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cheesetriangles posted:I knew the umber hulks and mind flayers were around the corner, but it never occured to me it was possible for a confused party member to aggro the entire god drat temple. This is why I'm rather afraid of Neira. The first spell out of her is rigid thinking, what happens if Khalid decides to just murder the innkeep? I'm assuming that counts as killing an innocent, and that's not a run I want to continue, really.
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Dec 29, 2022 07:32
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Ginette Reno posted:Once you get it protection from magical energy is a good spell to keep up on your PC whenever you expect to face enemy mages. It lasts a turn/level so will stay up a while and it could save your life against a big horrid wilting or skull trap, etc. Oh yeah, that spell is amazing and is as mandatory as Stoneskin, as far as I'm concerned. Basically, if it lasts a turn per level and in the case of arcane buffs I've found the scroll to memorise it, then it's on at all times in my runs. SCS mages pre-buff after all, so why shouldn't I? OP updated to here.
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Dec 29, 2022 13:08
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biscuits and crazy posted:Oh yeah, that spell is amazing and is as mandatory as Stoneskin, as far as I'm concerned. Basically, if it lasts a turn per level and in the case of arcane buffs I've found the scroll to memorise it, then it's on at all times in my runs. SCS mages pre-buff after all, so why shouldn't I? The only downside there is SCS casters love to use Remove Magic and they're almost always higher level than you so it usually works. Luckily Entropy Shield blocks that, as does Spell Immunity:Abjuration. If you're playing default bg I think you're fine though. It's rare that enemy casters will dispel on default bg iirc.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:00
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They do in vanilla, but its almost always in a Spell Trigger with Death Spell, so if you bait it with a throwaway summon, its harmless. I usually play with SCS on the hardest possible settings, so Spell Immunity and Spell Shield are always on before a mage fight. I’ll skip those if theres no mages in the next fight though, just the long lasting multi-hour or turn/level buffs (Element protections for example) are on for everything.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:19
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Same. The only unfortunate thing there with buffs is if you're not a caster your buffs can be easily removed by dispels and there's poo poo all you can do about that short of hoping the enemy targets one of your casters with their dispel. I've gotten pretty good at watching the combat log and seeing who gets targeted by the dispel and then sprinting that person away from my party so that not everybody gets hit by it. That can actually work with any kind of targeted projectile aoe.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:22
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Anastasia, as well as a couple other choices I've made, are making me go outside my usual order. For one, keeping Imoen around makes it take twice as long to reach the top XP break for new party members, but cheesing Neira is still the same.  Tarnesh is a lot less scary when you have Remove Fear as an innate ability from level 1.  She's tanky enough to handle a bandit firing squad encounter though.  Lacking my luck, however, Melicamp dies.  I'm always learning something new. In this case, that sirines can inflict Feeblemind on hit! I realized what was happening just in time for Imoen to jump in and save the day.  Playing a paladin means being a war criminal sometimes.  Greywolf doesn't like meeting my friends.  Mulahey has nowhere to run with his morale failure.   Ajantis proves he doesn't have what it takes to hang with us, so we dump him outside of High Hedge.  Another bandit firing squad.  Davaeorn doesn't like having a bunch of people get up in his face beating on him.  This Ogre Mage stopped me, then promptly gassed himself with Stinking Cloud, allowing me to safely beat him to death.  If this happened with any other class I'd probably go broke paying for antidotes.  And now, to continue delaying her trip to the city, Anastasia is delving some dungeons.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:34
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[\quote] Bonk is currently level 7 and more charming than ever, and is going to meander around the Sword Coast looking for easy experience before he gets back to the big city grind.  [/quote] Oh how it pains my munchkin instincts to see a human berserker not build for dualclassing.
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Dec 29, 2022 20:58
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germlin posted:
My original intention was to try to dual to thief, but I didn't do any of the research required for it. What's missing?
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Dec 29, 2022 22:43
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Nothing, you can dual into a thief.
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Dec 29, 2022 23:01
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Rappaport posted:This is why I'm rather afraid of Neira. The first spell out of her is rigid thinking, what happens if Khalid decides to just murder the innkeep? I'm assuming that counts as killing an innocent, and that's not a run I want to continue, really. Use the level 1 cleric spell Command on her. If it fails to down her, you can always bail out the door, wait 6 seconds, go back in and try again.
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Dec 30, 2022 01:53
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Imogen continues her adventures. The party takes on a couple jobs from patrons at the Friendly Arm Inn, to slay an Ogre and some spiders.  The Ogre was no match for a party of six stout warriors.  The spider infestation is likewise overcome.  On the way back to the Inn, Imogen is ambushed by brigands...  Leading to a brutal melee and the acquaintance of a Blackguard. ... With the recompense from the Inn patrons and the proceeds from the would-be brigand's gear, everyone in the party buys extra healing potions. Jaheria insists that they're as ready as they're going to be.  Next Time Imogen descends into the mines of Nashkell.
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Dec 30, 2022 02:40
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The yearly BG ironman thread is as much a part of Christmas to me as mince pies and Turkey. Godspeed friends.
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Dec 30, 2022 03:19
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I've become even worse at taking screenshots on the fly, so I'm thinking maybe I should just stream my attempts. Or maybe just record them to video and pull screenshots from that.
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Dec 30, 2022 03:33
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Imogen and the party enter the Nashkell mines. They've faced down brigands and monsters, survived ambushes and chaotic melees.  The miners warn of dangers in the mines.  Further in, another miner pleads for help.  Imogen and her comrades quickly dispatch a band of small, yammering kobolds. Deadly foes when ambushing helpless miners, but Imogen is increasingly sure that she's someone who can stand in their defense. ... Exploring through the mines, the party encounters and routes several groups of ambushing Kobolds.  Eventually, the party discovers a strange vial of liquid in one of their bodies. It seems like an important clue to the ongoing iron shortage. Imogen begins to think that her actions here could lead beyond saving the miners.  Imoen spots a tripwire strung across a mineshaft; nights spent sneaking out under Winthrop's nose gave her a sharp eye for the noisome clutter in the common room.  The packs of kobolds grow more numerous as the party descends further into the mines. Discussing magical strategy together, Imogen and Neera each take a scroll of Burning Hands. Imogen's familiarity with the spell is purely academic, but she understands it's quite effective against large groups. Imogen asks Neera if she has any combat experience with fire magic, but can't catch the half-elf's mumbled reply.  Tension mounts as the party finds what's clearly a much more closely guard passageway leading deeper. ... Past the door way, the party battles more Kobolds, and enters into an inner chamber. There, they meet an amored figure clearly in command of the beasts. Needing no further explanation, Imogen attacks.  The armored figure proves to be a spell caster, and Imoen burns the last of her Candlekeep wand disrupting his spells. She can't however, prevent him from calling forth minions - bothing living and dead - to join the melee. The fiercest battle of Imogen's life erupts. With skeletons and kobolds threatening the rear of the party. Imogen fights her way to the back to stand alongside Neera, shouting that it's time to unleash their spell scrolls. Neera tries to object, but Imogen shouts her down before busying herself with her own preparations. There's a flash, and heat, far too much heat...  [I was at 15/15 HP...] Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Dec 30, 2022 |
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Dec 30, 2022 04:22
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Suspicious posted:I've become even worse at taking screenshots on the fly, so I'm thinking maybe I should just stream my attempts. Or maybe just record them to video and pull screenshots from that. I've thought about that just because of how much effort it is to SS a bunch of stuff.
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Dec 30, 2022 04:25
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Suspicious posted:Use the level 1 cleric spell Command on her. If it fails to down her, you can always bail out the door, wait 6 seconds, go back in and try again. I think she saved on my current run when I tried to shut her down right in the door, but 3 out of 5 pixel mens were pelting her with ranged weapons and I guess that worked out. She did fall asleep after she had held my front-liners and I panicked, thankfully.
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Dec 30, 2022 05:09
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Jack B Nimble posted:
Great write up, and a sad but pretty on brand end for a MC with Neera.
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Dec 30, 2022 05:13
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Mark Sman wandered off into the Cloakwood after almost wiping to Hareishan's group in the mines. For some reason I decided to enter the room through the main trapped entrance instead of the hidden back tunnel as I always do, a failed backstab from Coran and all hell broke loose. I could have bailed out but I couldn't carry all the junk and the idea of making it back to the FAI with a guaranteed ambush or two, ugh. After that I've played a few characters, some died and some I lost interest in. That being said, I had a blast today with this one so I expect him to die as soon as I load the save tomorrow: Umberto the Shadowdancer was not the wisest from Candlekeep's class of '22 but I got to max the important stats:  My initial plan was to go down to Beregost to grab Zhurlong's boots after the ogre belt, it involved a lot of kiting and somehow I lost the Hobgoblin who drops them, luckily there is another one in Ulcaster's map. Here is a kobold giving a friendly reminder of what it can do to a pretty face without a helmet:  Got the boots and aggroe'd half the map so I had to bail out towards Gullykin then up north to kill some Basilisks until level 6. Now that I can actually try to stab people I need a frontliner so I returned to Beregost and picked up Kagain. Part 2 of the plan involved getting my rep and money up with some nearby quests and pickpocketing Algernon's cloak to buy the Shadow Armor before going to Nashkel. Not wanting to waste any precious skill points I attempted to recruit Garrick for the job:  Not this time. It looks like I may also need a decent stabbing weapon, this is embarassing:  Nevertheless, I still need a Thief for pickpocketing since killing Algernon will tank my reputation and that would defeat the purpose since I'm not especially wealthy at this point. We pick up Neera for some Sleep support and head out to look for Safana and the bounty on Bassilus on the way but I mistakenly pick the wrong dialog option.  Being a chepskate I forgot to give Kagain a decent armor. Plus he drank the wrong potion. This is not going well:  The Hold wore off and I stealthily carried their bodies back to the Beregost temple. Those are 1200 gp I need to make up for so we turn some quests and wander a bit into the Ankheg lair to pick up my favorite weapon against skeletons, the wand of fire, along with the spare shell we can carry to sell to Taerom. Melicamp lives!  Umberto is close to level 7 now so we gang on the Sirines and shadowly dance into the golem cave before picking up Safana. At some point I also had my reputation go down to 9, I'm assuming from a stray lightning bolt hitting one of those messengers that appear on wilderness maps. I make another detour to get an extra rep point or two. But the bandit trio in Drizzt's map remind me it's time to stop fooling around and find some fear removal.  Finally bought the Shadow Armor and bid farewell to Safana. It's time to recruit the drows and start progressing with the story:  I was sincerely considering having Neera along with Baeloth but her writing is starting to get me, seriously what is this?  I already recruited Edwin so I'll finish her quest for the Stoneskin scroll and part ways. Umberto the Shadowdancer has shadowly danced through the Nashkel mines and is wondering which wizard business will handle first.
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Dec 30, 2022 09:26
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Ulvino posted:so I expect him to die as soon as I load the save tomorrow:  We're off to a great start here, what could possibly go wrong?  Oh. Wait, these things can see through stealth?  Yep. This is it:  Viconia's dispel failed but I'll take that fucker with me:   I'm not even mad though, he died as he lived. I choose to believe after this, Umberto's ghast was allowed to live as a Korax for the new generation. I was actually having fun witht his one. I think I'll choose something OP and safe for my last attempt this year. Also will stay away from Neera for the forseeable future.
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Dec 30, 2022 10:05
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Let's get back to seeing how Anastasia's dungeon delving is going. Well, I've never seen this happen before, but I'm not going to complain (unless he gets a lighting bolt off, which he luckily doesn't).  Mighty Kahrk wastes most of his spells on my skeletons, leaving most of my party unthreatened by him.  The end of Neera's quest is also abrogated by skeletons.  Ghost in Durlag's Tower? Skeletons.  I feel like making a deal with a succubus should break my paladin's oath and cause me to fall. But since it only goes by reputation, I'm free to do this, and I remember fighting her before and it was super annoying.  There are a lot of dangerous enemies dead here! We pinned Degrodel then withdrew, which unfortunately left Branwen stranded due to body blocking. We got an invisibility potion to her before she expired, though, and slowly whittled the adds down to extract her. And I got the helmet back, which is the most important part here.  Imoen absolutely crushes the one party vs wizard encounter on Wizard Island. All the other encounters? You guessed it, skeletons.  The Holy War.  I did, in fact, beat Ratchild. Dear Ratboy will no longer be able to chew on our drywall.  Selfie with Ulraunt!  Krystin chose to murder a half dozen people with cloudkill, but you know who she couldn't kill? My skeletons. Also I was luckily not held responsible for those deaths.  These things are so stuffy, it's fun to get away and talk to people at the edges.  See? Stuffy! Dopplegangers were closing in from all sides, and magic made them scatter. Even Sarevok and his buddy made a quick exit.  With Sarevok holing up in the Temple of Bhaal below the city, however, it seems like a great time to wrap up some loose ends. So Vera is diving into Durlag's Tower.
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Dec 30, 2022 11:31
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Lucas Archer posted:Great write up, and a sad but pretty on brand end for a MC with Neera. Thanks; it's not what I wanted to happen, but it's grimly comedic given Neera's backstory... I'm not sure if I'm going to do another one this same year, I dunno how long these threads last, but if I do I want to play a Bilbo-esque middle manager and just stand at the dungeon entrance and send my five hirelings forward.
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Dec 30, 2022 15:36
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 Before I get on with this update, I should probably explain a little bit about Aiwell's quest from Ascalon's Questpack. Basically, her husband came down with a bad case of the werewolfs, and we are given several options to deal with the situation. Aside from the obvious Ol' Yeller approach, Thalantyr offers us three potential cures for lycanthropy with varying degrees of success. The first requires belladonna, which has like a 90% chance of succeeding, but which we won't see til Werewolf Island and that's much too long to wait. There's the opposite extreme which is a cure made from the blood of a long one, which is really just the DM indulging us with "okay if you get a Nat 20 I will let this work". Then there's the cure made from Guril Berries, which Feldepost conveniently has for sale, and which makes it into a coin flip.  I should also mention that Melicamp died in this run. Which is all by way of saying that:   Welp. Now, this fight is winnable even at low levels, but it's a bit tricky because, while Aiwell's husband Tonder is not a particularly powerful example of the species, he is immune to nonmagical weapons. Only Colin and Breagar have magical weapons at this point, which means that Colin gets sent into melee and it does not go well. (It would have gone better had I remembered I had mirror image prepped but ah, hubris and carelessness, by which I mean THIS IS ALL THALANTYR'S FAULT). RIP Colin Robinson, and RIP Melicamp, both victims of Thalantyr's ineptitude when it comes to the reversal of magical transformations. docbeard fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 00:50
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Anastasia is making swift progress to get back to where her cousin was. Neera's invisibility casting on Imoen surged and targeted herself instead, so I had to nudge the whole party forward very carefully to avoid becoming a pincushion for traps.  Looks more like a scrum than a battle to me, one that Imoen has to withdraw from since she ended up near the front.  All this buffing before the Demon Knight will mean nothing since he'll strip it all with a Remove Magic, it turns out.  Luckily, Yeslick took the scenic route and managed to keep all his buffs, including enough HP to allow him to no-sell Power Word: Stun.  Skeletons can't do it all, but they can do a lot to Drizzt.  Buffed to the gills again, Anastasia charges in and cuts Drizzt's head off.  Yeslick is becoming quite the kill-stealer and lands the killing blow on Aec'Letec.  Merchant league is apparently not open for business.  With a skeleton escort, Werewolf Island goes rather quickly, though all of the fights inside the ship are still massive pains.  Kaishas Gan's ship becomes ours, by way of our actions.  Anastasia shall not be the Wolfen.  I normally skip these guys, but with all this extra manpower I can bring to bear I take the direct route through them.  Yeslick stealing yet another kill while I went to take a sip out of Durlag's Goblet.  Here's Anastasia's character sheet at the start of Siege of Dragonspear, with the dex gauntlets removed to reflect the tome boost. Anastasia has reached Siege of Dragonspear. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Melee Champion, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Victory for the Spiderqueen, Battlemaster, Roleplayer
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Dec 31, 2022 01:38
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 Meet Jackie Daytona, a normal human who is also half of an elf and a shapeshifter, which are both normal human things to be. I'm using SCS's improved shapeshifting component which definitely takes the Shapeshifter kit from zero to hero, but in a generally reasonable way (particularly compared to the much more powerful Tweaks Anthology component and some of the other enhancements I've run across). Instead of making shapeshifting an x/day ability, SCS allows for the creation of a 'shapeshift token' which can be equipped like a weapon and can be used to transform more or less at will. Here's the first level token:  Transformation locks your strength and dex at those levels (and I mean "locks", most stat buffs/debuffs will not work, though this is a little inconsistent in practice) and disables your spellcasting. Since you can swap 'weapons' at will this last is more of a minor inconvenience but is still a factor. As you level you can create better tokens (I believe at level 7 and 13) that give you better stats, more attacks, make your attacks hit like magical weapons, etc). On the whole it feels like you're the equivalent of a generally well-equipped fighter of your level (except your THACO is that of a druid) and once you get some levels under you and access to the better druid buffs (iron skins coff coff, which in Spell Revisions is just Stoneskin) you'll do pretty well.  Since I didn't show this last time, this is Recorder, one of our collection of NPCs we can recruit later. (We won't, not this time around, but we could.) She has a bit of a quest for us, which is just to find her paladin companion who's sleeping it off at the inn. Her reward for this is a bit of experience and a lore-boosting potion.  Also, before I forget, I want to show off one of the spells from the aptly named Weasels! mod. It's one of my favorite little flavor mods in that it adds just a small handful of spells and items, and they're not to my eyes overpowered at all.  Here we see the weasels in action. Nonlethal damage only and not much of it but they make for a handy distraction (and that can be vital at lower levels, AS WE WILL SEE). As before we head down to High Hedge to pick up a few necessities.  And this time I don't forget to pick this up. It's a wardstone.  And it lets us infiltrate Thalantyr's bedroom.  There's a bit of unimpressive (except when you're level 1) treasure here, and also:  A talking bookshelf. It wants (naturally) a book, specifically the History of Shadowdale XIII. We might not forget about this.  One of the many (seriously, look it up) changes Spell Revisions makes is that for druids, cure spells are replaced with regenerate spells. Which offer more healing over a longer period of time, but which don't really do much in combat at lower levels (and don't interact with Rest Until Healed).  While we're in the neighborhood, we see that Melicamp gets a happier ending than before. (Not a Romantic Encounters reference. I think there IS a Romantic Encounters component featuring Melicamp but I don't have that one installed.) Anyway, Melicamp survives for once this year. We also liberate Perdue's sword and I figure returning it won't be that difficult, Karlat isn't THAT tough, and besides, SUBMIT TO MY DARK POW...  ...welp. Jackie would definitely have had it if it weren't for this young gnome who's hanging about and spamming cure spells like there's no tomorrow, as there very nearly wasn't.  This is Finch, an NPC cleric who we won't be taking with us, though I was sorely tempted to reconsider. (She's a fun NPC companion but I have other plans for the cleric spot in my party-to-be).  Jackie's luck, both bad and good, continues on our way to basilisk hell/powerleveling heaven as Imoen gets her Protection from Petrification spell off exactly in the nick of time during this random encounter. (Yeah, she's a multiclass mage/thief in this timeline. What of it?)  SUBMIT TO MY DARK POWER oh you already did. ...I was certain I took more screenshots than this but apparently not. Which is a shame because you'd have seen Jackie come ridiculously close to death, and not for the usual reasons one might in basilisk hell. First, Korax gets himself killed by non-basilisk monsters much earlier than I would have liked. Second, it turns out that basilisks can bite as well as petrify, and these ones are smart enough to focus on the biting. (I suspect I have SCS to thank for this). Third, we run out of healing potions. Weasels save the day here in our last fight with 3 lesser basilisks. Fourth, I take us back to the Temple map thinking we might buy some potions there, forgetting that (a) I already spent most of my money and (b) I'd end up on the bad side of the temple map. With Jackie at 1 hp. Fortunately I chose the correct direction to avoid the vampiric wolf fight. Less fortunately, I risk resting and we get ambushed by war dogs. Jackie very conveniently levels just in time to get another few HP and manages to summon some war dogs of our own. (Spell Revisions again. We get animal summons at every level, but they mostly aren't very good summons yet. Still, anything being hit that isn't us helps. Oh, and, AND, Spell Revisions' version of Sleep is either bugged or it takes a very liberal approach to what 'any attempt to harm the creature will wake them up' means. (It's supposed to work on anything of equal or lesser HD to the caster with the added 'hitting them wakes them up' effect,, but right now everything awakens instantly. It was definitely working properly last time I had it installed, but maybe Imoen's too low a level to affect stuff. I'll have to do some further testing. Eh, I wanted a challenge.  We end up back in Beregost. Romantic Encounters gives us a chance to have a friendly chat (which I suspect can get significantly friendlier if you're a woman) with the wounded paladin Bjornin. We desperately need to do some, uh, shopping, and I can't decide whether I want to recruit the rest of the gang now or try to powerlevel a bit more first. Getting to 36,000 as fast as possible is appealing for more than the usual reasons but after that experience it might be better to play it at least a little safe. (Although I plan on taking Neera with me despite having read the earlier entries on this page, so ONLY a little safe.)
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Dec 31, 2022 06:35
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Result of first stream: Morrigan the Clumsy enchanter is level 3ish trying to find a way to kill sirines without using up all my wand charges. Oh, and  Melicamp died. Suspicious fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jan 9, 2023 |
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Jan 1, 2023 00:50
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Tyago the Fighter/Druid is busy doing many many tasks in Baldur's Gate. To start with, we get threatened to stop investigating the Iron Throne. But we're not about to listen to such nonsense.  One of our first pit stops is the Low Lantern to get those nifty 18/00 ogre gauntlets. These are a big help for Tyago who only boasts a 15 str score (it's hard to roll a Fighter/Druid).  We kill a loose Baslisk  We steal some Halruaan ship components for the Thieves guild, who betrays us for the effort. We kill the mage and give the Thieves Guild the finger on our way out.  We fight some trash talking adventurers in the Helm & Cloak.  We steal a telescope from the Hall of Wonders.  We get the Geas Scroll for Lothander from the priestesses of Umberlee. But we trick them so that we can not only get the scroll but keep the Book of Wisdom. The book is nice because it gets us to 19 wisdom which gives us a few bonus spells, including a bonus 4th level spell, which is quite nice. After getting the scroll, we kill Marek for the antidote.  We get ambushed by yet another Bounty Hunter. The Iron Throne doesn't know when to quit.  We burgalize Entar's estate. Sanctuary doesn't break when you loot stuff which is hilarious and makes Cleric/Thieves arguably the best in the game for stealing stuff since I believe invis and stealth do break when you loot things.  We retrieve the Helm of Balduran for a mage, and then kill him afterwards for being rude and summonig minions to attack us. and also because we want the helm  We kill a man and his butler. The dialogue options in this house always crack me up.  After freeing the Nymph, we plunder Razamith's tower and kill him  We slay some Dopplegangers and free Jhasso  We found another ring of wizardry as well, this time for Baeloth. Him and Edwin together can sling like 20 first level spells a rest for me. Nice  We help Scar with some other jobs and then get introduced to Duke Eltan  He tasks us to investigate the Iron Throne, but we'll put that on hold until we finish TOSTC  On the way out we killed a dumb Paladin to get our rep back down to around average. We were getting a little too popular there. We did a number of other quests in BG as well, but this update is already getting long so I tried to just give you the important bits. And that is that. Next up: Ice island/Durlag's/Werewolves. On a roll, hopefully I don't falter now. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 1, 2023 |
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Jan 1, 2023 01:42
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So it turned out that Sleep (and Charm and, I assume, anything else that ends when you attack an affected enemy) definitely was a victim of a bug in the version of Spell Revisions I was using, so that it ended almost immediately after being cast no matter what you did. I found a different version (technically a mod of the mod) that appears to have fixed the issue, but it necessitated a complete reinstallation (and then another one when I hosed something up), with the usual consequences for existing saves. So, uh, that previous version of Jackie Daytona wandered off somewhere where he is safe and happy nothing bad happened to him he certainly didn't fall into a planar rift and end up in Sigil or anything, that guy probably wasn't even real, also I decided I wanted to try out a Shaman instead. So meet Jackie Daytona II (no relation)  As you can see, he is a completely normal human, who is also half of an orc and a Shaman, which are completely normal human things to be. I do have a few Shaman kits installed but I'm going with the unkitted, unmodded version for Jackie. Since she saved Jackie's predecessor's bacon back in Beregost, I figure I should show off the first time we encounter Finch the Cleric of Deneir (I think Faith and Powers actually has a Deneir kit but I don't use that particular mod, so I usually give her the Oghma kit from Divine Remix) in Candlekeep:  I won't be picking her up this time either, but she's a hero and a librarian, so I figure she should get a bit of time in the spotlight.  NPCEE (NPCs Enhanced for Everyone) is the EE successor to Level 1 NPCs and is the mod I use to assign kits/new classes/cheaty bullshit to my NPCs. It adds a tome to every joinable NPC's inventory. (You could technically recruit everyone, hoard, and sell the things and end up with maybe a hundred gold for your trouble). Drop the tome in a quick slot and...  You get this dialogue. You get a couple of choices that let you change classes (we're making Imoen a multiclass mage/thief again, because gently caress your 'rules'), adjust attributes (we're not touching these) and assigning a kit (Arcane Trickster from Artisan's Kitpack in this case).   This is a 'multiclass' kit (in that it can only be applied to mage/thieves, and not to single-classed versions of either) and it adds some extra abilities in exchange for slower backstab progression and thief skills..  I just like this dumb encounter.  One of the things Shades of the Sword Coast adds is some new random encounters, including this ambush by some zombies and a zombie deer. Hooray.  We find some gold and a skull afterwards, which is almost useful because we were on our way to sort out Melicamp anyway.  Shamanic dance is super loving useful. (I'm wondering if it might be bugged since it basically never summons anything at all aside from that screenshot above, but gently caress reinstalling again for shamanic loving dance. Besides, it might just be poo poo. Jackie can spam summon spells on his own anyway, thanks to Spell Revisions.)  Melicamp lives! We head off to Beregost and swing up north to grab our dead mail carrier's burden. As a reminder, here are his letters:   Then we head off to Basilisk Hell and this time we fight Mutamin. On purpose, even. It's touch and go especially since Mutamin has minor spell deflection up, thank you very much SCS, but Jackie eventually cuts him down and the basilisks are easy by comparison. (Korax had already died at this point but we use our current go-to tactic of distracting with summons and writhing fog and plinking with arrows). We mop up the remaining basilisks in the area, taking care to avoid Lindin's party of assholes for the moment.  This cave entrance, added by Shades of the Sword Coasts, leads to more basilisks. And spiders. We don't need too many to max out our XP at this point. (This screenshot is actually after we went downstairs and took out a Greater Basilisk, in fact, as you can see from all the summoned war dogs getting petrified. Something, I suspect Spell Revisions again, makes basilisk gazes a progressive thing, starting with slow, then held, then finally petrified. There's a lot more to see down there but we just dip our toe in for now. And now we're ready to recruit a party. Hopefully we can make some actual progress this time.
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Jan 1, 2023 19:02
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As you'll see, Anastasia decided not to tarry too much with SoD. Finishing off Korlasz was naturally the first order of business. First she was arrested, then broke out shortly after and had to be taken out.  This time I put on the boots of speed and started running to the portal room while the rest of the party searched for the phylactery.   Large groups of trolls are surprisingly common enemies for SoD.  It only takes a few rounds to down the Neothelid and then start kiting around charmed Jaheira.  Jaheria's having a bad run in this temple and later gets her brains sucked out, too.  Once I've stopped the crusade's momentum and gathered my full party, I turn to the real important business: killing dragons in a single salvo.  Shadow Aspect is made a lot easier with a wand of monster summoning.   As a friend of nature, Anastasia becomes an ogre despot and frees some water elementals.  She also stops a group of necromancers from doing something sinister.   The recon mission is cut short, so I decide to take out my frustrations on the crusaders in the cavern below.  Then I discover an entirely new cavern with some baby dragons that have had truly awful lives. This would have been a good time to double back and get the second lich, but unfortunately with me going back and forth into that area several times it totally slipped my mind.  I agreed to Ashatiel's duel, but she cut it off. I think that, because Jaheira was affected by Chaos, she attacked a Crusader, which counted as her intervening. Seems kind of silly, but since you lose big rep if you accidentally chunk an innocent while confused, I guess it follows.  Without Yeslick here to kill steal again, Anastasia gets the killing blow on one of the Lords of Hell, which is way cooler than a second-rate Tanar'ri.  Looking good at the start of BG2!  But now, all items sold, it's time for some solo adventuring as Anastasia discovers herself in Amn. Honors: Siege Breaker, Purist #2, Honorable Trader, Roleplayer
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Jan 2, 2023 06:53
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Tyago the Fighter/Druid has commenced his Tales Of The Sword Coast adventurers. We start by getting sent to mage island  Spells are going every which way, but we grind these mages down  On to Durlag's and our exciting guided tour  This ghost mage was a mean customer, but we outlasted him.  The four riddling Dwarves get buffed with SCS, but we're ready for it. We buff the hell out of ourselves and go to town with summons and spells.  I'm degenerate enough to have all of Durlag's traps memorized just from countless BG runs over my life. Sometimes I make a mistake and forget one, but most of the time I don't.  Why hello ghast army. Please excuse me while I disarm this trap.  Edwin and Baeloth cross the streams. You're never supposed to do that  Chessboard more like throw every aoe I got board  Death Knight was a straight up fight. I send Tiax in to bait out his remove magic, then the rest of my party plus summons start attacking him. His MR is high so it's mostly us hitting him with melee/ranged weapons. Despite my summon wall Kagain takes a beating, and Tiax almost dies after getting targeted by a fireball. We eventually take him down. Tower: Conquered  We go and sell our spoils and buy potions of mirrored gaze/magic guarding from Sorcerous Sundries. We'll need these for Aec'Letec  En route, we take Suspicious' advice and make the entire party invisible. Invis 10 ft radius lasts 24 hours just like the single target spell does. With that on, we arrive but instead of getting immediately ambushed by cultists we get to go south a bit, buff, then start the proceedings. With our buffs up, we stomp these guys.  Pictured: My nymphs did some serious work on these outside enemies. They landed confuse, hold person, and even did a call lightning. Great job, ladies. Very loaded spell for a 4th level spell.  This fight scares me. Little room to maneuver, two backstabbing thieves, and a few mages to boot. I have Edwin immediately cast cloud kill to keep the mages as interrupted as I can. Cloudkill gets through their minor globe and other defenses so it's my best help here short of landing a chaos. Meanwhile, Baeloth detects invis and then it's go time. Many spells and swings later, we win. Oh and I forgot to screencap it but right after this when I was going to the inn to rest Kagain got hit by a lightning bolt (it was raining outside) and died lmao. He was like 30 health or something as I went outside. So we had to make a pit stop to the temple before taking on Aec after.  Aec is relatively straight forward. The only scary part is the mage with him tries to dispel us. She actually casts it at my PC but it either didn't work or didn't remove my potion. Either way, we chop her to bits after dispelling her defenses and then work on the other cultists. We keep Aec as busy as possible with summons until we're ready and then go to town on him. I don't know if you can tell from the screenshot, but I hit him for 48 missile damage with my sling lol. Crit + high str + Arla's Dragonbane + good ammo = big time sling damage. Up next: Werewolf Isle, then Iron Throne/Candlekeep/End Game. So close I can taste it.
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Jan 2, 2023 07:33
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Just a short Fatboy Slim update. We pick up where we left off like a week ago irl with going to secure Edwin and Korgan.  Nothing too difficult.  After that, I go and recruit Jaheria in order to get Edwin a Ring of Wizardry. I then kick her out and leave, she permanently leaves if you kick her out here and confirm her leaving. Decide to do the don't talk to the kicked out party member trick in case I need her later on someday.  The party then recruits our final member, Anomen. I always planned on him, however I wanted to do the Jaheria quest first for the ring for Edwin. We have Edwin cast our first Limited Wish for Anomens new armor and head off to Trademeet where I have my eyes on Belm.
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Jan 2, 2023 12:23
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Updated the OP to here. I did a google search for Shades of the Sword Coast, and I'll be adding it to my next install, it looks interesting. I also can't believe that we got a wild surge Nabassu kill in the thread. 
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Jan 2, 2023 14:57
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biscuits and crazy posted:Updated the OP to here. I did a google search for Shades of the Sword Coast, and I'll be adding it to my next install, it looks interesting. I've only played through Shades once but I really like it. Its quest placement is great in that it gives you reasons to go and explore places you might not bother with in a vanilla BG1 game because've already been there 237 times before and know there's nothing much there. (Psst, Jackie Robinson is a famous baseball player. Jackie Daytona/Jackie Daytona II is my character)
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Jan 2, 2023 16:23
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Result of second stream: Morrigan the Clumsy elf enchanter has cleared the bandit camp and the basilisk area. She's now level 5 so it's time to buy level 3 spells for her at High Hedge. Suspicious fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Jan 9, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 17:24
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Suspicious posted:Result of second stream: Enchanter is a pretty fun idea. If I'm not mistaken that would make your chaos spells hit with a minus 6 saving penalty right? Gg all bg enemies if you get that high level.
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Jan 2, 2023 19:58
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Ginette Reno posted:Enchanter is a pretty fun idea. If I'm not mistaken that would make your chaos spells hit with a minus 6 saving penalty right? Gg all bg enemies if you get that high level. Echanter? I hardly know her! No seriously, my mind is all messed up from all her spells and I cannot remember anything.
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Jan 2, 2023 20:47
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After last year's failed attempts at solo runs, I decided to try something more normal - but with a slight gimmick. Meet Kronar the Sorcerer:   Explanation, if anyone needs it.Kronar has just assembled a full party and is ready to start the journey towards level 2: 
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Jan 2, 2023 23:22
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Ginette Reno posted:Enchanter is a pretty fun idea. If I'm not mistaken that would make your chaos spells hit with a minus 6 saving penalty right? Gg all bg enemies if you get that high level. Don't forget confusion and emotion: hopelessness before that at level 4! Greater malison is also an enchantment but I don't think it benefits from the specialist bonus. Today I used hold person against the Gullykin assassins and all 4 failed their save... that fight was over quick.  Result of the third stream: Morrigan the Clumsy elf enchanter has cleared the Cloakwood mines and as much of the world map (minus Durlag's) I can be bothered to do. It's time to hit the big city! Suspicious fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jan 9, 2023 |
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Jan 3, 2023 00:28
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Jackie Daytona II was in the process of recruiting a party when we left him last. He first looks in on an old, uh, friend: Breagar would like to go look for some non-terrible iron in Nashkel, and, come to think of it, someone else was talking about something going on down that way. We'll look into it if we don't forget.  We grabbed Perdue's sword last time we were over High Hedge way. We'll find that Breagar has a comment for drat near every situation. He also develops a rather fun grudging friendship with Imoen as her semi-willing dwarven language tutor which I haven't really captured so far.  We've brought Neera aboard, and I've made her the sorcerer equivalent of a Wild Mage, a Chaos Sorcerer. Functionally not much is different, except that the spell that stands in for Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, rather than letting her (probably not) cast any spell she knows (which would be redundant for a sorcerer), gives her an assortment of random spells to hilariously fail to cast.  She also gets some stat boosts along the way, similar to a Dragon Disciple (and similar to a Dragon Disciple, can cast overall fewer spells per day). I did have to do some EEKeeper surgery when I changed classes because the game added a bunch of spells to her book before I changed her class, and that's a bit much of like cheating, even for me.  We grab Kagain as a ringer (and so I can freely loot his shop) and head north to the inn, meeting up with Helga along the way. Helga is an NPC cleric, and is soon to be our NPC cleric.   I don't touch her stats or kit, which is a custom thing that comes with her mod. It does the usual 'add two spell-like abilities' thing that most cleric kits do. Her wisdom's a bit low for my tastes, and I think I'll throw the tomes at her since she'll (hopefully) be with us through the whole trilogy (and with EET installed, her stats should even carry over properly)  This is Breagar's idea of a compliment.  Oh goodie. Eldoth is moved here by The Vanishing of Skie Silvershield, a short quest that lets you, uh, 'recruit' Skie much earlier than you otherwise could. We'll be going through with the quest but not sticking with them after.  The quest does require us to bring him on board temporarily so we bid Kagain a fond farewell. Our first task is to acquire a figurine from the inn, which is easy enough. (It's in the top floor common room, and its owner will turn up to challenge us when we take it but he's drunk enough he'll accept whatever excuse we give him, or at least he accepted the one I gave him.)  While we're here we pick up this quest from Ascalon's Questpack, involving a spellbook to be recovered from the Ulcaster Ruins. We wont be actually going there for a bit.  Bentley also has a job for us, involving a trip into his cellars, courtesy of Shades of the Sword Coast.  And when we leave the inn, this dude ambushes us with yet another Shades quest.  This one's a long-term project, involving seeking out four magical circles and and gathering some powerful artifacts that sit inside them. Mal'meto gives us a ring that Jackie (specifically him) needs to wear to perceive the circles, and a set of hints as to where they can be found.  It's not exactly super cryptic. The next phase of Eldoth's plan involves getting the figurine we 'borrowed' into Entar Silvershield's manor, for which we need the aid of one of his old associates, by the name of... ...look, I didn't write this, okay? ...his name is Jiggy Moose.  We would also like Eldoth to go to some hell or another, but we have to put up with him for another couple of days.  While we're at it, we deliver a letter to Firebead. He looks like he needs a bit of a lie-down afterwards.  We also engage in search and rescue operations for a little girl's pet rabbit. We are somewhat skeptical about her promise of a thousand million gold pieces as a reward.  The rabbit's been adopted by this charming fellow. We briefly consider setting up a situation where they both have to call Jumper and let the rabbit choose its true owner, but Ugh parts with 'Little Ugh' when he hears that there's a sad girl involved, provided we promise to find him a new pet.  Conveniently it turns out that Kessy's father breeds rabbits in Nashkel. We'll check in on this a little later.  On our way south we also run into a fellow normal human who also happens to be half of an orc, on his way to Baldur's gate. This might come up again later.  We also meet a wounded Xvart who's been attacked by kobolds. Even with Xvart war crimes in our probable future, we're happy to lend a hand and a potion, and get  A fine reward. We give these to Breagar for now.  In Nashkel now, just in time for another Shades quest hook, to find a magical ice crystal. Most of you can probably guess where we'll find that.  ...okay, either you or Neera needs to change your name.  Oh wait, you're dead. Between Helga's Command and Hold Person, she didn't stand a chance. We pick up a number of quests that I might show off later but this update is already very long. Suffice it to say there is more adventure in our future, and a bit in our present. In any case, we've killed enough time to proceed with Eldoth's plan, so it's back to the Friendly Arms Inn we go.  This wizard teleports Jackie and Eldoth to the manor. We only have access to a bit of it, and everyone else but Skie is conveniently absent. We can loot some jewelry and such, as well as some armor of Skie's.  We pick her up and teleport back, and send those crazy kids on their way. This leaves us with a hole in our party. Hmm, we've got some decent front-liners between Breager and Helga, a thief, priests, mages...what we need at this point is a really useless friend to hang out with us.  Hello, friend! Next time: We consider actually getting on with some adventuring, maybe.
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Jan 3, 2023 05:25
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Tyago the Fighter/Druid is off to Werewolf Isle Not much on the Isle is too threatening at this stage. I was looting the floors in the Ship and I accidentally went to the top before I was ready and that was a little scary since I wasn't as buffed as I would have liked. Still, I got my buffs up quickly and went to work. Baeloth and Edwin both have Stoneskin now so they can tank in a pinch as well. Vicky and my F/D have great ac. Honestly the only one I truly get worried about in these tight corridors is Tiax, so we usually try to get a sanctuary up to position him from danger.  We return to Ulgoth's victorious and slice up Mendas to remove our lycanthropy curse  We have one more pitstop to make before tackling the Iron Throne and that is Ulcaster's ruins. I saved this for later in the game because Ictharyd and the Wolf in the ruins are a bit of a pain with the improved components from SCS. At this juncture though they both fell easily enough.  This wolf periodically howls and summons wolf reinforcements and his howl can fear you too. But he honestly fell really fast due to how strong my party is now. If tackled at an earlier level this fight can be a mess.  We meet Sarevok's acolytes atop the tower. SCS adds a couple of thieves to this fight too who will try to backstab  Because of that, we quickly try to get detect invis spells off. Kagain charges in and Edwin throws out a cloudkill. Cloudkill is a spell that I think is better than it looks at first glance. First of all it's level 5 so it gets through Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Second of all even on SCS and even in bg2 enemies will rarely have protection against poison unless they are liches. So when enemy casters get caught in cloudkills they get constantly interrupted by the ticks of damage. It might not kill them outright, but interrupting them goes a long way towards turning this fight in my favor. Kagain is beefy enough to sit in the cloud and usually not be in too much danger as well. We eventually wear these guys down and win. Many a chaos and a slow were casted by me. They actually got off a chaos on my party as well, but it only hit Edwin and I think Tiax so it wasn't too big a deal. Edwin had buffs up so even though he wandered into danger he survived. Tyago and friends are preparing to plunder the tombs of Candlekeep and get ready for a final showdown with Sarevok
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Jan 3, 2023 07:07
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Life in Amn is going pretty well for Anastasia. She saves this fellow who was in the process of paying the troll toll. Incidentally, I think it's the first time I've ever charmed this guy instead of cutting him down because it's easier.  She then moves on to save several more people from the trolls. Notable exception: Nalia's father.  In a battle between paladins, it's clear that Anastasia is stronger.  Good thing too, since level-adjusted Windspear Hills can get brutal. Not pictured: the wave of vampires that Anomen vaporized.  I remember BG2 Tazok having a semi-unique, must more monstrous-looking sprite. It's a bummer they changed it for the EE.  The Order of the Radiant Heart says "Peace, Land, and Bread."  Firkraag down, and Anastasia gets a shiny new sword.  The shiny new sword makes her a little overconfident when questing to free Haer'dalis. By the time I realized I no longer had Lilacor's immunity to confusion they were already throwing their confusion rays, and I couldn't remember what I had done with it.  Jaheira puts out some nice damage with lightning strikes. For the moment Anastasia is still exploring Amn while I figure out what to do to get Aerie to level 7 Cleric spells. I'm pretty sure Unseeing Eye and Shadow Temple will have liches waiting for me, and while I could fight them honestly it's much safer and easier to simply have Anomen and Aerie erase them with simultaneous casts of Sunray.
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Jan 3, 2023 23:49
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