Let's Play IWD 2, #24 Motherfucking snakes in this... Tree?

oldmanpaco said:

I always enjoyed the bridge. I don't remember much from IWD2 but I do remember the bridge.

Also you need a 6th member of your party to whip these plebeians into shape.. Maybe a 6th level fighter dueled to mage.

Just saying.

edit: Drunk posting sucks.

Click to expand...

My guys are still level 5. When they reach 7 (6 fighter, 1 mage right?), I may add Lord Paco.

The previous (and only) time I tried playing this, I ended up stopping after fighting the troll. My party was incapable of dealing enough damage to him before he killed one of my melee guys. So, I decided to throw a bunch of flaming oil at him, since that was the closest I had to something like fireball.

It took me like 6 reloads for that to work, because clicking on the asshole to use the oil wasn't good enough, he outran it. I had to manually lead him. So I decided it wasn't worth suffering through that crap, and gave up.

Seeing this made me decide to try it out again, though. Maybe I'll make it further this time. I just got done with the palisade fight, and it seems easier than I remember. I'm not really looking forward to fighting through 8 billion orcs again, though.

While the game isn't extremely hard or anything, it does put a decent challenge.

I don't want to sound condescending, because I know this isn't Brian surgery, but here's some basic advice.

Use the AI scripts on your chars, but don't use class specific ones. For example, use ranged aggressive on your mages, and use spells manually. This will make sure no one in your party is sitting on their asses at any time, and especially early on, the damage from those crossbows is good.

Around the first chapter, I looked at the characters statistics, and the biggest damage dealer in my party was the non-casting wizard, with her crossbow. Of course, this won't be true for long, because your fighters will start to overshadow it, but in the start, it's great.

Also, kill the mages/shamans first. Focus fire trouble targets. The spells that charm or stun enemies are very good too. You are essentially removing one enemy from the mob, to deal with him alone, after his buddies are dead. A charmed enemy is as good as a dead enemy. But never use those on mages/shamans, those guys have high will saving throws. A good spell to use on mages/shamans is Finger of Death, which has a Fortitude saving throw.

Feats that improve saving throws, especially Will for fighters aren't bad. You don't want your fighters charmed, paralyzed or whatever. If you already got your weapon focus/specialization, and any other feat you wanted, Iron Will is a great option.

Yeah, I've been doing a lot more ranged combat this time, and I think that's part of what's made it seem easier than last time.

And I know 3rd edition pretty well, and did when I played last time, although it seems that each engine has quirks in what carries over properly. For instance, ranged combat tends to be balls in the NWN series, whereas it seems pretty decent in IWD2, and ends up being better than melee in TOEE. Spells are highly variable, too.

The flaming oil thing really made me rage, though. I had a viable strategy, it just took me 5 reloads to properly execute in the real-time combat engine, because I had to guess where the enemy would be by the time the bomb exploded. That isn't the kind of 'challenge' I'm interested in.

What party are you using?

Half-orc barbarian/fighter
Dwarven cleric of Tempus
Human cleric of Lathander
Human druid
Human conjurer
Human sorcerer

That's probably way over powered, but most battles so far have been the last 4 plinking with arrows while the first two tank. Entangle came in handy for the palisade battle, though.

I actually played up to the palisade once with a drow rogue/wizard instead of the conjurer, and an aasimar paladin instead of the druid, but I got tired of the paladin automatically not accepting rewards, and thought the level adjustment on the drow might not be worth it. The battle wasn't hard with that party, either.

Edit: Well, I got to the troll cave again, and I steamrolled the guy. I must have picked some sub-par classes last time or something and perhaps been at a lower level (I found a lot of experience rewards in Targos that I didn't remember from the previous playthrough).

The bridge battle was pretty nice, too.

- BAAA BAAA BAAHH. (Ah, being a boar sure is good.)

- BAAAH. BAAA! (Food here's plenty. The female boars have great udders!)

- BAAH? (What else could a boar want?)

- BAAH? BAAAAAAAAAH! BAH! (Uh, what is that? AAARGH, MY ASS! S-STOP IT!)

- ... and then, after she stopped whining about her nose, I...

- What are they...?!

- Bloody hell!

Malarite 1 - They, they saw us!

Malarite 2 - They have to be silenced!

- Wait, wait, I doubt any of us will ever want to talk about this to anyone... We are just going to leave now, and pretend this never happened.

Malarite 3 - You have seen us, now die!



Well, battle it is.



I try to charm one of these Malarites



But he makes the save.



They, and the boars get close. I use one of those flaming oils



The oil doesn't do much damage. I'm going to try a backstab.



15. Meh. And now Mortimer is a target.



I pull him up, but the boar follows him. Notice the magic missile on the Malarite.



Well, since everybody is pretty busy, Mortimer can fend for himself.



Barbaric! and Dwarfington drop one enemy each.



We kill the last Malarite, and go help Mortimer.



Job done.

- Why these boars attacked us? *We* weren't doing anything to them.

- I heard about those guys. They're some sort of cult of evil druids. The tales of the ferocity and aggressiveness of the animals that accompany them reach far in Faerun.

- I guess we just witnessed how that ferocity and aggressiveness is instilled.



Patching up.



There's this support beam for a dam here. I don't know why exactly, but since it's destructable, and the malarites were not attacking it, I think we are supposed to destroy it.



There you go.



Moving.





More malarites.



The melee fighters were already in bad shape.



Sir Dwarfington uses a potion.



One malarite summons a wolf. Great, another animal.



In this screen you can see the magic missile I cast, and me selecting barkskin to cast on Sir Dwarfington. It gives +3 natural armor. This early in the game, it's good. Later, it loses a bit of usefulness.



Shit, nobody dies? These fuckers are tough.



Melf's Acid Arrow, then. Can't cast Aganazzar's Scorcher from that position.



Cure light wounds on Sir Dwarfington.



Things aren't looking good for us.



And Barbaric! bites the bullet. Reload.



This time, I cast barkskin on Sir Dwarfington before the fight.



Things go smoother this time. One malarite is already down.



Healing Barbaric!



One of those fuckers casts hold person. Dwarfington and Mortimer are held. What do you think happens? Reload.



Barkskin.



We get close.



Healing Barbaric!. The heal spell must be cast close to the target, but the target can move while the caster is still casting, so the effect happens at a distance. If the target goes invisible, then the spell is wasted. It's so joyous when I'm healing Mortimer and that happens.



Fucker casts chant.



And hold person. This time, only Sir Dwarfington is held. I kept Mortimer at range this time around.



Dwarfington is taking a beating.



I heal him with Lizzie, but now it's Barbaric! who is getting clubbed.



I heal him too. Sir Dwarfington paralysis ends. One malarite runs. When some enemies take too much damage, they have a morale test, and if they fail, they run away.





Fucking cat finally dies. Sometimes the screenshot doesn't capture the guys on the screen, or the character portraits. This was one of those times, but only affected 3 portraits. Sometimes everything disappears, and there's only the interface and the background. I don't know why that happens, but sometimes it happens on a crucial SS.



Cleaning up.



There, job done. Looting now. And we find in a crate in that encampment:



I give it to Mortimer.



I rest.



I move a bit, and cast barkskin on both Dwarfington and Barbaric!



A lumberless bridge. Alright, we will come back later with lumber.



Some malarites and their goddamn zoo.



Did you see that leopard in the previous SS? Look at the text to discover what happend to him.

-



Everybody chooses Mort as their punchbag.



I try to run to the left.



To the right.



This is ridiculous.



To the left again.



Meanwhile, the rest of the party deals with a boar.



I pull Mort past them.



And finally the chase stops.



I equip the bow on Mortimer, and keep him at distance.



Melf's Acid Arrow



Finishing the job and looting.



More combat. The game uses a few scripts, that you can set, to make your chars choose targets.



It might tell the character to chase an enemy, or to protect an ally.



It works alright I guess. But there's one script, called adaptive agressive, that is worth mention. In theory, it makes a character alternate between ranged and melee weapons, depending on range. In practice, the character NEVER ends up with the proper weapon at the proper time.



I'm starting to hate those malarite fuckers.



I try to retreat a bit, to see if I can get them entangled.



It works, but Sir Dwarfington gets entagled also.



And those cocksuckers can do that. It looks impressive, but it's actually a level 1 spell.



And they summon dogs too. Dog fuckers.



I retreat a bit.



SNEAK ATTACK TIME! 19 damage this time. Not bad. Nothing special tough, considering Mortimer tends to end up a target some (most?) of the times we try that.



Die, you dogcocksucker! Godamnit, they are tough.



I put everybody on ranged weapons, but Sir Dwarfington does not have one (I will correct that soon), and since they're entangled, they should not have their Dex bonus to AC. Which means every attack is a sneak attack. But I don't know if sneak attacks work with bows, so I put Mortimer on melee.



A decision I soon regret.



I mop up, and decide to suck it up, and wait for an opportunity to ressurect him.



We get the wood for the bridge from here.



Fix the bridge. And then I remember about the priestess, she offered ressurrections. Of course I will spare you the backtracking. As soon as we enter the new area...








That thing in front of Sir Dwarfington is a Bugbear. They are big, but aren't even close as big a pain in the ass as those malarites.





The battle goes on. Our archers were helping Barbaric!. The bugbear was being dealt with by Sir Dwarfington alone.



Fucking chant.



Those guys aren't a threat.



They are soon dealt with.



Let's move, we gotta protect those support beams...



But there's all sorts of creatures in the way.



Magic missiles and oils are used to deal with those guys at range. Once the path is clear, we advance.




That guy was just trying to stall us.



Wizerella takes a magic missile to the head. Those things always give the impression that they are homing, but they home where in the target? I'm sure some mage already made a ball-seeking missile.



Melf's Acid Arrow on Xuki, and I heal Wizerella.



I put my guys to do their work.



There's no fight, the Ogres don't stop attacking the support beams.



And the mage is a non-issue.



Support beams saved.



The loot. A bag and some boots. We will identify these later.



We come back to clean the map. You can't see in this SS, but there's a bugbear to the left.



There isn't one anymore.

- Bug... bear...

- What?

- I don't suppose that name indicates some sort of activity they like to participate?

- After those malarites, I don't doubt...



Well, some weresomethings appear, but they're outnumbered here.



Mortimer is healed.



A harpy.





Well, job done. We can return to Targos.

- Sigh... The amount of nasty stuff we find on these parts is astonishing. I should have remained in Luskan.

- Well, what did you expect?

- I was lured here by the tale of the Nordic women. I heard that their skin was like a pinkish snow, that their hair was yellow like the rays of the sun, and their faces had delicate features.

- And of course, that they had huge and firm breasts.

- But it seems all there is here is goblins, orcs, zoophiles and the like.

- What about the tavern? You didn't see any comely wench in there?

- Well, most of them looked like they could be used against the goblins, by pushing them, and rolling the goblins under.

- There was one with red hair, she probably was the least un-comely wench in the tavern. But before I got to business with her, I noticed a certain volume under her dress, that suggested that she was not the least un-comely wench in the tavern.

- Maybe we should find a blonde wig and put it on a goblin?

Barbaric! throws something heavy at Mortimer.

Moving on:



- Actually, no. We haven't killed a goblin since we left Targos.

- Funny, eh? It was a goblin invasion, we were knee deep in goblin crap, and yet...

- Not that I would want to fight more goblins, they might end up killing us... Of boredom.






- Well, I guess he's very bloodthirsty!

- Get it? He's happy there's blood in the river's water? Uh?

- Shut up.

We go report, and get another mission:







The now identified loot. Nothing extremely useful now, but the Bag of Holding will be great in the future. I give the boots to Sir Dwarfington.



Leaving Targos again. Let's go to this Fortress.

Reaching there:



If the dialog seems weird, it's because I cut a piece out of it. The picture was getting too long, and it was nothing important.



Let's start the fighting again. Barkskin on fighters, and Bull's Strenght on Dwarfington.



A few goblins, orcs, and one half-goblin.

- A half-goblin?

- How a thing like that happen?

- Well, I think that when we were fighting goblins in Targos a few of them tried to hump my leg.

- Oh, that's a hump? I thought they were trying some new attack or something.

- Well, it seems a few of them have found something actually humpable.

- That or someone in Targos has a nasty fetish.

- I bet it's that Ulbrec fucker. That wife of his looks like she hasn't seen a dick in a while.

- Well, in his defense, have you taken a good look at the woman? She looked like the model of an anti-booze campaign.

- "If you drink, you might wake up with *her* in your bed!"

- She should be made to guard the palisade. The enemy forces would be routed before the battle even started.



Things aren't going very well.



Holy shit, what is the non-goblin half of that thing made of?

Reloading.



Alright, let's be more cautious now.



I'm going to charm that fucker.



Save failed. FUCK YEAH.

Half-goblin - Hey, you guys are my BROS. BROFIST!



Without the half-goblin half-satan on their side, the mob is quickly thrashed.



Now it's time for him.



He doesn't retaliate, making it easy.



Well, looting, and I'm going to stop here. In the next update, we reach the fortress (I hope).

I must say, these battles are actually quite a bit more interesting then my fairly min-maxy party playing on the hardest difficulty. You seem to actually have time to plan and handle enemies with your full arsenal. In hard mode basically all you can do is buff everyone to hell pre-battle, lay down as many immobilizers as you can spare and pray that your firepower is enough to quickly wipe out anything that makes the save. In the area you just passed I had my first death to the initial Malarites who did more damage with a single critical hit then my fighter had health . It may turn out to be a significantly more fun game taking suboptimal classes and playing on a lower difficulty then vice-versa. If I still have some steam left when I finish my current game I'll try that.

For reference, my party is
Human Fighter/Paladin
Moon Elf Monk
Shield Dwarf Cleric
Strong Heart Halfling Rogue
Human Wizard
Drow Sorceress

Give everyone at least 13 Dex for rapid shot feat. Cleric and arcane casters buff everyone to hell and back. Strong characters (everyone but arcane casters) get throwing weapons so they add their strength bonus, mages get sling (sadly doesn't add strength for some reason in IWD2) and bows. End result is that everyone has large numbers of attacks and still hits most of the time due to the buffs. Once you get mass haste everyone in the party is at 4 or 5 attacks per round and even mages are at +20-10 to hit. The mages actually aren't much worse off then the fighters in terms of doing damage at that point.

If you were min maxing, why did you put a rogue in your party?

A monk, I understand, Stunning fist/flurry of blows might compensate for his lower attack/defense, even tough I would not include one.

But the only thing a rogue brings to the party is the sneak attack. And if you hit it, and your target is not dead, the low AC, low hit-point rogue now is a target.

If you keep him at range, a dex-fighter with a bow/throwing weapon is much more deadly. And is not limited to light armor. And has highter hp.

I may be wrong, but if I wanted to steam roll everything, I would make 3 fighters, 2 sorceress and 1 cleric.

3ed fighters were OP, compared to the other classes.

But since you are playing at 200%, and I'm getting my ass kicked in normal difficulty, maybe the rogue and monk are something to consider.

In the next update, my characters will die left and right.

desocupado said:

If you were min maxing, why did you put a rogue in your party?

A monk, I understand, Stunning fist/flurry of blows might compensate for his lower attack/defense, even tough I would not include one.

But the only thing a rogue brings to the party is the sneak attack. And if you hit it, and your target is not dead, the low AC, low hit-point rogue now is a target.

If you keep him at range, a dex-fighter with a bow/throwing weapon is much more deadly. And is not limited to light armor. And has highter hp.

I may be wrong, but if I wanted to steam roll everything, I would make 3 fighters, 2 sorceress and 1 cleric.

3ed fighters were OP, compared to the other classes.

But since you are playing at 200%, and I'm getting my ass kicked in normal difficulty, maybe the rogue and monk are something to consider.

In the next update, my characters will die left and right.

Click to expand...

Once you get enough buffs that your low AB characters don't have low AB anymore the only difference between a ranged dex fighter and a ranged dex mage is about 1 attack per round, and since the mages will all have +1 attack from rapid shot and +1 from haste later on, they actually fare very well (keep in mind the # of attacks per round caps at 5, so later on they even equalize). The difference in kill % between the members of my party is actually startlingly low considering that my mages are almost never casting anything other then disabling spells and then pelting them with arrows and stones. The min-maxing comes from the fact that all of my mages have 14 dex to use rapid shot and all of my other characters have max dex and str to take advantage of throwing weapons + rapid shot.

Monk is pretty much purely for the evasion + all high saves (its actually just because I like the monk class and have to have one in my party, but this is how it fits into it well). Paladin is for the high saves + a few cheap extra buffs. Rogue has high reflex saves which is the most important save since it lets him stand in most disabling spells, + evasion of course. Granted the Rogue could be replaced with another Paladin at almost no loss, but the only thing I would gain is a few AB that don't matter since my AB is already through the roof. And my rogue's AC is in fact higher then anyone else in the party because the fucker has 28 DEX when my sorceress puts Cat's Grace on everyone, and I gave him a shield proficiency feat. Not that AC really matters. Keep in mind that enemy AB is boosted to the point where they are going to hit me anyway, and even a non-crit can take away 1/4th to 1/2 of my Paladin's health. I also have a suspicion that the enemy boost from the difficulty modifier is actually a luck boost, because they seem to critical far more often then they should and a critical is almost assuredly a character that is dead immediately. At most maybe 5% of my kills have been through melee and I don't think my rogue has sneak attacked anyone at all yet lol. You just really don't want things to get near you.


If you really want to make the game easy though, just fill every 3rd level priest and 5th level mage slot with animate dead. Ridiculously powerful and tanky summons, and thats after they were nerfed from absurdly powerful in the patch.

The goblin fortress map is brutal. I don't really like resting after clearing out a fraction of an area, but I don't see how it's possible there otherwise.

The half goblins hit my guys pretty easily, and they're all wielding great swords and great axes, which can easily do more than 10 damage per hit. And they send them at you in groups of 4, possibly with warg riders, or summoning warg riders behind you with those drums (and they can also hit hard). And there's probably 6 or 7 such encounters on the map.

About rapid shot: does it work with crossbows? I know it shouldn't (unless that was a 3.5 change), but I don't know if it's implemented that way. Or is that the reason your mages get slings?

Goblin fortress is an exercise in how far you want to take your infinite web spam vs low FPS tradeoff . But yeah, those fuckers hit hard (was able to gib everyone but my fighter with a single crit :/ ). Hopefully if you put a web + stinking cloud on the bridge nothing can get to you. Thankfully, you can always snipe off either the dude beating the drums or the drums themselves before the summoned wargs come. Your webs probably last significantly longer then it takes to kill a single group, so if you have a high save character have them run through the web and lead more groups through it to maximize your kills per web cast.

Rapid shot doesn't work with any crossbows. Most crossbows are limited to 1 attack per round, meaning they are fairly limited from the get go. There are a handful of crossbows that can fire faster then 1 per round, and at least one that adds directly to your attacks per round so that one of my mages with a crossbow gets 4 attacks, same as a bow mage but without the -2 from rapid shot. Its all random drops though, but since I'm not investing anything in the weapon proficiencies I don't lose much by switching around from weapon to weapon, and it helps me take advantage of the different ammo types I find.

Overweight Manatee said:

Goblin fortress is an exercise in how far you want to take your infinite web spam vs low FPS tradeoff . But yeah, those fuckers hit hard (was able to gib everyone but my fighter with a single crit ).

Click to expand...

I finally got through this part. It really took me a lot of reloading before something stupid didn't happen, though, whether due to bad luck, or bad path finding, or those damn goblin shamans casting unholy blight three times in a row and ruining my shit.

I started keeping track of those half goblins since I wrote that last message, and I don't think I've ever seen them do less than 10 damage on a hit. And this is on normal. I don't think even my barbarian with a greataxe consistently hits that well yet.

Overweight Manatee said:

Rapid shot doesn't work with any crossbows.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I finally got to level 6, and noticed that it explicitly says that in the feat. I might end up picking it up anyway, eventually. There aren't really that many good feat selections in this game. No metamagic and no crafting for casters. And I have no idea what a straight fighter would do with all his feats, other than specialize in multiple weapon categories. About the only character I can see being starved for feats is a two-weapon finesse fighter.

Level 6 means my sorceress finally got fireball, though. I got to incinerate a room full of annoying goblin archers. It was quite satisfying.

Edit: is it normal for the second level of the warrens to have terrible performance? I was getting like 1 FPS (unless paused), and even with all the fancy graphics settings turned off, it's not much better. It's really a chore to play that way.

Edit 2: Nevermind. Found a fix for it.

dolio said:

Edit: is it normal for the second level of the warrens to have terrible performance? I was getting like 1 FPS (unless paused), and even with all the fancy graphics settings turned off, it's not much better. It's really a chore to play that way.

Click to expand...

I've never had this problem, but apparently its rather common. Its due to some scripts that check the party inventory constantly for a few plot items and if the items its checking for aren't in the first player's inventory (worst case of all: in a bag) it lags a lot more. You should be able to fix this by downloading the fix here.

We start where we left, from the previous update.



A bridge!



I sent Mortimer ahead this time, and cast from outside enemy view range entangle.



Then I started shooting arrows. Some enemies make the save, and come at us.



I don't know where that orc in the previous SS went. Probably dead.



Wizerella took a critical hit from an arrow, so I moved her left a bit.



Patch her up, and move Sir Dwarfington to attack (he has those entangle-free bots we got before)



He's attacking close range, while everybody else is using ranged attacks.



After the entangle ends, I move him back, because he was taking too much damage.



Have I mentioned how Aganazzar's Scorcher is really fun to use? I don't know if it's only me, but I feel very satisfied when I line a up a decent one.



They should have implmemented a few other spells like that. Although I don't think it would make much difference in the pen and paper game.



Job done. Let's move.



It's one of the drums the lady scout mentioned. If an orc/goblin shaman hits on it, a worg rider appears.



A few goblins.



Chromatic orb on that half-goblin hordling. Chromatic orb stuns for one round, if the enemy is level 5 or higher. Thinking about it again, charm would be a better choice. It lasts longer, and the enemy might attack his allies.

No clue why I memorized that. Since the save is reflex, it's better against shamans and such, but for those I use the better spells. Oh, well, figures.



Anyway, the bastard saved.



Some killing. That blue thing is the ending of a silence spell effect. Which has a ear on the character portrait. That totally makes sense, and absolutelly does not makes you think that's deafness.



The responsible for the silence. Those fuckers are dangerous. Not this one, because his buddies are dead. But they usually are.



I have a special thing for him. The rightmost one.



He died half-way casting, so the spell effect continues.



Magic missile. On someone, can't remember who.



Hey, a half-goblin fucked Sir Dwarfington up. I don't remember half-goblins in this battle. Not that I remember this battle, but I remember not worrying much about it. And if I did not worry much, it's probably because I did not see that half-goblin, half-satan thing.

Anyway, potion of extra healing.



Fuck YEAH! Sneak attack is starting to be worth the trouble. I'm using a mod that makes sneak attack into a multiplier, instead of extra dice. I always disliked the way d&d handles the magic/sneak damage. The fighter damage is reliable, in the sense that you always have the damage from the weapon+strenght. But a fireball might vary wildly between 10 and 60 (at level 10).

Well, fuck that shit. Instead of extra 10d6 at level 20, the mod changes that to extra 5x damage at level 20. Starting +1x damage at lvl 1, and increasing every four levels. Now that I think about it, that might be a tad overpowered. Specially to strenght based rogues. Well, mine is dex based, and strenght based rogues don't survive much anyway.



Well, that half-goblin is still alive and kicking, mostly kicking, my butt.



Mending and...



What? No screenshot featuring his death? Talk about anti-climatic.

It might have been one of those bad screenshots without the chars that happen sometimes.



The loot. Potions are always good. The ring is just jewelry.



We barely move forward, and are attacked by a bunch of those.



Bad screenshot. I uploaded anyway to show that Sir Dwarfington died. Those fuckers don't kid around. Reload.



This time, I leave the party, and try to lure just a couple of them.



Call lightning. Good spell. Makes a lighning bolt hit an enemy every round. The downside is the MONSTRUOS casting time.

By the time you end the casting everybody in the party is already dead. And their children are retiring from their jobs, while their grandsons finish up college.



That thing about luring just a couple of them? Doesn't work. They call their buddies. This isn't Baldur's Gate, the monsters here have BRO'S. BRO'S don't leave their BRO'S alone.



Call lightning hits. What's that yellow thing next to Wizerella?



A worg rider appeared there. Those fuckers ALWAYS appear next to you casters. Out of thin air.

- Bloody hell, where did that worg rider came from?

- Well, you see, when papa worg rider and mama worg rider love each other very much...

- Very funny Barbaric!. Pray tell, do the little worg riders already come out mounted?

- For that to happen, I think the worg must be involved in the love, if you catch my drift.

- Mortimer, you are disgusting.

- Me? You saw those malarites. It's a distinct possibility.



And Barbaric! bites the bullet. Reload.

Well, that was not the last reload. I'm not going to show all the SS for this battle, because then the update would have about 300 SSs. Let's see the highlights of the next atempts. From here on, the SSs will be a bit disjointed, but it will be quick.



Oh yeah! Look at that. With so good a start, you wouldn't think I had to reload.



But I think Mortimer died right after this SS.



Another deliciously lined Scorcher.



But you see, the worg riders weren't enough. Not shown on this SS there's a shaman fucker, that casts paralyse, and obviously, two of my party had to fail the save.



You can see me here trying to kill the shaman fucker. I think it's a magic missile. Probably already had spent the other spells, I don't save spells when dealing with casters.



This atempt doesn't look like it's going to fail. What happend on this one?



Oh, that. That purple shit ruined my day.



Dwarfington goes to the other side this time.



If you take a look at this SS, you will see that I had 4 of 5 in my party paralysed, and then that purple thing is thrown on their heads. Unholy blight it's called.



The result.

Well, I said fuck that. After the reload, I decided to go the other way.



Moving.



A trash mob. Easily dispatched.



I tried to sneak attack that hordling...



But he turned to face Mortimer.



Sneak attack or not, he died. Moving on.



A winter wolf.



Why did I spread the party like that, you ask? That fucker has a nasty breath attack. I remember the first time I played this game, where this very wolf fucked my whole party.



7 damage (5+2 resisted). Did he become a wimp just to make look bad for saying I had my party wiped?



Look at those corpses in the camp!



I did not kill those!



It's a vicious beast, I tell you!



Well, he ended up only doing 5 damage before dying. Not that I wanted to have my party wiped again, but he could have been more fierce.



The camp had those. We're going to lore/identify that quarterstaff later. No hurry, nobody has focus on those anyway.



A new battle.



Some goblin archers, nothing to worry about. I was worried about some fucking drum, that is.



And with reason. A worg rider appeared.



I leave the party to deal with the baddies, and send Mortimer to search for the drum. I think I tried to hide, but of course, it does not work.

Or maybe I'm dumb, and it's not supposed to work with enemies around. That would make sense, were he not able to keep invisible in plain daylight, and in direct line of sight. Since he's capable of that, why not hide in plain sight too? But whatever.



Look at that fucker, beating his drum. Die fucker.



I give Mortimer a hand.



Go to hell.



I kill the remaining goblin archer, and move.



That staff. Almost cancer giving bad. Still, it might be useful, there are a few slashing resisting enemies ahead.



Nobody has slings. Although, since I recently discovered Crossbows are limited to 1 attack per round, that might change soon.



We are close to that point where we were being fucked over and over.



Oh joy. I love when I err the casting time, and everybody passes through the area before the entangle is cast.



Needless to say, this doesn't look good.



Ohh, friends.



I manage to kill the shaman. Who do you think is going to die now?



Nope! It was Barbaric!. The first time I played this game, it was a few years ago, I remember having a Barbarian who was very fond of dying.



New atempt, new death. Sorry for the minimalistic aproach, but I'm tired of covering the same battles over and over.



This one is going to be detailed tough. As you can see, fighters with barkskin and bull's strenght.



Entangle.



Let's try to add one of theirs to our numbers.



Fucker saved. Rolled a 20. He only has +2 of will save. Fucker.

The DC, if I recall correctly, is 10 + int bonus + spell level + spell focus feat.

10 + 4 + 1 + 2 = 17. He needs a 15 to make the save. We have a 70% chance of charming those fuckers.

It seems closer to 30%.



Call lightning.



It hits someone, tought the damage is not shown.



We were doing fine. Barbaric! is now paralysed, but at least, it's just him, not half my party.

The goblin shaman appears, and I throw the best oil I have at him. The area of effect is pretty big, and the damage is 5d6 I think. Maybe. Can't remember.



He does not die from the oil alone, so I cast Fire Arrow on him. Pretty average spell now, but the damage keeps scalling, adding 4d6 every four levels. At level 20, it does 20d6. Not bad for a third level spell.



You can see me selecting the oil, but the SS where the oil hits the troll and ogre turned out bad. Just imagine they were hit by the oil. Because they were.



Oh, stop imagining, you can see them hit by the oil on this SS.



More oil fuckery.



Uh... not in the lube sense.



Lizzie was getting hit by that worg fucker rider, so I send some magic missiles there.



My guys are pretty worn out by now. I use a potion on Dwarfington.



The battle is dragging on, and Barbaric! is still paralysed.



Only this worg rider.



Patched him up with Lizzie.



And the rider went down. That was a pretty intense battle.



But the bloody drum was not destroyed!



Can't rest now!



There is the fucker!



I shoot some arrows at him.



Uh? Where he went? At least he is not banging that drum anymore. Oh, now I see his body there.



That named orc shaman might be a threat.



I leave the troll there, to deal with the shaman.



Hey, Call lightning was still in effect! Shame it hit the drum instead of a real enemy.



I hope this barbarian isn't very fond of dying.



Bad SS, but I put it up to show that the frost troll takes extra damage from bludgeoning.

It's kinda funny. What is the best way to deal with trolls? A warhammer. Or should I say, a BANhammer?



I save, before some shit materializes out of thin air and kill everybody.




The loot. The non-identified weapons are crap, believe me.



Finishing exploring this map.



Sorry guys, didn't take SSs on this fight. I was distracted. But it was just a trash mob. No big battles here.



- Mortimer, go there and knock, try to trick them into opening it.

- Alright.

Mortimer aproaches the gate.

- Hello, anybody home?

Gate - Who is it?

- Well, We are passing information on the Kingdom of God, we are Jehovah's Witness and would like to have a word with you.

Nothing is heard from the gate.

- :facepalm:. Damn it Mortimer, Jehovah's Witness? Think of something better.

A few minutes later, Mortimer tries again.

He knocks on the gate and...

Gate - What?

- Good afternoon sir, I am here to present you with the opportunity to buy the Enciclopaedia Britannica, for the very cheap price of...

Gate - Go away, we don't need no Enciclopaedia Britannica. We can acess Wikipedia just fine here.

- You would think a rogue would have some guile.

- You try a last time a bit later, ok?

- Uh, ok, but I'm out of ideas...

Again, after a while, Mortimer knocks on the gate...

Gate - Who is it?

- Uh... It's the milkman.

Gate - WHAT!? You have the courage to show up here after sleeping with my wife!? I'm gonna smash your balls with a warhammer!

Gate - Opening noises

- GUYS, RUN!

And the party flees.



We finish exploring, and enter this cave.



Moving...



We find lots of goblins.



The worg is the hard hitter here.



We go thinning their numbers. I think I charmed the worg, I'm not too sure.



The shaman casts doom on Sir Dwarfington. It's not the end of the world. There are a lot of worse things you can fail a will save to.



Magic missiles are what's left of my arsenal by now. I cast them on the shaman.



Now it's pretty much looting and killing the ocasional goblin archer that was hidden in the fog.



Fireball





Moving on.



A few orcs. I don't remember what those fireworks are.



Doesn't matter. Easy encounter.



Done.



And we finish. This update was big, and contained only fights.

Not many oportunities for funny party chat, which is what I have the most fun doing.

I hope I find weird critters and other things to make the party comment about in the next updates.

In the next update we probably reach the fortress. I know I said that the last update.

desocupado said:

The DC, if I recall correctly, is 10 + int bonus + spell level + spell focus feat.

Click to expand...

I actually wonder if this is the case. That's, of course, what it should be. But the game has all these weird 2nd edition-type spells. For instance...

You have confusion at level 4, where people "save at a -2 penalty."

Then you have chaos at level 5, where people save at -4 (or, if their level is low enough, they just don't save). So it's 3 better, then?

(Edit: I forgot to mention: I can't find anything in the manual that explicitly states how spell DCs are calculated. I didn't read the whole thing, but I checked the most likely places I could think of.)

I don't think any third edition spells have flat save penalties/DC buffs, because that's supposed to be handled by the formula you mention. Whereas in 2nd edition, you just "save versus spells," and the adjustment is what makes the higher level spells better. The only 3rd edition adjustment i can think of is feeblemind, and that's "wizards take a -4 penalty."

There's also lots of fixed duration spells, instead of being level-based. Bless is 1 minute/level; prayer is 1 round/level. Chant is 10 rounds, so it's actually better than prayer until you're level 10 if you don't care about moving slow and such.

Oh man, they got Peter Stormare to voice one of the villains. Excellent.

Hmm, I have an update. Is how far are we from the next page?

Ah, fuck that shit. Here it goes:

Since I don't have anything better to do with my time right now, update!



Party AI off to buff Mortimer. Because the fucker keeps hiding.

Any fucker here to say that's cheating, and I have to buff him only when he fails the hiding check?



Let's find something to murder.



Well, we found. The web spell was cast by a shaman, but affects everybody. We have a surprise for these fuckers.



FIREBALL!



:yeah



There isn't much left.



- Gods, we are fighting cannibals!

- They aren't cannibals, they would be cannibals if we were goblins.

- Well, shouldn't the concept of cannibalism encompass other intelligent beings?

- Yeah. If an elf eats human flesh, doesn't it raises the same issues and taboos?

- Maybe, but I think that discussion is for another time.

- Why?

- Because while we are discussing, one of these buggers just bit my leg.



We keep pounding them.



Focus fire the shaman, so he can't cast anything.



And kill the fleeing fuckers. Hehe, that could be a band name. The Fleeing Fuckers. Sounds nice.



Loot. We already have dispel, and that other spell isn't that great.



In the last level up, we got the Wild Shape ability. I wanted to compare Lizzie's stats with and without it.



It's morphing time!



Lizzie's attack bonus falls considerably, but she gains another attack, and a big damage increase.



We find Podunk.



- Groarr (He's so cute! Let's help him!)

- How? Why can I understand her?

- Graar (C'mon, let's get him spiders!)

- I don't know, but let's get those spiders so she shut's up.



Spider searching.



- Who would install a door on a cave? It's a cave, not a house

- There might be something dangerous inside.

- Then why not a fence? Some iron bars maybe? Something dangerous surely can destroy a few planks of wood.

- Yeah, and the construction is really good. I doubt those orcs and goblins would be able to put this up.

- I mean, I seen a orc or two die because they forgot to breath. The wall looks solid, and well built.

- Like Barbaric! said, it's a cave, it's damp, cold, and I want to get out of here. So let's open it already.



We position for something that might appear from the wall.



Spiders.



Sneak attack...



He probably used his rubber dagger on this attack.



Dead spiders.



Exploring.



We find the spider queen.



And kill it like everything else. This time the sneak attack did decent damage.



Loot. A buckler. We will take a look at that later.



Goblins and trolls. And a hardened fire troll. Whatever that is.



Whatever it is, it hits hard.



But dies quickly.



Finishing the trolls. Something DU should do around here from time to time. Before going forward, we go deliver the spiders.



- Lizzie, stop playing with that stupid goblin and let's go.



That buckler. Meh. It would be decent for Mortimer, had he the proficiency, but nothing to write home about. Maybe I will get the proficieny at level 9.



- Lizzie, aren't you afraid some Malarite appears?

- No. Why should I?

- Well, he may try to "enlist" you to his ranks.

Lizzie pauses for a moment, and then reverts to human form.



Hmm, a nice fight, maybe?



Charm person on that hobgoblin there.

- Hey handsome, why are you helping those brutes try to kill me?

It works. The hobgoblin stands there, doing nothing.



Clusterfuckery. I don't know what's happening.



Well, they are dying, and my guys are still standing.



42 damage on a critical. Nice!



That hobgoblin fucker was going to beat his drum. Literally beat his drum, not the thing you guys thought.



Now he can't.

Hobgoblin - To Wizerella - Hi... Would you like, after this war is over, to go out and have a drink?

Wizerella shoots the hobgoblin in the groin with her cross bow.

Hobgoblin - As he dies - Kinky...



Friendly, aren't we?



A shaman (or sorcerer) in the fog cast this web.



- They can cast spells too! How cute!



- Not so cute when it hits you.



A potion to patch up. Continuing, we find this guy:




(tl/dr version, the guy wants us to do his shady business, and let on that he invented the half-goblins)

- YOU MADE THOSE THINGS? YOU KNOW HOW MUCH AGGRAVATION THOSE BUGGERS BROUGHT ME? I WILL PISS ON YOU CORPSE!



He teleports to up close.



I don't know what I cast here, sorry.



End result. This fucker hits HARD. The following screens depict a sucess, but I actually had to try this battle several times before winning.



A previously buffed party goes in. He casts Emotion: Despair on the party, but everybody on range but Wizerella saves. that was not the case on the previous tries.



After I determined that he was attacking Barbaric!, I cast turtle shell on him. That makes him impervious to damage, for 100 points of damage, but he can't act. In previous tries, I cast it on one party member, to have him attack another.

Imagine my happiness when that happened.



He didn't take much to die, the problem was surviving that little time. Sorry for skimping on the screens in this battle.



Even his goblins were tough. They all resisted fire.



The loot. A spell I already had, and some bracers.



That was the last place in this area, we leave.



Just as we arrive on the next area, a warm greeting.



Well, I don't waste time.



I tried to entangle them, but the spell failed because we are indoors. Even tough it's cave ground. I guess even magical plants need sun. For the 3 minutes they are alive.



But no problem, because I had this nice idea.



Ta da!



some motherfucker casts paralyze on us.



I don't have any more fireballs, because of those fire resisting fuckers from before. But these casters can't stay alive, else they're gonna fuck us.



Oh, now they cast Emotion: Despair, besides the paralyse.



I cast Mold Touch with Lizzie. It's kinda strong (4d6, then 2d6 in the next round, and can infect other enemies), doesn't scale through levels, tough.



That purple shit.



There's a few guys left. But the battle is almost over.



Dwarfington kills that Orog that was hitting the party. Some sorcerer shoots a snowball. It's like a fireball, but I don't know the damage values. I think it's weaker.



Anyway, with the melee guys done, I send Dwarfington to deal with the spellcasting remains, while healing Barbaric! with Lizzie.



Just the gold to pick up now. And I found this:



Nice.



We move... But more on that on the next update.

We already have dispel, and that other spell isn't that great.

Click to expand...

I kind of like Melf's minute meteors. I gave it to my sorceress. I don't really use it that much, though. I also gave her ball lightning, but I think that's actually less useful (even though it's a higher level spell).

I guess I like it because most of the computer D&D I've played (aurora engine), those kind of spells aren't implemented. You can conjure melee weapons in that engine, but not a limited supply of throwing weapons.

I also like that IWD2 got touch spells implemented properly. For instance, you cast harm, and it charges your hand. Then, you get to keep making touch attacks until you succeed, and the spell discharges. I'm not sure even ToEE got this right, and I know NWN didn't.

Clusterfuckery. I don't know what's happening.

Click to expand...

That's a real problem in this game. It happens a lot.

So, how is sneak attacking implemented? I tried making a bow-wielding rogue, but it pretty clearly wasn't able to sneak attack. And I assume flanking isn't properly implemented. Do you get sneak attacks for your character facing someone's back? Or is it only when you're hidden?

Also, dicking around with character creation, I discovered an amusing fact: spell resistance stacks, according to the character sheet at least. This means that if you make a drow or deep gnome monk, when he reaches level 13, he'll have 21 + 2*level spell resistance. Having 21 + N resistance means that you're immune to any (harmful) spell cast by a wizard of level N or below (ignoring spell penetration). So at level 13, they're immune to spells cast by anyone who isn't level 27 (and they're 95% immune to those). At 20, it takes a level 41 caster to penetrate. Etc.

dolio said:

We already have dispel, and that other spell isn't that great.

Click to expand...

I kind of like Melf's minute meteors. I gave it to my sorceress. I don't really use it that much, though. I also gave her ball lightning, but I think that's actually less useful (even though it's a higher level spell).

I guess I like it because most of the computer D&D I've played (aurora engine), those kind of spells aren't implemented. You can conjure melee weapons in that engine, but not a limited supply of throwing weapons.

I also like that IWD2 got touch spells implemented properly. For instance, you cast harm, and it charges your hand. Then, you get to keep making touch attacks until you succeed, and the spell discharges. I'm not sure even ToEE got this right, and I know NWN didn't.

Clusterfuckery. I don't know what's happening.

Click to expand...

That's a real problem in this game. It happens a lot.

So, how is sneak attacking implemented? I tried making a bow-wielding rogue, but it pretty clearly wasn't able to sneak attack. And I assume flanking isn't properly implemented. Do you get sneak attacks for your character facing someone's back? Or is it only when you're hidden?

Also, dicking around with character creation, I discovered an amusing fact: spell resistance stacks, according to the character sheet at least. This means that if you make a drow or deep gnome monk, when he reaches level 13, he'll have 21 + 2*level spell resistance. Having 21 + N resistance means that you're immune to any (harmful) spell cast by a wizard of level N or below (ignoring spell penetration). So at level 13, they're immune to spells cast by anyone who isn't level 27 (and they're 95% immune to those). At 20, it takes a level 41 caster to penetrate. Etc.

Click to expand...

Sneak attack by flanking actually works in this game! I don't know (but I don't think so) if a ranged sneak attack works, but all the sneak attacks you see in the LP are flank sneak attacks.

About touch attacks, you are right. They are implemented right. I had vampiric touch with my wizard in one battle, and she kept the spell the whole battle! How I love touch attacks on characters with no attack bonus!

To her defense, it was a tough as fuck enemy.

About the spell resistance, that's really imbalanced. But I think the rule of the 20 probably applies, since the wizard get's a roll + his level to beat the SR. So, no 100% immunity, tough 95% is almost that.

At least by the official rules, there's no critical success or failure for caster level checks. Unless that was a change from 3.0 to 3.5, but I doubt it. It's the same for skill checks (which is why you can take 20 for some of those, but it isn't an automatic success).

Good to know about the flanking, though. Interesting that they got this and other details right that haven't been done right in the Neverwinter Nights engine after 8 years of development.

dolio said:

At least by the official rules, there's no critical success or failure for caster level checks. Unless that was a change from 3.0 to 3.5, but I doubt it. It's the same for skill checks (which is why you can take 20 for some of those, but it isn't an automatic success).

Click to expand...

My mistake then. I thought that the 20 rule applied to everything.

Finally found some time to read throught his (rather long updates - must be taking some time to write). Quite entertaining. I like Your writing.

desocupado said:

Some malarites and their goddamn zoo.

Click to expand...

This line cracked me up.

desocupado said:

party chat (...) is what I have the most fun doing.

Click to expand...

These are my favourite parts too.

Good thing You scaled back the characters and difficulty level. I think it's more interesting this way. I would gladly see sixth character in the party too (not necessarily Lord Paco VII or other user-based char).

Already 10 days have passed since the last update. Can we have another one, please?

Due to overwhelming demand (two guys said they liked it! Two is like, almost three!), UPDATE!



We were in some caves, trying to get in a fort to slay deal with those threatening the city of Targos.



And it would not be Icewind Dale 2 if we did not find a combat encounter every ten seconds.



Magic missile, eh? Well, here, let me give something back to you.



Burninate the countryside, burninate the peasants!



End of encounter. The Bugbear is soon to be dead.



Another encounter? Well, color me surprised.



Hmm, lots of enemies on this one.



Let's try Mold Touch. It worked pretty good before.



The thing about Mold Touch is that it does not have visual indicators. So it's hard to see the effects by the SSs. That orc shaman up there spells trouble...



Well, not the most damaging spell, but...



I send Mortimer up there to deal with them. Of course, he has the uncanny ability of spitting ahead and missing the ground, so the fighters might kill the other enemies before he kills the shamans.



Like I fucking said...



The only significant loot. We need another stone like this to proceed.



We move up a bit, and find this.



I think I was going to cast a healing spell here.



This battle is actually kinda tough. You can see Mortimer semi-dead here, I pulled him out of the battle and told him to use the bow. That green stuff on the troll is Melf's Acid Arrow.



Hey, reinforcements? That's not fair.



Things aren't looking very good here. I normally use magic missile to try to kill something quickly. The damage is not great, but the spell comes out fast, has no save, and is not elemental, meaning those fuckers can't resist it, like fireball.



Yeah, if the name "Hardened Fire Troll" didn't give it away, they resist fire.



One down! Finally.



Critical hit! Oh yeah!



And those Hardened Fire Trolls are now Hardened Fire worm food.



Some goblins that do not attack us on sight! What trickery is this, someone changed the game while I was not looking?



I position my guys not to be surrounded when the possible fight starts, and then go talk to the leader



I don't even think those bracers were worth anything, but fuck those filthy goblins.



We open with our favorite spell.



And the goblin leader is TOUGH. I had to reload this battle a few times. So, let's try our Dire Charm.

- Mister goblin, I think you maybe would like to know that I'm all naked under this robe.



A loud THUMP is heard.

That was the sound of his boner hitting his armor.



Dire Charm is a level 3 spell, that differs from the level 1 Charm spell in that the creature affected will help out in battle.



Still a tough battle, even without the leader.



I had Lizzie targeted by those fuckers, and I had to keep her moving, so she would not end up dead. Only Barbaric! and Sir Dwarfington can withstand being targets for long.



Kruntur is the name of the goblin leader. You can see that those goblins deal additional ice damage.



Desperate attempt at healing.



More running away. Look at her hp. I make Wizerella attack the pursuer.



The goblin following Lizzie takes damage, and panics. He still can attack tough.



Magic Missile.



I heal Lizzie, and mop up.



In the end, there's only the leader left.



Not for long.

- What is up with the little tent? It's a cave here, there's no sunlight or rain here, what is it supposed to protect from?

- There are bats here.

- So?

- Bats poop.

- Oh. Point taken.



An orc.



A lot of orcs.



Turtle Shell on Sir Dwarfington.



I take Mortimer and send him a bit further down the cave, while the others fight.



Because of that. One of those fucking drums.



The fight is under control.



He can beat his drum in hell.



Back in the fray, almost done here.



And we find the second stone.



- What is up with all those dead animals?

- They probably were used as food.

- They still have too much meat on their corpses.

- Yes, some of those are still whole.

- Why would the animals drop dead?

- Because we are on a cave.

- So what? Does the lack of sunlight hurts the animals or something?

- Maybe some cave specific disease.

- Yeah, I head some guy say, that when you introduce animals from other places in a new land, you can get all sorts of problems, like external diseases or they start predating or something.

- Guys, guys, it's only a cave, it does not have "cave diseases", it just has no pasture for them to eat.

- Ahhhh...



- Look, those were fed.

- Alright, alright, I get it, no need to rub it in.

- I will free them, so they can return to the wild.

Lizzie opens up the gate.

- Creatures of nature, you are free.

None of the animals move, one of the cows hits it's head against the cave wall, and a cock starts to try to peck Lizzie.

- Ah, no, get away!

- Remember what we talked before Barbaric!?

- Yes, you were right, she is indeed afraid of cocks!

Both laugh loudly.



Moving on, we find...



Lots of enemies.



Casters at range, Mortimer ready to backstab.



And we get hit with hold person.



AND Barbaric! almost can see the scythe of the Reaper.



I correct my mistake of not killing the shaman ASAP, while 2 ogres chase Barbaric!



He drinks a potion.



Meanwhile, there's still an ogre hitting Dwarfington.



Pretty grim scenario.



At this point, I was out of damaging spells. I had a scroll of Lance of Disruption I had found earlier, and had not written to the spellbook yet. 5-30 bludgeoning damage and a chance to stun in a line, if I recall correctly. I have no choice but use it. Put Lizzie to heal Dwarfington too.



By some miracle, Barbaric! could kill the ogre hitting him without any support from the group. The other ogre was already dead, he killed it too, but it's not seen in the SSs.

We take a look at the pen to the left, and see this:



- By the gods! What in bloody hell is THAT!?

- It's an abomination!

- C'mon guys, it can't be that b- HOLY FUCK!

- That's not an abomination. That's probably what happens when a lot of abominations meet, form a community, and some day from an abomination couple that is born.

- And it's something so horribly disgusting that even its deformed and misshapen parents and neighbors have to cast it out.

Thing - MAaaMaAA!!

- KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

The whole group fire their ranged weapons.



The group deals with that thing, with ranged weapons, from outside the pen. I should have shot an SS with it dead.



After that event, we pretty much explored all this cave, we go to the exit.



The magical wards are disarmed by those stones we found earlier, and we go up, to the inside of the fortress.

Short update, but I said I would post it on Friday, and Friday is almost over. I will do another this weekend.

desocupado said:

Thing - MAaaMaAA!

Click to expand...

Keep 'em comin' !