Journal, part 3So, our break didn't last ... oh well, maybe next time.
Saladrex, falls to prebuffed creq whacking with non-magical weapons. it doesn't even get adhw away. We have active 3-4xregen per attacking character though. And we use a potion of magic shielding, for sladrex maanges to breach S/M. Ooh! Staff of the ram here, defender of easthaven and girdle of fortitude!!
Forge : Noble Staff of Earth (ole!), Flail of Defending & Wounding, Girdle of Lordly Might
Golem ambush at Machine of Lum the Mad, muah. DD + S/M tank throughout. no problem, none.
Rock & Garrock, meh - just whack away.
Machine of lum the mad, mr for neera, vagrant takes str, dex + con + cha. we don't touch int+wis, as we don't really have a use for those.
Demon Messenger. They literally have 0 chance vs our tanking capabilities. Some troublesome breaches though. Neera doesn't get breached, she's under SI:Div+II, that's nice!
GBU finale, we prepare immensily. send in wizard eye to scout the area. Summons block the spot where ultra is desingned to spawn, pushing it a bit south - so more surface to attack. Whack ultra before it gets dispel away. Separate elementals while we're whacking the ultra & lure 2 away from Auriel. Auriel tanks just one. Buff Auriel (protection from fire/cold/electricity/acid) + ih + triple/quadruple regen + entrophy shield. Milk all golems from the 3 elementals. Take wish:rest half-way through. Would have probably made it without the wish:rest as well, but it brings certainty. The S/M is such an amazing tank, it needs maybe 2 skins during the whole fight and it tanks an elemental almost throughout. at a very late point we opt to healing ward + entropy shield dd, then cast absolute immunity on S/M and the elemental she was tanking goes for dd & S/M re-ups TPT + foreknowledge etc.
pick up jewel
pick up old stone from squirrel, since we forgot before
get axe, ole! (PC now has 270hp)final seal level @ wk, the first ambush - just whack the lich & skellys, dodge silence a little bit (S/M takes it under pfmw/skins/max buffs & protections)
Ancient Dragon, s/m takes nishruu, whack noble efreeti first (with acid damage), then nishruu with h2h (Vagrant, Jaheira, S/M, DD, Swanmay Queen, Clan Spirit + Noble Spider). Then Salamander, then just breach dragon and whack away. Dragon silences Neera, which we mitigate with Sense of Limbo. The problem is that even with silence removed Neera can't use quick items, and we run out of breaches a little bit. Luckily S/M has a few, so she takes the 2nd sense of limbo and olé, Dragon is no more. Half of the creq gets whacked by the 3xadhw though, luckily not permanently. So Shaman just raises them and off we go.
Golem ambush at final seal - level (4x elementals + 2 bone devils). Well, DD tanks throughout with double regen + protection from acid, ih and entropy shield. it's not even particularly close.
then directly to globe machine & do everything besides grave liches & geg+ultra.
maybe it's time to supercharge Vagrant, as in get Vagrant's axe? And should we forge great wyrm scale...?
Sell stuffs and forge improved cat figurine, monies at 355k
Whack cowled wizards, part 4 I think (IA, Foreknowledge and then 10xsunfires)
whack lich & city gates
whack spirit @ underdark (for magical pull)
Orcus, well, since we are quite vulnerable to silence, it takes a little bit of time. We maximize vampire summons, though we are not that well capabable of dodging level drains. Still, with the help of 5 restoration scrolls, we make it. Wouldn't have needed 'em, had we understood the pace of the summons better but, here we are. almost 140k of exp per character here. So summons fight orcus "north" while the rest of the crew hang at "south", causing numerous vampire spawns. Whack Orcus once it's out of PFMW's. We could have dispelled those, since our mages have more levels than Orcus but more fun this way. Forgot that a planetar could have restored us during the fight. dammit.
whack more cowled wizards, hmh, part 5
start the "ancient secret of suldanesselar"
mirrored vipers, swords in soothing fog reigns supreme
fight monsters in the mirror, whack an elemental pre mirrored windmasterf
Anti-Ranger, 4 barbarian essences used here for maximal straightforwardness. we try this a couple of times without them be's, but it's just so much easier with a straight whack. Note to self, get gauntlets for this fight. They would help quite a lot here.
** Status**
Vagrant (PC): Level 29, 274 HP, AC -16 (-23 with shield), Thac0 -15 / -12, (can reach 85%D DR)
STR 24, DEX 19, CON 21, INT 9, WIS 14, CHA 22
Stuff: Red Coral Armour, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Indigo Ioun Stone, Wooden Horse Necklace, cloak +2, Protector of Woods, RoP +2, Girdle of Lordly Might, Boots of the Ranger Lord
Weapons: Mostly Axe of the Lakesider +4 / Flail of Ages & FoDW
MPV: Greater Elemental Golem
total exp value 21% / 24%
percentage of total kill 22% / 26%
Minsc (Dwarven Defender): Level 33, 230HP, AC -26, Thac0 -17
STR 25, DEX 18, CON 19, INT 9, WIS 9, CHA 9
Stuff: Huskar Lord's Armour, Helm of Balduran,, Talisman +2, cloak +2, Ring of Gaxx, RoP +2, Girdle of Bluntness, paws of the cheetah
Weapons: Hammer of Thor / K'logarath mostly
MVP: Green Wyrm
total exp value 22% / 22%
percentage of total kill 23% / 29%
Jaheira: Level 33, 138HP, AC -8, Thac0 -3 (can reach -16 buffed)
STR 17, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 22, CHA 11
Stuff: Shadow Dragon Scale, Paws of the Furious Cat, Circlet of the Woods, Harper's Ward, cloak +2, 2xRoP +2, Girdle of Bluntness, Paws of Cheetah
Weapons: Golem Slayer or Yamato + Spectral Brand
MVP: Ancient Dragon
total exp value 29% / 33%
percentage of total kill 25% / 23%
Imoen (Swashbuckler/Mage): Level 9/28, 116HP (reaches 270 or so with RvE:+50% & TT), AC -18 (reaches -24+bonuses), Thac0 -4/0 (reaches -16)
STR 23, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 18, WIS 18, CHA 6
Stuff: Vecna, Hood of the honorless, Amulet of Master Harper, Indigo RoP +2, Rop +4, Cloak +2, Cloud giant girdle, Paws of cheetah
Weapons: Githzerai Blade / Rimed Club +4 & Waters Edge
MPV: Supreme Golem
total exp value 17% / 11%
percentage of total kill 16% / 10%
Neera: Level 29, 89HP, AC 0 (30% resistance to magic / fire / cold / electricity / acid)
STR 11, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 18, CHA 11
Stuff: Greater Robe of Invocation, Bracers of defense AC4, Obsidian Ioun Stone, AoP, Rop +2, Cloak +2, Ring of Acuity, BoIB, paws of the cheetah
Weapons: Staff +3, Sling of Everad
MVP: Chromatic Demon
total exp value 6% / 5%
percentage of total kill 8% / 6%
Aerie (Shaman): Level 29, 130HP, AC -16, Thac0 -1
STR 20, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 14
Stuff: Aeries personal item (AC 1, +2spells per level, -3 save vs death), the brawling hands, crimson ioun stone, heart of mountain, 2x RoP +2, Cloak +2, Stone giant str girdle
Weapons: Noble Staff of Earth
MPV: Viper Queen
total exp value 2% / 2%
percentage of total kill 2% / 3%
**
Neera1st: Armor, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, Shield
2nd: Agannazar's Scorcher, Blur, Melf's Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Fear
3rd: Flame Arrow, Remove Magic, Slow, Vampiric Touch, lightning bolt
4th: Emotion, Greater Malison, Polymorph Other, Stoneskin, improved invisibility
5th: Breach, Cone of Cold, Lower Resistance, Spell Immunity, sunfire
6th: Chain Lightning, Improved Haste, Protection from Magic Weapons
7th: Limited Wish, Mordenkainen's Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal, prismatic spray
8th: Foreknowledge, Monster Summoning 8, Spell Trigger
9th: Chain Contingency, Comet, Dragon's Breath, Energy Blades, Improved Alacrity, MS9, Recast Vital Energy, Summon Planetar, Wish
*the most useless spels have been lightning bolt, armor, aganazzar's scorcher, improved invisibility & prismatic spray. would definitely consider replacing those with
armor => protection from evil
scorcher => horror
lightning bolt => protection from fire
improved invisibility => ray of fragmentation / fire shield red / minor disruptor
prismatic spray => spell sequencer
Shaman:1st: Armor of Faith, Bless, Doom, Mend Light Wounds, Spirit Ward
2nd: Alicorn Lance, Barkskin, Charm Person or Mammal, Resist Fear, Resist Fire & Cold, Slow Poison, Soothing Fog
3rd: Call Lightning, Dispel Magic, Mend Medium Wounds, Protection from Fire, Protection from Cold, Spiritual Clarity, Zone of Sweet Air
4th: Cause Serious Wounds, Defensive Harmony, Free Action, Mend Serious Wounds, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Fire, Spiritual Weapon
5th: Chaotic Commands, Entropy Shield, Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Mend Group, Recall Spirit, True Seeing
6th: Fire Seeds, Harm, Impervious Sanctity of the Mind, Mend Body, Primal Ward, Wonderous Recall
7th: Animal Summoning IV, Creeping Doom, Elemental Summoning, Greater Elemental Summoning, Ethereal Retribution, Fire Storm, Foreknowledge, Globe of Blades, Healing Ward, Implosion, Sense of Limbo, Storm Shell, Storm of Vengeance
Have not cast "fire seeds" not even once.
***
Stuffs left to do:
Mirror monsters at Ancien Secret of Suldanesselar (gauntlets + judgement day would help here quite a lot, especially since we are playing through this for the first time & on insane)
globe machine fights: Geg + Ultra & 4 x liches
Nasty Orcsies
Judgemenet Day fights11
Demogorgon
Zallanora
***Drowned Soul, real troubles here for we try this numerous times with ill preparations. Anyway, then we fix preparations (shield of harmony for vagrant, soa for dd, cc's & spirit wards for Shaman + DD (just to be safe). And other normal buffs, gs, ih's, pff's + blurs / images / ii / si:div for mages. Start, IA, 20x sunfires + 20x vampiric touches whack whispers while fighters whack ghosts. Summon Swanmay Queen "down" (west), drop ih + double regen + free action on to the queen. Jaheira whacks the elemental and then we whack the drowned soul, who is tanked by 3-4 swords + noble spider. If there was supposed to be a 2nd wave of spiders, we don't get to it.
Vagrant is 1500exp points away from reaching next level. Well, maybe we have the level then for the finale. Mirrored Golem. Very simple and straightd forward this one. Jaheira dodges initial purge and DD takes golem's aggro, it doesn't stand a chance. With only those things, we're like half way there
. CC in a few swords, DD tanks of course while we summon a queen and Jaheira + Vagrant take care of the elemental (,maybe 2 rounds or so, one CS from Jaheira). Then wait for the 2nd dispel and everyone moves in. Shaman with -2 (AoP + Foreknowledge) drops wards on everyone, Neera gives her IH and she spirit shifts. That's (8 Vagrant, 6 Jaheira, 9 DD, 6 S/M + 8 Shaman) about 37 APR with figher thac0s & damage on the golem each round. It doesn't get the 3rd dispel away. Ole!
Vagrant makes a level, Ole^2! And what do you know, it's elemental resistances are up to 75%. Which means that with dragon hat, we are at 100% (fire, cold + electricity). This is ooh!
Master of Mirrors.Jaheira can dispel it. And we can fry the mirrored whisperer spiders. Haha. This is going to be interesting. So we bring in a few swords, we have troubles here for we don't know the correct sequence to whack the enemy. Anyway, enter & mages go ia + si:necromancy, they are with CC's of goi+swords/trolls. DD goes to tank them spiders, with, no cast buffs as it doesn't really need em (DD has -11 to saving throws with defensive stance). S/M goes to buff Jaheira with PfC+PfF+PfA+PfL, then buffs herself. Jaheira powers up with holy power+skins. Vagrant summons the Swanmay Queen and the following elemental is whacked by Vagrant + Jaheira + the queen. Neera takes a few swords along and meets DD at the edge of the improved web's, where she first IH's jaheira + swanmay queen, then she 15xsunfire them spiders + finish whisper spiders with vampiric touches. Ghost's are finished with critical strikes from the DD. Then we 10xdispel the Master (Jaheira has 20% chance to dispel) but it doesn't work while Mirror Master tries it's best to do damage to the DD, who with BoiB+Batalistas passport+shield+helm is near invulnerable to Master's tricks. Then we whack the master and the last enemy spawns. We take Wish:rest here (the 5th try), Jaheira can dispel again and ole, now it works. Then we just summon another Swanmay, whack the elemental and the master. Done and done. We upgrade the axe. Vagrant now has almost 290HP's. óle!
***
We've played anti-ranger & mirrored golem maybe once before, but not the other encounters, they are new. Oh and RvE:Regen used extensively here as a prebuff with these. It helps, though since we have Shaman we would have made it without as well.*''
Nasty Orcsies.
Run #1. Prepare immensily. We don't exactly rock this for our pacing is off and we leave some abilities unused while straining others. Summons near the entrance with Shaman & Neera (so CS,Noble Spider in the start, then Greater Djinn, Swanmay Queen & Greater Swanmay). PC + DD + Jaheira + S/M whack enemies in pairs. Remove magic mages and then whack, priotize mages, then archers as the regular orcs are not a threat. Jaheira takes ox-tail belt + boots of avoidance (though she has protetion from missiles). Shaman takes cloak of the shield (in the start, the we forgot we had it). We make it on the first go but after 3/4 we are in desparation mode and pretty much out of resources, we try to get wish:rest (7 tries) but no. I think after we're out of remove magic's / limited wishes we try to PfC fighters and just wither whack the mages without dispelling them that much. At this point S/M gets whacked(luckily not permanenetly), she has -28 or so effective AC so it looks like the orcs get really lucky. We make it still by using almost everything in the repertoire. At the end, Shaman doesn't have a single spell left. Neera has only 5th level spells left, she's casting dispel's from scrolls. Jaheira though has pretty much all spells left. Thieves alchemy / potions of regen are really good here (which we don't have), as is Huskar Lord's armour, which basicly makes it possible for DD to focus only on damage dealing instead of AC maxing,
Run #2. Prepare immensily. Protection from petrification to everyone, potions of agility, potions of defence. DD takes belm off-hand. We switch contigencies, so both Neera + S/M have contigency on 50% HP left (stoneskin/pfmw). S/M also takes triple adhw on nearest enemy on 50% hp. Enter, Neera goes IA, S/M remove magic's, Vagrant + DD go to whack away Jaheira summons CS & Shaman summons the Smilodon. Mages are dispelled immediately via Remove Magic's and Jaheira/DD/PC move in to whack em. Sometimes S/M joins as well. We usually take mages down with a pair of fighters. Summons are near the entrance, we start with Clan Hunter + a few trolls (they get death spelled easily) + Smilodon, then include the Noble Spider + Swanmays, and after the first batch is out we take the greatr djinn alonf with Sunnis and ordinary Swanmays. Ar half-point S/M almost gets whacked, she is saved by the contigencies though. We absolutely dominate this throughout this time, though near the end we are very, very thin on resources. We try to get Wish:Rest here but no, we don't get it this time either. Still, we make it without anyone needing "recall spirit" but towards the end we are again much, much out of all resources.
Globe machine liches, they don't stand a chance.
Globe machine Geg + ice golem. S/M takes initial purge and PFMW's. Golems target her. Everyone else is in the next room. Wait for 2 rounds or so (until next purge) and start summoning an army - it takes about 6 rounds or so. An army, as in a planetar, noble spider, greater djinn, clan hunter, sunnis, 3x earth elementals (summoned before S/M faced golems), Swanmays (2x normal, 2x greater + queen) Smilodons and a troll or two. Buff everything with as much as we can (GS's, some elemental protections, IH's, regen for swanmay queen + greater swanmays etc.). After the 3rd purge or so spawns start racing towards our army, where they are whacked. Neera turns a few ambers into chickens. Then DD goes in, GEG aggros DD (at this point the fight is won), DD lures Geg (+ a gem) away from Ultra and after the next purge our army goes for the ultra, which falls within 2 rounds or so, in the meanwhile DD has finished the gem. Then it's just 5 ambers + coin + gem remaining (and the GEG, which is on DD), Neera turns 2 ambers into chickens and swanmays whack one while the rest of the crew whack the rest. Then we get conveniently immediate purge to DD and we just move in and whack the Geg. It has 0 chance. 12 spawns, I think that's pretty good.. Not sure of there was more, probably not - they came out quite fast at the start.
Mend Group yet again comprehensively overblownly effective here. This was intense.
***
Remaining actual fights:
Judgement Day
Zallanora
Demogorgon ***
We use the keys and get some level ups
Defeat the holder of the club of detonation
Hive Mother crew ( this used to be one of the toughest fights in the game .... not so much anymore )
Forge Noble Staff of Fire + Great Wyrm Scale
Defeat Azamantis (we forgot we had impervious sancity of the mind, which we should have tried here - not sure if we get all of the spawns as our summons accidentally whack azamantis)
Enter demo's lair, have a chat, guide vigil knights to Demo and make levels again.
Judgemenet Day fightS/M fully buffed with -31AC vs crushing (& skins & all elemental protections) starts vs the elemental, the rest go after demon prince's summons. It takes a few tries before we find the correct rhytm. the S/M is an amazing tank, it can easily affor to re-up foreknowledges while tanking an elemtal. Half-way through we get another elemental, who we lead to fight the S/M. It's quite nice, elemental spawns coin/gem, we whack it, re-up, whack demon prince's summons, summon, whack spawned cin/gem. in a pinch the S/M can easily tank 2 elementals + a spawn or two. We re-up spells continuously through limited wish (it recharges remove magic's & skins). We get 10 spawns or so.
ZallanoraDebuff + fry em with sunfires. We don't bother milking golems as we don't get anything from them.
**
Crew around 9 Mexp (+/- 150kexp). From level 30 (sorceror) to level 35 (Jaheira). We should be ready for the demofght.
***
DemoMax prebuffs, max summons. So we start the fight with 2xearth elementals, 2xTrolls, 2xSmilodon, Noble Spider, Greater Djinn, Sunnis (staff of earth), 5x Swanmays, planetar and CS (max buffed + PFF). In addition to normal buffs we Take RvE:Regen + mental agility for Neera + Wish:IH's for everyone. Random buffs GS's (Neera has it), PFF's, RFaC etc for summons. Aerie the Shaman starts with Spirit form + favored of the spirits (but they just get breached).
Elementals go for Kazuuyl / Belcheresk, trolls for st kargoth, the rest stay back. CS (with all innate buffs (SoA is amazing here) + pff + regen + Shaman's healing ) takes Demo. Both Mages go IA, Jaheira dispels Rozvankee (and a smilodon + Swanmay, which are on Rozvankee), DD takes remove magic alone. Debuff Nulonga (and whack with magic+non-magic weapons), st kargoth with debuff+4xLR+ (spell triggera+LR) acid damage (minor sequencer + sequqncers), debuff belcheresk + lower resistances (trigger 3xLR + LR) and whack with rest of AA's + MM's. Then breach + secret word Rozvankee, and our "swarm" (PC, DD, Jaheira, S/M + smildoons and swanmays) whacks it onto oblivion. Re-up IA for Neera, debuff/LR/breach kazuyl. Summon a plantar, who start immediately healing Sunnis/CS/Smilodons. After Kazuyl is down, it's just demo left. And we still have
CS, Greater Djinn, noble spider, both greater swanmays + swanmay queen and both smilodons and a few trolls and the planetar (#2) left(we summoned when we had the chance), . Demo gets one wave of abyssal escorts / noble mariliths away. Shaman is tremendous as she is healing almost entirely throughout the fight. She gets breached in the beginning but we don't even have time to re-up skins. At the end mend group is amazing.
No barbarian essences used. I don't recall the crew using a single barbarian essence throughout the mod so far (edit: we did use em for anti-ranger). Also no need to wish:rest.
They had no chance.
Tree of life Irenicus
Well. Since Neera can now -5 we just turn the golems into chickens and whacl Jon. DD tanks ofc.
HellWe don't bother to milk golems any more. Just summon an army, prebuff a little and whack away. Neera, even with -4, is just do effectice she's a little nuts. And ofc. Shaman is now -2 (or -3) (-1 + circlet + we can foreknowledge). (Edit: we play through it again and milk all golems).