Sorry forgot to mention:
Rogues can wear Corthala's family armor. Big deal, right? AC 2? Well --
YOU CAN CAST SPELLS WHILE WEARING IT.
You need dex. 18 I think to put it on, but that is easy enough to get.
This is excellent armor, 25% resistance to elements, innate BLESS.
Rogues. Just do it.
A poor man's bladesinger.
No deaths, no reloads
Er...sorry..I guess.Originally posted by Tharan:
<STRONG>I hate you two. Now I am going to have to play with a bard. Sigh, damn you and your enthralling tales of bards.</STRONG>
Well, I hit level 35 or so in spellhold! I stopped trying to maximize xp's at this point, it is obvious I will be level 39-40 after finishing off Bodhi no matter what I do.
By the way, the difference between a Bard level 25 and a Bard level 40 is almost invisible. It consists of a few spells, like 4! (and 3 of them are levels 1-3!), and more special abilities. But that's it. A well-equipped level 25 Bard beats a poorly equipped level 40 Bard any day. Surprising. Who cares about a few hit points?
Killed Andolon, the Silver Dragon. I want that human skin armor for the wicked bonus it gives to saving throws. I don't care about AC as much as saving throws...
HOW TO USE TIME TRAP EFFECTIVELY:
Learned this vs the silver D. I have multiple uses of time trap. 5 to be exact. I went close but not THAT close to the SD, and set 5 traps. Then I cast 5 skeleton warriors, and "attacked" one making it red. This immediatly triggered the "time stop" of the first trap, during which I ran over 10 feet, got the dragon in view, and started casting pierce magics, magic missles, etc. As soon as one time trap ended, the skeleton warrior triggered the next, with just a fraction of a second in between. You can thus sequence 5-10 time traps in a row. If I was a power gamer I would have taken more time traps, like 10. I don't think ANYTHING can withstand 15 free rounds of hacking! I think one time trap is about a round and three quarters or something like that.
Anyway, all the pierce magics hit, and then since skull trap didn't do squat I tensor's, attacked with all the skeletons, and threw melf's. Yes, melf's meteors. Works great. The skeletons lasted FOREVER. Two were left at the end of the fight. I finished her off with the Flail-o-ages. No damage, but sort of fun to figure out the strategy.
Yes, time trap(s) + skeleton warrior : a thief's way to get sequenced Time Stops!
I'm sure some baddies in TOB will be immune to time stops, so that will be fun.
I'm just racing through the underdark, I simply want to make Crom F and go to the Watcher's Keep. Something new..unknown...yes. That will be fun.
Later.
Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.
I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy
And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.
I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?
G
I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy
And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.
I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?
G
I rest fairly often. Now, what I usually do, is get "spelled up" with blur, mirror image, some defenseive spell like spell trap via Staff of Magi, and improved haste. I then run around and kill as much as I can quickly, usually rather a lot. I cast a few more imp. haste's until they are done, then rest.Originally posted by Gawayn:
<STRONG>Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.
I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy
And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.
I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?
G</STRONG>
Basically, since I am soloing, have not died, have never reloaded, I'm not feeling bad about resting as often as I want.
Also -- it's better "role playing" to rest often, right? I mean, if you were REALLY standing outside a room full of baddies, would you wade inside when injured, spells half-wasted, equipment dishevelled? Or instead find a quiet corner, cast imp. invis. and rest to complete health? The latter, certainly. All in the name of good role-playing.
Yes, the summoned monster-time trap strategy is slightly...I don't know. Cheesy? However that seems to be how it is implemented, they could have had all the time traps go off at once (if there was a pile of 5 in one spot). Instead they sequenced them. Go figure. I won't resort to this, however, unless I hit some baddie that such a baddie CromF can't handle him. I didn't have Crom yet for the silver d.
You know I am doing the same, get my bard up to 2950000XP and continue the game.
But I played also trough BG1.
My stats:
19 strenght
20 dexterity (Changed the tome of con to dex to be better with missiles)
18 constitution
19 intelligence
13 wisdom
16 charisma.
He is just great, Because I have Imported him from BG1. SO I don't have any penalties
he has a lore of 112 135% pickpockets.
Great thac0. He is just so good.
But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).
But I am still thinking, shall I take Two handed swords or dual wield?
With two handed swords I can quikly change to longbow (there is one in ToB with is really good I think: Taralash +5 and +2 to movement rate). I like to shoot first and then go melee.
Or short swords (short sword of mask is really good) and that scarlet ninja to.
[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: RA ]
But I played also trough BG1.
My stats:
19 strenght
20 dexterity (Changed the tome of con to dex to be better with missiles)
18 constitution
19 intelligence
13 wisdom
16 charisma.
He is just great, Because I have Imported him from BG1. SO I don't have any penalties
he has a lore of 112 135% pickpockets.
Great thac0. He is just so good.
But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).
But I am still thinking, shall I take Two handed swords or dual wield?
With two handed swords I can quikly change to longbow (there is one in ToB with is really good I think: Taralash +5 and +2 to movement rate). I like to shoot first and then go melee.
Or short swords (short sword of mask is really good) and that scarlet ninja to.
[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: RA ]
Sorcery and Shadow together as one, the arcane and the dark united. Through our knowledge and skill none can stand against us. We are as one, infallible and invincible. The Shadow Mages.
Wow killer stats. I can't touch that.Originally posted by RA:
<STRONG>You know I am doing the same, get my bard up to 2950000XP and continue the game.
But I played also trough BG1.
My stats:
19 strenght
20 dexterity (Changed the tome of con to dex to be better with missiles)
18 constitution
19 intelligence
13 wisdom
16 charisma.
He is just great, Because I have Imported him from BG1. SO I don't have any penalties
he has a lore of 112 135% pickpockets.
Great thac0. He is just so good.
But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).
But I am still thinking, shall I take Two handed swords or dual wield?
With two handed swords I can quikly change to longbow (there is one in ToB with is really good I think: Taralash +5 and +2 to movement rate). I like to shoot first and then go melee.
Or short swords (short sword of mask is really good) and that scarlet ninja to.
[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: RA ]</STRONG>
The questions of 2-handed sword or dual-wield is easy. You HAVE to dual wield. Attacking with ONE attack a round with a 2handed sword is pointless. The combination of scarlet ninja-to plus ANY decent 1 handed weapon is superior. Especially if you choose Daystar (longswords), CFury (katana), eventually CromF (war hammer) or flail of ages (flail). At your level you won't miss very often, and with the extra attacks you more than make up for deficiencies in thatco.
Short swords are OK if you use HD's sword of chaos I guess, but I would prefer flails or katana. Unless you are choosing short swords for role-playing purposes, go with longswords or katana or flail.
Anyway, use Tensor's to get a truly sick thatco, then you can hit dual-wield vs. even dragons no problem.
Range weapons? I don't bother. I just send in skeleton warriors or cast magic missles. I am permenantly dual-wielding. Or even skull trapping while the skeleton warriors are attacking, they are resistant most of the time.
My two cents....
This time trap thing sounds really cool. Would work on any dragon. Do you have to be a bard to use it?Originally posted by Gawayn:
<STRONG>Dang, I thought I was the only one that knew about the summoned/time trap thing.
I used it once, but then my stomach retched because it is too cheesy
And yes, you never even notice a bard leveling. I had Haer'dalis in my party, and he was level 30 something while the rest were still in the mid 20's.
I was just wondering though, how often do you rest?
G</STRONG>
Any rogue can get time trap. It's easiest as a Bard, however, because you can simply cast a "summon creature" spell and attack it. With a thief I assume you will have to use an item like that spider figurine to get a summoned creature to, finally, attack and make "red" and trigger the trap. Whew!Originally posted by WAYNEO:
<STRONG>This time trap thing sounds really cool. Would work on any dragon. Do you have to be a bard to use it?</STRONG>
Well, I'm finally (finally) in Watcher's Keep. I got CromF, and I still maintain it's the single most natsy item in the game (so far). One thing I noticed, however: I'm always running low on money. NO matter how much I steal/collect, I always spend it very quickly. I didn't buy the short sword of entaglement from the Helm guys; I'm sticking with Scarlet+CF. For now.
First LEVEL: Easy. NO problems improved haste+Crom could not fix. WOW so many easy magic items! All over the frickin place! And NONE are useful/better than what I've already got. I throw them into the bag. The little ritual was easy after Umar Hills taught us how to collect notes and put 2+2 together.
Second LEVEL: Little tricky. Almost got killed in the air elemental room when I kept falling asleep. Figured out, finally, that this sleep went through saves, magic R, spell traps, etc. I ran into the corridor and smacked them. I'm gathering up all the notes and papers like crazy. Got the lovely acid head for the flail. Did the open doors thing, acid ate cold, cold froze heat. Then released the demon, he was a pain. But since I suspected he was going to attack me, I had laid down 2 time traps, giving me some free hits. I was just doing 2-3 damage per Crom. I improved hasted, and did more damage when it transformed. Almost ran out of stoneskin spells. Finally whacked it after drinking a healing potion! Wow I have not taken damage like that in years! But its dead now.
Level three for later, after I do "real" work.
First LEVEL: Easy. NO problems improved haste+Crom could not fix. WOW so many easy magic items! All over the frickin place! And NONE are useful/better than what I've already got. I throw them into the bag. The little ritual was easy after Umar Hills taught us how to collect notes and put 2+2 together.
Second LEVEL: Little tricky. Almost got killed in the air elemental room when I kept falling asleep. Figured out, finally, that this sleep went through saves, magic R, spell traps, etc. I ran into the corridor and smacked them. I'm gathering up all the notes and papers like crazy. Got the lovely acid head for the flail. Did the open doors thing, acid ate cold, cold froze heat. Then released the demon, he was a pain. But since I suspected he was going to attack me, I had laid down 2 time traps, giving me some free hits. I was just doing 2-3 damage per Crom. I improved hasted, and did more damage when it transformed. Almost ran out of stoneskin spells. Finally whacked it after drinking a healing potion! Wow I have not taken damage like that in years! But its dead now.
Level three for later, after I do "real" work.
This is really the best point made about soloing. I've soloed with an Illusionist/Thief and used about 25+ strategies to beat monsters (I, unlike two, have to reload often because I'm reckless). When I have used full parties of six, I've been able to beat most things with the same 5-10 strategies (I only vary strategies to keep it interesting).Originally posted by RA:
<STRONG>
But when you solo a character you get to learn the class of your character better.
Because you learn to explore every option avaliable to survive (especially in BG1).
</STRONG>
"But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe." -President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 1, 2001
BIG NEWS!
Hold your breath...oh no!
I DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup, but I don't feel too bad about it at all. It was from a STUPID MAZE spell in the Watcher's Keep Illithid area. And the trap didn't even protect something valuable! How sucky. I hit the trap, checked the valuables, then saw the MAZE spell coming at me. I was like -- uh oh. I could not get a spell trap off fast enough. Sucks.
Oh well, onward. One death at level 40 ain't that bad.
I finished Watcher's Keep.
These are my impressions:
The dungeon was haphazardly put together. Level 2 was the best (elemental rooms). The worst was the last one I think. There seemed to be no consistency between battle difficulty. The demon level was HARD, especially those no-magic rooms! I had to use greater evasion, wearing Armor of the Hart like you would not believe. But then my AC was about -15 making me last long enough to CromF 'em.
The Githyanki by comparison are trivially easy, same with lame sword spiders and the like. I think each level was designed by a different person and then cobbled together.
I wasn't in any low-hp trouble until the last battle to open the portal. But first let me point something out: Bioware has done it again. Time Trap is very powerful. But then so is time stop. Dragons are trivially easy with time trap, as noted. So are the "big" party battles (excepting the last). The guy who had the deck of many things, since he was not "red" after we talked some, allowed me to put a few traps around him both time and spike. When I whacked him time stop/spikes went off, the party was dooomed.
Ditto for dragons. Bioware has NOT fixed the simulacrum helmet, so you have use it to cast protection from magic on yourself as often as you like. Good for the demi-lich, for example. The demi-lich is the worst monster in TOB, so far. Either you use berserk/scroll of magic protection and kill it taking no damage, or you don't and you get imprisoned after dishing out no damage. Very boring. Binary. win/lose. A no-brainer.
The "opening the portal" battle was fun. Time traps let me whack the eyeball thing and almost kill the snake. Then I had to run around a lot, casting spells, invisibility, spell immunity, imp. haste, etc. That female warrior lady, she was TOUGH. And that stupid charm creature took forever to kill. Eventually I seperated them all and whacked them one-by-one. Also you can sneak back to the imp room and sleep there to recover some, and then go back into the fight. That was fun.
NOT so fun was the "imprisoned one." I got him to show up, ran away from his summoned monsters, slept upstairs, went back, the summon's had gone. I did some experimentation, seeing what would damage him. CromF -- No. Flail of Ages: yes, non-fire enviromental damane. Time trap: No, he is immune. Melf's -- odd. One got through and did 8 damange. Most did not. AFter he would hit me a few times I ran away, healed, then went back for more testing.
Then...the sad day. I tried a spike trap. Full damage. I ran away, slept, crept back down, put down 4 spike traps, cast imp. haste, tensor's, grapped the flail and that was that. The demigorgon went down like the mutated monkey he is. This is clearly somewhere between cheese, a programming oversight, a brilliant strategy, luck, excellent special ability choice, etc. Anyway, he died.
Overall, the dungeon SUCKED. NO good weapons at ALL, none better than scarlet ninja-to + either cromF or Flail of Ages. No good armor. no good protection. NOTHING. Only improvement was the bracers of super-specialization -- nice for rogues! Of course I did get a lot of stuff that will be upgraded later, I think.
Bioware also recycled some rooms and stuff, kinda lame, not many new monsters, I didnt have to use many new strategies, etc.
So it was like -- ho hum. A good 5 hours or so, but nothing as cool as running through Umar Hills the first time! Or the elven city!
OH -- the machine of Lum is kinda lame. I can't risk dying so I just did the things written on the notes. It's so lame, at level 40, making a big deal out of incresing dex/charisma/etc. one point. I mean, so what bioware! I'm level 40! Even if you put all my stats at 25 it won't increase my power much, given the equipment I have. Well -- ALL at 25 would be nice for the AC bonus. But you know what I mean.
Now I have to whack JonI, and move on to the "real" expansion. Here's hoping.
Hold your breath...oh no!
I DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup, but I don't feel too bad about it at all. It was from a STUPID MAZE spell in the Watcher's Keep Illithid area. And the trap didn't even protect something valuable! How sucky. I hit the trap, checked the valuables, then saw the MAZE spell coming at me. I was like -- uh oh. I could not get a spell trap off fast enough. Sucks.
Oh well, onward. One death at level 40 ain't that bad.
I finished Watcher's Keep.
These are my impressions:
The dungeon was haphazardly put together. Level 2 was the best (elemental rooms). The worst was the last one I think. There seemed to be no consistency between battle difficulty. The demon level was HARD, especially those no-magic rooms! I had to use greater evasion, wearing Armor of the Hart like you would not believe. But then my AC was about -15 making me last long enough to CromF 'em.
The Githyanki by comparison are trivially easy, same with lame sword spiders and the like. I think each level was designed by a different person and then cobbled together.
I wasn't in any low-hp trouble until the last battle to open the portal. But first let me point something out: Bioware has done it again. Time Trap is very powerful. But then so is time stop. Dragons are trivially easy with time trap, as noted. So are the "big" party battles (excepting the last). The guy who had the deck of many things, since he was not "red" after we talked some, allowed me to put a few traps around him both time and spike. When I whacked him time stop/spikes went off, the party was dooomed.
Ditto for dragons. Bioware has NOT fixed the simulacrum helmet, so you have use it to cast protection from magic on yourself as often as you like. Good for the demi-lich, for example. The demi-lich is the worst monster in TOB, so far. Either you use berserk/scroll of magic protection and kill it taking no damage, or you don't and you get imprisoned after dishing out no damage. Very boring. Binary. win/lose. A no-brainer.
The "opening the portal" battle was fun. Time traps let me whack the eyeball thing and almost kill the snake. Then I had to run around a lot, casting spells, invisibility, spell immunity, imp. haste, etc. That female warrior lady, she was TOUGH. And that stupid charm creature took forever to kill. Eventually I seperated them all and whacked them one-by-one. Also you can sneak back to the imp room and sleep there to recover some, and then go back into the fight. That was fun.
NOT so fun was the "imprisoned one." I got him to show up, ran away from his summoned monsters, slept upstairs, went back, the summon's had gone. I did some experimentation, seeing what would damage him. CromF -- No. Flail of Ages: yes, non-fire enviromental damane. Time trap: No, he is immune. Melf's -- odd. One got through and did 8 damange. Most did not. AFter he would hit me a few times I ran away, healed, then went back for more testing.
Then...the sad day. I tried a spike trap. Full damage. I ran away, slept, crept back down, put down 4 spike traps, cast imp. haste, tensor's, grapped the flail and that was that. The demigorgon went down like the mutated monkey he is. This is clearly somewhere between cheese, a programming oversight, a brilliant strategy, luck, excellent special ability choice, etc. Anyway, he died.
Overall, the dungeon SUCKED. NO good weapons at ALL, none better than scarlet ninja-to + either cromF or Flail of Ages. No good armor. no good protection. NOTHING. Only improvement was the bracers of super-specialization -- nice for rogues! Of course I did get a lot of stuff that will be upgraded later, I think.
Bioware also recycled some rooms and stuff, kinda lame, not many new monsters, I didnt have to use many new strategies, etc.
So it was like -- ho hum. A good 5 hours or so, but nothing as cool as running through Umar Hills the first time! Or the elven city!
OH -- the machine of Lum is kinda lame. I can't risk dying so I just did the things written on the notes. It's so lame, at level 40, making a big deal out of incresing dex/charisma/etc. one point. I mean, so what bioware! I'm level 40! Even if you put all my stats at 25 it won't increase my power much, given the equipment I have. Well -- ALL at 25 would be nice for the AC bonus. But you know what I mean.
Now I have to whack JonI, and move on to the "real" expansion. Here's hoping.
Wow, this is neat. Two, you're doing a fantastic job here. Soloer or not, I don't think there are many would sniff at what you've done.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his pants for his friends."
Enchantress is my Goddess.
Few survive in the Heart of Fury...
Gamebanshee: [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/"]Make your gaming scream![/url]
Enchantress is my Goddess.
Few survive in the Heart of Fury...
Gamebanshee: [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/"]Make your gaming scream![/url]
Thanks guys.
Glad to know somebody's reading!
I am going to take a few days off, Watcher's Keep wore me out I think. I'm crabby or something. And it is going to be a chore running through the elven city to get to JonI again, I'm tired of that scenario. It's all for the expansion...I keep telling myself. And, of course, some hell-bonuses.
Glad to know somebody's reading!
I am going to take a few days off, Watcher's Keep wore me out I think. I'm crabby or something. And it is going to be a chore running through the elven city to get to JonI again, I'm tired of that scenario. It's all for the expansion...I keep telling myself. And, of course, some hell-bonuses.
The way I understand it, two has only died once, and never re-loaded just before dying or any similar cheesy tactic. I imagine that he has to use the auto and quick saves so that he can go to bed once in awhile (presumably when his character is safe and sound, sleeping invisible in some corner).
"But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe." -President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 1, 2001
SureOriginally posted by two:
<STRONG>Glad to know somebody's reading!</STRONG>
I love solo journals. Elmonster got me hooked, I guess.Strange that Bio didn't fix dragon AI to respond to trap setting... One of their developers said he had been working on it. Maybe they didn't QA it or something... Lots of good stuff seems not to have made it to QA. Think of the Balthazar powers in ToB and the Wild Mage in SoA...
[url="http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/SpellsReference/Main.htm"]Baldur's Gate 2 Spells Reference[/url]: Strategy, tips, tricks, bugs, cheese and corrections to the manual.
I just mean I use quicksave to restart after yes, sleeping and eating.Originally posted by Underdog:
<STRONG>Quick question.....you say you are playing with no reloads but then you mention that you have a quicksave and the autosaves.....does this mean you are using the quick/auto saves? Because that sounds like reloading to me.
If you are truly doing this without ever reloading a saved game, then you have achieved something there......not sure what, but if you're having fun then I guess that's what matters!</STRONG>
I mean that my Bard has, no, never died. I never restarted any battle, or restarted for any other reason. Until -- see below.
Just recently (Watcher's Keep) I had my first "death" due to a maze spell...then I was forced to restart from a previous quicksave after "dying". So my Bard is no longer pure...boo-hoo.
I do it becuase it's more fun. I can't really feel like I am "winning" or beating the game if I have to keep reloading to win a battle, or reloading to do something trivial like scribe a scroll/steal something. It makes it more interesting -- I'm surprised other people are not trying it. Really puts the fear-o-death back into the game! And it's actually not that hard to do, surprisingly. You just gotta be careful.
But my TOB is bugged out right now so it's unplayable...sigh. Oh well, maybe somebody here will have an answer/idea for me.