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 That’s right folks, it's time for the official 2022 Something Awful Baldur's Gate Ironman Challenge! As we leave behind behind the cursed year of 2021, we shall once again rise up and become legends or die trying. It is here that true heroes will compete for honor, glory, and the chance to not be killed by wildlife at level 1. Gather your party and venture forth! You can buy the Enhanced Edition of the game and its sequels on Steam or on GOG.com. The EE editions are also available for tablets and have modern conveniences like widescreen support and zooming in and out of the game. Some people prefer to play the non-EE editions, but they're harder to come by. The older CD versions can be bought used off Amazon or something. Roll of Heroes Alive, for now Anorag the half-orc fighter/thief is on her way to clear the bandit camp. Squints Tokerman the mage/thief is leaving a trail of dead recruitable NPCs behind him. Nixon's Ladies the archer are pondering their next move, beyond the city. Goose the archer has thoroughly sacked the bandit camp. Alis the priestess of Lathander has slain Aec'Letec! Zagal the Swashbuckler is off to assemble a party. Sakai the dark moon monk has reached level 5, carefully clearing the countryside. Hans the Half-Elf Avenger and his sidekick, The Sorcerer Blue Margaret are on their way to the big city! Gorion's Waaaagh the half-orc barbarian is about to start painting stuff red. Gimil Stoneheart, the Fighter/Cleric is managing his reputation issues. Blend the knife throwing Kensai has cleared the Nashkel mine. The Fallen Wards H.P. Bowcraft was shown the light by Bassilus. Maverick the archer was thumped a little too hard on the head by Mulahey. Neko Case Elven Sorceress was forevially imprisoned by Kangaxx. Chuck, the Elf Fighter/Mage was digested by Cloakwood giant spiders. Random the random random was randomly killed by a red wizard. Targrim the dwarven defender is now yet another statue in Durlag's tower. Abbie, Half-Elf Chaos Sorceress was careless of foot in Durlag's tower. Kangorolac the Dark Moon Monk is now an interesting collection of blood stains on the walls of the low lantern tavern. Tovo the Wizard Slayer fell into a dimensional rift. Camina the Wizard Slayer could not avoid an explosive bovine falling from the sky. Beefslab, the dwarf barbarian's overconfidence got him tenderized by golems, then chopped to pieces by a hasted, mind-controlled fighter. Judeau the knife throwing Kensai met his match in the form of a very dangerous ogre mage. Grasped Victory Neko Case Elven Sorceress has defeated Sarevok! Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party Dishonors: None Kenny Rogers Human Berserker has vanquished Sarevok. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Melee Champion, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Battlemaster, A God Among Men, Roleplayer Dishonors: None Beefslab, the dwarf barbarian has defeated Sarevok! Honors: Ironling, Purist, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Honorable Trader, Iron Party Dishonors: None Melicamp the Chicken Counter Melicamp Lived: 7 Melicamp Died: 4 FAQ Q: What exactly are the rules for an Ironman run? A: The rules of Ironman runs are simple. No savescumming or reloading games for any purpose other than resuming where you last left off, or in case of a gamebreaking bug or crash. If you are killed, your run is over. If you are unhappy with a dice roll or outcome of a fight and reload, your run is over. You may re-roll your stats and spend as much time as you'd like creating your character, but the moment you venture forth into the game proper, you are bound by the rules... Note that the whole thing runs on the honor system and is just for fun, so if your character dies and you want to keep playing your save file, feel free to, but please accept that for all intents and purposes, you are not Ironmanning anymore! Q: Can I post spoilers or discuss strategies in this thread? A: Absolutely. This is an Ironman thread, and it's assumed that everyone has played the series at least once. There are even people who have done a full Ironman run before! Discussion for approaching hard fights, surviving tough stretches of the game, or just talking about companions is welcomed. Q: How should I be posting or documenting my run? A: Many posters normally post screenshots of important events or fights to show progress, as well as write a few lines saying what they were able to do. Some may forego that and just say what they were able to accomplish, and others write up their runs like a short, simple Let's Play or present their run in a comical lens. Do whatever you'd like, but please don't be obnoxious about it. If you want to stream your run and link it here, feel free to let us know when you'll be going at it, and where you end up each session! Q: Can I use mods or play in a difficulty level other than Core Rules? A: Play your way, but please indicate what mods or difficulty you'll be using if not going for a vanilla core rules run. For fun, we have "honors" and "dishonors" so check those out if you want to get a particular accolade... or razzing! Q: Is this a competition? Is there any verification process? A: Like I said, this is purely for fun and works on the honor system. All we're playing for here is bragging rights and nerd cred, and some sweet, sweet honor badges that you can point to down the line and go, "Hell yeah, I Ironmanned one of the longest trilogies in CRPG history." If you really want to up the ante, like soloing on Insanity with a Shaman or something, that's up to you! Q: What do I get for finishing my run, or dying? A: You finished a run? Great! Look at the list of honors and dishonors below and list what "achievements" you were able to obtain in a well-deserved self-congratulatory post. You died? Boo! Say where and how you died (e.g. "Outside Candlekeep, to that goddamn wolf.") and your death will be memorialized in the Graveyard of Gorion's Wards. You can always try again with the same character or make a new one! Q: Do I have to start in Baldur's Gate 1 and end in Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal? A: No. You can start and end at any point you want. You'll be added to the Throne of Triumph if you succeed through at least one full game, and I'll indicate where you started and ended, as well as what (dis)honors you picked up on! Q: How do I set up custom portraits? A: Thanks to biscuits and crazy for this copy-pasted answer. The measurements for player portraits are 38X60 pixels for the smaller portraits (8-bit color runs faster but it can be up to 24 bit color), and 110X170 pixels for the larger portraits. To use a custom portrait, place it in the Portraits directory (in the install directory for the game) and add an S to the end of the small portrait name and an L to the end of the large portrait - otherwise the two names must be identical. The names must be 1-7 letters long, maximum - so the filename with the S or L added to the end is no longer than 8 total characters. The portrait files must be in BMP format. For example: XXXXXXXS.bmp for small (38x60, 8-bit) XXXXXXXL.bmp for large (110x170, 24-bit) For the Enhanced Editions, the measurements for player portraits are 210x330 pixels. Portraits are automatically resized by the game, so you don't need to make small and large versions of the same portrait. (If downloading a portrait pack with multiple sizes of the same portrait, keep the largest one.) The portrait files must be in BMP format. The Portraits folder must be created in the game directory found in "My Documents." The file name cannot exceed 8 characters. Q: What is this "Melicamp the Chicken" counter? A: There's a sidequest in Baldur's Gate 1 with a chicken who is actually a polymorphed mage named Melicamp. The outcome of the quest has a 50-50 chance of turning him back into a human being or just killing him outright. For fun and as part of the tradition of whim and luck in an ironman world, we keep track of how often he lives or dies. Join in and let us know the fate of the man-chicken in your updates! Other Information When you've made your character, include the name, class, and a screenshot of the character sheet upon creation (the Print Screen button will take a screenshot and deposit it in your Baldur's Gate folder). Irfanview is also an easy alternative. As the thread winds on we'll have a lot of images, so please use [timg] tags if you're posting large images. When posting an update for your character, please include his/her name and class in bold. For example, "Ashar the Assassin completed BG1". Also, if you post updates like "Krug the Barbarian has cleared the Nashkel Mines", I will update your status accordingly. The main Baldur's Gate thread is over here... for now! If you want to check out mods, check out these sites. Gibberlings 3 Spellhold Studios Pocket Plane Group Below are the lists of honors and dishonors. Aim for them if you please, but feel free to ignore them if they aren't fun for you.  [img]https://i.imgur.com/LYWtd.png[/timg]Ironling: Complete Baldur's Gate 1. Siege Breaker: Complete the Siege of Dragonspear expansion (requires Ironling).  Iron(wo)man: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 (requires Ironling, does not require Siege Breaker). Irongod: Complete Throne of Bhaal (requires Iron(wo)man). Strategist: Complete Baldur's Gate 1 with the Sword Coast Stratagems mod. Tactician: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 with either the Sword Coast Stratagems or the Tactics mod. Born Hero(ine): Do not reroll your stat total during character creation, take the first set given to you. Redistribution of stats is okay. If you choose not to reroll, say so and you'll get an "upgraded" honor! Purist: Do not use any mods that add/modify content (except Tutu, Ascension, SCS, or Tactics), do not create extra characters for your party, and do not modify existing NPCs. Using convenience mods like infinite stacks is okay. Double Damage: Complete the game on Insane difficulty.Legacy of Bhaal: Complete the game on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty.  Overcoming Adversity: Complete the game as a Wizard Slayer, Shapeshifter, Beastmaster, or non-Blade Bard (requires Purist). Librarian: Find every stat tome in Baldur's Gate 1. Trap Dodger: Complete Durlag's Tower. Melee Champion: Complete Baldur's Gate 1 without member of your party ever using any missile weapons. Conan the Bhaalspawn: Complete the game without ever having an arcane or divine spellcaster in the party. Bhaalspawn powers and innate skills are okay. Honorable Trader: Do not steal any wares from merchants. Iron Party: Do not resurrect any dead party members (stone to flesh and freedom allowed) OR never have a party member fall in battle. Exception: Getting killed and revived by Shoal the Nereid does not invalidate this honor. Battlemaster: Kill Sarevok in Baldur's Gate 1 without summoning any creatures or laying any traps. Dragon Slayer: Kill Firkraag, the Shadow Dragon, the Black Dragon at Suldanessellar, the Silver Dragon in the Undertark, and the Dragon in the underworld. Helm's Champion: Kill Saladrex and Demogorgon in Watcher's Keep. Gaxkang's a Wuss: Kill Kangaxx in his demi-lich form. Legendary Arms: Acquire the Equalizer, Crom Faeyr, The Wave, The Silver Sword, and the Short Bow of Gesen. Swiss Valor Award: Complete the game with only neutral aligned characters in the party (lawful, true, or chaotic, must have at least 4 characters, requires Purist). Roleplayer: Do not have a good aligned character and an evil aligned character in the party at the same time (includes the PC's alignment, requires Purist). Leader of the Underdogs: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 or Throne of Bhaal with a full party of six without using Aerie, Keldorn, Edwin, or Haer'Dalis (requires Purist). A God Among Men: Complete the game solo. Do not remove or modify the level cap (requires Purist).  OP-ium Addict: Play as a Kensai/Mage, Kensai/Thief, Berserker/Cleric, Berserker/Mage, or Cleric/Mage. Scroll of Wuss: Use a scroll of Protection from Undead or Magic when fighting a lich, demi-lich or vampire. Don't Hurt Me!: Play the game on a difficulty lower than Core Rules.Note 1: Any honors that restrict choice of party members in any way (class, alignment, or anything else) do not apply inside Irenicus' Dungeon in Baldur's Gate 2. You may use anyone you want while inside it, but will have to boot the appropriate people once you reach Waukeen's Promenade. Thanks to Gutrot for all the wonderful badges. (This has been shamelessly copied from Angry Lobster's previous thread) Note 2: Any honors/dishonors which do not apply to a specific game in the series can apply to any. For example, Double Damage can apply to any game in the series, and you can earn it up to four times if you go all the way from BG1 through BG2:ToB. Suspicious fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Jan 5, 2022 |
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Dec 18, 2021 05:14
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Salty Sarah begins her adventure! Ahoy mateys! Born hero let's go! Chose chaotic neutral for the cat familiar, obviously.  The belt ogre was put to sleep! And quickly killed. Being a mage is so good.   The same strategy didn't work so well on Greywolf! Kiting him around saved the day however. Salty Sarah is on her way to the Nashkel Mines!
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Dec 18, 2021 05:19
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Neko Case Elven Sorceress has made it to Baldur's Gate.  I rerolled a bunch.  Got an early level  Melicamp lives. Then forgot to take any screenshots until I was already in Baldur's Gate.  Basically went solo until I had 32k xp then picked up, Khalid, Jaheria, Edwin, Imoen and Dorn and went and cleared the basilisks from there and a bit of Durlag's tower to get the +2 scimitar for Jaheria then kind of mainlined things from there. Also shout out to my fallen attempts: Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Phil Collins, Elton John, Bonnie Tyler, Janelle Monae. I kept having the tons of bandits appear with bows and you are level 1 get hosed random encounter trigger.
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Dec 18, 2021 05:37
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Abbie, Half-Elf Chaos Sorceress has defeated the bandit camp. I'm running with a number of mods, including some quest and NPC additions/content, Sword Coast Strategems (running at Tactical difficulty), IWDification (extra two-handed weapons only, since SCS handles the spell imports better), the Item Randomizer, and some new kits. Such as, for example, Chaos Sorcerer.     Here's the lowdown on Chaos Sorcerer (including two of its new spells) but it's essentially a re-imagined Wild Mage. Chaotic Weave gives you access to an assortment of random spells (since "every spell you know" would be anticlimactic for a sorcerer), and Surge Control gives you a (low) chance of staving off a wild magic surge. Guess how often I remember to use it? Abbie is a Born Hero; it's easy enough when relatively few of the stats actually matter. It'll make spamming Wishes tricky if she lives that long but that's what potions are for I guess. Anyway, our departure from Candlekeep goes off as normal and we make our way to Beregost via High Hedge without incident  ...with few exceptions. (This encounter is survivable even at level 1, but only if you don't even try to fight and just run like hell.) My usual early game strategy is to go straight to Beregost and rob the place blind before recruiting some NPCs. My mod setup usually has several to choose from here, and this time is no exception. Our mod NPCs for this run will be:  Breagar, a Dwarven Smith (essentially a fighter) and  Dave, a very cheerful Cleric of Talos. Both of them have fairly extensive questlines which I'll catch up on in a different post because I don't want to make this one too long and cumbersome. Rounding out the party will be Imoen, Jaheira, and Garrick (for whom I have the Tales of a Troubadour mod installed for some extra content). We do the usual rounds; Friendly Arms (Tarnesh doesn't know what hit him), Silke (a Hold Person from Dave basically trivializes this fight, which can otherwise get a bit scary), and then we make our way to Nashkel.  Once we've dealt with Neira, the proprietor gets a little pissy about us, you know, murdering someone in his in, but Garrick smooths things over with a performance and nets us a free night in the inn to boot. We eventually make our way down to the mines.  Breagar's not really interested in a peaceful solution. Neither are the rest of us, honestly. Mulahey falls without much incident. We leave Xan and his Moonblade to find each other and head back to civilization (and NIMBUL). During a random encounter we find a broken violin.  Thalantyr may be many things but a violin repairman he is not. Later on we run into one of the two assassin groups that SCS repurposes into random encounters, the group that normally appears in Gullykin. The fight is going relatively well until...  ("Summon Weasels" is a spell added by, appropriately enough, the Weasels mod. It's a level 1 spell that does basically what it says on the tin. The weasels don't do any real damage but they make for a nice distraction. Except this time Abbie summoned a hostile Greater Chaos Elemental instead which, well, it was distracting!)  We come through it all, well, mostly unscathed. (But no Iron Party for us, alas.) Later, while doing the Gnoll Fortress stuff, we get our hands on  This is a slightly more significant event than it would be otherwise, because there's a chance, thanks to the Item Randomizer, that the tome (as with I think all of them) might be moved somewhere else entirely. (In another playthrough I've seen this one in Silke's inventory, for example). I'm running with a 50% chance for things not to be randomized, and it's been pretty good to me so far. We do a lot of clearing out of wilderness areas and some sidequest stuff that I may come back to in another post, but it all culminates here  With us standing on top of a large pile of bodies. (The biggest change that SCS makes to the bandit camp is that the instant you fight anyone the alarm is raised and you end up fighting EVERYONE. Which is a challenge, but also a rare opportunity for us to really cut loose. It ends up being one of my favorite fights in BG1.) Oh, and:  Melicamp lives! docbeard fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 18, 2021 06:05
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Well, my first 'official' iron man run did slightly better than my trial runs back in the main thread. Human archer H. P. Bowcraft, rolled a 90 total in 30 seconds  , killed Tarnesh finally! The belt ogre one-shotted Jaheira, but I paid to resurrect her back at FAI. The road to Nashkel went fine, I got the shadow boots and gave Miriam her letter, and made it to Nashkel. The Nashkel cleric assassin hit Khalid with rigid thinking, but then also held him, and rigid thinking wore off first  But then. I got greedy. I wanted to kill Greywolf, but Viconia was a couple hundred XP shy of level 3 (and hold person), so I went back to kill Bassilus and play the dice on Melicamp. For some reason ol'B decided to rigid thinking H.P., who proceeded to shoot half the party dead before taking Ashideena to the noggin.  H.P. Bowcraft, death by Bassilus
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Dec 18, 2021 16:11
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Gonna be starting a Dwarven Defender soon. I figure if I can survive long enough to get a few levels it won't be that risky in Bg1 due to the high health pool and armor class. I'm definitely gonna die in Siege of Dragonspear at best though because I've only beaten that once and don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of that which I do the rest of the series.
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Dec 18, 2021 20:29
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In ironman, just like in roguelikes, death is part of the fun! Right? Speaking of, has any iteration of these threads resulted in destroyed keyboards or similar? 
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Dec 18, 2021 20:45
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Ginette Reno posted:Gonna be starting a Dwarven Defender soon. I figure if I can survive long enough to get a few levels it won't be that risky in Bg1 due to the high health pool and armor class. Dwarven Defender is fun and my most successful Ironman attempt 2 years ago, died to a spider in SoD for the same reason you mentioned, in my case going in blind. Rolled another one for last year and died shamefully to a Sleep spell from Droth. Will definitely play along this year as well as soon as I'm able to stop overthinking characters that will never get past Candlekeep.
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Dec 18, 2021 23:34
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Chuck, the Elf Fighter/Mage has set off from Candlekeep in search of his destiny. I wanted to roll above a 90, but I got an 88 and then I rolled a 18/00 on strength. I know it doesn't matter because of the tome, but that's such a psychologically satisfying roll to get, I had to go with it. I picked up Ajantis and Branwen as I hosed about the Sword Coast, clearing out most of the misc quests in FFA and Beregost. After securing the lightning hammer for Branwen, I went to get Varscona from Greywolf. He ended up murdering both Ajantis and Branwen before I could put him down. Ah well, their deeds will not be forgotten, but their bodies will remain in the sight of Prism's final work (sans the eyes of course). At this point, I'm considering getting Khalid and Jaheira just for the extra muscle and healing now that I lost Branwen. Or I might take Minsc into the Gnoll Fortress to get Dyanheir - either way, after getting my replacement party members, I'm going to clear the Nashkel mines. Melicamp is worm food.
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Dec 19, 2021 01:13
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It's about time I threw my hat in the ring again. I'll see what gimmick I'll try this time. Say hello to Random. Gender: 1d2 1 portrait: 1d44 35 A male... species: 1d7 7 Half-Orc... class: 1d7 5 Fighter/Cleric... alignment: 1d9 4 Of Lawful Neutral alignment.  Candlekeepin' it real. AJ_Impy fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Dec 19, 2021 |
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Dec 19, 2021 05:57
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I'm kind of curious as to why you went with 15 dex and 16 int rather than 18 and 13.
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Dec 19, 2021 08:40
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Keldulas posted:I'm kind of curious as to why you went with 15 dex and 16 int rather than 18 and 13. Preference and illithid padding. Going to be clanking around in heavy armor anyway, so AC considerations were lower.
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Dec 19, 2021 09:02
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Decided to give this a shot. I'm starting with BG1 because I truly want to die horribly. I also chose to have random character creation, although I did reroll stats until I got an 86. I ended up with a Male Elf True Neutral Mage/Thief I named Squints Tokerman because of the picture the dice chose.  Through judicious use of Sleep, I managed to survive the assassins in Candlekeep despite having 5 hit points and no armor. After that, Imoen's wand became the MVP of shutting down mages and is the only reason I survived Tarnesh. I met Xzar and Monty, but they seemed way too intense so I told them to buzz off. After grabbing Khalid and Jaheira, I killed the belt ogre and got Joia's ring. Then I went to get Kagain, who promptly got beaten to mush by the Ogrillons south of Beregost. I'm probably going to dump his corpse for Minsc once I get to Nashkel, but I was hoping to have him as a meatshield until I got there. Oh well. I guess he's no longer a wanted dwarf in the afterlife.
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Dec 19, 2021 11:58
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AJ_Impy posted:Preference and illithid padding. Going to be clanking around in heavy armor anyway, so AC considerations were lower. I'm just going to mark this one down as preference in my head since AC is most effective when stacked. But it shouldn't make that much difference honestly since the best defense is spells in all their various forms anyways.
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Dec 19, 2021 12:25
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Screw it, I'm going to try archers for a bit I guess, I haven't played one in a while and missile weapons are king in BG1. So, attempt 2, same as the first, meet Nixon's Ladies: Did pretty much what I did last time. Viconia -> Tarnesh -> K&J -> Joia's ring -> Belt ogre -> Marl -> Firebead's book -> Area south of Beregost -> Nashkel. This time I went to the Carnival to kill the exploding ogre and the inquisitor-mage-weirdo (remembered his horror, too!), and now we're parked next to Prism to see if Greywolf kills us 
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Dec 19, 2021 15:25
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Abbie the Chaos Sorceress has conquered the Cloakwood and defeated Davaeorn! Well, I mean, she was there when those things happened. Imoen was very much the MVP in the Davaeorn fight. But before we get to that, let's backtrack a bit to present: Breagar - The Story So Far Breagar is a Dwarven Smith, basically a fighter with a bit of extra fire resistance, a bit of extra lore, and a Spiritual Weapon ability that I can't get to work. (Like it appears to work but the summoned weapon doesn't do any damage. NBD.) We first run into him back in Candlekeep  Where he's either having a stroke or swearing up a storm in Dwarvish. There's a minor fetch quest involving a book to do, nothing too exciting like most of the Candlekeep chores, though he'll at least buy us a drink afterwards.  We encounter him again at the Thunderhammer Smithy where he's taking the Iron Crisis a bit personally. This is his hook to join the party, as he'd like to tag along to Nashkel in the hopes of getting some actual good iron.  Once we've defeated Mulahey, we run into this little rascal trying to sneak away with a sample of said actual good iron, which we secure for our buddy Breagar.  Once we get back to Beregost, he bids us adieu, so that he can go forge himself a ring of elemental control   It, uh, doesn't go so well. We get some help from the temple, in the person of Revaniel the cleric, and she's able to save Breagar. Well, most of him anyway.   He's now taken a 2-point hit to his constitution, and also cannot equip anything (weapon, shield, or ring) in his off-hand, as he, er, lacks an off-hand. (It doesn't stop us from equipping two-handed weapons though.) And that's where things stand now. (There is definitely much, much more to his story, we just haven't got there yet.) Anyway, when last we left our heroes, we'd just cleaned out the bandit camp and got our next bread crumb on this convoluted trail, a bread crumb leading us to the Cloakwood. First, though, we take a side trip to the Ulcaster ruins where we deal with a ghost bard (part of Garrick's BG1 NPC Project content)   And also some ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT    SCS, uh, "enhances" this normally pretty trivial encounter by adding a stage where he heals back to full, advances time to wipe out your buffs, and becomes highly resistant to magic and calls lightning and...yeah. Bullshit. Both Breagar and Jaheira bit the big one here but we win the day. Into the ruins themselves, in addition to the usual odds and ends, we pick up  This book, the objective for a sidequest we'll get to a bit later.  SCS also buffs the vampiric wolf at the end of Ulcaster Ruins into the Hound of Ulcaster, adding some spellcasting and summoning. Not, in the end, a huge deal but a bit of a slog to get through. (Pictured here is the stage of the fight where he dispelled my protection from fear and then horrored everyone, and also summoned some ghouls.  Breagar has a way of getting right to the point. There's some mod-added content here, including a rather involved druid-focused quest that's part of Jaheira's BG1 NPC Project content, but this is already proving to be a long update and none of it's that exciting. (The tl;dr there is that it lets us negotiate a peaceful settlement between Aldeth and the Cloakwood druids, in exchange for rescuing someone from the Shadow Druids.)  Always a pleasure, Cloakwood. Anyhow, we deal with the spiders, the druids, and the wyverns without much incident.  The fight with Drasus and his mercs ends up a bit on the close side for Jaheira, but we win the day. The mines aren't too difficult; Hareishan is, as usual, the toughest pre-Davaeorn fight, and we cheese the hell out of it (complete with Abbie successfully wild-surging a Cloudkill to wipe her bodyguards out). And then there's Davaeorn. With SCS, this fight can get really hairy, as you get those doom guards or whatever they are and reinforcements show up every so often as the fight goes on, and Davaeorn himself is a challenge. Er, normally.  This time, Imoen gets in a good backstab with the Dagger of Venom before his stoneskin kicks in and follows it up with a lethal Icelance to the face. (Imoen in this timeline is a multiclass mage/thief because gently caress your rules). It's probably the easiest, cheapest Davaeorn win I've ever had and I will treasure it always. docbeard fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Dec 20, 2021 |
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Dec 20, 2021 12:05
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I may have over-done Greywolf a little bit, but that jerk hits level 1 characters like a freight truck. Viconia commanded him to take a nap, Jaheira doomed him, and then Viccy held him. Easy peasy. The mines are a sleepwalk. I picked up Xan, we took a nap, then lured Mulahey into Xan's jail area and held him. Xan made all Mulahey's living lackeys take a nap, and no one was even hurt in the ensuing "fight".  We didn't meet an ankheg on our way out, sadly, but now we've turned in all our bounties and fetch quests from the mines area. Now Nixon's Ladies must go toe to toe with... NIMBUL! 
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Dec 20, 2021 15:17
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Neko Case the Elven Sorceress has defeated Sarevok. At some point I decided to just go to the Ankheg cave, invis my casters, and grind out to max xp for a few hours. I listened to some podcasts. At max XP I went mainline and beelined just the main quest.  A large amount of the end of the game can be skipped if you just invis your entire party. You don't need to fight anyone in Candlekeep, you can skip the entire Thieves Maze, you can skip the guys after the Thieves Maze. I think once I forgot to go get Sarevok's diary and the game just acted like I had it anyway? I don't risk that though and just go get it. Need to kill the guy for the invitations and save the Dukes though.  Sarevok I started blasting away all the bats with Wands of Fire, then planted 5 skull traps, if you send a party member invis up towards Sarevok he triggers his dialogue and the mage teleports towards you but no one else actually attacks for some reason. The mage teleported onto of the 5 skull traps and was instantly killed. Plant 5 more skull traps, do some buffs (and hope they don't all get dispelled) and pull Sarevok for real. I attempted having Imoen, Edwin and Neko Case hit him with a Wand of Paralyzation but it didn't hit but it didn't matter the skull traps brought him nearly dead and he died to our attacks without ever making a single attack of his own.  Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party Dishonors: None
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Dec 21, 2021 07:53
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I would like to start off this year with the journey of Maverick. When I hit on the idea of playing an archer I was up all night with booster-shot-induced sweats, remembering my cool archer in Icewind Dale and turning enemies into pincushions. I had my whole party planned out for BG1, BG2 and beyond. So of course, Maverick got beat down when Mulahey got some Hold Person spells off.  However his wingman Goose is ready to pick up the slack.  Goose is able to save Melicamp as a side gig to bashing in Bassilus's face.  He also avenges his wingman with the help of some skeletons.  Tarnesh isn't a problem either, thanks to being terribly overleveled for the encounter.  And now, having cleared out the bandit camp, Goose has gotten rich off bandit scalps. 
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Dec 21, 2021 08:15
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Chuck the Elf Fighter/Mage has recruited Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc and Dyanheir and has cleared both the Nashkel Mines and the Bandit Camp. I decided to just say screw it and try to do something I've never done - beat BG1 with the canon party. So far things are going well, and I spent a little time grinding out XP from Ankhegs. One thing I had forgotten was how annoying the chance to scribe spells are - I almost always play on Normal rules, but playing on Core has brought back the reason why I usually play on Normal - hearing that sad sound when I fail to copy a spell is not a little teeth clenching. I'm going to rush Cloakwood next time I play, just so I can get to BG proper and gently caress around. I'm getting a little impatient, to be honest - and that may be my downfall. But I am requiring myself to get through Durlag's, solely for The Burning Earth, which has carried over to BG2 for me before and is absolutely amazing early on in that game. So, Chuck is heading to the Cloakwood next.
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Dec 22, 2021 16:07
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Last time, Nixon's Ladies the elven archer and friends were worried about meeting NIMBUL. Well, turns out NIMBUL was a wet  . He was surrounded by Amnish soldiers, who stopped him from casting his mirror image, and they actually managed to shoot him full of arrows before we got a chance, and I lost out on the XP  Anyhoo, then we said goodbye to Khalid and Jaheira, and found a new friend! But he had a problem, his lady friend had been kidnapped! So, we helped them out, took Dynaheir along, and cleared out a couple of wilderness maps around Nashkel. Xan...  ...Are we the bad guys? This encounter is still funny to me  After that little romp, we headed back north to take revenge on Bassilus (  ), and  MELICAMP LIVES  Now we have a small fortune of cash, and I'm not sure what to do next. I kind of want to bee-line the raider camp so I could recruit Coran earlier, but I'm kind of scared about trying to kill Taurgosz because that aggros the entire camp.
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Dec 22, 2021 19:52
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Rappaport posted:Last time, Nixon's Ladies the elven archer and friends were worried about meeting NIMBUL. Well, turns out NIMBUL was a wet Rasaad killed Nimbul for me - it was really irritating since he was whiffing the entire fight, didn't do a single point of damage, I had Nimby down to almost nothing - and Rasaad poked him for his final bit of health. It's so aggravating. Same thing happened to me with Tarnesh, the guards killed him before I could land the final blow. My precious XPs.
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Dec 22, 2021 20:30
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Neko Case Elven Sorceress died to Kangaxx but really she died to my lovely playing and letting myself get lax. Kenny Rogers Human Berserker has defeated Sarevok.  Starts with an amazing roll.       I go and hit up my usual early game XP spots like Noober, Marl, rescue the dog etc.. Melicamp lived.  Decided to get a Scroll of Protection from Petrification and it nearly all goes sideways when I start taking serious melee damage and have to abort to not die. Only managed to kill a single Lesser, and single greater before needing to leave. That was my only scroll a non caster could use before Baldur's Gate so really saddened about that.  Grind out to level 8 in Ankhegs instead.   At this point I go and chunk a bunch of NPC's for the items they have, needed that invis potion from Jaheria, Oil of Speed from Montaron and gem bag from Neera.  Then pretty much mainline for a bit.  Potion of Absorption keeps me safe in the Bandit Camp when I open the chest.  Run nearly ends in disaster when I am reminded that berserk does not protect against web. Was poisoned and dying to Ettercaps but luckily I made a save and got free to take a potion and get clear.  I went invis through most of this dungeon and only fought the guys out front for the Boots of Speed and the final dude. In BG I kinda did mostly mainline except to get a few useful items like the INT book, Helm and Cloak of Balduran and a few items like that. Skipped basically everything in Candlekeep while invis except the spiders (thank you ring of free action) so I could get the STR tome.  Buffed up as much as I could do did good at the Duke ambush. At this point went and grabbed the tome's I was missing then went and invised through the Thieves Maze, popped a Protection from Magic, pulled Sarevok onto the Bhaal sign, popped an invis and ran back and forth until he was dead letting the traps kill him. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Melee Champion, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Battlemaster, A God Among Men, Roleplayer Dishonors: None
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Dec 23, 2021 05:11
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Oh man, I haven't played this game in like 25 years. It's on sale on steam, too. Seymour Butts, human monk, made it as far as Beregost trading post before running into some wild mage that I don't recall from the original. The enemy wizard managed to kill Jaheira and Imoen, so the survivors limped to the inn and got murdered by the assassin there. Whoops! If I keep doing this I'll be racking up a lot of corpses.
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Dec 23, 2021 07:25
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I'd love to join but my laptop fan hosed off after 7 years, maybe will order one just to jump into this. I could prob sit my way through a full run. otherwise if it don't work out I'll sit and enjoy all of your journeys and maybe learn some stuff so I don't gotta make a mess of my next go.
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Dec 23, 2021 12:59
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Nixon's Ladies and friends went back south to get the bracers of archery and studded leather +2, Batalista's passport and the AWOL Flaming Fist soldier, which led us back to the Friendly Arm Inn. And off we went to Larswood, killed the druids and met up with Teven. Then something weird happened. I only have the bg1NPC mod installed, but for the first time. After we'd beat up Tazok for awhile, he told the other raiders to kill us, and walked away. And the whole camp was on us I'm just confused because this is supposed to pacify the camp and let us just murder the contents of the head tent, and I'm pretty sure I've done this in EE a few times by now. ANYWAY. Murdering ensued.  After clearing up the tents and cave and whatnot up north, we went after Taugosz, and I wanted his full plate anyway.  The web was useless, but oh well.  It really has been awhile since I've cleared the camp (and it wasn't as bad as I feared, bleh), I had totally forgotten there's a fireball to loot here. Yoink  I'm playing over-cautious by now, which will make my inevitable demise all the more aggravating, but these yahoos barely managed to hurt anyone. Pretty much the whole party gained a level from the camp, all in all.  I suppose now Cloakwood awaits, but I'm having second thoughts about Coran, if the bg1NPC mod changes his quest too, I'm not sure I want to tool around completely blind trying to ironman low-level 2nd ed
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Dec 23, 2021 16:55
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  A solid roll for what I hope is a good beginning. Targrim is off to bash some heads in and hopefully save the Sword Coast from Sarevok's machinations! I chose Insane Difficulty (but without the damage increase...didn't even know that was a BGEE option but cool!).  Tarnesh was no match for my dual hammers.  Jaheira ate poo poo when I tried to fight the Ogre because I managed to entangle her with her own spell lol. I'm rusty - it's been a while. Luckily she didn't get perma killed, and I was able to rez her. That Ogre without command/sleep is terrifying.  Neira was also recruited. I'm a little nervous about having a Wild Mage in a no reload party. If I summon a demon or something that's pretty much gameover in bg1. But I needed a Mage, and she's a good one. I might replace her with Dynaheir...not sure. In any case, I'll be mostly avoiding Nahal's I think at low levels at least.  I also managed to take out Silke and Karlat. Both of them are pretty scary at level 1. Did the spider house too. I should be hitting level 2 soon, and I think I'm gonna be off and running here. With my high hit point total and soon to be Ankheg Plate I should be able to do pretty well. There's a few fights that make me worry (the assassins outside of Nashkel Mines + Greywolf are both worrisome) but I'm reasonably confident I can handle them without my PC dying at least
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Dec 23, 2021 20:49
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 Ankheg plate acquired. Such a massive boost in survivability compared to other armor  Zordral kills Khalid, but the gang pulls through, and I haul Khalid off to the temple for a rez  I land a command on Greywolf and he goes down in short order  Mulahey too is no match for Targrim and his big hammers. Now the group is rolling  I panicked a little and popped a potion of invuln + haste for this fight. I don't know if I *needed* it, but I wanted to make sure I pulled through. This bounty fight can be tough early, especially if they land a hold person on you.  This fight also is a real barn burner. Mustard jellies are a nasty opponent early on when you don't have access to many good magical weapons. Khalid popped a potion of power and carried me here with his longsword +2. My Dwarf didn't even have a magic hammer yet.  Melicamp dies   The sirens and golems here fell easily enough. I used a protection from magic scroll which was perhaps overkill but I didn't dare risk letting my Dwarf get charmed or killed by a charmed ally.  Just some friendly neighorhood Xvart butchering  The scariest moment of my run so far. I nearly poo poo myself because I totally forgot about this encounter. This siren or whatever she is kisses you no matter what dialogue option you choose. I thought that the kiss was an insta death thing, but apparently you get to roll a save for it (did BGEE change this or was it always this way? Not sure). I breathed a massive sigh of relief when I didn't die. I legit thought this was it  The west is complete! (well sans Cloakwood anyways, but I haven't even done Bandit camp yet).  Our brave dwarf is now level 5 with 20 con (thanks con book) and a staggering 85 hit points. Between that and the plate (plus DD innate ability) he is extremely difficult to kill. Still, that scare with the siren has reminded me that it's good to not get too cocky. It only takes one mistake to end a run. I already know I'm dead in Siege of Dragonspear because I've only beaten it once and don't remember it. I hope I get that far at least! Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Dec 24, 2021 |
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Dec 24, 2021 03:02
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Chuck the Elf Fighter/Mage has become food for giant spiders in the Cloakwood. I just made a stupid mistake and got my entire party webbed by the very first trap on the second Cloakwood map. Nobody made their save and the two giant spiders still alive charged my guy and killed me before I could save and run. What a waste. Time to start my new character. I just have to figure out what I'm going to do. I'm thinking either a cleric or a paladin.
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Dec 24, 2021 03:24
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Random the Half-Orc Fighter/Cleric got chunked by Neeshka's red wizard. I'll try again after Christmas.
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Dec 24, 2021 16:13
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Abbie the Half-Elf Chaos Sorceress has been questing through the Sword Coast, tying up loose ends. Speaking of loose ends, let's start by getting caught up with the story of Dave.  Dave is a Priest of Talos, one of five added as part of Glam's NPC Pack. (He's the only one from that pack we're using in this playthrough.) He's evil, but in a friendly and cheerful sort of way. We meet him in Beregost, preaching the, uh, good word (and getting hassled a bit by the Flaming Fist for his trouble). We welcome him to our ranks, since we could use a good cleric.  He's pretty solid, and willing to help out without incident, until just after the Nashkel Mines, when...  He gets a Sending from his superiors, summoning him back to his temple, which turns out to be located in the abandoned house in High Hedge.  I've definitely been to churches like this before. Aside from a bit of shouting, they're a very laid-back bunch. We check in with his fellow worshippers and get the news that the Temple in Amn is sending some folks out to visit. Probably nothing to worry about. Somewhat later we're visited by this cheerful fellow.  Long story short, he's from Amn, and he's come to do a bit of a hostile takeover. He's killed Stormlord Jeff and has demanded tribute from the other worshippers. Dave is initially reluctant to give into this blackmail but then he comes up with a cunning plan that cannot fail! It first requires us to acquire the Idol of Kozah in the usual fashion. Then Dave challenges Taranis to a Trial By Thunder, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like (if it sounds like standing out in the rain and seeing who Talos is more interested in hitting with lightning).     Dave wins, and he explains why. (Basically, Taranis's heart isn't really in it. He's ambitious but he's not having a good time, and Dave reckons that Talos is more of a party god than a stern god. (I have no idea how lore-accurate all this is and I don't care because it's quite fun.) And that's Dave! If there's more quest content for him I haven't seen it yet. Anyway, back to the present, or at least the more recent past... Once we evacuate and flood the mines, Breagar is met by a Very Special Visitor.   She has news for him about his accident (that it may not have been an accident) and also has a job for him, and us, to do.  His what now? Anyway, a giant has stolen some artifacts sacred to the Dwarven goddess Berronar, and we're off to set things right, just as soon as we get out of the Cl-  Just as soon as we-  gently caress you, Cloakwood.  We find the giant. He's not so tough. And afterwards...   Breagar gets not only a new axe but a robot hand! (It effectively functions as a +2 ring of protection, and he can equip stuff in his offhand again, but he's still down one ring slot.) We head back to Beregost to freshen up and report our success, only to find another crisis waiting for us.  Specifically, Revaniel, the cleric who helped Breagar out before, has disappeared during a mission to cleanse a graveyard whose inhabitants are a bit restless. We fight our way through skeletons, ghasts, and shadows, find Revaniel (who's been turned to stone), and the ultimate culprit  Even a level-appropriate lich for our party is a tough fight, but we prevail. And for our trouble we receive...  I don't think it's *the* Tome of Dexterity but it's certainly *a* Tome of Dexterity. (The genuine article isn't in its usual place in the Baldur's Gate thieves guild thanks to the Randomizer, so this is definitely welcome.) We spend the next while clearing out the rest of the wilderness and attending to some mod-added sidequests as well, and I'm not going to belabor the point too much since this, again, is already a pretty sizeable update. We now have the stoneskin scroll from Ice Island, the Constitution Tome, and we've cleaned out the Firewine ruins and dealt with Kahrk the Ogre Mage, cleared out the basilisks (and Mutamin), and we've also done the mod-quest The Stone of Askavar. Next: Baldur's Gate itself!
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Dec 24, 2021 18:22
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Lucas Archer posted:Chuck the Elf Fighter/Mage has become food for giant spiders in the Cloakwood. I've been very careful with stuff like that so far. I used a protection from magic scroll when fighting sirens, and I have been popping potions of freedom in ettercap/spider areas on my guy just in case I forget where a trap is. I usually have a pretty good memory for such things but I don't want to completely trust it in a ironman run.
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Dec 25, 2021 01:02
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Another year, another ironman run. This time I’m going to try again the solo barbarian because I’m still salty that my previous run ended at the end of ToB. This is going to be my usual core rules, vanilla game.  A quick and simple 87 score roll. I’m rolling a dwarf this time instead of a half-orc for the stunty saving throws. Beefslab, the dwarf barbarian departs from Candlekeep.  Shortly after being separated from Gorion, a destroyer of runs emerges from the wilderness: a wolf!  That furry bastard forced me to chug two potions of healing, sigh.  Tarnesh goes down like a chump. Clearly Beefslab needs to get stronger fast, so let's begin with some random questing around the Friendly Arms inn.  And then I call my good pal Korax to go on a basilisk safari.  A quick pitstop on the area around High Hedge to collect Bassilius bounty.  MELYCAMP DIES!  Beefslab makes several trips all over the place for xp and items, especially to the pirate cove to get the constitution manual for that sweet sweet 20 constitution score. Sirines and flesh golems are some tasty xp pinatas as well. Time to do the main quest, first, to Nashkel.   Greywolf dies easily, but not before he kills Prism, what a dick.  Mulahey gets chunked and Tranzig shares the same fate shortly after.  The bandit camp goons go down in a rather uninteresting fashion as well. Next stop: Cloakwood.  In the first Cloakwood map, I side with the hunters against the druids, which was kinda unwise because the stupid assholes kicked my rear end between lightning shenanigans and mass summons I had to run away to the zone, Everquest style.  After resting the rest of the fight was much easier, stupid druid and stupid Cloakwood, I hate Cloakwood.  I really HATE Cloakwood, sword spiders are huge dicks.  The mercenaries at the mines were much easier and finally I get my grubby hands on the boots of speed. The mines themselves are not really difficult at this point, just tedious, except for a couple exceptions.  Freaking lighning bolts, even with 50% resistance that poo poo is deadly.  Davaeorn was interesting, and by interesting I mean a pain in the rear end. Was Davaeorn himself hard? Nope, he’s a chump, what was hard as balls to deal with were the two battle horrors summoned by the traps in his room. Those things are hell on wheels against solo melee characters. At this point, I’m very close the level cap, so I’m not going to waste time, just beeline for Baldur’s Gate, obtain a couple items and just finish the main quest line.  During the first Iron Throne headquarters fight, I got cocky and had to run away a couple times.  Pretty intense fight, although I played it poorly and could have steamrolled it if I used more consumables. Really need to play better to stand a chance in the final fight against Sarevok.  Beefslab has reached the xp level cap and now’s the time enter the final stages of the game. Beefslab returns to Candlekeep
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Dec 26, 2021 10:34
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By an astonishing coincidence, Abbie the Half-Elf Chaos Sorcerer is also on her way to Candlekeep! We pick up in Baldur's Gate, attending to the very important business of wishing Abbie a happy (possible) birthday. We deal with all the usual events here, getting poisoned, getting unpoisoned, fighting a warehouse basilisk, sorting out various mage feuds, securing the Helm and Cloak of Balduran, and murderhoboing our way through the mostly-not-innocent citizens and denizens of the city.  Along the way we meet a friend of Breagar's who fills us in on some hometown gossip (including that someone else from Breagar's past is trying to forge the same ring he did) and also asks us to get their clan out of a contract with the Iron Throne.  There's normally an Ogre Mage battle in here but SCS moves it elsewhere. So we're left with a negligible amount of free loot instead.  ...goddammit, Melicamp  We also, in the course of unpoisoning ourselves, acquire one of the Tomes of Wisdom in the usual fashion. (I'm giving these to Jaheira and, because I'm using Enhanced Edition Trilogy, she'll benefit for the entire series, or at least should).  Ramazith still has the Intelligence tome despite Randomizer shenanigans, so we snag that too.   Sunin also happens to have a Wisdom tome, presumably BECAUSE of Randomizer shenanigans. Anyway, we push forward with the main plot, which takes us on a bloody swath through the doppelgangers in the Seven Suns, and straight into the sewers.  Yup, this Evil Plot is definitely taught in Ogre Mage college or something.  Oh THAT'S where the real Dexterity tome is. (By my count we still need the Strength tome and the last Wisdom tome, though it's possible the Randomizer will change the Tome in Durlag's Tower to a different stat, I don't know if that setting works properly or not). We're also up one Dex tome thanks to the Breagar mod. Finally, we pay a visit to the Iron Throne themselves.  Breagar is psyched.  I'm really gaining a new appreciation for Teleport Field. Normally I do Tales of the Sword Coast stuff at this point but I think I'm gonna do Candlekeep first this time.
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Dec 26, 2021 14:52
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I need to know how y'all are going to all these places and surviving before Nashkel. Have I just been playing way too conservatively for the last 23 years or so?
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Dec 26, 2021 16:57
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Christmas is mostly done being christmassy, so the adventures of Nixon's Ladies and friends continue. We did indeed head to Cloakwood to recruit Coran. First we got the cloak of non-detection, and then we sided with the hunters, which I suppose wasn't very ranger-y of me.  But we got levels! So, we kicked out Imoen (  ) and got the (hopefully) last member of Nixon's Ladies and co., Coran. Well, turns out I was and wasn't right, Coran hasn't had a wacky personal quest added by a mod (so far), but I didn't remember that upon recruitment he has a detect traps of a whopping 24 freaking points  So... The spider portion of Cloakwood was a hoot  But, we did collect the scimitar, let Centeol out of her misery etc. The druid wood was uneventful, we killed the porn star and the head druid for his club, and proceeded to get Coran his "dragon head". I just bolted back to the Temple at Beregost to turn the quest in, I hate the timers in BG1.  Clicking on the Temple straight out of Cloakwood 4, we only met three ambushes, and obviously ran away from all of them. Dynaheir did get poisoned by a wyvern, but I have some cure poison potions to spare at this point, whew   At this point I decided to try and murderhobo some XP before Mines two: Wizard boogaloo, so we cleared out the coast wildernesses, and went south to kill the slime wizard, the "tiny amazons" and clear out the tombs. Gift of peace and the constitution tome were nice, too.  Then it was time to tackle Mutamin's garden, and this is when the BG1NPC mod threw me another curveball. I killed Mutamin and was happily smashing basilisk skulls in, when I ran into three dudes, who gave me +1 reputation, and then a deer showed up to tell Xan there was trouble in the neighbourhood: We need to save 3 elven maidens! The game teleports the party to the spiders and red wizards map, in front of an ambush with 3 dudes with poison darts, and six archers in plate mail shooting acid arrows , what the Christ. Well, Xan had glitterdust on him, so we blinded the lot of 'em, which of course resulted in a hilarious chase around the woods since the quest requires all of the mooks be dead before the script fires. Did I mention ? But with that done and maidens saved, Xan got 10 000 personal quest XP for being a special boy, and I'm done for today, I thought going basilisk hunting ironman was stressful, and then being blindsided with this nonsense, woof edit: Devorum posted:I need to know how y'all are going to all these places and surviving before Nashkel. Have I just been playing way too conservatively for the last 23 years or so? I'm probably on the conservative playing style side of the thread, I'm going with a group and doing things in a relatively plot-driven order. Generally speaking, the first level (or two) are the most dangerous, but there's also not a lot lost if your bhaalspawn eats it early on, game-time-wise. (My practice runs ended at Tarnesh twice!) You basically need meta-gaming knowledge to know where to go, either the wussy way as I do and follow the plot-line carefully, or where to farm XP relatively safely. The mid-game for BG1 is pretty easy-going, so long as you know where insta-death nonsense like basilisks, spiders + web and things like that lurk. I'm already on my furthest ironman run with Nixon's Ladies here, so I don't really have commentary on the end-game of BG1. I'm somewhat scared of some of the stuff leading up to Sarevok, so if I make it that far I might just steal cheesetriangles's idea and run around invisible. Rappaport fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Dec 26, 2021 |
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Dec 26, 2021 17:07
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This thread is the best. I'm still playing my non-ironman run, don't know the games well enough or at all in some cases to participate. But it's great to read (and learn from) y'all's stories.
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Dec 26, 2021 17:35
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v1ld posted:This thread is the best. I'm still playing my non-ironman run, don't know the games well enough or at all in some cases to participate. But it's great to read (and learn from) y'all's stories. It really is a holies hallmark. Ironman is so satisfying and so goddamn frustrating way to play this game and ofCOURSE the deaths and setbacks come in throne of bhaal!
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Dec 26, 2021 20:23
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The key to early BG is getting a mage and priest asap. Command/sleep are utterly dominant at low levels. Apart from that once you get some levels under your belt you should be rolling along pretty well unless you're playing SCS.  Targrim finishes Firewine ruins and the bandits outside Gullykin. Khark wasn't too bad. I'm so beefy at this point that I can tank his spells. I'm sure he's a nightmare on SCS but default bg he's easy enough.  Did Neera's quest as well. She actually died during it which I was afraid might bug her quest out but it still let me talk to her after rezzing her at the temple which completed that.  Ulcaster was easy enough at this point. Free loot really.  I forgot to take screenshots during the Bandit camp, but I pretty much rolled over everything in there. Khalid got low a few times from all the arrow volleys but he didn't die  Targrim goes to Cloakwood. I played it pretty safe here and used potions of freedom in case I forgot where web traps were.  The mercs outside the mines are naught but wormfood for Targrim and company.  Daevorn wasn't bad. I landed the level 3 insect spell from Jaheira on him which helped keep him off balance as I beat him up with my melee. And I'm off to Baldur's Gate! I've been surprised what an easy time I've been having of it this run. If I do ever gently caress up and die I might try to up the ante next time and install SCS as well. I'm going to post some famous last words here but I'm pretty confident I am going to get to Dragonspear now. With 100+ hit points and Dwarven Defender abilities I don't see why I would die at this point. The Deathknight in Durlags can be somewhat nasty I guess so that might be where it could end. Or perhaps I'll blunder into one of those insta kill traps in there.
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Dec 26, 2021 20:45
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| # ? May 4, 2024 22:38 |
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Nth-ing the Dwarven Defender as a fun class for aspiring Ironlings. I'm out of town until the new year, but I'm thinking of trying to assemble the League of Evil Jerks for the first time, as I'm a stick in the mud who cares about alignment and reputation normally. Gonna look at a fun, evil cleric maybe. At least something with a bit more bulk than a wizard. I've played BG2 a bit more now, so it will be a fair bit less blind this time.
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Dec 26, 2021 22:59
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