hrm i'm begining to think i didn't select the best spells to start out with
so far i've just eaten all the trap damage and crossed my fingers
was trying to do a no-reload, no-death game, but i doubt i will make it even out of irenicus dungeon without having to reload
But so far, it's going ok. Though I never realized how tough a dust mephit can be lol. Last couple times i went through irenicus dungeon, mephits weren't even a consideration, my fighters would just one shot them. But my skald has like the worst thaco on the planet. It takes him no less than 10 swings to hit once and do crappy damage even. Meanwhile the mephits blow smoke, dust, steam and ice in my face nearly killing me each time and they are too fast to outrun. LoL, game time i have already spent about a month just in the first irenicus level, because a few times I had to
'rest till healed' and that takes about 10 days when you have taken about 35 damage. My main game, which is now nearly finished, is at about 90 days. Of course that was my first game (begining to end almost) ever. Though i've restarted a few times in order to reroll characters, make improvements, etc.
The way things are going, i'm guessing i will finish irenicus dungeon at about 90 days! the same it took me to nearly finish the entire game with my main group!
I have no idea how i'm going to survive the 'portal mephit' room, where the mephits keep spawning while you kill the caged portal mephits. Thats about where I am at right now, just before taking the portal to the next level. It takes me no less than about 40-50 swings to kill just one mephit, barely surviving each fight. I trained skull trap in character creation, but now i'm thinking i shoulda trained fireball, that way I could just open a door and blast a couple fireballs in. I think at the low level at least, fireball works better than skull trap as an offensive weapon. I took skulltrap because it gets progressively stronger the higher level you get. And I didn't remember seeing too many skulltrap scrolls throughout the game, but i remember plenty of fireball scrolls.
You can cast a load of Skull Traps in some quiet place, rest, cast more... Then lure hostile monsters onto them. With a couple of rests and a bit of quick footwork, you should be able to clear out the dungeon with that alone, save for the Mephit Portals (which, of course, won't give chase). Slightly cheesy, but apparently Skull Trap was made for this.
[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.
Contrary to the beliefs of many others here, I loved ToB. I thought the plot was great, and there was this epic feel to it that really made me feel like I was a power to contend with. It was hard too. But then again, I played with 4 mages, 1 fighter/druid, and 1 ranger (my PC was a mage, so my "tanks" didn't have the protection from +1 weapons and below). I'm now finding that the game is MUCH easier with at least one true-blue fighter. I never gated out of a battle, and I never used "cheesy" tactics. Numerous reloads were the result. But I truly enjoyed playing ToB
Lost Souls: A bereft lover. A masterless familiar. Friends gone their separate ways. Time marches on, and destiny heralds the meeting of comrades old and new. Can they find what they're seeking? Or will the search bring them only more pain?
Nice work with your Skald journals, two; I can easily imagine some OTHER (lesser) bard singing the tales of your ascention. This thread is great because your journal trails off exactly at the place where I am now in ToB: just becore the last fight.
I too play BG2 with a fetish, but it's a bit different from yours: I hate resting. I saw the option on the portal that said I'd to to the final challenge and I chickened out, deciding to rest for the third time in ToB (incl. the Keep quest). Resting would not be cheesy if, when you've been out of the game for 8 hours, Sendai would have called in drow from every cave in the neighborhood to form a search party and ammass at the place you were last seen with some nasty spells prepared. But no, while you sleep in a corner, she just lets her spell protections expire. That's cheesy.
So my rule is: if you're not at an inn, you don't sleep. And I didn't escape through the stupid side doors in Watcher's keep to safety, either, because again, I don't think they should have been there. Jesus, if I can go through them, why is everyone else trapped? And don't tell me it's because of my runestone. Another motivation for the "no sleep" rule is that many of the things portrayed in the game have a sense of urgency (Saradush walls could collapse any minute; the Imprisioned One might get free any minute, etc. Do you really think a character would be hiding and napping under these circumstances? In an earlier post "two" said he plays ToB like a war game--but in a war you often battle when sub-optimally prepared, and (at least in the 20th century) the combattants don't take time-outs for tea and biscuts, and then ask: OK, where were we before we got to tea time.
Resting in combat would be fair ONLY IF your opponents got to run, hide, beef up and return.
Having said all this, I have the highest respect for what you are doing. I myself tried to do SoA without restarting, but because I have this hatered of gratuitous time-wasting it was hard. I set a time limit of 50 days. Unfortunately, I died in the second week (at about level 12) because my pc got stunned and hammered, and that was the end of that.
I'm not soloing in ToB. I'm dualling: I thought there might be a Sarevok romance in ToB so I got my chaotic evil Swashbuckler->Mage with 18 charisma to see if Sarevok takes to her. So far no dice. He likes all the evil stuff she does but no sparks, I guess. Anyway, the combat chemistry between the two of them is great, really. They have to look out for one another, because sometimes, a situation that's harmless to one is dangerous for the other. Sadly, my PC did die a couple of times already. So it is cheesy to restart? Well, from a role-playing perspective, not more cheesy than resting.
Here's how I see it: Because you are Baalspawn you don't live an ordinary life. The gods blessed you with a capacity to see your unactualized futures, the stuff that "might have been had you acted differently." Because you get to "forsee" the consequences of some of your actions, you can also backtrack to certain nodes in your life and choose a different path. Your ACTUAL life consists of the path you did not take back. I imagine the PC's life ultimately as a movie with only the parts you decided to "keep".
Yes there are costs to doing this. Enemies freak you out less when you know you can restart, and I remember fear similar to what "two" describes when I was advanced in my no-restarting game.
Ultimately, I think the right balance is somewhere in the middle: sparse resting consistent with the situation at hand, and a hatred of reloading (how about self-imposed fines: you have to "buy" every reload with a temple donation of 5,000 gold (or maybe two millionths of you PC's XP). Yes, I really like this idea!
Wow, well I talked myself off topic. Anyway, nice work two! Don't let my expressed antipathy of resting make it seem like I'm not impressed with your running log.
There is only one way to put it: Mellisan, she of deep decollete and sublime ensellure, bent your humble bard over a convenient washtub, yawned, and proceeded to shellac my non-stoneskinned hide from here to Mt. Rushmore.
She took my Scarlet Ninja-to and made ME see red. She use my hammer as a massage tool. She and her oiled men-at-arms insured that the first, middle, and last thing I tasted was dirt, soon to be heaped up on my grave (my body, of course, will be deposited in the coffin in stages as bits turn up in corners, under the carpet, and next to little-used ottomans).
I threw simulacrums at her. She ate. I threw golems at her. She crunched. I threw animated swords her way -- and like the circus freak she is every one disappeared down her throat. Steadfast, I followed up with skull traps; magic missles; black blades of my-very-own-disaster. Pierce magics were blunted. Desperate camoflogues were casually spotted and dispelled. I made many attempts to distance myself from her energetic conversations, but she would have none of it: her emissaries were sent hither and yon to drag me back to a painful, and ultimately fatal, face-to-face.
Listen, friends, to the sad tale of how my Bard -- ****y, proud, world-weary, confident -- was rendered not simply ineffectual; not simply wounded; rather thoroughly crushed after every strategem I could devise was rendered ineffectual. What is it that goeth before a fall? I bent over to pick up the apple, thinking nothing of it, and forgot to keep an eye out behind me...
OK. I was facing the final challenge. I had just whacked old ElRavager, and found that I had used up quite a few scrolls in the process. As I needed scrolls, had no end of money, I teleported myself back to that desert town where the scroll-seller lives. There, I bought plenty of simulacrums, wishes, limited wishes, absolute immunities, spell strikes, black blades of disaster, etc. Every cool 9th and 8th and 7th level spell there was. This cost a lot, and took some selling of various bits and peices, but it was worth it. I thought.
Back to my pocket plane. I grab every useful weapon there is (putting them in one of my bags-o-holding). I also grab various useful items like the cheetah necklace and the bracers-o-speed. I may have to resort to item-abilities, after all. Then I do something truly unusual: I switch my spells around some. I sleep. Then I read a scroll of spell trigger -- the good one. I select Tensor's, Mislead, Stoneskin. Never used this before. I slept again and got a 9th level contingency going, again Tensor's, Mislead, Stoneskin. I cast stoneskin. I slept one last time.
Then I really get freaky: I open my potion bag and start swilling all the stuff in there. Potions of power, clarity, strength, and last and certainly not least: Roger the Fence's potions of magic resistance. Those things are the bomb! After a few my MR was over 110%, and they last forever.
Ok then I continue on with normal spelling up, blur's, Immunity to divination/abjuration, improved haste, improved invisibility, spell trap, mirror image. I put on the Simulacrum helmet. I place Gate, MKSword, Healing potions in my quickslots. I step through the portal. On to the last battle!
After some dialogue I manage to pause it. I scout it out, looks like a big circle with 3 smaller circles with some bridges missing. My initial plan is to run out of visual and reconnoiter. So I take off, sprint. This Mellisan girls says something, and casts a bunch of true sights that don't get anywhere vs. spell immunity. Then she casts some summons, and before she's out of visual I see a bunch of monsters on crack running after me. Damn.
I spit off a simmy. He spits off a MKsword. I step back, but about 8 baddies descend and though invisible they know I'm there. I let simmy attack them and I run around some, but 1 or 2 always target me as well. Meantime Mellisan has crept up and is casting time stop. Time -- stops. She casts a bunch of true sights and some other stuff. As soon as time gets normal again I equip a Time Stop and read away. Time -- stops. But not for her, she is wandering around some. I run up and smack her, NO effect. Crom does nothing. I try flail of ages+5. She CAN be slowed...she CAN take elemental damage, some. I scroll back through about 100 lines of feedback. There it is: Mellisan casts stoneskin.
Ok looks like Mellisan is some sort of super-mage on acid. Simmy #1 is about to kick it, and I'm being attack by an elder orb. An anti-magic ray or two rocks my world. I grab a scroll of spell strike, equip it, and after simmy#1 dies I scroll off another. Simmy#2 promptly turns and spell strikes Mellisan. After this lovely stroke I wade in again and have about 3 rounds of pure pleasure: hit after hit does damage. Simmy#2 steps up as well. Then it gets crazy, monsters everywhere, Mellisan stonskins again. I circle out, equip a wand of pierce magic, and pop a few off. Simmy#2 is getting squelched. I circle him out as well, then after another PM we both plunge in. Mellisan went from slightly to injured. She is slowed. I'm getting hammered by orbs and level drained! -- I switched over to the necklace of power. What a nightmare! I circle out again, simmy#2 dies, I'm earthquaked suddenly and flying backwards. I shoot off an MK sword, a pit fiend. They take care of a few baddies. I use the wand again, then fly in after drinking a potion. Am I doing anything? I'm 50% red, and suddenly fell asleep in the middle of battle! Huh? Jeez, I wake up and all my summoned monsters are dead, I'm surrounded, I wand her AGAIN and just suck it up. If I'm going to go down, I'm going in style. Then I remember my little-used spell trigger. Dude! I trigger it. Bang I'm nasty again, hitting Mellisan and doing damage. But my stoneskin is dispelled and I'm blur-less. My AC is -10. Yuck. I take major damage from everything. I get to 25% and contingency goes off. I switch to Flail of Ages, slow her again, do more damage but it's over, I can't win, she's only at injured then amazingly, stunningly -- bang! -- she's up to some new tricks. She says she's going to chill a while! She disappears! And the monsters disappear!
Holy mackeral, thought I, how sweet is that? Looks like I made it so far. One of the outlying circles sprouted a rainbow bridge. I pop off ANOTHER simmy, my second to last scroll, and we spell up again since it is mercifully calm. Then we cross bifrost, and some lusciously lame air elemental types attack. Whew! Much easier. Some simple cromming and it's all over. However, once things are calm again, and I am able to "turn the circle" I decide against it. I scout around some more. I prepare myself. I choose a bunch of peirce magics and stuff like that. I cast wish and choose "act like I've just slept" option to restore some of my spells. But my trigger is gone; my contingency gone; a lot of scrolls gone. Not good. Simmy is about half-gone, time-wise. There is nothing else to do but get ready. I summon some monsters; elementals, shambling bounds from some druid staff, a golemn, etc. I spell up totally, have three immunities running. Then I turn the handle. Mellisan appears in the same spot as last time, mouthing off, and summoning more nasties. My nasties attack her/her nasties. It is not pretty. I shoot off anti-magic stuff against her. Some effect. I close and do some damage but...not enough. My monsters are being massacred. I'm gettnig screen-shaken by some earthquakes. My vaunted spells are being dispelled somehow...somehow. Soon I'm at AC-10 again, and the shambling mound turns into a compost heap. I run away, away, away. I equip the Staff of the Arch-Cheese and try inviso, while running, and protection from evil, and help. help. Help! I try to cast a stoneskin and I fail, must be some kind of miscast magic. I circle but Mellisan is stalking, doing some sort of "arms akimbo" dance and twirling around irritatingly. There is only so much running one can do. I go through my items, and swap out and use their abilities -- improved speed, a weak stoneskin. I make a big suckngn sound, read a scroll of black blade of disaster -- run more, read a scroll of bigby's hand -- run more, read a scroll of X where X is a scroll still remaining in my backpack. Then, helpless, tired of runnnig, I kamikaze into the wench herself, chopping with all my might.
Oh the memory! It is too painful to recall. How absurd, how wretched! How ineffectual! Did I even damage her, was she even hurt by my little run? Who was it that threw the last punch, took me negative? I'd like to think it was she herself, not a wretched minion...then the death screen appeared...first time since I began at level 8, Irenicus' prison, that I died from low HP's, from anything other than a maze spell in Watcher's Keep...sigh.
However, my little guy had done his work. I now knew what I was up against, and had plenty of time to scheme about the best way to defeat her. I wasn't going to give up.
Things I learned: it was a three stage battle, there were three outlying cicles, and she returned after I turned a wheel. Each time she was mean and nasty. Also, after using the flail of ages and noticing the "has no effect, has no effect, Mellisan takes +2 damage, no effect" that, by counting which flail head it was that damages her even through stoneskin, you can ferret out a "weakness." Turns out to be poison. She takes full damage from poison, immune it looks like to other elements or weapons less than +4. Maybe +5 I didn't check. A quick run through the inventory found lots of great weapons doing extra fire/cold/acid etc. but hardly ANY poison damage. Flail of Ages wins again.
I slept on the problem of Mellisan. When I woke up I had figured out two ways to whack her, 1) demigorgonize her, 2) spellstrike her. Strategy number once involved the following: defeat her intial form using a simmy to cast 2 spellstrikes from scrolls about 5 rounds apart. In the mean time we are both beating on her with flail of ages/crom F off hand. After her intitial manifestation is dead, simmy lays down all the spike traps he has at he spot where she will reappear. Simmy goes over and kills the monsters around the portal. I wait for simmy to fade away, then mop up some and prepare myself. I spit off another simmy with two more spell strikes, have him lay down spike traps, turn the portal, Mellisan is hurt, spellstrike, flail -- she is down. Repeat 2 more times.
Strategy number two involved every above except no traps. Evey time she appears we just bum-rush her after casting a spell strike. She takes damage immediately. I'm hasted and doing 4 attacks/round, so is simmy, she can't last more than 4-5 rounds. The key is ignoring all the summoned creatures which will disappear, and also timing the spell strikes.
So I did the following, round two: got as many project image/simulacrum scrolls I could (because Project Images can set traps too!). What I used was this: 2 spell strikes, 4 simmy, 3 project image, simmy helm.
As before I went nuts doing preparation stuff, drinknig potions, etc. This time I had about 6 spell immunities though in my spell book; 1 abjuration, 1 divination should get me through each battle with Mellisan.
I stepped through the portal spelled to the gills, plus tensor's. As soon as I saw Mellisan I simmy'ed using the simmy helm. Simmy cast spell strike, etc. She died in about 7 rounds ater the second spellstrike 4 rounds in. Then I did what I outlined above. Placed some traps, killed some elementals, more traps, then the big moment! I turned the wheel!
BANG. Mellisan takes 70, 60, 70 damage from traps. I mop her up, get to the next elemental circle.
It's over.
Traps hurt her.
End of battle.
After the second battle I burn 3 wish scrolls until I get the "act like I just slept" option. New spells, new item abilities, etc. But it's overkill -- and this message has gone on too long.
Mellisan went down time and again from correctly-placed traps. End of TOB.
Fun battle, very strategic. I MAY have been able to kill her anyway without traps using the bum-rush + Spell strike strategy, but...why bother. My piddling little Bard is done - as am I.
I gotta get some REAL work done! Enough game playing!
Originally posted by Bodhidharma:
<STRONG>hrm i'm begining to think i didn't select the best spells to start out with
so far i've just eaten all the trap damage and crossed my fingers
was trying to do a no-reload, no-death game, but i doubt i will make it even out of irenicus dungeon without having to reload
But so far, it's going ok. Though I never realized how tough a dust mephit can be lol. Last couple times i went through irenicus dungeon, mephits weren't even a consideration, my fighters would just one shot them. But my skald has like the worst thaco on the planet. It takes him no less than 10 swings to hit once and do crappy damage even. Meanwhile the mephits blow smoke, dust, steam and ice in my face nearly killing me each time and they are too fast to outrun. LoL, game time i have already spent about a month just in the first irenicus level, because a few times I had to
'rest till healed' and that takes about 10 days when you have taken about 35 damage. My main game, which is now nearly finished, is at about 90 days. Of course that was my first game (begining to end almost) ever. Though i've restarted a few times in order to reroll characters, make improvements, etc.
The way things are going, i'm guessing i will finish irenicus dungeon at about 90 days! the same it took me to nearly finish the entire game with my main group!
I have no idea how i'm going to survive the 'portal mephit' room, where the mephits keep spawning while you kill the caged portal mephits. Thats about where I am at right now, just before taking the portal to the next level. It takes me no less than about 40-50 swings to kill just one mephit, barely surviving each fight. I trained skull trap in character creation, but now i'm thinking i shoulda trained fireball, that way I could just open a door and blast a couple fireballs in. I think at the low level at least, fireball works better than skull trap as an offensive weapon. I took skulltrap because it gets progressively stronger the higher level you get. And I didn't remember seeing too many skulltrap scrolls throughout the game, but i remember plenty of fireball scrolls.
Oh well. </STRONG>
I thought I wrote about this before...hm...Let me check.
The deal with Mephits is that they are a pain. Too hard to hit unless 1) you use draw upon holy might before battle with the +1 longsword, and you are NOT dual-weilding yet, 2) USE THE SHORT BOW! You CAN hit 'em with arrows. So use the WEB+Short bow combination to both Hit and Keep Away from Damage. also finish them off with Magic Missles -- they always hit!
The mephit portal is tough. Send in 3 Webs into the middle of the room, then creep into the doorway only enough so that ONE portal mephit is visible. ignore all other mephits and just arrow the portal mephit. When it's dead retreat and rest/kill the other mephits that are attacking. Then repeat with the next portal.
Congradulations two! You have beat Mellissan. I got to admit this was the best thread I have read so far. Also are you going to solo with any other weird kits by any chance? IF you do start a topic or should just continue this one.
Originally posted by Tharan:
<STRONG>Congradulations two! You have beat Mellissan. I got to admit this was the best thread I have read so far. Also are you going to solo with any other weird kits by any chance? IF you do start a topic or should just continue this one.</STRONG>
Nope -- I just -- gasp! -- uninstalled BGII, TOB, threw away all save files, etc. Time to move on...not that I can't read this BB once in a while!
Nice work, Two! Very impressive. I'll definitely solo ToB myself, but I don't have the patience to restrict myself to no reloading.
One question: Why Spellstrike instead of Breach?
[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.
Originally posted by Xyx:
<STRONG>Nice work, Two! Very impressive. I'll definitely solo ToB myself, but I don't have the patience to restrict myself to no reloading.
One question: Why Spellstrike instead of Breach?</STRONG>
You might be right; I was paranoid she was going to have some high spell protections around. Anyway I had the spellstrike scrolls (2) so it didn't hurt any to have simmy casting them...
In SoA, nothing protects against Breach except for innate immunity to level 5 spells (as posessed by Liches), and Spell Shield (which disappears after one use). None of the Spell Trap/Immunity to Abjuration stuff can stop it. Is that still the same in ToB?
[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.
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, ... to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.
Originally posted by two:
<STRONG>Shoot I had some hope that this thread would spawn a bunch of "no reloaders" ... seems not to have had this effect, however.
I don't know why.
Playing without reloads is a lot of fun, more tense, more exciting. Sure it's slower, but hey -- take your time, enjoy the game!
Is anyone else trying a "no deaths/no reloads" with another class? with a Bard? With a fighter-type?
I'm not much of a prostelytizer so... that's about all I can do. sorry.</STRONG>
I'm playing PST right now, but was thinking about the no re-load game in BGII afterwards. I don't know about the final ToB battle though. That ones pretty tough.
Hey Two, you've convinced me, though I'm not nearly as good as you and will probably die in the first dungeon, I think I'm going to try to go no spawns/no reloads. I was thinking of either an Avenger or a Swashbuckler, have to think on it a little though and I haven't beat SoA yet or bought ToB so I'll be pretty much going at things from chapter 6+ all new, so it'll be challenging.
Originally posted by EternalKnight:
<STRONG>Hey Two, you've convinced me, though I'm not nearly as good as you and will probably die in the first dungeon, I think I'm going to try to go no spawns/no reloads. I was thinking of either an Avenger or a Swashbuckler, have to think on it a little though and I haven't beat SoA yet or bought ToB so I'll be pretty much going at things from chapter 6+ all new, so it'll be challenging.</STRONG>
What is "NO SPAWNS"?
I hope you don't mean "no spawning of summoned creatures" because I did a lot of that during my game...
An Avenger would be fun and very do-able I think. You get great extra mage spells (COrb, Web!) and you could do the old "web web transform into sword spider" (immune to web) trick a lot at low levels. Or summon nasties to fight for you, druids have great elementals and a couple game-winnnig spells (insect plague, nature's beauty) at higher levels.
A Swashbuckler is tough at low levels to be sure, but you can pickpocket still so if you get through the prison you can get great equipment. I know the swashbuckler is wonderful in TOB with use any item etc. but can you get there with no backstab?
This would be much tougher in my opinion than an Avenger. I mean, how can you whip a dragon with a swashbuckler? A Druid I can see...but Swashbuckler? I know it CAN be done but it's...dicey.
Conratulations two!
Both for the play and for this thread. Just like in the "old" times...
Nice to see you again guys! Xyx, well done with the spell guides. I recommend you to try out the solo sorcerer, it is even more powerful than ever before.
As for me, I agree with one guy above: as I like to play strategy, so I play strategy games against human opponents (and won't play ToB)
Anyway have fun!
Originally posted by two:
<STRONG>I mean, how can you whip a dragon with a swashbuckler? A Druid I can see...but Swashbuckler? I know it CAN be done but it's...dicey.</STRONG>
Lead the dragon into traps and summon some helpers with the Staff of Fire. At higher levels, Swashies can pull some of the same tricks as your bard.
There's nothing a little poison couldn't cure...
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, ... to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.
Originally posted by Sojourner:
<STRONG>Lead the dragon into traps and summon some helpers with the Staff of Fire. At higher levels, Swashies can pull some of the same tricks as your bard.</STRONG>
Duh. Sorry. I forgot/didn't know that Swashies could set traps. in that case either the Druid OR the Swashie is eminantly playable. After all, everything from Kangaax on up is susceptible to traps.
But this DOES take a little more expertise, and it's tricky I'm sure a low levels battling through some trolls and stuff.
Stick with the Druid for spell-casting fun and mahem; take the Swashbuckler for challenge!
