the kit and the mess and the fallen status   
I planned to take a break after Scintilla, but feel like rolling a new badass warrior/thief type myself...

Btw it seems you like to speed through BG1, at the cost of XP. You could consider throwing out your party members a few times, agree to meet at an inn, and deal solo with the Basilisks in Muatamin's garden (careful with the Gnome), at Durlag's, in the BG docks and below Candlekeep, using green scrolls or the mage-cast lvl 1 spell. Basilisks alone are worth close to 50k GP.

Thank you BR so glad you liked it .

Its even more a speed run than you can imagine as I already do the garden alone , just minimal xp and still prevail is fun for me. You know you get 42.000 xp on the bg2 slaver copper coronet quest alone (which is easy and at the very beginning), so I rather not bother with a few 1000 xp in bg if I can speed it through. 

 

Well done Golden - glad to see that Duke Belt took pity on Eren .

 

Indeed, damn I was lucky.. When I saw him turn red I cursed at myself for letting the chaos happen and planned on killing him as quick as possible to save the other duke. His own soldiers started attacking him now but most were either dead or confused. But then Belt started to walk up towards a dopp and chopped his head of so I got kinda hopeful. Then the dialogue triggered anyway !

 

Awesome job Epsilo! I tried a kensai/druid once but never got at HLS's. I was hesitant to use the improved chapechange tweak as it makes it possible to instachange all forms which I find kind of cheesy. I dont know how it works with elemental changes though.

 

Well done Grondo. Question: will you ever try SCS?

 

Cheers! 

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarf swashbuckler (4th and final update)

 

At Durlag's Tower Rifft fireballed a couple of battle horrors and picked up the tome.  He then finally got around to going to the basilisk area where he meleed the basilisks to the south.  At the north Mutamin became aware from a surprisingly long way away that one of his friends was in trouble and Rifft used his ring to disappear.  He hit level 9 shortly afterwards and killed the remainder of the basilisks before turning to Mutamin.  The mage had the boots of speed and was dashing around a lot, but Rifft eventually managed to track him down and double-team him with Korax.

 

Korax didn't land a blow against Kirian's gang so Rifft used stealth shots to pull them apart and meleed them one by one (though using stealth attacks on Kirian to avoid her spells).  

 

Rifft took things easy in the Nashkel mine - stealth allowed him to avoid all the kobolds except for one road-block (that evaporated in a flash).  Mulahey walked into a couple of traps and his summons then didn't last long.  Rifft went back to Nashkel where he was told the mayor needed proof of his actions - maybe there were some letters lying around in a chest somewhere .

 

After revisiting the mine Rifft got his reward from the mayor.  A single backstab then broke Nimbul's morale and he stood still long enough to be finished off.  In Beregost a couple of traps outside Tranzig's door were triggered by him moving in response to a stealth shot and a further shot finished him off.  Before leaving, Rifft also did a bit of work for Silke.  I virtually always kill her, but on this occasion looking at Rifft's chaotic evil alignment I decided to help her (also gave Rifft 3 potions of defense) .

 

At the Bandit Camp Rifft used stealth to enter the main tent and hid from Raemon behind the tent pole while setting a couple of traps.  A potion of defense then boosted his AC, while he also used a potion of fire resistance and put on a similar ring to allow him to fireball himself in relative comfort.  That wasn't necessary after his first attack on Venkt as he successfully hid again before anyone reacted.  I wasn't sure if Venkt would be in range of the traps set, but it transpired that he was!  A potion of explosion and 2 oils of fiery burning helped clear away attackers and only 1 Black Talon survived when Britik was cut down with Rifft still untouched other than the odd tickle from his fireballs.  That Black Talon got a critical on Rifft, but that was immediately returned with interest!

 

Emerging from the tent Rifft attacked a bandit - prompting the arrival of Lamalha and her gang.  Originally I had intended to kill all the bandits in a running fight, where not too many could attack at once.  That was complicated though by the presence of the amazons with the possibility of one-shot backstabs.  I therefore tried to keep them in sight while killing them and that proved costly.  Maneira was almost dead when Rifft was hit by a critical for 16 damage.  With the aim of finishing her off he took a potion of healing and continued attacking - only to be hit by a further critical almost immediately.  With his aura clouded invisibility was not an option and he turned at that point to run, but 3 of the bandits managed shots before he got out of their range - and 2 of those were criticals.  I was hoping he would get lucky with low damage hits, but that was not to be ... 

 

Writing this update it occurs to me that I could have swapped Rifft's stealth boots for speedier ones - that might have avoided the final critical hit, though I'm not sure about that.  As funds were plentiful for Rifft I could easily have used the Necklace of Missiles to do crowd control on the bandits, but I was trying to play fair and avoid recharging that.  To play safe in that area I will also often run off the map when confronted by large numbers of bandits and come back in elsewhere.  Perhaps I was influenced into not doing that by just reading a post describing Alesia's dislike of that tactic.  If so I don't think I should have been.  Using that sort of strategy makes sense to me in relation to real world tactics and in the Bandit Camp it's an especially fitting counter to the cheesy follow-me script that nearly all the enemies have that nerfs the use of stealth and invisibility.  As a thief that means you either need to spend a long time in a running fight to wear them down, use lots of resources, or risk the sort of unfortunate concentration of criticals that Rifft was on the wrong end of.  

 

Of course Rifft could simply have stealthed into the tent, read the letters and departed - but where would the fun be in that ?

[Alesia_BH]

Condolences, Grond0. If my comment contributed to the demise of Rifft then I'm sorry to hear that. In that situation, I probably would have left the area and never come back- assuming I had read the letters before exiting the tent.

 

There are three approaches I take at the SCS Bandit Camp. With well equipped powerful characters, I'll do a frontal assault, kill all the bandits, read the letters, and then fight the Amazonians (in my install, the Amazonians won't show untill I've read the letters). With slightly less powerful characters or with resources in shorter supply, I'll stealth into the tent, kill the leaders, exit the tent, kill the outside bandits, re-enter the tent, read the letters, and then kill the Amazonians (or not). With yet lesser characters, I'll stealth into the tent, kill the leaders, read the letters, and then stealth out- evading both the outside bandits and the Amazonians. With Aria I went with option 2, sans Amazonians. With Amelie -who had an ioun stone- I went with option 3. With an ioun stone-less swashbuckler, I definitely would have gone with option 3.

 

I've only fought the outside bandits and the Amazonians together once. That was my first SCS playthrough. My character, melee sorcerer Alastria, survived by going Jelly, but the lesson I learned from that was that fighting the bandits and the Amazonians together is a bad idea. I would have zero interest in doing that with an ioun stone-less swash. And if I stumbled into it, I would have vanished immediately or run straight to the FAI. Rifft definitely get points for bravery.

 

Will you be giving Rifft another chance? While I'm enjoying Aria's game, I'm kind of wishing I had stuck with Amelie. It would be fun to follow an SCS/Ascension swash run.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grond0]

Condolences, Grond0. If my comment contributed to the demise of Rifft then I'm sorry to hear that.

 

Will you be giving Rifft another chance? While I'm enjoying Aria's game, I'm kind of wishing I had stuck with Amelie. It would be fun to follow an SCS/Ascension swash run.

I wasn't seriously accusing you, I was more musing on the irony of the situation .  Rifft's demise was very typical for me - a character starting off taking no risks at all and then gradually sliding into a situation where he was consciously taking risks and hence vulnerable to bad luck.  

 

I think perhaps I will have another go with him.  At level 9 he'd already shown pretty decent ability in melee (with single weapons) and it should be fun to build on that in BG2.  His HPs were poor in that run and that exacerbated the lack of protection from criticals - perhaps he'll be more fortunate in a re-run.

[Alesia_BH]

I think perhaps I will have another go with him.  At level 9 he'd already shown pretty decent ability in melee (with single weapons) and it should be fun to build on that in BG2.  His HPs were poor in that run and that exacerbated the lack of protection from criticals - perhaps he'll be more fortunate in a re-run.

 

Amelie was at level 9 in the BG1 endgame. Her strength was lower than Rifft's, but in significant fights she buffed her strength and she did have an AC advantage compared to Rifft via her halfling dex.

 

She was capable of executing stab n' go, of course, expecially from the shadows, but I found her to be marginal at best toe-to-toe, which isn't surprising. Getting to level 10 would have helped. Having a base strength of 18 that could have been tomed to 19 wouldn't have hurt.

 

Since returning from my most recent break, I've been inclined to emphasize toe-to-toe melee, rather than stab n' go and range fighting. That's why I started with an F/M, and why the swashbuckler kit and the R/C multiclass caught my attention next. I'd be interested in seeing how the swashbuckler's toe-to-toe abilities progress through BGII. I'm sure they'll be excellent in mid-late SoA and even early ToB, but I still have doubts about late ToB in SCS/Ascension. I hope Rifft gets there since I'd like to see how he does, although I'm guessing that you'll be using a movement based rather than toe-to-toe strategy throughout much of ToB.

 

His HPs were poor in that run and that exacerbated the lack of protection from criticals - perhaps he'll be more fortunate in a re-run.

 

That matters for a swashbuckler in SCS, mostly because of Slythe. There were actually two Amelies. The first one was retired due to poor hitpoint rolls. Given that I don't allow my characters to rest repeatedly to hit the trap ceiling, I knew she'd have to be able to survive a Slythe backstab to have a good chance of prevailing. When the first Amelie's early hitpoint rolls disappointed, I retired her. I hope Rifft II gets good rolls.

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Blackraven]

Ouch sorry Grond0... I agree with Alesia that tackling the Bandit Camp ioun stone-less is very risky, even with the best possible buffs.
It would be nice to see Rifft in action again. 

Epsil0, well done! Scintilla might just cross paths with your Kensai/Druid in Amn, before she sets sail to Spellhold.

[Golden28]

@Alesia,

 

Instead of retiring a pc because of low hp rolls you can compromise by doing the tweaks IWD role, getting the upper half of the dice HP, thats what I do with my no reload SCS pc's. 

 

Too bad Grondo, better luck next time.

 

Cheers!

[Alesia_BH]

Instead of retiring a pc because of low hp rolls you can compromise by doing the tweaks IWD role, getting the upper half of the dice HP, thats what I do with my no reload SCS pc's.

 

Makes sense. I'm not convinced I'd want to install that tweak, but it's not a terrible option for hp roll sensitive builds.

 

Another option is to simply bring the slider down to normal on occasion to offset bad rolls. So, for example, if a PC rolls a 1 at level up one time, a max roll could be granted the next time to offset it. That basically has the same effect without requiring installation of a mod. It also grants you the freedom to just go with the unconstrained rolls in a given run, if you choose, without re-tweaking your install.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Aasim]

Bad luck Grond0.

 

Anyhow, I did create a "non-revisions" install, played with a custom party (berserker to be dualed to cleric, barbarian, mage/thief, sorcerer) until my sorcerer could cast Emotion spell (level 8). 

With that, I cast it twice and uninstalled the game setup. Going back to Revisions, my patience for vanilla spells & items is non-existent I'm afraid.   

[corey_russell]

Tough break there Grond0 - best of luck with your next run (or if you decide to continue the other run you have going).

[Alesia_BH]

Thank for mentioning Grond0's other run, Corey. I've been trying to nudge Grond0 into rebooting Rifft, since I'd love to see an SCS/Ascension swasbuckler solo, but he probably should get back to his vanilla RP party game. That's cool too and fallow games have a way of vanishing.

 

It's your call Grond0. We'd be happy to see either.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grimwald the Wise]

I had another run with a Berserker Dwarf only this time I thought that I would dual-class to a cleric (Possible with my set-up). I therefore left all the easy experience for after dual-classing. The problem was that when I tried to help the dryad, my experience was not good enough to defeat Krumm!

 

I don't think that he has ever beaten me before.

 

I have just noticed that my next character seems very popular at the moment. I have just rolled a very good ranger/cleric. I have had better rolls, but not bad at all.

(Good rolls for this class is actually quite easy) My set-up allows a drow to be a cleric/ranger.

 

Str 18/89, Dex 19, Con 17, Int 17, Wis 18, cha 9.

 

After the ambush headed for Ulgoth's Beard. Didn't quite get there as I met this cleric who needed help against some evil fishermen. I actually forgot to return to her, but instead went to return Joia's Ring.

 

We went to Nashkel and headed back. Lord Foreshadow gave me a ring which I used to charm Algernon when I was attacked by Karlat. I used the cloak to gain allies and after that there was pure chaos. Silke started attacking both Karlat and the spiders. Karlat's weapon broke. Silke was getting hurt so I started her quest to avoid losing it. I charmed the ones that she wanted to murder. Silke killed two spiders, and Karlat. The ones that she wanted me to murder were killed by spiders as were a number of Morninglord Guards, Morninglords and Morningmasters.

 

The whole battle was unplanned but worked out well in the end. I have more weaponry than I know what to do with.

 

Cyric must be delighted by the Chaos. I suppose that I should now go and see that pretty young cleric again.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarf swashbuckler (update 1)

 

A reincarnated Rifft managed to squeeze in a couple of hours play today and has done everything he wanted to prior to the Nashkel mine.  As hoped his HPs are considerably better than his first version - 4 above average at his current level.

 

He's been fairly aggressive in using melee during his run, which has caused a few nasty moments.  Points I noted during his travels to date included:

- a mis-click resulted in Marl attacking him.  He didn't fancy melee at the time (he was only level 1) and it took a while running round the inn to triumph with his crossbow.

Spoiler

- at level 5 he sneaked into the pirate cave and successfully disarmed the traps this time.  He tried sneak-attacking the golems, only to realise he had no magic weapon available!  He also failed to re-stealth on exiting the cave and thus alerted Sil to his presence - though the sirines didn't have time to do anything before he disappeared.

- he once more succeeded in pickpocketing Algernon first time.

- he wasn't intending to get into melee with Krumm, but a movement error let the big man get one hit in.  That was a pretty painful blow with his cursed sword - a critical would have been fatal there.

Spoiler

- most of the nasty damage was from criticals, such as one by a worg.  

Spoiler

That was no problem though as Rifft was able to simply retreat.  A critical from a mustard jelly was much more dangerous

Spoiler

as the jellies seemed to be able to switch from melee to ranged combat pretty much instantly and it got one follow-up attack (that missed) before Rifft was able to retreat out of sight.

- he got an unfortunate critical of his own against Tenya - she really should have given up earlier.

Spoiler

- using the Necklace on a couple of battle horrors at Durlag's Tower got him to level 7.

Spoiler

- by the time he got to the basilisk area he was fully equipped.  His purchases had included 5 bolts of polymorphing and he shot those at Mutamin - the final one resulting in a shrill cry of distress from the former mage.  

Spoiler

The death of his pet greater basilisk took Rifft to level 8.

- after killing all the sirines in melee (protected by Greenstone Amulet), the golems using stealth and the nereids with fireballs, Rifft was on the verge of level 9.  A few hobgoblins in that area gave him the necessary final push.

Spoiler

[corey_russell]

Looking good Grond0! I'll try to get to my mages tonight, they need to press forward, they are almost done with Chapter Two stuff I think.

[Alesia_BH]

Nice work with Rifft, Grond0.

 

Rifft's experience with toe-to-toe melee in early BG seems consistent with Amelie's. She could get the job done, but she'd get hurt in the process. Rifft can probably guess how much it would suck to have a strength of 14, just as Amelie can guess how much it would suck to lack an ioun stone.

 

Where did Rifft get bolts of polymorphing?

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Btw. Glad to see Rifft's hitpoints are looking good. 56, plus another level up, should permit him to survive a non-critical Slythe backstab. 56 is exactly where Amelie was at level 9. With a Potion of Power, she had enough head room. Will you be using a max trap stack against Slythe?

[Blackraven]

Nice work Grond0. I was surprised that fire worked against the Battle Horrors. I don't think I've ever tried because Davaeorn's Battle Horrors are always unaffected by the wizard's Sunfires etc in my SCS installs.

[corey_russell]

Nice work Grond0. I was surprised that fire worked against the Battle Horrors. I don't think I've ever tried because Davaeorn's Battle Horrors are always unaffected by the wizard's Sunfires etc in my SCS installs.

ToBeX (which SCS uses) changes Battle Horrors from vanilla, supposedly more like PnP battle horrors. In my installs you can use fire on the battle horrors as well.

[Alesia_BH]

ToBeX (which SCS uses) changes Battle Horrors from vanilla, supposedly more like PnP battle horrors. In my installs you can use fire on the battle horrors as well.

 

It isn't ToBex exactly since Davaeorn's battle horrors are immune to fire and electricity in pre-ToBex versions of SCS as well.

 

The battle horrors alongside SCS Davaeorn are different from the others, Blackraven. Presumably this was done so that they could fight alongside Davaeorn without being injured by his spells or the lightning trap. In my install the other battle horrors are vulnerable to fire.

 

Apparently it's the same in Grond0's install. It's probably the same in yours.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Good to know 

 

The battle horrors alongside SCS Davaeorn are different from the others, Blackraven. Presumably this was done so that they could fight alongside Davaeorn without being injured by his spells or the lightning trap. In my install the other battle horrors are vulnerable to fire.

 

Apparently it's the same in Grond0's install. It's probably the same in yours.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

That's good to know. I assume way too much in this game (and probably in life), even if I try not too.

[Grond0]

It isn't ToBex exactly since Davaeorn's battle horrors are immune to fire and electricity in pre-ToBex versions of SCS as well.

 

The battle horrors alongside SCS Davaeorn are different from the others, Blackraven. Presumably this was done so that they could fight alongside Davaeorn without being injured by his spells or the lightning trap. In my install the other battle horrors are vulnerable to fire.

In my install Davaeorn's battle horrors are also affected by fire - just confirmed that this morning .  I'm not sure what would make that difference - BGT might be a possibility, though I think Blackraven also uses that.

[Grond0]

Where did Rifft get bolts of polymorphing?

 

Btw. Glad to see Rifft's hitpoints are looking good. 56, plus another level up, should permit him to survive a non-critical Slythe backstab. 56 is exactly where Amelie was at level 9. With a Potion of Power, she had enough head room. Will you be using a max trap stack against Slythe?

I think the bolts were from Ulgoth's Beard.  There's a few more on sale at Durlag's Tower that Rifft did not buy.

 

So long as an insta-kill backstab is off the table it should be possible to just melee Slythe (using invisibility to heal up between backstabs if necessary).  I've been caught out doing that sort of thing before when not keeping a close enough eye on whether invisibility is dispelled, but will try and watch out this time ...

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarf swashbuckler (update 2)

 

Rifft has made good progress this morning and just arrived in Baldur's Gate.

 

He didn't start off by going to the Nashkel Mine immediately - I realised he hadn't yet been to Shoal's area and he made a quick trip there.  Shoal was killed without giving her a chance to surrender (traps and a couple of potions of explosion), while the sirines went down pretty easily to stealth attacks.

 

Rifft stealthed through the Nashkel mine and used traps to kill Mulahey and his supporters.  Nimbul was panicked by a backstab, while Tranzig was bitten by a bolt

Spoiler

and then failed to survive a trap in the doorway.

 

This time Lamalha tried an ambush at the Bandit Camp before any of the bandits were aware of Rifft's presence.  That ended badly for her after Rifft used his ring to vanish

Spoiler

and buffed up his AC before taking them down in melee under Greenstone protection.  

Spoiler

 

After sneaking into the main tent he again sped up the combat there using fireballs before finishing off in melee.  In this installation Britik has a ring giving +1 strength, which was nice for Rifft.

Spoiler

To be safe this time he used more fireballs outside - using stealth to gather packs of enemies together as a target without giving them the opportunity to fire massed arrows at him.  He was only hit by one arrow before meleeing Taugosz, who was the last to fall at the Camp.

Spoiler

 

Before going to the Cloakwood Rifft tested his melee skills out on the ankheg nest.  He took the precaution there of using protection from acid, although even in melee combat the ankhegs needed criticals and they only got 1 of those.  A few of the ankhegs got him his final level in BG1 and a maximum 8 HPs for that made very nice reading.

 

Rifft avoided any conflicts in the Cloakwood.  At the mine he used fireballs from distance to kill Drasus and Rezdan.  Genthore was meleed before Rifft spent a while luring Kysus out of invisibility - twice doing so and waiting for summoned monsters to disappear.  Eventually though he closed in.  Stoneskins kept him at bay for a while and a painful flame arrow resulted in him using a potion of invisibility to avoid a follow-up spell,

Spoiler

but the mage finally gave up the ghost.

 

In the mine Rifft avoided most of the guards on the way down to Davaeorn.  He disarmed the traps there, then used a scroll of PfM and a potion of defense before attacking.  Necklace fireballs and stealth attacks killed the guards and battle horrors, leaving Davaeorn to discover that mirrors and stoneskins will only last so long ...

Spoiler

[Blackraven]

In my install Davaeorn's battle horrors are also affected by fire - just confirmed that this morning .  I'm not sure what would make that difference - BGT might be a possibility, though I think Blackraven also uses that.

Yep I also use BGT. Guess I'll have to figure it out for myself. All I know is that Cold (Wand of Frost) works very well against Davaeorn's Battle Horrors in my install.

 

BTW good progress once again. I hope Slythe & Krystin and the Doppelgangers pose no problems for Rifft, so that he can soon swashbuckle his way into Amn.

[Grimwald the Wise]

In my install, I find that summon monsters or equivalent is great. I think that this is because Davaeorn uses lightning bolts which injure the Battle Horrors. It is then a free for all and the horrors are usually, (Not always) killed by Davaeorn. I don't know exactly what happens as character is well out of sight.