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[Grimwald the Wise]

Squeamish continued

 

I forgot to mention an incident that had a quite important long tem effect.

 

I charmed Davenport and used him to attack Necardian.

 

Davenport was confused and killed Aoln which dropped reputation by 10.

 

It took a long time to get it back to 19!

 

In previous games I have charmed Aoln first. This is the preferred option.

 

Firstly, it uses up Necardian's confusion, hold and other spells safely. Therefore no reputation loss.

 

Secondly Necardian is then more vulnerable to Davenport's attacks.

 

Squeamish used summons to get Nester's dagger.

 

She has got the potion to recover from Marek's poison and returned the dead boy in the temple to his father who sounds a bit like my dad.

 

I am thinking that a visit to the Iron Throne is long overdue.

 

This will be done using stealth and so should not be a problem.

 

EDIT

Squeamish used stealth at Candlekeep as well as at the iron throne. Little conflict means less experience of course, but the equipment gained would have been of little use since Squeamish is not using weapons. She is back at the Gate now. Level 7 mage. level 7 thief. Reputation 20.

EDIT2

The Ducal palace and the Final battle turned out to be a bit of a let-down

 

They were much easier than my usual set-up.

 

http://s1108.photobu...ldr101.png.html

 

http://s1108.photobu...ldr099.png.html

 

http://s1108.photobu...ldr020.jpg.html

 

However, I was expecting to go straight to the Siege of Dragonspear. How do you get to that part of the game?

 

I won't take this character into ToB. I would like her to go to SoD first if I can discover why the installation isn't working.

 

I tried the DLCS downloader and it doesn't appear to be working for Dragonspear. It keeps failing.

 

I was pleased to discover that you can still play a non-murderous game in EE

[Enuhal]

Aditi, neutral good female gnome assassin with a randomized party, update 3

 

Aditi entered the second Cloakwood level and fought her way to Centeol, with Uther disarming traps. Inside, spirit animals were summoned quickly to stop the spiders while the party assisted with ranged weapon. Usually, I throw 5 or 6 fireballs (via potions) in here, but that wasn't neccessary this time.

 

In the next level, the party killed Peter and moved on. The hamadryad died to skeletons, and more summons helped with the wyvern cave. After resting, Aditi had 4 skeletons and a forest being summoned and challenged Drasus. Some of Uther's special traps also helped, and with the addition of cleric buffs, the battle was over very quickly.

 

Aditi returned to Beregost for a while to rest, sell and buy, before finally entering the Cloakwood Mines. After the first level, a spirit serpent was sent to Hareishan in an effort to draw out her lightning bolt spell. The animal was killed, but not before drawing a few spells and, more importantly, having some of the bandits turn on Hareishan, because she hurt them as well. The party managed to lure the dangerous wizard around the corner and killed her.

 

At the entrance to the next level, the clerics used some wand charges (fear and sleep) to avoid any surprises, since ranged weapons can really hurt the squishy thieves. Animal summoning I was used to make Natasha waste her spells while the party shot her. When attempting the same tactic with the ogre mage, Euphrosyne was confused, but luckily, she didn't walk into any enemies. Forest beings eventually managed to hold the foe.

 

Now, only Davaeorn was left: Uther disarmed the traps, and the clerics summoned skeletons, buffed them and tasked them with killing the mage - a task they completed without fail.

 

Time to enter Baldur's Gate!

 

First things first, with some animated dead and a summon spirit animals spell still left from the Cloakwood Mines, Niemain and his wizards were slain. Aditi bought a wand of heavens for the remaining two clerics. Euphrosyne eventually increased her Intelligence to 9 via the tome, so she could actually use hers. The party started completing lots and lots of sidequests, starting with the easier ones.

 

With Drelik, Aditi encountered a problem when being hit with a magic missle spell and had to leave the building - a second spell would have killed her. Jardak was much easier, since forest beings stunned him. The group also fought Larze, the ogre mage group (where the arrow from sorcerous sundries helped), obtained the gauntlets of ogre strength (for now, used by Ammon), hunted down a basilisk and got the dexterity tome for Aditi herself.

 

After exploring most of the city (except the northwestern and southwestern parts), I started the Marek & Lothander questline. Eurphrosyne got herself a tome of wisdom, and Marek was killed.

 

One fight was actually surprisingly tough, propably because I thought it would be easy and didn't use any summons and buffs: Wiven in south-western Baldur's Gate forced the party to leave the house, with Juturna getting hurt and having to drink potions. Nerthus also was in bad shape. I learned that my party is still terrible at straight up fighting, so I had my divine spellcasters use their wand of heaven charges, which eventually won me the battle (though some commoners are hostile now).

 

Anyway, when helping Aldeth, I also learned that doppelgangers are great at killing my spirit animals, so Euphrosyne had to tank some more (her ac is -9 now, though her health is still quite low).

 

For the tougher battles in the city, like the Helm&Cloak party, the party used their usual summons (in this case forest beings and skeletons) and buffs (by this point, protection from evil 3' radius, remove fear, chant, bless, strength of one, sometimes barbarian rage and poison weapons, sometimes defensive harmony, sometimes holy power and DUHM for both clerics). Traps were also helpful.

 

Last stop in Baldur's Gate: Degrodel's house. Juturna used a potion of hill giant strength and of heroism, and the party buffed in full. Upon entering, Nerthus summoned a spirit animal, and soon a second one. While the thieves got hurt, the rest of the party killed all of the enemies, and I didn't even have to use my wand charges.

 

For the second Degrodel fight, the party had time to summon additional skeletons, and Uther prepared all of his 4 traps. Degrodel was surrounded and killed, his minions quickly followed.

 

Aditi has reached level 8 now (*two-handed weapon style for her, *longsword for Uther, *scimitar for Nerthus), and the party is doing well, though the city has shown me that, without summons and buffs, everyone is still quite weak, especially the thieves. I can see this being an issue during the BG1 endgame.

 

Enuhal

 

 

[corey_russell]

Reem II the dwarven fighter/cleric - Update 3

 

Just a quick note - Reem II is now level 6 fighter/level 6 cleric, thanks to the sirines. This means he now has ** in two weapon skill. This in turn means he needs another magical warhammer (his only melee weapon skill). Thus, the Bandit Camp was joined. However, Khosann was held and killed for his warhammer. Some fireballs sorted out the extra archers that then showed up. For the Tazok's Tent, Reem Ii used sanctuary to both loot everything, as well as trip the trap (Reem II was protected by a potion of absorption, which he had used against Khosann in case Khosann wasn't held). He then left without a fight, since the Bow of Markmanship is quite useless to a fighter/cleric. Reem II made sure his antidotes was topped off. He also prepared for the Cloakwood 2 area, mainly a scroll of protection from poison and a freedom potion for the web traps. He will fight in that area, but only to get to the next area.

[Grond0]

Gail {4} - fighter / illusionist (update 1)

 

My second attempt to get Gail through to try her luck in SoD was a dismal failure when she was shot down by skeleton archers on her very first area transition.  A third attempt a while ago then failed with my favourite trick of forgetting to apply protection from petrification when fighting basilisks ...

 

A fourth attempt yesterday finally found success though, with grease, summons and improved invisibility for Belt providing a pretty easy victory at the palace.  Summons then occupied Semaj when he teleported out and then sorted Sarevok out when he joined in the fun.

Spoiler

 

Up to now I've carefully avoided reading any gameplay details about SoD, in order to face the challenges of the expansion without using my normal reliance on metagame knowledge.  As the main purpose of this run is to take on SoD I'll expect to cover the encounters there in more detail than I normally do - so if there's anyone still left who's trying to avoid finding out about it they shouldn't be reading future updates .

 

After the 'final' battle with Sarevok Gail has apparently chased some followers of Sarevok deep underground and discovered Imoen is down there too - promising assistance if necessary.  Here is Gail's current character record, after making use of all the tomes:

[corey_russell]

Grats Grond0 and best of luck with SoD!

[Dyara]

My best wishes too but I won't read until I've played SoD myself .

[Blackraven]

Yes Grond0, congratulations on beating Sarevok, and all the best in SoD.
Would you mind putting everything SoD-related behind spoiler tags? Like you I've been trying to avoid any info on SoD, and I want to be completely ignorant when entering that portion of the game.

[Grond0]

Would you mind putting everything SoD-related behind spoiler tags? Like you I've been trying to avoid any info on SoD, and I want to be completely ignorant when entering that portion of the game.

As all the information is SoD-related that means essentially everything needs to be inside spoiler tags - so here goes:

 

Gail {4} - fighter / illusionist (update 2)

 

Spoiler

Scouting ahead invisibly Gail came across a roomful of followers of Sarevok. She didn't have any area damage memorized and didn't want to waste any item charges, so used web and magic missiles to prevent anyone getting to close quarters. In the next room Porios and his crew were shown as neutral, but Gail assumed they would be going hostile soon and buffed up fully before talking - only to find they meekly surrendered after all!

After an invisible rest Gail continued on and, talking to a mummy, was tasked with "restoring peace to the tomb". However, when she helped herself to the contents of the mummy's coffin it went hostile and had to be struck down.

Moving on to the catacombs Gail stayed close to Imoen and the Flaming Fist to benefit from their help against various undead, while Gail stayed at range. She also recovered a corpse from some beetles, finding a broken staff that looked like it might be worth carrying around for a while.

After resting again there were more undead to deal with, followed by a group of mercenaries - one of those an assassin that managed a backstab on her.

She ran after that to wait out the poison until she could go invisible herself. The enemies had the follow-me script, so she couldn't get away from them easily, but after buffing she used her greater speed to get a bit of distance and put up a web to allow her to tackle them in dribs and drabs and finished them off without further problems.

More undead were led by a skeletal mage, but MGoI and improved invisibility protected against him. Beyond that a restless spirit was asking for the return of its staff. That seemed likely to be the one Gail picked up earlier, but returning that didn't seem to help and it looks like there must be another piece somewhere.

Shinning down a rope Gail disturbed more undead and quickly went back up to buff before going down to sort them out. She also found some cobalt moss and gave that to Ammon to make a potion before advising him on a potential way to get into Candlekeep.

A bit more invisible exploring discovered Korlasz with a large group of mercenaries - once more with a follow-me script. Gail retreated and killed a number of those in a web before buffing to finish off the remainder - ending with Korlasz surrendering.

Searching his equipment, Gail found the other bit of the staff to give to the restless spirit before departing for the Ducal Palace with the assurance she had rooted out the last of Sarevok's followers.

At the palace she has just been assaulted by minions from the Shining Lady and will no doubt find out more about this new adversary next time.

 

Fighter 7 / illusionist 7, 75 HPs, 231 kills

[Enuhal]

Aditi, neutral good female gnome assassin with a randomized party, update 4

 

Aditi left Baldur's Gate for a while to complete some of the easier TotSC content. She travelled to the Ice Island, where Juturna used a protection from magic scroll, allowing her to solo most of the place. For the ankhegs, the party helped out with some summons.

 

The group also killed the Doomsayer before travelling to Durlag's Tower to clear the upper levels. First, some battle horrors had to be killed. Inside, the slow undead actually managed to hit and hold Uther one time, but he was saved by the party.

 

The ghost upstairs fell to some skeletons, and Aditi helped Kirinhale with her problem. Another tome of wisdom went to Euphrosyne. Finally, Juturna used a protection from petrification scroll to tank the higher basilisks, and Nerthus has a new scimitar now.

 

Back to Baldur's Gate: The Iron Throne HQ was quickly explored, and for the fifth floor, the divine spellcasters buffed everyone with protection from fire. All party members used a fireball item to decimate the enemies. After some cleaning up, the battle was won, and Aditi returned to Candlekeep.

 

Some summons helped to kill Rieltar - not a battle to waste any buffs on. Down in the catacombs, the party had to deal with undead, doppelgangers and phase spiders. Both tomes were read by Euphrosyne. With some summoned animals and the buffs saved for this specific occasion, Aditi defeated the higher doppelganger; Finally, Nerthus still had his spirit animals for Prat.

 

Using another protection scroll, Juturna fought some basilisks once again. Things got much more interesting when Uther triggered a web trap by accident, with the whole party in range of the spell! Uther and Aditi had the rings of free action, and Juturna could switch to her Spider's Bane. Euphrosyne made her save, but Ammon and Nerthus were held. The sword spider immediately attacked Ammon, and while the party tried to save him, the cleric was dead in two deadly hits. Luckily, the others managed to kill the spiders and retrieve the cleric's equipment. He was raised at the temple.

 

The party returned to Baldur's Gate once again, this time storming the Flaming Fist HQ (with free action rings being quite helpful), killing Sarevok's concubine and dealing with Slythe and Krystin.

 

For the Duchal Palace, it was time to use the very best summons (spirit animals and forest beings), buffs (including holy power and duhm for the clerics) and some potions (for example heroism and giant strength for Juturna plus oil of speed for the three best melee fighters). When the battle started, Nerthus used her first insect plague spell, and the battle was won before it really started.

 

Instead of following Sarevok down the maze, I decided to leave him for last. First, Aditi travelled to Balduran's Island, explored the village and killed some minor wolf groups (skeletons helped, but didn't survive for long). For the shipwreck, the usual buffs weren't quite enough for me: Since everyone is potentially in melee range, I used potions of agility, defense and fortitude, making the generally extremely weak characters much more durable. Aditi herself activated stealth to use her quarterstaff for some backstabs. Before entering the final level, the clerics renewed some buffs, and Karoug was isolated, surrounded and killed. Kaishas quickly followed, and so did Mendas. Most of the work was done by Juturna, who has one point in bastard sword, which is coming in handy now. Though the barbarian got hurt quite a lot, with a decent strength potion and barbarian rage, she easily can reach 25 strength, and heroism helps to lower her thac0 even more, making her a great damage dealer.

 

Next, Durlag's Tower - the first level of Durlag's Tower is the furthest I've ever managed to get with a randomized party in BG1, so we'll see how Aditi will do.

 

Enuhal

 

[Grond0]

Gail {4} - fighter / illusionist (3rd and final update)

 

Spoiler

Before leaving Baldur's Gate Gail went to Sorcerous Sundries to do a bit of shopping - while there she performed a chore for the owner and also foiled a robbery attempt.

At the palace she was told she needed to rest before leaving, but doing so wasn't enough - she also had to speak to the Hooded Man in her room before Corwin's dialogue changed. Before leaving she also had a look in the basement and came across Korlasz again. Unprepared for battle she immediately went invisible before buffing up for the fray.

She then decided to have a look for some treasure there and used knock to open the door to the treasure room. After resting she knocked the treasure chest inside, only to find the door was now locked behind her. There was no dialogue associated with that, so I guess it was a bug but it was potentially game breaking. Fortunately strength 25 with the help of a potion and DUHM was just enough for her to break the door down and get out.

On the road out of Baldur's Gate Gail told Captain Corwin she would do some exploring alone. The first enemies she came across doing that were spiders and a gargantuan spider immediately sent a web tangle at her. While not expecting that I'm used to SCS spiders doing that and Gail was able to take a freedom potion before the web hit her. She then found a cavern with lots of undead and was merrily shooting them when level drained by a wraith - it appears they use invisibility now.

Without restoring herself or resting she continued exploring and dealt with various types of crawlers and undead before surprisingly coming across a pair of umber hulks. She led them back to the dwarves at the entrance - who were quickly overwhelmed - before doing a bit of buffing herself. At that point Gail suddenly became unselectable. She was out of sight of the umber hulks at the time, but I guess one of them sent confusion her way from the darkness, though there was no apparent targeting of her, no visible projectile, no text message and nothing on the character record suggesting she was confused.

Unpausing though confirmed that she clearly was confused as she attacked and killed one of the umber hulks and then ran away. Chased by the other umber hulk and a pair of mutated crawlers her chances didn't look good, but her buffs meant the crawlers needed a critical to hit and her intermittent attacks were just too much for the umber hulk which could hit her much more easily. She became selectable again with one remaining crawler attacking and switched to missiles to finish that off.

Gail used her single restoration scroll, levelled up and rested before going back into the cavern. On the next level she killed some more basic undead before finding some worrying information in a bookcase about liches. Next up was a bronze sentry that was vicious in melee and could see through invisibility - so Gail had to resort to using magic missiles on it.

There were lots more undead, with Gail staying at range against things that could hold or drain her and using MSD to protect against traps when exploring new areas. She found some notes suggesting the lich's phylactery will be made of gold. Another useful find was a restoration scroll - she also had the opportunity to look through a window at that point, allowing her to set up a shooting gallery for another large group of enemies.

In doing that I noted that mummies now emit an aura of fear, so another thing to look out for in future. To get into that room it was necessary to complete a puzzle. I couldn't immediately work out clues for that, but trial and error soon worked - with MGoI sorting out various summoned mephits during the errors. Opening the door revealed more undead and Gail quickly started working through those, only to be caught out as a bonebat held her - she'd killed quite a few of those previously without suspecting that ability!

I thought it was possible that would be a short-lived hold and didn't give up hope immediately. However, after saving against a few more attacks she was held again - just as a bunch of Drowned in Bloods arrived to erase any lingering thoughts of survival.

With so many enemies now apparently having abilities deadly to a solo character it looks like soloing SoD without meta-knowledge is not going to be easy! I assume I was only a small part of the way through at this point and had not yet met the major challenges. However, there had already been numerous opportunities to die as a result of minor mistakes or lack of preparation ...

[Grimwald the Wise]

Hard Luck Grond0. I think that I'll pick up a party before going there. I'll probably still be unsuccessful, but at least there will be a chance.

[corey_russell]

Tough break Grond0! Like Wise, I am sure I will attempt it with a party also - maybe party of dwarves so we have great saves vs. death. : )

[Grimwald the Wise]

Just had a quick run with a half elf fighter mage. Was doing quite well when ambushed by a ghast. As I had *** in long swords, plus ** in sword and shield style, and a long sword with a bonus against undead, I rather foolishly took it on. It was at near death when my character got held. Then the tables were turned completely. Will try again.from the start with the same character.

I had previously started a game where Shank and carbos had better weaponry and in addition had some robes and weaponry for mages in their inventory. It was way too overpowered and so I nerfed all the extra equipment except that which was designed for them (Shadow armour, knives +2 and the like) to be no more than +1 It now seems to be balanced. i.e. taking on three gnolls, I killed two, had to consume two healing potions and run.

 

PS My Dragonspear installation is now working OK.

 

 

[corey_russell]

Just had a quick run with a half elf fighter mage. Was doing quite well when ambushed by a ghast. As I had *** in long swords, plus ** in sword and shield style, and a long sword with a bonus against undead, I rather foolishly took it on. It was at near death when my character got held. Then the tables were turned completely. Will try again.from the start with the same character.

 

PS My Dragonspear installation is now working OK.

Sorry to hear that wise. Range weapons is the way to go against ghasts - although as a half-elf fighter/mage, a scorcher from a fire wand probably would have worked nicely. Once you have good AC and free action ring, then melee might be OK, but they are capable of good melee hits, so range is still probably better even then.

 

EDIT: Also, ** in Sword and Shield style only helps against missile weapons is what I understand, so would be of little relevance against a ghast.

[Grimwald the Wise]

URL=http://s1108.photobu...ldr000.jpg.html

 

Azure wasn't too upset when she was fined a gold piece for stealing. The whipping that she got was much more effective and she vowed never to steal again. Whether she keeps that vow remains to be seen. It came too late to stop her raiding a chest in which lay a couple of scrolls for Azure had already memorised them! She was therefore unable to return them even if she had wanted to.

 

Azure had quite a wake-up call when she was accosted by Shank, a thief who was quite well equipped and who took away 2/3 of her health before succumbing to a blow of her own.

 

Carbos wasn't allowed the luxury of getting a blow in due to her casting colour spray. This had the effect of making those sleeping hostile, but as they nver awoke, that wasn't a major problem. "Let's hope that they forget all about it before we meet again," Azure thought to herself. Most of their equipment was designed for thieves, so wasn't much use to Azure. She therefore put it in her bag in case she needed it later. There was however a +1 long sword which she found immediately useful plus a pair of bracers AC 7 and a robe of fire resistance. Azure thought to herself that the thieves were either very brave or very foolish for stealing from a mage.

 

Mendas and the rats likewise succumbed to colour spray. She helped out a little more by helping Linda and Sir Trun and then left for the outside world with Gorion. This would be a totally new experience for her.

 

What she did not expect was to be attacked when she had Gorion with her. He dealt with the attackers well, but was unable to overcome an armoured giant of a man. He told her to flee which is exactly what Azure did. She returned to Candlekeep but was not allowed entry. However, she was able to arrange for his burial andI returned to the site of the ambush where she found some useful nick-nacks. A blur scroll and a useful looking belt. By trial and error she discovered that it protects from cold.

 

She then remembered some of Gorion's teaching that she should never ever use that method for testing magical items as it could be deadly. "Too late now!" she thought to herself.

 

She then continued on her way, avoiding the Friendly Arms Inn itself as she feared that there could be more assassins awaiting her there. She killed a number of hobgoblins there before heading northwards where she killed Leila's undead husband. She was a bit ambivalent about that as despite the fact that she hated the undead, the poor fellow seemed decent enough.

 

She eased her conscience with the thought that if he was decent enough, his life in the world to come would probably be OK.

 

She then agreed to help Sonner, but upon learning the truth after causing Tenya to cede the battle, decided to help Tenya instead. Azure was well aware of how close to death she came in that encounter as Tenya had cast spiritual hammer and would probably have won if she had continued the fight despite being hurt. This encounter led her to becoming a level 2 fighter.

 

She headed south, killed a couple of gnolls at High Hedge, but having used all her spells she headed for the comparative safety of Beregost.

 

There she calmed down Marl when things were beginning to look tricky. She took a tome to Firebead and after resting headed southwards where colour spray proved to be decisive against two ogrillon and horde's of hobgoblins.

 

Upon finding their unoccupied base in a cave she acquired their healing potions thinking that they might have been more useful to them if they had been carrying them. She slept in the cave and carried on towards the south.

 

She killed some hobgoblins and nearby found the Colquetle Amulet. Further south she talked to a half-orc and Lord Foreshadow. The latter gave her a ring. In Nashkel she found some ankheg armour which was most welcome. She talked to Noober and Oublek before heading southwards where she found a wand of frost.

 

A little to the east she came across a ring of fire protection before coming across Samuel who she carried to the Friendly Arms Inn. She then returned to Beregost where she returned the Colquetle Amulet to its owner.

 

In an inn she was attacked by karlet who proved to be extremely resistant to colour spray. She ran away and rested and the monsters that she slew whilst trying to rest gave sufficient experience to become a level 3 fighter. She now has *** in long swords. She decided to change tactics and so swapped her robe for the ankheg armour. That was enough to defeat him.

 

He was then able to help Alanna's neighbour get back into shape and return Perdue's sword. She has now fulfilled her ambition to become a hero.

 

She then took on the ankheg near Tenya's house. This brought her mag level up to 2.

 

She took on Tarnesh having cast protection from fear and shield. She then put on her ankheg armour and Tarnesh was no longer a threat. She went upstairs where she was given some golden pantaloons and some antidote to poison.

 

After that to the west she took on some tasloi where she recovered Gurke's Cloak. When she tried to return it to him, he wasn't interested.

 

She then decided that since ankhegs were now defeatable, she would only run from them if there was more than one.

 

EDIT

 

Azure found that she didn't need to run even when there were two ankhegs attacking. However, while she was resting upon one occasion the attacking ankheg that awoke her did some serious damage.

 

She returned farmer Brun's son to him and then went to sell most of the shells. However, she decided to let the smith make her a further suit of ankheg armour at a cost of 4000 gold pieces. She then tried to help Mellicamp, but sadly he died.

 

Thalantyr then upgraded a couple of rings of protection to make them into one more powerful ring. She is now down to her last few hundred gold pieces. Thalantyr is a bit greedy!

 

Azure then headed south and helped Rufie, A dryad and Pixie before heading north where she wiped out an entire xvart settlement.

 

Heading north she helped the archaeologist and Brage. After killing a pack of wolves in the temple area he is now level 5 fighter, Level 5 mage, Reputation 20.

[Gate70]

Naurm, Dark Moon Monk has been making intermittent progress over the last few days. After leaving Candlekeep he had a few low rolls , but recovered strongly to have 52hp at level 7 which I think is 3 above average.
 
Early caution moved on to taking chances.

• Mutamin successfully cast horror, leading to Korax being talked to while scared. By the time Naurm recovered, Korax had been badly wounded by nearby enemies. Kirian and her gang quickly finished off the ghoul and led to a fight across the map where her gang were split up and had their weaknesses exploited.
• Greenstone amulet charges against the Lighthouse sirines both expired before each trio were dead, but Naurm persisted.
• Potions of Defence, Heroism, Freedom and Absorbtion plus the Girdle of Bluntness worked well against the flesh golems in Black Alaric's cave, although a critical hit for 38 damage forced the use of darts of stunning while 4 healing potions were used.
• The final dart of stunning caught Meilum and by this time the Dagger of Venom was available to finish him off.
• Mulahey only went hostile after the second dagger strike, and didn't survive much longer. His minions were no danger.
• Lamahla survived three Necklace of Missile strikes and saved a Venom strike. Naurm ran away, failed to hide but saved against the incoming spell. A second Venom strike was fatal.
• A trail of crumbs (as in the poisoned bodies of Nimbul and Tranzig) led to an outbreak at the Bandit Camp.  Ardenor Crush and Taugosz Khosann lay down their lives, while Venkt took three dagger strikes. After the first, Britik followed Naurm outside and failed to return, while Hakt did the same after the second visit inside. On the third visit Naurm hid behind the central pole and finished off Raemon.

Naurm is currently travelling through Cloakwood, unaware that Drasus and his gang have been drafted in to defend the Mine exterior.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Hi Gate,

It was getting a bit lonely on this forum. Everyone seems to have gone on to Amn.

 

Azure is regretting spending her gold on improving her ringsof protection and thinks that perhaps the gold would have been better spent on scrolls. "Well, what's done is done," she said to herself. She has bought  ascroll of protection from petrification and a necklace of missiles, but reralises that freedom of action potions and a web spell would make her purchases more effective. "Ah well, I'll just have to find some treasure," she thought.

 

EDIT

 

She then realised that she had treasure in her bag, sold it and bought some much needed equipment.

 

She was then persuaded to take on Bassilus. The first spell he cast was rigid thinking. Azure naturally ran at that point. She then had to wait for the spell to wear off before she could do anything else of her own volition. She then cast web, and took a potion of freedom of action. This gave a result.

 

Zargal and his cronies fell to necklace of missiles as did some sirene in the lighthouse district. However previous to that she had taken the idol and been attacked. It came as a nasty shock to Azure to discover that she was outmatched. She ran!

 

Some of the other sirene in the lighthouse area were more willing to talk and Sil gave Azure a cloak that protects from cold.

 

The flesh golems caused some problems and yet again Azure learned that adventuring is a dangerous profession. Somehow however, she prevailed.

 

By selling a cloak that she found in the chest, plus a few gems she was able to get the necklace of missiles recharged. She is now poor but well equipped.

 

She thenn headed for the gnoll stronghold. The Dark Horizon Assassins were dealt with using web and necklace of missiles. The rest with brute force and ignorance.

 

Going north she was given a nice pair of Ugg Boots for killing a polar bear.

 

She didn't notice that her armour spell had expired otherwise her answer to Neville might have been rather different. The ambush was quickly dealt with by use of the wand of fire, but Neville was a different kettle of fish altogether. He did die, but virtually every time Azure rested, she got attacked by ogres etc.

 

Eventually she recovered and took on the other monsters in the area. The elite hobgoblins poisoned her which meant going through the same interrupted healing process. However, she survived and returned to full health.

 

As she returned, she was attacked by a winter wolf. She therefore went to Nashkel where the winter wolf pelt salesman lives. After meeting him, she disposed of Neira and rested before going to the basilisk area where she and Korax desposed of several basilisks and a party of adventurers.

Unfortunately Korax was killed. At this point I was in two minds as to whether to play a party game or continue solo. I decided to play as a party so that upon reaching Dragonspear i have a well-balanced reasonably powerful group. The main needs seem to be for a cleric and a thief if going for a group.

 

Shortly after joining up with Gavin the party were attacked by a druid that held Azure and then summoned Malar the bear.

 

Gavin moved in to cast freedom of action but was too late.

 

I don't usually bother with them, so this came as a surprise. In future I will ensure that they are better prepared.

[corey_russell]

Reem II the solo dwarven fighter/cleric - Update 4

 

Thanks to the Cloakwood enemies, Reem II is now at the BG 1 level cap (level 7 fighter/level 7 cleric). Buffed skeletons and silence carried the day against Drassus and pals. Reem II skipped as much of the mine as he could. He had one scare where Heirashan was at point blank range and was about to do a lightning bolt - and Reem II had no lightning protection! Reem II thought his only chance was a firebreath potion, so used it (saving the scroll of magic protection from Davaeorn) - fortunately that worked.

 

Another scare were the battle horrors - they forced him to retreat and run all the over place on level 3 (which of course forced him to engage more enemies). However, one battle horror was lost this way, and the other actually succumbed to wand of heavens blasts (though not without massive damage to Reem II). Fortunately after Davaeorn was no problem with the protection from magic scroll active.

 

Now that Reem II is in Chapter 5, he did a few misc. tasks. For one, he got the DEX tome, sold the gauntlets of dexterity and replaced those bracers with Melium's bracers. Poor Melium was overwhelmed with buffed skeletons and sling shots. Reem II decided to take on Khark, which was pretty safe thanks to his buffs and yes Khark also goes down.

 

Reem II also got the Claw of Kazagarath, as well as the cloak of protection +1 at the Zombie farm (he had purchased a cloud giant potion at Sorcerous Sundries first so he could bash the chest that had the cloak). Only a few things were actually desired in the City. For my solo characters, I prefer the Helm of Defense to the Helm of Balduran - this is because with protection from magic scroll + HoD + ring of fire resistance + fire resistance potion, I can make myself immune to Semaj, and 100% negate fire damage of Angelo's arrows - which allows my solo characters to attack only Sarevok.

 

Doing Scar's quests were simple enough. Razamith's tower was looted - no fighting done here (at level cap) - mainly wanted the scrolls and the tome of intelligence. Also recovered the body of the dead boy from the Temple of Umberlee. Because of Reem II's low charisma, Tenya went hostile after recovering the body. Not a big deal in this case, as Reem II wants the wisdom tome, which means fighting Temple of Umberlee NPC's anyways. That tome actually is the last tome to get, before headed to Iron Throne to get the info for Duke Eltan, then head to Candlekeep.

 

Pictures of the adventure:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reem II will keep at it...

[corey_russell]

Trio Update 4 (Attempt #2) - (Corey_Russell, Grond0, Gate70)

 

Not many screenshots - but that's mainly because the session was pretty smooth overall, with just one mishap, which we'll get to in a moment.

 

The trio had ended their last session parked in front Drassus and goons. Their main threat is their confusion. The plan was for Axer to use a potion of magic blocking, Vommar used greenstone amulet, and Krem was to range attack with his non-proficient axes, and attack the mages. The attack was almost perfect, but Krem failed his save vs. horror, and even ran close to a guard and was being attacked. However, by then, the last of Drassus goons (himself) was finished off, and then the horror wore off Krem and everyone was OK.

 

Grond0/Gate70 had a good strategy for the 2nd level. The trio went the way of the ghasts. Then Krem and Axer would wait in the room closest to the exit. Vommar would then quickly do an area transition - this allows not facing Heirashan and her lightning bolts - good deal. Corey_Russell will definitely remember this tactic for his own runs. The Trio then made a bee-line for Davaeorn's level. For the Battle Horrors (doom guards?) the plan was for Axer to use full plate/slashing belt and tank these powerful enemies with the party then assisting - this worked well. Vommar then used a potion of magic blocking and charged Davaeorn - once his lightning bolt was drawn out, then the rest of the trio assisted - clean victory.

 

Once the party arrived in the Great City, the DEX tome went to Krem, mainly as the party just doesn't range much since their melee is so powerful. The mages were eventually killed (the ones top level of Sorcerous Sundries) - they are pretty safe once Vommar protected the party from horror.

 

Other encounters of note:

* Protected via mirror eyes potion, Axer lead the way against a Greater Basilisk

* Vay-ya and Deserta were divided and conquered.

* Lathander was killed by the party. This is not easy, as with haste he can get away quick. However, the entire Tio used haste potions and Krem also used a strength potion and kai - this killed Lathander - haste boots went to Axer (Vommar has other pair since he is usually the tank)

* Mountain Maulers defeated - this resulted in Krem's death though. The party started the fight with Krem 1/2 life, mainly to take advantage of the strength potion that Vommar had active (he used one to bash the desk in Razamith's Tower). He got to very low life, but then the last enemy in the inn was slain. The cleric ran outside - rather than just stay put (Axer and Vommar were nearly full health), or you know, use some blue potions, Krem instead decided to attack the cleric and complain the cleric "cheated" and killed Krem. The cleric successfully commanded Krem, and despite his 1 APR got two attacks in while Krem was sleeping. Maybe the Mountain Mauler mage cast group haste, which case it wasn't cheating.

Regardless, it meant a temple visit to put Krem back together. Only 800 gold to put him together so no biggie with the party's like 50,000 gold.

* Razamith killed and his tower cleared easily. The only real threat here are the ghasts, but Vommar's Spider's Bane's free action made the ghasts straightforward.

* Priestesses in Temple of Umberless slaughtered - both to get the geas scroll for Lathander as well as the boy's body. The boy's body was returned to the boy's father - the shield reward going to Axer.

* Wisdom and Intelligence tomes went to Vommar, since he has some lore (Axer and Krem are 0 lore).

* Larze was defeated - despite Axer's good blunt AC, Larze still got some good licks in.

* Degrodel's minions defeated by dividing and conquering (e.g., pulling enemies piece-meal outside). Degrodel died as well.

* Ragefast killed - he was dead before Axer could even enter Ragefast's house.

 

To finish off the session, the Trio saved Samuel. Corey_Russell learned something new (to him anyways) - apparently one gets more experience for Samuel if you don't ask for payment.

 

Party stats (for Trio session 05/21/2016):

 

Axer - level 7 half-orc fighter (Corey_Russell), 90 HP (5 from HoB), 136 kills, Greater Basilisk

Krem - level 7 dwarven kensai (Grond0), 78 HP, 163 kills, Jalantha Mystmyr

Vommar - level 7 human cavalier (Gate70), 85 HP, 158 kills, Greater Basilisk

[Gate70]

Hi Gate,

It was getting a bit lonely on this forum. Everyone seems to have gone on to Amn.

Naurm joined you on the way out too. Kysus and Rezdan survived long enough to get a confusion out - but Naurm had managed to create enough distance to recover and come in for a deadlier dose of horror. One mage had been finished off by then but the other dropped in some Melf's Acid Arrows as Drasus chased Naurm and Genthore threw axes. It didn't take long to burn through monk hit points.

[corey_russell]

I'm still in BG 1 too (Reem II), Chapter 5.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 102 - (update 1)

Pern, gnome fighter / illusionist (Grond0) & Axmin, dwarf kensai (Gate70)

 

Another pairing join the crowd in BG1 .  I was surprised at how well the previous stalker & mage combination did, but this pair should have the ability to go one stage further.  The random character generation threw up a kensai for Gate70 - one of his favoured classes - and a fighter/mage for me.  I don't have a separate category for race, so chose to interpret that result as a fighter/illusionist in order to get some saving throw bonus.  It was only after the session that I wondered about the wisdom of that - spirit armor is a hugely beneficial buff for a kensai for most of BG2, so ruling out necromancy spells may not have been a good idea.  However, Pern should be able to act as the tank herself in most situations anyway.

 

Progress so far has generally been serene.  Moving from Shoal to Beregost and on to Nashkel saw no problems.  Greywolf did manage to take advantage of a bit of MP lag to get a couple of hits in on Axmin, but was blinded before he had a chance to finish him off.  For the basilisks Axmin was briefly concerned as he saw Pern striding to the attack, only to be informed she had chosen to pre-empt potential issues by protecting both characters with PfP.  There was a slight mistake when Korax was inadvertently turned hostile by dialogue.  However, Pern's stinking cloud allowed Kirian to be shot down safely anyway, while her companions were all successfully blinded.

Spoiler

 

 

Pern, fighter 4 / illusionist 4, 46 HPs, 22 kills

Axmin, kensai 5, 59 HPs, 34 kills, 0 deaths

[Grond0]

Gail {5} - fighter / illusionist (update 1)

 

Attempting once more a solo run through SoD, Gail has just completed BG1.  It's been a pretty clean run so far, though there were a few minor mistakes:

- forgetting to cast friends before talking to Charleston Nib (missing out on the chance to kill the Doomsayer with a plethora of magic missiles).

- not activating Officer Vai before sorting out the Bandit Camp.  

- using an ice storm on Prat that chunked both Bor and Tam, depriving Gail of their equipment.  

- killing a Flaming Fist guard that attacked Gail inside their HQ, after killing all the mercenaries (it seemed a bit mean to cause a reputation drop in those circumstances).  That also meant she had to do yet more work in order to raise the funds to cram her backpack full.

 

Despite using hasted summons and putting II on Belt the battle at the palace was still not comfortable, but Gail was able to lead Belt away after the last doppleganger was killed, to prevent him being finished off by Sarevok.  

Spoiler

Rather than fight everyone at the ruined temple Gail conserved resources by just taking on Semaj and Sarevok.

Spoiler

 

I've done a few things differently this time to make SoD easier:

- last time I deliberately avoided getting much past the XP cap, but this time I did quite a bit extra after hitting the level cap at the Cloakwood Mine (that meant Gail will start SoD with 290k XP).

- rather than leaving spell learning to chance I boosted intelligence to ensure Gail learnt all useful spells.

- I picked up the Cloak of Balduran this time and also stocked up on equipment and charged items before the battle with Sarevok (I hadn't realised last time Gail would move directly from this battle into SoD).  Here's a screenshot of her equipment at the point Sarevok died.  Her potion bag and scroll case are both full and her gem bag has, among other things, a fully charged Greenstone Amulet and over 50 fireballs stored in Necklaces of Missiles.

Spoiler

 

 

Fighter 7 / illusionist 7, 82 HPs, 484 kills

[Grimwald the Wise]

I am trying out a Swashbuckler for the first time. A chaotic good elf called Seluna named after  Selune who she has great affection for.

 

Stats Str 18, Dex 19, Con 17, Int 17, Wis 17, Cha 8.

 

Pretty good stats for the fourth roll of the dice. I was planning on rolling until I got 86 or better.

 

All points put in picking locks with the result that she aquired a gem worth 1000 gp, but at Candlekeep there was nothing to spend it on.

 

Unfortunately she could not defeat my beefed up Shank, Carbos and Mendas. It was the poison of Mendas that I could find no answer to.

 

I'll have to avoid thieves for the present. Perhaps a fighter/thief or cleric/thief would fare better.

 

EDIT

 

I made my set-up much better balanced by giving Shank a +1 sword that when equipped protects from poison.

 

Upon doing that the fight against Mendas was still deadly. Three times Sword of Selune was brought down to 1 hp.

 

She used all of her potions of healing and so survived.

 

So it is now possible for a thief to survive IF he does all the buffs available and is willing to use all her healing potions.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Seluna the Swashbuckler Beginning and End

 

I chose this image off the web to start with, but then decided to edit it to personalise it. I feel that it captures the essence of her situation when Gorion is killed. She looks on in fear and shock before running into the trees where she hides successfully. Ideal for either a thief or a ranger I think.

 

 

 

Seluna found that being wanted by bounty hunters is no joke! She used up all three of her healing potions just to survive.

 

 

 

On the body of these assassins, she found some equipment that was ideal for a thief: Some Shadow Armour; a couple of +1 long swords, one of which protects from poison; and some knives, one of which is venomous.

 

 

A bit of amorous activity with Hull afterwards helped to dispell some of her stress caused by these incidents.

 

She killed a wolf and a gibberling on the way to the Friendly Arms Inn and took on some hobgoblins at the request of Joia.

 

The first five were no problem. She killed them with no injury. The second pair however hurt her badly and she had to run and rest. The resting took a long time due to the seriousness of the injuries.

 

 

A second bite at the cherry gave a better result.

 

EDIT

 

She then helped a widow get rid of her undead husband and helped Tenya against the evil fishermen.

Heading south she managed to kill an ogre with a belt fetish before it got too hairy.

 

In Beregost Algernon punched her hard after she had stolen his cloak. Rather then extend the altercation, she ran, after all, she had what she wanted and by running it gave Algernon the chance to puff out his chest and say that he had won the fight.

(Not that it needed much puffing out. It was more than substantial enough already)

 

She ended up fighting Caldo and Krumm. She killed Krumm but was badly injred and had to run.

 

She went to the carnival and rested until healed. She then returned and managed to hurt Caldo quite badly. However being badly injured herself she ran away and hid hoping that she would get a chance to drink some healing potions. However, despite being hidden he kept following her and eventually got a killing blow in.