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Time to continue the adventures of Arnaldo the Shaman. With Sarevok's acolytes dead we've done all we can in Baldur's Gate besides getting sent to Candlekeep, so it's time for a trip to Ulgoth's Beard.  We do the thing where we go to an island and kill the Mages there. Then we go to another island.  The bears on that island are our friends.  But this Sirine isn't.  Neither are the Wolfweres that stole a child which we return slightly burnt.  And also not the Werewolves that try to keep this boat from us. With all that done Khalid and Jaheira are very close to their final level and I'm looking to get that done before going to Durlag's Tower so I can quickly get Dorn and Rasaad in for their personal quests. And there is one more thing to do for some quick XP, a side quest that we picked up some time ago:  The Unfinished Business mod places this guy in the Elfsong Tavern. I think I've never actually done this quest, usally I forget it exists altogether or I pick it up and then forget about it soon after. Anyway, we travel to the Wood of Sharp Teeth, highlighted on the map below:  On the way there, we are actually ambushed by an Ogre Mage:  That one doesn't count, though, so we continue on. In the Wood of Sharp Teeth, we find Ettercaps. Khalid actually gets his last level right there but Jaheira is still a few hundred XP away from hers. What we don't find are Ogre Magi. Since this quest is mod content I do a quick search to see if it's actually there or if there are known bugs. I find a thread on the Pocketplane forums that redirects me to the Bandit Camp. Also, apparently there's only one Ogre Mage.  We find some Chill members that haven't yet realized that their company was forcibly disbanded a few months ago. We find no Ogre Mage. So I search the web again and find some other forum thread somewhere saying the Ogre Mage in question is in the Larswood area. So that is where we go.  Is it a song about the specific whereabouts of a certain Ogre Mage? It's not.  Hello, friend bear. You will be pleased to know that we have recently conquered an island for your noble kind. Now, you wouldn't by chance have come across an Ogre Mage recently?  Have you recently attempted to kick any Ogre Mages in the oh never mind you're already dead.  Yes, you ARE a very good boy but do you know where we can find an Ogre Mage? That would make you the BEST boy. We find no Ogre Mage in the Larswood. That's because the mod that puts it there is Northern Tales of the Sword Coast. Which I haven't installed. I find this information when I search for the location of the Ogre Mage again and find another Pocketplane thread. Which reveals that the Ogre Mage from the Unfinished Business mod was moved from the Bandit Camp to Peldvale - the only forested area in the region I haven't tried at this point - some years ago. Finally. It is time.  Even the combined might of six Gibberlings cannot hold us back. We're coming for that Ogre Mage.  He anticlimactically dies to AoE spam.   At least when we get back to Shilo Chen to turn in the quest she'll surely--  OR I guess he could just bug out and refuse to talk to me. We do what must be done.  Arnaldo the Shaman has spent 8,600 gold to restore his reputation and is no longer welcome in the Elfsong Tavern. (I get Jaheira her last level by killing a spider in the sewers.) Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 03:15
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biscuits and crazy posted:
gently caress that fight so much.
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Feb 11, 2019 03:23
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I was goofing around with another character but he died shortly after getting stuck on the giant bones on the basilisk map (and then turned to stone). Oh well, I seem to get results with shorty priests so here we go again: Ottokar the Priest of Tempus will embrace the RNG of war and nice stats.  But what does a halfling get out of a god of war? "Thieving bonuses":  - I'm tall for my race, Imoen.  Ottokar's sceptre breaks. We're sticking to slings anyway.  Wait, there is a chance for ambush just outside the FIRST map? Before the 10 bandits?  Yeah, Chaos of Battle won't help here, we're bailing out of this one.  You bet I'm desperate. I was chased by a band of wild dogs.  I feel Tempus approves the tactical use of carts.  Tarnesh was commanded to lie down with his backside up.  We recruit Gorion's old friends, reach Beregost and soon it's time to level up! Ottokar rolls a 1 (+2 CON). Sceptre or not, he's staying away from the front line.  Now, if I recall correctly, Shoal was supposed to resurrect the fallen party member she kisses but for some reason this time she didn't do it. We haul rear end before Droth finishes to teleport in and resurrect Khalid at a temple. Then we return to the coast ready for payback and... and he's down again, at least this time he still breathes. To be fair only Jaheira resisted the Sleep spell and she managed to keep everyone alive.  You are paying for that temple run, Shoal.  Second level up, Ottokar rolls another 1 (+2 CON). He will keep out of the front line.  I know the Flaming Fist is not the brightest bunch but come on! We're kiting an Ogrillion here:  If you are not going to help please give your plate armor to someone who will make better use of it:  Ottokar finds a new (hard earned) sceptre:  Melicamp dies:  Chill Jaheira, you were as dead as Melicamp a day ago:  We'll try to loosen her up by acquiring a new staff:  After that, we make it to Nashkel and Minsc promises us more battles and glory. Gnolls consider Imoen our best warrior, though:  Jaheira has become increasingly chatty since her death experience:  This "ambush" was just a neutral polar bear wandering about so, of course we left him alone.   We rescue Dynaheir and on the way back get ambushed again on what appears to be the same place only this time there was no bear. This guy here was carrying some serious bling (a 3000 gp necklace and some other gems):  Back to Nashkel, the Mines went smoothly and so was the way to the Bandit Camp. I've been using Minsc as an archer until we get Spider's Bane but I figured he deserved a treat so I unleashed him inside the gnoll cave:  Minsc, destroyer of gnolls and bats:  In enjoy these small tie ins that the EE adds:  We have 4/6 in heavy armor so of course we will take any aloe vera balm we can find:  We finally get Spider's Bane and arrive at the Mine after slaying a dozen wyverns or so trying to rest in their cave (maybe not the best idea but we did get a bunch of XP, also Ottokar has thankfully started to roll better hit points)  Here I panicked a bit because Minsc was not supposed to be webbed while wielding the sword. Maybe because it wasn't identified yet? I've been doing some tests after that but I'm not convinced yet. Nevertheless, Minsc got frustrated and vented on a small animal again:  The mine dungeon went well, Web+Minsc worked fine in big rooms and we rolled the bones on the small ones:  Davaeorn fell and took Imoen with him. But I bet no one's coming to resurrect you buddy:  I didn't think this would trigger without Coran but it's welcomed:  Ottokar the Priest of Tempus is marching to the biggest city in the Coast, hoping to find a temple of his faith there. (Spoiler: he won't).
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Feb 11, 2019 15:04
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Updated the thread to here! Some nice one-shot posts from people doing a big chunk of the games in one go, too!
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Feb 12, 2019 02:28
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Urgghak Jones has cleared Beregost and High Hedge… for now. Immediately upon entering Beregost we got in the middle of a magical clusterfuck. Easily resolved and I find myself with a new party member who I'm fairly sure comes from EE:  What could possibly go wrong with a wild mage in the party, right? Right?  UNHOLY gently caress WAS THAT A LIGHTNING BOLT I AM LEVEL ONE FOR CHRISSAKES Anyhow, the rest of Beregost goes by without much of an issue. There's a dwarf assassin in one of the plentiful pubs in the place who I manage not to screenshot because I'm running for my life while he murders Eldoth (served his purpose, recruited Tiax as a replacement decoy). Garrick briefly joins the party and dies to a giant spider; Urgghak figures getting the world rid of bards one at a time is a Good Deed. Next we head to High Hedge since some rear end in a top hat lost a sword there and it seems like a short and simple quest. Indeed, the gnolls responsible are located and Neera tries to hit a sleep spell...  Which turns into a Fireball mid-flight; Urgghak got lucky that I was pulling him back from the gnolls' general vicinity at that moment. The rest of High Hedge is just skeletons, more gnolls and wild dogs which should be smooth sailing except it isn't; while I rediscover that skeletons do not, in fact, sleep, one manages to plant a throwing dagger in Neera's forehead. Given the fireball earlier, I am very much disinclined to revive the bitch and decide to press on with slightly less of a menace to society at large for a party. Still, for the somewhat less than triumphant return...  This is what I get for le sword Perdu? A wizard died getting this thing! Anyhow, I recruit Kagain on account of the fact he's bound to die long before the mixed-alignment party thing becomes and issue and face the decision on where to go next. I vaguely recall the place below High Hedge being pretty drat dangerous, so I'm inclined to head East from Beregost… Hopefully finally getting Urgghak to level 2.
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Feb 12, 2019 12:29
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Celeste the solo Blade has claimed the remaining strongholds. This Quest Pack added Marilith was annoyed that I had its scimitar. It was murdered for its insolence. I had planned to do the Planar Prison after Windspear, but the game crashed about halfway through, so I moved on to the next quest for the time being, the Unseeing Eye.  Which meant beholders, and of the 2 random beholder spawns this pack here is the most dangerous. Fortunately, Anti-Magic Ray was cast quite late, so 3 of them were already dead by the time it stripped Celeste of her buffs. Still a lot closer than I would like.   Speaking of random spawns, this can be a dangerous one. Thankfully, the Lich did not follow the other undead and I was able to kill it separately. There was a brief period where it wasn't protected by an Improved Mantle or PFMW, and it died to Azure-Edge.  The other random beholder pack can spawn just outside this alcove. While invisible, I sneaked past them and killed the lone beholder in the alcove, and was able to separate the gauths from the beholders for just long enough that they were a little less dangerous than the earlier pack.  Hmm, this could be a useful thing to have.   The rest of the hive was very easy to clear. I also went back and killed Gaal, just for the hell of it. I skipped the Shade Lich though.  Next up was the Umar Hills. One of the enemies in the 1st Paladin stronghold questline dropped this, very useful to have. I can have some fun with this one. (I'm using the Bard spell table from Rogue Rebalancing, which means Celeste can cast 2 level 8 spells.)   Aside from 2 random spawn points, the Temple Ruins are a complete walkover until the boss, even at low levels. I'll admit that I'm not sure how I managed to lure the skeleton warriors and greater mummies away from this Lich, but I'll take it. Triggering the fireball trap on the wall here caused the Lich to wake up and notice my presence. Weirdly, only the CC fired here, the rest of its pre-buff didn't happen until it teleported into my face.  It didn't do very much, aside from summon a Planetar that thankfully did not follow it.   The 2nd Lich spawn is here, and this one is unavoidable. This time, only the Lich noticed me, and it was separated from the rest and killed easily enough.  Even with SCS, the Shade Lord is an easy fight if you're immune to level drain and you can get past the Liches. The Shadow Dragon was left alone for now.  After this, I decided to give the Planar Prison another go. It didn't crash this time, and doing it this late meant it was not a challenge at all. The Warden was killed easily thanks to the Sound Barrier HLA, which is essentially a magic damage version of Fireshield with a deafness chance. (Another RR change. Bards lose access to the HLA traps and gain a few magical abilities to replace them.)  Lastly, the Planar Sphere. Lavok was defeated easily, due to 2 uses of the Sound Burst HLA. (Basically a magic damage version of Sunfire)  Good luck getting any spells through 5 Cloudkills, you smug dickhead.  Celeste is so strong now that she can take on and beat 7 golems at once in melee combat and win easily, thanks to Defensive Spin. Next up is getting to Spellhold.
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Feb 12, 2019 17:25
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Arnaldo the Shaman has continued his vacation from the main plot of BG1. Now that Khalid and Jaheira have reached the level cap, it's time for them to have some time for themselves as the rest of the party solves Dorn's personal vendetta. Rasaad is also added to the party because his quest is triggered after two talks about his brother Gamaz, both of which are timed to be a couple days apart.  Things go ever so slightly wrong during the first fight of Dorn's quest. The Necromancer he's after casts Horror during a cutscene, which I didn't remember since I've only done Dorn's quest once previously so I don't cast Protection from Fear beforehand. Luckily, we have all the explosives we need and the only enemies for our panicked party members to run into are Gibberlings so nothing can go wrong.  Nothing at all.  That's a fairly somber thought to use as a battle cry but whatever floats your boat, dude. Notably, one of the enemies here drops Elven Chainmail, which is completely useless to the party right now but kept around in case I decide to use the Skald companion in SoD or something. And that's it for Dorn. Rasaad's first talk about his brother also triggered so he's sent back to Nashkel to entertain the townsfolk for the time being. Arnaldo picks his legal guardians back up and we're off to Durlag's Tower.  Coran gets really excited about red rectangles on the floor.   About 5 minutes into exploring the Tower, Imoen reaches her personal level cap and gets her Thief levels back. And just like that, Coran's ultimate test ends as Imoen has 100 Find Traps to his 90 so she's back on trapfinding duty. Jaheira gives him a C- and a stern look.     So this fight right here marks one of the points in the game where I routinely question my decision to let SCS install prebuffing Mages, and occasionally my decision to use SCS at all. The Ghost uses his immunities to his benefit by casting Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud centered on himself, which is fair enough. But pair that with a couple Sequencers and it's a little annoying to deal with. And then SCS mages all try to exploit the turn-based but also real time nature of the game by running around constantly trying to get your melee characters to waste attacks. And this guy has Teleport Field. And this place is pathfinding hell. gently caress this guy. It's far from an impossible fight but gently caress him, seriously. I overcome him by using the advanced stratagem of feeding him Hobgoblins until he runs out of spells while the party chills out of sight.  In the first level of the actual dungeon, Jaheira kills Love but with its last breath Love kills Coran. I'm sure they'd both appreciate the slightly tragic humor of this turn of events if they could see the future.  Another case of pathfinding hell: Jaheira gets pushed into a Cloudkill by a Nymph just as she is casting Zone of Sweet Air, turning this fight into a mad dash through three active cloud effects.  The Demon Knight has given me some trouble in the past (and I still remember that he killed Neera with a Power Word, Kill during last year's Ironman) so I'm going in with full force. All the buffs I've got available, a couple of consumables, baiting him into wasting his Dispel on buffed summons, etc. Also definitely keeping Neera out of his sight this time. He does get a Power Word, Blind off on Khalid and Coran at some point which forces me to actually melee him, but at this point he's at very low HP and Jaheira quickly takes care of him. Before taking on Aec'Letec, it's time to tie up some loose ends, so Khalid and Jaheira make room for some temporary party members again.  We've cleared out the fortress months ago but I didn't want to deal with Dynaheir's situation then and wasn't sure if I wanted her and Minsc in the party down the line. So now we finally save her just so meeting these two in SoD makes some sense. Loose end number two is Rasaad's quest. Enough time has passed while the party was exploring Durlag's Tower for Rasaad to tell Arnaldo the whole story about how his brother was killed by Dark Moon Monks but he never got to see the body.  We return to Baldur's Gate and promptly get ambushed by said Dark Moon Monks. Also, we're currently down to 5 party members, but Imoen, returned to the thieving community, finds a new friend:  Alora is quite good IF you get her early-ish, actually, thanks to her Rabbit's Foot giving her a +2 Luck bonus, which makes her a very decent archer and a great backstabber and dart thrower. It also doubles as a Ring of Protection +2 and boosts her Thief skills. At this point, though, she's a level 6 Thief in a mostly level-capped party. That's fine, though, we're going to be fighting Monks, who as we have seen rank barely half a step above the common Gibberling. And I just like Alora.  I'm not quite entirely sure all of these stage directions in banters are completely necessary, though. Anyway, we're in the Cloud Peak Mountains, home of Dark Moon Monks and Trolls with goofy smiles:   I love this dialogue option. Also, as cliché as Rasaad's story is, I do like it, although Gamaz' voice acting doesn't do it any favors. Unfortunately, the quest is way too easy. In part because the enemies are fairly low level for a quest that doesn't unlock until you can access Baldur's Gate. But mainly because Monks.  Case in point, I use the Wand of Monster Summoning to cover the party's back in the fight against Gamaz and the summons easily dispatch two Dark Moon Monks. Also, in her brief time with the party, Alora has killed more enemies and earned 4x as many XP as Rasaad has so far, who was also present for Dorn's quest and a few fights against respawned Gnolls. Monks.  We have given the bears an island, now we have given them a mountain stronghold. Soon the glorious Bear Empire shall rise.  I think Rasaad has a fairly decent reason to be a bit less fun to be around right now but she has a point. Arnaldo buys a couple rounds for everyone. The next day, a hungover Rasaad and Alora are replaced with Khalid and Jaheira again and it's back to Ulgoth's Beard.  This fight is outright unfair with SCS installed due to the combination of high level Mages and backstabbers starting close enough to the party to get a poke in during the first round of combat. But that late in the game you've got so many consumables it barely matters, and it only takes 6 Potions of Invisibility for the party to be able to prebuff in peace and steamroll the cultists.  Not dealing with your bullshit either, sorry. Now, Aec'Letec is pretty tough with SCS installed. His targeting is usually pretty smart and he'll attempt to dispel any protection against gaze attacks you've got. However, I have a cunning plan:  It's kiting him with an archer.  I give Coran the Boots of Speed and a Protection from Magic scroll, then buff everybody up to bumrush the Mage accompanying Aec'Letec and maybe a cultist before quickly retreating up the stairs and leaving Coran to his bloody work. Of course, my great plan fails immediately as Arnaldo fails his save against a Hold effect in the first round of the fight. So that was one of the scariest moments of the run right there.  Luckily, this party is capable of dishing out enough damage fast enough to prevent anything really bad from happening. Also, after the initial Hold Person Aec'Letec is merciful and wastes his abilities on summons and Khalid, who is on a Potion of Invulnerability and various other buffs. That definitely could have ended really badly for Arnaldo right there if Aec'Letec had used his death gaze better but I'll take it. Next up, fratricide. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Feb 13, 2019 |
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Feb 13, 2019 03:19
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Acting Tourist Rip Stipley Did Not Die Horribly In Baldur's Gate And by "tourist" I mean of the whirlwind sort and can't be bothered to be a completist at this point.  I do grab the Dexterity tome, of course.  Oh, what, this? Oh that dagger's not mine, sir...uh...poo poo.  This trip to the Ulcaster Ruins, uh, well we won't talk about this trip to the Ulcaster Ruins, right? Right.  Ol' Captain Vengeance gets his in the end, though.  I remember to rage before going into this fight, which is good because this SCS-added boss has some absurd number of hit points, can do an at-will horror, and can summon undead.  Kahrk is just a matter of waiting out his Protection from Magic Weapons so the Arrow of Slaying I bought can do its work. Which is easy when you're stealthed and nondetectable. This is a principle I bring to almost every mage fight these days.  Back in Baldur's Gate, I grab Tome of Wisdom #1 while getting myself unpoisoned and leaving a few vacancies in the Umberlant clergy.  Ramazith doesn't even get to go upstairs. I still do, of course, because I want...  The intelligence tome! Now Rip's servings-per-container for any mind flayers I come across is slightly bigger.  I sort out a few matters, like this bar fight. But before we press on, Rip decides to go island hopping.  Well, "decides". Ice Island is basically tailor-made for a well-equipped high-level solo thief. (Or barbarian->thief, you know, whatever.) The three-on-one fight gives me a bit of grief but mostly it's just backstabs and patience.  This second level is still entirely unnecessary, as is fighting those snow golems once I've got the cloak I came for and the stoneskin scroll I can't use.  And then it's out of the freezing pan, into the...wolf...whatever. Next: Rip Stipley will probably die horribly in Tales of the Sword Coast content.
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Feb 13, 2019 03:25
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Some serious near misses with Arnaldo and Rip there, folks. Watch out! 
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Feb 13, 2019 07:41
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Olive Branch posted:Some serious near misses with Arnaldo and Rip there, folks. Watch out!
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Feb 13, 2019 12:11
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Olive Branch posted:Some serious near misses with Arnaldo and Rip there, folks. Watch out! If you think THOSE were near misses...actually, Werewolf Isle wasn't all that bad, though Rip went through a fair few healing potions. Eh, I have a few minutes for a quick update, which is all Werewolf Isle really deserves. Acting Werewolf Rip Stipley Did Not Get Brutally Murdered Either By Werewolves or Wolfweres  Skipping past some dumb sidequests and a bunch of kiting, Rip trash-talks Karoug a bit.  This part's easy, ending with a backstab and a regular-stab.  I think this is worse than...well, no, it's not worse than Aerie's romance.  Rip's all in for his new life with the werewolves but then this dude has to get all racist about it.  Stealth breaks down a bit because heaven forbid I not have a conversation with every drat person I did a favor for even if like ten werewolves are chasing me. This ends up getting a bit tricky but, eh, any battle you walk away from, right?  I've never managed to talk Kashias down before.  Acting Godfather Rip Stipley  Sorry, who are you again?  Their werewolf transformations glitch out a little and I end up fighting both Mendas and his bodyguard like three times (not because the game crashed or anything, I mean they literally spawn two werewolf versions of themselves after they 'die' the first time). Stealth-kiting doesn't really work here because of regen. But we win the day and are free of the curse. (I've never tested it before, do you actually end up as a werewolf if you just...don't fight Mendas?)  Before he heads off to Durlag's Tower, Rip indulges in a bit of arts and crafts. Next: Rip Stipley will probably not die horribly in Durlag's Tower.
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Feb 13, 2019 12:37
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docbeard posted:But we win the day and are free of the curse. (I've never tested it before, do you actually end up as a werewolf if you just...don't fight Mendas?) There was a Baldur's Gate Trilogy bug that advanced time too much during the boat trip home, causing an instant game over as soon as you reached the Ulgoth's Beard docks.
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Feb 13, 2019 12:47
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Arnaldo the Shaman has...uh? Well, it's time to bring this to an end. Arnaldo returns to Candlekeep and...  ...is greeted by a bunch of Ogre Mages that SCS moves there from some random house somewhere in Baldur's Gate. 6 Potions of Magic Blocking make them a complete pushover. I don't know how you're supposed to beat them without outright magic immunity since they start prebuffed and surrounding the party.  It's good to be home. Until Arnaldo has to kill some doppelgangers that have infiltrated Candlekeep and gets framed for multiple murders that he didn't actually commit soon after finding out his father is the dead god of murder.  I'm not sure if Ulraunt is a doppelganger or just an especially stupid rear end in a top hat.  More doppelgangers...  ...and Phase Spiders teleporting next to the party as soon as we enter an area, a weird AI bug that already happened way back in the Cloakwood.  The only fight really worth mentioning before fighting Sarevok. Krystin gets a Chaos off which forces me to kill my own summons so they don't end up going Jack the Ripper.  I expected special Doppelganger variants here; I remember an Assassin and a Shaman I think? All I get are regular Greater Doppelgangers, though.  Arnaldo continues a day of good deeds. Way too many slimes and skeletons later, we find some nice armor the EE hides in the Undercity:  Coran wears it for the last 20 minutes of the game since he doesn't really have a use for his Thief skills in the final battle.  It is time for The Big Gulp. And then, we at last confront Sarevok. Which is where things go weird.  Sarevok, standing in a Cloudkill Imoen sent his way, hints at the gimmick SCS adds to this fight, which is that he can't be killed as long as his acolytes (Tazok, Semaj, Angelo and the SCS-added Diarmid) are still alive. Then he continues to stand in the Cloudkill, although it doesn't do anything to him because he has remaining acolytes. Semaj also stands in the Cloudkill however, and he is very mortal. Accordingly, Semaj falls down at some point and turns into a Skeleton Warrior, prompting more gloating from Sarevok who however still doesn't bother to fight:  Angelo and Tazok are actively fighting me at this point but get overwhelmed with ease. I have no idea where Diarmid is at the time. It later turns out he's just spawned out of sight to the left of the throne. He stands there until I come over to kill him. It is then that Sarevok also finally deigns to join the fray.  Also, he gets a little upset when we kill Diarmid, his last acolyte.  Khalid gets the killing blow in the least exciting final battle I have ever witnessed.  That's maybe a bit harsh but at the same time, probably not wrong. Oh, and I can look at Khalid's stats because the game doesn't actually end with Sarevok's death.  I'm not sure what happened there. I replayed the fight a second time and ran into the same bug, and then I tried to find out if it is a known bug. The only information I could find is an ancient thread about a bug introduced by SCS and a thread on the Beamdog forums that got no useful replies. I'm pretty sure I can blame SCS for this because there have been some other weird moments like the Phase Spiders with infinite detection range. I could probably figure out what the specific issue is. It might even be something discussed in that thread from 2008. But as anticlimactic as it was I'm just gonna say gently caress it and claim this as a successful run because I don't remember ever even having a party member die in the final battle, with or without SCS installed. I've got too many potions and wands for Sarevok and his acolytes to contend with, not to mention Arrows of Dispelling. For now, I have made a save after killing Sarevok and imported it into Siege of Dragonspear.  At least this guy acknowledges Sarevok is dead. Thanks, bro. So, yeah. I guess Arnaldo finished BG1. Hooray?  Honors: Ironling, Strategist, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader. Of course, SCS shat the bed hard during the final battle so the Strategist honor is maybe a bit debatable. Dishonors: None although I should mention that I set HP rolls to always be maximized because I forgot to install a mod that restricts them to the upper half of the range NWN style. Also, I just realized I forgot to kill Kahrk. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Feb 14, 2019 |
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Feb 14, 2019 07:39
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Ruling out the obvious, but you don't have the mod that makes Tamoko a joinable NPC installed, do you? Because that also adds a bit of interstitial stuff between BG1 and SoD. (Nothing exciting, basically you leave the temple, the Sword of Chaos gets stolen from you, you talk to the Dukes and Imoen leaves the party, and then you go into SoD next time you go back down to the temple. Basically making you play out the SoD Starter Dungeon backstory.)
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Feb 14, 2019 12:00
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Wizard Styles posted:
I got the same bug in my run. I solved it by using the console to warp to the Undercity and then re-entered the Temple.
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Feb 14, 2019 14:11
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docbeard posted:Ruling out the obvious, but you don't have the mod that makes Tamoko a joinable NPC installed, do you? Because that also adds a bit of interstitial stuff between BG1 and SoD. (Nothing exciting, basically you leave the temple, the Sword of Chaos gets stolen from you, you talk to the Dukes and Imoen leaves the party, and then you go into SoD next time you go back down to the temple. Basically making you play out the SoD Starter Dungeon backstory.) Some SCS components don't seem to have installed properly. So I got omniscient Phase Spiders and a really lazy Sarevok. So lazy he didn't even bother to die properly. The components improving the Gnoll Fortress and Doppelgangers, including the ones in the Ducal Palace, seem to not have been installed at all although I selected them. e: I think Kaishas' Werewolf reinforcements might also not have appeared but that fight didn't last long. I might be able to fix the final fight by reinstalling the SCS component for it but this far into a run I don't want to do that. I mean, Infinity Engine games are fragile. biscuits and crazy posted:I got the same bug in my run. I solved it by using the console to warp to the Undercity and then re-entered the Temple. Anticlimactic as it may have been, Arnaldo's fratricide has at least been acknowledged by the game now. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Feb 14, 2019 |
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Feb 14, 2019 18:14
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 Acting Demonslayer Rip Stipley Has Survived Durlag's Tower, Killed The Devil, and Killed The Devil's Big Brother  Got the second tome of Wisdom, which puts Rip's wisdom score at a whopping, uh, 5.  I, uh, found a trap.  Fear falls unceremoniously to a backstab. The others aren't quite so easy.  But it works out in the end. I end up raging just before Love tries to nail me with a Dire Charm.  I slightly misjudge the radius of the fireball room.  Now, I could activate the statues and fight all the ancient wyverns. Or I could just sneak past them and be done with it. Guess which I choose?  Chess time! I don't have access to cloudkills or webs but I do have lots of arrows of detonation and 90% fire immunity. (I can get over 100% but only using a shield, and obviously that's an issue while using a bow.) One potion of absorption later and...well, I find out that the chesspieces are immune to lightning, goddammit. They are...less immune to fire. Fourth floor is the fourth floor, kill monsters, answer riddles, dodge traps, get a bunch of loot, man I am so ready to be done with Baldur's Gate 1.  Demon Knight takes three backstabs before he falls. But fall he does. Then back to Ulgoth's Beard, where...my game crashes, because of my own little brush with SCS flaking out. In this case, it occasionally has casters spam Minor Spell Deflection like ten times (claiming they were "cast previously" in the middle of a fight), which just overwhelms the poor rickety old Infinity Engine. What I get for installing a release candidate, I guess. I get around this on restarting my game by making sure the caster in this ambush doesn't live long enough to bug out. A few extremely annoying fights later (thank goodness for Kiel's Goblet, is all I'm saying), and...  That's all she wrote for Aec. And now, having killed the devil's big brother, it's time to sort out my own fam. Next: Rip Stipley Will Probably Die Horribly In The Endgame
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Feb 15, 2019 12:28
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Celeste the solo Blade has escaped the Spellhold Labyrinth. I'm not sure how or why Tanova ended up this far from her normal location, but I'll take it.  Bodhi surrendered quickly to a fully buffed Celeste. Improved Haste + Tenser's Transformation is wonderful.  Moving on to Chapter 4, finally. It's a shame there isn't more to do in Brynnlaw.  Perth the Adept died to the Tolgerias Method of wizard slaying. I know Liches are immune to it, but I'd like to try it against Irenicus. After a few minor changes to Celeste's spell book, mainly adding a couple of PFMW casts, I entered the asylum.  Stealing a divine soul is bad enough, but Irenicus also had the bright idea of confiscating all of Celeste's equipment, thanks to SCS.  Here's the 4th and final random Lich spawn point. It immediately summoned a Planetar, so I left through a door and waited a few minutes for it to unsummon, then returned.  After a few minutes of leaving and re-entering the area, the Lich eventually ran out of stoneskin and mantle/PFMW spells and was reduced to casting Cloudkill. It died shortly after to a few strikes of a +3 spear.  The rest of the labyrinth was pretty simple after that, and after talking my way past Lonk the Sane, it was time to confront Irenicus.  It took a little longer than I expected, but Irenicus wasted a lot of his dangerous spells on the other inmates, so I was never in too much trouble. Fortunately, I never saw him summon a Planetar, which would almost certainly ended the run. It must have got interrupted, I know several of his spells did, but it's very difficult to keep track when so much is going on.  Celeste finally reached the XP cap after killing the assassins. After sneaking past Saemon while invisible, I also retrieved her equipment from Irenicus's room. It's really nice to have 19 strength again. Next up, Fish and the Underdark.
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Feb 15, 2019 16:08
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Urgghak Jones has died to Bassilus and his legion of undead.. He did give me enough of a taste for BG to continue his adventures unchronicled, though, so that's it for my ironmanning this year and I'll treat the run as practice for the next.
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Feb 15, 2019 18:05
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Acting Bhaalspawn Rip Stiplely has ended the game...by, uh, falling to Sarevok.
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Feb 16, 2019 17:54
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Cheeseburger, the solo fighter/illusionist fights Irenicus!  I decided to go with the “summon crap from out of view strategy, just like the first time I beat Irenicus”, so many years ago. When he’s out of good spells, I go in, a gentle tap with the staff of the Magi and the job is done. Hell is pretty straightforward.   I licked the dragon a couple of times and it drops dead, poor thing didn’t even had time to attack once. Now, for the final battle.   I lobotomize the five demons fairly quickly, still, I need to be careful in this form because AC is not exactly stellar and I get hit fairly often.  As much as I want, I can’t devour Irenicus brain, because he’s not supposed to die while in the Slayer’s form, but the mind flayer’s devour brain attack can kill the unkillable, thus breaking the script and make the game unwinnable. I resort to just bash his brain out with the staff of the Magi and Crom Faeyr.  The end. Cheeseburger, the solo fighter/illusionist has crushed Irenicus! Honors: Ironman, Purist, Dragon Slayer, Gaxkang’s a Wuss, A God Among Men. Dishonors: Scroll of Wuss.
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Feb 16, 2019 18:08
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Arnaldo the Shaman is on his way to Dragonspear Castle. It is, in fact, full of moldy bones, most of which we fight, some of which we do quests for. The Korlasz family tomb actually isn't that easy for a first dungeon, especially since we're down to 5 party members as Imoen decides to sit this DLC out.  But in the end, nothing can stand against explosives. Korlasz surrenders but sparing her now would just mean we have to fight her again with even less party members, so she dies now.   Some ironic foreshadowing later, Arnaldo takes up residence in the Ducal Palace.  It's still an impenetrable fortress.   Never say that Arnaldo does not appreciate fine art.  I'll leave the rest of the prologue chapter undocumented here because it's just small side quests and recruiting companions but I would like to say that Arnaldo ended BG1 with the grand total of 2,265 gold to his name. Also that he makes 34,700 by selling gems that he has stockpiled since the Cloakwood.  Even though he is a half-orc (also son of Bhaal), Arnaldo is not immune to momentary lapses of reason resulting in accidental racism.  He draws the line at unapologetic racism, though, so Corwin's short time with us is over and I find myself with two Shamans in the party.  While, as established previously, Arnaldo appreciates the arts, he can be somewhat literal-minded.   Also, as much as Arnaldo's looks would lend themselves to be immortalized with a statue, this is not the way to go about these things, and Arnaldo's relationship with the local art scene continues to be complicated. Anyway, this fight and the spiders in the area show me that Minsc alone, even backed by summons and Glint when I can be bothered to buff him, is maybe not quite enough as a frontline.  Help me in my time of madness, but I'm using Rasaad again.  So, Iron Party isn't happening. Still better than traveling with Corwin the racist bitch.   As suboptimal as this party may still be, it's fun to just go balls to the wall with 4 casters.  Semahl lives.  One thing I notice in this dungeon is that the Shamanic Dance isn't canceled upon resting, but completing an uninterrupted rest, so any summoned spirits stick around to watch over the party's sleep. Which is kinda cute and also useful to take care of monsters interrupting the party's rest without losing any more HP. And the Bladed Skeletons in this dungeon are brutal and, together with level-draining enemies, force us to rest a couple of times, so it's appreciated.  There's a mod that converts SoD banters to standard dialogue format which I'll never go without again because a conversation of this length would almost certainly be interrupted by something before it could finish ordinarily.  Junior Lich Coldhearth goes down so fast I don't even get a screenshot of him so here's a hasted fireproof Minsc melting his phylactery down instead.   The fight against the crusaders that aren't blown up by their own Mage that ensues here is a complete shitshow of dice rolls going against me. They make all their saves while Minsc fails his against some stun effect. Not a real problem in the end, but I don't manage to kill any of these guys and miss out on some inconsequential XP and loot. Also, Minsc gets saved by the bell/Caelar showing up to parlay when he's at 18 HP and still stunned.  I've installed the Shine On Caelar mod which will possibly allow Arnaldo to join her later on. So Arnaldo will at least consider his options.  For now, there's the matter of the exploded bridge forcing a detour. A detour that will allow me to recruit additional party members, at least, because drat my damage output dropped when Minsc got stunned and Rasaad was the only warrior (well, sort of) left.    The chapter ends as it began, with the appreciation of fine art depicting Arnaldo's glorious visage, and then Arnaldo the Shaman is on his way to the Troll Claw Woods. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 18:15
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Also:Angry Lobster posted:The end.  Curse you, Cheeseburger!
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Feb 17, 2019 18:19
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I've been testing illusions in Bg2EE to see what has been changed in the EE version and I'm pretty disappointed from what I've found. Beamdog has fixed a lot of the fancy cheese I wanted to do just for giggles, yet not everything has been patched out, but some of them are just not worth it due to the amount of loops you need to hop through to pull off. Don't get me wrong, some of that crap was hilariously OP and should not exist, however I get some fun breaking the game not for power, but just for the heck of it.Wizard Styles posted:Also: Irenicus  Also I'm really looking forward to Arnaldo getting to Bg2, I'm interested in shamans and see what can they do in the higher levels.
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Feb 18, 2019 12:13
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Angry Lobster posted:Also I'm really looking forward to Arnaldo getting to Bg2, I'm interested in shamans and see what can they do in the higher levels. I don't think Arnaldo will make it all the way to the Throne of Bhaal with all the mods I want to install but even if he dies I'll do a non-ironman playthrough of BG2 in the future. So far the Shaman was even worse than I thought early on because it takes ages to get past level 2 and 3 spells, and even with the IWDification mod that's just a whole lot of situational utility, usable but not exactly spectacular single target damage, and straight up garbage. Also, due to how the leveling tables work, Jaheira was a better caster than Arnaldo for most of BG1. When Arnaldo got to level 4 spells he was able to hold his own but a Shaman in BG1 is kind of superfluous because the best spells you get are AoE damage and summons, both of which you probably always have on tap thanks to wands and other consumables. I don't know if that should go into this thread but I think I'll start an IWD ironman soon, maybe even parallel to Arnaldo. I think Shamans should do a bit better there than in BG1. IWD gets you past the early levels fairly quickly and because of its encounter design and the game being slightly less generous with consumables the actual good stuff Shamans got to offer should be more relevant. Arnaldo has been decent in SoD so far and it's fairly close to IWD in design philosophy. Speaking of, short update because a fair amount of relevant stuff happened in the Troll Claw Woods and Analdo the Shaman has reached lofty new heights of shamanic power.  Finally, Jaheira is back. I like Viconia's SoD characterization a lot but I used Safana during my last SoD run so Glint stays with us. And considering Arnaldo and Jaheira both have some overlap with Cleric spells as well Viconia is superfluous now. Rasaad makes way for Voghiln the viking with a German accent who I haven't used before at all. Skalds are alright. His stats are decent. SoD has a ton of good equipment for Bards. So I'll see what he can do, at least until I get Neera back.  Jaheira is no longer used to the rigors of the adventuring life and falls asleep in her first battle. Much more importantly, Arnaldo levels up.  We have reached the promised land and it is full of gnats.  Arnaldo immediately shares his breakthrough with a Troll Shamaness he meets nearby. She does not appreciate it.  So, this cave contains the first of a couple of Enchanted Weapon scrolls you can pick up. Voghiln also starts with the spell. That's potentially necessary because the final battle requires +3 weapons and there aren't any available for a lot of proficiencies. So far, so good as far as slightly questionable design goes. What's really annoying is that Dynaheir, as an Invoker, can't cast the spell. Also, I imagine that somewhere, sometime, someone lost the final battle because they needed Neera to cast it and she lost the spell to a Wild Surge. If not, I might be that someone soon, who knows?  More Flaming Fist racism and Arnaldo is now very strongly considering what Caelar had to say.  We find out that their reason for fighting the Crusade is...about as good as any, really. Considering the Flaming Fist is a mercenary company to begin with and also apparently full of racists, Arnaldo trusts these guys more than most of the troops he's already traveling and supposed to fight with.  The Troll Claw Woods are home to much, much more than just Trolls, as we find out when we try to make camp. About ten times in a row.    On the way out of these overpopulated woods we find some signs of a battle/more foreshadowing and Carsomyr's stupid little brother. Next up, Boareskyr Bridge and the Forest of Wyrms.
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Feb 19, 2019 00:07
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Updated the OP to here! Two more dead Bhaalspawn but two more victors! The success rate this year has actually been pretty good, and even Urgghak Jones's first time lasted quite a long while, dying to the mid-range danger of Bassilus rather than, say, Tarnesh!
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Feb 19, 2019 04:16
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Styles, I for one would enjoy seeing an IWD run in this thread, but everyone else may not be amenable. If you wanted to make it a separate thread, though, that would be welcome as well.
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Feb 19, 2019 16:47
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(The podcast where I borrowed my last character's name from just released an episode called The Assassination Of Rip Stipley By The Coward Rip Stipley, which feels appropriate.) And yeah, I'd be fine with an Iron Man IWD run showing up here, but it ain't my thread. I'll read it wherever, ifever, it shows up though. I'm kinda burned out on Baldur's Gate at the moment but one never knows when the sickness will return...
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Feb 19, 2019 16:55
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JustJeff88 posted:Styles, I for one would enjoy seeing an IWD run in this thread, but everyone else may not be amenable. If you wanted to make it a separate thread, though, that would be welcome as well. Nah, just put it in this thread, it's not like it's getting hundreds of posts a day.
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Feb 20, 2019 00:56
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Go for it, I'll even clarify on the OP it's an IWD run. I never finished that game myself.
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Feb 20, 2019 01:41
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I'm throwing in the towel for this one. I've had nothing but a huge string of failures, none of which made it as far as Sophia did (which, sadly, makes her my best character). I've gotten too frustrated with it to keep going, and I want to just play the game normally now. Good luck to all you goons who still has a character in the race, though, and I'll still be watching the thread. 
Rosemont fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 05:03
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Olive Branch posted:Go for it, I'll even clarify on the OP it's an IWD run. I never finished that game myself. For now, Arnaldo the Shaman has reconnected with his father. It's time to see what can be done about the besieged fort on Arnaldo's way. He tries his luck with open and honest communication:  Arnaldo is shocked but no amount of waving the portrait he collected from one of Caelar's assassins and his golden bust around helps. Oh well. Time to explore the area. Our findings in summary:    There's a lot to fight but thanks to Web, Insect Plague and Cloudkill, we are always in complete control.   I bring M'Khiin to this cave just to see if she has something to say to the Goblins inhabiting it, but she doesn't. We do find a Shaman-specific item, though.  Always in complete control.  Glint gets close a few times in this battle but Rasaad remains the only party member to have died so far.  Voghiln, please. We don't even have that quest yet. We aren't even supposed to know we're about to meet Neera again soon. What kind of Bard spoils things like that? Oh well. Time for the big dungeon of the area, which is overall my favorite area in SoD.  drat it, you useless Gnome, JUMP! So yeah, I forgot Dragons can't be backstabbed. Better now than against Firkraag I guess. It's not a big deal anyway. The party is protected from poison and buffed to such stupid degrees that Morentherene doesn't put up much of a fight. Minsc and Glint lose like 15 HP each.  Should have brought Baeloth along, I'm sure he would have appreciated the cautionary tale of Captured Crusader Keherrem and the Kooky Cultists. Anyway, since Arnaldo is strongly considering joining Caelar, he makes an effort to help them.  Open and honest communication, part two. Results as expected but at least we get some keys to release the prisoners:    The Neothelid gave me some trouble the first time I played SoD, but with enough buffs and Magic Missiles to take care of its Mordenkainen's Swords it's not that much of a threat. Unlike the following fight, the Shadow Aspect. My plan to deal with it is to send a summon in and target that summon with an Insect Plague as it is on its way to at least disable the Shadow Aspect's spellcasting. Also, Jaheira memorizes True Seeing and Dynaheir Detect Invisibility.  I send a lonely Skeleton Warrior into the Shadow Aspect's room but mistime the Insect Plague. The Skeleton Warrior gets destroyed before the gnats can reach it and the spell fizzles out. So that's not great. But, thanks to True Seeing, we manage to interrupt the Shadow Aspect's spellcasting by just hitting her a lot. The second Insect Plague gets her and her summons. However, I had to move Jaheira up further than I would have liked after the failed first Plague, and the Shadow Aspect zeroes in on her. One backstab later and Jaheira is at about half HP. That's again not great, because if our source of True Seeing goes down we might have to cut and run. Luckily, with the help of the Boots of Speed Jaheira manages to discourage the Shadow Aspect from pursuing her further and the fight soon ends:   Arnaldo still has a Greenstone Amulet that he bought all the way back in Ulgoth's Beard, so the first Illithid he fights ends up being a pushover.  The high priestess is appreciative until we attack her. Unfortunately, there's no way of making her see the error of her cult leading ways using the raw power of 19 Charisma.  Pretty cold, Jaheira. Also, we have decimated the local Green Dragon population a fair bit, so to help conserve the species Arnaldo decides to help this one. At last, we can enter Bridgefort:  In the fort, we have a second pair of Boots of Speed made, as well as new armor for Arnaldo (who gets the honor of wearing the first suit of Dragonscale Armor), Jaheira and M'Khiin.  We also find Neera again. And Adoy, kind of. Before we can continue on and help her get rid of Adoy, there's the issue of a rock infused with dark magic being catapulted into the fort to take care of. Also, some necromancy within the fort.   Dynaheir solves the former, violence the latter.  The one time I've completed BG1 with Khalid in the party and gone on to do SoD as well. Here he is, in command of the fort, at a very respectable level 8, and not naked. And Arnaldo goes on to surrender. Sorry, Khalid, but if we want to join Caelar another burned bridge between her and Arnaldo wouldn't do, so killing a camp full of Crusaders isn't happening.  Of course, the Crusaders still attempt to blow the bridge we need to cross next up, but their Mage can't get a spell off thanks to Cloudkill and Insect Plague.  Well. At least it's still standing. Next up, Arnaldo successfully finishes crossing a bridge. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 05:13
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Wizard Styles posted:Yeah, that's why I'm playing a Shaman myself. That and there's a mod adding a stronghold for them. Agreed, the shaman is an interesting idea but the druid spell list (and class) is pretty luckluster in BG compared to IWD. Speaking of IWD, that would be nice to watch someone ironman, only beaten it twice and is, by far, my least played Infinity engine game. Cheeseburger, the solo fighter/illusionist starts Throne of Bhaal Meanwhile, in a remote forest in Tethyr. Cheeseburger! I’m Illase… *THUD*  I wonder who was that. Anyway let’s teleport to Saradush. I got a nasty surprise when I faced Gromnir’s mooks. I got too distracted with brain sucking shenanigans and did not realize my stoneskin was down and receiving too much damage.  Got so low that my chain contingency fired up, luckily I have so many magical defenses that I’m the equivalent to a magical Abraham battle tank. I have to be more mindful about how hard hitting everything is in ToB. Anyway, I quickly proceed to assault Gromnir’s fortress.  And suck his tiny brain. Once I’m free from Saradush, it’s Watcher’s Keep time. I hate it.  I didn’t remember the guardians on the first floor to hit so drat hard, I’m starting to notice a trend here.  Again, I’m surprised in the second floor, this time by the drat giant snake and its pesky stun. Luckily, it’s duration is rather short and my defenses kept me alive through it.  The chromatic demon dies in a few hits, which is super satisfying, screw that bugger.   This two are relevant to my interests. I need only one more thing from Watcher’s Keep and I’ll be done with it.  I hate the third floor and I hate this dude, he killed The Pebble! This fight was a major pain in my butt. The combination of hastened respawning demons, mind controlling succubus, invisible dudes and the big, vorpal hitting balor was a explosive combination. In the end I killed them all, but I had to kite and run away a lot. The rest of the floor was pretty straightforward, aka run through it and not fighting even once.  Finally, I met the gambling cambion and we played for his wish scroll.  Yes! Won it with the first try. I don’t care about the rest because I’m done with this hellhole, I have everything that I wanted from it. Yes, I’m not going for the full chevos this time, I’ve learned my lesson, I’m racing to the end of ToB taking as few risks as possible.  The forest and the temple of Bhaal. As you can see, I realized I’m not longer ahead of the power curve and I start to lean more heavily on the planetar to not get focused so much.  The marching mountains, aka Fire Giant City.  More fire giants.  Even more fire giants, what a silly place. Chateau Yaga Shura is a short simple dungeon, but full of super annoying critters.  The man (giant?) himself is super easy in comparison.   I like the oasis, exterminating an entire army makes you feel badass. Cheeseburger, the solo fighter/illusionist arrives to Amkethran!
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Feb 20, 2019 11:08
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Apart from IWDification, which I've heard mentioned several times here, are there any other good mods for improving druid/shaman/bard spell and ability selection? While I prefer BG, IWD, both 1 and 2, did a grand job of making druids and vanilla bards less crap much of the time. I'm aware that IWD2 was based on 3rd edition rules, but the point stands. Shaman look fun, but They seem to be dead weight until about character level 7 or so.Skwirl posted:Nah, just put it in this thread, it's not like it's getting hundreds of posts a day. To be honest, I was less concerned about general approval and more about Styles being able to turn an Ironman run into a standard LP if he wanted to.
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Feb 20, 2019 16:33
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Balthazar has killed Cheeseburger, the solo fighter/illusionist!   He was nearly dead but suddenly I get killed from full health to 0 in less than a second, so I guess some kind of instant death effect (quivering palm?), what a bullshit way to kick the bucket, especially after the hellish fight with Abazigal. I'm out for this year, I don't have it in me to try again. Maybe I'll play Black Pits 2 or just start anew with a normal group to play with the EE characters, dunno.
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Feb 21, 2019 12:42
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Genuinely saddened by this, Lobster. I have never participated in this thread because I don't have a deep knowledge of these games nor how to best prepare and post the screenshots of an LP, but I follow it every year. I often wish that more Ironman runs that eventually fail would be converted into standard LPs but, for people that know the games inside and out already, that's probably a boring prospect.
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Feb 21, 2019 17:05
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JustJeff88 posted:Genuinely saddened by this, Lobster. I have never participated in this thread because I don't have a deep knowledge of these games nor how to best prepare and post the screenshots of an LP, but I follow it every year. I often wish that more Ironman runs that eventually fail would be converted into standard LPs but, for people that know the games inside and out already, that's probably a boring prospect. Don't mind me, I'm just a bit burnt off, it's kind of tilting to lose a character in such an unexpected way and so close to the end line. To be fair, I've not played ToB in a long time, and my memories of the Balthazar fight were a bit hazy. I've just replayed that fight and died again to pretty much the same thing, stun attacks and instant-death attack. Then I replayed it for a third time, slightly changing my tactics and weapons, and worked like a charm. In conclusion, my approach was incorrect and I learned something new again, which is kinda amusing because I've been playing this game on and off for nearly two decades and I still learn new things every time. I wanted to do a couple runs to explore the EE characters after the challenge, so I might pitch them as iron man run and continue to play them as normal if I die. As per your LP comments, yeah, well written LPs are amazing and I enjoy them a lot, but they require a lot of effort and devotion to do. I'd really like to make an LP or two someday, but for now I lack the time and dedication to do so (also I'm a crappy writter and it scares me a bit  )Edit: TL;DR Hubris killed me, as always. Angry Lobster fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Feb 21, 2019 |
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Feb 21, 2019 18:22
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Well, you could also try IWD, but from what little I remember about the fights in that game ironman runs would be pretty short. e: Like, I am not very good at low-level DnD combat (as Urgghak Jones could attest weren't he dead as a doorknob) but IWD had me reloading just about every fight you run into. On the other hand, the fact you get to build your own party might offer more tactical options. Don't know; IWD is the one Infinity series I never felt compelled to go back to. Personally I find it amazing you even managed to get that far with a single character considering all the 1HKO bullshit BG2 and ToB throws at you. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Feb 21, 2019 |
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Feb 21, 2019 18:58
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JustJeff88 posted:Apart from IWDification, which I've heard mentioned several times here, are there any other good mods for improving druid/shaman/bard spell and ability selection? While I prefer BG, IWD, both 1 and 2, did a grand job of making druids and vanilla bards less crap much of the time. I'm aware that IWD2 was based on 3rd edition rules, but the point stands. Shaman look fun, but They seem to be dead weight until about character level 7 or so. But then the slow leveling speed compared to Druids catches up with Shamans and they're stuck on the lower spell levels for way too long. The Dance also goes from annoying to use but occasionally helpful to a waste of time. Also, I wouldn't really want to put the time and effort into an Ironman run that would be required for a Let's Play but since a bunch of people seem to either not have played IWD at all or ages ago I'll make sure I show all the important story events. Angry Lobster posted:He was nearly dead but suddenly I get killed from full health to 0 in less than a second, so I guess some kind of instant death effect (quivering palm?), what a bullshit way to kick the bucket, especially after the hellish fight with Abazigal.
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Feb 22, 2019 07:59
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Wizard Styles posted:drat. Dying to a Quivering Palm at that level is unlucky Maybe, however I've continued to play a bit and Amelyssan has spanked my rear end. Mind you, it's the first time I play through that fight in the EE and without most of the old cheese, it's a super hard fight for a solo character, especially in ironman due to high variance. After some tries finally got the tactics/cheese right and beat it without reloading. I realize now that poor Cheeseburger was never fated to win, but hey, at least I learned something new. On the other hand, I'm never going to do a solo run for an ironman challenge again.
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Feb 22, 2019 13:02
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