Completed Let's solo Baldur's Gate 2 on Insane (feat. The Codex)

[Mrowak]

19. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Watcher's Keep]

Supposed to be Mrowak

Interesting fact(for me at least). There is actually no such spell as teleport in BG2. Even if you cheat it for yourself, it just casts that ring effect and you don't move anywhere. NPC's just get removed from map by a script or something along those lines. I was pretty disappointed when I found that out. You'd think, that with everyone and their moms teleporting around like crazy in that game, the damn protagonist would get some of that action, but no, you're the dumbfuck that huffs it everywhere, even at godly levels. IWD iirc had an actual working tp spell, although very short range, which was a little pleasant surprise after BG2 derp.

The travesty is all the greater since BG1 had a working teleport spell.

Which was useless. :/

 

[ALchymist]

The travesty is all the greater since BG1 had a working teleport spell.

Which was useless. :/

Unless you changed map during casting. Then it could be (buggily) godly . Probably why it was removed.

 

[Erebus]

I don't think I ever had a thief with a good score in Detect Illusions. If it nullifies Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door, etc., I guess it could be fairly useful to a soloing PC.

 

[Storyfag]

The travesty is all the greater since BG1 had a working teleport spell.

Which was useless. :/

Unless you changed map during casting. Then it could be (buggily) godly . Probably why it was removed.

What did it do?

 

[Bilgefar]

There definitely are a lot of reused locations in BG2. I guess it's acceptable since there's so much content, though.

Hopefully I have not missed any votes so far (never expected so many). If someone notices that I have, let me know please.

I think I voted for Watcher's Keep at some point. Or at least, I'm voting for it now.

 

[Likvidator]

considering how many lives 'lightning' has taken
you d think they d teach em not to use it
...
..
.

 

[MicoSelva]

I think I voted for Watcher's Keep at some point. Or at least, I'm voting for it now.

There's a new vote after the previously chosen quest is finished. I'll make sure to add Yours to the count.

I'm not really missing the Dimension Door spell from BG1, because it wasn't very useful in the first place and I never bothered to try to bug-cheat with it.

 

[t]

1 vote for Korgan.

 

[Rake]

2 votes for Korgan.

 

[ALchymist]

The travesty is all the greater since BG1 had a working teleport spell.

Which was useless. :/

Unless you changed map during casting. Then it could be (buggily) godly . Probably why it was removed.

What did it do?

You would teleport to the same location on the new map that you set on the old map. You could use it to bypass all sorts of obstacles. As a minimum, you could cross any map instantly. But you could break sequence spectacularly as well. Baldur's Gate city at level 1? Straight back into Candlekeep?

 

[Rod Rodderson]

I'll vote for the first level of Watcher's Keep.

Detect Illusions is pretty handy. Like a free True Sight whenever you want it, which is neat considering how common those sorts of illusion spells really are in the game. Also, the Rod of Resurrection is really good even soloing, as it fully heals the target as well, making it an (almost) instant Heal spell, and it comes with (I think) 10 charges.

 

[MicoSelva]

the Rod of Resurrection is really good even soloing, as it fully heals the target as well, making it an (almost) instant Heal spell, and it comes with (I think) 10 charges.

That is useful, but inventory slots are our most scarce resource and while we can have a buttload of healing potions thanks to the potion container, the rod would take up one of them so I've decided to skip it.

 

[Rod Rodderson]

As you will. Doesn't matter too much, as there are others you can get if you do change your mind. I usually use my bag of holding for various wands that might come in handy (and that I tend to never use, except in the final battle, where I use like three of them).

 

[MicoSelva]

Yeah, usually I carry all sorts of wands and rods around, but inventory space is precious in a solo game (bag of holding is still rather far away), so I am limiting myself to one at a time. We have more stashed, though.

We will need the Rod of Resurrection for a 'quest' in ToB, so I need to make sure I get one by that time.

 

[MicoSelva]

Last time on Let's Insane Solo Baldur's Gate 2:

As our hero failed to stop bounty hunters from capturing the friendly actor troupe, he makes a strong resolve to free them asap.

Also, I have nothing better to do at the moment.

------

Update #35: Almost Like Torment

Spoiler

I feel stronger.

We start with levelling up. The HP we get is an even one (only odd ones improve are survivability due to Insane difficulty's 2x damage modifier), but a +1 to THAC0 never hurts.

We enter the portal invisible, so there is no immediate on-sight script trigger. This allows us to notice that there are a total of nine charmed thralls here. Usually I just slaughter them along with the rest of the enemies, because that is the easiest way. Keeping them all alive doesn't make much sense anyway and is probably too dificulut even for our hero to achieve.

Bullshit. I bet I can do it.

You sure?

Just watch me.

Fine, suit yourself.

We make ourselves visible, which causes the bounty hunter to start talking to some slave and get interrupted by The Codex' entrance. Ah, the joys of scripted events.

Why do they call me 'prime'? I can't exactly turn into a truck. Although there should be spell for that.

Prime as in prime material plane.

What's that?

Nevermind. Just kill them, ok?

Bring it on, puppies!

My lung! Can't... breathe...

Stoneskin, quick!

Whew! For a moment there, I though I was going to die!

Darn.

Death count: 181

Load.

I think this quest's difficulty level has just spiked.

I have a feeling I am going to need stoneskin in a moment.

Metagaming engaged.

Stoneskin protects our hero from unneeded daggers in the back.

Fuck, just when my eyebrows have grown back!

Aawil dies first.

One of the spell-flinging yuan-tis is our second victim.

The other one has cast Protection From Magical Weapons.

Fucker!

So we turn our attention to the others, along with engaging potion-quaffing emergency protocol.

Ow. And once again ow.

Stoneskin has worn off. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

We have more than one prepared, of course, but casting it means we can't quaff another healing potion for the moment. Hopefully it won't mean dying.

Mwahahahaha! Slaughter!

The snake mage's protection has worn off in the meantime.

It's been a while since I've fought one of these.

What do we have here?

Both of these are dime a dozen.

And we don't really have spare backpack space to carry them around.

I've always liked this spell. It's about time we had some fun with it.

And this is like an improved Cloud Kill. I already like it.

I only wish we had more level 6 spell slots.

Tagget here will explain what we have to do in this place, in many words.

Spoiler

Updated my journal.

tl;dr: We need to kill the Warden, but Tagget wants us to kill the Master of Thralls first, so we can free the thralls. This is a pretty cool quest design, because if someone wants to breeze through this place, You can kill the warden pretty fast (he is very close to the starting point) and be done with this place.

Of course that is not the right approach to play a good RPG, which is like eating at a fancy restaurant. You are supposed to enjoy it in Your own pace, not try to finish as fast as You can.

Before we go on, there is some more looting to do.

A non-generic armor design is always exciting!

For a moment there I though we have found Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, but it's just a similar spell icon.

Biggest disappointment since opening last Christmas gifts.

A spell that protects you from spells that remove protection from spells that protect you from everything else. Check.

We learn both, of course. The Codex having 19 intelligence means we don't have to worry about spell book capacity limits.

We have found a contender to challenge Robe of Vecna, but we won't be able to try it out before getting Use Any Item Ability.

You want me to wear a magical chain mail after I've made so much fun of them?

We were never big on consistency here, so I don't see why not.

Some boots and another Neb's nasty cutter?

Ah, the famous boots of speed. Great for hit and run tactics and for cheesing encounters, especially when used together with Staff of the Magi's instant invisibility. We will keep them, of course, but for the moment The Codex will still be wearing Boots of Evasion for their +4 AC bonus vs. missiles.

Prick, hehehehe.

Not quite Celestial Fury level, but still one of the better daggers in the game IMO.

And we're out of inventory space again with no way of selling excess loot. Just great.

Sadly, we won't even bother to pick this up. J.E. Sawyer's unlimited stash can't arrive soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

As I don't really remember the layout of the prison, let's head in a random direction.

Isn't it what we usually do?

WTF just happened?

You got sucked in by that strange breathing thing on the floor.

So.... this place sucks!

...Yes... Thankfully, You're invisible.

I was invisible. Now I'm invisible AND protected from normal weapons.

Since minotaurs can't hurt us, we dispose of both prison captains first.

Just in case the protection wears off before I finish them off: Carrie!

The rest is history.

Now I'm curious where the other suckdoor leads to.

Why don't we find out?

This might have been a mistake.

We probably should have tried a backstab here.

TBH this doesn't look very good.

Uhrk.

Not that I expect this stoneskin to help. An undead chicken could kill me right now.

Yeah, it didn't help.

Death Count: 182

Loading.

Time for some buffs?

Not just yet.

Standing at this spot, we are outside golems' sight range. Hopefully they won't join the combat.

Unfortunately, they do.

Using the distraction provided by our Web spell, we try to destroy the golems while Stoneskin still holds.

At some point we cast Dispel Magic to unbuff other enemies.

Eventually we are forced to renew the Stoneskin.

Golems are DOWN! Fuck yeah!

The rest should be manageable, but let's not lose focus just yet.

Fuck, it's cold!

Hasta la vista, baby!

The Codex moves away and bombs the shit out of webbed enemies.

BOOM, fuckers!

And again.

I think I broke him.

Only the cleric prison captain is left.

And done.

Not quite. Those ogres are still alive.

What ogres?

Oh, these. I haven't noticed them.

More generic magical loot which we can't carry.

And more.

We might actually make some space for this.

Spoiler

I should probably mention that we killed the cambion/warden at this point, because I mistook him for Master of Thralls. When I realized my mistake, I reloaded and we went in the opposite direction, leaving the final boss for, well, the final. In the end it made for a slightly more interesting cambion fight, because we used up some spells while exploring other parts of the prison.

These guys are all thralls, so we shall ignore them.

No game, I'm freshly out of companion cubes.

Another floorsucker ahead.

Dibs.

They must have been arrested on their way to NWN2, for interplanar speeding or something.

I don't really feel like fighting you, uglies, so...

Using this spell always make me feel better inside.

We got a nice supply of potion from this 'encounter'.

The yuan-tis here are accompanied by a couple of thralls, so we leave them alone for now.

After fighting dragons, facing a wyvern will never feel the same.

It talks! Let's see if I can fix that...

There, done!

I think we've found our guy.

---

Next time: The Codex will try to keep all the thralls alive with the use of surgical strikes, crowd control techniques and misclicks.

Next quest selection details:

Spoiler

Luckily I was able to post this update before the weekend, so I actually might have time to play through the next quest before another working week pulls me away from my PC. It is time for the roll!

1. Korgan's Quest [Sodafish]
2. Illithids in Athkatla [Erebus]
3. Illithids in Athkatla [MotherMachinae]
4. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Desmodus Rotundus]
5. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Azira]
6. Illithids in Athkatla [Storyfag]
7. Illithids in Athkatla [Aeschylus]
8. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [grosstraktor]
9. Korgan's Quest [Insane Psychic]
10. Korgan's Quest [Rake]
11. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [JoKa]
12. Korgan's Quest [Rivmusique]
13. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [T(D?)-Bag]
14. Korgan's Quest [Stygian Lurker]
15. Illithids in Athkatla [Shadenuat]
16. Illithids in Athkatla [Krivol]
17. Illithids in Athkatla [Darth Roxor]
18. Illithids in Athkatla [ALchymist]
19. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Watcher's Keep]
20. Illithids in Athkatla [Abelian]
21. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Thor Kaufman]
22. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Bilgefar]
23. Korgan's Quest [t]
24. Watcher's Keep, level 1 [Rod Rodderson]

EDIT: And it is Watcher's Keep level 1, for better or worse.

 

[Azira]

 

[Sodafish]

Wilt thou be fetching an old man his slippers?

 

[MicoSelva]

It won't be easy, I know, but The Codex doesn't afraid of anything.

 

[Shadenuat]

I'm a bit wary of Codex becoming too stronk for rest of the game if he ventures too deep into WK.

 

[Azira]

That wont stop me from voting on going ever deeper every chance I get.

 

[Storyfag]

I want to be a Torment?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I want to be a Torment?

Prawie robi wielką różnicę

 

[Erebus]

Keeping all the thralls alive ? Quite a challenge. The three who're by themselves should be fine (though it can happen that one of them isn't freed from the spell instantly and is thus attacked by the other two). Rescuing the others, however, will require slaughtering most of the monsters surrounding them before destroying the orb. I guess the Boots of Speed + Staff of the Magi combo should help a lot.

On the plus side, it seems that the enemies south of the wyvern are only yuan-tis. Things can get much more annoying when they're Umber Hulks.

 

[t]

I want to be a Torment?

Prawie robi wielką różnicę

Czyzby fan Żywca?

 

[Abelian]

I want to be a Torment?

Prawie robi wielką różnicę

Czyzby fan Żywca?

Czytałem książki Henryk Sienkiewicz. Bardzo dobry autor.