16390 réponses à ce sujet

[Blackraven]

Hey Borco, nice to see a new face, and nice challenge you got there. Good luck!
Grond0, sorry to see Turk fall... Maybe you could give her another opportunity?

 

Norgath, solo Dwarven Bounty Hunter, 2nd BG1 report

The afternoon offered a few spare hours (quiet day at work, probably the only one this week), which allowed Norgath to make some progress, and me to give you this update.

The rogue had been doing some uneventful exploring of the eastern Sword Coast when he beheld an immense tower: Durlag's Tower. Aware of possible treasure, he decided to go and take a look. By the entrance he slew two Battle Horrors, using stealth and the doorway.

Spoiler

Inside, other dangers awaited him such as traps he couldn't disarm, and a spell casting spectre. The covetous but calculating Dwarf contented himself with a Tome of Wisdom he found on an altar, leaving any other loot for a later visit. 

A more remunerative undertaking was his exploration of the Lighthouse Area, whose treasure cave, once the hideout of the famous pirate Black Alaric, had a Manual of Bodily Health, several potions, and a couple of enchanted items in store for him. To get to the treasure, he disarmed four snares, and he slew four or five Flesh Golems with attacks from the shadows.

Spoiler

An assignment from Keldath Ormlyr, taking care of Mutamin the Gnome and his Basilisks, began well with eight easy kills (thanks to triple backstab damage), but got a bit complicated when Mutamin slew Norgath's ally Korax and went after the Dwarf. Three times did the Gnome cast Remove Magic at Norgath (who was level 7 at the time). While all of this happened out of sight of the Basilisks, even if barely so on one occasion,

Spoiler

Norgath was relieved each time said spell failed to dispel his Protection from Petrification. Other spells constituted no risk, as Norgath had drunk a potion of magic shielding. He felled the Gnome with arrows of biting that he frequently bought from Taerom Fuiruim, the weaponsmith he respected for his skill.

Spoiler

Further south, near the Firewine Ruins south of Gullykin, more danger awaited Norgath in the form of several dozens of Kobolds, a type of enemy he despised. Smelly and ****** poor, the critters had nothing to offer him but the occasional poisoned dagger and some fiery arrows (an inferior type of elemental arrow compared to ice arrows and acid arrows). His Cloak of Deflection, Girdle of Piercing, and Claw of Kazgaroth protected the Dwarf from most of his foes' ranged attacks, but he nevertheless saw himself forced to use up a charge of his Necklace of Missiles, much to his chagrin, when he was about to be swarmed.

Spoiler

At one point Norgath managed to hide in shadows. He found a quiet spot on the bed of what must once have been a river, where he set four snares. (He was level 8 at that time, with 80 Set Traps, increased by 10 thanks to Rogue Rebalancing's Master Belt.) Toward his traps he baited Kobolds and a fighter that had gone hostile after another Necklace of Missiles charge had injured him and several Kobolds. The snares killed the fighter, who dropped a pair of Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise.

A bounty on the head of Prism the sculptor and a commission for Berrun Ghastkill - investigating disappearances of minders and contamination of iron in the local mine - took Norgath to the Nashkel Mines area. He defeated a fellow bounty hunter for the prize on Prism there, using snares and arrows of biting. In the Nashkel Mines he ran into more of the loathed Kobolds. Considering them unworthy foes, Norgath decided to stalk past them, hidden in shadows. But when he disarmed a trap on a bridge, one Kobold took notice of him. It called its companions for help, and soon Norgath found himself swarmed again. However the Dwarf found another place to hide, and a way a past the enemy.

Spoiler

Deeper down the mine, Norgath encountered the master of the Kobolds, a Half-Orc priest of Cyric, in his den. The Dwarf trapped the place before confronting the cleric. He had half hoped to lure the Half-Orc into the snares, but the priest summoned Kobolds and Skeletons to his side, and they were the ones to trigger the traps. The parsimonious Dwarf reluctantly expended a charge of his Greenstone Amulet and pelted his foe with arrows of biting. Some of the arrows envenomed the Half-Orc, until he fell.

Spoiler

Norgath left the mines via a secret tunnel that ended in the Valley of the Tombs. A green scroll of Protection from Undead allowed him to loot three tombs and slay some Ghasts and a Revenant in the process. Norgath then returned to Nashkel where two of his special snares killed the assassin Nimbul who had come for him. 
Correspondence found on the assassin's body led the Dwarf to Feldepost's Inn in Beregost, where a contact, Tranzig, was supposed to reside.
Wary of ambushes on the Coast Way, Norgath took a detour via the Red Canyons only to run into a Bassilus the murderer, another outlaw on his list of targets, whose scalp was worth a hefty amount of gold. Norgath, protected by his Greenstone Amulet, bested his quarry with arrows and previously set snares.

Spoiler

He also killed three Hobgoblins with his arrows of biting, and took a Short Sword +2 from one of them. (Nice because with a second pip in Two Weapon Fighting, taken at lvl 8, Norgath now had two +2 shorts words.)

In Beregost, the Dwarf confronted the mage Tranzig. He ended up poisoning the wizard with his arrows of biting, and then slaying him with his blade. On his foe's corpse he found a letter pointing to a Bandit Camp in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. Before going there, Norgath first traveled north to Ulgoth's Beard to pay the local innkeeper over 10 grand for the Sandthief Ring, leaving him near penniless. A stop at the FAI saw Norgath ambushed by four assassins (Molkar's crew). The rogue withdrew and fled into the woods. In the Peldvale Area, I misclicked Norgath paid a bandit party to leave him alone. (Good thing Norgath had just bought the Sandthief Ring, an overpriced item I often don't bother with.)

Spoiler

With no gold left to give away, Norgath convinced a similar party in Larswood he wanted to join their ranks. Their spokesman took him to the Camp. The Dwarf talked an imposing Half-Ogre out of fighting him, looted the camp using a potion of master thievery he had bought near Durlag's Tower, and located the tent where the bandit leaders gathered. He entered it hidden in shadows, tossed two snares at a wizard, and then poisoned the same wizard with an arrow of biting. To his horror the arrow and the traps didn't suffice to finish the mage. It forced Norgath to go on the defensive and quaff a potion of stone form (which didn't offer complete protection against Venkt's spells, but at least took effect immediately, unlike Greenstone Amulet protection). His Boots of Avoidance, Claw of Kazgaroth, Girdle of Piercing and Cloak of Displacement and a potion of defense notwithstanding, he suffered several ranged hits (much to my surprise). It prompted the Dwarf to quaff an invisibility potion.

Spoiler

He then healed himself with innate healing powers and potions, while his enemies positioned themselves around him.

Spoiler

The bandits then found out the hard way that Norgath had previously swigged two potions of fire resistance and that he owned a Necklace of Missiles.

Spoiler

Norgath slew all the bandits and released a prisoner named Ender Sai, who revealed to him that the organization behind the bandits and the iron crisis was the Iron Throne, with a secret base in Cloakwood.

Norgath hid in shadows to leave the camp unnoticed, traveled to Beregost to barter with Taerom and Thalantyr, and trekked to Cloakwood to investigate the Iron Throne.

[Grond0]

@Grond0 - you know, Basilisks seem to be your arch nemesis in BG 1 - they seem to get even more than Sarevok does. Perhaps its because they induce your gambling nature, and that their reward is so much more than most monsters in BG so you can't avoid tempting your fate with them...

Sounds reasonable.  By the time you get to Sarevok the cost of failure seems higher so I'm probably a bit less likely to take risks there.

[corey_russell]

Sounds reasonable.  By the time you get to Sarevok the cost of failure seems higher so I'm probably a bit less likely to take risks there.

Hmm, walk me through the logic on that statement. The worst thing that can happen against Sarevok is the game ends when your character dies, or with a basilisk, the worse thing that can happen is you die, and your game ends. Other than you spent more time playing the run if you die at Sarevok, is that what you are referring to? Personally, I would count the cost to be same, as in either case, would time to roll a new character (or restart I guess).

[Grond0]

I did say the cost of failure seems higher and I agree that will be subjective.  I was indeed referring to the amount of time playing, although another factor would be that an element of success is close.

[Grond0]

Grond0, sorry to see Turk fall... Maybe you could give her another opportunity?

Tried - and failed ... .

 

Turk {2} - dwarf swashbuckler (1st and final update)

 

Turk started again using the same approach as last time.  She completed early progress down to the edge of Nashkel without incident, although it took a while - killing just Karlat took about 150 arrows!

 

However, the lack of an invisibility potion proved costly when she tried to take a short-cut to Nashkel from the area immediately to the West.  One of the encounters that can occur on that transition is an ogre mage - and he gave Turk no chance to get away without taking damage.

 

 

She had 33 HPs at level 5 (average of 30), which was a bit tempting to keep.  However, I decided I wasn't far enough in to warrant continuing and abandoned the run there.

[Grond0]

Frosty - elf sorcerer (update 1)

 

I see sorcerers are all the rage at the moment .  Given that I've tried brute force and then stealth and shooting recently I thought I would do something of a combination with a melee sorcerer.  

 

Frosty can use any attacks he wants, but is only allowed to actually kill something using melee attacks - hence things like fireballs become unusable against weaker opponents.  I've tried that before a while ago (though I don't think that was with SCS installed), but can't remember how far I got - though I do remember that the restriction on deaths requires quite a lot of work to get around.

 

Here's his opening record sheet.  He currently knows sleep and chill touch with darts as his proficient weapon (the low maximum damage on that makes it more suitable than a sling for wearing things down).

 

[Grond0]

Frosty - elf sorcerer (2nd and final update)

 

Sigh - the morning's not getting any better!

 

Frosty was up to level 4 having travelled via Beregost and Nashkel up to the FAI and points north.  He'd successfully killed a number of ankhegs using sleep before they could attack, but came to grief against Tenya.  When she started casting he immediately ran into the house.  One potential trick the AI sometimes plays is for a caster to follow in that situation without interrupting their spell - so Frosty was ready to run straight back out again.  However, after waiting a bit there was no sign of Tenya, so Frosty went back out again - to get hit by the hold person!

 

[Serg BlackStrider]

Another good day to die, huh, Grond0? 

 

Welcome to the Challenge, Borco! Safe travels for your character!

 

Blast'em all, Norgath!

[Grond0]

Another good day to die, huh, Grond0? 

Is there any other sort?

 

Frosty {2} - elf sorcerer (update 1)

 

Frosty's on the warpath once again.  He again got up to level 4 after attacking some ankhegs, but this time he pre-cast chill touch and got an immediate hit in on Tenya to make her give up before casting anything.

Spoiler

 

Going back to finish clearing the ankheg nest and adding a couple of bandits got him to level 5.  Back in Beregost his newly learned LMD made a nasty mess of Karlat - Frosty getting up to 47 HPs before a chill touch provided the finishing blow.  

Spoiler

The same tactics dealt with the Amazing Oopah and Vitiare - with the latter Frosty might only have been able to try one attack from invisibility, but one was enough.

Spoiler

 

There was a similar approach to Greywolf, but his high HPs meant that he was softened up with a wand of fire blast first.  

Spoiler

Note that chill touch is an excellent spell for this type of use - not only does it provide +5 to attack (and no proficiency penalty) and a bonus 1-8 of cold damage, but it also allows a high weapon speed - meaning it's often possible to attack and withdraw before a retaliation.  A danger is though that the cold damage can chunk opponents, so you shouldn't use the spell on anyone carrying anything vital to you.

 

Meilum used a healing potion at near death requiring Frosty to hit him twice - he has a fast weapon speed himself and Frosty had to use all 4 of his invisibilities to do that safely.  

Spoiler

The Doomsayer then took a long time.  That was largely because of lots of other enemies chasing Frosty round and also because I miscalculated expected HPs and required 2 hits instead of 1 to kill him.  Frosty had numerous attacks on him with only occasional retaliations, but eventually those mounted up and he used invisibility for the first time.  The extra +4 for attacking from invisible (added to the +5 from chill touch) did the trick.  

Spoiler

In the same area Laryssa only had a few spells, so Frosty dodged those with invisibility before finishing her off and getting a lift back to Nashkel with Brage.

Spoiler

 

In the Cloudpeaks returning Rufie got him to level 6 and the ability to cast slow.  By this stage his buffs gave him a huge benefit in combat and he had no problems with encounters in the mountains even when standing toe to toe.

 

He's just briefly visited the basilisk area to release a stoned victim and get reputation to 20 and will be shopping at Ulgoth's Beard before continuing his adventures.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Hail to Frosty! Those mobs ahead are a bit overheated by (Sun)Blasting Quartet at the moment so need someone to cool'em down.

[Alesia_BH]

Good hunting with Frosty, Grond0!

 

I've been thinking about giving my melee sorcerer, Alastria, another shot. I look forward to seeing what Frosty can do.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Diary of the Grey Gecko

 

Fell foul of the censors in this one. I used the word for when you stab yourself with a needle for a similar uncomfortable jabbing in one's conscience.   Managed to find alternative wording though.

 

The thing is that when covering a topic that might be unsuitable for children, I always use phraseology that is indirect in order to avoid any hint of corruption.

 

Honi soit qui mal y pense.

 

The starting stats of Fyrmyn Firehair:

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr002.jpg

 

Having run from the ambush that killed Gorion, I first went to The Friendly Arms Inn, however I sensed that a mage that I saw at the entrance was hostile, so I went to the temple there to offer sacrifices to Sharress, the god that I serve.

Because of my low charisma I have had little opportunity to indulge in sensual pleasure. Perhaps she will now intervene.

 

Nashkel

Just north of Nashkel, I was given a charisma-increasing ring. This must be the result of making offerings to Sharress.

 

Beregost

Upon returning to Beregost, I was attacked by Karlat who was eventually killed by Silke. Before that happened however, a Morningmaster and Algernon were both killed by Karlat due to the fact that at my instigation, they became aligned with me.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr000.png

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr001.jpg

 

Upon investigating what I thought was a disused house, I was chased by spiders that killed Morninglords and Morninglord Guards.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr004.jpg

 

Several good things came out of this. I now have a +3 sling. As a Halfling, that came as a real boon. I have Algernon’s Cloak which boosts my charisma yet further, and we have High Quality Armour, Shield and Hammer for Fyrmyn plus some that we may sell at a later date.

 

Heading southwards we entered woodland where we killed ghasts, hobgoblins and elite hobgoblins. Upon entering a cave which I assume belonged to the hobgoblins, we found some healing potions, and whilst in there we investigated a ploy that we had been taught in Candlekeep, namely that with the correct equipment, if we lowered our charisma with a device such as the staff that we found there, we could actually raise our charisma to 25. We used the staff against rats, bats and the like and found that it actually worked.

 

Clearly the offerings to Sharress had brought a response. Mayhap in the future we will have opportunity to indulge in those activities that she so encourages.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr008.jpg

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr009.jpg

 

In that area, we came across some boots that will be most serviceable when attempting to hide.

 

Indeed, we used them soon after that when we investigated Durlag’s Tower. We had no desire to fight the monsters there, so hid as we entered and departed.

In the tower we found gold and jewels tis true, but of more import were the weapons, cloak and tome that we discovered. We also gained considerable experience when we dealt with Kirinhale and killed a lesser basilisk.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr010.jpg

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr011.jpg

 

When we tried to sneak back into the tower however Fyrmyn was stunned by a trap! If ‘twere not for the ghast ‘twould have been no problem, but the ghast slaughtered her and chased me outside.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr012.jpg

 

There I had the space to fight it with my sling and received my revenge.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr013.jpg

 

This put an end to my foray as I was unable to enter the lower reaches of the tower without her.

 

At the temple near Beregost, I raised her, and decided that our conflict with the undead ended in a draw. We had however, been able to increase our own power as we discovered that the tome would increase Fyrmyn’s wisdom.

 

We then tried to follow the advice of Gorion and went to the Friendly Arms Inn. I decided that the time was ripe to dual to being a mage and upon doing so learned the spells for which I had the scrolls. There, we were attacked by a mage called Tarnesh and if it were not for charming a caravan guard we would likely have been killed, but when he panicked Fyrmyn with horror, he fought the guard first and so we survived.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr016.jpg

 

We were a little uncomfortable about our following actions as we set the guards upon each other. Whilst it affected not our reputation, our consciences did make us somewhat uncomfortable. . However, upon discovering the quality of the weapons and armour, we were somewhat happier.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr019.jpg

 

Further north, upon agreeing to help Tenya, we fought an Ankheg, and whilst we prevailed, we did need to rest afterwards.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr020.jpg

 

Upon completion of our task, Tenya was appreciative and promised us help in the future. We will no doubt discover if that help is forthcoming when we need it. We were delighted that Sonner had on his body a +1 flail. We should get a good price for it.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr022.jpg

 

To the south, we then slew numerous hobgoblins and Ankheg and returned the body of Farmer Brun’s son to him.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr024.jpg

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr025.jpg

 

Heading back to Beregost, we came across some felons led by Phallen Nightsbane. Fortuitously Fyrmyn had scouted ahead with Sanctuary cast upon herself. This was because my stealth skills are currently inoperable.

 

When Aoln approached us, we deemed it wise to charm him and ‘twas well that we did. Numerous spells such as rigid thinking and confusion were cast upon him the last spell being horror. This affected both him and Fyrmyn and himself. Because Fyrmyn’s sanctuary was still in operation, their attack was focussed upon Aoln and he was killed. I then used the wand of fire that I had found in the lair of the Ankheg. Though it grievously hurt Fyrmyn, it was worth it for we survived the encounter.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr027.jpg

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr029.jpg

 

We rested and returned to the scene of that first ambush, we killed numerous animals that attacked us including dread wolves before coming upon two friendly characters who offered us help which we gratefully received. With their help we defeated Shoal and acquired numerous items at Ulgoth’s Beard. Xzar ended up dead, and we left Montaron at the Beard for whilst he is excellent at picking pockets, his dishonesty would eventually have led us into trouble.

 

We then helped a woman whose son was trapped by worgs, an archaeologist and Brage. This did wonders for our reputation.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr031.jpg

 

The killing of Bassilus was financially profitable too.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr032.jpg

 

Upon entering the basilisk area we came across some evil treasure hunters and were forced to eliminate them.

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr003.jpg

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr005.jpg

 

http://i1108.photobu...ko/Baldr007.jpg

[Grond0]

Frosty {2} - elf sorcerer (update 2)

 

After spending all his hard-earned money on a staff, cloak, amulet and ring at Ulgoth's Beard Frosty returned to the basilisk area.  He used 2 mage scrolls of PFP there.  The slight problem with those is that the basilisks will immediately switch to melee against those and, after Mutamin was lured away using invisibility, Frosty was poisoned by his greater basilisk pet.  

Spoiler

Fortunately though it didn't last long and Frosty was able to finish off the remaining basilisks (helped by a few softening wand of frost blasts) to get to level 7.  After resting to make his newly learned spells available he slowed Mutamin and then blinded him at the 6th attempt.  LMD made him run and Frosty eventually hunted him down despite the attentions of a group of gnolls.  

Spoiler

Korax then came to the party, 4 attacks resulted in all 4 of Kirian's group being paralysed (helped slightly by them all being slowed).  

Spoiler

A bit of care was then needed to ensure none of them woke up, but that Frosty struck all the killing blows.  That was safely done to end a nice clean encounter.

 

Buffs and softening wand blasts soon saw off the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower, taking him to level 8 and making him rather more thick-skinned.  

Spoiler

He used the green scroll to deal with the basilisks on the roof and took the scimitar there using his protection from fire.  He picked up the tome with the help of the Greenstone Amulet before leaving the Tower.

 

He's ready now to crack on with the main quest.

 

Level 1  sleep, chill touch, LMD, protection from evil, blind

Level 2  invisibility, mirror image, blur

Level 3  slow, protection from fire

Level 4  stoneskin

[corey_russell]

Best of luck to your sorcerer, Grond0 - no unnecessary chances with basilisks, now! Resist the urge for gambling! 

[Grond0]

Best of luck to your sorcerer, Grond0 - no unnecessary chances with basilisks, now! Resist the urge for gambling! 

Thanks Corey - no problems with the basilisks, but Frosty has had a setback ...

 

Frosty {2} - elf sorcerer (update 3)

 

Frosty went invisibly through the Nashkel mine before showing himself briefly to Mulahey.  That allowed him to deal with the summons before turning to the cleric.  Mulahey was slowed from distance and Frosty then used the Greenstone Amulet before closing - although all Mulahey's spells were disrupted by LMD or hits anyway.

Spoiler

 

In Nashkel an assault from invisible made Nimbul run.  At the 4th attempt Frosty correctly predicted which way he would run and slowed him and one further chill touch finished him off.

Spoiler

I then realised Frosty didn't have any documents for the mayor, but he didn't bother going back for them.  Nimbul's find familiar scroll was gratefully received and generated a pseudo dragon (specifically chosen as the best match for a melee sorcerer).

 

In Beregost the pseudo dragon quickly showed its worth when I belatedly remembered getting the dialogue choices with Marl wrong earlier.  

Spoiler

Upstairs I hadn't expected Tranzig to react to the familiar while Frosty was invisible, which gave him a flying (or at least hasted) start.  He took advantage of that with a couple of magic missiles on Frosty before being brought down with a crash.

Spoiler

 

The Bandit Camp proved a problem due to the sheer number of ranged enemies and Frosty's inability to use area of effect damage on them.  The enemies were able to track him down anywhere on the map, which made it difficult to tackle small numbers at once and he was also wary of Venkt's magic.  He managed to get rid of all Venkt's spells and then stun him with a dart, but when he tried to finish him off he was hit with 3 criticals almost together and had to take an emergency invisibility potion to survive.

Spoiler

After that he settled down to resting as necessary and picking off the odd straggler.  With a lot of the enemies dead and most still alive out of ammunition all the hard work was done when I incautiously tried to supplement HPs with the wrong target (I probably should have just avoided any combat at the Camp to save the aggro).

Spoiler

 

I thought about trying again, but that seemed too much like hard work so I'll just continue but playing a standard sorcerer - albeit he's likely to be a bit more melee focused than usual.  With that decision made it was the work of a few moments to finish off the Bandit Camp using wands and not many more to go invisibly through the Cloakwood.  He used wands again on Drasus & co for a quick fight, though he did have to save against a chaos before winning the day - getting to level 9 in the process.

Spoiler

[Grond0]

Frosty {2} - elf sorcerer (4th and final update)

 

I didn't really feel right about continuing with Frosty.  Possibly that's why he attempted to match himself against the mage without using magic protection .  That went well for quite a long time and Davaeorn must have been getting low on spells by the end (and all his guards and battle horrors were dead).  However, he finally pulled out a horror which affected Frosty and MMs and MMMs meant the end came swiftly after that.

 

[Aasim]

Auch Grond0..

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear that Grond0. What's next? You got 6 mages to Melissan, how about 6 paladins?

[Grimwald the Wise]

The Mighty Midgets Continued

 

The Grey Gecko regained her thieving abilities when Fyrmyn Firehair singlehandedly took on Mutamin and his Medusae Minions and triumphed.

 

She used Protection from Petrification, a potion of oil of speed, and a LOT of healing potions including one of superior healing when things were getting desperate.

 

Now wondering whether to continue as the Dynamic Duo or whether to enlist support and become The Triumphant Trio.

[Aasim]

Sorry to hear that Grond0. What's next? You got 6 mages to Melissan, how about 6 paladins?

I'd vote 6 bards. 1 Jester, 3 Blades, and 2 Skalds. 

[Borco]

Lorn, half-elven Priest of Talos, 2nd update

 

As expected, Lorn and her other companions joined forces with Jaheria and Khalid, and together they have overpowered several hobgoblins in the vicinity of the Friendly Arm. Feeling confident in their numbers they proceeded south towards Naskhel.

 

During a stopover in Beregost, however, the things got a bit hairy and the party took a series of beatings resulting in heavy casualties. At first, Jaheria’s careless positioning left her within the reach of Karlat's axe, whose potion-boosted strength has procured a fatal blow (12) to the half-elf. After the dwarven assassin was defeated, Khalid was dismissed from the group and got replaced by Kagain shortly thereafter.

 

The other time the events have taken wrong turn was the encounter with Silke after accepting a certain "business opportunity" from Garrick the Dandy, wherein the disagreement between the ladies as to the actual content of the proposed contract needed to be resolved in combat. Unaware of her (SCS) prowess, it costed us Xzar's life before Lorn was able to successfully land her sleeping command to allow her commrades to bludgeon that hasted bard to death.

 

Lorn was thus forced to accept loathsome Garrick as a replacement for the fallen necromancer, mostly because he promised to learn some useful magic soon. After spending their entire fortune at the local blacksmith's the party has left for Naskhel.

 

Side note: I do use quick saves due to the occassional crashes.

 

Party members:

• Imoen
• Montaron
• Kagain
• Garrick

Deceased:

• Jaheira (killed by Karlat)
• Xzar (killed by Silke)

[Serg BlackStrider]

Sad news, Grond0... Seems pretty unfortunate day indeed...

[Borco]

Lorn, half-elven Priest of Talos, 3nd and final update
 
I am deeply saddened to announce that the entire adventure came to a sudden end at the hands of Zordral the Almighty. I underestimated the modded AI and rushed in with remove fear only, hoping to interrupt his initial buffs with firepower/commands. Neither worked too well, Kagain's saving throws failed despite the Potion of Invulnerability and eventually the whole party got overwhelmed by summons (while sleeping  ). 

 

 
Well, that's it for my first encounter with SCS mode  . I am about to reconsider the entire approach to mage fights and try to run another (random) character. Fingers crossed!

 

B.

[Grond0]

 

Sad news, Grond0... Seems pretty unfortunate day indeed... 

Just building up for a big finish .

 

I'd vote 6 bards. 1 Jester, 3 Blades, and 2 Skalds. 

Close.  I generated a random character class - which was conjuror.  I didn't fancy doing that since I did an all mage run not that long ago.  The next random option was blades, so I'll see how I get on with 6 of those.

 

Edit.  Acting on a faint memory I checked my Photobucket account and see I have done an all bard run before, so I think I should choose a different class.  The third random selection was a cleric/mage which would be just too much overkill on spells!  The fourth selection was monks.  That also rings faint bells, but if I've done that before it must have been on my old Photobucket account and I'll settle for that.

[Grond0]

Hard luck Borco - you're certainly right about the need to adapt tactics for SCS mages.  One point to note about SCS is that the AI will not normally choose to attack a character that's helpless (like asleep or held).  By spreading your party out (which I know is difficult with Zordral if you don't want to pull him outside) you can reduce the numbers affected by spells and avoid casualties which might have occurred in vanilla.