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 Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage is going to be taking a stab at this. Installed a few mods, most notably Stratagems, Dragonspear UI++, Isra and Valerie. In retrospect Valerie will probably not join the party though since I'm editing some classes/kits with NPC EE and EEKeeper. Neera is coming along as a Wild Sorcerer instead. In addition Imoen is now a mage/thief multiclass and Viconia is now a fighter/cleric multiclass with her abilities shuffled around. This is actually my first time playing through SoD so hopefully that won't go horrible on me and I can get that shiny Blind Faith honour. So part of not having played SoD was never having actually used Dragonspear UI++ before either. I was a little suprised when starting that it included Point Buy as an Ability option. This is relevant to me mostly because I originally wrote that mod. Pretty sure its in Dragonspear UI++ because I gave permission to another mod author to include it as one of their options for Ability autoroll cheats and then that got rolled into Dragonspear UI++. Anway I made that option so I'm going to use it, setting that to 85 because rolling for good stats is boring.  And so:  First real hurdle I'm anticipating: Tarnesh. I'm starting with a Cleric/Mage not exactly a class known for its ability to take a hit at level 1 and I didn't bring along anyone but Imoen to the Friendly Arm. So I'm going for maximum preperation, cast bless before the fight starts and have Command ready to go. Open the fight with Imoen using her wand of Magic Missiles, etc:  Oh. Okay. Alright then, nevermind. One final note for this update, I'm playing this on steam so for the first time in my life I can earn Achievements for Baldurs Gate, now I didn't check but something tells me I'm going to needs these sometime in the future: 
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Nov 28, 2016 11:16
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 03:54 |
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Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage Made my way from Friendly Arm to Beregost, picked up Neera now a Wild Sorcerer. Did the sidequests around town and got confident, Silke can't be that hard to beat right.  A line from Darkest Dungeon regarding overconfidence comes to mind. Also bonus fun fact this is Baldurs Gate 1 sleep which means it lasts a while and punching people does not wake them up. I made tea while I waited for my party to get up. Oh well, charname didn't even take damage so who cares if a few extras bit the dust. Hey lets see if we can save our favourite chicken  Oh well, I'm sure someone in the thread will manage it eventually. Time to head south, pick up my final party members ( barring chunking ). First in Nashkel pick up Minsc and ditch Jaheira and Khalid. Sorry Khalid but you are just the worst fighter in the game. Pick up the free Ankheg plate for Viconia so she casually walks around with -5 AC now. Oh, can't forget the most important "quest" in Nashkel.  Well we have one more open party slot. Lets go fill it, for that we need to go kill someone. Greywolf I'd like to introduce you too the Perfectly Balanced spell Command.  And with that Isra joins our party, someone else in the thread has already introduced her so I won't go to much into her stats. However Isra together with Valerie are two genuinly good NPCs for BG1 that just fit into the game. They have some banters and a small personal story, have normal npc levels of power and come with nice VA work. Mods like these two compensate for the terrible NPC mods we all know and hate. Lets go have fun at the carnival, clear out the map of kobolds, kill a circus ogre, save a witch.  Damnit Zordral, now I have to wait for my party to wake up again. Now I could go tackle the Mines but Minsc really wants to go save Dynaheir and I've had that timer bite me in the rear end before so lets clear that issue up first, clearing maps along the way will also ensure the multiclass characters in the party get to level 2 or 3 in each class for important health gains. Talking about health gains, if Neera hadn't leveled up before Sendai's party I'd have to go slog all the way back to the temple for her.  Now I certainly don't Need to clear out the Xvart village but this spell count on Neera and the fact that I'm playing a Bhaalspawn argues I should do it anyway.  Oh right Stratagems adds a summoned Bear to this village.  I remember it being more difficult to kill though. And normally clearing out this place you have time to consider the moral implications of genocide as you manually click through every pile of loot to get all the money. But with the power of Modern UI Design thats now a thing of the past.  Gnoll fortress: I'm learning that I'm very much used to a BS Tactics variant of the game here as I got mentally prepared for groups of Gnolls filled with Chieftains, Flinds, Elites and Veterans. Instead its mostly just Gnolls, simple normal Gnolls that you can cast sleep on. BG1 sleep at that so it doesn't even break when you hit them. Towards the end there Neera reminds me that she's still using Wild magic. Luckily she only managed to actually down Minsc.  Minsc and Dynaheir finally reunited, Imoen leaves the party for but then. Oh no. A gnoll accident, guess I had forgotten about that final group up those stairs. So very tragic.  I'm sorry Minsc but with the current state of the economy and the iron crisis I just cant afford the ressurection costs. You know how it is I'm sure. Imoen still standing right there though so she can join again.
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Nov 30, 2016 10:39
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biscuits and crazy posted:I'm considering adding an exception to the Iron Party honour for Shoal the Nereid, since that death is mandatory for that particular sequence, and you get the resurrection for free anyway. Any thoughts on this? What about an honor for the Legacy of Bhaal difficulty ?
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Nov 30, 2016 16:24
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Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage Where was I, oh yeah  Nothing exciting happened besides a few levelups. I try to rest before I fight Mullahey, it takes a few attempts. Eventually I manage to not get ambushed by goblins. Set up inside the northern chamber, cast some buffs and lure out Mullahey. I'm playing with Stratagems/SCS so he gets some minions and lackeys but thats what Turn Undead and Sleep are for, then when he shows his face around the corner, two Holds, because I don't feel like fighting an actual fight.  So after beating up a group of Slept and Held Monsters plus one evil Cleric the aftermath on the party is  drat Viconia took 2 points of damage somewhere. Need to try harder next time. I clear out the zone behind the mines, grab my favourite wand and return to civilisation to turn in quests. Oh wait, no. This rear end in a top hat interupts us.  No damage taken at all, much better. Time to turn in more quests back in Beregost when oops, no. Time to be interrupted by an rear end in a top hat again.  gently caress you Elminster, gently caress You.
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Dec 2, 2016 17:02
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Verdant Sapphire the Cleric/Mage Quick update to document some pre-bandit camp assault activity, part one. First up, Neeras sidequest. Up to the actual final encounter its trivial, in fact with some dialogue choices there is only two fights in the whole thing.  However the final encounter is actually a bit of a bitch, so using the power of knowing things ahead of time and dialogue triggers I cheat.  And the end result is still a bit of a clusterfuck, seriously i swear those bodyguards are scripted to just go for mages and never stop. Time to clean up the western half of the sword coast. Starting with Bassilus, just as susceptable to Hold Person as everyone else, and thus trivial.  That'll give me the money to get the second set of Ankheg plate, lets go get some of that, find a corpse and liberate some good treasure all in one go.  Oh and appease the Bitch Queen or something.  Is this rush option new in EE ? I don't remember it existing.  Another ambush, another group destroyed by basic CC spells.  The Kozah Doomsayer, finally someone who can put up a fight, except for that part where "a fight" is about half Isra's hp.  The Con Tome goes to charname, setting her Con to a useless for a Cleric/Mage 17, its not like it'll carry over into BG2 on other party members anyway. Thats 2 tomes found.  Look at that map, all those quests finished, all that evil vanquished, monsters converted into XP. 
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Dec 4, 2016 12:08
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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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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 03:54 |
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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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