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[Gate70]

Blaggerd uses what remains of his time wisely. With minimal items to buy, no potions used and buffing more or less being chant/bless/haste the horde roll on.

 

Zhalimar Cloudewulfe and gang may be facing low level enemies but their luck is not in.

 

On to Prat and his gang, with similar results. Blaggerd and Slayer are a little confused though.

 

Always handy to have Slow Poison to hand when Blaggerd gets nasty.

 

Garla is unable to snare Rashad, so fishes in her potion container and uses a firebreath to finish the job.

 

Cythandria gets a rare visit, nobody knows why other than Slayer and he's not telling yet.

 

One set of Slayer armor.

 

Into the temple of Bhaal, with Sarevok dispelled by Slayer. Semaj arrives and is cut down in his prime.

 

The big man is down, but Blaggerd and the Horde appear to have little time for rest.

 

Everyone has between 67356-68027xp on arrival.

[corey_russell]

@Gate70 - Congrats! Best of luck for BG 2, if you need it. : )

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {51} - monks party (update 5 - possibly final)

 

At the Cloakwood Mine a pre-emptive strike killed Kysus before he knew he was under attack and Rezdan was also stunned before he could move away.  With Genthore running in horror it was then easy enough to finish things off.

 

Inside the mine Hareishan was pulled back to the entrance to her level and a couple of her spells dodged before pressing the attack. Moving on down Natasha was stunned and an ogre mage bludgeoned to death.  After tripping the traps near Davaeorn the monks went up to the top of the mine to rest before returning.  Davaeorn was dragged over to the exit and there was then a lengthy session of using stealth to get attacks on him and the guards before running away.  After killing a few of his guards Davaeorn finally followed them back upstairs where he was vulnerable to being attacked.  His mirrors and stoneskins would evaporate faster than he could renew them, but there was always the danger of him unleashing a lethal spell - I suspect he was trying to cast sunfire when he was interrupted and moments later he was dead.

 

The monks flooded the mine, but dodged the slave outside before going to the temple to make a little donation - ensuring that Chimera picked up slow poison this time.  After going back to the mine to pick up the reputation increase the monks finally found their way to the City. Their first encounter there was with the mages above sorcerous sundries and was exceedingly unfortunate.  One of them panicked and ran downstairs and, even though the mage was never within sight of the shopkeeper, he turned hostile.  That means the monks can't buy lots of useful potions and scrolls and, in particular, won't be able to get a wand of the heavens each.

 

Shrugging off that setback they went to recover the ogre gauntlets, in order to be able to kick most doors down, and started working their way through the city.  Progress was trouble-free for a while, until they had another near-death experience when Jardak hit with a 40 HP critical to almost kill Wraith.  He hit several of the other monks before finally collapsing.  I also made a mistake in forgetting to surround and kill Lothander - thus missing out on a second pair of boots of speed.

 

The next near escape with much of the city done was against the Mountain Maulers - when Nader got a critical miss from an attempted backstab while I was concentrating on Gretek.

Spoiler

Immediately afterwards Nader ran out of the door and I thought that would be the last I saw of him until a target ventured out to get him to show himself.  However, after Gretek died I discovered I was wrong as Nader had snuck back inside the inn and this time his backstab didn't miss - annoyingly, if I hadn't dismissed him as a threat I would have used Bhaal CLW on Spirit just before that, which would have been enough to save her.

Spoiler

 

I started the run with the aim of trying to undertake all possible encounters other than Durlag's Tower, without any casualties.  However, I'm thinking perhaps I may have to give in on that aim.  Although it's certainly possible, there are just so many opportunities for one of them to die in such a long run and I'm not sure my concentration would ever last so long - even in that last battle Spirit was only injured to start with because I didn't want the hassle of running Gretek round the room while all the other individual fights were taking place (and having been injured she should really have been constantly on the move to protect against backstabs).  

 

If I do give up on my original objective I might as well continue the run (the fact that HPs are good is an added attraction) by getting Spirit raised.  It's quite a while since the monks have been in BG2 and I think I'm probably now able to give them a better run there, so it might also be nice to test that out.

[Grond0]

The big man is down, but Blaggerd and the Horde appear to have little time for rest.

 

I've still not loaded it, but methinks this is a sign that Blaggerd is going hunting in the SoD before progressing to BG2 ...

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - I'm glad you are continuing - it's hard enough to get monks to Melissan, period - much less with no deaths and potions! It would be great to get a Trilogy success with 6 monks - I say press on! If 6 paladins can do, so can monks, right? 

[Tarsiz]

Hi!

As this is my first post on this forum, I'd first like to say I enjoy reading this thread very much. I find most of you guys have a real talent for storytelling and following the progression of so many great runs is both highly enjoyable and inspiring.

I recently went back myself to the wonderful world of Baldur's Gate - still the best games ever made - and I realized that, even after so many years, I could still remember quite well the locations of traps, the spells commonly used by enemy mages, the hidden objects... And as I had never tried to beat the game in one push, I decided to give it a try. I'll also try to solo it (though I might get killed very fast and then would start with an easier objective...).

I started with a neutral good elf Assassin. I plan to take her to SoA and ToB afterwards so that I can benefit from the high backstab damages. For now it is a bit less efficient than a true class Thief, but I still find the poisoned weapon enjoyable (and the slight bonus to damage and THACO is always nice).

Here's my character:

(I play on core rules but maximized my HP)

 

So far I mostly stayed in the low level areas. I mostly use hit-and-run tactics, hiding in shadows as soon as I can. With 70/70 in move silently/hide, it is still barely a 50% chance success... I sold the hidden items to get the venom dagger which enabled me to clear the Nashkell Mines. Mulahey was a long and boring fight, as I took his minions one after the other...

 

Back to Nashkell, I almost died to Nimbul who had a chance to cast fear. Luckily, Marlene chose to run straight away instead of wandering in the combat zone so I only took one shot of magic missiles (if he had cast his lightning bolt, I would perhaps have died). I need to find a reliable way to take wizards down. I was thinking about getting the Free Action ring in Ulgoth's Beard, and maybe the Greenstone amulet by I would need more money.

 

I'll see how it goes!

[corey_russell]

Welcome, Tarsiz!

 

Best of luck in your new run. I have some tips - ignore if you know already or don't want:

 

1) Looks like you are using a modded BG - if so, shield amulet helps tremendously against Nimbul - even if you get feared, you are protected from magic missiles! Would be useful against a number of other mages too (like Tarnesh). Keep in mind some (like Mutamutin) use Melif's, so won't work for all mages.

2) Poisoned arrows/poisoned darts are the safest way to take down mages for a solo thief (assuming you can't snare, which as an assassin you surely don't have the points). Sure you can use your dagger of venom but you are too close (you wouldn't like them to VD you). If mirror images are up, if you don't have dispelling arrows, best wait out the mirrors.

2) You mentioned long fight with Mulahey's minions - necklace of missiles (carnival tent) or sleep wand (from Thalantyr's) can be a huge help for a solo thief - my solo thieves always got these two items, I found them invaluable (throwing fireballs from the shadows is fun!)

 

Hope you have an enjoyable run! I'm enjoying my own new thief run so far...

[Gate70]

May not be modded, looks like the latest user interface for enhanced edition.

 

Good luck

[Tarsiz]

Thanks for the tips! I had no idea the shield amulet offered immunity to magic missiles... Looks like my buying of the greenstone necklace/shadow armor will be delayed.

 

It is indeed the user interface for the enhanced edition.

 

If I recall correctly, Mutamin is the mad mage found in the basilisk area. I think I will not even try it, since my only ways of protection would be to use the friendly ghoul or mirroring potions, the later having a very short duration. Since I'm quite slow at killing anything, I would seem a bit too risky. I should be able to do without the XP.

[corey_russell]

Forgot to mention there's another really good way to deal with mages - while shooting down lots of darts/arrows to take down mirrors, you can be protected yourself by potions of magic blocking. Stops all the usual serious problems for a soloist, like hold, confusion, charm etc. My solo characters use this method very often. almost all my solo characters killed Nimbul with this potion.

[Blackraven]

Well met Tarsiz and welcome! Good luck with your Assassin. You might find that in BGEE v2.0 Assassins underwent a serious (and in my opinion questionable) nerf: the game now allows foes a saving throw to completely negate the poison effect. Hopefully this doesn't spoil the fun for you. Enjoy your run!

 

Gate70 congrats! See you in Amn

 

Wynter, LN Human Invoker, final BG1 update

Besides procuring a DEX tome, Wynter had more business to take care of in the city, such as adding tomes of INT (Ramazith stunned with Wand of Paralyzation) and WIS (Chantalas Ulbright pickpocketed by ferret) to his collection, finding and selling two of ol' Balduran's items, slaying Doppelgangers, and nearly getting himself killed by an Ogre Mage and its pet Carrion Crawlers. This last feat was quite astonishing. One moment the Invoker was standing between his soon-to-be-foes, invisible and getting ready for battle with the quaffing of a potion of freedom,

Spoiler

and the next the Ogre Mage was aware of Wynter standing next to him. I really have no idea what had made Wynter become visible, or otherwise prompted the dialogue with the Ogre Mage. Maybe my mouse did something I didn't want it to (I've noticed it behaving strangely as of late). The consequences were very serious. Wynter tried to run, he was still hasted but didn't enjoy warp speed with the combined effects of the boots and an oil of speed, due to the potion of freedom. However, the Ogre's Horror caught up with him before he could quaff a potion of magic shielding (he had a muddy aura). Miraculously he saved against a Charm, survived two Magic Missiles, and avoided most of the Carrion Crawlers' attacks.

Spoiler

Once back in control of himself, he immediately drank an invisibility potion, then healed, buffed, and finished his enemies with a Cloudkill.

Spoiler

Cloudkill was also Wynter's opening move at the Iron Throne. It killed not-yet-shapeshifted Emissary Tar, and injured most of the others. Knowing himself outnumbered, and aware that his spell buffs weren't going to last long enough, Wynter decided not to fight all his enemies at the same time. He drew Naaman, Diyab, Aasim, and Alai downstairs one after the other, and made liberal use of his wands (Fire, Paralyzation) to defeat them and pick up a coveted Minor Sequencer scroll amongst other loot. He approached Thaldorn invisibly, and quaffed an invisibility potion when he was done talking, as he heard a voice from the shadows sayin "Sorry, friend, but you and I've got a date, down under." (One of the Shennaras had located Wynter.)

Before traveling to Candlekeep to meet the Iron Throne leaders, Wynter undertook a little excursion to an ice island somewhere in the Trackless Sea. Invisibility, and spell and potion buffs allowed him navigate the dungeon without having to fear its traps. Wynter made sure he covered the whole floor, triggering the traps while he could. He went straight for Dezkiel but couldn't find him. My characters don't often go to the ice island, but for Wynter it was the only place where he could get his hands on a Stoneskin scroll. I had him fight the other wizards, playing fair against the first three (Andris, Beyn, Marcellus). Wynter engaged them fully buffed, which at this stage of the game meant Shield, PfE, Blur, MI, MGoI, II, and had them waste their spells on a summoned Skeleton and wand summons. Of course Andris's Remove Magic was successful, whereas Wynter's attempts at stripping the opposition's protections failed, so the latter ended up staying out of his enemies' sight. When Andris seemed out of spells, and Wynter approached, the former still had a Flame Arrow that burnt away half of Wynter's HPs, but that would be Andris's last feat. Wynter wand-scorchered his foe to death.

Spoiler

Andris dropped a Remove Magic scroll, a nice find for Wynter who hadn't encountered that scroll before. (I believe Davaeorn is supposed to have one, but I must have missed it this time.) As I couldn't be bothered with fighting the other mages fair and sqaure, I had Wynter read a green PfMagic scroll and just cruise the dungeon with his wands and the occasional scroll-cast spell. This may not bode well for BG2: I dislike repeated resting, and I tend to lose interest in sophisticated buffing/stripping chessgames and much prefer to just get to business asap, even with my mages. 
With all mages down, and still no sign of Dezkiel, I consoled the latter into the game. Wynter then had him fight wand summons while waiting for his foe's protections to expire. Again, this is starting to become repetitive, the Wand of Fire finished the job.

Spoiler

(I later discovered that BG1 Unfinished Business's Ice Island Level Two Restoration was the reason Dezkiel hadn't spawned; he spawns on the island's restored second level.) 

Back in Baldur's Gate another thrilling experience awaited the Invoker. Ferret failed to pickpocket Resar's Fireshield: Blue scroll, the last scroll Wynter desired for a final scribing session, so the Invoker ended up slaying the Haalruan with MMMs and a Skull Trap.

Spoiler

Hostile Thieves were Cloudkilled but Alatos had a nasty surprise for Wynter on the way out

Spoiler

before Wynter scorched the guild leader.

Before the gates of Candlekeep Wynter quaffed a potion of clarity to counter Ogre Mages' Charms, but he would have done better with a potion of magic blocking because Magic Missiles and Melf's Acid Arrows seriously injured the wizard before he found shelter in the citadel.

Spoiler

In and below Candlekeep, Wynter limited himself to plundering bookshelves and vaults, leaving the Iron Throne leaders and Prat & Co alone.

Wynter returned to Baldur's Gate to see Slythe waste his invisibility potions on wand-summoned Hobgoblins. The Stoneskinned wizard lured the assassin through the Blushing Mermaid onto the streets, where a wand-scorcher killed a courtesan for a late, irrelevant reputation drop, and back to the Undercellars, where he finished his foe with a Magic Missile right in front of a second Slythe and Krystin.

Spoiler

(Due to a bug the two respawn if Charname leaves the Undercellars and returns.)

I was worried about the Ducal Palace but Wynter had an easy time there. He had made use of an aTweaks ability that allows wizards as of level 9 to scribe scrolls of memorized spells (costs gold though and the memorized spell is used up for that day). He summoned five Skeletons (from scrolls), buffed with the usual potions (violet, agility, mind focusing, fortitude, magic protection, defense, power, speed, regen), and with several spells (Stoneskin, MI, Blur, Fireshields, II), Hasted the Skeletons, cast Invisibility on Liia, and prevailed.

Spoiler

Both Dukes survived; Belt received some healing from Wynter after the Greater Doppelganger Mage had injured him and others with a Fireball. Sarevok did not reach Belt, and thus the story continued in the Undercity.

Wynter rested and, with the violet potion still effective, rebuffed with the same potions as at the Ducal Palace. He had heavily buffed Angelo shoot his wad at summons, before he fried the Flaming Fist commander with his wand. Semaj and Tazok were done in with Fireballs shot from a distance; Diarmid was wand-scorchered to death. Wynter killed the Skeleton Warriors with his staff while protected from Undead. His Boots of Speed combined with oils of speed ensured the wizard's movement advantage over Sarevok. That didn't keep him from taking a heavy blow after he proved overoptimistic in calculating his time for firing a Magic Missile at his foe,

Spoiler

but other than that there was never a doubt which Bhaalspawn was going to prevail, even though Wynter had to tap into his scrolls collection to submit his foe.

Spoiler

Thus Wynter became my first single-class mage and my first character in a nightmare run to no-reload his way through BG1. It hasn't been my most refined playthrough, with a few unnecessary close calls (Bandit Camp, Alatos, Ogre Mages, Sarevok), and with heavy reliance on items (wands, scrolls) although that was largely due to a lack of spells in large battles.

[Blackraven]

Thanks for the tips! I had no idea the shield amulet offered immunity to magic missiles... Looks like my buying of the greenstone necklace/shadow armor will be delayed.

 

It is indeed the user interface for the enhanced edition.

 

If I recall correctly, Mutamin is the mad mage found in the basilisk area. I think I will not even try it, since my only ways of protection would be to use the friendly ghoul or mirroring potions, the later having a very short duration. Since I'm quite slow at killing anything, I would seem a bit too risky. I should be able to do without the XP.

 

Spoiler

There's a green scroll of Protection from Petrification for sale at the Nashkel Carnival with a duration of six hours. That tends to be enough for my rogues.

[Grond0]

If I recall correctly, Mutamin is the mad mage found in the basilisk area. I think I will not even try it, since my only ways of protection would be to use the friendly ghoul or mirroring potions, the later having a very short duration. Since I'm quite slow at killing anything, I would seem a bit too risky. I should be able to do without the XP.

The basilisks are actually the no-reloader's friend.  You can argue it's a bit cheesy, but buying the green scroll of protection from petrification at the Carnival gives you more than enough time to kill all the basilisks in that area for over 22k XP (if you don't know the location of them, you can stealth between encounters to avoid Mutamin and Kirian's party).

 

Edit - and I see I was slower to post than Blackraven anyway .

[corey_russell]

The basilisks are actually the no-reloader's friend.  You can argue it's a bit cheesy, but buying the green scroll of protection from petrification at the Carnival gives you more than enough time to kill all the basilisks in that area for over 22k XP (if you don't know the location of them, you can stealth between encounters to avoid Mutamin and Kirian's party).

 

Edit - and I see I was slower to post than Blackraven anyway .

It's hardly necessary though. There is just so much experience for a solo character to be had. My solo characters have never needed the basilisks, and generally only come here to get Kirian's slashing belt if I intend to tank Sarevok.

[Serg BlackStrider]

It's always nice to see new faces here. Well met and welcome to the Crew, Tarsiz! All the best and safe travels for Marlene!

 

And congrats to all recent successful ones. Especially to Blackraven with thy first single-class solo mage on nightmare run. Stay safe in Amn!

[Grond0]

Good to see you overcoming your nightmares Blackraven .

[Dyara]

Congratulations, Blackraven

[Blackraven]

Thanks for the congratulations everyone. Sadly, Wynter's glory was short-lived...

[corey_russell]

Corthief IX (formerly Corthief VII) the level 4 dwarven thief - Update 2

Traveling with: Ajantis (paladin), Minsc (ranger), Branwen (cleric), Kivan (ranger), Dynaheir (evoker)

 

So Corthief IX has made some more progress. Most of the party is level 4, but a few laggards are still level 3. The party does pretty well, except in archer ambushes Dynaheir usually gets slaughtered. But there's very little to be done for that until we get her invisibility. Being a mage (can't wear armor), plus terrible dexterity is just a bad combo for her. For some reason, Corthief IX is hogging all the general purpose (shield amulet, belt of piercing) anti-arrow equipment we have. 

 

Just recently, Dynaheir got access to level 2 spells, so we will get invisibility for her soon. Also, next session we'll do a raid on the xvart village and get some bracers for Dynaheir. Minsc is happy with his new magical mace. And thanks to Branwen holding Greywolf, Kivan has a nice, shiny long sword to play with. He's thinking about joining Minsc and Ajantis in the front lines, but Ajantis says hold off until he can get a magical two-hand sword (this way we can use Ajantis ** in Two-Hand Weapon skill) Corthief IX finally got a magical short bow. Kivan has a magical composite bow as well. 

 

A few things accomplished:

* Silke defeated - don't think she even so much as got a spell off. Staff went to Corthief IX.

* Spiders in Landarin's home cleared out. We earlier got free antidotes from Landarin, so this made it pretty safe. Minsc got poisoned once and that was the gist of it.

* Karlat defeated - for some reason, when Branwen did command: die, Karlat then proceeded to just that - who would've thunk it?

* Bjorin's half-ogres defeated (easily) - shield went to Branwen.

* Jemby's group defeated - Jemby herself was taken out quickly with the entire party doing ranged fire on her - and once she went down, her cohorts couldn't resist.

* Drizzt was assisted - we didn't fancy making him mad. We don't need his scimitars anyways.

* Samuel rescued (for a ring)

* Zorgal crushed - main reason he didn't do well is Branwen had done resist fear to protect the party.

* Area with dead cat cleared

* Landarin's items returned. Reward was pretty basic, but guess every little bit helps.

* Lion's Way (think that's what that area is called, with the ogre with the belt fetish) was cleared. Candlekeep area where Gorion dies was cleared as well.

* A number of ghast/ghoul ambushes were successfully weathered. Though Branwen got held and killed in one them, but we brought her back.

 

Will keep at it!

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {51} - monks party (update 6)

 

Carrying on with the run for a while to see how I felt I soon had another casualty due to not paying full attention - I didn't even realise Wraith was being targeted by Schlumpsha here.  

Spoiler

A bit more action saw Degrodel's guards pulled out of their house to be defeated one by one - taking the monks up to level 8.  There was another generally excellent set of rolls there, taking all the monks back above average and making me feel more like continuing.

 

The remainder of the city was cleared, finishing off with the Iron Throne.  An opening blast of fireballs there killed one of the Shennaras.  

Spoiler

After killing a couple more on the stairs, including a hard battle with Gardush, another round of fireballs finished off the other Shennara - though Spirit complained one of those wasn't targeted well enough!  

Spoiler

A few more fireballs then left only a few cowering merchants alive.

Spoiler

 

With all work finished in the City for now they accepted Duke Eltan's mission to investigate Candlekeep.  Arriving there they ran into an ogre mage ambush.  I deliberately didn't give them any protection against magic, but dispersing themselves and a first use of darts of stunning managed to put all the ogre magi out of action quite quickly and none of them survived to take any further action.

Spoiler

 

After a good night's rest they moved on to the library and killed the Iron Throne leaders there, without taking any damage,

Spoiler

before giving themselves up to the guards.  In the catacombs Chimera could open one tomb using DUHM and did that while triggering traps on the others.  After resting, he then used the party's only cloud giant strength potion (thanks to Sorcerous Sundries being unavailable) topped up with DUHM to get the tomes. 

 

I don't normally bother with the ghasts, but they were quickly beaten up this time, along with the dopplegangers and skeletons in the next area.  Moving on they had to postpone an attack on Prat to deal with some teleporting spiders, but eventually got around to it.  Prat survived the initial attack and managed to go invisible just before being stunned by a dart - prompting a carpet bombing campaign of the area until he died.  

Spoiler

Wraith's ring of free action for the spiders and a scroll of PfP for the basilisks then dealt with the remaining enemies.

 

Rather than go straight back to the city the monks bade a fond farewell to Thalantyr and his golems.  

Spoiler

Back at Firewine they then went to find Kahrk - he used PfMW (failing to realise the monks' fists were not yet magic).  

Spoiler

As I'm not following the original aim of this run I decided I wasn't morally obliged to make my painful way through the Firewine Ruins.  The monks did though go to Ulcaster where they struggled to beat up Icharyd before being electrocuted.  

Spoiler

They also took on the Wolf using fire damage on him.  They were fortunate that only one of them was panicked by an opening howl of terror and managed to kill it just before a howl of the grave made some ghouls appear.

Spoiler

 

Chimera - L8, 63 HPs, 330 kills

Spectre - L8, 61 HPs, 536 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L8, 61 HPs, 319 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L8, 57 HPs, 333 kills, 1 death

Spook - L8, 62 HPs, 312 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L8, 60 HPs, 287 kills, 1 death

[Blackraven]

Saoni, CN Elven Dragon Disciple, 1st BG1 report 

I think I'm going to continue a run I started a couple of weeks ago with a Dragon Disciple, Saoni,

Spoiler

so I might as well tell y'all something about her and cover her progress so far.
She was randomly generated using the WotC dice roller to determine gender, race, class/kit (out of classes/kits I hadn't played yet), and alignment, but I rerolled for nice stats and adjusted them. Her starting spells were Shield and Spook. Starting prof was daggers. 
As my first Sorcerer and also the first character I exposed to insane difficulty mode, she started out as a bit of an experiment, with power and abilities being more of interest to me than role-play. She power-leveled to level 5 by soloing XP-heavy areas. But later the adventure became much role-played as a result of her decision to form a party. And not just any party, but one of free-spirited, fun-loving people, without her caring about her companions' usefulness. Saoni is not a woman with a mission. Having a good time is her main concern. It's the journey that matters, not the destination and all that.

Anyway, the first thing she did, in her powergaming days, was killing Shoal. Rather risqué to go there straight from Candlekeep and High Hedge, as some of my solo Mages would later teach me, but that kind of fits her style. As does her early tackling of Tarnesh with her breath that had him panic after her into the FAI. She blinded him there with a Chromatic Orb, her third level 1 spell (picked when she reached level 3), and finished him off with her throwing daggers. Saoni would put that spell to great use btw. It's amazing how often enemies fail their save despite the +6 save bonus.
She then quested between Beregost and Nashkel, experimenting a bit more with her dragon breath (range, damage, casting time).

Spoiler

and attained level 4 (spell pick: Invisibility) at some point.
Soon after that she traveled to Mutamin's garden where the four Basilisks in the south gave their lives for the Elf to reach level 5 (spell picks: PfE, MI). She managed to slay five more Basilisks but her PfPetrification ran out before she could deal with the last (Greater) Basilisk and Mutamin. Rather than buying blue scrolls at the High Hedge, Saoni decided to invisibly instruct Korax to attack those two. The Ghoul delivered, but got itself killed not much later by Kirian & Co, a party that Saoni decided not to confront yet. This is where the powergamey chapter ended and where a new phase in her adventuring life started.

In Beregost Saoni happened to meet a fellow wizard, Neera, whom she decided to aid against a group of Red Wizards that were after her. Neera didn't survive the encounter, but Saoni (with Shield as her only buff, very risky again) successfully disrupted the Thayvian wizard once before he successfully cast a Grease at her, which prompted the Elf to go invisible. One Chromatic Orb stunned the Thayvian wizard, and another one a bodyguard so in the end, she handled the situation with relative ease.

Spoiler

I then used the console to 'resurrect' (i.e. spawn a new) Neera whose proposal to join Saoni was accepted by the Elf. I'm aware that this is technically a cheat, but it's next to impossible keeping Neera alive at insane difficulty and with BG2Tweaks' ToB-style NPCs, pursuant to which NPCs immediately level-up upon joining, with the caveat that all creature files are moved down to their lowest experience version. Either way, consoling a Wild Mage into the party doesn't necessarily make things easier, to put it mildly.

The two girls did something rather unwise, namely accepting Garrick's offer to protect his mistress for a feww hundred GP. They soon found out that Silke had played both the girls and Garrick. It wasn't the thespian who required protection, but the men she supposedly feared. The girls didn't like being set up and battle ensued. Saoni (Chromatic Orb) and Neera (Magic Missile) thwarted Silke's first spellcasting attempt together, and Saoni also disrupted attempt number two.

Spoiler

Neera suffered a hit that badly injured her; she quaffed an invisibility potion tp prevent further harm. She then drank a healing potion and together the girls did some more damaging and disrupting with another Chromatic Orb / Magic Missile combo, followed by a Spook (Saoni) and an Aganazzar's Scorcher.

Spoiler

Saoni protected both Neera and herself from Evil, and that may have helped Neera save against her own Wild Surge: a Burning Hands that set not only Silke but also herself on fire.

Spoiler

Silke, still going strong, put Neera to Sleep and went after Saoni. The latter went Invisible to interrupt the Bard's process of casting a spell at her.

Spoiler

The battle continued with Saoni launching another Chromatic Orb at Silke, and Silke seeing a Magic Missile wasted on Shielded Saoni.

Spoiler

Silke proceeded with casting Ghost Armor, but that didn't help her against Saoni's next Chromatic Orb, which stunned the Bard, leaving her helpless before Saoni's throwing daggers.

Spoiler

What a delightful battle!

Garrick joined the party and promptly awarded Saoni with a pink cloak that made the pretty Elf look comelier than ever. Neera woke up, but the trio rested a bit more. The next day they decided to explore the area west and southwest of Beregost. Neera explained an accident similar to the one she had had with Silke, had been the cause of her self-imposed exile from her community in the High Forest. 
The companions slew a Wolf to save chickenated Melicamp, and traveled to the High Hedge to have his master Thalantyr restransform him. Saoni's fiery breath helped the party to the required spell component,

Spoiler

but Thalantyr failed to restore his apprentice.

There's a bit more to tell, but I have other things to do, so that will have to wait.

[Jianson]

Nice going, you two.

 

@Grond0: Two Shennaras, what's up with that? Shouldn't the other thief be named K-something?

 

@Blackraven: Love that Silke battle! Really exciting.

(the yellow circle on your character had me confused - I thought she was Horrored...)

[Aasim]

Either way, consoling a Wild Mage into the party doesn't necessarily make things easier, to put it mildly.

[Tarsiz]

Marlene's adventures were short lived (fortunately, her film career was a bit more successful).

 

I acquired two magical necklaces at the Carnival, as well as a scroll of protection against petrification. I then headed east and immediately used the scroll... before realizing I was actually in the wrong area! Back to Carnival for another scroll, then to the Temple. The group of wolves earned my level 6, but I was almost killed by a vampiric wolf. I always wondered what special attack the beast had - otherwise, its 2000 xp are hugely overestimated. Fortunately, it was not able to finish me and I could quickly retreat to High Hedge for some liberty potions. It proved, however, useless, as I was able to finish the wolf without getting hit.

 

Next was Mutamin's garden. Basilisks fights go on pretty well, though I have to run, over and over, to get a chance to stealth. With the help of Korax and x3 backstabs, the fights are kept short. Mutamin is cowardly paralyzed by Korax and so is dealt with without much trouble. Of course, I try the group of fighters for equipment, severely damaging them with two necklace's fireballs. The mage is taken care of, then I stealth and lure the main fighter (the one in plate). Unfortunately, the cleric follows and start casting a yellowish spell. Pretty sure it's a hold, I quaff a liberty potion... However, it's the level 3 confusion-like spell, and it hits me while I'm armed with the bow and still followed by the fighter! He might have been near dead but he sure hit hard! Two consecutive critical misses cannot save the poor (but reckless) Marlene, who is ultimately slashed at level 7.

 

Playing a solo character is definitely fun. I still don't understand stealth though...

At level 7, Marlene had 75 move silently and 95 hide and shadows. I still failed stealth rolls like 4 times out of 5... So boring!

 

I will definitely try another no-reload challenge, but with a bigger group this time. I cannot stay focused enough to manage such a fragile character for a whole game without making mistakes (and I got lucky twice!).

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear to the end of your run, Tarsiz - looks like you got use of the necklaces though. As far as stealth goes - are you not going into shadows first before trying to hide? That is, the shadow cast by a building, rock, tree, etc. It is significantly harder to hide in the daylight than in the shadows. If you look carefully at the background you can see those shadows. It's much more reliable then at your scores you said you had.