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When we last left our heroes, Minerva the Dwarven Defender was farting around town.  After some further farting, we take out some chucklefucks who thought they could interrupt a drinking dwarf, then hop upstairs to grab a famous helmet.  These shits are hard. They pop out of the door before we've finished moving and a few of them refuse to stop following Dynaheir.  All Seven Suns have been set.  And we catch up with our buddy from the Cloakwood and help him kill his friends.  Sewer ogre doesn't even get an attack off.  And after getting a cloak to match the helmet, we turn them in, then kill the jerk for turning on us and take them back.  Iron Throne weren't too hard with a couple fireballs.  Next we head home and kick out some guests who have decidedly overstayed their welcome.  And get thrown into jail as a thank-you. Ingrates.  After fighting through the catacombs and picking up some more tomes, we loot not one but two valuable necklaces.  We've graduated from "breaking hammers all the time" to "breaking heads all the time." Good trade, I think.  And we get a third necklace from these basilisks. Not bad.  Why does this keep happening?  We're just trying to help. gently caress it, let's blow this joint.  Who wants to go for a trip? I could use a vacation until the heat dies down.  Crap. And with that, Minerva the Dwarven Defender has reached the werewolf isle.
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Dec 7, 2016 18:16
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Gaston Thunderburp has killed Davaeorn and reached Baldur's Gate. Jesus Christ, gently caress phase spiders. I have never been so glad for something to only appear in a few areas in my life.  In SCS, the fight with Drasus and his goons is legitimately one of the toughest fights in the entire game, but I thrashed them with absurd ease this time. I also got my 1st level 4 spell (Fireshield: Red) from one of the mages.  With a few defensive buffs, the fight with Davaeorn's two battle horrors went smoothly. Apparently they no longer appear when you walk over traps without SCS now, they're just there already, so thats cool. Davaeorn himself was also fairly easy to beat, unlike his SCS counterpart, (God, he's a pain in the arse with that mod) although I needed to do it in melee range due to his protection from normal missiles spell. Edit: Fionordequester posted:...I should note that one of the main features of "Legacy of Bhaal" is that it adds +80 HP to every single enemy in the game. Yes, that means EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Carbos gets it, the rats (who have 90% damage reduction already) have it, the Gibberlings outside Candlekeep get it, the skeletons near High Hedge get it...every single enemy across all the games. What that means, then, is that many spells have become worthless. Sleep, for example, only works on enemies whose HP are below a certain threshold. And now, every enemy in the game is beyond that threshold. Suddenly, I am so tempted to try a run on Legacy of Bhaal mode now. Hmm, might have to do it next year. biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 7, 2016 |
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Dec 7, 2016 23:00
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I started a new character. I don't think I've ever gone through the entire saga with a single class cleric, so I decided to go with that. Meet Ororo the priestess of Talon. A roll of 89! Not a born hero but it took less than a minute to get that total. As to what I've been doing, well...  ... yep. Time to go questing I guess.  Ororo the priestess of Talon is on her way to the Nashkel mine.
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Dec 8, 2016 03:54
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Well this looks like a perfect excuse to do a Blind run, since I picked up the game on sale a while back.
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Dec 8, 2016 04:46
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Ruslan the Priest of Tyr has returned to Candlekeep. The Cloakwood areas weren't as bad as usual, and this time I only got waylaid by ettercaps ONCE. Suddenly Neera started getting a lot of wild surges but fortunately most were harmless, when not directly beneficial.    Silence, 15' Radius turns big bad mages like Ekandor and Davaeorn into wimps. Funny though, since his Dimension Doors are scripted they still trigger and he started teleporting through the rooms without being able to do anything else. I finally ganged up on him in one of the hallways and beat him to death.  After Cloakwood I went south for a bit to pick up the Con tome and finish the coastline maps. In one of the transitions a I got an ambush map I had never seen before:  At first I thought it was something out of the EE but the art was clearly BG vanilla style. Nevertheless, there were only two ogres holed up there but it was neat to see something new after all these years. Afterwards I went back north and following a quick visit to the Ulgoth's Beard store I entered the Gate and went through (almost) all the sidequests there. I didn't accept the Thieves Guild offering though, because RP  : Strolling through the city we get another small Neera encounter with some banter.  For all the luck I've been having this run, the fight at the Helm and Cloak went really really bad, Ajantis and Kivan died along with Gorpel Hind's entire group. I mean, look at the mess...  Oh, and this is what happens when you give Coran the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength  : The fight and the Iron Throne HQ went OK-ish, I started with a barrage of fireball wands/potions as is the common practice but still managed to lose Ajantis to a Flamestrike. And now, it's homecoming.
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Dec 8, 2016 04:55
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 This is Bart I. Single class fighter, ready to take on the world. Nowhere near a good a roll as my previous character.  Shank gets shanked. No problems here.  After making our way out into the world, Imoen and I kill some gibberlings and wolves. I didn’t screenshot it, but I pick up Montaron and Xvar long enough to strip them of any valuables. Then I dump them on the side of the road. Thanks for the potions, guys.  This is the first time I can ever remember getting a random encounter travelling from the first area to the second area. Thankfully it wasn’t a bunch of bandits, but I was still fighting for my life.  The grisly aftermath. You can see Imoen teetering on the brink of death. The fight ate through all my healing potions, as well as one of my oils of speed.  I finally made it to the Friendly Arm Inn, and Tarnesh gets wacked by a random guard. Imoen’s wand saved my rear end here.  Now I’m hanging at the Friendly Arm and trying to decide whether I want Khalid and Jaheira, or if I should pick up Ajantis before heading south. Lucas Archer fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Dec 8, 2016 |
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Dec 8, 2016 19:46
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Progress update for Ororo the priestess of Talos Melicamp LIVES!  Got ambushed by wyverns on the way to the bandit camp? Wrong side of the map, game!  Speaking of bandits, the big tent went very well.  As did the Cloakwood mine. It's amazing how much easier the game is when you have Kivan instead of a borderline useless shapeshifter. Ororo the priestess of Talos is on her way to the big city Wild surges: 7
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Dec 8, 2016 20:47
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Well, that was quick. Bart I the Fighter died horribly to the spiders in the dwarf's house in Beregost. I forgot to keep infranview running so no screenshots, but I figured with Neera and Garrick added to my team, there'd be enough meatshields to keep me from going down - no such luck.
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Dec 8, 2016 20:50
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Cast sleep as soon as you enter the house and you don't need any tanks.
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Dec 8, 2016 20:53
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 Ryminia, elven Sorcerer is going to venture out into the wilderness and try her luck against Sarevok. My two spells are Armor and Magic Missile. I’ll skip the opening stuff at Candlekeep. Did the quests, killed Carbos and Shank, banged some rats with my stick, then Gorion died. Good times.  So I figured that obviously the death of Bart I was not my fault at all. It was bad luck by bringing Khalid and Jaheria with me, two stalwart companions who have been a part of almost every party I’ve ever played in BG1. Well, not this time! Xzar and Montaron, you’re up! They help me kill some wolves and gibberlings  Pictured: me and the group bravely running away from a bear.  This time I head down to Beregost before I go to the Friendly Arm. I forgot Neera’s cutscene would start when I got too close, so I kind of walked into it. Thankfully, the fight wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  The thayan wizard tried color spraying Montaron, who made his save. The bodyguard did not. It was mopping up after that.  I recruit Kagain. I like having the old grumpy dwarf around.  After refreshing my arms and armor at the smithy, I leave Xzar and Montaron behind. They’re too good for my brand of adventuring and they can fly free. I also hate their voices.  We kill Silke and leave Garrick a heartbroken wreck when I tell him to go pound sand. We head north out of Beregost, towards the Friendly Arm. I kill a couple of wolves and some xvarts along the way. I’m avoiding the ogre for now.  Hi Tarnesh. Bye Tarnesh. Imoen has two of the big kills so far, I think. We rest at the inn and pick up the quests. My plan now is to finish up around here, then head back down south and getting some XP. Next NPC to recruit will be Branwen, and after that – I honestly don’t know. I don’t usually play magic users so this is interesting. But Nashkel and the surrounding environs will be the next leg of my journey.
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Dec 8, 2016 22:12
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StrangeAeon posted:Well this looks like a perfect excuse to do a Blind run, since I picked up the game on sale a while back. Still waiting on your blind "eaten by a black bear on Lions Way" Ironman attempt. Gonna try a first time Ironman run myself this weekend once I settle on a class
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Dec 8, 2016 22:22
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Suspicious posted:Cast sleep as soon as you enter the house and you don't need any tanks. That's one of those good ideas.
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Dec 8, 2016 22:23
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Alyssa is still alive and in Spellhold Maze I haven't played in a few days been feeling a little under the weather. Hopefully I can knock out the rest of BG2 pretty soon.
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Dec 9, 2016 00:08
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Ruslan the Priest of Tyr has vanquished Sarevok! I wanted to take this character slowly but in the end I binged anyway... I thought I had taken more screenshots but it seems my key doesn't always work correctly. After a quick tour to Ulcaster and Firewine I went to do the TotSC content. Having learned from my mistakes at Durlag's it went better this time. Still a bit tedious though. The scariest moment was the fight with Aec'Letec, it has been a few years since I did it last time (since I only play Ironman after discovering this thread  ) but I panicked when I saw the Death Gaze debuff popping up on Neera, since I only had Dispel Magic memorized on her. Luckily, I remembered I had some Arrows of Dispelling on Coran and that saved the day.  They still do damage though, and I didn't order him to stop attacking or switch targets, so he actually killed her. Still better than having her chunked and turned into a ghoul...  I tend to hoard potions and magic arrows and sometimes it's not a good thing to do, but it's nice to have a small stockpile when you forget to check for traps and poo poo like this happens:  The fight with Sarevok was tense as well. I managed to pull him along Semaj, who was the real pain in the rear end. I forgot Ajantis had the Greenstone Amulet equipped and Semaj's Chaos spell hit him and Kivan. Luckily, I had just two casts of Acclamation since my last Dispel was already on his way to Semaj's face. I though I had taken a few screenshots of that fight but the last ones I have are of the final record sheet. Oh well.   Honours achieved: Ironling, Born Hero, Purist, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader, Battlemaster and Roleplayer Tonight I'll be starting my blind run of SoD but this time I mean to take it a bit slowly and enjoy it (and hope not to die along the way) since it's totally new content for me.
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Dec 9, 2016 03:20
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 Sane the Wizard Slayer is on the prowl! Random stats and not bad ones, actually.  Carbos is no match for my skill!  I manage to break my sword fighting rats, which is surely a great sign!  Firebead? That sounds like a Wizard name to me! He eats massive spell failure and dies pretty easily, giving me a good feeling (and a cheap level up).  Unfortunately for some strange reason, that makes everyone in Candlekeep want to kill me. No issue, I'll just run away to my dear father Gorion, he...  Dad?  RIP Sane the Wizard Slayer. Victim of some drat strict parenting
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Dec 10, 2016 03:42
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Ororo the priestess of talon wraps up BG1. After Marek poisoned the party like a little bitch, he was so remorseful that he committed honorable seppuku by lightning bolt. Talos was pleased.  The Iron Throne fight was barely a speed bump. No one took any damage.  Another small speed bump on the way out Candlekeep.  The ducal palace fight went super well, both dukes survived with full health, then Sarevok did something that almost gave me a heart attack. He targeted the mage duke and chunked the gently caress out of her. Then he turned his attention to a flaming fist (thank goodness it wasn't the other duke) before being teleported away. This has *never* happened to me before in I don't know how many dozens of playthroughs. He normally targets the nearest party member and ignores everyone else.  To Durlag's tower! Turns out 120% remove trap still isn't enough to disarm the tome altar. I suppose it's flagged as undisarmable?  Potentially disastrous oopsie happened on the second basement. I ordered the party to move forward near the hidden door to the real floor exit and some asshat decided to walk over the fake exit to trigger the stinking cloud trap and spawn a bunch of skeleton warriors I most definitely wasn't prepared for. Kivan was knocked unconscious but the skellies and ghasts miraculously decided to ignore him and go after Jaheira and Khalid instead. Took some damage but Durlag's gives like 100 potions of healing so whatever.  The demonknight fight was over in 1 round. He only had time to cast remove magic, then immediately died. Turns out protection from magic doesn't cancel the boots of speed movement bonus so this combo is now my default strategy for this fight. Run someone in his face for him to waste his spells on while everyone else snipes him.  Khalid took a bit more damage than expected from Aec'Letec but he never was in any real danger due to being hasted and near the stairs.  Werewolf island went by quickly.  Sarevok time! Semaj and Angelo conveniently came 1 by 1 only to be shot down immediately by the entire party. Semaj only had time to cast magic missile on Jaheira before they both died.  Sarevok showed up 3rd and was dispelled, slowed and cut down by Jaheira and Khalid in a few rounds. I would have taken a screenshot except I was immediately dumped into SoD. I didn't even get the good old "Sarevok has fallen! The battle is won!" message. Honors earned: ironling, purist, librarian, trap dodger, honorable trader, battlemaster Wild surge count: 10
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Dec 10, 2016 07:02
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Ruslan the Priest of Tyr has died at the hands of a Bronze Sentry, while investigating a strange tomb on the way to Dragonspear Castle. Welp, there goes a blind run... I had -8 AC but that thing hits like a truck. I was really enjoying the expansion so far, but I'm unable to play non-Ironman since discovering these threads  . I'm going to give it one last try I guess.
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Dec 10, 2016 14:38
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Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage  More sidequests to docment, well. More notable battles. Like this famous swordmaster. Not so tough.   Tougher is the next opponent of note on this map: Karkh. Specifically the Stratagems version of Karkh. A level 12 Ogre Mage with Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Shadow Door, Improved Haste a Sequencer and a Contigency. Karkh is a beast. So lets go fight him.  Did I say fight, I mean, engage him and then run the gently caress away while his spells time out. Throwing down groups of Summoned Monsters behind me as I go to bait out spells and delay.     Eventually he catches up to me but by then his second Globe of Invulnerability is about to time out, his point blank Skulltrap hurts but at this point its just a matter of tanking him, keeping him in place and whitteling him down with magic missiles and ranged weaponry. The reward for this, a scroll of Haste. I think I can just buy that in a store. Oh well.  Ulcaster is actually one of my favourite side dungeons in this game, much prefer it over Firewine Ruins anyway.  The Ulcaster Wolf is a nice fight, biggest thing is to make sure to have Remove Fear up and have some summons around to destract the Undead and Dread Wolves that get summoned in.   One more thing to in Ulcaster, on the outside. This rear end in a top hat:  Icharyd is a level 15 Skeleton Warrior. Respect the Skeleton Warriors, there is a reason Summon Undead is one of the best spells in the game. Sure yours are not quite as beastly as Icharyd but they are no laughing matter. He hits like a truck, much harder than Karhk. Where Karhk demonstrates the power of a Fighter/Mage Icharyd demonstrates the power of a Fighter with great gear. He doesn't have magical protections he instead just has great saving throws, 50% damage reductions from physical attacks, Cold and Electricity immunity and 90! percent magic resistance. Oh and immunity to non magical weapons. He's a tank, hits hard and fast with his 3 attacks per round, and he's going to keep doing that as long as he wants because none of these are buffs. To top it all off when he's almost dead he resets his hp strips all your buffs and randomly hits your party with lightning bolts that he doesn't need to actually cast. He suffers one major weakness though, Normal Walking Speed. So I kite him around while Minsc and Imoen slowly wittle him down with magic arrows. Hoping that I get lucky on Lightning Bolts.    I manage to make it work, Viconia could have bitten it on that final Lightning Bolt though.  Oh and Neera wants everyone to know she's doing Wild magic and hits the Roll 4 more times result after I try to sleep and instead get interupted by Goblins on some post Icharyd naptime. 
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Dec 10, 2016 15:07
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Gaston Thunderburp has returned to Candlekeep. These 4 necromancers were easy pickings. Gaston's save vs. spell is so low that even multiple horror spells at once had no effect.  Ramazith proved to be a little more challenging. Gaston now has no limits on the number of spells he can learn. 5/8 tomes collected.  Marek was easily defeated. Mages in BG1 without SCS are in general, not tough to beat when they're alone.   Desreta can really dish it out, sadly for her though she really can't take it and died while paralyzed. Sunin's acid arrows did a number on Gaston, luckily I have more than enough healing potions to survive. Unfortunately, I could not equip the 2nd ring of wizardry and had to sell it. The 9,000 gold compensated somewhat for the disappointment of not having 20 level 1 spells.  For some reason, Jardak has magic resistance. He failed to resist paralysis on the 4th attempt though.  The Maulers of Undermountain were thrashed, and Gaston got a +2 axe, a long overdue upgrade to his melee weapon.  Degrodel's guards were not as big a threat as I expected thanks to a few combat buffs, and Degrodel himself was killed by 4 throwing daggers. Luckily I got a critical, or I would have likely lost the helm of balduran forever.  The 5 ogre-magi in that one house near the Iron Throne building almost killed Gaston, he had a mere 2 HP at one point. I was very lucky that I had enough equipment with elemental resistance to win this fight.  Lastly, I utterly humiliated Zhalimar and his mates. Not even a single point of damage taken, quite sad really.  One of the mages in that fight dropped this though, should be very useful indeed.
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Dec 10, 2016 15:43
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Ryminia, Elven Sorcerer is heading towards the gnoll fortress! Ryminia and company head north from Friendly Arm Inn to take care of the hobgoblins and get Joni’s Flamedance Ring. I forgot to buy more arrows for Imoen, so she punches one of the hobgoblins to death with her bare hands.  Kagain is not pleased with my do-gooderness. I’m not that close to his desertion point, but I’ll need to keep an eye on my reputation if I want to keep him with me.  Afterwards we head back south towards Beregost. We stop in Feldepost’s and get into a drunken brawl. Marl was not long for the world.  Next on the agenda is recruiting Kivan. Having another dude to stand in the back and fire missiles at enemies is always useful. It’ll be a bit before we head to Tazok though.  Melicamp is expired.  We stop off in Nashkel to rest and recuperate. The locals are not so friendly, and I’m lucky in that I kill Neira. Every time she starts to cast something (probably Rigid Thinking on Kagain), we interrupt her. Without her spells, she goes down.  Branwen is recruited. Surely she will be a true companion through this journey!  Now is the time for exploration. We head to the west of Nashkel, towards the Xvart village.  There they are. Alright guys, just like we practiced… wait, Kagain. Kagain! Dammit Kagain!  I still had his axe equipped and before I realized it, he had aggroed almost the entire village.  A vicious melee ensued. I sent Branwen up to take some pressure off of Kagain as the rest of my troops pelted the xvarts from afar. After a useless dweomer from Neera, she put the vast majority of them to sleep.  Nexlit and Ursa attack. I forgot about this bit, and wasn’t prepared for it. I should be okay though, right?  Well, poo poo.  The end result of the massacre. The entire village lays dead, with one cleric lost on my side. Following my rules, I strip her of valuables and leave the body behind. Next stop, the gnoll fortress!
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Dec 10, 2016 20:05
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Wizalf-Aelf is attempting to farm Ankhegs.. fuckin' sleep spell working like 25% of the time ugh...
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Dec 10, 2016 22:07
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Ororo the priestess of Talos The starting SoD dungeon doesn't really have interesting loot beyond this scroll of protection from poison, bringing my total to 6. I can now protect the entire party in a certain optional encounter.  The fire beetles are really annoying and will aggro if you enter their room, but you can avoid having to do that by using the area loot function.   Hmm this torch is burned out. What if I relight it with purple fire (so both rows of torches match) and put it back in its place?  Ah HA! A secret room!  A (scripted) trapped room. This fight can be pretty hard if you're not careful.  A note from Sarevok mentions another secret room farther into the game.  I strip Kivan before leaving the starting dungeon because if you have characters that aren't recruitable in SoD they gently caress off with whatever you leave on them.  If you haven't played SoD, this is how the game makes you care about the crusade: they send assassins after you and Imoen.  Oh hey, it turns out shops sell stacks of scroll of protection from poison so you don't need to hoard them up in BG1. I feel silly.  Lots of micro quests in Baldur's Gate, none really worth mentioning. If you snitch on Skie's plan to elope to her father, he says he already knows but thanks you anyway with a ring of protection +2.  Let's get this coalition army going. Ororo the priestess of Talos starts the long march to Dragonspear castle.
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Dec 11, 2016 01:56
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 I’m heading towards the gnoll fortress and make a pit stop. You’ll notice in the upper right, Kagain is off wandering by himself. He took a big hit from the bear and panicked. Off he went into the wilderness. I figure it won’t take too long for the effect to wear off, so I should be okay.  loving hell Kagain. He just runs right by the bear and drags it back towards me.  The bear rears on its hind legs and batters poor Kivan twice with two bloody paws, breaking his neck on the second hit. I drop Kagain from my party and flee off the map. It takes me a bit to get back to Nashkel, but I recruit Rasaad and Minsc to fill my party back up. I have a moment of sadness when I remember my ankheg plate is on Kagain, along with one of the prince rings. I splurge and buy Minsc some plate and give him the ring Ryminia was wearing. We head back towards the gnoll fortress. I know the tome is in one of the caves below the fortress, so I forge that way first.  The first cave I enter, Imoen goes down in the first few seconds of the fight. I had wasted Neera’s sleep on the ogres at the bridge. I flee outside, the xvarts following, and we battle.  Two survivors.  I head back through the winding maze, and peek my head in one more cave, hoping it has the tome. It does not.  Thus ends the journey of Ryminia. Slain by xvarts. That was loving rough. Poor playing on my part, obviously. I didn’t have the healing items or the buffs necessary for this poo poo at my level. Next character needs to be something different. I might go with an evil cleric, and go for an all evil party. I hear Edwin is a pretty good wizard, but I’ve never used him before. How does one keep reputation down, anyway? Just kill random people I guess.
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Dec 11, 2016 05:25
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 Quinn the chaotic neutral Thief gets started on his journey. I'm aiming to have him focus on stealth and set snares, while letting Imoen handle the find traps/pick locks dirty work. Proficient in long sword and crossbows. Not sure how long he'll last as I have no real idea how to prep for late game encounters and I ain't gonna try to. But should be able to get through early-mid game with no problems? We'll see.  No issues to be found in Candlekeep. I get some more arrows and armor for Imoen before heading out. I SHOULD have bought slings and a handful of bullets too, but oh well.  First potential stumbling block is Tarnesh, but I picked up Montaron and Xzar as extra firepower/meatshield. Quaff a potion of clearmind right as the fight starts because I forget to do it beforehand. I dragged Tarnesh into the guards but he still gets his mirror image off and Montaron bites it. Better him than me!  Tarnesh is down though. We can get Monty back up and running at the Friendly Arm church.  Hey hey the gang's all here. I'll run with this crew down through Beregost and Nashkel. Should be able to make it down there without the party imploding. I'm ultimately aiming to run with a Quinn, Imoen, Rasaad, Dorn, Branwen, and gently caress it, Neera, why not. We do buzzsaw through the hobgoblins and get the flamedance ring back.  Beltfetishogre is taken down with no losses or damage. I do embarrass myself by mis-aiming both my Set Snare and my vines. Whoops. Hopefully some more progress tomorrow! edit: oh beans, let me fix the images primaltrash fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Dec 11, 2016 |
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Dec 11, 2016 07:00
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Ororo the priestess of Talos starts her march toward Dragonspear Castle.  I knocked out the micro quests first, which included thrilling things like killing & staking a vampire and singing to menhirs (have a high charisma character lika Safana do it). Incidentally the quest bugged out on me, both ghosts were unresponsive and the game lagged to a crawl whenever my party walked by them, robbing me of the cache of magical loot you get as a reward. Oh well.  I also came across the only place in the entire trilogy (quadralogy?) where infravision isn't completely useless!   Beyond the infravision gate was a clusterfuck of a fight with trolls, but I managed. The reward was a sling +2, a scroll and some gems. Yay?  Once all of the above was done, I tackled the dwarven dig side quest. This one is a proper quest, it takes more than a minute to complete and has 2 areas dedicated to it. It has throngs of undead enemies, so bring fire. Lots of it.   Ah, the bronze sentry. It hits like a truck, is significantly resistant to physical damage and is immune to fire. It is completely vulnerable to cold damage however, so if you have a wand of frost this fight is easily won. Ruslan, you've been avenged!  In the laboratory, we found a key that let us open the personal chest of Gurn Coldhearth (the dwarf we were supposed to rescue) found way back at the entrance. His journal revealed that he wasn't what he seemed to be!    His friend took some convincing but he eventually accepted the truth...  ... and he gave us this amazing thing. It removes all buffs from liches and prevents them from casting spells for an unknown duration. It doesn't really matter how long it lasts because liches die extremely quickly once they're afflicted.  A puzzle. Four pillars representing the four seasons. A book in the library hints that you should do the sequence in reverse, so start with winter and work backwards.  The party arrived just in time to witness Gurn Coldhearth's transformation into a lich.  The Secret Revealed item made very short work of him, but we had to find and destroy his phylactery or he would just keep coming back.  The real phylactery was the second from the left (all other ones just waste a bit of your time). It appeared indestructible, but the party did come across an unstable portal to the elemental plane of fire earlier in the area. That should do the trick nicely.   The dwarven lich reappeared only to be temporarily destroyed for a second time.  Minsc successfully chucked the phylactery into the portal and destroyed it for good. Congratulations Gurn Coldhearth, you were a lich for about 5 minutes. The Secret Revealed still had a single charge, I decided to keep it handy in case the party encounters a second lich in the future. Now there's nothing left to do but advance the plot.  Some doofus mage destroyed the bridge when the party approached and a fight with crusaders trapped on our side of the bridge ensued. Thanks to slow and silence 15', the fight didn't last very long.    After I cut down a few crusaders, Caelar Argent demanded to parlay. Apparently she believes you can just waltz into the 9 Hells and free all the souls trapped there. She even said the gods were on her side! Nope, I'm pretty sure the gods wouldn't like that very much, silver lady.   Ororo the priestess of Talos if off to find another bridge to cross to reach Dragonspear Castle. Total cost of raises: 1200
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Dec 11, 2016 08:16
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Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage Firewine Ruins, I hate your guts. You are a terrible, unfun, narrow cornered trapped to hell dungeon with an annoyingly high spawnrate of goblins.  Also your ogre mage fight isn't any fun or challenge.   The four lady assassins actually caught me off guard with their ambush. I got pretty lucky there that the backstabber didn't go for the bhaalspawn here, that could have been the end of the run. Instead Neera and Imoen took the hits.   Red wizards of thay. Pretty easy fight if you know its there and prepare ahead of time, for instance I have Imoen off to the right side there and cast Web before I ever initiate dialogue. After that its trivial to mop them up.   Well I guess its time, I've done everything else before the bandit camp. Last Iron Man attempt I made ended on this bastard of a camp. Its not so bad but Stratagems makes the actual camp a pain in the rear end. If the camp as a whole ever turns hostile everyone in the camp floods to your position, including npcs that are in buildings. So my best option.  Infiltrate, buff up before the command tent and take them out. Luckily they don't enter the command tent. The fight inside itself is basically trivial with a buffed, hasted party knowing whats coming.     And then I promptly forget that the end of chapter documents chest is trapped and almost get Isra killed by lightning bolt.  But now the hard part, my buffs have run out including Haste which I currently only have one cast of. And the whole camp is now hostile to me and making its way towards me.  I've got a plan for this though   gently caress this poo poo I'm out: 
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Dec 11, 2016 17:40
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Arachnophobic Aaron has failed the blind run challenge! Sure are a lot of spiders in this expansion. You know what, it's time to conquer my fears. No need to be afraid of spiders if they're all dead!  Death to the eight-legged menace! It's a new day for Arachnophobic Aaron, no arachnid can stop him now! On to the next spider cave...  That's not a spider. That's not a spider!  RIP Arachnophobic Aaron, murdered by surprise green dragon. Mountaineer fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Dec 11, 2016 |
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Dec 11, 2016 17:41
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Gaston Thunderburp has exposed Sarevok and foiled his schemes.   Ulraunt, as always proving to be a complete loving idiot.  At least Tethoril is on the level.   7/8 tomes collected.   The dopplegangers were mere speedbumps, as were Prat's little group. Also, sequencers can be used in heavy armour, as if they weren't powerful enough.   After escaping the catacombs, I killed Drizzt. He proved a little tougher than usual, but eventually, he died.    The encounters up to the Ducal Palace were cleared with little issue.  A double web sequencer and free action took care of the doppleganger ambush in the palace itself.Surprisingly, both dukes survived this time.  In the thieves maze, I reached 1,000 kills. The rest of the maze was uneventful.   In the undercity, I killed the final group of Iron Throne mercenaries. I also spared Tamoko, killing her just seems wrong.  I could deal with Sarevok once and for all, but I'm going to do the TotSC content first. Starting with the Ice Island.
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Dec 11, 2016 19:21
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First and last installment for Mercurius, Human Wild Mage (SCS) Party does some initial leveling up to level 4-5. Do the basilisks in the garden, do the battle horrors outside durlag's, gnoll fortress for the gloves of dex. Stayed lean with 4 party members (Imoen, Gorion's ward, Jaheira and Khalid). Finally head over to mulahey to progress on the main quest. Battle is going fine, Imoen opens with an aganazor's scorcher and khalid shoots with fire arrows. Jaheira tanks tha kobold and skeleton spawn while charname shoots a fireball from a wand, killing the spawns. Jaheira makes her save vs. wand and takes little damage, yay.  Mulahey casts unholy blight, run ends.  Not sure what level he is, but Xd4 was apparently >= 16 hps on charname (level up rolls of 2, 1, 1). Mage hp is just crushing me. Although to be fair I saw Mulahey casting and could have hopped outside with charname. Instead of hoping that he wasn't casting unholy blight and that I would survive if he did. I'm feeling lucky about Mercurius II though. Probably won't get a 95 abilities roll again unfortunately. Big Sean fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Dec 11, 2016 |
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Dec 11, 2016 19:33
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 Scandale, gnome illusionist/thief is off and running. I wanted to grab some quick experience so I went to Peldvale and grabbed Ajantis. The first Ankheg we fought resisted two of my sleep spells.  Ajantis payed the price.  I did as well, shortly thereafter. Scandale, dissolved by an ankheg. I need to rethink my strategy coming into the game. I also need to take a short break – playing through Candlekeep six times in the past three days has been kind of numbing. I'll be back though because dammit, I’m going to get to Baldur’s Gate one of these days.
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Dec 11, 2016 20:02
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Ororo the priestess of Talos meets an old friend. Hi Jaheira. Bye Safana.    Turns out there's another place where infravision is useful. In a troll cave, Jaheira spotted a burned out torch that, when re-lit, revealed a small cache of items, including a scroll of enchanted weapon. It's been reworked into a really good spell in SoD. It turns whatever the target is wielding into a +3 weapon for determining whether or not it can hit a creature. Depending on your party and loot, it can be downright necessary for the final boss.  On the way to the old Bhaal temple (where the priestess of Cyric took Bridgefort's ward stone) is a sleeping green dragon with 2 unseen greater wyverns in the back. The game outright tells you to ignore it and walk past it. This is an ironman run, so of course I'm going to poke it.   This is the encounter I was saving my scrolls of protection from poison for. I also made the whole party fire immune so I could spam fire abilities without having to worry about friendly fire. Why fire? Because the dragon is vulnerable to it. So bust out those wands of fire, wands of heaven, necklaces of missiles, oils of fiery burning, potions of firebreath and go nuts.  Arachnophobic Aaron, you've been avenged!   Right, so the decrepit temple of Bhaal/Cyric. At the entrance are some caged crusaders and a caged eyeless priestess of Bhaal. You can do horrible things to them if you want but I didn't. Freeing the crusaders grants nonviolent access to the crusaders' camp. Gotta find the key, though. Also of note, the priestess keeps hearing voices.  This draconic priestess, sister of the recently slain green dragon, held the key to the cages as well as the key to go further into the temple. Very easy fight provided you kill all the neutral Cyric cultists on your way to her, because she summons them for help. She too keeps hearing voices in her head. Hmm.  After freeing the captive crusaders and the blind priestess of Bhaal (made her pinky swear not to kill anyone anymore), the party encountered... this thing. It's very easy to kill, but it can also very easily kill you. Chaotic commands is a must because it will use domination at least twice, and it leaves muck on the floor that deals significant poison damage.   Oh hey, the secret room mentioned in Sarevok's secret room. Just flip switches #3 #1 and #4 and the wall slides open.   You probably shouldn't open this secret room though. Here's why: it's guarded by a nasty trap and an even nastier shadow aspect. The shadow aspect is hasted, is under the greater invisibility effect and can seemingly turn invisible at will to, you guessed it, backstab for 60-70 damage or whatever. After a fireball didn't work, I tried to lure it out with Jaheira. Ye-ouch. Now I know why I wrote in my notes to lure it out with summons. Oh, arrows of dispelling work on it.  All this for a short sword +3. Yeah, not worth the risk.   A mind flayer. That's why everyone was going nuts. He's not the problem though, his thralls are the problem. They're well equipped and there's even a mage in an inconvenient position that doesn't allow for easy sniping with arrows of dispelling. The mage's first spell after his automatic buffs is... teleport field. It makes the battle very chaotic. Hope you didn't rush your entire party into the room.  Inside a trapped locked container near the mind flayer is a scroll of chaotic commands. Thanks, game.   With the mind flayer gone it's possible to get the ward stone from the priestess without a fight. Which means the mind flayer is technically skippable if you don't mind killing her.   On the way back to the Flaming Fist camp I ran into an encounter I didn't get the last time I played SoD. For helping a young dragon, the party was rewarded with an ioun stone. It's ok I guess? Do ioun stones still protect against critical hits or was that fixed in the EE? Anyway, Ororo the priestess of Talos is on her way to Bridgefort to rescue Khalid.
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Dec 12, 2016 02:33
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When we last left our heroes, Minerva the Dwarven Defender had just been shipwrecked in gods-know-where when all she wanted was a vacation. Whatever, let's help some people out.  I considered actually just killing her but I'm not doing an rear end in a top hat run (this time).  Crazy guy wants a book.  We blind the big rear end in a top hat from upstairs after pulling him down the ladder, then after a couple attempts manage to polymorph him into a squirrel. He dies fast after that.  Yoink.  Not even a thank-you.   Turn back in some quests, get accosted by Kaishas's boyfriend.  The fight toward the cavern is tougher than I remember but we make it in one piece.  You know who's not in one piece? Kaishas.  And also her... other boyfriends?  Once we're back on the mainland we're immediately off it again as Shandalar sends us to pick up a cloak. We get lucky as Yeslick manages to silence all three mages, making them trivial.  Significantly less trivial was Tellan, who actually kind of hosed us up. This would've been a run-ender if not for a couple potions and a quick Lay on Hands from Isra.  I don't remember these snow golems on L2. Must've been added either by EE or by the latest version of Unfinished Business.  Shandalar actually does thank us. We spend the next few days trekking down south to Durlag's Tower to clear it out.  Riggilo doesn't accept our peace offering because he's a dumb jerk meaniehead.  Kirinhale's not too pleased either but a quick dispel from Yeslick means Minerva's only charmed for a couple seconds.  Last tome acquired!  With the upstairs all clean, time to head down. And with that, Minerva the Dwarven Defender has reached Durlag's dungeon.
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Dec 12, 2016 02:43
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Philon Grumpleton the surliest gnome in the Sword Coast steps out of Candlekeep... First step, recruiting the Harpers and picking up the Ring of Wizardry. Tarnesh saves against Spook but Shield means I'm safe from Magic Missiles and he gets taken out by guards soon enough. Silke on the other hand, fails her save...  And so does Karlat. Wait, Kivan, are you being edgy?  While loitering around Beregost, Imoen "finds" a Wand of Lightning and we're off to zap some wolves as usual. Somewhere along the Coast Way I had realized that my Fairy Dragon familiar is immune to petrification, and since the basilisks are only one map away...  This way we can use Korax to tank the group of Waterdhavian assholes that challenge you.  With everyone around level 4 and Jaheira getting pissy about Nashkel we meet up with Berrun Ghastkill.  We declined Minsc this time and we flee his rage since I don't really want him to die. I'm torn between Spook and Blind but having the Ring of Wizardry means I don't have to choose and there's something about blinding and then spooking a big guy like Greywolf that cracks me up and fits this character so well. When I get Minor Sequencer I plan to put them together.  The mines are easily cleansed but playing this fast means you eventually make stupid mistakes like giving Khalid the Red Potion from the Carnival merchant (that I was saving up for scribing the scroll of Stoneskin) instead of a Potion of Strength that was on another characters inventory.  We march to the Gnoll Fortress anyway and bring back Dynaheir because I'm RP as an rear end in a top hat but come on, there are some limits. On the way back to Beregost Imoen hits level 6 and since I always dual her at 7 it's time to think about getting another thief. Coran will be reduntant since Kivan will get the best bows and Khalid the best longswords, and Alora is too far away. Safana on the other hand is on the way to the Con tome.  Eh... Khalid is also from where you come from and I'm a gnome. We succesfully raid the Cave and since Kivan will soon start insisting on getting to the Bandit Camp, we wrap up things in Beregost.  And Melicamp lives! Everyone is a bit overleveled and we stomp through the Bandit Camp without too much trouble. After a return to the Friendly Arm to unwind and purchase almost their entire stock of potions, Philon Grumpleton the Illusionist reluctantly prepares for an excursion into the Cloakwood forest.
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Dec 12, 2016 03:17
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Rogal the Shaman has cleared Ulcaster, Firewine, the bandit camp and sundry other chunks of the sword coast. drat it, Xzar, stop dying all the time!. As you can see, the fun times crew this time around consists of Dorn and Montaron up front, Imoen thieving about with magical support from Xzar and Edwin. Two Bhaalspawn, a Blackguard, two Zhents and a Red Wizard of Thay. Gorion would be so proud. Onwards to Cloakwood!
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Dec 12, 2016 03:47
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Aeneas II, halfling Kensai (SCS) has been keeping to himself after his run in with Arkanis via bad AI coding in the thieves den. But I thought this was worth posting. I think I've got SCS Kangaxx down pat. Step 1:  Step 2:  Poor little guy. He just wanted to enslave humanity! Instead, he gets greeted by three sunrays the moment he pokes his demi-lich head out. --- Just have Twisted Rune, Suldanessar and Hell remaining. Aeneas will take care not to be time-stop melee'd by Jon in Hell... Big Sean fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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Dec 12, 2016 05:09
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I don't feel like grinding up a full party this time, so I'll give a solo run a try. Orc-Dave the Swashbuckler needs no friends to conquer the Sword Coast.  I reroll a bunch to get a high charisma start. I'm going to have to sell and rebuy a bunch of magical items to recharge them so this'll save some money.  Melicamp lives. A good omen, perhaps.  I just grind out money and xp for a while, this is probably the hairiest moment in all that. After fireballing the amazon mercenary group a few times with the necklace of missiles, I move in to finish off the stragglers in melee. Lamalha manages to cast Rigid Thinking, but thankfully Orc-Dave lands the deathblow right at that moment.  The Mulahey fight is a clusterfuck of skeletons and kobolds, but I pull through okay. After the previous encounter I start using the Greenstone Amulet from Ulgoth's Beard for its mind shield effect. Between that and the ring of free action, cleric enemies basically can't do poo poo to Orc-Dave.  The Nimbul fight is where I finally remember "Oh, right, Swashbucklers can't backstab, duh." Still kind of worth doing since you get a to-hit bonus for attacking from stealth. A poison dagger still ruins caster enemies even without a damage multiplier.  Necklace of Missiles gets me through the bandit camp, though not without some problems. I accidentally blow up the prisoner Ender Sai and lose a bunch of reputation points. Looking forward to Cloakwood so I can finally get the Boots of Speed. Mountaineer fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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Dec 12, 2016 06:26
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armoredgorilla posted:Still waiting on your blind "eaten by a black bear on Lions Way" Ironman attempt. That is EXACTLY what happened, how did you know?!
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Dec 12, 2016 06:27
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Big Sean posted:Poor little guy. He just wanted to enslave humanity! Instead, he gets greeted by three sunrays the moment he pokes his demi-lich head out. Aren't demi-liches immune to spell levels 1-9? Is sunray an exception or is that something SCS changed? ----- Ororo, priestess of Talos resolved the Boareskyr bridge stalemate.   Entering the crusaders camp incognito doesn't really serve any purpose yet other than to steal booze for the half-orc irregulars back at the Flaming Fist camp.   Alright let's use the teleportation circle to get into Bridgefort. Hi Khalid, you're the leader here? Nice. Can't join the party until the situation is resolved? I understand. Talk to the defenders then return to you once I figured the best way to handle things? Got it.  Hi Neera, bye Dynaheir and Minsc.  Oopsie, turns out distracting the defending mage was a bad idea. Now a level draining rock has hit the fort. This would be a problem if it didn't take 30 loving seconds to just run into the crusaders camp, steal a scroll and come back. Other than that there were a half a dozen micro quests.   Screw diplomacy and subterfuge, let's charge in with the Flaming Fist. The more of these fuckers we kill here, the less there'll be at Dragonspear Castle. I like to lure the crusaders to the front gate as it creates a nice chokepoint to spam fireballs into to soften them up before they engage the fist. This is by no means an easy battle, all the named crusaders, particularly The Barghest and his crew, can cut through the Fist and kick your rear end. Party friendly disabling spells like confusion, emotion: hopelessness and chaos are really clutch. All 3 of which Dynaheir cannot cast, because they're enchantments and she's an invoker.  The crusaders fall back and attempt to destroy the bridge.   Not this time. With her opening cast of chaos, Neera confused most of the crusaders, including the mage. The battle was already won, it was just a matter of cleaning up.  The battle is won! Khalid can now join. Let's just cross the bridge and be on our way...  Well that was embarrassing. Ororo lost consciousness and a giant Bhaal symbol appeared under her. Now everyone will know she's a Bhaalspawn! ... except that she screamed it at the top of her lungs on her way out of Baldur's Gate already (and only lost 1 point of reputation for it).   336 hours to reach the coalition camp?! That's quite the trek. Alright then. Ororo, priestess of Talos reached the coalition camp besieging Dragonspear Castle. Raise cost: 2000 gold Wild surges: 10 (I think? I can't tell if any occurred during the camp fight, the battle log is useless when so many creatures are fighting)
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Dec 12, 2016 07:00
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Double update today since I've got time to kill. When we last left our heroes, Minerva the Dwarven Defender was about to see what her maybe-but-probably-not great-great-great-grandpappy left for her in his basement. We start by saying hi to his old talking sword.  Then we kill some of his servants (thanks in large part to skull traps and glyphs of warding) so we can get down into the storm cellar.  Even though I know it could be a run-ender, I decide to take on the undead that gramps hired to guard his kid's tomb with only a little bit of buffing. It goes well but I'm glad I'm playing a DD, that poo poo would've loving hurt otherwise.  Honorable? No. Effective? Yes.  I hate chess and this is even worse than most because usually I at least know the rules and don't get SHOT BY LIGHTNING for breaking them. So we just chuck a couple webs and fireballs across and call it a day.  Gee, thanks grandpa. Boss me around from beyond the grave, why don't you. With Minerva getting PW Stunned, I'm very lucky that the demon knight died when he did.  I don't give this guy a chance to call for his usual reinforcements, I just have Minerva go up and bop him in the nuts with her hammer.  Before we left for the tower, we conveniently spent a few days skull trapping and glyphing the poo poo out of this place. It works pretty much perfectly—all the minions die almost immediately and the demon gets reduced low enough that Isra finishes him off in one hit. Even those couple seconds were still long enough for him to Death Gaze Minerva though (she saved).  We save one Duke.  But not the other one. Liia dies in practically the first round.  The maze is easy as usual except OH GOD WHAT'S THAT I'M NOT USED TO THAT.  It turns out to actually not be too difficult, though it does confuse half the party and I have to hope that they don't run off and do anything stupid.  Like that.   A couple offscreen fireballs does some nice damage to this group, but only actually takes out one of them. For some reason Tamoko is missing even though I've talked with her both times.  And with that, Minerva the Dwarven Defender has fratricided Sarevok. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get any of the other three since I would've liked the XP, but given Minerva's health I'm not going to loving complain.
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Dec 12, 2016 07:30
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Suspicious posted:Aren't demi-liches immune to spell levels 1-9? Is sunray an exception or is that something SCS changed? SCS "Smarter Demliches" gives them full spellcasting abilites, but reduces their spell immunities down to lich-type level 5 and below (excluding breach). On balance I guess it makes them more dangerous, but it makes demilich kangaxx in particular vulnerable to sunrays because he doesn't start with pre-buffs or quickly cast protection from energy. I think I screwed up once and actually had to fight him, but as long as you don't jump the gun on the sunrays and cast before he actually appears, two sunrays are basically a guaranteed kill on him. Helm of brilliance + daystar make it easy to get the timing right because you can wait to start casting until he fully appears and still get him before he casts anything. I've also noticed SCS smarter liches (and high level mages generally) still aren't ALL that smart. I can think of much meaner strategies than what they actually deploy. Like [blackblade + timestop + melee] or [timestop + imprisonment] would both be unbelieveably terrifying combinations, but instead they tend to waste time with anti-magic spells, summons, and evocations. [timestop + breach + powerword stun] would also be cruel on a number of characters. Or [breach + malison + disintegrate]. Big Sean fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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Dec 12, 2016 08:19
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