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Meet Shorty the gnomish berserker  Shorty has a special rule. He hates most big people. He will only allow shorties or honorary shorties in his Party (unless it is for a quest). Honorary Shorties: Imoen Aerie Anomen (only if Jan is in the party)  Montaron is a shorty. He immediately kills Xzar however. What a shame.  One of my swords broke so I took one from a hobgoblin I murdered.  Shorty has no trouble from Tarnesh. Imoen and Montaron are a different story.  Gorion told me to find Jaheira and Khalid, but THEY. AREN'T. SHORTIES.
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Jan 6, 2019 18:55
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Meet, Elissa, the Cavalier!  Never knew Ogres could deal that much damage in a single hit. Goodbye Elissa.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:57
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Jay Rust posted:Meet, Elissa, the Cavalier! The true ironman experience
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Jan 6, 2019 20:58
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I told myself I wouldn't do ironman this year but I felt the game calling to me. I want to try to play solo in BG1 to hopefully get through it more quickly. First attempt is Theodoric the Stalker.  I went with Stalker because it will be convenient being able to stealth without the need for the invisibility ring, and I definitely want a warrior class to be able to buff up with the best potions.  Death by Tarnesh. I got off a successful backstab but it didn't one shot him and Theodoric whiffed the follow-up attacks, giving Tarnesh ample opportunity to riddle him with magic missiles. Totally avoidable because I could've easily just stealthed around Tarnesh, but I decided to take my chances.
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Jan 6, 2019 22:18
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Thanks to everyone who showed up to my incredibly long stream while I did a massive dungeon and then ended up going to the end of Baldur's Gate, particularly cheesetriangles who was there for the vast majority of it. If anyone really wants to watch the entire six hour stream it's here https://www.twitch.tv/videos/359782867 If you want you can make a drinking game out of it and take a shot every time Neera or Viconia dies. However, I've chopped it up into highlights! The Demon Knight at the end of Durlag's really can't deal with skeletons. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/359984461 (3:33) Aec'letec proves similarly unable to deal with summons, or a group of adventurers with mirrored eyes. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/359984462 (7:15) Dopplegangers, sent by Queen Dopplepopalus to assassinate the Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate, prove unable to deal with three Wands of Fear and a Chaos spell cast on them. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/359984464 (3:24) And the final, climactic battle against Sarevok: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/359984463 (14:53) The end result:  I didn't mean to make the clip 1453, but it's fitting. Where it went wrong was I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the pull and ended up fighting Angelo and Sarevok simultaneously. If I'd been more conservative and pulled just Angelo I could've beaten him down and moved on to the big guy. If I'd been more aggressive I could've drawn out Angelo's Dispel Magic and had Sarevok chasing me around while he was casting it, so I could get out of his line of sight and keep him from attacking. Instead I ended up fighting both, and his Arrows of Explosion made it so there was nowhere in the battle area that was safe. I thought that was going to go all the way, but Fulda has died at Sarevok's hands. However, I'm not mad at video games after that, it was a pretty good run. And the issue was that I was playing my absolute favorite, which never wins. I need to go with something a little off-kilter, not exactly my favorite but something I can jive with. A wizard, to be sure, but what type?  Meet Tantous Tarmin, named after a jackass character a friend ran in my campaign many years ago. I'll be doing things a little differently in this run. For starters, as you can see I've gone back to English: my Czech simply isn't good enough, and it made conversations frustrating. I'm also not going to play like someone who's done this a dozen times before, so my immediate goals won't be to power level with basilisks, get the money for killing Bassilus, and then steamroll through the Nashkel mines. I'm going to get stuck in with him and stream around 4:30 PM US Central and go until probably 10 (with some short pauses). After this I'll be streaming every day except Mondays starting at 6-7 PM until about 11, and on weekends whenever the hell I want.
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Jan 6, 2019 22:41
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Jay Rust posted:
 Softface posted:I didn't mean to make the clip 1453, but it's fitting. Where it went wrong was I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the pull and ended up fighting Angelo and Sarevok simultaneously. If I'd been more conservative and pulled just Angelo I could've beaten him down and moved on to the big guy. If I'd been more aggressive I could've drawn out Angelo's Dispel Magic and had Sarevok chasing me around while he was casting it, so I could get out of his line of sight and keep him from attacking. Instead I ended up fighting both, and his Arrows of Explosion made it so there was nowhere in the battle area that was safe.  A pity Fulda could not make it when the end was so close. Angelo is a massive pain in the rear end.
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Jan 6, 2019 22:50
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Lizzy Continues along facing few challenges to her run.  We pickup a new party member and Hexxat shows off her worth.  I really didn't enjoy any part of hexxats quest.  The fight against the chromatic demon was going pretty slowly and I wasn't doing much damage and he wasn't really hurting my planetar either. I started casting wish over and over for fun and a double length time stop put an end to him.  I buffed up just a bit before going to tackle the Wraiths in the final room of watchers keep level 3. This is where my berserker mage kala died.  It goes really easily and no one took any serious damage. After that I win the spectral band but not the scroll of wish which would be a nice luxury but not purely needed since I already know the spell. After that we meet lum the mad and go outside to rest up and continue the fight another day
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Jan 7, 2019 00:49
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Rayvek the Kensai has solved the iron crisis! Well, the Nashkel-adjacent portion of it anyway. Our first order of business is to get Isra a magic weapon, because the last thing we need is an Iron Crisis Moment happening at the worst possible, er, moment. (Rayvek already has a magic quarterstaff, purchased since we haven't dealt with Silke yet. Drake's got the Stupefier, and Shar-Teel has Varscona. Imoen and Quayle have, well, a really bad time in store if they're forced into melee anyway.) Fortunately, this fellow is happy to part with his magic sword.  Well, that's one interpretation. Normally I wouldn't keep two clerics around at this stage in the game, but with Quayle in the mix, I have a pretty solid debuff machine, between Command and Sleep spells, and I'm sure he'll make a long and valuable contribution to-  Welp. Since I'm kind of making a half-assed attempt at the Iron Party honor this time, that's all she wrote for good ol' Uncle Quayle. Now, I have a lot of other mage possibilities. Neera's just an apology away, Xzar is in the Belching Dragon Tavern cooling his heels, there's Dynaheir once I rescue her, or Edwin if I feel like going into contract murder. There's even Xan if I need someone to cheer us all up. But wait. There is another. But it involves going somewhere...bad.  I wouldn't normally go anywhere near Firewine this early, but thanks to my heavily-modded game, I happen to know there's someone there in need of a rescue.  This is Indira, an elven fighter/mage. I'm hoping she'll be slightly sturdier than an ordinary mage, between the fighter levels and the (not very good) caster-friendly armor she comes with. Her voice acting, as with many mod-added NPCs is, um, not spectacular.  Don't you sass me, dialogue options! Anyway, she'll be wanting a magic longsword too, which reminds me, let's see if the anti-werewolfinator potion works this time?  Nope! I'm beginning to think that Thalantyr may not actually be all that good at snapping people out of magical transformations. Fortunately this probably won't come up ever again.  Yeah, we'll see. We embark on some of the standard lowish-level adventuring, including:  A high-risk/high-reward bit of dumpster diving,  Killing two birds (and one necromancer) with one stone, as the Bassilus bounty is the pretext given for Drake joining up with us. (Here pictured is Drake showing off his liturgical chops.) (Incidentally, thanks to SCS, this fight is unexpectedly tough, as Bassilus has an Aerial Servant that I didn't realize was there til it had drat near killed Imoen. It's hard to tell from the screenshot but half my party's in the single digits of HP at the end of the fight, and it's all thanks to that little bastard.)  Sorting out Silke (not that we'd ever side with her but Drake sort of forces the issue here)  Chatting with Aerie...hey wait a minute! Yup, mod again. She won't join your party yet, but if you deal with the hostage situation at the circus she becomes a temple merchant with some magic weapons for sale.  Yeah, about Uncle Quayle...  We'll, uh, get right on that. Back to adventuring.  Yeah I'm just gonna bring you everywhere with me forever, Shar-Teel.  We rescue Dynaheir and send her on her way (literally, not in the, uh, Edwin sense), and also pick up our first tome.  And that's the Nashkel Mines sorted. Should be smooth sailing from here for a while, provided that Nimbul isn't a problem.  (He's not.) docbeard fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jan 7, 2019 |
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Jan 7, 2019 05:03
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Earlier today I was excited about Tantous Tarmin, whose namesake was a tremendous headache for me as a dungeon master. He died an ignominious death trying to save Neera, as he deserved. The name is cursed, after all, I've been cursing it for over a decade, so it was bound to happen. In the end, he got what he deserved, and I didn't even screenshot it. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165898 (1:52 to include my look of shock afterward, as I promised the viewers). Tantous Tarmin killed by Red Wizards while ineffectually protecting Neera, and good loving riddance. This guy I have much more confidence in. Meet Matt Stryker, who bears the name of a Carpenter Brut song. Any future Iron Man attempts from me, if any, will be similarly sourced, though I don't expect any more characters will be needed.  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165902 (only 2:52 to witness the birth of this absolute beast) He solves the Ogre Problem, reducing a nearly ten-minute ordeal each time to less than two. I didn't even buy him ranged weapons, but he proves that he has no need of them. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165899 (1:58) He employs the worst tank in the world, Ajantis, who may encourage enemies to strike him while he stands there honorably. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165896 (2:02) He succeeds where his predecessor failed, and not only saves Neera twice (once from the Red Wizards, once from the cold embrace of death), but employs advanced guerrilla tactics to do so. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165894 (9:08) He goes after Bassilus anyway, just because he was in the neighborhood. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165895 (2:02) He saves Melicamp from winding up as a farmer's dinner, which is something none of my characters have managed before.  He clears kobolds from the Nashkel Mines without needing to power level first. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165901 (part 1, 15:30) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165897 (part 2, 19:36; my roommate asked me to help him with a Simpsons trivia thing and that is my jam) But more importantly, he saved this guy.  He also cleanses the Sword Coast of a xvart village, but does it without blowing them all to kingdom come. Instead he does it more like a ghost, striking while everyone is asleep. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165900 (11:37) While charitably helping Ajantis rise above his shame as the worst tank on the Sword Coast, he also exterminates a vile Gnoll Stronghold, and in doing so finds a book he suspects will make him even more charming (by the time I was free to ID it I had been streaming for 5 hours and been awake for 20) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165893 (32:25) Finally, he helps Branwen get revenge on Tranzig for turning her to stone, and as part of the interrogation learns where the hideout is for the bandits who've been plaguing the Sword Coast. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/360165892 (1:22) There is nothing Matt Stryker can't do, except die. Adjantis: Broken bastard swords - 3 Neera: deaths - 1 Matt Stryker is on his way to deal a unique brand of violence to the Bandit Camp. (The adventures of Matt Stryker will resume on Tuesday around 6:30 PM Central US time, come say hi! I'm used to watching something on my second monitor while I play but streaming precludes that, otherwise all you'll get is profanity-laden tirades to myself.)
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Jan 7, 2019 05:59
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Ugh, so I lost all my screen shots, so I just have after pictures. Shorty has conquered the Nashkel Mines. I killed Basilieus and I did Edwin's quest (RIP Dynaheir).  Look at my shiny new point of Charisma.  -4 AC is pretty good for the moment.  Those Dex Gauntlets mean even Kagain has a good AC.  Montaron is a stealthy murder machine.  Imoen shoots good. Next time I take on the Bandit Camp. Edit: I also failed to save Melicamp
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Jan 7, 2019 06:06
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Man, between bursting out laughing at Jay Rust's succinct Elissa the Cavalier post and at Critical Mister dying in the best way for a Jester to go, and groaning at seeing Fulda die at the end of the game, this OP update adds quite a few fresh bodies to the fallen. Still, good on Lizzy for getting over the wraiths, The Pebble for soloing BG2 super well so far, and every other new fresh face getting through the early stages of the game! OP updated to here.
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Jan 7, 2019 19:28
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Shorty has died to an ettercap in a Cloakwood random encounter. I'm still having screenshot issues so I'll just say RIP Shorty
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Jan 7, 2019 19:53
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Meet Celeste, the half-elven Blade.  This will be a solo run, with a full install of SCS on Insane difficulty for extra monster spawns (I think this might be exclusive to Siege of Dragonspear, but I'm not sure), but with the double damage turned off. I've literally never used a Bard, PC or NPC, ever so it should be a fun run while it lasts.
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Jan 7, 2019 20:32
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Lizzy was cruising through the Lum the Mad level until the demi lich where my entire party except for lizzy got imprisoned. So that was fun. The real loss was some of their items which I can't retrieve until I return from the underdark because you simply can't buy the scrolls before then.  Oh well I grabbed a new party and we are off to spell hold.
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Jan 7, 2019 20:40
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biscuits and crazy posted:Meet Celeste, the half-elven Blade. That sounds awfully difficult. Good luck. cheesetriangles posted:Lizzy was cruising through the Lum the Mad level until the demi lich where my entire party except for lizzy got imprisoned. So that was fun. Rough. I suppose you will come back with freedom spells to get them back. What are you at this point? Lizzy will probably be pretty overleveled compared to her companions at this point.
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Jan 7, 2019 21:51
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I'm level 23 and nearly at 5 million xp. I don't strictly NEED a party. But I had one around for backup. To be honest most fights is just project image > time stop > empty the clones spell book.
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Jan 7, 2019 22:01
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Arwa the Berserker emerges from Candlekeep. I'm hoping to dual her to a Druid, all she needs is basically every tome.  SCS's Silke can summon loving Phase Spiders, yet the only actual casualty is Tiax, dead to a Kobold's arrow.  Though Tiax lives on in the form of his Ghast, at least temporarily.  Command is still MVP.  The party is on the way to the Gnoll Stronghold, I'm feeling pretty confident!
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Jan 8, 2019 00:22
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Rayvek Closes In On The Bandits...But At What Cost? Chalk one up for the Melicamp dies column. Thalantyr continues to bat a big ol' goose egg when it comes to non-fatally reversing transformative curses. Rayvek and company return to Beregost to sort out the usual post-Nashkel business, meeting up with the Flaming Fist, Elminster turning up to be unhelpful and vague, etc.  But there's also this, the quest hook for the biggest quest in Ascalon's Quest Pack, the Serpents of Abbathor. (Well, technically the first quest hook was a note we found in Mulahey's lair telling us this dude would be waiting here at night.) The Serpents, a duergar cult of some description, sent an emissary to meet with Mulahey to get in on that sweet sweet Iron Throne action. Their offer was rejected with some prejudice, and Tarash here decides to shoot the messenger. Meaning us. This can be a pretty tough fight but fortunately Drake nails him with a Hold Person and that's all she wrote. Among his belongings, we find...  A clue! That someone called (sigh) Bashrik Sparklehammer is going to be targeted for an ambush on the road north of Beregost. The next time we go to this area, there's a cutscene. There's nothing to be done about the ambush except find poor old Sparklehammer's diary, and his, er, sparklehammer. (Which Drake is now wielding, it being a slightly better warhammer than Bassilus had.) That's it for this sidequest til we hit Baldur's Gate proper.  Moving on. There are too many T- names in this goddamn game. Tranzor Z or whatever goes down like a punk, while we wait a year for Indira to sleep it off. We then head north to bear witness to the aforementioned assassination, kill some more ankhegs, beat up a little girl for some fishermen (the part where we threaten some fishermen for the little girl is still pending), but mostly we're on a shopping trip to Ulgoth's Beard.  Rayvek now has the second best weapon she will use for a very long time. We also pick up the Greenstone Amulet while we're in the neighborhood and Imoen helps herself to a five-finger discount Ring of Freedom. We start to explore Peldvale and Larswood in preparation for taking down the Bandit Camp. We run into some Black Talon Elites, as usual, and as usual they're a massive pain in the rear end, but nothing we can't handl-  Well, poo poo.  Fortunately, there's another mage we can recruit not far away. Oh, goodie. (Actually, he turns out to be a godsend when we head back for town to lick our wounds and...)  Normally these assassins are in Gullykin, just like the Amazons are in the Valley of the Tombs. But thanks to the miracle of SCS, they can show up as ambushes pretty much anywhere. Usually at the worst time possible. Like now. I apparently didn't get a shot of the aftermath but suffice it to say that, while we all lived, it was pretty drat close. And it wouldn't have been even remotely close if we hadn't had Baeloth and his full complement of spells on hand. Nothing too exciting to report otherwise, we rested up, sorted out some equipment issues, and cleared out the rest of Peldvale and Larswood and are now poised to take on the Bandit Camp.
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Jan 8, 2019 04:13
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Ba'ik Toree the Half-Orc Shaman forged ahead! We've cleared up most of the wilderness areas, just a few notable ones left (Firewine, Ulcaster, Mutamin's Garden). Drizzt ate poo poo to a steady stream of bullets, arrows and spirit animal summons. Took a long rear end time and I belatedly realised that none of his gear was even useful. The lack of a priest became a real issue, both in the druid fight in Larswood, which was messy and very nearly went south (we started the fight fully tested and healed):  The fight inside the tent of the bandit camp was the same, saved in multiple ways due to Xzar's roll against the mage's horror spell.  The bandit camp was a piece of cake otherwise. At this point I decided to go and recruit Viconia because I was sick of getting feared everywhere. 2/5 party members have high enough constitution for health regeneration so the extra healing isn't at all needed. I've decided to run Viconia as an aggressive melee build - when Xzar buffs her with Strength and she casts draw upon holy might her STR hits 20, which means some very chunky hits with that hammer. Anyway I headed north to Ulgoth's Beard for a bit of shopping, and that motherfucker Shandalar teleported me to the island without any choice. I'd forgotten he does this if your rep is low, and also hadn't realised that after the -2 from Viconia I was down to 4 reputation. Anyway the island turned out to not be much of a problem - skeleton summons from Viconia make light work of mages, and when they can't, a buffed up Montaron can:  At this point, remembering how he ended my previous run, I was prepared to eat humble pie and just turn in Shandalars' quest. But you know what? gently caress that. This guy is the absolute worst. So I tried out something I'd read online after my last death, which is that he's relatively vulnerable to the wand of stunning. Which he is! He fails the save and gets beat down like the chump that he is.  I spit on his grave and head to a temple to pay my way back up from a very painful 3 reputation. This is an evil party run though, after all. So that's where it stands! (I apologise for the weird tint to some of the screenshots, my tablet's night light mode had come on and I'd forgotten it shows up in screenshots)
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Jan 8, 2019 11:51
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Short update this morning since I had some time to kill before work. And speaking of killing... Rayvek Has Murdered (Most Of) The Bandit Camp Before we actually hit up the bandits though, we decided to take a detour to the Valley of the Tombs for the monster summoning wand. On the way we run into the other assassin ambush.  Fitting I suppose since we'd run into these ladies in the Valley in an unmodded game anyway. Aside from Baeloth eating two backstabs early on, this fight goes pretty well for us. As, indeed, do most of the Valley fights.  With few exceptions. (Goddamned Ogre Berserkers.) We send Drake, who was apparently just one week away from retirement, off to the Tyrran Precinct in the sky, pick up Branwen, and go to fight some bandits. Well, I say some. Because the way SCS mods the bandit camp is that they sound the alarm when they catch whiff of your party. So instead of a lot of small skirmishes culminating in a boss fight in Tazok's tent, you, uh, get to fight pretty much everyone at once. In some ways this is an obvious challenge, but in others it's honestly easier because you can make good use of crowd control. Which basically means Baeloth is the MVP here between webs, fireballs, summons, and the odd dire charm, though a holy smite from Branwen doesn't go amiss either.  There's still a bit of mopping up to do, and we still have to loot the place, but I'd say that went pretty well. And Imoen's ready to dual-class to mage. (NPC "Retirement" Count: 3.)
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Jan 8, 2019 12:34
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The Pebble, the solo barbarian, keeps murdering Brynnlaw and the asylum completed without much trouble.  The only remarkable event was that The Pebble never forcibly changed into the Slayer when confronted by Bodhi in the Asylum, although the rest of the script went off as normal. It could have costed me dearly because I was expecting it go off so I didn’t use a barbarian rage immediately counting on the Slayer’s form natural defenses against the vamps domination gaze, luckily The Pebble made the save and when I recovered from surprise, I started chaining off rages as usual and murdered everyone. I follow Saemon out and went to the Sahuagin city.  No issues whatsoever here, I gotta say that event after nearly 20 years playing this game, I still love this area, just look at this dank architecture style Next stop of the murder train is the Underdark. I’m really looking forward to do the drow city quests, it’s my favorite part of the game. First step, cleaning the Kuo Ta Prince and this dudes:   This item is an underappreciated gem. Most people won’t even use it due to its alignment restrictions. The on-hit effect is super strong against single tough bosses like the Ravager or the final boss, because the effect keeps adding on automatically with each hit even if blocked by stoneskin. The Pebble will give put this to good use. Following the Kuo Ta murder, did the gnome town main quest, met Adalon, entered Ust Natha and started the first main quest to rescue Phaere. On my way to meet Soulafein that certain group of adventurers took me by surprise and gave The Pebble a good trashing (blindness is godly against melee only dudes), had to retreat and take them one by one in a hit-and-run battle. I was not looking forward to fight Illithids, they are the biggest assholes to fight with any kind of melee based character, by far.  The entire group jumps on The Pebble immediately. I was trusting to not lose much intelligence quickly with AC -8. Literally seconds later…   HOLY TESTICLE TUESDAY! LEG IT!  OOOOPSSS!  Bugger me. That’s why I hate Illithids and their super bullshit tentacle hentai attacks. The entire drow city quest chain goes down the drain. There’s only one sensible thing to do then.    VERY HIGH SPEED MURDER (yes, The Pebble has just turbo murdered an entire city out of spite.) Let’s finish this silly quest.    Must admit it’s been ages since I fought Adalon and she’s tough, had a bit of a hard time there. The Pebble, the solo barbarian, reaches the surface!
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Jan 8, 2019 13:13
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Let's try this solo thing again with Crushinator the Barbarian. I've actually not played a Barbarian before, but having on-demand protection from numerous debilitating effects in the form of Rage should be helpful. An Orc would've probably been a better race choice for the stats, but a Dwarf can still get 20 CON with the tome and I'm hoping the saving throw bonuses will enhance Crushinator's survivability.  Crushinator took revenge on Tarnesh for her predecessor's death.  After grinding up more levels than necessary, she went to the Nashkel mine to pulp Mulahey.  Thanks to the combination of the CON tome and Buckley's Buckler, Crushinator achieved an impressive 21 Constitution. It's great, she basically never has to rest except to recharge Rage.  Most importantly,  Melicamp survived! Next time: not dying in the bandit camp, possibly.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:18
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Celeste, the solo Blade has cleared some basic quests and got some decent early game gear. After reaching Beregost, I quickly calmed Marl down, and cleared a spider infestation. Proper positioning ensured only being attacked by one spider at a time, and I was only hit once, fortunately making the poison save.  Travelling to the Friendly Arm and killing Tarnesh at level 3 proved simple enough, especially after the good luck of the 30% half-elven innate sleep resistance blocking his Sleep spell. The extra HP ensured survival after his 2 Magic Missile spells (Literally impossible to survive at level 1 with 8 HP, which is why I waited), and he died mid-cast attempting a Horror spell.  After selling the Ring of Wizardry for a cool 9,000 gold, a quick trip to the Nashkel Carnival was next, so I could buy the Shield Amulet. AC roughly equivalent to +3 studded leather without any spell failure with immunity to Magic Missile for 5 minutes per cast, and its dirt cheap to recharge. Its pretty drat good. The Necklace of Missiles is pretty good too, but I skipped it for now since I won't need that until I travel to the Mines.   Returning north to clear a couple of loose ends, the Neera ambush was less trouble than I thought, and I was pleasantly surprised at how straight forward the ogre proved to be.   How things stand right now. I'll need to check out High Hedge for some more spells and maybe pick up something for the helmet slot. Need to block those crits. Next up is some of the easier wilderness areas.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:26
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Updated to here. Godspeed you crazy soloers! I'm enjoying reading The Pebble causing an avalanche of pure pain, especially against all of Ust Natha and the rest of the creeps in the Underdark!
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Jan 8, 2019 22:24
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Arnaldo the Shaman has killed Mulahey. Arnaldo is at level 3 and I'm more than ready to take on what awaits in Nashkel. But Neera has learned Protection from Petrification and we're in the area, so we go hunt some basilisks.  Everything is going well until the Mutamin fight. I mistime a damage spell casting, which allows Mutamin to get a spell off. This turns out to be Horror, somehow Kagain the dwarf with the maximum shorty bonus manages to roll terribly enough to fail his save, and the tragedy unfolds:  I was saving these guys for later, but thanks to Kagain I have to let them go. That's some good loot I'm not getting. loving Kagain. At least Arnaldo levels and learns another IWD spell:  He also automatically learns Writhing Fog, which is a good persistent AoE damage spell for this level. Neither it nor Alicorn Lance are amazing, at least not in the long run, but they'll do the job for now. And it's Druid spell level 2, there's only so much you can expect from that. We head back to Nashkel and Imoen, aspiring mage that she is after picking up Tarnesh's spellbook, learns her first spell: Fireball.  She's also now good enough at picking locks to rob the potion seller's tent at the Carnivel, which nets the party some good stuff including a Potion of Fire Giant Strength and one of Invulnerability and around 500 gold. Ultimately, though, I'm still heartbroken about the loot I missed out on letting those adventurers in the Basilisk area go, so when I get the chance to replace Kagain en route to the mines I do so without hesitation.  We move on, explore the area around the mines, kill Greywolf and see that Prism actually puts the emeralds into his masterwork's eyes now.  Yikes. Little stary there, Ellesime. Arnaldo, dedicated to natural beauty and feeling a certain kinship as he himself is also of chiseled physique saves her from Prism's lapse of reason and removes the emeralds. The mines are easy after all the levels the party picked up adventuring around Beregost. Neera and Arnaldo experiment with different spell combinations, mixing and matching Sleep, Grease, Stinking Cloud, Entangle and Writhing Fog, high fiving all the way through the mine while immobilized Kobolds freeze to death around them. Dorn is so into watching this sad spectacle that he levels up:  Neera's and Arnaldo's experiments reveal that Entangle is, in fact, a trash tier spell I probably shouldn't have picked as even puny Kobolds are unimpressed by its +3 saving throw bonus.  Fortunately, they stay at range anyway.  Mulahey's Skeleton minions are immune to Writhing Fog and Stinking Cloud but still held back by Grease. The Kobolds fail to do anything. So does Mulahey, who has his only attempted spell interrupted as Jaheira hits him with an Alicorn Lance. Dorn, Khalid and Imoen take care of him quickly afterwards. And so the Nashkel mines are pacified. Next up:  Doom.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:26
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I really do like Blades and I might even venture to say that they are the most well-rounded single class character in the game, but their poor thief Thac0 progression is very frustrating throughout most of BG1. I played an illegal Blade (full Elf with 19 Dex) in my last runthrough, and the only way to consistently hit anyone was with a bow - this includes Offensive Spin. I realise also that Blades level up relatively quickly, but I still found it very frustrating to melee with a kit supposedly built for it. If BG supported Finesse melee weapons whose to-hit bonus was based on Dex rather than Str, it would probably be another story. Mind you, my Blade started with 17 Str and went to 18 with the Tome because I was unaware that I could do 18->19, so that did cost me a +2 attack bonus.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:31
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JustJeff88 posted:I really do like Blades and I might even venture to say that they are the most well-rounded single class character in the game, but their poor thief Thac0 progression is very frustrating throughout most of BG1. I played an illegal Blade (full Elf with 19 Dex) in my last runthrough, and the only way to consistently hit anyone was with a bow - this includes Offensive Spin. I realise also that Blades level up relatively quickly, but I still found it very frustrating to melee with a kit supposedly built for it. If BG supported Finesse melee weapons whose to-hit bonus was based on Dex rather than Str, it would probably be another story. Is a quirk of the ruleset, unfortunately early bg1 is especially unkind for melee, no matter what your character is.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:44
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It's the attacks per round more than anything. Bows, for whatever reason, have an innate 2apr. Even straight fighters can't get that many with a single weapon until BG2. Slings and crossbows are just as lousy as melee weapons. Bows are the reason ranged rules early BG.
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Jan 9, 2019 00:21
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Angry Lobster posted:Is a quirk of the ruleset, unfortunately early bg1 is especially unkind for melee, no matter what your character is. Oh, I'm well aware... I still have a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the core books for 2nd edition in my head after all of these years, including the Thac0 table for warriors/priests/rogues/mages. The problem is that the rogue's base Thac0 goes up at half the rate of a warrior's and still less than a cleric's or druid's, so the period of futility extends well into the "early mid" levels. bike tory posted:It's the attacks per round more than anything. Bows, for whatever reason, have an innate 2apr. Even straight fighters can't get that many with a single weapon until BG2. Also this. Bows were somewhat overpowered in 2nd edition except perhaps for high-level warriors, the caveat being that many classes could not use them. The rule is essentially: some sort of long bow, some sort of short bow, sling if you absolutely must, crossbows are pointless because if you can use a crossbow you can use a bow which is much better. 3rd edition did improve this based on how it did weapon proficiencies, but that's damning with fine praise.
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Jan 9, 2019 00:46
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bike tory posted:It's the attacks per round more than anything. Bows, for whatever reason, have an innate 2apr. Even straight fighters can't get that many with a single weapon until BG2. Not true. Fighters get an extra 1/2 attack at level 7, so combined with two to four pips in a melee weapon that's 2 attacks per round with a single weapon.
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Jan 9, 2019 01:13
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I have ascended to the next level. Shape Change + Simulacrum + Tensers Transformation = Mind flayer with fighter thac0 and hit points that can cast a scroll of time stop. 
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Jan 9, 2019 01:29
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Mountaineer posted:Not true. Fighters get an extra 1/2 attack at level 7, so combined with two to four pips in a melee weapon that's 2 attacks per round with a single weapon. Oh yeah I'd forgotten about their base APR increases. Still, level 1 for any ol random with a bow, vs level 7 for a class whose only powers are hitting poo poo 
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Jan 9, 2019 01:57
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We return to the adventures of Matt Stryker, en route to the bandit camp. He decides to stop off in some nearby areas beforehand to see if he can shake out any more information about them. He can't, but he does find this unusually hostile druid who manages to land holds on almost the entire party, then kill himself while we watch. Also a bear ate Imoen.  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/361116527 (4:15) We finish clearing the area before getting Imoen raised, since it means more experience for the people who were able to remain standing. With how effective Sleep is at this level, all that means is it takes a little longer for enemies to die. On the way to the next area, however...  Ettercap ambush. To make matters worse, the web trap in this area was much closer than I remembered, and Neera accidentally trips it when I move my soft center away. I minimize the damage caused by it, though, and with the leftover antidotes from Landrin's house it's a tough but manageable fight. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/361116525 (5:17) NOW it's time for the bandit camp. At an appropriate level, this is a decent challenge with a decent spread of enemies. Branwen goes down in combat due to a lucky spike in enemy hit rolls, and I consider going into the big top before getting her raised. However, I'm not going to roll over and die out of stubbornness, so I get her back up for the sole purpose of Remove Fear, which I end up not even needing. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/361116523 (40:03, last 5 or so for the tent fight) Since I'm in the area, I might as well knock out a couple other zones. Next to a bunch of spiders I find a group of Red Wizards. They've been giving trouble to Neera, and more importantly they were rude, so I throw on some Remove Fear before moving in. Turns out they can't handle their own medicine though, and I end up not needing it here either. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/361116526 (2:48) Since Protection from Petrification has dropped randomly and I'm averaging level 5 I decide it's an appropriate time to slap around some basilisks and assorted other things in that area. Branwen summons a skeleton warrior to absorb the worst Mutamin can throw at us, leaving him with just a couple Larloch's Minor Drains when we actually engage. I wasn't sure though, so I put on Remove Fear before moving in to be safe. Once he was down I scrambled to make it to the other party, so that their fear effects could also be neutralized. Again, I turn out not to need it, since the first Hold Person catches their fighter/mage, and we make short work of them. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/361116524 (32:01, both detailed fights at the end) With that out of the way, it's time to move on. The Cloakwood operation sounds formidable though, so I think it would be advisable to clear out some more areas. Tune in tomorrow when Matt Stryker delves into some ruins in the east.
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Jan 9, 2019 05:40
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Lizzy Is back home safe and sound and has retrieved her lost comrades.
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Jan 9, 2019 06:06
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cheesetriangles posted:Lizzy Is back home safe and sound and has retrieved her lost comrades. Glad to see your hype men survived their time in stasis encased in a tiny gem beneath the surface of the planet!
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Jan 9, 2019 06:13
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We also cleared the lum the mad level of watchers keep after. Got the short bow, crom faeyr, silver sword, wave halberd, the equalizer made. Then of course we cleanse yoshimos soul. Edwin is almost up to 8th level spells and I'm hoping I can get him to 9 before the end of SoA. So far his job has mainly been stand around in the back and don't do anything. At least Korgan and Dorn I let fight.
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Jan 9, 2019 06:17
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And now we have entered the home stretch. Later today I will beat this.
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Jan 9, 2019 19:24
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Lizzy Has slain Irenicus and reclaimed her soul!  He is weak to mind flayers during a time stop it turns out. Honors: Iron Man, Purist, Gaxkang's a wuss, Legendary Arms. Dishonors: None.
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Jan 9, 2019 21:40
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Celeste the solo Blade is now level 8. Melicamp lives! 2,000 is a nice chunk of XP when you've still got less than 10K total.  1 of 8 Tomes found. Also got some nice spell scroll drops from the Xvarts in the area, including Protection from Petrification.   While in the north, I cleared that zombie farm, the Tenya quest and the Ankheg nest. This particular one dropped Mirror Image, and the nest itself had both Ghost Armour and a wand of Fire.  A well aimed Fireball and 2 Offensive Spins dealt with the pair of Vampiric Wolves here.   Korax helped me deal with Mutamin and his Basilisks with ease, though I decided to play it 100% safe and keep Celeste at long range for this. She's quite handy with a Longbow as it turns out.  This group of mercenaries in the same area required melee combat, but a Fireball softened them up nicely. Offensive Spin did the rest.  Next up is the Nashkel Mines. Level 8 is overkill for them, but with SCS moving those assassin groups to ambush areas once you reach Chapter 3, I'd like a buffer just in case I get them at a bad time. biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jan 9, 2019 |
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Jan 9, 2019 21:51
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| # ? May 17, 2024 12:14 |
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The Pebble is back in Amn. New suit of armor acquired. After killing Bodhi, I decided to start Watcher’s Keep.  I hate this stupid level.  The Pebble clobbers the Chromatic Demon, it’s not even hard, it’s just long a boring, stupid fat dobber. Left after this level and rushed the main quest. Elf city is nothing more than a formality at this point.  A formality filled to the brim with Adamantite golems, Jesus Christ, how can there be so much adamantite in this world to build this assholes.  Black dragon bites the dust. After defeating Irenicus in the Tree of Life, I wanted to fight the dragon in Hell.  Bugger me, this freaking bastard hits hard and fast. Had to heal a lot in this fight.  Still got dunked hard, though.  The Pebbles fall, Irenicus dies.  Honors: Ironman, Purist, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Battlemaster, A God Among Men, Kangaxx a Wuss. Dishonors: Scroll of Wuss
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Jan 9, 2019 22:58
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