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Once more unto the etc. Meet Marabelle, Half-Orc Cleric/Thief. Marabelle is a Born Hero with what I think may be the best starting roll of my life. She's not the most personable lass, our Marabelle, but that won't interfere with her goals of (a) preaching the gospel of hitting people with sticks and (b) hitting people with sticks. All the usual Candlekeep/Lion's Way shenanigans go as per usual, and as per usual pick up Imoen (who is a Shadowdancer again because hey why not). We sneak down to High Hedge and crawl along the top edge of the map to get into Beregost. There's relatively little risk to this unless we get particularly unlucky and hit the random map that's all skeletons and ghouls, and it lets us stock up on resources and party members before having to deal with Tarnesh.  Right now we're only hiring on  Oh it's like THAT is it game? (This is one reason I'm glad Marabelle is sticking to, er, sticks.)  Command makes many things easier, including the Tarnesh fight, and afterwards Imoen decides to get a head-start on her magical education.  Inside we pick up a sidequest to go to the Ulcaster Ruins in search of an old book. No a different old book. I pick up Khalid and Jaheira and for once I'm gonna keep Khalid around. (I did admittedly use the Tweaks Anthology option that turns him into a fighter/mage.)  The key to the Silke fight is to never under any circumstances let her get a spell off. I guess that's the key to all wizard fights. We pick up Garrick and take a slightly scenic route to Nashkel. We don't really get up to much of note aside from the werewolf quest at High Hedge that I showed off last update. (Once more we get lucky on the dice roll and successfully cure the dude.) Once in Nashkel we deal with Neira and chat up the townsfolk including:  This is another Ascalon quest, and it's a bit involved. Essentially this woman's son and his fiancé have disappeared. The ranger who went out searching discovered that they'd been attacked by gnolls and found her body but no sign of him. Kagain is being an absolute rear end about this, because of course he is.  He (the ranger, not Kagain) also discovered a ghost, presumably hers, at the base of the waterfall where her body was discovered.  The Greywolf fight could have gone better, but any battle you can walk away from, yeah? Or limp. Or crawl. Or...  This is Isra, who we're replacing Kagain with. She's a mod NPC and a surprisingly well-written one. This is probably going to be the lineup throughout the game (I haven't decided if I'm gonna try for Iron Party or not). Our next goal: magic weapons for everyone. (Right now everyone's rocking that Iron Crisis steel except Marabelle, who traded in her quarterstaff for a +1 buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff, and Khalid, who's got the firesword from the werewolf quest and who is about to upgrade to Greywolf's old sword.)
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Dec 25, 2020 04:01
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Gonna try the all neutral gimmick again, except for SoD because there's no neutral cleric in SoD. António the most neutral of fighter/mages arrives in Faerűn  Got a total of 88 after a few rerolls and went with it.  I present to you the Safana gambit. I wanted Safana immediately since I rejected Imoen's candidacy for having too strong of a bias in favor of goodie-two-shoes-ness. Unfortunately you have to do the flesh golem cave in a rather timely fashion or Safana will leave. Not a problem!  First I scroll cast invisibility on Branwen. I could have used Jaheira's potion of invisibility but I value those at a much higher price than the 300 gold I paid in High Hedges for the scroll. Then I sent the cleric to collect the loot.  In the meantime, a wandering worg almost ruined my poo poo. After lots of kiting, it finally died to António's arrows. He unfortunately only had identify memorized in anticipation of the cave's wand and tome.  Branwen trips the cave's hold and charm traps and patiently waits for them to expire. The flesh golems aren't wise to what's happening because they don't break invisibility.  Once again, patience is required. The flesh golem guarding the loot room will eventually wander off and it's at that moment that you pounce on the loot, cast sanctuary and bail out. Recast it once you're past the first group of sirenes (since it only lasts 1 turn).  Made it! The wand of paralyzation is ours!  In a nearby wilderness is Brage. Answer his riddle for a free 1000 gold, 1000 exp, rep+1 and a safe automatic trip back to Nashkel.   Gambit #2. I wanted the ankheg's lair fire wand. Not later, immediately. There are 3 ankhegs between it and the entrance. Very carefully, I inched forward and used a combination of sleep, command and wand of paralyzation to disable and take them out.  Score! Alright, time to recruit the last member of the party. (Not gonna get a 6th for faster leveling.)  And with that, the U.N. squad is assembled! Together we will save the sword coast from chaos with our unshakable neutrality. António the most neutral of fighter/mages is off to grind exp and collect loot before taking on the bandit camp
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Dec 25, 2020 08:33
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Suspicious posted:António the most neutral of fighter/mages is off to grind exp and collect loot before taking on the bandit camp What makes a
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Dec 25, 2020 10:29
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Angry Lobster posted:What makes a https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ
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Dec 25, 2020 15:50
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Arelia continues! Short update this time, because lots of clearing side maps with not much of interest. Imgur is also not working at this precise moment, so pics will be edited in later if I remember. Sadly, Melicamp did not survive.  Hairiest moment was fighting Shoal - (because if you talk to her she kills you in Tutu, unlike the EE, and I'm running solo) as despite laying traps she doesn't actually turn hostile if you, say, hit her with a Skull Trap and instead tries to initiate conversation. Thus took place another period of kiting, albeit even more dangerous than usual because melee range = insta death. The traps proved useful as they took down a couple of Dread Wolves I picked up along the way, and Shoal eventually fell to a barrage of magic missiles.  End of play today is just entering the Lighthouse map. Next dangerous goal is killing Sil, although I may go to Firewine and pick up a Helm of Charm Protection by pickpocketing a Ghost Knight to make it a lot easier to not just insta-fail [edit I did not do this because I had put no points in pickpocketing so was a recipe for disaster]. After that, the Flesh Golem cave! Current XP: 30689x3, so about 4k off level 6 fighter. Still 30k off level 5 mage and level 6 thief. 
MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 26, 2020 00:50
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Marabelle the Cleric-Thief has introduced her Cyricist counterpart to the Way of the Stick. Did a bunch of random wandering before dealing with the Nashkel Mines. The highlight reel:  We get a book at the Circus which ties into Garrick's BGNPC sidequest. It's been a while since we've done it but I remember it being a pain-in-the-rear end fight at the end so we won't pursue this for a while.  We head north to do the bug hunt thing, with this update courtesy of the Encyclopedia Jaherica. Nothing much happens here that we haven't all seen before, ankhegs commanded, slept, and hit until they fall over, Farmer Brun's son returned to him, fire wand acquired, etc. Besides, what we really came this way for requires us to go farther north. No, farther. No, all the way up to Ulgoth's Beard.  For the second best fighting stick in BG1, and Marabelle's primary weapon for a long while. (I wish I'd thought to bring a potion of master thievery with me but I'll be back this way at some point and I can snag the Ring of Freedom then.)  Marabelle and Arabelle  This encounter is a bit hairy early on because of the Ogre Berserker, which SCS conveniently gives actual berserker (or possibly barbarian, I think they're immune to backstabs too, though I chose not to test that theory) stats too, including rage. Which means that most forms of crowd control available to us right now are off the table.  Most forms.  Dude, I don't know what you're so upset about, you've got a magic greatsword. Well, had.  Elsewhere in the wilderness, we run into this dude, added by (I think) Northern Tales of the Sword Coast. We won't be able to do anything about this til we reach Baldur's Gate proper.  The small army of kobolds makes this encounter slightly hairier, but only slightly. So, remember that we were looking for Aaron Brunstein for his mother, whose fiancé's body was found at their campsite? And remember that the ranger looking into this saw a ghost near said campsite?  She only appears here at night, hence all the flind corpses from our attempts to pass the time. She appears to be trapped on this plane by a promise she made to Aaron, to stay awake til he gave her a present. Yup, this one's a downer, folks. I can't recall if it was specified in the game that it was gnolls who attacked them but it's not exactly a shock to find that Aaron is being held prisoner in their stronghold, which we were headed toward anyway. And sure enough, on the corpses of some gnolls, we find:  And in a pit, we find Aaron himself. We set him free, return his ring, and agree to meet him at the edge of the map. While we're here, Imoen's studies of Tarnesh's spell book lead her to a...breakthrough?  We also find and rescue Dynaheir and send her on her way. And we acquire the Tome of Leadership and Influence, which Marabelle promptly eats. Her charisma is now a whopping 8. We head back to Nashkel and Marabelle uses her newfound diplomatic skills to gently break the news to Aaron.  (Actually I don't think there's any change in his reaction no matter what.) We get his ring back from him, give it to the ghost, and she is finally able to rest. Then to cheer ourselves up we head into the Nashkel Mines to beat up a million billion kobolds. One backstab brings Mulahey from full health to "Now, come on guys, let me surrender" status.  Marabelle isn't having it, feeling that Mulahey is letting the half-orc cleric side down. There are standards!
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Dec 26, 2020 05:48
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Sofia is still up and kicking, though she's had some frustrations. The first thing we do in the Cloakwood is beat this group of druids down. I've really never sided against Aldeth, because I doubt the druids will be able to offer me a lucrative quest in chapter 5.  Remember, if you get waylaid in the Cloakwood, always go DUE NORTH. gently caress fighting these ettercaps.  I have no one to disarm the traps despite being able to detect them, so I let my army of skeletons aggro enemies, kill them with skeletons/ranged attacks, then trigger the webs once I knew it was safe. Far from elegant, but it worked.  I was hoping I could put off meeting a Vampiric Wolf until I had a full party with magic weapons, but I wasn't afforded that luxury. Luckily, Branwen boosted herself and was able to bring it down despite its regeneration.  We murder SO MANY druids that we don't have to just because we can.  Silly Hamadryad. Your poo poo doesn't work against SKELETONS.  No, I actually don't want to fight while outnumbered and outgunned. Plus, no one can carry the loot from this encounter, so best to leave it until later.  We add a fourth person to our party, and the first who isn't a pure cleric! Yeslick is... disappointing, but he can hold stuff at least.  Fun fact! Both the wizards in the Cloakwood appear in BG2 as vampires. At least, their names do.  I may have overdone it with holding this guy.  Davaeorn shakes off EIGHT (!!) castings of Hold Person and two Commands, so we end up having to bum rush him. It costs us Branwen (and Branwen in turn costs me Iron Party), but we kill him, grab the key, and hit the elevator before the Battle Horrors can kill anyone else.  Still not dealing with these guys! I might entirely avoid them, who knows. But they're still there, waiting for me.  No screenshot for picking up Quayle, #5 of our party, and the whole reason I've been hoarding scrolls. He is also disappointing, and I don't see how him raising Aerie led to her personality. This is literally the first time I've ever used him.  However, I do get a screenshot for Tiax, in appropriate deference for his destiny to rule all. At the very least, we can disarm traps now.  Now that we have a thief and a mage, I head down to Durlag's for the wisdom tome. It doesn't go well! I tried to save resources by sending out 3 skeletons at a time, but I don't think it would've gone much better if I had sent out all five. Quayle dies, and I have to retreat.  Quayle dies against the ghost, too (I'm not even sure how) and I have to retreat once more. He also died on the second floor, despite being away from any possible threats, leading to 3 total deaths in less than an hour. I am no longer mad at Branwen for costing me Iron Party. In any case, I grab the tome and head to the Gnoll Stronghold for the Gauntlets of Dexterity so Yeslick will eat significantly fewer hits. So Sofia has reached Baldur's Gate, but is still faffing about in the wilderness. Also, if anyone can show me the odds for succeeding 10 times in a row on a 40% chance I'd appreciate it!
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Dec 26, 2020 11:01
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Softface posted:Also, if anyone can show me the odds for succeeding 10 times in a row on a 40% chance I'd appreciate it! 2^10/5^10 = a shade more than 1 in 10,000
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Dec 26, 2020 11:10
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I believe Davaeorn is just immune to most CC effects. As I recall he doesn't even roll saving throws against wand of paralyzation and just eats it with no effect.
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Dec 26, 2020 12:29
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Sounds about right, my fights against him always come down to brute force (and dodging his guards). Helps if you can open with a backstab, but not always an option if the party doesn't have a thief specced for that.
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Dec 26, 2020 12:35
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Negarretep posted:I believe Davaeorn is just immune to most CC effects. As I recall he doesn't even roll saving throws against wand of paralyzation and just eats it with no effect. After seeing that it's a 1 in 10,000 chance, I believe it! I may have rolled 12 damage with Bolt of Glory against a Lich, but even I'm not that unlucky. Good thing I made everyone immune to fire before the fight instead of counting on my CC to work. Ordinarily I just hit him with as many magic missiles as it takes until he dies, but that obviously wasn't an option here.
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Dec 26, 2020 12:48
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Angry Lobster posted:What makes a If he doesn't survive, he wants you to tell his wife he said hello. António the most neutral of fighter/mages explores the countryside.  Relieved an aggressive hobo of his gauntlets of weapon expertise (was hoping for a katana too but I guess that's just in Tutu.)  Scored the other free, pre-city wand of fire.  Stopped the bandits.   Hunted basilisks to extinction.  Shut down a slaving operation.  Found a solution to that bullshit ettercap ambush with traps. Just travel invisible! Oh, and  Melicamp LIVED! António the most neutral of fighter/mages and his diplomatic delegation have reached Baldur's Gate.
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Dec 26, 2020 12:57
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Melicamp is on a roll this year. I'm still plugging along clearing wilderness areas before doing more plot stuff. There should be an update for Grundle (hopefully a good one) in a day or two. I will say that I never really gave crossbows a chance in the series, but reliably doing 10+ ranged damage is actually very nice in BG1.
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Dec 26, 2020 15:43
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Yeah, I always end up buying the 2 APR light crossbow from the Beregost smith and giving someone a pip in crossbows at level 3 or 4.
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Dec 26, 2020 16:34
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Steve the Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief continues into the beasts lair to rescue people. Also to kill things. Ended up pulling the vampires with the golems, juggernaut golem hasted everyone which led to some fun times.  But in the end the damsel is rescued and everyone is happy. I'll have to return later to deal with the dragon, he scares me.  On to the planar sphere! What could go wrong?  Ah, that's what could go wrong. Backstabbed the wrong enemy and I let a mage do things. Probably could have ran away when I saw an active mage but decided to try and fight it out. Steve died to a finger of death while separated from his home plane no one shall ever know what became of him.
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Dec 26, 2020 17:17
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I've awaken from my food-induced coma and updated the op. Negarretep posted:Steve died to a finger of death while separated from his home plane no one shall ever know what became of him. Ah yeah, the good ol' cannibal halflings and their mages from Dark Sun, what a bunch of assholes.
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Dec 26, 2020 18:17
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 hmm... I've never tried a jester. why not? first stats, LoB mode.  I know I'm a jester, but I'm not going to have my clothes laughed at by some piece-of-poo poo ruminant with gassy baby diarrhea tummy.  gently caress you, cow  gently caress
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Dec 26, 2020 18:20
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Empty Sandwich posted:I know I'm a jester, but I'm not going to have my clothes laughed at by some piece-of-poo poo ruminant with gassy baby diarrhea tummy. 
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Dec 26, 2020 18:31
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Alright, let's try this again. With a new plan: Make a character that isn't at the front of the party. Hevn, the Avenger:  New plan for the belt Ogre: Entangle, then shoot him.  (Montaron dosn't get a ranged weapon because gently caress him.)  Inga has been avenged. Oh huh. This is new (to me).  Decided to kick out Montaron and take the Ring of Wizardy back from Xzar in the window before he leaves the party too. Apparently that was not neccessary, as unconscious Montaron was unable to initiate that dialogue. Still ditched Xzar, though. After that plus talking down Marl, Jaheira is literally 1 XP from leveling up.  So I decide to kill Karlat before engaging Silke and/or the spider house. This was not a good plan.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   In retrospect I should have had Jaheira drink a healing potion after the first hit. Spiders fell asleep and died uneventfully, bringing Jaheira to level 2, and making her the toughest character in the group for a while. Silke died without getting any spells of, and I ended up bringing Garrick along because I had an empty spot. My new meatshield procees to do his job:  Turned in all the quests at the friendly arm, and the back to Beregost.  Hevn is going to Nashkel.
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Dec 26, 2020 21:20
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Fuckin' ogre berserkers, man. RIP Marabelle.
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Dec 27, 2020 00:06
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The continuing adventures of Arelia (named for my Fighter/Ranger/Rogue archer from my ttg who sadly snuffed it during a TPK. We had the boss of a dungeon we had spent 9 sessions on down to single digit HP and I failed to roll an 11+ on any of my 3 attacks for the 5 rounds it took to kill me and the druid) A similar fate could easily have befallen BG Arelia, with this attempt to kill the tomb ghast:  Fortunately it missed. A similar fate could also easily have befallen BG Arelia when I aggroed Nalin and Braga at the same time (more XP for killing, yo) and got Hold Personed. Equally fortunately, the conversation still fires and I managed to restore him to sanity leading to me being Held for the scene in the temple and a good while after.  Can this stop happening please?  I wasn't exactly on top form in that fight anyway, because I forgot that traps wouldn't work.  To finish off a truly horrendous map (screw you, AR4100!) I also managed to get hit by a lot of flame arrows from Ba'ruk's Kobolds and got poisoned by Ba'ruk himself.  (This is after drinking a potion and stabilizing the situation, it was seriously close) After that, the Lighthouse went incredibly smoothly, as did Firewine Bridge (and dungeon), the Red Mages in the Spider Wood and basically everything other than the Bandit Camp itself, which I am yet to start. Thanks to purchasing a Robe of the Neutral Archmagi I have a very nice AC0 now and don't even have my spells locked off.  Next stop: Bandits! (this time for real)
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Dec 27, 2020 00:25
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It's time for our next  Pendergreens, Gnome Dragon Disciple Yes, I'm still using the unlocked race restrictions for classes tweak because (a) race restrictions for classes are bullshit and (b) gently caress your "rules". I don't think some save bonuses are exactly going to break the game, especially not in SCS Insane mode. Pendergreens is a Born Hero. It's easy when basically none of these stats matter; I think Dexterity and Constitution are the only ones that have a direct effect on his abilities at all, and those only in the usual ways. Neither Charisma nor Intelligence affect his casting (though the class has a very high Charisma requirement, so I suspect it would have been integrated more had the Sorcerer class in BG been less half-baked), Wisdom does nothing for him at all that a few Identify scrolls and the odd potion won't, and Strength is as useful for arcane casters as it ever is.  Finch the Halfling Cleric is a new addition to Candlekeep thanks to her NPC mod. She can't be recruited yet, but this conversation adds a bit of context to our later encounter with her in Beregost.   Speaking of NPC mods, this is Vynd, Dark Elf Assassin. He's evil, but more the pragmatic selfish sort like Kagain. He's supposed to not leave if your rep gets too high, even, but I think that doesn't work in EE so we'll still have to drown the occasional kitten I guess.  Kagain seems to have the worst luck with axes. Also, see that NPC behind Karlat? That's Finch. She's helping out in the fight even before she joins us.   Finch is a traveling cleric of Deneir with the ultimate goal of establishing a library in Nashkel. She'll adventure with us in the meantime.  We take Tarnesh out with a pre-emptive strike and pick up Jaheira.  I really can't argue with Vynd's reasoning here.  He's also not super impressed with Garrick's hiring methods. Silke gets hers, we send Garrick on his merry way, and we start making the trek south.  Pictured: Kagain doing the job we hired him for. (He still thinks he hired us, lol.) Pendergreens the Dragon Disciple is on his way to Nashkel.
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Dec 27, 2020 15:11
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Arelia continues! Plus ca change  Oh yeah, traps  Now, at this point I decided to get some XP by clearing out of the camp. This wasn't a great idea because those archers hit quite hard when there's a million of them. Fortunately, Invisibility is an excellent escape route.  Never any risk.  Sometimes it works!  Sometimes it REALLY works  Ah yes, Baldur's Gate, entry to the city of Baldur  And the current character sheet, having raided Sorc Sundries (by giving them lots of money for scrolls). I actually have level 4 spells I can put in my slots now!  Also, nice.
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Dec 27, 2020 15:19
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António the most neutral of fighter/mages and his diplomatic delegation have encountered... difficulties. Sarevok's acolytes violently rejected the wisdom of neutrality.  Apparently the demonknight can cast power word: kill. Xan let out a sigh before he expired.  Aec'letec just attacked without a word and.. died without a word. Potions of magic shielding make this fight trivial.  Mendas was literally stunned when he heard me explain why invading the mainland was a bad idea.   No, brother, war is not the way...  ... unless I'm the one waging it. António the most neutral of fighter/mages is marching off to war. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Trap dodger, Honorable trader, Battlemaster, Roleplayer, Swiss Valor Award
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Dec 27, 2020 15:33
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Huh, I was gonna go with an all-littlefolk party but MY GOD I really miss having access to Wands of Bullshit and I won't have any until after Cloakwood. Maybe I should make use of stealth for once.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:46
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Hevn does some side quests before embarking on the mines. Neira falls without too much issue.  Time to get some revenge on Zordral:  Except he gets a horror off, and then pelts everyone with acid arrows. Thankfully he never picked Hevn as the target, so Hera has been avenged. Ditched Garrick to pick up Branwen. With this party, nobody is actually asking me to go to the Gnoll Fortress, but I'm already used to going there around this point, so... With a quick stop to massacre Xvarts.  Jaheira get killed by Ursa the second:  (I tried to have her run out of the cave, which didn't work very well.) At the same point, Khalid's sword broke for the second time, so I decided it was time to get a better one off Greywolf.  I do NOT approve of this spontaneous rearrangement of my party (that's Hevn on the top right). Thankfully he was a bit slow to go hostile, and vulnerability to Command took care of the rest.  Alright, back to the path.   Might as well take the shortcut.  And then I finally made it to the Fortress  Using Neera is probably going to get me killed at some point. Couldn't remember if the Gnoll Chieftain had any good loot, so I killed him to check (he did not).  Dynaheir stays in the pit. And during this part, Branwen's war hammer broke, so gently caress it, its Bassilius time:  And since I was already in this area, might as well pick up the chicken.  Unfortunately, Melicamp dies this run. At this point I decide to stop putting it off.  Hevn is entering the Nashkel mines.
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Dec 28, 2020 22:18
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António the most neutral of fighter/mages retraces the steps of Ann Teuta  Iced the bronze sentry again.  Tossed a dwarven lich's (lol) phylactery in the elemental plane of fire again.  PARLEYED IN ALL CAPS WITH CAELAR AGAIN.   Roasted a green dragon and her sister again.  I used a new approach for the neothelid. It turns out it will always summon 3 mordy swords before appearing, so I just had a hasted Jaheira make them chase her in circles until the abomination appeared and unloaded everything into it. It promptly died and the swords were immediately unsummoned. Yay.  A single mindflayer can't do much when the entire party is buffed with chaotic commands. His thralls were much tougher to defeated.  I picked a fight with the shadow aspect again because I'm apparently suicidal. It almost carved its way through my wand of summon spam until Viconia dropped an insane crit outta nowhere and took it out. Thanks Vic.  Once the neutral team + Viconia was assembled, I visited a spider cave for Neera and there's apparently a giant rear end beetle that appears there??   The new approach for the crusader camp was to spam debuffs (chaos, slow, etc.) and let the flaming fist do most of the work. Things went a lot better than last time!   The named enemy NPCs were too much for them though so I had to intervene. The Barghest in particular was a very tough nut to crack but he went down eventually.   Right, the bridge explosives. I misunderstood what happened to Ann Teuta. It turns out the mage now bails almost immediately (unlike the last time I played SoD) after opening a portal to the elemental plane of fire. Fire critters will appear and you have to stop them from destroying (setting fire to) the explosive barrels until the portal expires. The barrels have health so 1 hit isn't an immediate game over but I wasn't really interested in finding out just how much health they have.  Well this is embarrassing, passing out and stamping a huge logo of Bhaal who is DEFINITELY not António 's father.  Yay we reached the coalition's camp! António the most neutral of fighter/mages is preparing for the siege of dragonspear castle. e: sorry for the giant rear end update Suspicious fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Dec 28, 2020 |
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Dec 28, 2020 23:42
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Have my first death. Started a half-orc staff kensai (just beating the hell out of things with a reach weapon and a 0 speed factor) and freaking Neera cast sleep on an Ankheg. Only it wasn't sleep at all! RIP Hallys the Half-Orc Kensai, felled by a fireball that was supposed to be sleep.
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Dec 29, 2020 00:22
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FairGame posted:Have my first death. Started a half-orc staff kensai (just beating the hell out of things with a reach weapon and a 0 speed factor) and freaking Neera cast sleep on an Ankheg. Only it wasn't sleep at all! I nearly died after casting 
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Dec 29, 2020 00:40
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The continuing adventures of Arelia the FMT Why does this happen around 1/20th of the time? So rude (I have actually had back luck with this - I counted up the backstabs in the first floor of Durlag's proper, and I got 5 nat 1's in 17 attempts)  Cloudkill remains the best spell, especially when you can Hide afterwards. And finished with BG (pre-endgame)!  A red letter day - the first "You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth" of this solo run.  Post-Candlekeep working through the TotSC content. Shout out to Phase Spiders.  All stat books collected!  Stats after the Pride/etc fight in Durlags. BG2 is in sight, he says hubristically!
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Dec 29, 2020 21:55
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The continuing adventures of Arelia through Durlags, and beyond! In the game of chess you can never let your adversary see your pieces  The cloud kill mostly got in the way here due to the demonknight's magic resistance, but it still did 14. Worth a level 5 slot for sure. The spiders were the MVPs, as per usual. A couple of backstabs and it was all over.  The cloud kill worked here, causing instant death to Aec (after a few rounds). This fight was a lot easier than some, largely because I went through my rainy day potions fund.  Again started with a cloud kill which damaged everyone some. Sarevok walked over to begin the conversation and I invisibled away to deal with the others, then came back and stabbed him to death via potion of invisibility. Which means that Arelia has finished Baldur's Gate! Honours: Ironling, Born Hero(ine), Purist (assuming that removing the level cap doesn't count here), Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honourable Trader, (Iron Party technically), Battlemaster, (Roleplayer technically) I don't own SoD so on to BG2, and I start as I mean to go on: 
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Dec 30, 2020 03:36
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Pendergreens the Gnome Dragon Disciple (Gnome Dragon? What's a Gnome Dragon?) Ahem, anyway Pendergreens has lost an honor but gained a friend. Oh and cleared up the mine troubles in Nashkel and so forth. The trip to Nashkel held few surprises, and Neira didn't pose much of a problem.  The manor house in Nashkel isn't just a convenient spot to pick up a few scrolls for the ol' five finger discount any more, it's the hub for Finch's game-spanning sidequest. (It's not actually all that game-spanning.) She's not just an adventurer, she's a hero and she is a librarian, albeit one without a library at present. Her goal is to change that. The owners here have kindly (if not graciously) lent their home toward the goal (and have presumably donated some money toward acquiring a collection), and Finch's part of the bargain is to acquire a few select rare tomes that are scattered throughout the Sword Coast, conveniently stashed in places we're going anyway. Other highlights:  The fight against Zordral, which is going super well.  The encounter where we meet Dorn for the first (and as it turns out, the last) time, who was on fire when we got here, honest.  Melicamp was also on fire when we got here.  And here I thought that our bug hunt was going pretty well, when an ill-timed crit takes down Imoen. Were it anyone else I might consider recruiting a replacement and keeping the ol' Iron Party intact, but it's Imoen, so no, we don't do that.  Vynd engages in grief counseling, Underdark style.   Spoiler: He does not. After futzing around a bit, we head back to the circus to do some shopping and also:   Finch's first book!  Mulahey falls like the punk he is and we head on out. We leave Xan's moonblade behind, assuming he's smart enough to realize that he's free to go now. (I'm not sure why those few kobolds never aggro, but I also don't care.) Vynd's commentary, which I didn't capture, is kind of interesting here. He expresses general support for the idea that people should band together and deal with threats like the Iron Crisis but seems to resent that one of those people should have to be him.  This may be the most terrifying sentence in the Common language. As per usual, the mage dies fairly quickly, the oozes take somewhat longer. He gets to start with Stoneskin, thanks to SCS bullshit.  You may notice the absence of any Amazon bounty hunters. One of SCS's fun (in this case it actually kind of is) changes is to turn them, and the group in Gullykin, into random encounters. (Which means we rest up before every map transition for a while.)  Oh fuuuuuuuck offffffff, SCS  Fortunately, use of our new monster summoning wand proves fairly effective in the face of bullshit, and we win the day. And Pendergreens gets a new fairy dragon familiar. Next: We hunt bandits.
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Dec 30, 2020 04:33
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Hevn has had a series of unfortunate events (but is not dead - yet). Mulahey dies without issue.  As does Nimbul.  Twice, because the game crashed when I took a screenshot using the GOG overlay.  This became a recurring issue until I switched to the game's built-in screenshot function instead. This also means I no longer change formation ever time i take a picture, so I wish I used this from the start. Tranzig dies quickly.  Branwen has a little chat with him first, and had no desire to let him surrender. I like this little addition from the EE. And then things start going badly. I decide to clear the temple map. I know there's a Vampiric wolf, but I figured I have enough fighters with magical weapons to deal with one. And then there were two.  Would probably have lost even more here if I hadn't used the speed oils and and strength potions I'd been carrying around for ages. And then I decided to go hunt basilisks. After all, I can memorize enough protection spells for everyone on the front lines, so nobody should be getting petrified.  ... The petrification was temporary, but it also turned Branwen hostile, so she's permanently gone.  And that's my limit - Neera is out. Fortunately there's a replacement waiting in a pit.  Apparently the Xvarts are exploiting the power vacuum I left behind last time. Losing access to Sleep is a bit annoying, but  Oh, right. After a quick side trip to grab a magical sword for Minsc, Hevn is ready to hunt basilisks. 
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Dec 30, 2020 17:35
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Arelia the FMT is speeding through BG2. Our first crit miss backstab! How I missed you on the first floor  Well that's me stocked up for scrolls (also pickpocketed the Ring of Regeneration while I was at it, and the Ring of the Ram. That's the only thieving I'm doing, I think) Cleared the Circus tent, then headed over to the Copper Coronet.  First shakey moment came in the Slaver's fighting the trolls, when I crit miss on a backstab. Running away (as one does) I managed to get blocked in by the skeletons I summoned earlier after they aggroed on the trolls. Not a big danger, but annoying. After that, I started the quests for Mae'Var, and got some cash together:  At which point it's all over for y'all b**ches  First Lich down! (Killed, appropriately, by Daystar - after sleeping until the protections wore off) From there, I finished off the Mae'Var quests, the Skinner murders, the D'A hold, the Druid Grove, and made a start on the quests for the Shadow Thieves proper (mainly because I wanted NPP before the Umar hills). Around this point I got my first two HLAs, which were both Spike Trap.  Celestial Fury acquired - note the spike traps top right for cover. Between instant cast Stoneskin and Invisibility, Improved Haste (+belm) and managing to split their group up really easily this was actually one of the more trivial fights. C'est la vie. Next up: the Planar Sphere because I need the boots of speed.
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Dec 31, 2020 01:05
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Wait poo poo that's the planar prison. Never mind.
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Dec 31, 2020 02:44
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Arelia has a triple post for a triple class! Off to the Umar Hills for Valygar ('s corpse), may as well do the shadow temple while I'm here. High enough level now to have my 2nd and 3rd liches as random spawns, which got taken out with judicious use of Time Trap. Likewise the dragon:  Will the Spike Traps get to do damage before I beat it to death during Time Stop?  No, it turns out (also FWIW it turns out my computer is now at long last powerful enough to show a dragon on screen in BG2 without things slowing down to a crawl. All hail progress!)  The shade lord went down about as quickly as possible (that's a backstab with CF, her failing the stun and then a hit from Belm, in about half a second). So off I went to the Planar Sphere. Lots of enemies cast Hold or Stun in here, one of which accounted for another run - a fact I didn't remember until...  Fortunately I got away with it though,  with the stun wearing off just after the Stoneskin. As no-one will be surprised to know, Arelia is now an absolute mincing machine and the main problem right now is kill stealing fuckers:  State of the character (EoU removing the icons from equipped stuff):  Next stop: actually getting the Boots of Speed. Possibly after taking out the Cult of the Eyeless, which leaves... not much to do in Chapter 3. Firkraag, Kangaxx, those guys behind the Rogue Stone door, Plot Quests, maybe Watcher's Keep if I'm feeling excitable (but I'd prefer to go through the UD first for higher level spells)
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Dec 31, 2020 03:19
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António the most neutral of fighter/mages gets settled in the coalition camp. Chapter 10 is mostly micro quests in small areas. Two highlights:  Used an invisible Viconia to turn skeletons and have them kill a skeletal mage (aren't those just liches?) I can't remember the last time I actually used Turn Undead.  Totally blew a troll's mind and had it peacefully go back in its cage. Anyway, it was time to recon and sabotage Dragonspear castle, and that's done via an underdark section connected to its basement. This area is actually a full sized one with lots of things to do.    The entrance was guarded by a crusader outpost. Not a problem.  The crusaders inside the underdark cave wonder what all the ruckus was about. This is a funny lie that works and won't have them all turn hostile.  There's a side area with a ghost dragon (that can be made to help you) and a shitload of evil mages doing evil things. Here's teleport field almost running my poo poo.  Alright, cool, all the mages are dead.  poo poo I missed one and he dire charmed Safana. What happened to her chaotic commands buff? Probably dispelled at some point. And M'Khiin is out of spiritual cleansing casts. Sorry Saffie.  The ghost dragon thanks the diplomatic coalition for freeing it from its enslavement to the evil cult. António the most neutral of fighter/mages is about to infiltrate Dragonspear Castle.
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Dec 31, 2020 03:57
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So I love soloing BG2 and ToB as a sorc, but how viable is it on an ironman run in BG1? I gave it a bit of a test run and with sleep/shield and a bit of luck I can farm Ankhegs to level 4, but even then they can 1-shot me (even with 16 con and 19 dex). Is this just going to be an exercise in frustration?
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Dec 31, 2020 04:23
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Turds in magma posted:So I love soloing BG2 and ToB as a sorc, but how viable is it on an ironman run in BG1? I gave it a bit of a test run and with sleep/shield and a bit of luck I can farm Ankhegs to level 4, but even then they can 1-shot me (even with 16 con and 19 dex). Get a mirror eyes potion and farm basilisks. One issue is there's no mechanic for swapping spells so you'll be stuck with sleep forever. but by the time sleep stops being useful you aren't casting a ton of 1st level spells anymore anyways.
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Dec 31, 2020 08:25
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| # ? May 7, 2024 12:29 |
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Mirrored eyes potion wont last long enough to clear the map of basilisks, but a green scroll of protection from petrification will. You can buy one at the Nashkel carnival.
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Dec 31, 2020 15:13
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