Alesia_BH
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Lol. I hadn't meant it as a pun. But, yes, northern Finland sounds super-cool in more ways than one.
The Candlekeep Annex: RPed Baldur’s Gate No and Low Reload Adventures
- Thread starter Alesia_BH
- Start date
Borco
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Unmodded, with the exception of general Smarter AI, but still pretty fast!
WiseGrimwald
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My wife only cracks those types of jokes by accident.
Brad's Journal
We killed Droth and Shoal before getting the ring for Mad Arcand. Then killed the sirines and some ogres before going to help the archaeologist
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Alesia_BH
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I made that joke because I've thought about SCS Faster Bears on trail. I see black bears in Shenandoah Valley national park all the time. On a few occasions I've had them ahead of me on trail, sort of meandering slowly. It's cool at first, but before long it gets awkward. I can pass a slow human. I can't pass a slow bear. Excuse me sir is full on not an option
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WiseGrimwald
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In the UK we don't have them, but in Chitwan, Nepal, I saw them in the distance, I took a couple of photos but then they started running towards us! They stopped by the jeep where they started eating termites from a nearby mound. Then another jeep arrived and their passengers threw them bananas. (Not to be recommended) The bears wandered over to them and we drove off. Sadly my camera ran out of power after those first two photos, but the image of them behaving naturally just 5 yards away will stay with me for ever!
Borco
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Hey friends! I just wanted to drop by to say that I'm back and ready to start posting again. In the meantime, I'd like to share with you some serious Cloakwood vibes from one of the places during the trip (sorry for the lousy picture quality, I was unable to figure out how to post larger sized files).
The first day, we came across Aldeth's hunting lodge (looking slightly less posh).
Coran was not on his usual spot, probably hunting wyverns somewhere deeper in the woods.
We passed by Centeol's spider nest the next day.
On the third day, we entered the heart of the forest with the druids' HQ. We've totally been watching our actions while in these woods, so there was nothing to worry about.
And, finally, the bridge leading to the wyvern nest.
Fortunately, there seemed to be no mining activity whatsoever, so we could skip the Drasus fight lol.
Borco
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Orrin, human archer: Part 20 - A Job for a Ranger?
One could argue that single class clerics are better suited to deal with a dungeon full of the undead than rangers, although as things were, Orrin did not yet have a clue of what he's going to face in the Umar Hills. First, we had to investigate.
We started off in the Umar Village by collecting some Jansen lore. By the way, I've always found the Gingerbread House (Hansel & Gretel) to be one of the most disturbing children stories out there.
The conflicting account of events provided by the villagers didn't really help our case, however one of the local girls, Kaatje, seemed to be onto something.
We checked on Madulf with Orrin's divination magic - these folks are alright and we'll have to tell the mayor to cross them off the list.
While searching for the mimic's blood for Jermien, Orrin first takes down the umber hulks under Chaotic Commands with the help of two of Viconia's skeletons, and after that the party destroys the mimic without suffering any injuries.
Against Jermien's stone golem, we ran Chant and Defensive Harmony, with shapeshifted* Cernd taking the lead under Iron Skins and Barkskin.
*Note: I've ran some tests to observe how the shapeshifting works in my current install, as there's usually something funny or counter-intuitive happening with the stats (e.g. STR buffs applied before and after the change) as well as with equipped main and off-hand weapons. The result, among others, is that any equipped off-hand weapon will provide the shapeshifted form with dual-wielding at max proficiency (as with *** pips in two-weapon fighting). In case of Belm, the extra APR results in 4 APR for the basic werewolf form, which will further increase to 5 once the greater werewolf form becomes available. That, in itself, is pretty powerful and could be treated an as exploit - I had to decide whether to embrace it or not. In the end, after a lengthy deliberation, I opted for accepting the behavior, mainly on account of providing Cernd with more clout and allowing his shapeshifting to play more meaningful role during the adventure. After all, because of Orrin, damage output is not something our party's lacking and we'll continue to be concerned about dispels, abjuration protections, and disablers, irrespective of Cernd's offensive capabilities.
After searching Merella's cabin, we confirmed our suspicion that a sinister undead force is likely involved in the whole thing. Fortunately, there's one way an archer can deal with such enemy - Azuredge.
We returned to Athkatla to buy the axe together with the Sling of Seeking and were ready to depart for the Shadow Temple, but what was supposed to be a mere shopping detour suddenly became a troublesome affair when Cernd got caught up in his past. At first, I was unperturbed by the events, as I remembered that Alena had managed to resolve the situation without any confrontation, so we just went along with the questline (probably for the first time ever) while deliberately avoiding to opine on Cernd's life choices. Suddenly, we were at Deril's estate and peaceful solution didn't seem to be an option.
I mean, it would have been, had I known that Deril is going to summon a lich (!) and two (!!) noble efreeti! That's right - I don't know what I was expecting, but definitely not anything like this, lol. Fortunately, Jan's instincts have saved our skins! As you can see from the previous screenshot, he's already casting his Invisibility 10' Radius during the dialogue, which he initiated as a preemptive measure the moment he saw that Deril's a mage type. And just as the summoned enemies arrive to the scene, we're already safely hidden and ready to escape before any divination magic would break our cover.
Phew! I'm sorry, Cernd, but we're not doing this today. Not even tomorrow.
Compared to the dangers of the city, our stroll through the shadow-infested forest was almost a pleasant experience .
Once we reached the Shadow Temple, we sent invisible Viconia ahead with Turn Undead, while Orrin provided the ranged support with Azuredge.
Now wait a moment, is Viconia blocking that door? I admit she was - this was our way of punishing the local undead for their annoying respawns.
Hello Mazzy - we've been looking forward to meeting you and your valiant sword arm. And welcome aboard!
It's been some time since we had a proper (melee) warrior in our party and Mazzy's going to fill in that role, even though her short bow mastery might somehow overlap with Orrin's skillset. Her shorty saving throws, personal weapons and passive abilities should more than make up for their competing "interests".
We clear the remaining rooms and the bridge with Turn Undead + Azuredge and proceed to meet the first Bone Golem party.
Well, they certainly did not come short on the numbers. It was a looong (almost 15 min) kiting session for Orrin, while the rest of the party enjoyed hot cocoa under invisibility.
Vicona and Jan got their level ups (10 and 9/11, respectively), while poor Cernd experienced some weird flashbacks of the recent events in Athkatla. It seems that we might need to resolve that Deril situation sooner than later, otherwise he could end up becoming delusional.
Orrin used Hide in Shadows to collect all the remaining quest items, unlocked the door leading to the dragon lair, and completed the Amaunator rituals. As we had already undertaken the painstaking process of kiting of three bone golems with Azuredge earlier, for the second bone golem party we decided to shamelessly deploy two invisible blockers at the bridge to quicken the process. Sorry for that, but sometimes you just have to cut the corners.
For the time being, we've seen enough - the Shade Lord could be too much for our current party and we'll have to return to finish our job here another day. We'll be returning to Athkatla for now in search of easier targets.
I conclude the post with a quick overview of the distribution of our key equipment. As our party is growing and diversifying, we'll need to be able to find the right balance for allocating our available resources.
B.
One could argue that single class clerics are better suited to deal with a dungeon full of the undead than rangers, although as things were, Orrin did not yet have a clue of what he's going to face in the Umar Hills. First, we had to investigate.
We started off in the Umar Village by collecting some Jansen lore. By the way, I've always found the Gingerbread House (Hansel & Gretel) to be one of the most disturbing children stories out there.
After searching Merella's cabin, we confirmed our suspicion that a sinister undead force is likely involved in the whole thing. Fortunately, there's one way an archer can deal with such enemy - Azuredge.
We returned to Athkatla to buy the axe together with the Sling of Seeking and were ready to depart for the Shadow Temple, but what was supposed to be a mere shopping detour suddenly became a troublesome affair when Cernd got caught up in his past. At first, I was unperturbed by the events, as I remembered that Alena had managed to resolve the situation without any confrontation, so we just went along with the questline (probably for the first time ever) while deliberately avoiding to opine on Cernd's life choices. Suddenly, we were at Deril's estate and peaceful solution didn't seem to be an option.
Phew! I'm sorry, Cernd, but we're not doing this today. Not even tomorrow.
Compared to the dangers of the city, our stroll through the shadow-infested forest was almost a pleasant experience .
Hello Mazzy - we've been looking forward to meeting you and your valiant sword arm. And welcome aboard!
We clear the remaining rooms and the bridge with Turn Undead + Azuredge and proceed to meet the first Bone Golem party.
I conclude the post with a quick overview of the distribution of our key equipment. As our party is growing and diversifying, we'll need to be able to find the right balance for allocating our available resources.
- Mazzy: In addition to the two Arvoreens, Mazzy carries Harmony, Ilbratha and the Girdle of Bluntness. She's currently wearing Mail of the Dead +2 until we can find her a good set of plate.
- Orrin: Orrin has the Claw and RoP+1 and is wearing the Helm of Charm Protection, BoIB, Cloak of Displacement and Bracers of Archery. He's also carrying the Spear of the Unicorn for emergency confusion immunity, RoAC and the efreeti bottle.
- Viconia: Currently somewhat underequipped, Viconia's only got the Reflex, while wearing a generic +2 chain mail. Her main weapon is the Sling of Seeking.
- Jan: Jan wields Arbane and his personal gear, plus he enjoys the benefits of the Metaspell Amulet.
- Cernd: He's rocking Belm and the Girdle of Piercing and has recently obtained the Shield of the Lost.
B.
WiseGrimwald
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I've been away for so long that I have forgotten where I had reached.
What I do remember was that I wasn't enjoying playing a wizard slayer, I therefore decided to switch to a new game:
Valiant, an Inquisitor: Carver her twin sister who is a Cavalier; and Ham their best friend; who is a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric.
Like other paladins, Carver and I are of Lawful Good Alignment.
We are strongly in favour of Justice, Mercy, Honesty, Honour, and Love, balancing these as best we can when they come into conflict. We have an aversion to arcane magic, so we will avoid having mages and bards in the party. The same is true of thieves. We therefore left Imoen in Beregost as soon as we could safely do so.
Ham has similar values so when he wanted to join with us it was a no-brainer.
Having both a Cavalier and an Inquisitor in the party makes sirines so easy. The Inquisitor makes them visible and the Cavalier being immune to poison takes the poison arrows.
We returned Joia's ring and then headed south picking up a letter to Mirianne, the Colquetle Amulet, and the Ankheg Armour as we did so.
We chatted to Noober and turned down a reward from Oublek before heading south where we defeated an assassin and Greywolf.
We took Samuel to the FAI and returned the Colquetle Amulet and Mirianne's letter.
Next returned Rufie to Albert.
For the first time I have proved the innocence of Brage.
We went to the Lighthouse area and used the tactics mentioned above to deal with the sirines. It was even easier than expected as nobody was wounded!
To deal with the golem, Ham cast sanctuary and walked past the trap. Yes, she was stunned, but she didn't get attacked. The paladins walked past and killed the golem.
We went outside to rest and recuperate before taking on the next golem.
What an ideal party for dealing with the area! No necklace of missiles/fireballs needed.
The intention was then to go to the ankheg nest using Ham's Command Spell to neutralise them.
This worked very well. We took the body of his son to farmer Brun and gave him100gp.
We killed Bassilus by using silence followed by command. He died very quickly.
We looted the cave at the gnoll stronghold killing assassins on the way.
We then helped the archaeologist before heading out to kill Shoal and Droth. Shoal killed Ham.
We had to return to the Temple to raise her. 800gp Ouch! We only had about 400 gp left. That necessitated some ankheg hunting in case something similar occurred.
We continued the hunt until we reached experience 32,000 and then recruited Tenya, a child cleric to whom, since she only has a strength of 9, we gave the ankheg armour, plate being too heavy.
At the ambush we recruited Dorn, killed Kryll, and bade Dorn farewell.
We then recruited Gavin and went to kill the rest of the sirines. We then completed all the quests that the temple gave him to do.
We then did Tenya's quest too. That taught her how to use her bowl, a powerful item!
The question then was. Do we keep Tenya or Gavin. A difficult decision, particularly now that Tenya could use the bowl!
In the end we decided on Gavin because he had similar aims to the rest of the party.
Then bought Falcon Armour for myself that protects against poison.
Poor again.
We recruited Sirene, a Tiefling Paladin who was most helpful when we took on the mines.
In the mines we killed Mulahey quite easily and rescued Xan who was quite helpful when we met some Lady Ogres.
We dropped him off in Nashkel, went to Beregost and was heavily rewarded by Officer Vai when we handed in over 30 bandit scalps.
We have killed the bandits in their camp who were outside their tents and have killed Tranzig. We then killed most of the other bandits, discovering in the process that Cloakwood Mines would be next. We were attacked by two parties of bandits and in the battle Ham was killed and had to be raised.
We killed a party of druids when we agreed to help Aldeth.
The next area was swarming with spiders and traps. Gavin set off the traps safely by setting them off whilst in sanctuary.
Centeol was no problem.
Sirene took on the dragon by herself due to her Fire Resistance. She won but did need quite a bit of healing afterwards.
In the next area we attacked the wyverns' nest and prevailed.
We went for our reward, stocked up on ammunition and proceeded to the Cloakwood mines.
We summoned three skeletons and buffed ourselves.
The party hung back to use ranged weapons whilst the skeletons moved forward.
Guards attacked them and we fought back being quite successful. However the skeletons eventually fell.
At that point we cast three glyphs of warding and a silence spell. Due to the silence spell one of the mages moved forward to attack with darts. He was killed with ranged missiles. We then switched to melee weapons though the wand of the heavens was used to cause Drasus to die more quickly.
We focused first on the mages and killed them. After that the danger had passed and the others fell quite quickly. Time to rest perhaps.
After we rested Gavin began to get quite romantic and covered me in kisses. I quite liked it.
The rest of the mine was fairly straightforward. Due to having no thief some chests were left unopened.
At the bottom of the mines the enemies were confronted one at a time.
I was surprised how easily Davaeorn fell despite having run out of summon skeleton spells.
EDIT
At the FAI Jet 'Laya has asked for help. She has joined us. The party is now a bit unbalanced with three clerics however, I don't want to bid Gavin farewell as the romance is quite interesting.
We killed Jet 'Laya's sister who had become a banshee.
Gavin proposed and I accepted. I now have an engagement ring which is quite useful.
I was promised a good weapon and in addition I have been asked to fight a dragon near Nashkel.
The dragon was easy enough to kill but two baby forest dragons injured us before dying.
We found good loot and on returning to Beregost, we were given a mace of disruption.
We were told that the mayor of Nashkel has had his child kidnapped.
We rescued it with the help of CuChoinneach, killing a lot of undead including Lord Daerthmac and some vampiressess in the process. We have now been given a letter to take to Beregost. (I suspect that this is a ploy of the modder to get me to go there next.) We didn't loot the castle fully due to not having a thief. I vaguely remember the castle from a previous set-up.
From that game I remember that I had to leave CuChoinneach in the castle.
This time I managed to keep him. He is excellent against undead, so if I can take him into SoD he could be invaluable.
What I do remember was that I wasn't enjoying playing a wizard slayer, I therefore decided to switch to a new game:
Valiant, an Inquisitor: Carver her twin sister who is a Cavalier; and Ham their best friend; who is a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric.
Like other paladins, Carver and I are of Lawful Good Alignment.
We are strongly in favour of Justice, Mercy, Honesty, Honour, and Love, balancing these as best we can when they come into conflict. We have an aversion to arcane magic, so we will avoid having mages and bards in the party. The same is true of thieves. We therefore left Imoen in Beregost as soon as we could safely do so.
Ham has similar values so when he wanted to join with us it was a no-brainer.
Having both a Cavalier and an Inquisitor in the party makes sirines so easy. The Inquisitor makes them visible and the Cavalier being immune to poison takes the poison arrows.
We returned Joia's ring and then headed south picking up a letter to Mirianne, the Colquetle Amulet, and the Ankheg Armour as we did so.
We chatted to Noober and turned down a reward from Oublek before heading south where we defeated an assassin and Greywolf.
We took Samuel to the FAI and returned the Colquetle Amulet and Mirianne's letter.
Next returned Rufie to Albert.
For the first time I have proved the innocence of Brage.
We went to the Lighthouse area and used the tactics mentioned above to deal with the sirines. It was even easier than expected as nobody was wounded!
To deal with the golem, Ham cast sanctuary and walked past the trap. Yes, she was stunned, but she didn't get attacked. The paladins walked past and killed the golem.
We went outside to rest and recuperate before taking on the next golem.
What an ideal party for dealing with the area! No necklace of missiles/fireballs needed.
The intention was then to go to the ankheg nest using Ham's Command Spell to neutralise them.
This worked very well. We took the body of his son to farmer Brun and gave him100gp.
We killed Bassilus by using silence followed by command. He died very quickly.
We looted the cave at the gnoll stronghold killing assassins on the way.
We then helped the archaeologist before heading out to kill Shoal and Droth. Shoal killed Ham.
We had to return to the Temple to raise her. 800gp Ouch! We only had about 400 gp left. That necessitated some ankheg hunting in case something similar occurred.
We continued the hunt until we reached experience 32,000 and then recruited Tenya, a child cleric to whom, since she only has a strength of 9, we gave the ankheg armour, plate being too heavy.
At the ambush we recruited Dorn, killed Kryll, and bade Dorn farewell.
We then recruited Gavin and went to kill the rest of the sirines. We then completed all the quests that the temple gave him to do.
We then did Tenya's quest too. That taught her how to use her bowl, a powerful item!
The question then was. Do we keep Tenya or Gavin. A difficult decision, particularly now that Tenya could use the bowl!
In the end we decided on Gavin because he had similar aims to the rest of the party.
Then bought Falcon Armour for myself that protects against poison.
Poor again.
We recruited Sirene, a Tiefling Paladin who was most helpful when we took on the mines.
In the mines we killed Mulahey quite easily and rescued Xan who was quite helpful when we met some Lady Ogres.
We dropped him off in Nashkel, went to Beregost and was heavily rewarded by Officer Vai when we handed in over 30 bandit scalps.
We have killed the bandits in their camp who were outside their tents and have killed Tranzig. We then killed most of the other bandits, discovering in the process that Cloakwood Mines would be next. We were attacked by two parties of bandits and in the battle Ham was killed and had to be raised.
We killed a party of druids when we agreed to help Aldeth.
The next area was swarming with spiders and traps. Gavin set off the traps safely by setting them off whilst in sanctuary.
Centeol was no problem.
Sirene took on the dragon by herself due to her Fire Resistance. She won but did need quite a bit of healing afterwards.
In the next area we attacked the wyverns' nest and prevailed.
We went for our reward, stocked up on ammunition and proceeded to the Cloakwood mines.
We summoned three skeletons and buffed ourselves.
The party hung back to use ranged weapons whilst the skeletons moved forward.
Guards attacked them and we fought back being quite successful. However the skeletons eventually fell.
At that point we cast three glyphs of warding and a silence spell. Due to the silence spell one of the mages moved forward to attack with darts. He was killed with ranged missiles. We then switched to melee weapons though the wand of the heavens was used to cause Drasus to die more quickly.
We focused first on the mages and killed them. After that the danger had passed and the others fell quite quickly. Time to rest perhaps.
After we rested Gavin began to get quite romantic and covered me in kisses. I quite liked it.
The rest of the mine was fairly straightforward. Due to having no thief some chests were left unopened.
At the bottom of the mines the enemies were confronted one at a time.
I was surprised how easily Davaeorn fell despite having run out of summon skeleton spells.
EDIT
At the FAI Jet 'Laya has asked for help. She has joined us. The party is now a bit unbalanced with three clerics however, I don't want to bid Gavin farewell as the romance is quite interesting.
We killed Jet 'Laya's sister who had become a banshee.
Gavin proposed and I accepted. I now have an engagement ring which is quite useful.
I was promised a good weapon and in addition I have been asked to fight a dragon near Nashkel.
The dragon was easy enough to kill but two baby forest dragons injured us before dying.
We found good loot and on returning to Beregost, we were given a mace of disruption.
We were told that the mayor of Nashkel has had his child kidnapped.
We rescued it with the help of CuChoinneach, killing a lot of undead including Lord Daerthmac and some vampiressess in the process. We have now been given a letter to take to Beregost. (I suspect that this is a ploy of the modder to get me to go there next.) We didn't loot the castle fully due to not having a thief. I vaguely remember the castle from a previous set-up.
From that game I remember that I had to leave CuChoinneach in the castle.
This time I managed to keep him. He is excellent against undead, so if I can take him into SoD he could be invaluable.
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WiseGrimwald
Habitué
- Messages
- 249
Journal of Valiant Continued.
After finishing that quest CuChoinneach became very buggy. (Largely due to his canine companion, so I dropped thhe two of them off and recruited Sren once again.
The party is now 4 paladins and 2 lawful good clerics. VERY RIGHTEOUS!!
After finishing that quest CuChoinneach became very buggy. (Largely due to his canine companion, so I dropped thhe two of them off and recruited Sren once again.
The party is now 4 paladins and 2 lawful good clerics. VERY RIGHTEOUS!!
Borco
Habitué
- Messages
- 203
I'm sorry to report that Orrin's run has come to an end at Firkraag's Maze. Forced to withdraw under pressure from a sextet of golems, our party ran into the respawning groups of vampires and orcs and got separated. It was a complete mess, we had Cursed Wounds all over, and all we could do was to have everyone quaff their emergency PoIs. At first, we managed to regroup by drawing the enemy away from the narrow corridors with Cerebus, however instead of calling it a day and retreating, I decided to rebuff and re-engage, effectively signing Orrin's death warrant. His party fought valiantly, but there wasn't much that could prevent them getting trampled by the golems at that stage.
I suppose that I just didn't have the will to try and salvage the situation, which might've been a sign of a certain fatigue and overall disconnect with the run - it's been an on-and-off thing for me, with long breaks in between, and I realized that each time I got back to it I was becoming less and less focused and interested. Despite the failure, I still greatly enjoyed the run as well as the party play. Having said that, I'll still be moving back to solo play for some time.
Regards,
B.
I suppose that I just didn't have the will to try and salvage the situation, which might've been a sign of a certain fatigue and overall disconnect with the run - it's been an on-and-off thing for me, with long breaks in between, and I realized that each time I got back to it I was becoming less and less focused and interested. Despite the failure, I still greatly enjoyed the run as well as the party play. Having said that, I'll still be moving back to solo play for some time.
Regards,
B.
Serg_BlackStrider
Habitué
- Messages
- 89
Now, that's quite unfortunate, @Borco... :'(
Nonetheless, it was great run, as usual, and a pleasure to follow!
Long breaks during the course of the run is a common issue, I believe. Myself included. Most of those are usually abandoned with the remaining few continued with a considerable efforts and strains of will...
Nonetheless, it was great run, as usual, and a pleasure to follow!
Long breaks during the course of the run is a common issue, I believe. Myself included. Most of those are usually abandoned with the remaining few continued with a considerable efforts and strains of will...
WiseGrimwald
Habitué
- Messages
- 249
I agree. That's what happened to my last run. I went on holiday and couldn't reconnect afterwards. As with Borco, there were already issues so I abandoned it.
WiseGrimwald
Habitué
- Messages
- 249
We completed Otho's quest. Quite tough, (We had to use about 3/4 of our blue potions). We could have avoided some of that if we had buffed more often perhaps. We were rewarded with quite a bit of experience and a lot of +1 weapons and armour. We will keep them to sell in SoD as we currently have plenty of gold. We also need to stock up on potions and green scrolls so perhaps we are not quite as wealthy as I first thought.
In order to get Fergil Trollslayer safely out of the dungeon we had to leave Jet behind, so having left Ferthgil with his brother, we will have to re-enter to get Jet back into the party.
In order to get Fergil Trollslayer safely out of the dungeon we had to leave Jet behind, so having left Ferthgil with his brother, we will have to re-enter to get Jet back into the party.
Borco
Habitué
- Messages
- 203
Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Introduction
Technical notes:
Game version: BGEE 2.6.6.0 (no SoD)
Difficulty: Insane
Mods: SCS (v34.3) with all tactical and AI components; BG Tweaks (cosmetic changes)
Modified SCS components: Giant Spiders (Tactical)
Eager to start a new game, I checked my portrait collection and quickly came up with a few character ideas for Rissa - she'd certainly be a half-elf and a mage multi-class, though I was unsure whether I'd prefer her as a cleric or as a thief. With Orrin's debacle still fresh in my mind, golems were currently No. 1 on my list of enemies and thus, eventually, I drifted towards the cleric/mage multi as the golem specialists.
I do like my clerics neutral, since they get the best of both worlds as far as Holy Smite/Unholy Blight is concerned and since Azuredge is not on the menu anyway. As far as Faerûn deities are concerned, Oghma - the god of knowledge - seems to be an apt choice for any cleric/mage, and especially one that grew up in close vicinity of his temple inside Candlekeep’s walls. This will have no bearing whatsoever on the actual gameplay, other than possibly allowing me to justify a bit of meta-gaming here and there on RP grounds.
Rissa's starting proficiencies are slings and staves and her arcane spellbook comprises Blindness and Find Familiar. Unlike my previous three characters, she doesn't get any personalized item - Rissa's a big girl and has no need for such. The only thing she requested before stepping into Candlekeep was a mage avatar, which was easily complied with thanks to the Avatar Morphing Script.
Let's proceed!
Regards,
B.
Technical notes:
Game version: BGEE 2.6.6.0 (no SoD)
Difficulty: Insane
Mods: SCS (v34.3) with all tactical and AI components; BG Tweaks (cosmetic changes)
Modified SCS components: Giant Spiders (Tactical)
Eager to start a new game, I checked my portrait collection and quickly came up with a few character ideas for Rissa - she'd certainly be a half-elf and a mage multi-class, though I was unsure whether I'd prefer her as a cleric or as a thief. With Orrin's debacle still fresh in my mind, golems were currently No. 1 on my list of enemies and thus, eventually, I drifted towards the cleric/mage multi as the golem specialists.
I do like my clerics neutral, since they get the best of both worlds as far as Holy Smite/Unholy Blight is concerned and since Azuredge is not on the menu anyway. As far as Faerûn deities are concerned, Oghma - the god of knowledge - seems to be an apt choice for any cleric/mage, and especially one that grew up in close vicinity of his temple inside Candlekeep’s walls. This will have no bearing whatsoever on the actual gameplay, other than possibly allowing me to justify a bit of meta-gaming here and there on RP grounds.
Rissa's starting proficiencies are slings and staves and her arcane spellbook comprises Blindness and Find Familiar. Unlike my previous three characters, she doesn't get any personalized item - Rissa's a big girl and has no need for such. The only thing she requested before stepping into Candlekeep was a mage avatar, which was easily complied with thanks to the Avatar Morphing Script.
Let's proceed!
Regards,
B.
Borco
Habitué
- Messages
- 203
Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 1
We kick off the adventure by summoning Rissa's familiar, purchasing a sling and a medium shield (Rissa's base STR score doesn't allow her to equip large shields), and picking up the antidote potion. Sorry Firebead, I know that you hate those blue icons in your inventory as much as everyone else, but Rissa is a divination buff and so we've got to keep that Identify scroll of yours. Our girl bids farewell to the priest at Oghma's temple and finally hits the Sword Coast for real.
We strip Imoen, Montaron, and Xzar of their possessions and proceed directly to the FAI, collecting the Easter egg goodies along the way. Avoiding Tarnesh with Sanctuary, Rissa enters the inn to obtain the PoI from Jaheira and takes a rest to populate her RoW-boosted spell slots.
Let's talk about Rissa's early game arsenal for a while. LMD is both disposable and easily available, so there was not much to lose as Rissa tried to memorize the scroll from Xzar with her unmodified INT score of 17. She managed to successfully scribe the spell and already used it during the fight against Joia's hobgoblins. Even though LMD's going to compete for slots with Blindness, it's certainly nice to have a fast casting source of magic damage to complement our 1APR sling.
The belt ogre served as target practice for Rissa's Command. While her familiar can sneak in additional two attacks per round, she had purposefully kept it in her bag, wary of the potential xvart or wolf spawns in the area.
Blindness is a wonderful spell that's been a staple since Rissa's early days. As powerful as L1 spells get, we'll be using it to separate and/or disable our enemies whenever practicable.
Here's Rissa and her rabbit familiar, rocking three guaranteed hits per round for each Command.
Everyone's laughing at Magical Stone, but you can't argue with the fact that it does save you a sling bullet. Actually, if only it’s casting time had been shorter, it could fill the role of a situational spell disruptor given its fast projectile (alongside LMD).
While Rissa's spells are nice and fancy, nothing beats the thrill of kiting five hobgoblins with 1APR sling with no damage or THAC0 bonuses whatsoever!
For now, our most prized asset is Sanctuary, which saw its second use en route to Nashkel.
Rissa's first major battle involved Bjornin's half ogres - all in all, we needed 2x Blindness, 3x Command, 30 bullets, 4 charges from the Wand of Magic and two mighty rabbit backstabs to cross the finish line, however the magical shield and Rissa's clerical level-up were totally worth the effort here.
Back in Beregost, we delivered Mirianne's letter, Zhurlong's boots, and the Colquetle's amulet to their respective recipients and purchased sling +1 from the smithy. Our newly acquired Wand of Sleep was immediately put to use against both Perdue's gnolls and Landrin's spiders.
Having reached cleric level 3, Rissa's been eager to introduce her newly acquired L2 divine spells. Anyone interested in a sneak preview of Hold Person?
Thank you, Karlat! And what about Silence? Any volunteers?
Fantastic! But wait, we've got new arcane spells as well! You might've noticed that Shield icon already and here's more!
Shield and Charm Person are new additions to Rissa's arcane book along with few other multi-copy L1 spells (ProPetrification, MM, Sleep and Friends) that have been scribed under Potion of Genius from the FAI temple. For future spell learning sessions, Rissa will go for the more expensive Genius + Mind Focusing combo for 24 INT score, however with these cheaper scrolls we could afford the risk of only having 97% success rate.
While we don't yet have access to Invisibility, Rissa's transportation has nevertheless been a safe affair thanks to the ankegh plate that we had obtained in Nashkel earlier on. I mean she does complain a bit about the lack of comfort compared to her Traveler's Robe, but that AC's hard to beat, right? So yeah, counter-intutitive as it may seem, Rissa hikes in her plate and fights in her robes.
We retrieved Melicamp and deployed Shield, Chant, Sleep, and Hold Person to take down Zargal's crew. After that we hitched a ride to Nashkel with Barge.
Selling excess loot funded our second spell scribing session, with notable additions of Invisibility, MIs, Strength, ProFire, MSD, Vampiric Touch, and Skull Trap.
Korax and ProPetrification take care of the majority of basilisks. Mutamin is taken down by Korax under Strength and Chant, while Rissa provided healing support under Sanctuary.
Buffed with Shield, Strength, Chant, DuHM, Mirror Images and Chill Touch, we wanted to make Rissa’s duel with Meilum look cool and fancy. The truth is that with THAC0 15, -3 AC, and very few images, such melee approach is not a reliable option, at least not yet. Eventually, Hold Person and Rissa's skeletons won the day for us here.
We conclude the session by raiding several houses in Beregost under Strength + DuHM for some sellable loot (including bastard sword +1, the Stupefier, Potion of Heroism and Wand of Lightning) and our second PoI. Rissa's now off to Ulgoth's Beard.
Regards,
B.
We kick off the adventure by summoning Rissa's familiar, purchasing a sling and a medium shield (Rissa's base STR score doesn't allow her to equip large shields), and picking up the antidote potion. Sorry Firebead, I know that you hate those blue icons in your inventory as much as everyone else, but Rissa is a divination buff and so we've got to keep that Identify scroll of yours. Our girl bids farewell to the priest at Oghma's temple and finally hits the Sword Coast for real.
We strip Imoen, Montaron, and Xzar of their possessions and proceed directly to the FAI, collecting the Easter egg goodies along the way. Avoiding Tarnesh with Sanctuary, Rissa enters the inn to obtain the PoI from Jaheira and takes a rest to populate her RoW-boosted spell slots.
Let's talk about Rissa's early game arsenal for a while. LMD is both disposable and easily available, so there was not much to lose as Rissa tried to memorize the scroll from Xzar with her unmodified INT score of 17. She managed to successfully scribe the spell and already used it during the fight against Joia's hobgoblins. Even though LMD's going to compete for slots with Blindness, it's certainly nice to have a fast casting source of magic damage to complement our 1APR sling.
While we don't yet have access to Invisibility, Rissa's transportation has nevertheless been a safe affair thanks to the ankegh plate that we had obtained in Nashkel earlier on. I mean she does complain a bit about the lack of comfort compared to her Traveler's Robe, but that AC's hard to beat, right? So yeah, counter-intutitive as it may seem, Rissa hikes in her plate and fights in her robes.
Korax and ProPetrification take care of the majority of basilisks. Mutamin is taken down by Korax under Strength and Chant, while Rissa provided healing support under Sanctuary.
Regards,
B.
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Alesia_BH
Habitué
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Condolences on the loss of Orrin, Borco. I’m bummed for reals.
I’m glad to see you’re back in the saddle though, in your comfort zone, flying solo. Best of luck with Rissa!
I’m on a little vacay right now, without my computer. I’m heading back home tomorrow. The plan is to work my way back into Alena’s game within the next few days. I’ll keep you all apprised.
Best,
A.
I’m glad to see you’re back in the saddle though, in your comfort zone, flying solo. Best of luck with Rissa!
I’m on a little vacay right now, without my computer. I’m heading back home tomorrow. The plan is to work my way back into Alena’s game within the next few days. I’ll keep you all apprised.
Best,
A.
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