new game
 

probably of interest to nobody right but the forum looks lonely

after a bit of casual thought for a game that i won't abandon i've come up with the following:

BG1 NPCs only:
Minsc - will keep throughout -only melee option
Jahiera - briefly (died in chateau irenicus when mad with grief she went berserkly fighting and then stod on a trap)
Imoen - etc...

PC:
Mage (Conjurer) -> cleric

the plan is to go for Imoen as soon as possible (i usually delay as long as i can) and then to dual to cleric when i have a significant encounter with a god in a later chapter dream sequence

i also pledge to not use
traps
improved kitthix (and any of the improved weapons)
rings of invisibility
shield of balduran
deliberate spirit troll respwaning

i guess that's about it

Re: new game
 

going well so far - halfway through the asylum maze and am cleric(5) - i got up to 12 mage before i dualled (threw 100K XP away so i could dual at the right time too...)

i've been liking not worrying too much about power and not collecting all the best stuff - i did do the first troll in nalia's keep to get the easy booty and the ring plus the easy bits of the sewers (for the cloak, the rod and the wand) but that was it

quest wise i've just done the umar hills village quests and the slavers

oh, and i diverted to get the helm of charm protection as minsc was constantly getting charmed by vampires but that's it . . .

even one (improved) mind flayer is hard work with this party i've learned so the next-ish chapter might be tricky

learning point: getting ring of free action reminded me that it stops boots of speed working - this lead to the realisation that arbane's sword's free action*doesn't* - pretty nifty

Re: new game
 

Going along nicely, Armen - and it sounds like you're enjoying yourself too :D

Re: new game
 

i am :)

sad news is that Imoen got irreversibly killed by one of the monster paintings traps - it was a surprise when it happened but then i thought 'you know what? i can live with that' so it's just minsc and PC

in related trying-to-manage-with-just-a-low-to-mid-level-cleric news, i learn that greater command is not only party-unfriendly, it's <i>caster</i> unfriendly - good job minsc was able to rush up and kill the sleeping sahaguin while i dozed - good spell though especially as i won't be able to use the wand of cloudkill for some time yet . . . i've only got two slots though so if i'm going to make a dent in these (improved) guys i'll have to rest a lot or think of something else - a frontal assault on even one leaves us both stunned and, very shortly after, dead (i usually have a bunch of HLAs a reflection shield, invisibility on tap and two charged wands of cloudkill at this point!)

UPDATE: looks like priestess and avatar could be a bit of a problem . . .

i think the difficulty of the next chapter will depend on whether i can summon skele warriors - i fear that i won't be able to

Re: new game
 

ok - it took a bunch of reolads and three resurections to even sneak round the outside of of the city of caverns taking out as few groups as possible

currently working out on the batting cages at the start of the next chapter

Re: new game
 

done the main gnome quest - Minsc is level 13 and i have my first level 6 cleric spell

on my first experimental trip to the western tunnels i tried to cheese the beholders there with Sanctuary and Blade Barrier but they dispelled (or removed) it and then i died - slowly, cautiously, and laboriously will have to be the way i think

Re: new game
 

As a long time member of C.R.A. (Chronic Restarters Anonymous) I hope your 'quest' is succesful :)

Re: new game
 

noooo

i cleared the western tunnels, tidied up the enemies outside the city, spoke to aldalon, entered the city, had the conversation to start the first main UD quest, left, dealt with the party (all of which took a fair old time), returned to the city, rested, went to the interecption site

nothing

no sola, nothing

went back to the city, and he's on the platform doing his 'i am preoccupied go away chat' - rested for another 24 hours (i'm only supposed to have 12) - nothing

goddammit!

my last hard save without the problem is before i did the western tunnels

<sighs>

if anyone has any ideas before i go back several hours (or make myself a kenasi->thief) i'd all ears . . .

Re: new game
 

What about autosaves?

Re: new game
 

last autosave was leaving the city on the way to discovering the problem - hard saves were earlier :(

thanks though

Re: new game
 

{hangs head}

new kensai(15)->thief has done all the quests before heading to the final chapter

and stopped

new MC cleric/ranger is on the way to nalia's keep . . .

Re: new game
 

having an issue i haven't had before

using slayer change to beat (improved?*) faldorn (multi-stronghold mod) works as normal

after the battle i'm still taking damage which i can keep on top of for, what, a couple of rounds and then whatever state of health i'm in , i instant die - happens whether i 'rest in the grove' or don't

there's nothing in the battle text to indicate where the damage is coming from

any thoughts?


* i don;t remember if i took the faldorn compnent out actually but i think i probably did, anyway . .

Re: new game
 

It sounds like you're taking damage from staying too long as the slayer. If you get the message about 'losing control' it's your last warning

If you''re changing out of the Slayer shape after defeating Faldorn it's possibly a bug.

Re: new game
 

i wondered about that but hadn't had anything like it before - i'll have a try to see if i can change back quicker but with the cutscenes and dialogs i'm not sure how

thanks a lot

Re: new game
 

Um, completely unrelated (and yes, I agree that you should try and change back quicker)... When I saw this thread it occurred to me that I had a game in Chapter 3 that I had sort of forgotten about, and now I'm replaying the game. Forgotten how awesome it was, and finally getting around to finishing that pesky Anomen romance through ToB.

Saved a lot of the major battles and quests for the endgame, and now I'm upset that I did- it's way too easy to do it with a party, but I get bored when I solo because I miss the banters, interplay, and party comments. If only there was some sort of middleground... Also, maybe finally giving BGT a try? Who can say?

Re: new game
 

it's a great game, as we all probably think, but it's also one of the few that my rubbish PC and even worse monitor can cope with so it's pretty much the only game i ever play

in my last game i never got bored of the ease and novelty of a high-level cleric/ranger sneaking up to groups of (improved) undead <i>including</i> liches and just blowing them all up - so satisfying after the low-level hoping-the-fear-would-expire-before-i-died