Twillight's playings - Page 24

twillight · 09-12-2017, 04:31 PM

There isn't many games nowdays that worth to bother.
Everything is either some Quake-engine FPS, or console-only, or multiplayer crap overfested by microtransaction. Everything is infested with pre-order, dlcs, and whatnot anyway. There's no story, just transformers-explosions.

So when it got adiscount, I invested into this, which looked like a flash-game which you actually should find and play online...
And it mostly is that, except longer. To be honest, much longer, as each "quest" you take (the basic concept is to make a party in the town, go to dungeoncrawling quest, repeat) takes like 2 hours real time. Somewhatless when you get more familiar with things.
Because as all games nowdays this one lacks manual too, despite desperatly in demand of one.

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There are various buildings in town, which all will be open on "week 5", aka. day 5, aka. after you are returning from the 5th mission. And they mostly don't worth bothering.

There's a building to recruit. Every recruit is free, comes with 4 random abilities from 8 of its class, and every hired goon canbe dismissed without fuss.
The thing you must know though that there are a pletora of classes, every "week" the pool to hire from refreshes entirely random, and you MUST HAVE 4 person to send on a mission no less. If you have less than 4 person available, that's game over, and the game does not tellyou this!
So expand the "weekly" pool to 4 asap, then mostly expand the storage-for-recruits. When you're kinda established, you'll also be able to improve the basic level of the recruits.
Which I have no idea what it does as the game does not tell it. It depends on some kinda XP, which seems to be related maybe the size of the dungeons, and maybe the type of quest you take, but otherwise I have no clue.

The buildings otherwise offer such things as:
- buy random artifact: they are overpriced, and you'll be likely swimming in artifacts either way
- the tavern and the abbey offers lessening stress. The totally do the same, even more all three type of actions inside give the exact same benefits. There's a small chance of something bad to happen when taking the actions, and that in a minor way tends you towards the abbey, but otherwise really not worth to bother.
- there're buildings to improve: weapon, armor, skills of course. They only provide minor adavantage, so don't bother for a looong time.
- there's a graveyard, which only has decorative function.

The basic gameplay is around these factors:
- kinda limited HP, so you need to kill fast, stun the last enemy, and heal back if available
- lots of stress: same as HP: you gain stress as fast as wounds,and your buffer is VERY limited. Given that the dungeons are friggin lasting forever, and most things do 30 stress per hit (your buffer is 100, so good luck), you won't just be able to rely on the town to heal it back. Killing things fast seem to make this factor way less of an annoyance though.
One of the problems with this though is the limited inventory-space. There are a great variety of supplies to bring with you, but the stress-factor and the Diablo-level small inventory makes most of the obsolate, and you'll have to rely on abilities instead. So bring 1 slot of torches, 1 slot of food, and 1 slot of shovels to every mission, and that's seems to be it. Oh, bring treasure chest keys too, and drop them when you run out of space.

Oh, how much is "1 slot"? That depends on what kinda items we're talkin' 'bout.
Torches: maximum 8 per slot
Food: 12
gold: 1750
statue: 6
painting: ?
deeds: ?
shield: ?
shovel: 4
treasure chest key: 4
there are other stuff which you'll likely NOT bring with you: bandage, antivenom, holy water, etc.
Whenfinding various gems consider their worth, and the fact they are way less common than pure gold.

Oh, shield, statue, painting and deeds are currencies in the game. You use them to improve your buildings.

Oh, good to know that any unused consumables are LOST AFTER EACH QUEST. I mean each try of a quest. And quests randomly refresh every "week", aka. returning to town (you can abandone mission any time, which means no reward, only carry back the stuff in your backpack, and you gain stress, because you constantly gain stress even randomly, because the designers thought that's funny or something).

Before I forget every action is set to either leftclick or rightclick, but the game doesn't really teach you what is set to where, and there's no manual to learn it.
The game also feasts on computer memory, so alt+tab will kill your fun.
Actually the game tends to stuck in the memory, so sooner-or-later it'll overflow anyway, demanding a reboot.
To add to this there's a plethora of interactive object, and w/o manual you'd constantly want to alt+tab. Especially as doing the wrong thing will add stress scores, becase the designers thought it's funny, even more they added random abilities to the characters at random to auto-interact with those objects, because if you callyour game"rogue-like" you don't have to worry about game-balance, right?

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Putting these aside, here're things on the classes:
- Vestal: heals things. It's nota good healer at all, but heared later each hit from the enemy will put you on "death's door" meaning 0 HP, whatmeans the next dmg will kill the character. So lategame this otherwise pretty useless looking crap will be most important, as it canheal the entire party, making them always 2 hit targets (every other healing is one-target ability). Bestposition: 4?
- Plague Doctor: deals out Blight DPS (heared later Blight will be countered with everything being immun though), and can remove DPS from partymembers. Bestposition: 3-4.
- Occultist: its bestability is an unreliable healing which has a pretty high maximum value, what can practically fullheal the target easily. Also can deal out some damage if not needed on healing,and third way can stun or move an enemy from the back to front (the back-enemies usually are ranged and have annoying and strong abilities). Best position: 3, but canwork in 4 and 2 too.
- Man-at-Arms: it candealout some buff and debuff too, but its main use is to take the damage on itself which'd hurt another character. Pretty dumb character if you ask me.
- Leper:
- Jester:
- Houndmaster:
- Highwayman:
- Hellion:
- Grave robber:
- Flagellant:
- Crusader: It is your average dumb paladin. Can't so shite at position 3-4 though. It has some raw physical damage output, and once per battle it cangive you 20 light. Best position: 1-2.
- Bounty Hunter:
- Arbalest:
- Antiquarian:
- Abomination:

twillight · 29-12-2017, 12:51 PM

Current day games are just wasting your time.
They literally exist just to pass time into nothingness. They give you nothing in return. No satisfaction, no story, no nothing.

And there isn't any variety anymore.
You either have some generic FPS with 1HKO rule on you (even the primitive oldschool games gave you 3 lives), or they are literally flash-games which can be found for entirely free only a bit/lot longer which is like expanding a 20 minutes South Park episode to 2.5 hours feature length. They just don't work.
Neither do the infinite-price minute-transaction-based MMOs.

Where is the next Monkey Island, Fallout, Total Annihilation/Kingdoms, or even Gorky 17, G.O.L.E.M., Time Machine, or Maniac Mansion, Worms, Heroes of Might and Magic 2/3, Might and Magic 6, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft, Resident Evil 2 - I don't know, ANYTHING good?

twillight · 15-01-2018, 07:57 PM

At least, an attempt.

This is Hard diff, so I go the easy way. What's the easy way? Choose a character with useful skills. And go for an easy-to-handle build.
This means I won't bother with mages, and as"survivor" aka. rogue, aka. thief is a weakling (the female variant starts with good skills though), that leaves warrior. And the male one, because that's The Supposed Character. It starts with both the skills you get an extra point in for free just by saving and reloading. Yep.

Now on the skills: there are aplenty, but they fast can be thinned down.
Bolded skills are available from start, other have to be learnt later either bya teacher, ora skillbook, or by achieving proper character-level. There'sa button which shows all skills (except Divine tree) independently from clvl.

#1 Powers of Matter:
- all these skills cost mana, which is pretty bad. Most of them are attack-spells, but I can attack free of cost by weapons, so nah.
- telekinesis is a utility spell here, heard you'll need it on lvl 2, and that's it.
- do NOT use polymorph from these, 'cause instead of duration, the spell is permanent, whatmeans it is gamebreaking.
- Hell Spikes

#2 Powers of Body and Spirit:
- Wizard's Sight is useless
- Bless costs too much
- Restoration: THE healing spell
- Withering Curse: the enemy will resist this, don't even try. Most enemies will have a lot of Spiritual Resistance, soall skill related to that is bad by nature. How bad? Any enemy with less than 50% Spiritual Reistance can be killed on sight with a skill, that's how bad the situation is.
- Aura of Guarding: why not just use Restoration?
- Magical Might: meh
- Spellshield: again, use Restoration whichdoes the same
- Fade from Sight: just quaff a potion instead

#3 Elemental Powers:
- all these are attack-spels, thus useless to us.
- avoid Freeze, it isnot just too strong, can also crash the game if used on bosses. Also aviod the attribute on weapons for the same reason.
- Meteorstrike

#4 Power of Summoning
- these spells are either too weak, or too strong. Also demands specialisation.
- Summon Demonic Aid might kill an important NPC related to the main quest, so avoid
- Life Leech, the only non-summonic skill of the branch is Spiritual Resistence Related (SRR), thus avoid
- Summon Vermin is availble only at the start, and I man, it is infamously weak

#5 Path of the Specialist:
- all skills are ready from the start here, except Shield.
- man, the sword option is just overpowered
- Hammer is SRR
- bow/crossbow are pretty useless, given the screenis small, and the enemy is fast
- shield is ... ok I guess, but chance-related. It is at least not elemental damage

#6 Path of the Ranger:
- Elven Sight is the skill if you get annoyed by the Fog of War. Convenience-skill, but the best from this type.
- True Shot: bugged in all version, does nothing.
- the rest is various arrow-related skill, which is already bad. They are also not boosting your weapon, but replacing its damage. AND they cost mana. So nah.

#7 Path of Warrior's Lore:
- Augment Damage a damage-boost. Nothing fenomenal, but reliable, and very helpful at the start.
- Repair frees youfrom going to the shops and spending too much money. 1 point is enough.
- Stun: SRR, but still ok
- Augment Defense: a good skill to invest
- various (elemental) weapon damages: some extra damage, and even that only by chance. Dump here the remaining points I guess, otherwise not much.

#8 Path ofthe Warrior Gods:
- Enchant Weapon when it comes to play is ooooh-yeah!
- Feign Death: useless
- Boomerang: it is a bad skill. In theory you could make Diablo's throwing amazon with it, but too complicated.
- Shadow Warrior: a summon
- Spiritual Damage: some extra damage, but always works what is a plus.
- Reflect Missiles: bad
- Death Strike: SRR. Doesthe same thing as the Hammer Expertise, but for all weapon.
- Flash Attack: useless

#9: Path of theThief:
- Assassin's Kiss: this is the"Dagger Expertise" skill, but aside a chance to double damage - works on every hit - does not give further bonuses.
- Lockpick: requires consumable lockpick item above the skill level, and randomfactor, and all. And to get lockpicks when you need, is just not that simple. Ye, everyone wants this skill, but it is overly complicated.
- Pickpocket: yes, there are stuff to steal. No, this skill is not needed. It is a bit complicated to use anyway, and itis told you won't really have money-issue - unless you are a mage of course.
- Evade Trap: wouldn't have any use IF there wouldn't be some polymorph traps in the game, and they wouldn't turn you permanently to a rabbit or sg.
- Deadly Gift: you can lay traps with this. Two are garbage, the third is overpowered, and can evencrash the game at certain situations. Avoid.
- Elven Stamina: useless (unless you use the warrior's special skill a lot, which you shouldn't - getting sorrounded is BAD)
- Embrace Shadows: just quaff a potion.
- Poison Weapon: you need to craft potions for this, and recharge when depleted ... I just can't bother with crafting. Has the fame of being a strong skill though.

#10 Path of Lore:
- Identification: costs a lot of money and time, so invest here
- Alchemy: you can craft potions with it. You need 2 points in this to be able to pick up herbs/mushrooms. NEVER mix various size potions - they decreese in quality. Recipes:
health potion: potion + red mushrooms/herbs/cacti
mana potion: blue mushrooms/herbs/cacti
stamina potion: yellow mushrooms/herbs/cacti
poison potion (green): white mushrooms, rotten food, poison barrels, cacti
bright blue potion: temporary for +100 poison and -100 spiritual resistance, out of the Drudanae plant
Red + Blue = White:brings back mana and vitality points
Yellow + Blue = Black: invisbility
Yellow + Red = Orange: boosts strength
Yellow + White = Purple: boosts resistances
- Know Creature: only for casters. You spot the creature, pause the game, look at stats, choose spell... Inconvenient.
- True Sight: useless, especially if you are melee
- Blind: useless before applying 5 points, very-very good after that they say. Costs mana, and isa single-target spell, shich takes away from it in my eyes.
- Skin of Poison: same as Poison Weapon, but works if the hit you instead of you hit them.
- Curse: sounds ok.
- Necroshift: waaay to short duration.

#11 Path of the Talents:
- Traders' Tongue: effects prices. Should be useless.
- Ranger's Sight: use Elven Sight instead. Same, but bigger effect.
- Wisdom: absolutely garbage
- Charm: SRR
- Magic Barrier: c00l
- Aura of Command: way too powerful
- Heaven's Gift: free money, otherwise the skill tellsyou it gives garbage items
- Survivor Instinct: too slow. If you need healing, just teleport to a bed, and sleep.

#12 Path of the Divine:
- this whole tree is quest-related, so no starting skill option here
- translocate: comes too late to have any use
- Divine death: mostly useless
- Spirit Form: 1 point must have because the main quest demands it. Has no other use.
- Scorch: attack spell
- Heaven's Blessing: nice duration and effect
- Divine Eye: useless
- Temporal Storm: tooshort duration, andI heared it shakes the whole screen, making it inconvenient
- Lightning Cascade: attack spell

Crafting recipes of good use:
- beehive + honeyrack = drop of honey
- drop of honey + empty honey jar = statboosts, and 50 mana and HP heal
- two stacks of straw = Haybed. Combine two stacks of straw on the ground to make hay and then use as a bed. Hay can not be moved once it is made

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Playing through:
#1 you wake in a room. Basic rule of rpgs: get verything that's not nailed down. Actually, just get anything what is food, or has stats. The rest are not even option for sale. Glasses/jars are also option to take, because of alchemy.
#2 you soon find your first NPC, and are in a village. Basic rule of rpgs: always be nice to everyone. Another basic rule of rpgs is: save before touching anything. This time if you don't get told you are a thief, you can take that item (NPC must not look at your direction and/or not be too close, hard because most NPC follow you, and stay atfixed location most of the times).
#3 do not click on beds unless you want a full heal, and time spent. The game is (99% I heared) not time based though.
#4 there'll be an event nearby: an elf gets frozen. Try the door of the mage's house and talk to the elf again. NOW go and visit each empty house in the village - including the elf's. Loot. All house have a key in the village. DO NOT leave the village. Enter well, free the elf
#5
#6 heal the two patient. Do NOT talk to either the dwarf or the lizard before both patient are healed. Do NOT talk with the lizard - he gives a freepoint in restore, but you can reach lvl 6 in the village (in theory, I'm trying right now, ok?), so you should be able to put a point in it yourself, then get the second point from the lizard - else you'd have to wait until clvl 13! But you MUST make the healings before finishing the local dungeon.
#7 if you are that kind of person, still NEVER ATTACK CATS. Cats are good.
#8 thereare 2 ZombieJake Events in the village. Both times the guy gives hugh chuncks of exp. Problem is, he's though in melee. If you have the Restore skill it is way more easy, because you can heal a ton. But at least on the surface he can be chased around by bow, because you can run but he can't. You can get a bow by a second event of the village which you get when going near another house. There a shopkeeper gets threatened, and when you enter you get invited to a room inside. This means the shopkeeper leaves all his stuff ungarded in the first room, so take everything (usualy an armor, shield, bow, and some more stuff).

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Bow is required, at least for a while, that's obvious. Zombie Jake can be outrunned to start with. Also Skeletal Guardians who likes to oneshot you, and I see not the distance I'd've to walk to be able to stand against them.
Come to think of it, this "that's just too much requirement" is also true for all kinds of equipment. First, you need like 25 in agility to not miss too much. Second, you need like 25 STR to beat normal things w/o too much fuss. Then comes the problem: bows require 30 agility, hammers like 65 STR, axes 30 AGI + 60 STR... And there are zero maces to grab. Not to mention most equipment cmes with 1/1 durability and if they brake you can't fix 'em with slvl 1 repair...
Even a twohanded sword has ridiculous requirement of 40 AGI 65 STR. So don't be surprised if you have to fall back on fighting with brooms. Ye, those count as weapons. No, I did not have to use 'em... yet.

Either way, get 2 points in Identify for convenience sake. The Slasher will be ilvl 4, so that's how you know it you found it. It is a good axe, but not that impressive as you find 4 other axes nearby, and they aren't that much worse, and you CAN use the exp.

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Character build:
- you want to use the equipment right where you find, put your first points to get 2 Identify. Will report later how common higher tier stuffes are.
- third and fourth point goes into repair (the maximum durability does NOT drop, so 1 is enough for the whole game) and Elven Sight because you use bow, and you need to see where the enemy is. More is not demanded, and probably more than 2 point here is overdoing.

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Monster fighting:
- skeleton guardians are giant-size skeletons with axe. You can outrun them on a long corridor, or circle around in a room. They can onehit you, so use ranged attacks. Loose interest fast (low visual range), soyou need sight (1 point in Elven Sight = +2 sight does it)
- skeleton conjurer: summons skeletons and skeletal archers. Can onehit you. Use ranged attacks on miniboss versions. I think I founda "normal" quality of it on catacombs lvl 3 in the upper right corner (had low HP, died in melee).
- ghoul: again a walker, which likes to plant spider-traps around. Use ranged attacks. Its traps are annoying: you goclose, it activates and starts running after you, blow up on hit. You can only outrun it from one direction not both.
The ghoul usually loose interest at a point, face a walland stop moving. Abuse that. Usually will have a trap atits corpse, so save before looting.
- archer/caster skeleton boss: finda platform you can circle around. Its projectile will stuck in the platform (test to be sure), but your arrows do not.

twillight · 18-01-2018, 07:20 PM

I am different.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gpJJaYh.jpg" alt="" />

There was a ... actually I'm not sure who they were. I was pretty sure none down there should be there, so if they're there they have malevolent intentions, so I just started to bombard them with fireballs. And aganzanar's when it came to that (I found a wand of fire with 23 charges for both in my stash!). Roast in pieces.

Tamoko... Left. Hopefully no god will able to tell where she went.

And thus the story ends, and another starts, the same continues:

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VsFYsei.jpg" alt="" />

The trick is to paralyze the archer on the left (finish with arrow because AC, thac0 and sharevok issue), then make the ogre thief backstab you so he's revealed. He's slow, so can be executed by arrows. Sharevok shall be lured to the bottom left corner and shall be left there. Somehow I put a mage robe where Ring of Invisibility was supposed to go, but a charge from wand of summoning did the trick. Cast prot. from magic scroll and deal with the mage (aganzanar scorcher mainly from wand). Finally pummel Sharevok with arrows. Just realised all the magic missile thingies were useless, what'd've been better some more piercing arrows. And probably potions. and wands of monster summoning. Whatever. Let's fall into the Abyss.

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Awoke. Somewhere. Somehow. Imoen? Imoen is dead. Isn't she? How is she not dead? Why doesn't she go away? She asked shuld she go away, to which I said, "Alright, let's go", but she stayed. Why doesn't she let go? Just like her .. new belt? Doesn't let go either. Shoul I let got? I am ... hurt. Why is she not hurt? I'm the victim here.

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There are others here. Minsc? Traveling with him? He says so. That's not happened! Must be an illusion. Must leave behind. He's caged fortunately, so he's weak... No, he's strong, but insane. Let him go. He doesn't quarel.

[Where is Jaheira? Well, I didn't want her Harper Pin anyway this time. Isn't romances strange? You can get a bastard baby from Aerie, and you can only marry Anomen. This of course suggests all partner are sterile. Given that the protagonist creates an offspring, that concludes its not his/her fault. Interesting factis, you CAN have same-sex relations in the original game - if you cheatin the Girdle of Opposite Sex that is. Another funny thing the back-to-nature relation provides you material product, while the one from industrialised background results in tree-hugging.
Wonder what happens in theEE-romances.]

Imoen meeting a bunch of goblins ran away? Why? Why now? Where's the sense in that?
Out of sheer frustration destroyed a clay golem. That quaterstaff +1 proved useful against some othygh lazying around - could reach it from the balcony while it could not attack back. (drinking 4 healing potions, and keep drinking. At the durgars before looting only had 3 medium Hpotions left)

There was a cambion imprisoned. Free it? Why? Those are common knowledge always hostile. I don't want MDK, I want freedom!

Got through a portal. These have limited range - but what does this knowledge worth me? Getting from a place where I'm lost to another place where I'm lost - where's the difference?
I'm also running thin of life. When offensive spinning those mephit portals (what kinda id'ot puts those in their lair? Definitely a mad wizard were're dealing with 'ere) ran out of potions entirely, and only had half my strength!
To add to the situation: see, got this Sword of Chaos from that jinn. Says it belong to me. Says what?!? And despite its name it is the most straightforward thing here. This whole thing is madness. But whose?
Speaking of madness: some mad escaped clone was here too. Costed me m last Hpotions...
Not to mention: there was this guy, don't remember his name, never told me - saved 'im from a mephit. Did I get any thanks? No, he attacked me. I said: madness this is!
To prevent further damage to me when stumbled into a large group of goblins (and a mephit) used the summoning scroll I found within the complex. Darn, I miss my equipment! Got 2 kobold and an ogre, and they lasted enough to disable a trap on some bridge (well, they're summoned to fight and die. Never gave a though where do they come from, never will), and even to deal with a durgar.
And this kept going on. Like with that thing behind the glassed room. When it shaped form, I justwaved: I open the door. When it was open, I attacked it immediately.
Even stranger: I keep trying. Laconically offered to join the attackers near the ... entrance to them, exit to me. Of course they didn't know better and attacked.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8YNoJQc.jpg" alt="" />

And you think getting out ended the world going crazy? Imoen was out already, some immense mage-battling happened, and some fanatic mages ported in random dying one after another - then it all ended by Big Bad Boss getting BORED?
Whatever. Fine for me. Get lost you all. Just leave me alone!

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Entered the circus tent. Heared something insane going on in there. That ogre-elf shapeshifter surprised me - well, don't mess with strangers, that's the leston. I don't believe a second it was an illusion by the way. I mean those orcs, those wear illusin. But that halfogre-halfelf? Nah. She and her gnome friend bites the dust.

But these volks have some good inventions too: containers for stuff. Useful gadgets.

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I was minding my own business when some beggar force-begged me to some guy who really wnted to "help" me. Right. Nothing suspicious. Right, I have no choice. Ahha. Let me steal that funny-looking glasses you have, 'n onward to drinkin'!
At least I hoped so, but some pair of ruffians hit on me. Took two lotions to get rid of 'em.

Do I have "kick me" on my back? Stepping into the tavern just put me into another fight. The brag didn't live to regret it. His friends do. That guy "anomen" too. For the moment. Who is he to judge my way of life? The only court is Life, so you better take what Life gives you, and stop others taking it!
Got some quests I practically learnt nothing about, and to be honest of all this establishment the most exciting part was its serwers. Well, that's a +3 sword to me at least. And alevel.
Above went to free some slaves because I had nothing better to do, and doing them favour it was themwho obviously ment money. Which I needed for a whole bunch of reasons. The beastmaster had a load of 'im, luckily 2 shot of frost from wand solved that problem.

Went for the 5-finger-discount market, and got some spells, and a staff +3. Nothing that'd help my low number of attacks or better my high AC. Didn't even see anything that could help the problem. Yeah, that sword could provide a free Haste spell per day, but how long that'd last? Maybe as long as it took to find the ghost's teddy. Maybe some much-neglected potions?

Stumbled into the ShadowThieves too, started to work for them half-harted. Jelous of the vampires killing those thieves who make you bleed through the nose. Bugging the Harpers sound more fun.

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Walked around disinterested in any of the quests all the people tested on me. Well, some demanded immediate action, like that Uncle Lester, and making a paladin's life uneasy by forcing an orphan to him did worth the laugh, but in the end took a scroll of prot. form undead, destroyed the lich I found at the city gates (considered leaving the city, but nah,yet),and with the remaining time of the scroll looted some of the tombs in the graveyard. Aside a new level it gave me enough gold to stop worrying about the Cowled Wizards when I want to enter to houses. I mean why people have doors? If they don't want people entering, move to a dimension with not magic in it!

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Continued on working the thieves guilds. Was hard with my lvl 14 (15 after killed the mage).
The kill-the-mage part 1 is about to have enough HP, as most kills will be done by the Fire Mephits.
Part 2 has 2 golems (stone I had), and they are a nuisance. Cast Blur + Improved Invisibility. Start with 1 offensive spin, continue with defensive, hope you survive.
Have a summon ready for part 3, the mage himself. Go up, pause, cast Magic Missile to soften 'im up. Say you are just looking around, so you can cast a 2nd spell - the bigger the summon the better of course. Monster Summon 3 would work nice, or if you found a conjure lesser elemental that's good too. Whe the thing is summoned GO BACK one stairs and wait 30 ticks (watch the pendulum), THEN go back. Voila, his protection-globe disappeared, otherwise things are the same. Cast Aganzanar's Scorcher ASAP, use the summon as distraction. When the scorcher runs out switch to elementalarrows (fire/acid/whatever) to penetrate his stoneskin and prevent casting.
Though work, but after it the quest is a talk-walk. Aside the kill-MaeVar part of course. But as you don't actually have to eliminate the whole guild, I just drank some invisibility-potions to avoid most of the trouble.
The reward was... ironic. 10K gold and a Sword of Backstabbing.

With arrows - sword spiders are exception - hacked my way through spiders under the Graveyard, and a scorcher-from-wand destroyed the spawning-spiders at the entrance of the centre. Inside a single Sunfire delt most of the damage -beware as the priestess there has insane magic resistance and strong spells (but not many). Hacking or elemental arrows will do. Result: spider figurine AND Spell Immunity - can go for the berserker statue. Of course have a diamond (actually 2).
Hint: one bunchof spiders canactually be eliminated by leading them to the first chest and activating its trap - a cloudkill spell.

Remembered there are slaves to conquer ... I mean capture ... I mean liberate. Entering was solved by getting out of the boss' visuals and some Wand of Fear. Then charm the boss, and with him as distraction murder the rest of the slavers.

Remembered the Silver Pantaloons take away some reputation, so went there too. Act 3 starts.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WlPm2OQ.jpg" alt="" />

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/wOFxMy5.jpg" alt="" />

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QUESTION: What'd happen if I'd spend my gold and thus not have the money when showing up for the randevou?

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So many dead-yet-not-dead people. Xar. Edwin. Khalid. EVERYONE. Viconia*. Well, who cares for a drow to die? One less being threatening meself. Although I bet as they returned once, they'll return yet again. After all, if this is just a dream, and I dream it, as long as I'm not dead, they can eternal lie. Ye, death is a lie. Can death die? Can you murder murder?
I sure could murder that tinbox in the sewers. Nice armor he had. Shinier than 'is brain. The raksasha at least had enough mind to have some goons. Even I can have goons. I have a spider, a berserker warrior, this annoying sword, spell-creatures...

*: Actually, where's Viconia? She somehow did not appear this time.

Talking about spell-creatures: there was that imp... Which summoned an earth elemental... And some kobold tried to take advantage of the fight... I think I'd've lost w/o my beserker.
Patched up, and to calm down went to see how my report to the authorities payed out. Well, one hand the authority managed to kill himslef. At least his comrades coughed up some money.On the other there was absolutly no reward from reporting that unlicenced hag, his hired goons didn't even have anything iteresting on 'rm! Punny unenchanted stuuf was all! What did they think, those are outlawed too? Preparation Zero. And they call themselves adventurers.
Me? I'm prepared. Even wearing that funny-smelling armor found at the Tanner. Not that it has that much use, but looks cool, and does no restrict any of my abilities. That's a plus.

----------------

Found a Find Familiar scroll. Learnt it, casted it. I learn every single spell I find. Because then they are MINE.
Also finished in a single night Bodhi's first two jobs - the third had no deadline, aside a dead line, so why rush. Didn't even seen the country I'm in. I like new things. And as the 3rd job turned out to bring me the same place as one option form the 2nd would've, I'm glad I chose murder.
Did I mention if it depends on me, that Jan Jansen will rot in prison for good? That murder in a way too.

The umber hulks in the serwer lookd though, thus I invested into bracers AC3. Soon a bit regreted, as gaining illithium and melting it with the mace of disruption did cost a hugh chunk of money. Doubly felt cheated as realised Umber Hulks just die from cloudkill, and that's it. Life is hard. #FirstWorldProblems

I give the Thief Guild they had some pretty decent mages. Or just I did not have good enough saves. I needed to use up some random scrolls (Minor Globe of Inv., Minor Spell Turning) to dealwith them. Healing Potions are ever a good thing too, and they had goons with 'em, so Offensive Spin 'em while they were wasting their time on spells of no effect. On the other hand I'll need to come up something against Hold Person - annoying.
Then I realised I forgot the key, so went to check out Gaelen. Well, better late then never,after all he DID invite me, although BEFORE accepting Bodhi's deal. What an unfair world, can't have everything. It wasa detraction anway, I was only thining them out, 'casue I still had useful spells&stuff at me after the fight with Neb which took more than I expected out of me.
Then I had a weaird dream, where first a demon killed me (huh, it was just a dream, it'd be really inconvinient to be undead), then ... I turned to be an even stronger demon and killed others? What? And smeone calls that power? Power is to have stuff, not ensuring none else has them either!

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/czA2WYf.jpg" alt="" />

But this is even more confusing: "Helm is practical" - he said - "Take this Helm of Glory to further yourself" - he said. To a bard. Right. Nextto do their job had to wait, so I decided to investigate a door I found earlier.
The pirate of the Sea Bounty were more than I expected. I meanmore difficult. Had normalpirate treasure,what at this point... Enough ro say, we're no longer in Baldur's Gate. But what's the worst that can happen? I have to sleep once more before going after Haer Dhalis to get payed?
Anyway, the thieves of Lathander turned out a true insult, so things balanced out, and I went into the conduit. Arrive -> SunFire -> no problem with the welcoming commitee.

I didn't know you can save vs Detect Evil...

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/amQ1c0K.jpg" alt="" />

[As all things in the city contained beholders at this point one way or another, went to out]

In the De'Arnise Keep (yes, it took "ages" to get there Nalia, sweat girl with a mom who almost made marriage proposal to me) trolls were a nuisance. [The place is bugged to the core, the monsters showing up randomly, getting into permanent not-making-attack-roll loop and so on.] Golems were mostly ok [except when they delt 50+ dmg andI had to reload). With Boots of Speed I simply ouran the hulks. The guard captain could not harm my Air Elemental (from that staff), so all went excelent. Entering the throne room at clvl 20. With invisibility potion, so can lure out bosstroll w/o problem. Needs a good amount of buffs (Mirror Image is much adivsed), but is managebale.

----------

Prevented a mugging at the city gate. The guards there are entirely usless 'cause corruption. But why, oh why these merchants never have anything useful? Only +1/+2 equipments. And a coupleof spells. Atleast now I can summon Lesser Fire Elementals too, and my words (can) have power too in a way. But please dearreader don't fall asleap!
Either way it never cease to amuse me, I can sell people their own stuff. Especially if they are some elite sect of Helm guarding the Imprisoned One - whatever that would be. And the profit can be spent on such things as that Potion Bag. Solves issues.
Sadly not all issues. Those things inside the Keep looked too strong, I barely could fetch a book under their nose.

[Where'sNeeber?]

Trademeet is tyring. You go Trademeet. You go Druidic Grove. The spirit trolls can easily suprise you at their mound, so cast offensive spin to deal with them. Stumble into trolls fighting shadow druids. Let the two group weaken [also bring acidic arrows 'cause bug can prevent kiling the trolls either by acid or fire, but not both according to my experience]. Stumble into more shadow druids - they take back from their faces after a cloudkill. Sadly their leader don't stay to die. Then a pair of spore colony can easily overwhelm you with myconids if you don't offensive spin them to blast. (Alternatively try chain lightnings or fireballs.) Fight even more shadow druids. The Flesh Golem holds the two warrior up until you deal with the caster (prevent casting by magic missiles). Go Trademeet. Go Druidic Grove. Buy potions (I think this must be, as when I went with the genie's quest they "smelled" djinns on me and attacked, leaving no chance to buy stuff). Go Trademeet. Go Druidic Grove. Cast Stone Skin + MMM + offensive spin to destroy the raksasha. Go Trademeet. I was no match for the ancients in the crypt, but 3 sunfire wasno match for them. Oh, there's the issue of the skindancers too (you can hold the +1 rep for later in case you need to turn to Slayer). Go Athkatla 'cause theatre. Cast Limited Wish. Go Druidic Grove...

In the meantime took a short visit in Umar Hills - did not like the place. Those shadows annoy me (Hold Person).
Aran Linvail also had to have shadows. And somehow shadowfiends can negate sunfire in cases (bug)? Arrows still work. And demons too. That stupid thief brought in an actual demon. Took a look, closed the door. Wait until noises stop. Open door for situation.

There is a fun battle: Tarnor the hatchetman&Co. Bring 2 cloudkill or such, improved invisibility, MMM, stoneskin, some summon(s), wand(s) of lightning, and immunity to electricity. Do the preparation, then go in and cast a cloudkill/incindenary cloud. Back off (preferably wear boots of speed), and shoot lightning form wand to who follows. This is because these wands are bugged, and randomly release number of charges. That's a LOT of damage. If/when they get outof the cloud run through it and cast another. MMM any archer standing in the cloud. Use any summon as meatshield when needed.
It's spectacular!
Mencar Pebblecrusher wasn't that much, but there gained back the used wand of lightning and more, so it's fine, though preventing the thief from escape is always a hassle.
Valygar - what minions he had! Stronger then him! Still, divide and conquer worked, only had to support with defensive spin.

NOTE: my "do I even try to hit?" problemseems to be related wearing the Boots of Speed. With the bard's pathetic 1 attack per round it seems to add too small number of attacks resulting in the problem where sometimes you hit 3 times consequitive, other times not for thirty seconds. Suggestion: remove Boots of Speed when fighting in melee.

-----------

Planar Sphere:
With the body of Valygar I tookup from Valygar (at this point I justaccept things as they come) opened the Sphere he mentioned. It was obvious, as he insisted he can access it alive, the Cowled Wizards insisted they can when he's dead. And I don't need a phantasm who is me backstabbing me, so he was better to be dead.
Inside I shifted, but put together a golem (me?), met a part who was supposed to be long dead and insisted to kill the demon. At least "a" demon. Did so. MMM penetrates all. I must conquere elsewhere as I conquere/d the Sphere. A sphere is a world. I was at the center of this. But it is small, even if it has many wonders making it bigger on the inside. It almost mazes me. But I'm faster!

The journey was an experience though, widened my horizons. Went to the shops and brough marvelous items to wear. Vhailor's Helm, Shield of Valduran amongst others. Onto thee beholders! Those who only watch, reach nothing!

[Liches are dumbly implemented. They havea seqeuencs of spell, and they stick to it. This sequence usually includes Maze, an extremly short distance spell. So if you keep running around, you can arrow them down.
Also, it is urban legend that you can't use prot. form undead against Kangaxx. Sure, it won't start conversation - but is ready toreact you trying to talk with it.
Even if it would be true, bard has a familiar, and I bet it'd work with summons. Simply seeing the familiar/hostile being kicks in the conversation pattern. Figured out as I went to Shangalar under the spell, and it refused to come down the table. Afer weakening it with arrows called out my dust mephit, then immediately put it back. Instant win.
I won't go to the Guarded Compound as that offers nothing to my liking, and don't need the exp.]

Did I mention I destroyed a literal god? Ye, Amanuator is no more.

[At this point there's no real reason to detail the Shadow Lord's tale. Greater Mummies were hard to hit and could hit me, cleared the place using mace of disrupt + shield. Only snared at the dragon 'cause boredom.]

---------------

An overlooked opportunity:

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/beoylvA.jpg" alt="" />

Greater Werewolves are serious problem. I could not actually find a solution aside HLA-traps. Maybe this is where 2-3 point in two-weapon-style + extra-attack-weapon + offensive spin would be the "normal" way to deal.

The ending of the story of Windspear Hills remembers me of a book I once read and said: "This is not a fairytale. The final battle is between the dragon and the evil witchqueen. The good knight died at the beginning in syphilis."
It was a wonder of wonders, just like that wand... Or the play we're making at the Playhouse. First, I rewrote the script (using the notes Zeran's notes), now I rewrote the music too. Ok, here the intent was to replicate the notes, but perfect memory is only what youhave on Mechanus. And they said it got better maybe!Could have hire that famous musician, but he was already famous, right? Need to think on the future generation. And if Marcus' talent shows because I gave him a chance to use his already developed skills - canyou imagine how grateful he might be in the future?
#EvilIsGood

On the second level to note things are easier than they look, as the major threats are bound to their own realms. So arrows are foolproof. Hardest fight was maybe the desert trolls, as they came in group. I hate snakes, especially with ability to stun. Summons can help though.
(The chromatic demon costs 3 traps)

WK lvl 3:

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/dLKRUZn.png" alt="" />

room strategy:
- 3003 and 3011 are the starting area, no action here
- 3008: Do NOT make preparations, all buffs will be removed at arrival as with all Dead Magic Zone. Start hacking the weaker demons, so the big one has time to thin things out. If you are evil - and you should be -, you can't get the Purifier.
- 3004: wear Boots of Speed at arrival. Run back to the portal and hope only 1 dmeon follows. Try Ring of Ram(s) if two comes. Use defensive spin. If you come here early, you might wanna try using Staff of Strikings (only loose charges if hit). You also might consider using anti-acid equipment (Shadow Dragon Scale/Corthala Family Armor) for this fight. When the two closes demon is finished, lay down 1-2 traps, and lure the "slayer" on you. Don't forget to kill EVERYTHING in the room.
- 3012: this is a very good reason to be evil alignment. Make pact with them. They call themselves tanari (and by race they are), but they are actually baatezu (lawful evil) by behaviour. The other group in 3013 will fight you no matter what (as you'd expect from a chaotic evil group), and these are one of the hardest battles in the entire game!
- 3009: pretty impossible room with one "wild" solution. First, wear the Sensate Amulet for prot. from evil. Second, wear the Boots of Speed to give you ANYchance to hit something. Third, and this is important, wait for the "gate" wild surge to occure. The arriving demon will finally make sure work on the quazits (it sees the invisible).
- 3005: lay down traps in twos (maximum 7 traps) around the edge and lead them on 'em one-by-one. The highest priority target is the assassin (permanent invisibility, uses assassination HLA). Not getting hurt by whirlwind is actually easy, just run around a second in Boots of Speed. Leave the mage for final, and if you don't suffer held/stun by spell/wild surge, you'll be good. Special abilities work here uneffected.
- 3007: find them one by one. Use defensive spin.
- 3014: buff heavily. This time I used: blur, improved invisibility, draw upon holy might (specialability), resist fear (flute HLA - the flute is better then it looks, as if you use up any of the charges it does not disappear for running out of the charges of a certain type, unlike fire wands), stone skin, 4*mirror image (alternate casting this and offensive spinas they are running out), offensive spin until wraith is dead.
Also: tried using Daystar's ability, with pathetic result. Had to reload.
- 3010: more intelligent design than you'd expect. First: go to the bottom left portal. Be cautious, and "peak" out from them to see ONE of the two glaberzu here, so it starts casting. Both can try summoning either a fire elemental, or an ice salamander six times (not always succeed?). Lure those one-by-one to you. When the spells deplet draw the bosses one at a time. You'll need offensive spin OR improved haste (ring of gaxx(es)) to be able to hurt them more than they hurt you.
- 3013: with a strong(?) computer this shouldn't pose that hard of a problem. The basic idea would be stone skin + MMM + blur + mirror image, wear Amulet of Power + Robe of Vecna, cast 2-3+ death fog while running around, and everyone dies.
There are a fistful of problems though.
First, the demons respawn until you kill their "slayer" boss.
Second, the game just LOVES to crash. Too many death fog? (sometimes even 2 is too many at me) Crash. Enemy casts too many things the same time (they have lightning bolt, aganzanar's scorcher, and some arrows of erinyes)? Crash. You get HIT too often in a second? Crash.
Third: the boss can, and at times do go invisible.
So yeah.
My current solution was to cast wish for double time stop + improved alactricity option, offensive spin + improved haste, and throw all my MMM on the boss,recast MMM, throw it until time stop goes away. Boss is dead. Run arounda little until game-engine stabilises, finish the rest without problem (bone golems never appeared, only had 2 imps, 1 erinyes archer who obviously do not move around, and some cornugon who are slow thus vulnerable).

----------

lvl 4 is perfectly fine, things to watch out:
- anti-paladins hit hard. So focus on them, and don't let more then 1 at the same time. Use Defensive Spin to survive.
- if bunch of illithid + umber hulk gets to you, do offensive spin (or improved haste)
- against the orcs waste your mirror images
- traps against the dragon
- you only want to open the lower and upper left seals, 'cause they are the one giving you potentially useful items. This means you don't need to waste time with the pillars/orbs/monsters room. Use traps to kill the priority-targets. You likely don't want to finish all the monsters from the Great Seal, just survive long enough for pickups and leave through the gate, never come back.
NOTE: Nalmissra costs 1 trap, Ytossi 2, The Huntress 3. Also, this was when I reached clvl 40.

Ca. this was the time too shown the Sorceror's Bane.
QUESTION: out of curiosity said we must cancel the premier. I got entered the theatre,at the entrance, then the game stopped rolling. What should happen?
Either way, sold the theatre. Took my money, and even though it was an experience, I no longer need experience. And I have Windspear Hills to retire into. And if all else fails, I still have the deed for the Playhouse... Still, can't help but feel sad for Jenna:

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/V6rxA12.jpg" alt="" />

-----------------

Act 4

Suggested equipment to bring with you: staff of air, staff of fire, balduran's shield. Also,have 2-3 free space inyour inventory for convenience.

With my contact dead, I looked for a way to get the informations. So asked around the local tainted workers, and found a guy to murder. He asked, but never knew why. That's what you get living in Pirate City.
Actually, I considered just to slaughter my way in,for the rejection of the courtesan, but devided she doesn't worth the effort. Still...

The easier solution seemed to work through the cowled wizard. Those annoyed me already.Turned out it'sa trap, so chose the alternative way. Wish I knew... Still, that book offers me True Seeing once per day, freeing up a spell memorisation.

[wish I started with 1 more wis, and 1 less int. That way I would loose another int, and have no problem wearing Valygar's armor] But this is a dream after all...
[Also: with the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialisation the Boots of Speed work correctly, thus no need to be removed during fight. It erven gives you another 0.5 attacks properly, giving the two items 2 attack per round.]

Left Imoen behind. Idon't know anymore whatshe is, if I ever knew her at all. Yes, I DO feel empty, but I'm still me. And I'm sure I should not be Imoen. Not even in my dreams. I must be MORE! For someone who destroyed no less than TWO gods, has to be more!
But what was that transformation took place when facing Bodhi? Was that me? My true self? THAT WEAKLING?
Or was the whole thing just a dream? A dream of a god... A dream of mine? In the world of the shaugains the strong rules. So mus so, only the strongest live, as right off their city-border it's everyone for their own. Well, I can do that. Play the two factions against each other, support the madder one, inducing their self-destruct, saving my land. [Besides, that Wave Halberd will come in handy.]

QUESTION: why can the bard learn spells abouve lvl 6?

Act 5

The darkness of the Underworld was not enough to stop me. Maybe the fact how easily the Silver Dragon betrayed those dwarves inspired me through. Now it is dead, as well as some drow conspiratory. And the dwarves. And the kuo toa. And the illithid. And... This darkness is really a void.

[NOTE: the imprisoned mage is hard to kill. At a point it can simply decide he had enough and disappears. Prevent this by setting up traps tofinish the fight before it even starts.]

While I found the drow sity pretty multicultural, there's the question: what they have against healers? Ok, they don't like clerics. Who do. But why they do not have medics around?
Similar flaw was at the pirates: they had no merchants. I see the reason why (lacking private property toa degree), but c'mon!
They still had more in them then the stupid elves. I was NOT who merdered their trust!

[In Suldanesselar keeping alive the elf priest is a challenge. Cast improved haste, wait until you can cast another thing before enter, enter, get to the right raksasha - mage-, whack it to pieces before it cast any/more then one cloud kill. Reload if fail.]

Strange. In Suldanesselarr I got death AND victory. Just like that elf. What is if not proof this is just a dream? And I don't like dying. And I don't like getting pushed around. Why everyone assumed I was after either Imoen, or after Irenicus, or, if they dared to think, for by being a Child of Bhaal? Why can't it be about - me?
And now I'm in the Abyss. Amongst stupid little demons. Could be worse though. Could be better too. Could have looted Irenicus' body - if all this been real. Is it? Or this is all just my dying mind, all this illusion of grandeur?

[What IS interesting for the bard with the rewards of tears are to decide:
- Fear: good option sounds trivial. Aslyerferund Elven Chain is an option to consider thogh, but I'd go for better AC. Otherwise the weapon immunities practicaly have the same effect.
- Greed: factors to consider: Blackrazor is a nice thing if it works in your version, two weapon style. It likely does not effect those that'd really matter though (immunity to lvl-drain? magic resist?). Otherwise the good option is way more profitable.
- Pride: meh, anyone ever took the evil path? Sounds like playing a Fallen paladin/ranger...
- Wrath: in the original game the evil bonus is +2 STR and +1 DEX. Yes, it isn't CHA (prime stat of the class), neither STR (like at Deck of Many Things). The alternative could help you wear Valygar's and Keldorn's armor, but at this point you'll simply have better option than worry about them. Darn, I forgot to go and kill Anomen. I always do that!
- Selfishness: this is the hardest part. The bard's AC is total rubbish, so much so the bonus DO come in handy. The loss of DEX would hurt aplenty for the same reason, and even if negated by some exploit, there is the fact that bard can easily have a lot of magic resist where needed: can have 2 rings of Gaxx, can wear Carsomyr, and there is the Amulet of Seldarine, as well as a couple of other equipment (humanskin armor, Enkidu's plate etc.), so will go around with like 30% MR all the time, thus that extra 10% isn't THAT important, even if you dualwield, which I did not up to this point.

Come to that, here are some proficiency-tips for bard/kits:
- twohanded weapon style: the bard's thac0 is crap, and has low number of attacks, so better if every hit counts. Also helps with the bows (I think).
- quarterstaff: clay golems makes it a must, and there are plenty of good ones. There are ones with instantkill chances to golems and elementals too,and yes, if you are lucky, they work even on elemental princes.
- halberds: believe me, this class is a must have with the Wave Halberd. Efreets are already annoying with the constant respawn, but some salamanders later are really deadly otherwise. There are other good ones in the class too, like Dragon's Breath.
- longbow: these have more dmg/shot than the shortbows. But then it's mostly preference.
- short sword: throughout the whole series it is a solid option.
- twoweapon style: you'll likely put your points into this, on "why not" basis.
other choices are:
- dagger: starting in BG1 is hard, and that parthas very good knives in it.
- hammer: two option here: Crom Faeyr (25 STR, kills golems and trolls), Runehammer (immunity to leveldrain and fear)
- mace: not muchhere, primaly if you'll rely on Mace of Disruption for a period
- axe: axe of the unyielding is a solid choice (bonus AC, vorpal effect), also can free you from bows and their arrow-problem by throwing axes which include a nice one with fire damage (kills trolls)
- scimitars: I'm not familiar with these. I see an extra AC-one (Yamato), and the Scarlet Ninja To. Spectral Brand is a solid (although not great) choice too. I think I'll try this this time.]

----------------------

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/MCLSuXy.jpg" alt="" />

Now I understand this dream of mine. Irenicus is ME. I am the Exile. Or could be. That is what I fight, that is what I refuse.
But what is what I refuse? I become a god - or to not? Which is the monster choice?

[The fight with Irenicus I consider Strange Behaviour from the game. I put 3 traps on the other end of the room in front of the big door, 2 traps to kill one of the 4-armed demon which can stun, and 1 trap to put a red demon near-death. Wear the lowest AC armor. The battle starts, first killing the weakened red, then the other two, than the ... slayer remaining at the big door. This result in the victory-screen for some reason.
Laying down a 7th trap result in Irenicus still living after the four demons die, and the slayer,supposed project image does NOTdisappear when hit with Carsomyr. Also, seems Irenicus never actually go down from Near Death. So in theory you hold your 7th trap, put Irenicus Near Death using offensive spin - andpossible Improved Haste form Ring of Kangaxx -, then finish him with the 7th trap.
Also, I don't like this fight 'cause Irenicus can Maze you.
Other preparations: stone skin + mirror image, possibly Fire Shield Blue. Other than finishing Irenicus this fight is ok.]

...

[At the bhaalspawn-hunter you have time to put down 3-4 traps, so that's easy. The First Challenge is also very much doable, just watc out for the final wave's casters.]

I woke up ... Wherever. Sameplace ornot, there was a Solar. Said I have no choice. I want to strangle her.

--------------

[Thought having gold-problem. Cespenar works expensive,andI lost like 30K when playing with the Deck of Many Things. Not that it's anything that important, mostly Aslyferund. Well, I HAD problem until I sold all the soldier-weapons of the arrival.
Lastly, the tavern wrench left the inn and refused to talk to me - whatever, I think. Update: she went back after I visited the local mageand worked properly.
Hint: don't forget to aquire Scroll of Improved Haste to create Improved Cloak of Protection incase you need this.
The execution-quest canbe started and abandoned when stealing the shakti-figurine (not that it is any good) and the starfall ore.

Many enemies are weak, and if you got the ability, or whatever-armor you assemble, you canspare time if you do two weapon fighting.

As in the sewers you need to unlock a door requiring giant strength - you don't waste a spell justfor this,do you? - is a reason to carry over Crom Faeyr. I brought through 2 spellcontainer, 1 arrow bag, gem bag, bag of holding.

Gromnir is... Not much. The mage in the sewer has a darn Maze, so wear there resist magic. In the throne room suit for damage, get a stone skin, fire shield blue, and offensive spin. Aim for the mages and when theyare down you can cast mirror image along stone skin. Have your weapon do elementaldamage to bypass stone skin of tha mages.]

------------

Yaga Sura:

Master Wraith: try pulling out from the inside what you can. It is a good combination of casters and fighters. I used offensive spin in magic resistant gear, but that's just me.

Marching Mountains: easier than it looks. With a good AC armor you're mostly safe from normal giants (NOT if there are more than 2), so primaly concentrate on elite giants. Also wear Ring of Fire Control while here, and quaff a Potion of Fire Resistance.
You want to kill Imix, so I hope you brought the Wave halberd.

Siege Camp: Place 3-4 traps before the bridge, run in, hit Yaga, run ca. the middle of the bridge, whack yourself out of the spawning group, let's hope the casters with insect plague and such don't hit (that's mostly equals death. Might help to swap in Carsomyr), lure Yaga on the traps.

Challenge 2: make a symulacrum lay down the seven possible traps within. Can be done in 2 groups by distance - that equals 2 dead enemy instant. You can reach -23 AC here (I took the evil reward for Greed by the way), do so. You'll mostly be unhittable (only Tomoko has the thac0 for it, but she should die by the traps at spawning).

-------------

Abazigail:

- Mr. Son-at-the-arrival 's human form is a joke, his weapon is ineffective. So remove the stalkers, then hit 'im. I mean after you set a bunch of traps at the start. It is important to not destroy the human form by traps, else the game will linger forever.
The dragon form will wing you to your traps. Lure it on 'em and ta-duh.
- when enter the werewyvern is regenerating too fast, no matter whatyoudo. I hope you brought something with vorpal effect (ravager halberd/axe of the unyielding).
- swimming through the first tunnel brings you to some uber-salamander. You're in deep trouble if youdon't have the Wave halberd.
- avoid the eyes by drinking invisibility potion (or use ring of invisibiity, or similar)
- go and get the BMU when you can
- no reason not to let guard dragon live
- you must hit Abazigail's human form w/o traps (pretty straighforward, especially if you have the Scarlet Ninja To, just cast stoneskin, mirror image when needed along offensive spin, also use blur and fire shield blue as buff. Potion of heroism is also good). Then you'll need as many traps you can lay to get rid of the dragon form. Use scorcher ammo to get rid of the salamanders before the fight. Actually the dragon-form has 2 way to kill you: one is cast fear (you might try resis fear from bard flute, if it lasts through the human form), the second its breath which can oneshot even a total-HP bard (I have 167 HP).

Challenge 3:
swap into the BMU, wear negative plane protection from whatever source, and whack the slayer away as fastas possible (offensive spin + improved haste).
Come to think of it: so here I destroyed the Slayer inside me... Maybe this is related to giving a piece of bhaalpower to Sharevok? What "insignificant" part did I gave to him? Maybe - maybe the part that led to Bhaal's demise? That ultimate part of the power - which murders the last opposition: Me?

--------------

Sendai:

- just attack the huntsman, don't bother with the area.

This picture tells oh-so-more if you've seen some Bud Spencer movie:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/uOxdQkJ.jpg" alt="" />

- I confess maybe never did the spider passage. Neither now. If I have immunity to weapons, I'll use it.
- Ogremich can't hit -25 AC. Just a hint.
- Sendai takes FOREVER to kill. First: wear the BMU when enter, 'cause you NEED the AC, else Sendai will constantly harass you with Harm (target's HP instantly drops to 1). I hope you have immunity from Tears of Bhaal too... 'cause she has infinite summons at her final stage. Concentrate on HER, but stay at the door, and kill any drow coming from there when you don't see Sendai - this way you can save after every stage.
I'm not sure what's the winning condition at her final stage. She sure teleports and selfheal a lot. Whenever you can, hit her with two weapons (the extra attack the Scarlet Ninja To gives IS really useful). Whenever you can't reach her but can go to her platform, switch to a twohanded weapon. If youcan't get to her (because of summons) you might try to use the BMR with scorcher ammo, or depending her running spells arrows.
It takes forever, but you can win.
Oh, in case you'd try traps, don't try to lay them on the platform south of the entrance - the last statue-form comes alive next to that (at least did to me), and use up the traps.

Challenge 4:
Wear Enkidu's Plate. Or if youdon't have that one, the upped Thieves Hood. Else you'll have a hard time...

-------------

Balthazar:

B. has a crapload of HP, and is annoying, so:
- SAVE BEFORE entering the building! This is crucial, asa bug can prevent B. to spawn, or something.
- at the entrance lay down SIX traps.
- when the confrontation starts, run back to the traps. IF other monk follows, dispose that before getting to the traps.
- profit.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Xe0wfU9.jpg" alt="" />

Challenge 5: killing Bhaal. That's what, the 3rd god I destroy? At the least.

Winning here is not easy, far from it. But I have a sure way to victory:
- memorise Wizard's Eye
- cast Stone Skin
- cast Melf's Minute's Meteor
- sleep
- cast simulacrum (preferably from Vhailor's Helm)
- case Wizard's Eye
- with the help of the Eye make the Simulacrum lay down traps where the Ravager will appear
- finish the deal. The last of the Child of Bhaal dies.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RtaBwaK.jpg" alt="" />

-----------------

Stats (w/o equipment):
<div class="Spoiler"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Q6Hwpgm.jpg" alt="" /></div>

Equipment notes:
- boots: Boots of Speed
- gloves: Gloves of Extraordinary Specialisation
- helm: Helm of Balduran. Occasional use of Vhailor/Death helms for charges.
- rings: 2*Ring of Gaxx, one replaced by Ring of Fire Control in Yaga Sura's Lair
- cloak: Montolio's Cloak
- belt: either a STR belt, or the Belt of Inertial Barrier. Mostly depends on your initial STR-stat
- amulet: Amulet of the Master Harper, with occasional swap of Amulet of Seldarine for magic resist, or Amulet of Power for negative plain protection
- armor: Asyflerun is good when you plan on casting. BMU if not. Enkidu's plate where is chance of backstab, or you can't fit with the size of the BMU
- weapon: this time I used Storm Star + Scarlet Ninja To for the majority of time, Carsomyr as swap, Wave Halberd for instant kills, Ravager for vorpal effect against werewyvern, BMR. As main weapon you actually have a lotof flexibility, but you NEED the Wave and you NEED the vorpal effect to deal with the wyvern.
- shield: Shield of Balduran against that Hive Mother (save, because of imprisonment)
- arrows: scorcher ammunition
- quick items: Book of Many Spells, various healing potions, potion of fire resistance, potion of invisibility, potion of heroism
- spells: stone skin, mirror image, spike trap, resist fear, seath spell, Wizard's Eye, MMM

twillight · 19-01-2018, 09:59 AM

Catacombs lvl 4 was actually normal finaly. Some tips though:
- you can't pass through certain stuff. I mean containers. The monsters can though, so don't try to build a barricade.
- a lot of the game is randomized, even ALL the attributes on unique items (aside what comes from being that item type, like AC). For this you might want to save&reload at certain points. Until this the four tombs on catacombs lvl 3 provided a chance to this as they drop good quality but random item type. Also, on lvl 4 there is a "Shoes of the Scorpion" - most people go for 5 charm slots here and more, I got on 2nd try a +1 sight +1 traders tongue, poison resist (the level has some poison damage).
- look at EVERYTHING. Just because it is broken to dust, doesn't mean itdoes not contain items! (most fresh food, but whatever)

Catacombs lvl 5:
- kill all undead outside the inner complex, else you loose that exp
- here are some locked chests, and seems lockpick WILL fall. That signs you should probably put 1 into lockpick here
- the map is kinda ok, except the floor tiles. Inside them you can find free good l00t, except there are miniboss guardians, and no room to manouver, fo they are a big middlefinger. Still worth hope the boss won't be in the vicinity immediately, so save&reload here for something good. I got amace with 4 charm slot, and 3 in stun, also faster than the usual maces. The stun is actually annoying as dead enemies tend to linger, making you not switch enemy right there

Well, at least I know how that skill works, and won't invest into it myself.
EDIT: the rooms are: top left: has an archer/caster miniboss aka. bad news but also has a green hammer aka. good quality to grab. Enemies do not follow you to other eras, so you might go for it. The bottom left has a spider of ginormous level and ranged attack but no good stuff. The cellars on the right have a guardian skeleton and a summoner which can summon other summoners too at random, but managable if you save regularly. They drop item too just in case.
EDIT2: the archer/caster can be disposed too, at the price of ca. 30 potions, which sounds a waste as the miniboss don't drop anything of quality. The spider deals oneshot damage for me at this state, so can't even try.
- sleep, pack 2 bread (that amount of food is allowed between resting or something), visit the shopkeer who had the shady visitor + produces drugs, and then hire the zombie npc on catacombs lvl 1 before entering the lvl 5 compex. Also bring all healing/mana potions you have as you won't be able to come up w/o loss of exp. When you leave the complex all remaining enemy inside will die, also the mentioned shopkeeper, and also the zombie hireling (it is an ok company, but has no chance against the archer/caster minibioss or the spider, and also gets instant death if he leaves the underground, not to mention any kill it does is lost exp to you, but there'll be MANY enemy for the final fight, so why not bring him).
EDIT: actualy, the zombie-guy is either useless, or mandatory at the final confrontation, which you'll NOT be able to empty, as it is like Uber Tristram. It isa limited area with all four miniboss in it, and zounds of minions of them. During the speech of cutsceen the zombie-guy got eaten - so either it was useless to bring it, or it got eaten instead of me (not tested)!
- The village has some chests locked, one that requires lvl 2 lockpick (or more. Turned out there isa randomfactor here too?). There are 2 locked chests too in this level. But do NOT have ANY points in lockpick, else you'll loose a free point!

Good to know: chests can not be broken. This means if they are locked, you must lockpick them to open. This is not true for potsand such though, so switch to weapon mode there and crush'em. Before you know the repair skill/have not-broken weapon, this should be done with a spare-weapon ("minion knife") preventing your stronger weapon from breaking.
Weapons loose durability by using them, not when you get hit. So bows must be repaired too, fairly regularly too.

In theory warriors invest in strength and use melee weapons, mages in intelligence and cast spells, while survivors rise their agility thus have a very good chance to hit, which means by intention they are bow-users. this doesn't function all-too-well in the game itself though.

Next thing is, to put the teleport stone to the head-mage as he heals free from now on, and thatdoes not take time. Why is that important? Because there comes a timed quest, that's why! (Timed quests are very rare, this being the only one aside another which must be done in1 day. This has a 10 ingame day limit.)
Leave the village and follow the road. Slowly. Have sound on and if you hear or see anything, wait/search&destroy.
Beware, as at a point, not even too far from the village is a MASS of orcs. Also, 1-2 orc is manageable, 3 already likely results in drinking potions. The warrior's special attack comes in VERY handy during this. After EVERY fight port back to the town and get healed! Mana is not recharged though, so watch out for that.

On the road to the barracks you'll find a mark-line on the road. Save here, then get closer to initiate a cutsceen. The result is, a high level enemy drops the bucket, and with a chance drops a random item. Or ca. 240 gold, or nothing. I said I do deserve an item here, especially as I had slots yet not filled with anything. The first semi-useful stuff was a +40 HP ring, settled for that. Hoped for a sword, but I won't reload just for that who-know-how-many-times.

Passing you'll reach a bridge. You should attack the trolls there (ye, those thingies attacking the soldiers are supposedly trolls) soyou get the exp for them. They are pushover anyway.

What are NOT pushover are the orcs in mobs (approach slowly), the orc drummers (area heal which applies to them too, has no attack if there is no other unit on screen - otherwise they can onehit you!), and Heavy Orcs which are orc minibosses (I seen only 1 but assume there can be more). Oh, the orcs hunt for boars, which hunt for you, so attack the pigs first for the exp, then port for healing as needed.

Anyway, right after the bridge. Go a bit north to bump into a traveling salesman. He isn't really special, but sells 100 AC armors if you need it, and maybe other things to fill upyour slots, so maybe save before and pack up some of your stuff stored in the village. I actually brought there containers from the catacombs to separate the various stuff. If you follow the vendor's instructions you should stumble into a farm. They'll entrust you to kill some trolls (always get the quest for clearing certain area before you comit the massacre else you may fail the quest-exp), also sending you to the barracks you're heading.
They also mention related to the troll-quest some Reginald (who they say in the end givesno reward at all) who is standing with Tom who'llsend you to find some thief, Dorian. He's actualy a good guy and siding him worth 3 reputation point which means cheaper shops when it'll come to that.

When you reach into a village-or-what you'll be approached by a drunk. BEFORE this cutsceen you should dropp all your gold except 10. The guy is a thief. When done go a bit further for the warning of a thief. Great. Now when you'll have levels, abilities, stats and decent equipment come back and be all bloody with the thief. He's high level and worth exp, and any other approach to this otherwise inconsequential ~quest result you keeping all your gold and that's it.

Oh, in the meantime when you teleport back to healing (btw, it is not a fullheal, just a healing spell, so repeat the ask of healing as many times you need that to fill maximum), go to the lizard-guy and ask for his teleportation-waypoint-activating-scroll.

Oh, and don't forget to enter the DrawvenInn - one character gives you 3 free reputation (refuse the gem), and the dwarven activation scroll. Even if you don't need the scroll, the reputation is precious (gives better prices at shops if you have a lot). I went there pretty late in the game, and never evenseen the dwarf!

When you reach the barracks the guy who the loveletter was sent sends you on a quest behind the Cursed Abbey. I cponfused some information, so this was the way I wanted to go, and I still had time. Time is of the essence now, don't forget that. Be cautious while hurrying as going along the Abbey's walls (do NOT enter, yet) the monesters are planted in the ground, and they WILL grow out of it. And yes, at places they could come in groups (do not try that, if you can't avoid use bow).
If you want the full experience do NOT enter the cursed church either (yet), but it worth to visit the farm nearby as it gives a green item with guaranteed charm slots. I got a bloody good one for the first try (5 charms, 20 HP, 10% poison resist).

I went to Verdistis, to the Thief Guild. Here you NEED 1 pickpocket and 1 lockpick to pass the initiation, and for that you get a free point in either evade traps, pickpocket or lockpick. Traps are really not frequent, and you only need 2 pickpocket which means barely any clvl requirement. The most influential skill is lockpick, and AFTER the initiation here you can get another point in it (for the price of 5,000 gold. If you don't want it, you can instead gain 5,000 gold and ca. 25,000 exp, IF your lockpick skill is already 5).
As I realised here I was only lvl 10, I went back to the barracks, to the general, whose behaviour started my whole sidetrack. You know if you enter her eoom w/o completing a work for her, she acts upset. This does not have consequences though.
Watch out, that before talking her first, and asking permission to grab stuff in the barracks, you should not pick up anything, or else.
When talking to her an orc attack will happen, but the attackers are highly overwhelmed. You might mother trying to steal kill-exps, or you can stay and put everything in your pockets. What you can do anyway as long as you have permission for equipment (but you'll get scolded every time you enter her room). The locked chest in her room is lvl 3, or was when I first tried,and I wanted to open it right away, but - oh whatever.

twillight · 20-01-2018, 07:41 PM

So, with all the shennaningans aside, let's mention there are random people giving cutscenes at times which are nowhere mentioned, neither will be here. This is because they have no effect on anything. One of these is the demon-thingy which appears if you wish to enter or leave Verdistis. Just go with the flow,and give the answers thatmake sense toyou personaly.

Oh, if you are interested: to get enough slvl in lockpick I went Random Monster Hunting. This goes pretty well around the cursed abbey, the planted undead worth ok exp. The wasps, wolves and snakes not so much, but still. Also, watch out what crawls from the gorund, there are proper "zombies", which are the local miniboss-version,aka. they can oneshot you and have zillion HP. So use a bow. Save right before they die, and reload until you find something useful. Know this though, they mostly drop only armor pieces, no jewelry, and they never drop maces or swords (only daggers, staves and axes).
Oh, and the stun skill (slvl 3) does squat in the area on anything, so this marks any skill related to Spirit Resistance aweful.
PS: I got lucky and got an item with +1 lockpick at lvl 12. Still had like 5-6 days left until the quest deadline (contacting the general).

Good news is, in the barracks were a crapload of not-too-stat heavy swords. Twohanded, but armor isn't as important as damage. Could dispose the drunk-thief,and also some ninja. From that later quest learnt all NPC are State Police, and if you grab an item even if they have no business with it they get pissed. So I reloaded and won't try again. Of course stashed the stuff as soon he went away the quest being done.

Here comes an important and pretty convoluted quest: the plague. To start it rolling, speak with Hugh. From him you must go the the Convenient Cave. Then report back to Hugh, and the first part is done. I say let's go and join the thieves guild for 20 extra agility of Infinite Lockpick!
And while there we start the chief police's quest, which will turn out to be the same quest as the starting village's merchant's murderer. The best thing is, these will give a point in the healing skill (not used much nowdays).

In addition: in one of the houses there is a weightless bed. Ye, instant magical sleeping place. But in a world where mages are a different race entirely despite looking human... Ye, that character option is actualy not just class-option but race!

Another feature: time to time sell out your eqipment. Every ingame day the shopkeepers refresh. Why you need to give away your accumlating crap part of equipment? Because you need cash! This world is similar to the Fallout universe: everyone only have minute amount of cash, but you desperatly need hugh heaps of the currency, because of coding-limitation. Couldn't those people just accept laser machineguns for those operations like a regular vendor, please?

Did I say we go vampire-hunting? Well, we don't, that bugger is strong, and can run. Let's see where we can level up. The important thing is, to not be trusted to gather some Coumcil.
Oh, and I was strong enough to dispose the archer/caster miniboss in catacombs lvl 5.

Went to kill the roll king and mostly clearthe area around the starter village. Heavy Orcs shall be shot, drummers avoided, but the troll king is pretty mediocre. The trick is, to concentrate first on the spawned minions (they are not summons, so don't get replaced), then port away, get healed/sleep, go back.

In the Blue Boar Inn got a free point in Traders' Tongue. Good to have, not good enough to invest. What I want is damage and defense, not utility skills.

Had some goals, but one way or another they got barred. The good news is, got to the Shrine of Good and Evil, which is told to work at randomly lowering or upping one of your stats. I reloaded for +5 STR, so now I can wear all the nifty equipment I know about. Actualy could maybe use a ton of constitution - or just a crpload of levels to not die from randomly placed minibosses who can run. Seriously, who designed this? Not that I'm complaining oh-so-much, this is a pretty good Diablo 1.5. A bit dated, but as the game is hugh, and I was always into decifering such games, I'm fine with it.

So, how about joining another guild? Merchants are best! So after seeing Elrath (Siege of Avalon reference?) leaving the poor qurater, I decided why not (because a part of a story is there, although inconsequential otherwise).
After getting the quest to kill maria covered for some cattle-thief, then spoke with maria and decided to switch side here too.
Tried to enter the quaranteen area, but Lain - despite a walkthroughsays so - did not give the key of it. So I had to lockpick. In theory most of the Poor Quater shuld be visited BEFORE joining the thief guild storywise (at least Lain), but I'm sure I'm not reloading just for this minute thing!
As it was nighttime when I came out, and because looking for the entrance spoke with Malachias, went looking for the "disappearing emerald". It is WEST from the old beggar, and nothing indicates it but its radioactive glow. If/Whenyou follow it will be zapped by a mage once, then have to fight 4 goons.

Went to the archer guild for a teleport scroll, and freed the hostages nearby. Clearing the house is an entirely different thing though, as the local miniboss is strong and can run.
My next move will be to try to free some kiddo from a vampire where 2 quests send me (no idea why twoquestor for 1 quest). There it'll be losing stats (1 each), but I gained one more level, so cancompensate.

Things to spend gold on it:
- 2,002 gold for the Silver Set quest
- 2,500 gold needed for Feing Death potion
- 3,000 gold needed for 1 point in Traders' Tongue
- 3,000 gold is Leptine's debt
- 5,000 gold needed for 1 point in Lockpick
- 10,000 gold needed for maximum benefit at Wishing Well
- 30,000 gold to buy a house

shapeshifting statues: no idea what they do, but there is a vendor in Vesteros, I mean Verdistis who sells cat-statues. In the firstarea found a spider statue as a random drop from an orc.

Found 2 graverobber (why you don't loose karma for this kind of activity like in Fallout?) who worked for the necromancer met in catacombs lvl 5. They fled when told their employer is dead, and I grabbed the loot.
Entered the Fort nearby, three Evil shown up, all Fort turned hostile, all Fort turned dead 'cause I killed all. Drank a minor healing potion 'cause I drived myself into situation carelessly. oOtherwise normal healing did the job good enough. I need to upp the healing spell, and I need a crapload more HP by the way.
Oh, reached the vampire, and saved the boy. Here to note,despite popular belief, you don't loose 1 point in STR/AGI/INT, but FIVE point in INT along the 1 point losses of the others. Constitution is not harmed. Of course the vampire is onehitting me (that means 200+ HP dmg from it). So will come back later. These bosses are stupid!
Oh well, let's gain that merchant-membership. And if I was already there, went to the thief guild and got that 5th point in lockpick.
NOTE: I'm either waaaay under/overleveled, or the exp-rewards in the walkthroughs are waaay inadequate.

twillight · 24-01-2018, 07:37 PM

Melissan:
Jumped into the BMU, casted sequencer, spell trigger, chain contignency. Because every little bit helps. Everything can be sold with traps, a scroll of simulacrum, a scroll of wish, and plenty of reloads, EXCEPT the first fight ya know.
Bard has trouble hitting anything, and has trouble having proper defenses, and lacks a good amount of firepower. Mirror image will be stripped like right there, but casted it anyway. Stone skin lasts, especialy if Melissan summons badly (beholders have their own difficulty which result in either potiondrinking or death, and one time she had an army of bone golems which could not move getting stucked in her and each other).
Still have the problem of Melissan's own stone skins, and AC, and constant summoning, and high HP.

I used upped Spectral Brand + Scarlet Ninja To for maximum attack = damage.

Before stepping through, drank a potion of invulnerability (her stun can still pass through), potion of 24 giant STR, potion of speed, potion of regeneration (because every bit helps, and it has some turns duration). No idea what got stripped when the battle started.

After one or two useless attempt called out a simulacrum (from Vhailor's helm) to cast Khelben's Wharding Whip. At arrival, meaning I casted it when spawning but Melissan not started to talk (there is a fragment of a second to pause for action). As much as I could added improved haste (kangaxx charges). Never got around checking what overrides what, or they work in comco despite descriptions.
And she went down finaly.

Seal 1 is easy, especialy could use the simulacrum to dispose the prince. After that sent the sim to lay traps while finishing the rest.

Seal 2's only problem is you can't go in in BMU, but any summon (khittix is the smallest of pawns) lures them out.

Seal 3's only solution as far as I can see is to lay down 2*2 traps afar, lure the mariliths on them to die, hope the nymph don't charm you or whatever conditions they can throw at you, then finish the solar. Who is actualy not that much of a problem at all. Especialy if you activate Spectral Brand's +10 thac0 ability while offensive spin is running (the solar is absolutely no threat with -25 AC the BMU provides, but takes forever to hit it too).
Funny thing though, turned out there was (is) a 2nd nypmh-or-what there, but I clicked on the pool before it could react,and the game said it's fine for it, don't worry. So I did not.

--------

And my character's final choice?

Melissan: "No! The bhaalspawn has NOT won! I would die first!"
Solar: "But you can not die. You are defeated, yet you can not die. You will do nothing, and that is your fate, Amelyssan."

Well, it's not much of a choice, is it? Eternal suffering and predestination, or freedom and a mortal life.

---------

Seems though there IS a ~neutral ending. What would fittingly deny from me another intercourse. Just why can't I get laid in this game?

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/55gBGhk.jpg" alt="" />

---------------
---------------

PS: I'm sad that Wizardslayer don't work as its description implies,namely it can use despite telling otherwise:
- helms
- boots
- belts
- gloves
- shields
- protection scrolls

I considered a wizardslayer/druid a remaining challenge,maybe, but without the proper limitations I see no point trying. But if someone would take it as a voluntary challenge, I'd gladly read about it.

twillight · 25-01-2018, 08:57 PM

A quick note: where you find the spot you were found at the neginning, the text claims how familiar it is. But there is no sword to pick up despite every suggestion.

A second quicky: if you bash a trapped container (barel) the trap goes away.

Found a piece of the Treasure Map (1/4). It was guarded by a LOT of spiders, so warrior special skill is awesome. The cave might have some highlevel head-spider, but that's just a regular spider not a miniboss, so don't worry.
Nearby gamebanshee's map/guide shows a troll king - it does not drop fenomenal, so don't reload (unless you need gold and can sell it).

Also, near the starting village is an orc ambush marked by a road made of pieces of gold. Seems the orc drummer is somewhat weaker there, could kill it after destroying its troops (everything else was oneshot). The way to kill it was to let it attack me (attack from the fron) so it won't drumheal.

So, back on track. Enter Riverdale, I mean Rivertown, and pick up the Black Market quest(s) from Liutenant Robin and Marcus (beware, finishing these quests mean the trap-seller merchant of the game will be gone for good). And get proof on Elrath, as well the healing potions. IMPORTANT to not give the evidence to the questor, else we fail solving the quest of the murder from the beginning of the game!
Oh, and in theory BEFORE you visit Elrath, change words with Commander Ralph who'll mention 3 things (but only 1 is marked as quest): the orc invasion, the plague, and the duke's death (which is suspiciously similar to the GoT event). Do NOT report to ANY success to him though before killing that darn murderous vampire in Versistis!

Now, working forMarcus the way you go to his cart you reach the Drawen Inn. Directly south of it you'll stumble into a one-time seer-merchant who can sell animal-transformation statues: spider, cat and frog I've seen. As this was the first time I saw a frog, I got it (each cost almost 4K gold, so save to ensure you get the statue youwant and pack up from your storage). If youreach that cart befoire gaining the quest from Marcus you loose exp.
Note: Earlier had a problem with some though near Stormfist Castle. With 240 HP instead of 60 they were pushover.
Now in Elarath's house there is a lever-clicking puzzle (annoying), and a "djinn". Seriously. But it's not THAT much of a threat with good equipment, but heal yourself when you get hit, 'cause it can do miniboss-quality hit (120-150 dmg I suspect).
Get the two Cure Plague potions and the letter to Elrath. There is not much in the house otherwise. When you try to leave you'll be kicked out and the house will be permanently locked. Big deal, it should be empty be now. The problem is, right you get out of the borders of the village/town you'll be attacked by 3 enemy - not, it is not at a fixed location, so you can't teleport for healing. Iate the roasted pork to heal back (it heals a ton). Although they should be pushover (at this point).

Minor event: in the Farm section on the northeastern field found an open grave with a corpse at it. When I went looting the obviously-unfinished dig, some snakes attacked me, and there was a key in thepit. No idea what it is good for, I always just pick up every key and if it'll be used up it'll be used up. If not, then not. Actualy, there isa locked chest right there with 100 gold (so no reload).
This was when I went reporting success to Hugh (actualy, you can babystep-report to him everything, like door open - report, talk with bartender - report etc., but I assume there's no reward atevery step, and actualy the final reward is 1,000 BUGGED gold,aka. not good for anything), and curing the plague victims. To heal all 3 victims, you need 2 points in Pickpocket (including items). Strange thing is, despite my weapon has points in extra damage skills AND they DO work, that's not showing up on my skill tab. Maybe thatmeans I can deal pretty extra damage if I invest in those, maybe hard point would override the item, or the higher point override the lesser one. Who knows.

As I currently have a crapload (9) skillpoint, put some in identify monster (later reload to not waste it) and checked that bloody vampire-murderer (and the other which stole stat). Those dang things are lvl 30, have 4,000 HP, and deal200-500 dmg! WTF! And they run, and there isn't any space to manouver anyway.
Btw, to avoid such problems, likely 2 points in Identify Monster would be convenient (shows damage of monster).
Ah, and finaly managed to kill the spider in Catacombs 5, if anyone remembers. Still was a close call, but duh.

Managed to kill 2 orc drummers. they were just past the bridge from the first area. Actualy befoire this was a third, but that barely had any HP. It wasnearthe dwarven village or something. So, one went up and started to fight a guard of the bridge, meaning it did not drum and the guard had infinite HP (also seemingly no dmg now), so I joined inand killed the bugger. The other (nearby) drummer I got behind and either got extremly lucky, or it was at least a bit lower level, so whacking it from behind worked.
Still can't defeat the drummer in the orc camp of the first area where you can go below to the catacombs. Feels stupid. Tried to move it to the bridge, but it always go north.
But another good news: managed to kill the hostages-situation band. There IS an advantage going from the north "suprising" them, as 2 henchmen from the outside do not come in, and the ones inside don't have much space, AND you start right with the head honcho what is a definite advantage.

-----------

Seems at this point there are 2 major point to screw up quests:
- the Corina's summoning is a particularly long chain of events
- the Solve the Murder quest/s which would be failed if got the Gather the Council of Seven.
So all else is free for the taking, of course some minor "get quest before doing quest" thingy.

There is an "ancient battlefield". You touch the stone, skeletons appear in great number. Hope you'rea warrior, 'cause the special skill will make your life infinitely easier. It's just normal catacomb-skeletons and a couple of summners, no real fuss if you have AOE-attack. The stone only activates once.

As the mercs in the cave (they appear inside and block your way out) were a bit though for now - could kill them by using potions though -, instead went todeliver that ancient letter to Mitox. He gave me some explosives, and THAT is told to carry where it supposed to ASAP, 'cause the quest can fail otherwise according to some sources. Better safe then sorry, I went.
Oh, Mitox said something about some "supply tent", but it is either the Fort I already cleared, or not in the game.
Btw, seems this is a good point to start clearing the maps from the orcs. They won't grow stronger, and the only"problematic" (aka. can't melee them) are the giant heavy orcs (giantsize blue beasts). As the game gives less and less exp for monsters every levelyou have, and more and more exp for quests at the same condition, however boring, this is advocated.

With some found gear (another +40 HP, slightly better AC) could finaly destroy the stupid orc drummer at the start. It involved luck, 'cause it could hit too big damage, but it is down, and that's what's most important. It got on my nerves to remember it.

There is a mineshaft in the south. It has some orc, the problematic is the giant one, but there's enough room to manouver around with the bow.

Encountered the "orc spy" - as there's no consequence otherwise killed it for the exp. Looks giant, but it's a simple orc, so less threat, can be done in melee.
Addition to it there's the "secret orc camp". It is not mentioned anywhere, maybe gamebanshee gave it a name because it is a pretty large location and that's it. oh, it is mentioned by some random orc dude also nearby.
Now one thing: do NOT clear the Main Orc Camp, where the well you have to poison is. No idea what it'd do, but better not accidently mess up the game, ok? They SAY you could massacre the camp right now, but that'd look dumb, and asI don't attack neutral thingies (like rats), consider this a bit of roleplay.

Used the wishing well. For +10 STR. Maybe AGI would be better considering all the highlevel enemy, but Istarted to feel STR neglected, so duh. In theory lategame you can get instead 1 clvl which'd mean 5 stat and 1 skillpoint in comparsion, but I don't really can spend all my skillpoints.
Oh, note relating to this: someone somewhere reported poison from two sources (poison weapon +poisonarrow) do not accumlate. No idea on what's if your weapon has elemental skill on it, and you have the same too.
With lvl 21, 75 STR, 70 AGI, and 277 max HP managed to dispose the two assassin in the cave of Marcus (u know what I'm talkin' 'bout) by casting restoration (it's seriously annoying the next point can only be gained free by killing thatvampire...!) and eating 2 dose of food. I thought I'll need minor restoration potions, but not.

With luck I hadthe potential to kill the vampire in the dark cave and get the Boots of the Vampire. Settled for a 270 AC, 15/20 resistances, 5 charmslots variant. I mean that's a crapton of resistance and maximum charm slot. The AC might be mostly irrelevant IF the game aims on bodyparts. So maybe I'll use the 70AC, 15/20 resist, 8 STR, 1 sight distance one. Will see tomorrow.
Oh, before I forget: in the chest with the poison cloud spellbook (the vampire was immun to it) got that unique staff. Not intostaff of course, but it got 2 in Freeze. Well, storing it just to be sure.

From the manual: "the armor values of different items do not add up". Still, if you DO get hit on your toes...
And that high-AC variant was my first. But that "sight really would come in handy. But that STR only means +3 dmg. But there's nothing much else that'd mean DMG.

twillight · 28-01-2018, 05:45 PM

Seems what I actually wished to play way Broken Sword 1, but this teached me nostalgia might overrate things.
I mean this game has a lot of offenses, like:
- the character says no longer available for talk. Leave and talk with it again to further in the game.
- "combine banana with toaster to summon aliens to desintegrate the locked door to pass"
- mazes
- pixelhunting
- unexplained controls
so I mean all thepossible offenses an adventure-game can dash on you.
And it doesn't help it is actualy a combination of Monkey Island, Prisoner of Ice, with the Big Bad being Skeletor.

-------------------

Back to the bigger project:
- reloaded a couple of times to solve my Vampire Boots dilemma, and realised resistance is not THAT important, given I yet to face elemental attack using foes, with Magic Barrier I can have 25 resist all, and with Heaven's Blessing 40% more, and that's already 65%. Add some charms to the equation and you're covered.
On the other hand charm slots are nice, but as you can't empty them they won't be filled soon. And you don't swap equipment that many times, the uniques are that though anyway. And I need right at the moment HP, and preferably mana too.
So in the end it is between 60 HP/mana + 1 sight + 6 STR vs 20/20/10 resistances 20 HP. I can cover the missing resists later. Actualy the deciding factor was included that +sight, cause how many times you have that, but it really helps when have to fall back to archery, and can relieve skillpoints that way.
Oh, for the record: the time I killed the vamp, it actualy got stuck in the wall(?) and could kill w/o fear of retribution. Good for me...
- went and solved Marcus' quest to be done with that. Also reported both questor the death of the vampire. Marcus'quest unlocks a new area proper, and finaly could learn how many telekinesis I'll need: 1. Oh, and don't forget to save&reload before identifying the sword Pedro drops. It can be incredibly good. Oh, and climb back where you came from do NOT try the other exists.
Lastly: in the sewers there is a Lizard Mage. In melee it hits hard, so bow it down. Will drop a strong (not very nifty, but strong) piece of stuff, might worth check it out.
A hint to make life easier: when entering the sewers babystep in and wait until a though comes out and attacks you. The noise will attrackt the rest of the goons EXCEPT Pedro. Life is good.

I think time for another skill-rating:
powers of matter: hellspike, deadly disc and hellspike are spells (so no idea), energy cage suffers SRR, limb of the dead is useless if you melee, telekinesis is a utility (will see how many points will needed), polymorph is broken (permanent instead of duration), skeletal wall is a summon.
powers of body: wizard's sight is useless, bless has low duration, withering curse has extremly short duration, restoration is the heal spell, aura of guarding and spellshield are useless (use restoration instead), magical might is mediocre, fade from sight is useless utility.
elemental powers: all things here are spells, except freeze which is broken
power of summoning: everything here is either a summon, or a buff for summons, except banish. I think with a strong enough character you cansimply whck things though.
path of the specialist: aside sword there aren't unique ( = guaranteed overpowered) variants, and sword even gives you a free extra point, so duh. Hammers seem especialy suck, and spear/staff although is there are totaly weak. Crossbow is slow, and might still not add the damage frm the skill which'd make them suck, and they are hard to find. Bows, especialy if you find a big one with extra speed and dmg are solid, but the skill only incrises speed and not chance to hit or something so duh. Shield don't play in the game when you have good enough stats for twohanded weapons and their damage.
path of the ranger: elven sight for 1 point helps a ton at the start or if your equipment lacks +sight attrib later too. Depending on your findings and patience you might need another point, or settle for one. The rest of the skills relate to bow specialist, and they suck.
path of the warrior lore: augment damage is weak - I mean considering the stats of the enemy being 4K HP and 500 dmg per hit, there +10 dmg don't do much. Repair is useful, but as maximum duration do not change 1 point is enough. Stun is broken. Augment Defense is actualy helpful. Repel damage is aweful, the elemental damage skills are tecnicaly ok, but the payoff realy comes with alot of point in each given they gain only mediocre damage, and that has activation percentage.
path of the warrior gods: enchant weapon is a good idea. Feign Death, Reflect Missiles and Flash Attack are useless. Boomerang is a joke. Shadow Warrior is actually a spell. Spiritual Damage in theory is ok given it always adds, but no idea how many things become immun to it. Death Strike is definitely SRR.
path of the thief: assassin's kiss is dagger-related and only adds damage. lockpick is a good idea, and I don't think you really want to bother with items if can be avoided, so put hard points (including the free teachings) and have 5 in it. Pickpocket is a utility-skill, and you don't actualy need items but GOLD as that has no weight. Evade trap is useless, just pay attention to have 15+spirit resistance toprevent being polymorphed. Deadly gift is broken (the scorpions have tentimes strength then they are supposed to) and item-dependent. Elven Stamina and Embrace Shadows iare useless. Poison Weapon is item-dependent and there is no source that'd tell you what source gives what strength of poison, sorry.
path of lore: it is a VERY good idea given how rare actual money is in the game (unless you can pay in items).
Alchemy is ... typisch crafting skill, meaning you want to avoid it. Ye, potions are cool, but easier to just buy high quality potions. If you like crafting add 4 points, if you don't you can pass with the 1 point from free teaching soyou combine mana + health potions into restorations (minor restoration heals 50% HP and mana, any bigger gives full heal on both).
Know Creature can be comfortable, and for mages unavoidable. 2 (gives HP and DMG) or 5 point (gives resistances) seems reasonable.
True Sight is useless. Blind is either useless or exploitable (with 5 points you can range-attack anything). Skin of poison is item-dependent and might not work with other source of poison. Curse is way too short. Necroshift is actualy a "hide" skill, and thus useless.
path of the talents: Traders' Tongue and Wisdom are useless (but ok to have on items). Ranger Sight is just a crappy version of Elven Sight. Charm has SRR. Magic Barrier is good.Aura of Command is exploitable, and is not passive. Heaven's Gift is at best questionable. Survivor Instinct is simply useless.
path of the divine: Translocate and Divine Eye are useless. Divine Death has SRR. Spirit Form is utility (1 point will be enough, might come for free). Scorch, Temporal Storm and Lightning Cascade are spells, and TS is even problematic. Heaven's Blessing is good.

Back on track:
- there is a Zombie Jake event in that cemetary. There is actualy no "final fight", you can kill most the undead around. "dark corpse" are one and only, it spits some weak poison, despite its high HP. Around Jake are some more zombies planted - if you care pull them out before turning on J. The major feature here is, after you clear the cemetary aboce you must go below through a grave, then you can not save until Jake is dead. Don't worry, this is normal.
- at this point it became a problem that I ran out of places to kill. Oh well, might as well start doing quests proper I think. Ok, there still are. I could go to the Cursed Abbey, which sounds scary as if I wanna fight the Engineer (Hellraiser reference!) it'd give me 150,000 exp. That's a LOT. The monstahs there aren't that bad on this level, but that giant skeletons are darn though. I pumped my CON to ca. 35 here. In theory if you use the charm-system well you can just buy some high-AC stuff withcharm slots, put there a crapload of HP-charms until you can get the best charms to buff your final equipment, but that's not how players work, lol.
Clearing the upper level started the second to-unlock area. But first went and tried to enter the Stormfist Castle to make things proper. It might not net me anything, but it gave a quest-log,and mentioned the (already done,just not finished) army-quests (fighting the orcs). But there is a way tostill withold the quest-exps, and that's reporting Elrath (almost forgot) to the authority (Commander Ralph). That doesn't give exp, only the invitation what is the key to the key from that dwarf shopkeeper.
The garden is actualy pretty peaceful. And then got 3 minions whenanswered to the statue(s). I said what? But then when killed the local frogs they stopped following me. Dunno if be happy -could sacrifise them to thatvampire as meatshield...

The Crused Abbey's bottom lvl wasn't that hard actualy. First you clean what you already encountered, then enter and roam most of the room. Here found my first entirely random spellbook (wizards' sight), and a chest contained a highlevel axe (maybe item type could differ if not bring cursor over chest while locked? I'm not entirely sure how these things work).
The Engineer canbe sent away by just 1K gold (he's an old ghost, ok?), or you may want to fight it for major exp. LEAVE THE ROOM if you decide so ASAP when the battle ensues. RUN AWAY until nothing follows. Lure them on you slowly (meaning wait themsee you and come, they won't reach you en masse).The Engineer itself have pretty low visuals. The problem is his spell which it cast melee. Fortunately it does not have infinte mana, so save, hit it a couple of times then RUN AWAY, so the spell won't blast you for good. This must be done 2-3 times, then it'll change to life leech. I'm not sure what happens if you have higher resists then me (I had 10-15, you might try add elemental barrier or something), but this way it was manageable. It does not drop good, although possibly can drop strong. Not worth reloading. What DOES worth is the amulet on a shelf. It is pretty random, but something of an upgrade can be pulled out of it.

And yesss! Finished the murderous vampire quest! It took a swap of high AC chest armor (130 AC, 6 AGI), and a certain amount of luck, as it can deal hugh damage at times (like above 500, or two connected 400 dmg hits). If that is avoided soon it'll resort to lifeleech, which can be prevented with high enough spirit resistence (I had 30).

Better safe than sorry, decided to finishall quest which gives invitation to the Castle.
Commander Ralph do NOT give invitation for destroying the orcs (or maybe he only gives 1 invitations, not 3), and the Duke's Death is supposedly solved when you come OUT OF the Castle, so who cares. Still, the army do gives a second invitation when reporting the poisoning the well of the orcs.

Now on the Summoning of Corina:
- first go to Corina and save her, get her quest
- next got to Pierce, who sends you to Antrabert, who sends you to burn Mpenzak's cart. It gives more exp if you don't do it. If you accept the quest though be sure to do it the same day. I say refuse, and wait a day (I was in late afternoon, slept, and the next morning it had happened). Go to Mpenzak, his cart will be on fire, report to the officier there. Go to A's room and get the wine.
- in the meanwhile go to the thieves guild and free Penumbra, then give her her dagger.
- what remain is going to the Dark Forest, but wait with that.

Seems what I was looking for is the OTHER major quest in the city. Some feuding nobles.
It is not that bad: steal the gizmo from Sir Patrick for SirDante, then visit Yarun in the Merchant Guild and chase him through the Assassin Guild (terminate the guild in the meantime I assume). He'll send you to Cyrba whoyou should kill for better exp, then report the circumstances of the duke's death to Commander Ralph to getanother invitation.

twillight · 29-01-2018, 06:37 PM

So.

Went and cleaned the Verdistis Sewers. To prevent confusion do NOT go to Rivertown, neither the Assassin Guild this time.
One thing to keep in mind such places if you weapon has manadrain ability. It does not suffer SRR unlike spells, and can drain a hefty sum of mana to you, what you can use for healing, making you able to not just fight longer, but pass harder battles.
In the V-Sewer are a lot of fire-casting mages but they have weak attack so special preparation is not needed. Although they can come in hordes, so watch your HP.
The place also has some polymorph trap, so a healthy amount of spirit resistence is a must.
The lizard mages are still a thing (although half of them lack to be miniboss quality), and there are lightning lizards too but aside their horrendous HP they don't really doanything. Oh, and around the assassin guild entrence there are some "rogue" which is the miniboss equialent of the assassins and they shoot fire. I'll come back later for them.

Tip: don't forget to regularly sell your constantly accumlating stuff. You don't need the items what you're not wearing (aside from such exceptions like a +alchemy item, which can entirely remove your need of hard point in that skill, as you can always wait to get back to camp to make your potions if you're like me and don't stop at every step for picking up every stupid herb), gold has no weight, 1 gold always worth 1 gold, and the merchants have limites supply of gold. Rivertown is actualy a good place as its marketplace is close to a porter, and there are many mercs at the same place, one even having like 15K gold per restock what is a LOT.
Uhm, talking about business: it'd have come in handy right when joining the merchants to read their books in the Archive for 1 in traders' tongue. Not that it'd be overly determining, but hey!

Sir Patricks chest only contain gold, and to be honest at this point the random items lost their charms, and I go only for the uniques.
The drop-frequency is actualy ok, the problem is the start is too though. There are no starter quests, both the catacombs and the orcs are waaay problematic to fight them with some wrecked broom. I'm not sure how much it'd help if you'd start killing the households though, and maybe even people (with the poison cloud spell you can).
My other problem is, I'm both too strong and too weak. The "miniboss" things are simply too hard to stand against, but the normal thingies are start-to-be-boring-pushovers. It's ok for the moment I think, but still. Also, I could go and get like THREE more twohanded unique swords. There is no way all would be a stepup, and as each can be gained "free", they are definitely not necessary. Well, I'll get them with good stats for good selling price I think.
NOTE: Ralph do NOT gives a second invitation, so you better not loose the first you aquire.

Went through unconcerned houses, and have to mention Geoff. I have no idea at whatcondition he returns to hisplace, I could teleport up&down nicely. As he had 30K gold on 'im at my first visit now, that was needed.

Didn't mention, but the game around clvl20 stopped giving exp for mundane animals like spiders, rats and so on.

So, went to the Random Lich Cave. Liches are pushover in this game, should visit earlier if you play. It has a unique sword and hammer in it, as well a polymorph spellbook, and some minor treasure, all permanent (I mean appear in all game). While you can not expect much from the loot at this point, still worth paying attention, because Random Stat Incrise CAN happen, and you might get something good along it inattribute. For example I got 86-115 DMG (ca.double the normal amount), some agi+offense (aka. chance to hit) and 5 in lifedrain. While it only has 2 charms, until I'll be able to fill the slots up, this can be an improvement - depending how good the lifedrainworks in comparsion to the manadrain. Of course HP is only good when fighting and mana is a general resource (like to pick locks).

Now see, just in its disttance is ANOTHER unique sword, the Sword of Chaos. And you get nothing bad for using it, despite in theory it is some legendary artifact which has a portion of the Game Boss, and made oncea guy immortal...
Aaand that thing just got better damage (it has very good base damage), 5 charms, and 4 lifedrain. This be funny.

In the Vesteris Inn there is an elf resident. If you pester it enough attacks you. There's no negative consequences. Not even the like of entering Lar's room (dog in the 3 free rep dwarf's roomafter it left) which not just makes that dog angry with you (instant attacking I mean), but all other dogs inthe world. This is similar to whathappens if you attack the cat in the starter village (which you definitly should not, that being saving you, and also an archmage polymorphed or somesuch).
either way, the guy is a pushover once puts himself in a corner thus can't back away anymore.

In Dragrin's house (has a unique gloves) found a lightning spellbook. Just telling. The gloves tend to be pretty "meh" quality considering uniques, so use themas mid-game equipment. If you'll need upgrade, there will be 2 alternatives: the Dragon Set Gloves, and the Snakeskin Gloves in the Graham/Cirgon quest (although that'd better be avoided, given the Dragon Gloves are likely better chance for being good, and as you don't need the item you might as well gain more exp. Althougha couple tenthousand exp won't make a world difference I assume).

I'mn ot sure, but like a while ago won the barfight. I needed the Wishing Well bonus, the Altair of Good and Evil bonus, and be lvl 25, and spend all statpoints. Ok, we're done here, move into the future.

You know, strange thing occured to me. There is a unique polearm, axe, staff, dagger, ton of unique swords, maybe no unique mace? There is unique armors, amulets, rings, boots - but really, only 1 belt? And maybe 1 legplate? There's also only 1 shield, but you mainly don't use them anyway.
Come to think of it, the resistance-skills are really item and pateience dependent. I meanye, I could probably just skill upand beatsense in those rogues in the sewer, but likely the unique stuff will have resistances.
Hey, there are only2, very low quality unique rings? Fortunately I made them spawn with 5 charms...
Heck, jewelry isn't falling like almost never. And when they do, they don1t have quality, some are even cursed!

Onto the castle then!

Inside the teleport píramids are taken,and you're not allowed toleave the place. Wonderful.
From the throneroom to the kitchen: youhave to pick up all stuff spawning WHILE you're making the dirty plates disappear. Some are plates (not highlighted when press Alt), some are pots (can be used as armor and helmet. Really a shame you can't have 5 charmed ones. Would fight theBig Bad in them with a rok. Come to think of it, shame no two weapon fightning).
Gamebanshee don't know about it, but there's Ben on the wall. You must climb up there to see him. He wants a bottle of beer, obtainable inside the castle (of course you did not bring any from outside).
Oh, and there's a 0 weight container within. That sounds useful. Put in stuff, throw the container out of the castle, and voila, loot! (there's also a barrel, as this part will be a bit long even afterleaving the castle you'll be cut form the "open" world).
As you are w/o a healer for a time (aside sleeping, I assume), it might be an idea if you have to bring an itemwith Survivor Instinct, just in case.
The Dragon Shieldseems medium unique, its most advantage being a chance to have up to 4 skills bonus. Not exactly what I'm looking for, but whatever.

The friggin Castle Adventure by the way had no real meaning. They gave me a position I did not want, then stripped of it, AND I still had positive reaction reputation. Seems dumb.
Bythe way, the "ruby amulet" unique is a lame thingy, don't bother reloading.
Don't get excited though, you take a few steps, and you're ported to Iona's dungeon. One of the orcs survive the cat, but even barehanded it is nothing. Yes, all your equipment will be stashed. No, they aren't faraway. Yes, you have to redress and all that. Yes, all the bonus HP/mana will be gone. Onward, for pony!

Well, first find the exit. Place your container there, and clean the place, store all stuff in your chest. Actualy you don't even need that,and canleave any time. Beware of the giant skeletons, although with the shrines they are acceptable.
The other levels have stronger enemies they say, and regularly less shrines.
The leaving to the graveyard was... less then spectacular. There were no en mass charging undeads on me, just the deads got up in their graves and if I went near they attacked. Meh.

Unfortunately the personal telepods are still nowhere (it'd take storming the castle for them), and the only other option is to kill stuff for more power. Meaning in Iona's Dungeon, and the remaining part of the V Sewers.
Actualy, here is an idea: a new base can be settled inside Iola's Dungeon with two shrines nearby for instant healing!
I have no idea what advantage buying a house would mean...

Wait, there's the church too!

Before entering the treasury, visit the prison. This area gamebanshee forgot. It has The Executioner in it who droppeda high quality axe for me, and practicaly nothing else.
Before entering the treasury heal up, because you won't be able to cast any spells inside.
When entering the treasury there'll be a cutsceen, and when you try to leave the first ~room another.
Right in the next room is the Royal Chain which at this point probably too weak to getyour attention.
If the constant amount of traps start to drain you, better drink a minor restoration potion. helath potions at this point would be a waste.
For the Council Chamber: not just there will be a mana and HP shirne, but an armor and helm unique. The enemies are puny ghosts and liches. Parodn, mumies. And the shrines do not work (yet?), but Zandalor can heal you. And while it is hard to pull out good from the items, they still can be a step up, considering there are still (strongerbase) uniques in the game, so the charm slots are not thatrelevant. So if you get something useful-at-the-moment, go with it. Btw, after this I feel is time to switch my boring +1 wisdom puny AC armor to something greater. I mean after I'll finish of with the hanging quests. This armor I have a looong time.
The succubus is best fought in melee. Watch out though, as when she summons a summon you automaticaly switch target to that. More of an annoyance this is than real problem.
Oh,and after dealing with the demon, a unique staff will be available.

Aleroth (the starting village) is "overrun" by orcs now. This means 2 group. 1 near the head-healer's house, 1 on the mainsquare. The boss appear when going near the dwarf's house.
As this "invasion"-thingy seems pretty regular, I probably lost some exp from the disappearance of the random monsters there. Or not.
Btw, found Iona's dungeon too dark, so moved instead to the council hall. The inner chamber's shrines did work. The outers might have beenblocked by the succubus? Have to check when needed.

For the dwarf member first visit the dwarvenhalls, soyou get the beer for that free. Ye, I'm cheap.

Prime directive now the orc member, as that orc campseems pretty behind me.
Man, I'm glad I did not do this earlier! There are MANY orcs, and pulling them out would probably have been a total nuisance.

Ok, so after finishing the quests on the first map (so not in Verdistis, or the Dark forest) time to change that armor and stash away the +wisdom. No, I did not start the Afrasam's borthel chain of events. That's pure exp w/o fight, so can wait.
One of the reasons for this is (aside the strange calculation of exp in the game) are the prices. As discovered Geoff canhave 30-40K gold at once, and it is told a largest charm can cost 100K gold, I think I'llneed the gold. Although it depends on the drop of monsters. Since clvl25 they started todrop with low freqency large charms, but I want largeST. Naturaly.

Strange Storytelling: you only get the Dragon Set Quest AFTER you start gathering the Council, but you can't start gathering the Council until youget the Shield piece of the set...

The Verdistis Sewers' remaining part became acceptable. Not super easy, but manageable.
Let's see now Iona's Dungeon.