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

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

I've decided to import her into BG2. If she's going to have any chance at completing SoA I'll need to experiment a bit. I think I'll just play her off thread, and then maybe give her a fresh start in BG1 later.

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH I'm sorry to hear that, especially since you've already made it through the Palace! We were certainly looking forward to catching up with Alastria in Athkatla. Bummer. Anyway, she's been great fun to follow and I hope that at least she's made your layovers more digestible! Enjoy everything Peruvian in the meantime!

 

[Borco]

I think the play is shaman first then switch to the mage ASAP once Liia's Remove lands.

Makes sense - I was certainly glad to see the shaman go during the opening round, as Defensive Harmony can make things go quite slow on the offensive.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Enjoy everything Peruvian in the meantime!

My sleep schedule is a little out of whack, so the plan was to play today as a means of keeping myself up until a reasonable bedtime. Once I'm adjusted I'll surely start doing other things.

I don't intend for this to be a super touristic trip, though. I spent three months in Peru a few years ago. I did all the touristy things then. This time I'll just be living here, more or less. There may be some room for play in my schedule. We'll see.

If I do resume play, my guess is that I won't come back to Alastria. The changes to Polymorph Self kind of ruin the kit. I don't know what David was thinking. The original version from the pre-EE days needed a nerf or two, but it was well thought out and made the Transmuter kit complete through SoA. You had a low damage, high APR option, the sword spider. You had a high damage, low apr option, the ogre. You had a +3 magical weapon at a viable APR, the flind. Finally, you had a mage counter, the mustard jelly. It was a nice quiver of options, allowing a Transmuter to build a cohesive strategy with a viable attack avenue against each type of foe faced. David's version, in comparison, is a hodge podge of gimmicks. I'd hoped I'd appreciate it more if I spent more time with it, but the more I play with it the more I hate it.

My preference would be to have the original version back, just with the EEs nerf to the sword spider's poison. The lack of a save on the poison effect always seemed like an oversight to me. That needed to be fixed. As for the EEs nerfs to the APRs, that was a mistake. The original APRs on the flind and sword spider forms might have seemed high in the abstract, but when you factor in the opportunity cost -shutting down your casting- they made sense. The polymorph forms need to have a comparative advantage, otherwise they'll go unused. In the cases of the flind and the sword spider, the elevated APR was their advantage. With the APRs pulled back, there's very little reason to flip. 2 APR is the same as Firetooth or the Boomerang Dagger. Why would I shutdown my casting for a 2 APR form with unremarkable damage when I can just use a 2 APR 2d4 dagger and retain the option to cast?

 

[Borco]

My preference would be to have the original version back, just with the EEs nerf to the sword spider's poison. The lack of a save on the poison effect always seemed like an oversight to me. That needed to be fixed. As for the EEs nerfs to the APRs, that was a mistake. The original APRs on the flind and sword spider forms might have seemed high in the abstract, but when you factor in the opportunity cost -shutting down your casting- they made sense. The polymorph forms need to have a comparative advantage, otherwise they'll go unused. The elevated APR was their advantage. With the APRs pulled back to 2, there's very little reason to flip. 2 APR is the same as Firetooth or the Boomerang Dagger. Why would I shutdown my casting for, say, the flind form, when I can just wield Firetooth +3 and retain the option to cast?

The reason why's I'm sticking to SCSv34 is that the changes introduced by v35 seem to drastic. I appreciate it's a hassle to have multiple installs, but you in case you'd like to give it a shot in the future then you might want to consider reverting to pre-v35, where the EE Polymorph: Self is ok-ish.

 

[Alesia_BH]

The reason why's I'm sticking to SCSv34 is that the changes introduced by v35 seem to drastic.

I do wish David had stuck to his original light touch philosophy.

As for the Polymorph issue, there must be a way to just revert the spell, rather than switching back to v34. The problem with that approach is that the EE's version is a little anemic. That's what motivated David to tweak the spell in the first place.

I'm not sure why the EE team felt compelled to nerf Polymorph Self as hard as they did. It's not like it was wildly overpowered. Back when I played the original Alastria, everyone thought Polymorph Self was useless. People came to appreciate it eventually, but it was still a lightly used option. All the nerfs achieved was to further weaken the already weak transmuter kit and reduce the incentive to explore a lesser used flavor pick.

 

[Borco]

Alagar, halfling bounty hunter: Part 10

By defeating the doppelgangers in the Palace, Alagar has reached level 10 at 160k XP.

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With no time to lose, he rushed through the Thieves' Guild maze and the Undercity under invisibility via Sandthief, reaching the Temple of Bhaal with his buffs still intact. It couldn't have been a more fitting opening to the final battle than this!

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Four arrows later, our dispel finally struck.

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Alagar managed to find a secluded corner of the temple to hide and then introduced himself to Diarmid. I'm sorry we didn't have the chance to talk at Candlekeep the first time.

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We follow up with a Firebreath potion and make a long loop to check who else has made it to the party.

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Good, it seems we have a quorum. How about some backstabbing action?

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zzz...

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At that point in time I was semi-expecting this next Firebreath to crit miss as well.

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Alagar then switched to Arrows of Detonation and managed to finish Angelo.

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ProUndead -> Hide in Shadows -> Aule's.

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Two more Arrows of Detonation fired at Tazok take care of the invisible Semaj.

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Tazok is then treated to a combo of backstabs and acid arrows.

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I wasn't sure what exactly we'd like to do to Sarevok, but in the end backstab -> 1st PoI -> backstab -> 2nd PoI -> backstab -> 3rd PoI -> backstab -> 4th PoI -> backstab worked out just fine.

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See you in SoA!

Regards,

B.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note of Alastria's Game:

I reverted SCS's changes to Polymorph Self and Shapechange using an install option. I also partially reverted the EE's changes to the flind and spider forms by modifying the CRE files. The flind's original APR of 3 has been restored. The spider now has an APR of 4, albeit without the innate haste effect that added an additional attack, yielding a final APR of 5.

As for the EE's other nerfs, I've left the save on the spider form's poison effect. I've also left the EE's nerf to the spider form's weapon speed factor.

I typically eschew modifications that advantage the play, but I feel these adjustments are fair- especially since I intend to use them with the Transmuter kit and the Transmuter kit only. My character will still be extraordinarily weak. She'll just be weak in a manner more in line with the original adventure.

I'm still not sure if I'll resume posting on Alastria, but the character interests me far more with these modifications. David's changes were under wrought. The EE went over board with its nerfs. The customizations I've made strike a good balance, in my estimation. They restore the utility of the flind and spider forms while addressing the one truly broken thing about the spider: the ability to nip and go at speed factor 0, applying a poison effect without a save.

Does my approach make sense to everyone?

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Does my approach make sense to everyone?

You might know that already by heart, but for me personally everything that makes a game "more in line with the original adventure" is perfectly sensible.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Agreed.

It’s less a modification that advantages the player and more a restoration. Further, my version is still substantially weaker than the original.

I think it works.

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH That feels just about right. By conceptually sticking with the original game, you're ensuring it's still going to be sufficiently relatable to others. Personally, I've always struggled with things like custom kits etc., because I often find such wholly new stuff confusing and then I tend to quickly lose interest in following such runs, although I fully appreciate that someone else would find it interesting. At the same time, your changes are subtle enough to preserve the overall balance of the game. IMO with these two boxes checked, you should go with whatever might make the game more appealing to you without any concerns whether it's sufficiently kosher.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Btw, Borco, I see what you mean about v35. It has changed a lot. I noticed some of those changes in Alena's run, but I missed a lot of them, simply because Alena's crew steamrolled through most encounters.

v35 is definitely tougher on solo characters. I'm enjoying it so far, but I do think Alastria's odds would be better in v34.

As for Alastria, she's doing surprisingly well. She's made it to level 15. No deaths so far, but she's hasn't really taken on a significant challenge yet. The Unseeing Eye, Planar Sphere and Planar Prison are up next. We'll see how she fares there.

I have no idea what to expect from v35 ToB but I imagine it'll be brutal for a transmuter. I'm sure it'll never rough even with reloads. I'll need to relax my restrictions if she's to have any chance at all.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Btw, Borco, I see what you mean about v35. It has changed a lot.

Me too stay away from v.35 for the moment not only because of all those somewhat controversial modifications but also since it's not bugless/polished enough for my personal taste yet. My runs are always very slow and when updates of the mod are coming out like every couple of days or weeks it feels very frustrating... And reinstalling mid-run is not an optimal way either. So I still have a working setup with v.34.3 (compare this with .21 versions for v.35 already) and I don't think I'm going to switch to v.35 anytime soon.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Makes sense.

I've been satisfied so far, honestly. I haven't encountered any bugs, and I've been very pleased with the behavior I've seen in some encounters. He's definitely been plugging holes. I've found myself thinking on my feet more than usual. That's partly because I'm playing a transmuter, but it's also because he's come up with some effective counters.

All told, I like it but it is harder.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Btw, I don't intend to post on my current run, but a minimal reload Alastria run could be in the cards semi-soon.

Does that sounds interesting, everyone, or would you prefer a no reload attempt with a viable character?

 

[Enuhal]

In my experience, the bugs really only come into play when you allow the IWD spells, specifically the couple of very new ones (the ones that have been in for several versions by now all seem to work just fine) - some of those didn't seem to work as intended when I tested them, and as a consequence, I have been using basically none of these except for telekinetic storm, which works just fine and is too useful not to use it with a full installation (mostly as an AHDW alternative for the enemies that are now immune to that spell, and for illusionists). Enemies rarely make use of these spells either, though, so after I've stopped using those that I found to be buggy after my testing, I never encountered any serious problems.

The only problem I really had with the newest version in my last SCS run was the fact that there are some points in the game where camping supplies (a new resting limitation system, for those who have never played that version) aren't available (For example after the Fall of Saradush until you make it to Amkethran), and if you're low/out of them at these points and are caught off guard by that, you can get into unexpected spots of real trouble. I think there should be a way to store these as items (for example in your stronghold and the pocket plane) - though, to be fair, now that I know of this danger I would propably be able to prepare accordingly.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks for sharing, Enuhal. I'd be interested in hearing about the issues Serg has encountered. Somehow I doubt he's using Icewind Dale spells.

While I've been enjoying v35 so far, I don't really have enough experience with it to weigh in. I'm a casual player these days. I've only done a few runs in recent years and I haven't even finished v35 yet. Alena, my canon party cleric, is still on hold in Suldanessellar. As for Alastria, she hasn't even made it to Spellhold yet. Those are my only two v35 runs.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

I'd be interested in hearing about the issues Serg has encountered. Somehow I doubt he's using Icewind Dale spells.

I've not encountered any issues with v.35 since I've not tried it yet myself. It’s something like with Boris Pasternak and his "Doctor Zhivago" - "I have not read it, but I condemn it anyway"...

It's all about the fact that my experience with software and especially games, being released during some recent years, taught me to stay wary about them. And I don't even start playing new games until at least some patches are released. With SCS v.35 it was all about the fact that it already has 21 sub-releases/patches, each of which includes a significant number of corrections/bug fixes. I simply don't like to play with a version, which is still 'work in progress'.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alastria v Mencar and Co: A Sample Battle Plan

Playing a transmuter can feel like an exercise in regression. Without Abjuration spells the player can find themselves nudged into beginner's tactics, like cowering behind summons or blasting away with AoE spells from the edge of the map. That works, for a while, at least, but it isn't very fun. If I want to be a sloppy mage, I can do that with any kit. I want to be a transmuter.

I'm still finding my footing with Alastria, but I've developed a few battle plans that highlight the Alteration school. Here's one example:

Like the original transmuting Alastria, Alastria v3 relies heavily on Power Words to neutralize threats. In SoA transmuters fare well against warriors OR mages. They struggle when facing both at the same time. Power Word: Silence is a good way to separate magical and physical attacks. Here we see Alastria opening with a Power Word: Silence on Amon.

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An Alteration spell, Improved Haste, lets Alastria finish Amon before he can Vocalize. When fighting mages Alastria typically stocks two PW:Sils.

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With Pooky negated by Alastria's saves and Limited Wish baby globe, we're facing warriors now. The Alteration school grants Alastria two options here. She could polymorph to a melee form and pull her Tenser's Trigger, or she can maintain spacing with Teleport Field. This time Alastria chose to keep her distance, pulling her Teleport Field x 3 Sequencer.

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Alastria lost a few MIs while awaiting her Telefield, but her Stoneskins are holding strong. Now the fun begins. Malison ->Sphere of Chaos x 2.

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With a double layer Sphere of Chaos churning away, and Alastria tossing Disintegrates and Polymorph Others at -6, Mencar and Co aren't long for this world. I had been hoping for a post telefield flind form beatdown of squirrel form Mencar but he didn't survive the Sphere of Chaos.

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Orcslicer falls to the Sphere of Chaos as Brennan head for the exit. Alastria v3 is still a work in progress, but I am starting to enjoy her.

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Best,

A.

Btw, a few more stylish kills leveraging the Alteration school.

Torgal falls to a Tensered flind.

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The Unseeing Eye succumbs to the uber-devious Mustard Jelly + Victor

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[Borco]

Alagar, halfling bounty hunter: Part 11

Here we are at the beginning of SoA Chapter 1:

With Imoen on board, completing Irenicus' dungeon was relatively easy, albeit somewhat time consuming as there was quite a lot of hit and run involved.

The item that we missed the most from Alagar's BG1 days were certainly the Boots of Stealth - his MS/HiS skills are still slightly underdeveloped, making his stealth less reliable than we would have wished for. And because Athkatla is full of PoI quaffing rogues and mages with illusion spells, we'll want to invest the next 4-5 levels into Detect Illusion before we start improving these further. We've already made a note to try and deliver Mazzy to the Five Flagons as early as possible so that we can get a pair of Boots of Stealth (even prior to the ones in Mae'Var's guildhall).

And here goes our first kill - the lightning mephit in the generator room.

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We dismissed the djinni and moved on to the first duegar group in the NW corridor. The sequence here was Lightning Bolt -> Chromatic Orb -> Alagar's backstab.

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Our successful teamwork continued against the mineral mephit.

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While the newly acquired Staff Spear +2 isn't as fast as the good old Aule's Staff, its damage potential is very decent and the higher speed factor is partially offset by Alagar's proficiency in the two-handed weapon style. The only downside is the piercing damage, which means that we'll also have to carry around a magical crushing weapon for use against skeletons, golems, and the like. Fortunately, there's quarterstaff +1 to be found in the next room to cover that. Staff Spear backstabs cleared the way here.

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In an ideal world, we should also be using crushing weapons against anyone dressed in chain mail, but firstly I'm generally very bad in keeping track of what armor type we're fighting against and secondly Alagar's often enjoying the THAC0 bonuses for attacking from stealth, meaning that THAC0 is usually lower priority than damage when it comes to increasing our chances for landing fatal backstabs.

Talking about fatal backstabs, that's exactly what we did to the duegar trio in the corridor leading towards the sewer room.

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The same applies to the steam mephit.

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And the otyugh as well? Yes, sir!

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This one's Alagar's personal record up to date.

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To change the pace, we tossed our first special snare towards the duegar guarding the portal. All three survivors got slowed and picking them one by one proved to be an easy task.

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We retrieved the Claw (for some reason the Cursed Item icon doesn't show on Alagar's portrait) and we proceeded to the library for some quality time with AoE. Web came first.

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As soon as the log announced the arrival of reinforcements from Ilyich's group onto the scene, Imoen used her Fireball scroll. The few webbed survivors were finished with our crossbows.

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Even though the majority of their crew was already dead, Ilyich and his mage were still lurking in the storage room further ahead. Alagar fixed the mage with his special snare, while Ilyich was treated to a backstab.

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The cambion? *Yawn*

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All that remained was to deliver the acorns, recover the Chaos Blade, loot Ellesime's room and jump into to the portal. We used Imoen's Haste to outrun the security golems, however after suffering some minor damage from Alagar's pre-set traps they never bothered to show up.

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Having reached L11 in process, Alagar got an upgrade to his traps - normal snares now deal additional poison damage for 3 rounds, whereas his special snares have become slightly stronger (with an additional 1d8 damage), imposing Hold at -1 save vs. spell instead of Slow at -4 penalty. If we could choose, then we'd prefer to retain the Slow traps due to the massive penalty and the fact that immunity to Slow is much less common among enemies than immunity to Hold. Anyway, the career of a bounty hunter is what it is and for now we'll just be grateful that Otiluke's traps are still five levels away in the future.