There's a slew of game threads on the forum I know, so whether this one will be different enough to warrant it's existence - I can't tell. If people dig it I'll continue and if not I'll give up and cry myself to sleep like I have done on many many lonely nights.
I'm not really into writing in dramatic prose, so I'll be mostly be deconstructing the fights in a dry technical way. I will however have lots of pretty pictures.
So without much further ado.....
OK, so I'm putting myself up against it by playing with a 2 person party. Naturally I'll use the two beardiest characters available to the discerning BG-onaut; the triple class f/m/c and f/m/t. The f/m/t is from a bg1 run through so he is tomed. If you think this is cheesy then I don't know what to say to you (yeah it's possibly cheesy but I am at heart, a power gamer, and I love weighted stats). Also I should point out at this juncture that the only third party mods I'm using are the recommended ones from ease of use, recommended by sikret's very own brain (oh and multiple strongholds).
So I collect my fully bearded characters and begin, dashing through irenicus' dungeon in the same way one million BG2 players have done before me. If only some saint of the modding community could make this godforsaken exercise in tedium even moderately interesting. I think my main issue is going across the full distance of the first floor a full 3 times to talk to the c*cks*cking dryads. So yeah get out into athkatla and run through the circus in the same way a million BG2 players have done before me (won't bore you with the details). Got a tasty rep point though.
So I talk to the shadowthief-contact-man (on the tip of my tongue and begins with a "G") and enjoy a truncated chapter 2 cut scene courtesy of ease of use.
Imoen is dead to me and the concept of her rescue meaningless, but I nonetheless feel compelled to give this stranger exorbitant amounts of money. Irenicus stole my cash because he is a greedy bald ***ker, and my only choice to get the prerequisite funds is the colourful combining of helping people out with ruthlessly efficient murder and corpse robbery (alright that's the end of my roleplaying).
So anyway, I run around the copper coronet and nab the gloves of pickpocketing, kill the paedophile dwarf thief and move onto athkatla cemetary. There are a few map-stuffing type quests here that are low on content and anyone can do; the priest and the kid, the ghost kid who wants his teddy back, the zombie and the buried chap. Again this is stuff I said I wouldn't waste my time with sooooo finally, lets move on to the meat of this walkthrough.
SLAVERS: FIRST ENCOUNTER
I leave the graveyard and it gets interesting; some slavers are looking for a happyslap victim to post on youtube. That's right, the first dreaded encounter and me without any equipment and hardly any experience (oh I picked up namarra; my f/m/t is long swords and the f/m/c is flails; both dual wielders). This could of been hit-or-miss, usually I have at least one potion of invisibility on me to break the first chaos spell (which ruins you). So I reload and get some buffs up. It's important to note no time passes when you travel between the different areas of athkatla, so you can buff fully for this encounter. I used chant, holy might and haste.
The main problem is the first two spells cast by the slavers will easily knock out a low level party. So I do my best to interrupt them or minimise the damage they cause. This time around I used the wand of fire from the 2nd floor of irenicus' crib to interrupt the greater command from the cleric, because I have no invis potions I have no choice but to suck down on the chaos spell and hope my saving throws hits; it does and so the fight is decided. Although, I didn't just stand there like a dope with both characters sucking their thumbs, I ran away with the f/m/t (who will henceforth be known as nasum) when the mage targetted him, usually it's the closest guy who gets targetted. But the point is you split up your group so only one saving throw has to be successful.
With two people I'm far too weak to win an all out brawl with the six slavers, but I am prepared. The best spell in the game at this low level is emotion, very few enemies are immune to it and it's devastating when it works. With this in mind I bought two scrolls from the merchant in waukeen's promenade and here is the result for you:-
Yeah kind of lucky to knock everyone out except the mage, but then again I cast emotion twice and I had hold person memorised in case that didn't work. Overall a simple fight. I noted that the mage has scrolls that she won't use even when her memorised spells are exhausted and it makes sense to do so (2 breach scrolls and a stoneskinned attacker).
Ok I'm tired now; more to come.
