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

[JoKa]

Only one death on the dragon? This cannot stand! Therefore: Watcher's Keep.

The first level of Watchers Keep is actually pretty combat-light, and probably won't result in too many Codex-deaths.

The vote wasn't only for level 1 though (even though MicoSelva seems to count the votes for the whole dungeon as such)

 

[MicoSelva]

The vote wasn't only for level 1 though (even though MicoSelva seems to count the votes for the whole dungeon as such)

Yes.

Can I vote for Watcher's Keep?

Of course. Anything we can access is eligible, but take into consideration I am treating each level as a separate quest, so you will be voting for Watcher's Keep Level 1.

 

[Erebus]

Nice job, but wouldn't it have been better to keep the illithium in order to improve the Mace of Disruption ?

 

[MicoSelva]

Why improve an item I won't be using anyway?

 

[Shadenuat]

I vote for them mind flayers

 

[Krivol]

Mind flayers are good for me, just after astral prison.

 

[Erebus]

Why improve an item I won't be using anyway?

Well, it can be pretty helpful against powerful undeads. In fact, the last time I played, I think I was able to kill Kangaxx in two hits thanks to the Improved Mace.

 

[MicoSelva]

Really? I thought that Kangaxx' immunity to anything less powerful than +4 would cancel the mace's instakill power. I had no idea it is that good (or maybe I forgot).
Well, it is lost now, so I hope we will be able to deal with undead without it, unless I can improve tha mace with illithium alloy. Or maybe we can just use the non-improved one.

 

[Sodafish]

Meh, FoA is way more useful anyway.

 

[MicoSelva]

I'm not very good with abbreviations. What's FoA?

 

[Sodafish]

Flail of Ages

 

[MicoSelva]

Ah, ok. Overall, yes, but that depends heavily on circumstances.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Really? I thought that Kangaxx' immunity to anything less powerful than +4 would cancel the mace's instakill power. I had no idea it is that good (or maybe I forgot).
Well, it is lost now, so I hope we will be able to deal with undead without it, unless I can improve tha mace with illithium alloy. Or maybe we can just use the non-improved one.

Improved MoD counts as +5 weapon for determining what it can hit. It is insanely good item, can kill any undead in one hit (Kagnaxx and Bodhi included) and also protects again level drain. There's no reason not to make it, as finishing the statue quest with alloy doesn't really change much.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I'll keep my vote for Illithids.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Illithids

 

[ALchymist]

Illithids sounds fun.

Codexes (Codices?) of the World Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains brains.

 

[Mrowak]

Watcher's keep.

 

[Abelian]

You can add another. I've been following your LP's for about two years and your BG1 LP is how I stumbled on the RPG Codex in the first place, so thought it appropriate to make my first post here.
If you get to read this before starting your next update, I vote for Illithids in Athkatla.

NB - why did Cernd join the party. Unless a mod has changed things, you just need to talk to him to get him to challenge on your behalf?

It was the simplest solution and I couldn't be assed to be searching for different ones.

Also, welcome to the RPGCodex. You are the second person I know of, who makes his/her first post in this thread. Things like these make it worthwile to make the LP.

EDIT: BTW, I am hoping to post 2-3 updates next week, but it depends on the workload at my job.

 

[Thor Kaufman]

watcher's keep

 

[MicoSelva]

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

We got a bunch of stuff, and forgot to identify this armor, so let's start with that.

I briefly considered replacing Robe of Vecna with this, but the 10% casting failure rate would bite us right in the arse in all the worst moments.

Considering it's my ass we're talking about, I concur.

------

Update #34: Invading the Basement

Spoiler

We also visit Cromwell to forge the shadow dragon scale armor.

But its stats are not good enough neither for replacing the Robe of Vecna for regular use nor for replacing Red Dragon Scale for tough melee engagements, so ultimately crafting it was pretty pointless. It is probably one of the best (if not the best) armors for Viconia, though, if You want her in Your party.

300 GP? What a ripoff!

Yeah, this wasn't one of our better investements.

When trying to rest in the Planar Shpere, we are met by Teos.

What? Right now? I can't. I'm just leaving. I'm, er... not dressed properly.

But Teos does not take no for an answer (he does not take any answer, actually), so we're dragged into the ceremony.

It's good that they recognize that.

I will have to do something about the laws of magic in this city someday.

Go forth and spread the Infinite Wisdom of The Codex.

Everybody teleports away (with Teos telling us he'll be back first, but I didn't bother posting that).

I don't remember teaching that to them.

Character sheet update below, spoiler tagged for Your convenience if You don't care about that.

Hallelujah!

Spoiler

Two level ups inbound.

We are finally at max reputation. It has certainly taken a while.

Barring negative modifiers, The Codex can only fail a saving throw on a natural one.

That possibility should be eliminated too.

I thought You aren't interested in character sheet?

I'm not.

These stats won't change until we delve deeper into Watcher's Keep.

Improving these resistances is probably the easiest way to make the Codex more powerful atm.

The Codex has earned over 2.5 million experience points from kills alone. What may be surprising, that is significantly less than 50% of his overall XP (5.84 million).

After all that dragon fighting, I think I've earned a little break. How about we do something fun for a change?

Like what?

Remember when we went to the cirucs once? That was cool.

Well, the circus is now defunct, after You've killed the main perfomer. However, there is a theatre in the bridge district...

Fine, I'll take it.

The theatre is located in the Five Flaggons Inn, downstairs.

Do I want to pay if I can get in for free? Let me think... Yeah, no.

We would like to randomly emphasise that The Codex does not condone piracy.

I did not expect to see Biff here. I already like it!

Could you shut the hell up, I am trying to watch the performance here! Some people.

Oh, come on, people! You're disrupting the show!

That's it, I want my money back.

You haven't paid anything.

I still want some money.

Someone must have replaced their copies of the script with spell scrolls. No wonder the actors can't get their line straight. I'll just take them so there is no more confusion.

Sure.

Another one of these mysterious 3-pixel wide stashes with nothing interesting in them. I wonder why the designers decided to put them in the game.

I bet it's a cursed scroll of something.

Shockingly, it's not.

I'm here to get money. If I have to kill someone to get it, so be it. Just point me in the right direction.

You know the drill. Plot below.

Spoiler

For some reason sewers are only accessible from the Temple District.

That makes a certain amount of sense.

I've just remembered I never want to go back there again.

Too late for that. Hop in.

I'm guessing this is the wrong secret wall.

Yes.

There is another one here.

I don't think I got any key from the actors.

Still, it opened. Whatever.

Why do all evil wizards in this city have to live in the sewers.

Some of them lived in the docks, or in slums.

The smell is similar.

A mephit. That's a promising start for this adventure.

There was some more mephit fighting in this update, but I had a problem with a few screenshots, so we have to skip it.
Eventually The Codex defeated the mephits, take my word for it.

Entering one of the side rooms, we catch a glimpse of a yuan-ti mage.
BTW, I never realised this before, but doesn't this area reuse Durlag's Keep floor layout?

We leave the trapped chests for now and decide to take care of yuan-ti first.

They prove to be more than a little challenging.

This isn't going nearly as well as it should be.

It has been some time since we last died to a random trash mob.

Death Count: 180

Loading.

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

We decide to explore the other side of the tower basement first.

A whole huge bookshelf containing only one book and one scroll. What a waste of space.

Get some suspension of disbelief. These are not the only things on the bookshelf. They are just the only interesting ones.

So, what is the rest? The evil wizard's porn collection? Wait, actually, that would make a lot of sense.

One of the spells is new to us.

Moving on towards the yuan-ti, we inspect the chests on the way. One of them cotains a magical amulet.

It would be really hard to conceive something more useless than this.

I've always wanted to try a roasted snake. BOOM!

We employ the Diablo 1 gamebreaker tactic: stand in the door and whack them one at a time.

Mwahahahaha! Slaughter!

One of the mages kills itself with a lightning bolt, costing us 7000 XP, but we decide not to reload.

The last mage falls.

Overcoming this challenge nets us a level up.

I'll be there soon, epic skills. So very soon.

Our hero now has more than 100 points in every thieving skill except Detect Illusion. Not sure if there is any point in bumping them up even higher. Maybe we should invest into DI to save True Sight spell slots and make it easier to deal with invisible opponents?

Another trapped chest.

And some decent loot inside.

The wizard living here is seriously paranoid.

It's not paranoia, if his fear are justified. And they are, since you are robbing him blind.

It's a rescue mission!

Plot-lock. We'll be back.

I guess the wizard has not finished pimping out his mother's basement just yet.

So, is this the damsel in distress?

He's a dude.

Really?

Anyway, we'll have to come back for him when we deal with Mekrath.

Moving around invisible has the advantage of getting a first strike on enemies, like these mephits here.

I hate fighting these shitwings. They always manage to hurt me a little before dying.

These bottles don't look that familiar, so the potions are probably useless to us.

I'm sure this potion of invulnerability, which is diifferent from any other I've seen, is perfectly safe and legit.

Yet another spell scroll.

Right. Why am I not surprised to find you in the most secluded place here.

Feels almost like I'm back in high school.

I think I've seen a wand like that before.

This must be the most useless rod I've ever seen.

It is however one of the most useful when playing with a party.

I'm not picking this up. I bet it's all sticky and shit.

I think I prefered him in his previous state.

I'm not intolerant or anything, but I don't like fags like you, so fuck off.

Killing Mekrath also allows us to loot the altar here.

I was somehow expecting to find a William Shatner portrait in here.

Oh, it's one of those items that try to make bards suck a bit less, and fail hard.

And it's not good enough to be worth keeping until we get the Use Any Item ability and/or bag of holding.

I'm guessing this is the thing I was supposed to find.

Way to show who's wearing pants here, HD.

300 gold is not enough to make it worth fighting mephits yet again, not to mention exposing myself to all the vapours in that basement.

The Codex' haggling skills have largely improved recently.

More plot below.

Spoiler

Ok, what exactly have I agreed upon here?

Fighting whatever comes out of that portal.

Mephits should be excluded from that deal.

This is a quasit.

Same shit.

Oh, great, another one.

Well, this was disappointing.

I don't think it's over just yet.

This one looks familiar.

I don't need any help fighting liches at the moment, so get lost!

Somehow I was expecting another elemental.

At this rate of enemy improvement, I am going to be here whole day before some interesting opponent appears.

Madness? No, this is Athkathla!

Um, you know that you don't have to go with them, right? I can just kill them.

'We are sorry, but this dialogue does not give actual options, so we don't care which response you've chosen. Please try again later.'

Don't tell me. I'm going after them.

Yup.

I hate my life sometimes.

---

Next time: The Codex will chew ass and kick bubblegum, or maybe the other way around.

Hopefully.

Next quest selection details:

Spoiler

The die will be cast after next update.
Hopefully I have not missed any votes so far (never expected so many). If someone notices that I have, let me know please.

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]

 

[Baron Dupek]

Planar Prison is tempting (especially when he stand right before entrance) but I keep my vote for Illthidies.

 

[MicoSelva]

Planar Prison has already been completed (as You can see in the first post of the thread).

 

[Desmodus Rotundus]

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.

 

[MicoSelva]

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

Supposed to be Mrowak.

Thanks.

 

[Storyfag]

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.