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Stairs: The true bane of spellcasters.
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Jan 3, 2018 17:50
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Samuel Clemens posted:Stairs: The true bane of spellcasters. Completely true.
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Jan 3, 2018 18:24
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Blaxploiter, the solo fighter/illusionist starts BG2 The less said about Irenicus Dungeon the better, so let’s skip to the interesting part.  CHEESE TIME Disclaimer: I was not planning to do this when I started this run because I have only discovered this exploit recently. This is really gimmicky and doing this in an ironman run is really hit-or-miss, you only get one chance to pull it off. Shapeshifting has always been kinda buggy in this game and it turns out that while the EE fixed some exploits it also introduced others. This is one exclusive for the EE version. Basically, the only thing you need is the 9th level mage spell “Shapechange”, which is not exactly easy, due to the scarcity of that scroll until Elf city. The obvious workaround for this is the 7th level spell Limited Wish, that let’s you replicate shapechange as a one-time deal. Fortunately for us, the scroll merchant at Ribald’s has one.  First step, go to Ribald’s and buy the scroll, you should have enough money and/or goods if you scavenged Irenicus dungeon thoroughly enough. If not, go complete the circus or the copper coronet quests.  Cast the spell and wish for shapechange. The exploit revolves around that if you change form exactly when the spell runs out, you will be able to retain the ability to change to that form permanently after the spell duration expires. The change form spell/animation has a 1 second duration, so you need to press the form you desire exactly in the last second of the spell duration. The tricky part is that shapechange has a in-game duration of 1 hour, in real time is exactly 5 minutes. So you need to change shape exactly between 4:59: and 5:00. The way I did it is using a chronometre, synchronizing as well as I could the moment the initial spell is cast (when you close the dialog with the djinn). It’s advisable to not try to shapechange exactly at 4:59, try to let pass half a second in before clicking.  It looks like this when it works. In my case I choose the iron golem form over the mind flayer one for the resistances. Look at this.  Christ, immunity to magic and the classic elements is awesome, the melee resistance and the great strength also helps. However, it doesn’t make you invincible, because your AC actually drops (due to dex 9, easily fixable though) and you can’t use any other weapon than your fists, who hit as a +2 weapon (not sure on that though).Take into account that while you are in iron golem form you can’t cast spells but you can read from scrolls, use hotbar items, charges from other items and drink potions, so the potential for cheese is immense. The only thing I should beware of is certain innate abilities that bypass magic resistance, like the paralyzing touch of ghouls and shadow fiends. Blaxploiter, the solo fighter/illusionist has become Blaxploiter, the solo Iron Golem 
Angry Lobster fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Jan 3, 2018 |
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Jan 3, 2018 18:39
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Angry Lobster posted:Blaxploiter, the solo fighter/illusionist has become Blaxploiter, the solo Iron Golem Subscribed, voted 5, went hog wild.  I'll try to get a few runs for this thread! I'm unfortunately playing PSTEE right now so it'll have to wait a bit.
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Jan 3, 2018 18:45
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Kala has a much more boring update than that Iron Golem.  We get a good spell. I grabbed Yoshimo and cleared out the first level of Watchers keep.  Firkraag went down to the similar tactic as the last dragon... stairs. Any time he attempted to cast a dispel or greater mailsion etc.. I just zoned thru the stairs. Some lower resistance / power word blind and some swords saw him dead easily enough. Fireshield red and the fire resistance ring negated his dragon breath.  After the quest I was about 80k xp short of epic level so I grabbed Aerie and forced spells into her until I leveled.  I think now is finally the right time to grab a party.
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Jan 3, 2018 20:20
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Angry Lobster posted:Blaxploiter, the solo fighter/illusionist has become Blaxploiter, the solo Iron Golem Haha, this owns. Doesn't the Iron Golem form have huge trouble getting through narrow doorways though? ---  After the failure of Owynna, I felt like trying someone a bit more magically inclined. So here's Nadia, the Half-Elven Blade. Blades don't really come into their own until the second game where they get enough spell slots to compensate for their inherent squishiness. Still, no character capable of using both a bow and wands should have that much trouble in BG1.  Like Haste, Offensive Spin doubles your movement rate. Which aside from being a nice convenience also allows Nadia to raid the Ankheg nest right out of Candlekeep.  I love you, Wand of Fire.  It's a good thing Nadia reached level 3 by helping Tenya because a stray arrow crits her for 14 damage on the way to Beregost. Dying to a random critical hit is by far the biggest threat for any low-level character who can't equip helmets.  Melicamp lives.   There's really nothing I can say about the first half of the game. The Wands of Fire, Summoning, and Paralysis trivialise everything until you reach Baldur's Gate proper. Things should get a bit more interesting from here on out. Nadia begins questing in the city.
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Jan 4, 2018 01:26
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Angry Lobster posted:Blaxploiter, the solo fighter/illusionist has become Blaxploiter, the solo Iron Golem Hahahahaha this is wonderful. Do you get stuck in the form, or do you have the permanent ability to swap in and out of it? When we last left Corbomite C. Hayes, Our Heroes were just sort of futzing around the Sword Coast. But we're off to do important heroism now.  Important. Heroism.  First we go back to the Valley of the Dead to mop up a few loose ends.  Has a wizard opening with this ever gone well?  Speaking of loose ends and experimenting wizards, it's time to roll dem bones!  To the family of Intern Melicamp...  To the family of rear end in a top hat Wizard Tranzig...  To the family of Heroic Librarian Finch...naah, gently caress that, we're getting her raised, I didn't want that Iron Party honor anyway.  Dude, NOT COOL, I'm an orphan! It's like a whole mythological thing, even. Guess it's not common knowledge yet, but still.   We lay waste to the Bandit Camp and get our next bread crumb of this particularly convoluted trail.  Oh good.  Another mod-added sidequest, another day.  Normally this can only ever end in violence, I think, but thanks to the BG1 NPC Project, there's a peaceful(ish) solution that leads into a Jaheira-specific quest. (Also, note that we've swapped Coran for Minsc, since Imoen's now a dual-class mage.)  This takes us through the next couple of maps to resolve, and involves a fair bit of backtracking afterwards.  But first, there's the spider map. It turns out that tanking with Isra, who is immune to poison thanks to being a Cavalier, is extremely effective here. (And will be again once we're fighting wyverns.)  The Shadow Druids on this map always crack me up. DEATH TO THE ENEMIES OF NATURE, but first listen to my seven-hour lecture about how you're all a bunch of evil weaklings because you believe in things like 'tolerance' and 'not murdering people whose only sin was wanting to take a nice walk in the woods' oh dear I'm dead now.  Three hours into his speech "THERE WILL BE NO TALKING, NO NEGOTIATION." (There was both talking and negotiation. And fire.)  HULK is avenged. (Jaheira hilariously gets charmed again, but Finch gets lucky with her Dispel.)  This is in the Wyvern map. (Not pictured: Isra killing several wyverns while the rest of us hide behind her and throw things at them.) We find this dude, who's apparently a friend from Jaheira's past, surrounded by Shadow Druids, who we lecture for twelve days straight on the virtues of tolerance lol no we kill them.  Then we have to go back to the druid grove map, to confront the other Shadow Archdruid and rescue his prisoner. We, uh, do that.  We let him flee with his life, though. Surely this will not come back to bite us later. (I honestly have no idea whether it does or not.)  Then it's back to the hunting lodge to get paid. With an enchanted club. Oh joy.  It is, in fairness, a pretty nice club. Corbomite C. Hayes is off to the Cloakwood Mines.
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Jan 4, 2018 05:42
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Priest Softface continues farting around through Amn. First we meet some of Neera's friends. This guy doesn't remember giving me those cool glasses to see spirits, but he was probably too high to form long-term memories at that point anyway.  With that settled, it's time to go meet one of MY friends.  And help her murder a poor entertainer who just couldn't get no respect.  With that out of the way and an evenly matched party it's time to go get a free set of full plate. Throwing a couple castings of Chaos into the room first makes this much easier.  I might as well continue the tradition of picking unnecessary fights with people I'm going to smear on the floor with these guys.  gently caress off Anomen, I've never used you and I never will.  Calling this guy's bluff is always fun. I make quick work of the slavers topside and head for the slaver den, conveniently on the other side of the sewers.  Picking up a cool sword for Minsc in the process. It's possibly the only character in the game more annoying than he is. Not long after this Nalia gives me the notice that I should head over to do her quest, so I go straight for it!  After dealing with Harper business and a follower of the Mad God, of course.  Nalia is... not as enlightened as she likes to think. Lucky for her I like getting paid.  In his turn, TorGal is...  not quite as difficult as I remember. A couple of skeletons help manage the fight, and soon we're 10k gold richer. Time to head back to the city and spend that hard-earned cash.  Not this time, Vic. And now that she's not going to die it's time to call it a night.
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Jan 4, 2018 07:00
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I'm kinda pissed because I had to do almost all of chapter 9's content three times. First because of an inopportune game crash, and a second time because the main quest bugged and wouldn't proceed. Anyhoo, Vincenzo the fighter/thief sets out to lift the siege of the bridge fort. Chapter 9.  I immediately killed the trapped crusaders because there's a cheevo for it, and also because it gives me immediate access to Dorn, the only evil warrior NPC in SoD!  Bluffed my way into the camp thanks to the crusader badge or crest or thingie.  Hey Dorn buddy, I really missed you and the amazing stuff I left on you. Say, why is your health less than maximum? And where is the sweet stuff you had? DORN DOESN'T IMPORT FROM BG1 INTO SOD??? BEAMDOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGG    Poison dragons are vulnerable to fire? That's an unfortunate weakness to have in this game.   Her sister was upset over losing her sibling but she didn't put up much of a fight.   Taking no chances, I used 6 scrolls of chaotic commands before picking a fight with the mind flayer, and I mass nuked the room upon opening the door. This killed the wizard and archer outright and left only 2 near death melee guys and a mind flayer at full health (because of high magic resistance) to clean up.  I surrendered the bridge fort for the achievement but didn't get it (sigh.) The bridge fight was pretty easy with 2 wizards though. Chaos + Emotion: Hopelessness disabled all hostiles. Vincenzo the fighter/thief is on his way to the coalition camp.
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Jan 4, 2018 07:52
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I assume most people ITT know this, but Otiluke's Resilient Sphere was changed in the EE to no longer require a save if you use it on yourself. So it's now 100% reliable. Another interesting aspect about the sphere is that it doesn't make you untargetable. Rather, it turns you invisible. So creatures who natively see through invisibility will still attack even if they cannot harm you. What this means is that you can combine Fireshield: Blue or Fireshield: Red with Otiluke and inflict "death by stop hitting yourself" on quite a few enemies.  Like good old Drizzt for instance, who mindlessly tries to hit me over and over. For an epic hero, he's not particularly smart.  Then again, neither am I. As it turns out, getting killed by Fireshield: Blue works just like any other death by cold damage, i. e. the enemy's loot gets destroyed. Whoops.  And Nadia could have really used his scimitars and armor. Oh well.  Minor Globe of Invulnerability really shines in BG1 where it lets you stand in your own Webs and Fireballs all day long.  I mess up in the Candlekeep Catacombs and nearly die to Prat and pals. Situations like this are why I always keep an invisibility potion handy.  Always remember that when in doubt, there's no problem that can't be solved by turning into a Mustard Jelly and dropping a few Fireballs on yourself.  Jellies are also immune to piercing and poison, so they can tank spiders all day long.  I make it down to the spider room at the lowest floor of Durlag's and then I just... die? What? Seriously, this is the most bizarre death I've ever had in this game. I take 5 damage from a Sword Spider while at full health (so I have about 70 remaining) and then just keel over a few seconds later. There's no indication of what killed me, not even a death message in the combat log. It's like Nadia just lost the will to live. I reloaded the autosave a few times to see if I could replicate the phenomenon, but I never got it to work a second time. So if anyone has an idea what killed me, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Until then: RIP Nadia, killed by something at the bottom of Durlag's Tower.
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Jan 4, 2018 15:06
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The adventures of Jomo, the Shaman of Sexy commence! I have never played Shaman so this should be new. Not bad stats for refusing to reroll.  I make it past Gorion, ender of the previous year's run. Always a good sign.  Then we're waylaid by dogs off of the first transition and nearly get killed. Never a good sign.  But pressing on gets Jomo's party to the Friendly Arm. Let's see if this run ends up Tarneshed.
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Jan 4, 2018 15:50
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Samuel Clemens posted:I reloaded the autosave a few times to see if I could replicate the phenomenon, but I never got it to work a second time. So if anyone has an idea what killed me, I'd genuinely love to hear it. I've had similarly bizarre deaths to green slimes. Characters went from full health to chunked in a single round. Maybe it's the poison?
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Jan 4, 2018 18:33
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Suspicious posted:I've had similarly bizarre deaths to green slimes. Characters went from full health to chunked in a single round. Maybe it's the poison? Probably, it has happened to me too. I have an irrational fear of slimes for poo poo like that. E: docbeard posted:Hahahahaha this is wonderful. Do you get stuck in the form, or do you have the permanent ability to swap in and out of it? Yep, you can turn back to normal anytime you want, works exactly like any other shapeshifting abilities, just you don't have any limits of times/day. Angry Lobster fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Jan 4, 2018 |
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Jan 4, 2018 19:54
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Green slimes can stick you with a status effect that basically means you're dead unless you can dispel or neutralize the poison (frankly I don't remember which works). There's no status indicator other than the affected character turning green. There's a tavern somewhere in BG that's infested with green slimes when you walk in and the bartender and patrons start exploding shortly after. If you've been there, you may remember the ones that explode are tinted green. If your PC turned green you've got a really short time to fix it before  e: Here's a link!
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Jan 4, 2018 20:25
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Suspicious posted:I've had similarly bizarre deaths to green slimes. Characters went from full health to chunked in a single round. Maybe it's the poison? Yeah, the melee attack of Green Slimes instantly kills you if you fail a save vs. Death (I lost an old no-reload character to that). I guess it's possible that the Astral Phase Spider has something similar, it's just weird that there was no notification in the combat log. Usually it at least says CHARNAME: Death. Ah well, no sense dwelling on loss. Here's the next fool trying to make his way across the Sword Coast:  Barry, the Dwarven Defender. He's a Born Hero, thanks to a very nice 82 roll right out of the gate (that Strength score though).  Just for the hell of it, I try my hand at the Melee Champion honour (which I'm asumming includes throwing daggers and axes). So Barry has to melee the belt ogre to death. Which goes fine, mostly thanks to the ludicrously overpowered Defensive Stance.  Melicamp lives. Again.  The mines go by without issues and a lucky charm defangs the Amazon fight. Barry is on his way to the bandit camp.
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Jan 4, 2018 20:37
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 Blaxploiter starts his rampage through Athkatla solving the Circus problem by punching Kalah in the face. After that, a quick visit to our old pal Mencar Pebblecrusher.  It’s suprising how fast you can kill peope when you fight inside your own cloudkill farts.  The image of a random thug picking a fight with a magically enhanced battlerobot strolling on the street is pretty funny to me.  Also, gently caress the (magic) cops.  Safe, bot boring lich killing strat, let him empty his considerable arsenal on you and wait for his magic defences to run out.  Silly moment: a Pit Fiend, a Lich, an Efreet and an Iron Golem all waiting for the other to die of boredom. Golem wins.  Here Blaxploiter learns about the slavery situation in the Copper Coronet. Not on his watch.  INITIATE FREEDOM PROTOCOLS  FREEDOM IS NOT NEGOTIABLE  More cop murder, this time a random peasant gets caught in the crossfire and Blaxploiter reputations tanks, so it’s time to get out of the city for a while. They say Trademeet is lovely at this time of the year.    Don’t know what’s so good in this place, the countryside is full of trolls, angry druids and shapeshifting tiger assholes. After this pleasant vacation, Blaxploiter returns to the city and gives the Shadow Thieves their money. Some time later, in a random backalley:  Super Magic Cops vs da Iron Golem: The Final Murdering.   The Iron Golem wins. (I love murdering Cowled Wizards)  Storming Fikraag’s dungeon, at this point Blaxploiter is basically a fully fledged battlemech, spewing fireballs and poisonous gas with his wands.  Killing Tazok (again).   That’s a metric ton of vampire cunts, all right. Daystar came handy in this fight. CHEESE TIME. What’s the best objective way to kill Fikraag with an arcane caster?   Feeblemind is freaking great against blue-circle monsters, just cast it until they fail their save (it doesn't agro neutral monsters), breaks scripts and they will stand there, drooling like morons while you punch their face. Blaxploiter, the solo Iron Golem is rampaging through Amn!
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Jan 4, 2018 22:53
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 On second thought, Jomo isn't messing with Tarnesh. Better to bait him into the guards. To his credit, he kills one of them before falling.  I accidentally run into Neera and against my better judgment, boot Xzar the genderbent mage to make room. This never goes badly  Then I smartly take on giant spiders with no antidotes and Neera spell flubs into Holding herself so I can't retreat. Amazingly, I get out of this only losing Khalid.  Then I go after Silke, Neera accidentally blows up Imoen...there really should be a badge for taking Neera along during Ironman...  Not to be outdone, Silke also blows herself up murdering Kagain. Well. It appears Jomo the Shaman is in Beregost and looks to be recruiting
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Jan 4, 2018 23:17
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That kind of thing is part of why when I made the Valerie NPC mod, she won't romance a wild mage.
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Jan 4, 2018 23:33
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You made Valerie? I brought her along with Isra in one of my most recent BG1 runs. I really enjoyed her, so thank you for all of your hard work!  Back on topic, I am loving everyone's hard work this year; I am a dumb bad baby game player so I always play on super low difficulty, but it's nice to see some cheese tactics (So I can cheese things on super low difficulty like a super dumb bad baby gamer) and just crazy circumstances. Please keep up the good work everyone!
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Jan 5, 2018 03:48
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Charlett posted:You made Valerie? I brought her along with Isra in one of my most recent BG1 runs. I really enjoyed her, so thank you for all of your hard work! Yep. Truth be told her BG2 and ToB component is about 90% done, just what's left is some tricky coding I never really learned how to do and the modding community I once knew and could get help with is dead now. Same reason I've never updated her (or my old shame, Darian) for EE. I probably could beg for help somewhere and get her finished, but  Glad you enjoyed her.
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Jan 5, 2018 03:55
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Cythereal posted:Yep. Yeah, I enjoy Valerie a lot too. The only reason I don't have her around in my current game is that my protagonist is a sorcerer and I can't really justify two (especially with Imoen a mage these days as well).
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Jan 5, 2018 04:16
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 Gretek and his buds aren't a Gorpel Hindrance at all.  Thanks to back-to-back uses of Kai, neither are these chumps.  The Iron Throne leadership are a bit tougher, mostly because I got lazy with my pre-battle potion ritual and also because there were a lot of crits.  One of these days I'll kill that Diarmid fucker on a solo run. Today is not that day.  The Demon Knight was tough. Did you know Remove/Dispel Magic can cut through Protection from Magic? Because it can. I had to pop out of the room to re-buff, and even then he was able to hit me no problem most of the time.  His boss isn't much easier.  But you know who is? These jerks who are liars.  Liia dies almost immediately. Belt comes close, too, though I'm actually not sure if he even can die.  Same problem with Sarevok and crew as with the Demon Knight, only I couldn't just step outside, so I popped an antimagic scroll and a potion of speed and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off until I could get all the rest of the important ones, right up until Erin the kensai killed Sarevok by stabbing him in his stupid face. Honors: Ironling, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Melee Champion, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Honorable Trader, Iron Party (kind of a given when soloing  ), BattlemasterMelicamp died on the way back to his home planet. Tumblr of scotch fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 06:26
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Corbomite C. Hayes has purged with the Cloakwood Mines with cleansing...water? That doesn't sound right.  As an infosec strategy, this leaves a bit to be desired.   Look, guys, it's nothing personal, we just fought like eighteen shadow druids who just wouldn't stop talking. Until they suddenly did, for some reason.  (Very Peter Davison voice) THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANOTHER WAY  Isra (buffed with magic protection/shielding potions and a potion of heroism) and a couple of summons chase Davaeorn around his dungeon while the rest of us hit him with missiles as and when he's in the vicinity. He doesn't last long.  We find another book for Finch's library down here. Just one more to go. On our way out, we evacuate and flood the mines.  This is the lady we met on our way into Cloakwood. The Iron Throne bandits took her son hostage, but we rescued him from the mines. Another Ascalon quest.  Isra's really hit hard by the whole enslaved miners thing. I was a bit wary at first (since a paladin of the goddess of love and beauty is exactly the sort of premise in a modded NPC that can lead to creepy bullshit), but I'm genuinely enjoying the writing of her character so far. (I'm not planning on romancing her, though. Or anyone, if I can possibly avoid it.) Anyhow, we could go off to the big city now, but I want to mop up a few odds and ends first.  I thought I was picking the "better for both of us if we don't talk to each other" option but apparently it was the "now we fight with knives" one. Corbo is often misunderstood.  Corbo's attempts to set this dude's blood on fire don't go especially well, but between Finch's Holy Smite and a shot from the Necklace of Missiles, they're toast.  In addition to grabbing the history book from the Ulcaster Ruins, there's a spellbook for the gnome back at the Friendly Arms Inn down here.  We pop over to Gullykin and this dude is just way too eager to confess to a crime.  Which is funny because we were really just here to ask for a donation to the new Nashkel Library.  Taking a shortcut straight to the boss fight is the best way to do dungeons.  We're all level 6 or 7 at this point (Corbo and Imoen are slightly higher, thanks to having kicked the rest of the party out for a bit to abuse some spell scribing XP after she dual classed) so there's really not much down here that can threaten us. Which is exactly how I like it. Ogre Magi are still pretty dangerous, but Isra gets a nice crit in on him and that's the end of that.  You got it, buddy.  About a million kobolds later, we make our way back outside, just in time for Coran to start hearing voices.  Oh, it's another ghost. OR IS IT?  She turns out to be a succubus, and if you restore the roses she gives Coran like she asks you to, she ends up charming him out of the party temporarily. Fortunately you can just pop right back into Firewine, talk to this dude, and then go back out and confront her.   Bit surprised she didn't open with charm spam but I'm sure not complaining.  Oh dear.  Kahrk, as previously mentioned, is one of the tougher fights in this phase of the game. I thought maybe the Spell Thrust that Imoen has prepped would take out his Globe of Invulnerability but it doesn't. In the end, Isra proves her MVP status once again.  Ho hum, more assassins.  Oh hey, a Jansen cousin! I have no idea what mod adds this little encounter.  This one, on the other hand, is (I'm pretty sure) the start to The Stone Of Askavar, which I don't know much about. I'll probably explore it more seriously later on. Right now, I still have one or two areas to clear out, but then Corbomite C. Hayes is off to Baldur's Gate.
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Jan 5, 2018 12:11
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docbeard posted:Yeah, I enjoy Valerie a lot too. The only reason I don't have her around in my current game is that my protagonist is a sorcerer and I can't really justify two (especially with Imoen a mage these days as well). Quite fair, I'm just pleasantly surprised people like her. I still have no idea why anyone liked the other mod I made, though. My only defense for Darian is that I did most of his writing when I was in high school.
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Jan 5, 2018 14:32
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docbeard posted:
Spell Thrust only works on Minor Globe of Invulnerability, not the normal version Kahrk is using. Nothing in vanilla BG1 can remove his spell protection. He's an annoying bastard all around, so I always save the Arrow of Slaying you get in the city for him. ----  The bandit camp tent is pretty easy when you can lure the enemies out one by one.  I didn't take any pictures of Davaeorn, but it was the standard Protection from Magic strategy. Barry reaches max level just before reaching the city. He has a 109 HP at the moment, which is insane for BG1. That's the power of the Dwarven Defender's d12 combined with a few lucky rolls. (I keep saying lucky rolls, but I'm pretty sure the game actually rolls in your favour. I've literally never had a character end up with below average HP, and I've gotten max HP rolls on level-ups far too often for it to be a coincidence. If anyone knows the actual calculation the game does, I'd be interested to hear it).  My first stop in Baldur's Gate is the fight in the Helm and Cloak inn, which I normally skip. One of the Fighters here drops a Battleaxe +2, so I can finally dual-wield enchanted axes.  The fight with Drizzt involves a lot of misses on both sides (his AC against slashing attacks is -18). Yet another reason why I should have gone for Warhammers.  But I regenerate HP and he doesn't, so in the end, it's only a matter of time.  Arabelle lives! (Man, that cow is tough.)  100% fire resistance and Defensive Stance let me tank the Iron Throne fight all day long.  Prat is noteworthy for once because he drops the Throwing Axe +2. I'm not allowed to use missile weapons, but it still works just fine in melee. On top of that, the EE made it so you can dual-wield all enchanted throwing weapons. So now I finally have two +2 axes. Barry is on his way to save the dukes.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:16
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Samuel Clemens posted:Spell Thrust only works on Minor Globe of Invulnerability, not the normal version Kahrk is using. Nothing in vanilla BG1 can remove his spell protection. He's an annoying bastard all around, so I always save the Arrow of Slaying you get in the city for him. Ah, okay, that makes sense, third level spell and all. quote:(I keep saying lucky rolls, but I'm pretty sure the game actually rolls in your favour. I've literally never had a character end up with below average HP, and I've gotten max HP rolls on level-ups far too often for it to be a coincidence. If anyone knows the actual calculation the game does, I'd be interested to hear it). Do you have any of the tweaks mods installed? I can't recall which off the top of my head but one gives the option of 'NWN Hit Point Rolls' or something, which (I believe) guarantees you something in the upper half of your hit die. (So for a DD, you'd get rolls between 7-12.) And yeah, that d12 plus a 19-20 constitution is sweet, it's one reason I favor barbarians over berserkers even though berserkers are probably the better class overall.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:31
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 Well Garrick, ordinarily the Shaman of Sexy wouldn't associate with the likes of you, but it seems we have openings at the Palace of Wisdom. Welcome aboard.  I realize rezzing isn't all that expensive at this stage, go ahead and bring people back at the Friendly Arm (Beregost oddly has no temples), then forget about the assassin lurking in the inn and get Jaheira killed. Oops.  Ogres to the south, where Neera accidentally polymorphs herself into a wolf surrounded by bees. It is actually a nice improvement and kills them handily.  To Nashkel, where Minsc replaces Jaheira's corpse, and Neera's sister Neira forgets there are guards lurking around the site of her ambush.  West toward the Gnoll Stronghold. I realize Jomo can use his one neat Shaman trick to stack up critters prior to obvious encounters. Enemies hate it!  Then in the process of rescuing the dryad, Neera turns a Magic Missile into a Fireball and nukes both enemies, Imoen, Kagain, Minsc, and the dryad I was to be saving. Uh...holy poo poo, let's pause there. Jomo is somewhere west of Nashkel pondering his choices in life
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Jan 5, 2018 16:45
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DeathChicken posted:Then in the process of rescuing the dryad, Neera turns a Magic Missile into a Fireball and nukes both enemies, Imoen, Kagain, Minsc, and the dryad I was to be saving. Uh...holy poo poo, let's pause there. Jomo is somewhere west of Nashkel pondering his choices in life I'm looking forward to you announcing Sarevok's defeat at the hands of the pit fiend Neera accidentaly summoned.
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Jan 5, 2018 17:03
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DeathChicken posted:I realize rezzing isn't all that expensive at this stage, go ahead and bring people back at the Friendly Arm (Beregost oddly has no temples) Beregost's temple is 1 screen east. There are no enemy spawns near the temple, so it's perfectly save if you're coming from Beregost.
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Jan 5, 2018 21:33
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Suspicious posted:Beregost's temple is 1 screen east. There are no enemy spawns near the temple, so it's perfectly save if you're coming from Beregost. It is...less safe if you are coming from the other direction though.
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Jan 5, 2018 21:41
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docbeard posted:Do you have any of the tweaks mods installed? I can't recall which off the top of my head but one gives the option of 'NWN Hit Point Rolls' or something, which (I believe) guarantees you something in the upper half of your hit die. (So for a DD, you'd get rolls between 7-12.) Just the vanilla EE installation. I do get below average rolls sometimes, but very rarely. Barry had one level with 2 HP, one with 5 and everything else above 7. My pet theory is that the game rolls for HP twice and then keeps the higher value, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to verify this by looking at the code.
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Jan 6, 2018 00:31
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An update, in which Corbomite C. Hayes gets sidetracked on his way to Baldur's Gate So I still had a few places in the southern half of the map to mop up. Really just checking boxes.  This fight, with ogre berserkers and elite hobgoblins on a bridge can be pretty tough. If, you know, you're not way overleveled for this section of the game.  Well this can't possibly go badly.  The Doomsayer fight mostly ends up with Isra and Ghost Snake keeping him busy while Corbo magic missiles him to death.  It's how he would have wanted to go.  Isra is now, thanks to the Helm of Defense, some other items, and possibly her own natural resistances (though I think 'fire' and 'magic fire' aren't the same thing), completely immune to fire. This opens up some fun strategies like "throw fireballs with even more reckless abandon".  We give him the book we grabbed out of Ulcaster, and...  ...he asks us to meet him at a personally auspicious location for a magical experiment that can't possibly go wrong.  ...it goes wrong.  Well there is no way in, uh, hell that we're up to fighting a balor without any buffing or other preparation, even if it is level appropriate to BG1 (which, being from a mod, I would not assume). So, sorry gnome, enjoy the Nine Hells, sucks to be you, etc.  I am rewarded for my cowardice with this shield which should come in handy for a different demon fight later on.  We finally start making our way north, pausing to beat up a little girl til she works out that we mean her no harm. Or something.  Before we hit Baldur's Gate at last, we decide to do a little shopping in Ulgoth's Beard.  And decide to help out a wizard, because doing favors for wizards never goes horribly wrong. 
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Jan 6, 2018 05:32
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docbeard posted:Isra is now, thanks to the Helm of Defense, some other items, and possibly her own natural resistances (though I think 'fire' and 'magic fire' aren't the same thing), completely immune to fire. AFAIK, magic fire is never actually used in-game. It's purely a P&P remnant. ----  For the first time in, well, ever, I decide not to cheese the chess battle. Barry is tanky enough that he can actually withstand the onslaught. One thing I never realised is that the King doesn't actually use his +3 Greatsword. Instead he just punches you meekly with his fists. Everyone else hits hard enough to compensate though. The Rooks in particular have insane THAC0 and damage for ranged attackers.  The Demon Knight kills his mirror version but then dies to the ensuing explosion, so that was rather anticlimactic.  On the way back to Ulgoth's Beard I run into what may very well be the most dangerous random encounter in the series. Thankfully, I had a Potion of Mirrored Eyes at hand, otherwise this could have been game over.  Tanking Aec'Letec all day long.  Werewolf island was boring, so I didn't take any pictures. The only noteworthy thing happened immediately after. I was trying to hit F12 ("taking a screenshot") and accidentally hit F11 instead ("use the right-most quick slot item"), which in my case happened to be Durlag's Goblet. Since I didn't have fear protection up, the Goblet made me panic for 12 in-game hours. Which meant I had to leave the game running in the background for an hour until the effect wore off. Woops. At least I didn't make this mistake until the enemies were already dead.  Sarevok is nasty with his -9 THAC0 and three attacks per round, but he still can't measure up to his tanky little brother. Dwarven superiority is proven once again. Barry is on his way to Amn.
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Jan 6, 2018 15:49
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Samuel Clemens posted:AFAIK, magic fire is never actually used in-game. It's purely a P&P remnant. It's used by some mods, though, speaking as a former modder. I encountered that when quietly giving the Valerie mod her [small] resistances to cold, acid, and electricity that aren't on her character sheet.
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Jan 6, 2018 16:10
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Huh, interesting. What do they use it for? New spells? Also, I completely forgot to list Barry's honours, so here goes: Ironling, Born Hero, Purist, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Melee Champion, Honorable Trader, Battlemaster, A God Among Men
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Jan 6, 2018 16:33
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Samuel Clemens posted:Huh, interesting. What do they use it for? New spells? I've seen it used occasionally for new spells and monsters, yeah, usually as a "You thought you were protected against fire? gently caress you" move.
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Jan 6, 2018 16:38
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 So it's back to town to rez everyone, then over to the Gnoll Fort. The bridge ogres aren't quite smart enough to not be baited one by one across the bridge...  The Fort itself is uneventful. Garrick gets left to sing a ballad in Dynaheir's former prison.  I decide to go searching for Brage and promptly forget about these guys. I recall one of them being trouble with poison arrows.  But he too is not smart enough to avoid being baited into a mugging. I gank his archer friend too.  Unfortunately that leaves Jemby the mage, who Horrors everyone south into Hobgoblins. Luckily they're bribed away for a piddly 25 GP...  Unluckily, Neera wanders into a whole assload of Gnolls while everyone is still under Horror...  In sheer desperation, Jomo casts Entangle and I walk some of the Gnolls into it to buy myself some space...  And I get out of this somehow only having lost Imoen (again) and Neera. Let's...let's just pause again. Jomo is off somewhere comically failing to find Brage
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Jan 6, 2018 17:04
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Priest Softface continues her experience-gathering walkabout through Amn. What's that, a cult of eyeless people? Very cool, I'll come back in a week.  First I have to murder some people for the thieves guild and prove that stairs are the bane of spellcasters, even ones with normal legs.  Finding these cool guys and getting some help for them turns out to be very easy.  And with Mazzy we have our sixth.  A couple of Holy Smites made this fight trivially easy.  Since I'm low on spells and weapons that can hurt this guy right now, just gonna put a pin in him until later. I also do the Planar Prison and Skinner quests, but didn't take any screenshots of those since they just flew by.  Going in and out of the Bridge Lich's crypt makes getting through this and picking up Daystar incredibly easy.  Hey, I used to work in place like this.  I wasn't going to buy the Shield of Balduran before going down there, but this made me glad I changed my mind. There are a lot of beholders down there.  And with Nalia's stupid quest starting I decided to take another break.
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Jan 6, 2018 19:52
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When last we looked in on Corbomite C. Hayes and his intrepid band of...people who are genuinely way more heroic than he is, he'd just been sent on a possibly one way trip to Iceland.  Pretty much every fight ended with someone getting confused, but this was...special. Nothing really bad happened, though, I just had to wait it out since Finch's Dispel didn't take it down. I've got a Greenstone Amulet but not anyone who can cast Chaotic Commands yet so we mostly just have to wait these instances out.  Coran decides that this is the EXACT PERFECT TIME to plan a hunting trip.  I haven't done a lot of backstabbing but I figured the time was ripe here, especially since Imoen's got a Dagger of Venom now. It works, and he's just about dead by the time he catches up to Imoen and the ambush she's leading him into, except with his dying breath...  Sigh. The other fights on this level go more or less well, things get a bit touch and go with Ankheg Wizard's ankhegs.  Then we pop down to the second level of the Ice Caves that Unfinished Business (I think) restored. They really needn't have bothered. It just kind of extends this quest to no particular advantage.  We take out the last wizard and his snow golems, get back to the surface with Shandalar's cloak, and prepare to receive our reward... Our completely nonexistent reward. Because of course.  We head away from Ulgoth's Beard, shake down some farmers (who pretty much deserve it), and again we don't get paid. But that's okay, because...can it be... are we finally... is it... Corbomite C. Hayes has arrived at Baldur's Gate!  Maan....
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Jan 7, 2018 00:51
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| # ? May 3, 2024 16:13 |
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 Oh there you are Brage. Your riddles could use work.  Then to Bassilus, where oddly saying the right words only kills some of his skeletons, the rest remain neutral. So it's a slow process of baiting out his Hold spells until he leaves their company and dies. Didn't want to risk aggravating them.  Melicamp! Fancy meeting you here!  Unfortunately as usual, Melicamp doesn't...Melicamp LIVES. Huh. That never happens when I play.  So let's go the min...oh, it's Dorn's encounter. Well I want to make room for him, so Dynaheir and Minsc get the boot. Don't really need two mages. Also strangely enough, Dorn immediately gets knocked to Near Death in this fight, then they spend the rest of it endlessly whiffing him. Is he plot immune to death here?  And to the Carnival to round out my group with...gasp...a Cleric! And someone to use this neat electric warhammer I've been carrying since Bassilus. Jomo the Shaman of Sexy is having fun at the Carnival
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Jan 7, 2018 03:30
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