Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Made lots of progress this past week. I cleared all of the TOSTC content, though not without the occasional death. All of BG city except the Iron Throne is done as well. I'm pretty much ready for the end game.



Breezed through this fight easy enough. Key is positioning your party far enough away that they don't get cloud killed, then hammer with range.



One of the dopplegangers got off a confuse here that nearly wiped my party. I'm honestly amazed my Skald didn't die. Finding my way back to the surface to get everyone rezzed was difficult. I had to leave many valuable arrows behind as I couldn't carrry everybodies loot. I nearly panicked because the door near the stairs was locked and I couldn't recall how to open it. Eventually I found a lever nearby that did the trick.



Disable fireball trap, lure Ghouls into brawl, Profit.



At my signal, unleash hell. 6 fireball pots/wands off at once = gg chessboard.



I forgot to turn off party AI here and Coran and Kivan dropped stealth and started wailing on the DK despite Jaheira not being in position. He got off a fireball on those two but I popped fire resist pots on both just in time and they survived the nuke. Then Jaheira got into position and it was won in short order.



Mirror image kept Neera and my Skald from being backstabbed, but Imoen took a bad hit. Still, she survived and one cast of hopelessness later and I quickly mopped up these guys.



I cheesed the poo poo out of Aec. Basically what I did was stealth Coran to the NE then open with a salvo of arrows before the cultist lady started talking. Then to my great luck all of the cultists except one grouped up near her. Not one to miss an opportunity, I switched to arrows of detonation and managed to kill all of them in a few salvos. I then just had to stealth over and finish one more off that was still alive before buffing the party up and killing Aec. He's not that hard with full buffs and just him to fight. You just have to have dispel/pots of mirror eyes ready in case he does that ghoul spell.



Werewolf island wasn't too bad. Imoen and Kivan did manage to die, though. Kivan got held by a Vampire wolf and died before I could save him, and Imoen I tried to stealth to the top floor to grab the sword of balduran for fighting Karoug. She did manage to get it but then dropped stealth and got surrounded and killed before I could get her out of there. Still Karoug fell easily enough. Jaheira used the dagger and Coran used the sword +1 +4 vs shapeshifters. Despite neither having prof points in those weapons they were buffed enough that they got hits easy enough.



Mendas fell also to the same strategy.



And here is Norm the Skald after many adventures.

Knock on wood but there's no reason I can't make it to BG2 now. The Iron Throne fight is tough but no tougher than anything I've already handled. Plus I'll probably just pop a scroll of prot magic on Jaheira and then dominate it. Sarevok will be handled the way I always do - with judicious amounts of summons and arrows.

The Skald has proven to be a solid character. It's not the most powerful you could choose obviously but when you combine it with several archers poo poo goes down in a hurry. It also has decent defenses thanks to Mage spells. Once I get Stoneskin I should prove quite durable. My HPs aren't what they could be since I've been on core rules and not using max HPs, but I'm beefy enough to not go down like a chump I hope

Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Feb 21, 2015

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

biscuits and crazy
Oct 10, 2012
Mr. Kipling has rampaged through the Underdark and has returned to Athkatla.

The SCS version of the City of Caverns is basically the vanilla BG2 one, there are one or two extra enemies and they have a better AI, but it's actually easy to get through, especially compared with the hideous Tactics variant. I picked up the Impaler for Jaheira and left for the Underdark. The over-powered Cloak of Mirroring has been moved to ToB, so getting that will have to wait until later.

Clearing the elemental portals and a quick fight with a trio of illithid in a random dead-end went by with little hassle, although the greater earth elementals at their portal did good damage with their earthquake spells, not to mention their fists. Vithal and the gnome from the prison crystal were both freed shortly afterwards.


The gnome village and its balor problem was next, there was no danger aside from its permanent fire-shield and it summoning 4 alu-fiends.

On the way to Adalon, I figured I would do the rest of the prison crystal. The 2 fighters and the mage were dispatched very easily. Alchra Diagott on the other hand, was more difficult. His planetar was distracted by an efreeti and I fled left and waited for the lich to teleport to me.


He did, and eventually what few physical protections he had left ran out. (He foolishly wasted most of them while dealing with my summons) He died quickly after that, but not before summoning a pair of pit fiends. They died after a while, but they took Minsc and Jaheira with them.


Reaching Ust Natha and then rescuing Phaere went by with no difficulty. I got this scroll from the mage in the ambush outside the city, the one with the ogre.

Qilue and Phaere's beholder quest were not difficult to beat and were done quickly.


The tavern pit fights were next, the Sahuagin dropped a scroll of Mordenkainen's Sword. I was very fortunate that the beholder failed it's save.


Vithal was not generous with his reward for helping him, so I killed him for it. He cast no spells whatsoever and tried to melee Jaheira to death like an idiot. I decided to let Aerie get a rare kill. He dropped some reasonable loot, but the big prize was a Time Stop scroll and a 2nd Horrid Wilting. The 5 death knights are local to the kuo-toa prince I needed to kill for his blood, so I went there next. They did a lot of damage, but I won after a short fight.


Deirex didn't even get his pre-buff up. Serves him right for attacking first and starting hostile, the prick.


The Jae'llat house is a real meat grinder in SCS, which adds more guards along with the usual AI improvements. It was a very long and hard battle, but eventually all the enemies were killed.

I rescued Adalon's eggs and left Ust Natha, but didn't return them to her. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to kill the dragon, but was nowhere near high level enough to attempt it in chapter 5. SCS dragons are incredibly tough, and Adalon would have wiped the floor with the party in seconds.

Not getting Adalon's help meant the drow in the west tunnels would be much more dangerous. I sent in some summons as bait first, then I successfully seperated the 2 glabrezu and the weaker of the 2 mages from the rest, and killed them. The stronger mage then arrived, and he was killed quickly. The golems, fighters and priestess were no match for me without their mage support and died easily. The last fights with Drow were relative pushovers.


Finally, fresh air at last. Kruin attacked me when I got back to Athkatla, but his gith spawned in 3 seperate groups and died very easily. While doing the gong quest I killed Tarnor's lot. Aside from Jaheira taking 3 skull traps to the face, they weren't too much trouble. The Planar Prison was the last thing I did, and it was so easy I forgot to get any screenshots.

Next time, hunting down Valygar and the Planar Sphere.

biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Feb 22, 2015

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Success! Norm the Skald has navigated the treacherous waters of Baldur's Gate and is now on his way to Chateau Irenicus.

Ironling: Complete Baldur's Gate 1
Purist: Do not use any mods that add/modify content (except Tutu, Ascension, SCS, or Tactics), do not create extra characters for your party, do not modify existing NPCs (convenience mods like infinite stacks ok).
Overcoming Adversity: Complete the game as a Wizard Slayer, Shapeshifter, Beastmaster, or non-Blade Bard (requires Purist).
Librarian: Find every stat tome in Baldur's Gate 1.
Trap Dodger: Complete Durlag's Tower.
Honorable Trader: Do not steal any wares from merchants.
Roleplayer: Do not have a good aligned character and an evil aligned character in the party at the same time (includes PC, requires purist).





This part always worries me on Ironmans. Not because I might die, but because if the two Dukes die it's game over. Fortunately a chaos and a hasted up archer death party made short work.



These chumps also bit it. I had Jaheira pop that magic prot potion that gives auto saving throws and she also used prot from fire to be immune to the arrows of detonation that archer uses. Neera hit them with a chaos and the rest of the party engaged from range. Did I mention I love chaos? Because I do.



Tamoko couldn't resist Norm's charms



I fought Sarevok the traditional coward's way. Semaj did manage to port in too but a hasted group of archers took him down before he could lift a finger to cast.



Overall I don't think anyone in my party even took a hit in the last fight.



Norm hit level 10 in the Candlekeep catacombs and finally had access to sweet sweet stoneskin. Between that and mirror image Norm should be well protected against melee damage now. Main threats in Bg2 will be - as always - casters and Dragons. Norm should be hopefully safe from the latter as I never let him go near the front lines and I'll be sure to have invis potions at the ready in case a dragon wing buffets my party away and looks like they might be aiming their breath weapon at me.

Not sure yet who I will take in Bg2. Imoen, Neera, and Jaheira for sure as they are my core members. Beyond that it's tough to say. Archers obviously go super well with my Skald so maybe...Mazzy and Keldorn? Or perhaps Mazzy and Aerie to get cleric spells. Or I could just grab Keldorn and Aerie for pure power. The only issue there would be the synergy with the Skald song. It will still help in that scenario but I'd have no dedicated archer and dedicated archers seem to be diesel with a Skald, at least in bg1 they were.

biscuits and crazy
Oct 10, 2012
Mr. Kipling has cleared the Planar Sphere and the Cult of the Eyeless has been destroyed.


This group of halflings were killed with ease, as were the group in the furnace room.


The rest of the 1st floor was cleared quickly. Only the golem spawn posed any danger.

The real threats in the sphere are Tolgerias and Lavok. Tolgerias and Lavok both had Immunity:Abjuration in their pre-buff, which meant I would have to outlast their stronger spells rather than remove their buffs with Dispel/Remove Magic because Imoen and Aerie only had one level 7 spell between them, which doesn't give me enough casts of Ruby Ray for wizards with Immunity:Abjuration. That should change once I hit ToB levels


Outlasting spells means I actually have to fight Planetars instead of running like a coward. 3 hasted warriors are too much to handle, even for celestials.


Tolgerias summoned a Pit Fiend and a Gelugon, they died in seconds.


Eventually, Tolgerias fell. The Efreeti in the fire room did a lot of damage with a firestorm spell, the other monsters were not dangerous. The golems in the engine room were also killed.


Lavok was practically identical to Tolgerias, aside from a slightly different spell selection the fight went exactly the same way.


aTweaks changes Lea'liyl to a Marilith and another of the Nabassu into a Glabrezu. Single demons are no match for the party anymore, Lea-liyl was so outclassed I could even afford to let Imoen get the kill.

The Cult of the Eyeless was surprisingly simple, there are only 2 large groups of Beholders and Gauth to worry about, as well as a group of priests in the centre of the hive. Everything else is either undead or single enemies.


:laffo:


The Unseeing Eye died in seconds, Gaal fared little better. I left the Shade Lich alone for now.

Next time, Windspear and the Temple ruins, the final 2 stronghold quests.

biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Feb 24, 2015

Comstar
Apr 20, 2007

Are you happy now?
After a long break, Comstar Goes Forth the human Swashbuckler has formed a complete party. Kagin, Branwen, Kiven, Imoen and Edwin. I've just entered the mines of Nashkell. (edit- and both Imoen and Edwin got shot on the 2nd level when they walked in front of the party).

I think I'll swap Kagin for Yeslick later. Kagin's died three times already.

I think I'll duel-class Imoen at level 6, but I don't know if I want to duel-class to Figher/Thief or Mage/Thief.

Whose a better archer - Kiven or Coren?

Comstar fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Feb 27, 2015

biscuits and crazy
Oct 10, 2012
With identical equipment at the BG1 experience cap, Coran is the better archer, he gets +2 THAC0 and +1 damage vs. Kivan.

Edit. Might as well use this post to give a small update for Mr. Kipling. The 2 remaining stronghold quests have been finished, and the 3 SoA wilderness areas (as limited as they are) have been explored and looted.

Most of the Umar Hills quest was done in chapter 2, so finishing off the Temple Ruins was quick and easy.


A 3rd level 9 Lich, to add to the ones in Spellhold and the undead part of the Pit of the Faithless. Definitely a bug, then. It's been reported on the SCS forum on G3, hopefully it will be fixed quickly.


I didn't intend to kill Thaxll'ssillyia at this point, but it took offence to Aerie casting a DUHM, so it had to die. Luckily, it is by far the easiest of the SCS dragons, and was killed with relatively little trouble. Jaheira died to the level drain breath, but I could afford to raise her mid-battle. I doubt the other dragons will give me the same luxury.


The Shade Lord died in less than 30 seconds, his Mantle spell was immediately removed by Aerie, Korgan and Minsc did the rest.


Aside from the pack of Vampires in this room and Firkraag himself, the Windspear Hills are a complete walkover. Due to the threat of level drain, Minsc and Korgan had to do this alone, they performed even better than expected.


Imoen killing an Adamantite Golem is literally the only other thing I got a screenshot of. Samia's little quest was a speedbump, her party was smashed to pieces in seconds.

The only treasure of note in the 3 wilderness areas was the scroll of Time Stop from the mage in the North Forest.

Next time, Liches, Beholders and Mind Flayers.

biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Feb 27, 2015

Taliesyn
Apr 5, 2007

Comstar posted:

I think I'll duel-class Imoen at level 6, but I don't know if I want to duel-class to Figher/Thief or Mage/Thief.

Unless you've used *Keeper to modify her stats, it's going to be mage/thief. She's 8 points shy of having enough strength to dual into a fighter.

Comstar
Apr 20, 2007

Are you happy now?
Comstar goes Forth entered the mines and killed lots of yapping daemons. After resting up before the final cave, he walked in front of the party and took 2 fire arrows..forgetting he was also wearing the belt that gives full protection against ice...and double damage from fire. His life and his quest, ended by a Kobold Commando. A shameful display.

Comstar
Apr 20, 2007

Are you happy now?
I alternated between a heavivly armoured Paladin or a Fighter, but then I recalled that Barbarians are slightly faster than everyone else. God knows I've spent too much time walking the Sword Coast.



Comstar tries Fifth. My first female try in Ironman, a human Barbarian who may duel class to thief at some point. If she lives long enough.

kaiten80
Oct 31, 2012

JustJeff88 posted:

I don't wish to sound patronising, kaiten80, but I read it that you kept trying to use Sleep on the vampiric wolf and it wouldn't work. He's considered undead, and sleep never works on any kind of undead, regrettably.

If I read that wrong my apologies.

Nah, I know. I was trying to make a joke about my pattern of "Cast Sleep, win fight" for the early game here, but re-reading it's not funny, and does make it sound like I was trying to Sleep the wolf.

I didn't bother screen-shotting stuff because I started to think this thread was dead, but the only thing notable I've done with Garvok the Cleric/Thief is clear wilderness zones for XP. I cleared Ulcaster, and I've gotten Edwin killed a couple more times, but nothing interesting to report.

kaiten80 fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Mar 1, 2015

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Well I died rather early into Bg2. I don't even know wtf killed me. I was fighting the shade lord and he killed me with....something. I couldn't see what. Possibly a chromatic orb? I don't think it was a finger of death, though it might have been.

And with that, I think I'll exit stage left for now. Don't have the energy to go through bg1 again, and I wouldn't feel satisfied starting from #2.

Comstar
Apr 20, 2007

Are you happy now?
Comstar tries Fifth gathered her party of Ajantis (who spent all his time trying to put the moves on her), Kiven (does he EVER get happy?), Imoen, Jaheria and Khalid (who is a lot better at low level as a Fighter/Mage I think). After going around the wilderness a bit she decided to try out Safana (I've never used her). Going up against the Sirens and poisoned arrows of Hobgoblins killed Ajantis but the party was able to reach the pirate treasure cave.

And then she died to the first Flesh Golum when the trap that loving useless Stefana failed to spot when it went off.

In her short life, Comstar tries Fifth didn't die a virgin after having a going away party with Hull(!) in Candlekeep, so there's that.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Mar 1, 2015

Comstar
Apr 20, 2007

Are you happy now?

Comstar Full Plate And Packing Steel the 6th is a Elven Berserker who plans on having the heaviest armour on at all times.

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Well I lied. Going to give this another shot. I want to try a shorty race for the badass saving throws. Not sure about class. Probably something a bit more active than my Skald heh.

I'm still a bit miffed today I died like that. It just shouldn't have happened. That fight is easy as hell, I just hosed it up by focus firing the altar instead of the Shade lord.

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Ginette Reno posted:

Well I lied. Going to give this another shot. I want to try a shorty race for the badass saving throws. Not sure about class. Probably something a bit more active than my Skald heh.

I'm still a bit miffed today I died like that. It just shouldn't have happened. That fight is easy as hell, I just hosed it up by focus firing the altar instead of the Shade lord.

Do an evil Halfling barbarian. Dual wield flails. It doesn't truly shine until late SOA, but between the human leather armor and Defender of Easthaven in the offhand your saves will be insane, HLAs negate a ton of physical damage and Flail of the ages can carry you to the end of the game as a main weapon.

biscuits and crazy
Oct 10, 2012
Another update for Mr. Kipling.

The City Gates Lich was the 1st thing I did. I sent in Korgan, Minsc and Jaheira to deal with it. SCS locks the door behind you until the Lich is dead, so I couldn't risk Mr. Kipling or the more fragile mages getting killed by unavoidable Comet or Dragon Breath spells in the tiny room.


Minsc got the kill, then all 3 of my warriors were killed by a Planetar, after taking heavy damage from a Comet/Dragon Breath combo. They were revived once it unsummoned.


The Guarded Compound was next. The ground floor ambush was dealt with quickly. Upstairs, I removed the traps and summoned a Berserk Warrior to distract Sion for a little bit, and retreated to a side room. The 3 warriors and the cleric were killed with ease, then Sion used Time Stop. His Planetar/Comet/Dragon Breath combo killed my 3 warriors, luckily I had left the room the Planetar was in with the other 3 by the time it killed Minsc. Once it unsummoned, I revived my dead warriors, and killed Ketta and Sion, who had used most of his spells up. The place was looted.


On the way to the Shade Lich, I cleared the Mind Flayer base. After the Alhoon's guards had been killed, I planned to summon a demon to soften the Alhoon up a bit. Unfortunately, I left the party AI on and Aerie immediately attacked it, so I had to kill it instead. Luckily, the Alhoon wasn't as big a threat as I thought, and it died quickly.


Both of the Liches guarding Kangaxx's body were killed immediately after spawning by Minsc (I did let them go hostile first), similar to how I dealt with Deirex. A bit cheesy perhaps, but I didn't want to waste time healing.

The Beholder Hive in the Underdark was the last thing I did. I retreived my Drow armour from a crate in the Gnome village and entered the hive.


These 2 Beholders were crushed immediately. The Drow warriors killed the Beholder they were fighting, and were killed as well, as were the Mind Flayers who were fighting some Gauth.


That left the Hive Mother added by SCS as the only thing capable of seeing through invisibility. It was killed, as were the Beholders guarding it. The half a dozen Gauth guarding the dead-end at the north end of the hive were killed next. They posed little threat.

All that remained was to kill the 2 Elder Orbs and whatever other Beholders were in the hive.


The 1st Elder Orb was killed 1st, then his 2 Beholder guards. A group of 3 Beholders and 2 Gauth was nearby, they were also killed after being attracted by the death of the Elder.


The final 2 beholders were killed here. The Elder Orb's 2nd guard was killed in the corridor, having been attracted by the previous fight. Somehow, I cleared the entire hive without a single death. Even with the party's saves being very low, with the sheer number of spells cast I was extremely lucky here.

Next time, the Mind Flayer city, where I should reach ToB levels and HLAs.

biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Mar 1, 2015

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe

Skwirl posted:

Do an evil Halfling barbarian. Dual wield flails. It doesn't truly shine until late SOA, but between the human leather armor and Defender of Easthaven in the offhand your saves will be insane, HLAs negate a ton of physical damage and Flail of the ages can carry you to the end of the game as a main weapon.

Sounds tempting but why a halfling over a dwarf? They both get the same saves and dwarves get no str penalty, plus get a con bonus

e: what the hell, an evil little hobbit sounds amusing

Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Mar 2, 2015

Velisarius
Nov 1, 2009
Does no-one here consider role-playing?

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

I roleplayed Jorgo the Wizard Slayer. So much so that he slayed wizards in Candlekeep until that stinky cheater Gorion brought him down. :colbert:

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Ginette Reno posted:

Sounds tempting but why a halfling over a dwarf? They both get the same saves and dwarves get no str penalty, plus get a con bonus

e: what the hell, an evil little hobbit sounds amusing

I don't remember exactly, I read about it somewhere else and tried it, and it works well. I only did it in BG2 and it's not hard to get Strength increasing items pretty quick so that's largely a moot point. Also having an invincible murder hobbit is a lot more fun than an invincible murder dwarf.

Oh, some quick research indicates it's because Dwarves lose dex, and while constitution is great, an extra point of AC is also great.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

biscuits and crazy
Oct 10, 2012

Velisarius posted:

Does no-one here consider role-playing?

Yes, when I'm allowed to reload.

Anyway, a small update for Mr. Kipling.


The Mind Flayer city is nothing like as tough as the Beholder hive, and it was cleared with relative ease. Korgan and Aerie got HLAs first. Everyone else also got their 1st HLAs while clearing the city.


Mr. Kipling was the last to get his HLA. The only room that gave me any trouble at all was the room before the Elder Brain, which had a large number of enemies. It was still cleared with no casualties, but I took a lot of damage. Simyaz was killed in seconds upon exiting the city.

A quick rest in the Gnome village to redo my spells and sequencers in preperation for fighting Adalon was the last thing I did.

Next time, Adalon and Firkraag.

  • Locked thread