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[Grond0]

Firefly - wild mage (update 1)

 

There was a comment recently about wild mages being nerfed in BGEE, so I thought I would run one to see what happened.

 

My initial intention was to follow the same sort of pattern as with the wild mages I ran a while ago in BGT.  In summary that's:

BG1 - very few spells of any sort cast.

Early to mid BG2 - spells only cast outside combat.

Later BG2 - increasing use of spells while protected by stacked chaos shields (though I'm not sure if that's possible in EE).

 

The first problem I found was that fairy dragons have been nerfed to remove invisibility 10'.  That means it is no longer possible for a wild mage to travel safely - as casting invisibility as a wild mage spell has the risk of a deadly surge.  However, 2 levels for shooting down Shoal got a further 11 HPs for Firefly and by avoiding the main roads (and therefore bandit ambushes) the risk of travel was reduced to a pretty low level.

 

On the plus side, the EE allows bonus strength damage to slings, which generally made running enemies around and shooting a bit easier.  Some creatures now move faster than the PC and Firefly just left the map rather than try and run around wolves and dogs on her way down to Nashkel - she got up to level 4 (3 more HPs) by getting a lift there from Brage.

 

At the Nashkel Mine Greywolf was softened up with the Wand of Frost found there before being finished by sling.  The same fate befell Meilum before Firefly travelled round doing a number of reputation quests - still relying almost exclusively on her sling.  Gorion's belt came in handy during that - allowing her to safely shoot down several winter wolves.  I mis-clicked talking to Lena (and missed the chance of a reputation upgrade for Samuel as a result).  With Melicamp dying that meant Firefly couldn't get to 20 reputation before doing the Nashkel Mine.

 

Before heading to the mine Firefly visited the basilisk area. After shooting the monsters she recruited Korax to help out with Mutamin and then, using his scroll of stinking cloud, they also sorted out Kirian's party.

Spoiler

 

At the mine she again relied exclusively on her own physical attacks.  The EE is on vanilla setup, so it was easy to take on just one kobold at a time - meaning she could keep progressing until HPs fell below a potential critical hit when she returned to the top of the mine to rest (she's not allowed healing potions or antidotes).  Mulahey was run round his pond without being given the chance to talk.  

Spoiler

Resting after that battle she acquired a CLW to go with her earlier LMD (I presume the latter has a chance to surge so is not expected to be used for the time being) - that will reduce significantly the amount of resting required as it auto-casts on rest without the chance of a surge.

 

The difficulty of hitting Nimbul with a sling persuaded Firefly to use a charge of her frost wand on him - though that resulted in the destruction of his boots (I wasn't bothered about those).

Spoiler

 

With reputation now at 19 she travelled to Ulgoth's Beard and bought Sandthief's ring.  Using the invisibility from that she sneaked into the ankheg nest and stole their treasure.  The farmer then provided her last reputation upgrade (getting up to level 7 in the process) - allowing her to acquire other desired items from Ulgoth's Beard along with the Claw of Kazgaroth from High Hedge.

 

Now with plenty of wand power she blasted the doomsayer with frost before doing the same to some battle horrors at Durlag's Tower.  

Spoiler

She left the basilisks and the ghasts alone though while going to collect the tome - protected by the Greenstone Amulet.

 

At the lighthouse, protection from the shield and Greenstone Amulets + wand scorchers made short work of the sirines (level 8).  

Spoiler

The golems were shot down with magic bullets - using Greenstone again to protect against traps.

 

She will be cracking on with the main quest next time.  She has had no surges as yet, though she has cast a number of spells (mainly charisma to help with shop prices).

 

 

Wild mage L8, 44 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 177 kills

[corey_russell]

Looks good so far Grond0. Hope you can keep it up.

[biowherewolf]

 

Firefly - wild mage (update 1)

 

...

The first problem I found was that fairy dragons have been nerfed to remove invisibility 10'.  That means it is no longer possible for a wild mage to travel safely - as casting invisibility as a wild mage spell has the risk of a deadly surge. ...

 

 

Thanks for the update Grond0

I noticed the nerfing of fairy dragons and was pretty unhappy about it. I want my cheese back! 

 

Anyway, thanks for the updates. It's good to follow

--BW

[Grond0]

Anyway, thanks for the updates. It's good to follow

You're welcome, although progress was cut short yesterday ...

 

By the way one comment I saw on the BGEE forums when checking on the fairy dragon suggested that the intention was to restore invis 10' in BG2EE.  That wouldn't be much use to me by then, but you might feel differently.

 

 

Firefly - wild mage (2nd and final update)

 

A wand fireball saw Tranzig making a run for it, but an immediate critical meant he didn't get far.  Firefly got a lift to the Bandit Camp with Teven and a couple of frost wand charges saw him make a run for it - unfortunately disappearing just in time after being hit by one lot of scorchers.

 

In BGT Sandthief's ring starts with 7 charges, but then converts to a once per day use.  I wasn't sure if that would happen in EE so decided Firefly should learn invisibility (testing just now confirmed that the ring does disappear after it's charges are used up).  She had failed previously with 2 of the 3 scrolls at High Hedge, so this time went to buy some potions to make sure - resulting in her first wild surge when trying to improve charisma.  The friends spell cast twice, but still gave only its normal effect.

 

Back at the Bandit Camp Firefly used her own invisibility to enter the main tent.  Despite being severely tempted to attack the occupants, in the end she just looted the place before using the ring to go invisible.

 

She used her own invisibility once more to avoid danger from the web traps in the Cloakwood, but otherwise just ran through to get to the mine.  A couple of wand fireballs there killed both mages and a couple more were too much for Drasus.  Genthore targeted her with a few axes, but at -11 to hit failed to make contact and a few wand MMs finished him off.

 

After a quick trip to High Hedge to sell things (without improved giant spiders there's no risk from ambushes) she returned to the mine and went down invisibly to find Davaeorn.  A PFM scroll allowed her to ignore the traps and freeze the battle horrors before winning a melee contest with the mage.

 

In the City she bought some more spells before seeking out the 3 tomes.  Jalantha died in a scorcher, while Marek was paralyzed (level 9).  Ramazith was stuck in a web, but broke free and was trying to cast when a wand fireball descended on him.  Firefly then invisibly investigated the Iron Throne before being sent to Candlekeep.

 

In the catacombs a PFM scroll and a potion of regeneration accounted for the traps and a first use of necklace fireballs for the phase spiders before Firefly knocked open the tombs (using a scroll of MGoI for protection) - getting some berries in her pocket with one attempt.  She bypassed the dopplegangers, but did attempt to kill Prat's gang to check what scrolls they were carrying.  Prat's companions died without trouble, but the man himself badly wounded Firefly with a lightning bolt cast through a wall despite never apparently getting a sight of her.  A further scorcher on him had him almost dead and Firefly waited poised on the exit point thinking that the second round of scorcher damage would kill him.  Unfortunately though he managed to complete a second lightning bolt first (his icon was hidden behind a wall, so it wasn't obvious he was casting) and the speed of the game didn't provide Firefly with enough time to exit the area before the lightning arrived ...

Spoiler

 

Afterthought

Other than nerfing of the familiar (in addition to loss of some spells, familiars also have fewer HPs in BG1 than in BGT) I didn't notice any problems with the wild mage class.  I ended up casting quite a few spells and, though the sample size was still very small, the number of surges felt about right for the stated 5% chance.  I think I might restart Firefly though and treat her more like an ordinary mage to check more thoroughly on the behaviour of surges.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 94 - (update 1)

Tony, dwarf fighter/cleric (Grond0) & Flena, half-elf blade (Gate70)

 

After seeing one promising pair fail our replacement random combination again looks well-matched.

 

They've made a fairly untroubled start to BG1 following the normal pattern of Shoal, Beregost, Nashkel, Meilum and the basilisks so far.  The only problem during that was when all the xvarts around Arabelle were accidentally activated at once and we were unable to save her.  

Spoiler

I don't know about anyone else, but the diet in BG1 seems so restrictive: it's always beef and chicken - sometimes I think I could murder someone for a nice salad .

 

Flena used her song on occasions to provide an initial boost when attacking, but otherwise relied on missiles and the odd spell - though we did notice a MP quirk that the song appeared to buff both Tony and Flena irrespective of the distance between them.  Another attribute of the blade is the offensive spin.  In BG2 that tends to get crowded out by other buffs (particularly once improved haste is available), but it is a huge benefit in BG1 and Flena's spun darts made short work of Meilum after he was proving difficult to hit with standard attacks.

 

After killing the basilisks Flena asked Tony's opinion on whether web or stinking cloud would be a good option to have ready for Kirian's group.  Thinking about the chance of them failing saving throws Tony suggested web - although that probably wasn't the sensible choice given that Korax was being recruited.  However, none of the enemies was able to save against the web for long enough to kill Korax and the battle was quickly won.

Spoiler

 

 

Stats:

Tony, fighter 4 / cleric 4, 40 HPs, 33 kills

Flena, blade 5, 30 HPs, 18 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {28} - monks party (update 1)

 

I decided to give the monks another go this morning - still trying to get through BG1 without any casualties and without using healing potions or antidotes.

 

Thus far they've made mainly serene progress and raised their reputation to 20.  The only dangerous moment was trying to get their final reputation upgrade when I decided to kill a few ankhegs guarding the treasure in their nest rather than just sneaking in - Wraith only just survived being hit by a critical.

Spoiler

 

Killing the basilisks and then recruiting Korax to help with Kirian's party got everyone to level 5 at the end of the session.  

Spoiler

 

They will be seeking more high value XP next time at Durlag's Tower and the lighthouse.

 

Chimera - L5, 30 HPs, 33 kills

Spectre - L5, 33 HPs, 71 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L5, 39 HPs, 30 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L5, 41 HPs, 38 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L5, 32 HPs, 26 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L5, 39 HPs, 35 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {28} - monks party (update 2)

 

More progress this morning started at Durlag's Tower where the monks put the Wand of the Heavens to work on the battle horrors and killed the ghasts on the first couple of levels.  They also sorted out the basilisks on the roof before collecting the tome.  They left the remaining encounters for another time though.

 

The sirines at the lighthouse didn't cause too much trouble and clearing that area got everyone to level 6.

Spoiler

They also went back to sort out the Doomsayer (not mucking about with melee attacks this time)

Spoiler

and cleaned up a few more outstanding tasks - such as Silke who's surprisingly poor at saving against stunning blows.  

Spoiler

Bassilus did far better and avoided being stunned until after his death - not that that would be much comfort to him.  

Spoiler

The reward for handing his symbol in allowed the monks to buy a few more green scrolls - the last of the items that they wanted prior to entering Baldur's Gate.

 

Next up was the Nashkel Mine.  That went pretty smoothly with only a single set of healing rests required until getting into Mulahey's cave.  The kobold shaman was stunned before he could start casting anything

Spoiler

and the chieftain only got a single hit in.  This time I made sure that Spirit had enough HPs to survive the second and third traps near the shaman triggering together, but in fact the second trap behaved as I expected it to last time.  

Spoiler

The monks rested again before stunning Mulahey

Spoiler

- resting again after that gave Chimera Bhaal CLW to greatly increase their healing rate when resting.

 

Back in Nashkel Nimbul did much of the hard work by successfully casting stoneskin and mirror image before being stunned just as I was thinking about beating a retreat.  

Spoiler

Before continuing with the main quest the monks will be aiming to vacuum most of the map areas.  They've started doing that by clearing the Cloakwood.  That included making the world a bit safer by preventing a demon dog from returning to its home plane.

Spoiler

There was one potential problem in an ogre mage ambush when I didn't initially notice that Wraith had been stunned by a chromatic orb - meaning no-one was in position to distract the ogre mage before it could get into position to melee Wraith.  That prompted Phantom to use a rare Wand of the Heavens charge, although the ogre mage was stunned himself almost immediately anyway.

Spoiler

 

Chimera - L6, 38 HPs, 127 kills

Spectre - L6, 39 HPs, 184 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L6, 47 HPs, 119 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L6, 44 HPs, 213 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L6, 39 HPs, 119 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L6, 47 HPs, 145 kills, 0 deaths

[biowherewolf]

I haven't updated for a while, so here's an ONUD Update

 

Onud, being now a Magic User/Shadowdancer, generally has been staying to the back of the party. 

The Orge Mage went down ok

Spoiler

 

But Larze was a different story. 

Spoiler

 

(I always underestimate him). 

But, Onud survived and put some experience on the stack 

 

and some more from Marek

Spoiler

 

It was a bit of a struggle, so they picked up Yeslick to add a little more oomph. 

Then it was Ragefast and Ramazith, which ended up in a really great toy

Spoiler

 

Onud got one of the BGEE-nerf'ed pseudo dragons and they went to Desreta and her friend to pick up some gauntlets, making Yeslick a reasonable fighter. 

 

Some adventuring in the Gate and the group grabbed a Manual of Quickness of Action from the thieves guild. 

 

Onud is now 4th level Wizard/7th level Shadowdancer. 

 

Spoiler

 

Onud is finally getting some reasonable spells. His magic missile is actually useful. And invisibility and stinking cloud can actually shift the outcome of the battle. 

 

Once he makes 5th level magic user, it would be time to start back to the main quests in the chase for Sarevok

 

In order to get to 5th... maybe Durlag's? That may be a problem. But with Safana as the thief, and Xan to dispel, and Yeslick to play fighter, it may be ok. Both Yeslick and Branwen can animate dead, so they get some help. 

We will see. 

cheers

--BW

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {28} - monks party (update 3)

 

The monks continued clearing areas to the south. Perhaps the hardest obstacle there is the mustard jellies Narcillicus summons.  The first of those got a number of hits in, but no criticals and there was plenty of time to rest to cure poison after it was killed.  

Spoiler

Stealth failed when approaching the second jelly and Narcillicus managed to chase the monks - a charm for Spirit prompting a fatal wand blast in return.

Spoiler

The second jelly then failed to get a hit in at all against Wraith (wearing the girdle of bluntness).

Spoiler

 

While back in Beregost selling things the monks decided to take on Tranzig.  Another stealth failure allowed him to haste himself before making the mistake of trying to slow the monks and getting stunned.

Spoiler

 

After completing the southern areas they started working northwards, completing all areas south of Beregost except Ulcaster and Firewine Bridge - I thought they were still too dangerous, but will be back for them later.  Shooting down the wolf pack at the Beregost temple got everyone to level 7.  

Spoiler

They had been hovering slightly below average HPs for the whole run up to this point, but a really excellent set of rolls pushed them well above the average of 49 overall.  More importantly though everyone now has the ability to lay on hands, which gives a huge boost to their healing ability.

 

Chimera - L7, 48 HPs, 182 kills

Spectre - L7, 47 HPs, 240 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L7, 57 HPs, 164 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L7, 50 HPs, 295 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L7, 45 HPs, 170 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L7, 57 HPs, 196 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {28} - monks party (4th and final update)

 

After clearing Larswood the monks accepted a lift with Teven to the Bandit Camp.  As usual there Tazok's oil of speed was insufficient to allow him to get an attack in before the net closed on him for the kill.  The monks used the shield amulet for the first time before killing a few Black Talons and running as the hordes closed in.  When Venkt arrived they had a go at him and managed to kill him before running again.  Taugosz was killed by wand blasts, but the others fell to melee or missile attacks.  They were fairly battered by the time Britik was shot down, but looted all the bodies before resting.  They then made a quick trip to High Hedge to make space in their inventory before returning to loot the Bandit Camp as far as possible using a potion of frost giant strength.

 

After getting slow poison as a Bhaal power the monks reduced their reputation by killing Bentan and Poe at Firewine Bridge.  Before setting off for the Cloakwood they cleared the remaining map areas not yet visited with the exception of the one with the Red Wizards of Thay in.

 

In the first Cloakwood area I managed (again) to talk to Aldeth with the wrong character.  With their blood up and no druids to fight the monks took their frustration out on Aldeth.

 

In the second area there was a fairly early scare when they were interrupted in a rest by two giant spiders.  they were quickly killed, but webbed Spook as 2 phase spiders teleported in - one right next to Spook.  He was immediately poisoned, but fortunately both spiders were stunned straight afterwards - giving Chimera plenty of time to cast slow poison for the first time.  The web traps, giant spider webs and poison are all potential threats in that area, but cautious progress using stealth finally cleared the external area.  There was one more scare as they were on the way to Centeol's nest though when Chimera's stealth failed and he became instantly visible next to a giant spider.  He was immediately webbed, but once more stunning blows came to his rescue.  A fireball thrown into the nest encouraged most of the occupants to come out into a barrage of stunning blows and they died without webbing or poisoning anyone.  The few remaining spiders inside with Centeol were then quickly finished off.

 

In the third area the external druids were stunned before they could complete any spells.  The intention with Amarande was to drag him downstairs and then dart in and out of the house to avoid his chaos spells.  That plan came unstuck though when his icon duplicated and the problems multiplied when the pair of Amarandes blocked the exit point.  The intention then was for the others to go upstairs while Spectre occupied their attention (thinking he could then go invisible and possibly cause them to lose focus on the party).  However, he was immediately injected with a fast-acting poison by a spider form.  He did actually have a green scroll that could have cured that, but Chimaera rashly tried to use slow poison on him - and was confused before he could cast it.  Spectre did then manage to get outside and cure himself before dying, but both Amarandes then targeted Chimaera despite the efforts of the others trying to distract and/or stun them.  Spirit used the party's second and final green scroll to cure Chimaera's poison quickly, but a couple of hits and several chromatic orbs later his HPs ran out ...

Spoiler

[Dyara]

Perhaps your monks aren't the wisest but no-one can say they aren't brave ... taking on Amarande . I did that only once (and only because I had to as it was part of Jaheira's quest). Far too much risc as he's on a level where chromatic orbs can kill instantly on a failed saving throw.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 94 - (update 2)

Tony, dwarf fighter/cleric (Grond0) & Flena, half-elf blade (Gate70)

 

This pairing made some progress at the weekend that I didn't get around to writing up, so this report covers more than one session .

 

They started off by travelling around with the general aim of increasing their reputation - beginning with holding Greywolf for an easy victory.  They recovered the charisma tome, although discovered on the way that Flena's charisma was not quite good enough to get reputation for a dead cat or some boots for a dead bear.  Bassilus was the next major victim - he was placed in a web before talking to him in order to reduce the chances of his being able to complete any action. 

Spoiler

 

They got an unusual bit of dialogue with Samuel when Tony came back south on the map to find Flena and was accused (rightly) by the Flaming Fist of harbouring a deserter - the duo just ran rather than kill him and incur a reputation penalty.  

Spoiler

After visiting the FAI they travelled over to the coast to find the sirines.  By this time Tony had access to skeletons and they made pretty short work of the sirines.

Spoiler

 

Tony got a quick couple of lucky hits in on the Doomsayer, so Flena's relatively small supply of magic missiles was not an issue.

Spoiler

Brage was silenced and killed, but a reward from Bjornin still got reputation to 19 - leading to a trip north.  Some fishermen were stuck in a web

Spoiler

before the duo dived into an ankheg nest.  The ankhegs made short work of skeletons and were close to making Tony retreat before the last of them fell.  

Spoiler

After providing a helping hand to a farmer to maximise reputation they bought a few goodies at Ulgoth's Beard before looking to make progress on the main quest.

 

The Nashkel Mine offered no real challenges.  Mulahey successfully avoided being silenced, but was stuck in a stinking cloud and still failed to summon any help.  

Spoiler

The amazons were both silenced and stunk and did no better.  

Spoiler

Nimbul did manage a couple of rounds of magic missiles before Tony finally found his range.  

Spoiler

Tranzig though was another silent victim, but did manage to point out the location of the bandits as he died.

 

At the Bandit Camp Tony took the lead to melee the bandits before reversing on encountering Taugosz.  A couple of commands supported by MMs from Flena soon sorted him out though.  Sanctuary and invisibility allowed stealthy entry to the main tent and silence and skeletons did the damage there.

Spoiler

 

In the Cloakwood they decided to recover Spiders' Bane.  That nearly proved to be their own bane when Flena used a wand scorcher to kill an ettercap inside the nest and caught Tony in the fringes of it (placement of icons is not necessarily the same on our different screens, so precise judgement is difficult).  He started screaming to turn it off as he quickly ran away from an ettercap with HPs very low.

Spoiler

 

There were no problems at the Cloakwood Mine.  Silence, skeletons and stinking cloud made for an easy victory over Drasus

Spoiler

and sanctuary and invisibility allowed the duo to sneak down to Davaeorn's level.  Tony was hit again by a scorcher while killing the first battle horror,

Spoiler

but not damaged too badly this time and Davaeorn was then silenced at the first attempt and didn't survive long enough to require anything more.

Spoiler

 

In the City the first encounter started the poison quest.  Flena was silenced accidentally in the temple, but so was Jalantha which made for an easy battle.  

Spoiler

Lothander was then kind enough to hand over his boots of speed to ensure no-one is lagging behind in future.  

Spoiler

On the way to find Marek Tony twice made movement errors and was hit by Larze.  Flena wasn't confident Tony would avoid a third mistake and a paralysation charge effectively ended the combat.

Spoiler

Marek as usual managed to cast confusion before being struck down, but for a change neither character was affected so there was no need for hasty shuffling round to protect innocent bystanders.

Spoiler

 

After picking up the Helm of Balduran the last major encounter was at the Iron Throne.  Tony was badly wounded by Nortuary's magic missiles,

Spoiler

but hadn't seen that as a problem as his intention was to rest on the roof.  However, Flena didn't have invisibility left to get there safely.  Rather than go to find an inn Tony attacked anyway with skeletons and silence, but without the support of stinking cloud his skeletons didn't make much progress and Tony and Flena had to resort to running between floors to isolate and kill the various enemies - eventually managing to complete the job.

Spoiler

 

Stats:

Tony, fighter 6 / cleric 7, 69 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 238 kills

Flena, blade 8, 43 HPs, 79 kills, 0 deaths

[corey_russell]

Nice write-up guys - is defensive spin no use-able at low levels? I use that against dragons in BG 2, was just wondering.

[Grond0]

I don't think Flena has tried using it this run to date, although Gate70 did mention the possibility at one time.  Our previous experience though suggests it's not a good option in BG1.  The low HPs of bards and lack of critical protection means that they can die very quickly in melee - and it's more difficult to react quickly to emergency situations in MP due to lag, difficulty of pausing and uncertainty about the true placement of an icon on screen.

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {29} - monks party (1st and final update)

 

Today saw the monks once more fail to complete their long trek from Candlekeep - and once more it was traps at Durlag's Tower that caught them out.  They had cleared out the ghasts from the bottom of the tower and I decided to experiment to see whether their detect traps ability could spot the trap on the cache under a floor tile.  Unfortunately I hadn't remembered that not only did the container have a lightning trap, but so did one of the other floor tiles nearby

Spoiler

- the resulting lightning bolt wiped out the entire party in an instant ...

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {30} - monks party (update 1)

 

With a bit more time to spare today the monks hit the road again almost immediately after their previous run.  Thus far I've been concentrating hard and none of them have taken any damage so far (though they've twice dodged successful throwing dagger attacks by skeletons by leaving map areas).  They haven't rested yet and have just accompanied Brage to Nashkel.

Spoiler

 

The monks will still be aiming in this run to do most encounters in the game without anyone being killed, but this time I'll let them take it a bit easier by avoiding some of the traps and a few of the more difficult enemies.

 

Chimera - L2, 16 HPs, 12 kills

Spectre - L2, 17 HPs, 10 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L2, 15 HPs, 5 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L2, 13 HPs, 14 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L2, 19 HPs, 17 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L2, 14 HPs, 14 kills, 0 deaths

[corey_russell]

I don't think Flena has tried using it this run to date, although Gate70 did mention the possibility at one time.  Our previous experience though suggests it's not a good option in BG1.  The low HPs of bards and lack of critical protection means that they can die very quickly in melee - and it's more difficult to react quickly to emergency situations in MP due to lag, difficulty of pausing and uncertainty about the true placement of an icon on screen.

Is your statement true even if Flena tries to make a bit easier, with mirror image/blur plus defensive spin?

[Grond0]

I think it is for us, yes.  Our standard strategy is based around the ability to move to avoid attacks.  Sacrificing that opens up an unnecessary area of risk even if that's quite a small one - the use of the dwarven defender special ability in BGEE has similar problems.  I can see how the ability could potentially be useful against some opponents in BG2 - the dragons you mentioned for instance can be difficult to avoid in melee combat even if you're hasted and therefore standing your ground may be preferable.  In a party situation where you're not concerned with death of NPCs it could certainly also be justified. 

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {30} - monks party (update 2)

 

There was quite a bit of fancy manoeuvreing during ambushes, but the monks continued to avoid taking any damage while travelling on the back roads from Nashkel up to the FAI.  Tarnesh became the first stunning victim of the run there.

Spoiler

 

Their luck held on the way back to High Hedge, but ran out while Phantom was scouting for a suitable skeleton skull at High Hedge.  He'd gone past one empty encounter area and was returning to the other monks when some enemies turned up on that encounter spot.  Just at that moment his stealth failed and he became visible instantly.  The skeleton then made no mistake with its attack, though it shortly paid the penalty for inflicting the first damage on the party.

Spoiler

 

Melicamp died anyway, but Ardrouine, Bjornin, Firebead, Oublek, Prism, Dryad of the Cloudpeaks, Drienne, Samuel and Farmer Brun all put in a good word to maximise reputation without any more damage being taken by the party.  Everyone got up to level 4 during that and celebrated in true monkish style with a shopping spree at Ulgoth's Beard.

 

On the way back south, exploring during rain led to the second injury for a party member.

Spoiler

At that point I was thinking to stop being so careful about being damaged, but the party were hit again by kobold archers on the way down to the Carnival anyway.  After purchasing a green scroll and a couple of necklaces the monks stopped off at Firewine Bridge to get Meilum's bracers before heading for the basilisk area.  Spectre soloed the basilisks there, while everyone joined in to shoot Mutamin down before he could talk.  I wasn't worried about injuries and a couple of the monks got hit by Lindin, but it was still a comfortable victory there.  

Spoiler

Cleaning up various gnolls and bears in the rest of the area then got everyone to level 5.

 

Still with no trouble they cleared the temple area (using the magical ammunition bought at Ulgoth's Beard on the vampiric wolves) before heading down to the Nashkel Mine.  The kobold shaman failed to get a spell away, but the chieftain did poison Wraith - fortunately that poison doesn't last long, but she has the lowest HPs in the party and was still taken down to 10 - easily the most badly damaged of anyone to date.  Mulahey managed to summon some help before being stunned, but the kobolds are about to be slept here and the skeletons didn't last long.

Spoiler

 

Zordral was shot down, dodging in and out of his tent, and Nimbul and Neira stunned before the monks went to Beregost to find Tranzig.  On arrival Molkar was waiting, but his friends didn't appear and he was stunned with a single blow.  

Spoiler

Tranzig wasn't stunned, but still killed outright by a single round of stealth attacks.

 

Rather than go straight on to the Bandit Camp they went to get Zargal's sword for Phantom.  That leaves only Wraith without a magical proficient melee weapon - the monks will be off to Durlag's Tower next in search of a scimitar for her.

 

In addition to being a very clean run so far in terms of avoiding danger HPs are also the best for quite a few runs at this stage - with only Wraith being below the average expected of 36.

 

Chimera - L5, 43 HPs, 81 kills

Spectre - L5, 36 HPs, 108 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L5, 38 HPs, 64 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L5, 29 HPs, 69 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L5, 41 HPs, 70 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L5, 38 HPs, 79 kills, 0 deaths

[Blackraven]

'Bawdy' Belle Hornswoggle, Halfling Swashbuckler enters the no-reload challenge:

Spoiler

As her nickname suggests, Belle is not one to mince her words. She's an outspoken lass with a sense of humor raunchy enough to hush even Winthrop when necessary. Belle's scurrilousness is a direct consequence of her growing up as a wee little Halfling girl amidst big Humans that kept treating her like a child long after she had ceased to be one, e.g. squeezing her freckled cheeks as a way of greeting her, or patting her on the head. Besides, Belle used to spend more time with the foul-mouthed Watchers, her instructors, than with Candlekeep's monks and priests. 
Irrespective of the above, Belle does have her heart in the right place. She won't exploit others for her own gain, at least not grievously, and she's more likely to help defenseless folk in need than not.

 

After her foster father's violent death at the hands of a huge armored figure, Belle traveled the Sword Coast on her own. Early on, her big mouth got her into trouble more than once. In Beregost for instance she insulted a couple of Red Wizards of Thay who were threatening to kill a pacific, Half-Elven sorceress of some sort. Belle was hesitant to fight the Thayans, and fled into to the Travenhurst mansion. When she went outside she discovered that the Red Wizards had killed the Half-Elf.

Spoiler

Belle avenged the victim by slaying one of the wizards.

Spoiler

More problems presented themselves on the Coast Way, where thin-skinned Flaming Fist Mercenaries teamed up with Hobgoblins and chased her back to Beregost while Belle had wanted to travel south from said town.

Spoiler

At Thalantyr the Conjurer's mansion Belle reluctantly bought a Wand of Sleep from the grupmy wizard in order to deal with a pack of Gnolls that had followed her inside, given that Thalantyr himself refused to lift a finger.

Spoiler

The wizard would later disappoint Belle further by failing to rescue his old apprentice Melicamp who had accidentally turned himself into a rooster.

 

Hardships and disappointments like the aforementioned didn't stop Belle from growing into a seasoned adventurer though. There were successful campaigns against dominated Basilisks and their master, and against Ankhegs north of the Friendly Arm Inn. There were bandits and brigands who would not live to regret crossing Belle.

Spoiler

And there were several bounty hunters, since for some reason there was a price on Belle's head. She defeated one at the FAI, one in Beregost and another one in Nashkel.

 

One of the nicest things of being an adventurer were the gold and the loot. Sporting a suit of Shadow Armor, Boots of Stealth, an enchanted short sword named Sound Defense (a Song & Silence item), and Buckley's Buckler, and equipped with precious items such as the Legacy of the Masters gauntlets, the Claw of Kazgaroth, a Ring of Free Action she nicked from a Gnome in Ulgoth's Beard, a Ring of Human Influence, a Cloak of Displacement, a Returning Frost Dart, and several protective belts, Belle quite looked the part of swell Swashbuckler. Her wealth and her powerful gear did more than make the Halfling look pretty though. They also helped her defeat imposing foes such as the Battle Horrors that guarded Durlag's Tower,

Spoiler

and Bassilus the murderous cleric whom she cleverly tempted into casting a detection spell when she was hidden in shadows, clouding his aura so she had all the time in the world to stun him with darts especially enchanted for that purpose.

Spoiler

In Nashkel Belle accepted a commission for mayor Berrun Ghastkill, to investigate a series of killings and the contamination of iron ore in the Nashkel Mines.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Long and safe travels for 'Bawdy' Belle Hornswoggle! Aiiiiiiiiiii-eee!

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 94 - (3rd and final update)

Tony, dwarf fighter/cleric (Grond0) & Flena, half-elf blade (Gate70)

 

The first bit of action was getting sent back to Candlekeep.  After being unjustly accused of murder they escaped from prison via the catacombs.  Those were nearly the death of them after failing to do any buffs ahead of a confrontation with Prat's party.  Things looked bad after both were confused by Sakul

Spoiler

and Tony was winged by a lightning bolt from Prat.  Very fortunately however a further bouncing lightning bolt from Prat failed to hit either of them and both wandered out of sight while the skeletons summoned earlier finished off the job without assistance.

Spoiler

 

Back in the City they did their final shopping before going to find Slythe.  He was quickly cut down before a skeleton persuaded Krystin to kill Quenash for us.  

Spoiler

At the palace skeletons were buffed with chant, haste, bless & defensive harmony and made short work of the doppleganger - both dukes surviving.

Spoiler

 

In the maze most of the enemies were just meleed, although a PfU scroll avoided any danger from the skeleton warriors.  The Undercity party were attacked by skeletons and a combination of those and a self-inflicted cloudkill left only one enemy left to die in a fireball.

Spoiler

 

The final conflict saw Sarevok pulled out alone as usual.  Skeletons were ready when Semaj teleported out to join him and they lasted long enough to finish off the mage.  

Spoiler

Sarevok then ate a dispelling arrow and didn't last long against missile attacks and the odd spell.

Spoiler

 

Stats:

Tony, fighter 7 / cleric 7, 74 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 264 kills

Flena, blade 9, 50 HPs, 89 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {30} - monks party (3rd and final update)

 

The gods may have been kind yesterday in MP, but they made up for that in SP.  The monks had continued to perform well in this run during their trip to Durlag's Tower, having no particular problems with the ghasts or basilisks (or indeed the traps) this time.  Before leaving they stunned Riggilo and picked up the tome.

 

However, having been so careful up to this point I took the tiniest liberty and paid the price.  After clearing the Nashkel Mine area the monks attempted to rest in order to arrive at the next area in the Cloudpeaks during darkness and were interrupted by 2 winter wolves.  Initially I moved to exit the area, but with everyone nearly up to level 6 I decided to come back onto the map with a view to getting the XP and a couple of valuable pelts.  The winter wolves are easy to make switch targets in melee and with everyone at max HPs the risk of engaging them seemed very low.  They had appeared quite close and could probably have been meleed immediately had the monks just attacked.  However, the slight delay while initially leaving the map allowed both of them to get their breath weapon into action.  Both of them targeted Wraith, who had the lowest HPs (I really should have taken account of that nasty tendency of SCS ).  Both of them hit and Wraith failed to save against both attacks - becoming instantly not only the first character to go into single figure HPs, but taking just enough damage to die as well.

 

As expected the attacks from the remaining 5 quickly made mincemeat of the wolves, but too late ...

[Grimwald the Wise]

Just returned from RL Adventuring.
 
On the way back got a dose of Delhi Belly.
 
Actually it was Dakha Belly.
 
So glad that I was fairly fit and healthy whilst Trekking.
 
Will shortly be posting photos in the Photoshop thread. Please feel free to use the photos for backgrounds,.
 
Here is a re-post of my last posts since I posted it 6 weeks ago.

Faelicia the chaotic neutral female gnome joins the fray.
Str 18/74, Dex 18, con 18, Int 19, Wis 7, cha 3.
FAELICIA is a gnome who aspires to being good, but who, because of a violent temper often does the opposite. She doesn't as yet know that this is a direct result of the murderous taint in her bloodstream.
Will she overcome it?
Only time will tell, though the omens are not good as she has already killed Firebead and Fuller because they did not reward her generously enough. Phlydia would also have been killed. However she saved against blindness and Faelicia was unable to rest as she has left a lot of hostile enemies in the inn.
She is well equipped with plate armour, a composite long bow, a mage's robe and a bastard sword. She has 541 gold pieces and a reputation of 7 upon leaving Candlekeep.
Faelicia headed northwards to the FAI where blindness brought Tarnesh to extinction.
The hobgoblins were killed with the bow as were Sonner and his friends. The Ankheg near Tanya was killed with blindness plus bow.
Joia got her ring back and a book was taken to Firebead.
(That was miss-timed as when Felicia got to Nashkel, she was greeted as a "fine and honest friend").
She picked up the Ankheg armour, a ring of fire protection, and took Samuel to the FAI.
She had to run from some ambushes as a combination of worgs, ghouls and skeletons with bows looked far too dangerous.
At high hedge she killed some gnolls before proceeding southwards where she met and subsequently helped Melicamp.
Delivered the sword to Perdue and killed Karlat.
Went to buy mirrored image, invisibility and resist fear.
(I have noticed that having an intelligence of 19 gives a much better success rate for memorisation of spells )
(Of course having a low wisdom could be a problem in the future. Low charisma is not a problem in vanilla as friends spells stack).
Killed the spiders in Beregost at the cost of one green potion.
Got the belts north of Beregost using blindness plus bow, similarly killed Ogrillon to the south.
Wing, on 08 Oct 2015 - 1:47 pm, said: “hard luck with Mulahey's cronies there Wise, but it looks like you have a pretty good rebound character started!
She’s doing fine. Just delivered the boots wine etc. To the FAI then headed back to Nashkel.
Had to do a runner in transit as there was a ghast/gnoll ambush. Either by themselves is fine, but the possibility of being held by a ghast was deemed too dangerous.
Edit
She then went Ankheg hunting which is much more profitable in vanilla.
She thought that she was keeping her anger in check, but when she saw Algernon using his cloak to fleece his customers, she went into a rage and killed him with the result that her reputation dropped right down to 9 again.
She then went half-ogre hunting and on the way ran into Teyngan and his thugs. A blindness spell failed, so she ran and tried again, ran and tried again. At last she blinded him, though he hurt her badly. She edged away, healed herself somewhat and then slowly killed Teyngan with her bow.
She then returned and cast sleep. The hobgoblin slept, but the mage didn't. Blindness worked on her though, but she had cast horror. She ran around like a headless chicken but didn't run into any other enemies. At last she was able to finish off the party and go looking for the half-ogres. Having killed them she returned to Beregost and Bjornin gave her a shield and a boost in reputation.
Ussnorway, on 09 Oct 2015 - 02:25 am, said:
“Did the bugger try to talk her out of her armour perhaps?... He was in a bedroom after-all!”
That would have been no problem, as she is quite willing to be talked out of her armour since after a day of fighting she enjoys a bit of tonsil tennis as much as anyone, and not having a party with her, she has to make do with whatever is on offer in the inn where she stays. Sadly a lot of the more attractive guests are not attracted by hirsute women.
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, is her motto.
As it turned out, it was not she who died but Bassilus (after been blinded on the third attempt) Zargal and his cronies. (Mirror image was enough so that she didn't get poisoned. She then went on a vacation to the coast and visited a lighthouse which is a local tourist attraction. Bo that it isn't inhabited by worgs anymore, it might be a bit more attractive to tourists.
The next item on her itinerary was an archaeological site which she didn't think much of at all, so she went south and took Brage back to the temple in Nashkel.
Mulahey fell to blindness plus two poisoned arrows to be sure. The rest of the arrows were the cheap ones.

 

The ambush outside the mines was easily dealt with.

 

The web spell was slightly misplaced, but dire charm was effective in that Faelicia was not targeted by the spells. Wand of fire was highly effective.

 

She returned to Nashkel to retrurn the ring.

 

I now have a problem in that Faelicia moves in a very jerky fashion.

 

Installation is vanilla ToSC. Any ideas for solving the problem?

[corey_russell]

Wise said...

I now have a problem in that Faelicia moves in a very jerky fashion.

 

Installation is vanilla ToSC. Any ideas for solving the problem?

 

 

Wise: The web claims this is a video related issue. Some things they suggested was running the game at a lower resolution. Another suggestion was to lower the hardware acceleration of your video card (if your video card offers this feature).