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

[Antimatter]

That's great mods exist. The Enhanced Edition approach wasn't ideal, but there are many factors to it, in 2012 there was no approach re/remasters in general, it was very early. And the dev company obviously didn't have any experience either. We had a thread about that not long ago: https://tavernrpg.com/threads/does-anyone-remember-how-rough-bgees-initial-release-was.420/

When it comes to remasters, I would name Diablo II: Resurrected as the best, and probably also Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Slaver Quest, Part 2- How 'Bout We Stop Talking About Neera M'kay

I was planning on posting in the evening, not the afternoon. But I think it's time that we switched topics, and the best way to do that is to get back to the action. Let's do that.

So, where were we...

That's right. We were at the Copper Coronet. We had just finished the first half of the slaver quest. Minsc leveled up, and got his first priest spell. When I party I like to organize my spell books in a manner befitting the style of the character. In Minsc's case that means Detect Evil. How else would he know which butts to kick? Apparently Firkraag is immune to Detect Evil.

Spoiler

We took the sewers route to the Love Boat. In the first shaman encounter, we sent our summons up ahead to run distraction and let Jaheira, protected by Free Action, approach. Noting the Free Action, the shaman went with silence instead of Hold Person. If Jaheira had been a little bit faster, she could have charged the shaman and made him silence himself. No matter: the skellies have him bottled up anyways.

Spoiler

Since we're light on magical weapons right now, this mustard jelly was a potential problem. Fortunately our skellies have magical weapons.

Spoiler

Our skellies came up big again in the kobold shaman encounter. For those who are wondering, no, we didn't rest. It's the same batch.

Spoiler

Another Free Action for Jaheira as she takes down Quallo's friend. Lilacor is ours.

Spoiler

Once we claimed Lilacor we went back to the surface to rest and plan out attack on the slavers. Alena decided that she wantedthe Reflection Shield, and I wasn't about to argue. She wanted a potion of invisibility, too, and that made sense to me as well. We were a teensy bit short of duckets, but an evening stroll solved that problem. I'm not sure why these blokes are carrying a Contingency scroll, but we'll take it.

Spoiler

Ok. We're ready for the Love Boat now. In light of the Hold Person risk, we gave everyone except Alena Free Action. We skipped Alena just in case she needed an oil of speed. The plan was to keep her out of the priest's casting range, but we covered possible threats with RoAC II, Chaotic Commands, and a potion of freedom in reserve. As it turned out the priest didn't get a single spell off, thanks to a bull charge from Minsc and Jaheira. That left Alena free to use her aura. We swapped out the skellies for Holy Smites in this fight. Holy Smite works wonders here.

Spoiler

And there's more where that came from. Captain Haegan and friends didn't last long.

Spoiler

As the battle wound down, Jaheira charmed a slaver for kicks. We fed him to the trolls, which seemed fitting.

Spoiler

Flame Blade may not be the best troll finisher, but it's one of my favs. It's a pity it doesn't work on spirit trolls.

Spoiler

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to install that EE NPC obliteration mod. I'll be back in a jiff.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Circus- Oh, the Irony

Life has a way of teaching us the lessons we need at the time we need them. So it was for me in the big top this evening. A chance event made me rethink the subject we've been discussing, the EEs added content. I wouldn't say it changed my take, exactly, but it provided perspective, and helped me reframe my view. We'll get to that soon enough. For now, to the action.

Now that Jaheira has a L5 for Pixie Dust, travel between areas is far less nerve wracking. Even when I'm safe as houses traveling in plain sight freaks me out. Kind of like in real life. Speaking of which, if you have some pixie dust let me know. I'm in the market.

Spoiler

Night time travels means vampires and thieves. That's cool, so long as it's the thieves attacking, not the vampires. This was the second guild war encounter, so yay: free scrolls. I'm still learning the parameters of the v35 scripts, especially in the context of party play. I thought I was oh, so clever, letting Yoshi fade and toss his Special Snares at the lone remaining invisible shadow thief.

Spoiler

There's nothing wrong with that move. I'll definitely do it again. I'll just be making a refinement going forward. Equip the blade, not the bow, Yoshi. Apparently these thieves will cross the whole battlefield to find the right target.

Spoiler

No worries, Yoshi: We've got your back. For now.

Spoiler

Ok, time to talk about that lesson. We were in the circus tent. We had dispatched the peasants and we were about to add Aerie. I was excited. None of the characters on Alena's team had been on Alanis's or Alicia's. Aerie had been- she was. a star, in fact. Aerie was also a rare constant in my bounty hunter, Alesia's free flowing, ever-changing party. Of all the NPCs, Aerie is the most dear to me. We've been through a lot together. That's why I was miffed when she disappeared.

Spoiler

Did you see it? We added Aerie in the dialogue, but instead of joining the party she disappeared, nowhere to be seen. This qualifies as a bug reload, by my standards, so I allowed one. This time Aerie didn't vanish. She joined as she should. There was only one problem. Her spell book was empty.

Spoiler

We could have played through the fight, and then purchased scrolls. to fill her spell book, but that didn't feel right to me. That blank page isn't Aerie. Aerie knows Spell Immunity. Aerie has Color Spray, Identity, Magic Missile, and Pro Evil memorized. Anything else is someone else. We had to fix it. I went back, tweaked my install, and fired things up again. This time we got Aerie, the genuine article, with her Color Spray locked and loaded. That made me happy.

Spoiler

It made me happy because, as silly as it is, I have a connection to her. She's not real. She doesn't exist. And yet she's a treasured friend. Then it occurred to me: there's a whole generation of players who feel the same way about Neera or Rasaad or Dorn or whomever.

I have my preference. I would prefer to play in the game world I've known with the characters I've known. There's nothing wrong with that. Likewise, there's nothing wrong with playing with the EE NPCs and -more importantly- there's nothing wrong with the characters themselves. My fondness for the way things were shouldn't cause me to throw shade on the way things are. Going forward, I won't be saying anything negative about the EE NPCs. Whether I like them or not, I don't want to insult anyone's friend.

Once Aerie joined we let her try to memorize Spell Thrust. Happily she succeeded. We rested, took our buffs, and then stealthed to Kalah under Pxie Dust.

Spoiler

Our approach to Kalah was resource heavy but moderately satisfying. We did some things right in this fight, although it wasn't prefect. We opened with Spell Thrust from Aerie, Silence from Alena, potion of fire breath Minsc and the Victor from Jaheira. Yoshi, invisible, is detecting illusions.

Spoiler

Yoshi's detect illusions takes. Alena follows with Holy Smite. The damage to Minsc and Jaheira came from sloppy stream management and, I think, a couple auto attacks on that fireshield. No need to bang your head agains that fiery wall, Minsc. Aerie's got this.

Spoiler

I'm not sure if others include Aerie in their canon party, but I certainly do. She's the natural replacement for Dynaheir just as Yoshimo/Nalia are natural replacements for Imoen. In any case, she will be a part of Alena's crew. I think she belongs. And even she didn't, I'd take her anyways. We've been friends for a long time.

Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Unfortunately my run with Theo has been lost due to having to replace my computer. My printer died and I couldn't install the drivers for my new one!

The computer was choc a block.

Do I start again with the same characters or have a completely new run, that is the question.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Bummer, wise. I hope you'll get things squared away soon.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

@Alesia_BH Sorry to derail a bit, but you mentioned Yoshimo using detect illusions. Does that actually reveal invisible enemies in your install? It doesn’t in mine.

@WiseGrimwald That’s a bummer. Condolences.

 

[Talamir]

Noted!

In BG2 Neera traps you in a cutscene in the Bridge District and then waylays you when you transition to another area. It’s super obnoxious.

In BG1 you can avoid her, but then you miss out on the gem bag. You could CLUA one in, but I prefer not to do that.

Rashad and Hexxat both initiate dialogue in places where they’re hard to avoid. You can click through them quickly enough, especially Rasaad in BG1, but it’s still an annoyance.

I agree that Baeloth and Dorn can be bypassed without much effort.

All told, navigating around them, to the extent that that’s possible is, of course, an option. That’s exactly what I do. They’re still annoying though, and it’s annoying that I have to avoid them in the first place. It would be better if they didn’t exist.

Surely someone can take them out of the game. It’s not too much to ask.

I believe there are at least a couple of options as far as mods that cut out EE NPC content. This is one:

Beamdog Forums - [MOD] Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs for BG:EE, SoD and BG2:EE

Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs A mod for BG:EE, BG:SOD, BG2:EE and EET that allows you to tweak all Beamdog NPCs.

forums.beamdog.com

[edit] Oops, I overlooked the fact someone already recommended the same mod.

This gives you the option to 1. remove all EE NPCs completely 2. keep them in the game but make them 'passive', i.e. you can ignore them and walk right past them without them forcing themselves onto you 3. choose for each NPC individually.

My most recent super annoying EE NPC story: Neera ended a No Reload run in Beregost without even being invited into the party. I was going to tell her to take a hike but I figured my protagonist and company would at least chase off the bad guys before doing so. Fight ensues, is going just fine until Neera (who again, is not even in the party) decides she's going to be helpful by casting Color Spray right on top of my party (while somehow managing to miss all of the bad guys) causing everyone to fall unconscious.

I found her grating and hard to enjoy from the first moment I met her so I usually ignore/drop her as soon as I can; needless to say, this incident did not improve my opinion of her.

 

[Alesia_BH]

My most recent super annoying EE NPC story: Neera ended a No Reload run without even being invited into the party, by casting Color Spray right on top of my party and causing everyone to fall unconscious.

She’s reckless with that Color Spray, isn’t she? I did have a close call there once, years ago, so I know what you mean exactly. These days I usually avoid triggering that encounter until I’ve reached L5.

Btw, thanks for the tip on EE NPC removal options. I think I’ve got it now!

 

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia_BH Sorry to derail a bit, but you mentioned Yoshimo using detect illusions. Does that actually reveal invisible enemies in your install? It doesn’t in mine.

It works against any illusion, including Mirror Image, Blur, Projected Image and the like. Unlike spells from the Divination school it is not stopped by SI: Div, making it uniquely useful.

It activates approximately once per round. Detection is probabilistic, with the number of points in Detect Illusions reflecting the probability of success each round. The radius is moderately small, equivalent to the Find Traps radius, 15 feet.

As for invisibility specifically, it works IFF the invisibility is illusionary. It will not work against non-illusionary forms of invisibility, such as hide in shadows.

If you’ve struggled to reveal the invisible with it my guess is: 1) you didn’t wait long enough, 2) your target was too far away, 3) your target was under non-illusionary invisibility

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Thank you, Alesia_BH. It can also be bugged, unfortunately. In my install, the gamelog will indicate that an illusion has been successfully dispelled, but invisible enemies don’t appear. This happens to me in both BG1 & 2, v2.6 with Tweaks Anthology v16, and SCS 34.3. I guess I’m just trying to find the source of the bug and possibly provide a PSA to anyone else experiencing it. I’ve seen it mentioned on different forums, but no cause or fix mentioned.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thank you, Alesia_BH. It can also be bugged, unfortunately.

Agreed. A bug is a possibility. If you’ve ruled out other explanations then that’s worth investigating.

I’ll try to confirm that it’s working properly in my install when I get the chance

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Watcher's Keep Level 1

So far Alena and her team have muddled through with non magical weapons. Sure, Minsc has Lilacor, and we have magical ammo, but we're primarily rocking bows and blades we found in the Chateau. With our first major Chapter 2/3 quest on the horizon, it was time to fill in some of the gaps. Since I'm lazy and don't believe in challenging myself, I took the easy way out, looting the first level of Watcher's Keep.

So everyone knows, I don't use the component which ties spawns to the difficulty slider. Instead our spawns are based on our levels. That means we very nearly got a free pass here at the Keep.

The stone golem was our first obstacle. Minsc took it down with Lilacor while our skellies provided a buffer. Range 2 weapons pair well with skeleton warriors. That Slow effect could have been countered with a Haste, in theory, but Haste scrolls are too expensive for us right now.

Spoiler

With our skellies on hiatus, we let Minsc lead the way against the shades. We chose Minsc because we didn't have a NPP memorized, and he's relatively well positioned to weather level drain. Most of the damage here came from Holy Smites. The party is not using their ranged weapons because we're conserving magical ammo.

Spoiler

Since we didn't feel like taking elemental damage from those pesky mephitis, we sent our skellies up ahead and let Yoshimo blast away with his Special Snares. Thanks to his Special Snares, Yoshimo is second on the team in kill XP value, behind only Minsc.

Spoiler

With Minsc level drained a rest seemed fitting. Replenishing Yoshi's Special Snares was a bonus. In my next run it'll be Alesia tossing those snares, not Yoshi.

Spoiler

After selling off our loot, we bought Mauler's Arm for Aerie, the Staff Mace for Alena, and Azuredge for Minsc. We also bought Jaheira a magical scimitar. That last semi-wasteful purchase rests squarely on Minsc's head. He's the one who insisted we go to Umar Hills first, not Trademeet.

Suna Seni is next, followed by the Umar Hills.

Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Bummer, wise. I hope you'll get things squared away soon.

When I reinstalled from GoG I found that the game isn't quite the same. I'm wondering if there are some mods installed.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Suna Seni- You're So Vain

There have been times in this run when David's v35 changes have seemed precision tailored to counter tactics I've posted on. The most notable example was the bump in Kysus's hit points total, placing him at a level where he is relatively safe from a potion of fire breath assault. The Suna Seni fight is the latest.

Not to worry, intrepid friends: I don't think this song is about me. Nonetheless, it is interesting that David is catching on to and countering some no reloader strategies. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of those adjustments will catch me someday. I'm just glad that day wasn't today.

So: What has changed about the Suna Seni fight? Just like the Kysus fight, it was something subtle that just so happens to throw my plans off kilter.

In the early game, when I'm expecting Suna Seni, I always, always travel invisible. Once she arrives, I sneak off to the north, buff, and then return to fight, often breaking stealth with a potion of fire breath on the mage. That had been my plan in this run, too. So far so good.

Spoiler

As you've surely guessed the plan didn't work this time. Suna Seni's crew was much, much faster on the Divination trigger, catching us before we escaped sight range. Had I known of this change, I might have memorized another Invisibility 10' Radius.

Since we had tried to break northward, we ended up losing an additional round. Between our enemies pre-buffs and our lost round, we were at a considerable disadvantage. Suna's team landed a Slow before we could act. Since we still don't have Haste, we just had to suffer through it. We bottled up the casters with an Insect Plague as soon as we could, but not before the mage got a Horror off. Things were looking dire, but we had an ace in the hole: Alena.

Spoiler

Alena may not always take the lead in combat, but she's at the core of the party's strategy. With her shorty saves, Claw of the Kazgaroth, RoAC II and single class Chaotic Commands, Free Action, Remove Fear and Death Ward, Alena is our fortress. She can protect herself and manage threats to others. In this fight she is unequivocally the one who saved the day. Her Remove Fear turned the tide for us.

The tricky part was keeping Alena safe through those early rounds. Alena needed both Chaotic Commands and RoAC II to ward off potential threats. Since RoAC II activates quickly, and Chaotic Commands has a casting time of 3, we could, with proper spacing, read incantations first. If we heard Enchantment we'd go Chaotic Commands. Necromancy or Alteration meant RoAC II. Some of you may have noted that Hold Person is a low level Enchantment spell not covered by CC. We mitigate that risk by keeping Aerie's aura clear, with a potion of freedom at the ready. Worst case, if a mage or cleric goes Hold Person, we could go Aerie: potion of freedom, Aerie: Remove Paralysis. So while things did get hectic, thanks to the round differential and the surprise factor, we had a plan in place to keep Alena, and therefore the party safe.

Once Alena countered Horror with Remove Fear, we were suddenly in control. Jaheira's Insect Plague had bottled up the casters, negating their early round advantage. Alena, protected from arrows by the Reflex, was free to blast away with her Holy Smites. Our positions are disorderly due to that early Horror, but almost everyone is doing something useful here. Minsc is finishing off the chargers. Aerie is buffing herself against ranged weapons so she can join the fray. Jaheira is serving as an arrow sponge. And Alena, of course, is casting her Smites. Yoshimo is just standing there, but that was by design. We were too far north for him to fade and use his Special Snares, so all he could do was use his bow. That would have been fine, but there was a backstabber lurking, so we chose to keep the melee weapon equipped. Note, though, that at the exact moment of this screenshot, he should have been firing his bow, since the backstabber is visible.

Spoiler

With the enemy ranks now broken, we were free to goof off with save or else stuff. Aerie went with Rigid Thinking, Alena, Hold Person and Jaheira, a second Rigid Thinking. Aerie's Rigid Thinking landed but, tbh, I'm pretty sure Eldarin would have fallen faster if we just used out sling bullets.

Spoiler

Since Yoshimo was a forgotten man in this battle, it was good to see him finish Eldarin. Don't worry, Yoshimo. Your star will rise again. I promise. No bounty hunter left behind.

Spoiler

The Umar Hills is next.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

When I reinstalled from GoG I found that the game isn't quite the same. I'm wondering if there are some mods installed.

I'd be surprised if GoG added a mod to the instal package.

Maybe it's a new version? What has changed, exactly?

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Umar Hills

It's been ages since I've partied with Minsc and Jaheira. I no longer know if their quest can be delayed, or for how long. And so when Minsc started nagging us about Delon and his village, heading east to the Umar Hills seemed the wisest move. It's a good quest for us now anyways.

I always begin the Umar Hills quest by claiming Ilbratha. I seem to be one of very few people who value this weapons highly, and I don't entirely understand why. Mirror Image for warriors and thieves? I'm all in. Why isn't everyone else?

I did have the advantage of seeing a spectacular display of Illbratha's potential many years ago. This was on the old, old BioWare forums. I had setup an Ascension solo challenge, inspired by a blog post on a priest of Helm's attempt. Back then soloing Ascension was a bigger deal than it is now. There weren't many documented successes, especially on insane. My sorcerer, Alanis, was one of the first, possibly the first. SarosShadowFollower's blade followed. All that remained was for a non-arcane class to do it. That fell to The_Truth, an Improved Anvil play tester. The Truth completed the battle with a warrior on insane. I don't believe anyone had documented a solo warrior success before then. Ilbratha was the key. He was using a pre-G3, pre-Baldurdash install. Placing items into a bag of holding recharged them back then. The Truth recharged Ilbratha over and over again, keeping his fighter safe from Mel's demons, allowing him to complete the battle. Was this approach cheesy? Yes. Would I do it? Absolutely not. Nonetheless, the memory of Ilbratha's potential left a mark. Minsc will use it often. Yoshi will use it too, especially on backstabbing missions behind enemy lines.

Spoiler

As some of you may have noticed, Aerie is our party leader. This is practical, since she has the highest charisma ceiling, via Friends. It also reflects the role she'll ultimately play in the party. For now Minsc and Jaheira are our front liners, but our future rests with Aerie.

Spoiler

Aerie will handle a lot of our utility tasks, too, like unlocking locks with Knock. Here we see her focusing the light gem. With her buffs and multiple invisibility options she's the best choice to my eyes.

Spoiler

Aerie was also the best choice to lead the way in the temple. Here we see Aerie on tank duty, running Stoneskins, Shield, Blur, Mirror Image and Free Action. She layered in RoAC II, too, once the skeleton warriors closed. Meanwhile, Minsc is firing away with Azuredge. Aerie and Alena are on Holy Smite duty. Yoshimo, to the east, is tossing his Special Snares.

Spoiler

We would have taken no damage at all here, had Minsc not forgotten his place. Stay away from there, Minsc: it's dangerous. That's a job for Aerie.

Spoiler

With Aeries buff spells tapped, our summons led the way in the light gem room. I'm looking forward to adding Mr. Efreeti to the team. Soon.

Spoiler

Jaheira, Minsc, Aerie, Imoen and Alena will form the core of our party throughout our adventure. That sixth spot will be filled by guests, as we complete their quests. It wastes XP, true, but a rotating slot is canon for me.

Spoiler

Onward to the bridge. Yoshimo used a regular snare here. Mazzy, wielding Arbane, triggered the encounter

Spoiler

As per usual, we engaged the skeleton warriors at he edge of the fire pit. Jaheira is on tanking duty now since Aerie's buffs are spent and we're saving the skellies for the bone golem.

Spoiler

In SCS the bone golem tends to sneak up on the party during this fight. That's exactly what happened here. Hai-ya is right, Yoshimo. You have two snares left. It's time for you to fade and set them. Everyone else, regroup

Spoiler

There: That's better.

Spoiler

And now for the finish. All we need to do is walk away.

Spoiler

Heading into they quest I had hoped I'd find the courage to skip pro undead against the Shade Lord. I even went so far as to leave for the Umar Hills without a single scroll. Here we see our party on their walk of shame, back to Athkatla to pick up some scrolls. Don't worry, Renfeld, Jaheira is with us. There's no way we're leaving you behind.

Spoiler

Thankfully, the mage in this encounter was slow to divine. That allowed us to buff and reposition ourselves. Unlike Suna Seni, this will be a breeze. Skeleton warriors ahead; Yoshimo behind, tossing snares; the party safe as houses invisible, standing on Yoshi's regular snares.

Spoiler

With the mage near death, Aerie and Alena broke invisibility with Holy Smites. That'll fix him.

Spoiler

Cleanup now. Nice work, Yoshi. I told you your star would rise again.

Spoiler

Back in Athkatla, we ran into Gorf the Squisher. Mazzy is one of my favorite NPC, but I've never done this before. I was surprised when Mazzy's equipment disappeared. Fortunately we stacked the deck by buffing Mazzy. A potion of frost giant strength did the heavy lifting.

Spoiler

Ok. Time to head back to the Umar Hills. We purchase three pro undead scrolls. I wasn't sure how many we'd use but I did know I wanted them on hand. After some internal debate we went with a minimalist approach. Minsc, pro undead. Everyone else, invisible. That's all it took. Azuredge for the finish.

Spoiler

I'm not sure where we're headed next, but our new friend Mazzy says there is trouble in Trademeet. Might be worth a look.

Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

@Alesia_BH

My installation has reverted back to a heavily modded installation that I used months ago. It was always there on my external hard drive, and GoG has linked to that rather than the unmodded version that I subsequently installed on the same drive.

I am actually quite pleased with it as enemies are more numerous and use better AI. I have also forgotten what the mods were so I am getting surprises all the time.

It's almost like getting a new game.

I am currently running a trio: an inquisitor, a berserker and a fighter thief. Tenya has joined the party and we are now heading for Nashkel.

She is good as a cleric, but needs help with strength in order to wear armour. She'll be fine once she gets the ankheg plate.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Awesome! Glad to hear you're back in action, and enjoying yourself

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Trademeet- A Bounty Hunter at Heart

I wish I could say I'm using Alena's team to its fullest potential. I'm not. We're getting by, and we're getting by comfortably, but we could be doing better- much better.

Critical self judgments aside, we're making progress. The team is coming together, and all five of our party members are carving out their own space in combat. Everyone has a job and everyone is getting better at their job. I look forward to seeing how they progress.

In upcoming posts I'll talk about the role each party member is playing. We'll start with Yoshimo. First, here are the current kill stats for the party.

Spoiler

Do those numbers come as a surprise? Minsc at the top? Aerie at the bottom? Jaheira in the middle? I'm guessing that all makes sense. Most canon parties probably play out that way exactly. But wait a minute: Yoshimo at 31%? Just behind Minsc and closing fast? That's odd. It shouldn't come as a surprise in my case, though. You all know what the BH in my name stands for.

Yoshimo has been a major asset in combat. He'll continue to be as long as he's with us. There will also be times when he just full on takes over. Having soloed my bounty hunter, Alesia, I could do basically all of these encounters with Yoshimo alone. On occasion I'll let him do just that.

We clearled out the animals, led by Minsc under Ilbratha MI.

Spoiler

We then let Aerie work her charms on the dao. We're going to kill these blokes, but we want the goodies in their inventory first, notably the oils of speed and the potion of absorption.

Spoiler

Ok, Yoshimo, it's time for you to take the stage.

Spoiler

Bounty hunters are hunters- hunters, not fighters. They don't pull punches. The don't give their enemies a fair shot. They're stone cold killers, applying overwhelming force.

Two sets of traps. Two backstabs. That's all it took to for Yoshi to clear the Dao.

Spoiler

Is this cheesy? Sure. But it's also kind of fun and it also suits the class. How else would a bounty hunter fight?

Spoiler

With my solo characters I typically stealth through the Druid Grove. With a party there is no need. Against the spirit trolls, and their Greater Commands, we allocated our three CCs to Minsc, Jaheira and Alena. Aerie, an elf, should be safe. Yoshimo, a bounty hunter, shouldn't be in sight range anyways. Here we see the party still standing after a Greater Command. Yoshi, out of sight, to the north, is getting to work with his snares.

Spoiler

Jaheira's nymph is in never, never land, but aside from that all is well. Pre-buffed, and with summons to run distraction, we were free to work a debuff into the mix, in this case Greater Malison.

Spoiler

The skellies are still standing. Aerie is in position to intercept chargers. Minsc is over Aerie's shoulder, tossing his axe. Jaheira is preparing to bring the hurt with a Call Lightning. Alena is readying another Holy Smite. Aside from the fact that Aerie's Hold Monster isn't coming out, we're looking good.

Spoiler

Moving on from the Hold Monster debacle, Aerie has switched over to the ever reliable Web. My projectile ranging has been uncharacterstically poor this run. I can usually place AoE spells just over my front liner's shoe tips. Not in this run. In this run, going back to BG1, I've had an absurdly high failure rate. In this case Minsc paid the price. Sorry big, fella. Just hold tight. Aerie's on her way with a Remove Paralysis. As for the trolls, they're basically dead.

Spoiler

We rested before the spider encounter so we could give everyone Free Action. As it turned out, we saw exactly zero Web Tangles. Holy Smites, Special Snares and Call Lightnings did most of the damage.

Spoiler

One last batch of trolls on this rest. Call Lightning rocks.

Spoiler

In the current edition of SCS, David has a Revised Elemental component. Having never faced David's elementals, I was a little nervous about this greater earth elemental.

Spoiler

What was I afraid of? That the elemental would be over powered. What's the obvious solution? Fight fire with fire, or in this case fight earth with fire, fire an Special Snares.

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At this point I was tempted to stealth to Cernd, but it occurred to me that David might have tweaked the scripts here. Better to fight Kyland Lind buffed and prepared, rather than risk being caught off guard.

I'm no sure what these druids were cooking here. All I knew was that I didn't want a taste. Thanks to Jaheira's Insect Plague there was no need.

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Aerie, Skull Trap. Jaheira, Call Lightning. Yoshimo, Special Snare. Mr Efreeti, Fireball. These blokes won't last long.

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Once Kyland Lind's crew was down, we grabbed Belm and stealthed to Cernd. I probably should have added Cernd to the party this time, but I kind of enjoy watching him go to town. Nice crit, nature boy!

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Ready your Invisibility 10' Radius, Aerie. We have a statue to see and you-know-who will be waiting.

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Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

I couldn't believe it. The game came to an end because of wanting to see the Amazing Oompah explode one more time. One blow is all it took.

I didn't have time to use command.

At least it happened quickly, when I was still on level 1. It's more annoying at level 6.