isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 PM me if you need the mod. Walkthru's below: NECRO RUN: nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 27 2010, 12:49 PM Post #1 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 Starting party LG necromancer Riskbreaker Undead hunter dual Ranger6/Cleric multi fighter/thief Jan, Cernd or Valygar then Imoen why this choice? necro: I like mages, never played IA with protagonist other than mage, vagrant or fighter/mage (this one just once) and considering V6 new quest, items and spells, do I need to argue further? RB: want to test something other than zerk or kensai or F/M as damage dealer UH: fear V6 vampire ability to remove NPP, need someone permanently protected from level drain, and holy avenger is now superior to DOTC (I will miss it dearly) R6/C: I do consider IA demands a non-multi healer, R/C is to me first) the "greater restoration provider" needed in the long run, second) the best divine tank (stoneskin + clerical buffs) multi F/T: great tank late game, need someone to open locks 6th slot is always for Imoen after chap 3 (I mean always, never left sister once in all my non-solo previous BG2 runs), so I use many NPC for quests (korgan, jaheira, Jan, valygar) and some for convenience (Cernd is a powerful good compromise as secondary arcane caster pre-spellhold, Jan to pickpocket though this is much less rewarding in V6) Some details about my way of playing: - I am a miser with money, never buy anything (apart containers) before reaching 20 rep - I do not buy rep, only get it from quest - I do not raise during combat (only exception raise dead through wish when I have the option, it's a 9th level spell a require a most highly wise archmage after all!) - I do try to respect avoiding cheeses and cheats as intended with IA. BTW, I was just amazed to read those past years in BWL the cheats and cheese designed by some. If I had to reward this "mad mind competition" I would give: gold medal to xp abuse "erase and re-write scrolls" silver medal to xp abuse fighting 100+ times random spawns to get one or more level (why not use Clua?) bronze medal to so-called boss monster tactic "time traps off-screen + make your own summon hostile to trigger" that said, back to business I will include in my spoiler a specific warning in first lines if spoiler reveals something specific to V6 (if not it doesn't mean there is no specific v6 content, it just means I did not notice or discovered it) Chap 1 to 3 are my favourite part of the game, mainly because I love those fights where your party is low-leveled and 1 spell or scroll has such an importance it gives a better flavour when you succeed. My goals are simple: - reach lvl 12 necro (and find a scroll of Improved haste and one of prot from energy) - reach necro lvl 14 (and find a scroll of RRoR) Otherwise some fights are just impossible (my way of playing also includes no 100 reload for same fight, was traumatized years ago to reload 80+ times for Elite bounty huntress.. ) As soon as we enter chateau Irenicus, Mr begone doesn't spawn, so we (essentially UH with 2h swords) go through the dungeon, exit, Imoen says goodbye. From no on, classical xp hunt Circus Cemetery ground level (risa the orphan, start gravedigger quest) met gaelan bayle started nalia's quest (told her we would meet her later, don't want her p.. me around) and Windspear cemetery tombs SPOILER! V6 content . . some enemy bunches have be improved a lot, nasty spiders for my low level party will be back a bit later... met Suna seni and goons while leaving cemetery to bridge district SPOILER! first round R/C casts greater command necro casts emotion enemy mage casts emotion, cleric cast GC everybody else brandish their weapons at each other spells land, everybody down apart my necro and R/C, confused riskbreaker, mage and cleric on the other side R/C pounds enemy cleric while necro larlochs him to prevent further damage (I can cope meanwhile with mage flame arrows MM and acid arrows Important point, if I do not act, enemy while awake when my party will, or worse, before me So while R/C pounds cleric (and with luck that confused RB was distracting enemy mage) necro cast GM on enemy party, and hold person (both from R/C and necro) + emotion after a few rounds enemy cleric downed, R/C starts to work on suna, bingo, great awakening, all enemy fighter sleeping or held, end of story in Bridge district: * finished tirdir's quest * did skinner * did loot big house (ages since I was there, usually never bother) went to Gov District * collected reward from skinner * freed viconia * picked jan * started quests (sphere, umar) then lots of travels in athkatla fallen paladin maevar (refused guild) montaron sir sarles for temple went to d'arnise keep (did all apart from thorgal level, fear might be improved, will try later) ... at party level 9/10 went to CC sewer SPOILER! V6 content . . though as I said in another post I was quite proud to make lilarcor 3 final fights in a row, V6 undead new capabilities costed me 2 reloads before entering lilarcor room, thanks to a bunch of mists and so... they level drain and slow my party like flies, sometimes once hit you even get extra level drain per round (like disease) each round for a few round nightmare! some rats do not like emotion, some others are a good way to spend your chain lightning scrolls (I had 2) summons for shadow lovers since I hate micro management, went to pirate hideout love this fight, pirate coordinator is one of my favourite enemy in terms of intelligent scripting SPOILER! not a lot to say, IHasted R/C UH and RB pound pirates (you have to be quick!), captain first of course, did not even bother to remove his hardiness necro and jan summon berseker (horn of valhala) and skellies to get coordinator occupied then the long wait for si:div to wear off from coordinator during the wait, try to keep him occupied (summons, kill enemy summons, ...) and have at least One char near him 3 char downed during fight with coord, Jan and F/T from PW kill, RB from chain lightning still no reload, yeah! after that went to take mencar&co (party still lvl 10/11), entered with no SI: on (want some scrolls from amon!) Did clercic ring quest SPOILER! V6 content . . Bad bad thing with amber golem, it reduces electrical resistance will have trouble in spellhold with some crystal 1 reload did trademeet + druid first quest did umar hill + collected valygar did temple floor (leave thax for later) did slaver ship (F/T was chunked, gave him up, will pick jan and keep valy in my party), no reload, went through backdoor (definitely more fun and roleplaying) went to take thorgal party/lvl/info: necro 12 faldorn UH 11 shadow lover RB 11 Greater Crawler R/C 6/11 Glaicas valy 10 Spirit spider JAN 10/10 shadow thief (LOL) SPOILER! 2 bad things: - UH is turned after few rounds - some purge magic dispels your buffs would advise to focus on torgal with every means at your disposal, if he doesn't fall quick (relatively), this battle is hopeless for a low-level party then did chaos druid quest Unseeing eye Windspear outdoor started Firkraag dungeon (stopped at first level) various quest (cleric, free haer dalis,...) when necro reaches lvl 13, enter planar sphere party/lvl/info: necro 13 faldorn UH 12 amber golem RB 13 torgal R/C 6/13 Chaos (guess why) valy 12 yuan-ti mage JAN 11/11 blind priest (LOL) nothing to say apart 1 close issue with lavok (prot + R/C left standing, 1 reload) sphere engine room is always a challenge if using no cheese, depleted my potion stock quite completely. After that went to tackle sewer party (another great pre-spellhold fight) A couple of things to mention: SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . pickpocketing, while not as profitable is still rewarding do not use (Sikret hinted that already) your permanency scroll for short-term use do speak with animals (for fun, berries, (few) coins and quests) beware of undead!!! very nice new spells (did you notice that alas your ennemies take that into account, mostly in their defence, hey you lich...) forgot to say what I bought and forge: I bought potions (strength + protection), mauler's arm (phosphorous) forged 2 +2 rings + 1 +2 cloak for RB, 1 + 2 ring, cloak + 2 and halberd + 3 (coin golem then investment for poseidon) for UH, amulet of hades after sphere, mace +3 (investment for phosphorous) for valy party tanks weapons UH lilarcor/halberd +3/staff +2 RB dual FoA and frostreaver R/C club +3 valy short sword +3/valy's katana/mace +3 Went to free Haerdalis&co in planar prison SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . If anyone took the north route, I don't believe you (at least pre-spellhold) Nice to have blocked the sub-pockets (was always frustrated not to take them all) Intendant is a pain in the ... by himself, but what annoys me more is the bunch of yuan-ti (I owe them 1 reload) that came and disabled necro + jan once, so game over (R/C did fail her 2 dispel magic desperate attempts) otherwise, focus on Intendant (peel him off his protection!!!) wasted my last RRoR scrolls there One thing I found changed in Intendant behaviour in V6 is that he dispels your protection much more (so don't use all your arcane/divine buffs at the beginning of the fight) once he is dead, no more trouble Decided to solve umar troubles Thax SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . At this pre-spellhold levels, I just know one way to take down dragons; heavy fighting! new Thax costed me 2 reloads (first one because of this silence that cannot be cured, second because of second heal-) Strategy: UH + valygar under NPP attack thax with summons (horn, black spider + skeletons), R/C stays back (need to avoid silence, greater restoration will be crucial here) Jan and necro ready their breach scrolls having all party visible is suicide, everybody will be silenced, hence no spells nor scrolls nor capacity to win. Since I write this from memory, sorry if round per round details miss: round 1 UH talks to Thax to engage battle as soon as Thax fires his buffs, necro advance to cast spellstrike from scroll, jan ready to cast "breach" when spellstrike is flying Thax (dragons cannot be interrupted and always under alacrity) True seeing, death cloud, hits valygar round 2 thax PFMW, silences necro, drains valy (he's near death with 12 hp left and leaves the arena), buffet jan casts breach RB enters arena necro, while silenced makes himself useful by teasing Thax (necro is under spell shield and SI, so Thax feels obliged to react by RRoRing) round 3+ Thax occupied RRoRaying necro (takes time, even under alacrity, which is good) jan casts breaches (spells + scrolls, I depleted seriously my stack of breach scrolls, 7 entering dungeon, one left at the end) pounding gives result, Thax heals himself R/C heals valygar, valygar resumes fight Thax dispels all my buffs along the way + fires malison/emotion/slow dread combo Jan casts haste (no more Improved hasted valy, UH and RB) When Thax is near death, second heal (the one that costed me a reload, because I did not expect it at all!) Valy + RB are seriously drained and wounded, R/C casts is only greater restoration and joins the fight (Thax silences her as soon as she was on sight) Thax dies to the critical strike of a "drained to level 6" protector all hail Valygar! I never bothered with death clouds during the fight (just had one ZoSA memorised), just focused on breaching and pounding shade lord SPOILER! Another great great fight pre-spell hold Chessboard-like fight (I hate close quarter which make this fight all the more tasty) Pre-buff, IA on R/C, UH, RB and Valy, II on JAN (otherwise he is dead from PW kill) ready my 3 PFME scrolls (mandatory!) round 1 R/C goes near shade lord waiting for skel lord UH, valy and RB all go for Patrick Jan summons berserker warrior from horn near shade lord necro RRoR shade lord round 2 R/C pounds Slord Patrick near death necro fires RRoR at SL Jan fires secret word at SL when RRoR flies round 3 Patrick dead UH goes SLord pounding R/C + valy attack "shade generator" Jan PFME UH from scroll necro removes magic on SL (to dispel Mirror image) round 3 1 skel lord down altar near death, valygar still pounding R/C damaged, bad news with spell failure when recasting stoneskin, leaves for western corner followed by SkelLord UH pound Shade lord RB goes to R/C rescue attacking Skellord necro breaches shade lord round 4 Shade lord dispels magic, OUCH! UH naked and badly wounded RB kills Skel lord, but takes damage R/C heals herself Jan dispelled, dead from PW kill necro PFME on RB round 5+ Shade lord wounded, 3*Chain lightning fired RB dies, UH near death, R/C near death, valy saved, necro saved necro breaches and PFME valy (decisive move) Shade lord kills UH with PW kill, RB and valy pound him R/C rendered useless (some 10 hp left, goes opposite to shade lord who is now on the far west of the chessboard to avoid PWkill) Shade lord near death, CC ADHW fires, RB dies Valy delivers the final blow hurray for the protector who killed the 2 bosses responsible for umar hills trouble! SPOILER! V6 heavy spoiler . . went to umar to meet squirrel brother was sent to bridge district to deliver some food received information to help prevent a murder good fight to be continued at chap 6 Wondering what to do next before spellhold (without reaching improved spellhold xp/lvl cap), went to screaming statue in sewer following advices on BWL SPOILER! heavy V6 spoiler . . (All from memory) first wave, mist + 2 vampires buff, NPP on valy an RB, R/C uses my only PFLD scroll UH focuses on vampires, mages summon and use few spells (MM, AR,..) on mists Second wave Eminent vampire + 2 vampire + mists UH focuses on vampires, helped by R/C, RB and valy lost levels, third wave OUCH!!! Master vampire + bride + 2 eminent vampire + mists UH focuses on vampires, R/C fires sunray mists killed (but 2), vampires damaged valy and RB dies in 2 rounds (hopefully not level-drained to oblivion) 2nd round R/C fires illusionary dawn (winner here) 2 eminent vampires confused and fighting each other (distracted them from my R/C) Good thing happened: necro and jan are charmed Yes, good thing, otherwise would have to rely on good luck not to lose them by chunking (level drain or hit) R/C and UH have good saves, they pound/drink potions/pound again master vampire (to not have him summon more brides) once master is down, we finish the already wounded eminent vampires, then brides, fight over, nice reward btw: noticed that you can start at least the first two waves by multiple clicking, which can be cheesy IMHO I now hesitate between many options - temple guarded compound - taking liches (and may be mr Kangax) - firkraag dungeon Will go to windspear hills party/lvl/weapon/most powerful vanquished when entering firkragg dungeon UH 14/ lilarcor, halberd +3 / amber golem R6/C15 /club+3 /chaos valygar 13/ blade of the roses, short sword of backstabbing/ Thax yeah! RB 14/ dual FoA mh Phosphorous oh / thorgal necro 14 / staff of fire / faldorn Jan ill11/t 12 / jan's crossbow / yuan-ti mage Entered Firkraag dungeon SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Rhuk fell to RB protected from fire + invulnerability potion First bunch of golems punched through various little game (orcs, troll, othyug..) undead company fell to UH under improved haste + necro PFMWed casting mighty disrupt undead met samia, agreed to recover king's bounty werewolves frying rest 2nd bunch of golems nasty surprise in tazok antechamber (top of the stairs), barely escaped un-chunked, greater restoration since I have 2 improved haste, try tazok & co (thought them improved, so was to be "testing", I was wrong, end of tazok) talk to garren's son Argghhh!!! realizes necro has 2099800 xp next move: maximum speed rush to spellhold praying all the gods it is not too late exit dungeon met by 2 messengers (Umar witch + Planar sphere post-apprenti quest) talk to them, hope quest won't be broken (I went to umar hills to talk to major, this does not give xp) sail to Brynnlaw get stonefire lady galvena cowled wizard Alea Jacta Est, We enter spellhold while necro has 2 125 380 xp (don't trigger level-up) SPOILER! V6 spoilers . . Once recovered sister Immy, I rest....no spawns Felix Qui Potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causas, no improved Asylum, Yeah !!!!! Level 1 asylum who tempted Sikret to improve it? I expected improvement near statue, found it in Rhuk room (where you have the gem portal), 2 reloads, same reason, as we wanted to fight like braves, everybody enters the room, Greater bone golem stuns one char (once Immy, once R/C), golems reduce it to chunk-ashes did it like a coward, Immy and necro waiting for them at end of corridor and firing RoF RB hard hits rocks!!!!! Level 2 I s.. my pants thinking of crystal recovering for amber golems start with tome no enemy lasted more than 4 rounds except final bunch that took 7 get my loot (BTW don't know how you can be sure that you got premium loot, if anyone reading this can email me a clue) rest (no spawn, yeah!!!) lich + skel lords good thing lich fears DU, another way to have her distracted rest (would not have if Imoen had IH in her book) Cat is improved, once fallen, a librarian appears I chose to tell the truth, librarian is not amused don't spoil too much, just say to entertain you my readers that I tried to talk with the students to no avail laugh.gif laugh.gif !! beware of CC 3*ADHW.... Now my party can wear Prada biggrin.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif rest Dace Dace' master poor guy met an UH + PFMW necro having 3 DU spells memorized Now obliged to recover crystal bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif After 2 disastrous attempts, consider myself stuck at this point.... will take a break and rethink strategy (Do you think that if I use a wooden weapon it would not allow electricity to penetrate? blush.gif blush.gif blush.gif ) went for the third time SPOILER! everybody buffed (prayer, DUHM on R/C and UH, prot from evil 3", defensive harmony, prot from electricity !, IH on 4 tanks) we enter the crystal room (with 3 Mordys + kithrix) round 1 R/C pounds on "south" guardian spirit UH kills shaman then pounds on "south" guardian spirit valy attacks "north" guardian spirit RB kills shaman pounds on "east" guardian spirit necro + imoen in eastern/south corridor (facing crystal) necro roF on amber golem immy summons warrior from horn 3 improved chain lightnings kill mordies and kithrix RB kills guardian, goes to help valy north valy misses all his blows! UH + R/C kill guardian R/C starts dispel magic to kobold wizard (buffed with SI: div etc.) UH runs east to attack amber golem followed by "south" amber yes, all this in one round! round 2 roF lands 11 dam on amber golem necro retreats east (attacked by amber) to cast PFMW from scroll IMMy starts RoF at east amber valy and RB pound north guardian dispel magic lands, no effect, apart dispelling RB (sh... was too close) kobold mage ADHW R/C (saves for 40 damage, good ) round 3 necro PFMWed kobold mage sequences slow/emotion/confusion at valy/RB north guardian dies, RB attacks kobold mage, valy attacks north amber golem Immy + necro RoF east amber UH seriously wounded round 4 UH pounds east Amber helped by ROF from Immy + necro RB attacks mage, "north" amber attacks RB is attacked by valy R/C cast summon skeleton necro summons efrit from scroll Immy RoF UH near death runs north (to cat figurine), Ambers keep looking at necro kobold mage summons mordy round 5 healed UH resume pounding on now wounded Amber Immy RoF (stubborn lass this one!) valy at last lands some hits on amber R/C skeleton appears, take a gambit, will start "heal" on UH hoping this will allow UH to finish Amber with help from Imoen while not "wasting" my only greater restoration RB (debuffed) goes on pounding on mage round 6 heal plan ends in complete failure, UH dead, amber near death, R/C pounds (with help from efrit and skeleton) Imoen RoF necro starts remove magic at mage valy attacks Amber RB attacks mage mage summons skeleton round 7 one Amber down R/C casts DUHM valy runs north near death, amber chooses to focus on R/C, valy uses one cure critical wound scroll (from skel lord) R/C (near door north of crystal) is facing 2 ambers with help from efrit and skeleton Immy vampiric touches amber, does 4 damage while taking 17 !!! necro death spell from scroll on kobold mage summons RB has finally removed stoneskins, first blow is hard hit !!!! (35 damage) round 8 kobold mage dies RB drinks oil of resurgence, switches FoA main hand for Frostreaver, attacks amber valy cures critical wound (his elec resist has increased to 75%) immy mirror image necro summons fire elemental from staff R/C pounds (has -25 elec resistance!!!!!) round 9 R/C greater restoration RB attacks amber, drinks potion of prot from magic (hope it lessens effects, another failure) valy joins Immy vampiric touch necro tries mm (hoping for 1-2 damage, 0 happened) round 10 necro protects RB from electricity (where did i put my brain?) RB drinks second oil valy pounds R/C stays motionless taking blows (but avoiding backlashes) starts heal on herself Immy Vampiric touch round 11 necro summons air elemental from staff Immy, yes, vampiric touch valy, RB an R/C attack RB retreats (no golem follow) to recover hp and electrical resistance One Amber is seriously wounded round 12 necro summons air elemental from staff Immy, yes, vampiric touch valy an R/C attack RB recovers hp and electrical resistance Amber is near death round 12 Immy PFME RB (did not try this one...) necro summons air elemental from staff R/C starts heal on herself, amber hits her, spell failure + panicked!!!! RB attacks again valy keeps fighting (has miraculously still 25 electricel resist) round 13 RB (PFME useless) hard hits and kill Amber R/C panicked somewhere (have a yellow pointer moving around north) Immy last vampiric necro summons aerial servant (found a scroll in bag of holding) round 14 same as previous round 15 valy falls (while trying to mass cure) round 16 RB, helped with elemental fodder attacks (he has our last 4 superior healing potions) round 17 Golem wounded round 18 and 19 RB backs down to recover (golem does not follow) round 20 Immy summons Djinny (scroll I was keeping for ring upgrade...) RB brings Golem to seriously wounded necro summons elemental R/C is coming home! round 21, 22, 23; 24 necro + Immy throw every spell (MM, melf acid arrow, flame arrow larloch at golem, dealing 1 damage here and there) R/C and RB pound retreat to drink potion (oils of resurgence, vitality, healing), re-pound Ambers deals approximately 5 times more damage than he takes...plus I suspect it to have some regeneration capabilities At round 24 end , Golem near death (at last!!!) round 25 mm from Imoen hard Hit from RB Victory! at a cost: 2 superior healing left (on UH corpse) Might not be the best tactician around, but I don't give up! Party before entering asylum third level (UH and RB just levelled) UH lvl 15 /cat'o nine lives R6/C15 (close to level-up) / chaos Valy lvl 14 / thax RB lvl 16 (2nd IH yeah!) / torgal necro lvl 15 /faldorn Imoen lvl 14 (close to level-up) / Amber golem Looks like werewolves can reproduce like rabbits (found a pack of ~25!) Mithril still hard forged 3 boots Exit level Meet Jon SPOILER! starting from stairs; downstairs: IH on fighters, UH an R/C DUHM, UH and RB PFME (just in case lonk the sane ADHWs), invulnerability (apart R/C) + strength potion (apart RB) for warriors AC Matters! so do Blunt weapons! (slashing deal very few damage) upstairs hello lonk, I came to free everybody lonk buffs + PFMW necro RRoR Imoen Breaches RB and UH chunk Lonk talk with the lunatics teleport to Irenicus prelude: necro animates dead imoen Mordy R/C defensive harmony Valy joloon, RB horn of Valahla, UH kitrix we wait for clones to appear and scouts to materialize from thin air round 1 jon RRoRs necro RB And valy, standing near jon, attack scout UH attack another scout joined by R/C imoen chains lightning clones (hoping to interrupt Jon) necro ADHW to clean up clones round 2 necro Si:abj (hopes Jon RRoR, keeps him occupied) Jon breaches necro scout 1 killed by RB and valy UH and R/C move south east followed by 2 scouts 1 scout occupied by berseker warrior and skeleton 2 near valy and RB, RB uses cat figurine (took 2 criticals one from each scouts) round 3 valy dead (critical from scout + PWKILL, couldn't blink an eye!) necro vampiric touches nearest clone Imoen summons mordy round 4 UH + R/C kill scout 2, pound on next one, other scout finished warrior and skeleton, approaches RB doing great job Imoen mordy necro keeps aura cleansed (waits for Jon next move) round 5 RB kills scout 3, joins UH and R/C necro PFMW Imoen spider spawns round 6 R/C saves the RB day with greater restoration (PWkill was flying!) Jon RRors Imoen Imoen SI:abj round 7 scout 4 dead UH and RB turn to scout 5 (last one is occupied with mordy) R/C retreats to heal and re-stoneskin Imoen last mordy necro moves south west (to lure clone near my lunatics comrades) round 8 UH casts cure critical from scroll (no more potions left) R/C and RB finish scout 5 Imoen spider spawn Jon breaches necro necro sequencer stoneskin/prot from fire (Jon' MMM)/fireshield red (would have preferred blue, did not find scroll) round 9 pounding on imoen chains lightning (clones near Jon) Jon Absolute Immunity round 10 decide to send UH kill last 2 clones and keep Jon occupied RB hits by critical has 35 hp left Bad! 2 choices: a- have R/C cast death ward (to prevent PWkill from Jon) but RB might be killed or worse chunked! b- have RB runs further south (to avoid being in Jon's LOS and cast heal) choose -b, was luckier than with my fight for crystal shard round 11 Jon seems to notice for the first time my 3 lunatics good fellows who stand idle since the beginning of this argument. He removes magic necro casts remove magic at Jon (why not?) Imoen SI:abj then goes north to distract Jon UH finished clones and goes south giving a hand to R/C RB and mordy RB hard hits warm my heart! round 12 scout 6 is history Jon follows Imoen north RB and UH (still under PFME from the beginning) attack Jon R/C stays south round 13 JON SI: Div expires! Imoen Oracle necro breaches UH and RB pound, UH badly wouded round 4 Jon shadow doors Imoen Oracle UH goes south (to be healed) RB attacks round 15 jon shadow doors necro Oracle from scroll Jonny B. goode ends to UH blade raise Valy from the dead exit asylum meet saemon, teleport the re-enter asylum to loot Irenicus chambers deliver horn get blade in return sail slight spoiler SPOILER! improved sahuagin test is improved !, if you miss (what I did first time, was over-confident) you have to go through all sequence since delivering horm to Seamon in Brynnlaw bigcry.gif I suspect challenge is very different depending on prot class... will see one day on second IA6 run Improved sahuagin city is nice, I imposed myself to clear all city without rest (quite doable, not a big challenge if you keep focused) loot not improved much though rolleyes.gif stopped at Prince door RB just leveled, will now be able to use Chain Breaker Stance ability Prince Villynaty buff, advance to Prince SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . round1 two sahuagin mages, fully buffed, appear Prince summons sea vipers climbs down stairs RB, R/C and Valy take each one sea viper UH attacks Prince Prince immune to damage, since I saw no buff, I suspect I have to take the snakes/mage first ... UH turns to 1 sea viper, R/C and Valy join on same sea viper necro RRoR mage (the one appearing on stairs from which we came Imoen mordy sahuagin mages RRoR necro and breach R/C round 2 pounding goes on at the bottom of the stairs near pit to underdark necro RRoR Imoen mordy sahuagin mages dispel (UH IA gone) and death spell summons round 3 Imoen Oracle (to remove mirror from mages) necro breaches mage UH and RB finish their vipers UH turns to other viper, valy attacks one mage (the one debuffed), R/C climbs stairs at Prince back to attack other mage round 4 3 sea vipers appear ! necro fingers of death, mage dies valy goes to help cutting sea vipers Imoen IH UH 1 viper dead Prince still invulnerable round 5 R/C greater command to no avail on her mage mage symbol stun valy who saves necro ADHW sea viper and Prince Imoen mordy all sea vipers dead UH, RB, Valy and mordy turn to Prince round 6 3rd wave of sea viper RB seriously wounded starts chain breaker stance, resumes pounding on Prince R/C attacks mage imoen chain lightning necro breaches Prince just in case round 7 Prince seriously wounded Imoen chain lightning necro ADHW sea vipers round 8 Prince dead sahuagin mage ADHW (ouch!) R/C greater restoration Valy goes to help R/C with mage UH and RB (now under IH) cut sea vipers round 9 + reptilian parts litter the floor, we loot and leave pinching our noses good news, found a mordy scroll for my necro! we bring heart back to king, get reward (UH levels), go to underdark party at this point Necro lvl 16 faldorn UH lvl 16 Mithril Golem RB lvl 17 Torgal R6/C18 Chaos Valygar 15 lvl Thax Imoen 15 lvl Amber Golem down in the dark I have no more healing potions! UH and RB kill some illithid we get rid of elementals meet some kuo-toa, nicely and toughly improved, beware drow ambush toned down, but not at all a walk in the park free some creatures from a strange contraption, friends and foes kill a demon for swifberlin enter kuo-toa dungeon meet improved parties since I'm missing a few xp to have RB get Risk Decrement, decide to exit dungeon and do Vital quest I lose 2 rep points because I became too angry with Vital (thought I would get a timestop scroll, didn't) re-enter kuo-toa dungeon fight prince SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Fight is greatly improved 2 kuo-tua dukes (tough fighters dealing huge damage) 1 improved kuo-toa mage and cleric + bunch of fighter took dukes down first, then priest then mage, then fighters, Prince last Risk Decrement helped a bit, I am a bit disappointed by damage dealing though... Chain breaker stance really helpful (I'm learning to use it more and more efficiently) What to do now? Demon knights! SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . If (like me) you were happy to win this fight without re-entering underdark thank to the possibility to have one char leave the room, it's over now as soon as sacrifice is made, your party is re-positioned in the middle of the room, door is sealed So be it, we will know intimacy with demons Party buffed, 4 skeletons summoned (from necro and R/C) IMO top summon against those demonknights (magic resistance) kithrix sacrificed round1 UH + 1 skeleton attacks north demon 1 skeleton west demon 2 skeleton + Imoen (with AI from scroll) attack east demon (try DU, no significant result) Necro mordy R/C, RB and Valy focus on south west demon round 2 UH cat figurines R/C stoneskin (was breached) Valy + R/C pound RB risk decrement, 2 demons hit Imoen and necro renew SI:abj after being RRoR'ed round3 same as round 2 round 4 south west demon fires CC 3*ADHW R/C down UH and north demon both near death, UH down South west Demon falls RB turns to south east Imoen mordy Necro spell turning (to keep demon occupied, I believe!) Valy runs north to finish demon round 5 RB downs south west demon (good, this one did not release any triggers), goes north skeleton + necro's mordy are still standing facing west demon Imoen and one skeleton stand near east necro is in the middle of the room valy kills north demon (RB still running), they both turn to east with one skeleton (to release pressure on imoen) other skeleton turns to west demon round 6 RB chain breaker stance, takes Frostreaver off hand while giving phosphorous to Valy Imoen mordy west 3*fireball at valy (85 fire resist) and RB (who saves) East demon falls round 7 I realize that if Valy dies, I just have to reload (no possibility to raise dead from scroll) so protector goes south (near necro) RB attacks west demon with all summons (2 skels and 2 mordys) imoen mordy valy launches phosphorous at immy who launches it at RB round 8 Demon CC 3*ADHW RB mirror image from ilbhrata (saved!) and demon falls.... 2 skeletons are still standing, out of 4 summoned, believe me, they are precious in this fight! First time ever I do this fight without reload! raise deads (scroll + spell) then leave Party at this point necro 17 UH 16 (85 000 xp from level up) R6/C19 (just levelled) Valy 16 (just levelled) RB 18 (just levelled) Imoen 16 Went to beholder dungeon (so pleased with demon lord success wanted to undertake mighty one) beholder lair cleaned with no rest (RB risk decrement put to good use cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif ) I found a healing potion, first one my party has since Brynnlaw ! Start labyrinth, find other potions RB blows spiders, mages ADHW shades, etc... Party takes a rest before mighty one's door And... nightmare, 15 reloads !!!!!! to complete wacko.gif wacko.gif bigcry.gif sad.gif wacko.gif bigcry.gif only one if those reload can be consider somehow "glorious", the one where I planned to "disrupt undead" the mighty one (necro, imoen and R/C loaded) . Complete failure, but at least worth the try (could have been among the first to fight it with magic). Otherwise, a record of reasons why I reloaded that many time: UH + RB + Valy failed saving Wail (all 3 !) once prot (after many rounds, death ward expired, no more DW available) killed (3 times) char chunked by level drain effect of dracolich breath (RB 5 times, Valy 3 times, R/C once), it drained up to 10 level in 1 stroke! I would advise to save at least 1 scroll of prot from undead before this meeting (The only one such scroll I had was used at screaming statue)! (or have 2-3 fighters immune to level drain ) met 2nd drow ambush, SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . toned (really) down! a simple sequence of fireshield/stoneskin/minor globe was enough to have my necro walks out of improved web RB/UH/valy made slices of drows near stairs ..then spiders didn't even cast free action once! upset I "wasted" CC from limited wish (gained from The Mighty One) for that fight ... adalon, drow city met a young woman in distress, promised to save her brother did firts quest (recover Phaere from illithid) JULY 9th UPDATE Did tavern challenge, nice improvements let solaufein live, joined house Despana, was sent to recover proper artefacts for ceremony On my way back met a strange guy selling magical ropes, bullied him, met a lich... P...off at being owned, Jarlaxle, your days are short! when back to the lich lair RB+ UH + disrupt undead = shattered Lich RB did a wonderful "Risk Decrement" among a bunch of skeleton lord, skulls and bones flying around found a young boy, freed him, rep is now 19 took gems, teleported back to Jarlaxle, reduced him to bloody pulp like he deserved. looting upstairs, fought a noble efreet, 2 reloads (how the hell do you dispel its protection!!!!), P... off Left tower, met an extremely unpleasant drow slut, had to clear some punks for her to keep my cover Rested at female headquarter (I'm a miser, and paying 30 gp a night is robbery, even with extra pillows) Went to wreak havoc in Jaellelat house another great "Risk Decrement" when surrounded by drow crowd! I love it! Freed some poor slaves and sent them home, rep is 20 Replenished my potion stack (magic resist, strength, invulnerability) Exit city Last Dungeon to visit, Illithids cleared up all level without any problem now entering BigBrain lair ouch!!! SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Here is the situation, my 2 mordys and 3 skeletons are left outside, while my party is in a close quarter with unpleasant company, breached and stun. Brine potions as useless as poultry on a peg leg. despite a brave start, UH chunked by elemental golem in 2 rounds, imoen and necro paralysed, well , some kind of utter defeat. left my computer for a walk, took some self confidence in replaying the fight in my head and how I should win it, returned to my computer, reloaded, only difference, RB got chunked by elemental instead of UH. Went swimming this time resumed round 1 good start, no mages stunned by psionic blast Imoen mordy necro PFMW R/C + UH attack illithid RB + Valy attack ulitharid illithid dies, UH turns to brain, R/C to umber hulk mordy appears elemental appears round 2 3 brain golem appears BigBrain purge dispels everybody apart Valy RB severely hurt, risk decrements UH attacks brain necro DB (to clean space a bit) Ulitharid dies Imoen Improved hastes R/C I ponder next step (Valy and RB available), think best to kill BigBrain round3 every man and woman able to wield a weapon pound BigBrain Imoen Ihastes RB (want to keep RB innate IH for later in case mages are disabled) necro PFMW (to keep one brain golem occupied) UH drinks potion R/C defensive harmony RB chain breaker stance (has been hit badly) Big Brain critical round 4 pounding on, Big brain doesn't die!!! do I have to get rid of elemental, brain golems, both??? we turn to elemental round 5 purge !!!! R/C debuffed and chunked AARGGHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once again will try to get rid of elemental and brain golems fast round 1 good start, no mages stunned by psionic blast Imoen mordy necro DB R/C + UH attack illithid, kill it RB + Valy attack ulitharid, kill it RB turns to brain golem R/C, UH and Valy turn to elemental round 2 3 brain golem appears BigBrain purge dispels everybody RB kills one brain golem, turns to other Imoen mordy RB innate IH R/C stoneskin necro DB round3 necro psionic blasted !! Imoen IH UH RB kills Brain golem, switch to third (obviously not a man to be impressed with intellectual dealings this one!) elemental still lightly wounded R/C renew stoneskin (elemental is attacking her which is good) round 4 elemental wounded 4th brain golem appears !!! RB kills 3rd brain golem, decide to have him help with elemental round 5 purge !!!! situation is critical, R/C has 8 hp left, flees to north east then stoneskins RB Risk Decrement (hopes to stop golems from pursuing R/C) UH critical, cat figurines necro still stunned Imoen IHastes RB elemental is seriously wounded round 6 R/C Greater Restoration (Valy critical, RB and UH hurt attacked by golems) necro still dreaming around Imoen mordy Greater restoration lands while valy had 5 hp left! R/C joins elemental pounding round 7 pounding on necro wool gathering Imoen RoF elemental round 8 Valy downed pounding on Imoen mordy (one has been killed) necro, well, you know round 9 purge !!! UH downed elemental critical RB hard hit imoen RoF elemental dead! situation: One gem, one coin, 3 brain golems + Big Brain against RB R/C 3 mordy no IH spell left, that is bad! round 10 necro awakes at last, starts HoU on brain golem imoen Rof brain R/C retreats to heal (has no more stoneskins) RB expresses his wrath hard hitting BigBrain round 11 necro PFMW (is in the middle of a golem meeting after all!) Imoen RoF RB pounds R/C attacks brain golem round 12 BigBrain critical round 13 BigBrain dead round 14+ finish other golems Raise deads, loot, rest and go PS: After this I resumed the fight to validate a second thought; after killing illithid, R/C, UH and necro goes north, driving away elemental, this way they avoided purge. If I had to fight this again, I might be tempted to abuse "purge avoiding by running afar from BigBrain" PPS: found this fight tougher than demon knights! We were happy to free the slaves, went back to drowhive Owned drow bitches, gave eggs back to adalon , left underdark Party when exiting underdark: necro lvl 18 (HLA DB), MPV: Faldorn, 2% kills UH lvl 18 (HLA deva), MPV: Mithril Golem, 47% kills R6/C19 (HLA foreknowledge!), MPV: Chaos, 11% kills Valygar lvl 17 (close to level up), MPV: Thax, 7% kills (but quality!) RB lvl 20 (HLA Hardiness), MPV: Dracolich (who else?), 30% kills Imoen lvl 18 (HLA DB, 9th level pick WISH), MPV Amber Golem (she deserved elemental!), 1% kills Have a talk about lanthorn, then leave Before settling account with a red dragon, figured I could clear some troll hive somewhere, a witch and see how my estate fares. Discovered a hell of a fight, took 3 reloads, but wonderfully designed, among my favourite IA6 improvements so far (I enjoyed it before, but now, having this fight while exiting underdark will be among my privileged moments of an IA run , like shade lord before spellhold, sewer party and pirate hideout) SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Lost first run because I tried to kill King first, which he cannot be (I say this because while critical, 2 full round of UH and RB did not achieve the beast) while queen still stands King and Queen can only be hit by +4 weapons, I just had 2, phosphorous (RB main hand) and dragon breath halberd (from boz & co in underdark) in my UH hands. lost 2nd run because a nasty prolific new specie of troll, "vengeance ones", populates area once queen is dead round 1 summon (horn, lion, kithrix, deva from my 4 fighters) UH and RD attack king top soften the meat necro RRoR Queen Imoen Wishes, and got PFME on everybody. That is a wish! and a nice design of IA V6 R/C and Valy (only have +3 weapons, club + 3 and stonefire) work on noble trolls round 2 necro and Imoen RRoR queen queen cast vengeance storm, lucky, necro wasn't interrupted pounding round 3 necro starts breach on queen RB and UH turn on queen (so that as soon as breach lands she eats raw!) Imoen mordy (to have some summon that last) round 4 queen seriously wounded necro keeps aura clean Imoen mordy R/C and Valy downed 2 nobles queen ADHW everywhere, Imoen Wish made the day queen PFMW necro breaches round 5 Queen dead RB and UH turn to king (who recovered from "severely wounded" to "wounded") R/C GR Valy pound Noble Vengeance pet appear and drain Imoen and necro who PFMW (from scroll and spell) round 6, 7, 8 RB and UH pound king who hardinesses, is breached by necro or Imoen, re-hardinesses Necro and Imoen alternate breach (I try to fire 2 in a row so that king is breached longer) and ballistic casting (DB and ADHW) Vengeance nuisance populate area Valy and R/C Clear last nobles and 2 vengeance Round 9 King critical RB says game over, risk decrements, king dies in seconds, minor trolls fly everywhere round 10 + minor game exterminated (just put IA on) necro and imoen sit down and watch Found good loot, sling of everard (never found it there before, nice aspect of item randomization), a valuable armor (useless if no vagrant prot party though) + tansheron's bow Four words to conclude: THIS FIGHT IS GREAT! (and would not be so were my party 4/5 Hlas higher) Too bad I cannot compete for grand druid title Level Valy (choose contact with nature, what else?), rest. Went to kill umar, did it (got some nice spells, did not abuse spawning, put familiar to rest as soon as I could, still got handsome loot), happy quest was not broken (remember the circumstance of my departure for spellhold) talked to many animals in umar hills, cured rabbit, deer. went to castle to collect money Then Windspear Conster definitely more fun pre-spellhold cleared left part of dungeon I did not do pre-spellhold SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Met Wind Master, ouch!!!, didn't figure him out completely, no spell did damage to him apart DB (for a pitiful ~15 damage), took very small damage from weapons (reminded me of some golems in that regard), has a nasty effect (a bit like web lariat) that disables for a few moments every two rounds and puts your fingers into an electricity plug.... Prot from electricity had no noticeable effect for me Lasted a few rounds, I admire those who made it pre-spellhold!!! Took Garen's son home (to level necro) went back for Samia & co dealt with the mask guardians Waited for Samia & co SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Summoned Deva, mordy, cerebus , skeleton, elite troll (wanted to test newly acquired Monster summoning VI!) Fighters in room where samia appears, necro and Imoen in treasure room entrance Imoen picks shield and sword, Samia appears round 1 R/C attacks legdoril RB attacks Akae UH attacks Chak Valygar attacks Ferric ironblade deva and troll attack kaol Imoen triggers 3*chain lightning necro alacrity some skeletons appear near necro and imoen !!!!, send a mordy to delay them round 2 kaol wounded CC 3*ADHW (ouch, nobody PFMEd), all survive, R/C GR at once 3 skeleton warlords attack mages Necro interrupted, casts PFMW Imoen PFMW from scroll akae dead, RB pounded a bit samia then went to rescue mages, Risk Decrements (warlords not repelled but hurt) round3 Imoen DB necro alacrity UH turns to samia (Chak sent out of the room by DB) every thing else goes on as previous rounds round 4 One warlord down legdoril dead Imoen WISH (wanted breach, got restoration as best choice) necro PFMW (has been dispelled and stands with 3 warlords around) malison, dispels magic at samia & co, then DU to help RB round 5 RB activates chain breaker stance (is critical) 2nd warlord down, 3rd fell under DU and RB (RB then turns to Samia) Imoen chain lightning UH, valy and R/C turn to Chak who doesn't resist long round6 UH turns to samia Imoen Breach on samia (hardiness peeling!) One side note, at this moment of the fight, all my summons are long dead apart from skeleton still fighting with samia! courageous guy this one! R/C and Valy turn to Ferric necro starts breach on Ferric Ferric dies round 7 samia dead in the few rounds left (party against Kaol); many unpleasant things happened: Kaol rains comet on party (3 !!!) and since I cannot dispel his SI:div/II combo, is invulnerable most of the time (AI) a long moment of unpleasantness to wait for his AIs to expire.. (of course, when out of AI, Kaol is dead) cost me 2 reloads (char chunked by comets) loot was good, but not as good as I wished (no vecna) Now preparing some red dragon business SPOILER! buffed upstairs, went down, summons (Deva, cerebus, mordy, skeleton, Elite troll) Imoen and R/C stay back (silence fear) Necro approaches with UH, RB and Valy round 1 talk to Firkraag: "we came to kill you and collect your scales for our own purposes" firkraag buffs necro spell strike from scroll warriors attack, Firkraag buffets summon 3 warlords! message says I have to deal with those think that at least I got a better cast than with some older wyrms! Warriors take blunt weapons and focus on one warlord Firkraag RRoR necro round 2 summons downed, Imoen mordy R/C keeps aura clean (in case critical strike lands somewhere on my warriors and need GR in emergency) Firkraag breaches necro necro SI:abj (to have red one lose time ) 1 warlord down, other wounded Firkraag breaches valy, F... did not expect that at all, protector naked Valy contacts with nature (warlords hit hard, much harder than lord) Firkraag RRoR necro round 3 warlords no more, focus on kraag Firkraag greater doom on RB Firkraag PFMW UH switches to normal 2H while PFMW on necro breaches firkraag stoneskin firkraag improved fireball at valy Valy gulps fire potion (hope not chunked!) Valy survives cool.gif breach from necro lands, UH removed skins, Firkragg damaged for 69 this round, 16 from a skeleton (good guy!) Imoen mordy R/C GR (valy and UH on the brink of falling) round 4 RB CBS, Firkraag hp decrease fast! Firkraag greater doom on UH Firkraag breaches UH firkraag malison Firkraag sequencer, we save ! Firkraag critical Firkraag buffets 3 warlords + message Firkraag heals (hope it will not be like Thax!) round 5 We turn on warlords Firkraag PFMW imoen renew IH on UH (had to come near fight, was not silenced) necro breaches Firkraag RRoR necro round 6 3 warlords down (don't mess with a Chain Breaker Stanced RiskBreaker!) everybody turns to Kraag firkrag PFMW necro breaches UH turns to normal 2H sword Firkraag PFMW Imoen mordy (summons don't last) R/C skeleton (nearly lost the fight because of this, I should have kept her aura cleansed!) necro starts SI: abj (want to keep the wyrm occupied while I look at my warriors killing it) round 7 Firkraag critical Firkraag cure critical wounds (Yes! smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif I believe this means no more heal) Firkraag stoneskin Firkraag PFMW Firkraag damages Valy and UH hard, R/C aura not cleansed, all retreat as fast as they can, escaped death barely necro Si:abj round 8 UH and Valy far away, RB not that lucky, Firkraag stabilizes his hp loss Firkraag RRoR necro Firkraag death spell mordy (no summon left apart one skeleton) Firkraag stoneskin Firkraag critical R/C GR then joins for the killing Imoen mordy round 9 ARRGG!!!! Firkraag buffet Firkraag summon 3 warlords Firkraag heals! NOOOOOOOOO! bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif Firkraag silence R/C (S...) sad.gif sad.gif only good thing: no "can't be killed message" We concentrate on red wyrm, hope summons will distract a bit warlords (we have help here, 2 warlords choose to chase a mordy and a skeleton) round 10 RB hard hits the death blow ! cool.gif RB Risk decrements to soften the warlords UH, RB and Valy turn to a warlord, R/C joins round 11 warlords cleared A hell of a fight, that IS improvement! More than happy to do it no reload ! Challenge would be to kill him pre-spellhold, but I figure that might be tough: - need to rebuff (IH) so need many spells - tough to use only one GR - cat figurine was precious (but may be heal from auramaster) - CBS for RB was important - powerful summons... Anyway, I applaud if someone did it pre-spellhold (realistically think it is too much for me) now leaving to sell and forge! next step might be gythianki and elemental golems Party when leaving Windspear (3,6M xp to 4M xp) necro lvl 19 MPV: Faldorn UH lvl 19 MPV: Mithril Golem RB (just levelled) lvl 21 MPV: Dracolich (just killed is 2nd dragon) R6/C MPV: Chaos Valygar lvl 18 MPV: Thax Imoen lvl 18 MPV: Amber Golem July 11th update Arrived in Athkatla, stopped at dock entry SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . first run, I did what I did before: warriors rush to Kruin and kill him in a couple of round this time, did not work at all, elemental golem pounding on you for several rounds means death, so I reviewed strategy and decided to take down elementals as fast as I could (which means necro alacrity + HoU). (In my previous V5 runs, I even often abused coin and gem spawning to get more money, in V6 no more of this!) buff (every possible thing) cowled wizard appears to warn us (since we never enforced law before, he goes) Imoen glares darkly at him, she wants revenge for her imprisonnement in spellhold! summons: Deva, cerberus (improvement of it in V6 is good!) 2 mordy, skeleton necro casts PFE on UH and RB imoen casts a wish, we take PFME on everybody round 1 Imoen DB bunch of giths, necro alacrity 4 fighters + deva pound same elemental Kruin summons Nishru near necro necro PFMW necro starts HoU round 2 first HoU lands (11 damn! I think this spell deserves an improvement) necro confused by giths (F..! wastes my alacrity!) Valy mental equilibrium UH hit twice for 105 damage! cat figurine (PWKill should have followed, but Kruin was already casting) Imoen death spell from scroll to nishru Kruin RRoR necro (long casting time, good for me!) round 3 Imoen RoF elemental necro HoU elemental Pounding goes on (Don't know for sure whether it is luck or PFE, but so far, just greater healing potion for UH, no GR, nobody more than lightly wounded) Valy contacts with nature (just took 46 dam, don't want to risk Kruin succeeding in PWKilling!) Kruin RRoR imoen round 4 elemental critical necro HoU imoen RoF RB hard hits and kill! YESSSSS (this elemental did not summon!) valy turns north to clean giths (pesky bunch disturbing my mages) R/C , RB and UH turn to 2nd elemental round 5 Gem golem summoned turn 2 mordy to gem For the record, in this round I dealt 29 damage to elemental in 6 hits , he dealt 26 to UH and 37 to RB! RB hardiness interrupted, F....! imoen and necro mordy Kruin breaches necro round 6 RB down (already wounded, he took 42 and 45 damage from elemental, 36 from gem, adios muchacho!) UH hardiness not interrupted! Imoen wish, fail because 5 monster limit! WTF? this might be my doom here!!! I did not deserve it bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif necro PFMW Kruin breaches round 7 UH retreats to cat figurine (elemental does not follow) R/C pounds elemental necro stoneskin (to keep Kruin breaching!) Imoen keeps aura cleaned (in case I suspect Kruin to cast comet, want to cast chain lightning on golem to attempt interruption of Kruin spell) Valy finished Giths, drink fire giant strength potion and attacks Gem (would like to eliminate it before elemental summons again) round 8 Kruin breaches necro SI: abj (will keep kruin occupied) Imoen RoF on elemental (no need to keep aura clean) Valygar attacks gem UH and R/C elemental elemental is focused on R/C , which is good (stoneskin absorbs most of damage, R/C just takes 10-15 elemental damage when hit) For the record, including 5 damage from imoen RoF, did 26 total to elemental (still a long time to survive this fight! I miss you RB) round 9 necro and Imoen wait for Kruin next move (summon limit reached) elemental seriously wounded Kruin RRoR necro necro Si: abj (after RRoR lands of course) Imoen RoF elemental elemental kills one mordy So Imoen mordy round 10 elemental critical (at last!) Kruin RRoR necro necro uses our only Si: scroll coin golem joins imoen waits for one sword to die to wish UH and Valy drink healing potion Important moment: Genie is summoned, best option is: random potion! of cold resistance (I might try to put it into Kruin's a.. for 50 damage, readers please excuse me, should keep my temper!) round 11 necro DB to separate Gem and coin from my fighters while I finish (try to finish) elemental imoen chain lightning (don't like what Kruin prepares) Valy hit, Kruin PWKills him My IH expire things are turning bad round 12 take a gambit necro and imoen renew IH on UH and R/C elemental dies! Kruin RRoR necro round 13 R/C turns to gem (already seriously wounded) UH turns to Kruin (time to take care of him) Imoen SI:abj necro stoneskin round 13 Gem falls Kruin RRoR Imoen imoen mordy necro monster summoning elite troll then walks away (naked) and meets a Gith fallen paladin ! mordy turned to fallen paladin round 14 UH critical retreats R/C starts GR Kruin dispels R/C GR lands UH attacks Kruin for 59 damage, eat raw you Gith! round 15 Imoen PFME R/C (sometimes CC 3*ADHW happens) necro summons skeleton round 16 Imoen IH R/C R/C attacks fallen paladin (near Imoen) UH critical flees Kruin breaches R/C round 17+ Kruin seriously wounded, CC 3* ADHW downs R/C (if UH falls, reload, no raise dead) SI:DIV expires on Kruin, he is as good as dead Kruin spell turning necro spellstrike from scroll Imoen breach Kruin hardiness then Imoen + necro breach one just after the other(each time one breach lands on Kruin, he hardiness or PFMW or.. and second breach removes, so nearly all UH blows make full damage) Kruin dead imoen kills coin with her last RoF Now sell everything I won't need (I plan from the beginning items I want to forge) and forge I have ~460 000 gp (Do you remember I said I was a miser!) forged: red dragon scale wave poseidon indigo ioun stone improved dragon helm supreme shelter cloak +3 cloak +2 adamantite horn ring +2 have now 8 816 gp! I'm on a mood to forge Crom Fraer (future will tell me you not always get what you want when you want it) Since I expect (nasty) changes, before Illithid lair, will try to level-up Imoen before (alacrity) Finished vanilla paladin quests Had to pay 7000 gp to rebuild dikes in my estate on my way back to gate district (Gong quest), Exit Delosar inn, imoen smiles then stoneskins in the street, bunch of cowled appear, we have to fry them. We found a elemental lich in a cave Imoen and necro disrupted her to oblivion Go to gate district to rest Imoen smiles at rest of party then stoneskins wub.gif another cowled wizard patrol to deal with; Tss tss tss sister! angry.gif In fact, I wanted to test DU on a lich dwelling under the inn. Test ended in disaster, will be back when my necromantic power substantially increase SPOILER! ended with half party stunned DU was interrupted by lich (though necro under alacrity + buff/protection) A "stellar gravestone" , uber comet in common language, landed and chunked 2/3rd of party including necro Hence I go to sphere Entering slums imoen stoneskins Another party of cowled wizard meet their creator. Imoen smiles. We met teos (get a stinking rune) goes to furnace, then merella gives jewel casket business to do Get gong before going to trademeet get casket, go to bridge district, finish gong quest and deliver casket back to gate, rune is full Imoen looks at R/C, then improved hastes her, 4 more cowled wizards dead. Imoen is pleased. Back to sphere Merella talks about ice and treasure I am in no hurry to meet an elemental golem while slowed and frozen, so I leave. Went outside Imoen whistles then summons a mordy, another cowled wizard party falls (imoen's teeth show biggrin.gif ) Imoen levels (choose foreknowledge and CC as spells, alacrity HLa) Think Foreknowledge + alacrity sounds good combo Back in the sewer to take teshal SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . RB and UH took teshal + grandlord + bone devil no problem, BUT: 2 more grandlords + 2 warlords (again!) + shade lich join fight Valy and R/C don't resist this slashing storm and fall (was amazed at speed and concentration of 1 grandlord and 2 warlords to peel of skins from R/C then cutting slices of her) RB shines (Risk Decrement +CBS + phophorous main hand), litters the floor with pretty skulls Side note: the close quarter past fights with Master Brain and demon knights made me feel I had room here ! Mages finish lich with DU loot (wish I had this staff berfore entering) Since before V6 I always fought this pre-spellhold, If reinforcement bunch of warlord/grandlord/lich is usual, no way to win this fight at low level Try Illithid lair, was crunched in final fight, will be back later. (2 reloads where enough to convince me) Leave to docks Put Kangaxx to rest (he imprisonned my UH though, was not quick enough to re-cast death ward after dispelling) One thing noticeable with Kangaxx, first enemy so far not to feel Risk Decrement... Nice ring goes to RB Forge pride of the legion (cheap good investment) Went to temple district to clear Guarded compound SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . 1rst floor not changed much (4 gem or coin golems, 2 skel lords; various game, assassin) 2nd floor much harder: you get dispelled when stepping in! first attempt we ran straight to enemies, not good at all 2nd and good attempt, we stood our ground (though taking vengeance storm) Imoen saved the day with her (only) WISH, IH on everybody in party UH and RB hardiness, Valy CWN, necro sequencer stoneskin/fireshield/resist fir, R/C stoneskin Soon in 2nd round, Imoen, eaten by storm, gets PWkilled... It took a couple of rounds to finish enemies, First we downed skel lords (with RB it goes fast!) and assassin then Valy goes to cleric (had a way out from stairs top now, with assassin and skel lords we were stuck at entry) followed by koshi (the one wearing celestial fury) RB and UH followed by 2 warriors (meferan and olaf something) and 2 golems go south (not to be in sion or cleric LOS) necro PFMW, SI, summons... RB and UH at the cost of many potions, finish golems and warriors (necro had to come to help breach hardiness on meferan to accelerate the process) Valy survived (cleric wounded and koshi critical) thanks to contact with nature until RB and UH gave a hand to finish both enemies Sion last to stand (I don't mention lesser assassins spawning, had 6 total in this fight) peeled by necro, dead in 4 round (RRoR, RRoR, Breach, Breach again after Sion re-absolute immunity) Loot house (apart a corridor) Go to rest in temple (I have a room ther after all) then went back in the corridor SPOILER! Send R/C to get first purge Do not make a mistake I did with Kruin, Focus on Greater elemental (his summoning speed is indeed greater than elemental) 1st round everybody (party and summons pound Mr Greater) did a total of 23 damage (not much!) though they will be lost in a few round I drink strength potion (valy and UH) to increase damage a coin golem joins 2nd round 30 damage (was not worth to waste potions!) 3rd round 25 damage, and elemental only lightly wounded! amber joins! what a pleasure! 4rth round 23 damage 5th round 32 damage (criticals from valy and UH) 6th round 17 damage (critical misses this time!) Gem golem joins necro starts Alacrity 7th round purge! UH hardiness Valy hardiness RB Risk Decrement (was waiting for the purge, hope this pushes enemy back) Imoen starts WISH R/C GR (UH is surrounded by golems) 25 damage (elemental is seriously wounded), stop counting now, it despairs me! necro PFMW, Prot electricity, HoU amber, I am upset it gets dispelled! round 8 Imoen wishes for 25 to chars, good! R/C stoneskins round 9 We have now 2 ambers, 1 coin and 3 gems golem among us Greater critical round 10 Greater falls to UH one more amber appears Round 10 + cleaning all the golem (I'm starting to deal better with ambers cool.gif , no one killed) necro + Imoen HoU and Rof to death 2 ambers with nearly no help (mordy and Valy helped a bit) R/C levels I eagerly collect my loot (holy scabbard, aeger's hide, jhor the bleeder) Party at this moment necro lvl 19 (close to level-up) MPV: Amber Golem UH lvl 19 (close to level-up) MPV: Greater Elemental Golem Valygar lvl 19 MPV: Thax RB lvl 21 (close to level-up) MPV: Dracolich R6/C23 MPV: Chaos Imoen lvl 19 MPV: Amber Golem To be continued..... July 13th (small) update Went to recover Imoen's soul Now Bodhi's lair is really a scary difficult vampire crypt! another great V6 improvement thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . First level is populated with more powerful Vampires (eminent, brides) Will just say that drizzt' party was wiped in second (including Drizzt) UH really shines R6/C23 finished fight with vampire mage and bride at R6/C1! ph34r.gif did not take round per round fight with Bodhi (It's not worth IMHO) Let's just say she is surrounded by vampire bodyguards (including a master, eminent and bride) Two waves of skeleton grandlords join 2 Grandlords walk out of alcoves at beginning of fight 3 enter (2 from alcove 1 from corridor you came in) after few rounds (but at the time I had removed all vampires, Bodhi included) Before entering buffed, prot from level drain (spell, I keep scrolls for Orcus) summons: deva + skeletons Opened with DB from mages + sunray*2 from R/C (had 2 sunrays and 1 GR at 7th level slots) Valygar racial combat precious here and put to good use UH and Valy pounded Bodhi R/C sunraying then attack vampire master RB Grandlording (shines at it) RB risk decrement at beginning of fight (ennemy grouped around Bodhi) which helped a LOT tongue.gif After some 2 rounds, only 2 grandlords, Bodhi and Master vampire alive When 2nd wave of grandlords appeared, had just 1 grandlord from first wave to cope with Oh, and weapons were redistributed (I have not that many +4 weapons), RB took phosphorous main hand, Valy staff of Rynn, UH Carsomir or Poseidon, R/C did not mess with grandlords but was great at eliminating vampires (FoA) Had one reload because of a glitch, first time when Bodhi falls yelling "NO! this cannot be..." she did not disappeared and remained draining my chars (she could not be killed), so I reloaded, and when she talked, stopped beating her, she disappeared all right. Good fight, marvellous ambiance ph34r.gif ph34r.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif loot, rest, exit The paladin who joined me in this fight for light fell while gallantly interposing himself between Imoen and a skeleton Grandlord , I solemnly gave back his armor and (good) weapons to radiant heart (could not sell such bounty) A man appeared to claim Drizzt relics, I gave them to his care Now on the road again July 14th update Remember? We have a hard nut to crack! Entered house with some adamantine I have left SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . Did not take risks, buffed in nearby house Imoen and necro CC 3ADHW Imoen and necro PFMW (spell and scroll) round 1 necro DB Imoen Wish (hope breach!) UH and RB concentrate on falahar R/C and Valy on Prime assassin round 2 Pitre GR his party! I'm a bit concerned by this new V6 behaviour of enemy! wacko.gif From now on fight is straightforward mages bomb enemies with DB, ADHW, Imoen wishes for poor choices; ph34r.gif 1 deathblow, Ih on party (everybody already Ihasted!), 1 GR (was just barely hurt) Fighters focus on one enemy after the other I took down enemies in this order - Falahar - Pitre - Prime assassinator - Exterminator - valeria (on top floor) - dracandros (mage) last Don't say this order is an advice (in fact, I think it is not were I to redo the fight), it's just how it went Valy and Imoen both hit the dust, valy poisoned + hit for 94 hp by assassination, Imoen PWKILLed Nice loot thumb.gif Nice reward thumb.gif Nice Prospective thumb.gif Very pleased by the new quest (and it may not be finished yet!) smile.gif smile.gif Finished d'Arnise keep quest, Lord Roenall dead and buried side quest (sorry rolleyes.gif my notes where destroyed amidst other documents in "hard nut" fight) SPOILER! After we ......we were very touched by his gift, a beautiful s... We left south to .....erda....... to enter ........... I remembered from fight with k.... I found a strange p..... ....was indeed the key to....... ... avatar.....electricity.... now have to figure where to use this newly acquired ma..... tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif Let's be serious, and get Crom Faeyr elements, down in the sewer (as I write this remember a song from a band named "The stranglers") SPOILER! Illithid lair: First room 4 warlords !!! + "usual" goons Bad thing; UH is turned soon focused first on cleric (send valy) R/C with globe of blades took illithid and the fallen deva necro + imoen DB + ADHW (did not want to spend hours) RB Risk Decrement + took down warlords one after the other (professionnal skeleton killer this guy!, long for the meeting in Orcus room!) Imoen + necro RRoR (2) + breach (2) then mage dead finished with the gem golems lasted 5 rounds (I think my necro casted a spell every round, 5 slots used) 2nd room no problem (did it straight after first room, just IH UH who was dispelled when turned) came back to collect loot in room 1 Great news : a scroll of WISH! laugh.gif laugh.gif laugh.gif I will organize a think tank about the best to use to make of it (improved cat figurine, learn spell, ..) when escaped from the lair. necro takes bone blade, it sounds good! rested to prepare for final fight (what will happen there!) noticed that One CC/24 h is efficient! smile.gif changed a bit necro spell book: lvl 7 RRoR and mordy, dropped HoU, deals too few damage to elemental memorized 3 Prot from Element (seemed to decrease a bit damages taken by elemental) Valygar uses racial combat golem (will have to avoid fighting squid-heads!) 3rd and final room summoned 4 mordy and deva, buffs I don't like to fight in corridor, so UH opened door and retreated to 2nd room where party waits illithids, ulitharids and hulk joins, we clear them, but no alhoon and no elemental came. So we go north blink.gif blink.gif Alhoon was there, alone . Mere instants later a greater elemental joins. bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif My expected fight with just a "simple" elemental is gone with the illithid-wind. UH valiantly goes to take purge, preserving (for a few round) party's buffs then UH lures Greater to room where party waits, necro goes north for a duel with alhoon round 1 necro RRoR Alhoon Imoen IH on UH everybody else and summons attack Greater Elemental Gem golem join round 2 Imoen summons mordy (greater elemental is a mordy killer!) necro RRoR alhoon Alhoon RRoR necro greater elemental wounded (seems to go a little bit faster than previous one in guarded compound) Mordys do a good job! round 3 necro RRoR alhoon (don't know why, SI still on!) alhoon attacks necro (but PFMW) Imoen Mordy Greater seriously wounded (yes!) Coin golem appears round 4 purge! RB Risk Decrement UH potion of greater healing R/C stoneskin Valy CWN Imoen start WISH (I pray for hardiness or IH on party!) necro removes magic on alhoon round 5 Wish was breach on ennemy Greater Elemental falls (after gating another coin) Rest of the fight easy (Alhoon managed to intelligence drain to death UH though, lack of attention) Alhoon was fried by DB from necro and Imoen (lost patience trying to peel him off) Loot !!! scroll of spell trigger, necro running across the room jubilating! Crom Faer will be mine soon! protector of the second! necklace of prot from poison! Go to cromwell, Forge Valygar armor, Crom Faer and improved cat figurine (made up my mind with scroll of wish) RD dual wields Crom and FoA Valygar Cutthroat and phosphorous R/C club + 3 UH Carsomyr/poseidon/staff of rynn imoen sling of everard Necro bone blade/sling of arvoreen Will go to Watcher's keep now First level a new "ambush" makes spider queen look insignificant SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . We stood at door (could not even enter room) Everything trying to go out had to deal with RB, UH, R/C and Valy Just list here what tried without success to walk past the quatuor: * Skeleton Warlord * Skeleton Lord * Gem Golem * Skeleton Warlord * Coin Golem * Skeleton Lord * Skeleton Grandlord * Skeleton Lord * Greater Bone Golem * Gem Golem * Coin Golem * Gem Golem quite a bunch! Valy, stunned by greater bone golem had to be "free actioned" (another verb for you Sikret! glare.gif ) mages stunned nearly all fight (greater bone is not amusing at all in this regard, its disabling capabilities look like they have been increased in v6) Main contributors to this slaughter: RiskBreaker (Risk Decrement + Crom Faer) and blunt weapons! Second level SPOILER! Elite Fire Giant in place of 2 commons in fire room, ok , but not to be taken too lightly (before I was just sending 1 warrior with poseidon, another with crom, both improved hasted and turned AI on, no more now!) Tough!!!, to say the least, golem bunch wait for you in air room: elemental + 2 greater bone golem + 2 coin + 2 gems strangely, elemental (which I took first) did not feel as bad as my first encounters..; (even re-read my post to be sure!) small bunch of spider in acid room, strange, I feared something would appear, nice ambiance thumb.gif another greater/coin/gem (2 each) party in ice room ph34r.gif Then chromatic demon, tough guy too with insane resistance to damage (I dealt 1 to 4 dam even when critical hitting) Advice: get rid of pesky summons (usually had mages + UH or RB to do that), otherwise they eat fast you hp! I took rid of initial bunch (amber golem, hybrid mist, 2 noble salamanders), demon just summoned another amber (who disappeared when demon dead) before falling. Went back to docks to sell and forge: Valygar katana (he duals wield with phosphorous) The truth (for RB) went to keep to add fourth head to FoA (for R/C) went to bridge for grave lich SPOILER! Fight can be very easy if necro had timestop, but did not find a scroll yet! I let lich disrupt "not that important" spells from necro, the Disrupt Undead made the Job Party at this moment (WK first two level did boost xp a lot, but they are deserved now !) Necro level 21 / grave Lich / AC -4 / 96 hp (looks like a tank somehow!) / kills in chapter: 8% Undead Hunter lvl 21 / Greater Elemental Golem / AC -15 / 161 hp / kills in chapter: 37% Riskbreaker lvl 24 / Dracolich / AC -11 / 169 hp / kills in chapter: 28% Ranger6/cleric25 / Chaos (bad luck, contributed to the demise of many bosses) / AC -15 / 141 hp / kills in chapter: 6% Valygar lvl 21 / Spider Queen /AC -15 / 135 hp / kills in chapter: 6% Imoen lvl 20 /Amber Golem /AC -2 / 65 hp/ kills in chapter: 11% Valygar doesn't kill many, but chooses quality, among his "scalps": - Thax - Shade lord - Spider queen Hesitate between 3 things to do: - Merella "why is it so cold" (and I'm even not sure I won't have to meet a "greater" elemental golem while frozen!!!) - Orcus (may be over challenging at those levels) - Vania's first quest (My prejudice is that is the easiest choice) Time will tell.............. July 22th update Went to rest in copper coronet, Imoen brooding...though in all likeness next enforcement of the law will call on us high members of the cowled wizards, Imoen cannot forget nor forgive the three month ordeal in spellhold. So be it, after resting we prepare for a big fight, step outside, and Imoen summons a mordy. Zallanora and khollynnus Paac appear with their bodyguards Zallanora; "this is one enforcement too many!" Imoen: "So are the months I spent tortured in spellhold!" Zallanora: "You deserved it, we had the right to!" Imoen: "For people like you, there is no right, there is only power!" And fight begins Despite summoning cowled wizards and coin golems, despite their arcane powers, the two arch-sorceress bite the dust. Zallanora fell in two rounds, Khollynnus Paac had a long agony, we were killing her summons one after the other, patiently waiting for her protective spells to expire. She had endless minutes to stare into the eyes of her killers... So did Imoen settle accounts for her ordeal, no cowled wizard will dare cross our path anymore. did some part of WK lvl 3 (not green wyrm nor thieflings yet) to get money to forge memory of the apprenti With my new robe went back to sphere Why is it so cold down here? yes, why? SPOILER! Preparation upstairs, duhm; defensive harmony, bless, chant, IH...and free action on everybody (cat figurine)! Necro + imoen load triggers and sequencer with RoF CC Foreknowledge +2* mordy (imoen) and CC foreknowledge + 2*elite troll (necro) PFMW for both mages climb down good surprise, a "vanilla" elemental golem! the pair with ice golem still offer a serious opposition! necro runs to take purge (and as soon as purged PFMW) everybody attack ICE Imoen + necro alacrity then unload RoF on ice golem (Though dealing less damage than HoU, RoF is faster so both mages were machine gunning ice and elemental) Ice golem falls in 2 round 1/2 necro starts HoU (no more RoF) Then elemental falls (could just summon one coin golem before going down) took just one "why is it so cold down there" slowness/interruption barely lost xp! Wonder now why I was so frightened before??? Meeting with Pasha Mahmoud SPOILER! Love this fight,thumb.gif you have to keep focused to say the least necro and Imoen under Alacrity, Improve haste on fighters, remove magic to dispel marilith and raksasa protections (in the end of both alacrity, elemental golem critical to RoF and HOU) First removed Noble raksasa (and an horrid one that was seriously hurting Pasha) then Elemental then Noble Marilith (lesser marilith disappear when noble dead) R/C casted heal on Pasha twice! poor fellow was unfortunately surrounded by all the enemies apart 1 horrid raksasa and 1 marilith! A new friendship is sealed Leave sphere to fulfill Paladin duties Assassin hideout SPOILER! Not much to say, only important thing while buffing, I used 2 scrolls of prot from poison (so all fighters protected from poison) Necro under IA killed all lesser assassins in no time while breaching guildmaster and master assassins warriors slice through masters and guildmasters (thanks to necro debuffing), then eliminate 3 golems (coin and gem) ~4 rounds after entering the hideout, all business was reduced to a duel between party and two coordinators. Coordinators lost it good loot (I need money) PS: foreknowledge in CC triggering at "enemy seen" + alacrity shines! Go to trademeet to sell loot Go to forge, meet limak (forgot about him, how lame!) SPOILER! Not much to say (apart that we all remained in his LOS apart from R/C) We patiently waited for his Si:div to expire while keeping him occupied (hit, summons, buff/de-buff amusement,....) Only bad surprise, he turned my UH! when Limak out of SI: , he lasted two rounds (warriors survived the CC 3*ADHW despite PFME dispelled) wonderful loot, a scroll of WISH for my necro! We let his disgusting brain rot in the sewer Don't forge yet, have to ponder where to use my money (and I would like to find a ring of air control!) Go to my estate (to pick some gold, think it is the last time...) Back to temple district to report to Lady Vania she is not yet ready to give me the new quest Go to WK to take green wyrm did not buff nor re-arrange spell books SPOILER! Necro and RB went alone no long talk with green wyrm, RB attacks necro first alacrity spellstrike breach 7* flame arrow breach again (when wyrm rebuffs pfme) 3* chainlightning 3* Dragon breath Wyrm still standing! (seriously wounded) necro second alacrity last DB then breach breach ... and RB terminates the wyrm all other four members applaud, Imoen just hints that with re-arranging spellbook before, necro could have walked alone... (She is true) thanks to the loot will forge ring of greater djinni! PS: during the fight, Green wyrm unleashed vengeance storm,RRoR, breach, clouds, trigger + sequencer, breath (for a 100 something damage on RB),...but was no match for us Back to Cromwell, now wear a powerful summoning device on my finger! Vania gives second quest, we head to Windspear SPOILER! Improved haste at dungeon entry Run to THE place Disturb Viper queen rest critical strikes + smite while necro and Imoen drop bomb after bomb (ADHW /DB) on minor snakes Viper queen is history now. Including the ones met at keep first level, counted just 20 snake bodies (apart from queen) littering the floor. Get reward, forge holy avenger. Head to WK to finish maze SPOILER! - Thiefling always a pain (3 reloads, bad effects of wild magic) Improved demon knights tough (mainly because you cannot buff in thieflig room), but levels speak and their bones litter the floor fast. Great improvement in final fight (with demon and souls, skeleton warlords join the party!)thumb.gifthumb.gifthumb.gif found a nice new book, keep it just in case. Gamble with a cambion, get WISH and a nice scimitar. True to my word let demon escape (did not kill him for his deck) Meet Lum the mad, that guy sealed his doom when summoning illlithids near me! Clear an easy (at this level) illithid lair Find a tough "ambush" in one room near machine: SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . 3 elemental and two greater bone golems! necro and imoen loaded like machine guns with sequencer/trigger of RoF CC foreknowledge+PFMW+mordy after 1 round greater bone killed by warriors mages nearly killed one elemental all by themselves (but RB risk decremented!!) elementals summoned once, all 3 killed before another summoning dealing with 2 coin and a gem was a walk in the park Before fighting supreme leader (maybe my favourite post-spellhold fight with Orcus) I need some more critical for my fighters, So brought back lanthorn, cleared southern part of elven city (will see Nidryzt sometimes in the future). Now on a mood to test old ones, Necro is level 23. Rest in sphere first run: obliteration blush.gif second run : ashes to ashes blush.gif blush.gif .... Failure at various stages, one of the problem is that it is quite impossible to reproduce the same sequence in the fight, so progress is not linear... .... Sixteenth blush.gif blush.gif blush.gif blush.gif blush.gif run: SPOILER! CC: foreknowledge thumb.gif/ prot from energy / spell turning contigency: soul armor trigger: PFME/ globe of invulnerability/ prot from fire sequencer prot from fire/stoneskin/fireshield red (did invest in fire protection!) wear amulet of hades/gaxx ring/boots of speed/indigo ioun stone resistances at beginning of fight: fire 127 magic fire 127 magic damage 127 round 1 take 2 stellar gravestones on my head, run south to SI:necromancy round 2 a grave approaches me necro summons elite troll Graves looks after him, I flee north round 3 arrives north (I am naked because RRoRed by graves..) Stellar flys in my direction, I jump across the pool (this is an image!) , still standing start alacrity: spell turning globe of invulnerability SI necromancy run to help old one RRoR one grave DU for 22 damage alacrity expires, necro flees north Round 4 necro:alacrity, run south RRoR on grave (she has re-buffed!) DU for 21 damage DU for 20 damage DU for 25 damage (lich breaches me) PFMW stoneskin other lich RRoR at me retreat north round 5 renew SI: necromancy start Alacrity (no grave come after me!) round 6 necro:alacrity (lich has cured, was seriously wounded is just wounded) DU for 27 damage DU for 25 damage DU for 25 damage Bigby crushing hand 10 damage (no! no! no! this cannot be!) run north round 7 alacrity Bigby crushing hand 8 damage (no! no! no! this cannot be!) I can do nothing offensive (Lich under PFMW), only thing maybe useful, look into my bag of holding... searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag ....searching bag Find a disrupt undead scroll !!!!! DU for 17 damage Lich dead! YEAHHHHHH !!!!!!!:thumb:thumb.gifthumb.gifthumb.gifthumb.gifthumb.gif little problems to cope with right now: no more 9 th level spells apart one alacrity at 8th level, have just 4 monster summoning VI... no more 7th level spells! I flee north again Oh, forgot to mention that two breaches are flying toward me! I will have to rebuff, old one should manage without me for some rounds (I already did what I could eliminating a grave lich!) round 8 necro: sequencer on self once breaches have landed would like old one to go offensive! (I paved the way!) looks like he stays idle!!!! round 9 necro: spell shield A buff/debuff and hand to hand fight is going on southward between old one and the two graves round 10 necro : Protection from Element think of next step: I choose to summon greater Djinni and improve haste him (one of my previous attempt was quite similar than this one, I choose to run to help old one and was annihilated by stellar gravestones on the spot!) round 11 and 12 Greater Djinni + IH necro launches Djinni south round 13 necro follows Djinni south Djinni resists a lot (2 stellars and still up and fighting!) Lich unleashes CC 3*ADHW necro summons troll troll obliterated by stellar gravestone Djinni hits a lich old one unleashes his power at last! 48 damage with improved disrupt undead! round 13 necro summons troll stellar from lich on troll Can't believe my eyes: Djinni and old one chunk a lich!:thumb: round 14 one more troll from necro stellar from lich on troll Djinni hits old one Improved disrupt undead round 15 no more troll, gate kithrix stellar from Grave lich on djinni who survives AND THEN SHE FALLS !!!! I kiss Djinni on both cheeks, collect the loot. The lich I killed early left much more scrolls than late ones. Say Farewell to old one. Meet my new apprentice, good guy. He is researching a spell (hope the guy is talented too!) I regret to have sold many components that could have been useful for my new apprentice (that will cost me some money) Have some trip in country side (visit estate, umar, north forest) Back to sphere, my apprentice gives me a scroll of "recast vital energy" Cannot wait to test it, necro wants to improve her amulet, so we go to Cemetery. We go deep into the catacombs, unsure as to what awaits us there.... SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . This battle is about endurance, chock absorption and undead chunking. Getting ready: will use undispelable and (relatively) long lasting buffs: - My 13 potions of barbarian essence collected since I awoke in Irenicus laboratory; 3 on uh and Valy, 3 on RB , 4 on R/C - 4 PFLD scrolls (all chars apart UH and necro) - spell of giant strength on necro, R/C and UH (RB has Crom, Valy phosphorous, Imoen not supposed to come to hands there) prepare mages necro; - spellbook loaded with DU (7), recast vital energy (3), DB (3), ADHW (for vampires) - sequencer malison/slow/dispel magic - trigger larloch interrupter/ lower MR /lower MR (for Orcus!) - contingency PFMW (enemy seen) - CC foreknowledge + GOI + spell turning Imoen: - sequencer 3*chain lightning - CC foreknowledge + PFMW + spell turning All usual buffs + chaotic command on both mages (don't want them seduced by brides!) We all go down Orcus and necro glare at each other, It is clear for both that two came in this room, one will go out Round 1 Smite on 3 warriors, Imoen runs south warriors and R/C each take a grandlord Imoen runs south, takes greater silence (reason of previous failure here, had not buffed in order to survive with just necro able to cast) Happy, that means rest of party not silenced, good! Vampires appear near imoen then run to us (Immy invulnerable to them) Imoen summons greater djinni necro, to show profit from her apprentice work, casts "recast vital energy". Necro is recognized, so can choose + 50% hp on party, we are BIG! In grandlords skulls where instead of eyes red light shines in deep dark sockets, we detect something, fear may be ?... round 2 Orcus silences everybody (sh... he had a second one!, good thing is that maybe he won't cast it thrice... will see....) Necro recasts vital energy for regeneration on party (good) R/C drinks potion (attacked by 3 grandlords, some hits land, fear PWKilling) Imoen and her djinni bodyguard wait (no need to expose her, she is helpless once PFMW no more) round 3 3 grandlords fall RB looks after master vampire (nasty punk this one!) necro waits for vampire spawning next round (no need to waste a DU now) round 4 Vampires (I cannot count them up) appear, masters, eminent and brides.. necro starts alacrity one grandlord falls round 5 orcus RRoR necro necro: spell shield ADHW ADHW ADHW DB DB DB vampire cleaned a lot round 6 Orcus RRoR necro SI: abj (alacrity expires) 2 grandlords down round 7 fighting on a bunch of skeleton lord appear! Orcus RRoR necro necro SI: abj round 8 one more grandlord down Imoen surrounded by vampires and stripped of PFMW cornered south/west (hope silence wears off...), regeneration and PFLD prevent her death for the moment Orcus RRoR necro necro SI: abj round 9 Situation at beginning of round: South: Imoen beaten upon by one Master and three brides North: 1 grandlord attacked by RB UH (switched to holy avenger) attacking master vampire Valygar (switched katana MH) attacking other master vampire R/C attacking eminent vampire 5 skeleton lords running about and Orcus... Necro starts alacrity round 10 necro empties Disrupt undead stock while under alacrity last grandlord falls another bunch of skeleton lords appear! vampire (apart those near Imoen) dead (for good!) necro ADHW; recast vital energy (regeneration again, my char heal faster than they are hurt!) That spell rocks, had I known, I would have taken 7 (all my 9th level slots) round 11 UH attacks Orcus Orcus stuns Valygar necro, UH, RB and R/C organize a steel curtain around valygar round 12 Steel curtain stands! round 13 bunch of skeleton lords appear Imoen out of silence casts PFMW (without necro recast vital energy, would be long dead!) No matter what, every undead trying to go past the steel curtain falls! Valygar will not die today! round 14, 15, 16, 17 our silence ends, no more casting of it by Orcus (good!) We clean up vampires and skeleton lords, joined by valygar at last! a bunch of master + brides*3 appear, we deal with master as priority level 1, a bride charms imoen, valygar mental equilibrium her on the spot. Necro and imoen RRoR and spellstrike Orcus, no matter what we do, his PFMW doesn't breach round 18+ ("+" means a "lot" of rounds) alone with Orcus for the first time! Demon looks much less superior now! We wait for his PFMW stock to end (no matter how many RRoR, cannot debuff him) Three times we meet a bunch of vampire (master and brides), R/C charmed, mental equilibrium from valy necro held, mental equilibrium again Imoen charmed again, last mental equilibrium Orcus can't be touched but doesn't deal huge damage necro and imoen summon everything they have in stock and we pound and pound and pound No great luck with imoen's 5 wishes (wanted GR and hardiness),got potion, breach on enemy (good), deathblow (useless) PFME (useless here) and got one "make as if rested" I didn't take, chose improved haste on party... (even a demon prince can be killed in a gallant way!) In the end, Imoen, R/C and RB are seriously drained. round 29 Undead hunter plunges Holy Avenger into Orcus throat Mors the necro opens Orcus chest with her dagger and removes his heart to collect some precious drop of his blood.. According to the loot RB and Valygar collect, we have just killed 8 grandlords and 15 lords, 7 bodies crumpled on the floor are identified as vampire masters, no one will ever know how many eminent vampires and brides met their doom today. My potion stack is replenished a little bit... (a good little bit!) Two came in, One goes out. This fight was my favourite in IA V5, is still on top of the list (at this point of my run) in V6, though I would say it has few in common with its ancestor. GREAT! thumb.gif thumb.gif GREAT! thumb.gif thumb.gif GREAT! thumb.gif thumb.gif Forge Lord of the underworld Party at this moment (with main equipment) necro lvl 24 ; Grave lich ; Lord of the underworld /memory of the apprenti /scholastic cloack /crimson ioun stone Undead hunter lvl 24; ORCUS ; enhanced pride of the legion /poseidon/holy avenger/ staff of rynn / boots of speed / talisman of greater protection /cloack +2 / ring +2/ring +2 Ranger6/cleric 28 / Chaos (don't remember how much xp this one is worth, but must be a lot!) / green wyrm plate / improved dragon helm / cloack +2 / ring +2 /holy symbol Riskbreaker lvl 27 / green Wyrm / cloak +3/ring +2/gaxx/ indigo ioun stone / Crom Faer /The Truth Valygar lvl 23 / Limak the mastermind / corthala katana and armor /ring +2 /ring+2 /cloak +2 /boots of the woodland imoen lvl 23 / Amber golem / bracer AC 4 / ring +1 /robe prot from cold/ cloak +1 Now ponder where I am most likely to find what my apprentice needs...... SPOILER! Old wine, scroll of time stop (hope I find 2 of those, want one for necro) Who will be the first to test my new summon? Shall I try new tactics abusing "recast vital energy"? YES I WILL ! thumb.gif! Back to elven city Cleaned rest of city, one new very tough fight SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . In harpist house, a greater elemental + noble raksasa + 2 horrid wait for you! Least to say is that in this small chamber, overcrowding is fast! one reload because of wrong strategy (focused on Greater first, Noble populated area with horrids) Recast vital energy shines here round1 necro + imoen alacrity RB and UH attack noble rak Valygar greater elemental then IH on every fighter Recast vital energy * 6: regenerate cure party regenerate regenerate add 50% hp cure party + remove magic to dispel raksasa's PFMW and AI 2 rounds later no more raksasas all fighters on greater elemental necro summons skeleton lord, imoen Djinni mages then summon/machine gun lesser golems with ROF When greater falls, 2 coin, 1 amber and 3 gems to deal with, no problem. get a timestop scroll! will please my apprentice! Back to sphere activate time machine research since I'm too eager, sleep in sphere Go to time machine SPOILER! Key 1: brilliant story telling! I love it! thumb.gif! thumb.gif! thumb.gif! thumb.gif! Key 2: prepare yourself to be somewhat un-prepared! now can forge another key while apprentice forges, decide to take Nizi.... (also need to be back in suldanessenar after first travel) SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . what to say apart greatly improved, no more solo taking by sorcerer(ess) this time! Nizi himself is quite stronger, but what to say of the three helpers he summons! They deserve their names! (+ their secondary effect when hitting is quite annoying for mages, it was for my necro here) Focused on Nizi first, once he is done, each fighter took care of one "helper" then, when necro rid of secondary effect, summons + recast vital energy (regen / regen / mental agility) winners: * Valygar racial combat (he took a hardwood alone) * RB CBS (survived alone against hardwood 2 until valygar helped) * Greater djinni (took blows UH had not to take) * R/C who managed to avoid greater silence and GR 4 times 1 reload for chunking (was P.... off, first run was going ok and hardwood chunked valy whose hardiness ran out, reason why I choose racial combat as buff) Grab loot (regret Nizi's helpers do not generate some, I need matches!), visit a house (you who have a necro, guess which?) open palace door, open staircase, then leave city (nothing to do apart going to hell) Back to sphere, time-travel once again, agree to a new quest give instruction to apprentice to forge key (those who get the quest will understand) Ponder what to do, choice is among those 3: - Twisted rune - Supreme leader - Wait for key ...... august 7th update twisted rune it is now: SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . Getting ready: prepare necro - sequencer PFMW/spell shield/GOI - trigger stonekin/prot fire/ fire shield - contingency PFMW, trigger on hit - CC foreknowledge + GOI + spell turning, trigger on hit All usual buffs, giant strength on UH and R/C, true sight from the truth summon deva, skel lord, noble spider, greater djinni and skeleton Round 1 RB attacks revanek UH and Valy attack shyressa necro and R/C go in north-east alcove (near layenne) to be out of Vaxall LOS Imoen breach on Shyressa Necro Recast vital energy for mental agility on self summons go for shangalar round 2 RB falls to gravestone + revanek hit + vaxall special hit (good team job from those 3!) skel lord does good job on revanek Shyressa falls UH and Valy finish Revanek then focus on Vaxall R/C GR (valy badly drained) Necro casts RRoR on Layenne (fast casting speed, isn't it?) imoen Wish (best choice= potion!) round 3 R/C resurrection on RB Valy + UH attack Vaxall necro RRoR layenne imoen keeps aura cleansed round 4 UH and Valy take a gravestone, no big damage RB grabs equipment, Ihaste and join Vaxall pounding Deva and Djinni still standing around shangalar imoen wished for hardiness on party necro recast vital energy, fumbles for a grandlord! round 5 necro PFMW from scroll Imoen wish for PFME on party vaxall seriously hurt R/C attacks grandlord shangalar DB on warriors round 6 necro free action from cat figurine (RB was pw stunned by Shangalar) R/C GR (DB left Valy with few hp and fear team working from shangalar and Vaxall!) imoen summons mordy round 7 Layenne breaches necro and a twisted golem gates (ouch!) ph34r.gif Vaxall falls, valy and UH go for Twisted golem, RB for grandlord necro sequencer Imoen summons mordy R/C GR (last one!) round 8 2nd twisted golem gates! ph34r.gif Imoen wish for make as if rested, good! Warriors focus on one twisted golem round 9 another twisted golem ph34r.gif warrior down first twisted laugh.gif RB finishes grandlord round 10 imoen wish for ts + alacrity, RROR shangalar (thrice), renew IH on party, PFME on necro, Prot fire on necro, renew buffs on self + summon mordy Warrior down another twisted laugh.gif necro summons skel lord fourth twisted golem appears (will that ever ends!!!!) ph34r.gif round 11 shangalar finished djinni, comes near us necro starts alacrity then attacks shangalar layenne visible, breached by imoen, UH turn to layenne layenne wishes for make as if rested necro deals 2 DU on shangalar, but shangalar cast larloch interrupter on necro round 12 layenne near death, turns invisible RB true sight from thetruth necro breaches layenne (have to be a quick caster!) UH removes layenne head from her shoulders cool.gif shangalar greater silence all party (apart UH who was north and necro) round 13 warriors finish another twisted laugh.gif UH turns to shangalar round 14 + Twisted golems finished laugh.gif had to wait for shangalar PFMW to expire then all warriors executed him Good loot (a 9th level monster summoning spell), will try it soon I hope. Go to planar sphere, 2nd travel to plane SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Meet lesser force first bunch of skel lords, no problems lesser force comes back: 2nd bunch: 6 balors! (3 reloads,have to start from first bunch each time) then imoen wish gave breach on enemies 3 balors fell fast necro and imoen debuff another that fell then horrible time with last two to make a long story short, they depleted my necro 7th slots (all RRoR) Imoen had to be resurrected once and raised from dead once (she died twice to FoD!) R/C out of GR warriors very low on HLA no more summons apart some mage spells ADVICE TO FOLLOW: DO NOT TIMESTOP WITH THOSE BALORS! Lesser force reappears: gives me a bunch of grandlords and dispels my protections! gambit: imoen wish (she is vulnerable to chunking) necro PFMW (otherwise game over) Warriors do what they can to improve AC: RB drinks potion of invulnerability UH casts defensive harmony R/C stoneskins Valy CWN (thought to cast racial combat skeleton, but figure grandlord would reach me first) Imoen saves the day : make as if rested. I love you sister! Grandlords fell one after the other no loss at the end had even time to summon some more helpers (and to save some spells) only regret: I could have re-organized my spell book, but this would have been too much on the verge of cheese Now wait An outside being refreshes my spells and heals me (if only I had changed my spell book!) Lesser force now confronts me Lesser force dispels protection, has dark field of repulsion necro and imoen wish help a lot (PFME, Hardiness, GR) necro recast vital energy for +50% hp then regeneration lesser force is failing (since it takes damage I do not try offensive spells) Suddenly we all fly across the plane, lesser force is cured, 6 greater bone golems join... However am I going to overcome this! Imoen is stunned, I choose to have RB and R/C tank greater bones, UH and Valy lesser force with summons R/C panicked and RB stunned! necro saves us with recast vital energy for "remove disabling effects on party"! Valy, R/C and RB take greater (with help from skel lord from hades and one djinni) UH takes lesser few rounds later Greater bone golems are removed lesser force near death... We are all blown across the plane, greater bones reappear... when fate is not with you... We eventually get rid of greater bones (they were just 4 of them, meagre positive thing) necro won the day with remove disabling effect (as soon as she casted it, she was stunned but R/C could free actionned her!) facing lesser force once again.... lesser force near death, what will happen next she is fragmentized in universe, VICTORY !!!!! laugh.gif tongue.gif cool.gif cool.gif tongue.gif laugh.gif laugh.gif cool.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif Collect my well deserved loot (carmine ioun stone) great fight, thumb.gif one of the hardest so far Now I think I will sell, forge and go to hell (WK can wait for TOB) August 13th update Enter tree of life area (notice vagrant must have a place to visit here) Irenicus tree has been improved indeed, SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . Looks like he made a deal with Nizi to share some employees bad luck for them, necro + alacrity + recast vitality * 7 = warriors (with + 50 % hp) that regenerate faster than they take damage (+ valy racial, RB CBS, R/C def harmony and righteous magic...) once hardwoods down, Irenicus Chain Contingency downs UH and Imoen, I took time to resurrect and raise both before finishing johnny so we all went in hell with our boots on! Make no mistake, taken lightly, party can be crunched all the same in this fight, even at high levels Hell now it is. Think in future IA version trials should be revisited, both fights and intrigues (for example having choice at each arena to fight more difficult challenge for better reward) Always pissed that good behaviour so poorly rewarded... Anyway final meeting with johnny, fight looks almost too soft now Johnny ends Now TOB Illasera SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . she (and her party) have reinforcement now since I could (thank to Imoen wishing for breach on enemy and necro lightfast speedcasting) bring down illasera and co fast, I took reinforcement one after the other must be very very painful to face illasera + 4-5 reinforcement together..... and again, necro + foreknowledge + alacrity = POWER!!!! (understand now why sikret does not bother to take a second mage in party) Even if necro does not go offensive (which she can with devastating effect), she can maintain all by herself warriors (debuff + regeneration/remove disabling effect/+50% hp/heal..) Oh, and funny, necro fumble once (summoned a grandlord), what a coincidence! Give a part of my soul to Sarevok then tell him to get lost Meet Cespenar Clear first room Go to saradush Do various jobs (recover lazarus book, find shelter for elves, resurrect boy's father, stop fightings, kill bullies that annoy waitress,...) then visit catacombs (vampires!!!! ph34r.gif ) and clean sewers deal with kiser jhaeri then Gromir Overconfidence costed me 1 reload there (did not buff, Imoen got chunked blush.gif ) nice fight. Party when leaving saradush necro lvl 25 (near level-up), with scarlet ioun stone, lord of underworld, memory of the apprenti and cloack of arcane immortality, quite a piece of meat! Imoen lvl 25 RB lvl 30 (just levelled) Valygar lvl 26 (just levelled) Ranger 6/Cleric 31 (will soon dispel liches with good odds) Undead Hunter lvl 26 (near level-up) From now on, when you see RVE in this journal, read 9th lvl wizard spell "Recast Vital Energy" Another point, I said at the beginning of journal that I don't resurrect during fights apart from Wish. Since wish option exists no more, use resurrect during combat from spell or scroll (but do not abuse it at all, you are the judge) Meet Nyalee, agree to kill her devil son, Clean (many) elite fire giant (fire giant do not appreciate crom nor poseidon) Beren & party not to be taken lightly one reload because Immix cold-chunked by thetruth (was p.. off, did take care not to use poseidon, forgot about thetruth...) went back to Nyalee temple, fought ~20 skel lord waves + bunch of grandlords, quite some fun, have to manage spell stock (To gameplay this skeleton party, I prevented myself from using make as if rested or magic rest from RVE). Gave hearts to Nyalee, fought her and minions Before going for Yaga Shura, decided to pay a visit to supreme leader (Yaga is for me and my skills one of the dreadest fights in IA, and I suspect some improvement in V6...) SPOILER! V6 Spoiler . . Buff (necro and imoen under alacrity while buffing not to waste time lasting of effects) necro shot RVE magical rest cat figurine free action at last from my 2 previous attempts and painful failure with anti-inquisitors, decided to try acid and lightning on them, if that fails will try cold... going down round 1 UH summons deva, necro skel lord, Imoen Djinni Valy; R/C and RB each take one gith (the 3 guarding first room) once 3 giths dead, necro and Imoen start alacrity (to free a way through gith army crowding the door) Idea is to have RB and UH through to deal with mlar and hracknir while valy and RC clean gith army with mages and summon, and keep Supreme leader occupied (while peeling him) round 2 and 3 UH breached by supreme renew free action from scroll necro debuffs Supreme, RVE*6 (3 regen, 1 mental agility, 2 no use), ADHW some Imoen adhw around, casts DB UH and RB reach mlar and racknir while only 4 golems summoned(gem; coin, clay, stone), both activate critical critical then each his goon (RB has crom/thetruth, UH Poseidon, what else?) at the end of round 3, Mlar and Hracknir heavily wounded necro, Valygar, Imoen and summon in room wit Supreme + Gith (good, I wanted supreme and necro close from each other, waiting for anti palaldins...) round 4 Supreme alone with 3 gish UH and RB renew critical (4 more golems) Necro keeps aura clean (will try to fell Mlar and Hracknir as close from each other as possible) Imoen Wish (interrupted) round 5 Imoen wish Hr'a'cknir down, necro starts alacrity, RB turns to clay and stone (with crom, to clear a path to join rest of party, he is completely surrounded and blocked by golems) Mlar joins his brother in death, UH who has a way out switch to Holy avenger and runs to necro RB has removed all stone and clay (4), runs to rest of party 2 coin and 2 gems follow UH and RB 4 anti-inquisitors now reinforce Supreme dwindling army Imoen's wish gives breach apart party and II enemies, good! necro interrupted, SH... round 6 necro sequencer 3*chain lightning, anti-inquisitors do not like (btw acid does nothing to them) Imoen Wish for make as if rested, yeah! Valy cleans last gishs UH and RB focus on anti-inquisitors R/C fights another anti-inqui some paces away Djinni keeps Supreme occupied Gem and coins pound us round 7 necro starts alacrity Imoen starts alacrity Rain of spells, (including an hostile grandlord) 3 anti inquisitor dead warriors under regeneration djinni, skel lord, greater yuan-ti reinforce party Valy and R/C pound last anti-Inqui UH works on Gem round 8 - 9 - 10 We remove all apart from Supreme Leader Supreme debuffed (to exhaust his PFMW) round 11 UH, Valy, RB and summons (skel lord, greater yuant-ti, Djinni ) attack Supreme Leader (who got rid of our summons quite fast!) round 12+ Fight lasted a lot! (could not debuff Supreme protections) At on moment a mistake nearly costed me the fight; I had forgotten the regen stance of Supreme, and I choose UH to smite, which projected him far from my warriors (who had little critical and smite left) supreme came back fully healed He fell to RB at last, but downed Valygar one round before (no more HLA nor GR, Supreme hits hard). Winner here: Thetruth !!!! thumb.gif With Orcus was my favourite high level fight in IA, still competes! Collect loot (quite poor in fact for such a fight! sad.gif ) Go to antechamber to rest, level and modify spell book (guess why?) Back, buff party, hint about where I am going to: R/C casts foreknowledge take a stair to.... SPOILER! Mr skull cool.gif did not lose a single hp there Necro and imoen started alacrity, machine gunning ROF on Golems + warriors pounding, golems did not see end of second round Demi-lich could not debuf our DW (Cleric is level 33!, can't touch this!), only removed a few SI:abj (that were renewed on the spot) I just offered him the satisfaction to remove my greater yuan-ti summon (which also kept him occupied) Leave Lich Lair My pride takes a heavy blow angry.gif SPOILER! Because I sent necro alone to fight Saladrex, would have reduced him to ashes for one "slight" change in V6..but turned out I was owned stopped playing there, will resume when recovered from this blow huh.gif august 15th update To redeem my pride, went back without re-organizing spells nor trigger nor contingencies. SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . While you cannot cast from mage, contingency and triggers work in Saladrex lair, so does divine casting. Don't send all your fighters first (no need to have them all dispelled at once), better to have some whose buffs last Prepare to endure while Sal' PFMWs, meanwhile you can still remove his stoneskin with normal weapon though. RB innate IH is precious Once saladrex out of PFMW, provided party is not turned into barbecue, he is a sitting duck. RB got the deathblow Did not bother to drink / protect from fire, GR (4 total) were enough Saladrex dead, I appreciate its improvement is rewarded (loot seems better than before and xp ARE better) collect loot, back to machine room rock, garrock killed lum executed gave +1 dex to R/C, +1 con to RB, +1 str to R/C, +1 char to UH, +1 wis to R/C, +1 INT to necro Leave WK to sell and forge forge girdle of lordly might (RB or UH), Thor (RB), girdle of cloud giant strength (UH, Valy, RB depending on weaponry), staff of ram +5 (UH) Yaga or WK5? WK5 (best WK level!) Ambush in skull room! SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Grave lich, Shade lich + 4 grandlords no big problem there Ambush in globe machine room! SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . 4 elementals + 2 greater bone golems!! they had just time to summon 2 coin and one gem before falling to my party why? because RVE (was fair to get rid of them fast, I could turn this into a cash machine!) Did 4 green, 4 blue 3 purples and 3 red globes straight after that. Had to rest (no more spells nor HLAs) last purple and red not a walk in the park at all.... 4 grave liches are for me one of the toughest fight (all the more in V6 with new liches scripting and spells) with my necro, was won through RVE (to maintain fighters alive), imoen TS and wish (to debuff liches), 2 graves went down with DU (but I would have needed 30 7th level spell slots to remove them all!) Rest to reorganize spellbook (7th level slots full with HoU, triggers, sequencer with RoF) Greater elemental + ultra golem are very tough, all the more with magic purge every couple of rounds (even when greater down!) SPOILER! Do not make the mistake to take ultra first, Greater elemental has to go down first! In my previous attempt I took ultra first, but 1°) Ultra takes time to down (DO USE BLUNT WEAPON!) 2°) Greater summons at a high pace so I ended with greater in full health + ~10 ambers/coin/gem to deal with (having used many hlas and spells because of purges). That was too much.. Warriors focused on greater. Necro, under alacrity, RVE then RoF and HoU to remove ambers that spawn, imoen through WISH renew Hlas/ IH or GR on party R/C went twice out of zone of combat to GR party. tactic worked great, 3 ambers (2 single-handed by necro with bit help from summons) and 1 gem had time to spawn. Took Ferrumach Rilmani without rest after that. Now facing 3 choices, all good fights, Horde (never imagined to take it another way than weapons in hand, to me TS or emotion/GC/pwstun is not gameplay), Ancient Wyrm or Yaga. Horde it is. (collected 1161 arrows + 3 in the end cool.gif ) necro spellbook exhausted (had 3 spells left!), spells refreshed during fight; one RVE magic rest and one wish from imoen (alas at beginning of fight) "make as if rested" Think I will keep Ancient Wyrm for later (if only to have a reason to be back to WK, otherwise too linear a trip through TOB) Enter camp, teleport to pocket plane (I have to memorize some and rest) Party at this moment: (7.6 to 8.2 Mxp) level/ MPV /weapons /gear /AC /hp necro level 28 /Grave lich /sling of arvoreen, noble staff of fire /memory of the apprenti, lord of the underworld, scarlet ioun stone, cloack of arcane immortality, boots of speed, belt of inertial barrier, ring +2, ring +2 /AC - 14 / 131 hp Undead hunter level 29 / Orcus / Holy avenger, staff of the ram, poseidon / pride of the legion, ring +2, ring +2, boots of speed, clck +1, helm of balduran, gauntlet of weapon expertise, talisman of greater protection, girdle of cloud giant strength / AC -15 / 185 hp dual Ranger-cleric 6-34 / Ultra golem / FOA +4 / green wyrm plate, cloak +1, ring +2, holy symbol of helm, belt of fire giant strength, boots of the north, supreme shelter, improved dragon helm, amulet of spell protection / AC -17 / 159 hp Riskbreaker level 32/ Green Wyrm /hammer of thor, thetruth, daystar, ilbrata, cutthroat / amulet +1, ring +2, ring of gaxx, cloak +3; indigo ioun stone, boots of grounding / AC -16 / 225 hp Valygar level 28/ limak the mastermind / Phosphorous (oh), valygar katana (mh), foebane +5, defender of easthaven / corthala armor,boot of the woodland, ring +2, ring +2, cloak +2, amulet +1, helm charm protection, gauntlet of weapon skill / AC -18 / 156 hp Imoen level 27 / amber golem / noble staff of air, sling of everard/ robe of fire resist, cloack +1, bracer AC 4, circlet of netheril, ring of acuity, ring of djinni, necklace +3 save vs death / AC -1 / 82 hp to be continued... August 19th update Finished my chore after some ~10 tries, first 3 because wrong tactic, all others because char chunked by YAGA or Elite fire Giant during the fight, mainly at the end of the fight angry.gif . I lost hours, upset to have spent so much time on this fight! I could have had for the same timespan 4 Orcus and 4 Supreme leader that are my two favourite ones! Since I definitely do not enjoy this fight (see my detailed points here), give all the details I can to help people who feel desperate in front of Yaga: SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Before V6, what made this fight less tedious than now was that Yaga could be killed without taking care of his summons. No more in V6, you have to face (EFG for elite Fire Giant) intro: meaningless spawns (no more vanilla fire giants) Once Yaga is hit and gone; pre-wave: 1 EFG wave 1: yaga + EFG + elite bodyguard (high level F/M) + cleric + elite assassin + elite warrior(? not sure of the name) wave 2: (some 2 rounds after wave1) EFG + elite bodyguard (high level F/M) + cleric + elite assassin + elite warrior(? not sure of the name) wave 3: (some 3 rounds after wave 2) EFG + elite bodyguard (high level F/M) + cleric + elite assassin + elite warrior(? not sure of the name) Yaga does not fall till all waves eliminated (did not waste more time than I already wasted on that finding whether some enemies could still stand and Yaga fall) Every enemy has high resistance, insane regen (EFG: I often had a critical EFG resume to lightly wounded in one round if no more damage, I noticed once on a EFG that I was pounding and bombing continuously that 350+ damage had to be dealt to down him, which is for sure more than his normal hp ) , Even Alone, Yaga has many HLAs, some superior healing potions, so he lasts long EFG and Yaga have a natural tendency to smite, with one disastrous and one most disastrous consequences; disastrous: your char is projected at the other end of the screen and useless for 1 to 2 round (stun effect + time to come back) most disastrous: Char is knocked out in a "ring corner" and crunched to death or oblivion by attacker(s) EFG buff with potion of magic shielding (90% sure of that, or it is a magic resistance potion), this to tell that before trying to damage them with spells, they have to be breached (or remove magic) magic tips that work: EFG are vulnerable to lightning and acid (3rd level lightning bolt is very useful here) All others are vulnerable (not much but they are!) to emotion (combo malison/emotion good here) Principles you have to stay as close as possible (IMHO): (I know that reality is otherwise, but those guidelines helped me a lot!) -Theorical best thing is to eliminate one wave after the other, reality is that getting rid of EFG/elite bodyguard/cleric asap on first 2 waves and elite/cleric on 3rd is a goal to have. - Elite bodyguard and cleric have to go down first, which means debuffing - do not let too many EFG alive - once you "start working" on an EFG, finish him, otherwise better to leave him alone (you will just lose spells, HLAs, hp for nothing since EFG will regen in 1-2 rounds) - you will need refreshing spells (WISH and RVE crucial here, success came when I had good timing) - even with insane regen on my chars (4 regen from RVE at some moments), you will lose xp fast, so at least until enemy number is reduced significantly, keep your cleric far away (to cast GR without interruption) - have greater djinni distract yaga while you eliminate spawns I loaded necro like a B-52 (all 2n acid arrows, all 3rd lightning bolt, 7 CL, seq 3*CL, 9th level 3 alacrity, one for each wave, + all RVE) foreknowledge/Mental Agility a must here all summons PFMW on mages first EFG killed by warriors + breach (1 from Imoen, 1 from necro) first wave appear, necro alacrity, Imoen WIsh Why WISH from Imoen: Imoen under alacrity is much slower than necro, so she is not as efficient as necro to debuff or bombing spells, while WISH can bring: heal on party, make as if rested (by the time djinni appears, necro has emptied spell book), PFME on party (elite bodyguard has CC 3*ADHW ), breach on enemies, hardiness. All in all I find WISH option for 1st wave the best one. necro RRoR *3 on elite, breach elite bodyguard, breach EFG, malison, emotion, 6* RVE, 10 LB on EFG, 12 AA on EFG , CL *5, SI:A (was RRored), spell turning... RB + Valy pound EFG, UH with Holy avenger on elite then cleric 2nd wave had just warrior from 1st wave and Yaga necro alacrity (got Magical Rest smile.gif ) Imoen Wish 3rd wave had EFG + 1 assassin + 1 warrior from previous waves necro alacrity, Imoen Wish (got make as if rested smile.gif ) After killing cleric and Elite bodyguard, had yaga + 2 EFG + 2 warriors + 2 assassins Once spell books unloaded, Yaga + EFG + 2 warriors focused on EFG then warriors When starting to work on yaga , no more offensive spells, no more good summons (Imoen had 4 mordy spells, R/C 3 skeleton, necro 1 elite troll), no more Hardiness, few critical (2 for Valy, 1 for UH, 2 for RB), R/C had just 1 GR left (but I also had cat figurine, only used free action from it earlier), no more IH apart the one active on warriors. after a long long time, many potions, many dreadful moments of fear to be chunked, Yaga, now out of potions, hardiness, immunities, feels the blows and falls.... Now I will resume enjoying fights! smile.gif Go to Amkethran (strange? huh.gif think that before V6 party has to go through oasis first, never mind) meet baltahzar, wipe soldiers torturing beasts, help a cleric, save a girl cool.gif , meet saemon again (hope in one Anvil version will have opportunity to kill the bastard! angry.gif angry.gif angry.gif ), sell some loot, recover a soulstone from a lich and give it back to the poor innocent girl. Ponder what to do; - start abazigail lair (leave Sendai for the end, hers is my favourite Bhaal spawn lair) - oasis - ancient wyrm (love the fight) Oasis it was Good, hard, enjoyable fight! what a pleasure! Noticed that if you come from amkethran (east side), Tombleten (the one wearing answerer) does not join fight! (I forgot about him, he was alone on the west side!!!) To play it fair, reloaded and went back to area near Nyalee temple (where merchant is) and came to oasis from west. SPOILER! One good tip here: (customizable with other party than mine) since you enter naked and Tombleten is troublesome to say the least (in fact if he still lives while oasis party bulk comes to you, you're as good as dead), I suggest this as first move: Imoen: Greater Djinni (reliable choice, whatever circumstance, and here, quite mandatory to have golem resisting spawn) Valy and UH: SMITE! (very important) they don't move yet RB: IH necro: alacrity (to rain buffs/debuffs/ bombs) R/C: summon or stoneskin then (still in first round) 1°) wait for tombleten to come close (but not in contact) with you 2°) have RB take him face to face and at the same time, have "smited" warriors to turn around him and smite him "on the back" thus Tombleten will be propelled near you or cliff just north of entrance, you will crush him in a couple of round (thanks to breach at lightspeed from necro) this will prevent tombleten to stun/propel around your warriors. (used this in V5, still great in v6) Rest of ambush is manageable provided you keep focused on your moves, dispelling mage and enemy cleric, prioritizing your target. Answerer has been abysmally tuned down! buuuuhhhh! sad.gif sad.gif sad.gif sad.gif sad.gif sad.gif sad.gif For the record of absolutely useless report: I rested in oasis, and a party I found quite original spawned: Rukh + 2 dust mephit + 5-6 noble troll They awarded no reward of course, lasted just 1 round and a half. Thinking of uselessness, and out of curiosity, what happens when abusing WISH "make as if rested", yes, what? mellow.gif went to pocketplane, rest, Imoen casts WISH (of course I abuse reload to save rest on first try) SPOILER! save after 1st rest second rest, I got the warning, choose to go on, buff dispelled save again reload until rest option, this time rest without warning save again reload until rest This time a fallen planetar and an elemental golem.... Though they do represent a nuisance (we downed them in a couple of round with no buffs, no casting (apart two PFMW on mages because of planetar), it is interesting information. In some circumstances, being refreshed while having those two goons around is worth it I would say (if no other, EDE comes to mind...) tired of uselessness, I did not push experience further on (who knows whether next spawns are worse? not me!) Party heading to Abazigail lair Draconis SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . slight surprise: once you enter outside lair, you are teleported at once near Draconis, so no more rest and buff once you enter. Since I prepared spells before, no problem Draconis Human form, team work warriors/ necro under alacrity (Imoen PFME and IH on warriors through WISH) Draconis dragon form: necro/Imoen team work (spellstrike, breach, lower resis, RRoR, trigger 3*Lower resist, breach, Fire arrows * 7, DB * 4, draconis dead (Greater Djinni had the death blow while last DB from Imoen flying!) Draconis lasted a grand total of 6 rounds cool.gif Enter lair No problem there at all Lawful goodly free Fll'Yssetat, realize that it might be improved by IA and I have never fought him in IA (whichever version) One day may be, but IIRC, in vanilla BG, killing him was less awarding than freeing him, so... but I like dragon fights a lot! Anyway, wonder whether I take Abazigail or go to take other (unless V6 surprise waits for me) Wyrm still lurking around in WK. Since I'm here Abazigail!!! SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . Human form: waited patiently For SI:div to expires (tried twice to dispel, my lvl 36 cleric did not succeed, so waited..) dragon form: did not care about Abi summons, necro torched him in 3 rounds: Foreknowledge, alacrity, RVE mental agility, RRoR*2, breach FA*8 + seq 3*FA, RRoR, breach (so warriors hit), FA*3, breach(Abi PFMW), AA*8, breach, DB *5. cool.gif End of Abazigail story Go to pocket plane to rest, forge (FOA +5), pocket challenge. Wonder what is more gameplay, finish first with Great wyrm or with Sendaï? Party at this point: necro level 29 Undead hunter level 30 Ranger-cleric 6-36 Riskbreaker level 34 Valygar level 29 Imoen level 28 Will never reach IA V6 xp cap!!!!!! ohmy.gif (or I missed 1/3rd of possible xp!!!! wink.gif ) August 22th update Back to WK to fight Ancient Dragon This fight is always great, love it! thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif 1 reload (Imoen chunked by improved fireball first run, lack of attention from myself, did not notice she was inside fireball range) SPOILER! Buff: prot from evil, def harmony, bless, chant, IH, SI:A on mages No potion, spell or scroll protecting from fire (or magic) were used. In fact, during all fight, I never used any fire protection device (spell, scroll or potion). Enter, summon, Imoen and R/C stay back, rest of party advance Necro starts alacrity; Shit happens: ph34r.gif ph34r.gif ph34r.gif Necro casted 6 RVE, 4 grandlords! ph34r.gif ph34r.gif ph34r.gif ph34r.gif problem for those grandlords, at those level my party consider them as a petty nuisance.... cool.gif cool.gif got rid of salamander, then nishruu, then effrit then fought Great Wyrm Have to think every move, mistakes seldom can be corrected.... think both to debuff and occupy wyrm (better have it cast spell than breathing inferno!) and to protect (as can be your warriors) And do anticipate what can happen if some chars are silenced! UH had the death blow. find a second timestop scroll! (a bit late, but necro scribes it) Did another try after that to see whether a full loaded necro could take Great Wyrm by magic, answer is no! SPOILER! If only for the capacity of Great Wyrm to magic resist and its high HP! As far as (my) BG2 science can go, it is for the moment taken for granted that Great wyrm needs both magic and muscle to go down. Took Ytossi party without rest (nor buffs). necro just casted 2 remove magic to dispel PFMW from some enemies, no spells cast apart those two (nor HLAs) Do skull labyrinth, rest in pocket before meeting Azamantes (want to cast some spells here) Inset key, turn a second time, Lich gates: Necro walks alone (3 warriors take care of flaming skulls) SPOILER! Azamantes did not have time to gate grandlords nor greater bones alacrity: RRoR,RRoR, RRoR, remove magic, RVE*3 (3 grandlords!), timestop (wanted at least once make it to some use!), DU *7 azamantes dead warriors had to finish grandlords (1 round and a half) Demogorgon followed (straight after Azamantes loot collected) Forgive helmites, though I'm a bit upset. WK is finished (wish I could have JD fight, even without keeping the sword for my party) Realize I was saving items to forge the new V6 "staff of strength" (to upgrade it later), but I will never have a staff of striking. Cold chunk? not available to class? missed? will never now... Go to Sendaï lair clear outdoor clear first level SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . think spiders improved a little bit no problem at all before Thelynn'ss party, Imoen WISH make as if rested (no rest since the one I took after defeating Great Wyrm) then necro foreknowledge+alacrity (did not use timestop, too cheesy here) Then did spider corridor (valygar fell poisoned, long time I did not have a char down while fighting,think it was with YAGA). 2nd level Drow parties are improved! (AFAIK) good thumb.gif Odamaron the lich SPOILER! quite a fight, apart from initial summons (6 grandlords, a greater bone golem and 2 bone devils), had to cope with: 3 waves of Lord/grandlord 4 waves of Greater bone/ bone devil While Odamaron was under II/Si:div necro could not DU him to death (no more alacrity) and was unlucky (no refresh spell at all) Then Ogremoch and wild bunch (beholder, vampire, demon knight,..), some "glitch?" made my life more spicy while fighting captain Eigessag, I fumbled a RVE, Grandlord could attack helpless Imoen and damage her! had to distract grandlord with 2 mordy, be fast to kill Eigessag (after that warriors killed Grandlord no problem). Mithykyl executed. Have to go to Amkethran to sell some loot (inventory overflow) Sell a lot, forge: - Dragon Lord hallberd - improved ring of gaxx (for RB) vanilla items: short sword of the mask +5 (to have one piercing weapon for Valy, RB has cutthroat +4), spectral brand (piercing armor strike!) +5, hindo doom (GR !) Now next step is Sendaï... (a bit sadness that game end is closing on) Party level/MPV before Sendaï: Necro 31 /Grave lich (deserved better!, pity Abazigail does not appear!) Undead hunter 32/Ancient dragon Riskbreaker 36/ Green Wyrm (3000 xp from level-up) Dual Ranger6-cleric 39 /Ultra golem (V6 xp cap reached, next level is 12.2 Mxp) Valygar 31 / Limak the Mastermind (500 xp from level-up) Imoen 30 /Amber golem (deserved Draconis!) To be continued some day.... Side note: played less time RL from Yaga to this moment than I did trying to overcome Yaga. august 25th update Sendaï-San downfall: SPOILER! V6 spoiler . . 2nd run was the good one Prologue during statues fight, be careful to have the right timing to buff your party necro casted alacrity, RVE did provide (with one magical rest) us a good start: 5 regen, mental agility, +50% hp (and no grandlords!) IH, free action from cat figurine, hardiness, Defensive harmony, prot from evil,... mages SI:A + PFMW round 1 all warriors activate critical strike necro under alacrity DB, DB CL, CL, CL, CL, CL, spell turning, MS VII, UH attacks spiders with dragon halberd R/C webbed! sh...(don't try Valy casting mental equilibrium, not sure about effect, need web golem down fast, and R/C is stoneskinned and not attacked) Valy and RB attack web golem (north west) Imoen wish (stands near sendai with necro), best choice=ADHW everywhere!!!! round 2 all warriors activate critical strike UH attacks Ghost spider (only spider left), once killed attacks Sendaï pet (switch to holy avenger to protect from magic since I'll be near Sendaï) RB and Valy attack web golem (web golem deals 40 to 60 damage! per hit, where it nor for hardiness and regen...) Imoen Wish Necro summons, then PFMW (Sendai peeled me!) R/C saves against web, attacks pet round 3 Imoen stays away and Wishes for hardiness necro , alacrity ended, Si:abj (is attacked by web golem), but sendaï breaches me one millisecond before, necro runs from golem!!! RB and Valy activate smite and pound (web golem wounded) UH activates critical and attacks pet R/C webbed sH.... (all my summons dead apart an elite troll fighting pet) round 4 Sendaï RRoR necro necro PFMW and running Imoen Wish "make as if rested", Yeepee!!!! RB and Valy pounding web golem (seriously wounded) R/C webbed round 5 Imoen, guess what? Greater Djinni! necro: gambles for Alacrity (if failed and breached, bad, if succeeds, Sendaï is in a bad situation!) RB and Valy activate critical and pound on web golem UH on pet pet activates some shockwave (we are deaf!) Sendaï is in a bad situation (or so I tought at the time) round 6 necro: spell failure! stoneskin, RVE for remove disabling effects (no effect!), SI:A fails, ... web golem dies! Valy and RB turn to other (hope will distract him from necro) Imoen wishes for pfme on party UH and R/C on pet round 7 necro RVE: regen on party Imoen Wishes: IH on party RB and Valy activate critical then pound web golem R/C and UH (critical activated) on pet (pet wounded only!) Sendaï breaches necro round 8 necro PFMW imoen Wish failed RB and Valy activate hardiness (once dispelled, web golem blows land huge damage, even with + 50% hp and regen, risky not to renew hardiness) UH and R/C on pet (seriously wounded) round 9 necro spell turning Imoen wish for deathblow as best choice UH Critical then pet with R/C Valy and RB on web golem pet shockwave, necro stunned, R/C stunned valy attempts mental equilibrium, but fails! round 10 Valy CWN RB activates critical Imoen wish for hardiness UH critical then pet round 11 RB summons noble spider (to release pressure on UH) then turn on web golem valygar panicked! Sendaï DB on RB R/C stunned UH on pet necro awakes! Imoen wish for potion... round 12 RB risk decrement (to heal) necro starts alacrity Imoen Wish (last one!) for.. spell failure! round 13 necro (just indicate spells not failed) stoneskin, spell turning, PFMW, RVE for mental agility R/C stoneskin then pet with UH (pet critical) Imoen IH on R/C failed RB CBS then web golem (wounded) round 14 pet shockwave, Imoen, necro and R/C stunned! Valy panicked still running around UH and RB hold party hope on their shoulders! round 15 same as previous round 16 UH has 34 hp left, flees, Sendai stuns, hits, UH is down! RB decides to switch to pet (to try to finish it) R/C awakes starts GR, success! Imoen awakes, IH on R/C, failed necro awakes, MS VII, failed Valy joins R/C and RB on pet round 17 Pet is dead RB and Valy turn to web golem, R/C cannot hit web so retreats Imoen IH on R/C failed necro summon skeleton lord Valy downed by Web golem R/C GR (a bit too late for Valy!) round 17 imoen + necro breach from scroll on sendai R/C resurrects UH RB tries to RD (is seriously hurt), but falls to web golem critical strike! For a fleeting moment, I have to contemplate fighting Sendaï and web golem without my 3 warriors, since no slashing weapons, web invulnerable, so I am as good as dead! round 18 Tide is turning again: UH reappears, runs to his gear and resurrects RB with paladin gloves! (UH alone with no armor on has no chance against web and Sendaï) Sendaï double breached is hurt by spider, attacked by R/C who tanks both sendaï and web with just stoneskin on! (note that R/C having no slashing weapon cannot damage web golem) Imoen IH on R/C necro summons troll Sendai stoneskins round 19 My summons fell after having accomplished the most valuable task to occupy Sendaï for a moment. Imoen breaches Sendaï RB appears, IH self (how great an ability!), runs to his gear UH hardiness then attacks web golem R/C heroic, still holds Sendaï and web golem at bay for the moment necro summons elite troll imoen IH on UH round 20 R/C falls to web like the true hero of this fight !!!! (achieving UH resurrection was indeed the key moment of the whole fight) UH and RB pound critical web golem Imoen breaches Sendaï necro summons troll round 21 web golem dead! RB turns on Sendaï UH scroll-raise R/C from the dead (She deserves it!) Imoen and necro double breach on Sendaï (now wounded!) round 22 UH scroll-raise Valy (He deserves it too!) R/C GR to heal self and party (fortunately, Sendai has no pwkill) Imoen and necro launch another double breach (love it, one after the other, PFMW from sendaï in the middle, eat raw drow!) round 23 to 26 Party now reformed, Warriors attack Sendaï, after another couple of double-breach, the long lasting, resistant, spell furbished drow bites the dust. That fight is worth its place in the game, thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif last big fight before EDE! (if surprise does not wait for me with balthazar that is...) Third scroll of timestop in the game !!?!? (what is it useful to at his point?) Back to Amkethran Fight mercenaries and monks Empty my pocket, sell everything not worth taking to EDE (even sold V6-downgraded answerer) Regret not to find someone buying my utmost rare and hard won 10 scrolls of permanency, 6 manual of elaboration and 4 scrolls of memory boosting. forge mage robe of elemental resistance, two +2 cloack, one +2 ring. 207 gp left. Meet balthazar, the bigot will not try to understand, a pity I have to kill him. A huge gp boost: 3367 gp now ! Last pocket plane challenge 347 Days after awaking in Irenicus laboratory, Party is heading to EDE. Heros are: (9,3 Mxp to 9,99 Mxp) Mors, necromancer lvl 31 /noble staff of fire /memory of the apprenti, lord of the underworld, scarlet ioun stone, cloack of arcane immortality, boots of speed, belt of inertial barrier, ring fire, ring of anti venom /AC - 10 / 134 hp Tani, Undead hunter level 33 / Holy avenger, staff of the ram + 6, poseidon, dragon lord / great wyrm plate, ring +2, ring +2, boots of speed, cloack +2, helm of balduran, gauntlet of weapon expertise, talisman of greater protection, girdle of cloud giant strength / AC -17 / 185 hp Jenna, dual Ranger-cleric 6-39 / FOA +5 / green wyrm plate, cloack +2, ring +2, holy symbol of helm, belt of fire giant strength, supreme shelter, improved dragon helm, amulet of spell protection / AC -18 / 169 hp Koko, Riskbreaker level 37/hammer of thor, thetruth, hindo doom, cutthroat / amulet +1, ring +2, improved ring of gaxx, cloack +2; indigo ioun stone / AC -20 / 242 hp Valygar, protector level 32 / Phosphorous (oh), valygar katana (mh), spectral brand +5, short sword of the mask +5/ corthala armor,boot of the woodland, ring +2, ring +2, montolio cloack, amulet +1, helm charm protection, gauntlet of weapon skill / AC -18 / 168 hp Imoen, Sorceress level 30 / noble staff of air, sling of everard/ mage robe of elemental resist, cloack +3, girdle of stone giant strength, bracer AC 4, circlet of netheril, ring of acuity, ring of djinni, amulet of the seldarine / AC -3 / 85 hp We also have 20 potions of magic shielding, 22 potions of barbarian essence, 12 potions of invulnerability, 27 oils of resurgence, 250 + potions of superior healing, 20 scrolls of absolute immunity, 20 scrolls of PFMW, 4 scrolls of WISH, 4 scrolls of IHaste, 1 BBoD, 1 scroll of MS VII, 2 bigby crushing hand, cat figurine, noble spider, adamantite horn, cerberus, amulet of the cheetah, ring of free action. nothing else (all sold or drop in pocket plane container when no market value) August 28th update Prelude SPOILER! Party will go with warriors (UH, RB, R/C and Valy) under 100% weapon resistance (barbarian essence, undispellable for a long time, 55 rounds at 100% , then -20% each round); Improved haste and PFE (dispellable) no more. No use to tempt an "universal purge" when surrounded by golems. Mors will both sustain party (RVE, buff, summons), dispel (remove magic on raks) and be offensive, even hand-to-hand, She will be in charge of "occupying" the Prince while party and Pasha Mahmoud work on golems and raksasas. Imoen will be there as backline, Wishing, summoning, second dispeller. She is supposed to stay back from the fight. Mors and Imoen split PFMW and AI scrolls between the two Gear and equipment is split as just indicated before prelude. Necro spellbook (and my motives), 12 slots each level apart level 9. level 1 and 2: irrelevant (not one spell of use here, dealing 1 damage to a coin with MM not the subject) level 3: 10 remove magic (raksasas!), 2 protection from fire (just in case) level 4: 10 RoF (golem machine gunning), 2 stoneskin (just in case) level 5: 6 undead summon, 4 SI, 2 Soul armor level 6: Giant strength (when fighting high AC enemies, to improve Thac0), 3 PFMW (if I need fast casting and cannot use scroll instead), 8 improved haste (most important to refresh it on warriors should it be dispelled, and it will be dispelled a lot!) level 7: 5 HoU (golem cleaning), 5 Monster summoning V (great spell in EDE, salamanders last a lot with Prince), 2 Prot From Elements (just in case) level 8: Foreknowledge (if needed when I cast alacrity some time in the fight), 6 monster summoning VI, 5 Prot From Energy (restore negative resistance during fight) level 9: Monster summoning VII, 2 Alacrity, One Wish, 7 Recast Vital Energy (my core defensive tool) Why did I: - Not took Bigby's crushing hand or clenched fist? - Because damage output to raks is pitiful, better having a summon, more damage, more efficiency (keeps enemy occupied). Using an 8th or 9th slot to deal 6 to 10 damage to a rak is pure folly IMHO. - Not took tenser or tenser partial? - Because tenser partial useless for Thac0 (Mors has a natural Thac0 of 4), better to cast giant stregth, partial is suicide most of the time (need to cast!), if I want to try tenser, have one with staff. - Took a WISH? - To have the possibility to rest party twice without secondary effect. I need luck, but not as much as 100%; RVE will refresh me once, Imoen another (she has 7 wishes!), so odds are getting rest in 3 Wish, reasonable to me. - Took that many RVE? - Because the spell rocks! - Took MS VII? - I wonder.... - Not do what you did that worked well here? - Because I am me! Pieces of advice: - Forge Dragon Lord! (suspect FoDW is a must too, even with V6 nerf) - Do not be scarce with using barbarian potions to get 100% damage resistance. Elemental damage power of your enemy will however drain your xp ok, so do not feel like it is a cheesy method. Feel free to test EDE without this advice and let me know the result; - Pasha is a TREMENDOUS fighter, do not be a coward and leave him alone, this is PURE WASTE! help him and you will be paid in return. Pasha is better at eliminating an ultra golem than any of your warriors, He and a good warrior down an ultra in very few rounds. - Manage your improved haste, smite and critical strike intelligently, you will need some at the end. Prince has the best AC, second is Supreme, all others foes, though with a high AC, can be hit without "waste" of HLAs. - Be smart with "universal purge magic", it is easy to figure under which circumstance the Prince casts it, he has not an infinite stock of them, so try to have him empty his quiver, and no need to dispel your spells, potion,.. and other buffs on ALL party when 1, 2 or 3 (max) buffed char are enough for what you want to do at this moment. - Prepare yourself to face a lot (I do not spoil how many) of time where Prince is wounded (I neither spoil the seriousness of his wounds) and AI on self, regenerating to normal. - check your resistances often when fighting prince (did not regret taking PFE at all) - Oh, by the way, get rid of Prince summons as soon as possible, do not let them populate area (no need to say you may have a logarithmic effect, some summons summon...). Do prioritize noble raksasas when they gate (better to have one more amber, even one more elemental than letting horrid populate area). Epic Divine Encounter (a.k.a. the magnificent seven story) SPOILER! Pocket plane is vibrating with a mighty, dark and gloomy energy, it is clear for us that now is the time to face a most dreadful enemy. Mors rewrites her spellbook, she and imoen prepare triggers and contingencies, such is the power lurking around we know any buff is pointless apart a non dispelable one. Precious potions of barbarian essence are drunk, and we step through. An old friend, now more formidable a warrior than when we left him in planar sphere long ago, steps in just as we reach pocket plane portal. He tells us about an incoming evil looking after Mors. True to his word, and remembering what happened with Marvella"s minion and the way Jenna and Mors saved him from death, Pasha Mahmoud honors his pledge to come to us in . All rejoice that we are now seven, each vows to stand by the others, be it in death or victory, and to never give up while life still flows in our veins. The air inside pocketplane is thickening, a strange and shimmering aura appears, a raksasa steps in. Attached Image Mors warns the would-be-God he will not find an easy prey here. Prince growls, draws his blades and rushes to her. Our summmons immediately run to Mors rescue and attack the Prince who does not care. Mors, confident in her protective wards starts a powerful spell, all look around as three more rifts open in mid air around us. East and west of us, two mighty metallic golems appear, lightning crackling around them. They look the same kind that the one we fought once on our way to Demogorgon. South, we recognize a most formidable creature whose creation is restricted to gods, a supreme golem such as the one who once asked us to rid him of a green dragon. Rays of pure elemental energy radiate from its huge body. The floor quakes under our feet as the three golem land their gigantic bulk. No word is exchanged while each of the seven scrambles to meet the foes. Mors casts mighty spells, tendrils of necromantic energy flow from her to each of her comrades, closing their wounds as fast as they appear. One of those tendrils falters then breaks, leaving a dark pool from which a skeleton grandlord rises. Tani joins Pasha attacking the monster that came from the west, Valygar, Koko and Jenna run to the godlike creature, unfearful of the elemental bolts piercing their skin. Imoen protects herself and takes some steps back to appraise her next move. Jenna and Pasha are pounding the metallic titan, tearing chunks of metal from its body. Mors summons some Noble trolls to block Prince movements, she does not give any ground to him. Attached Image As Valygar tear a piece of bluish material from his opponent, supreme golem roars a powerful spell, air shimmers and an elemental golem appears next to our Protector. Valygar grinds his teeth, keeps on attacking the main threat. Imoen shouts: "Mors!!!!! South!". The arch-necromancer turns and immediately realizes the threat, she unloads a rain of spells that knock back the elemental golem for a couple of seconds and the rushes to it. Two simulltaneous roars, like a metal plate tearing, pierce our ears and two amber golems materialize near the metal titans. Enraged, Tani lands a heavy blow that rips an enormous arm from her opponent. Pasha follows by a great swing of his hammer that removes half of the monstrous head staring at us, Tani's staff hit true and opens a gap in the beast large chest. The Titan holds motionless for a second, then crashes to the floor like some fell tree. Prince, furious at this, and anxious for his master creation, removes magic on Valygar, Koko and Mors. Imoen and Mors react immediately by renewing fighter powers. Prince was not expecting that and roars, Tani lands him a powerful blow from her halberd made of Dragon bodyparts and Prince turns to her. Meanwhile Prince has removed all our summons, Greater djinni is fighting alone, Jenna rushes to its help and attacks the skeleton grandlord. Pasha decides to eliminate an amber, Tani turns to the other metal monster. Valygar and Koko feel their opponent losing stamina. Both men have their skin patched with acidic, frost, lightning and fire burns, but their arms do not falter one moment and keep on pounding. Jenna makes short work of the wounded undead and turns to help Tani. Mors summons a most powerful yuan-ti creature to help with Prince. Imoen uses her archmage power to summon a powerful spirit that gives us an unnatural speed. Prince laughs again, with one gesture of his hand, he summons two groups of powerful raksasas. Attached Image Only Mors and Tani and Jenna can see the threat, Tani does not hesitate and rushes with her holy sword to the nearest noble raksasa. Mors, remembering our fights in Suldanessalar waits for the right moment to remove the powerful protective spells of the raksasas. She calls her sister to help with that, the monsters are too many. Another roar south, Valygar and Koko face now another elemental golem and one coin. Koko, enraged by the pain dealt to his naked body, hurls the mighty hammer of thor in the juggernaut knee, the golem bends and Valygar plunges his katana in the creature neck, severing his head. Prince roars in rage and frustration and removes our protections. Elemental and ultra summon other golems. Tani kills the noble raksasa she faced, but the others, seeing the opening in Mors and imoen armor rush to the archmages and interrupt their spells. Such is the speed of those monsters they cover themselves with protective spells. Koko, now engaged with Valygar in a struggle with many golems, sees the danger his comrades face. "You or me Valy?" says the riskbreaker, pointing north where Mors takes blow after blow from Prince and two horrid raksasas. "Go, I keep those at bay" answers the protector. Koko runs as fast as he can and uses his art of combat to clear some room for Imoen. As soon as she is free of her attacker, imoen dispels Mors attacker protection, and Koko send them back to the hell where they belong. Mors uses a powerful scroll to protect herself as best as she can. Tani, without help from the mages, is cornered by Two raksasas and the ultra golem. koko rushes to the big monster. Pasha, rid of the amber golems he was fighting, joins Koko. The two warriors, now aware of the golem weakness, aim their warhammers at its joints. Attached Image Imoen, now able to retreat a bit from the fight, appraises the situation; Koko and Pasha Mahmoud look like they are doing good, Mors and Jenna tank the Prince. Her two other comrades do not fare well; Valygar is overwhelmed by golems, only glimpses of his katana can be seen, Tani is fighting two raksasas, one of those takes a step back, utter strange words, and gates two more helpers. Imoen does not hesitate and runs to Tani, careful that raksasas do not notice her. Tani, taking heavy blows and powerless to hurt her opponents, sees hope as a red hair youngster is incanting. Noble raksasa, confident he would bring back to his master the head of the paladin and her beautiful halberd was smiling. Smiling at the sword that bounced from him again and again, when he felt a strange blow in his belly. Looking down, he just had time to be surprised by the sword pommel that jutted from his armor before death claimed him. Of the three other raksasas, only one had time to refresh his protection and live a moment more, just to be dispelled again and killed. Having crunched the golem metal head with his hammer, Koko turned to help Valygar with help from Pasha Mahmoud. Tani took her dragon hallberd and rushed to the Prince. When dragon lord spike grazed his shoulders, Prince growled and turned to duel with Tani. As his troops were reduced, Prince summoned another group of followers, less numerous than before, near our fighters. Attached Image This time, Mors and Imoen did not let them a chance, they were stripped of their magic protection in no time, Pasha and Koko reducing them to bloody pulp. Attached Image Golems like those ones could not last against us. Prince had to face us alone. The would-be-God, attacked by 4 powerful warriors and the creature Mors had summoned used his magic to repel us and with lightfast slices from his two scimitars, killed the summons. Another bunch of follower was gated, but it was clear from Prince face that this effort was now costly for him and he would not be able to do it again soon. Attached Image When he saw his elite followers cut to pieces in mere seconds, Prince roared in agonizing frustration and renew his attack against us. Fight was hard, violent, Prince seemed to have endless magical resources and was indeed a superb fighter. When bleeding from wounds, Prince used to enter a magic stance during which he unleashed his godlike powers to harm us and to recover the upper ground. As the fight was going on, Tani, Koko, Mahmoud and Valygar could not help but notice the span between stances was increasing, and Prince state was worse and worse at the moment he used them. Attached Image Bleeding from several cuts, drained of his magic, a powerful halberd stroke sent Prince collapsing against the wall. Admitting his defeat, he promised to be back. Attached Image Attached Image We promised to wait. Just before Pasha took his leave, Tani asked him if he would be back, Mahmoud said "some day" and left. Attached Image Jenna asked Mors: "If we can beat a god now, what do we do?" "Give all up!" And she stepped through the portal Party level/XP/MPV just before killing Melissane Necro 32 / 10,295 Mxp / Grave Lich RB 38 / 10,085 Mxp / Green Wyrm UH 34 / 9,985 Mxp / Ancient Dragon R6/C39 /10,025 Mxp/ Ultra Golem Valygar 33 / 9,625 Mxp / Supreme Golem Imoen 31 / 9,872 Mxp / Fallen solar ~- THE END -~ This post has been edited by nicoper: Yesterday, 03:26 PM Go to the top of the page Quote Post critto View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 27 2010, 01:27 PM Post #2 Group Icon Premium Member Tactical reputation: 2 Posts: 990 Joined: 23-February 08 From: Saint-Petersburg, RF Hi, nicoper! Nice write-up. I like your style. You take on harder encounters without fear of loss of your characters. Personally, I prefer to reload rather than have my characters loose experience because of dying. For that reason, I rarely go for Coordinator and Mencar at such an early stage smile.gif By the way, what's a flamewind quest? QUOTE went to d'arnise keep (did all apart from thorgal level, fear might be improved, will try later) Was it hard to defeat Yuan-Ti at the bridge at those levels? Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 27 2010, 05:37 PM Post #3 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary QUOTE(nicoper @ Jun 27 2010, 02:49 PM) * once necro reached level 11, two nice event, first I have 2 improved haste slots, yeah!, second RB reached level 11 and has IH on his own What did I miss? Improved Haste is a 6th level spell and necro can memorize them first on 12th level. How can your necro memorize 2 on 11th level? -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 27 2010, 07:18 PM Post #4 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @vuki yes, mi mistake , just wanted to say that having Ihaste at level 11 for RB was a bonus, and this bonus was increased when necro reaches level 12 and you can have 3 instead of 2 Ihasted fighters rolleyes.gif @critto flamewind, I meant Windspear (driad, werewolves) yuan-ti easy (with Improved hasted RB), he has poor saves I usually send ona char (RB here opening the gate and taking the spiders, rest of party takes yuan-ti mage) Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 27 2010, 09:47 PM Post #5 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary QUOTE(nicoper @ Jun 27 2010, 09:18 PM) * @vuki yes, mi mistake , just wanted to say that having Ihaste at level 11 for RB was a bonus, and this bonus was increased when necro reaches level 12 and you can have 3 instead of 2 Ihasted fighters rolleyes.gif Ok, I thought I missed some important new feature of the game. smile.gif QUOTE @critto flamewind, I meant Windspear (driad, werewolves) yuan-ti easy (with Improved hasted RB), he has poor saves I usually send ona char (RB here opening the gate and taking the spiders, rest of party takes yuan-ti mage) It is very interesting. I choosed the opposite strategy: I used one character to make busy the mage and my party took care the spider (after Valygar swindle the spider to the party that was a bit away). Later when mage cinjure ogres they all were influenced by one single Emotion. -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 03:42 PM Post #6 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 Updated first post @vuki, the main reason why I choose to concentrate on the mage while just one char takes spider is that mage has a lot of xp and needs debuffing (even if disabled), so that it takes many blows to kill him. And if my GC and emotion fail (yuan-ti saves), I have to spend at least 2 rounds secret wording him, and he will likely disable 1 or 2 char in my party. Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 04:30 PM Post #7 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 @nicoper for pirate fight. QUOTE IHasted R/C UH and RB pound pirates (you have to be quick!), I don't think you can Improved haste UH at level 10/11. Unless you use IH scroll which I believe you can only get two before spellhold. Regular haste is probably enough for this fight though. But good job to beat coordinator at such low levels. I lose three people even at level 13. sad.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 04:40 PM Post #8 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @cjwf214 used Scroll on UH (hope I find some more otherwise goodbye boots of the Range lord) + innate RB IH + haste Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 05:04 PM Post #9 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 According to the spell's description, the confusion caused by False Dawn spell should last only for one round, but the spell doesn't correctly match with the description and allows the confusion to last for 2 full rounds. This issue will be addressed to in a Patch later. It's not so urgent to warrant releasing a patch immediately, but it will be on my todo list. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 05:09 PM Post #10 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @sikret: wish I did not say anything about this ! tongue.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 10:14 PM Post #11 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 updated cristal fight made the effort to note round per round events... enjoy and don't forget, never say die thumb.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 28 2010, 11:17 PM Post #12 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 What a slaughter! Just imagine what would happen if none of your remaining characters could cast Raise Dead from scrolls? (For example if the Riskbreaker and the protagonist were the only remaining characters) In my v5 game, Anomen died in the battle against Dracolich and if my protagonist wasn't a ranger (or had lower than 9 Intelligence) he could not have used the only Raise Dead scroll I had and then I woudl have had to reload the game. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 29 2010, 08:12 AM Post #13 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @sikret: that 's why I cocooned my R/C (as much as possible) truth is I could have had to reload after 20+ round (an nearly 1 hour real life) for a misplaced crit hit on R/C... that's also the fun ! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 30 2010, 09:50 PM Post #14 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 updated a bit, asylum Irenicus fight in detail. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 30 2010, 10:18 PM Post #15 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Seems you put Imoen's Oracle spells in good use. Now, I do not regret choosing that spell for her. smile.gif -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 30 2010, 11:03 PM Post #16 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 I've always found Oracle very useful, never regretted once to have it as Imoen spells thumb.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jul 3 2010, 11:18 PM Post #17 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 Updated sahaugin city + beginning of underdark, kuo-toa dungeon (ALL the dungeon wink.gif ) Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jul 4 2010, 07:01 AM Post #18 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 nicoper I agree with you that riskbreaker is really a killing machine after lvl17. I just finished Dracolich and ready to exit from underdark. My riskbreaker is 45% killing now. smile.gif he really put valy and my berserker into shame. but it seems you have more experience than me. My necro is still lvl 17 even I finished all underdark. I remember one of my mages always reached lvl18 before Dracolich in my V5 games before. I must missed something this time. angry.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jul 5 2010, 12:50 PM Post #19 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @cjwf214 QUOTE nicoper I agree with you that riskbreaker is really a killing machine after lvl17. I just finished Dracolich and ready to exit from underdark. My riskbreaker is 45% killing now. he really put valy and my berserker into shame. Yes indeed, and congratulation for your victory over Dracolich (see my run, definitly the most nightmarish fight so far for me! QUOTE but it seems you have more experience than me. Thank you, what a kind and delicate manner to understate I reloaded already 1000+ times than you in the past years while playing IA... laugh.gif laugh.gif laugh.gif thumb.gif QUOTE My necro is still lvl 17 even I finished all underdark. I remember one of my mages always reached lvl18 before Dracolich in my V5 games before. I must missed something this time. I don't think you miss anything, all depends on your xp when you reach Brynnlaw/spellhold. In my current run, I was very close to the limit, necro had ~2100000 xp, so my level right now. In underdark (I imagine no one skips sahuagin city!) you have very few optionnal quests (don't know if you can avoid first drow ambush), so the extra hp you get from entering Brynlaw to exiting underdark is more or less always the same. But true, according to your level in Brynlaw, you may or may not reach level 18 for your mage before chap 6. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jul 5 2010, 01:24 PM Post #20 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary Nicoper, I really enjoy your walkthrough. Grat! I can see that others have the same problems and difficulties what I have. smile.gif I did the fight against Mencar and his band just with a quite high level party (just like my current party: 10-12th level). And I was very-very happy because they were killed easily and fast and I was able to find 8 or 9 Superior Healing Potions. I think those potions will be really useful in Underdark. biggrin.gif -------------------- VAGRANT RUN: > Vagrant run, nicoper's other run Options V V Track this topic V Email this topic V Print this topic V Download this topic V Subscribe to this forum Display Modes V Switch to: Outline V Standard V Switch to: Linear+ nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 06:28 PM Post #1 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 Sometimes in this journal, I will refer to my necro run you can find here Since party is not arcane heavy, will try to level up as much as possible before meeting with foes that need a lot of magic (planar sphere and planar prison) Will go to temple soon (at level 10-11,meeting liches with my party at low level is a no! no!) Quest pick and order will be quite different than with necro party I think. Only things I intend to do (Ambitious isn't it?) pre-spellhold: (time will tell if I can) - Forge phosphorous (Have to do planar prison!) - Kill Bill, sorry, Kill Firkraag (Which means, according to previous necrorun, I will have to skip some other quests not to reach spellhold cap) Would be heroes are: name/alignement class/STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA Darth Swanmaul /LG human Vagrant / 18(55) 18 19 11 14 13 (guess what pic I choose....) Ghorghor Bey / NG half-orc Berseker /19 18 19 10 9 7 Mina Von Krolok /LG human Undead Hunter /18(83) 18 18 10 16 18 (think she is my best dice roll ever! even though paladin prerequisites help) Druss /LG human Riskbreaker /18(91) 18 16 12 9 10 Sastacha /LG human sorceress / 10 18 15 18 18 11 (to be replaced with Imoen) ohmy.gif And Cernd (all custom start with 89 kxp, are created for this run) Order of quest will be organized to gain enough xp first to have improved haste, second to have 7th level spells for my sorceress without dealing with too arcane demanding foes. Have to say that starting with custom sorceress is MUCH easier than other mage since I can choose spell (and get some whose scroll are not found pre-spellhold). Launch party: Mr Begone spawned this time, so Circus and meet Gaelan Bayle. Then start xp harvest: Gov district (free Viconia, meet Jan, Tolgerias for Valygar, start Umar Hill quest) Gate district (start Trademeet quest) Pick valygar, have him open sphere, let him go, Pick Cernd, back to city. Athkatla quests/encounters - Tanner - Start Fallen paladins, illithium quest - Suna Seni - 2nd encounter (where a minstrel has to be brought back to dock district) - Do Montaron quest - kill Minotaur in Kangaxx house (want those +2 axes) - Maevar Paid gealan bayle after refusing Bodhi's offer (One day I think I will follow her, though it is not lawful good) Went to Aran to start chap 3 (no, let's be honest, just to collect amulet of power!) Did aran first quest Then Umar hill outdoor quests Back to Atkathla, start unseeing eye (until recovering first part of scepter) free haerd'halis (choose to get mirror back from imp, imp killed by speed rush attack), go back to Raelis, leave when thieflings taken to planar prison (have to wait a bit to be competitive!) Back to d'Arnise Keep, finish all apart torGal. Had some hard time there with yuan-ti mage and vengeance trolls (did not remember having such pain previous run, but IIRC yuan-ti had fell at the time to emotion) Greater yuan-ti fell to Cernd emotion on third try smile.gif RB reaches level 11! forge FoA then leave. Enter Shadow Temple before party level too high.(Vagrant is level 10). Shadow jailor (hard fight because wrong tactic first time, just had to take skeleton lords first to make it smooth) + two bunches of skeleton/bone golem/greater mummy (Do not want liches!) Open way to Thax and Shade lord then leave Sell loot at trademeet Back to city Mencar&co (Amon fell to emotion=scroll harvest!!) Finished unseeing eye (still left a lot to do in the sewer: raksasa, sewer party, ashideena, screaming statue, teshal, lich, illithid hideout) Get Lilarcor Finish slavers in slums and collect reward from Hendak (very nice early game!) reputation is now 20, buy mauler's arm from Barnard Go to cromwell to forge cloack + 2, ring +2, morningstar +3 Fighters are level 11, sorceress and Cernd level 12 Aran second quest (contact) done Go to cemetery (nice Viconia is there!) Visit crypt king, good thing to have 3 fighters immune to level drain! downstairs; - Spiders bunches are hard! - Cernd with free action, chaotic command and wondrous recall made Païna easy, we now have kithrix. - loot underground (pityfull loot btw sad.gif ) Exit lower tombs then meet Haz to open entry to vampire lair First level cleaned (apart Tanova) second level cleaned (RB drained, we rest before tanova, RB stays drained for the moment) Clean Tanova by rush-attack SPOILER! buffs: chant and prot from evil from UH, prot from cold from sorceress, IH, PFLD on RB, Chaotic command on Vagrant and RB Vagrant rushes to take remove magic (he saves) 3 fighters down the novices in no time Everybody punches Tanova Tanova dead Lassal was hard (did not remember he was spawning brides so fast!) Bodhi routed by Vagrant Leave cemetery, Ask cernd to leave to pick Viconia, restore RB and Sorceress who was hit by bride, go to grove to get Cernd back (What a chore!!!) See Aran livail, get my final xp reward, tell him I will leave later RB and Berseker level (all chars are level 12 apart UH and Vagrant who are level 11) Finish first cleric quest Finish D'Arnise keep SPOILER! Simple speed rush against Torgal First round Cernd casts doom and sorceress breaches Torgal Torgal turned my UH, managed to cast storm of vengeance, but fell all the same Sorceress nearly killed gem alone One reload because Gem chunked RB 2nd druid quest (with Cernd, it is easy, sorceress was improved hasted, she casts malison at beginning of fight then runs faster than insect swarm) Cernd reaches level 13, next Cernd levelling will happen sometimes in spellhold.... Since I am around, will get Belm (Once again made good use of Cernd CC, FA and Wondrous recall spells). Only trouble is that it takes time to buff and my improved hastes last few during fight. so focus on Ghost first, then whisper and spirit, killer last. Want to repeat scenario, so go for Ashideena (same winning strategy, Cernd prebuffs party, 1st round Cernd dooms Ghost, sorceress FM, then Ghost, spirit, whisper, lesser spirit and killer fell to emotion from sorceress) Wanted to test screaming statue SPOILER! Management of ressources part 1 - Cernd Chaotic command on Vagrant - Vagrant DUHM Soreceress, RB and Cernd retreat south First wave triggered, chaos spells from foes wasted on summons (war dogs) Cernd NPP on RB, RB blurs then walks north RB IH, join fight First wave terminated Management of ressource part 2 Cernd wondrous recall UH drinks a potion of healing RB retreats south other Fighters concentrate on eminent vampire (all mists attack fighters) Second wave triggered Cernd CC then NPP on RB, RB activates IH and kill mists Fighter drink potion of haste Fighter terminate vampire and mist (RB drained though) Management of ressource part 3 Wait for Berseker post-rage tiredness to vanish Drink potion of strength Cernd CC on Vagrant Sorceress IH on 3 warriors Third wave triggered All concentrate on master Cernd and sorceress summon (sorceress uses scrolls of spider spawn, effrit, Invisible stalker, they die fast but distract foes!) After master down (needed to give +3 club to Zerk), eminent both attacked, one by UH other by vagrant and zerk End of fight quite "interesting", Zerk rage ended, zerk charmed and drained, RB charmed (has only 4 levels left!), UH and Vagrant had to finish mists and 1 bride attacked by Zerk and RB. Zerk charm ended just in time (he was pounding Vagrant who had 13 hp left!) Sorceress drained, Cernd drained Buy potions from roger the fence worth 20 000 gp Go to temple to restore party (this time I pay), Sorceress levels! good! Finish cleric 2nd quest and rest Have the mood to go for my first amber golem SPOILER! Improved haste on warriors in copper coronet run to entrance, buff, enter 2 well timed breach from sorceress on Borinal (just after his hardiness) Cernd summons berseker from horn of valhala then emotion (no big success) Borinal dead, we clean the two rune assassin, then thugs When alone with amber, Cernd Prot from elec on Zerk (lilarcor) and Vagrant (Frostreaver), sorceress unleashes RoF (6), cernd summons Amber dies Vagrant levels Back to temple to give ring back UH levels (nice, 2 level 2 cleric spell now, memorize Chant and DUHM) Party/level/info at this point: Vagrant / 12 / Gem golem UH / 12 / Borinall RB / 12 / Torgal Berseker / 12 / Amber golem Cernd / 13 / Chaos (what a surprise!) Sorceress / 13 / Virulent rat Inventory is starting to grow. Under the sea bounty, with 4 powerful IH warriors, no problem at all (captain fell before his hardiness, other 3 pirates no problem, then management of coordinator till SI off, did not take trigger nor CC from him) Now inventory is clean. Forge iron horn of valhala (forgot to do this before) Decide to start cleaning Firkraag dungeon level 1: bunches of undead fall to Zerk, vagrant and UH Ruhk was much easier now I know him (Rush attack, then distract him with summon to spend his AI, then rush) Level 2: first bunch of golem hard (I would need a +3 hallberd!) Bunch of undead cleared by level-drain immune fighters Werewolf pack eliminated (the one just after meeting Samia) Eliminate some undead Rest Tomb mist is fallen Back to western part of dungeon Forgot spider group, adds spice Werewolves killed Golems in north-west room cleaned Leave dungeon at this point (want to sell my loot!) Sell loot in Trademeet, buy staff of striking (missed it in my previous run!!!) Look at my inventory, I have 4 RRoR scrolls, think I might try planar prison EBH SPOILER! Lasted 4 rounds Sorceress: RRoR RROR Breach Breach Vagrant pounding EBH (just retreated round 3 to be healed by cernd) UH, RB and Zerk, kill minor enemies then EBH Cernd Emotion (failed), emotion (1 thief down), heal on vagrant, nothing Still cannot help but remember first encouter with her, 80+ reloads Bunch of yuan-ti mage, minautores and greater yuan-ti much bigger pain, 2 reloads because char killed (have no raise dead scrolls), much harder than EBH. And I had no chance with casting (though under greater malison, yuan-ti mage saved 7 emotions from Cernd and Sorceress!) Had to rest before mage and slavemaster. Intendant took 9 reloads! SPOILER! Key was: - position party in entry room (may be cheesy, but this way I noticed that there is a good chance 1 or both yuan-ti mages took the other way around, so you have some times without them) - Cernd under IH triggers machine then comes back to party (with hound on his heels) - 1 warrior (usually RB with potion of invulnerability for low AC) occupies intendant while mage debuffs him first (3 rounds, he then renews SI...) - other warriors down greater yuan-ti, hounds, minotaurs - When intendant renews SI, Switch to normal weapons - Cernd CL and mass cure, emotion (no luck there too!) - sorceress (protected by DW of course) FA, MM and remove magic when yuan-ti mage appear (dispelled one!) Once intendant down, 2 warriors protected from fire go for yuan-ti mages, if they down one (emotion); I send another Should have been there later (a swanmay and more RRoRs would have helped!) reward excellent (nice scrolls!) Sell and forge mace +3 phosphorous (one of the best weapons!) thumb.gif thumb.gif thumb.gif Cloack +2 Have reach one of my pre-spellhold goal! yess! cool.gif Now wonder where to use that beautiful weapon. Party now Vagrant /lvl 12 / dual Frostreaver (mh) FOA (oh) / Gem golem UH / lvl 12 / Lilarcor /Borinall RB / 13 /dual phosphorous (mh) belm (oh) / Torgal Berserker / 13 /sword of chaos / Amber golem Cernd / 13 / Chaos (what a surprise!) Sorceress / 13 / adamantine golem Sept 18th update My RRoR scroll stock has been replenished by intendant, Buy 2 scrolls of raise dead (expensive!) Enter Planar sphere first ambush SPOILER! RB runs to attack cleric north (followed by Entu) All others attack togan (archer) Once togan dead, Berserker runs north to help RB UH and Vagrant pound Kayardi (no debuff) Cleric dies, Entu follows soon, then Kayardi spider bunch no problem party in furnace taken thanks to successful remove magic on mage (Cernd, RB and Vagrant fell to emotion) Rest before golems tactic used for this bunch (bone/gem/gem/coin): Vagrant FoA mh + shield, RB Phosphorous/belm, Berserker club+3/shield on gem; UH with Lilarcor on Bone Sorceress RoF on Coin When Gem down, the 3 "blunt" shift to other Gem meanwhile UH downs bone then Vagrant switch to pixie/shield, RB Short sword of backstabbing/phosphorous, Zerk same gear all punch coin (seriously damaged by RoF) Golems over in 6 rounds (sorceress had just enough time to cast her last RoF) I miss double mage RoF bombing, but firepower compensates ok. Now entering lavok's room Need blunt weapons, should be ok Need to find a way for my sorceress to have enough round to peel lavok What can Cernd do? SPOILER! Buff: DUHM for Vagrant and UH, prot from evil (from UH) on zerk, vagrant and self, chant, bless, defensive harmony, IH on warriors Cernd and sorceress mirror image RB drinks invulnerability Very important: sorceress GoI and SI:abj from scroll + DW from Cernd (otherwise she is DEAD, 54 hp!) Enter, round 1 all punch Gem golem (while lords appear), Cernd Warrior from horn near lavok, Sorceress RRoR lavok lavor RRoR sorceress (they are introduced to each other now) Round 2 UH and RB turn to one skeleton lord Vagrant and Zerk on Gem lavok PFMW... ...so Cernd summons kithrix near lavok One lord dead Soreress RRoR lavok round 3 UH and RB finish other lord, RB turns to gem, UH takes normal 2H sword and attacks lavok Sorceress RRoR lavok (then he is open to breach! otherwise I have 3 RRoR scrolls left) Cernd stays idle to keep aura cleansed Vagrant drinks superior healing (had 38 hp left on critical from gem!!!) ...so Cernd mass cures Lavok GoI round 4 gem dead UH and Zerk attack lavok with normal 2H sword Vagrant and RB retreat (in case combo slow/malison/emotion) Sorceress RRoR lavok Cernd keeps aura cleansed Zerk stays back (has 70 hp) round 5 Lavok RRoR sorceress breach lands, sorceress starts a second one Cernd ready to DW sorceress UH, Zerk and RB attack lavok round 6 CC 3*ADHW, RB mirror from ilbratha, zerk saves, UH falls (1 RD scroll gone !) Lavok knocked out Loot 2 adjacent rooms, guardians are no problem Rest before meeting Tolgerias SPOILER! Sorceress DW +mirror image +stoneskin usual buffs sorceress protects from cold every warrior (one of the small winner details here) round 1 Vagrant enters, runs west luring fallen deva Tolgerias removes magic on Vagrant (rest of party not touched, now enter room) Cernd summons warrior from horn near mage Uh with normal weapon attack tolgerias, zerk with normal other mage RB with phosphorous/belm attacks deva Sorceress renews IH on Vagrant (quality of sorceress vs mage is that she has 4 6th level spells!) round 2 deva dead Vagrant attacks mage (has no normal weapons) RB switches to normal (mh) phosphorous (oh) and attacks Tolgerias Zerk joins UH and RB on Tolgerias tolgerias breach on sorceress Cernd DW on sorceress sorceress removes magic round 3 Pounding gives result, Tolgerias critical, we clenche our jaws ADHW seriously hurt all party (but we survive, thank to Sastacha protection from cold that allowed us to keep at nearly full health before CC!) seconds after Tolgerias dead, of course. round 4 other mage dies quick we run to avoid a mordy till it vanishes Some more scrolls, good! (sidenote, sorceress already has 13 PFMW scrolls, quite a protecting stock isn't it?) Cernd heals party, we clean Ice cave Clean Fire cave, strange, efrit doesn't give xp? (may be it is usual, never noticed...) Think it is time to rest before engine room.... Vagrant needs 33 kxp to reach level 13..should be my reward for cleaning engine room. Clean engine room in three runs this time. Do not take all 12 golems at once like with necro party, first have no cleric, just one raise dead scroll left and not enough summon power, second, while my firepower is increased with this party, protection capacity is much lower. First enter through fire cave (gem/gem/coin/coin) Second through ice cave (bone/coin/gem/gem) Third fire cave and go south (bone/gem/gem/coin/clay) Vagrant levels, swanmay! Go to plane, kill first two tanar'ri UH Levels Rest before big meeting SPOILER! Have to say I like the fight Vagrant lures skeleton lords away, then joined by RB (professional skeleton killer) and Zerk finishes them Summons (swanmay, warrior, kithrix) take maurezhi (the one east) UH goes for and punches Leal'y, takes remove magic When lords down, Vagrant joins UH (Leal'y removes magic on vagrant) zerk and RB terminates maurezi, then attack other maurezi and summoned skeleton Cernd heals twice during fight (once Vagrant, once UH) Game over for demon, hilt of the truth is mine (RB looks tenderly at it before we put it in bag) Give lavok peace in death Sorceress, RB and Zerk level Which level 7 spell did she choose? The only one that allows (IMO) to down Thax and Kraag with this party pre-spellhold SPOILER! limited wish smile.gif Start mage stronghold quest (apprentice forge dagger) Free solamnic knights buy hallberd+2, upgrade it to +3 Sell all loot Go to sewer, kill horrid raksasa (simple, brutal frontal assault under IH, no other buff, while horrid AI, kill kobold and cernd heals wounded warriors) Sewer party One of the "vintage" pre-spellhold fights took them one after the other in this order: - Draug fea - Zorl - Rengaard - Tarnor the hatchetman - Gallchobhair and Gaius (he had just time to trigger 3*CL) Then go to trademeet to buy a +3 staff Since I'm there, deal with founder of trademeet (one word: Riskbreaker) Then back to Windspear Clean last bunch of golem, undead troop near tazok' stairs, then tazok. Conster follows Leave dungeon to sell Finish gong quest Finish vanilla paladin quest Thaxll'ssillyia, or how I did manage greater silence on my only arcane SPOILER! sorceress under mirror image and death ward Zerk, UH and Vagrant + summons attack Thax Let THax finish intro sequence: spell turning stoneskin spellshield buffet improved haste death cloud trigger stoneskin/PFMW/PFME sequencer GM/slow/confusion then Sorceress limited wish: timestop under timestop: spellstrike from scroll, breach, renew IH on UH, retreats Zerk, Vagrant and UH keep on attacking (they mainly take damage should I say) Sorceress comes back, breach THax Thax reacts by greater silence, true sight, breach, CC 3*FoD, sorceress dies, good! Cernd use scroll of raise dead on sorceress Sorceress breaches Thax Thax re-silences sorceress sorceress retreats, RB kills sorceress (caution: used normal weapon not to have her chunked!) cernd re-raise sorceress Sorceress uses limited wish for Prot for NPP on party, RB attacks then sorceress could breach from spell, then scrolls once Thax drained her later in the fight fight ended with sorceress and zerk drained RB had death blow Cernd heals were critical here Summons from staff of fire and staff of air helped great Fight was a nightmare compared to necroparty (5 reloads), I dearly missed second arcane and cleric! bigcry.gif Other bad thing is that I have just 1 scroll of raise dead left Only satisfaction: my planned use of limited wish to overcome Thax was ok, hope my second planned use for Firkraag will work the same.... Have to leave to restore sorceress in a temple. Will be back for Shade lord Sept 19th update enter Shade lord grove: SPOILER! Round 1 Sorceress and shade lord exchange RRoR Cernd summons warrior from horn near shade lord Vagrant sanmay near shade lord then attacks Patrick UH and Zerk attack Patrick RB goes for one skeleton lord Round 2 Sorceress RRoR shade lord One skeleton lord dead (RB!) Shade lord removes magic on RB RB attacks other skeleton lord Patrick dead UH and Zerk turn to altar Vagrant goes for skeleton lord Round 3 + after altar dead, RB and vagrant stay back. Summons, zerk and UH soften shade lord Cernd used DW to prevent PW kill used 2 scrolls of PFME When shade lord peeled, non-PFME warriors retreat once shade seriously wounded, after CC 3*ADHW, everybody attacks .... RB critical strike Shade dead Back to Umar, talk to squirrel, pick wizard scrolls from messenger of the light Leave for dock district forge: - Master of the high forest - shadow dragon armor - 2 ring +2 (had no more Permanency scroll to forge boots of haste) Go to bridge, give food to uncle, kill assassins and start "hard nut to crack" Said I would go try Samia All is based upon: - One sure thing, the way I intend to use limited wish there - One less sure thing: Kaol's behaviour (since I do not remember from previous run, and did not engage the fight the way I am going to do it there) Here is how it went: SPOILER! buffs usual buffs: DUHM, Chant, bless, def harmony, IH on warriors(from sorceress, save RB inner IH for later) + sorceress SI:conjuration and PFMW summons (swanmay, kithrix, joloon, warrior) PFME from scrolls on 4 warriors positioning summons in the middle of "samia's room" Cernd south door Vagrant, UH, RB and Zerk near kaol's place (guess why?) Sorceress north door (she grabs loot to trigger samia) round 1 All 4 warriors attack kaol Cernd south casts Chain lightning Sorceress starts Limited wish and populates corridor (where warlords appear) with rabbits Kaol dies, ADHW goes ok for us (when I think I owe him my necrorun reloads for this fight!!!) round 2 UH and RB turn to Samia, Vagrant Legdoril, Zerk lures Akae south Cernd Chain lightning Sorceress PFMW from scroll Round 3 Legdoril dies (with help from swanmay), Vagrant turns to Chak Zerk on Akae Cernd heals zerk UH and RB on Samia sorceress repopulates north door with rabbits (they distract both warlords and Samia) round 4 things turn bad, Zerk is downed by Akae Sorceress breaches Samia Samia dead, RB turns to Ferric, Vagrant and UH to Chak Cernd starts mass heal (we take serious damages, potions are barely enough) round 5 Sorceress PFMW (previous expired) from spell RB turns to Chak (better finish him fast!) Cernd fireshield from staff, tries to delay Akae Warlords chunk rabbits round 6 same as previous, apart that no more rabbits, sorceress blocks warlords from entering room round 7 Chak dead, UH and Vagrant turn to Akae Cernd starts heal on Vagrant heal lands, but seconds later Akae downs Cernd! Sorceress choses to breach Akae, but so doing she opens way for warlords (is obliged to move a bit) RB goes for warlords (he has the best AC, -21, and is a skeleton professionnal killer!) round 8 Akae is tough, Ferric ironblade hits hard (with sneak attacks) Sorceress does the only profitable thing she can, summon another rabbit horde! RB downs one warlord, hard hits did the job. Akae seriously wounded round 9 our IH start to end !!! RB downs another warlord, hard hits again. rabbit distract enemy warriors great! Akae critical sorceress FA on Akae (no effect) round 10 Akae dead RB activates his inner IH and continues pounding warlords UH and Vagrant turn to Ferric sorceress stoneskins round 11 WArlord still standing (no great rolls from RB, 3 critical misses!) Ferric hardinesses Sorceress breaches round 12 Warlord is dead RB turns to Ferric Ferric hardinesses sorceress breaches round 13 same as previous (apart breach from scroll) round 14 Ferric is dead My potion stack is now seriously depleted (the price to pay when no GR, no Hlas, no 9th level wizard spells!) Used two scrolls of raise dead aftermath (hopefully, there were 3 skeleton warlords) No Vecna, but at least this time, I am sure there was no cold chunk issue (cf my necro run) Tried Firkraag (thrice), gave up. Second pre-spellhold goal failed blush.gif SPOILER! Main reasons: - could not rebuff after dispelled (lack of spells) - warlords wave need firkraag critical to appear, so no way to "hide" some chars from remove magic or dispelling - though sorceress rabbit hordes were good at delaying kraag and warlords, not enough to allow me some progress - damage by normal weapons when Kraag PFMWed too low - I did not want to reload 20 times! (or may be I am just not good enough player) Next time with necro, will kill him! Sell everything I can to forge circlet of golden flowers and nature's gift, then sail to Brynnlaw (I have 216 gp left!) Party at this moment (vagrant 2,108 Mxp) Vagrant/ 14 / Prime assassinator / 29% kill in game RB/ 15 / Thax / 33% UH/ 14 / Borinall / 13% Zerk/ 15 / AMber golem / 22% Sorceress / 14 / Adamantine golem / 1% Cernd / 13 / Chaos / 2% Brynnlaw Mad dwarf (with stonefire) sent to a better world Perth the adept follows (had time to summon 3 coins,we had to wait for his SI to expire) Help Ginia and Arson out of island Kill Galvena and her mage Say goodbye to Sashtacha, enter spellhold (nasty bunch of trolls meet me) Btw, pre-spellhold sorceress spells were: 1st:larloch, MM, Chromatic orb, identify, BH 2nd:knock, acid arrow, mirror image, remove fear, vocalise(useless) 3rd:remove magic, FA, prot from cold (great), MMM 4th:emotion, GM, stoneskin, RoF 5th:breach, Larloch's interrupter, SI 6th:IH, PFMW 7th: limited wish! Join with Imoen Start spellhold examination Oct 4th update Re-arrange Imoen spellbook: 1st lvl: larloch minor drain, identify, BH, MM, chromatic orb 2nd lvl: knock, melf acid arrow, mirror image, agannazar scorcher, remove fear 3rd lvl: remove magic, lightning bolt, FA, prot from cold 4th level: GM, II, stoneskin, RoF 5th lvl: Breach, undead summoning, SI 6th lvl: IH, CL 7th lvl: mordy Spellhold first level: - golems + rhuk (no problem though Imoen stunned) - yuan-ti + minotaures + greater yuan-ti sent ad patres - other monsters not worth mentioning Cernd drinks his potion and reaches level 14, with circlet has 4 7th level spells. Spellhold second level: - Humber hulks - Tome (just casted IH then free action during fights) - Cristal (went smooth, no reload, even re-read my necro run to figure why I was so scared). Cernd regen and prot from electricity did the job. None of my char was in any danger at any moment. - Lich + skel lords + greater mummy (Cernd regeneration here made me thought of necro RVE for its usefulness, even forgot to summon swanmay) - Cat + librarian. Librarian downed RB (I have many raise dead scrolls, good thing!) - put Dace to rest - Vampire lord did not last long, did not need many spells, one breach and IH on vagrant and UH, anaconda from Cernd did great constricting vampire. Spellhold third level -"south way": kill trolls and minotaures, meet bodhi, kill some more minotaures, open exit door. Imoen levels (pick lower resistance and disrupt undead) -"north way" kill yuan-ti, open gates, Cernd and Imoen put werewolves to electric chair, coin golems executed by needle-sharp weapons. Mithril golem was more than a pain (had a nasty tendancy to chunk characters and damage resistance to pair with a supreme golem), improved hasted swanmay + Cernd regen had final say here. Forge boots of the north and boots of speed Finish asylum examination Meet Irenicus (fight very similar to necrorun) 3 reloads, 1 because of bad starting sequence, 2 because I was carelees, once forgot about precaution with CC 3*ADHW from johnny, second because imoen chunked by assassin post-irenicus! Exit Brynnlaw Take sahuagin challenge without problem SPOILER! swanmay + prot from fire Challenge was the same than necro, don't know why, but I thought I would fight a different opponent with a vagrant... Clean all city, betray priestess to king, face Prince Villynaty SPOILER! I definitly reached the conclusion that Prince can only be hit after third sea viper wave appear Careful planning, Cernd used his high level druidic abilities: - perfect camouflage to avoid being targeted by PW stun for example, - Nature's beauty to stun first mage , - creeping doom on second one to disable casting for some rounds, - regen on vagrant to maintain hope fight was hard nonetheless (miss ADHW from necro!!!), but nice (every move counts!) Zerk was downed (poison, bad luck just after drinking a potion of healing, and out of reach from cernd, UH or Vagrant who could cure him) Forgot to say that skeleton warriors from Imoen...is a very good idea! tongue.gif (do not regret my personnal change in her spellbook!!!) My raise dead scroll stock is now reduced to 3 units. Give heart to king Cernd gains CWN, yeah! Climb down to Underdark kill illithids, elementals and kuo-toas took 2nd drow ambush (the one near stairs, where you are dispelled and spiders teleport to protagonist) SPOILER! Vagrant stays back a little (where boz&gang will appear) 2 swanmays, 1 mordy and 2 skeletons are summoned RB, Zerk and UH go to stair Imoen and Cernd stay between Vagrant and stairs Zerk climbs up, trigger elves round 1 Imoen drinks potion of free action, RB IH then attack drow priestess, Zerk rage, UH attack drow mage, Cernd casts RRoR on mage Vagrant attacks ghost round2 Imoen IH on Vagrant, RB CBS, Cernd RRoR again round 3 Priestess turns invisible, Cernd creeping doom on mage, RB turns to nearest drow warrior, Vagrant drinks potion of free action Imoen IH on UH round 4 Rb kills drow warrior, Zerk kills another drow upstairs, turns to the other drow warrior on top of stairs Mage PW stun on RB, Cernd free action on RB Imoen breaches mage round 5 UH kills mage, RB kills priestess then runs to help Vagrant, Cernd heals Zerk Imoen IH on Zerk round 6 no more elves round 7 no more spiders Imoen levels, spells she has at this moment: 1st lvl: larloch minor drain, identify, BH, MM, chromatic orb 2nd lvl: knock, melf acid arrow, mirror image, agannazar scorcher, remove fear 3rd lvl: remove magic, lightning bolt, FA, prot from cold 4th level: GM, II, stoneskin, RoF 5th lvl: Breach, undead summoning, SI, lower resistance 6th lvl: IH, CL, PFME 7th lvl: mordy, DU 8th lvl: ADHW For the moment, my sole arcane caster does well with her spellbook, did not need to deplete my (big) scroll stock. Cleaned beholder lair, will wait a bit for Mighty One (lesson learned in necrorun) Riskbreaker gest RD! Take 1st drow ambush (near imprisonement unit) Free everybody from device with various consequences (Imoen nearly killed lich with DU) Go to village, kill balor for Goldander, get gem to open Adalon's lair Enter Kuo-toa dungeon Kill beholder, party of kuo-tua in room next to entry Enter room with Demogorgon statue Re-arrange Cernd spells Rest Take demon knights: Needed 4 reloads, won all of them, but in first three runs I had 3 to 4 char downed, and it was too costly raise-dead scroll speaking. Will never again have a run without cleric (or Jaheira), definitly not my taste. angry.gif 4th run, just lost Cernd, 2 raise dead scrolls left. Fight itself was very similar to necrorun, with a R/C instead of Cernd, first run would have been enough. RB and Vagrant shined (RB with CBS, Vagrant with Phosphorous off hand) And once again: Summon skeletons! (second only to swanmay in this battle) Rest Kill another kuo-toa party (mage/cleric/fighters) kill bunch of elfe near exit Rest Kill last kuo-toa party (mage/cleric/fighters) before Prince Rest Buff, summon swanmays, mordys Enter Prince room SPOILER! round 1 Zerk and Vagrant on one duke and RB on other duke UH and swanmay (swanmays were also improved hasted) on priest Cernd creeping doom on fallen deva Imoen ADHW round 2 Imoen ADHW Cernd RRoR mage UH turned! Duke dead, Vagrant turn to kuo-toa priest, Zerk to deva Duke dead, RB turns to Kuo-toa captain enemy is reached by creeping doom! round3 Cernd heals Zerk deva dead, Zerk turns to aerial servant and kills it (aerial servant was chasing helpless UH) Imoen ADHW Vagrant kills priest, turns to captain Zerk attacks other captain round 4 Cernd RRoR mage Imoen breaches Prince Vagrant kills captain, turns with RB and Zerk on other captain Second captain dead RB turns to Prince, all others to mage round 5 Imoen breaches mage Cernd Creeping doom on Prince mage dead Prince dead Leave dungeon Did Vital quest (killed him) Meet Adalon, enter drow city Do first quest (free Phaere from illithid), kill Boz&co on my way (Zerk now has a good hallberd!) Back to city Vagrant did tavern fighting challenge, Imoen mage challenge (without rest since entering city, fun, had only 2 4th lvl spells left in the end) Recovered Qilue brain for a strange creature Did other quest (beholder, solaufein) Dereix tower, Dereix fell to imoen's DU, skeleton lords to RB Risk decrement, Noble efreet to Cernd's creeping doom and CL Ammar is free On my way to Jae'llat house, did mission for matron mother (clean some creatures) Jae'llat house cleaned (I like this fight) Then a strange (because it never happened to me) thing occured: I rested 32 hours to identify all Jae'llat loot, then exited drow city (wanted to take illithid lair), as soon as I was out, Phaere appears and tells I am discovered (so quest broken). Resumed from inside city (after rest), same thing, so took my autosave inside house where I rested, rushed to temple, finished quest and had to fight all drow city (easy). Then gave back eggs and adalon teleported us to exit. Came back to Illithid lair All lair cleared without problem Rest before meeting Brain SPOILER! Round 1 Zerk and UH kill ulitharid (west) Imoen goes west Cernd goes north Vagrant and RB kill illithid (east) Vagarnt summons swanmay Elemental golem appears near vagrant RB turns to elemental Vagrant to umber hulk 2 brain golem gate Cernd summons anaconda purge on RB and Vagrant Imoen IH on RB round 2 another brain gates Imoen IH on Vagrant RB and Vagrant attack elemental UH and Zerk on brain (west) Cernd summons anaconda round 3 One brain golem dead Re-organize fighting force Vagrant summons swanmay near elemental Vagrant, Zerk and RB (who drank potion of defense) on elemental UH takes brain (other brain near elemental) Imoen mordy gem golem gates Cernd mass heal (near elemental) round 4 same as previous (apart we got brain golem instead of gem!) elemental is only wounded!!! Zerk turns to brain (overcrowding threatens!) round 5 UH kills her brain golem, with swanmay joins brain bashing anaconda are doing good against brain golems Cernd saves critical zerk with natural restoral Imoen RoF on elemental (now seriously wounded) round 6 another brain golem dead Imoen is stunned Cernd Free action on Imoen Imoen RoF on elemental we take a purge!!! Vagrant CWN, RB CBS round 7 Cernd regeneration on RB (RB takes pressure from both gem and elemental) Imoen IH on Vagrant RB inner IH another brain gates round 8 elemental is dead RB turns to gem Vagrant to master brain another brain dies Zerk turns to master brain, UH to last (for the moment) brain golem Cernd mass heals Imoen RoF on gem round 9 same as previous apart Cernd waits for next move (nobody more than lightly hurt) round 10 Gem dead, RB pound on brain golem who dies in seconds everybody on master brain we take a psionic blast with no noticeable damage Brain golem appears, RB turns to it, start with risk decrement round 11 we take a purge Master brain is critical round 12 Master Brain dies Last brain golem falls seconds after Went much better than necro run, reasons: 1°)- I knew the fight 2°)- Party higher level Now Mighty One.... Enter maze: Meet a ghost in entry room, Empty room, Shadow, empty room, Bone devil (3 appeared ), Skeleton lord, Whisper spider, Neo-Otyugh, Guardian ghost, Empty room, shadow (again), Maze entry, Bone devil, Empty room, rest in room, Deep shadows (3 ADHW from imoen later, get maze stone), Skeleton lord, Spiders ambush (first smilodon test, nice pet!), Entry Empty room (bone devil) Skeleton lord Whisper spider Empty room (Neo-Otyugh) Rest one last time Use Maze sigil...... SPOILER! round 1 Vagrant summons swanmay Imoen IH on Vagrant Cernd DW on Imoen UH steps on to meet Dracolich Vagrant advances to Dracolich Zerk summons warrior from horn Dracolich talks, buffet, death spell, death cloud round 2 Imoen IH on UH Cernd summons Smilodon Vagrant summons Swanmay DRacolich sequencer GM/slow/confusion (UH saves + lilarcor) round 3 Imoen IH Zerk, Zerk rage and attack Dracolich UH retreats to be IH'ed by Imoen Dracolich Wail (kill both swanmays), trigger PFMW/stoneskin/spell shield Vagrant CWN round 4 Imoen IH on UH UH summons Deva near Mighty one Dracolich death cloud, buffet Vagrant ZoSA Zerk, UH and Vagrant attack Dracolich Cernd summons anaconda Imoen summons skeleton round 5 Dracolich death cloud on Vagrant (who runs to have cloud out of party's reach), death spell on anaconda Dracolich wail, Zerk Kaput! Cernd DW self (just in case) Imoen mordy Dracolich emotion on Vagrant Smilodon is quite good (just lightly wounded though Dracolich does not like cats!) round 6 Dracolich death cloud, buffet, shadow dragon breath on mordy, wail... Vagrant dead Resume: Enter room, we climb down stairs (apart RB): Vagrant summons swanmay Imoen IH on UH Cernd DW on Imoen UH summons deva Vagrant advances to Dracolich Zerk summons warrior from horn round 1 Dracolich talks Imoen IH on Zerk, UH runs to Dracolich Zerk rage and rushes to Dracolich Cernd DW on Zerk Dracolich remove magic on vagrant + sequencer GM/slow/confusion Dracolich death spell on warrior, buffets Vagrant, death cloud on Vagrant round 2 Cernd ZoSA Imoen mordy Zerk hardiness Vagrant attacks Dracolich and CWN UH attacks Dracolich Zerk hits, Dracolich breaches Zerk, triggers PFMW/stoneskin/spellshield round 3 Cernd Summons Smilodon Dracolich death cloud on Vagrant (who runs to avoid death cloud falling on party) Imoen keeps aura cleansed Dracolic death spell on mordy Imoen mordy round 4 Cernd DW on ZErk Dracolich lower resistance on Cernd, greater doom on vagrant, wail (mordy killed), buffet vagrant, chaos on vagrant (vagrant confused) Imoen summons skeleton round 5 Dracolich emotion on UH, death cloud on Zerk Cernd DW on confused Vagrant (Wail happens!) Dracolich Greater doom on UH, Wail (deva dies), dragon fear Imoen summons skeleton round 6 Zerk hits Dracolich Dracolich PFMW, death cloud Cernd ZoSA Imoen summons skeleton (confused vagrant just hit my previous one!) round 7 Zerk rage expires, Dracolich breath on him, Zerk is drained... Zerk retreats Zerk uses one scroll of restoration Imoen mordy round 8 Dracolich wail, kills smilodon Imoen trigger 3*skeletons round 9 Cernd summons anaconda round 10 Dracolich PFMW CErnd summons anaconda round 11 Dracolich Wails (kills one anaconda) round 12 Imoen summons skeleton UH retreats to Cernd Cernd regeneration on UH Vagrant uses cat figurine round 13 Zerk re-rages attacks Dracolich Dracolich buffets round 14 Zerk hits Dracolich Dracolich PFMW round 15 Dracolich Wails, kills UH and anaconda IMoen summons skeleton Cernd DW on RB round 16 RB blurs Imoen mordy Cernd keeps aura cleansed (to be ready to heal vagrant) round 17 Imoen SI:necromancy (DW expired) Vagrant stays away from dracolich, Cernd uses scroll of raise dead on UH round 18 Dracolich PFMW round 19, 20, 21 skeletons, mordy and vagrant keep Dracolich occupied round 22 Dracolich PFMW round 23, 24, 25 UH casts prot from evil 15' radius and chant Cernd Bless and DH while vagrant and summons near Dracolich (2 skeletons + 2 mordys) round 26 Cernd NPP on RB Zerk rage all warriors attack Dracolich round 27 Dracolich breaches RB, RB retreats at once to Cernd, CErnd NPP on RB, RB CBS and attacks Dracolich round 28 pounding on Dracolich removes magic round 29 RB IH (inner) round 30 RB Risk Decrement round 31 Dracolich critical round 32 Dracolich sees Imoen, greater silence RB hard hits Cernd Natural restoral on Vagrant round 33 RB kills Mighty one That is a fight! Much easier than necrorun (1 reload vs 16), reasons: - I knew the fight - Having 3 protected from level drain fighters here helps a lot! (as I suspected after necrorun) What a loot! Staff of Rynn and fetish of prot from poison among other treasures! Exit underdark Clean north Forest Nearly forgot, go to troll mound Enjoyed it! (as said in necrorun, quite nice to do this right after underdark) I said something wrong about this fight in my necrorun, King and Queen can be killed whatever the order (Queen does not need to be dead to kill king!) A mistake in my former conclusion I wanted to correct! Another splendid loot: green leaves armor (funny thing happened, I saw it appear in container!) and gnasher! Beginning to love Smilodons and Anacondas! (the latter was quite severely judged by myself in my former run, its constriction attack is quite effficient). Leave mound In the mood to clear WK lvl1, because I miss skeleton/golem ambush Leave spider queen for later though (have no critical strikes) Enter city, meet Kruin, kill him; first cleared minor giths, them golems (elementals first, had overall 3 gems/coins spawning), then Kruin when his SI runs out. Forge red coral armor, wave, poseidon, indigo ioun stone; oak of the high forest Go to temple district Back in sewer: - kill lich for gaxx' bones - Take Teshal (Nice fight, love to send RB against skeletons) On my way out for guarded compound, I am summoned to finish wizard quest, then D'arnise Keep (Roenall fight) Finish both strongholds. Back to city, go to bridge district to finish "hard nut to crack", collect Gaxx bones on my way out. Remember that I did not kill Firkraag pre-spellhold Heading to Windspear Kill Windmaster (swanmays were quite efficient) Firkraag killed no problem (party was too high level!) RB had death blow (again!) Party at this moment: Vagrant / lvl 20 / MPV: Elemental golem / kills in chapter: 21% RB /lvl 22 / MPV: Dracolich / kills in chapter: 36 % UH / lvl 19 / MPV: Mithril golem / kills in chapter: 19% Zerk / lvl 21 / MPV: Troll King / kills in chapter: 14% Cernd / lvl 20 / MPV: Chaos / kills in chapter: 1% (but good support) Imoen / lvl 19 / MPV: Wind Master / kills in chapter: 9% Imoen spells: 1st lvl: larloch minor drain, identify, BH, MM, chromatic orb 2nd lvl: knock, melf acid arrow, mirror image, agannazar scorcher, remove fear 3rd lvl: remove magic, lightning bolt, FA, prot from cold 4th level: GM, II, stoneskin, RoF 5th lvl: Breach, undead summoning, SI, lower resistance 6th lvl: IH, CL, PFME 7th lvl: mordy, DU, RRoR 8th lvl: ADHW, trigger, foreknowledge 9th lvl: Wish, CC HLas: DB, Alacrity Get ring of Gaax, for RB. (had UH imprisonned, but also got a freedom scroll to make things even smile.gif ) Clean Illithid lair in sewer Crom Faer is mine (RB), VECNA !!!!!!!!!!! cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif cool.gif (first time I get it so soon with non mage protag!, last two times found it once on Layenne, once on Ancient Wyrm!) Lady Vania gives first quest Party weapons: Vagrant: stonefire/phosphorous (FoA +3/ilbratha) RB: Crom Faer/belm (blade of the roses/short sword of backstabbing) Zerk: poseidon/Warblade/staff +3 UH: Carsomyr/dragonbreath/staff of Rynn (all have a spare normal weapon of course) Ponder what to do: Bodhi? WK? Guarded compound? Assassin hideout? Fry some cowled wizards? Oct 8th update Guarded compound 1st level no problem (just one Dragon breath and 2 IH used) Cernd heals a bit, we climb up stairs. 2nd level cleaned no problem, just 2 assassin spawned (had 6 IIRC in necrorun) Imoen casts her wishes, we got one make as if rested, so open corridor; Cernd takes purge, lures Greater elementral in nearby room general attack, greater falls milliseconds after first purge, 2 coin and one amber to deal with End of guarded compound story Inventory is overflowing, sell a lot. Continue vagrant quest (shimmering light) Back to gate district Grave Lich killed at second attempt Winners: greater swanmay and Cernd (natural restoral, CL to bother lich) CC downed UH and RB, but I have plenty raise dead scrolls. Quite satisfied, daystar is mine! Go to Umar, continue quest. While waiting for chief inspector Clouzeau, sorry, chief inspector Auriel, I can't help but think about assassin lair nearby. SPOILER! Enter dungeon first level, buff, Improve haste, protection from poison (scrolls) Down into maze, run to final room, before entering, clean assassins that spawn along the way, Spend three rounds upstairs: - Renew buffs (chant, defensive harmony, bless..) - Imoen wishes twice, Hardiness and make as if rested, then she casts the winner spell here: Foreknowledge - Cernd true seeing Then enter final room round 1 Vagrant summons greater swanmay Cernd Smilodon UH Deva Imoen starts alacrity Everybody attacks one master assassin who does not live through this round two coordinators spotted (for the moment) round 2 Warrior attack second master assassin Cernd casts Chain Lightning Imoen unleashes her wrath: trigger 3*Chain lightning Chain lightning Breach on guildmaster Dragon breath Chain lightning Dragon breath Breach on guildmaster (in case he rebuffs when first lands) ADHW (to give samples of her arcane art) Chain lightning etc... etc.... ....Meanwhile second master assassin bites the dust and warriors turn to guildmaster who will not attend third round either. round 3 Cleaning of assassins and golem starts round 4 Two coordinators to deal with Cernd Saves (barely) UH from imprisonement! Exit Back to Umar hills to meet Auriel Rest (to identify loot) Report to Lady Vania Go for a visit I have to pay to an Illusionist in the sewer Visit ended in a blood bath Leaving now for druid grove to meet an Enchanter One Enchanteur less later report to Auriel, kill doppleganger, back to radiant hart to free Roshan. Get a clue, search sewers, have a meeting at Small Teeth Pass.... SPOILER! For the moment, this is THE FIGHT I had to do in Vagrant run superb design, hard as hell, not one moment of carelessness allowed Succeeded at 2nd run, first one because imoen chunked you have to face grandfather, a bunch of master assassins (I did not keep count, around 10) Cernd and Imoen under alacrity won the day buff, summon swanmay family (2 swanmay + 1 greater) smilodon, deva as soon as fight start, Imoen and Cernd under alacrity rain chain lightnings, dragon breath, call lightning, breaches... countless rune and elite rune spawn Focused Vagrant and RB on grandfather (then nearby masters) a bit south, Zerk and UH protected Imoen and Cernd from assassins of all kinds Imoen cast a WISH, was lucky to get make as if rested After masters killed, two coordinators to deal with (beware CC 3*ADHW) I was so focused I did not take notes, completly immersed in the fight, V6 improvement of it is beautiful in its difficulty! Bravo! Poor Cernd fell poisoned, the guy missed a lot of xp! Fight improved party condition a lot! (loot worth ~120 000 gp, + 110 000 xp /char) Imoen, UH and Zerk level. We go to Umar hills to sell, rest in cabin, a swanmay sends us for a quest! Then back to temple district, report death of assassins and get Lady Vania second quest. Oct 9th update Before exiting city, we go to Cemetery Down in Bodhi's lair First level cleared, this time Drizzt is saved (cf. Necrorun) climb down for big meeting No problem at all Just noticed 6 grandlords around, thought I met 5 in necrorun. Ambiance really nice! RB gets his second risk Decrement, good! On our way to report Bodhi's fall to Aran and Radiant heart, we fry 3 groups of cowled wizards. Pick a pitiful bunch of potion in sphere Exit city to Windspear Collect snake skins outside, inside first floor, then buff. Run, cut and bash. Zerk is wearing a nice python jacket. Including outside encounters, 14 snakes killed. Report back to Lady Vania Get my reward Forge holy Avenger Go to WK finish level 1 (spider queen) climb down to level 2 Imoen kills Elite Fire Giant (Who is dubious about lightning bolt efficiency?) Ice and poison room cleaned without problem Take Golem tribe in air room, Imoen kills elemental golem! Cernd with aura of invulnerability and his staff joins hand to hand fighting with golems. Kill Demon, Back to city (and Keep) to sell and forge (ring of GReater Djinni, the truth, FoA +4, Warblade +5 with resistance to physical damage) Imoen with RVE is not bad at all, I do not abuse casting this spell like I did with necro, but having regen on party, heal on party, remove disbling effects here and there helps quite a lot! Party at this moment with weapons: Vagrant: lvl 22 / Greater Elemental Golem / Stonefire (mh) Phosphorous (oh), FoA +4, ilbratha, cuthroat Riskbreaker : lvl 25 / Dracolich / The Truth cool.gif (mh), Crom Faer (oh), Short sword of the mask, Daystar Undead hunter: lvl 22/ Spider Queen / Holy avenger, dragon breath halberd, staff of Rynn Berserker: lvl 24 / Viper queen / Poseidon, Warblade +5, staff of strength Cernd: lvl 23 / chaos / oak of the high forest Imoen: lvl 21 / Elemental Golem / Sling of everard Imoen's spells: 1st lvl: larloch minor drain, identify, BH, MM, chromatic orb 2nd lvl: knock, melf acid arrow, mirror image, agannazar scorcher, remove fear 3rd lvl: remove magic, lightning bolt, FA, prot from cold 4th level: GM, II, stoneskin, RoF 5th lvl: Breach, undead summoning, SI, lower resistance 6th lvl: IH, CL, PFME, GOI 7th lvl: mordy, DU, RRoR 8th lvl: ADHW, trigger, foreknowledge 9th lvl: Wish, CC, RVE HLas: DB, Alacrity Oct 10th update Now Green Wyrm SPOILER! Was used to fight it with magic, it was not a menial task to fight it another way Fight lasted a long (Green wyrm had exhausted her PFMW) on the way Green Wyrm downed: - Imoen (after greater silence on her, 3 fingers of death flew! raised from scroll) - Zerk (raise from scroll) - Riskbreaker (who was raised from scroll by Cernd just before Cernd fell and joined fight for the killing blow) - Cernd (final dragon breath that nearly took UH) Real team work, Cernd was crucial summoning, RRoRing Wyrm, natural restoral (saved UH life twice) RB was killing machine Zerk removed a lot of stoneskin Imoen For Wishing support (alas no TS + alacrity combo), renewing IH, remove fear, the breach she dared that saw her bite the dust UH was the only fighter to stay able all fight long, she deserved Wyrm scalp! Vagrant was behind, victim of greater command or fear nearly all fight (woke up after Wyrm was dead) Nice loot! Get scepter from Supreme Golem (fortunately for it, I am lawfull good) Heal Yakman and fare him well Before maze, back to city to sell and forge Get Green Wyrm plate, Adamantite staff, Boots of speed, have just 619gp left. Back to WK maze: Demons, get Sword from monolith, Demons again, get stone for scepter, Demons, one of them tries to obtain a kiss, Demons, get second stone, Demons near an obelisk, Thieflings SPOILER! Buff improved Haste and prot from cold! (who said this spell is useless?) Rush to hybrid thiefling, Imoen summons Djinni (that dies to wild magic) UH lands lucky blow with avenger, CC from thiefling does damage, but prot from cold had kept us at full health Quite funny effect of wild magic; Cernd Smilodon had many bothers, some friends, some foes! (had around 12 smilodon fighting each others!!!) Attached Image Rest of thieflings and hounds not a big problem No reload! (very seldom happens to me here!) Demon Knights SPOILER! Party was improved hasted from thiefling fight Vagrant summons Greater sawnmay, UH Deva, Cernd Anaconda Imoen Wish for IH on party! sad.gif Second round Warriors activate smite Demons do not last long Last encounter not to be taken too lightly (I did, reload) Now meeting Aesgareth, resist temptation to kill him for the cheesy xp one can get from deck. Enter Carston's kingdom Clean Illithid rooms Inventory overflowing, exit to sell. Back to WK, finish level 4 (apart of course Supreme Leader!) Party level (and proficiencies) Vagrant 24 / long sword ++, short sword ++, axe +++++, flail ++, dual wielding +++ Undead Hunter 23 / 2Hsword ++, Long sword ++, halberd ++, Flail +, staff ++, 2Hweapons ++ Riskbreaker 26 / Long sword +++++, Warhammer ++, flail +, mace +, Dual wielding +++ Berserker 26 / Halberd +++++ 2Hsword ++++, staff +, 2Hweapons ++ Imoen 22 Cernd 25 Now ponder what to do: - Twisted rune - Orcus (would like Vagrant to be level 25, Swanmay queen might be of great help there!) - Continue Vagrant quest (I think I will sacrifice supreme shelter, but I want to have it when fighting Orcus, my +4/+5 blunt weapons being FoF, Crom Faer, Phosphorous and adamantite staff, I think to equip UH with FoA/supreme shelter) - Start chapter 7 and gain xp in elven city (Will also be an opportunity to try Cernd Hla on Raksasas!) Oct 10th update (bis) Choose to test Twisted rune SPOILER! According to the way I won it in necrorun, Focused on Layenne; (1 reload) Happy to say that Layenne did not have time to gate one single twisted golem!!! Imoen and Cernd under alacrity peeled her Then after breach, Imoen brought Layenne to critical with 4 dragon breaths (she should be dead, but I think some scripting prevent that) She disappeared (after drinking potion) Once she reappeared (Cernd is under true seeing), UH with holy avenger (and smite) and vagrant were pounding her (she was returned to normal status), another breach from Imoen, Layenne dead! (did not think it possible!) Meanwhile RB was downed by shangalar after killing revanek Zerk (with help from UH before she went to Layenne) downed Shyressa (breach from Imoen) When Layenne fell, beholder and lich were alone Afterwards, main problem was surviving stellar gravestones (potion of magic resistance helped Zerk, RB and Vagrant who received each one stellar gravestone), Cernd raised RB (scroll), Vaxall fell then Shangalar Greater swanmays and Greater Djinni were precious (kept Shangalar occupied a lot!) Now choice is quite reduced Deliver Lanthorn to Elhan Enter Suldanessellar Clean some houses (temple, moon, platforms,..), stop and rest before harpist house. SPOILER! Imoen CC foreknowledge + 2 mordy on self at enemy seen Enter house Vagrant summons Greater Swanmay UH, Zerk and RB Hardiness then RB attacks GReater Elemental, UH and Zerk Noble Rakshasa Imoen and Cernd start alacrity round 2 Zerk is down Cernd rains fists of nature on Noble, who dies, UH turns to horrid, RB to Greater elemental Vagrant uses cat figurine (warriors in a bad state) Imoen IH on party, removes magic, RVE for remove disabling effects round 3 horrids dead UH turns to Greater elemental(with Vagrant, RB and summons) Zerk with adamantite staff works on gem golem round 4+ After second purge, Elemental falls, 4 golems to deal with (one gem killed) No more problem Imoen and Cernd Level Finish city (apart sealed house) Vagrant did not level Since I do not want to fight Nizy right now (yes, I am afraid!), go back to bridge district to offer supreme shelter Finished fight to free auriel (No reload, great pride!) SPOILER! Focused on Ultra (RB, Zerk and Vagrant) UH on elemental near Auriel Cernd (with a simple stoneskin) is just near Auriel Summons quite important (2 greater swanmays, smilodon, Deva, Greater Djinni) Imoen under IA rains Rof on elemental (the one attacked by UH) then support (Wish, summons noble trolls) Imoen then Wished (got one make as if rested) After Ultra, elemental one by one (UH, Zerk and Vagrant) RB was taking down Gems one after the other Cernd with mass cure (twice), natural restoral (twice) and heal (once) made sure Auriel never was more than wounded We had One coin, one amber, 3 gems as summons from golem party (Nice) A purge from Ultra (Not Nice at all), after which Imoen Alacrity then restored IH Gave jewel back to swanmay Get a beautiful axe, enough money to forge boots of the ranger lords Party at this moment with main equipment Vagrant: lvl 25 / MPV: Greater Elemental Golem / boots of the ranger lord, cloak +1, belt of inertial barrier, ring +2, protector of the woods, helm of balduran /axe of the lakesider(mh) Phosphorous (oh), FoA +4, stonefire, ilbratha, cuthroat Riskbreaker : lvl 27 / MPV: Green Wyrm / indigo ioun stone, ring +2, ring of Gaxx, amulet +1, boots of the north, cloak +2, girdle of bluntness /The Truth (mh), Crom Faer (oh), Short sword of the mask, Daystar Undead hunter: lvl 24/ MPV: Spider Queen / Enhanced pride of the legion, ring +2, ring +2, cloak +2, carmine ioun stone, talisman of greater protection, gauntlets of skills, belt of stone giant strength /Holy avenger, dragon breath halberd, staff of Rynn Berserker: lvl 27 / MPV: Ultra Golem / Green Wyrm Plate, ring +2, ring +2, amulet +1, boots of speed, golden girdle, amulet +1, cloak +2 / Poseidon, Warblade +5, staff of strength Cernd: lvl 26 / MPV: Chaos / master of the high forest, ring +2, ring +2, circlet of golden flowers, bracers of dexterity /oak of the high forest Imoen: lvl 23 / MPV: Elemental Golem / Vecna, amulet of power, ring of Greater Djinni, ring of acuity, bracer AC 4 / Sling of Everard, Bone blade Imoen's spells: 1st lvl: larloch minor drain, identify, BH, MM, chromatic orb 2nd lvl: knock, melf acid arrow, mirror image, agannazar scorcher, remove fear 3rd lvl: remove magic, lightning bolt, FA, prot from cold, haste 4th level: GM, II, stoneskin, RoF, fireshield blue 5th lvl: Breach, undead summoning, SI, lower resistance 6th lvl: IH, CL, PFME, GOI 7th lvl: mordy, DU, RRoR, spell turning 8th lvl: ADHW, trigger, foreknowledge, Monster Summoning VI 9th lvl: Wish, CC, RVE HLas: DB, Alacrity, Comet Next step (if I can) will be Orcus Good thing, I have 16 barbarian potions smile.gif (never used one since journey began) Good design in balance between Necro and Vagrant, though quests are very different, amount of xp at this stage is quite even. Other classes though might have a drawback in this respect (no added xp from specific quests). Oct 13th update Prince of the undead SPOILER! Buff, buff sequence would deserve a thread! Cernd and Imoen buffed under alacrity to save time Used 12 barbarian potion (3 on each warrior) + hardiness Imoen CC foreknowledge + 2 Noble trolls on self RB took the one and onky PFLD scroll I can spare if I want to forge Hesperus Weaponry: Vagrant phosphorous/axe of the lakesider RB Crom Faer/the truth Zerk Adamantite staff UH FoA/shield of harmony round 0 (while Orcus raise his undead phalanx) Vagrant summons swanmay queen UH Deva Imoen greater Djinni Cernd starts alacrity RB drinks potion of invulnerability round 1 All warrior smite, each take one grandlord Cernd summons Smilodon Imoen doesn't move (anyway what could she do? isolating her as I did in Necro run pointless) end of round, 1 critical (RB!) and 3 wounded Grandlords Cernd summons anaconda, 2 mass heals (to restore queen and smilodon health!) round 2 RB and swanmay queen kill one grandlord Vagrant renew hardiness UH kills her Grandlord Vagrant kills another Grandlord Zerk with help from Cernd's fists of nature kill a third one RB helped by Vagrant a fourth one This round was quite bad for Orcus' pets!!! round 3 and 4 Zerk and UH focuse on same Grandlord RB and Vagrant on another Cernd stoneskins Vampires appear! Zerk and UH terminate a grandlord Zerk attacks one grandlord UH switches to Holy avenger and attacks eminent vampire (who focuse on Imoen) UH and RB down seventh Grandlord, RB switches to The truth main hand, Vagrant to axe (they both have now 9 APR) and each take an eminent vampire Vagrant renews Hardiness (breached by Orcus) round 5 We immediatly focuse on eminent RB triggers a sunray (kills one Eminent on the spot) UH kills with mighty blows an eminent that was turning to imoen Zerk rages (keeps pouding grandlord) Vagrant takes Axe of the lakesider main hand, makes short work of 2 eminents (joined by UH) Cernd is drained, Imoen not touched! RB helps Zerk and Vagrant with last Grandlord UH turns to orcus round 6 No more vampires (for the moment!) everybody on Orcus Not sure, but suspect I got a much weaker bunch of vampires than with Necro (which is fair, I would be quite in a bad situation with one or two master vampires around) round 7 bunch of skeleton lord appear Each warrior takes his target Vagrant summons greater swanmay round 8-9 No more lords Zerk, UH and RB pound Orcus Vagrant summons another greater swanmay Everybody on orcus (who takes damage) round 10 another Lord party! RB risk decrement (will soften bones a bit) Lords exterminated fast round 11 -12 pounding Orcus round 13 Skeleton lords again! Imoen out of silence! casts Dragon breath! then a lot of round spent waiting for Orcus PFMW to expire Was surprised not to find all the vampire spawns I had with necro party (suspect it has something to do with the fact I had a char, Imoen, out of Orcus LOS) Imoen summoned a horde of trolls After many many rounds, Vagrant kills Orcus! This fight was my third most feared (cf my guess somewhere in this thread), was much easier than with necro PS: I validated my suspicion afterwards IA pieces of advice: 1°) Sikret does not like people hiding from enemies! 2°) When Sikret doesn't like something, he takes counter-measures! Another moment of selfish pride (no reload!) Think Nizy might not give me the same feeling... Nizidramanii'yt the black SPOILER! Climb down to Nizy's lair Buff sequence as long as a Tolstoï novel (and nearly as fascinating) Imoen shot three wondeful RVE (regen*2 + mental agility) Cernd casted regeneration on Vagrant, RB and Zerk (those three are supposed to tank hardwood golems while UH attacks Nizy with holy avenger) Improved haste and haste chant, bless, defensive harmony, protection from evil 15" radius Hardiness CWN for Vagrant rage Swanmay Queen and two greater swanmays Greater djinni Smilodon Si:Abj, GoI, spell turning, mirror image, stoneskin, fireshield blue on Imoen etc. For those who wonder, buffing lasted 5 rounds Then advance to Nizi (apart UH, Cernd and Imoen), talk to him (it is clear between us than either Nizi will eat a swanmayburger today or Imoen will have black dragon leather boots) round 1 Cernd starts alacrity Nizi buffs then buffets Hardwood appear Vagrant, Zerk and RB activate smite then focus on a piece of wood to sculpt it UH runs to Nizi Cernd RRoR, RRoR, RRoR, unleash energy (no effect), doom, ZoSA (Nizi burped a death cloud!), summons anaconda Imoen runs, breaches, retreats (no silence!) Hardwood wounded round 2 same as previous for warriors Nizi casts creeping doom on Cerend who retreats (to prevent contagion) Imoen glimpses another breach then retreats round 3 Harwood 1 dead Vagrant, Zerk and RB critical strike then sculpt another hardwood swanmay queen, fighting alone one hardwood since beginning of the fight is still at full health! Cernd looks immune to creeping doom! (creeping doom just disappeared when touching him!) Imoen wishes, Wunderbar! "make as if rested" Nizi, you are lost! round 4 Since Queen is so valiantly fighting, Cernd casts regeneration on her (she is keeping one hardwood occupied) Imoen summons another Greater Djinni (first one crunched like a watermelon by hardwoods round 1) Fighters as previous round round 5 Cernd tries Fist of nature on hardwood, for, lol, 2 damage! Imoen Wishes for potion, no comment warriors pound (keep critical for later, hardwood is seriously wounded) round 6 Hardwood 2 dead trio focuse on last hardwood (swanmay queen still up and fighting) All other summons long dead apart a greater swanmay fighting Nizy with UH since beginning of fight Nizy creeping doom again on Cernd, Cernd takes some distance, is eaten by insects (I think first time regen from RVE prevented that!) Imoen wishes for increase of stats to 25 round 7 Hardwood is critical Warriors hardiness (regen is gone, Cernd might miss Natural Restoral), Swanmay Queen still stands! round 8 Harwood 3 dead Rush to Nizy Imoen comes near, is silenced! round 9+ waited for Nizy's PFMW stock to run out Then the killing was for...Greater Swanmay (the one standing with UH since beginning of fight) loot a bit disapointing (helm of defense) Back to elven city, open temple, get nuts Make my last trip to Athkatla Forge Hesperus, Improved dragon helm and golden spider figurine. Vagrant argues that by being lawful good, one should forgive any offense. Imoen adds forgiving does not prevent one to have a list of those offense. Moments later Zallanora &co depart for ever. Back to Suldanessellar Vagrant specific quest first step SPOILER! Necro party found it somehow..... Oct 15th update Vagrant new quest start is quite nice! I have great fun !!! (do not spoil here, sorry, you will have to search a bit like I did for the start) SPOILER! got pennyroyal oil Where did we found it? Let's just say that as soon as I knew about it, I planned to visit (alphabetical order given, not my priority) Bridge district Docks Slums Suldanessellar Temple district Trademeet Umar hills Underdark Waukeen Promenade And got a strike in one of those place! cool.gif Then another snake encounter (no spoil on "where") SPOILER! Remember the advices you were given! wink.gif Meeting with mirrored vipers.... nasty! but when following advice, less nasty! smile.gif No buffs (I did it first try, so was not expecting vipers to spawn!) then Imoen IH on warriors + Greater Djinni Cernd main task was to keep Queen alive Warriors pounding RB took care of Vagrant's action consequences (for those who do not understand, try V6 with vagrant till this point) Recovered my precious red stone Back to "the" room Mending mirror brings another mirrored horror, RB uses his brand new longsword on it. cool.gif Next move tomorrow (real life) Party level/MPV Vagrant 25 / Orcus RB 28 / Green Wyrm UH 25 / Spider queen Zerk 28 / Ultra Golem Cernd 27 / Chaos Imoen 23 / Elemental Golem Oct 16th update Use mirror again (twice) SPOILER! Best helper called before fight, had of course to deal with consequences before triggering encounters; trigger: a mirror wind master trigger again: mirror spiders, ghost and whisper? (don't remember this one) fell (fast) Mirror is now restored. Next step requires breathing underwater. SPOILER! -none- (sorry, do not want to promote laziness) tongue.gif Now on my way to find something Holy (clue is obvious) Fought other mirrored monsters Back to the restored mirror Serious business is about to start. Blazing mirror SPOILER! Try to explain a bit how I managed without spoiling too much Swanmay queen hardiness imoen alacrity then IH + RVE (2 regen!!!!, no grandlords! ) focus on mirrored..."thing" then when purge, Imoen renews IH, hardiness again mirrored "one" fell then consequence then consequences of consequence One reload (cernd chunked first time) Graphics quite good IMO Difficulty is increasing a bit! Bloodstained Mirror, discovery: SPOILER! Some reminds here of something Necro had to manage with old ones Well, since I know what is necessary and what the consequences are, I have to figure a tactic there. Every victory in a fight sums up into the successful management of 2 simple problems; problem n°1: damage your enemy problem n°2: stay protected from your enemy so that you still stand when they hit the dust First try was just to test, though I think my preparation (2 barbarian essence potion) was a good intuition, summoning greater Djinni then swanmay queen seemed for a moment enough to ensure first try first win, but turned out not enough (when mirrored warrior appeared) Second run I modified a bit my tactic, 3 barbs drunk, summoned Greater swanmay and Greater djinni, then Queen. Could down mirrored warrior, but anti-ranger killed me. Think I have to think again about other ways to handle this fight, though second try looked promising, was too far from success IMO. Bloodstained mirror, improvement: SPOILER! 3 regen from Cernd before going (to save hardinesses, I have just 3) 3 barbarian potions drunk Summoned greater swanmay as starting sequence focus on consequence (keeping swanmay far away) then bring anti-ranger to critical One hardiness used, second just cast at the end when mirror warrior appeared, fighting with consequence's consequence (swanmay unsummoned) Then summon swanmay queen deal with consequence (keep queen away so she stays at full health) pound mirror warrior summon spider then Greater Djinni warrior down focus on anti-ranger (every enemy is attacking Vagrant, good! he is immune to damage) When anti-ranger seriously wounded, queen helps anti-ranger fell, Queen unsommoned next round, third and last hardiness expired, alone with Djinni as ally, against consequence and 4 subconsequences... potions of regen, CWN on (heavy risk to be chunked) Djinni great at keeping some enemies occupied One by one they fell... Saving one hardiness (and so as many rounds invulnerable to physical damage) was the winner here! have a nice screenshot late fight, but it is too spoilerish Second mirror gained Party reformed Now third mirror Without Critto, Shadan and Kimbull, would never have succeed here Thank you for your advices and to have kept hope here! SPOILER! Warning, battle can be as frustrating as Yaga or old ones, it is very difficult to spoil enough to make this record interesting but not too much to let some surprise Buffs, IH and free action (from cat figurine) RB takes a potion of invulnerability Imoen CC foreknowledge + 2 noble trolls Note: I might have lost round count a couple of times (I think 1 or 2), but was quite focused and a lot of things happen each round! for me, solution was to take care of drowned soul last. round1 Vagrant, Imoen and CErnd leave south Zerk, UH and RB attacks mirror ghost as soon as they arrive south Vagrant summons swanmay queen Cernd smilodon Imoen Greater Djinni Spiders unleash a tempest of improved web and lariats, when RB, ZErk and UH recover from it, run south round 2 Vagrant attacks "consequence", joined by RB (to finish quick!) Cernd is taken by web lariat, so is interrupted smilodon! Imoen alacrity, then unleashes 7 "spells" on consequence, then all her larloch's minor drain, dispel magic (useless) then Noble troll, Dragon breath*3 Zerk and UH take each one mirrored Ghost round 3 Imoen (alacrity running) FA on mirrored ghosts (dispel their mirrors!), Noble troll, Cernd recovers, FA from cat figurine One mirrored Ghost down RB and Vagrant kill "consequence", turn to nearby mirrored ghost (without mirrors) and kill it fast. RB turns to other mirrored Ghost Vagrant to mirrored whisper attacking CErnd (queen follows) round 4 Zerk and UH terminate two mirrored Ghost Vagrant kills one mirrored Whisper, attacks another near Cernd But Riskbreaker is connfused (near RB and UH, but near spiders too) Cernd keeps aura cleansed (if UH, attacked by drowned soul is heavily wounded) Imoen ADHW (dispels some mirrors) round 4 Last mirror ghost falls Vagrant and summon kill 2 more mirrored whispers Zerk attacks drowned soul UH attacks another mirror whisper Cernd summons anaconda Imoen Absolute Immunity from scroll round 5 We have Drowned soul and 8 mirror whispers to cope with RB has the good taste to attack one mirrored whisper UH is down Vagrant kills one mirrored whisper Zerk on Drowned soul Imoen summons skeleton round 6 RB awakes, Kills one mirrored whisper Vagrant kills another Imoen tries DU on drowned soul (no effect) another Whisper downed by Vagrant and RB round 7 3 more whispers down Cernd heals Zerk imoen mordy round 8 no more mirrored whispers Focus on drowned soul Cernd casts natural restoral on RB round 9-10-11 Cernd natural restoral and mass heal all summons on drowned soul Zerk drinks 2 oils of resurgence Vagrant CWN RB risk decrements twice then has the death blow Fight was more than hard, and many frustration (like char chunked late fight!) Now final? confrontation SPOILER! My looong buff sequence reduced to ashes when triggering mirror. Fortunately, Imoen ended her "buffing" alacrity with 3 RVE (regen/regen/mental agility) and 2 wishes (PFME on party and make as if rested) Fortunately also, regen and CWN do not dispel SO spellcasters and HLAs at full stock round 1 Vagrant summons greater swanmay (keep queen for later, just in case...) Imoen and CErnd alacrity UH summons Deva CC triggers 3 noble trolls Imoen IH Zerk and UH, mirror, stoneskin, SI:abj, spell turning, GoI,... CErnd DW on Imoen, Def. Harmony, summons anaconda ... round 2 spiders gate ZErk and RB turn north Cernd FA from cat figurine Vagrant and UH attack "consequence" round 2+ after some rounds, all spiders are eliminated, good! BUT: (A picture is better than a tedious writing) Attached Image Against all odds, Vagrant, UH and Greater swanmay survived! And they did so long enough for masters of mirrors to deplete their spell stock (thanks to Holy avenger and Vagrant gear) After some time UH dared raise dead on RB, RB risk decrements at once, then runs to collect is gear Next round Imoen raised, then Cernd, then Zerk When mirror falls, master of mirrors starts another inferno sequence from high level mage RB falls to his wrath. Luckily for me, Vagrant falls from emotion... Cernd positions himself to natural restoral vagrant (who is highly resistant) while master of mirrors unleashes his spells on Vagrant again, image better than long writing: Attached Image When vagrant awakes, summons queen (I am already quite astonished by greater swanmay endurance) Zerk, UH and RB deal with consequence then patience Master feels the blows and master dies happy.gif happy.gif happy.gif Attached Image Experience is pitiful!!!! bigcry.gif No loot!!!! bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif Was much much easier than drowned soul IMO We secure Ruby and mirror, get a gift And go to meet Jon and his wood comrades... This post has been edited by nicoper: Yesterday, 10:14 AM Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 08:08 PM Post #2 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary Nicoper, you can buff in Borinall's house as well. Just answer to him that you come here to buy something and he let you leave the conversation. Then you can buff, summon and then start conversation again. -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 08:48 PM Post #3 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 QUOTE(Vuki @ Sep 12 2010, 08:08 PM) * Nicoper, you can buff in Borinall's house as well. Just answer to him that you come here to buy something and he let you leave the conversation. Then you can buff, summon and then start conversation again. Didn't know that, thks Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 09:14 PM Post #4 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 @nicoper How do you handle traps? It is a pain at the early game at least. QUOTE - Kill Bill, sorry, Kill Firkraag (Which means, according to previous necrorun, I will have to skip some other quests not to reach spellhold cap) With this party, Firkraage is very doable, just be careful to keep cend alive and use resurgence oils. firkraage doesn't dispel a lot smile.gif as for experience, vargrant can obtain more experience than necro, so you can definitely do more quests. If I will try another vargrant run, I would go to do temple mind flyers base and samia before spellhold. Not much experience but very good loots. especially for your cernd. (two poweful upgrades for him will make underdark much easier) thumb.gif I believe both are quite doable with your party composition. I don't want to admit but melee still rules in IA6. sad.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 09:57 PM Post #5 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 QUOTE(cjwf214 @ Sep 12 2010, 09:14 PM) * @nicoper How do you handle traps? It is a pain at the early game at least. QUOTE - Kill Bill, sorry, Kill Firkraag (Which means, according to previous necrorun, I will have to skip some other quests not to reach spellhold cap) With this party, Firkraage is very doable, just be careful to keep cend alive and use resurgence oils. firkraage doesn't dispel a lot smile.gif as for experience, vargrant can obtain more experience than necro, so you can definitely do more quests. If I will try another vargrant run, I would go to do temple mind flyers base and samia before spellhold. Not much experience but very good loots. especially for your cernd. (two poweful upgrades for him will make underdark much easier) thumb.gif I believe both are quite doable with your party composition. I don't want to admit but melee still rules in IA6. sad.gif Hi cjwf214, Traps: my pre-spellhold sorceress has remove traps (2nd level) for traps I cannot bash. Mirror image or Cernd with his MR do the "trap" taking when unlocked. You are absolutely right, it is a pain wacko.gif ...and sidenote for those who complain about trap reward, it is still worth much xp in V6 (if I compare my current xp to previous party at same moment early game). Will follow your advice for extra quests thumb.gif , I think Samia might be doable (with a bit of luck that is happy.gif ), but mind flayer lairSPOILER! ... with this Greater elemental golem lurking around.... bigcry.gif I will make an attempt though, will let you know the result. Actually, I was wondering about guarded compound (without corridor of course!) as added quest Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 10:19 PM Post #6 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary I do not think that mind flayer lair in sewer can be done pre spellhold with this party or any other party. I could be wrong but I highly doubt it. If you did it then big congratulation! thumb.gif -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 10:21 PM Post #7 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary QUOTE(nicoper @ Sep 12 2010, 11:57 PM) * Traps: my pre-spellhold sorceress has remove traps (2nd level) for traps I cannot bash. Do you mean Knock? biggrin.gif -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 11:44 PM Post #8 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 @nicoper: I always keep a thief at least for pre-spellhold just for traps. Mirrors are good for indoor traps but not outside(will trigger wizards). I don't know cernd has MR. mellow.gif viconia is good for traps though. I tried samia several times before spellhold and got very close to win once. (only the mage left). But I only have 3 fighters and my B/M are inactivated at that time. So you shall have a bigger chance with this party. As for mind falyer at timple district, I only mean the first part of the base. They drop some very good items depening on your luck so it is worth the efforts. Alhoon himself is too much for lvl14-15 party I guess. smile.gif. Personally I think the guarded compound is not worth it because the loots are pretty weak there unless you need a lot of money in chapter 3. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 12 2010, 11:52 PM Post #9 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary QUOTE(cjwf214 @ Sep 13 2010, 01:44 AM) * As for mind falyer at timple district, I only mean the first part of the base. They drop some very good items depening on your luck so it is worth the efforts. Alhoon himself is too much for lvl14-15 party I guess. smile.gif . There is only one problem with it. You cannot leave the place until you clean it up. Including Alhoon. smile.gif -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 13 2010, 12:01 AM Post #10 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 QUOTE There is only one problem with it. You cannot leave the place until you clean it up. Including Alhoon. Thanks, My mistake then. I never tried them before chapter 6 so this is first time to know. Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 13 2010, 09:10 AM Post #11 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 @Vuki Yes, Knock blush.gif For the mind flayer lair, IIRc I have done it in V5 couple of time pre-spellhold, but it was much easier.. This time, I think it is not possible. For Samia&co, will try, even if I think it a bit too difficult for a 13/14/15 level party (I will miss opening fight with 1 or 2 DB....) Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 17 2010, 09:27 AM Post #12 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 Will post something on journal this week-end Right now I am still in chapter 3 leave for chapter 6 - liches and Gaxx - Illithid hideout - teshal (teshal himself + escort is ok, lich + undead are not wacko.gif ) - troll mound - twisted rune blush.gif - gate lich - guarded compound (no rest + dispel upstair make it impossible chap 3 IMO) Have left to do: Thax and shade lord, then some ranger quest, then hard nut to crack Some warrior stronghold quests (leave roenall for chap 6) vanilla mage stronghold (apprentices are forging) second vanilla paladin quest Right now party in Firkraag dungeon: have only Wyrm, Wind master and Samia's party left here I am very surprised some of you could take Windmaster in chapter 3, how did you manage that? He is nearly immune to physical damage (best damage I get from slashing is 4!, usually, 1 or 2 with blunt/piercing, 2 or 3 with slashing) He is immune to all magic I tried (be it damaging spells like FA, Melf arrow, lighting, or disabling spells like emotion, hold monster...) First web lariat like effect dispels all my protection (from electricity) Electrical damage + Windmaster punch reduce my warriors to ashes in no time I remember from my necro run party took it with simplistic and brutal assault backed by GR (and critical strikes!) What am I missing there? mellow.gif - will try Samia and co, but think I am too low level to win (at least without cheese or 100 reloads) - I devised something for Firkraag, think it might work... Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 11:15 AM Post #13 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 updated journal see tag Sept 18th update Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 01:06 PM Post #14 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary I found the tactic to kill your own sorceress to remove greater silence a bit weird to say the least. smile.gif -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 01:45 PM Post #15 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 QUOTE(Vuki @ Sep 18 2010, 01:06 PM) * I found the tactic to kill your own sorceress to remove greater silence a bit weird to say the least. smile.gif Weird, indeed, but what could I do? happy.gif happy.gif happy.gif And if Thax had no second greater silence, I would just have used Thax own tactics for my benefit (let him kill sorceress with CC 3*FoD, which allows me to raise her and prevents FoD on Cernd for example wink.gif ) winning this fight without arcane at this level is impossible (ok possible with 200 reloads and relying on luck), so either I gave up and did it post-spellhold, either I had to find a solution.... This post has been edited by nicoper: Sep 18 2010, 01:49 PM Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 02:31 PM Post #16 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 QUOTE I found the tactic to kill your own sorceress to remove greater silence a bit weird to say the least. Weird, indeed, but what could I do? And if Thax had no second greater silence, I would just have used Thax own tactics for my benefit (let him kill sorceress with CC 3*FoD, which allows me to raise her and prevents FoD on Cernd for example ) winning this fight without arcane at this level is impossible (ok possible with 200 reloads and relying on luck), so either I gave up and did it post-spellhold, either I had to find a solution.... That is kind of what I did for Firkraag during the vargrant run. My B/M was killed/raised twice and wasted his silence twice. When the 3rd time I raised her, the beast has no more silence.laugh.gif But the big problem for red dragon before spellhold is not really silence. You will see. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 03:03 PM Post #17 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary Did you try spell turning? It should work again greater silence (until it is removed). Btw, to be honest Greater Silence is a little bit sily concept to me. Silence does not allow for you to make sound and vocalize removes somatic components of spells you cast. No need to be able to speak for casting. If you are under the effects of both then you are able to cast spells (because no somatic component is needed anymore) but you still cannot speak. Not greater silenece, but even the greatest silence cannot better remove your ability to speak: if you cannot speak, you cannot speak. It is like pregnancy: you cannot be a little bit pregnant. smile.gif This post has been edited by Vuki: Sep 18 2010, 03:04 PM -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post nicoper View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 08:29 PM Post #18 little Bounaï Group Icon Gold Member Posts: 252 Joined: 17-August 07 The tactic I thought perfect to fight Firkraag was shattered by IA tweaks bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif SPOILER! limited wish shapeshifting to iron golem does not give you 100% magic resistance but 75%, not enough to avoid greater silence anyway bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif bigcry.gif I will try to figure something else.... Took my revenge on Samia & co tongue.gif they exist no more in my run cool.gif This post has been edited by nicoper: Sep 18 2010, 08:29 PM Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 09:01 PM Post #19 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 QUOTE Took my revenge on Samia & co they exist no more in my run Congraulations! You might be the first one who took them before spellhold in IA6. thumb.gif SPOILER! Do you have money to forge cernd's circlet and potion. The circlet itself is already very useful. but the forged one is more powerful which can help you on Firkraag fight. Also don't use cernd's potion yet. wait for right moment and you can get his HLA sooner. As for firkraag, Don't think too much. You don't need any tricks, brutal force rules here. Just be patient and use potions. Also, SPOILER! use normal weapons if your mage got silenced early on. Firkraag's AC is not that good. This post has been edited by cjwf214: Sep 18 2010, 09:02 PM Go to the top of the page Quote Post Raven View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Sep 18 2010, 09:22 PM Post #20 Group Icon Senior Mod Tester Tactical reputation: 4 Posts: 1058 Joined: 27-March 07 From: UK Greater Silence can't be blocked by magic resistance or Spell Turning. Only outright immunity to Silence can block it. Go to the top of the page Quote Post LINKS REMOVED - Grim Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 Funny Threads Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 8 2010, 11:50 AM Post #1 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 The vulture doesn't go hunting. It waits for the lion to do the hard job and then comes for an easy food for free. Now that IA v6 is close to release, there is something important I should say here to all Premium and Gold members of the site. Some people who didn't help us in this financial crisis and even stated a lot of foul things against us have said that they are waiting for members of BWL to upload IA v6 to a free download site (such as Rapidshare) to be downloaded. These people have chosen to live a vulture's life-style. You are the lions and you should be careful not to feed the vultures. To be honest, I don't see why any of the premium (Gold) members of BWL may even think of doing such a thing. The only possible scenario which may occur to mind is that some day, they (the vultures) may decide to send one of them here (sacrificing $30) to get the mod and publish it on a download page. To prevent such an incident in the future, I have decided to make a precautionary meaure. I will not upload the mod anywhere to be downloaded. I will make separate and unique versions of the mod for each and every Premium and Gold members here and will send them to your e-mail addresses. The version of the mod sent to any of you will be different from the one sent to others (the content of the mod will be the same, but there will be something hidden in each copy which will be unique and different from other copies of the mod; for example, a minor treasure dropped by a certain enemy may not be the same in different copies of the mod). In this way, if the mod suddenly appears somewhere on public download page, we will download it and will know who has done it. Of course, in that case, the harm is done and even if we ban the spy, the mod is out for the $30 they had sacrificed for it, but at least, we will know who he was and after banning him from the site, they won't have the chance to do the same thing with any further technical supports, fixes, patches and other things we may release here in the future. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Hideous the W... Hideous the Wu Jen View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 11 2010, 10:07 AM Post #2 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 45 Joined: 27-March 08 It's too bad you can't include a remotely activated script or something that crashes the game if you find out it's been uploaded. wink.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post Baronius View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 11 2010, 02:01 PM Post #3 Master of energies Group Icon Council Member Posts: 2967 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Magyarország I know you meant it as a joke, but to make sure it doesn't frighten anyone: the Improved Anvil package will be a "usual" mod package, without any virus, trojan, script or whatever to check who you are, where you got the mod, and what habits you have etc. smile.gif -------------------- Mental harmony dispels the darkness. Go to the top of the page Quote Post « Next Oldest · Improved Anvil Fan Club · Next Newest Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 Improved Anvil FAQ lol Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jan 24 2010, 11:31 AM Post #1 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Welcome to Improved Anvil Fan Club! Q: What is the Fan Club for? A: Improved Anvil Fan Club is a forum available only to Premium and Gold members. You can use this forum for: 1- Sending your journals and playing reports of the Premium and Gold versions of the mod 2- Reporting possible bugs and asking for technical help. 3- Discussing your party compositions and in-game events with fellow (Premium and Gold) players. 4- Sending your suggestions and requests for new features to be added to the mod. Q: What is the difference between Premium and Gold versions of Improved Anvil with the version available to public? A: The Premium and Gold versions of IA are always one version higher than the version available to public. For example, when the public have access to IA v5, you (Premium and Gold members) have access to IA v6. Once IA v7 becomes available to you, they (the public) will have access to IA v6. Q: Is there any the difference between Premium and Gold versions of the mod? A: Yes, Gold members can ask for personal and individually customized versions of the mod, which will be made for each member separately and individually as per their request. Each Gold member can submit one request to be implemented in the personal version of the mod for him; however, it should be noted that the requested feature should be technically feasible and doable; that is to say, there is no guarantee that whatever personal customization a Gold member requests can be technically feasible. This can be discussed personally with each Gold member separately. Gold members should also note that creating these individual versions of the mod may take some time. Q: What are the benefits of posting in the Fan Club in comparison with the public IA forum? A: 1- Technical support will be offered much faster in the Fan Club than in the public forum. 2- Since the public version of the mod is always one version lower than the version available to Premium and Gold Members, discussions and questions about the Premium and Gold versions of the mod can't (naturally) be posted in the public forum, but you can post here freely. 3- Suggestions and requests for new features will be taken more seriously here than in the public forum. Q: Aren't you actually selling the mod in this way? A: No, I'm not selling the mod, because not even a penny of the donations comes to my pocket. How can I be selling something when I don't receive any money in return? Also note that Improved Anvil is not a public property. It's not even a property of the BWL site. It's exclusively mine. As the owner of the mod I have the right to choose to whom I give it (for free of course) and to whom I do not give it. Noone can question this right. At this time, my favorite site (BWL) is in financial crisis and I have open eye to see who is a true friend and who is not. I share my mod only to true friends. Revisit this topic frequently Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 IA v6 is ready announcement )) Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 16 2010, 11:51 PM Post #1 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 IA v6 is ready. smile.gif I wish to apologize for the delay and to thank all of you for your patience and for your support! I would like to ask each of you to send me a PM with the e-mail address you want to receive the mod in. Note that after I receive your PM, it will still take me a few days (7 to 10 days) to actually prepare the package and send it, because as you remember, each of you will receive a personalized copy of the mod (see this post). Cheers -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 17 2010, 09:35 AM Post #2 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary Great news! Thank you! -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post Mjolnir88 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 17 2010, 04:11 PM Post #3 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 79 Joined: 15-October 09 Sikret, can you please post the changelog for v6? Go to the top of the page Quote Post Daerd View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 17 2010, 08:25 PM Post #4 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 5 Joined: 17-November 09 Good news; looking forward to playing it. Thanks for everyones work on it. I sent you a PM Sikret but i have had no indication that it was sent (i.e. its not in my 'Sent Items' folder) so im just wondering if you received it? If not let me know smile.gif Thanks Go to the top of the page Quote Post Baronius View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 17 2010, 08:53 PM Post #5 Master of energies Group Icon Council Member Posts: 2967 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Magyarország On the bottom of the Private Message page (above the "Send" button), you have this checkbox: "Add a copy of this message to my sent items folder" The message will be saved to the Sent Items folder only if you tick this. -------------------- Mental harmony dispels the darkness. Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 18 2010, 12:36 AM Post #6 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 tongue.gif Finally, I can't wait. Thants a lot sirket. Can you upload the readme first so I know what is new. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Hideous the W... Hideous the Wu Jen View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 18 2010, 04:20 AM Post #7 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 45 Joined: 27-March 08 Awesome! thumb.gif Go to the top of the page Quote Post Daerd View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 18 2010, 03:32 PM Post #8 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 5 Joined: 17-November 09 ahh thanks baronius biggrin.gif Im quite smart. Honest! Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 18 2010, 09:46 PM Post #9 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 PM'ed Sikret. Readme would be nice indeed smile.gif Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 19 2010, 11:11 AM Post #10 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Unfortunately, the readme and documentations will be the last parts which will get ready. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 29 2010, 07:38 PM Post #11 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Sorry for the delay. I will start sending e-mails containing the mod to players on tuesday and will finish sending them all on wednesday. So, if on thursday any of you has not received the mod, he should notify me. Make sure to adjust your e-mail settings to make sure that my e-mail won't be detected as spam ending up in the bulk folder. Even more importantly, make sure that your e-mail setting doesn't empty the bulk folder immediately. The safest way is to add my e-mail address to your contact list (the address can be found in the readme of v5). I want to emphasize on one important point: Once you receive your copy of the mod, you are the only person responsible of that certain copy if it leaks out. So, be careful not to share it with anyone (even with your close friends) because if you give it to anyone and he or she shares the mod with others, you will be taken as the person responsible for that. As I have said before, each copy of the mod I sent to players has some slight and hidden differences with other copies and if a copy of the mod leaks out and becomes available to public, we will know whose copy of the mod it is. So, you should pay the outmost attention to keeping your copy of the mod exclusively with yourself. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Baronius View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post May 29 2010, 10:48 PM Post #12 Master of energies Group Icon Council Member Posts: 2967 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Magyarország Needless to add, Premium Memberships will all be extended with a huge amount; their one-year validity will be "restarted" on the day when the last member receives Improved Anvil as well. So those who donated to help BWL and to gain access to the Improved Anvil Fan Club won't have any disadvantages compared to those who will donate e.g. tomorrow, next month or at any later time. -------------------- Mental harmony dispels the darkness. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 1 2010, 08:14 AM Post #13 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 The mod is so far sent to cjwf214, nicoper, Fillian and Vuki. Others will also gradually receive it. The process of preparing the separate packages, zipping them, attaching to e-mails and sending does take a lot more time than I had anticipated. The entire process of sending all copies to all players may take a bit longer than two days that I had anticipated. So, please, do not send notifications to me on thursday if you do not receive the mod. My time isn't completely free on these days either, but I will do my best to send all copies as soon as possible. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 1 2010, 02:41 PM Post #14 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 rolleyes.gif Got the mod, Thanks sikret. I can't wait to try it after work. Several questions before I finalize my team. 1. I remember sikret mentioned in the progress report that the core potion of ascension is compatible with IA6, is it still true? I see ascension is still listed as incompatible in the new documents. I never played ascension before and really want to try this time with IA. Please verify. 2. I also remember sikret said the new druid quest is not ready for IA6. But I see a new big quest "signs and sigils" listed for druid grove in the new tactical contents. Is this quest for druid protagonist only? Can I get the quest using mage/ranger protagonist with multiple strongholds? 3. Is there any other way to get "Skeleton Lord" summons except the new necromancer item. I want to use this spell but not sure to play with a necro protagonist. can sorcerer/non-protagonist necro learn this spell? Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 1 2010, 03:37 PM Post #15 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 QUOTE(cjwf214 @ Jun 1 2010, 07:11 PM) * 1. I remember sikret mentioned in the progress report that the core potion of ascension is compatible with IA6, is it still true? I see ascension is still listed as incompatible in the new documents. I never played ascension before and really want to try this time with IA. Please verify. With one of my changes to IAv6 (compared to v5) I strongly guess that Ascension's core component has now turned to be compatible with IA, but since I'm not 100% sure and we haven't tested them, I played safe and didn't omit Ascension from the list of incompatible mods. If you want to be 100% safe and be completely sure that your first run of v6 is totally bugfree, I recommend that you do not risk either. But if you want to do the risk, you can try Ascension. QUOTE 2. I also remember sikret said the new druid quest is not ready for IA6. But I see a new big quest "signs and sigils" listed for druid grove in the new tactical contents. Is this quest for druid protagonist only? Can I get the quest using mage/ranger protagonist with multiple strongholds? That quest is completely removed from v6 and postponed to v7. If it's still in the documents, it only means that I have forgotten to erase it. QUOTE 3. Is there any other way to get "Skeleton Lord" summons except the new necromancer item. I want to use this spell but not sure to play with a necro protagonist. can sorcerer/non-protagonist necro learn this spell? The only way to summon Skeleton Lord is to play with a Necromancer protagonist (of good alignment). -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Vuki View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 1 2010, 06:25 PM Post #16 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 428 Joined: 9-June 08 From: Budapest, Hungary I have installed V6 and everything seems to be ok. smile.gif Thank you for the mod, Sikret! One quick question: is it ok if I modify Minsc 's class? I would like to play with him as a Riskbreaker. Sikret mentioned earlier that it is ok for not modifid NPCs. Was it changed during upgrade from V5 to V6? -------------------- History of my party in IA can be seen here! Go to the top of the page Quote Post cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 2 2010, 12:06 AM Post #17 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 Thanks sikret. I think I will skip ascension just to play safe. I have another question regarding to installation. In the installation document, you said "the un-nerfed THAC0 table" from ease of use is recommended. But in the new fix & tweaks documents you said that IA6 has its own un-nerfed table. So do I need to install the un-nerfed table from EOU or not? Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 2 2010, 03:49 AM Post #18 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 QUOTE(cjwf214 @ Jun 2 2010, 04:36 AM) * Thanks sikret. I think I will skip ascension just to play safe. I have another question regarding to installation. In the installation document, you said "the un-nerfed THAC0 table" from ease of use is recommended. But in the new fix & tweaks documents you said that IA6 has its own un-nerfed table. So do I need to install the un-nerfed table from EOU or not? We still need the EoU component for the "saving throws". Since it is installed before IA, IA will change the other tables such as THAC0 to its own version. @Vuki You can change Minsk's class to Riskbreaker if you know how to do it perfectly. The safer way is to create a custom Risbreaker in multi-player mode. If you use multi-player mode, remember that after starting the game, you need to wait to see the "Item Randomizer initiated successfully" message, then save the game, quit the game, cut the saved game from multisave folder and paste it into "save" folder. Then run the game in single-player mode and load the saved game. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 2 2010, 10:19 AM Post #19 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Today (wednesday) I was too busy to send more than one copy of the mod. Purifier should now check his e-mail for the mod. smile.gif -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 3 2010, 08:38 AM Post #20 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 The player who received his copy of the mod today (thursday) is Hideous the Wu Jen. I really wish I could prepare and send more than one copy of the mod per day, but unfortunately, my free time is limited on these days. -------------------- Improved Anvil kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 4 2010, 01:06 AM Post #21 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 I'm so jelous of you guys. Can't wait for mine smile.gif Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 4 2010, 06:44 AM Post #22 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Mjolnir88 is the player who received his copy of the mod today. smile.gif -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 7 2010, 06:41 PM Post #23 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Daerd, RBateman, and Kimbull can now check their e-mails for their copies of the mod. smile.gif Have I missed anyone (except Shadan and Critto)? -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 03:20 AM Post #24 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 I got an error during install. WARNING: cannot verify trigger ~!IsValidForPartyDialogue("YOSHIMO)~: Failure("le xing: empty token") WARNING: cannot verify trigger ~IsValidForPartyDialogue("YOSHIMO)~: Failure("lex ing: empty token") I only have recommended ease of use (v27), dungeon be gone, and widescreen mod. This post has been edited by kimbull: Jun 8 2010, 03:37 AM Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit critto View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 03:44 AM Post #25 Group Icon Premium Member Tactical reputation: 2 Posts: 990 Joined: 23-February 08 From: Saint-Petersburg, RF Could you, please, attach the debug file for IA installer to your post? Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:02 AM Post #26 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 Figured it out. It only happens if I install Dungeon Be Gone (v1.6). If I don't install it, it doesn't happen. Is there a newer Dungeon Be Gone version? What version are you guys using? Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:07 AM Post #27 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 QUOTE(kimbull @ Jun 8 2010, 07:50 AM) * I got an error during install. WARNING: cannot verify trigger ~!IsValidForPartyDialogue("YOSHIMO)~: Failure("le xing: empty token") WARNING: cannot verify trigger ~IsValidForPartyDialogue("YOSHIMO)~: Failure("lex ing: empty token") I only have recommended ease of use (v27), dungeon be gone, and widescreen mod. In some dialogue file, "YOSHIMO" is mis-typed as "YOSHIMO (lacking the second apostrophe. It's not any file of IA, because none of IA files has any such line in it. Have you installed the official patch and the Badurdash v1.12 (non-weiDu) before installing your mods? Copy and paste the content of the file WeiDu.log to your next post as well. It's a text file in your main BG2 folder. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:27 AM Post #28 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 // Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods // The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod // ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name ~SETUP-DUNGEONBEGONE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Be Gone V1.6 ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Infinite Weapon, Potion and Ring/Amulet Stacking ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Infinite Weapon, Potion Stacking (ToB) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #3 // True Grand Mastery (extra half-attack, etc.) (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth" ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery, and Arcane, Divine Spell Progression (Blucher) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #13 // Unlimited Bag of Holding (Blucher) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #14 // Multiple Strongholds (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Bonus Merchants (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #17 // No Drow Avatars On Party In Underdark ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Imoen ToB Dialogue Fix ~SETUP-IMPROVEDANVIL.TP2~ #0 #0 // Improved Anvil Premium I installed Patch_26498_ENGLISH. Then Bg2fixpack112 from the blackwyrm location. Then Ease of Use v27 also from the blackwyrm location. Then the rest of the mods. Is it a major issue? I'd like to skip the dungeon and I will not take Yoshimo with me. Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:39 AM Post #29 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Seems to be an issue in some versions of the Dungeon-be-gone mod, because another player has also reported the same problem via e-mail and says that he doesn't receive the error message when he installs IA without dungeon-be-gone. To confirm this theory, please uninstall Dungeon-be-gone and install IA again and see if you receive the same error message. Also, note that the "unlimited bag of holding" should NOT be installed. Uninstall it too. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:42 AM Post #30 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 Confirmed. It doesn't happen without Dungeon Be Gone. So will this be an issue if we play like that? I personally won't use Yoshi and will skip the dungeon. Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 04:54 AM Post #31 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 This is my own WeiDu.log before installing IA and do not receive that error message: QUOTE ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Infinite Weapon, Potion and Ring/Amulet Stacking ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Infinite Weapon, Potion Stacking (ToB) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #3 // True Grand Mastery (extra half-attack, etc.) (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth" ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery, and Arcane, Divine Spell Progression (Blucher) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #14 // Multiple Strongholds (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Bonus Merchants (Baldurdash) ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #17 // No Drow Avatars On Party In Underdark ~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Imoen ToB Dialogue Fix ~SETUP-DUNGEONBEGONE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Be Gone V1.4 There are two differences with yours: 1- I use Dungeon-be-gone v1.4 (rather than 1.6) 2- And I have installed Dungoen-be-gone after EoU See if you can do this sort of installation and let me know if you still receive the error message. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:03 AM Post #32 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 Found 1.4. But same thing happening. Did exactly as you mentioned Sikret. This post has been edited by kimbull: Jun 8 2010, 05:13 AM Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:16 AM Post #33 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Dungeon-be-gone v1.4 is attached to this post. Attached File(s) Attached File Dungeon_Be_Gone.rar ( 1.23mb ) Number of downloads: 6 -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:27 AM Post #34 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 QUOTE(Sikret @ Jun 8 2010, 05:16 AM) * Dungeon-be-gone v1.4 is attached to this post. Doesn't work for me either. I did fresh game install each time I tried so far. Any other solutions? Should I just go ahead and start my game like this? Is it gamebreaking? I'd like to have a "good" game. This post has been edited by kimbull: Jun 8 2010, 05:28 AM Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit cjwf214 View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:38 AM Post #35 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 89 Joined: 20-January 08 I had same mistakes before. I think it is because of weidu version. IA6 is using weidu 1.68 or somthing. But DBG 1.6 are using weidu 20100 or higher and it will automatically update all old weidu.exe in the folder. I got the exact yoshime warnings at weidu 20100. So I deleted all weidu.exe in each mod folder and copy the old weidu.exe and reinstall everything. There are no problems now. You could try this. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:38 AM Post #36 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Uninstall all mods, including EoU and then install them all again exactly similar to my installation and try again. Did you make a backup copy of the entire BG2 folder before installing mods for returning to a clean installation of the game or will you have to install from CD's again? -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post critto View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:40 AM Post #37 Group Icon Premium Member Tactical reputation: 2 Posts: 990 Joined: 23-February 08 From: Saint-Petersburg, RF @ kimbull: can you please attached setup-ImprovedAnvil.DEBUG file from your game folder, when the warning occurs? @ cjwf214: QUOTE I think it is because of weidu version. IA6 is using weidu 1.68 or somthing. But DBG 1.6 are using weidu 20100 or higher and it will automatically update all old weidu.exe in the folder. Yes, the more modern versions of WeiDU catch this bug. However, I believe that the problem hides somewhere in the resources of the game, either modified by DBG or in vanilla itself. Which is why I want to take a look at kimbull's IA installation debug log. Go to the top of the page Quote Post Sikret View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 05:48 AM Post #38 The Tactician Group Icon Distinguished Developer Posts: 4848 Joined: 1-December 05 Critto made a good point about WeiDu versions. IA uses WeiDu 185. Even after using DbG v1.4, your weidu installers are already upgraded automatically. You can downgrade your WeiDu installers in this way: 1- Unzip Improved Anvil afresh and put the Setup-ImprovedAnvil.EXE file in your BG2 directory. This will downgrade IA's own installer. 2- Make a temporary folder somewher on your computer. Copy the Setup-ImprovedAnvil.EXE into that temporary folder (don't cut and paste it; just copy and paste). 3- Now, rename that file in the temporary folder to the name of the Setup-DungeonBeGone.EXE and then copy and paste it into the main BG2 folder. This will downgrade DunGeonBeGone's installer. 4- You need to do the same with all other mods in your main BG2 folder; so do it for Ease of use as well by renaming the file in the temporary folder to Setup-Ease.exe and paste it into the main BG2 folder. Note that even if you have a mod which you do not actually install, you will still need to do it for that mod if it is in your main BG2 folder. -------------------- Improved Anvil Go to the top of the page Quote Post kimbull View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 06:40 AM Post #39 Group Icon Premium Member Posts: 58 Joined: 15-May 10 Tried that few items, not sure if I got it right, seems pretty complicated. No luck. [C:\Games\IAv6\Setup-Ease.exe] WeiDU version 185 {SETUP-EASE.EXE.DEBUG} Queried (pid = -1) So if I do that what you guys mentioned, I can't type anything in the Weidu. Lost 5 hours tonight. I will put this on hold, until you guys have a fix for it. Go to the top of the page Edit PostQuote Post V Full Edit V Quick Edit critto View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member's Topics Find Member's Posts post Jun 8 2010, 06:54 AM Post #40 Group Icon Premium Member Tactical reputation: 2 Posts: 990 Joined: 23-February 08 From: Saint-Petersburg, RF Which items exactly did you try to do? Downgrade the installers? You can go on about it this way: on a clean installation re-install all the mods. However, use DBG 1.4 and do not copy the Widescreen mod into the game folder until you have installed IA. Copy only EOU, DBG 1.4 and IA. Install (preferably, in order Sikret mentioned in post #31) them, and only then copy and install a Widescreen mod. It is my believe that the warning is not game-breaking in any way, but if you're not willing to risk it, you can wait until I look into why the warning appears later today. This post has been edited by critto: Jun 8 2010, 06:55 AM Link to comment
yarpen Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Wow, in this whole shitload I've found something a bit interesting: Speaking with Animals! Possibility of obtaining some stuff and make them go away could be interesting in BG1. :3 Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 And let's not forget the most epic post by Sikret so far, when "nicoper" asks why isn't IAv6 released to the public since the forum is dead with about 5-6 members active Thanks for your post, nicoper! First of all let me assure you that the leaked version of the mod is quite old and outdated. It can't even be compared with the version you are playing. The person who has leaked the mod had lost his access to the mod before I implement the latest set of comprehensive patches. For example, the leaked copy of the mod lacks the latest set of new spells and HLA's. I have a lot to say about that former member of IA testing team, his misbehaviours and how we tolerated him here for such a long time. However, I will not get into this discussion here and now. IA v6 once publicly released will be available to public. But I do not intend to publish it soon because I want to show my gratitude to those who supported the site when the site was in need. You did support the site and you deserve to have access to the mod much sooner than those others who just wanted to sit and use the benefits without helping or contributing at all. As for the limited number of people who currently have access to the forums and to the mod, I have no problem with that. I do professional work at the highest quality and I share it with a limited number of people. The quantity of my fan-base or people who play my mod is of no consequence and importance for me; the quality of the fan-base is important to me. I prefer to have a small fan-base made of true friends rather than a big fan-base made of people who were only one step away from turning their back to us when the site needed them. I am no longer in my 20's, nicoper! I am a 43 years old professor in the university; I have a busy life with many other important things going on in it. The number of IA's fan-base is truly the last thing in my life which I may care about. I prefer to work on this mod slowly and gradually and only share the latest version of my work with those who truly deserve it. One version before the latest version will be freely available to everyone. so, once IA v7 is ready for you, others can download and play v6 for free and can continue their trash-talk about us. And remember that those trash-talks and lies existed even when the site and the forums were open to everyone. So, if you want to trace the case and find the roots of the problem and their real motives for their trash-talks and lies, you should look into some other reasons than the recent changes in BWL policy. Let's continue this in PMs if you want. smile.gif Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 First of all let me assure you that the leaked version of the mod is quite old and outdated Is it now Sikret? Link to comment
Nominar Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 5-6 active members, really? I figured it'd be few but not this few. Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share Posted October 24, 2010 5-6 active members, really? I figured it'd be few but not this few. 7 maximum, from those like 2 or more are testers. Probably why "nicoper" made that post regarding the public release, is because he puts effort in writing his journals and he only gets feedback back from the same 1-3 people, one of them being a tester who doesn't actually play the game. I prefer to have a small fan-base made of true friends True friends on the internetz lolz. Reality check buddy. Ding! Link to comment
Saros Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 To be honest, I don't see why any of the premium (Gold) members of BWL may even think of doing such a thing. The only possible scenario which may occur to mind is that some day, they (the vultures) may decide to send one of them here (sacrificing $30) to get the mod and publish it on a download page. To prevent such an incident in the future, I have decided to make a precautionary meaure. I will not upload the mod anywhere to be downloaded. I will make separate and unique versions of the mod for each and every Premium and Gold members here and will send them to your e-mail addresses. The version of the mod sent to any of you will be different from the one sent to others (the content of the mod will be the same, but there will be something hidden in each copy which will be unique and different from other copies of the mod; for example, a minor treasure dropped by a certain enemy may not be the same in different copies of the mod). In this way, if the mod suddenly appears somewhere on public download page, we will download it and will know who has done it. Of course, in that case, the harm is done and even if we ban the spy, the mod is out for the $30 they had sacrificed for it, but at least, we will know who he was and after banning him from the site, they won't have the chance to do the same thing with any further technical supports, fixes, patches and other things we may release here in the future. In fact, I thought of doing this since the very beginning, because I remember seeing Sikret's posts how this mod is going to be available for free download. Thing is, I didn't want to make a new paypal account just for this, and also didn't have the free time to play the mod. Don't have much free time even now . Also, remembering how Sikret banned people on his forum just because he thought it might be me under some new login convinced me that I am simply throwing away money and getting nothing in return. BTW, interesting how will anyone be protected by banning such a 'spy'. Of course, the next time this 'spy' will return with different IP, different e-mail, even different paypal account from a different country. Link to comment
geh4th Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Nicoper's walkthroughs are too long to completely digest at one browsing, but I'll say this about it. Sikret has obviously relaxed a bit on what he considers "cheesy play" because Nicoper appears to have done LOTS of encounters using pretty cheesy methods (if not outright cheating.) Either that, or Sikret is ignorant (or merely looking the other way) so that he doesn't lose another loyal paying customer. ===== Even I didn't realize how pathetically lame BWL's Improved Anvil membership is nowadays after the Iron Curtain went up. Less than 10 members of the Elite Fanclub? Improved Anvil probably won't even survive to see version 7. Nobody will be around to play it. Which means v6 won't ever get released to the public as Sikret babbles about....which means people that don't want to pay - or wait - might as well use the only one that will ever BE released: mine. Link to comment
geh4th Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Another thing: with such a pathetically small number of "loyal" (read: paying) fans, Sikret must be pulling his hair out wondering exactly who is leaking all of this information. Which of his trusted minions has turned on him this time? Wouldn't he like to know. Who will it be next time? And the time after that? I was a loyal tester and he drove me away in his utter stupidity. Nobody in that elite club can be considered above reproach, because they will ALL have their limits of patience when dealing with him. Sikret must be casting his eyes on everyone, looking for all sorts of signs of suspicious activity from every direction. I love the image that invokes. Paranoia can be a wonderful thing. For your enemies. Stew in in, Sikky boy. Link to comment
isleepwithfucking goats Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share Posted October 24, 2010 Nicoper's walkthroughs are too long to completely digest at one browsing, but I'll say this about it. Sikret has obviously relaxed a bit on what he considers "cheesy play" because Nicoper appears to have done LOTS of encounters using pretty cheesy methods (if not outright cheating.) Either that, or Sikret is ignorant (or merely looking the other way) so that he doesn't lose another loyal paying customer. ===== Even I didn't realize how pathetically lame BWL's Improved Anvil membership is nowadays after the Iron Curtain went up. Less than 10 members of the Elite Fanclub? Improved Anvil probably won't even survive to see version 7. Nobody will be around to play it. Which means v6 won't ever get released to the public as Sikret babbles about....which means people that don't want to pay - or wait - might as well use the only one that will ever BE released: mine. I attached the final version of the mod at the bottom of the OP Link to comment
geh4th Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 I stand corrected. Way to go, man. After Sikret figures out who you are with his super decoder ring, I guess you'll be "outed" and joining us in the ranks of the "trolls". Link to comment
geh4th Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 I'm in the mood to release some other material from the hold of the elitists, so here's Sikret's treatise on morality, er....what he considers to be cheating and cheesy play methods. The long and short of this is: if you don't play by Sikret's ideals of "right" and "wrong", then you're a cheater. Arrogant arse. Another important thing to know: Virtually ALL of Improved Anvil v6 is Sikret's attempt to prevent Saros from being able to cheat. Sikret is obsessed with it. Much of the new content that was intended for v6 got delayed to v7 because Sikky was SO focused on the crap he wrote in this article, he didn't have time for stupid things like creativity. (This information may have been released before, or already known to some. My apologies if it's just sharing known information all over again.) ============ Cheat and Cheap, by Sikret Part I: Cheats The first part of the document gives you a reference list of major cheating actions in the game which you should avoid if you intend to play the game legitimately and (more importantly) if you want to improve your tactical skills. A player who doesn’t avoid using cheats and cheesy methods in the game will never learn sound tactics. 1- Using CluaConsole: This part doesn’t really need any further explanation. Using the CluaConsole for any purpose is a cheat. This includes using the console to set variables, to give items or xp to your characters or to make creatures spawn or to move between areas. 2- Using game editors: Using game editors, such as Shadow Keeper, NI, DLTCEP and the like for any purpose is cheating. This includes using editors to look up enemy creatures’ abilities, editing enemy creatures, editing game’s various files (such as items, spells, etc…) as well as changing your party members to illegal classes (such as kitted multi-class characters). 3- Using hot key cheats (ctrl-key cheats): Any use of ctrl-key cheats is a cheat. This includes ctrl-y, ctrl-r, ctrl-j, ctrl-t ctrl-q and others. 4- Deleting Files from your override folder: This is also a cheating action. Some players do such things to nullify changes applied to the game by some mods. It’s plain cheat. 5- Using xp/gold/item exploits available in the game: Most of these exploits are fortunately blocked by Improved Anvil, but if you find any of them still available, avoid using them, because using them is cheating. An example of such exploits which is already fixed and blocked by Improved Anvil is the unlimited xp you could gain by summoning monsters and killing your own summoned monsters. Another example is to deliberately drop your reputation to a very low number in order to fight with Amnish guards who infinitely spawn to fight with you. This exploit is fixed in IA v6. One other example, which is blocked in IA v6, is to spam Scribe Scrolls, Alchemy, and Wish spells to collect scrolls, potions and wands to sell them. Doing such a thing has no difference with using CluaConsole to add gold. It’s plain cheat. Another example (which can’t be blocked by any mod) is that you export your high level characters in the middle of a game and then start a new game by importing them. Using such exploits is not merely cheap and cheesy; it’s plain cheat (and that’s why it is listed in this part of the document rather than the second part which is the list of cheap and cheesy methods). 6- Assigning hot keys to spells (which allows unlimited use of them): I won’t name those spells which are vulnerable to this cheating method, because I don’t want to teach cheating here. The best thing is that you do not assign any hotkey to any spell to be at the safe side. 7- Hit & Run: This cheat is also sometimes called ‘Playing Cat & Mouse’. The way to use the cheat is this: You encounter an enemy with protections; then instead of standing and fighting, you just keep running in circles just to kill time to let the duration of the enemy’s protections expire. You sometimes hit the enemy with a ranged weapon from distance, but again you keep running and running. Note that retreating a few steps to let your cleric cast a healing spell on you or to rearrange your party members in new positions is not cheating; the cheat is to run continuously just to kill time. This item could have also been listed in the second part of the document (= the list of cheap and cheesy methods) and could have been marked as the “worst of all cheesy methodsâ€, but I think it’s best to be called a cheat, because it’s even worse than using the ctrl-t cheat. The latter makes everyone’s protections expire (including party members) but by using the “Hit & Run†cheat, the cheater can refresh his own protections while running. 8- Resting when the enemy is coming: The enemy casts his protections and approaches; you flee to a remote place and keep clicking on the “Quick Save†button, or even directly on the “rest†button. It sometimes works and the enemy’s protections expire; but it is plain cheat. 9- Stealing critical and quest-related items from enemies before they turn hostile: Most of such creatures are already modified by Improved Anvil to make sure that it’s not possible to steal their critical and quest-related items, but if you find any rare cases, in which this cheat is still possible to perform, just avoid it. 10- Killing a sure enemy before he turns hostile and starts to fight: You know that a creature is going to turn hostile after having his dialogue; yet, you use some trick or another (such as time stop or the infamous force talk cheat) to kill him before he actually turns hostile. This is not only plain cheat but also a very cheap behaviour even from a role playing point of view. Improved Anvil has blocked the force talk cheat for many potential enemies and also using the offscreen time stop trick against some (fewer number) of them; but even if you find this method usable in some cases, don’t use it. 11- Taking personal items of joinable NPCs and using them by the protagonist or some other party member: This is a cheat and a very cheap action even from a role playing point of view. Improved Anvil has blocked it for some powerful upgraded items of the joinable NPCs; but even in those cases that this cheat is still possible, never use it in your game. ========= Part II: Cheap & Cheesy Methods This part of the document gives you a reference list of major cheap and cheesy methods of playing the game which you should avoid if you intend to play the game legitimately and (more importantly) if you want to improve your tactical skills. A player who doesn’t avoid using these methods (and the cheats listed above) will never learn sound tactics. 1- Casting hostile spells from distance (offscreen): You know the location of the enemy, but instead of fighting fairly, you stand at a distant point where the enemy can’t see you and start casting hostile spells into the area. This is cheesy, but fortunately most of the enemies in IA are smart enough to react properly to this cheap method. Nonetheless, don’t use it even against those enemies who may be vulnerable against this method to practice legitimate tactics. You can’t use this cheap method against powerful enemies; so, don’t use it against the weaker ones either. Consider the battle with the weaker enemies as learning and practicing sessions which will prepare you to face the tougher and smarter foes. 2- Leaving the area in the middle of a battle: This exploit is blocked in most battles in Improved Anvil. But if you find exceptional cases in which it is still doable, avoid using it. 3- Hide & Wait: This is a cheap and cheesy method against enemies who do not have access to True Sight or any other means to dispel illusions. For example, the cheesy player starts the battle against a group of warriors and in the middle of the battle uses invisibility potions or spells to make his entire party invisible. Then just waits there to kill time to let the duration of the enemy warriors’ Hardiness abilities to expire. 4- Abusing the area structure: In certain areas, the cheesy player finds a narrow corridor to retreat to and fight from there. This method is a lot cheesier when the enemy has a big avatar/animation and can’t actually enter that narrow passage to follow you. 5- Illegal spell casting from scrolls: This exploit is a result of a bug in the vanilla game which is blocked and fixed in IA v6, but it’s available in the vanilla game as well as in older versions of IA. When a creature is partially visible (improved invisible), you are not able to target him with spells which normally target a creature rather than an area. However, due to a bug of the vanilla game you are still able to cast the same spells on the target using scrolls. This bug is fixed in IA v6, but as long as it is available, don’t use it. 6- Erasing known spells from the spell book to write and learn them afresh: No further explanation is needed. It’s cheesy. 7- Refreshing contingencies and spell triggers in the middle of a battle: It’s an engine problem which allows this cheap trick. Don’t do that; enemies don’t do it either. Play fair. ========= Part III: Why Not To Cheat? Some players may wonder or ask: - “Why shouldn’t we cheat if enjoy playing the game in any way we wish?†- “What are the harms of using cheap and cheesy methods and what are the benefits of avoiding them?†I’ll try to mention a few general points which will hopefully answer these questions: 1- Using cheats and cheesy methods will create bugs in your game: This is one of the most important harms of using cheats and cheap methods during the game. Note 1: Using cheats is much more harmful than using cheesy methods, but both of them should be avoided if you want a completely stable game. Note 2: It doesn’t matter what your definition of the term “cheat†is or whether it is different than mine; the term is used here exactly as explained in this document and as long as you cheat in your game according to the criteria mentioned in this document, you will have problems. Note 3: The fact that cheating creates bugs in the game is by no means specific to Improved Anvil. I know other mods (such as ‘Tactics’) in which it will happen as well. These types of bugs are self-generated bugs the cheaters create in their own games. They are not mods’ bugs and the mod- authors should not be blamed for them. The cheater (himself) is the only one to be blamed for creating those bugs in his game. This item of the document is itself dividable into three categories: 1-1- Global variables are tracking events in your game: Certain global variables are tracking the events in your game. As long as you are not cheating, they will do their job seamlessly; but if you cheat, you will mess them. This includes, using the CluaConsole to create an item or a creature prematurely, using CluaConsole to move to an area illegally and prematurely, and using either cheats or cheesy tricks to kill enemies before they turn hostile and without doing a fair battle with them (because those enemies were supposed to set a variable in their scripts after turning hostile). Those lost global variables will create problems in your game. 1-2- Certain items will never appear: Some enemies in the game will have certain items only if certain conditions are met. Since they are not supposed to have those items by default, the items are not in those enemies’ inventory when you meet them first. When they turn hostile (and during a fair battle), they will check via script to see whether the conditions to have those items are fulfilled or not. And if yes, they will create those items in their inventory via script. If you use cheats or cheesy methods to kill those enemies unfairly and/or before they turn hostile (and actually start a battle with you), they will never find the time to check those conditions in their scripts and you will never find those items. 1-3- Item Randomizer will not work properly for cheaters: As you know, one of the coolest features of Improved Anvil is its item randomizer. This program is very sensitive to cheats and will not work properly for cheaters. The amount and degree of problems you will have directly depends on the extent and numbers of cheating methods you use in your game. 2- Some quests will never trigger: This is to some extent deliberate to punish cheaters and to some extent the result of some variables not being set to the right numbers as explained in section (1-1). Cheaters can’t see the entire new content Improved Anvil adds to the game. 3- You will not begin to learn sound tactics if you keep using cheats and cheesy methods: This is far more important than just giving you some moral advice. Easier battles at early stages of the game are your best opportunity to learn sound tactics gradually and be prepared for the game’s more difficult battles. Improved Anvil is an academy of tactics by itself. You can practice and try to improve your skills in easier battles and draw a learning curve for your progress. But if you use cheats or even cheap methods in those easy battles and win them, you will actually deprive yourself of the chance to use those battles to learn tactics and will have problems at later stages of the game. If you try to play fair even in easier battles, you will gradually improve your tactical skills and will also have fewer problems with more difficult battles. By playing fairly and by avoiding using cheats and cheap tricks, you will help yourself and will be on the route to become a tactician. Link to comment
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