16384 réponses à ce sujet

[Dyara]

Congratulations, Grond0 ... reminds me that Dyara's still on her way to Amn (or perhaps she's rotting in Irenicus' dungeon already ... I definitely should check that) .

[Blackraven]

Hey there hi there everyone! It's been more than two months... I've had a lot of things going on in RL (alas not all good, but I'm ok), and I've only really returned to playing on the long (Easter) weekend. I've come here to say something about my latest playthrough. 

Spoiler

Bardin, my Gnomish LN Cleric/Thief executioner, is still alive and kicking in ToB. Two months ago he cleared the first two levels of Watcher's Keep but ran into difficulty on the Demon level (had to retreat somewhere). I remember finding this a bit embarrassing for an XP-capped character, and I can only hope these experiences aren't foreboding of his future. I'll continue his run sometime, but am in no rush after this break. Instead I did some BG1EE on insane difficulty, which proved a humbling experience. The fact that I didn't post any updates earlier this week speaks volumes. I do have an Elven Dragon Disciple-led party of chaotic neutral free spirits with Garrick, Neera, Safana, and - by way of exception, for the romance - brooding Xan. The run has been fun so far, but I've found myself playing my DD as a normal Sorceress in terms of spell picks (think Blur, Invisibility and Mirror Image as level 2 spells), which might make the run less interesting to share here.

Other than the DD, it's been mainly failures... Two separate Archers were done in by Silke (one suffered a Hold Person successfully cast by the thespian inbetween or despite arrow of biting poison ticks, and the other succumbed to two Magic Missiles in a Sequencer). An evil Blade in a party got one-hit-killed by an Ogrillon due basically to poor pathfinding. I also had an Avenger whose death I don't even remember right now. And a solo Diviner got her Elven arse handed to her by a party of ambushing Hobgoblins, just when she was on her way to the FAI to buy potions of genius and whatever the other one is called (the blue one) to scribe Invisibility amongst other spells. Should have used the Nashkel Carnival red potion for her first scribing session. I liked her quite a lot, but like my DD, she too was effectively a rather generic mage in my hands. In my defense it's hard to role-play an adventuring solo Diviner and keep her alive in an SCS no-reload setting on insane difficulty. Still, the Diviner experience had me thinking.

Regardless of their specialization schools (if any), I mostly play my mages using a combination of the best spells available to them, i.e. a mix of spells from different schools, probably because it's the easiest thing to do. But wouldn't it be nice for a specialization school to be more noticeable and meaningful in actual gameplay? The dark Necromancer who animates corpses and drains life and levels, the ferocious Invoker that dishes out raw elemental and magic damage, the manipulative Enchanter who disarms foes with spells that affect the mind, the lazy Conjurer who relies on summons that do their bidding, etc. Specialists the way I like to imagine them.
Being too opportunistic to roll a specialist and limit them to strictly casting spells from their own school ("opportunistic" - that's a nice euphemism for powergamey no?), I came up with a compromise. I would roll a specialist, allow them to use any defensive spells they can legally cast, but have them rely heavily on spells of their own school for offensive purposes, except in situations where the latter spells are useless.

I went with an Enchanter Mage because the Enchantment/Charm school's all-or-nothing (as opposed to save for reduction of the spell's effect) spells are amongst those least used by me. I created a custom party for her to help her at her difficult job of being an Enchantress. For flavor I made them all Elves or Half-Elves and I gave them Welsh names that are more or less descriptive of who they are.
First of all I give you sensual Enchantress Eirian (pronounced I-rian, "shining"):

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Eirian's starting proficieny was Dart and her starting spells were Armor, Find Familiar (hence the extra HPs) and Sleep. Note that enemies who aren't Enchanter Mages receive a -2 penalty to saves vs spells from Eirian's school of specialization, all the more reason to cast those spells. Note also that I'm playing with the SCS mod that makes sequencers and triggers learnable by all mages. 
The second character I created is a mirthful Archer, Gwendolen ("holy bow", ** shortbow, * long sword, * war hammer).

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As of level 8 Archers' Called Shot gives a -1 saves vs. spell penalty for each hit landed while that ability is activated. She'll also get her first divine spells, including Doom, by that time.
Thirdly there's amazingly gifted Canaid (Can-ide, "song", * short sword, * axe); just look at that roll.

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Canaid's a funnyman except when he's singing, for his song is the sorrowful tune of the Dirgesinger Bard, of the Song & Silence mod:

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As you can see, Canaid's song should further boost the effectiveness of Eirian's charms. Apart from that, he can contribute with his own spells.
The fourth character is Bleddyn ("wolf-like", * dagger, * TWF), a grumbly Shapeshifter Druid.

Spoiler

The role I had in mind for him was to contribute with castings of Doom and with tanking, but that was because I originally wanted to stick to four characters. However I decided to roll two more characters, who may help with the tanking, so I can see Bleddyn cast his charms and other save or else spells as well.
Spunky Swashbuckler Alys ("noble", * katana, * dagger),

Spoiler

is my fifth character. I ended up creating her because traps are tedious at best and deadly at worst for a rogueless party, with no shorty saves to rely on, and with insane trap damage on insane difficulty. There isn't really a way for any type of thief to contribute to making the save-or-else theme work, but I didn't want any multiclasses in the party. However, as the game progresses, she should become an expert fighter who could use save-or-else weapons. Kachiko's Wakizashi, Celestial Fury, and Pixie ****** for example all impose mental status effects that can be saved against. Besides there's UAI for casting from scrolls.
The sixth member of the crew is Ifor ("warrior", * mace, * sling),

Spoiler

a passionate Feywarden of Corellon (Divine Remix kit),

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I picked the kit mainly to add to the Elven flavor, though weapon specialization one daily casting of Spell Immunity once every five levels are nice perks. 

The party is currently in Nashkel, without having achieved much as of yet. They equipped themselves in Candlekeep, with Alys stealing a star sapphire to finance her katana. South of the FAI, they slew a Wolf and an Ogre and picked up a Ring of the Princes. Near the inn they found a Ring of Wizardry and returned Joia's ring. In Beregost Canaid miraculously survived a poisoning when he failed to lure Unshey's Spiders outside.

Spoiler

Eirian managed to put all four spiders to Sleep in one go, and healing potions and CLWs from Bleddyn and Ifor kept Canaid alive. Alys broke into every home in Beregost and only got caught once, resulting in a reputation decrease by 1, while Canaid pickpocketed Algernon's cloak. Ogrillons and Flaming Fist mercenaries south of Beregost were put to Sleep and slain; Hobgoblins and a Ghast were taken care of with range attacks. In Nashkel Neira took a lot of kiting (and a save vs a Hold Person spell by Canaid) before she fell. The Amazing Oopah (range) and Noober offered some more XP, enough for Alys, Canaid, and Ifor to have reached level 2. Characters receive full HPs when they level up btw.

[Aasim]

 But wouldn't it be nice for a specialization school to be more noticeable and meaningful in actual gameplay? The dark Necromancer who animates corpses and drains life and levels, the ferocious Invoker that dishes out raw elemental and magic damage, the manipulative Enchanter who disarms foes with spells that affect the mind, the lazy Conjurer who relies on summons that do their bidding, etc. Specialists the way I like to imagine them.

It would, wouldn't it?  

Mind you, it's WIP since I have zero time these days. Anyhow, good to see you back , HF&GL.

[ussnorway]

SEED Start,

 

Mods: this is a dragonspear run with no mods… I play on hard with extra damage turned off.

 

Spoiler

 

I’m re-entering the challenge with Sarah Brightlight... a half-elf Sharman

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 99 - (update 1)

Mort, elf sorcerer (Grond0) & Seer, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

With a new run due to start we decided to try out the newly patched version with v2.0 of BGEE.  The random class selection looked interesting with a variation on the sorcerer theme.

 

The early stages were slower going than usual as we identified significant numbers of bugs and idiosynchrasies and I tried to get used to the changes in the UI.  However, the route to early progress was standard with Shoal providing our first level each.  Seer took grease as one of her initial spells and is on a mission to demonstrate how under-rated this spell is - Shoal failing to emerge from the greased area after blind was added to her woes.

Spoiler

 

In Beregost Neera met her doom (or at least her magic missile) in order to get her gem bag.  

Spoiler

Firebead saw the way the wind was blowing and handed over his scroll case with a minimum of fuss.  South of Beregost there was another opportunity for grease on a pair of ogrillons.  This time targeting seemed to be off as the spell was cast behind an advancing ogrillon - only for it to prove effective anyway as the ogrillon was blinded and reversed direction back into the grease - "that was my plan all along claimed Gate70" .

 

Going to the FAI to get the Ring of Wizardry, Tarnesh was another character slow to get out of grease - though he was quick enough to die in it.

Spoiler

 

Back south and Arabelle was successfully saved from some marauding xvarts on the way to Firewine Bridge.  Grease slowed Meilum down to make it easy to target him with blind - but he saved against 3 of those.  Rather than spend time shooting at him the magical pair just ran away.  With just a few XP needed for another level they saved Melicamp from a wolf and successfully saw his restoration.  With an eye on their bank balance Seer learnt friends and Mort identify.

 

Moving on to the basilisk area the pair quickly got to level 4 by killing the southern group.  Mort had rolled maximum HPs for the 3rd time in a row there,  I had already double-checked the difficulty setting was on core (though Seer did not have max HPs), but was still suspicious and Gate70 pointed out that there was a new option in the game for max HPs on level up - and this was enabled by default.  That option was removed, but I didn't bother altering existing HPs.

 

Once the remaining basilisks were dead, Korax was recruited and quickly sorted out Mutamin.  He then went down to Kirian's party who were immediately in trouble from the stinking cloud scroll taken from Mutamin.  All of them were quickly disabled by a combination of grease, stinking cloud, paralysation and blindness and were soon put out of their misery.

Spoiler

 

At that point there was another visit to Meilum.  This time he was successfully blinded, though by that stage it would have made little difference anyway as combined spell damage available was now far too much for him.

Spoiler

 

Seer was still using grease regularly, but there were a couple of incidents showing the dangers of that.  First a mistaken cast of grease instead of magic missile saw Mort have to make a saving throw or risk being swamped by chasing half-ogres, gnolls and skeletons.  

Spoiler

Second Seer accidentally moved forward into her own grease when trying to target an approaching worg.  However, Mort still had magic missiles available and a pair of those and a sling bullet killed the worg before any damage was done.

Spoiler

 

Building up reputation Charleston Nib received a helping hand before the Doomsayer suffered from an overdose of MMs.  

Spoiler

Nearby, the intention was to kill Laryssa for her shield.  She was indeed killed, though by her less than friendly cousin .  

Spoiler

With reputation up to 19 the ankheg nest was robbed using invisibility and the farmer given the pieces of his son back.  On the way to shop at Ulgoth's Beard Tenya was hit by magic missiles - the gap between those apparently being sufficient for her to try to give up and then go hostile again - we complied with her death wish.

 

The closest thing to a death was at the end of the session when Seer decided to try and stick a dagger into Silke rather than responding to her improved invisibility with a disappearing act of her own.  That proved a well-judged decision as Silke's lightning bolt left Seer with a whole 1 HP and also nearly killed Silke herself

Spoiler

- once she fully appeared again a magic missile finished her off.

 

Here is the frontsheet of their current character records (there are now multiple information sheets for character record):

Spoiler

 

Mort, sorcerer 5, 29 HPs, 39 kills

Seer, dragon disciple 5, 35 HPs, 50 kills, 0 deaths

[Gate70]

Blaggerd is facing dissent. Apparently it was his job to save progress (oops, I forgot to make a hard save and overwrote a quicksave when doing other things). Repeating the red section below sees party members receive different hit points to their original values.
 
"Garla hands Slayer a free bastard sword upgrade and the party head south into the darkening night. [/size]Garla and Klaer are both hit fighting ogrillions but live to fight another day. A Flaming Fist mercenary is fooled into leaving the party alone before Garla obtains some stealthy boots from the corpse of a hobgoblin. Oondul maintains his near-perfect record of failing to read spells, leaving Infravision as his only known spell.[/size]"[/size]
 
---
 
Aware that his leadership could be under challenge, Blaggerd decides to hunt down Captain Brage for a reward but instead agrees to release him to the care of the church in exchange for a well-crafted weapon. Such a weapon should cement his position.
 
Klaer wants to head to the carnival, in case there is a knife throwing contest to participate in. The harsh reality is that the party find themselves in a confined tent facing an angry mage. At least four of the party aren't running scared with their leader struggling to contain a curse. Sigh.

 
Remarkably, everyone survives. It then looks like the same may happen when spelunking, or maybe not. The penultimate ankheg takes a chunk out of Klaer who realises that it's not a good idea for Blaggerd the berserk to have all the healing potions. Down she goes.

 
After a temple run, 200gp is spent breathing new life into the half-orc kensai. Blaggerd is offered a cure for his cursed berserking state, but declines. That's a wisdom of 5 for you.

[ussnorway]

SDE -01, 

 

Crime does not pay well;

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

Well you know the story, bad men try to kill me, lots of running away and why can’t we just be friends… what’s a girl to do?

 

I tried to be good with auntie J bickering on about balance and my sister insisting that we are nice to people… Imoen isn’t that bad but “crime doesn’t pay” seems a bit hypocritical coming from her.

 

Where was I? (right) Edwin looks to know his stuff and wants my help to kill some rival mage so we scrap together enough to purchase a magic missile necklace and set off to kill gnolls… how hard could it be?

 

Missile weapons all around, I off tank (well my spirts do) and J draws them onto the party so we do ok at first. The gnoll chief is a bugger to hit with our sad weapons and he sometimes ignores the front liners to take quick swipes at the softer targets… that’s how poor Imoen got killed.

 

With the harpers dead I had to order Viconia forward which isn’t ideal because she has poor armour and most of our heals but Edwin is worthless now that all his magic missiles peppered the gnolls… still the enemy mage had no spells prepared so I court a nice break there. Edwin picks this moment to remember he hasn’t got my money and hastily offers to be me **** boy for a year if I don’t skin him alive… despite being VERY tempted I concede he is more useful to me alive and we trek back to the temple, leaving more than half our party gear on the steps of the stronghold.

 

Spoiler

 

I have just enough to raise aunty J and Khalid if I wanted to but Imoen is better without needing gear and I can find another meat shield quickly enough so sorry Jaheira… you are the weakest link!

[Blackraven]

Eirian & Company, first BG1 update

The party was at the Nashkel Carnival last time I reported on them. From there they traveled to the Nashkel Mines area, where patient and careful kiting saw Archer Gwendolen rewarded with Varscona. To the east the party found a Ring of Fire Resistance, received a scroll of PfMagic, and met Samuel the Deserter whom they brought to Gellana at the FAI. I made sure to travel north from one area to the next (instead of going straight for the FAI), so that Eirian would be protected by a pre-cast Armor spell in case of any ambushes. 
At the FAI entrance I had Feywarden Ifor deal with Tarnesh on his own. Ifor had buffed with Remove Fear to counter Horror and SI:Evocation to neutralize Magic Missiles. (Spell Immunity is the special ability of Divine Remix Feywarden of Corellon priests.) However my habit of not challenging Tarnesh at low levels had made me forget that the wizard casts Sleep as well. Luckily Ifor saved, and stunned his foe with the Stupefier.
A bit further north Shapeshifter Bleddyn wasn't as fortunate when the Ankheg with Nester's dagger one-shotted him before Eirian put the creature to Sleep.

Spoiler

Helping Tenya and farmer Brun (corpse picked up by Sanctuaried Ifor) saw Eirian and Gwendolen make their first level-ups.
The companions headed south again, to the Red Canyons, where they slew a wolf to svae Melicamp. They did not make haste with visiting Thalantyr though. Instead they slew six berserk diggers at an excavation site, after Eirian had put them to Sleep, and they escorted Brage back to Nashkel to redeem himself. At the Carnival the companions bought a suit of Caster's Chain for Dirgesinger Canaid and a scroll of PfPetrification for Gwendolen. A bandit ambush confirmed that Eirian's strategy of traveling with Armor up was a wise one.

Spoiler

The Basilisks east of Beregost were easy pickings for Gwendolen, and Mutamin posed no threat after Korx held him and Gwendolen poisoned her with an arrow of biting. In nine Sirines, the Archer made more victims in the coastal regions. Swashbuckler Alys de-trapped Alaric's cave, and Ifor looted it under Sanctuary.
Thalanthyr killed Melicamp and sold the party several spells for Eirian and Canaid to scribe with the help of INT boosters. The Enchantress tested one of her new spells, Enfeeblement, on Karlat, but the Dwarf proved uninhibited by incumbrance in spite of being connected by the spell, because he quaffed a hill giant strength potion. Ifor Held the bounty hunter, so he fell easily after all.
Bleddyn sacrificed himself a second time, for Shoal. Eirian used a wand to paralyze Droth and gave her Shapeshifter companion the Ogre's Helmet of Defense. This was followed by some shopping (Greenstone Amulet, Cloak) and stealing (Ring of Free Action, courtesy of Canaid) in Ulgoth's Beard.
In their hunger for more experience and more wealth the company traveled to DUrlag's Tower, where two Battle Horrors were defeated with wands of fire/frost. They also engaged a Doom Guard on one of the terraces. I had a short break here, but long enough for me to do something really stupid: I had Eirian and Canaid mistake Ifor for the Doom Guard. Due to his colors, Ifor has a red circle around him, and his Flaming Fist helmet and plate armor made him look a bit Doom Guardy at first sight. This was the result:

Spoiler

In the consternation that followed Canaid managed to finish the real Doom Guard but then walked straight into Eirian persistent wand scorcher:

Spoiler

All this only took me about a minute of gaming...
As the party were pretty much broke, they had no way to get Ifor and Canaid raised, so they returned to the Red Canyons, where Eirian expended several charges of her wand of fire on Bassilus, disrupting the priest's casting and eventually killing him. The party claimed the bounty on their victim's head and had Keldath raise Ifor and Canaid.
Back at Durlag's Tower, Gwendolen dealt with three Greater Basilisks and one Lesser, while safe from their gazes thanks to PfPetrifications that Eirian would cast on the Ranger. On the floor inhabited by the Ghost, the party suffered another casualty. Alys had just explored and looted the entire floor except for the corridor that led to the dangerous Ghost, when suddenly a group of Ghasts appeared from a recently explored hallway. This was very unexpected. This wasn't an ambush; the party hadn't rested. Either way one of the Ghast Held Alys, on the stairs just before she could retreat. The others came to her aid but couldn't stop the undead from laying the Swashbuckler down.

Spoiler

Alys was raised, and the remainder of the upper levels looted. Kirinhale was eschewed. The tome of wisdom went to Ifor as I reckon he will be casting more as a cleric than Bleddyn as a Shapeshifter Druid. 
Dismayed with their lack of resources and progress, the party had Canaid sell and steal back some gear at the Nashkel Carnival, allowing the purchase of Shadow Armor, a Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, the Claw of Kazgaroth (for 18 CON Eirian), some ioun stones, and a Helmet of Charm Protection.
The companions than cleared the Cloudpeaks without incident and picked up the CHA tome at the Gnoll Stronghold (but did not enter the fortress itself). This brought in a lot more gold, most of which they've just exchanged for the Martial Staff, several scrolls, a Wand of the Heavens, and a magical harp in Ulgoth's Beard.

The Druid and the rogues are level 6; Eirian, Gwen and Ifor level 5. Progress feels slow, and Eirian hasn't been able to do much yet with her Charms. Canaid's song, with its Curse effect, has so far been useful more for the Thac0 penalty cursed enemies suffer than for its saves penalty. I hope things will pick up for this party at higher levels, when Eirian and Canaid get to cast more spells, and Greater Malison comes into play.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 99 - (update 2)

Mort, elf sorcerer (Grond0) & Seer, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

Our lepidopterist's exploration (study of bugs) of the newly patched BG1EE made some more progress yesterday as we greased our way up the sword coast.  That process started with Greywolf.  He successfully resisted several blind attempts, but still failed to get out of the grease (due to us running round the patch to get him to change direction to stay in it).

Spoiler

 

After going through most of the Nashkel Mines invisibly Mulahey was also slowed down.  He was blinded, but that again appeared to trigger an immediate conversation (thinking about it I suspect his trigger has a proximity factor in it which being blinded fulfils, a bit like being able to hide in shadows close to enemies if you're blind).  However, none of his support crew got a successful hit in before he was the last to die.

Spoiler

 

Grease seemed unlikely to be that helpful against the amazons (who all have ranged capability), but the web scroll from Mulahey's cave meant we didn't have to think about returning later.

Spoiler

 

Nimbul was MM'd, although he managed a horror attempt first, but the game crashed while looking at inventory.  Trying again we improved our technique and Nimbul died immediately, but the game crashed when attempting to use his find familiar scroll.  Trying again - it was third time lucky and we celebrated for once beating Rasaad to getting the kill.

 

Tranzig threatened us - but only from the grave

Spoiler

- before we moved on to the Bandit Camp.  A couple of rests were needed there to cure damage from bandit arrows on the way to magic missile Taugosz to death.  Moving in to the main tent I thought perhaps Seer should be using the Greenstone Amulet (only to realise after the battle that Mort was actually wearing it ).  Hakt was blinded to start things off, but Venkt and Raemon were still threats.  Both were dealt with by a first use of a fire wand scorcher, 

Spoiler

although by that time Seer had needed to save against horror.

 

There were no encounters in the Cloakwood on the way to the mine.  Both mages there were blinded,

Spoiler

but killing them and Drasus had pretty much exhausted our spell selection.  Gate70 warned me to keep Mort out of the way, but I thought he was referring to using another scorcher and there was nearly an accident as Seer breathed her own version of dragon fire.  

Spoiler

With potential danger from Genthore's ranged attack Mort dug into his scroll case and a horror spell sent Genthore on a run from which he didn't recover.

Spoiler

 

Inside the mine we moved down to Davaeorn's level.  After magic missiling the battle horrors (and getting a level in the process)

Spoiler

we rested invisibly and then checked out where Davaeorn was.  He was hiding in a room, which wasn't a good idea against a pair of characters who had both just chosen skull traps as their first L3 spell pick.  Five of those later and the key to the city mine was ours

Spoiler

(surprisingly the area transition after flooding worked and we both emerged safely - that's often been a problem for us with MP in the past).

 

In the city we started off the poison quest.  That was largely in an attempt to get a matching pair of leopard-skin boots for Seer, but it seems that if Lothander's route to the stairs is blocked now he just disappears (and did so quite quickly before we could kill him).  

Spoiler

Confronting Jalantha was the final action - her flame strike could have proved fatal to someone, but fortunately she targeted one of the summons rather than someone more important.

Spoiler

 

Mort, sorcerer 6, 35 HPs, 79 kills

Seer, dragon disciple 6, 42 HPs, 81 kills, 0 deaths

[ussnorway]

SDE -02,

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

Nashkel Mines;

 

I happened upon a half-ork named Dorn whom seemed keen then a bard briefly tagged along so we could identify items but he wandered off and then Shar-teel challenged Dorn to a (one sided) test of strength before becoming my back up thief.

 

With my basic party assembled we collected bounties on Clerics, Basilisk, chicken, spiders, a guy named Wolf-something and of course battle horrors to accumulate a new spell… I decided to take “cure light wounds” as that lets the cleric go more offensive.

 

When I entered the tower it became clear that wisdom does NOT give me any real spell benefits so I may allow Viconia any future tomes… Imoen is my party face so she claimed the charisma book we found whilst searching the gnoll stronghold again. The funds stretched to a fireball wand and we entered Nashkel Mines, looking for these so-called yapping demons.

 

A cleric with skelly | kobold minions was behind the iron crisis locally and that discovery cost me the wild mage… the dippy ****** had a (double all fire damage) belt on without identifying it.

 

Spoiler

 

p.s, I’m quickly running low on arcane casters.

 

Chunked | unavailable party members;
Neera = death by (self-inflicted) fireball damage.
Dynaheir = murdered by Viconia… Minsc had to be put down as well.
Khalid & Jaheira = death by poverty… I at least dumped them on the temple floor so perhaps some rich adventurer will take pity.
Edwin = displeased I sided with Neera… I’m unsure if he can be recovered?
Garrick = gazed by basilisk

[Grimwald the Wise]

Hey there hi there everyone! It's been more than two months... I've had a lot of things going on in RL (alas not all good, but I'm ok), and I've only really returned to playing on the long (Easter) weekend. I've come here to say something about my latest playthrough. 

 

RL or more accurately RD has stopped me from posting for a while too. Not a family member, but a friend. Tragic incident.

 

I was supposed to be posting some images on what is now a rather old post. It is now history, so will just get on with a new game.

 

I am now starting with an elven duo

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url=http://s1108.photobu...ldr010.png.html

URL=http://s1108.photobu...ldr011.png.html

URL=http://s1108.photobu...ldr012.png.html

 

A paladin and a cleric/conjurer. My set-up allows for such combinations. The cleric part of the duo used command with the result that they survived the poisoned weapons of the assassins in Candlekeep and also Tarnesh.

 

Being a duo makes them stronger to begin with but they will suffer due to slow levelling up.

 

Not sure how it will pan out in the long term.

 

The duo are both of good will but a bit xenophobic. At the moment, they will only join up with elves or half-elves except for extremely short term alliances.

 

Lady Selune had a few dalliances in Candlekeep, but turned down the new guard who quite rightly whipped her for stealing, but then quite wrongly wanted to use his position to take advantage of her. She willingly dallied with Hull and gave another friend a kiss and a cuddle.

[Grond0]

True class mage {7} (update 1)

 

For a few weeks now I've been trying to take a character through the Enhanced Edition trilogy.  I've generated 3 characters (sun soul mage, wizard slayer dualling to thief and true class mage) and had a total of 22 attempts at them to date without success.  Although I've now got the patched v2.0 game these 3 characters were all generated using v1.3 and I feel should be completed using that version.

 

The closest I've got to success was with the only attempt fully documented so far (wizard slayer dualled to thief) on these forums.  That's not a coincidence - I think the process of writing can aid concentration and also making your attempt visible can help provide a bit of extra incentive (though only a bit given the number of deaths I've racked up over the years ).

 

Of the 3 classes, I think the mage should be the easiest, but it's the only one I haven't yet been to the Throne with.  To try and fool myself into success I therefore thought I should have a go at posting an attempt with that.

 

Thus far I've survived a couple of potentially dangerous ambushes while going to shoot down Shoal to get a couple of levels.  However, successfully learning an invisibility scroll at High Hedge provides the opportunity to mitigate any future danger from ambushes.

 

I also picked up a potion container from Thalantyr and that was joined in Beregost by a scroll case and gem bag (the latter got by shooting Neera from distance in order to avoid any danger from her enemies).  Invisibility and sleep allowed some easy XP around Beregost

Spoiler

before travelling up to the FAI.  A bit of RL distraction meant Joia didn't get her ring back, but Tarnesh was allowed no chance - invisibility meant he didn't have time to react to a MM from the doorway and another of those finished him off.  

Spoiler

Giving Landrin back his things was then enough to get to level 4.

[Grond0]

True class mage {7} (update 2)

 

A short session was primarily aimed at boosting reputation.  That was intended to include escorting Brage to Nashkel, but as a precursor to that I attacked Laryssa from invisible.  That appeared to prevent her from having her conversation and Brage was also not then interested in talking - so he had to be sorted out by sling.

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Another slight mistake was not identifying the wand of frost from the mine area before loading up with magic missiles for Greywolf.  That  meant rather longer than intended running him round and 4 charges of Imoen's wand of magic missiles were used to speed things up marginally.

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I also took a slight risk in attacking Sendai's companions.  Even using magic missiles from invisible their weapon speed is high enough to have a chance of retaliating - and a critical hit could have been fatal against 18 HPs.  However, I got away with it

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and killing Zal & Vax got me to level 5.  I learnt skull trap and a first use of that along with plenty of magic missiles saw the Doomsayer on its way.

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Journeying through the Cloud Peak Mountains gained further reputation (using friends to ensure success with Drienne) along with a charisma upgrade.  Now that magic missiles do more damage they are tending to be the spell of choice rather than sleep.

 

Taking Samuel invisibly back to the FAI pushed reputation up to 19 and it was maximised by helping out Farmer Brun.  Initially I was thinking to just rob the ankhegs invisibly, but decided I should kill the beasts.  A mage can do this safely by becoming invisible when you first come into sight - giving them no time to target you with an attack.  

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Disappearing while in sight range causes them to leave their heads up - meaning multiple attempts at sleep can be made if necessary from out of sight.  Invisibility can then be used to rest in the nest to set up the next victim.  Clearing the nest got me to level 6, which provided the opportunity to learn how to use a staff properly.

 

With prices now at an all time low Ulgoth's Beard offered a nice staff upgrade as well as other goodies.  Apart from improved THAC0 and damage the staff also gives a considerable weapon speed improvement.  Weapon speed is easily overlooked and difficult to take advantage of in a party.  However, for a micro-managed solo character it does make a big difference to how easy fights are.

[Jianson]

 

 (the latter got by shooting Neera from distance in order to avoid any danger from her enemies).

 

 

Who is Neera?

[Grond0]

True class mage {7} (3rd and final update)

 

The next session was intended to include high XP targets.  That started off in Durlag's Tower with battle horrors and a doom guard falling to skull traps and magic missiles.  After a detour to High Hedge to get a protection from petrification scroll (along with a few others), I returned to clear the roof of basilisks - getting up to level 7 there. 

 

In my six mage runs prior to this, two (in a row) were ended by forgetting to reapply PfP after resting.  I managed to avoid that this time , but still died there thanks to my penchant for taking risks combined with being caught out by a change in the Enhanced Edition .  I decided I should open the trapped container after making use of improved invisibility (to improve saving throw) and mirror image against the fireball.  In BGT that would have brought the risk down to about 1-2%, which initially felt acceptable.  

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After dying I reloaded 10 times to check whether I had just been unlucky and quickly realised (vaguely remembered) that the EE had been changed so that mirrors no longer protect against area damage.  Although none of my tests died, that had brought the risk up to nearer 10% - which I wouldn't consciously have accepted .

 

Oh well, I'm not working today so will give it another shot.

[Grond0]

Who is Neera?

She is a wild mage - one of the new recruitable NPCs added by the Enhanced Edition.

Spoiler

If you talk to her in the normal way you will find yourself attacked by enemies that are a potential problem for a low level character.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 99 - (3rd and final update)

Mort, elf sorcerer (Grond0) & Seer, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

This pairing had been progressing quite nicely, but eventually fell victim to my obsession with testing out traps ...

 

The session started with going to find Marek.  On the way Larze was blinded, effectively killing him - in the latest version of EE the behaviour of blinded characters reverts to vanilla, i.e. they just stand there to be shot at.  Marek was able to confuse Seer, but he only had fists equipped so that was no problem.  He had to soak up a lightning bolt before Mort could finish off Marek, but survived.

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A pair of magic missiles were sufficient to kill Ramazith before invisibility allowed the rest of the tower enemies to be bypassed.  A sneak attack on Sunin with skull traps from out of sight also succeeded, though one was left over for Seer to trigger.  

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Mort also sneaked in to see Degrodel on the way to collect the Cloak of Balduran, while Seer put up just enough summons to protect himself from a rampaging basilisk.

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After the Seven Suns were restored to normal operations it was time to assault the Iron Throne.  Seer laid down a film of grease to prevent attackers moving in quickly, while Mort blinded a couple of casters.  A rain of skull traps then got a couple of victims before Zhalimar got into range and hit Mort with a critical.  

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Mort retreated to heal a bit while Seer could not resist a final skull trap before running away with a doppleganger in pursuit - that nearly proved fatal before his invisibility spell took effect.  

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The remaining survivors had a follow-script in operation so Seer stayed in the corner to collect them together before more grease and skull traps finished the job.

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Arriving in Candlekeep I was interested to see how mirror images would affect lightning.  I had confirmed in single player this morning that fireballs were not affected by mirrors, but lightning (which in some ways acts as single target and others as area effect) could have been different.  Mort tried it, but my luck really isn't in today - a low probability of death from fire hit me earlier and this time trap damage was once more just too much - Gate70's screen showing that 41 HPs of damage had just overcome Mort's available 40 HPs (though of course he could have used potions or spells to avoid any chance of that happening ).

[Blackraven]

Condolences Grimwald on the loss of your friend.

 

Nice stuff Grond0, I'll be following your solo Mage with interest, as I'm doing the same thing at the moment.
 

Taking a mage through BGEE with SCS and on insane difficulty is not easy at all for me. I already mentioned a solo Elven Diviner who bit the dust in a Hobgoblin ambush. Eirian, whose progress I reported in my last post, fell in the Firewine Ruins. I assumed I wasn't playing BGEE with full SCS prebuffs but with the toned down version (instant buffs only if created in sight of the caster, as per my last BG2EE setup). Lendarn showed me that I was mistaken. When Eirian cast Hold Person at the wizard, his buffs, which included a MGoI, instantly triggered, nullifying Eirian's threat. He then succesfully Horrored Eirian and Dirgesinger Canaid, added a Stinking Cloud, and finished her off with MMMs and a Lightning Bolt.

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After this I decided to go solo again, as I prefer the pace and I find it more exciting if a character has no one else to rely on, and more educational for myself as to how to play a given class or kit.

Invoker Clare got ambushed by Skellies on her way to the High Hedge area, after she had barely left Candlekeep. She managed to Shield herself but suffered a critical nonetheless.

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I had a promising and - thanks to Invisibility being unavalable - thrilling run with Necromancer Stella. She was around level 6 when she succesfully Horrored a Carrion Crawler in Shoal's area. Sadly panic didn't stop it from attacking. Stella got Held and was nibbled to death.

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I then rolled an Abjurer, a Half-Elf Transmuter and a second Elven Diviner. The roll I got on the latter was extraordinary:

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Unfortunately this doesn't mean that much to a Mage, though in principle it's nice to be able to maximize Str (for corpse hauling, throwing daggers), Dex (for ranged accuracy), Con (for the Claw of Kazgaroth), and Int (for spell scribing convenience). I even got to max Wis (for lore). I went with the Diviner, Manteia, not because of these godly stats but rather because I think I won't really miss Conjuration/Summoning stuff unlike Abjuration or Alteration spells. The exception would be Find Familiar for the extra HP, especially early on. Most of the other Conjuration/Summoning spells seem to have alternatives in other schools, e.g. Spirit Armor instead of Ghost Armor, Skull Trap instead of Flame Arrow (although Flame Arrow is single target), Mordy Swords and Skeletons as summons. The PW spells are nice but can be hard to use.
Of course it's harder to play a Diviner using mostly Divination spells than it is to play a Necromancer using Necromancy spells or an Invoker user Evocation spells offensively. After all, Divination spells are utility spells, and some of them aren't even that useful to begin with. I do intend to work not only with the obvious picks Identify and True Sight (and the lesser detection spells before that), but also with Clairvoyance and Farsight to control the battlefield from afar and to give some meaning to the fact that my Diviner is actually a Diviner.

Manteia, Elven Diviner

Manteia started out with Identify, Shield and Sleep, and found a nice Blur spell (rare I think) on one of the victims Gorion had made before he fell. The Elf safely reached Beregost where she quested to level 2. In the area south of Beregost she slew three Flaming Fist mercenaries (thanks to Sleep) for their armor worth 900 GP. Further south she met Noober, sold the Ankheg armor and spent most of the proceeds on boosting her reputation. She also killed the Amazing Oopah, which brought her very close to level 3. She would have been there already, had the Ghast she had run into south of Beregost not disappeared after a rest. Now she risked her neck securing the Coquetle family necklace, as a Hobgoblin arrow whizzed past her.

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On her way to Beregost to return the necklace, death came even closer. Amid ten bandits, she managed to timely cast Shield,

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fled but suffered a critical hit that left her at 1 HP and breathed a sigh of relief as she escaped with her life.

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With level 3 reached in Beregost, and thus level 2 spell slots received, Manteia traveled to the High Hedge, approaching it from the northwest and walking toward the entrance in a counter-clockwise direction, so as not to run into beasts or skeletons. She spent most of her gold on spell scrolls, saving only 105 GP so she could buy the red and violet potions at the Nashkel Carnival. After having quaffed the red potion she copied around 20 spells into her spellbook, including Invisibility, a crucial spell for handling ambushes (and other precarious situations). 
Up north Manteia looted the Ankheg hoard using Invisibility, and brought Tenya to her senses with two Magic Missiles. She then bought the Fragment of Enlightenment ioun stone (+20 lore, RR item) at the High Hedge, lots of throwing daggers and a green scroll of PfPetrification at the Nashkel Carnival, and went Basilisk hunting. She cheated a bit with the Strength spell, casting it before traveling so that she would only become encumbered with her throwing daggers upon arrival. One Greater Basilisk dropped a Haste scroll. Manteia had a bit of a scare when Mutamin suddenly appeared while she was dealing with two Basilisks. She went invisible and retreated, threw a couple of wand-Fireballs at her enemies, and was at a safe spot when she witnessed Mutamin's Remove Magic fail to dispel her PfPetrification. She then Scorchered Mutamin and dealt with the other Basilisks.

Spoiler

The Elf also slew Kirian, Lindin, and Peter with fire, and returned to Beregost a richer wizard. Her coin she spent in Ulgoth's Beard on the Greenstone Amulet and a Cloak of Displacement.
Manteia then traveled to Durlag's Tower, where she killed one Battle Horror with Skull Traps and her wand of fire, but had to leave because of a Skull Trap placed too far from the second Battle Horror for it to trigger. She bought a scroll of PfUndead and traveled to Nashkel Mines exit area to loot the tombs while protected from undead. The wand of monster summoning was then used to trigger the Skull Trap, and the wand of fire to defeat the second Battle Horror. Inside Durlag's Tower Manteia secured a tome of wisdom, and used the Greenstone Amulet to get past a trap to the Basilisk terraces. (The trap still did 26 damage the first time.) All four Basilisks were slain, which was enough for Manteia to reach level 7. This is a screenshot of her character record (forgot to take one earlier), with the 19 Wis thanks to Durlag's Tower.

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[Jianson]

Ouch! Too bad, Grond0.

GL with your Diviner.

 

I decided I should open the trapped container after making use of improved invisibility (to improve saving throw) and mirror image against the fireball. 

 

If you knew it was a fire trap, why not (also) protect yourself against fire?

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 100 - (update 1)

Robin, elf archer (Grond0) & Treacletoes, dwarven defender (Gate70)

 

We rolled up a new pair - as usual they are random classes, but once again are pretty well matched and should have the ability to go a long way if given a fair wind.  As this is our 100th pair and I feel they should be given every chance I said to Gate70 that we should make an immediate start and that I would be a cautious little bunny.  His response was "haha when I see it I'll know I'm hallucinating" and that one death was enough for the day, so I'll have to see if I can feed him some magic mushrooms next time .

(actually we would have made a start if our broadband connection hadn't failed ...)

 

 

Robin, archer 1, 13 HPs, 6 kills (rat-killer extraordinaire)

Treacletoes, dwarven defender 1, 17 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Ouch! Too bad, Grond0.

GL with your Diviner.

 

 

If you knew it was a fire trap, why not (also) protect yourself against fire?

I know it seems perverse in a no-reload, but I've played the game so much that I normally feel the need to spice things up a bit .  That might be done by for instance:

- using mods to increase difficulty and provide unknown challenges.

- applying specific restrictions to game play.

- taking unnecessary risks in order to get that 'adrenaline rush' when they come off.

 

I will change my view about the appropriate level of risk over time - if I've had success lately that's a signal I should take more risks.  Conversely if I'm on one of my miserable runs of form I will be much more likely to (at least start a run) trying to play without risk.

 

As I suggested in the original post there's a balance to be struck when taking risks.  If the risk is too great then the run becomes pretty much unwinnable - so for instance I wouldn't take a monk into melee combat at low levels as even things like a kobold or gibberling could easily kill him with a single shot.  You might get away with it a few times, but you won't get through a long run that way.

 

Later on though I might well consciously take a risk in selected fights - for instance I have often finished Sarevok off in melee in a situation where he has a chance to win if he gets a critical.  I also often allow a monk to take on several opponents at once knowing that a couple of criticals in succession would result in death before I could react, but deeming that risk to be low enough to take on a number of occasions (and yes trying that has resulted in several deaths for me ).

 

Triggering traps is a favourite area in which I take risks.  They are normally intended to be quite low level (this occasion was an exception - if I'd realised mirrors were ineffective I would have used the ring of fire resistance to reduce the risk), but as I do it so much traps are a regular source of death for me.  I think that's fine - it means traps continue to have a meaningful role in the game even though I know where they are and what they do.  The only part of BG1 I find unbalanced from this point of view is Durlag's Tower - the traps in the underground part of that are so frequent and so vicious that it's not really possible to take that 'minimal risk' approach (you either need to disarm them, protect your characters, or die ...).  Although that's not entirely true even there.  I have on a number of occasions gone through the Tower just suffering the trap damage, but one of the problems for me is that I normally prohibit any use of healing potions.  While that doesn't make it impossible, using rests to heal all the trap damage becomes a bit of a pain when it's happening so frequently.

[Grond0]

True class mage {8} (update 1)

 

Restarting once more I followed a similar path to the previous incarnation, though this time I killed Meilum fairly early on to get his bracers.  I also forgot to cast friends to get reputation from Drienne, but there were plenty of other sources anyway - even after I confirmed the finding in the previous run that Brage doesn't seem to be able to be talked down if Laryssa is attacked without warning.  

 

I've just finished the intended work at Durlag's Tower to catch up with where the last run ended (and this time I did indeed use the ring of fire resistance against that trap on the roof ).  

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That seems like a good point to leave it for today.

[ussnorway]

SDE -03, 

 

Be it ever so humble;

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

I must admit a certain envy of Viconia, yes she is beautiful but I don’t care about looks… what really boils is the ease with which her spells come, hell even Aunty J has it better (than me). I struggle with my spell selection because of my nature… I should give priority to group support but I also KNOW none of this group can be trusted and the only person I can truly count on is myself.

 

I’ve been gifted with a new aoe spell that freezes (slows) and damages targets over a wide area which comes in handy when wiping out bandit warrens… the fact I’m immune to the spells effects pleases me as well even if it isn’t an advantage I can exploit often.

 

Spoiler

 

With the bandits dispatched and mines flooded we entered the main city to track the iron throne leaders but they have surprised me by hiding behind Candlekeeps walls. Death is coming to my enemies… I’ll not be swayed by sentiment!

 

Tomes given to party members;
Charisma and Intelligence = Imoen.
Wisdom = Viconia… I may give the next one to Imoen?

[Grond0]

True class mage {8} (2nd and final update)
 
An early morning session saw me rattle through the remainder of BG1.
 
The session started by continuing yesterday's task of looking for high-value XP and that commenced with various sirines on the coast.  The first group at the Lighthouse responded to skull traps by attacking individually and were meleed under Greenstone Amulet protection.  Sil's group were more accommodating though - staying still to be killed by 2 skull traps and a fireball (level 8).  

Spoiler

The golems were hit by magical sling bullets (I bypassed the charm trap in the cave).  Up the coast a bit there were more sirines - this time MSD was used as an initial defense against charm, with the Greenstone Amulet only activated to melee the final sirine.

Spoiler

The next target was the Valley of the Tombs where the Revenant was magic missiled without being allowed close, while Narcillicus was persuaded to produce 2 mustard jellies to be drawn away and distracted by summons using the wand from the ghast tomb.  

Spoiler

The mage himself was then skull trapped from out of sight.
 
The final high-value XP area done was the motherlode at the basilisk area.  That went very smoothly with the wand of frost being used a few times to soften basilisks up for a melee finish. The death of all of them got me to level 9, allowing a small smirk as a first use of cloudkill saw Kirian's mob rapidly coughing their lives up inside a web / stinking cloud - for once I didn't bother with getting Korax to help with them.

Spoiler

With preparations complete I quickly skipped through the Nashkel Mine invisible and skull trapped Mulahey.  The same fate overtook the amazons on the way back to Nashkel where Nimbul needed something a bit more precise - a single magic missile from invisible sent him running to his doom.

Spoiler

It was back to skull traps from out of sight for Tranzig before moving on to the Bandit Camp.  A series of sleep spells there carved a way through the Camp to find Taugosz who didn't last long against magic missiles.  Inside the tent another cloudkill proved to be an instant killer for all 4 enemies.  

Spoiler

I also checked there that, although mirrors don't work against lightning (suggesting it's an area effect spell), MSD does (suggesting it's a specific target spell).  I had taken the precaution there though of also wearing Mulahey's boots to minimise the chance of another fatal misjudgement!
 
After skipping the Cloakwood, long distance skull traps killed Kysus and Rezdan, leaving magic missiles and melee to finish off the others.

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Nothing was hurt in the mines on the way down to Davaeorn where wand scorchers and magic missiles made short work of the battle horrors.  Davaeorn expended his spells on some summoned dogs, leaving him with only his staff to attack me.

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Arriving in Baldur's Gate I learnt more spells before undertaking the poison quest.  MSD protected against Jalantha's flame strike while Marek was occupied by summons (and his intended spells both interrupted by MMs).  

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Ramazith survived a skull trap, so I nipped outside, went invisible and came back in to finish the job - I didn't bother killing the other residents of his tower this time though.

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At the Iron Throne a webbed cloudkill with a bit of extra area damage thrown in killed the casters.  A single wand scorcher finished off all 3 remaining enemies, though Zhalimar did get a hit in.

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After sorting out the Seven Suns I reported in to Duke Eltan for duty in Candlekeep.  MGoI was used there to protect against webs, lightning and fireball while robbing the tombs.  The dopplegangers were just bypassed, but Prat's gang all died of cloudkill and associated complications.

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Back in the City Slythe chewed his way quickly through some wolves, but was less successful against magic missiles.  

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At the palace malison set the stage for all the dopplegangers to be confused.  

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After killing them Belt was drawn into a side room to have a conversation - ensuring he was in no danger from Sarevok.  
 
After beating up the inhabitants of the maze (aided by a scroll of PfU), I made use of cloudkill again on the Undercity party.  In the temple it came in handy once more against Semaj - he was initially occupied by summons when he teleported out and didn't react to the cloudkill arriving from out of sight.  

Spoiler

There was then a bit of fun being chased by Sarevok round and round the room, trying to get enough distance to cast magic missiles (I hadn't used any potions, so Sarevok's base speed was the same as mine with boots of speed).  Eventually I managed to unload all 7 of those on him, without being hit in return, and the final one proved to be the last straw.

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[corey_russell]

Congrats Grond0! Looks like a smooth run! Hope Amn goes just as well...