Slappy's Possible Journey

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Part 8b

(Quick update) 'by Moradin's hammer, I canne hit the blasted begger' - Slappy
'run away, run away' - rest of the party

 

Part 9
After the trauma of trying to beat a demi-lich without any weapons that could actually hit him, I decided it was time to give the boys (and Mazzy) a holiday. So off we all marched to Trademeet. I would tell you about these quests – the druids, trolls, Mazzy’s sister and the feuding families, etc but, to be honest, it was one long yawn. Far too easy for the lads. I don’t think Keldorn even managed to work up a sweat and Yoshimo kept disappearing for a smoke it was so easy. Oh well, best to make the most of it, as there are only hard quests left now. With that in mind it’s off to the Windspear Hills to see how good this lot really are (and hopefully pick up some weapons that can bash demi-liches). Oh, one interesting thing. I got Yoshimo to relieve the boredom by pick-pocketing a few people. The Djinni outside the tent (Taquee) was carrying a bottle to summon Efreeti. As I brought the mask that can summon a duplicate of you and found that horn that summons a berserk warrior, I have some cannon fodder for the tricky moments.

Part 10
I took a quick detour to make sure my keep is OK. The ‘quest’ there this time involved a cleric and has now added some value to the stronghold, although its out of the way location still limits its potential. After that it was off to Windspear and the opening dungeons. This was fairly straightforward and everyone enjoyed letting lose on some goblins, orcs and werewolves. Inside the dungeon the huge party of undead were a little bit tricky and the Mazzy got level drained. (My Barbarian was protected by frequent rages.) Fortunately I am carrying some scrolls of restoration and plenty of potions of health, as this is quite a long quest far from any temples. The guards of the mask (Djinnis I think) were easy to take down. I just used my Barbarian wearing any fire protection he could find (giving about 85%) and dual wielding a +3 and a +2 flail.

Once again though, golems caused me problems. I don’t know why but I think it might be due to a few factors compared to a normal group. Firstly, I haven’t anyone with a really great AC. I recently finished off my ‘all women’ party and that had Jaheira and Viconia with –12 ac. The best I currently have in this group is about –7. I could make Minsc slightly better but it would mean taking the gauntlets of dexterity off of Keldorn, which leaves him vulnerable. I could also get my Barbarian to carry a decent shield but I prefer his dual wielding firepower. Another factor is the lack of decent weapons. I only have three +3 melee weapons in the group and only one of these is blunt. I think this restricts me with some types of golems. Finally, I have grown used to having stoneskins, ironskins, protection from evil, bless, etc protecting previous parties in difficult battles. Strange how I notice it more with golems than anything else though. Anyway, can’t stay and chat, I have an appointment with an important ‘Lord’ to attend.

[This message has been edited by Slappy (edited May 18, 2001).]

 

Part 11
Had a chat with the big red fella (sorry listening to too much football commentary recently), sorted out his underlings and done a bit of rescuing. Decided to give him a go without any rest and….. oh so close again. Got him down to badly injured and still had four of the party standing. Unfortunately he got a ‘lucky’ fireball off that turned me into Barbarian beef steak. Oh well. Reloaded and let everyone catch up on a bit of sleep. This time I used all of the extra cannon fodder (Genie, an extra me and the bezerk warrior thingy), got Keldorn to say a few words to his God (protection from evil), drank a few potions of strength, worked myself into a rage and then charge. He managed to do a fair bit of damage to a few of the party (nothing life threatening) and I had to drink some health potions mid fight, but he went down relatively easily. It seemed easier than the Shadow Dragon but then the party is higher level.

Anyway, I wandered back to the city and sold off all of the loot. With this I’ve brought the +4 staff and am off to say hello to an old demi-lich friend. Hopefully with the staff, Keldorn’s +5 Paladin sword and Minsc’s +5 sling we’ll be able to sort him out.

 

Part 12
OK maybe I should have rested again first. Mazzy started to get drowsy during the first part of the fight and we hardly did any damage to the demi-lich before he imprisoned me. Perhaps I’ll need to get some protection scrolls after all (though I don’t know if anyone will be able to cast them). I tried several times but he just kept imprisoning everyone before I could do enough damage. Eventually I gave in got some protection scrolls (which to my surprise I could cast) and tried again. I held everyone apart from Keldorn and my barbarian away from the action until the demi-lich appeared. At that point I cast the protection on those two and waded in. Minsc then joined in with the +5 sling and Valygar used the +5 darts from that cloak of darts (whatever). I also used some potions of haste, strength and some blessing from Keldorn. This all turned out to be overkill as he went down easily and couldn’t do anything to hurt me.

The only extra thing left to do now is visit the sewers to fetch ‘the’ hammer. But before that I decided to do the thief’s stuff ready for Imoen. This was very easy, even the vampires. I was a bit worried about level drain but I used the rage to help. Despite that Mazzy and me both got drained but not to dangerous levels. A quick trip to the temple sorted it out. So, what now? Try and get that hammer or straight off to Imoen. Hmm, I reckon those mind flayers could be very tricky. If I wait until after the underdark I’ll have some protection from them.

 

Part 13
Couldn’t resist the Flayers so decided not to ‘rush’ off to save Imoen yet. After reading the boards I also decided to pay a visit to Trademeet to buy a sword that can attack on its own. This sounded a useful thing to have especially against Flayers. Anyway, the merchant who was selling it also had a load of other cool stuff for my boys (and Mazzy) and so I flogged a few things (and gave in to testing Yoshimo’s thieving skills) then brought the cloak and the girdle that both boost saving throws and other benefits. I also brought Mazzy the +3 bow that doesn’t require ammo. For my Dwarf I bought a hammer that can be thrown and then returns, this makes the similar axe I brought a bit of a waste. Oh well. On the way back I popped in to the keep to make sure all is well and sent some snotty Lord, who had been causing trouble, off home.

After all this is was off to finally confront the Flayers and their pals in the sewers. I must admit to feeling a bit apprehensive. None of my party are blessed with particularly high intelligence and a few have poor saving throws (Minsc especially). I though the group were likely to take a bit of a beating. After having to use a protection scroll against the Lich I decided I would attempt this problem completely clean – no magic, no scrolls and no summoned aid. I even didn’t get the chance to try out the new sword as I tested it earlier not realising that it was limited to ‘once per day’ use. The tactics I used were Yoshimo to scout, then send my Barbarian into a rage and draw out the flayers with his throwing hammer, then use everyone else with ranged weapons. Mazzy has the multiple shots per round short bow and I also have the light crossbow of speed. Just for luck I hasted whoever who has the ability.

I was hoping to draw out the Flayers a few at a time. Unfortunately, the curved corridors meant my Barbarian rushed out into view and got a pack of them swarming him. Fortunately, his fantastically low saving throws enabled him to survive the stun blasts and his speed meant the Flayers had a bit of a chase to get into range. As they moved closer, the rest of the party pounded them with arrows and bolts. I also had a little bit more luck in that the Umber Hulk’s speed let them get ahead of the Flayers and block off part of the corridor. This enabled me to take out a few while ignoring the damage from the hulks (my Barbarian has 140 hp before he rages). This proved a useful technique and I managed to wipe out most of them easily. The final few were taken down in melee. The main damage was a bit of brain drain to Mazzy and me and Valygar was killed (hooray for wands of resurrection). Still, pretty easier really. So it’s now off to save Imoen.

Those paying attention (is anyone? I did get nagged to keep the journal going every time I stopped posting) will have noticed that my non-magic party has now managed to destroy Golems, Beholders, Demons, Dragons, Demi-liches, Mind Flayers and Bodhi. Does anyone still think it is impossible to complete BG2 without magic user?

 

Part 14
I must admit to not really liking this part of the game too much. It all feels too restrictive. From the party point of view it is also very easy. Strolled through all of the island and spellhold quests and met a few wizards. All went down in a flash. Basically, if a wizard doesn’t get an improved mantle spell off or have loads of cannon fodder to protect him, he is dead in no time at all. Even with cannon fodder they don’t last long. The only slight problems were one snake mage managed to cast confusion on me also Keldorn and I both got level drained in the fight outside with the shade things. That was mainly due to carelessness brought on by over confidence/boredom. Still, there was some interest, this was the first time I had used the Minsc route to spellhold and also the first time there with Yoshimo. I don’t mind what he did apart from I have lost loads of equipment that I was going to give to Imoen. (I did get this back eventually)

Talking of Imoen, I can’t decide what to do about her. Dropping her isn’t very much in keeping with the story and I need a thief anyway. There are also no other non-magic users (especially thieves) left. I seem to have three options. Play her as is, play her but make her wear armour and only act as a low level thief or use Shadowkeeper to turn her into a true thief. There is also the question of giving her experience to match the rest of the party (I get narked at her being at such a low level). Oh well I haven’t quite escaped the island yet so time to think on it.

PS can't remember when I got his but I now also have three rings of regenration (including Kangax's (spelling)) so healing is becoming much less of a problem.

[This message has been edited by Slappy (edited May 30, 2001).]

 

Well you get a ring in spellhold where you answers the riddles. Im quite impressed with your non magic approach after playing through the game the first time with a fighter i didnt use much magic mostly pure damaging spells but after my second time through with a sorcerer i have come too se the extreme usefullnes of magic. I dont think i could do without it now

 

Thanks for the feedback Joacqin. For reasons too long to explain here, I ended up playing two games at the same time (well not exactely the same time but you know what I mean). One was this 'non-magic users' the other was my 'All Women + Male Sorcerer' party. As nearly all the women are heavily into magic, the contrast was incredibly. It was also difficult to remember to change tactics. To summarise the differences: the non-magic approach is much less mentally taxing (there's an enemy - charge!) but the magic approach is more interesting because of the greater number of variables and possibilities. Your characters also tend to have far fewer hit points which makes it more important to get the combat right. Anyway on with the journal.

Part 15
Ok I’ve decided what to do about Imoen. I have to keep her and I don’t want to use SK to cheat as I want to show non-magic parties are possible. However, I can’t let her stand around getting killed all the time and wasting resurrection charges. So, she can stay and cast magic but only defensive or information type spells. So lots of identify, ghost armour, blur, stonesking, etc. This seems a reasonable compromise.

Right back to the game. I decided to visit the fishes as I want to get the rest of the Wave Halbard for Mazzy. This was embarrassingly easy again. My party just waded (no pun intended) through the whole thing with hardly a scratch. My barbarian is becoming embarrassingly hard. So much so that I am sharing out the various goodies throughout the whole party (he doesn’t get the strength girdles for example). I’ll have to remember to dig out his stats sometime. From memory he has minus thaco with both hands, has minus saving throws (or nearly) in all categories, has nearly 150 hp and an AC of –8. This could be about –12 but I prefer him with the cloak of reflection (rather than cloak of the sewers) and to use the Defender of Easthaven in his off hand. With these and a few others he also has 35-50% resistance to all types of damage. I was getting bored in the Fish area and he managed to walk through one of those acid traps (I think they are a green blob falls on you). I’ve known these to kill characters, my barbarian hardly noticed it. When he rages, he scares me. I’m beginning to think you could solo with one. (OK you would miss the thief skills but as has been pointed out recently on another post, the need for these can be overcome by brute force).

Arrrgggh. I’ve just had to reload for the first time I can remember in ages. Imoen managed to get herself chunked in a silly little skirmish in the Underdark. She’s going to be a liability again. Oh well my fault for not getting her to cast loads of protection spells and get isolated.


[This message has been edited by Slappy (edited May 31, 2001).]

 

Slappy;

Very entertaining, thanks!

Two comments:

1) "All Women + Male Sorcerer" isn't that an XXX rated film staring Traci Lords?

2) For Iomen, mess around with her different AI scripts. There is one for thieves (I believe it is "Adventurer" or "Scout") that has her look for traps all the time, and hide during combat. That way, in case your forget to hide her, she will automatically run away.

Or maybe the running away is just the effect I have on most women

 

lol Mathetais

It got fairly heated as I completed the Jaheira romance. Of course I missed out on the X-rated version by not installing the romance patch. Does anyone remember that scene in 'Little Big Man' with Hoffman, his Indian wife and her sisters? That could have been my corcerer if I'd used the patch

Also thanks for the script tip. I'll try and remember to use that when I next load up the game. Imoen is far too keen on getting into trouble she can't handle.

PS for anyone who missed this in whatnots, this is exactley what I mean about Imoen:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001657.html

[This message has been edited by Slappy (edited May 31, 2001).]

 

Part 16

Mtter grummblle grrr. God I hate the Underdark. This time Valygar managed to get himself chunked and I hadn’t saved for ages – again. I was very tempted to let it go as he is not a great contributor to the current party. But when I thought about it, the only replacement would be Korgan, if I could get him to join. The problems of dropping the party rep and his lack of experience put me off. So I reloaded and started again. Mind you I had been having a few problems anyway. Mostly due to carelessness. I think I’m going to have to start scouting again. Imoen could do this using an invisibility ring. The first problem I had was after releasing a mage from the prison of soules thingy. He managed to cast confusion that affected most of the party (talk about bad luck on the saving throws). The ones that had been confused wandered off into some mushrooms and some mindflayers (fortunately I had wiped out the nearest drow party). Anyway I had three fights on my hands at once with only Mazzy, Keldorn and Imoen to fight it with (to start with anyway). I lost Mazzy to mushrooms but the rest recovered in time to mean that was the only casualty. Not bad really. Valygar got himself chunked later when we fought the demon for the Gnomes. This annoyed me immensely as he failed due to the ‘I couldn’t possibly walk past you on this ledge’ bug in all Infinity engine games. As a result he got stranded and none of the rest of the party could get to him to help. Bugger.

Oh well, reloaded and decided to do things in a different order. And pay a bit more attention this time. First off down to the beholders. With the shield this was a breeze as expected as were the things guarding the bridge. The first party of drow also went down easily. As I am running a bit low on arrows, I have given Valygar some decent Drow armour (that he surprisingly can wear) plus one of their shields to make him a formidable tank. I have also given Mazzy the Light Crossbow of Speed to make use of all these bolts lying around. She has no skill with the weapon but still has a decent thaco as a high level dextrous fighter. Next we cleared out the mushroms and flayers again very easy. I used my raging barbarian on his own with a throwing axe for the flayers. From there we went into the third dungeon (not the flayers or beholders) that isn’t shown on the map. Sorry can’t remember the name. I decided to try an unusual approach this time. The idea was to send my Barbarian alone to the King’s quarters using the tainted tadpoles. I hoped this would affect the rest of them badly. I let him use a ring of invisibility and prayed his speed would also help. The invisibility made no difference as they saw him immediately. Still his speed and toughness meant he got to the breeding area and released the tadpoles. He then had to sit and try and fight it out with nearly every one of the evil little buggers taking shots at him. Meanwhile the rest of the party ran to try and help. Fortunately the barbarian held on and only had to take a few healing potions. I then cleared out the last drow party in the area and nicked their improved crossbows for Mazzy. At that point I realised I could leave the underdark (I guess). I might try to see I it is possible but I guess I want the experience to badly. (Of course I could pop back to get that hammer made up).

Talking of hammers, I almost forget to clear out the last room with the nasty knights. This was a real eye opener. I summoned the berzerker warrior from the horn as a sacrifice then let my barbarian range to take on the knights with everyone else staying back and using ranged weapons. I have ever seen the Knights fall so fast, it was amazing. The only slight problem was that one of them went for the party so Minsc stepped forward to block him. In the process he got level drained. On well, time for a rest and think about what to do next – face the underdark, leave, or leave get the hammer (and Geysen bow and Wave shaft) and come back.

[This message has been edited by Slappy (edited June 04, 2001).]

 

Part 17
Oh well it looks like you can’t get out until you’ve been through the drag of running all those little errands in the underdark. These proved to be very easy as expected. The only problem I had was something (can’t remember what it was now, possible one of the mages in the prison) casting imprisonment on my while I wasn’t in a rage. This put me in a mild rage (in real life) as of course it means game over. Despite the fact that Imoen is standing there with a Freedom scroll. Ho hum. Anyway to relieve the frustration I turned into a bully. I took part in all the pit fights I could and slaughtered one and all. Then after completing the main quest, I massacred the whole Drow city. That made me feel slightly better and Keldorn seemed to approve. I was going to rush off back to the surface then and get all the weapons made up. However, I decided I had had it too easy (I even managed to wipe out nearly all of an ambush party that attacked my Barbarian after he got to them early with his boots of speed) and so headed back towards the mind flayers.

Most of these seemed quite easy with everyone using ranged attacks and making use those bolts of stunning (whatever they are called) that are lying around everywhere. However, the fun finally came to an end when Mazzy and Valygar managed to fail a saving throw and get ‘controlled.’ I was hoping this would wear off but they were both removed from my party and kept attacking me. I managed to give them the slip and waited, and waited, and waited, etc. Eventually I tried using Keldorn with his dispel magic but no joy. So I waited some more. In the end I decided that the only way was to kill them. So I did. Unfortunately, because they were no longer in the party, I couldn’t resurrect them. Bugger. Reload. More care needed. I’ll have to use these boards to see if I can find out a bit more about the spell.

 

Hehe. And good Luck to You too. Not that You need it You may have proven it possible to go about with no magic. Cool.
A shame about mazzy.. She finally clicked aye? beeing around all those big men.
I hope she gets better with the sunlight. Its awfully sad to run around down there. she might be depressed. Perhaps she is jaleous of You and Jaheira

 

Well I gave her a chance when I played a Halfling Cleric in an earlier game. You'd have thought that would be ideal for Mazzy. Unfortunatley she was unable to overcome the limitations of her programming

Anyway, thank god for reloads hey.

 

Part 18
Gave up looking for info on the spell and decided to use brute force instead (it’s in character). New tactics then were to send the barbarian in solo in a rage. In this way he soaked up all of the various control, confuse, command type spells. I also decided to break with what had become a tradition and let him use a shield (that small one that gives protection against some mental type spells). In this form he was happy to stand and smash away at any Flayers or hulks in the area. I had everyone else back him up with ranged attacks. To prove a point, I didn’t use any of the summoned options available from the horn, genie bottles and sword. It also helped having Mazzy and Keldorn use the bolts of stunning or whatever they are that are so numerous in the underdark. Having a few of the nasties out of action for a bit certainly helped. Anyway in this form I smashed my way through to the salt-water area. Using this I was pretty much immune. For the final battle I sent the barbarian and Keldorn into deal with the brain while the others provided backup. Fairly easy using this approach. Still it took a bit of time to get there without the benefit of Undead and that necklace that provides protection form Pysionics (I think I missed this in the Behoders’ lair).

Right with all that done, I headed off to get all of my goodies made up into weapons. Considering that the party is all fighters and Imoen, I was looking forward to this. In the end it was a bit of a disappointment. The hammer is great (I think I am currently main hand THACO –12 and off hand –8). Unfortunately the Wave Halbard is not much better (arguably worse) that the +4 one I had already picked up in the underdark. The Silver sword is nice but it’s 25% and then another saving throw. So against tougher monsters Keldorn is probably better off with his +5. Maybe it would be more useful if I didn’t need Minsc defensively. I have also got the Equalizer (first time in a long time) and I can’t help thinking it’s a bit naff for the effort. The Daystar is probably better in most situations accept when you really need a +3 to hit. Still the bow is nice as I didn’t have to worry about ammo so much. Also it means everyone except Imoen has a +4 weapon of some sort for when necessary.

As another indication of just how tough this group is, I bumped into the two Githyanki parties and the final bunch of Drow. They were all taken down almost before I had chance to issue instructions (remember this was before I had the new weapons from Cromell). Also the second set of Giths managed to attract the attentions of some Cowled Wizards and some street thugs. Effectively it meant three groups attacked me at once, with a healthy balance of wizards and fighters. It was a very tough fight especially as a few of the party got confused but we still took everyone down with only the loss of Minsc. Not an easy fight by any means but I reckon my previous parties would have been slaughtered. Finally I popped back to the keep (nothing interesting) and started exploring the Elven forests. Nearly time for the group’s big moment.

 

Its looking good. If You just play it cool I think You can do it. I am afraid of Those Adamantium Golems though. If Minsc can't hit them with acid arrows he should perhaps stay up front and help take some beating. But the last chapter has lots of tough fights. I cross my fingers and pray to Lathandar (or whatever he is called. I think Your Senility has finally contaminated me )

[This message has been edited by Nobleman (edited June 06, 2001).]

 

Nah, the golems hold no fear for me. If I remember correctly they just need a good +4 weapon and my Barbarian carried The Hammer. Everyone else except Imoen also has a +4 of some sort. It might be a bit more tricky if they have to be +4 blunt. Even then though, I have a +4 staff and a +5 sling so no probs. I'm more worried about Iranicu and all of his magical protections spells. This could be harder than the previous parties who were armed with all sorts of remove magic. Still this was the challenge when I started ("you won't be able to beat protected mages" everyone said). Looking on the bright side, no mage has managed to protect himself for long enough so far. The boys and girls take a bit of a pounding while they wait for the protection to wear off but they are all pretty tough and have plenty of healing potion.....

Anyway, I'm going to finish exploring the rest ot the elven forests first. It's a bit like a holiday for them.

 

I've always had a hard time on Adamantium Golems.But never had +5 weapons actually

Its true that I renicus Is bad. But Just keep those archers in a safe position. Have a few healing potions and Freedom scrolls ready. I can't remember if he imprisons people. Your mainfighters can even enjoy killing his misleads and simulacrums. Eventually his 4 rounds of liberty is over and so is his life.

with Your Hardcore lads (and Mazzy) I see the finish line. The Hellfight is only different in the many evil summonings. But The diffenrence from the " Three of Life" fight is just that Your Lads (and Mazzy) have something to beat while waiting for Irenicus' protections to wear off.

And I bet that if I know You right, You already have pondered about the Hellfight already. hehe Go get them tiger.

[This message has been edited by Nobleman (edited June 06, 2001).]

 

Part 19
What was I thinking of, I nearly forget about Bodhi and her friends. Anyway, before that I thought I’d try and finish off all of the other available quests. I hoping to use up enough time to see all of the quests associated with my keep. First off then we had a little holiday through the newly revealed elven forests. All pretty straightforward accept for those mist things. They managed to get to my barbarian before he could go into a rage and so managed to level drain him. No real problem though. Back at the keep noting much is happening so back into the city. Sold all of he stuff that I don’t think I’m going to need anymore and found a new suit of armour at the Adventurer’s Mart. It’s AC is one lower than the shadow dragon armour so I decided to treat myself. Very smart it is too. While I was there I did the right thing for Yoshimo and was amazed at how much experience this was worth. Bioware certainly like you to be good.

I have recruited all of the help I can find and was on my way to meet the Vampire bitch when I remembered there was still the rogue stone quest in the bridge area. So off I set. This proved to be one of the most difficult fights in the game. I survived OK but tele-ported out too early by mistake. So I reloaded and tried again. Again the fight was difficult but I didn’t lose anyone. The main problem was that there was so much going on that it was difficult to keep track of what everyone was doing and whether they had the right weapons etc. Unfortunately I used up a few of the ‘dispel magic’ arrows I had been saving for big Jon. Oh well a fair bit of loot for my efforts. Unfortunately on my final visit to the keep I had to spend all of this to keep everyone happy. Oh well, there is nothing left to do now except go for Jon. It looks like I’ll miss out on the last of the keep quests.

When I wrote this I forgot to tell you about Bodhi. Strange. I guess it was because it was so easy compared to normal. My barbarian used his small shield with the protection against charm, confusion, etc and raged a lot. The rest of the group stood back and covered with ranged weapons. Combined with the outside help, the vampires went down in no time. The only problem was the final Bodhi lair bit. I decide to use Minsc with the mace of disruption alongside the barbarian. Unfortunately he was a bit exposed and got very seriously level drained. This lead to a bit of a panic and Keldorn and me also got drained. Still it was only one level for us so not too bad. Minsc was less happy as he got down to level 2! I’m sure Boo would have helped if it had got any worse.

I’m beginning to think that the fights aren’t quite as easy as they appear. BTA had posted a comment on another thread about calling a fight ‘easy’ when you need to resurrect someone being a bit of a silly description of easy. I think in my case it is because the fights are so quick and frantic (unless they managed to get an immunity type spell off) and the amount of damage everyone takes is still quite small compared to how many hp they have. It is all quite a contrast to my last ‘all women’ party that had much longer drawn out tactical battles using magic. As they all had fewer hit points, preparations, retreat and regroup also played a much bigger part in fights. Of course being familiar with the game (third time through now) also makes it easier. So maybe the battles are not easier so much as just different.

I’ve just started in the Elven city so won’t write too much. The good news is that golems are finally falling as quickly as they should. In fact, the group has pretty much run through the whole city and cleared everything in true barbarian style (no subtlety). Now to start clearing out the buildings. This is proving to be a nice workout before Jon.

 

Part 20

Clearing out the building passed without any major incident. The only worry was that the priestess nearly got herself killed by standing in some damaging cloud that one of the Tiger-headed things cast. Still she survived and I managed to get the info out of her. The fight I was expecting to be a struggle was the Dragon. I know that he normally seems easier than the other because of the experience level by the time you meet him but with no pieces/reduce magic I was expecting a long drawn out and bloody scrap. As it happened it was over in no time at all. He managed to get one wing blast on me and Keldorn but hardley anyone suffered major damage. Imoen was untouched and all the fighters still had over 100hp at the end. The speed that they cut him down was amazing. Ok everyone was using +4 weapons but it wasn’t a lucky install kill (I can’t be bothered to use the Silver Sword) just pure damage. Probably helped a lot by the strength bonuses that me, Keldorn and Minsc enjoy. Mazzy also had a strength potion and everyone was using any speed options from weapons. A bit of a disappointment really, I was expecting to be able to tell you of an epic.

The fight with Jon was a bit harder though. In the past I have found this ‘relatively’ easy but this time I did struggle with all of the protection spells he managed to cast and the area affect spells of his did some damage. It was not helped by Valygar being mazed at the start and so not being able to use his arrows of dispelling. Minsc and Keldorn also got mazed quite early in the fight (thank god for barbarian rage). Anyway, ignoring the mazed people, no one was killed. So off to hell and the pain of the stat loss for being good. I did use a new trick in that I kept the cool sword for Minsc (Blackrazor ?) by having Imoen pickpocket the genie. She had to be doped up with potions to get enough skill though. The final fight was fun but definitely much easier than my previous two tun throughs. The demons were simply outclassed by my tanks and their splendid weapons. Iranicus in Slayer form was also fairly easy – maybe he should have stuck to spells. The fight was helped a lot by Keldorns +5 paladin sword (can’t remember its name). The dispel magic was useful.

It was also nice to see the end movie again and start thinking ahead to ToB. The movie helps to raise Iranicus a little in my opinion (I have bemoaned him compared to Sarevok in the past). Finally, I was a bit disturbed to see what the poor Elven Queen has to endure. For a people of forest dwellers who love their Tree of Life, it must be a real pain to have a queen who calls trees ‘twees’.


Epilogue

Well they main reason for playing BG2 with this party was to look into the claims that the game was much more biased towards magic than BG1 and that it was impossible to complete without a mage. Just to continue the anti-magic stance I also decided to ban druids and clerics. Originally I had been happy to use magical means available to the party though. For example, scrolls, potions, wands of magic missiles, spells form weapons and summoned creatures from staffs, bottles, etc. As the game progressed though I used these less and less. The only ones that I really used regularly were scrolls of regeneration, rods of resurrection, occasional potions (mainly health) and haste spells from weapons. Imoen also cast a lot of spells but they were all defensive. Oh yea, Keldorn cast protection from evil and dispel magic a bit. I didn’t use the slayer change at all. Based on that I think I’ve proved beyond any doubt that it is possible to complete the game without a magic user and probably without using any magic at all. Also I should reiterate that I completed all of the major and hidden difficult quests including dragons, lichs and flayers.

I am actually beginning to think that parties biased towards no-magic users are easier to play. Yes you lose the pure offensive capabilities of some spells but counter that against the amount of damage a party of fighters can dish out per round. Rough calculation based on a levelled up fighter wearing strength boost, carrying a plus 4 weapon and hasted: weapon damage 11 to 17 + strength bonus +8 to +14 and having 2-3attacks per round, gives maximums of 51-93 damage per round per fighter. If my barbarian dual wields Crom Faeyr and the flail of Ages, he can dish out 123 per round or 246 on a critical hit. These fighters also do this sort of damage without being interrupted or having to sleep the night before to memorise how to use a sword. Also they will have a ton of hit points so you don’t need to coddle them in a fight. Of course there are pros and cons to magic v non-magic but I think that the non-magic route has been unfairly and inaccurately dismissed by players. Oh, as a final thought, it does also help to have the missles weapons that can fire multiple attacks per round (wizards hate those). Regeneration items also save on potion and temple trips.

Anyway, that’s enough BG2 for me for a while. That is my third run through now since January. I think playing the all fighter group last was also not such a good idea. When you know the story and secrets of the game, it becomes more oh a simple hack ‘n’ slash. In that guise, magic adds a tactical dimension without which it can become a bit boring at times. I think I’ll go and play a FPS or something before playing through BG1 then BG2 then Tob in one go. That time I’ll either use my party of Slappys or recruit all of the evil characters and try the dark side. Thanks for reading and remember: magic – just say ‘NO.’