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

[T(D?)-Bag]

I also vote for Edwin/Fallen paladins etc.

 

[Storyfag]

EDIT: Storyfag has decided that we shall finish minor stuff before moving on with the main quest. So be it!

"It's my professional duty "

 

[MicoSelva]

I also vote for Edwin/Fallen paladins etc.

Damn it people, reading comprehension! This has already been chosen.

EDIT: I've done some streamlining and striked it out in the opening post. Maybe this will ease the confusion.

 

[ALchymist]

I think we should do the Edwin quest next

Spoiler

 

[T(D?)-Bag]

I also vote for Edwin/Fallen paladins etc.

Damn it people, reading comprehension! This has already been chosen.

EDIT: I've done some streamlining and striked it out in the opening post. Maybe this will ease the confusion.

 

[Desmodus Rotundus]

While I would love to see you struggle in wk, the idea of leaving all that loot just laying around because of room constraints is too painful for me so I vote for mq.

 

[MicoSelva]

While doing the bonus stuff, I've decided to go through with Wish Quest as well, so that one is striked out now. Only MQ and WK remain.

 

[Aeschylus]

Fine fine, I vote for the MQ then.

 

[Insane Psychic]

MQ!

 

[garren]

Main quest

 

[T(D?)-Bag]

One more for main quest

 

[Abelian]

MQ FTW

 

[MicoSelva]

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

And we managed to avoid mentioning Twilight at all.

You have mentioned it now.

Crap.

------

Update #45: Clearing The Backlog

Update #45

Character sheet update

How is bow and arrows The Codex' favourite weapon? Doesn't make much sense to me. How is this determined? Mirror Image as favourite spell is also rather questionable.

Before we do anything else, I'd like to take a moment to clear some bad blood between me and cowled wizards, because I feel we've had some misunderstandings in the past.

Such as?

Such as them asking me for money to allow me to cast spells in the city? Clearly, it must have been a mistake.

Yeah, about that...

[FourHostileCowledWizardsAppear.jpg]

Sorry, I lost this one, use your imagination.

Food!

Somehow they manage to eventually kill off our Nishruu (Greater Malison, WTF is that?), but not before spending a lot of resources fighting it.

Hey, watch where you cast these!

Are any of you guys asthmatic?

The funny thing about dispel magic is that it does not affect clouds, but it does work on many protection spells.

I hope you weren't using that spine.

Sometimes you just can't catch a breath.

Wait for it...

Freeze!

And one of them actually did.

Mwahahahaha! Slaughter!

Oh, and they even brought gifts. How nice.

Time to employ services of our good friend Edwin. He is probably the best mage in the game, especially for evil parties. He has 18 INT, 16 CON (mages do not benefit from higher than that) and all other stats at 10 (he could use more DEX, but that can be easily fixed with the gloves). His unique amulet lets him memorize extra spell per level (or was it two spells?), which is quite amazing.

But let us not get distracted here, since he will be helping us very briefly.

I've spent so much time in the graveyard recently, I think I might be turning into a goth.

Yeah, ok, since we're already here.

I'm guessing it's this way?

Get behind me!

Let me just...

...Never mind.

There's still one another undead to deal with here.

Correction: there's still a boatload of undead to deal with here.

I guess I probably should have attacked one of the enemies you were NOT casting a spell at.

We probably do not need any of these spells, but there's no point in saving them too.

Edwin is a conjurer, which means he cannot cast divination spells (such as Identify or True Sight), but as a combat mage, he has no equal.

Our heroes make short work of the undead pack.

I have to admit that party members are not quite as useless as I have always thought.

Let us move on.

Hey, Edwin! I do the talking here, remember that for the future.

conversation with Nevaziah

I quite like this dialogue, it is one of the few really well-written ones in the game.

Not sure if a wyvern can even hurt a lich, but there will not be many other opportunities to cast this spell.

Now you've made it a no-contest. Good thinking!

Not sure if the wyvern even managed to hit Nevaziah. Oh well.

Well, fine, keep it.

Looks like I got a scroll out of this too.

And it's time for you to go, Edwin.

Enjoy your scroll.

To add insult to injury, the wyvern is unsummoned at this very moment.

Temple district is next on our list.

We start by robbing some temples.

We mostly find crap, but occasionally there is something useful.

Could you remove yourself from this room? I'm kind of in a middle of something here.

This is new.

Mae'var will send you to steal this if play as evil.

A wand of defeat sarevok. Would be neat if there were any sarevoks in this game.

What is this place?

The HQ for the paladins in the city.

Ah. I was wondering why I'm hearing YMCA from the inside.

Look at this! Their floors are literally shining! Ridiculous!

Magical item? Color me interested.

conversation with Sir Ryan Trawl

tl;dr We are supposed to go and ally ourselves with some fallen paladins to see what they are up to and if they are up to no good, whack them.

How does he define 'no good'?

That is left to your consideration.

Sir Ryan told us to seek our newest victims in the bridge district (I cut his final line, in case someone is wondering when he said that).

Well, this seems like an illegal gathering to me!

Seems to me like you are looking for an excuse to kill everyone here.

Like I would need one.

'Depredations'? Is that even a real word?

Rindus seems to have struck a nerve there.

Smugglers and ex-paladins start fighting each other. None of them are hostile, so we cannot really interfere.

Oops. Totally an accident, honest. I was just trying out my bow and my fingers slipped.

Right.

Smuggler Slaughter

Mwahahaha! Slaughter!

Mwahahaha! SLAUGHTER!

MWAHAHAHAHA! SLAUGHTER!

MwaHAHAhAHAhA! I SHALL DRINK YOUR BLOOD AND EAT YOUR INNARDS!

Thanks goodness, this was the last one.

You do not really have to help fallen paladins against the smugglers, they will do just fine on their own. I also do not think it changes anything, story-wise (sadly).

That depends. Are you paying?

Is it some kind of a trophy cup from his college years sports career?

I am not sure if the 1250 XP gain is for advancing the quest or fighting the smugglers. Would be nice if it was the latter.

A cup, really? Why not give them something useful, like a sword, or a shield?

Now I'm tempted to just sell it, just to see the butthurt.

The cup.

As I sense incoming street fighting, let's see what cowled wizards think about me casting spells in the city.

We still have not reached a consensus, it seems.

Reaching a Consensus With Cowled Wizards

We are casting death spell just in case. It is unlikely to work at all, but if it does, it will shorten the fight considerably.

Some of the cowled wizards are protected from magical weapons. We make sure to kill off the rest first. While we do that, the protection wears off.

One of the cowled enforcers managed to survive a 58 damage critical hit. Quite a lot HP, for a wizard.

It only postponed his death, for, like, two seconds.

*chop* *chop*

No damage so far, we are doing pretty good.

Yeah, this sword is pretty nice.

And that was the last one.

One of them summoned something, though.

Oh yeah, fixed.

I do not think we have this spell.

Hey, this is actually useful.

Learned.

While cowled wizards are rethinking their negotiation strategy, I am free to cast spells, so I will.

Well, it wasn't THAT hard.

Anarg's anger management issues come to surface.

Reynald decides to split, depriving us of getting XP for killing his sorry ass. But at least we Did The Right Thing(TM).

Hey, are you losers using magical weapons, mayhap?

Didn't think so.

Fuck off!

Anarg manages to clear all layers of our hero's stone skin before dying, but I do not think this makes him feel any better.

The loot in this quest is not amazing.

I would call that an understatement.

I was expecting a +2 halberd at least.

That's not a 'grim expression'. That's just how I look, you fucktard!

Hey, a reputation point. I did not know we would get one here. Always nice.

These gloves are shit, though.

I believe that the +1 halberd drop was quite a hint that this is a lower-level quest.

Still shit.
---

Next time: We will continue to harass cowled wizards, make a wish and try to break the game.

Next quest selection details

I left out all troll and/or honestly misguided votes for stuff that is contained in this update (or will be in the next one).

1. Watcher's Keep, level 3 {Azira]
2. Watcher's Keep, level 3 {JoKa]
3. Wish Quest Spellhold [Aeschylus]
4. Spellhold [Sodafish]
5. Spellhold [Erebus]
6. Spellhold [Bilgefar]
7. Edwin + Fallen Paladins + Bonus Spellhold [T(D?)-Bag]
8. Spellhold [Desmodus Rotundus]
9. Spellhold [Insane Psychic]
10. Spellhold [garren]
11. Spellhold [Abelian]

EDIT: We shall sail to Spellhold, as per garren's suggestion.

 

[garren]

Nice, good to have you back on the main quest, there's been so much faffing around (not that there's any rush). At least all the minor stuff is soon out of the way. Also, not waiting for Edwin to turn into a woman? I think you can just sleep long enough until he deciphers the scroll. For best results, leave him as a woman and don't finish his questline

 

[Storyfag]

Nice, good to have you back on the main quest, there's been so much faffing around (not that there's any rush). At least all the minor stuff is soon out of the way. Also, not waiting for Edwin to turn into a woman? I think you can just sleep long enough until he deciphers the scroll. For best results, leave him as a woman and don't finish his questline

Wait, it's possible to turn him back? Never found out how to do so. Even tried cheating-in the cursed belt of gender modification through the console. Instead of granting me the item, the game decided to crash. Every time.

 

[MicoSelva]

I consider it a bit of a waste of time, but if everyone wants to see Edwina, I can try advancing the time enough to trigger the change.

 

[Storyfag]

I consider it a bit of a waste of time, but if everyone wants to see Edwina, I can try advancing the time enough to trigger the change.

Only if you continue with the quest even further, so that I can see how to change him back.

 

[Rod Rodderson]

The roof of the Copper Coronet is my favorite place to perform Cowled Wizard population control. It's atmospheric.

Only if you continue with the quest even further, so that I can see how to change him back.

There's nothing much to it.

Just in case you really don't want it spoiled

It literally amounts to 'wait a rather long time', some guy appears a couple times, and magic happens. Sort of like the fighter stronghold, which I have never finished because fuck that.

I'm not sure if it's based on an in-game timer or a real time one, though. I know both are used for different things.

 

[MicoSelva]

Seems that I've forgotten to do the Unfinished Business genie flask / mysterious Jafir quest (follow up to circus tent).

I will complete it and include it in the next update, although it will make the update a bit too long for my taste (it's between 110 and 120 screenshots now, will end up around 150 probably), but I guess it can't be helped.

 

[Abelian]

Are any of you guys asthmatic?

There's a mod that also changes Edwin's portrait to a female version. I forgot which, but it was one of these I think:

 

[MicoSelva]

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

Killing paladins and getting away with it: priceless.

------

Update #46: Just For The Sake Of It

Update #46

Let us take a short break from doing the shitty quests nobody cares about and do something that will end up in our hero dying horribly.

Oh, great.

And we shall begin by casting a new spell.

Hey there, fuckers.

What. The. Fuck.

Codex, meet your simulacrum. He's basically a lesser version of yourself. His name is Watch.

No, it's not.

But that's how we're going to call you. If you don't like it, you can file a complaint.

I will file a complaint up your ass. It will be attached to the point of this sword.

Heh, heh, I think I might like him.

Fuck off, faggot.

You know what, naming you Watch really does not fit your attitude. How about Xedoc?

Whatever.

We will now try to break the game. Aran Linvail is a key NPC at the moment and talking to him is required to advance the plot. So, what if we killed him? Would we be stuck, with our only option being to reload? Let us see.

Of course, he is quite a tough guy and not so easy to kill. We start by setting some snares around him.

What are these for?

You will see in a moment. But first, stoneskins.

Done.

Stoneskin is the highest-level spell available to Xedoc, as he is only an inferior copy of our hero.

Word.

Fuck you both!

We could also use Mordekainen's Sword, I think.

I'm on it.

Fuck you both.

And now both our assassins backstab Aran at the same time, which is quite a feat in itself.

Aran should have started expecting something fishy at this point, by the way

Aran lives through being stabbed in both kidneys at once...

...but our snares finish the matter immediately.

Well, that was easy.

Yes. However, killing Aran is not the problem here. Surviving it is another matter entirely, though.

I think we have already survived. He's dead. We're not.

Give it a moment.

Aran is worth 17000 experience points, by the way.

He drops decent gear, but nothing that special.

Aran Linvail's gear

Time for the hard part.

Arkanis Gath, aka Failsafe Deathmachine appears after you kill Aran Linvail, or any other important shadow thief, while being allied with them.

He is almost unkillable, while being able to one-shot everyone himself. The only means of protection against him are becoming immune to magical weapons and/or to death magic (or stuff like Time Stop, but good luck getting it by this point).

Here is an attempt to kill him with enough damage.

You shall know death intimately!

Simulacrum seems to be bugged and copies additional abilities 1:1 from the original character, so we are able to use whirlwind with Xedoc. Kind of OP.

Using whirlwind, we deal 127 damage, but it is not enough.

The fuck?

Now, watch how it's done, boy!

So here is another 110 damage, putting the total at 237.

How much HP does this guy have?!

Actually, it is futile to try to kill him this way. Arkanis' hit points can never fall below 1, so he will stay at 'almost dead' for as long as he needs to kill your entire party.

Death Count: 209

Loading.

Can it even be done?

Yes, but it is troublesome and tedious and not really worth it.

So, we're doing it.

We will try.

Here is how Arkanis Gath CAN be killed: by draining his ability scores (or levels). One way is transforming yourself into a mind flayer, using a Limited Wish, and stopping time long enough to drain his intelligence down to zero. Time Stop, as already mentioned above, is unavailable at this point, but you can use another Limited Wish to force the same effect.

Unfortunately, usually, you will not be able to cast 7th level spells yet, so the only way to use Limited Wish is casting it from a scroll. And there is only one such scroll available, although I have read that you can be very lucky and get another one as a random drop.

Of course, Codex is able to cast multiple 7th level spells per day now, so going this route would be perfectly viable. Which is why will not do that.

Well, DUH!

Instead we will try to drain his Wisdom, using Kachiko's Wakizashi (-2 to Wis after a failed save).

I've got a bad feeling about this.

You've just exceeded our Star Wars quote quota, so shut up.

I am only showing you this screenshot because I consider it hilarious. I would not want to be one of these guards. They must be like 'Holy shit!'.

Here is Arkanis Gath and two simultaneously initiated whirlwinds.

Unfortunately, he seems to succeed with the saving throw every time.

Well, fuck.

There are other ways to get away with this. You can set snares, fire an AOE spell (like a Fireball) at Aran, and run away to the map exit as Arkanis appears (when Aran is killed by the snares, after going hostile), etc. All of this has little point, as the game becomes unwinnable. But yeah, breaking the game is technically possible.

Death Count: 210

Load.

I hope we're done with this inane madness.

We are. Let us go back to our regular madness.

Butthurt detected.

cowled enforcers dying

What did you guys bring me this time?

I always wanted one of these! How did you know?

They also dropped one of these, which is a bow-fired fireball.

Pretty neat.

We return to the same spot after selling excess loot.

Already forgot what happened to the last bunch? Talk about short attention span.

Chill out!

Quite effective.

more cowled enforcers dying

There is one another guy which I have always wanted to kill.

Not that I am against killing people, but this sounds like trouble.

Am I being needed? Can't be a good sign.

Damn it! Which one of you botched the backstab?!

It was him.

Was not!

Fixed!

Dodged a bullet there (disintegrate) with magic resistance.

Ribald drops 11 000 gold. And nothing else.

That is awesome and disappointing at the same time.

Of course, we reload at this point. We might need Ribald in the future.

And since we are already here, let us expand our magic arsenal.

expanding magic arsenal

What good is an expanded magic arsenal, if I don't persuade cowled wizards to let me use it freely?

I feel a bit like a suicide bomber doing this.

Not as effective as Cone of Cold.

even more cowled enforcers dying

Whoa, that was MUCH closer than I feel comfortable with.

You managed.

Ok, it is time to go back to doing the shitty quests nobody cares about.

After resting in an inn, we finally cast our first Limited Wish.

The Codex swiftly negotiates a deal.

Note: adventure wish is not available if your wisdom is too high (I am not sure what the threshold is).

I hope it is not some random message from a Divinity Original Sin backer.

Captain Dennis, luckily for himself, had the wits to write the name of the receiver of the letter in the letter. If he did not do that, I would have assumed these words were meant for me and would killed captain Dennis in a horrible way for insulting me.

Oooh, serious business!

Let me summon some assistance then.

Oh, how I love when they do this.

Zallamora must be holding a serious grudge against that sword.

You killed my sword, bitch!

I am not sure if Zallamora is a she.

Still a bitch.

That magic resistance is really working wonders for us.

It is not 100% reliable, though...

This is actually quite shocking.

Well, they were not kidding about us feeling the wrath of the highest members of their order.

Death Count: 211

Load-ding-o.

I have decided to actually prepare for this combat, instead of rushing head-first.

Snares do not count as spells, which should be obvious, but is worth pointing out because video game logic tends to be wonky.

Cowled enforcer, I summon thee!

Yeah, let's see that.

I hope you brought Admiral Ackbar with you.

See, he would have told you it was a trap.

They actually all died pretty much immediately, which is a much better result than I expected. Seems like I have always underestimated set snare ability.

loot

Let's see...

Meh.

Decent.

Also ok.

Good thing I'm a fast-reader.

It's true that self-improvement is a reward in itself.

Captain Dennis' note mentioned Delosar's Inn, so let us go there.

We meet Vittorio on the street in front of the entrance.

the plot

I can't believe I'm doing this.

That's quite an important detail to be left out, wouldn't you say?

Why do I always agree to all this inane stuff?

Because it allows you for self-improvement, which is a reward in itself.

Bite me.

I still don't understand why the only entrance to the sewers is from temple district.

Better not to think about that. Trust me on this one.

How does one establish trade relations with trolls? Or don't tell me.

tl;dr: A troll from druid grove area has the gong.

This quest involves a shitfuckload of walking.

Let me see you try...

Maybe this dagger in your back will persuade you to reconsider.

I love finding common ground with people.

Here is where the ogre magi lives.

Monsters in this quest are surprisingly civil.

Maybe that is why this adventure is considered 'unlike any other'.

Well, I don't have one with me, that's for sure.

For everyone's sake, that Adratha better had this wand.

She is dead. You killed her a long time ago.

Two days of walking. FFS.

Good thing that is over, or I swear this wand would have landed in your eye-socket.

We could have also stole the gong or just killed the ogre, but that would mean not getting the XP shown above.

Still would have been the better option.

The infamous dong gong.

Some more rewards.

Pretty great weapon for the party's wizard with proficiency in daggers. 2D4+2 damage beats pretty much any slingshot out there.

I am the party's wizard and this weapon sucks donkey balls.

One more thing to do is dealing with this genie's flask, which we got from some girl after finishing circus tent quest waaaaaaaay back.

Useless fact: it uses the same image as efreeti bottle.

The flask is unusable, and we are supposed to give it to someone.

This someone resides in the Crooked Crane inn. I actually had to check the wiki to learn/remember this.

'Mwahahaha'? Seriously? Nobody does that.

Uhm...

Nobody.

The plot thickens.

Oh no! He's a cat person! Wait, is that bad?

Five hundred gold? FIVE HUNDRED GOLD?

This dude is almost too funny to kill him.

Codex won so fast I have not managed to catch a combat screenshot.

I hate when they do that!

The lamp flask is now a usable item, so let us use it.

I wish I had never wished for that unique adventure. It was such a waste of time.

I really don't.

I think he got rather ripped off on that first wish, to be honest.

This is the most rewarding outcome possible. One another is wishing for Kalah to be resurrected, but hey, he made his choices and he faced the consequences. C&C, bitch.

You can also imprison Kalah's soul forever (pointless) or take the wish for yourself (gives a one-off limited wish, which we do not need any more). That last option is probably why the quest was removed, as it is quite a powerful tool early in the game.

Hey, cowled wizards! Look at me! I'm casting spells on the street! Do you mind?!

Guess not.

---

The Codex' spellbook

---

Next time: The Codex shall sink himself in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Brynnlaw.

 

[garren]

I might be forgetting, but did you actually summon your familiar at some point? It gives you a bit of HP.

 

[Sodafish]

Huh, I didn't know the cowled enforcers ever stopped appearing. I always just bought the license.

 

[MicoSelva]

I might be forgetting, but did you actually summon your familiar at some point? It gives you a bit of HP.

The Codex' cat is in the inventory.

 

[Aeschylus]

Awesome. And I'm pretty sure the Mindflayer transformation is the only way to kill Arkantis, he'll make every save for other abilities.