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[The Fred]

Grond0 wrote...
She only just survived an initial back-stab, but I missed with 2 follow-up shots and she got off a rigid thinking - her companions did the rest FIRST DEATH.  I reloaded from the start of the area and this time there was no way she was going to survive a critical back-stab. 

Unlucky, Grond. I'm not sure I won't have died a couple more times before I get to that stage, though!

[Grond0]

The Fred wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
Although I didn't have identify memorized I thought tomes should be treated as quest items to avoid lack of balance for non-mage/bards so stuck it in the back-pack for later.

I guess not being able to identify these is a bit hard, since you can't then use them... on the other hand, I can't think of how you'd go about it without a high-lore character in your party. Maybe we should just allow them to be cheat-identified or something (I mean, they're books. Which you read).

I've just left them in my inventory for now pending casting my own identify spell on them at some point.  However, I suppose I had in mind that if they were regarded as quest items then it would be permissable to pay to identify them anyway - I can't remember exactly how much gold I've acquired from quest rewards, but I think it's probably approaching 3,000, so there wouldn't even be a need to cheat.

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Thanks for the idea Fred. As my name "Templar" implies I am an amateur Templar historian. Templars assumed a vow of poverty as part of becoming a Templar.

I like the idea of a Paladin (my Templar) and his party: his sergeant (Fighter), his priest (Cleric); two "scouts" - a Ranger for tracking and a Thief for Traps and Locks and finally a "Merlin" (Mage).

As I read your idea, my thought was that you could carry no more than what you could put in your quick slots, weapons slots, and armor/equipment slots for immediate use and that those needed to be decided upon immediately upon finding them. Everything else had to be sold the next time you got to a store.

Templars had enormous sums of money but personally the Knights were, by rule, supposed to keep their vows of poverty and carry only what they could use.

Hmm. Nice idea Fred.

Modifié par Charlestonian Knight Templar, 12 mai 2011 - 06:29 .

[The Fred]

Yeah, the difficulty is balancing this between A) something which works as a challenge something which makes a bit of flavour sense and C) something which is actually playable - not being able to carry ANY item would be cool (though very tough) but probably only doable by spellcasters at best, and mages would still need to be able to pick up scrolls to scribe them.

You could just sell everything to a store, but my thoughts are that then being able to spend that money would probably go against the intent of the challenge. Perhaps you could donate it to your Church? This is just something I've wanted to try out for a challenge, and I actually find it strangely liberating (despite the fact it involves restrictions) since I don't have to care about loot and inventory management, just as a no-reload means I don't have to care about saving and reloading and things.

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Even better! Sell everything and donate the gold to the church. This would be even more "Templar-like" which is how I'm seeing this.

I think you said above that there would be no buying items from stores. Am I correct?

Modifié par Charlestonian Knight Templar, 12 mai 2011 - 09:12 .

[The Fred]

Well, the assumption is that you have no gold, so couldn't, as much as anything. In the interests of making ranged weapons viable, I've been allowing myself to cheat in ammo when I get low, so long as I'm in a town. Beyond that, the only things I've been allowing myself to buy are quest items (Firebead's book, and a scroll for Branwen which we deemed could be treated like one). It's also arguable that buying scrolls for other petrified characters and purchasing Raise Dead from temples would be OK, so long as you aren't collecting gold (beyond quest rewards etc) beforehand, though I haven't had cause to worry about this myself (yet).

[The Fred]

A trip into the Cloakwood sees us recovering Gurke's cloak, with the aid of a charmed Tasloi and a later Sleep spell. The Amazing Oopah proves troublesome, but a Blindness spell proves more so - to him, at least. Unfortunately, things then go downhill. I don't know what it is, but Zordral, the mage in the carnival, kills me again. Twice.

Deaths: 3 (though all to the same one guy).

We even managed to Command him, once, but both times he got his Mirror Image up first, and it proved too much protection for low such THAC0 characters. I decdied that I'm probably cursed or something, so I'm leaving him until I'm like L5 or something, with a party of six.

Some testing indicates that I'll only get the L5 version of Branwen once I reach L3/3 (10k XP, so 10k between us up on what we already have), so I decide the quickest thing will be to visit Mutamin's Garden, where I enlist the aid of Korax to go bassilisk hunting. I always feel a bit cheaty when I do this (I've only actually done it once before, but hey) but as fate would have it, it always makes me work for my XP. This time, my dear poor friend Korax is ripped apart, leaving us with a pair of angry Greater Bassilisks on our hands! (It seems one of my mods turns all bassilisks into Greater ones, for some reason.) I beat a hasty retreat, using Command to great effect, but one goes after Imoen and gets more than close enough to petrify her - luckily it seems to want to eat her as she is. Thankfully, Aithilrin's Blindness proves useful once again, and we eventually slay it, earning him a not-so-undeserved third Cleric level. There's another injured Greater Bassilisk out there, but without Korax's protection, I just can't risk going after it, so I decide to get the other 3k XP I need elsewhere. That shouldn't be too hard, but I'm feeling a bit shaken now so I'm going to call it a night. ;-)

My current party:
Aithilrin Cleric 3/Mage 2
Imoen Bard 4 (almost 5)

So far, I haven't really felt the sting of the challenge. In fact, I'm not sure the spellcasting-in-armour mod is working, because I'm meant to have a substantial spellcasting failure (though only for arcane spells). I'm normally quite a stingy player anyway, and don't use many potions if I can help it, or buy much from stores. At the moment it's been mainly a limitation on mage spells (if Imoen hadn't failed to scribe Magic Missile, Zordral would likely be dead now) and, to a lesser extent, resting. I suspect that once magical items become more prevailant, however, things will get tougher.

[Grond0]

Another exciting session in the mines including a truly epic escape at the start of this session.  After sneaking through the first mine level I wanted to do the same on the second level, but had to get out of sight range first.  The best opportunity seemed to be to use the prison, but I was too slow closing the door after me and the guards all piled in totally clogging the corridor.  Fortunately, I could retreat into a cell and only 1 or 2 of them could get me at a time (and I could stealth between guards), so I made good progress through them, even though my AC is only -1.  I was soon knee-deep in armour, but there was still no opportunity to get out when Hareisham turned up.  She spooked me and I was already writing my obituary, but the spell only lasts 3 rounds and I was still just alive when it finished.  A couple of Bhaal heals gave me a small breathing space and I saved against her chaos spell.  I actually failed on emotion, which I was sure would be the killer, but apparently not.  I can only imagine the ring of free action saved me because the emotion effect is coded as a restriction on movement.  Eventually - with only 1 other guard alive - managed to get out of the cells.  With very few HPs left I was wary of trying to sleep on the level with any enemies left so disposed of the guard and then Hareishan (wearing her stoneskin down with ranged weapons) before finishing her off.  Being a stoic dwarf Yeslick showed no emotion at seeing his captor cut down in front of him.  I was rewarded for this work with a haste scroll.


Sneaked through the third level without problems.  After dealing with the guard on the fourth level threw a web in to try and quiet things down while I removed some traps.  Daveorn noticed me, which was actually quite helpful as he followed me to the exit, leaving the space behind him free for me to take out the black talons.  However, I was unsure about how to deal with Morgan and Dark Silvia, so left them for now and investigated Daveorn's treasure horde.  After backstabbing a slime I found a scroll of knock there and decided to rest in case this enabled me to find some useful potions in chests.  Morgan was quite near when I woke up and I took the chance he was away from the invisible Dark Silvia so starting shooting him up from distance.  This could have been fatal when he cast a chromatic orb through a wall (I know he couldn't see me as I had successfully re-stealthed before he cast the spell). 


When Morgan went invisible himself I retreated to the treasure room again to try and rest and get detect invisibility.  After being interrupted by guards 6 times (and knocked down to half-hits), I decided the location had now been marked as not available for resting and went up to the third level.  Regrettably, instead of being interrupted by a pair of guards, this time 10 of them came calling (luckily I was still hidden in shadows even while resting).  At the temple some potions gave me a bit of healing as well as some super-strength and a feeling of invulnerability, which I used to kill off the guards and then went on to take out the battle horrors with Daveorn.  Daveorn himself accompanied me up and down the stairs several times, but I was too quick for him to get off a spell and eventually disposed of him as well using extreme range attacks (ideally fire then run and stealth before the arrow even hits).  Once his stoneskin had gone he stood still just long enough for a backstab and I gladly learnt protection from petrification, remove magic and stoneskin.  The fight also gave me a mage level.  I tried again to rest upstairs, but more guards appeared so I concluded it was probably set to automatically fail anywhere it had already done so and came back down to find a secluded room on the 4th level. Finally managed to rest, acquiring a second Bhaal cure afflication (though never having actually used the first one yet) and also a stoneskin. 

There was still some cleaning up to do, with Morgan being shot up from distance in a similar fashion to Daveorn.  Initially I tried to lure Dark Silvia in close and move just before she attacked in order to get rid of her stealth, but she was nearly as quick as me and also re-stealthed whenever I moved; I did get use out of cure affliction when poisoned by her dagger.  Decided to go and find a quiet place upstairs to rest to learn detect invisibility again before hitting myself over the head when realising I now knew stoneskin.  Casting it I returned downstairs and showed myself and quickly finished her off.  Tried to rest on the 4th level half a dozen times, but with no joy - though the XP for the guards got me up to 7th level fighter.  Eventually got some rest by going all the way up to the second level and, with the use of knock, investigated the treasure chests.  That was actually a waste of time, but did learn blur and contagion from scrolls in the library (getting a pretty respectable spellbook now).

I'm actually a bit shocked that, at 196,000, Rowntree is already well over the standard XP cap despite having avoided so many combats / quests.  The mines provided a lot more XP than I had expected - I suppose that even guards start racking it up when you dispose of about 70 of them.  Having just avoided the elven assassins and made my way into Baldur's Gate I'll have to try even harder to minimise combats as far as possible in future.

Modifié par Grond0, 13 mai 2011 - 06:16 .

[The Fred]

I didn't know you could backstab slimes...

The enemies added by Dark Horizons also offer quite a bit of XP. In my more successful no-reload game (shelved for now), I have about 77k XP in Ch 5, but a party of five (for more of the game it was four, though for a while at the start it was two). If I'd had been a solo Fighter/Mage/Thief (and somehow survived), I'd be probably be L8/8/8 now (assuming no cap), even taking a very conservative estimate of how much XP splitting has harmed me.

[The Fred]

Imoen and Aithilrin found Brage, and took him back to Nashkel, then rooted out Arghain and his half-ogre band, granting Imoen a Two-Handed Sword +1. Sleep and Web wore off sooner than I'd hoped, so we had to flee the remainder of his band, but came back to finish the job. A kobold, a kobold commando and a wolf were all that were needed to bump Aithilrin up to L3/3 (though he still has no 2nd level spells).

We headed back to the carnival and picked up Branwen, at L5. She has no equipment, but luckily can cast Spiritual Hammer. Now a party of three, I decide it's time to wreak revenge on Zordral for the deaths he caused me, and send Branwen in alone to Silence him. However, he saves, as he does against ALL my subsequent spells. Luckily, I am just about able to out-heal his Melf's Acid Arrows, and we were down his Mirror Image and kill him.

Because Branwen can cast Animate Dead, I decided to go bassilisk hunting again. With a skeletal wall in front of us, we kill one (Aithilrin to L4/3), but Mutamin destroys them with his spells. This leaves us with an angry bassilisk, a mad gnome wizard, and no defences. I'm sloppy and don't flee fast enough.

Deaths: 3
Petrifications: 1

Frustrating, but it was my own fault, really. I'll probably head back there and finish the job later, being more careful, but with Branwen able to cast Slow Poison, I feel it might be safe to try the mines out (I'm paranoid about the DH dwarves after previous run-throughs), after which the bandit camp shouldn't be too hard.

[Grond0]

The Fred wrote...

I didn't know you could backstab slimes...

I remember someone pointing out slime backstabs on the no-reload thread - might have been Wierdo.  Only problem is knowing which the back end is!

[Cowboy_christo]

haha nice challenge, im also combining this with noreload and solo. But ill be playing a monk. Meaning ill skip a few stuff by hiding but hey this is what roleplay and solo is about, cant go around killing everything.

My character


Candlekeep was a wash



Had hoped tarnesh would be interesting but i got lucky and he failed is save on the stunning blow.

[The Fred]

No-Reload Poverty Solo, ambitious! Monk actually makes the most sense for this, since you can use your firsts rather than weapons, and a vow makes sense from an RP perspective. Hope it goes well!

[The Fred]

Aithilrin's progress:

We had another go at Mutamin's Garden. This time, the gnome failed a save against one of Branwen's Hold Person spells after killing only one skeleton, and we dispatched him easily. Aithilrin learnt Horror, but wasted Stinking Cloud. Three Greater Bassilisks later, we made it back to the edge of the map with level-ups for both Imoen and Aithilrin. Our resting was disturbed by Flinds, who provided more scrolls - Web and Mirror Image. Unfortunately, whilst Aithilrin scribed Web, he messed up Mirror Image. Man, I wish he was smarter! Mirror Image would have been VERY useful in the near future.

I'm thinking of trying to pick-pocket Dushai's ring so I can use Web tactics, mainly for the dwarves in the mines who terrify me slightly. That said, I do have Branwen now, so the Stinking Cloud/Animate Dead combo should work almost as well.

Aithilrin swapped his armour for a mage robe a while back, to avoid the spell failure (or to avoid an unfair advantage, if it isn't working - Imoen failed a spell before, in leather, but I don't remember Aithilrin doing so - maybe he's just lucky), giving it to Branwen, but kept the shield (in vanilla you can use them without penalty anyway). Branwen could really use a sling, though.

The party:
Aithilrin Cleric 4/Mage 4
Imoen Bard 6
Branwen Cleric 5

[Cowboy_christo]

The Fred wrote...

No-Reload Poverty Solo, ambitious! Monk actually makes the most sense for this, since you can use your firsts rather than weapons, and a vow makes sense from an RP perspective. Hope it goes well!

Haha so far it went well(aside for the beregost crash bug which i havent managed to fix yet), had to cheese a little early on by running and slinging(monk's faster movement help a lot) But ive reached lvl4 and kicking it bruce lee style. Though i gotta be carefull to not get overwhelmed because even mass gibberling can be dangerous if they surround me. Im still trying to figure out why monk cant use staff -.-

[Grond0]

The Fred wrote...

I'm thinking of trying to pick-pocket Dushai's ring so I can use Web tactics, mainly for the dwarves in the mines who terrify me slightly. That said, I do have Branwen now, so the Stinking Cloud/Animate Dead combo should work almost as well.

Branwen could really use a sling, though.

Best of luck with Dushai.  My memory is that he is not easy to pickpocket without the use of potions and is quite a formidable opponent, so be prepared for running away / using houses.

Slings are not that hard to come by.  What about making a trip to Gullykin - I think there are at least 3 there, including a magical one?

[Grond0]

Cowboy_christo wrote...
Haha so far it went well(aside for the beregost crash bug which i havent managed to fix yet), had to cheese a little early on by running and slinging(monk's faster movement help a lot) But ive reached lvl4 and kicking it bruce lee style. Though i gotta be carefull to not get overwhelmed because even mass gibberling can be dangerous if they surround me. Im still trying to figure out why monk cant use staff -.-

I'm fond of monk solos myself and I agree with your earlier comment about the usefulness of hide in shadows.  If you do get as far as Sarevok the ability to hide behind pillars can be a lifesaver.

[Grond0]

Whipped through Baldurs Gate quickly - just acquiring various tomes and Balduran's helmet and cloak.  Just sneaked past the party in the Iron Throne to get information for Duke Eltan.  After a detour to relieve Meilum of his bracers went to Candlekeep.  Took the precaution of being invisible and, slightly to my surprise, nothing spotted my arrival so I handed over an ancient book and proceeded in.  At Candlekeep had a rest and gained a divine might Bhaal power.  As I didn't want 2 of those someone had a little accident in the infirmary on my way to the library.  Investigating the shelves learned vocalise, luck, chromatic orb and ghost armour before being falsely accused for some murder (no, really I didn't do it - honest).  In the catacomb room learned, minor globe, confusion and monster II before venturing out into the trapped passages.  There picked up 2 more tomes along with a fire storm spell, though left behind a nice cloak and a duplicate fire resistance ring.  Found a scroll of magic protection, which I thought I would read to save the bother of having to disarm traps.  Unfortunately I'd forgotten it was up and wasted a knock spell, so had to rest in the tombs to get it back before sneaking back out to the daylight again.

Back in Baldur's Gate rescued the Duke and went to have a chat with Cythandria - just failed to make 3 figures in dealing with Ungh, who also provided an 8th mage level.  After a rest and picking up my final Bhaal power went to find Slythe and Kristin.  Slythe survived my initial assault under buffing and I ran away, but Kristin followed me into the Blushing Mermaid and then upstairs so I started to shoot her up - taking a while to work through 3 stoneskins and various other protections.  During this she twice confused me - the first time was arguably OK as she could have known roughly where I was (in a side room), even though I was in stealth.  However, the second time was clearly the result of the same bug that let her follow me stealthed in the first place as she re-targeted on me well after stealthing.

Fortunately, both times I was out of sight and had faced the wall so that I didn't move while confused and eventually wore her down for the final backstab.  Got a minor bonanza from her of non-detection, protection from normal missiles, skull trap and vampiric touch.  Without magical support Slythe was easy enough - only needed 1 of my 2 stoneskins and after another rest it was off to the palace.

At the palace the plan was to summon several monsters as cannon fodder and then lay down a triple web while I took out the dopplegangers.  I thought the sequence would trigger when Sarevok saw me, but unfortunately Belt needed to be active at the time and he was stuck in the web.  By the time the dopplegangers were active my allies had gone and the dukes were soon killed - SECOND DEATH.  Next time thought I would summon more monsters and try horror instead of web, but that appeared to affect my allies, rather than the dopplegangers - THIRD DEATH.  Next time I just let the hasted monsters get on with it, but one of them must have been confused and attacked a guard as all the Flaming Fist joined in the attack on the dukes - FOURTH DEATH (this battle is not easy solo against SCS improved dopplegangers).  Went back to the idea of web, but waiting till the dopplegangers were triggered, but forgot to cast globe of invulnerability and was panicked early on - FIFTH DEATH.  Tried again with this strategy and got 2 webs up before a doppleganger attack confused Rowntree - SIXTH DEATH - but I think he would need to be really lucky for this to work (it would take too long to kill the dopplegangers to give much chance of the dukes surviving).  Next up tried to buff up and draw as many dopplegangers as possible away and also use remove magic to give the dukes / guards more chance against the others.  However, first attack by a doppleganger went straight through mirror image and stoneskin (also protection from evil, blur, ghost armour and fireshield) and confused Rowentree - SEVENTH DEATH.  This fight was now looking pretty unwinnable by straight-up tactics, so reluctantly brought out some cheese.  This time started backstabbing the noblemen and killed 3 before anyone noticed, plus a fourth before the doppleganger had completed its change.  This allowed the guards to kill the remaining 2, but not before one of them had confused Rowntree, who shot at a guard - EIGHTH DEATH.  Next time through managed to kill all the dopplegangers, but Belt would not talk to me - not sure if that was because I had killed some dopplegangers before they changed or as a result of him being confused in the fight.  Tried again with the same result, so probably the dopplegangers are part of the fight coding.  Tried to see if I could kill all the dopplegangers from distance, but shooting (as opposed to cutting them in half with a sword) made everyone go hostile - counted those latter attempts as bug reloads.  Next strategy was to try and draw dopplegangers upstairs with me.  First attempt seemed like it might be promising, but a doppleganger got a claw in as I was running past and confused me - NINTH DEATH.  Second attempt initially dragged 3 of them up the stairs and managed to deal with them through running and hiding, though had to save against dire charms a couple of times.  Fortunately the others seemed to be inactive downstairs during this time and I was eventually able to finish them off as well.  This time Belt decided to talk (phew) and finally the palace fight is done.

Modifié par Grond0, 14 mai 2011 - 03:57 .

[The Fred]

Ouch. I've always hated that fight - the one time I've done it (I normally get bored before Ch 6), it wasn't too hard, but I can imagine under SCS Improved Doppelgangers, it's hell to pay, especially without a party to bodyguard the dukes. Well done, condolences on the septuple-reload. :-(

[The Fred]

The Nashkel Mines are going a little more excitingly than I might have hoped.

The battle with the DH dwarves was actually relatively straightforwards. A lot of them failed saving throws against debilitating spells - Gorken to a Command and then a Blindness (which essentially took him out of the fight, though he did get in a wild blow on Imoen or someone), a Fighter and Cleric to a Hold Person (one of whom was already aSleep), and the other Cleric to something or other (Command followed by Hold Person, I think). I hadn't thought the Thief had got involved, but my remaining skeleton started attacking him, though I couldn't see him, so I fired a Horror 'round the corner. Branwen went 'round and Commanded him (he managed to hit with a poisoned attack, but Aithilrin cured it quickly) and then Imoen Webbed him. Just to be safe, we Held him (in case he made a save against Web later), and then killed him.

My own personal restriction wasn't not to use mod items, but not to use items from DH enemies (DH is the one I consider to be most overpowered, from what I've installed - the Vault may be too, I don't know yet, but I think the Grey Clan more or less got item balance right). This means I didn't pick up anything, leaving the shiny Medium Shields and Warhammers +1 and the cool armour for the miners to find, even though I could have used a couple of those things.

I then had some issue resting. Kobolds had interrupted me multiple times previously on L2, but Sleep spells make these battles easy. However, I quickly burned through these (I once resorted to Charming one of them), so I fled to the first level. Unfortunately, a few lucky kobold shots nearly killed Immy when I got back, and a Commando took off a lot of Branwen's health. With no healing spells left, I'm off to rest up again, but I'm taking a break for now.

Branwen got a level, boosting her to L6, which gives her two Animate Dead spells - I think these will come in useful soon.

[Grond0]

The Fred wrote...

Ouch. I've always hated that fight - the one time I've done it (I normally get bored before Ch 6), it wasn't too hard, but I can imagine under SCS Improved Doppelgangers, it's hell to pay, especially without a party to bodyguard the dukes. Well done, condolences on the septuple-reload. :-(

Yes - I could protect against their initial horrors and dire charms with globe of invulnerability, but still needed to be careful about their confusion spells.  In addition their confusion on touch seemed vicious - there appeared to be either no saving throw against this or a considerable saving throw penalty.  Even though with buffing Rowntree was pretty good in melee, there was still no way he was going to survive without some means to protect against confusion - hence the need for the strategic withdrawal upstairs.

Well done for getting past the duergar.  I considered in my run just leaving them alone and carrying on, but wasn't sure if they would join in later battles against kobolds - because the SCS kobolds have a road-block across the passage at one point it's not possible to just sneak past without fighting at all.

[The Fred]

The duergar always struck me as a tad harsh, because they're a lot more powerful than the surrounding kobolds. Four out of five of them are tough fighters, and I'm paranoid about the Thief's poison, particularly with no antidotes - hence both Aithilrin and Branwen have Slow Poison memorised, so they can heal each other. As it turned out, though, they succumbed quite easily to my plethora of debilitating spells - I think my spellbooks contain 2-3x Sleep, 5-6x Hold Person, 1-2x Blindness, 4x Command, 2x Web, 2x Horror, Charm Person, and, recently, a Chromatic Orb (with a little variation recently, for example dropping a second blindness for a third sleep). Maybe 3/4 or more of their saves failed, too.

[The Fred]

Mulahey was pretty easy at this level; Horror and Sleep spread panic amongst the kobolds, whilst Branwen (armed with a Spiritual Hammer), Imoen and Aithilrin attacked Mulahey, with the aid of some summoned skeletons (a few of whom held back the minions). A Hold Person stuck, and we mopped up a few of the skeletons and kobolds before finishing Mulahey off.

Mulahey had a lot of good stuff - Branwen took the Boots of Grounding, Ring of Holiness and Large Shield, and Aithilrin and Imoen rifled through his mage scrolls. Unfortunately, we already knew a lot of them, and failed to scribe one or two others, and a lot of things were left to rot.

I hadn't actually planned on taking Xan this time, but I picked him up just in case. Turns out he's L6 and, strangely, knows Wraith Form - as a first-level spell (this is a bug - WF is 3rd level - so I fixed it with Sword Coast Keeper). I'm not sure I want him there sucking up the XP, especially given he only has 17 health (and I'm not sure if I'd be able to raise him if he died - can I pay gold for that? Do I have to wait until I get Branwen to L9?), but by the time Aithilrin gets 3rd-level mage spells, Xan will be very close to getting 4th-level ones - and they could come very much in handy. He also knows Mirror Image, so he's probably less fragile than Immy and Aithilrin.

Regardless, I have him for now, so I headed back to Nashkel where I told Berrun the good news, and was attacked by Nimbul. He too was easy - Branwen got lucky with a Hold Person and we just cut through his Mirror Images until he fell, granting us the Boods of Avoidance and Ring of Infravision.

I think the Bandit Camp should be pretty straightforward, but I'm worried about the roving assassins. I took this part from SCS, but because BG1 doesn't have "CreateCreatureOffscreen", I had to spawn the assassins right on top of the player. This is annoying mostly because it makes things look messy, but it actually gives you a lot less space to manoevre, too. Since the amazonians use a lot of poison, I have something of a worry about them. I might just clear out the DH assassins first (I think there are some more at the FAI in Ch3, too).

[Grond0]

The Fred wrote...
I'm not sure I want him there sucking up the XP, especially given he only has 17 health (and I'm not sure if I'd be able to raise him if he died - can I pay gold for that? Do I have to wait until I get Branwen to L9

My interpretation was that paying at a temple would be forbidden, but then I avoided this problem by playing solo.  There is a single possibility for raising dead in BG1 (without paying) by making use of the quest route to get the helmet of defense - that might help a bit.

[Grond0]

After sneaking through the maze the party in the undercity were attacked with triple web + triple fireball.  The initial damage and follow-up backstabs got all but Shaldrissa, who disappeared.  After resting she came out to play again and fell victim to long-range shooting.  Inside the temple the plan was to evade Sarevok and then shoot the others up from long range.  In most cases, if timed right, mages will not react at all, but if things are not quite perfect they may get a spell off.  Given that it takes anything up to 40 arrows to get rid of multiple stoneskins on someone like Semaj this is still not an easy option.  First attempt failed when Rowntree was spooked and ran in range of Sarevok - TENTH DEATH. 

Second attempt tried to make it simpler by laying down a triple skull trap, but these were triggered by bats and Rowntree eventually fell victim to a chromatic orb - ELEVENTH DEATH.  Third attempt - killed bats originally, but Rowntree set off the skull traps while spooked.  However, Semaj eventually fell to archery and the skeleton warrior was easy meat.  As a solo the acolytes only seem to appear singly and only after trigger from Sarevok, so had to let him chase me around a bit until I finally got a message that Tazok was attacking.  Even then he wouldn't come out from invisibility and I had to stand and take several punishing blows from Sarevok before Tazok appeared. After hiding behind a pillar I went to partly heal and put up a new stoneskin before going back to deal with Tazok.  With only potions to protect him he and his skeleton warrior didn't last long.

Then tried another game of tag with Sarevok in an attempt to get Angelo to appear.  However, there was no joy.  Tried backstabbing Sarevok, letting him hit me, running, resting etc, but still no Angelo.  Also tried multiple detect invisibilities so it seemed clear that whatever the trigger was supposed to be to generate him had not been pulled. 

When hit Sarevok healed within seconds, but I thought it was just possible, though unlikely, that enough instant damage would still kill him, so set up a forest of skull traps. 

When triggered these did 322 HPs of damage, but Sarevok refused to die.  I suppose I could try and see if I could CLUA Angelo in, but this character won't go forward to BG2 anyway so I'm just conceding this effort is a draw with Sarevok on the grounds that we clearly can't kill each other no matter how much time we spend in the temple.

Modifié par Grond0, 15 mai 2011 - 07:35 .