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Like Docbeard, I'm pretty into modded BG these days. So naturally, I installed the beta "Talents of Faerun" mod which adds a lot of classes and makes a bunch of other changes like adding 3e+ style feats and new spells and races. I opted to roll a Cleric with this new mod. Rikan, Ice Priest of Auril. One of the changes that ToF brings is giving a wider range of deities to choose from for Clerics. Each deity gives a variety of special spells and abilities. ToF also implements a new system for Cleric spells similar to how it works in traditional D&D which is that each deity/Cleric kit has spheres of influence. Spheres are basically ways in which spells get organized. So a Cleric with the "Evil" sphere might have access to a lot of harmful magic, for example. Because Clerics can only cast spells from the Spheres their god/goddess grants access to, they get somewhat more limited compared to base BG. For example, as a Cleric of Auril I don't seem to have access to command. But I do have access to other special spells. As you can see from my screenshot I chose Auril for my deity. Auril (as those who know the Forgotten Realms/IWD etc may realize) is a cold bitch of a goddess, so naturally most of the bonus spells I get access to with this kit focus on cold.  A solid 91 stat roll  I chose Water Genasi for my race. That's a new race added by the mod. It's a Planetouched race which essentially means that it's a human who has some extra planar origins in their family tree. In this case, one of Rikan (my pcs) ancestors apparently had sex with a water elemental or some type of water spirit. I don't want to know how that works, but I'm sure someone somewhere has imagined it in the dark corners of the internet. Water Genasi get a pretty powerful racial bonus of 15% resistance to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning damage. Frankly that's a pretty OP ability, however I am playing on insane with insane damage + SCS soo...well, I'm still gonna get hit hard if I get hit.   One of the new spells introduced by this mod is shown here. This spell grants +4 strength to me temporarily which was greatly handy in enabling me to bash the chest open upstairs in the Candlekeep Inn. The gem inside sells for 1k gold...plenty enough to fund some early gear.   Next I picked up Xzar and Monty and made my way to High Hedge to buy the protection from petrification scrolls. That being done, I made my way to the Basilisk zone.  The plan? To use Korax and Xzar's protection from petrification scroll to farm some early xp before recruiting my party.  While killing the fat petrifying lizards I quickly gained some levels. One of the new concepts introduced with this mod is feats. If you've played Baldurs Gate 3 or any DND version past 2e you'll know how these work. They're special talents that a character can pick which grant bonuses to the character. These are gained at a rate of every three levels I believe. Here's an example of some of them.   Mutamin is always the scariest part of farming Basilisks. SCS gives him some random spells so sometimes he'll come equipped with something nasty that - if you're not careful - could easily kill your PC. I try to wait almost out of range while Korax goes to work on him. Once Korax lands a paralyze on Mutamin, it's all over. Korax can usually eventually do this, though sometimes Mutamin will kill him before he can. This time, Korax won.  After doing that, I killed a few spiders in Beregost and got the Marl xp.  Tarnesh fell to me plus my Skeleton Warrior. He actually interrupted almost every spell I cast which was annoying, but I have enough xp/levels that he wasn't able to plow through my hp even with the insane damage bonus. My skeleton eventually got him. And I'm now close to 32k xp, after which I'll recruit my party. ToF is in beta and a little buggy so far so I'm not sure how far I'll end up getting with this run. I've been able to figure out workarounds for some of the bugs I've encountered but I feel like it's only a matter of time before I encounter a showstopper. All the new stuff is cool as hell though even if this mod is a bit of a buggy mess being still in beta. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 21:12
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Rikan the Ice Priest of Auril has finished gathering his party and is adventuring across the sword coast. I first decided to go find Baeloth to add some arcane might to the party. On the way, I got ambushed by Black Talon elites. They...hit hard on insane. But we survived. Vicky's hold person helped.  Here's ole Baeloth  And welcome Edwin. Edwin we turned into a Force Mage. What is a Force Mage? Below is what they do. You can't see the disadvantages there but they're rather lengthy. Essentially they're unable to cast most any elemental spells but in exchange for that they get an additional spell per level and they do more magic damage than a normal mage might.  Here's Edwin using one of the IWD spells that the mod adds. Lance of Disruption. 5d4 +1 magic damage per level (max 20) and it shoots off a lance that hits everything in its path. Probably strictly worse than Skull Trap or Fireball but it casts relatively fast and it's got a cool graphic.  The fastest dart thrower in the west popped a potion of speed and hosed me up a little bit. SCS gives npcs potions sometimes and they aren't afraid to use them.  We killed Dynaheir, thus completing Edwin's quest.  One of Auril's spheres apparently gives me access to Call Lightning. It does pretty devastating amounts of damage, as anyone playing vanilla or modded bg can attest to.  I took on Bassilus next. This is the closest I came to dying so far. SCS works with Talents of Faerun and will even use its components. That means that Bassilus had their new Priest of Cyric cleric kit assigned to him. One of the spells that Clerics of Cyric have access to is Chaos. Bassilus had it and used it on me. Oh dear. I did not know that was coming. Luckily the effect only hit my pc. Unluckily Bassilus came pre buffed with Circle of Bones. Circle of Bones is basically a lower level version of Blade Barrier. It does 1d6 crushing and 1d6 slashing per round to anyone in the Priest's melee range. Naturally, my confused PC wandered near Bassilus and took a hefty amount of damage from Circle of Bones. However, despite that, I was able to kill Bassilus before he was able to get me. Vicky landing a silence on him helped. It seems that I'd better have Vicky and my PC memorize the new spell "Exaltation" which can remove fear/confused states of mind. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Dec 21, 2023 |
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Dec 21, 2023 04:58
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Well, I think I'm giving up on my current run. I didn't die yet but sadly I'm encountering too many annoying bugs to continue with it. ToF is a very cool mod but I think I'm gonna have to give him a while to get it stable before I try it again. So sadly, you can add Rikan the Ice Priest to the list of dead. He'll be back...some day. Time to clean up my installs and get a new run going. What to roll what to roll...
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Dec 22, 2023 21:31
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Alright I did a more normal install of RR/SCS/Tweaks/Iwdification andd I think I'm good to go. Meet Skerin the Dragon Disciple  Uh I guess I forgot to take a SS of his portrait. Well, meet his stats. A nice solid 93 roll.  I wasted little time making my way to Basilisks to get some early xp. I took protection from petrification as one of my first two spells. A waste on a Sorc? Eh, I don't think so. It has some uses on SCS and the only "must have" spells for me at level 1 are magic missile, shield, and sleep, all of which I have enough slots to get. Find Familiar I can cast from a scroll. Identify I can have other mages for.  I did the spiders in Beregost and the hobgoblins in Friendly Arm Inn and then went north to do the Umberlee bowl quest. I used my breath weapon to incinerate those jerk fishers.  Next, I recruited the party. One of my mods moves Tiax to Feldepost's inn, so I was able to get him early to be my thief. So the party is PC Dragon Disciple, Kagain, Vicky, Baeloth, Neera, and Tiax.  Neera is a told wild card on no reload runs, but I find wild magic hilarious. However, I'm taking at least some precautions here. As a Dragon Disciple I have built in 25% fire resist already, and I quickly made my way to pick Batalista's Passport to get another 40%. Between that and my increased hp I should *hopefully* be able to survive if Neera accidentally fireballs my own party. The rest of them might have some issues though.  I did some other poo poo like killing Zordal (who is kinda scary in that enclosed space on SCS as sometimes he'll use nasty spells like Lance of Disruption which could easily one shot me).  Also killed those Amnian adventurers in Cloudpeaks  As well as my good friend Vax  Finally, Kagain dueled a gnoll. A cave bear decided to crash the party so while Kagain was dueling the gnoll my party was busy killing the bear. The party is currently exploring the western side of the map and then it will be time to do the mines.
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Dec 23, 2023 05:28
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docbeard posted:It's true, she just for example hilariously summoned a hostile greater chaos elemental while trying to put some ankhegs to sleep. Fortunately we managed to deal with the situation but it was a bit touch and go. Oh man. I was trying to finish up hitting 32k xp so I could recruit my party and I thought about killing the Ankheg near that Umberlee priest to do it. But even with mirror image + sleep all it would take is one bad hit on double damage to mulch my pc so I opted to take the safe route and kill a few ogrillions instead. Neera is just such a funny character on no reload because if you can get her to TOB she's actually quite dominant but it's a long road of potential gently caress ups to get there. She's a lot safer in bg2 when you have long lasting protection from fire though.
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Dec 23, 2023 18:18
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Skerin the Dragon Disciple perished to Hobgoblins. How embarrassing. I thought I had mirror image up and went up to do my dragons breath and just got absolutely gunned down by two crits. Get a little complacent on insane damage and that's all she wrote: 
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Dec 24, 2023 04:59
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Flowing Thot posted:I'm doing Rasaad's quest now which I hate all the EE companion quests, so I might regret this. I do remember that quest being annoying. There is some good loot in it though iirc. Don't you get a true seeing 1/day gem? That's pretty nice.
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Dec 25, 2023 04:44
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Started a second dragon disciple. Meet Kangorolac. Here is the mad lad. Surely there is more in store for him than hobgoblin arrows?  Kangorolac slew some Basilisks with his buddy Korax to get some early xp.  He also slew some spiders  Kangorolac did a few other things like the fisherman quest in the Ankheg zone. That plus a few other kills got him to 32k xp, and Kangorolac is now in the process of recruiting his party. Kangorolac is going the pure power route of Kagain, Vicky, Tiax, Edwin, Baeloth, + PC. 3 deadly mages plus a tank, cleric, and some thievery/extra cleric support. This party covers all the bases better than any other I can think of that tbh. Sword Coast here I come. edit: here's some more progress  Edwin was the last to join the gang here.  Those archers in the cloud peaks turned Kagain into a pincushion, but he survived....barely. Vicky and Tiax both got hold persons off which essentially won me the fight.  Vax and Zal went down a bit easier. Hold person once again did some work here. Clerics are carrying...mages slacking.  On the way to the gnoll stronghold the party rested and got ambushed by flinds and then a cave bear came out of nowhere to join the fight as well. Poor Kagain got mauled a bit. He really needs those dex bracers to get his ac in order.  After a big fight against gnolls (in which xvarts also spawned behind me) the party cleared out the gnoll stronghold and slew Dynaheir for Edwin. Now he's happy, and the party has no obligations to deal with except what they feel like doing. Kangorolac is going to go explore the western hemisphere of the planet "Sword Coast" and will then maybe check out those Nashkel mines. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 09:56
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DeadButDelicious posted:Do people usually try for Ulgoth's Beard/Durlag's Tower/SoD on ironman runs or just go right through to BG2 because I can imagine that there is a very high rate of death in the TotSC and SoD content - oh hey look a mind flayer aaaaaargh I have done TotSC content before on Ironman runs but normally I skip it. SoD depends on if I'm in the mood for it or not. Starting bg2 with 500k xp is nice. But honestly if I'm doing Ironman runs I tend to skip totsc/sod because it's kind of a grind to get all the way to bg2, die, and then have to do those expansions again. Sometimes I want to get more actual bg2 in. Also the Ulgoth's cultist fights are the most dangerous fights in bg1 other than the final boss and/or the iron throne so avoiding those is the better part of valor when it comes to succeeding
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Dec 27, 2023 20:38
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You guys are tempting me to finish all of Tostc + SOD this time. Meanwhile, Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple continued his adventures.  Kangorolac avenged Skerin by taking out Neville and his hobgoblin buddies.  I decided upon reflection to tweak my party. I got rid of Edwin for now and recruited Shar-teel. I wanted a bit more physical damage for my party and also I really do want someone who can use arrows of dispel/detonation as those are incredibly clutch on some of the later SCS fights.  I have an addiction to the Dragon Disciple breath weapon. I can't stop putting myself in dangerous spots to use it. Here I used it to crisp up some xvarts.  Those miners at the excavation site hosed me up a little bit. I dunno why but these guys have a knack for rolling natural 20s.  The party murdered many a siren as well.  Despite his dwarf saving throws Kagain got charmed multiple times. I kept having to cast hold person to keep him from smashing my party.  Flesh Golems hit very hard on insane and even with his 90 hp Kagain still took a beating here. I had to kite the last one around a bit to kill it.  I stayed the hell away from Bassilus and his circle of bones and threw skull traps, fireballs, silence, and hold person at him. Silence and Hold Person landed. Gg Bassi.  Melicamp died. And it took me forever to find a skull for him too. Those skeletons always spawn and attack me when I'm going to High Hedge at level one to buy a prot from petrification scroll for Basilisk leveling. But when I need a skull? Nowhere to be found.  I killed that Ogre mage and his siren companion because gently caress her (and also I want that 4k xp).  After killing a few more Sirens down south I think I am finally done with sirens unless I go to Werewolf Isle and/or there's others I'm forgetting. The party has completed the West except for Drizzt's zone. I'm undecided if I want to kill him or not so I'll leave that zone on hold for now. Kangorolac is now level 6 and throwing skull traps at fools. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Dec 28, 2023 |
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Dec 28, 2023 00:18
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You can look up traps on Gamebanshee or something like that and be prepared for those that way but yeah you will probably get screwed over if you don't know what fights are coming or how to approach them. Doesn't mean you won't have fun trying though. Most of us have been playing this game since it came out and we still die to dumb poo poo whether modded or unmodded. But I would probably suggest beating the game once or twice before trying to Ironman it even on vanilla
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Dec 28, 2023 04:28
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Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple has continued his adventures on the sword coast. Kangorolac set out to go to the Nashkel mines, but before he did he wanted to stop by at one of his favorite spots: the carnival! Here is Kangorolac slaying Zordal the great mage. Zordal is actually kinda scary on SCS because my installation randomizes his spells so I have no idea what he'll spawn in with. If I let him get off the wrong cast in this small tent it could prove trouble. However, the party managed to neutralize him before he did anything too nasty.  Kangorolac went into the tents to do some serious gambling. In the midst of a terrible losing streak at roulette, Shar-Teel piped up with "this is the stupidity we get with male leadership". I couldn't really disagree. However, Kangorolac eventually won some gold.  Greywolf was pissed that Kangorolac stole his bounty, but Greywolf was unprepared for Baeloth casting spook on him. As he ran around in terror the party filled him with magic missiles and darts and arrows.  Here Kangorolac threw out a web against the group of Kobolds that guard the entrance to Mulahey's lair. SCS puts a kobold mage here as well as a chieftain and they're a bit tougher than normal kobolds. Sometimes the mage casts lightning bolt and that could kill my entire party here so I had to be careful.  Mulahey was put down with command and Baeloth nuked a bunch of kobolds and skeletons with a massive fireball.  Nimbul ate a silence here and then Kangorolac and company chopped through his protections to kill him.  Fresh off their spoils in the mines the party decided to murder a pack of wolves in the temple zone.  Kangorolac also fished out a ring of fire resistance so that he could  Narcillus Harwilliger Neen did not approve of Kangorolac wanting his jelly spell, which is a shame because Kangorolac would love to be able to summon jellies. A couple of hold persons and a silence took care of him though. I gotta admit, Vicky and Tiax have been carrying this run. The sorcs do a lot of work as you would expect but having two clerics is surprisingly nice. They're potent offensively in bg1, even on cranked up SCS settings.  On the way back to Beregost to sell some spoils Kangorolac was ambushed by the bounty hunter party lead by Morvin. A silence from the Clerics helped turn the tide early, but it didn't get everyone.  The gnome mage (Halacan?) got off a charm person on Kagain which took Kagain out of the fight and made the party have to kite around the meleers a bit.  Eventually additional cc was landed and the party gritted out the battle. Kangorolac has now completed the Nashkel mines and a number of eastern zones. Up next is probably Firewine, Peldvale, Larswood, and that one spider zone near Peldvale/Larswood, and then bandit camp + Cloakwood. Ulcaster will probably be left until much later in the game because with my mods it's a little overtuned.
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Dec 30, 2023 09:23
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Congrats on the victories. I've been slow going but I'll do another update at some point.
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Jan 1, 2024 22:06
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Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple has had a number of new adventures. To start with, Kangorolac and company explored a zone with some ogres, some bandits, and a cow in need of saving.  Next up: the dreaded Firewine ruins. This was not even 1/10th of the Kobolds that Kangorolac and company slew. I think my mods jack up the spawn rate to insane levels, because I legit killed something like 100 kobolds in here. I'm not joking.  Fighting SCS mages in close quarters is a terrifying prospect, but the group took them down before they got off too many nasty spells. I actually think in some ways this guy might be more dangerous on vanilla because iirc on vanilla he always lobs a lightning bolt at you and it will bounce and kill you and everyone else including him lol. I don't remember what he tried to cast on me here. I think I had to rely mostly on Shar-teel and Kagain because I think he had a minor globe fire off on his prebuffs meaning my mages couldn't do much to him. I really ought to have taken spell thrust on Baeloth or Kangorolac, but I spaced out and didn't do it. Nevertheless, Baeloth does have dispel magic which sometimes works and Vicky can also try and do that. Shart will eventually have arrows of dispel as well which should get me through the later tough mage fights. I did not kill Kahrk yet. Saving him for when I have arrows of dispel.  The party returned to Kangorolac's Basilisk hunting grounds. However, this was not to kill basilisks, but to whoop the rear end of those cocky Waterdhavian adventurers.  Enjoy that web ya jerks  Next up it was spider hunting time. A dangerous prospect because giant spiders with my mods can fire off individual webs at party members. They work the same way as the spell but are just single target abilities they have. Vicky can cast freedom now though which helped keep Kagain safe.  I decided to roll the dice and fight those red wizards. They're very tough. They're all level 7 or so mages who of course prebuff with minor globe and mirror image. Some have stoneskin. I was able to eventually dispel a few of them with Baeloth, but this fight took a lot of kiting and careful spacing with my party in order to take these guys down. Despite the scary protections Shar-Teel can mow through even these protections with magical arrows. And Kagain was able to tank the magical onslaught.  At least for a while. Despite a heroic effort on my part to keep him healed he eventually went down. But we won the day.  The party was ambushed by the group of lady bounty hunters. Baeloth used detect invis to keep the thieves from backstabbing and the rest of the party used silence, command, and a few magic missiles to keep the Clerics off balance.  Next up was some Druids in Larswood. Or is it Peldvale? I always get the two mixed up. I was quick to launch a magical assault on these guys to ensure they didn't get off a nasty call lightning or insect plague on me. I forget if these guys can do insect plague, but I'm always terrified of Druids using that on me, and with my mods I'm not putting it past them being able to do that.  Here is a nice pic I caught of Baeloth turned bandits into ash  The party finally made its way to the bandit camp. Here I employed webs, fireballs, skull traps, and hold persons to keep the vast array of bandits at bay.  Here's Ramon talking about how much trouble Kangorolac is causing right as Kangorolac breathes a massive blast of fire breath in his face. Oh Kangorlac you knave.  It actually got a little hectic. It felt like the bandits never stopped coming, and it took me a while to blast through them all. I'm not sure if this area got tougher on my recent install or if I'm just rusty but it was harder than I remembered it being! Still, Kangorolac prevailed. He has looted a massive pile of corpses, hit level 7, and is now going to rest and re-arm in Beregost before conquering Cloakwood proper.
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Jan 2, 2024 22:36
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docbeard posted:I've definitely seen them cast Insect Plague before, yeah. I know for sure the head Druid guy in Cloakwood will do that. And some of them are high enough level to petrify with chromatic orb. And call lightning is lethal on double damage. Druid enemies actually scare me a lot more than mages. Mages generally won't one shot me in bg1, but Druids can.
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Jan 2, 2024 22:52
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Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple has a bonus update for you because I felt like getting some more g8 in Onto Cloakwood we go. Took out some hunters and got a nifty bastard sword out of the deal. I forget what it's called but I know we want it for Werewolf isle  After that we went spider slaying. I should note that before I went to Cloakwood I made a pit stop to recruit Alora and have her pick pocket that ring of free action from the gnome in Ulgoth's Beard. It came in handy in Cloakwood with all the spiders.  I decided to make peace with the Druids. They only attack on sight if you take the wrong dialogue options and/or have Jaheira in the party. I had no interest in dealing with them and their nasty spells, especially since they give little xp and crap loot.  Peter of the north was killed for illegally raising Wyverns in the Cloakwood.  See what happens when these things get raised in the cloakwood? You gotta deal with big ones. And they steal cows!  The party cleared out a whole nest of them. The head will come in handy for 2k gold at the temple of Lathander.  And now for the big showdown with Drasus and company. Things started out evenly on both sides. They had their spells up, and I had mine.  I opted to try and focus fire Drasus first because he's annoying with his boots of speed. He also loves to slam a giant strength potion and he hits very hard with that, so he had to go.  However, leaving the enemy mages free to do their thing poses its own challenges. They eventually dispelled Kagain and then landed a charm on him.  The party focus fired Rezdan down with missile projectiles since I couldn't dispel his protections. Baeloth tried a few dispel magics but didn't succeed. However, Kangorolac's minute meteors helped burn through Rezdan's mirror images and stoneskins. He went down. Then, Tiax's Ghast managed to land a paralyze on Kysus and we took him down. During all of this Baeloth landed a spook on Genthore. In the end, the party prevailed (though Tiax died - thankfully not permanently).  Inside the mines there were more mages to deal with. Hareshan and her goons were lured into a choke and pelted with webs and skull traps. Hareshan didn't prebuff with minor globe so rip to her.  After a few more slain mages it was time to deal with the head honcho himself. Davaeorn fired off a minor sequencer with stinking cloud and web in it, which zoned my party to the north. However, Davaeorn's guards also periodically show up from the northern entrance with SCS. We also had the doom guards to deal with. So we were in a rock and a hard place. Baeloth used the wand of monster summoning to help add some bodies. Davaeorn came at us and cast a lightning bolt, which was terrifying. Luckily it was targeted at one of my summons, and I was able to get the rest of my party away from the bounces. Also luckily it didn't take a bad ricochet. Another close call came when Davaeorn lobbed a fireball at Shar-teel. Luckily she was not next to anyone else, and I popped a potion of magic blocking with her to tank that. I'm not sure I *needed* it, but I was afraid of her getting permaed. She doesn't have a ton of hp. We eventually burned through Davaeorn's protections with our bows and meteors and other projectiles. Tiax did die...again. Not permanently. I think he got felled by black talon arrows. Kangorolac has conquered the Cloakwood and is now on his way to Baldur's Gate
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Jan 3, 2024 04:06
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Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple has nestled off of the Wolf of Ulcaster. I'm not sure if I misclicked or if he reflects ice damage but I cast Ice Lance on him and somehow hit myself and stunned myself and then it was a gg from there because the extra wolves he summoned tore through my mirror images before I could save Kangorolac. I kinda hosed up the fight though. The way it works on SCS is that the wolf of Ulcaster is a buffed vampiric wolf and he periodically howls which summons a few dread wolves as reinforcements (and also 1x during the fight a couple of ghouls). The howl also can fear you. My remove fear wore off before the fight ended and half my party got feared. I think I was still gonna be OK until I stunned myself though. Still not sure how that happened. I'm 99% sure I clicked on the wolf with that but maybe I spaced out and didn't. I've never tried ice lance on him or any ice spell for that matter so perhaps he does reflect it? Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jan 4, 2024 |
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Jan 4, 2024 22:26
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Cleric/Mages are cool. Always enjoy those
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Jan 11, 2024 22:44
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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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Flowing Thot posted:Best Buy Gamersclub is still alive and in the underdark prepared to do the Mind Flayer dungeon but her player came down with a case of playing other games. I fell deep into a BG3 hole followed by a Cyberpunk hole and an Otome game between them. Hopefully get back to this soon. I've had a similar thing going on, although mine has also been mixed with rl stuff I've had to deal with. I hope to keep this run going but it may be slow for a while.
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Jan 15, 2024 23:58
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Gorok the Shadowdancer has fallen fighting Bandits in the bandit camp. I tried to infiltrate them which is something I don't normally do. It means you fight them in the boss tent instead of outside. That part went well enough. But when I came back outside Taugosz and the rest of the bandit camp aggroed me and despite Baeloth having mirror images up he fell to a lucky crit. Without his web and fireball I was overwhelmed and Kagain fell to the arrow onslaught. I tried to clutch it out with my Shadowdancer and firebreath potions but despite killing tons of them that way they eventually caught me out of stealth and got me. Kinda annoyed by dying there because I had done some good work and cleared out part of Durlag's and had a mountain of gold I was sitting on, plus two arrows of dispel which would have made Davaeorn easier. I'm not sure I like trying to infiltrate the camp. Coming out of that bandit tent and then having to fight all of the bandits sucks rear end. I'd rather fight them on the west side like I normally do because at least there I can hide my casters in the back so they don't get sniped as easily.  I'm not sure if I will do another one right now or not as I have been busy but if I do it will likely be a Dwarven Defender or Barbarian. Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jan 16, 2024 |
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Jan 16, 2024 22:26
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DeadButDelicious posted:Gargantuan spiders are so, so mean. I'm thinking Gascoigne will be my last stab at the ironman for this year. I'm experiencing a weird bug with my add-ons where after casting chant he moves super slow even when hasted. Must be something to do with IWDification for spells conflicting with the tweak I have to "fix" the werewolf shapeshifters get, which is starting to fall off now and will be utterly useless at the end of SoD but at least I have old favourite insect plague and new favourites smashing wave, static charge and mold touch. Should've rolled a fighter/druid in hindsight. IWDification may be making chant give you a movement speed penalty. That's how chant works in IWD and iirc IWDification may make that change
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Jan 22, 2024 08:22
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