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With two failed Dragon Disciples, I've moved on to a different route. Not brains but..... Meet Gorok the Half-Orc Shadowdancer. He's going to slip in and out of the shadows while stabbing people in the arse on the sword coast and hopefully beyond.  Shadowdancers can't even backstab at level 1, but Shank still felt the sting of my blade.  Gorok engaged in my favorite early haunt: basilisk hunting.  Korax did the heavy lifting here (as always) but Gorok was quickly able to start backstabbing after hitting a few levels. And even at a low multiplier these still hit hard with 19 str.  The spiders in Beregost proved no match for my strategy of running away until stealth came off cooldown and then backstabbing them again.  An ambush like this almost certainly would have killed me if I were a solo mage, even with the early Basilisk xp.  I got a backstab opener off on Tarnesh, but it wasn't enough to kill him. He got a fear off, but with my extra levels from Basilisks I was able to tank a few of his magic missile barrages and the guards helped me out as well.  A few dead fishermen later and I was at 32k xp.  Time to recruit the party! Vicky and Kagain form the core of my group: tank and healer.  We also picked up Baeloth and Monty. Xzar was left behind at a previous rest stop.  Finally we got Shar-Teel. Kagain will handle my tanking duties and Vicky will heal. Baeloth will provide magical support. Shar-Teel will be a machine gunner bowman (er woman, sorry Shart). Monty will also bow and maybe backstab at times if I'm not too busy microing my PC. Monty will also handle the thieving duties that Gorok lacks the points for since all of his are getting dumped into stealth. Gorok will hopefully backstab enemies and not be useless/die! We shall see.
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Jan 5, 2024 08:06
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Ginette Reno posted:Meet Gorok the Half-Orc Shadowdancer. He's going to slip in and out of the shadows while stabbing people in the arse on the sword coast and hopefully beyond. 
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Jan 5, 2024 15:33
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 Skie is adjusting well to life in the Flaming Fist. While Jackie and crew bear witness to her pushback against traditional military discipline, we meet someone at the edge of the Troll Claw woods camp who needs some help for a friend.  The friend turns out to be a chimera, being hunted by some Icewind Dale 2 refugees. (Seriously. Legion of the Chimera is namechecked, at least.)  They're no pushovers but we're freshly rested and buffed and we make short work of them.  Honestly I prefer Breagar calling me 'foolish half-orc' all the time to this poo poo.  Kava and company open up to a fellow half-orc about the treasure they got separated from and we agree to let the matter rest. We don't really need more treasure at this point.  Oh is THAT why this place is called Troll Claw Woods  ...okay buddy. I do briefly consider swapping Safana out for him or Jaheira, but in the end I decide to stick with the party I've got, mostly because I can't be bothered to gently caress with anyone else's equipment.  Nice to see that Caelar's people honor the traditional Ask A Passing Adventurer system for search and rescue missions.  Ah, chemical warfare.  Sure, fine, why not?  Okay, thanks for warning us that spiders are the worst things we'll run into in this area.  Um...so not to be rude...  BUT DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A loving SPIDER IS? We actually get criminally lucky with Morentherene, as she gets stunned by an early Icelance and doesn't get a chance to use her poison breath on us at all.  Bugbears are really not a problem by comparison  This temple's changed hands once twice since the olden days when it was home to a Bhaal cult, but she's a remnant of the before times.  They don't believe us when we tell them we got separated from the tour for some reason.  Oh, Morentherene was your sister? Uh, soz?  Hooray, a reward from the Crusade!  We tell Madele to go and sin no more  Oh what the gently caress  I pick a completely unnecessary fight with the shadow aspect and prevail. Glitterdust is extremely useful here, as well as the other usual anti-invisibility tricks. Even so, Jackie's health gets a bit lower than I like. This would be an extremely stupid death considering none of us are short sword users. Fortunately, it's only a very stupid near miss.  ...well poo poo. We win but not before the mind flayer chows down on a bit of Jackie's brain. Fortunately he's got just enough brainpower to spare that this ends up being a second near miss.  She's supposed to hand over the wardstone peacefully at this point but something's bugged and she doesn't. So we acquire it a different way.  On our way back to the bridge encampment we run into a lot of goblins. This is after two fireballs.  And just like that, we're in the camp. There's a little bit to do here before we head into Bridgefort proper.  ...yeah okay buddy.  We'll, uh, get right on that.  This is slightly promising. We have a chance to witness Caelar's priest giving the troops a divine blessing.  Turns out it's not much more than some inspirational rhetoric and a light show. No actual gods involved.  Hey, Uncle Khalid (What? Imoen's not here so someone's got to give him poo poo)  It's Old Home Week for people we've barely met before around here  Drake has one Lesser Restoration prepped, and when the anti-life meteor hits he promptly uses it on himself. Thanks, bro.  Recorder is our resident Smart Person and gives us the lowdown.  He's a bit less thrilled to hand over the scroll than usual, I think possibly because of the mod I have installed, but he still does it, and we beat feet in case the flavor text about him maybe raising an alarm isn't just flavor text.  Drake pokes holes in this "Lathander" cleric's story straight away but we still go and try to locate Ymori, the priest she tries to blame for some missing items from the bodies.  You've cracked the mystery, Detective Drake! (And then I completely forget to give Kendra's necklace back to her brother. Oh well!)  Recorder is full of inspiring words as we decide it's time to bring the fight to the Crusade. We don't bother waiting for the Flaming Fist. Khalid is still level 1 so into the bubble he goes.  The fight goes pretty well for us til we get word that a mage is planning on pulling the Blow Up The Bridge trick again. Some dispel arrows sort his lunch out though.  In the end, everything's fine  Er...  Okay, so, I know this looks bad...  Let's just get on to the castle. Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has ruined another bridge. Naah, not ruined. That'll buff right out.
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Jan 5, 2024 19:03
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Thread's updated to this point. (I actually updated it before my last post but forgot to say.)
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Jan 5, 2024 22:50
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Gorok has been continuing his adventures across the sword coast. I beat up some hobgoblins to take their nice stealth boots.  I also fought Bassilus. He got off a hold person which got Kagain killed, but Kagain wasn't permaed so it was fine. We won.  Random bandit ambushes are the worst. Here is Baeloth getting turned into a pincushion by bandits.  Melicamp lived.  The Ogre mage Droth and his treacherous sirine companion were both slain by me.  I used Baeloth's webs to CC that big group of ogres in that same zone because gently caress face tanking ogre berserkers on insane.  Baeloth doesn't know sleep which makes sirines a lot more irritating. I tried to have Kagain pop a potion of invuln to resist their charms but naturally he still failed his save despite having a save vs spell of 3. That made this encounter hectic. Had to use Vicky to hold person Shar-teel at one point as she also got charmed and I didn't want her gunning down my party.  Next I fought those Amnian mercs in the cloud peaks. Naturally one fed me a nasty crit right to the face. Dude had supernatural reflexes to turn his bow on me after I appeared from stealth. I survived though.  Zal and company fell to some commands and a nice spook spell from Bae. Shar-teel claimed the bracers.  I dueled a gnoll and won. Probably a bad idea for him to think he could beat a Shadowdancer 1v1.  Kagain claimed some bracers of dex from the Gnoll zone. With those plus Ankheg plate he's now a certifiable tank.  The Gnoll Chieftain found a blade in his back.  Neville in the zone above the Gnolls ate a hold person. An Ogre Berserker decided to join the fight and I had to get some kiting in. Those things are seriously terrifying on double damage.  At this point I remembered that Rogue Rebalancing adds some new thief/bard gear. I went and bought this hat from Ulgoth's. The bonuses on it are whatever. The main nice thing about it is it works like a normal helmet (ie, gives protection from crits). Crit resistance is huge. That will give my SD a lot more breathing room. He's got decent hp, but a nasty melee crit could still get him. Not so bad now. Gorok has a few more western zones to clean up and then it's on to the Nashkel mines. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 6, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 23:56
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What's the established protocol for custom parties in the context of class-based honors/dishonors? e.g. if I complete a game with a Wizard Slayer and their Cleric/Mage sidekick, is it Overcoming Adversity, OP-ium Addict, both or neither?
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Jan 6, 2024 14:42
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:What's the established protocol for custom parties in the context of class-based honors/dishonors? I'd say both, probably, but just do whatever feels right, it's really no big deal
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Jan 6, 2024 15:15
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 Eh, sure, no stranger than dancing up some ancestral spirits, I guess, we'll see what we can do.  We meet a wounded Ilmater follower who doesn't want to be healed. We talk him into letting us heal him in exchange for taking a bit of damage ourselves, on Drake's advice.  The Passing Adventurer principle applies to many civic institutions in the Sword Coast, ranging from jurisprudence and criminal investigations to debt servicing and health care.  Drake lets on that he's written home to request some support against the crusade, and the group of supplies and reinforcements that was promised hasn't turned up yet, and he's getting a little concerned. We agree to keep an eye out.  Safana's stumbled across a traitor while indulging in some freelance pickpocketry, but she doesn't know who she stole the treasonous stuff from.  ...of loving course.  Our main objective is to find our way underneath Dragonspear Castle and plant some explos-, some, uh, BWOOSH to undermine things. Also if we could poison the troops' supplies that would be swell. We can act shocked, SHOCKED, at these devilish battle tactics but Jackie doesn't give a poo poo.  ...good for you, buddy.  ...  We ask around and the trail of evidence eventually leads us to Malden Col, who gets arrested.  We find that Skie has been cornered by Crusade mercenaries outside the castle. We rescue her and send her home.  And we get some new boots for the dwarf sentry.  I forget to screenshot any of it but we killed a basilisk for a druid hermit and he gave us the cure. I don't have any druids in the party myself at the moment or we could have mixed up the cure myself, which is my usual approach to this quest, but this works out fine.  Yeah, we definitely don't want anything to happen to Skie.  Emily invites us to come home with her when this is over, but gets a little skittish when we bring up the implications of what this might mean. She's caught between personal feelings (which she has) and her duty to her family, who are already a bit skeptical about her due to her not being fully human (and they just think she's a half-elf). Hooking up with a half-orc Child of Bhaal isn't going to do wonders for her claim to her noble title.  Speaking of succession battles, we come across some ogres in the midst of one. We decide to support Murs (whose mate, their former chief, was captured by the 'Shiners') and she agrees to send some support our way when the time is right.  Well it WAS a secret place. He doesn't really buy our story about being with the crusade, so a fight it must be.  Even with some support from the local druids, this ends up being a pretty tough fight, tougher than I usually remember it being anyway, and Drake's got his hands full unconfusing half the party at one point. We eventually prevail  And get ourselves an official Caelar Argent Secret Decoder Ring for our trouble. We decide to do a little bit of good old fashioned espionage before we press onward.  On our way to the Crusade encampment, we come across that party from Amn that Drake was worried about being beset by orogs. We pitch in to help, naturally.  Among the party is Drake's little brother Tomas. We'll reconnect with them all at the coalition camp but first  If you'll just look at this badge, no, wait, ignore that, that's just an old invitation to the Baldur's Gate ducal palace, ah, here we go, don't mind the bloodstains, you'll see that we're members of the Crusade in good standing. Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has infiltrated the Crusade.
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Jan 6, 2024 15:49
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Jackie Daytona has fallen in single combat with that cheater Ashatiel during the final push into Dragonspear. (I guess opening with a Greater Command that left him helpless isn't TECHNICALLY cheating but still...) Tried to get someone else in position with a dispel but no one was fast enough. Whew. I think I've still got at least one more attempt in me. Not sure as what yet, though.
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Jan 6, 2024 19:21
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drat. Sucks to die that deep into SOD. My condolences! I guess on some characters it might be safer to deny Ashatiel's request for a duel and just spam aoes into her army until you get her.
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Jan 6, 2024 21:32
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Ginette Reno posted:drat. Sucks to die that deep into SOD. My condolences! That fight's never really been a problem for me before. It shouldn't have been this time either but she caught me while I was waiting out the cooldown on the shaman dance so I couldn't buff or use potions or anything at all. Oh well!
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Jan 6, 2024 22:25
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She says no invisibility yet she uses sanctuary when she gets low on HP to heal herself. Cheaters gonna cheat. I always refuse the duel.
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Jan 7, 2024 01:00
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Meet Anders the Halfling Warlock.  The last time I played this (mod) kit, it was extremely broken, both in the "very powerful" sense and the "very bug-ridden" sense. But it's had a few updates since then so let's see if either is still true! Functionally it's a bard kit but gets no conventional spellcasting (and only gains the ability to use mage scrolls at level 12). (If we survive that long Anders will also get the mage stronghold rather than the bard one.) Instead we get access to a once-per-round eldritch blast that can be modified in a number of ways as Anders levels, and a small handful of at-will Invocations.  We're starting with this invocation, a long-term dexterity and movespeed buff.  BEHOLD MY ELDRITCH MIGHT We leave Candlekeep as usual and proceed to powerlevel a bit. Well, that's the plan.  We grab this invocation too. A number of Warlock invocations and abilities get buffed with extra-high charisma so we're going to try to get ours as extra-high as possible. The +2 from this nets us an extra point of dexterity from Leaps and Bounds already.  Things go...poorly...outside of High Hedge. To make a long story short, between this and a couple encounters we can't avoid, Imoen dies and we go through our early supply of healing potions making sure Anders doesn't join her. We trudge off to raise her up and then go back because there's a chicken with a date with destiny.  And after all that, Melicamp doesn't even survive.  After a brief stint in Basilisk Hell, Anders hits level 5 and we pick up this invocation next. I'll probably swap it out later for a different one (we only get three Least invocations ever, but we can swap one out every time we hit an odd-numbered level) but for now this AC boost is pretty significant for our early survival.  Mutamin falls, though we chew through even more health potions to make it happen. And now it's time to gather a party together.  Once more, I pick up Breagar, what can I say, I love the guy.  We've seen Finch, Cleric and Librarian, before cooling her heels in Candlekeep and she helps us out in the fight against Karlat. This time I'm recruiting her. And giving her the Lorekeeper of Oghma kit from Divine Remix -- she's actually a Deneir cleric but that's about as close as the kits I have installed will let me get. We head to the Friendly Arms to pick up Jaheira, Khalid, and some ankheg treasure before heading south.  Here's Anders trying out a new blast shape, which fires in a line, and a modified Hellfire Blast, which does fire damage. The line attack is not party-friendly, and there's a brief but embarrassing incident where Anders sets Jaheira on fire.  Neira's down and we're in Nashkel.
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Jan 7, 2024 23:16
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The continuing adventures of Gorok the Shadowdancer Baeloth unleashed some magic on some hapless Xvarts.  The party also cured Brage of his madness.  Gorok and company then moved to help the expedition to find ancient Netherese relics. The miners in there stabbed Vicky to death. I dunno what thaco these guys have I swear they always always hit in there.  I was not fast enough to pause after backstabbing Baruk here and the kobolds got a volley off on my Shadowdancer. I was lucky to survive. Maybe too much Bg3 is eroding my rtwp reflexes. Gotta get my game back.  Or maybe I'm just playing badly tonight  . Poor Vicky and Baeloth ate some hobgoblin elite arrows up here. It was not a good night for Vicky. As usual Kagain got charmed when fighting sirines. Dude's got like an 8 save vs spell but he always fails the save. Wtf. I'm pretty sure dire charm has no penalty either. And i don't think SCS changes the spell at all. Kagain just keeps lettin' me down!  The golems were a bit easier to handle. Just gotta kite em around and let Shar-Teel fill them with arrows. They're immune to backstab and hit way too hard though so my SD didn't do a whole lot here. I got a few hits in but mostly stayed away.  Have you ever been ambushed by a single ochre jelly before? Me neither. I think this might be a first lmao.  Next up it was carnival time. Zordal got some offense off against my party but nothing too bad. Kagain ate an ice lance but with his HP he can do that just fine.  With the west completed, the party made its way to the Nashkel mines. I'm always scared of the kobold shaman that is near the entrance to Mulahey's lair and here is why. This little mfer managed to survive my party's onslaught and even outwitted Vicky by casting vocalize after her silence. And got out of web before I could finish it. Naturally it got off a lightning bolt before I was able to stop it. Thankfully I got a fortunate bounce and nobody got permaed. The lightning bolt bounced west and then never came back. Had it bounced north/south I most likely would have permanently lost Monty, possibly Vicky if she failed her MR check, and maybe my thief as well depending on if I could dodge it fast enough.  With the rough night I was having I took no chances with Mulahey. I buffed up and took him down quickly with command, backstabs, and a volley of arrows.  Nimbul was a little trickier. I opened with a backstab but I couldn't one shot him with it. After that my SD got back into stealth and the rest of the party joined the fray. Nimbul had minor spell deflection up so I couldn't directly target him with anything. But I did land a silence. And then it was a matter of just going through his protections. Gorok the Shadowdancer has completed the west as well the Nashkel mines, and is licking his wounds in Nashkel getting ready to resume his adventures.
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Jan 8, 2024 04:46
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When the Sword Coast was beset by chaos and strife, one simple peasant girl stepped forward to unite it. Joan d'Orc, half-orc berserker has set out from Candlekeep to follow her visions. Here's hoping she won't get martyred early!  Tarnesh gets off one spell. He does not get off a second.  Melicamp lives. Joan has rescued damsel Neera from Rogue AI Goddess fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Jan 9, 2024 |
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Jan 9, 2024 00:32
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Thread updated to this point. Rogue AI Goddess posted:Joan d'Orc, half-orc berserker has set out from Candlekeep to follow her visions. Here's hoping she won't get martyred early! Yesssss... Did you retire Mattea or did she meet a grim fate at the hands of David Warner? Or neither?
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Jan 9, 2024 02:08
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docbeard posted:Did you retire Mattea or did she meet a grim fate at the hands of David Warner? Or neither?
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Jan 9, 2024 02:50
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:As is her wont, she is hiding in shadows (of Amn) and biding her time. So noted! Meanwhile, Anders the Halfling Warlock's continuing adventures, uh, continue...  ...which apparently include civic improvement. This is the heart of Finch's NPC quest, which is to gather some rare volumes suitable for Nashkel's new library, which makes it sound a whole lot more involved than "collect some books we run across in various places" needs to be but so it goes. Our first book is sitting in a chest at the carnival. But first...  ...no, we didn't skip ahead to BG2, and no she won't be joining our party, but yes this is that Aerie, and she's here courtesy of a little mod that didn't install properly during my last run. She's here primarily as a hook for the Zordral-Bentha hostage situation, and becomes a temple and merchant ...assuming you survive the fight with Zordral.  (Which we do)  And there's our first book.  Good question! Moving on. We head up to Ulgoth's Beard for our traditional five-finger discount on a ring of freedom, and clear out the rest of the ankhegs in Ankheg Hell along the way, because we need some decent armor for my people.  Armor costs money and this lunatic's bounty will cover our costs nicely. Bassilus can be a bit frightening in SCS, but not when he's been stunned three seconds into the fight by a handy Icelance. Imoen's an Arcane Trickster again, and Artisan's Kitpack has been updated since the last time I played, and what I'm getting around to saying is that her backstab progression is now at an even more significant penalty than before. (I *think* she just hit x2 backstabs.) But the Impromptu Sneak Attack ability that Arcane Trickster gets inflicts a save penalty, so a stab followed immediately by a spell can be a very potent combo. It's a combo I plan to abuse a lot.  Breagar's not just talking here, these are both things that he really, really cares about.  Please don't insult the nice man until he actually pays us, Jaheira.  With Jaheira in the party, this kicks off a brief bit of sniping between the two.  Unusual sword, you say?  New sword, you say?  Wow, it's a very nearly magical katana.  As Ginette Reno mentioned, this fight against the kobold shaman that SCS throws in can get a little intense. He didn't get a lightning bolt off but he did get a snowball swarm and a slow and as you can see we're a bit banged up afterwards. We get some rest (eventually, it takes quite a few tries) and press on.  Mulahey falls to the same one-two sneak-attack/icelance punch and the rest is just cleanup.  Khalid seeks some reassurance that we're not just in this for revenge. We assure him that we aren't, and we're probably not lying.  Now look, what good's a dagger gonna do a dead man anyway?  Has the combination of 'wizard' and 'experiment' ever resulted in good things?  It certainly didn't for him!  Imoen strikes down the famed assassin NIMBUL and gets a lecture for her trouble. Anders the Halfling Warlock is playing second fiddle to Imoen the Arcane Trickster. For now.
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Jan 9, 2024 05:06
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I don't have that much time anymore but I love this thread and I did a few "practice" runs during the holidays, so let's just roll another one to see if-   Perfect roll out of the gate, is this it? Just a small arrangement and we're good.  Zivio the Archer has sneaked past Imoen twice and is contemplating Gorion's corpse.
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Jan 9, 2024 15:28
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Sorry it's been a while again - I forgot how plodding SoD can get. In either case, Ramon Salazar and his band continue on their adventures! It's going to be a bumper post of about 3 play sessions in one, so I'll try be succinct.  The crusade flung a magical rock of impotence into Bridgefort after the one mage providing defensive magics had a lapse in concentration, absolutely not caused by me. Nope. We sneak into the Crusader camp outside thanks to a good word from the crusaders I rescued from the abandoned Temple of Bhaal, I'm allowed to pass. I charm the crusader guarding a chest and send him off for a stroll while I grab the scroll to reverse the impotence rock in Bridgefort. For my troubles, I take a chunk of rock and we get:  These will be integral much, much later.  There were casualties when the impotence rock came down, so I agree to help gather up the bodies for the priest and tell the brother of one of the dead that she got squashed by the impotence rock. He asks for a necklace from her as a keepsake, but when I go back to the priest they say there's nothing to be found, but some yutz was sniffing around people's belongings and fled Bridgefort not long ago. I go to investigate, find his headless body, get attacked by ZOMBIES, and return to question the priest. They don't take kindly to my meddling and raise some wights from the dead bodies to attack, but I am far too powerful and just crush all opposition.  We decide to open the gates and fight the crusade head-on. Khalid somehow dies in the push which locks me out of his quest later (but I don't find out about this until later when I can't find him at the coalition camp in the next chapter). I'm really starting to get annoyed by Dynaheir's lack of access to crowd control spells like confusion and chaos at this point, and all she can really do is toss out slow.  Not now, Skie! We have to stop the bridge from being blown up by the crusaders! I think two party members actually died at this bit and I had to drag their carcasses back to the base camp to revive them, so the fire elementals fight on the bridge was quite close, but we did prevail! Then Ramon took a nap on the bridge and when he woke up...  What a funny stencil. Sinister Looking Dude shows up to spout cryptic nonsene and we press on, but not before chucking an axe in a well and angering a water spirit. He drops a +1 quarterstaff. Bleh. On to Chapter 10!  Caelar has a moment atop the castle being angry that her methods of convincing me to join her crusade, such as sending assassins after me, haven't been working.  Arriving at the Coalition Camp I agree to hunt a bear to make some nice new boots for the dwarf guard, who's a superstitious fella.  The wailing death has come for the coalition! I'll be back to fix it with some tree bark later.  We train up the recruits so they're not a complete omnishambles come fight time.  Safana casually drops that there's a spy around. After doing some digging with the priestess of Tempus, the elderly strategist lady, and the quartermaster, all fingers point to Malden Col. We apprehend him, it'll be the gallows for that traitor. We then head out on a mission to plant explosives on a faultline under the castle to disrupt the crusade. I can't see any way this might go wrong, so I stuff the barrel of phwoosh in my bag of holding - if it explodes it'll surely take out the pocket dimension in the bag and not Minsc, who is carrying it?  Skie elects to charge castle dragonspear alone, head-on. Atta girl. We save her butt from some mercenaries outside and send her packing, telling her what a good job she did of finding a potential breachpoint in the camp. We'll come back here later.  Exploring a nearby cave we find slimes and mimics. And some loot. Can't remember what it was, so it can't have been too amazing.  Following this blood trail leads to a pack of displacer beasts, and Mizhena's amulet! She's the priestess of Tempus who asked us to look out for it in Chapter 9. It was a million to one chance but we'll give it back to her next time we're at camp.  We find some ogres in the middle of their general election so decide to tip the balance in favour of Murs, so we can find her beloved husband, Slug. Four more years of Murs!  Freeing some entangled druids, they tell me about a sinister druid right beneath our feet, so I opt to do the right thing and put him six feet... Twelve feet under? Whatever. Druids, am I right?  We run across a group of goblins and they want M'khiin. We tell them "no" with swords and sorcery, and M'khiin thanks me for sticking up for her. No problem, best bud.   Outside the underwater river we find a Rasheman berserker and also a witch. They're currently palling it up with the Crusade but I swear to find evidence that those do-gooders are up to no good!  And the best place for that is the crusader camp! We sniff around doing various chores, like settling an impromptu court trial, running reports on behalf of someone drunk, shackling a troll, oh and uh killing Corwin's old flame. We also nab a fair bit of souvenirs to peddle back at the Coalition Camp for a black market fencer.  Back in the caves, we saunter past the ghost dragon and go to fight her enslaver. Standard necromancy fare, but I nearly cack myself when the dragon is compelled to join the fight, so I make a beeline for the named caster (NOT the one named Dark Magician) and somehow it breaks their hold over the ghost dragon, so they join our side, before joining their family on the other side. Yay. Also found some good poo poo for M'khiin which'll make her a faster, unsilenaceable (that's not a word) caster.  Sinister Looking Dude won't be so quick with the barbed tongue when I get across that river and show him what-for! Other things not screenshotted:
 After returning to the camp, I'm told the leaders have hosed off to neutral ground to have a chinwag with Caelar so I'd better catch up. de Lancie, being the spineless poo poo he is, wants to hand Ramon Salazar over to the crusade in exchange for Caelar's surrender. On the other hand, Calear has been about as forthcoming with her motivations as a group of kids owning up to a broken window so I tell her to do one - it's time for a battle.  Back at camp, we start making logistics for the waves of invaders into the coalition camp that'll be descending on us. But that's for another session. Ramon Salazar has returned from a top-secret mission under Dragonspear Castle and is ready to defend the Coalition Camp from the onslaught of the Shining Lady's Crusade!
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Jan 9, 2024 17:09
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The first castle (well, a gnoll stronghold) has just fallen to Joan d'Orc's forces, and lady Dynaheir has pledged herself to Joan's cause. She is not the only champion to do so, either. Branwen the cleric and a questing knight named Dorn are also marching under our visionary's banners. While some are openly questioning the latter's motives, Joan is all too aware of the stigma against half-orcs, and so has welcomed Dorn as a comrade in arms. Alas, not everyone has accepted the truth of Joan's visions. A priest named Bassilius went as far as to declare her a heretic.  After a visit to the area east of Nashkel mines, the party ended up hauling not one, but two bodies to FAI temple.  Dorn was left behind to do a penitent vigil at the bar. Rogue AI Goddess fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jan 10, 2024 |
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Jan 9, 2024 21:43
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Gorok is busy pillaging the eastern sword coast. I got ambushed by Morvin and his gang of bounty hunters. Kagain kept the enemy mage busy while Vicky got command off on the priest. Baeloth got up mirror images and kited around one of the meleers.  Gorok was in and out of the shadows with backstabs. The party prevailed.  Here's the Jelly Mage. Look how many nasty protections he prebuffed with. I did open the fight with a backstab which helped. After that it was mostly a matter of plowing through his mirror images and stoneskin with arrows and Kagain's axe.  Here's Gorok backstabbing some ghasts in the same zone and then stepping into the shadow plane to stealth again. Shadowdancers are a lot of fun.  In the far southeastern zone I looked for the fire resist ring. I also had the friendly neighborhood  While traveling in the east I got ambushed again, this time by the huntresses. These bounty hunters don't know when to quit. This fight is a little trickier than the other bounty hunter ambushes because the two thieves start stealthed, and their backstabs hurt. Baeloth got off a quick detect invis to drop them out of stealth. From there, command/hold person + magic missiles/spook. I don't know why I like the spell spook so much. But I do. Pretty useful level one spell imo, especially since it scales.  Here's a shot of later in the battle where Gorok turned one of the bounty hunters into bite sized chunks of meat.  Time for Firewine. As before I had to slay hordes of kobold commandos. These guys are quite annoying in tight corridors and hit pretty hard. I opted to leave Kahrk for later in the game when I have some arrows of dispel. He's just too nasty without them. Too risky.  I opened with a backstab on Lendarn to weaken him.  After plowing through Lendarn's mirror images to finish him off I then got a silence off on the Ogre Mage with Vicky. From there the battle was well in hand.  From here I decided to take a quick detour to Durlag's tower to get some xp from some of the early rooms and the basilisk on the roof.  I did something I don't always do, which was to dismiss my party and let my Shadowdancer solo the roof. Three Greater Basilisks up there = 21k xp, and I'd rather have that just for me than split it amongst the whole party. Better to level cap my PC asap as he's the one who isn't supposed to die after all! He's now up to level 8. Nice.  I think this is the hardest backstab I've had yet. 70 damage on only a double damage backstab die is quite a hefty hit. The bracers of weapon specialization from the Firewine zone help my backstabs hit harder. I think I am going to actually try and be completionist with this guy and do all the expansion content. We'll see if I live that long. Shadowdancer has some great defensive tools but if I get caught out of stealth at the wrong time I can still easily die. Gorok the Shadowdancer is working on the rest of the east and will soon be at the Bandit Camp.
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Jan 10, 2024 03:25
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When would anyone say is the cut off point for starting a run? I realise we're still early into January but I'm coming up on some parts of SoD that I'm quite convinced will be the death of lil' Ramon and I have an idea for a new character in mind just in case.Ginette Reno posted:I think I am going to actually try and be completionist with this guy and do all the expansion content. We'll see if I live that long. Shadowdancer has some great defensive tools but if I get caught out of stealth at the wrong time I can still easily die. Best of luck to you. Shadowdancer looks hella fun and I'll think about trying it out myself one day. 
DeadButDelicious fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Jan 10, 2024 |
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Jan 10, 2024 11:30
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I enjoyed my Shadowdancer run last year up to the point he exploded and turned into a Ghast due to Neeramancy. Will definetely do another attempt sometime, hide in plain sight owns. Speaking of Ghasts and Ghouls, Zivio has made a new friend:  Basilisks are easy pickings with such a loyal dog but I should have named my character Hubris because instead of ghosting Korax and running away with the sweet XP I tried to tackle the adventurer group.  I think I made a mistake targeting the mage first since that allowed the cleric to cast Rigid Thinking which would have made this a game over if not for Korax's brave sacrifice and a random Gnoll that appeared on the other side, who baited my uncontrollable MC and allowed him to survive drooling in the fog of war. Once the spell wore off I was able to kite and pick them one by one.  Only the archer was some trouble but being level 5 by now made it easier to face tank some arrows.  Something that Tarnesh is not able to do...  Zivio the Archer is off to find some real living friends!
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Jan 10, 2024 12:08
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DeadButDelicious posted:When would anyone say is the cut off point for starting a run? I realise we're still early into January but I'm coming up on some parts of SoD that I'm quite convinced will be the death of lil' Ramon and I have an idea for a new character in mind just in case. There's no real cutoff. As long as people are playing and having fun I'm happy to keep updating the thread. Speaking of, work's been a little busy and I've been a little dead outside of it these past couple days, but I expect to have the thread up-to-date later today.
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Jan 10, 2024 14:38
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Gods have not been kind today. Neera came to Aloy to study, but learned only how to die. We buried her in his cave.  Nimbul found love on the battlefield, but the only kiss he received was an axe to the face.  And Xan's visions of doom came true in the bandit camp, in the form of rapid onset pulmonary arrownation. Joan d'Orc, half-orc berserker is heading towards Cloakwood and tragedy marches at her side.
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Jan 10, 2024 16:50
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DeadButDelicious posted:Best of luck to you. Shadowdancer looks hella fun and I'll think about trying it out myself one day. Thanks. It's a fun class. I'd love to make it to TOB and use the fun hlas that it gets, but realistically there's no way I'm making it that far with the difficulty settings I use lol. I mean it's possible and I know what I'm doing, but not a lot of room for error. Ulvino posted:I enjoyed my Shadowdancer run last year up to the point he exploded and turned into a Ghast due to Neeramancy. Will definetely do another attempt sometime, hide in plain sight owns. It is indeed fun. Archers are great. When I was ironmanning a bunch last year an Archer was the deepest run I got. I died to a Lightning bolt trap in Firkraag's dungeon with it lmao. I can't remember if I even documented that run or if it was just one I was doing on my own. Archers are just awesome all the way through though. Dominant in bg1, and in bg2 if you get them Firetooth's xbow they hit like trucks.
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Jan 10, 2024 21:28
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Ramon Salazar defends the Coalition Camp from Caelar Argent's crusade! Oh golly, time for the big push!  I arrive as my army appears to be at an impasse.  None challenge Ramon Salazar to a duel and live!  ... Or perhaps they do.  Ramon Salazar has been slain in 1-on-1 combat with Ashatiel, thus ending his run But, from the ashes of an old run, begins one anew...  Windows XP, the Lawful Neutral
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Jan 10, 2024 21:41
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DeadButDelicious posted:Ramon Salazar has been slain in 1-on-1 combat with Ashatiel, thus ending his run drat, another notch on Ashatiel's belt! Condolences, friend. OP updated to this point.
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Jan 10, 2024 22:30
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Cloakwood has extracted a bloody price for Joan d'Orc's passage. Imoen was killed and eaten by spiders in a cave.  Dynaheir went down to a single spider bite in an ambush. She tried to treat herself, but her Slow Poison was interrupted by poison.  At least we were able to retrieve her body and have her raised with the proceeds of our wyvern hunt. As the group was about to return to Cloakwood for a second attempt, Coran has asked for a quick detour to the Lighthouse, an area famed for its "hot singles". One of them, a certain Safana, has joined Joan's warband, while the rest have joined the ocean foam. The greatest trial of flesh, however, came not from curvy temptations, but the meaty golems' fists. Joan herself has narrowly avoided death only thanks to a timely Potion of Absorption and a clutch heal from Branwen. Oh, and Coran did get hit on, after all. By lightning. Twice.  At least Davaeorn failed a single non-teleport spell off. Joan d'Orc, half-orc berserker has conquered Cloakwood and prepares to lay siege to Baldur's Gate.
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Jan 11, 2024 02:58
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Anders the Halfling Warlock has been getting on with things across the Sword Coast.  The werewolf quest from Ascalon's Questback has a happier ending this time, as Thalantyr's potion works and the poor fellow is restored.  The reward (a +1 flaming longsword) is exactly the same as if we'd killed him (though it takes a bit more busywork to get it) but the warm and fuzzy feeling is a nice bonus.  So what's that old saying about overconfidence?  It's...it's good, right?  Yeah, it's fine.  These guys ambush us but we're more than up to the challenge.  I really kind of dislike BG1 NPC's version of Jaheira.  Rather than dying and being raised, this time Breagar ends up unconscious and with one hp, which is in some ways worse, because it's very easy for him to die in the ensuing fight with Droth and, you know, NOT get raised. That doesn't happen this time, thankfully, and we get ourselves a free helmet.  We deal with some sirines and some pirates (the latter added by yet another mod) and some flesh golems (against which Anders' eldritch blast is basically useless. He'll eventually get access to an acid-based blast that bypasses magic resistance but that's not available til at least level 13). The Constitution tome that is our prize goes to Breagar, though he won't see the benefits til he gets his ROBOT ARM and his damaged constitution gets restored.  I love this goddamned stupid reference so much. I am sadly old enough to legitimately recognize it.  The tougher of our two wandering assassin fights. Imoen ends up dying again. A million trillion gnolls later and  This one goes to Anders. His 'natural' charisma is now 19, +2 from Algernon's cloak, +2 from Beguiling Influence. He gets bonuses to Leaps and Bounds, and the saves against Brimstone Blast's catch-on-fire effect for every couple of points, too, so this isn't just for show.  We have a rather martial bounty and Anders decides we need a cleric with a bit more muscle than Finch, so we temporarily sub in Branwen. (This is actually because there's an alternate resolution to one of the missions in Black Hearts that requires an NPC cleric that the mod actually recognizes as an NPC cleric, so none of these modded NPCs need apply.)  We're fighting a bunch of possessed adventures. It gets a bit touch and go especially after the cleric gets very lucky with a silence spell and literally none of us can cast spells. (Though said cleric undoes part of it with a dispel a moment later, which goes to show that the thing about overconfidence cuts both ways).  We wait out the silence and talk to the last survivor. Branwen offers to do an exorcism, which means we're going to have to fight a demon.  As demons go it's kind of a chump.  The survivor tells us a tale, hands over what's left of the cursed mirror that possessed everyone, and goes on her way. And so do we, to pick Finch back up.  Illasera (our quest-giver for Black Hearts) is not too broken up about the mirror's broken up state, but she tells us that she's got things to do. So do we. Anders will be heading for the Bandit Camp soon. Probably.
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Jan 11, 2024 04:27
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RIP Joan d'Orc, annihilated by a very bouncy lightning bolt on Shandalar's Island.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:54
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:RIP Joan d'Orc, annihilated by a very bouncy lightning bolt on Shandalar's Island. F. I was really enjoying Joan.
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Jan 11, 2024 20:16
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Duderclese posted:F. I was really enjoying Joan.  Which is why the dish of the day today is REVENGE, and we're serving it NOW. Moira Grimm, LE gnome illusionist/cleric. She is not a Born Heroine, or any kind of heroine for that matter.  The first thing she does is robbing Candlekeep with Ogre-shapeshifted imp familiar and Sanctuary. The second is beelining for Mutamin's garden and killing basilisks with Mustard Jelly-shapeshifted imp (and Sanctuary).   After knocking out a few levels, she runs to Ulgoth's Beard to talk to a man about a cloak.  But not without stopping at FAI to pick up a ring and dunk on a maidenless Tarnesh'd.  First Law: A Winter Wolf can't harm an imp or allow an imp to come to harm through inaction.  Rest in piss, fuckers. The three wizards who murdered Joan and her warband were utterly powerless before a single Mustard Jelly Imp and some moral support skeletons. The only credible threat was a Monster Summoning III, which brought out an ogre berserker that we had to run from. Moira Grimm, gnome illusionist/cleric has served REVENGE. Next on the menu: WORLD DOMINATION.
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Jan 11, 2024 22:00
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Cleric/Mages are cool. Always enjoy those
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Jan 11, 2024 22:44
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Does the imp know polymorph self normally or is that a mod thing?
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Jan 11, 2024 23:11
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jfenserty posted:Does the imp know polymorph self normally or is that a mod thing? That's in the base game, no mods required.
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Jan 11, 2024 23:46
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I follow Davaeorn who is a bg streamer who plays no reload all the time. He does insane (double damage) scs + ascension and other poo poo. He managed to ascend on those settings for the first time today. Pretty cool. He was playing a Dwarven Defender. I hope to have some more updates soon. Been lagging a bit this week but I've gotten some gameplay in. Gorok is still goin
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Jan 12, 2024 19:22
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After killing the remaining mages and winter wolves, Moira Grimm escaped Shandalar's island and started recruiting more minions. Melicamp died.   So did these Cyric-worshipping heretics.  And Algernon had a Tranzig-involved accident.  Moira gets word that a bigshot do-gooder is in the area, and sends an invisible imp to keep an eye on him.  Truly, the only thing needed for the triumph of Evil is for Good and Evil to do nothing (while honest gnolls do all the work). Moira and her crew have cleared out the bandit camp and picked up Coran, at which point I dual'd Shar-Teel and Imoen into Thief and Mage, respectively. This investment will take a while to pay off, so it falls to Bowjob Brothers to bring the pain in the meantime.
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Jan 12, 2024 20:38
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WindowsXP has BSOD'd at the hands (Paws? Fangs?) of wolves outside the Nashkel mines. Neera claims another victim as her invisibility wild surges and turns into a fear spell that sends everyone running, including our "hero" into said pack of wolves, where he dies horribly. Based on that, I'm thinking either Shapeshifter or Monk. @Rogue AI Goddess I'm so happy that you got your revenge - I hate that island so much!
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Jan 12, 2024 20:57
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