The Candlekeep Annex: RPed Baldur’s Gate No and Low Reload Adventures

[Alesia_BH]

I've been reading on desktop, so I hadn't noticed anything. I just tried it on mobile, and I can confirm that it looks like a ransom note, lol.

Can you just highlight all the text and reselect your preferred font and size?

 

[Borco]

 

[Borco]

Interestingly, the default font for the posts here is Segoe UI, however it is not included as an option under the "Font family" menu and the only way how to actually reinstate it is to use the "Remove formatting" button. In the case of the ransom note post, I eventually had to remove the formatting from each individual paragraph separately to fix it, as using it for the entire selected text did not work. There might have been some residual formatting being pasted in from my OneNote (Calibri) which created the mess - I could use a Paste Special function or something.

 

[Borco]

Sorsha, human bard: Part 24 - continued

First of all, I apologize for breaking up a single quest into multiple posts - my ability to deliver an executive summary of events that occurred more than half a year ago is apparently non-existent. But then again, I'm a fan of screenshots and the limit of 20 per post can be slightly restrictive. Of course, I'll more than appreciate any sort of feedback in this respect - please do shout if you find it too long/detailed/boring/silly/irrelevant/anything else.

So, we were just at the second larger party that you need to pass before getting to the Master of Thralls. It comprised three yuan-ti mages, few non-casters ones, wyvern and two elven thralls - one warrior (carrying Kundane) and one mage. Sorsha engaged the group with the majority of her buffs from the opening battle with the bounty hunters still intact, with the exception of some of her illusory protections. With her opening move, she played the Harp of Pandemonium twice in a row, knocking back the incoming foes and confusing two yuan-ti mages that failed their corresponding saves.

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Getting tagged by two Spell Thrusts in a quick succession, Sorsha then lost her SI: En.

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Expecting that enchantment disablers will be next on the agenda, we retreated a bit towards the brazier chamber. Malison came first.

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What played strongly to our advantage was that their dispels were not really an issue at this stage. However, the same was not true for our Remove Magic.

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Emboldened by their growing numbers, the yuan-ti pushed ahead. Domination and Chaos were thwarted by Lilarcol and PW: Silence got bounced by our Amulet of Power.

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Sorsha tried to use every window of opportunity to strike back with Tuigan to disrupt their spells, although they kept refreshing their Stoneskins and MIs quite swiftly.

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We also had to take a save against Slow with 35% chance of failure, as we were not running II with its bonuses at the time.

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Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. That's our girl!

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The Kundane wielder is dead, all hail the Kundane wielder.

How many more yuan-ti are yet to become humbled by the might of the talking sword?!

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With the first evocation incantation, we switched to BoIB, while RoAC II was used to boost our saves into the Emotion: Hopelessness safe zone.

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Stoneskin refresh number 736…

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Mirror Image refresh number 737…

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Finally, with most of our buffs expired, the yuan-ti were done.

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The elven mage thrall, whom had not joined the party in the lobby, was incinerated by our efreeti.

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I'm missing the screenshots for the actual Master of Thralls' kill, but here he is taking a beating from Sorsha's pairing of Belm and Kundane (she had just leveled up and took a pip in two-weapon style).

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Time to rest and prepare for the Warden.

Regards,

B.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Looking good!

(The Planar Prison is chock-full of interesting fights. Splitting it up makes sense. No worries there.)

 

[Alesia_BH]

Btw, your use of Spell Immunity interests me.

SI:A + SI: D+ Spell Shield is the core of my defensive strategy. I find it hard to imagine skipping SI:A or SI: D on a regular basis. That said, my time with Astrid (cleric) reminded me that L40 spells can be pretty secure, even in the absence of SI:A. I suppose I could see the argument for skipping SI:A with a solo bard. I'm not sold on that approach, but it's worth thinking about, I guess.

 

[Borco]

Fair point! Sorsha's spellbook is seriously bottlenecked at L5, with only 3 available slots (which was now increased to 4 after reaching level 20). Therefore, we're forced to make certain trade-offs, even though we'd love to collect all the SIs just like Pokemon (Sorsha would love to rock that SI: Illusion just for style).

Sunfire is an important offensive tool and we like to keep at least one memorized at all times. Then there's Spell Shield and one SI and we're full.

SI: D is fantastic, however our enemies do not seem to prioritize removing our illusions (which they clearly should) during the initial stages of combat. Yes, it had happened from time to time, but it more often than not it came too late to actually endanger us. Anyway, SI: D is definitely going to compete for that fourth L5 slot that we now have available.

As for SI: Ab, I do find it critical for sorcerers and mages (especially multi-classes like Ale'san), however playing a few single class clerics had got me more comfortable in relying purely on the caster level difference against Remove Magic dispels. 10% penalty per level is a lot and, since these are mostly coming from enemy mages, solo single class bards and clerics with their relative level advantage will often be able to face dispels with zero risk (I understand that there's no minimum chance of 1%). These are my five cents to the naysayers that claim there's no advantage whatsoever in running a single class cleric. You bet there is! Alas, there may still be good reasons to take up SI: Ab if you'd want to protect critical buffs applied via potions or scrolls.

I'll note that, whenever possible, Sorsha tries to keep her aura clear if there's an alteration risk at play to make sure she can take appropriate emergency action should things go wrong.

Looking at the other SIs, we had used SI: Al against the dao djinn in Trademeet here. SI: C is Sorsha's primary line of defense against the most dangerous high level mages, while SI: En is used primarily against Malison combos (although we're seriously considering GoI to take up this role going forward).

 

[Alesia_BH]

Fair point! Sorsha's spellbook is seriously bottlenecked at L5, with only 3 available slots (which was now increased to 4 after reaching level 20).

Noted. At that stage, with 3 L5s, and assuming there are mages on the field, I tend to go SI:A + SI: D + Spell Shield, and take GoI at 6. We take our arcane damage at L2 and L3, facilitated by the GoI. SI:C is available via Contingency when needed. It's a solid, principled approach, inspired by single class mage play.

Sorsha's approach is optimized for a bard. Your quick level progression lets you skip SI:A. Your ability to equip any weapon (looking at you Lilacor) lets you play a bit fast and loose with your illusionary save buffs, thus reducing use of SI: D. The reward for leveraging those abilities is additional damage output at 5. It's a viable approach, for sure. You can always upscale your arcane defenses when needed. I could see that becoming my standard with a bard in the SoA mid game.

 

[Borco]

Sorsha, human bard: Part 24 - continued

Alas, with the orb destroyed, it was time for Sorsha to face the Warden.

The plan: Exploit the Warden's ability to see through invisibility, separate him from the remainder of his entourage, dispel or wait out his PfMWs and storm through his Stoneskins/MIs/HP at 8 APR (by dual-wielding Belm + Kundane under IH). In other words:

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Our pre-buffs: Stoneskin, Strength, Spirit Armor, ProFire, Shield, Spell Shield, Fireshield: Blue, ProEvil, Blur, MI, II, SI: Ab*, SI: C*, IH.

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*With reference to the discussion of our Spell Immunity approach, we now had two L5 slots to spare instead of one. The Warden is a conjurer, so fighting him alone without the yuan-ti support will not require Sorsha to run divination immunity. On the other hand, we wanted SI: C to counter all those nasty Power Word and Symbol spells and SI: Ab to prevent dispels (I did not check, but I was pretty sure that he's not going to be 5 caster levels below us).

As soon as we introduced ourselves to our host, his 2x Mordy sword contingency triggered and he also tagged us with Khelben's Warding Whip, effectively removing our Spell Shield.

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With too many enemies on the field, we had to proceed with the plan of luring the Warden away under invisibility. Sunfire, you say? We got that covered by ProFire.

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Sorsha came on the top in the abjuration mini-duel that followed. Our Remove Magic wiped out the Warden's protections, including Stoneskin, MIs, PfMW and Fireshield, while his dispel ran into our SI: Ab.

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With that, Sorsha could engage in melee. First, we got our PfMW up, partly because we could see the mordy swords joining the fray.

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DuHM was next and our girl turned into a beast.

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The result was as close to an insta-kill as we could have hoped for.

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Taking advantage of the present momentum, we rush past the mordy swords and onto the main platform. The first yuan-ti falls before our original PfMW expires. But there's more and we're still hungry.

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Our SIs got removed, though that was not much of a concern. With the mordies back in action, we called in efreeti to assist with his MMs.

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First mage down, two to go.

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Our efreeti got confused before we could nix the second sword. Sorsha had a spare PfMW memorized, so she activated it to get some free time to finish the second mage.

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Hold your horses, Tagget, there's still an invisible yuan-ti lurking out there.

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Found him. Got tagged by Malison. Took up Lilarcor to counter Chaos. Blasted him with Skull Trap.

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That's it, finally. We talk to Raelis, get the legal docs for the theatre and are more than happy to get back to our home plane. We bid our farewells with Haer'Dalis and move to the bar to celebrate.

Regards,

B.

 

[Borco]

Noted. At that stage, with 3 L5s, and assuming there are mages on the field, I tend to go SI:A + SI: D + Spell Shield, and take GoI at 6. We take our arcane damage at L2 and L3, facilitated by the GoI. SI:C is available via Contingency when needed. It's a solid, principled approach, inspired by single class mage play.

By the way, I took the majority of my arcane casting lessons from your old runs (mostly from the legacy Bioware forums I believe), so thank you for that, really! I've learned a lot, although I'm still conscious of my gaps, mainly in what could be described as being able to strike the right balance between defense and offense with so many options on the table.

Speaking of that, I've never truly considered contingencies for filing the gaps in our defenses and always viewed it either as offensive tool or as an emergency 911. It's an interesting point and I'll ponder on it.

 

[Borco]

Oh, one more thing. During the Unseeing Eye quest, Sorsha got her hands on a Tenser scroll and we're very excited to try and it give the spell some screentime. I don't recall ever using it during no-reloading, so I was just wondering whether any of you might have a short memo of the key Dos and Donts. Cheers!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Sorsha got her hands on a Tenser scroll and we're very excited to try and it give the spell some screentime. I don't recall ever using it during no-reloading, so I was just wondering whether any of you might have a short memo of the key Dos and Donts. Cheers!

My jester, Alisa, used it in extensively but that was years ago. I don't really recall the procedures and such.

I'll re-read the run and see if I can harvest some tips

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH That'd be very appreciated, but don't worry about it if you've got other priorities - I can study Alisa's run myself, since we've got that amazing backup of the old forums by Serg, and follow up with additional questions here.

 

[JustKneller]

Rando question: what are you doing for image hosting? Imgur? Something else?

 

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia_BH That'd be very appreciated, but don't worry about it if you've got other priorities - I can study Alisa's run myself, since we've got that amazing backup of the old forums by Serg, and follow up with additional questions here.

It was both safer and more situational than I imagined. My favorite approach was to keep it in a trigger with Improved Haste and ProMW. We'd use our spells first, prioritizing would be threats to the Tensor's form. Once the book was tapped and the coast was clear, we'd pull the trigger. It's a good way to manage a book in lengthy fights.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Rando question: what are you doing for image hosting? Imgur? Something else?

TavernRPG hosts them for us. You can drag and drop your pics directly into your post. There's also a bulk upload option at the bottom of the reply window, "Attach files."

 

[JustKneller]

TavernRPG hosts them for us. You can drag and drop your pics directly into your post. There's also a bulk upload option at the bottom of the reply window, "Attach files."

I thought that was the case, but then I did a test post drag and drop for some screenshots and they wouldn't carry over. I'm guessing there's a size/format limit. I'll experiment some more. Thanks!

 

[Black Elk]

It could be the file type or the size of the image (like the actual dimensions)? I've had issues with webp for example, not just here but on other boards too, or larger images - even when the filesize seemed pretty manageable. My screenshots are at 1600p/1200p, so I have to downscale my screens to attach them here. Took a while for me to figure out why it wasn't working, but it's cause my laptop screen was at 16:10 instead of 16:9 I think. My single favorite thing about the tavern is those glorious image attachments!

 

[Borco]

It was both safer and more situational than I imagined. My favorite approach was to keep it in a trigger with Improved Haste and ProMW. We'd use our spells first, prioritizing would be threats to the Tensor's form. Once the book was tapped and the coast was clear, we'd pull the trigger. It's a good way to manage a bard book in lengthy fights.

Duly noted, thank you. I've been thinking that TT would be best suited against high AC melee enemies, such as Torgal (when thinking of early stages of SoA), but then again you'd still want to be able to cast PfMW after TT to fix your defences. Your suggestion to trigger both via Spell Trigger certainly resolves the issue, however I'm concerned that we'll not to be able to hoard enough scrolls to make it a sustainable option. Sill, Sorsha will be able to fit that PfMW into Contingency, when needed, so we can see a way of making it work in certain circumstances.

The next point for us to consider in this context are the on-hit effects of various available weapons. Tenser's THAC0 bonuses (and UAI) will allow us to effectively dual-wield any weapon, irrespective our of lacking proficiency, which we can then pair with Belm + IH for the extra APR. We're currently looking at Pixie Prick, Bala's Axe and Kachiko's to see whether we can develop any viable strategies around these.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Duly noted, thank you. I've been thinking that TT would be best suited against high AC melee enemies, such as Torgal (when thinking of early stages of SoA), but then again you'd still want to be able to cast PfMW after TT to fix your defences. Your suggestion to trigger both via Spell Trigger certainly resolves the issue, however I'm concerned that we'll not to be able to hoard enough scrolls to make it a sustainable option. Sill, Sorsha will be able to fit that PfMW into Contingency, when needed, so we can see a way of making it work in certain circumstances.

The next point for us to consider in this context are the on-hit effects of various available weapons. Tenser's THAC0 bonuses (and UAI) will allow us to effectively dual-wield any weapon, irrespective our of lacking proficiency, which we can then pair with Belm + IH for the extra APR. We're currently looking at Pixie Prick, Bala's Axe and Kachiko's to see whether we can develop any viable strategies around these.

The trigger option is for M/Ts, not bards. I used it with Alyssa, the M/T, not Alisa the jester. I shouldn’t have highlighted it in that paragraph. Confusing, sorry.

In both cases having intact defenses at the beginning of the Tenser phase helps. With my bard, Alisa, we’d at least store an L6 in a Contingency. In some cases we used Hit- ProMW, but that never quite worked the way that I wanted.

TT + Belm + IH+ Pixie Prick should be fierce. Kachiko’s is a good choice for Firkel, but you’ll probably be rocking Time Traps at that point.

Anyhoo, looking forward to Sorsha’s adventures. I’ll try to get Ale’san’s posts caught up. She’s actually in SoA, not too far behind Sorsha.