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

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Duchal Palace

Those of you who know my solo play may be expecting a display of tactical acumen in this run. Don't count on it. Sure. It's possible that I'll eventually find my groove with this squad, but as of right now, I'm readjusting to party play, and using a balanced party for the first time in what feels like forever. It hasn't all been awful, true. I'm finding my way, but I still have a long way to go.

So, dear reader, as you follow this run, don't think Masterclass. Think 90's sitcom featuring a lovable bunch of bumblers.

In other words, not this vibe:

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More like this:

Our Vibe

Got it? Good. Now, let's see how our chaotic coterie handled the Duchal Palace.

The wasn't an unmitigated disaster- there was some mitigation up in here. To be honest, though, most of it came from David's by now excellent scripting of Liia. Me less so.

After some hemming and hawing, I decided to start everyone off with a potion of magic shielding. I'm glad I did. The doppelgänger shaman opened with a Greater Command. With its casting time of 1, that could have been a problem if I had been stingy.

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Our plan was to let Jaheira and Khalid take pressure off the Dukes while the rest of the party took care of the casters. Dynaheir was on Spell Thrust duty, Imoen arrows of dispelling. Here we see Dynaheir launching her Spell Thrust. Ready those arrows, Imoen! Um, Imoen? Are you there?

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Yeah. The doppelgänger assassin backstabbed Imoen. With her bow equipped, she dropped in an instant. My bad. In prior editions of SCS, the assassin hadn't been a threat in my experience. That's changed in v35, or so it seems to me. What now? It looks like Khalid has an idea. Check that pic again. Khalid's not attacking anyone or being attacked. He's in "oh, shit mode" heading down to Imoen's arrows of dispelling. In retrospect Khalid should have had a batch in his inventory, too. That would have saved us a round.

We've still got this, though, right? Right?

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Right. After Dynaheir's Spell Thrust landed, and Khalid removed all other buffs with Imoen's arrows, Alena and Khalid finished the casters with a wand of the heavens and a potion of firebreath.

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We're entering the cleanup phase now. With Khalid to the south, Jaheira took more heat than expected. She was never really in danger, though. Alena is still blasting away with her wand of the heavens.

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And there we are: we've done it, with Liia and Belt both surviving. Hooray!

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I guess that wasn't so bad after all. Well, unless you're Imoen. If you're Imoen it was kind of awful. Death is always a bad day.

Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

A quick Update on Helmata, Helen Theo and Dynaheir. Details to follow

Journal of Helmata

Most battles in Cloakwood were straightforward.

The battles against mages in the mines were made trivial by getting them to waste their spells on summoned skeletons who were immune to them. In addition truesight made them eassier to hit.

We have now arrived at Baldur's Gate. We need to drop our reputation to re-enlist Dorn for a while. Enlisting the likes of Baeloth should help.

Advice needed. What reputation is required to re-enlist Dorn?

 

[Xzarloxara]

Advice needed. What reputation is required to re-enlist Dorn?

To have Dorn Join the group in BG1:EE your reputation must be no higher than 18, and having him join will lower it further by 2.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

To have Dorn Join the group in BG1:EE your reputation must be no higher than 18, and having him join will lower it further by 2.

I actually played it before seeing the reply.

Reputation was 20. I got Baeloth to join, then Viconia and then Dorn, dropping off Dynaheir at the FAI.

Summoned four skeletons buffed by chant, bless, strength of one, remove fear.

Helen used truesight, Baeloth cast web, and I then let the AI take over. It was a walkover! Apart from Viconia panicking everything went according to the script. No healing needed! We then dropped Viconia and picked up Dynaheir.

 

[JanJansen]

Nice stories here. Impressive where you get the inspiration. It's just the same old game after all.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Nice stories here.

Did you find your niece's story? Her name is Anne Jansen. She's a big fan of yours.

 

[JanJansen]

Did you find your niece's story? Her name is Anne Jansen. She's a big fan of yours.

How cute, but I haven't had time to read everything here yet.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Nice stories here. Impressive where you get the inspiration. It's just the same old game after all.

I am thinking of trying to redeem a Blackguard or other Chaotic Evil Character next.

I use images on the web for inspiration. The idea of using sisters came from the large number of images available for Cassandra from Dragon Age.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Sarevok- Maybe It's Not All My Fault

Throughout this run I've experienced minor, peculiar bugs. Portrait icons haven't always displayed. Mages have vanished for no reason. The inventory has behaved oddly, too. Every now and then our containers, like our potion case and gem bag, have become inaccessible, with an alternate item hidden beneath the icon, revealed with a click. It's been strange.

The most prominent bug in this adventure has not been with the game, however. It's been with me. My action timing has been abysmal. We've wasted round after round with characters standing dimly, awaiting orders. That's been frustrating, but not unexpected. I'm used to the flow of solo play, not party play. I'm adjusting. I'll get over it. That was the theory of the case, at least. I'm not sure it's right- not after the Sarevok fight.

Since our party has hewed to the storyline, our resources were a bit thin for the endgame. Assessing our prospects, I thought it best to let Imoen and Alena duo Sarevok. Two well equipped warriors are better than six ill prepared ones- especially in this fight. Besides, it would be a welcome break from the full party. Maybe operating with two instead of six would help me get my action sequencing down? It would be nice to stop squandering rounds.

Interestingly, the blunders continued, even when I piloted Alena on her own. I thought I was issuing commands correctly, but all too often Alena just stood there. Something felt off and it didn't seem to be me. I checked the round counter to confirm that I wasn't issuing commands too soon. I tried issuing commands with both green and orange bordered attacks. The green bordered, party safe attacks, almost always failed. I have enough experience with the game to recognize when things are off and things definitely felt off. I wasn't sure, though- I'm still not sure. Maybe I just psyched myself out somehow? In the alternative, maybe the sloppiness in this run hasn't all been my fault.

Despite the anomalies I played through the fight. Happily, Alena prevailed. It was a frustrating experience, though. I had to issue orders 4 or 5 times to get a single attack out. Since the inventory anomalies have consistently gone away after saving and re-opening the game, I figured I'd try that. It worked. All systems were go. Alena prevailed again and this time it all felt right.

I'm still not sure what to make of this. Maybe my install is bugged? Maybe my brain is bugged? In any case, I've decided to share Imoen and Alena's second fight with Sarevok. I may spend some more time with this install to document the anomaly. I may just erase it and try again. We'll see. I'm planning to buy a new laptop soon anyways.

Anyhoo, that's enough about that. Let's get to the fight.

Alena and Imoen were reasonably well equipped for this fight, but there were some bottlenecks in our supplies. Most notably, our potion of defense supply felt thin. In the interest of conserving resources, I directed Imoen to take care of the dispelling threats on her own. That way a dispel would erase one copy of our potions, not two.

Here we see Imoen opening combat with a dispelling arrow on Sarevok. It always feels good when that first arrow hits. Imoen's buffs here were protection from magic, potion of mind focusing, protection from fire, potion of fire resistance, potion of regeneration, oil of speed and Shield. That's a light buff brew by my standards. We'll bust out the high value stuff, like the potions of power and potions of defense, once those dastardly dispellers are off the field.

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With Sarevok's haste effect dispelled, Semaj and Angelo moved to the top of the hit list. If only they'd show themselves. Sandthief->Detect Illusion sort of worked. We at least know where Semaj is, even if we can't target him.

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This phase of the fight lasted longer than it should have because Semaj kept disappearing. He wasn't casting invisibility or quaffing potions, mind you. He's just flicked out of existence from time to time, only to pop back up when it suited him. Fortunately, with her movement rate advantage and missile weapon AC modifiers, Imoen had the luxury of time. Still, those Diarmid arrows hurt, dealing piercing, poison and acid damage.

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Here we see Semaj in his hybrid hidey state, untargettable but betrayed by his MSD. With Semaj semi-invisible, and Angelo running a second casting of mirror image, Imoen chose to vanish herself and deploy detect illusions. We may be short on some resources, but not invisibility charges. We bought Sandthief just before the fight.

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Imoen's Detect Illusions stripped Angelo's MIs. Semaj remained hidden, however. Even his MSD is gone now. No matter, we'll get to work on Angelo: arrow of dispelling.

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By now everyone targetable had been dispelled, or so Imoen thought. Time to switch over to our arrows of detonation. We're making progress. Those Diarmid arrows still hurt, though. Time to vanish and heal.

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The invisible Semaj falls. Interestingly, we didn't see dispels from Semaj and Angelo this time. I'm not sure why. It could be because we buffed light. It could be a different script.

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Semaj and Angelo are both down now. Time for Alena to buff up and join the fray. And while we're waiting, Imoen, you might as well layer in some additional buffs, too. Just be sure to remember pro undead. Those skeleton warriors have dispelling arrows.

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Time to finish this. Break out the potions of firebreath. Diarmid falls.

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Tazok follows. Hey Imoen: It looks like you forgot to dispel Tazok. No worries, though, what with him being dead and all.

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Since Imoen took care of the caster, Alena was free to skip pro magic, freeing her to use her spells. We'll go with a classic: Holy Power-> Draw on Holy Might. That'll give those sling bullets a little extra kick.

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Alena used her aura on wand of the heavens charges. Imoen used hers on potions of explosions.

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And there we have it! Victory! Athkatla here we come.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

How cute, but I haven't had time to read everything here yet.

You are correct: Anne is adorable, lol. Here she is, along with her intro post. She's eager to meet you.

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

Thank you for your perspective, Alice. We agree that the parallel save method is effective, in the sense that it facilitates proficiency. The question is whether that efficacy justifies whatever costs it may entail. To some it does; to some it doesn't. Players have split on this issue since the...

tavernrpg.com

 

[JustKneller]

You are correct: Anne is adorable, lol. Here she is, along with her intro post. She's eager to meet you.

I've almost used the same portrait for a halfling character before!

The most prominent bug in this adventure has not been with the game, however. It's been with me. My action timing has been abysmal. We've wasted round after round with characters standing dimly, awaiting orders.

That's one thing that's always bothered me about the IE games. I wished they were proper turn-based like FO or ToEE. The timing thing (especially when everyone seems to be on a different clock) is a pain. ToEE was much cleaner and more strategic.

 

[Alesia_BH]

That's one thing that's always bothered me about the IE games. I wished they were proper turn-based like FO or ToEE. The timing thing (especially when everyone seems to be on a different clock) is a pain. ToEE was much cleaner and more strategic.

Noted! I haven't had a problem with that, historically. If you use Autopause: Spell Cast, and Autopause: Round End the game becomes very nearly properly turned based.

I'm pretty sure something is off with this install.

 

[JustKneller]

If you use Autopause: Spell Cast, and Autopause: Round End the game becomes very nearly properly turned based.

I do use auto-pause pretty liberally, but I haven't used it for round end. I probably should do that and stop complaining.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

I am thinking of trying to redeem a Blackguard or other Chaotic Evil Character next.

I use images on the web for inspiration. The idea of using sisters came from the large number of images available for Cassandra from Dragon Age.

I just wish that there were Cassandra images available where she has leather armour and no armour so that some of the sisters can be rangers or mages.

I'm not very good at taking the head from one image and putting it onto another body.

I made the mistake of dropping Dorn before completing the Nemphre/Arkion Quest.

I tried contacting Arkion with Baeloth, but it didn't work.

I thought that killing Permidion Stark could lose me 10 reputation points! Surely a thief who is planning the ultimate heist cannot be innocent?? Can he??

I looked him up! He is Neutral.

Permidion Stark

Permidion Stark is a thief, who can be found lurking around High Hedge. When approached, he will complain about how noisy your party is being, and then inform you that he intends to pull off 'the greatest heist of all time' by robbing Thalantyr the Conjurer at High Hedge Estate. If you answer...

baldursgate.fandom.com

So why the massive reputation drop? If you kill Aldeth there is no reputation drop! He is Lawful Neutral!

Anyway, whether the game is right or wrong, it's no problem. I will now have no problem in recruiting Dorn and boosting reputation at the moment is no problem.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Chateau

It feels good to be home again. Back in Amn. Back in Athkatla. Back in Jon-Jon's psychotic playpen.

Ok. Maybe not that last one. In fact, let's get the rock out of here. Fast.

At some points in BG1 Alena's party felt unwieldy. At other times it was a boon. In the Chateau it was unequivocally the latter. It's good to have friends.

We let Minsc do the honor of nixing our first BG2 enemy, the dastardly lightning mephit. Minsc looks good in full plate, but I like giving him a spare set of studded leather, too, so he can switch into stealth mode when needed.

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Minsc was on mephit assassination duty once again in the sewage golem room. His stealth spared us a pointless confrontation with the hallway duergars. Once the mephit was down Imoen joined him, unlocked the lock, and then let Minsc, with his superior stealth abilities, grab the activation stone.

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Our first duergar fight took place in the hallway. It's kind of crazy that the original version of the Chateau had goblins here. The duergars are a much better fit.

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The otyugh succumbed to a nasty crit from Minsc, but not before afflicting Jaheira.

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After clearing out the duergars near the portal, we doubled back to confront Ilyich. Since we intended to rest and load Imoen's spell book before taking on Iylich, Alena has started using her spells. This Defensive Harmony proved helpful. A Pro Evil 10' would have been even better.

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After a nappy-poo in the library stacks, we were ready for Iylich and friends. We buffed Imoen with Stoneskins, Shield, MI and MGoI, and then let her stealth to the mage, with the Sanctuaried Alena following behind.

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Imoen broke invisibility with a MAA on the mage. Once the mage's casting was shutdown, Alena broke Sanctuary with a Silence.

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Just cleanup now.

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In the mephit room was sent Yoshimo ahead to backstab the radiant mephit portal. I'm not sure why the portals have backs but they do, so stab away.

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Minsc looks awesome with a two hander. We'll probably give him the de rigueur flail setup later on, but stylistically I've always preferred to let him rock a two hander. Lilacor suits him especially well.

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We swung by Frennedan's cell, mostly for the potion of firebreath. He was enough of a nuisance to make Alena cast Holy Power->Draw on Holy Might. Kudos to him for that, I guess.

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It's been a long time since I've done the shadow thief ambush, so I don't know what David does there these days. Someday I'll try it. Not today. Using the Invisibility scroll from Frennedan's room, Imoen hid Jaheira.

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Alena used her Sanctuary. Everyone else hit the shadow. Mission accomplished. All in all a smooth start. We'll hit the Copper soon.

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Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Since I am also doing SoD, Alesia will be WAY ahead of me shortly, particularly as I intend to also complete Durlag's Tower.

Theo did indeed complete the Tower down to the last of the warders. However Theo wasn't finding all the traps so we decided to return to the Gate before attempting the rest of Durlag's.

Most of the Gate Quests have been completed. We will soon be tackling the Iron Throne if we survive the last few quests there.

We have got our reputation back to 19, and should soon be up to 20.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Copper Coronet

After escaping the Chateau, Alena and friends made their way to the Den of Seven Vales, followed by the Adventure Mart. We sold the Mail of the Dead, along with some other items, and purchased the Ring of Air Control. With RoAC II active, and her claw equipped, Alena's saves v death and spells are 1 and 0 respectively. That's a step towards safety, but only a step: we have a way to go.

With our RoAC in tow, we headed to the Slums. We met with Gaelan, punked Corvhale and Bregg, and then undertook our first quest in Athkatla, Slaver, Part 1.

With my solo characters I typically skip the confrontation with guards near Hendak's cell. Once upon a time, when I was running the Questpack, in the pre-SCS days, the blokes here tossed low level disablers, including charms. As a solo character that's a risk best avoided. With a party I felt confident enough to take it on. Still, I wasn't sure what I to expect here.

With the exception of Spook and Web, Alena, running RoAC II, is safe from L1 and L2 disablers. Remove Fear could handle the Spook threat. As for Web, we have Free Action available, but I couldn't really imagine David using a stationary AoE spell in these close quarters. Spacing alone should be sufficient to mitigate that low probability risk. We have a potion of freedom on hand, too.

As it turns out, the mages here cast MI and MM. That's it. We brute forced our way through. I was, however, reminded of how insanely vulnerable melee fighting warriors are in early BG2. It's kind of crazy that Jaheira and Minsc took so much damage here. I miss my all arcane spell slinging, Melf tossing, Teleport Field dwelling all arcane party already.

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My wistful remembrances aside, Alena's canon crew handled this quest well. Here we see Yoshimo setting his regular snares pre battle. Meanwhile, Jaheira and Alena called their summons, skeleton warriors and a nymph.

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Jaheira and the skellies led the way.

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After triggering the encounter they fell back to Yoshimi's Special Snare range.

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Tossing those Special Snares reminded me that while my bounty hunter, Alesia, has no reloaded BG1, BG2 - SoA and BG2 - ToB, she has never done all three in a single run. It's time to fix that. In fact, that will probably be my next run. It's long overdue.

A little help from Alena with a Defensive Harmony. Steady as she goes, people: move that front line forward.

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With our front line of skeleton warriors intact, Jaheira, our tank, was free to use her charms. Minsc is too far away to use his.

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Most of our enemies are confused now, thanks to the nymph. Jaheira continues to toss charms at the few that still have their wits.

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With two of the skellies down, Jaheira is free to call another nymph. This is a lot of spells for a simple encounter, but this is a tavern: we're obviously resting after this. Might as well go all out.

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The beastmaster catches a Hold from a nymph. His lone remaining protector, the minotaur, is still confused.

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Once the beastmaster fell, our nymph healed Jaheira.

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Time of go on the hunt for the minotaur. Let's finish this: Hold Monster.

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Is Slaver, Part 2 next? Probably. I'm not sure. I need to think that through. We're definitely getting Lilacor for Minsc though.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Since I am also doing SoD, Alesia will be WAY ahead of me shortly

Strange as it seems, I don't even own Siege of Dragonspear. People seem to like it well enough, but I absolutely loathe all of the new EE content in BG1 and BG2, so I fear it will infuriate me.

I should probably give it a try at least. A new EE adventure may bother me less than EE additions to the game I've known for decades.

Would you recommend it, Wise?

 

[WiseGrimwald]

It's interesting. Compltely different to BG1 and BG2 being more linear. That is one downside. The other is that the number of PCs that you can take from BG1 is VERY limited. You can't take a Cleric, a Paladin or Coran from BG1 for instance, one reason that I have my current party. I like to have a cleric, a paladin and a fighter/thief. You could take your current party with no problems though.
The upside is that the NPCs that you choose have quite an effect on how things pan out. They actually influence what you do, a bit like the BG1 NPC project. I would certainly recommend that you play it at least once. There are certain quests that change considerably if you have certain NPCs in the party.
I like the fact that I haven't yet sussed out how to defeat it in no-reload. There are some tough enemies. Your knowledge of the spell books would give you a considerable edge over me. A hint: Stock up well with potions/scrolls in BG1 as the stocks in SoD are not great.
Of course you can avoid the worst ones, but being a completionist, I don't. If I beat them it gives me quite a buzz.
The minimalised city of Baldur's Gate is annoying having been used to the city in BG1. However you soon leave the city.
I do like the fact that the ending changes depending on whether you're a Paladin, a Blackguard, or someone else.

I think that's a pretty fair summation. It suffered slightly by being rushed through. I think that is the reason for it being linear and also the reason for the paucity of NPCs that you can take from BG1. (That also might be because of the unavailability of the voice actors from BG1 NPCs)

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thank you for your perspective, Wise.

After reading your comment I considered buying SoD. But then I spoke to Hexxat for 5 seconds and the urge died faster than a kobold in a Horrid Wilting