16384 réponses à ce sujet

[Grimwald the Wise]

Diary of Winifred Wyrmslayer continued

 

I and Wyrmspawn met up with Xzar, Montaron, Khalid and Jaheira.

 

As they all wanted to go to Nashkel, we went together and on the way called in at Beregost. Montaron somehow acquired a cloak belonging to Algernon, don't ask me how. I wouldn't dare ask!

 

On arriving in Nashkel, I spoke to the mayor. I thought of investigating the mines, but am not sure that I am capable of facing demons yet. I left Khaled and Jaheira there. If they want to investigate they can, but I want to be stronger first.

 

In transit Xzar, despite using a healing potion died whilst fighting a bandit ambush. Whilst Wyrmspawn would have paid to have him raised, I am not as tolerant of others' character faults as she is. I would rather spend my gold on helping more deserving causes.

 

In Ulgoth's Beard, Montaron acquired several spells, a few potions and a ring. I realised that sooner or later his thieving habits would get us into trouble with the law, so I asked him to leave the party.

 

Whilst there a dwarf who wants to investigate Durlag's Tower asked to join the party. Whilst I wasn't wanting another fighter at the moment, his eagerness was such that I allowed him to join us.

 

Just south of Beregost we were attacked by Tristan and Isolde, two assassins. Whilst we managed to defeat them, Wyrmspawn was a casualty. I had no problem with raising her. She is a good friend who wants to do good into the bargain.

[Borco]

Sayomi, half-elven Priest of Helm, 6th entry:

I have not been able to make much of a progress in the past week or so and therefore the scope of this update will be limited to the events that took place in the Ducal Palace.

Some general once said that superiority in numbers is the crucial part of any successful military strategy. Having already used the precious violet potion in Candlekeep, this was exactly what I had in mind to achieve in order to protect Belt.

This encounter is kind enough to allow you to make thorough preparations before entering the audience room. Sayomi thus summoned her three skeletons, applied multi-layered buffs for protection (Potion of Absorption, Potion of Fire Resistance, Fire Resistance scroll, Shield amulet, Barkskin, Chant, Defensive Harmony, Greenstone Amulet), for utility (True Seeing, Oil of Speed) and finally for offense (Holy Power, DUHM, Seeking Sword).
 
I really wanted these to remain intact for at least the first couple rounds of the fight. However, I’ve soon realized that it had certainly been an overkill, as most of the divine buffs only last for 6 to 10 rounds (in case of lvl 8 caster) and thus their effects started to wear off the moment Sayomi first swung her sword. Internal note: be prepared but do not over-buff.
 


Anyway, without further ado, let's proceed with the detailed battle report:

Wand of fear, which had specifically been brought in for this particular moment, was used to little avail.

With 4 APR and THAC0 4, Sayomi engages the enemy melee, while keeping her Wand of Heavens poised to strike.

Two blast from the wand and Belt is able to finish a second doppelganger. The mage looks dangerous, however there is little to be done about it while his MGoI remains intact.

 
Our buffs are slowly degrading when suddenly there comes the dreaded Remove Magic spell. Its negating effects are massive and leave Sayomi naked and vulnerable. And what’s worse, her aura is clouded from refreshing Defensive Harmony.

There is no time to panic. First things first, Sayomi knows she needs to re-establish the mental protection provided by the Greenstone amulet as soon as possible. The good news was that Belt and Liia are doing fine.

After restoring her Shield amulet protection, Sayomi and the crew were able to finish another doppelganger as well as the shaman. In the meantime, there were several enemy summons being called forth by the last surviving foe – the doppelganger mage.

Couple of seconds later I saw Belt and one of his bodyguards fail their saves against Hold spell. Fortunately, there were no more critters around and so I've decided to push on offence with Sayomi’s own spell reserves instead of trying to free our allies with Dispel Magic.

Several unsuccessful Hold Person attempts against the mage has left me pondering on whether a doppelganger is actually treated as “person” under the applicable game rules…I still do not have an answer to that one.

While our adversary was busy dealing with the remainder of the skeleton crew, Sayomi considered that the moment was ripe to try and release the duke from his paralysis. With little success.

 
Nonetheless, a couple of Wand of Heavens' charges later, Sayomi's victory was secured.

 
Poor Liia then falls to Sarevok whom escapes; the pursuit is on.
 
Regards,
 
B.

[Jianson]

Several unsuccessful Hold Person attempts against the mage has left me pondering on whether a doppelganger is actually treated as “person” under the applicable game rules…I still do not have an answer to that one.

 

I don't actually know, but if I were to guess, I do not think it works on them. To me, those guys do not seem humanoid enough...

 

 

 

 

Martha, level 8 half-elven Totemic Druid, advancing the plot a little

Minsc was my dedicated sneak archer in Nashkel Mines. Went pretty well overall, but a few times he needed Kagain and Martha to hold a front against swarms of meleers. We took quite a bit of damage but not more than a bunch of Goodberries couldn't fix.

 

Very few things went as planned in the Mulahey fight, although one such thing was Imoen's trap setting. But when I tried to move the party into the righthand room, Mulahey must have spotted us. Took me by surprise, as he stepped up to Kagain as he was passing by. Imoen and Minsc had made it into the back room. Martha and Dynaheir were still close to the entrance, and now found themselves right next to a spawned 6-pack of kobolds, with skeletons behind them. Dynaheir immediately Magic Missiled the Commando but that turned out to be unnecessary. Imoen's traps wiped out the whole pack. Put the hurt on Mulahey as well.

 

So far so good, but now began a pretty messy sequence. Dyna and Martha were boxed in by skeletons. They weren't dangerous to them but they clogged up the passage so our spells couldn't be used against the cleric. Still, Martha quickly summoned a spirit animal (bear) as close to Mulahey as she could, then began hacking up a skeleton that was in the way. Kagain fought Mulahey, but without success and not for long either:

 

 

With nobody to interrupt his spells (he held Kagain just when I had thought of his Ring of Energy!), Mulahey looked to the right, found two good-aligned characters occupied with kobold elites, put a smile on his face and Unholy Blighted them.

 

 

OK, that hurt but both are still more alive than dead, and now my bear is in the action. Right?

 

Nope.

 

For all their power, these spirit animals are often incredibly frustrating to direct in battles. I wish SO MUCH that the 'party AI' would be off for them as well! Bear saw that skeleton and decided it was 3 micrometers closer to it than Mulahey was, so it switched to attacking the skeleton instead. Now matter how many times I shouted "NO, GO FOR THE DUDE WITH THE SHIELD!" to it, it just refused and went back to the skeleton. So annoying. At least Dynaheir could now see Mulahey and gave him her last MM.

 

He wasn't done, though. Far from it. Threw Hold Person at Minsc. I moved Imoen towards Mulahey so she'd be out of the area of effect. That worked, but the next round, this happened:

 

 

Bear has smashed the pile of bones and turned towards Mulahey. Right? Nope. See the Kobold Elite that has taken up the exact spot the skeleton was in. And then there's another (the one behind Imoen) that is soon going to take that place as well. Sigh...

 

 

See how I still try to make the bear useful? Probably should just have left it alone from the start, and it could have been done with the riff-raff by now. Live and learn, I suppose. Martha had now finally broken free and started to throw Darts of Stunning at Mulahey. She used upp all seven she had without managing to stun him. Grrr! Not sure how many that actually hit, but I saw him save against the effect at least twice. She switched to dagger throwing and mixed in her innate Larloch's MD as well. That eventually did the trick but it took a couple of rounds more. The two skeletons fighting Dynaheir only hit for 10 points in total (on a critical).

 

A very messy fight, but we were sturdy enough that it was never any real danger.

 

Loot was decent, with Girdle of Piercing as the main find, and a Wand of Fire with one charge. There was an empty Ring of Energy there too. Sold for 1 gold, and it's super expensive to buy back (with number of charges unknown to me).

 

Nimbul was owned by Stinking Cloud. It had a fun little bonus effect, group napping:

 

 

I took Branwen to Feldepost's but once again, didn't get to see the conversation with Tranzig that I wanted. He talked as soon as Imoen peeked into the room (I wanted to scout, as I wasn't sure in which room he stays in), even though she was in shadows. He made a comment about how Branwen looked better as a stone but she didn't answer. She was on the floor but not in line of sight. Was that the problem? Or can't the protagonist be downstairs? Anyway, no matter who talked to him now, he 'had nothing to say.' So no converstion at all, not even the original one. Force-attacked him with spririt summons to solve it. 

 

We had rested before Tranzig, and when we went outside, Molkar's gang showed up. First time I meet them before the amazons. Due to the formation and NPC order I was running, Imoen and Dynaheir couldn't easily flee to avoid Unholy Blight by Drakar. I could see that so I didn't even waste time trying. Extra healer for Imoen. First one used this run - I care more about her than any other NPC so it felt important that she could heal up quickly.

 

Meanwhile, Dynaheir had cast a perfectly placed Stinking Cloud. That cloud was MVP in this fight. 

 

 

See?

 

 

And right after this, Drakar was Held by Branwen. An easy win overall.

 

Then I rearranged formations and tested so Imoen and Dynaheir would be closest to the exit when we went outside. I rested about 10 times, trying to coax the second ambush. Didn't happen. Maybe they can't happen in the same area within a game?

 

OK, Larswood is up next. Let's go there. And sure enough:

 

 

YES! That was a necromancy spell. I finally stopped an Unholy Blight! That was an ice arrow from Imoen. Kagain soon had both clerics poisoned using the kobold chieftain's 'Deth Stik' arrows. One of the thieves backstabbed Branwen but we were now dominating:

 

 

Dynaheir had been doing a little running back and forth. Not sure why the thief got visible just trying (in vain) to hit her. Maybe she was doing stealth rather than being under actual invisibility? Minsc has shot her with an Arrow of Biting, so she's severely slowed by the stuttering that damage causes. She brought out a bow with fire arrows and shot two of them at Dynaheir. But Dynaheir is wearing Nimbul's boots and managed to close to melee with her dagger without getting hit. And then, lightning struck a second time:

 

 

That was the spell she originally cast at the Cleric. What determines if it will strike again or not?

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Okay, I'm gonna throw you a curve ball (in honor of the upcoming baseball season). 

Aisim pointed out to me that there WAS a Druidic-Sorcerer kit which is really what I wanted to play Merlin through as. So, I am using that kit and starting anew. 

Unfortunately, the kit is designed for SoA/ToB so you have to go into Shadowkeeper and level down to zero experience and adjust your PC to a 1st level character to use it in BG/TotSC. In so doing, you lose a couple of advantages of the Druidic-Sorcerer; 1) wearing armor like a druid and, 2) using weapons a druid can use. 

Still, I like this better than a straight sorcerer so I'm giving it a go. I like the image I found for a young Merlin so I'm sticking with it with this revised PC.

 

As an aside, Aisim has really helped me transition from Tutu to BGT (not to mention reminding me of the Druidic-Sorcerer kit).  Thanks also the GtW for his efforts.  CKT

 

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

My dear Gorion, it has been five days since we were ambushed and I lost you.  I have done as you asked and linked up with Khalid and Jaheira who are travelling with me tonight. You likely won’t be pleased to learn that Imoen is also with me. She followed us that night and caught up with me the following morning. By then there was nothing I could do. Without you neither she nor I will be welcome in Candlekeep anymore. Imoen and I, well more me than Imoen, travelled with an unsavory pair as far as the Friendly Army Inn (FAI) and on to Nashkel before I released the nastier of the two in favor of a huge warrior in plate mail with a two-handed sword. His name in Minsc. When I released the first of them the other took his leave as well. Our travels so far have taken Imoen and I and our companions from Gorion’s Rest (the name I’ve given the place you fell and where Imoen and I buried you) through the Crossroads to the FAI, back through the Crossroads, to Beregost, the Beregost Wilderness, the Nashkel Pass and to Nashkel where we are now. I’ve now survived six assassination attempts: two before I left Candlekeep, one on the steps in the Friendly Arm Inn, one in the inn we stayed in while in Beregost and again at the Nashkel Inn in addition to the attempt which took you from me.  The attempts in Candlekeep we just two thugs, while the attempt at the FAI was a mage, who managed to incapacitate me with a Sleep Spell and I was at the mercy of my less than trustworthy companions because Imoen was unconscious at the time. I think had we been in the wilderness the runt of the two would have put a knife in me but it was right as the foot of the FAI and there were guards around.  I’m pretty sure they stole some scrolls off the mages person although the Necromancer, one of the two, gave me a Scroll of Blindness. I said Imoen was unconscious because she was bitten by a wolf earlier at the Crossroads and had lost a lot of blood. I carried her to the FAI where she was healed by the Gnomish Priestess. The assassin at the inn in Beregost was a dwarf with an axe but we had little trouble with him. We’ve stayed to the roads bur even so, in addition to the wolf, we defeated two Ogrillon, three bandits, six Hobgoblins (Flesh Render Tribe) and a diseased Gibberling. 

 

Key Event: The last assassin attacked me at the Nashkel Inn. I take it she was a cleric of sorts. I’m not sure she was able to get a spell off because of timely spells, arrows and sling stones hitting her mid-incantation. It was the little runt that got the kill driving his short sword underneath he splint mail shirt. There are advantages to being 3’ tall.  

DEFEATING THE CLERIC ASSASSIN

Treasure of Note: Arms and armor: Helm of Infravision (Minsc), Splint Mail (kept), Chain Mail (sold); Scrolls: Blindness (from Tarnesh - Merlin)

 

Current Disposition: Resting at the Nashkel Inn, buying and selling at the Nashkel store

 

 Next Steps: Rescue mission for Minsc to a Gnoll Stronghold west of Nashkel

 

 Level Up: None

 

 Current Party: (Reputation: 11 - Average)

 

Merlin: Sorcerer//1; sling +1* and Quarter Staff (Diseased Gibberling)

MERLIN CHARACTER RECORD (1ST LEVEL)


MERLIN INVENTORY (1ST LEVEL)

Minsc: Fighter/Berserker//1; Plate Mail, Two-handed sword (n/a) (Spellcaster defend)

Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//1; leather armor, short bow and short sword (Karlat) (Thief defensive)

 

Khalid: Ranger/Archer//1; Studded Leather, Long Bow, Bastard Sword (Ogrillon) (Ranger ranged)

 

Jaheira: Fighter/Druid/Priestess of Silvanus/1; Studded leather, Quarter Staff, Club, (War Dog) (Druid offensive/defensive)

 

 

Mods Used: BG 5512; ToB Patch 26498; ToBEx Beta 0026; BG2 Fixpack (v)10; BGT 118; Dark Side of the Sword Coast (v)2.17; Northern Tales of the Sword Coast (v)170; Northern Tales of the Sword Coast (v)171; Secret of Bonehill (v)2.75; Drizzt Saga (v)3; Lure of Sirine’s Call (v)13; Thalantyr Item Upgrade; BG1 NPC Project (v)22; Indira NPC (v)10.4; Gavin NPC (v)9; BG1 UB (v)13.1;  BGSpawn (v)1.12; The White Queen (v)4.1; Amber NPC (v)4; Isra NPC (v)2.1; Fade NPC (v)4.0; Valen NPC (v)45; Auren Aseph (v)9; Sarah NPC (v)3.1; Haldimir NPC (v)2; Tyris Flare (v)7; Hotfix for Gavin BG2 (v) 20; Gavin NPC BG2 (v)20; de’Arnise Romance  (v)4; IEP Extended Banter (v)4.2; Viconia Friendship SoA & ToB (v)3.3; Mazzy’s Friendship SoA & ToB (v)2.2; Yoshimo Friendship SoA & ToB (v)3.1; Imoen Friendship SoA & ToB (v)2.2; BG2 UB (v)26; Chosen of Mystra BGII Subrace; SCS (v)30 (minus tactical challenges); P&P Celestials (v)5; NPC Flirt Pack (v)1.03; Romantic Encounters (v)9; Cross Banter Mod Pack for BG2II (v)15; NPC Kit Pack (v)4; Song & Silence Mod for Bards & Thieves (v)6; Divine Remix (Beta)(v)8; Paladins of Faerun Kit Pack (v)4; Sword & Fist (v)7; Rogue Rebalancing (v)4.80; BGT Tweaks (v)11; BG2 Tweak Pack (v)16; Hard Times for BGTv2.4;

 

Item Randomizer (v)6.8; Mega Mod Kits (v)1.01L; Level 1 NPCs (v)1.9; BP BGT Maps (v)10.2.1

 

 

Blue Font: New information;

 

Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)

 

(Best kill)(Current AI)

 

Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)

[Grond0]

Best of luck with Merlin CKT - nice stats by the way!!

[Borco]

For all their power, these spirit animals are often incredibly frustrating to direct in battles. I wish SO MUCH that the 'party AI' would be off for them as well! Bear saw that skeleton and decided it was 3 micrometers closer to it than Mulahey was, so it switched to attacking the skeleton instead. Now matter how many times I shouted "NO, GO FOR THE DUDE WITH THE SHIELD!" to it, it just refused and went back to the skeleton. So annoying. At least Dynaheir could now see Mulahey and gave him her last MM.

Bummer! I totally understand the frustration here. The pain is even greater with the dryad, when you really need her to pull off that Mass Cure but she decides to save the day with Confusion instead .

Anyway, good work under such pressure and thanks for a very enjoyable write-up. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Martha and her crew in the Bandit Camp.

Regards,

B.

[Dyara]

I don't actually know, but if I were to guess, I do not think it works on them. To me, those guys do not seem humanoid enough...

 

Hold person works on 'humanoids' only and Doppelgangers are (usually) flagged as 'monsters'.

[Jianson]

Bummer! I totally understand the frustration here. The pain is even greater with the dryad, when you really need her to pull off that Mass Cure but she decides to save the day with Confusion instead .

Anyway, good work under such pressure and thanks for a very enjoyable write-up. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Martha and her crew in the Bandit Camp.

Regards,

B.

 

Thanks! 

I just realized that the main tent in the camp is a party required area, right? That's a problem if I want to sneak in with Branwen. But, considering how I managed to handle those assassins, I should probably just take them on in a fight outside, with Stinking Cloud in the direction they would pour in from. Could add some skellies from Branwen, and she could give us Remove Fear as well, making Venkt much less dangerous.

 

I have less trouble with the Nymph - I've learned how she behaves and adapted to that. I usually summon her out of sight of enemies and have her cast Barkskin on herself first. Confusion is usually cast at enemies from off-screen (very useful against mages, as the level is high enough to overcome Minor Globe, and it's an AoE spell so invisibility and such won't stop it). If left alone and in sight of monsters, she then goes Hold Monster, Mental Domination, Hold Person, Hold Person, move in, Cause Serious Wounds, then melee. I'm usually fine with that. She generally does not object when I order her to cast any of her other spells (like Call Lightning), as long as I wait until she has just cast a spell. I use the Mass Cure only when there are no enemies in sight (i.e. before or after the fight).

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 1)

 

In my 43rd attempt I wasn't careful enough and took a casualty while only at level 2 (should have tried harder after getting a good set of HP rolls at the first level up).

 

Starting again I was initially a bit more cautious, though regretted the previous run after getting a horrible set of HP rolls at level 2.  The monks got to level 3 by returning Brage to Nashkel and didn't do much better then (total HPs 18 below average at this stage).  Normally I avoid the main road until quite high level in order to prevent a bandit ambush spawning, but that usually requires travelling to individual adjacent areas as more distant travel is typically routed via the roads even when that takes longer in travel time.  Probably because of the low HPs I failed to take the time to do that and the first opportunity they had the bandits spawned - which was bad news for Spirit.

Spoiler

 

Once more unto the breach dear friends, concentrating hard this time.  No one took any damage as they got up to level 2 (poor HPs, though not as disastrous as last time).  Still undamaged they worked their way over to find Brage and escort him to Nashkel where the monks had a well-deserved first rest.  This time they took the safe route back up to Beregost and then moved on to the basilisk area.  Spectre meleed the basilisks there, darting in and out to avoid any retaliation.  They soon got to level 3 and a welcome good set of rolls got them back to average as a group.  Mutamin was shot down without getting close enough to talk and killing his pets got everyone to level 4 - slipping a few points back below average again.

Spoiler

 

To protect their unblemished record they left Kirian's party alone and set about improving reputation.  Hulrik and Prism helped out before they did one area transition too many and encountered an ogre mage.  

Spoiler

Typically I use ranged weapons on those, but to try and keep their undamaged status I sent the monks in to try and stun the ogre mage before it could follow a sleep up with a direct damage spell - and this time Lady Luck was smiling.  

Spoiler

With lots more stunning blows raining in on it the ogre mage had little chance of recovering (and didn't do so).  That opened up access to the Dryad of the Cloudpeaks & Drienne and Oublek, Firebead and Ardrouine soon followed with their own words of praise.  After a bit of searching the monks found a lone skeleton to try and help Melicamp and he was successfully transformed.

Spoiler

 

That brought reputation up to 18 and I was thinking of travelling up to the FAI on the way to Ulgoth's Beard.  There were some enemies on the spawning point just south-east of Thalantyr's house, so they went round to the west to find a clear route to the edge of the map.  That should have been safe as I had carefully left a monk there to prevent any skeletons appearing.  Unfortunately, however, I used attack all on the leading flind chaser and when he died I think the monk must have moved forward just out of sight range of the spawning point.  The first I knew of that was when a hail of flying daggers inflicted the party's first damage.

Spoiler

 

That was very annoying and could easily have precipitated other mistakes - particularly as I was getting a bit tired anyway after having to concentrate hard during lots of tricky micro-management (especially during the many travel ambushes).  I therefore ended the session as soon as they had run away from the skeletons.

 

Chimera - L4, 26 HPs, 15 kills

Spectre - L4, 32 HPs, 26 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L4, 34 HPs, 18 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L4, 31 HPs, 14 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L4, 28 HPs, 18 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L4, 23 HPs, 14 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 2)

 

The monks made their way to the FAI via Larswood and Peldvale and helped out Joia.  Sneaking into the ankheg nest to retrieve a body pushed reputation up to 20 and they once more managed an even-handed treatment of Tenya and her victims on the way to Ulgoth's Beard.  

Spoiler

They couldn't afford the invisibility ring, but bought all the other goodies.

 

Still travelling cautiously they made their way down to Durlag's Tower where their new Wand of the Heavens made short work of some battle horrors.  A greater doppleganger did manage to inflict the party's second lot of damage before being shot down to get everyone to level 5 - another good set of rolls to bring them back just above average overall.  Not worrying about the odd bit of damage now, they cleared the rest of the exterior, but I chose not to explore inside yet.  Instead the monks went to start ticking areas off as fully explored.  That was done with the Carnival, before working through the Cloud Peaks.  That was mainly done without problems, though Spook was poisoned by a hobgoblin elite that arrived after they activated Neville and the poison kept ticking for a long time - prompting them to switch to melee to finish the fight quickly so they could run away if necessary (the poison stopped in time anyway).

Spoiler

 

While doing the remaining southern areas they returned to the FAI to drop off Samuel and then pillaged Gullykin on the way back south - successfully sneaking up on and killing Jenkal there before he could disappear, which I always take as a good omen.

Spoiler

 

The last of the southern areas to be visited was the Valley of the Tombs, where they used magic weapons for the first time to kill the Revenant.  

Spoiler

The monks cleared the rest of the area except Narcillicus, but I didn't fancy his mustard jellies with only 3 weapons that could hit them.  Therefore the monks went back to the basilisk area to finish off there.  Sundry gnolls and bears got everyone to level 6 before they recruited Korax to help them with the main task.  

Spoiler

 

With the extra two magic long swords they returned to Narcillicus and duly pulled the mustard jellies away separately.  The first of those just got a single hit in, but the second managed two - both of them causing poison.  However, the jelly was killed with a little time to spare to run off the nearby edge of the map.  

Spoiler

After resting at the carnival to heal up they returned to sort out the mage.

Spoiler

 

Chimera - L6, 38 HPs, 89 kills

Spectre - L6, 41 HPs, 117 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L6, 51 HPs, 106 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L6, 41 HPs, 103 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L6, 44 HPs, 123 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L6, 36 HPs, 80 kills, 0 deaths

Unusually, Spectre is not in the kills lead as a result of not having yet been to Firewine to get Meilum's bracers (Spook is benefiting from the Bracers of Archery).

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 3)

 

The monks continued their programme of clearing areas - working on the map between Nashkel and Beregost.  For a change I saved wand charges against the Doomsayer and tried attacking with magic weapons.  The general attacks didn't quite get the job done before everyone was severely injured, so Spectre was reduced to using stealth to get the final hit. 

Spoiler

 

Moving north a bit Bassilus failed to get a spell off.  

Spoiler

The remaining areas south of Beregost were cleared without any alarms with the exception of Firewine Bridge (where Kahrk and the ruins were left for now, but they did finally get around to acquiring Meilum's Spectre's bracers), Ulcaster and Durlag's Tower. 

Spoiler

 

The final areas done in this session were the coastal areas including sirines.  The first set of those managed a single hit that confused Spectre, but that was no problem.  Sil's lot didn't even manage one hit before the monks shot up the golems - with Spectre acting as an invisible blocker.

Spoiler

 

The sirines up the coast were made harder when I realised after stealthing right up to them the monks hadn't rested and had no stunning blows left.  That resulted in 2 characters being charmed, but fortunately none were confused so there was no problem after the sirines were all killed.

Spoiler

 

Earlier in that area the monks had killed Mad Arcand, which they haven't done in previous runs - I wasn't totally sure there would be no reputation loss, but got away with it.  

Spoiler

To avoid more mistakes I saved the session there .

 

Chimera - L6, 38 HPs, 162 kills

Spectre - L6, 41 HPs, 193 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L6, 51 HPs, 151 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L6, 41 HPs, 166 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L6, 44 HPs, 172 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L6, 36 HPs, 140 kills, 0 deaths

[Borco]

Jabbar, human Assassin:
 
After being idle for a while, I've reconsidered continuing with Sayomi and put her on hold just before entering the Thieves' Maze. Feeling somewhat "disconnected" with the character, I decided not to rush into the sequel and start a new game instead.

Therefore, I present to you Jabbar, a true neutral human Assassin loosely inspired by the character of Kalam Mekhar featured in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.
 
Far from being a mindless killer, Jabbar is someone who realizes the importance of knowing when not to draw blades. At the same time, his stats are meant to represent the fact that he is a "physical" sort, relying mostly on his raw strength and quickness rather than subterfuge and trickery. However, that does not necessarily mean that Jabbar will avoid range combat, poisoned weapons or any other means of survival. After all, a good assassin needs to be a master improviser to begin with.



Jabbar carries a personal headgear item - "Night Shawl", which has been implemented by using Aasim's mod generously provided here.


 
Item description and abilities:

Spoiler

 
His starting proficiencies are divided between daggers (1) and short bows (1), whereas the initial skill points were invested into Set Traps.

As a general approach for this run, I'll try to avoid too much metagaming, play in a more relaxed pace and maybe visit some overlooked areas. Let's see how that goes.

Regards,

B.

[Borco]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 3)

Things are looking good there Grond0. The thoroughness of your clean-up of the Sword Coast is rather impressive. Looking forward to more exploits of the notorious 6.

Regards,

B.

[Borco]

Jabbar, human Assassin, 1st entry:

Jabbar starts off by completing all the minor tasks in Candlekeep (except for keeping the antidote potion intended for Dreppin), raiding some locked containers for Potion of Clarity and Potion of Healing and earning his first scalp.



After being ambushed, he decides not to take Imoen on board so as to protect her from any dangers indicated by the last night's events. He moves on to the east on his own. Therein, he collects the Ring of Protection +1 and uses his poisoned arrows to slay an ogre.



Following the only guidance he had, Jabbar continues north to the Friendly Arm Inn to meet Khalid and Jaheira. Staying alert, he avoids the peculiar looking mage at the doorway under the cover of darkness and decides to pay for a room and rest. Come the morning, Jabbar seeks out the supposed-to-be friends of Gorion but after accepting their condolences he turns down the offer to accompany him to Nashkel. Instead he agrees to run a job for Joia and returning her ring brings him to level 2 (8 HP, +15 Hide in Shadows).

In order to shake off any potential pursues, Jabbar refuses to take the direct route south and, despite the news of an increased bandit activity, diverts his trail through Peldvale instead. Once in the woods, he became a witness to a rigid law enforcement, whereby a renegade drow has been charged, trialed and outright convicted by a Flaming Fist hireling. Not minding the consequences, Jabbar intervenes on the drow's behalf and together they are able to overcome the aggressor.



The drow's name is Viconia and despite the situation she seems capable enough. Being a priest and a magic user, she might just be the right person for Jabbar to join forces with. They strike an agreement and continue together.

The reports were true and soon the two of them encounter the first bandits. To Jabbar's surprise, they are rather well equipped for regular brigands and may actually be dangerous. He decides to prepare a trap and ambush them, however, the plan proves to be far from flawless.



The trap is triggered...



...but that is not enough and poor Viconia is eventually overwhelmed and falls.



Jabbar manages to finish the second bandit with a poisoned knife. He searches their corpses, noting the Black Talon marks on their uniforms, loots some valuable ammo (Arrows +1, Arrows of Ice) and then collects Viconia's limp body. The is no time - if this one is to live then he needs to reach the Temple of Lathander in Beregost quickly, not minding the risk of ambushes on the road...



After reaching the temple and paying the fee, Jabbar considers the events of the day and knows that the drow has a debt to repay.

Regards,

B.

[Grond0]

The thoroughness of your clean-up of the Sword Coast is rather impressive. Looking forward to more exploits of the notorious 6.

Thanks Borco - despite the mistakes it's been a decent attempt so far, but they've still got a long way to go ...

 

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 4)

 

Returning to Durlag's Tower the monks this time handled the traps properly while clearing the bottom 3 floors of the tower along with the roof.  Spectre successfully managed to stun both the last 2 greater basilisks - enabling him to use only 1 mirroring potion between them.  

Spoiler

The +2 scimitar on the roof means everyone now has a magic melee weapon they are proficient with.  After lots of resting to heal up they went up a further floor and attacked Riggilo.  He saved against the intial round of stunning blows and got one invisible backstab in, but missed with a second (and last).  

Spoiler

The ghost and Kirinhale were left for now, though are on the list for the future.

 

Moving on to Larswood stealthy attacks claimed a pair of druids,

Spoiler

with the only moment of concern a Black Talon critical that briefly exposed Spirit to the chance of an attack with low HPs.  

Spoiler

In Peldvale things were again fairly smooth.  A wraith spider did manage to web Phantom, but was killed by a critical before it could follow up and poison him.  

Spoiler

By the end of that area 3 of the monks had the XP necessary for level 7, but they had now completed everything they intended to do before the main quest.  I therefore decided to be slightly cheesy and go back to Durlag's where attempted rests produced a few ghouls to provide the final bit of XP.  

Spoiler

Generally disappointing rolls there, though Phantom continues to be the exception and with 61 HPs is clearly the man to step on traps! At this stage they were on to day 290 of their journeys - that's the result of relying only on resting to heal up, but they now have the ability to lay-on hands, which will greatly reduce the need for that.

 

At this level the Nashkel Mine should be easy - and was.  They rested once to heal trap damage before taking on the kobold shaman.  He sent Wraith running, but with no traps or enemies left in the mine that was no problem.  Mulahey then failed even to manage a cry for help.

Spoiler

 

Back in Nashkel they used a strength potion to be able to return Joseph's ring - also looting the manor house and some potions from the Carnival while they were at it.  A couple of whacks then saw Nimbul explode.  Moving on to Beregost stealth attacks on Tranzig inflicted enough damage for him to immediately try and surrender - in vain.

 

Before going to the Bandit Camp the monks returned to Ulgoth's Beard to buy the invisibility ring - the last item for sale of interest to them prior to Baldur's Gate.  This time there were no glitches with getting Teven to take them to the Bandit Camp and they successfully englobed Tazok to get his bracers.  

Spoiler

I was in no mood to let the monks fail at this point, so committed significant resources to the assault on the Bandit Camp:

- the shield amulet was used for the first time to protect everyone.

- after sneak attacks on several Black Talons to open hostilities they also used the Wand of Sleep and Necklace of Missiles for the first time to discourage the chasing pack, with a potion of explosions thrown in for good measure.

Spoiler

- Venkt got an acid arrow away before being incinerated, leaving the remainder of the battle as pretty standard run and shoot vs soldiers / turn & melee vs archers tactics.

Spoiler

After looting the camp (using a fire giant strength potion) the monks sold their surplus gear and are ready for an assault on the Cloakwood next time.

 

Chimera - L7, 41 HPs, 201 kills

Spectre - L7, 45 HPs, 313 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L7, 61 HPs, 208 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L7, 50 HPs, 207 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L7, 49 HPs, 226 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L7, 41 HPs, 204 kills, 0 deaths

[Grimwald the Wise]

Thanks! 

I just realized that the main tent in the camp is a party required area, right? That's a problem if I want to sneak in with Branwen. But, considering how I managed to handle those assassins, I should probably just take them on in a fight outside, with Stinking Cloud in the direction they would pour in from. Could add some skellies from Branwen, and she could give us Remove Fear as well, making Venkt much less dangerous.

 

I have less trouble with the Nymph - I've learned how she behaves and adapted to that. I usually summon her out of sight of enemies and have her cast Barkskin on herself first. Confusion is usually cast at enemies from off-screen (very useful against mages, as the level is high enough to overcome Minor Globe, and it's an AoE spell so invisibility and such won't stop it). If left alone and in sight of monsters, she then goes Hold Monster, Mental Domination, Hold Person, Hold Person, move in, Cause Serious Wounds, then melee. I'm usually fine with that. She generally does not object when I order her to cast any of her other spells (like Call Lightning), as long as I wait until she has just cast a spell. I use the Mass Cure only when there are no enemies in sight (i.e. before or after the fight).

 

You can send a single party member into the main tent. If you sent that member in invisible with a method of becoming invisible again after raiding the chest, you can complete the bandit camp without fighting. Of course if you do so, you don't get the excellent bow belonging to Hakt and you don't get the experience for killing them, but from a role-playing perspective that can be an excellent way of progressing.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Having Gavin in my party, it is vital to complete the Lady Valeria quest. However she hasn't spawned.

 

Probably a mod conflict. Looks like I will have to CLUA her in.

 

I don't like doing things like that as it breaks the wall.

[Aasim]

with 61 HPs is clearly the man to step on traps!

[Jianson]

You can send a single party member into the main tent.

 

Not in my setup. I was told to 'gather my party' when Imoen tried to enter to scout it out.

 

 

 

Martha, Level 8 half-elven Totemic Druid, taking on the Bandit Camp with Imoen, Kagain, Minsc, Dynaheir and Branwen

 

Before the Bandit Camp, we took on Larswood and Peldvale. I suffered a serious setback against the druids. Martha was equipped with boots and helm that made her 70% lightning resistant. Of, course, it's even better if I can prevent them from casting their spells. Didn't manage that, and apparently also failed in keeping little sister out of Osmadi's sight:

 

 

Looks mighty close to me, that she would have been out of sight. Bummer. Her CON is now 15, which of course raises the risk that she'll die again. 

 

Everything else on these maps went well. Temporarily kicked out Branwen, saved Viconia, sent her to an inn. Annoyingly, sending her away did not bring back the 2 reputation points we lost inviting her to our party. Must be one of the mods.

 

Killed Teven in Larswood, got recruited by Raiken in Peldvale, kept the distance to Tazok and killed him from range. Imoen received his awesome gauntlets, for better archery and backstabbing. 

 

I looted all the smaller bandit tents (Imoen hid from the two talkative characters in the tents before they could talk to her) and the outdoor camp parts. Dynaheir has had one Knock spell memorized for quite some time now. Needed that one for a chest, then for another after a rest in the gnoll cave.

 

After failing to send in one character in the main tent, I set up the fighting ground in a bottleneck close to Ardenor Crush:

 

 

In hindsight, my chosen battle ground can be described as 'Decent, but could have been better'. Almost everything that came from the bottleneck direction was efficiently stopped by summons and a double Stinking Cloud (recast as a single one later). But the "big shot" guys came in from the east instead. Kagain took the brunt of that, meleed Raemon while being shot at by half a dozen archers (including Hakt and 2-3 BTE). No wonder he needed several extra healing potions...

 

 We interrupted Venkt's first spell attempt. He's not advanced enough to know Stoneskin or PfNM, so he's vulnerable to arrows. Martha ended his life:

 

 

Like I said, Kagain had a rough time:

 

 

At the edge to the right, you can see Hakt still burning. That was a well-placed Fireball from Dynaheir.

Taugosz eventually saved enough to make it past the stinking cloud. I recognized one of the few situations where a Wand of Lightning shot would be safe:

 

 

He went after Dynaheir (and saved vs. Hold Person), so she ran away and back with him in tow. Kagain shot arrows at him but hit only occasionally. My other two archers were busy fighting bandits more to the left. Taugosz was at Near Death, and this is what did him in:

 

 

Just when I thought there were just a few stragglers left, they seemed to have found some reinforcements:

 

 

I was in control now, though, with all of us at good health, so it ended well. Lovely loot all over, topped by Boots of Speed. Also picked up a few extra healers.

 

And for those of you who play with NPC Project and do not plan to play with a bard, here is the best place to sell the harp you can receive from the three Lake Poets in Peldvale:

 

 

I do intend to play with a bard, so I kept it.

 

We returned to base camp (the fletcher's tent in the Carnival) to sort our stuff and for Minsc and Dynaheir to drop off everything significant. BTW, I've really enjoyed this as a base camp. There are three shelves where you can store stuff, you can restock ammunition from the merchant and it's safe to rest here (I can Rest Anywhere). Doing so gave Martha her third Bhaal power (Horror).

 

My rep was as low as 6, so I was wary that saying goodbye to Minsc and Dynaheir would have them leave in a huff and be gone forever. So I went to the Temple of Helm and donated it up to 7. But, that didn't help.

Looks like I had the breakpoint wrong, so now I can't have them back if I need to. And I can't have that interesting Dyna-Winski encounter either, if I make it that far. So no Cacofiend in the final battle. (I've tried that once - it couldn't actually do much against all those powerful opponents.)

 

Martha was still a few thousand XP away from level 9 (and Pixie Dust) so before going to Cloakwood, I decided to have a first taste of Durlag's Tower. I have a lot to tell about how that went. I'll take that in the next report so they do not get too long. Plus, I want to play more. NOW!

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (update 5)

 

Before going to the Cloakwood I decided to finish off the ankheg area.  As the one with the most HPs Phantom got to play target there, though he used 2 green acid protection scrolls to provide extra security.  Normally the others would get ready to attack before Phantom showed himself (by picking something up) far enough from the ankheg for it to choose a missile weapon.  Everyone then hitting in melee gave it little chance of even getting a single attack in.  

Spoiler

Outside the nest groups of ankhegs were drawn away individually for easy disposal.  Phantom was hit three times and criticals are painful even with acid protection .  However, lay on hands and Bhaal CLW kept HPs up at a safe value of 31 to allow him to remain the target while finishing clearing the area.

 

In the first Cloakwood area stealth meant Seniyad failed to find someone to talk to and was stunned in the initial attack (done out of sight of his supporters to ensure they didn't interfere).

Spoiler

 

In the second area a couple of phase spiders greeted their arrival, but were quickly put down.  The ring of invisibility was then used for the first time to trigger all the web traps.  The area was then properly explored before the monks briefly showed themselves at Centeol's door.  They defeated the enemies following them out cleanly - surprisingly there was no-one poisoned on that map (despite killing most of the spiders in melee).

Spoiler

 

In the third area Peter provided a timely reminder of the monk's continuing fragility when a critical took Spook down to single figure HPs.  

Spoiler

His cave is safe to rest in though so the party was soon ready to go again.  After stunning the other druids they took on Amarande, who has been probably their greatest enemy in these runs.  This time he was successfully pulled outside, where they had room to manoeuvre and he failed to cast another spell after this attempted chaos was interrupted - he had previously poisoned Spectre, prompting a first use of Chimera's new Bhaal ability.

Spoiler

 

In the fourth area the hamadryad's skins only lasted long enough for it cast a single entangle.  They tried using invisible blockers on the wyvern cave stairs, but even with two of them they were wide enough to make that difficult and several of the monks needed to use their lay-on hands.

Spoiler

 

In the mine area they cleared the surrounding map before resting up.  They pulled the fast-moving Drasus away from his friends and, though Genthore followed a bit behind, the monks were able to kill Drasus without too much fuss.  

Spoiler

Before they could pick on Genthore though Rezdan arrived and they beat a quick retreat.  That wasn't an easy retreat as they, for the first time, ran into a full spider and wyvern ambush.  Fortunately no-one was webbed, but Spook had to get on his bike and leave the wyverns to the others after he once more took a vicious critical.

Spoiler

 

They took the opportunity to continue their journey to civilisation to sell surplus goods before returning through another gauntlet of ambushes.  Finally back at the mine  they could only see Rezdan and Genthore, but launched a stealth attack anyway.  Both of those were stunned before taking any action and they had killed them and scattered before Kysus became visible.  To deal with him Spectre and Wraith loaded up with darts of stunning for the first time and they quickly took effect.

Spoiler

 

Before entering the mine the monks took another side trip to Firewine - to kill Bentan and Poe.  Apart from their equipment the point of that is to reduce reputation in order to get Bhaal horror for Chimera's next upgrade.  They're now back at the mine entrance: they suffered a casualty early on there in a recent run, so will be trying to be extra careful next time .

 

Chimera - L7, 41 HPs, 238 kills

Spectre - L7, 45 HPs, 368 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L7, 61 HPs, 237 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L7, 50 HPs, 272 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L7, 49 HPs, 262 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L7, 41 HPs, 230 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 96 - (update 2)

Cara, elf enchanter (Grond0) & Helberg, dwarven defender (Gate70)

 

Today's session started with a visit to find Greywolf.  Cara was caught out there when Greywolf ignored the dwarf trying to talk to him and headed straight to Cara - managing one hit on her before she got her arse in gear and ran round to shelter behind Helberg.

Spoiler

 

Samuel and Joia provided reputation upgrades before Helberg led the way to the lighthouse area.  Using a potion of clarity there met he could mix it in melee with the sirines - which wasn't really a fair contest.  

Spoiler

He also meleed the golems: Cara tried to help at one point, but got hit for her pains when the dagger she was using meant she got closer to the golem than Helberg.

Spoiler

 

Ardrouine and Charleston Nib took reputation to 20 and Helberg also enjoyed a nice fight with the Doomsayer after the latter.  He was less successful in tackling Laryssa before talking to Brage - she first confused and then held the dwarf, but he had moved out of sight range and she did not follow to take advantage.

 

Next was the Nashkel mines, which offered little obstacle for a rampaging dwarf.  Mulahey might have had a chance, but was handicapped by a skull trap dropped on his head by Cara - Helberg was a victim of rigid thinking at the time, so not in a position to object.  

Spoiler

Cara enjoyed that so much that she did it twice more while the amazons were focused on Helberg.

Spoiler

 

Nimbul and Tranzig died with both a whimper and a bang before the duo moved on to the Bandit Camp.  Taugosz and the bandits had a good go at Helberg there - he was bemoaning the fact that Ulgoth's Beard had not yet been visited to supply him with a cloak to improve his missile defences - but he survived with the help of taking a couple of healing potions.  

Spoiler

Inside the tent Cara's horror spell affected all but Venkt, making the fight pretty easy.

Spoiler

 

Before going to the Cloakwood Ulgoth's Beard was visited.  On the way there the ankheg nest was emptied with a few sleeps helping out Helberg's hammer.  There was no real action in the Cloakwood on the way to the mine.  The party guarding that were treated to a couple of skull traps from out of sight, which softened up the mages nicely for a quick finish.  That wasn't quite as neat as the finish in the mine where Davaeorn failed to survive a malison / emotion combination.  

Spoiler

Note that emotion is a enchantment spell, so enemies defending against that from Cara have a penalty of 2 to their saving throw (as that is her specialist spell school).

 

In the city the duo immediately started the poison quest, although they have only just reached the tavern where Marek awaits them.  In the meantime they have:

- picked up the Helm of Balduran.

- worked their way up Ramazith's Tower.

- nearly ended the run when Cara did not realise there would be a delay before Sunin's friends appeared.  That resulted in them chasing her out of the house and almost shooting her down before she glugged a potion of invisibility.

Spoiler

- attempted to kill Lothander before he could get away, but he somehow found a way past their wall of summons (possibly due to the different positioning of icons on different computers in multi-player).  Gate70 had suggested using grease instead of summons to stick him in place and that might have worked better.

- taken on Larze.  He would have been a potentially dangerous opponent for Helberg (who could not have run away while using defensive stance), but failed to resist a first use of Cara's wand of paralysation.

 

Stats:

Cara, enchanter 8, 28 HPs (reduced by 8 due to using the Claw), 70 kills

Helberg, dwarven defender 7, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 257 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {45} - monks party (6th and final update)

 

This time in the mine I was more careful about positioning against Hareishan's guards and the mage himself was quickly stunned when he followed the monks upstairs.  Ordinary stunning blows with a bit of stealth were also all that was needed against Natasha and the ogre mage as the monks worked their way down to Davaeorn's level. Phantom triggered the traps there before resting to get everyone to full health.

 

A necklace fireball activated Davaeorn and the monks disappeared back upstairs. They used stealth to go back down a few times to persuade the large numbers of guards arriving to go down to try and squeeze in the room with Davaeorn. The Necklace had 5 fireballs left and 4 of those were enough to remove the crush and leave just Davaeorn.  They then persuaded him to chase them to the exit point where they could safely exchange fire with him. 

 

Spectre used a cloud giant strength potion to loot most of Davaeorn's equipment, along with the containers on the upper floors and the one near the stables with the magic shielding potion.  They dodged the slave outside to save the reputation increase up for potential use later and only had a single ambush on the way to Baldurs Gate.

 

In the City they visited the temple to pay for a bit of reputation before topping that up with rewards from Brielbara, Ghorak, Quinn (the ankheg there getting a critical, but Phantom's high HPs shrugging it off) and Scar.  A highlight while doing that included a first use of Bhaal horror doing a good job to make Desreta run.  With reputation back at 20 they bought a Wand of the Heavens each.

 

With their new firepower they decided to sort out the Red Wizard area, but unfortunately didn't take advantage of that firepower.  There is a large group of spiders there that can be pretty dangerous if given a chance.  It would have been easy to just fireball them, but in a poor early-morning decision I decided the monks should rely on their natural abilities after using invisibility to clear all the surrounding web traps.  That tactic came unstuck straight away when 3 of them were webbed right at the start of the fight by giant and wraith spiders - Chimera had launched a horror just before being held, but that only sent one spider away.  With the attackers scripted to favour finishing off webbed characters it would no longer have been possible to use charged items to save all of them and the 3 active monks tried to use stunning blows to provide a respite.  However, none of them managed to inflict a single stun.  Chimera was poisoned and Phantom tried to stave that off by using a green scroll on him - but the attacking ettercap didn't need to make use of poison to finish him off.

Spoiler

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

 

 My dear Gorion, the mission to rescue Minsc, the Berserkers’, ‘witch’ as he calls her, went off with only one hitch. Jaheira is a warrior at heart and charges into battle like she’s wearing plate armor – but she isn’t. She fell to a Gnolls Slashers’ halberd while we were in the Gnoll Stronghold and we had to get her back to Nashkel for healing. But, we’d travelled too far to go back and time was of the essence so we completed our foray first. Dynahier is an Invoker/Evoker¹ which is a pretty strong skillset. Minsc took some hard hits from the halberds used by the Gnolls we encountered and I’m a little worried that the group is soft up front.

 

To get to the stronghold we crossed Wilderness Lake where we encountered a single Hobgoblin, I think he was from the Leg Breaker Tribe. Not sure what he was doing out there alone. From there we had to go east to the Xvart Village, to the South Sword Coast and south through Ogre’s Reach before reaching the fortress. We were mostly unmolested although Khalid took an arrow from a Hobgoblin as we were passing though Ogre’s Reach. In fact, had we wanted to battle there we were pursued by an Ogre, one or two Ogrillons and a three or four Hobgoblins so there was plenty to be had. We managed to evade them and get Khalid to safety. Getting to Dynahier was our priority so stopping to battle would just slow us down.

 

Key Event:  I expected more from the Gnoll Stronghold but there were very few Gnolls actually there so with the exception of Jaheira’s ugly gash, the stronghold yielded little resistance. We defeated two Ogrillons on a rickety bridge leading to the stronghold and then a couple of Gnolls with halberds guarding the stairs. We killed a Gnoll Chieftain, a Gnoll Veteran and four other Gnolls, all with halberds², and three wild dogs and we were out of there with Dynahier. There’s more to explore there but I time is of the essence in Nashkel too. I’ll plan to double back sometime and see what else is there.

 

Treasure of Note: Arms and armor: Bracers of Defense AC8 (Dynahier); Scrolls:

 

Current Disposition: Resting at the Nashkel Inn, buying and selling at the Nashkel store 

 

MINSC, KHALID & IMOEN CHATTING IN THE HALL

 

Next Steps: Investigate the Nashkel Mines

 
Level Up: None

 

Current Party: (Reputation: 11 - Average)

Merlin: Sorcerer//1; sling +1* and Quarter Staff* (Diseased Gibberling)

 

NPC Closeup

Minsc: Fighter/Berserker//1; Plate Mail, two-handed sword** (Two-Handed Weapon Style**) (Hairtooth (Spellcaster defend)

MINSC CHARACTER RECORD (1ST LEVEL)


MINSC INVENTORY (1ST LEVEL)

Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//1; leather armor, short bow* and short sword* (Karlat) (Thief defensive)

Khalid: Ranger/Archer//1; Studded Leather, Long Bow*** and Bastard Sword* (Ogrillon) (Ranger ranged)

 

Jaheira: Fighter/Druid/Priestess of Silvanus/1; Studded leather, Quarter Staff* and Club*, (War Dog) (Druid offensive/defensive)

 

Dynahier: Mage/Invoker; Bracers of Defense AC8 with Dart*; (None) (Wizard Defensive)

 

 

Mods Used: BG 5512; ToB Patch 26498; ToBEx Beta 0026; BG2 Fixpack (v)10; BGT 118; Dark Side of the Sword Coast (v)2.17; Northern Tales of the Sword Coast (v)170; Northern Tales of the Sword Coast (v)171; Secret of Bonehill (v)2.75; Drizzt Saga (v)3; Lure of Sirine’s Call (v)13; Thalantyr Item Upgrade; BG1 NPC Project (v)22; Indira NPC (v)10.4; Gavin NPC (v)9; BG1 UB (v)13.1;  BGSpawn (v)1.12; The White Queen (v)4.1; Amber NPC (v)4; Isra NPC (v)2.1; Fade NPC (v)4.0; Valen NPC (v)45; Auren Aseph (v)9; Sarah NPC (v)3.1; Haldimir NPC (v)2; Tyris Flare (v)7; Hotfix for Gavin BG2 (v) 20; Gavin NPC BG2 (v)20; de’Arnise Romance  (v)4; IEP Extended Banter (v)4.2; Viconia Friendship SoA & ToB (v)3.3; Mazzy’s Friendship SoA & ToB (v)2.2; Yoshimo Friendship SoA & ToB (v)3.1; Imoen Friendship SoA & ToB (v)2.2; BG2 UB (v)26; Chosen of Mystra BGII Subrace; SCS (v)30 (minus tactical challenges); P&P Celestials (v)5; NPC Flirt Pack (v)1.03; Romantic Encounters (v)9; Cross Banter Mod Pack for BG2II (v)15; NPC Kit Pack (v)4; Song & Silence Mod for Bards & Thieves (v)6; Divine Remix (Beta)(v)8; Paladins of Faerun Kit Pack (v)4; Sword & Fist (v)7; Rogue Rebalancing (v)4.80; BGT Tweaks (v)11; BG2 Tweak Pack (v)16; Hard Times for BGTv2.4;

 

Item Randomizer (v)6.8; Mega Mod Kits (v)1.01L; Level 1 NPCs (v)1.9; BP BGT Maps (v)10.2.1

 

 

Blue Font: New information;

 

Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)

 

(Best kill)(Current AI)

 

 

¹ I play that specialist mages can only place spells from their own school in their spellbook so, e.g. Dynahier, an Invoker will only have Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb and Shield in her first level spellbook. These spells are given to them by their guild as they advance in levels and become able to use spells of the next higher level. They can, however, freely use scrolls from other schools. In my games, both specialist mages and thieves belong to a guild somewhere and receive their ‘promotions’ and spells/skills from their guild master/mistress until they reach ‘name-level’ (11^th level/12^th level respectively), at which time they are of sufficient level to start their own guild should they wish (and potentially become a threat to their current guild master/mistress).

 

 

² Not sure but it seems something I’ve done has reduced the number and frequency of foes I’m meeting. I have SCS installed (minus tactical challenges) but with everything else, e.g. Better calls for help, Better General AI, Smarter Mages and Clerics, etc. Normally the Gnoll Stronghold has nearly 30-40 Gnolls rather than <10. The mission was to get Dynahier so we didn’t mess with the lower caves but I suspect there will be fewer Xvarts there when we backtrack through there later. Not sure what the deal is.  

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Jabbar, human Assassin, 1st entry:

Great images!