|
Meet Scooby Doo the elven Sorcerer. Good roll took me a while.  I went solo for most of the early game to do quests like the Priestess of Umberlee and Barg to get enough xp to put me over 32,000 before recruiting anyone. Here we see Melicamp living.  We some help from Koraxx the ghoul I get over 32,000 and go and recruit a party. At the start of the game I had walked away from Imoen so she didn't automatically join my party thinking that when I had her join later on she would get 32,000 xp like everyone else. I guess Imoen isn't programmed to work that way because she didn't get tons of xp like everyone else and instead was just set to level 2 with skills already chosen so I really goofed there. Surprisingly Tarnesh can't stand up to a party of level 5/6 people. I will be ditching our two evil friends for a new group next time I play.
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 05:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 11:14 |
|
|
FairGame posted:More adventures of Ashe, human kensai Did you ask for Tenya specifically to call in the favor? I don't think the High Priestess cares either way, it's something you have to ask Tenya for specifically. Also, I hate those friggin vamp wolves. It hasn't happened to me in ages, but I remember those spawning in the wilderness just north of nashkell if you just barely stray off the path, well before you should have enough levels and magical weapons to survive them. It was definitely from an earlier version of the game, though. Or maybe it was just Tutu messing things up.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 05:46
|
|
|
If you buy a single stack of +1 ammo, vamp wolves are free 2000 exp with some kiting. It's how I (used to) jump start my runs. Also, Imoen's wand of missiles.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 05:56
|
|
|
Well, Montarno, the hobbit fighter/thief that isn't Montaron, has managed to destroy the evil that lurks at the heart of the Nashkel Mines. It was pretty tough, actually. I lack front liners and just could not interrupt Mulahey. Without enough bodies to block the door, kobolds and skeletons were sneaking through and stabbing my casters. It had me worried but we won out in the end. We also have taken out Bassilus, Zax (the fastest darter), Greywolf, the xvart village, that's about it. People are level 2/3 now. I decided to wait to dual Imoen til level 5 at least, so she aint casting Identify for awhile, so I got Garrick after all. I could use Shar-Teel's fighting skills too but I need to ID some stuff. I got Garrick, went to High Hedge and bought the two ID scrolls they have, hiked to the Friendly Arm, bought a potion of Genius, Garrick drank up and scribed the scrolls. 75% chance as stated above, he fails both tries. Heh. I could do a potion of mind focus as well but then it would be like 1000 gold in potions to scribe the spell. Oh well anyway Garrick can ID common items with his 30 lore and his magic missiles came in handy against Mulahey so Garrick kickin rear end and taking names. I feel like he has serious glamour biceps he's trying to show off as well - but the sleeveless hoodie isn't as cool as he thinks. Suspicious posted:If you buy a single stack of +1 ammo, vamp wolves are free 2000 exp with some kiting. It's how I (used to) jump start my runs. Also, Imoen's wand of missiles. That's probably the thing I do more in BG now is buy and use magic arrows and ammo earlier in the game, and also I would say use more potions.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 10:04
|
|
|
Quick update: Crick Watson has cleared the Nashkel Mines, and sorted out the Mustard Man as well.  Neera's feeling chatty after her earlier bit of temper. Let's see how long it lasts.  Yeah.  Oh no, Crick can't drink the iron-rotting poison. What ever shall I do. SCS boosts the kobold numbers a bit (and I think the kobold shaman at the end of level 3 is its doing too) but it's nothing we can't handle at this point. It also buffs the final fight against Mulahey some, but again, no real problems, and between Imoen's wand of fire and Crick locking down his spellcasting, he's literal and figurative toast before long.  In addition to the usual incriminating papers, we have this tidbit, the hook for the most elaborate quest that Ascalon's Quest Pack adds. More on this later.  Not sure what ankhegs are doing in the Valley of the Tombs but eh, whatever.  I feel like there's never a good ending to anything a wizard says that contains the word "experiment". He actually gets an acid arrow off against Imoen before Crick can shut him down, but a bit of emergency combat healing sorts that out. We all have magic weapons at this point so the jellies are more annoying than a real threat. And now both Imoen and Neera can cast Web. A notable absence in this area is the 'Amazon' assassin group. One of SCS's more...fun...changes is to turn them (and the bandit group in Gullykin) into random encounters. So we'll see them soon enough (and that's one reason I waited a bit to do the mines, I didn't particularly want to run into them with an ill-equipped or underleveled party).
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 12:20
|
|
|
Update on Thog 2, the half orc kensai sequel to Thog The Chicken-ing has been successfully reversed. Neera got oneshot in the gnoll fort while rescuing Dynaheir. "Unfortunately," Dynaheir "tragically" died when she strangely decided to go melee a squad of gnolls. As I thought it would be rude to ask the gods to return more than one person to life in the same day, Dynaheir got booted from the party. Thog used his shield amulet to tank Greywolf. Had to chug a few potions, but the sword was definitely worth it. Cleared out the second level of the mine, and planning on finishing it up tonight. Party death count: Neera: 1
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 13:59
|
|
|
An update on Ashe, human kensai, who has been spending time clearing all the various areas of Baldur's Gate proper as well as the wilderness before taking on the Iron Throne. Kahrk, mightiest ogre mage, died like a chump. Joke's on me though; he dropped nothing of value.  Like the amazon party before them, the bounty hunters in Gullykin can't stand up to 4 fireballs (2 wands, 2 necklaces of missiles)  Ridiculous luck with HP continues. For Ashe, anyway. We'll see a problem in a moment.  I take the back door into Gullykin, kill the ogre mage, slap a potion of magic protection on Kivan, and wander around clearing everything. Tons of fire arrows for me! Moderately annoying that Yeslick can't read scrolls; he's illiterate.  The Maulers of Rieltar get off a lucky lightning bolt at the end and fry some people. Oh well.  The dude who wants the artifacts of Balduran is a pain in the butt. Successfully finished both halves of this (including murdering him as he tried to escape with my hard-won relics) but at significant cost. I've now done every area except TotSC content, Ulcaster, and the Red Mage area. Including all the areas of Baldur's Gate. Time to take on the Iron Throne!   I...I was not expecting that. This is...quite the setback! Aside from his ludicrous combat power and ability to backstab his way through Durlag's Tower, I don't have a thief now! Not until Imoen gets her dual class levels back. ...welp, here we go, then. 20 HP at level 6. This is gonna go great.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 21:40
|
|
|
Beelzebubbles has cleared out the Gnoll Fortress, got the books for Charisma and Constitution and then met a really stupid death to a completely forgotten pack of (vampiric, dread, worgen...) wolves east of the temple in Beregost. Oh well. That's probably it for my Ironmanning this year.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2019 22:44
|
|
|
Update for Isabelle, Priest of Helm, who has a full party of 6 and has done a few minor quests. After recruiting Neera and Viconia, and murdering 4 Flaming Fists for their valuable plate mail, Isabelle headed to Nashkel. Rasaad is really poor in BG1 of course, but I'll never tire of Viconia's barely disguised contempt for him and his god.  Dorn on the other hand, is a beast. His mediocre Constitution is a downside, but that damage makes up for it.  I took advantage of the glitch to kill Drizzt. His armour will be useful for a bit, until I can get my hands on full plate, and his scimitars are useful throughout the game. Shame about missing the 12k, it would have been a nice boost, but there's easily enough XP without it.  It took a while, but Rasaad finally got a couple of kills near Basillus.  I also managed to get extremely lucky with Basillus, and killed him very quickly thanks to him failing his save against both Command spells I used on him. It was just enough time to get the kill. He's normally very dangerous with SCS (He's level 12) at very low levels, but luck was with me this time.  No such luck for Melicamp unfortunately, who failed to survive the Antichickenator.  Returning to Beregost to sell loot and turn in the Basillus bounty, I decided to kill Silke for once. She failed her save against Command and was almost immediately stunned by the Stupifier. Karlat in the Red Sheaf suffered the exact same fate, oddly enough. Next up is more wilderness exploring.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 01:26
|
|
|
Short update for Scooby Doo. I forgot to get the gem bag of Neera and don't feel like reshuffling my party so I just chunk her.  I spend several hours killing Ankhegs. I lose my iron party as 3 people die over the course of that time.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 04:27
|
|
|
There's still some mopping up and looting to do, but Crick Watson has cleared out the Bandit Camp.  While we mop up the last of Death Valley, Isra pays us a slightly loaded compliment for our handling of the mines.  I want to say this was from the dagger revenant fight, because of course he makes a beeline for Jaheira after I went to the trouble of buffing Isra. This was just bog-standard plate armor, so no great loss, plus I've got some more Ankheg armor on commission waiting for us.  Look Jaheira, I said I was sorry about the armor thing, okay?  That's how we deal with Mr. Clever Assassin in these parts!  We head back over to the waterfall and lay Marina's ghost to rest. We also lay a bunch of gnolls to rest but that's largely coincidental.  We also fulfill our promise to Ugh the ogre and deliver unto him a new rabbit.  Tranzig isn't much of a problem.  If you'll recall from the mines, someone was making overtures toward Mulahey, with instructions to meet him at the Beregost town square after dark. This is the messenger. The correct answer here is "And all jewels to the Serpent." There are a few options here, but I just tell him that Mulahey's dead and he's next. He reacts...predictably. He can be a tough fight because I think he's got a lot of HP and a magic axe, but it's pretty straightforward and Isra can handle it at this point.  Of COURSE there's someone called Sparklehammer in this mod. Maybe it sounds better in the original German. Anyway, I didn't grab a screenshot, but the next time you hit Coast Way, you get a cutscene of Bashrik and his companion being ambushed by assassins. You can't really do anything about it but if you head up to the crossroads...  ...wait, this is new. Another assassin? I didn't install Dark Horizons by mistake, did I? (No I did not, you can tell because I've not been handed overpowered-by-endgame-BG2-standard weapons at level 1. But clearly *something* added her.) She's not very tough, and I suspect I was supposed to encounter her much earlier. Oh well.  Anyway, this is what we were actually after. Bashrik's diary, and the next link in the chain. We won't be able to pursue this any farther til we hit Baldur's Gate proper. We head on over to Larswood. I almost recruit Baeloth but Neera, while she's not my favorite NPC, is working out well enough for now. We also fight a bunch of goblins (including warg riders and a shaman) added by the Deep Gnomes of the Sword Coast mod, which also adds a boot merchant to Nashkel, and...  These boots. I feel like these are slightly overpowered. But I don't care. (It is worth noting that the summoned vampiric wolf does not react well to friendly fire.) We also run into the mad druid and his regretful companion, who, if we press him on just how regretful he doesn't seem...  Great. These psychopaths.  Thanks to her innate Cavalier resistances and some gear she's got, Isra is up to 80% fire resistance. She also has the One Gift Lost. So sometimes this happens. We clear out Peldvale and Larswood and head up to the Bandit Camp.  SCS's revision to this area is fairly simple; the bandits are not idiots and will sound the alarm if someone starts murdering them. Meaning they ALL turn up. While this certainly presents a challenge, it also gives us the opportunity to really cut loose. It's one of my favorite fights in BG1 as a result.  Which isn't to say it's not without its challenges. Crick's concentrating on neutralizing Venkt the wizard, which works out nicely for us as usual.  And eventually...very eventually...we win the day. We'll be off to the Cloakwood soon. Though there are a few other things I want to deal with first.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 12:16
|
|
|
So far, so good, for Ashe, human kensai Alora got fried by the last trap on the first lower floor of Durlag's so I had to schlep home.  Cleared out the Ulcaster School, so now I've done literally everything other than the endgame stuff (Undercity Assassins-->Duchal Palace-->Thieves' Maze-->Catacombs-->Sarevok) from Baldur's Gate proper. Did the Shandalar Island, too. Easy when you just slap a scroll of magic protection on a beefy fighter. Or archer, in Kivan's case, I guess. Ashe is now max level. Not xp capped yet, but max level. And the HP gains are great.  I remember the 4 warder fight being a LOT tougher. They melted vs. a hasted Ashe & Yeslick, who were also roided out on heroism and frost+ strength potions. 2nd basement next, though I'll head back after I kill a few things. Imoen almost has her thief levels back, at which point I can ditch Alora for...god, I don't know. I can't take Ajantis b/c he'll fight with Baeloth. I can't take Dorn b/c he'll fight with Yeslick. There's no stand-alone fighter left for me to take. A shame Garrick glitched out and disappeared. Maybe I take...Quayle? Jeez, seriously slim pickings.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 15:08
|
|
|
Scooby Doo has defeated the bandit camp and I keep forgetting to take any screenshots of anything. Went really easily thanks to all my power leveling against Ankhegs.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 16:13
|
|
|
Betty the Half Orc Berserker is rolling across the Sword Coast and chunking gnolls by the thousands. I’m going with a classic 4 person party - the MC, Imoen, Branwen, and Neera. I’m going to try for Iron Party, which was almost hosed up when Neera color sprayed Betty during the recruitment fight, which left her at 1 HP left, and Neera almost died there as well. Melicamp status - dead. That annoyed me. I was really hoping for the XP. In any case, I’ve finished the easy xp side quests in the southern sword coast region and have everyone at level 3 or 4. About to demolish Nashkel Mines, then do some ankheg farming.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 18:00
|
|
|
Scooby Doo has finished the Cloakwood.  I started with some off screen skull traps because that's always a great tactic. Then I ran out of those and the dude was still alive and also not aggro'd on me so I did some off screen fireballs from the wand of fire. He seemed resistant to that so I decided to send in Khalid with the boots that give +50 electricity resistance. I saw he was at near death so I figured I would just magic missile him. He teleported away and I didn't get my missile off so hid instead as he blasts a lightning bolt that follows roughly the path in the screenshot and killed himself with it. I had a good laugh.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2019 19:00
|
|
|
Ashe, human kensai has reached the demonKnight. ...but I’m out of potions of strength on Alora and my inventory is typical-levels-of-Durlag full, so I need to spend some time playing inventory Tetris so she can move and allow me to change zones. Also: Alora is actually REALLY good, holy cow. That rabbits foot of hers makes her quite the competent fighter. The brutally low HP is a problem, but a thief who can pick pockets, open locks, find traps, and detect illusions and THEN pepper things with missiles is really quite nice. Especially when she gets halfling saving throws. Still salty about Coran but I’m pleasantly surprised at Alora. All these years I’d never used her!
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 04:17
|
|
|
Thog 2 the half orc kensai sequel to Thog has cleared out the mine. Unfortunately, he got ambushed by the Amazons and two shot by two crits. So, I normally don't play on Core Rules, and this is a lot rougher than I was expecting. The enemy CC spells are a lot more crippling than I remember. Is there some trick other than gang the mage before they can cast the bad spells?
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 05:45
|
|
|
Magic Missile is pretty reliable about interrupting enemy spellcasters. Doing damage to them when casting is usually pretty good at stopping their spell and Magic Missile auto hits and has a very fast casting time. But just killing them as fast as possible is also good.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 07:20
|
|
|
cheesetriangles posted:Scooby Doo has finished the Cloakwood. That's hilarious. It's lucky the previous boss drops those sweet boots because Dava E Orn sure loves to toss around lightning bolts in a confined space. I had so much trouble coming up with a reliable way to beat him, although I shouldn't speak to soon since I haven't got there yet. FairGame posted:There's no stand-alone fighter left for me to take. A shame Garrick glitched out and disappeared. Yeah, you're missin out, mate! Montarno ditched Garrick once Imoen got to 5th level and dualled. Imoen got Identify for free upon dual classing, so she was already more useful in that department 1 second after becoming a mage than Garrick was. We went to Mutanim's Garden and got Shar Teel, killed the basilisks, went to the coast and killed the Sirines, went around and killed some random assassin parties. Capfalcon posted:So, I normally don't play on Core Rules, and this is a lot rougher than I was expecting. The enemy CC spells are a lot more crippling than I remember. Is there some trick other than gang the mage before they can cast the bad spells? It's kind of an arms race throughout the games, so it changes as it goes along. Spellcasters can usually be interrupted if they are injured while casting. Melee attacks, missile attacks, spells attacks, area effect spells can all work. Missile attacks are often good because bows, darts and thrown daggers have higher rates of fire - you don't have to do a lot of damage, just enough to interrupt. Mass firing with your whole group can get a lot of chances to interrupt a caster. Magic Missiles and some other 1st level spells and wands are good because they have a fast casting time. You can cast after you see the enemy caster start and interrupt them with the guaranteed hit spell. Some spells take way longer to cast than others. Cleric spells tend to be slower in general. Spells like magic missile, horror, mirror image, shadow door and some others cast very fast, so they're almost impossible to interrupt. Horror is the big early game problem, you can't interrupt it so you have to protect with Remove Fear prior to the fight. Clerics cast Hold Person a lot which will often kill you if you let them cast it, luckily it takes awhile to cast so if you see a cleric start casting really shut them down. Once your cleric can cast 3rd level spells they can cast Remove Paralysis which can save your held characters (but only if your cleric isn't one of the held characters), but you face clerics that cast hold person before you can cast remove paralysis. This is sort of a theme where the spell that protects is higher level than the effect it protects against. Like you start seeing people who cast confusion in the later part of BG, but you don't have access to Chaotic Commands until a bit into BG2. Sometimes casters are protected against attack. This gets much more complicated in BG2 but in BG you mostly are just looking for casters that have mirror image or that are improved invisible following the use of shadow door. With mirror image you have to get rid of the images with multiple attacks before you can get the caster - magic missile is good because it hits several times. Arrows again also good because of the rate of fire. The improved invisible mage can't be targeted with direct spells, you either have to dispel the invisibility somehow, use an area effect spell, or just hit them with missile or melee attacks. Cafe Barbarian fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Dec 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 09:43
|
|
|
Lots of good advice here. The only thing I can think to add is that it's sometimes worthwhile to just let enemy casters blow their worst save-or-die spells on low value targets. A single use of the precious wand of summon monsters can go a long way in taking the initial bite out of an encounter. Likewise, clerics level up fast and can summon skeletons at level 5. They are my favorite since they are inherently immune to stuff like stun, fear, hold, rigid thinking, dire charm, and even confusion and petrification. The only trick is making them last long enough to keep absorbing those spells. It starts to take a lot of micromanagement to have them kite around enemy muscle after the early game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 13:41
|
|
|
I can attest to a dart-wielding wizard slayer being, at least through the first half of BG1, being spellcaster Kryptonite. It's still kind of a lovely kit (no buff potions and being locked out of most of the good magic items really hurts) but "lol if you ever thought you were going to cast a spell" isn't really getting old. Cavalier is also my favorite paladin kit early on just because they're both immune to fear and can innately cast Remove Fear a lot of times per day, so horror-friendly mages become a bit less of a threat. Fighting spellcasters when running something like SCS is even more of a pain in the rear end though, especially later on once mages get to unload super-contingencies (my best ironman run last year ended with Lavok dropping something absurd like two horrid wiltings and a power word: gently caress you on my character) and start out pre-buffed with defenses against basically all the tactics discussed so far. You'll definitely want to watch out for basically every mage having Protection From Normal Missiles, Stoneskin, and maybe Protection From Magic Weapons on tap later on. Still doable, especially once you get access to Breach, there's just a lot less margin for error.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 16:40
|
|
|
Welp, demonKnight down but that got dicey. I thought his whole thing was: 1.) Dispel magic 2.) Toss a couple fireballs 3.) Power word stun ...so I sent Kivan in with the boots of speed to eat the dispel, then dashed him out in favor of Yeslick and Ashe (both of whom had VERY high fire resist) to start beating on him while buffed up. And he...did another dispel magic and then started dropping fireballs at his feet. And then cast Power Word: Kill on Yeslick and it just did a flat 60 damage to him for some reasons. That's not how Power Word: Kill is supposed to work! Anyway, taking a page from Davaeorn's playbook the demonKnight then dropped another fireball at his feet, killing (but not incinerating, thankfully) Yeslick and himself. No XP gain unfortunately, but Durlag's Tower is finished. ...now I have to pick up all of Yeslick's poo poo and trudge back to Beregost to resurrect, heal, and sell. Have like 100k gold now and nothing to spend it on. I really have 0 fear of the Aec'Lectec fight but i have a LOT of fear of the backstabbing fuckers on the way to see him. Ashe doesn't have a helmet! Alora has like 30 HP! Gonna have to rely a LOT on invisibility, I guess. Then I'll blast through Werewolf Island and finish things.  The chess fight was easy because they didn't chase me across the board when I lobbed 6 fireballs/necklace of missiles/potions of explosions at them.  That Power Word: Kill was some nonsense.  Congrats on nuking yourself, chump. Also I had to arrange SO MANY INVENTORY THINGS with Yeslick being dead. Most annoying!  This was the set of fights I was most worried about because a lucky backstab could gib Alora. Imoen and Baeloth have stoneskin. Ashe was at risk too, I guess. Anyway, invisibility took care of most of the problems.  Buffed to the gills to go fight Aec'Lectec  Imoen got held by something (I thought demon gaze was negated by potions of mirrored eyes) but we got the other cultists down while Yeslick distracted the tanar'ri.  That's that. Then I had to cast a panicked dispel magic because even though I didn't SEE the little icon on anyone, I've absolutely had a run end that way before. All's well.  Tons of regen on the greater wolfwere, but not enough to outpace Ashe doing 100 damage of her own in a round.  And now all the TotSC content is done. Literally all that's left is for me to go save the Dukes and confront Sarevok. FairGame fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Dec 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2019 16:45
|
|
|
...Ashe fell against Sarevok. Or, more accurately, Semaj got a chaos off and ruined everything.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 00:04
|
|
|
Oh god that's awful man. Rest in peace to a real one.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 00:22
|
|
|
Rip Ashe. Semaj is an rear end in a top hat. I really need to work on my run 
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 00:31
|
|
|
I always plant skull traps for where they teleport in. Basically vaporizes them.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 00:37
|
|
|
At what point of the game do you guys generally start the Tales of the Sword Coast content? I honestly remember very little of it, just that the final fights of both Durlag's and Ulgoth's beard are a pain in the rear end.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 00:46
|
|
|
Trying this one more time, with a skald. And that means LOTS of fighters since every attack I can muster is a force multiplier. Everyone gets to dual wield! Shar-Teel! Kagain! Khalid! Jaheira! ...Ajantis?
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 03:42
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:At what point of the game do you guys generally start the Tales of the Sword Coast content? I honestly remember very little of it, just that the final fights of both Durlag's and Ulgoth's beard are a pain in the rear end. I think I skipped last year, but I'm back with a class I don't play often even in normal games!  Stormlord Sam has entered the arena! It took like 5 minutes of rolling even without an auto-roller to get a 91-point roll so I could do a proper mêlée cleric with nice high strength. This is also going to be a very nontraditional, but still ironwoman, run, because...  That's right bitches. We're doing this poo poo in the Baldur's Gate Reloaded mod for NWN2! Now, 3.5e rules are obviously a lot different from 2e, so this is more of an exhibition run rather than anything official, but considering I've never tried to do a no-reload challenge in any iteration of NWN2 at all, I'm looking forward to the challenge. With point buy rather than rolling I obviously had to sacrifice the high dex, but since armor works differently in 3.5, with heavy providing little if any dex bonus, it works out just fine.  One benefit to the change in ruleset is that you don't need a certain strength to bash open locked chests...  ...with the downside that there's a chance that some of the poo poo inside will break.  Chance, but not guarantee.   After outfitting Sam with chainmail and a spear (a couple spears actually, since the mod team implemented iron weapon breakage), it's time to get crackin heads.  Believe it or not, those 3 additional points of damage aren't from Shank at all — they're from the goddamn rats that kept rolling high.  After stocking up on poo poo for Imoen and the Zhents, it's time to head out.  This fuckin ICP-wannabe-looking jabroni.   Crossbows for everyone!  In contrast to the IE games, where you just need to hold down the relevant key to spot niche items like the early diamond and ROP, here you have to pass a Search check.  Just like in the IE games, it's best to head south to Beregost first for some easy XP, and in this case also a meatsack party member, before taking on Tarnesh.  NWN2 doesn't actually have models for half-ogres or ogrillons (which are also literally just half-ogres with the opposite parentage), so it just substitutes orcs instead. These ones, who killed the halfling dude carrying the message for the gal in Beregost, provide enough XP to kick us up to level 2, except Montaron who started there because the mod makers really felt the need to still make him a fighter/rogue.  After robbing the entirety of Beregost blind and selling our ill-gotten goods, we're still well short of the 15,000 necessary to get full plate for Kagain.  But that's not a problem when you have the foresight to have bought the necessary materials back at Candlekeep for Xzar to just make a set for 1/12th the price.  And so, now somewhat more properly-outfitted and leveled up, we head back up north to pick up Viconia — who, as a drow, is treated as being two levels higher than she actually is for XP purposes, and so won't be level 2 until the rest of the party is level 4 — and kill Tarnesh. I fully expect this poo poo will go sour and end my run in a hurry, since spellcasters are often way more threatening than in the IE games (though a few are actually a lot less).
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 04:13
|
|
|
Betty the Half Orc Berserker has both cleared the Nashkel Mines and the Bandit Camp. I lost Imoen to the ankheg cave, and left her body behind in order to maintain the iron party. Now I don't know what I'm going to do for trap finding and such until I get to BG, but having Branwen around should make it easier.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 06:30
|
|
|
Flint Stonington, the Dwarven Defender has decided to ditch Neera as too much trouble for an Ironman campaign and is current rolling Team Meathead (and Imoen) to the Nasker Mines.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 06:39
|
|
|
FairGame posted:...Ashe fell against Sarevok. Or, more accurately, Semaj got a chaos off and ruined everything. Fuuuuck. Pouring out a bottle of De'Tranion's Baalor Ale in memoriam. Montarno has cleared the bandit camp. I felt like I was getting hit by a lot of arrows for some reason but it went OK. Got the two wyverns random encounter on the way back which was exciting. Usually I have pretty good luck stunning one wyvern with the wand of paralysis to calm things down but it just wouldn't work so I had to kite one around. Shar Teel is doing great. I was bummed because I though she had crossbows, but instead she started with one star each long sword, dagger and 2 dual wield. She has low hit points so I want her to have a strong ranged attack, but I had to put the next dot in long sword because the melee damage of specialization is too important. I was trying to have her throw daggers but it's too frustrating so I just gave her a longbow so she had something to do, but it turns out her Dex is good enough and warriors only get -2 penalty for no proficiency, she actually does fine with the bow. I gave her the bracers of archery and the dead shot longbow and she's a badass even. Normally I would edit proficiencies but I'm not doing it this game. This makes me feel better about doing werewolf island with nobody that uses bastard swords. Tuxedo Ted posted:Lots of good advice here. The only thing I can think to add is that it's sometimes worthwhile to just let enemy casters blow their worst save-or-die spells on low value targets. A single use of the precious wand of summon monsters can go a long way in taking the initial bite out of an encounter. That's a good point, I forget about some options like summons. Backstabbing a mage is good too, also try to hit a mage or cleric with a poison arrow or dart right at the beginning of the fight. Cafe Barbarian fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Dec 14, 2019 |
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 09:15
|
|
|
Sorry to hear about Ashe. Crick Watson is clearing out the Western Sword Coast of bandits, monsters, and temporarily not-his treasure.  Don't sign your posts.  As I mentioned before, SCS moves this bounty hunter fight to a random encounter. This can be scary if you, say, forget to rest and heal before moving between areas, but we're in good shape for this fight...  Well, poo poo. So, all that advice about backstabbing enemy mages? Apparently they knew that too. Goodbye, Neera. Truly you were...a wild mage who was in our party for a while.  Welcome aboard, Substitute Neera. I'm sure you won't be a bad influence on our heroic...  ...war crimes, I guess?  Actually, can we borrow your bear for a moment?  Sorry, Borda, it's nothing personal but when my hanzo steel dart is unsheathed, it cannot be resheathed without first tasting wizard blood...and I have a whole bunch of hanzo steel darts...you know what, never mind, it's personal.  The Lure of the Sirine's Call mod adds a little questline to the Seawatcher area, starting with a not-so-abandoned abandoned lighthouse...  And a suspiciously specific warning.  Sil, unsurprisingly, does have some things to say about the inhabitants of the lighthouse. They're pirates or smugglers, and they've been murdering her sisters. We, uh, diplomatically don't mention our own recent dealings with said sisters and offer to deal with them for her.  You can either side with the pirates or the sirenes, and I choose the side that means a much less annoying fight.  Sil is grateful enough to not try to murder us before we head into the tome cave.  We grab the Constitution tome, putting Crick up to 20 con (with Buckley's Buckler, which, thankfully, he can wield.) Our next stop is Shoal the Nereid, and, uh, WELCOME TO THE PARTY, BAELOTH-  ...huh? I've never seen that happen before. I don't know if something's broken or Baeloth just got really lucky in more ways than one but I'll take it. And also the helmet that her ogre mage boyfriend drops, which puts Isra up to 100% fire resistance. Only area I have left on this side of the map is the ancient ruins, so we'll deal with that next time, and then probably start hitting the Cloakwood.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 16:56
|
|
|
Today I learned that sirens inflict feeblemind when they connect in melee and then you stand there and die slowly. Will do one more try. Probably a cleric. Clerics are weirdly useful and kinda fun.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2019 22:18
|
|
|
Flint Stonington, the Dwarven Defender had some second thoughts about the mines and decided to quest a while. After hitting level 3 with everyone (and picking up Dynaheir), they steamrolled everything inside. Then, they took a nap, buffed up, and Flint charged into the Amazons while everyone else split fire between the two casters. Between a timely horror from Dynaheir, a defensive stance once he was in the thick of it, and a constant string of projectiles, Flint maybe took 15 damage and everyone else didn't catch a scratch. Flint and co hit level 4 and are currently clearing out the remaining sidequests before moving on.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 00:27
|
|
|
That NWN2 stuff looks neat. How do they handle the non-interactive scenes like the dreams and stuff?
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 01:45
|
|
|
 Stormlord Sam continues her adventures in this strange, 3D land by heading back to Beregost to kill some spiders now that Viconia has been properly outfitted. Xzar bites it in the fight but that's okay.  Right now having a mage is mostly handy for harder fights, which at level 2 with a good-sized party, Karlat really isn't any more, so I don't bother raising him yet.  We're basically just fireman-carrying his putrefying corpse everywhere we go, including while retrieving Perdue's sword. It's what Xzar would have wanted.  Melicamp is a pig now, for some reason.  NWN2 has a chicken model so who knows. He lives though. After this we head over to the temple across town to raise Xzar for 200 gold — 100 per level — and then, Scaramouche posted:That NWN2 stuff looks neat. How do they handle the non-interactive scenes like the dreams and stuff?  Like so, as we arrive in Nashkel.  And immediately have a Neira-death experience.  I take Imoen's poo poo from her to give it all to Edwin (except the chain shirt, which gets sold) who takes her place in the party.    Armor in NWN2 works significantly different from in the IE games, even leaving aside the obvious difference of "it's not lower = better any more". In NWN2, each type of armor provides a flat +X bonus to your AC, and then has a maximum amount that your Dexterity can add to it as well. Typically there's an inverse correlation between the two, with high innate AC not allowing for much Dex bonus, and vice-versa. With 0 Dex bonus, Sam finds perfect use of this set of ankheg plate, which is treated as a +1 half-plate (+7+1 AC, 0 max Dex bonus) with significant weight reduction, being both lighter and defensive...r than her previous chain mail, which provides +5 with a max Dex bonus of +2.  Also unlike the IE games, because of the way areas work in NWN2, there have to be preset entry and exit points on exterior areas too, and in this case, there is no exit leading directly from Nashkel to the mines; instead, Stormlord Sam is gonna spend a day at the carnival before heading southward.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 10:27
|
|
|
FairGame posted:Today I learned that sirens inflict feeblemind when they connect in melee and then you stand there and die slowly. I searched for info on this, couldn't find much. What exactly happened? It seems like it might be a bug.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 18:11
|
|
|
Idahoant posted:I searched for info on this, couldn't find much. What exactly happened? It seems like it might be a bug. I dunno, same happened to me.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 18:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 11:14 |
|
|
Idahoant posted:I searched for info on this, couldn't find much. What exactly happened? It seems like it might be a bug. Was fighting the Sirines and they ran out of ammo and started to melee me. When one connected I got the "feeblemind" status and was dropped to 3 INT. Also lost the ability to control my character. And stood there and slowly died because they could only hit me on a 19 or 20, attacked 1x/round, and only did like 1-2 damage each time. But each time they'd re-apply feeblemind so I eventually died and there was nothing I could do about it. Anyway, my final attempt!  You have...no idea...how long it took to roll 93 points on a halfling cleric. My god.  Rescued Dynaheir and I'm going with the classic party. But, uh...is this supposed to happen? Dorn's not recruitable now on account of being very dead!  The Mulahey fight got dicey because I couldn't silence him--he got a LOT of reinforcements that it took some time to clear out. Dynaheir didn't make it; got boxed in.  Goddammit Khalid. This is why Irenicus killed you.  Goddammit Rasaad. I had it under control and you stole my xp! Anyway, Arco the halfling cleric of helm is gonna head to High Hedge, buy the wand of sleep (stupid Dynaheir can't cast it), and then Command/Sleep his way through clearing the Ankheg Farm. At which point everyone should be level 4/5 and capable of handling the Bandit Camp without much pain. Haven't done anything off the critical path yet other than the Dynaheir rescue.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2019 19:20
|
|