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In Progress Let's Play Knights of the Chalice (with Codexers)!

What'll it be?


  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .

Hirato

Purse-Owner
Patron
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
3,930
Location
Australia
Codex 2012 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Let's go to Torbury
 

Bloodshifter

Educated
Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
542
Location
Somewhere with dead bears
tor-bury with a name like that what could go wrong?

btw is it me or do these npcs LOVE you Hirato*because you know it may have nothing to do with your fireballs and the fact every other cap is you fireballing up a room*?
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
I am not hearing anyone propose non-fireball-based approaches to things. When all you have is a hammer...
 

Bloodshifter

Educated
Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
542
Location
Somewhere with dead bears
ho no not that I don't mind just I think of Hirato as something like the holy hand grenade look in room count to three then FIREBALL FIREBALL etc...

it makes me laugh quite hard
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Fireballs are an acceptable solution to any problem.

In my experience, though, as you go past halfway point in the game they cease to be an all-purpose solution; it's much much more important to use disabling, confusion, + chokepoint along with them. In fact, I also found instakill spells and arrows quite useful. They do have a low rate of success (they should), but when you start encountering groups of dragons or high-powered magic casters with impregnable physical resistance, it becomes a viable tactic and a source of excitement.

But for me nothing can beat having 2 wizards in BG2 to memorize 6 lower resistance and disintegrates per day... there's just something about that animation.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Fireball is to CRPG D&D spells what Dos Equis is to beer. "I don't always cast spells, but when I do..."

In my experience, though, as you go past halfway point in the game they cease to be an all-purpose solution; it's much much more important to use disabling, confusion, + chokepoint along with them.
Yeah, I expected that also, In fact, Hirato is sort of actually specced for that...but it seems there's a dire shortage of USEFUL such spells, other than the occasionally Hold Monster + CDG, but every time it seems like Fireball ends up being the better answer. This is true of basically every D&D game I find, and the thing with disabling+confusion+instadeath is that if it works, then everything anyone else has done to that point is basically a waste, and if it doesn't work, then you have completely wasted your time and spell slots. And it pretty much NEVER works unless the enemy is doing it to YOU. Fireball, on the other hand, always does something, and if it doesn't do enough, the solution tends to simply be MOAR FIREBALL. As you add more wizards, this becomes increasingly true. Multiple wizards spamming confusion cannot make an enemy more confused, but multiple wizards spamming fireballs can definitely make them more on fire. What ever happens, if you lob 2 or 3 fireballs into the room, you cause 2 or 3 fireballs worth of damage. If you lob 2 or 3 Save Or Dies into the room, it could kill everyone (rarely), or do absolutely jack all (usually). When you throw a half-dozen fireballs into the room, you're pretty certain everything below X will be absolutely dead. When you throw a dozen Instant Deaths into the room, who KNOWS what the hell is gonna happen? Anyone can resist Instant Death, often very unpredictably. It takes a special breed to resist Fireballs.

I mean, there are three things in the universe that can completely shrug off fireballs: Things With Evasion, Things With Fire Immunity, and Things With Spell Resistance Up The Wazoo. All these things are readily identifiable. The things that can resist Instant Death? Boss monsters, their bodyguards, random insignificant goblins, peasants...the list goes on, generally forming a comprehensive list of "Everything You'd Ever Actually Get In A Fight With". It's like the AK-47 vs. the M-16. The M-16 may be a more accurate weapon, but it is easily obstructed by the oddest things, like random tree branches, walls, sand, mud, being recently used to bash in a man's skull, and soforth. The AK-47 may be a cheap piece of Commie crap, but it's a cheap piece of Commie crap that always WORKS. Can you tell which one I prefer to be carrying?

But for me nothing can beat having 2 wizards in BG2 to memorize 6 lower resistance and disintegrates per day... there's just something about that animation.
Wielding a Disintegrate Wand makes you this guy:
startrekmage.png
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
*shrug* it is true that in many games you realise you can kill them fast enough that disabling does not matter, but that is very much not how my one full run of KOTC went. And that's the case even though I had two wizards. With easier mobs I could just fireball all day, but especially with the game making you rest as rarely as possible and locking you into certain dungeons, you also learn to conserve.

Anyway, it all comes down to the numbers, actually. Depending on how they are set up, it can indeed be more profitable to hurl 6 fireballs instead of 6 instadeath spells, but it can also be the opposite. Later game I found that the dragons and other things were able to kill me or do severe damage so quickly, that I rarely had the luxury of casting 6 fireballs, that is, I often did not have situations where all, say, 5 or 6 enemies were within the range of fireballs (and my party members were not), and I had 5 or 6 turns to eliminate them in this fashion. I had to turn to working out the various resistances/saves of each monster, picking the right combination of disabling /instakill / etc spells, and calculating that, say, I should have a reasonably good chance, based on this creature's low save to will, or confusing it, and I want to do it right now so it might attack enemies near it (before it gets close to me), or there are two dragons here that both do huge damage, which one do I want to lob two instakill spells at the first turn of battle, etc.

It's also true that these things are a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you become convinced relatively early on about the absolute superiority of fireballs then that's how it will turn out. KOTC is a fairly but not particularly challenging game, and judging by the LP, you're using plenty of disabling spells, chokepoints and other sensible tactical options available to you in order to maximise the fireballs. So...
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Well, we'll see, I guess. It's not as if I have some kind of religious block against them. I mean, heck, I specced with the intended goal of using those spells, but thus far several issues have come up:
1. For some reason, there don't seem to actually *BE* any. The usual culprits like "Phantasmal Killer" and "Wail of the Banshee" apparently didn't make the spell list.
2. They never freaking work.

Still, we've upgraded our equipment since then with stuff that may significantly boost save DCs to the point where enemies might actually fail them. Perhaps we'll start encountering stuff that doesn't burn all pretty.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Oh, there's my thread. I was having difficulty finding it again, buried as it was under all the Weeaboory and Kebab Removal.

So, yes, we're still alive. I guess you weren't all bored to death yet. UPDATAN!
0434.jpg

Our intrepid band arrives at our next quest destination.

We start mapping the town.
0435.jpg

Snakes. The flatfooted snake thing...does it ever get old? At first, I was like, eh, it's just a snake, we can just sword it.

But then...
0436.jpg

....enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking house.

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Loot is found in the formerly snake-infested house.

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Continuing to map the village, we happen upon an impending scene of tasteless rape.

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We interrupt this tasteless rape to bring you something that doesn't explode.

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More enemies pop out of the woodwork. Azira engages the troll while the rest of our intrepid band goes to put down the giant.

0441.jpg

Splat. Bloodshifter bashes its head in. Brains go everywhere.

0442.jpg

Another giant joins the fray. We paralyze that one, too. Azira splats the troll.

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FINISH HIM!

0444.jpg

The villagers express their opinions on the prevention of tasteless rape. Apparently, they're against it as long as they're not the ones being tastelessly raped. An attitude like that is going to result in all of you being tastelessly raped one at a time, you know. First they came for...

0445.jpg

We locate our quest objective, the translator. He naturally sends us off on a quest first.

0446.jpg

Interviewing the mayor of this town provides us with more information on our quest. We head off towards the fort, which is no longer blocked by the railroad shield.

0447.jpg

Searching the area, we find a pack of Babau hiding behind the fort for no apparent reason.

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So we SET THEM ON FIRE.

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Entering the Hill Giant fort proper, we encounter some guards sleeping on the job.

0450.jpg

Naturally, they are punished for their crimes. You know how they say "Sleep is good for you"? That's filthy Sleepist propaganda. Sleep is BAD for your health, as these guys demonstrate. I never sleep, and it does wonders for me. Plus you will become batshit insane, like me. Did you know that sanity is also an obstacle to success?

0451.jpg

Stalking through the halls of the fort, we encounter an Aztec Priest Giant.

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We are able to penetrate his saves anyway and paralyze him. BOOM! Headshot!

0453.jpg

We have disturbed a side chamber full of trolls. They attack us.

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Azira dispatches a troll.

Having cleared the halls, we begin a systematic room by room sweep of the side rooms.
0455.jpg

We kick in this room full of frost giants. They are hardy, but still burn nicely.

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With them pinned in the room by our door blockade, we SET THEM ON FIRE.

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The next room we search reveals some orc slaves. They would surely not be worth the fireballs to incinerate, so we let them go, gaining more XP than we could have gained by simply setting them on fire. Besides, who knows? Maybe orcs aren't all heinously evil in the KotC milieu. And even if they were, we can always set them on fire later. On to the next club!

0458.jpg

We kick in another door to reveal an overly talkative miniboss giant and his minions.

0459.jpg

First we block the doorway and allow them to queue up...

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...and then we set them on fire.

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The giant attempts to set us on fire, but we counter his attack by setting him on fire first with a readied fireball.

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We counterspell him again with MORE FIRE.

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Finally giving up in the "spellcasting" business, he charges. Hirato FIRES HIS LAZOR.

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With a firm whack to the knees, he falls on his ass and fatally hits his head and dies. We loot his corpse, finding his Wolf Wand.

0465.jpg

We search the next room and find more wolves, which we menace with our stolen wolf wand, gaining more XP than if we had set them on fire. They leave us alone now.

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Continuing to search the new chambers, we find a DRAGON. We take cover around a corner, and then as it turns around, we try to jump it. Azira readies some leftover dragonslaying arrows.

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Azira gets the drop on the dragon...

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BOOM! Headshot!

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Hey, lookie what this room has. I wonder if we'll actually get to use these. They rely on fort saves, which tends to make them kind of crap against enemies that have good fort saves. Like giants. And dragons. That one dragon ate all of our dragonslaying arrows, too.

0470.jpg

We search another room. Filthy Sleepist scum!

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Let this be a lesson: Sleep Kills. Those who sleep are murdered in the night. REMEMBER THIS. Sleep is NOT good for you.

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We search another room for another miniboss. We paralyze him, but unfortunately he breaks free immediately next round before we can stab his eyes out.

0473.jpg

IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!

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Slashy, slashy.

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We search another room, with more enemies.

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And then we SET THEM ON FIRE. Does that ever get old? It doesn't for me. What about you?

0477.jpg

MORE FIRE!

0478.jpg

The last survivor of the room is cornered and given a a sword-based enema.

0479.jpg

Hey, would you look at that? They actually ask us for an entry policy. They *DO* understand entry. WHY ISN'T EVERY DOOR POTENTIALLY INFESTED WITH ENEMIES LIKE THIS? Unfortunately, there's no option for "kick in door and then STAY OUTSIDE and NUKE THE ROOM".

Noting that being INSIDE is a bad plan, we take advantage of our surprise round to withdraw BACK to OUR side of the door and ready against attack and spells.
0480.jpg

An enemy caster tries to cast Displacement. Why, I have no idea. It's not like it will protect him from how we do business...but we interrupt him anyway. With FIRE.

0481.jpg

He doesn't learn. As the door blockade gums up, he tries again anyway. We counter with FIRE.

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Bloodshifter lobs some sonic boom into the doorway. It is a weak attack, but it actually stuns some stuff.

0483.jpg

With the doorway gummed up, we need a bigger blast radius and bust some Ice Storm out.

0484.jpg

YEAAAH! More enemies move into the AOE zone.

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We shoot some more FIRE at the door clog.

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MEDIC! New heal spell, better than those crap heal spells. The line at the door holds firm.

0487.jpg

We continue to hold the line.

0488.jpg

And use MORE FIRE.

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Finally, the Giant King is all that is left. His armor is nigh-impenetrable, but armor is no defense against FIRE. Or this.

0490.jpg

VICTOLY! XP GET! Strangely, this was only one level. The rest of the fort remains unsearched. We must search it.

0491.jpg

Descending into the basement, we discover some orcs, giants, and a freaking dragon. A HUGE freaking dragon. We prod the orcs to attack the giants.

0492.jpg

Unfortunately, they are of no help, but have not yet obstructed the line of fire yet.

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We attempt to counterspell the Dragon, but the attempt fails. The orcs are getting themselves killed.

0494.jpg

With most of them dead and no chance of them actually surviving, we give up on them and NUKE THE ROOM.

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Lobbing more crap into the room, we notice that the dragon is loathe to enter the plague zone, instead shuffling about the room in confusion.

0496.jpg

Indecision must be punished with fire. Lots of fire.

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This scene repeats itself many times over the next few rounds as the dragon shuffles indecisively around the insect plague area.

0498.jpg

Finally, it gives up and charges the door. We give it more fire anyway.

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And Harm. We give it harm, too, since it is resisting being hit.

0500.jpg

Now mortally wounded, we kill it. With fire.

0501.jpg

We commence sweeping the lower chambers. With fire.

0502.jpg

Oh, hey. Finally, a SENSIBLE entry. Do we actually knock first?

0503.jpg

Of course not. Because that would be stupid. We rudely kick in the door, and...EAT FLAMING DEATH!
0504.jpg

0505.jpg

Because all you need is FWOOSH.

0506.jpg

Another room of enemies, another FIIIIREBALL.

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Pew-pew! We shoot down the last survivors.

0508.jpg

This room is a jail. Containing more orcs. We release them, only to be immediately attacked from behind.

0509.jpg

Naturally, we respond with FIRE.

0510.jpg

Advancing rapidly to secure the chokepoint, so that our suicidal rescuees don't get themselves killed, Azira one-rounds a troll.

0511.jpg

We continue our charge. Our useless allies threaten to get themselves needlessly killed.

0512.jpg

More enemies pour into the room. But hey, I like a target-rich environment. The more, the flamier.

0513.jpg

Our useless allies force their way past us, but we manage to set enemies on fire anyway.

0514.jpg

The day is saved. The reckless prisoners will live to give us bonus XP. We loot the corpses.

0515.jpg

Full up on vendortrash, we take a brief stop to unload it. We notice the Merchant will pay a decent price tag for a completely empty wand. We let him have it and make a new one, there doesn't appear to be any additional cost for doing so as opposed to recharging an old one, according to the crafting UI. Maybe he wants it for the kill notches.

0516.jpg

We bash in another room. This one has FIRE giants. Maybe we will need an ice wand for when we clear their lair. Except apparently you can only make wands out of L4- spells. No Phasers, I guess. The list of things immune to both fire AND ice is pretty slim, though. And we're due to get a new form of explosion soon, no doubt.

0517.jpg

We release more prisoners, get more bonus XP.

0518.jpg

More filthy Sleepist Scum. Didn't these guys learn that SLEEP IS BAD FOR YOU yet?

0519.jpg

We kick in yet another room full of flammable foes.

0520.jpg

And another...

0521.jpg

And another...

0522.jpg

We take advantage of a brief lull in the action to upgrade and screenshot Azira's new toy. What should the other one be, once we can afford to make it?

0523.jpg

And then we nuke a room. We always nuke rooms.

0524.jpg

Azira's new sword packs a mean wallop.

0525.jpg

In a change from setting fire to rooms, we set fire to a corridor.

0526.jpg

This guy has been in his cell a little too long.

0527.jpg

These guys have been in their cells WAY too long.

0528.jpg

Arpad's mace destroys them instantly. If only it were made of something shiny instead of Genericium.

0529.jpg

Azira's new sword destroys the troll on the right in a single round. The rest fall similarly quickly. Imagine what it will be like with two of them.

0530.jpg

We find more orc prisoners and let them go for some more XP.

0531.jpg

We search a new water area full of centipedes, for once being allowed to INITIATE AGGRESSIVE ACTION.

0532.jpg

Which means a bombardment of Sonic...
0533.jpg

Followed by FIRE. We find an option to perform a one-way swim-teleport to an unknown place, but we decline to take it, as we have unsearched staircases. Besides, swimming in full plate is silly.

0534.jpg

Instead, we search the upstairs tower, kill some filthy Sleepist Scum, and turn in our quest and vendortrash.

0535.jpg

Returning to search the Downhatch in the basement, we immediately encounter a portal trap.

0536.jpg

Which we resolve with FIRE.

0537.jpg

Searching the tunnels, we find this scene.

0538.jpg

Which gives us another stick of MORE FIREBALLS.

0539.jpg

Also, salamanders who taunt us with their fireproofness, but not their iceproofness. Nyah!

0540.jpg

We give them MOAR!

0541.jpg

Clearing our path through, we meet some non-hostile orcs who give us some magical trinkets which are mostly incompatible with what we're actually using. But at least they'll vendortrash well.

0542.jpg

It's not bad, but it's not for us.

0543.jpg

Continuing our search, we find some FREAKING BUGS, which we USE FIRE on.

0544.jpg

And then Hirato FIRES HIS LAZOR.

0545.jpg

Another cave full of hostiles to nuke is found.

0546.jpg

We nuke them some more.

0547.jpg

They nuke back at us, but we have some modest fire protection for defense against stray explosions, so it merely tingles unpleasantly.

0548.jpg

You know they say revenge is a dish best served cold, but extra crispy works pretty well, too.

0549.jpg

Although endarkenated and blind, Hirato doesn't need to see it to nuke it. Vision is irrelevant to indiscriminate burnination.

0550.jpg

Area cleared of all hostiles.

0551.jpg

We search the remaining area to find only a non-aggressive lizardman tribe and their treasury, which they ask us not to rob. We oblige them for now, because, eh, what could they have that's worth stealing anyway? But if you suggest we go back and knock the place over, we can.

With the area cleared of all hostile activity (the swim route leads to the lizardman caves), it's time to move onto our next destination: Probably The Fire Giants.
Until next UPDATAN.
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
:thumbsup:

I'd recommend you put some more basic + to hit and damage on the weapons as well, it helps with hitting the targets and overcoming some weapons resistances. I really like cold-iron weapons, but adamantium weapons are also quite useful, for overcoming spell-induced damage reduction. It's your call. The cold-iron quality of making mock of demons is Highly Useful, so you could stick with that. You have spellcasters to deal with stoneskinned adversaries. Then Azira can whack demons. :salute:
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Spell-induced damage reduction tends to be ablative in nature, when it comes to stuff like Stoneskin. It also tends to appear only on spellcasters, which tend to be fairly squishy and flammable. The lack of ability to prebuff hampers the enemy, too, and by readying vs. spell against them, they can usually be set on fire to disrupt their attempts at buffing. Is there stuff out there that benefits from basic plus? I recall much of the new damage-resist system of 3.5 is essentially based around eliminating the "+5 beats everything" damage resistance of 3.0. We can afford up to +3 on the enchantspace left on it.

Also, a small mini-update:
0552.jpg

We set out to the fire giant lair. As we prepare to kick in another door, it turns out to just be solidly locked and impenetrable. With the nagging impression that I've been missing something (I was wondering where the Hill Giant King's Treasure Key opened), we double back and search their tower more throughly.

0553.jpg

Behind a structural deadspot in the map, we find a secret room. It leads down into, yes, the treasure room. We pillage it for a Giantese scroll and some vendortrash, and then check the chamber south of it...

0554.jpg

And we're locked into...

0555.jpg

A fight with a dragon. Casting 2x Harm on it and giving it some Slashy Slashy...

0556.jpg

We sink it in a single round finished by a Scorchy Ray.

0557.jpg

And find our way back out.

0558.jpg

We take the scroll to our translator, load up...and NOW on with where ever the hell this thing goes!
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
Maybe it's just the munchkin in me, but I like them plusses. :M They're shiny. :kfc:

I acknowledge that 2d6 worth of extra damage one way or the other is often better, but the fact that extra plusses work regardless of other resistances just triggers some primitive part of my brain.
+3 is better than +1 in any regard. I'll be fine with that. M:
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
No, it isn't abandoned. I just lost track of where the thread went. Follow along with this update as I continue to bore you all to tears with more explosions! Yes, I warned you guys I was dull.

0559.jpg

Teleportan! We arrive in what appears to be a frost giant cave.

0560.jpg

0561.jpg

Commencing a sweep of the caves, the explosions commence.

0562.jpg

We come upon a white dragon loitering in the caves. Azira commences beatdown.

0563.jpg

Eat HARM!

0564.jpg

As the dragon flees to try to heal itself, Hirato subjects it to some PEWPEW, sending it down in flames.

0565.jpg

Our search continues with more explosions.

0566.jpg

yay, a self-sealing room full of undead.

0567.jpg

Probably our toughest enemy in this area, the apparently random yet named Vampire Lord goes down as we heal it and beat on it, Azira's shinies having considerably less effect as apparently you need silver weapons for these...but then, they're susceptible to being Healed to Death instead. Hirato finishes it off with some scorching ray PEWPEW before it can move again.

0568.jpg

0569.jpg

Finally, frost giants. BOOM and MORE BOOM!

0570.jpg

More giants attempt to flank us while we are exploding the ones coming at us from the front.

0571.jpg

...but forced to come at us single-file into our tanks, we can explode them, too.

0572.jpg

Boom to the right...

0573.jpg

Boom to the left...

0574.jpg

Boom in enemy spellcasters' faces...

0575.jpg

He doesn't learn not to cast in front of boom. We give him more boom for his efforts.

0576.jpg

Finally, as he attempts to heal himself, we set him on fire for the last time.

Having vanquished these chambers, we search another chamber...
0577.jpg

...and by search, I mean "Set on fire".

0578.jpg

Searching this random chamber appears to feel it warrants a textual description, but nothing of importance is found here.

The search continues...
0579.jpg

0580.jpg

...with more explosions...

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...and fatal stabbings. Azira's giving Hirato a run for his money now in damage output.

0582.jpg

...but it's just so hard to beat SETTING STUFF ON FIRE.

0583.jpg

We roust them from their rooms with more explosions...

0584.jpg

...and into the pointy end of our party.

0585.jpg

...more explosions...

0586.jpg

Having become full up on loot, we check out where, exactly, the up we spawned by leads. Mostly, it leads to an annoying stair trap and an impassable door.

0587.jpg

Annoyingly forced to resort to triage, we continue our fiery rampage.

0588.jpg

Giants that attempt to escape the inferno from the front are stabbed.

0589.jpg

More partygoers arrive from behind. We arrange our party to provide both blockage and more fire.

0590.jpg

As the mob intensifies, we withdraw into a tighter box to allow Azira to chop up enemies approaching from both sides in this corner-box formation.

0591.jpg

Softening up our targets with some fire...

0592.jpg

And executing our corner-defense stabbings.

0593.jpg

The caster giant refuses to approach. We go in for the kill. Azira, being adequately fire-protected for this reason, is unaffected by the explosions.

Our foes vanquished, we continue our search...
0594.jpg

...with more explosions.

0595.jpg

Enemies continue to file into the jampacked region of bombardment. We continue to bomb them until they are dead.

0596.jpg

Searching more chambers reveals a choice. We can choose between a ring, some armor, an axe, and a bow. We take the ring, being that we have better in everything else and are short on room for hauling vendortrash with.

0597.jpg

Hey, look at that. Something we can't just set on fire for a change.

0598.jpg

But we can still STAB them. Azira can practically one-round a several-hundred-HP giant now.

0599.jpg

Naturally, where fire fails, ice saves. The two are like the yin and yang of blowing up monsters, really.

0600.jpg

We finish off the survivors with stabbing frenzy.

0601.jpg

For once nothing even explodes. Azira and Arpad strike down another white dragon.

0602.jpg

Searching more passages reveals a room with dialogue-based loot.

0603.jpg

Even spiders have succumbed to filthy Sleepism now. This cannot stand!

0604.jpg

Apparently, the squishy noises of the filthy Sleepists meeting their rightful demises has attracted attention from the tubes. Hirato fires his lazor at the oncoming mob.

0605.jpg

Another lazor discharge takes its toll on the horde.

0606.jpg

And yet another burst of LAZOR cleans house.

0607.jpg

Our continuing search reveals a thingy. Sure, why not? What's the worst that could happen, right?

0608.jpg

Gee, what a surprise. We are attacked by bugs for swiping the gem. Bugs behind...

0609.jpg

And bugs ahead.

0610.jpg

With the front ranks preoccupied with fatal stab injuries, we set the ones in the back on fire. Man, you'd never get away with that in 2E, the backblast for doing that would kill ya.

0611.jpg

The giant boss priestly one succumbs to fatal stabbing.

0612.jpg

Continuing our explorations, we find ourselves in the middle of yet another teleport battle.

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Our advancing level sort of makes this more of a nuisance than a health hazard now, since nobody is likely to die in one shot and even the squishy Hirato is pretty tough now.

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We chop, hack, and blast our way out.

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We search beyond the Halls of Commentary.

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We find some dragons. Curiously, the small one is nearly as beefy as the big one. It's almost as if size matters not. For that matter, random freaking wolves are getting pretty beefy, too.

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Harm is inflicted. The small dragon takes a beating from Azira's stabbing frenzy.

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Hirato unleashes a barrage of Scorching Ray PEWPEW while the smaller maimed dragon flees before our wrath. It doesn't work very well. He dies a coward's death.

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The dragon falls to a mere first level spell as we finish it off by winging it with Burning Hands.

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What, more snakes? Snakes nearly as tough as dragons, in a freaking ice cave? How's that work, anyway? Freaking snakes.

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We find a valuable, but useless shield, trading it for some of our less valuable vendortrash.

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Hey, a PAVED hall now. We lob some fireball down the tubes.

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We mercilessly barricade the entry and begin stabbing anyone trying to break through.

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Breaking through, we encounter some more enemies in a paved corridor split. Hirato tries something new, but it is an underwhelming flop and we go back to fireballs here.

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We once again adopt our corner-defense anti-giant positions, clearing our path with stabbings. Hirato attacks the darkness.

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A fresh tube-fight. Bloodshifter gets in on the pyromaniac action with Firestorm.

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As they scatter through the tubes, oldies still remain goodies.

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Azira stabs.

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The fleeing giant attempts to heal itself. We fireball its butt for its efforts.

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A room full of trolls that charge us, catch fire, and get stabbed.

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Naturally, we kick in the door.

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The giants seem unsurprised by this and immediately attack. Maybe shouting "FREEZE! POLICE!" wasn't the best approach to this. But he still dies, unable to penetrate the door blockade.

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Man, these places just contain the oddest stuff.

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Azira beats down a lich. I wonder if we're killing this SAME lich over and over, seeing as there aren't any lich phylacteries that we're smashing.

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Vrocks, vampires, mummies...eh, they all burn the same.

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Azira cleans house.

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Mmm. Giants and an iron golem. The giants burn well, the iron golem, not so much. Hirato places the fireball accordingly.

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The situation turns hectic as giants attempt to flank us from behind the pillars.

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Falling back to a more defensible gap, we form an interdiction line and continue lobbing things.

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Azira clears the left flank.

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The Iron Golem may be invulnerable to everything else, but not to LAZOR.

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The rest of the party fends off the milling mass of giants while Hirato fires his lazor.

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Falling back some more, Arpad and Bloodshifter set some FIRES.

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The iron golem succumbs to zapping while the giants place themselves in our trap.

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The stragglers are mopped up. Cleanup in aisle 7.

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We kick in another room. These giants appear to have been distracted.

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Prisoner liberated! Directions get!

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We barge our way into the room of the Frost Giant King.

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Who annoyingly teleports us into the middle of the hall...seriously, who the fuck enters a hall and leaves TWO FREAKING DRAGONS behind them?

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Doing something that doesn't involve explosions for once, Hirato invites the King to a dance. The dance animations are as hilarious as it can get for dancing low-res RPG sprites with only two or three animation frames and cannot really be captured in screenshots. We have to do this more often. Too bad it's such a high level spell.

A grim melee follows:
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Now that THAT'S over with, we can finally EXIT this place and SELL THE LOOT.

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Our exit path appears to have been infested with random peons.

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Having cleared out our vendortrash, we are back in action, doing what we do best: Setting People On Fire.

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With new, improved, fire from someone other than Hirato.
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As well as our old standbys.

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Frost giants in a door...

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Oh, hey, you know, I never knew this spell was actually non-crap. More ways to blow up enemies in doors!

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The room rapidly becomes a room of pain.

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Having searched all of the Frost Giant caves, the party prepares to head back to town.

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As we arrive back at town, we notice that A: The town is no longer mapped again, and B: There's a war on. Conveniently, we manage to arrive right on the heels of that raiding party the King mentioned.

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Naturally, we assault them from behind. With FIRE and PAIN.

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Only a few survive the opening holocaust, but their attention seems to be fixed on attacking our NPC allies, who manage not to run into the line of fire for once.

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It's over!

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We turn in our quests and collect our loot. I guess now we can unlock the Fire Giant Tower using that thingy we found in the Frost Giant caves. This sequence seems rather linear, really. Where's our choices and consequences?
Are you all bored to tears yet? Am I sucking the fun out of even explosions? I mean, I like explosions, but I also have a talent for making everything boring. Possibly even explosions. What would you like to see more of as we move on to the next club?
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
That's a nice and proper update! :salute:
As to what we want to see more of? I don't know, what about Ice storms? :troll:
That seems a given though, considering you're going up against firegiants next, so feel free to disregard my opinion. :M
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,952
Ice Storm actually kinda shitty iirc, since it's half bludgeoning, lots of stuff resists one half or the other almost entirely.

Maximised Cone of Cold, however...
 

TOME

Cuckmaster General
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
1,820
What level are your chars at the moment? I just finished my game and I reached level 20 at hill giant dungeon. After that game got boring because there was nothing to expect anymore. No level ups, no fancy items, nothing.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
All 20 now. I probably did less grinding than you, so only reached 20 at the end of Fire Giants. But boring? I don't tie my interest to level-ups. In fact, I sort of find levelling up obnoxious and tend to find it preferrably when it's finally over and done with. But I'm one of those objective-oriented personalities, I suppose. I like finished products. The end of levelling up means that I can now put any final build into full implementation.
 

TOME

Cuckmaster General
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
1,820
I actually didn't grind at all. I noticed at somepoint that you got more EXP if you are at lower level. So I stopped leveling up at lvl 10. But slaver boss fight was so hard that I had to do one level up to my cleric.

Btw. are you going to go through every dungeon? After the fire giants, I accidentally found the big bad boss and completed the main quest and stopped playing. I think I missed couple dungeons atleast.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
I'm just going through the dungeons in the order I am told to so far, rather than trying to go wildly off the rails at this point. There are currently two unvisited areas and one writeup that I'll post once we reach the next page.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Broken? You're sure? Right now? They're loading for me. It can take a bit to load, too many on one page, which is why I'm waiting for the next page. I recently rejiggerated the files, to make room in case it runs for more images than originally anticipated, but I should have fixed all the posts. Is there a specific one that's missing? I thought I got them all.
 

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