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

Alesia_BH · May 27, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Mae'Var's Guild Hall

On two occasions now, Astrid has tried to build a battle plan around Firestorm. On both occasions she failed. Miserably. In one case she almost got herself killed, in the other she had to turn tail and run. Despite that record, Astrid tried it again against Mae'Var. Did she get it right this time? We'll see.

We'll begin with the assassination of Rayic Gethras. Astrid has stumbled a bit of late, but she seemed to find her footing again here. On the first floor, Storm Shield protected her from the mephits. A single lightning bolt killed them all. I love this screenshot. Astrid looks like a Tesla coil here

On the second floor, Astrid brought the Blade Barrier. The Defender of Easthaven is Astrid's preferred weapon now, although the Mauler's Arm still sees use when we're deep in the book, or carrying heavy loot. The Defender + AoF + Defensive Harmony + Girdle of Bluntness made this super safe.

Finally, Rayic himself. This is supposed to be an assassination, so Astrid didn't hold back. Harm + The Victor. Astrid has only two Victor charges left now, and we still don't have a replacement finisher in hand. That's an emerging concern.

We're ready for Mae'Var now. Here we see Astrid in the prep phase, buffing alongside Simmy Astrid. Pro Evil, Chaotic Commads, Remove Fear, Death Ward, Holy Power, Draw on Holy Might, Defensive Harmony, True Sight, Blade Barrier, Chant, Storm Shield and RoAC II. Simmy Astrid cast the fixed duration buffs to maximize full buff time. We're ready.

Astrid sent Simmy Astrid ahead and cast Firestorm on her. Time to bring the lightning.

This was a massacre.

Mae'Var, was saved by a morale break, his cleric by Pro Fire. We'll get to Mae'Var soon enough, but first the cleric. Let's see. Did you take Pro Lightning, chap? Apparently not. Fatal mistake. Didn't you know who was coming to dinner?

And speaking of fatal mistakes, Kamuzu perished here, unsurprisingly. Talos be praised.

Ok. Time to finish Mae'Var. Mr. Efreeti got the kill here, going over the top of Mae'Var's Globe with a Flame Strike. Astrid really needs a new Wand of the Heavens.

So, that's it: We finally launched a successful Firestorm. It did of course help that Astrid's enemies were pushovers here. Holy Smite's would have worked just as well, I think. Nonetheless, the battle was stylish, and suited to a priest of Talos. The Fire and Lightning Storm does, however, need a few more ingredients to make it truly epic. Our next stop is the Windspear Hills, where we hope to put a lesser used L7 into service. Let's see how Gate fits into the equation.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · May 29, 2023

Quick Note on Astrid's Game:

Astrid is alive and well. In fact, she's made significant progress, completing the Windspear Hills, the Planar Sphere, the Unseeing Eye, Bodhi's Lair and Spellhold. I definitely have some catching up to do, in respect to her posts.

I just wanted to briefly comment on a tactic that she's been playing around with in Spellhold. It qualifies as an engine exploit, so I don't intend to use it in combat. It's amusing nonetheless.

This is the result of casting a single lightning bolt on a Simulacrum conjured while wearing the Cloak of Reflection. The bolt multiplies itself and each bolt shoots back and forth between the two duplicates, while also bouncing off walls. It's absurd and, again, an exploit, but it's also kind of fun to play with. I felt comfortable trying it here, against the murderers, since the already summoned Deva would have killed them all anyways. When your enemies are already effectively dead, it's a test, rather than an exploit, at least in my book.

The bolts can be controlled by changing the position of the caster relative to their duplicate. Here we see a slight angle adjustment, for instance.

I first noticed this over ten years ago with my avenger druid Alianna, during her Ascension solo challenge run. Back then it had less potential, since the bolts would interrupt casting, but in the EE you are still free to cast. Again, it strikes me as an exploit, so I don't intend to actually use it in Astrid's run. It is, however, semi-interesting.

I'll follow up with some catch up posts tomorrow afternoon.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · May 29, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Windspear Hills

And so the procession of catch up posts begins.

I'd like to start by sharing the results of a recent scientific study, conducted by yours truly. These days I play in two contexts: either during the day, on a roof top patio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, drinking iced tea, or at night, in bed, watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, drinking wine. After a careful analysis of screenshots, examining their time of creation and the quality of play, I found that I play much better during the day, while drinking iced tea. Curious. All the more baffling, my quality of play gets progressively worse the later the night gets. Curiouser and curiouser. I wonder what the cause might be? Perhaps a laptop computer is more similar to a heavy machine than it seems? One can only speculate.

Apropos to that study, the following quest was completed at around 4:00am, local time. I guess what I'm saying is emulate at your own risk. Management will not be held responsible for the consequences, if you do.

Right. Well, let's take a gander at the results.

The quest began with the traditional over buffed chunking off the paladins. Astrid's Lightning Bolts did excellent work here, as did her Blade Barrier. Blade Barrier is a super-great spell for a solo cleric in mid SoA. Keep your AC low and your Blade Barrier up, and you'll win most melee fights with ease. An occasional Lightning Bolt or Holy Smite can speed things along. If you run into someone tough, with quality saves, sneak in a Sanctuary->Holy Power->Righteous Magic->Draw of Holy Might->Harm. That's all it takes, for the most part. Priests rock in early/mid SoA- especially priests of Talos.

The opening battle showed little evidence of late night syndrome. Symptoms began to emerge on the way to the Pleasure Palace, however. Garren didn't love this, I'm sure.

This is, of course, outrageously overkill, as a method for killing orcs. It was not exactly late night madness, however. Astrid was just confirming that her balor would play nicely, in the presence of the Sensate Amulet. Good boy. Who's a cute little puppy-wuppy-uppy? He's no Korax, but he can be our friend.

The first trial in substantive combat did not go as planned. The balors uncontrollability was expected. His stupidity was not. There's no one over there, genius...

Implosion on an orc archer? Really?

To be fair, the stupidity went both ways here- it was 4am, after all. It did not occur to me to lead the balor to Ruhk with a summon. I also wasn't aware that Ruhk would need to be hostile before the balor attacked. In the good old days balors weren't so picky: they chunked innocents for fun. Now they need a provocation, it seems. Fooey on you, balors. You're going soft.

By the time the balor found a hostile Ruhk, he had little time left in this world, leaving Astrid to finish the job herself, aided by a skeleton warrior. Astrid has summoned two balors, and she only has a few dead orcs to show for it. Disappointing, even for 4am.

After taking out the orc archers with the Reflex, Astrid dropped the golems herself in Blade Barrier melee. Remove Curse makes golems far less frightening to Astrid than they were to my other recent characters.

Some of you may have wondered why Astrid has been playing around with demons. For fun, obviously, but mostly for the vampires. These things are a nuisance. There are two many of them, and they're too powerful. Worse, they're elusive and they run all over the place. Once they're activated they can pop up anywhere, even in the Conster battle. What better way to end that threat than will a vorpal sword monster who can see through invisibility? You can't hide now, you vampy scamps.

But try they did. And the Pleasure Palace's small doors certainly aided them. Summoning balors in multiple zones fixed that problem. Extermination complete.

The guardians were pushovers, as per usual. Let's move on to Kaol and the Gang. Harm + The Victor for Kaol. The Victor only has one charge left now. Time to shelve it for possible -possible- recharge in ToB.

(NW: As a reminder, I've decided not to allow item recharge in SoA. I am, however, considering permitting it in ToB. It's more reasonably balanced there.)

With her foes in a narrow hallway, it was time to fire up the Storm Shield. Kudos to the skellies for running distraction.

Trapped between skellies and a Blade Barrier, with Lightning Bolts in the air, Akae and friends needed more than assistance here. They went quietly and quick.

By the time the battle ended, Astrid's skellies were still going strong. I expected them to cut through the orogs but the golems made an unwelcome early appearance.

This ended up being tough. 4am tough, that is. At 11am it would have been easy.

Stripped of Chief Dig Dag, who was killed in the opening battle, Tazok was even less of a threat than usual.

Panicked, he was killed in the hallway by summons. A fitting ending for an overmatched foe.

Finally, Conster. Astrid decided to give him a fair shot here, since she has little reason to fear mages at this point. Remove Fear, Pro Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Shield of the Archons, Storm Shield. We dropped Mr Efreeti first, to run distraction while we brought our real threat, our skeleton warriors.

From then on it was a simple matter of setting up a skellie prison. Conster had little hope. Astrid could have helped out with a Dispel- she has the levels now. There was little need, however.

Quest complete. We'll return for Firkraag after the Underdark. Firkraag's scales will be a boon in the Fire Giant Temple, if Astrid makes it that far.

The Planar Sphere is next. Astrid is tired of equipping Mauler's Arm every time she wants to carry loot.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · May 30, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Planar Sphere

When people talk about the most powerful builds in the game there is a diversity of opinions. The consensus is that arcane characters are stronger than non-arcane characters. There are, however, those that carry the flag of pure warriors, like berserkers, or paladins, like inquisitors. Thieves have their backers, too, on the strength of backstabs, traps and UAI. The divine casters, in contrast, are almost never mentioned.

Why is that? And where, exactly, do the divine casters start to falter?

It isn't in BG1, as anyone who has played a totemic druid or a priest of Talos can testify. And it isn't in SoA, at least not early SoA, where druids can dominate with Insect Plague and summons, and clerics can wade through anything, buffed to the nines and backed by skeletons. It's the late game where divine casters falter.

Focusing in on clerics, the problem is simple. They weren't built for this game. They were built for pen and paper, not a video game where characters attain ludicrous levels and enjoy god like abilities. That, of course, is true of other classes, too, but unlike other classes, clerics weren't equipped with the tools to cope with the distortions associated with high level play. Clerical spells have long casting times. They depend on Sanctuary and low AC to thwart disruption. That works in BG1 and SoA, but it stops working in ToB. There is no remedy here. Clerics just hit a wall.

Fortunately for Astrid, that wall is still in the distance. And the cleric class's other major problem is by now partially behind her.

Like mages, clerics depend on spells for defense. Unlike mages, they lack the tools to keep those spells up. Icewind Dale spells address that lack, but this isn't Icewind Dale, and the introduction of Icewind Dale spells to BG is, to anyone even vaguely purist, a massive distortion. Clerics are vulnerable to debuffs in BG, for better or worse.

The only remedy the priest has to that problem is level advancement. Mages max out at level 31, clerics at level 40. Clerics may remain vulnerable to Breach and targeted spell protection removers, but they can out-level the remove problem, at least in battles with mages.

And so Astrid, a late arrival to the Planar Sphere, leveled ahead of her foes, might expect smooth passage through the sphere. These are the good times: when the Remove threat is behind and a low AC still works. Now is a time to fear the faithful, as the denizens of the sphere soon learned.

Say what you will about clerics, it sure is nice to roll up to SCS clay golems with Remove Curse in your book. My other characters had to jump through hoops to kill these things. Astrid just bashes them over the head.

Onto the hungry, hungry halflings. I'd been looking forward to this fight. The plan had been to draw out the warriors, call in some summons, buff to the max and then charge into the fray, taking on all comers. In my estimation, Astrid had what it would take to win this fight with a bold approach. Alas it wasn't meant to be. Instead, Kayardi, of all people, joined the second wave of throw away halfling warriors, ambushing Astrid before she even triggered Togan. I've never seen this before. Not even close.

Forced to pull back, Astrid ended up juking Kayardi with Sanctuary.

She then took a few buffs and hastily called in some summons. This was a broken showdown, but it will do.

The plan for the remaining halflings was simple: send the summons to the choke point. Gather our foes together, in a line, and unleash the lightning.

Astrid's Storm Shield + Lightning Bolt combo continues to be a showstopper. I'm sure there are party players out there who are vaguely jealous. After all, one can't be so casual with Lightning Bolts in party play, right? Don't forget your baby globes, everyone. Limited Wish: I wish to make my party invulnerable. Try it, you'll like it.

Mogadish was the last to fall. Makes sense. It's a cleric's world, after all.

Taibela and Necre were given a moderately fair fight here, since I restricted Astrid from resting. Alas, Necre killed himself with a Skull Trap and Taibela took an insane beating from a single Holy Smite cast. The weapon you see in Astrid's hand is Everard's Morning Star. It's a nice choice for mage fights, assuming you have a way to protect yourself from Maze.

While Astrid is fully capable of meleeing golems, as we'll see later in this quest, she chose to lift the guardian golem head under Sanctuary. I always thought it was strange that priests are the ultimate thieves in the world of BG. How does that make sense? I mean, it doesn't work like that at all in our world...Oh, yeah. Right...I get it now...

Since I fully intended to assassinate Tolgerias, I decided to give Lavok a fair fight- even refraining from calling the skellies before the fight. Astrid took her buffs, Lavok took his, and then a battle of summoning began. Astrid opened with a skellie. The necromancer Lavok countered with three.

Nicely played, Lavok. But Aerial Servants trump skellies. Your three to one advantage is about to become a zero to three deficit. As for that Ice Storm, we've got Storm Shield. Your move.

Wilting on the summons, ok. We've got Mr Efreeti.

Protected from Maze by Chaotic Commands, Astrid charged. Lavok tried to make progress on Astrid's buffs, but his book was savaged by Everard's Morningstar.

If only we had a way to take down that Spell Turning we could finish this. Any ideas, Mr. Efreeti? A Flame Strike for 65 damage? Nice!

And a Flame Arrow to finish. Well done, Mr Efreeti. Not sure how you got those by Lavok's Spell Turning, but I'm not complaining. You just take a nap on your evidently useless dish, Lavok. We'll handle the rest.

Kudos to Lavok for coming up with a clean energy solution for the Planar Sphere. Demon hearts! Hooray for renewable energy! We kept this simple. Energy Blades. Summons for distraction, Storm Shield for insurance. No damage taken.

Sorry, Tolgerias, but you're just too much of a pain in the tuckus. Harm + potion of firebreath.

The cold and fire rooms were both cleared with ease, thanks to Storm Shield.

A Harm ended the noble efreeti quick.

Finally, the golems. Most of my characters just leave these things, but Astrid had no need. She took them all down in toe-to-toe melee. She did, however, need a breather halfway through the fight. The golems were in crit only range, thanks to a potion of absorption and the girdle of bluntness, but they did land a few wallops. Had their hit odds been higher we would have used a PoI here, but Sanctuary worked just fine.

We now have but one major chapter 2/3 quest remaining: the Unseeing Eye. I'll post on that later today.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · May 30, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Unseeing Eye

Since the Unseeing Eye is Astrid's stronghold quest, she probably should have done this sooner. In retrospect, she should have done it just after the Planar Prison, when she reached level 15.

Even with SCS, skeleton warriors are beasts against beholders. I had forgotten this -or partially forgotten this- simply because I long ago rejected skeleton warriors on style grounds. Aerie was my preferred cleric back then. Skellies didn't suit her. Further, skellies -and summons in general- were among the tactics that I chose to restrict early in my development as a player. Summons work, but they can be a bore, and they can promote laziness, along with ineffectual buffing. I restricted stationary AoE spells on similar grounds. They answered too many questions, and limited the need for proper buffing. Restricting both of their uses helped me develop as a player.

By now, though, I feel comfortable circling back to summons and, to a lesser extent, stationary AoE spells. Managing a team of summons can be a pleasure, and they needn't interfere with buffing, if you've already learned the art. I've been enjoying Astrid's skellies and servants, and I especially enjoyed them in the Unseeing Eye quest.

We'll skip forward to the beholder lair, if you don't mind.

It's been a very long time since I've fought the blind priests. But since this is Astrid's stronghold quest, I thought it fitting that she clear the entire beholder lair. We sent our skellies ahead, gathered our foes, and deployed our lightning. As Jan would say, a standard tactic, that.

Astrid is by now egregiously over leveled, as you can see from the Energy Blade finish of the blind priests. Overconfidence is becoming the greatest threat to Astrid's run, albeit not here.

Back to standard tactics, here we see a classic skellie steamroll of a beholder crew.

In my recent runs my characters have annihilated the Unseeing Eye as soon as he spawned, for fear of what he might turn out to be in this edition of SCS. As it turns out, he's nicely balanced. David got this right, I think. Astrid played this well, going Rift Device ->Skellies + Dispel. Nonetheless, the Unseeing Eye hung out just long enough to make things interesting.

Interesting, but not too interesting. As I said, I think he got this right.

With her quest complete, Astrid was offered her reward. Alas, she chose to decline. She is a stealth Talassan, not an open worshipper. Further, she has little taste for bureaucracy and hierarchy. Keep your gift, indeed. Astrid will continue to go it alone, finding her own path.

Bodhi's Lair is next.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · May 31, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Bodhi's Lair

As the attentive reader knows, Astrid struggles late at night, or more precisely, early in the morning. Astrid's raid on Bodhi's lair took place at 5:00am, and so your might reasonably suspect that she floundered. Alas, Astrid is a high level cleric, and Bodhi's lair is populated by vampires. This was comic relief rather than a challenge.

When Astrid entered the lair I wasn't certain she'd be able to insta-chunk Bodhi's named kin. I decided to give it a try under Sanctuary. To my delight, Gellal popped immediately. We get a free pass here. Yay.

The most threatening enemy for us was the clay golem, but even he fell with nary a peep, failing to land a single blow. We have a clear path to Bodhi now.

Azuredge is great and all, but it can't do this- not as quickly, at least.

Finally, Bodhi. Bodhi put up a respectable fight, chunking Astrid's Deva while weathering Energy Blades.

Nonetheless, Astrid was in command here, as well she should have been. Priests are masters of the undead.

Despite a trio of Touch of Deaths, and a clever decision to flip to wolf form, evading Astrid's potion of absorption AC buff, Bodhi posed no real threat.

Astrid is almost ready to leave for Spellhold. She just needs to collect a ring first.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 3, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Spellhold

Apologies for the unannounced hiatus, everyone. And for those who are wondering: Yes, Astrid is alive and well. She almost wasn't though. She faced her greatest challenge yet in Spellhold.

Before we get to Spellhold, let's talk about the ring I mentioned. The ring is, of course, the Ring of Gaxx, and it is by now Astrid's. Back in the early day's of BG community, someone composed a clever how to on Kangaxx, entitled 50 Ways to Kill Your Kangaxx, parodying the Paul Simon tune. I've never seen a SCS edition, but I think the time is right to create one. For clerics, entry one on that list should be Sunray. It works splendidly. Too well, in fact. Surely it should take more than a single L7 to kill a demi-lich.

Astrid's encounter with Kangaxx's lich form was far more interesting. Alas, I didn't take many screenshots.

Moving on to Brynnlaw, we'll begin with Astrid's face off with Perth.

Astrid allowed Perth a fair fight here, since she had the levels to defeat him with ease. All it took was a well placed dispel and some sling bullets.

In my recent playthroughs the book of Infinite Spells simply disappeared when I tried to turn the page. I was expecting that to happen again here but instead Astrid hit the jackpot, scoring Spell Turning. What a boon.

With Perth's wardstone in hand, Astrid made her way to the Asylum. Out of curiosity, I had her race straight to Imoen, hoping it would speed up the sequence. Instead I received a most unfriendly greeting. Easy there, tiger.

We cleared the tome monsters, aided by skellies.

As for the undead, we used Turn for the mummies, Sunray for the skellies, and Energy Blades for the lich. I find it odd that Turn doesn't work on skeleton warriors. Shouldn't it? Or is there a PnP logic behind granting them immunity?

Dace furnished an opportunity to play with Astrid's new HLA buffs, Aura of Flaming Death and Globe of Blades. The iMoD got the kill, unsurprisingly. Turn may have been an option here, but test running the buffs made more sense to me.

While Astrid's lightning hasn't appeared in recent screenshots, it continues to be a first line offensive tool. Her Storm Shield remains immensely helpful as wel, allowing her easy access to 127% resistance to fire, cold and electricity.

Ok. Now here's where things got interesting- too interesting, in fact. I used to regard the Irenicus encounter as a significant threat, since it had a chaotic character to it. Since my return from break, however, the inmates had killed Irenicus, more or less on their own. That nudged me into an over casual approach to this fight, and Astrid nearly paid the price for it.

Here we see the first signs of trouble. Naljier Skall is attacking the real Astrid here, not her duplicate. Meanwhile Tiax is doing nothing at all. I've seen that behavior from Naljier before, but not from Tiax.

Since the inmates had handled Irenicus with ease in my recent runs, I decided to focus on Astrid's duplicate, chucking Energy Blades at her. That seemed to work, but in the thick of battle, I failed to notice that the duplicate had activated Ring of Gaxx invisibility, rather than dying. And do you see that stack of 23 healing potions? The duplicate has those, too. When Astrid's full healed duplicate re-emerged, summoning skellies and deploying her Wand of the Heavens, I knew Astrid was in trouble. Meanwhile, the inmates had all been killed. Not good.

Astrid is now alone, facing Irenicus, a fallen planetar, three efreetis, an invisible stalker, a skeleton warrior, an aerial servant, a hakeshar and a full fledged duplicate of herself, equipped with 20 or so extra healing potions. This is a nightmare.

With her casting frequently shutdown by Creeping Doom, and Irenicus tagging and re-tagging her with PW:Bs, Astrid's only play was to stay on the move and wait out the short duration summons, namely the planetar, the efreetis and the hakeshar. Seemingly in anticipation of Astrid's strategy, her duplicate called in more long duration reinforcements, adding two more skellies to the party. This is still a nightmare.

Eventually naught but the long duration summons were left. And importantly, they all lacked the ability to detect the invisible. Astrid quaffed a PoI and snuck off into a corner, allowing her to rebuff, summon, and conjure up some Energy Blades.

It's been a rough road but we're almost home now. Astrid's duplicate falls first.

Followed by Irenicus. There are still 6 summons on the field, and the murderers are on the way, but Astrid and the deva have this under control now.

Once the summons were down, and only the hapless murderers remained, I felt comfortable allowing Astrid to play with her exploit-y new tactical option: Cloak of Reflection + Vhailor + Lightning Bolts. I don't intend to use this again, since it is an exploit, but it was amusing in this encounter, even if it wasn't in fact effective. The deva still killed almost all the murderers, as you can seen from the dearth of charred corpses. The bolts only got one, I believe, although they certainly could have killed more, had the deva not been around.

In light of that debacle, Astrid deserves a vacation. A cruise and a trip to Fishville will do nicely.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 3, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Underdark, Part 1

In the Underdark Astrid continued to prove that she's a powerhouse. She's over-leveled, of course, but that was true of her recent predecessors as well, and she has crushed where they have struggled. The key difference is that her predecessors, thieves and warriors all, depended on potion buffs whereas Astrid enjoys spells, effectively undispellable by her comparatively low level foes. Powerwise, she is now at her peak relative to her foes.

Fashion wise she's at her peak too. She looks good in adamantine. Very good.

We'll start with the balor. As some of you may recall, I had vowed to explore Glyphs and Symbols in this run. I have failed in that endeavor, or perhaps the spells have failed- I'm not sure which. I've tried them on a few occasions, only to be disappointed. Nine Glyphs and five Symbol: Stuns served only to make the balor´s arrival look like a bat mitzvah.

bat_mitzvah_confetti_party_staar_entertainment-568696.jpg!d.jpeg

And sadly, all those aerial servant served only to delay the balor for a round or two, thanks to his firestorm. Astrid's plan of dealing out Energy Blades, followed by a Bolt of Glory, all while protected by a line of summons didn't quite work. Ok, it did work, but it took a touch longer than expected, with the fire damage immune Mr. Efreeti accepting the baton from the aerial servants. Bolt of Glory has a long casting time, but given the balor's MR and Stoneskins it was moderately worth it here. Like many clerical damage spells, it would be a great tactical tool, if only it cast quicker. BG2 never really needed a Robe of Vecna. Mages are fine without out it, and all it does is further overpower them. A set of full plate with a -4 casting speed bonus, in contrast, would have been helpful.

In recent runs I nixed the kuo-toans early. Astrid did the same, only she killed them with greater ease. With their poor saves, the kuo-toans are highly susceptible to Blade Barrier. They also struggled with Astrid's summons.

Despite their electricity resistance, Astrid's Lightning Bolts proved helpful in the lair, especially in this corridor.

Time to rebuff and regroup in preparation for the prince. Why are the fishy people of BGII all insane? Mercury poisoning?

I hate kuo-toans- always have, always will. They're my least favorite enemies, rivaled only by kobolds. Characters who murder them with ease always have a special place in my heart. You've earned my affection here, Astrid- now and forever more.

With the kuo-toans cleared, Astrid was ready to move on to Ust Natha. We'll jump forward to the rescue of Phaere. Once again, Astrid distinguished herself here, prevailing with greater ease than her predecessors.

Phaere was Mazed, like last time. And while I was, once again, vaguely concerned that the trip would break her script, she behaved as expected upon return. We'll finish up Underdark, Part 1 here. I'll cover the mind flayer city and the beholder lair in the next update.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 6, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Underdark, Part 2

Astrid's game progress is by now significantly ahead of her updates. I'm going to rush through the rest of SoA, in the interest of getting her up to date. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

After rescuing Phaere, Astrid paid a visit to the ilithid city. She very nearly died here, due to a string of bad rolls. With her armor, items and buffs, the mind flayers could only land hits on crits. And with Astrid's intelligence potion buffed up to 25, meleeing the mind flayers seemed safe. Shockingly, they landed four crits in five consecutive attacks. They we one roll away from winning the lottery here.

In the end, though, Astrid survived, and her standard SoA formula won the day. AC down, Blade Barrier up. Summons and lightning to manage pressure. Pre-buffs to foil spells. Astrid's Energy Blades got the kill against the Master Brain, foreshadowing the transition she'll be making in ToB. Our plodding Blade Barrier tank will soon be a fleet footed ranged fighter.

In the beholder lair, Astrid's skeleton warriors did the heavy lifting, although Astrid did finish the hive mother herself with a timely Energy Blade salvo.

The plan had been to kill the elder orb too, but as soon as it cast Imprisonment, it became a big nope. I don't think he'd target a solo PC with that, but I also didn't feel like waiting around to find out.

Shortly thereafter, we swung by the Underdark exit to nix the guardians. This is a super-meta move and I regret it, in retrospect. Here was see the prep phase. Astrid's current buff list can be read off the portrait, although I'd be happy to list them upon request.

With the deva leading the charge, Astrid took on a support role, employing True Sight, Dispel and Energy Blades.

I left the last two for Adalon, as is my custom.

I wasn't pleased to see this Kuo-toans respawn, but it did feel good to slaughter them again. Keep gathering in hallways and we'll get along just fine, Kuo-toans.

We skipped Quile and the slime priests because the dragon egg quest is long enough as is. Thanks again for the help, Addy. See you next time.

SoA is nearly complete. To date I've been pleasantly surprised by Astrid's performance, both in BG1 and BG2. She's been consistently fun and powerful. I chose the priest of Talos kit on a lark, but I kind of love it now. The Lightning Bolts and Storm Shield are immensely useful tactical tools that synergize well. I could see myself playing a priest of Talos again.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 6, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Late SoA Clean-Up

After returning to Athkatala, Astrid took on most, if not all, of the remaining challenge foes. She dropped The Hidden, Thaxxy, Firkraag and the Guarded Compound blokes. The Ruinies were left to twist and shout another day, since I couldn't think of a good reason to mess with them.

Before all that happened, though, we had some rhakshasas to deal with. These ambushes were a little nwie: not what I expected. I usually brush off the first group, the merchants. I tell them I'm not me and they accept that. This time they weren't having it. They turned into Astrids and attacked. I don't think I've seen that before.

I definitely have not seen this: a three rhakshasa ambush, with the dialogue, "The flail of ages in the hands of a mortal again. What sport!"I'm not sure why this was a thing for Astrid, and not my other characters. Whatever. We ran in both cases. Rhakshasas are more trouble than they're worth. The slight irony here is that Astrid was on her way to buy potions from Adratha.

Onto the Hidden. I was semi-reluctant to do this, since the alhoon has some scary abilities. That said, he hasn't posed a problem in the past, and Astrid kind of wanted the loot, most notably the Wand of Wonder. I don't typically allow my characters to use gimmicky items like Algernon, the BMU, the WoW, the Staff of Command or the mind flayer control circlets. They're in the game for flavor or for humor or for a very specific purpose: their balancing hasn't been thought through. I do think that Wand of Wonder and the mind flayer city items suit a priest of Talos, though. I intend to allow Astrid to use them.

Some of you may be wondering about Crom, since the Hammer of Thunderbolts is here, too. We're not forging it. Given Astrid's base strength of 13, the Gauntlets of Ogre Power are way too useful for her. As for Crom, it's not that helpful, in my estimation. It's an off-hand weapon and Astrid will have a shield in her off-hand 95% of the time. When she does dual-wield she'll want to go with Ages + the Defender. So, yeah: sorry Cromwell, we're not making this one. We've got some dragon scales heading to you though.

Thaxxy and Firkraag were killed in the same way, with Astrid chucking Energy Blades behind a tanking deva.

Speaking of devas, if male PCs get to rescue a female from Firkraag, and females get to rescue a male, why don't female clerics get to summon hunky devas? Maybe it's just me but this is way more appealing than Garren's whiny spawn. Plus they come when called and go away without being asked. Perfect.

Let's move on to the guarded compound, shall we?

We opened with a Firestorm because I hate Ketta. Those PoIs won't help you now, girl.

Ketta died, as expected. Astrid ducked down to the south, hoping to space out her opponents and call some summons. We re-engaged with our deva in tow. We tossed a Dispel before chucking our blades.

You're next, Sion. You had to see this coming...

Astrid emerged mostly unscathed, but the summons did tag her a couple times. Aerial servants hit hard.

And so do devas. The cleanup is complete. It's time to face Bodhi.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 6, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Shadows of Amn Conclusion

As some of you may have gathered, Astrid's character record photos haven't been up to date in her last few posts. Astrid was really at level 39 by this point in the adventure. Having nearly reached the level cap, and having collected all the items she desired, Astrid was ready for the SoA endgame. I'm pleased to say that she performed admirably, though I expected nothing less.

Thanks to Astrid's high octane Turn Undead, Arkanis, Drizzt, and Eric all survived to face Bodhi. And while they may not have lasted long against Bodhi herself, they hung around long enough to allow Astrid to apply the elven holy water, and assume her position in the corridor. Dispel and Energy Blades finished Manasseh.

Hazamareth, who I believe was running SI:A, fell to a pair of Sunrays, one from Astrid's book, the other from the Helm of Brilliance.

The remaining fodder was cleared with Lightning. Holy Smites would have worked just as well, but Astrid is a priest of Talos, after all.

Having consumed all of SoA's potions of absorption, Astrid chose to kill Bodhi at range. This is for the better, in any case. Bodhi's save lowering on hit is a dangerous ability, even if she doesn't take full advantage of it. Once again, we allowed our deva to tank. A fallen deva would have suited Astrid better style wise, but the regular devas are better for tanking, due to their healing spells and stun on hit.

It's not yours anymore, Bodhi. Astrid finished with Everard, since she had run out of Energy Blades. That Aura of Flaming Death pre-buff really should have been another Energy Blade stack. Aura of Flaming Death just looks so cool, though.

Niz fell in the same way as his predecessors, although he did put up a better fight. Much better, in fact. He crushed the summons, and hung around long enough to make me nervous. The fault here was entirely mine. I should have removed his Haste when I had a chance, here, when the summons were on the field, instead I just started chucking Energy Blades.

The potion bill for this fight was higher than it needed to be. We again finished with Everard instead of Energy Blades, having squandered two L7s on melee pre-buffs that served no purpose. Growing pains, as we transition from an SoA melee fighter style to ToB ranged combat.

Astrid's fight with Tree Jon turned into a summons battle, which Astrid shockingly won. Our deva nixed his planeter by landing an early stun.

Jon-Jon's demons were killed almost immediately by Astrid's Energy Blade. Sorry, Jon. we've learned out lesson. We're not running out this time.

Once the last summon dropped, we turned our attention to Jon-Jon. Dispel ->Energy Blades, with the deva on tanking duty. You are correct, Jon-Jon. I killed you.

And I'll do it again. In preparation for the showdown in hell, Astrid placed four aerial servants and a deva to the south. Once battle began, she broke for them, with the TWE demons trailing behind here. Here we see the summons finishing off the first of the balors. Note the absence of L7 pre-buffs this time. We even skipped Shield of the Archons.

We suffered a minor setback when the deva was chunked by a confused aerial servant. But by now both of the balors had died, and the first glabrezu was near death.

Astrid finished the glabrezu with her energy blades. The white column is a puzzler here, but I believe that is a lingering heal animation from the already chunked deva. It's in the right spot.

With our deva out of play, we decided to simply wait out Jon-Jon's summons, which included a planetar and a pair of efreetis. Once the invisibility detecting summons were off the field, we took on the last glabrezu. He was in crit only territory, so we just slowly whittled him down with the Defender. He never landed a blow.

Finally, Jonicus himself. A triple Remove sequencer is a nice idea, Jon-Jon but Astrid is level 39, so good luck with that.

The only defensive buffs we really need are Shield, ProEvil, Chaotic Commands, Storm Shield and AoF. With the BoIB + Shadow Dragon Armor + Storm Shield Astrid is nearly immune to elemental and energy attacks. There's just a small window for magic damage and acid.

As you may have noticed, Astrid had her sling equipped in those last few screenshots. That's because she was working through Jon-Jon's Stoneskins. We could have used Dispel, ofc, but we wanted to reserve them for later, in the event of an emergency near death Stoneskin cast. Here we see Astrid buffing for the final assault, layering on the Holy Triumvirate: Holy Power, Righteous Magic and DUHM. Time to conjure those Energy Blades and go in for the kill.

And there we have it. My first SoA no reload with a single class cleric. I must say this was far, far easier than I expected. Priests of Talos are kind of awesome in SoA. We'll see how Astrid fares in ToB.

Best,

A.

Antimatter · Jun 6, 2023

Congrats! I've enjoyed your write-ups, the part about honky devas was just too good. Still not sure how I personally feel about soloing the game (although I did that in the past), considering lvl 39, or even 32, definitely breaks everything in SoA, SCS or not.

Alesia_BH · Jun 6, 2023

Antimatter said:
Congrats! I've enjoyed your write-ups, the part about honky devas was just too good. Still not sure how I personally feel about soloing the game (although I did that in the past), considering lvl 39, or even 32, definitely breaks everything in SoA, SCS or not.

Thanks!

HLAs and excessive leveling do distort things in late SoA. Soloing exacerbates the problem, since you level faster, but in the no reload context that effect is counterbalanced by the smaller margin for error. You can't make a single mistake. You need to be constantly on your game.

Back in the prime of my BG career, I tried a party run after a number of consecutive solos. It was more labor intensive, since I had to buff more characters, but also much easier, and more relaxing. My solo runs at the time were on Core with max SCS settings (very similar to the current SCS setting of Insane without double damage). The party run was on Insane, also with max SCS. The party suffered a single non permanent death in SoA and took virtually no damage through ToB until the final battle. The no reload was lost in the final Ascension battle, due to an erroneous spawn, later determined to be a bug and now patched. Had that not happened I'm confident they would have made it, The same battle would have been very difficult for a solo character without practice. The party could have won it on a first attempt.

On balance, I'd say that soloing tends to make game play easier in SoA, if you know what you're doing, but that it makes it harder in ToB, especially at the very end. In the no reload context specifically, failure risk is elevated for soloists throughout the adventure, due to the lower margin for error. I wouldn't say one is harder than the other, ultimately. They're just different, with different risks and power curves.

The problem with SoA, in truth, is the ToB cap. That kind of ruins late SoA, whether you are solo or in a party. SoA is best played with the SoA cap. My very first no reload was completed with a party of five that didn't get HLAs until Gromnir That was my most enjoyable and satisfying play through. I think that's the best way to play BGII, solo or in a party: you shouldn't get HLAs until ToB, and in particular just before Gromnir.

Best,

A.

Antimatter · Jun 6, 2023

This is 100% the same conclusion I've come to, that SoA, even with SCS, for a normal playthrough, is better played when the player respects the level cap and does NOT level up when characters reach 3 mln of XP until ToB. With additional quests from the EE, plus SoD-related extra XP, 3 mln can be reached (with a full party of 6) before going to the Underdark even.

And again, agree that it's impossible to say which one is harder, it's just a natural, or personal, preference, to play "normally", after all these years of trying everything, including soloing for the sake of it and avoiding reloads at all costs, including ultimate cheese mechanics.

Alesia_BH · Jun 7, 2023

I'll post on Astrid's early ToB adventures soon. In the interim, may I just say that this is the best Youtube video ever. If you've ever hunted basilisks you simply much watch this, lol.

Alesia_BH · Jun 9, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Illasera and Gromnir

Forgive me, Talos, for I have sinned. I have robbed one of your faithful of her rightful glory. I have navigated her through early ToB in a spirit of cowardice, not malice. Where there should have been a path of destruction, there were quiet deaths. The storm has been tempered and I am to blame.

In retrospect this is not surprising. I've have been enjoying Astrid. She's be fun. She's been flexible. She's been powerful. Few of my characters have marched through BG1 and SoA with such ease. But at every moment of her adventure, the dangers of ToB have never been far from my mind. A time will come when Astrid hits a wall. That is the fate of the divine caster, or so many of us believe.

But where, exactly, is that wall, if it exists at all? In my head, I've sloppily labeled it ToB, but in truth it is specific battles in ToB. The Abazigal encounter demands high damage output over an extended period of time, a task divine casters struggle with. And on insane, at least, Melissan requires either extraordinary burst damage or extraordinary defense coupled with crowd control- both big asks for a priest. Until those points, though, there's nothing wrong with being a divine caster. Astrid could have defeated Illasera and Gromnir with style and authority. Instead she eeked through, on account of my unwarranted fear. Forgive me, Astrid, I have cheated you.

Let's begin with Illasera. Astrid was destined to prevail here. Why? Because Astrid wields The Reflex, and every little thing The Reflex does leaves Illasera answered with a question mark.

Astrid should have been sauntering into battle like this:

Instead she was all:

And it was all my fault. I chose the wrong Duran Duran vibe. She should have been Hungry Like the Wolf, instead she was Come Undone.I made that mistake because of my irrational fear of playing a divine caster in ToB. Divine casters are fine in ToB, at least until they're not. We haven't reached the "not" yet- not yet, at least. Astrid has little to fear.

All this is to say that Astrid's battle with Illasera was anticlimactic. She took her buffs, equipped The Reflex, ran south, punked the phasing Black Reaver with Energy Blades, and then unceremoniously nixed Illasera. No dramatic screen shots, with summons and storms and lightning bolts. Just a quiet death in the woods. Forgive me, Talos for I have sinned.

Since Astrid took the evil path in the trial of selfishness, we fought Aran, Eltan and Ellesime in Pocket Plane Challenge, 1. In an insane SCS install, this is arguably the biggest perk of the evil path. Irenicus and Bodhi are kind of fierce. Ellesime and Aran are pushovers in comparison. Aran did sneak in a wicked backstab, but that was the extent of the drama.

Everyone else fell quietly.

Moving on to Saradush, Astrid fired up the Cuisinart. In minor ToB battles, AC down, Blade Barrier up still works.

Once the opening battle was complete, we rushed to the Tankard Tree to confront the grabby-grabbies before the blades expired. APR? I don't need no stinking APR.

The downside of going evil is that Astrid's Turn now charms her foes. That could be a boon at the Throne, I suppose, if it works on Bodhi. Will it? Does it? I'm not sure. I do know that Bodhi was turnable in the original Ascension, so maybe there's reason for hope. For now, though, we'll just need to figure out what to do with these impromptu gatherings.

Can I offer you some tea and crumpets? No? Not your style? How about some cloves and ecstasy?

The other downside of being evil is that Astrid will need to work harder to recruit Balthazar. Freeing Gromnir's prisoners will help. We sorely need the reputation boost. All we need to do is clear these blokes with some lightning, and then we can play hero.

Frack. I didn't think about that... Clap your hands, Sister Farielle: you just got richer.

I usually don't bother with the party just before Gromnir, but Astrid had nothing to fear here, so we took them on. Protection from Fire foiled the Chained Incendiary Cloud. Astrid typically casts Pro Fire and Pro Electricity in addition to running her Storm Shield. It's a sensible precaution in long fights. In this case, she cast the long duration ones, while skipping her Storm Shield. No sense in wasting a Storm Shield here, when Gromnir is coming up. As for the long duration buffs, we need to cast those for Gromnir anyways, and they'll last through the fight. Astrid won this battle with a Deva and a stack of Energy Blades. The Deva was an extra, provided by the Symbol of Talos. That'll need to be taken off for Gromnir anyways.

Onto Gromnir. I have regrets here. I cheated Astrid of her glory once again. Since Alia had fallen here I was overly anxious. But the truth is that Astrid, as a cleric, is far, far better suited to this fight than the kensai Alia had been. The questionable move, in this case, was running east immediately, which caused Grominir's support mages to remain unactivated. That's bonkers, of course- they clearly should be in this brawl. But once I noticed what had happened, I found it very, very hard to run up to them and activate them. We can chill to the east and murder Grominir with ease, or we can move ten steps to the west and turn this into a clusterF. I chose murder out of cowardice. Astrid would have preferred the cluster. Go ahead, Astrid: you can show off your mastery of angles, at least.

In the end Gromnir fell to Everard. A simple death for a simple foe. If we make it to the throne, Gromnir, you'll see that sling again- you and all your friends.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 9, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Marching Mountains

This is a public service announcement, intended to remind you that Holy Smite is awesome, even when it's party unfriendly.

I prefer to use Lightning Bolts with Astrid, on style grounds, but Holy Smite is often the superior tactical choice. Speaking of superior tactical choices, it feels good to let the summons man the front lines from time to time. Might as well mix things up.

In the Forest of Mir, Astrid continued her ToB trend of awkward inelegance. She -or rather I- have yet to find the ToB groove. The Master Wraith battle went fine, I guess, with Astrid controlling the Master's allies and then cutting the man himself down with Energy Blades, but like most of a Astrid's ToB battles, this felt like an opportunity missed. Surely she should have gotten a more stylish kill here.

Moving onto the skeleton party, Astrid's plan here is best described as:

I wasn't sure how these blokes were coded, so I didn't know who among them, if any of them, could be turned. I decided to just observe at first.

After attempting to turn, and seeing no takers, Astrid decided that the best plan was to kill them all. It usually is. Interestingly, the Skeleton Cleric decided to switch teams after seeing Astrid's Firestorm. Um, that's party unfriendly. You do know that, right? You're a cleric.

Poor Skeleton Mage, nixed by Energy Blades, while his former bro-ski closes in. Not a good day to be undead, it seems.

On to the Marching Mountains proper. Whose ready for some halfling versus giant action?

Roranach's + The Defender + AoF grants Astrid 95% resistance to crushing damage. Her Storm Shield grants her immunity to fire. These hammer wielding giants don't stand a chance.

What of the axe wielders? Since the Grandmaster Armor and Boots of Speed movement rate bonuses stack in EE, Astrid could run these fools ragged, if she so desired. Quaff those oils of speed if you like, elites. You'll still be too slow. Ahh, but what would be the fun in that? Surely it would be preferable to beat these blokes in melee. If only we weren't cursed with 1APR per round. Oh, right: 1 APR is totally fine if you're doing 150 damage per hit.

I support SCS's nerfing of Harm. Astrid does not.

Astrid would have liked to have shown the thieves of the world a thing or two, with 249HP attacks from stealth on these elites. Alas, she's condemned to 150hp. We'll settle for it.

Once the elites were dead, Astrid fired up the blades and finished the hapless hammer wielders. That'll teach you to melee a halfling cleric, you silly-dilly giant berserkers.

The only tricky part in the temple was dealing with the fell cats. These things have terrified me ever since I noticed that they reduce fire resistance on hit. Here we see the deva warding off the fell cats while Astrid ends one of the noble efreeti. Fell cats and noble efreetis are a dangerous combination, to be handled with care.

With the barrier cleared, Astrid headed on to main hall. Hammer wielders here, so no worries.

Things got a bit distasteful shortly thereafter. Fighting the brimstone with fell cats on the field is a recipe for death, so I prefer to lure them out. If you lure them out, though, you end up with a traffic jam at the doorway.

This makes the encounter far easier than it should be.

Now that I think of it, there's a door on the other side, to the west. Astrid should have passed through that one to make things more interesting.

The result would have been the same, though, surely. Dead giants, many of them Harmed.

As for you, Imix, may I just say thank you for the beautiful screenshot. That fireball could only heal Astrid, but it sure looks lovely. Remember Resist Fear here, fellow adventurers. Astrid pre-buffed herself, but she had to toss an emergency cast at her already panicked deva. I shouldn't have let that happen.

Astrid will take on Yaga later today.

Best,

A.

Alesia_BH · Jun 10, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: Yaga Shura

The mighty Yaga Shura has fallen, and the mighty Astrid continues to rise. Our halfling cleric is now zeroing in on the ToB endgame. This is where is gets real: Abazigal, Sendai and The Throne.

As for Yaga Shura, I'm pleased to say that he went quietly, or at least as quietly as giants go. Astrid took a subversive approach here, suited to her kit and style. Sew chaos in the ranks, then execute the leaders. Turn an army into a writhing decapitated corpse.

Before we get to that, though, we need to talk about Nyalee. I'll begin by noting, as an aside, that if you Google "Nyalee" these days you get a Bronx rapper, named Nya Lee, best known for her single "Pony." I must say that I love the idea of our Nyalee singing that song to fire giants.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the fight. This battle caught me off guard, if ever so slightly. I've never seen Nyalee as a threat, even with the SCS Improved Minor Encounters component, so I took a cheeky approach to this battle, tossing s Storm of Vengeance purely for style points, and sending in some controlled undead as fodder. I felt confident in that approach, because why wouldn't I. It's Nyalee.

That's when things got a little NWIE. Chlimbia? What are you doing here?

Apparently Chilimbia decided to accompany Zaaman Ruul. Two elemental princes? How'd you do that, Nyalee?

I figure someday someone is going to fix the elemental prince's dispel on hit, so I always take a back the frack up approach to them.

After a tactical withdraw, which saw Astrid nixing the Shambling Mounds while running 95% crushing resistance, Astrid summoned some allies and re-engaged. Dispel and Energy Blades did the rest of the work.

My approach to the Siege Camp has been boringly consistent ever since my first Ascension run. Find Yaga. Deck him. Go invisible. Buff. Await Yaga's arrival. Kill his lieutenants, and then kill the big man with ranged weapons- possibly closing at the end for a dramatic melee finish. This time I decided to do something different. Why evade an army when you can kill it?

Astrid summoned four balors, hoping they'd create havoc while she was in her buffing phase. And for a further wrinkle, I decided not to vanish while awaiting Yaga. I thought it would be more fun to be all:

Alas, this turned out to be ever so slightly disappointing, with Astrid occasionally dodging Skull Traps while the balors post wins. The way to do this, I think, is to actually fight alongside the balors. Once again, a ToB battle looks, in retrospect, like an opportunity missed. I've been too afraid of dying. Instead I should be confidently wielding Astrid's power.

There he is! We've been waiting for you, big fella!

With Yaga and his crew distracted by the balor, Astrid swooped in for a Harm attack on one of Yaga's lieutenants. She chose the fighter, due to proximity. With the last balor gone, it's time for the deva's charge.

The lieutenant thief was our next target. Astrid had memorized three True Sights for this battle. Kudos to the lieutenant thief for picking a window between them to use her potion of invisibility. Not that it will matter.

That PoI allowed the lieutenant thief to heal before Astrid could finish. So we gave her another tap. I've always thought of Astrid as a roguish priest. These days she really feels like a thief. With her Symbol of Talos equipped in the pre-buff phase, she has 9 L6s. For most battles, 9 backstabs is enough.

And how do we finish our harmed foes these days? Lightning, of course. Talos be praised.

It's just you and me now, Yaga. Since you're fond of casting Sunrays, I've got one for you. Helm of Brilliance.

Astrid could have finished Yaga without that blindness effect, but it did prove marginally helpful, expediting the process of landing ranged attacks. As an FYI, Astrid went with her Grandmaster Armor in this fight. Now that the movement rate bonus stacks, it's the best choice for roguish combat. Three down, two to go.

Best,

A.

Btw, for those wondering about the change in lighting between the screenshots, this was a long fight, and Astrid attacked around dawn. The sun came up during the fight. Astrid didn't go back to the Pocket Plane.

Alesia_BH · Jun 10, 2023

Astrid, Halfling Priest of Talos: The Oasis

In my last post I decided that it would be fun to take down an army fighting alongside balors. I was right. This was one of the most enjoyable annihilations of the Tethyrian legion.

The first step was to clear the opening wave. Astrid started by conjuring a stack of Energy Blades, seeking to take Jamis out of the action. Once he fell, Astrid erected her Sanctuary and buffed.

AC down, blades up did the rest.

Now we have some space to summon. Let's do this. Your god protects, you Ms. Cleric of Lathander? You sure about that?

The balors didn't need a Defensive Harmony here, but it's fun to buff them. It's cool that it works, even though they're red circled.

You need assistance, Mr. Pikeman? That's an understatement.

You may be wondering what Astrid was doing during all this. Mostly eating popcorn, actually- although she did deign to drop a few Harms. This cleric of Lathander was finished with lightning, of course. Talos be praised.

The only downside of fighting alongside balors is that they are fractious and unruly. Por ejemplo, one of them vorpalled his brethren, our only casualty of the fight. They're also difficult to herd, so sometimes you need to lure the enemies to them. Follow me, Mr. Battlemage. I have something to show you.

Sendai's lair is next because, frankly, I'm scared of Tamah and Abazigal. This run has been fun, but I've always expected it to end either in Abazigal's Lair or at The Throne. Hopefully Astrid will prove me wrong. Hopefully.

Best,

A.

OrlonKronsteen · Jun 11, 2023

Once again, I'm amazed by your play. I'm happy to report I'm currently playing the best game I've ever played: I'm nearing the final fight in BG1 with my most difficult SCS configuration yet: all AI + tactical components, on hardcore. Many of those threats I've never seen before, so I'm shocked to have made it so far. It has been mostly good play (though I overused consumables out of fear of those unknown threats, and actually had a cash flow problem in a BG game for a while, lol), but I've had some incredible luck, too. That said, Tiax just got chunked at Sarevok's coronation (my first death), so now I've got no thief. I'm trying to decide who to go recruit (I may grab another mage, too). I hope there isn't a timer on that final fight.

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

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