This is the start of my BG2 solo run. I went through BG1, TotSC and SoD with this character, and also did BP1 and BP2 with another character.

I'm a Fighter/Mage/Thief with a lot of experience. I think I'm close to, or even above, the BG2 cap. So even if I'm playing solo, my level might make the game easy, so I need to add some handicap to still have some challenge.

I might not pick my gear from previous games right away. I think I will also do some question outside of Athkatla first (last run I did I stayed in the city). I might also ignore all the mooks and go directly to the bosses. What I'm looking for are challenging fights and nice gear.

But first, let's get out of this dungeon.

Chateau Irenicus

Ok, so I will get the Paws of the Cheetah back as soon as I get out of here. I hate walking that slowly.

So this is how I chose to spend by pips. Now that I finished Black Pits 2, I remember that Blackrazor (Longsword), Flail of Ages (Flail) and Crom Faeyr (Katana) are great weapons. I won't get Blackrazor until the very end of BG2 so shouldn't really wait for it. Crom Faeyr main selling point is giving me 25 STR, but I already have 24 naturally so I can manage without it. But the Flail of Ages is a very nice weapon. I might need to use some pips in it. In the meantime I guess I'll have to be on the lookout for nice daggers.

At least I can one-shot goblins.

I also still have my trusty backstab.

Got attacked by a few golems in the chambers of "the Lady". Killed them with MMM.

I'm fighting mephits that are blinding me. Which in my case is more of a blessing than a curse. While blinded, I can easily turn invisible and backstab them.

I also killed the Dryads, because why not.

An assassin just standing next to a mephit and doing... nothing.

So I charmed him so he could help me around here.

Well, he turned hostile very quickly.

That was a very short romance.

And finally, I'm out of the Chateau!

Athkatla

First thing I'll do is get my stuff back. I might not re-equip everything right away, but I will at least take the boots and containers.

But I can't get out of the city that quickly, I first need to get to the gates, and for that I need to cross the Slums.

As soon as I got to the Slums, I saw Gaelan Bayle, who told me his deal. I need 20k gold to move the plot forward.

Now the full city is available to me. Contrary to Baldur's Gate in the first game, I can go everywhere. Seeing this blue map of unexplored areas remind me of so many great memories of the first time I explored this city. It kept on delivering quests after quests, I leveled up so many levels here...

Argh, wayland by enemies on my way to the Gates... I luckily was invisible thanks to my sneak ability, and I could cast Mirror Image, Stoneskin and MGI before turning visible again. I wanted to backstab one, but I guess now all I have to do is Sunfire them.

And all dead.

Some XP, really not much.

Still got a nice loot. Immune to Hold and Paralysis. I don't think it protects against Stun, but I should try.

Now on my way to Dragonspear Castle, 6 days from Athkatla, on the other side of the map.

I took back my stuff but decided to not re-equip myself with it for now. I only equipped the Boots of Speed, but kept all the containers in my backpack. I want to see how far I can go with only the stuff I loot.

My next stop will be to get the unlimited bag from Hexxat; that way I can have one bag for my old loot and one for the new loot.

First stop is at Ribald's:

I will need this, to try some combos with my clones.

This is always useful; the damage seems to bypass the Magic Resistance.

Those two are amongst the more powerful scrolls. I will need to buy them at some point.

I should try to see what can be done with that. Can I heal someone that isn't dead? Does it have any effect on undeads? Range is unlimited, does it mean I can resurrect a friend from any map? Can it allow me to teleport a friend somewhere where I am supposed to be alone?

Base AC4; that could be useful in the beginning; but I'm still too low on money.

Some spells I don't yet know. I stole them.

Some other items I will most definitely need to wait a bit for.

Stole this from Ribald.

Getting Hexxat's Bag

I grabbed Hexxat from the Slums and am now heading to the Graveyard district.

I tried Shocking Grasp on the thieves. One casting allow me to do that damage. It's... not that impressive when I usually do 19 damage with my dagger only. Maybe with a backstab?

Found this in the pre-tomb to enter Hexxat's dungeon. The AC+2 is nice for a staff, but the cure effect is not very potent.

Changed my good old dagger +1 with a +2.

I was having some trouble against the Shadow Fiend. The drain levels and are immune to fire. They also seem to hit through Stoneskin and Mirror Image. So I decided to send a Skeleton Warrior friend for help.

The skeleton killed one. I killed one with MMM. And now trying to kite the last one and kill it with MMM. Hmm they seem to keep spawning, I can't keep up. I crawled into a tomb, we'll see where it goes.

On the other side was Burich. Another one that drains levels. I managed to backstab him to death, though.

Oops, I let Hexxat getting killed... I think I'll have to reload...

Ok, so this time I levelled up Hexxat and put everything in Hide in Shadows / Move Silently so I can have her stay at the entrance and not hinder my progress.

Found a Protection Scroll against Undead in a coffin. Will make EVERYTHING easier. I ran back to Hexxat, managed to protect both of us, but still got one level drained in the process.

This time, because of my protection, Burich didn't even talked to me. So I killed him to get the key. The Devil Shade can still attack me, even with my protection...

Dragomir is here. I think he should be talking to me but can't because of the protection spell. I'll try to bring Hexxat here, see if it make him react;

Nope, no reaction. Well, let's keep exploring, then. Ok, she can't get past the magical light in the tunnel either.

So I backstabed Dragomir three time. He never reacted.

We then moved to the last room and swapped Hexxat for a new Hexxat.

Got attacked by a random encounter on my way to the Copper Coronet. I can't blast sunfire in them or I will kill Renfeld, the guy on the floor.

Killed the mage. Gonna play with his toys.

Ghoul Touch is pretty useful actually. Every hit can paralyze for 5 rounds (meaning next hits are auto hits). The Paralyzation timer seems to restart on each hit, so it stun locks them. It does non-lethal damage, though, which might not be very much. But I guess that coupled with a few invocations, this can be devastating. I can't kill them with it, they just turn unconscious, but I can paralyze them alright.

Renfeld body needs to go to the Docks. I'll do that quickly and then head back to the Copper Coronet.

Found Joluv at the Copper Coronet that is selling some very nice items:

Draining stats is an easy way to kill enemies.

This is something I REALLY need. But I'm afraid I didn't put enough points in Scimitar...

Interesting; I'll have to see its effect on my clones.

This, while transformed into a rat would make me invincible. I think one of my next stops might be the sewers.

To keep some challenge to the run, I decided to leave all my containers (except the Bag of Holding) on a table at the Copper Coronet. I bought a Scroll Case and kept Dragomir's Respite. Whenever I find a named item, I keep it in the blue one. All stuff to be sold and equipment to swap in specific circumstance will be added to the orange. As for scrolls, I'll keep a few utilities, but will mostly try to use whatever I loot. No more hoarding of things. Trying stuff with what is lying around usually makes me discover new stuff.

Windspear

First step is outside of the big city; trying the Windspear quest.

And it starts with some monsters attacking me. I fried most with Sunfire, then went full stealth for finishing them with backstabs.

I don't understand why a x5 backstab only does 37 when I reliably deal 19 with a regular attack.

I then went to Windspear hut, killed the bandits, and leveled up. I took a pip in Flail

I now also have access to the HLA of the fighter type. I never had them before so I guess I'll have to read and experiment a bit with them.

Sets the APR to 10, but -4 THACO. The second one cancels the THACO malus. This seems very powerful.

This kills enemies of level 10 or 12 on hit for two rounds. This aren't usually a threat so I'll pass.

Sets Magic Resistance to 50%. Useless, as it won't stack.

The first one stuns for 2 rounds if fails a save at -4. Why not but I think a Whirlwind attack with Celestial Fury is more interesting on average. But the improved one makes all attacks critical hits for one round. This will be very impressive with the Greater Whirlwind and/or a backstab. I like that. The last one also knock enemies over and send them flying. Not very useful to me.

The last two are a fear effect and a +40% to resist damage. Not that useful compared to the others.

Hmm, what is surprising is that I also have access to the HLA of the thief and mage. Now I have to make a very hard choice between the three.

I think I will take this one as it opens the way to the most combos with items.

But those will also provide nearly infinite AC.

This will make all my hits backstabs for one round. This could be devastating with the Whirlwind and the Critical Strike combo. 10 critical backstab per round if you can cast them all fast enough.

I took UAI, so I can now use this but it seems to only lower my stats and that's it.

What's weird is that it put my strength with a /52. I don't remember if that's something I rolled initially or not.

Anyway, I should try to see if it can kill me if I use a cursed scroll of it it loops the value. So, I'm keeping the item for now.

I also looted two scrolls. I didn't learn them as I cannot yet cast them, so I keep them seeing if I will need to cast them from a scroll later.

I also tried to backstab with Shocking Grasp. It kinda works. The nonlethal damage seems to be multiplied, but not the electricity.

I met the Dryad, friend of the dryads of the first dungeon. Even if I had the acorns with me, she attacked directly, not completing the quest. Shit, maybe it wasn't worth killing them back there.

Especially now that she summons her friends. I'm going to retreat and try again.

I came back, backstabbed Vaelasa (and got a named +2 Dagger). The two Sirines broke off their invisibility and tried to charm me, but I had Arbane equipped (that should protect me from hold and paralysis). I think my elven heritage shove off the other charm spells.

What? Now there is an Ankheg joining the fun as well?

Hmm, seems like casting MMM considered that my off-hand wasn't equipped anymore; so I'm not longer protected from hold and paralysis. That's good to know.

I killed on Sirine, looted some Arrows of Biting off her, and I'll now try to fire them at the other Sirine, to prevent her from casting. That worked, but I got poisoned. Used an antidote I pickpocketed the main Sirine earlier. I finished the bears with arrows.

According the wiki this is what I should have gained, if I had not killed the Dryads. Well too bad. I have too much XP already.

Also met a bunch of "Fighters" that actually seem to be Werewolf in disguise. I started casting a chain Sunfire when the fight against their gnolls was still going on and now they are endlessly talking. As soon as their talk is over they will churn.

And, fried werewolf on the menu today.

And found the entrance to the dungeon.

It starts with an ambush. I know my Sunfire can kill groups like this easily, but I don't have that many Sunfire memorised. I will need other lower level spells for work through groups like this. Or I simply ignore them and walk by.

Well, actually that seemed to work. As they couldn't see me, I simply stealth through.

More of them later on. I will need potions, or wands, to get rid of them. For now I'll just sneak by.

Wait, amidst all those low-level enemies, there is a Ruhk. This is a whole new level. I might try to sneak past and attack from behind because I won't have enough room for maneuver in the large room as it's still teeming with monsters I avoided.

Nice opening, but not enough.

Hmm, the kobolds exploded, but didn't killed the Ruhk.

Finished the Ruhk and got my first Fire Protection ring. Could come in handy if I start throwing Fireballs.

Next room is a trap. Orcs on both sides, firing at me with their bows. A locked door in front, another locked door in the next room and a golem after that. But I'm so fast I could hide from them and keep exploring.

There are two Stone Golems, and one large Adamantine. They are immune to backstab, so I might need another way to kill them.

I killed one with my daggers (and a potion of speed). I then run to the other room and hid because the two other golems were following me. I went back, killed the last small one. But my weapons seems to be ineffective for the large golem. He's totally immune to magic and only +3 weapons can kill it. So I had to rest and invoke an Enchanted Weapon

Still, it's taking a very long time. This is the first time I can Enchanted Weapon. I would have thought that it would have invoked a new weapon in my hand, just like Shocking Grasp, but it actually kept the same weapon, but seems to be treating them as +3 for the purpose of hitting. All I had to do was to protect myself with Stoneskin and Mirror Image, and I could kill the golem.

Holy shit. Vampires now? I will need to Sunfire them, I don't see any other choice. I must not be touched because I can't heal the level drain. One of them saw me and came to attack me. Even with the Stoneskin and Mirror Image, she managed to drain some levels. I'll have to reload.

I send a summoned skeleton this time to attract them, put myself invisible and cast Sunfire. Killed most of them, except for one. I'm now using a hit and run/hide technique against her. But it implies a lot of reload as one hit and I lost levels. I'm actually using another Sunfire to finish this faster.

I explored the area a bit more. Found a key to open a locked door, met a women trying to loot a tomb, and met Tazok, my old friend. There was a trap in the room right before that I was able to lure his guards to and that killed them. Now I'm doing back and forth and backstabbing him. Tried to Cast Vampiric touch but the casting time is too long and I got interrupted. I will need to cast that on neutral targets or wait for the Robe of Vecna. Found a few +1 and +2 items on him as well as the Sewers Key.

And a very nice cache of riches. The double Rogue stone means infinite money.

So I left all the small rings, gems and +1/+2 stuff I found. I was planning on selling them later to get some money, but now that I know I can have infinite money, I don't need them anymore. I kept the Laeral, Star Saphire and stuff I know is worth a lot because... because I don't know but it feels wrong to let them here :)

I met some NPCs fighting each other. I let them kill themselves and lured a band of Orog here before stealthing. They won't bother me here.

Met some knigts that tried to lure me into a trap. I should have backstabbed them before talking.

I thought it was great that those NPCs were named, and I remembered how I always have trouble coming up with NPC names in my pen and paper games. I thought I should start to write the names down so I can find them later as inspiration in my own games.

But when I started saying those names aloud "Falik" sounds like "Phallique" in french and "Grancor" sounds like "Grand Corps" as well. I can't use that for the games I play in french. No way.

The guy started yelling "Yes, the ambushed worked" while I was stabbing him.

Those doggies can't open doors, so it's just a matter of hide, backstab, close door, stealth again.

Found a nice horn that I'm going to try right away.

The Greater ones regenerate pretty quickly, so I need to take them one by one.

I triggered a lot of traps, hoping to lure some monsters in it, but the all succeeded on their saves. No problem, I can kill them with the arrows I just found.

Oops. I might have opened the wrong door here.

I tried to cast some Polymorph other on him, but he kept interrupting them with Magic Missiles and a lot of other attack spells. Somehow one seem to have landed and even if not polymorphed, he seem to have been paralyzed. Ah no, it was just his animation been blocked while he was casting Burning Hands.

So instead I cast a MGI, which should protect me from most of his spells, and I'm sending Skull Traps in the entrance of his room. Hmm, didn't work as well as I expected. He wasn't moving so the traps never triggered. It's only when I moved closer that they exploded and got caught in the radius and died. That's interesting to note: the proximity trigger is smaller than the blast radius.

I opened the doors to all six guardians, and when I entered one, he spoke and attacked me. I ran, to hide back in shadows, and will come backstab him.

After getting the six parts of the mask from the six Guardians, there was one last Fire Guardian to kill. I tried to lose him in the maze to go behind him, but the door wouldn't open, so I had to find him again and kill him.

Finally found the tomb, looted the stuff, but the band of adventurers, friends of Samia arrived. I think they will try to kill me, so I need to find a way to kill them instead. But this time I'll note their names.

Here is the sword I looted. Long Sword +2. Immunity to fear is useful, the regeneration is too slow and Detect Invisibility is less interesting than the Thief ability. Might keep it for the Fear immunity.

This is much better. Already in this dungeon I can get as high as 65% Fire Resistance.

So, they did turn hostile, and a thief is right behind the mage, preventing me from backstabbing the spellcaster. What I did was to put some arrows on the floor. Now I'll move very far away, right at the limit so they don't see me, and I'll cast Chaos on the arrows, hoping to turn them one against the other.

Seems to have some effect.

They are fighting each other. During that time, I'm backstabbing one that got away.

That killed a few of them. Next I looted a wand of Fear on their still warm bodies and used it against them.

Then, playing with the doors and their confused states, I isolated them and killed them one by one.

The loot is mostly +1/+2 weapons and armor. I let it on the floor.

Found this at the bottom of a well. So it's a grand total of 90% Fire Resistance for this dungeon only. With the Fireshield scrolls found, that can make me immune to fire easily.

Another set of Golems that seem to be guarding some treasure. I don't have any Enchanted Weapon memorized so I won't be able to kill them without a rest. I'll first loot, then rest.

How, that's a +3 weapon right there. I'm not proficient with it, but if I managed to have the golem stuck in a doorframe, I'll be able to kill it from afar.

So, it IS stuck in a doorframe, but I didn't have time to loot the container yet. So I guess I'll just rest and do it with Enchanted Weapon and Stoneskin.

Whoo, this is stupid. I finally used the Horn of Blasting on the monsters that pop up during my rest and I was the one stunned? I could still level up while stunned though. I tried my new Assassination once out of Stun.

Sure, it does what is written on the tin, but that's not that impressive. I do an average of 37 damage with backstab, and 19 without. The difference is not that big. I think it will start to be more interesting once I have a weapon better than +2 (as it will also be multiplied) and with more attacks.

I then went on seeing Firkraag but died almost instantly. I have no idea what this "damage bonus" is, though. Ah I see, he is reducing my Fire Damage to such a point that I'm taking bonus damage because it must be negative now.

Also, I remember that I forgot to go kill the Adamantine Golem. Gonna have to trace back there.

Took me a bunch of healing potion, but after a ton of hits for 1 or 2 damage, he finally fell.

Well, made me realize that Assassination was really not as good as Whirlwind, so I reload an old save before picking it up. It meant I'll have to redo part of the dungeon, but so be it.

I had to redo the Djinnis, this time opening combat with a Ghoul Touch backstab. Works very very well as they got paralyzed.

I also chained cast Vampiric Touch on another, seems like even if he turned invisible in between two casts, I was still able to target him. I didn't get the additional HP several times, but he did take the damage several times.

Went head front toward the Director with a MGI, I only got it by the rain of ice.

I trapped all the looters in with some Skull Trap and redid the Confusion thing. This time when levelling up, I took the Time Stop trap.

Now, I don't know why, I have two Adamantite Golems... That's more XP for me, that's fine. I can just fire at them with regular arrows, as they are considered enchanted as +3 because of Enchanted Weapon, I can kill them just fine, one damage at a time, because they are stuck in the doorframe.

I'm now heading to Firkraag. I'm trapping the room upstairs with Skull Traps, hoping to catch his intendant in it. Well, it seem to have made the game glitch as when I came back upstairs, Iltha died and no trace of Conster.

I tried again, and this time I managed to steal that from the mage before he teleported away.

Hmm, the same thing happened when I get back to the prison. Iltha died, and no sign of Conster. I think it's because I chose to make a deal with Firkraag.

Anyway, that work for me, I got this cloak. I know it is glitchy and the bonus will stack, which can make me immune to missile weapons.

I managed to cast Feeblemind on him on the second try (he succeeded on his save on the first, but didn't turn hostile).

Feeblemind, as far as I understand, makes the target unable to even move or attack, and is Permanent.

So yeah, I can attack him without him even reacting. I'm adding this spell to the shortlist of best spells.

And that's it; one dragon down.

And that sweet Carsomyr, that I can equip because of Use Any Item. I need to test if the Magic Resistance is set or added. If added, I will need to start making a a Magic Resistance gear. Actually, the to-hit bonus of the weapon is so strong that it offsets the malus of not being proficient. I have the same THACO with that than with my dagger +2. This might come handy when dispelling enemies.

My job here is done, I'll now head back to town to sell all the stuff.

Buying some stuff

I bought the Ninjato of the Scarlet Brotherhood that I'm going to equip right away in my main hand. I'm still going to keep Arbane in the off-hand for now as the hold and paralysis immunity it gives is very helpful. Rings of free action do the same, but they also cancel Haste from the boots.

I recharged all my wands for ~50k. I already feel (too) powerful.

I bought this because I want to try the Wisdom drain effect.

Same, seems something to investigate.

I bought this one, hoping that "Hit Points" meant current HP and not max HP, and that maybe equipping it in a loop would heal, but no, it increases the maximum HP pool only.

Took this as well. I now realize there is a lot of great two-handed swords here. That would be a great specialization to take with another character (not this one, as I cannot backstab with them).

Of course.

Same. The base of so many combos.

Also taking that, so I can do the Eyeless one quest.

And this. Now that I can use bard items, I need to see if I can use that while invisible.

I actually have so many combos to try. I might be doing some small quests like the slavers in the Copper Coronet, or the Eyeless one (including the Illithid part of the Sewers) to try my stuff.

Now that I'm equipping the Robe of Vecna, it made me realize that I did the whole previous dungeon without wearing any armor. And I can also ditch my AC 8 bracers as the robe as AC 5 included.

Ribald is still selling some interesting stuff, but I might have to come back later; I already have so many things to try.

Pretty strange but Lord Jierdan is still at the Copper Coronet. I don't remember how I got access to Windspear in the first place, but it wasn't from him.

Testing combos

I took a room at the Inn to test the Ninjato draining Wisdom, seeing what happens if I have like 1 Wisdom and wear the Cloak of Dragomir that add a -2. But I have 25 Wisdom and the drain only lasts for 2 rounds, and has a Death save so it's unlikely it will work.

Even for a classic combat, -2 per hit for only two round, I don't think that's very helpful. Unless I can combine it with a spell that reduces the Wisdom of the target.

Also realize I can't backstab with a Wakizashi, so I guess I'll keep it in the offhand. I wanted to have a weapon with Poison effect on the hand where I'll be hitting the most with, but not at the price of backstabs.

I'll also test Everard's Morningstar, see how the "spell erased from memory" works.

This is what I have before a hit.

And after a hit. There was a spell effect above my head, no save. I lost one of the highest level spells I had. That's interesting. That could be a great way to remove high level spells from some enemies.

And my Simulacrum also hits pretty hard with it. It's 2d4+2, while my dagger was 1d4+2. I don't think I can backstab with that, though.

No I can't. Still, it's a pretty useful weapon against spell casters, I'll keep it handy.

This time it removed Stoneskin and not Contagion.

Maybe that's because it's removing spells from the rightmost slot in the spellbook, not the rightmost slot in the spell quickbar. They seem to be ordered differently. In the spellbook they are ordered alphabetically, while they might be ordered by internal SPELLNAME in the bar.

Hmm, this is weird. I went to see my spellbook after casting a Simulacrum and it seems to have glitched. I have spells memorized, but the max number is wrong and they are darken.

It feels like I have access to my Simulacrum spellbook, but ingame I can still cast all my real spells.

So, what I wanted to try is to see what would happen if I attempt to cast a spell that was just removed from memory. I had my spell bar opened, and got hit by the mace. So technically the rightmost spell is remove. In that case it would be the protection from lightning. But because my bar was opened, the spell is still here. Can I cast it?

Apparently yes.

Oh, that's because it removed the Animated Dead one. I don't get it.

Ok, so let's try again. I have two more Level 5 spells. I think Protection from Acid is the one that will get erased.

That's right. Still, I could cast it from the opened bar. And it worked.

Ok, so that's a bug. A very minor one, as no-one will ever hit their own characters with the mace, and I couldn't find an exploit from there; but still.

I then tried some Pickpocket with the Simulacrum. First try I got 2 gp that were automatically added to the party gold. Second time I pickpocketed something, and when I killed the Simulacrum I could loot 1gp. I'm not sure why the two different behaviors.

Now I wonder if I can make plot-important items disappear with that trick. What happens if my Simulacrum pickpockets an important item, then disappear because the spell ends. Will he have the item next time? Will the item be on the floor? Can the Simulacrum pickpocket from my main character? Let's try.

I could not have him pickpocket me. I guess it's because I am a Thief myself so there is a large malus. I will need to try with a Potion.

I had him pickpocket people in the room. I want to see what happens once the spell ends.

So I can confirm I can access my Simulacrum spellbook. When selecting him and going to the spellbook, I see his max spells and grayed out spells. Removing or adding spells only affects my main characters though.

I will have to find the Flesh to Stone and Maze spells. I want to see the effect on a Simulacrum.

Pickpocketing with the Simulacrum this time added gold to the party funds. Still, he has other items on him.

I was able to pickpocket some from him. I have no idea why he had money on him, and why I could steal it without it being added to the party funds.

Once unsummoned, he disappeared with everything he pickpocketed. So yes, it seems to be a way to make items disappear forever. Why would you need that? I don't know, but now I know it's possible.

Slave pens

I then went on to the slaving complex behind the Copper Coronet. I took a bunch of different weapons from my bag in order to try them out.

But first, I backstabbed the Beastmaster.

And looted this nice bow. I now have 4 APR with this.

This is Carsomyr. No backstab, dispell and 24 damage, but only 1.5 APR.

Joril's Dagger. 1 Frost effect, and confusion on hit. Overall I find that the two-handed weapons can have interesting effects, but they will only be useful if I have a high APR. So Greater Whirlwind, but I'm not sure I want to invest two HLA into it when I can already hit the 10 APR mark with dual-wielding and Improved Haste. Maybe if I have points left.

Now that Lehtinan is dead, Bernard has a lot more spells to sell here.

I also stole that from Bernard, it's & a +2 Morning Star, doing 2d4+2 damage and a chance of putting the target to sleep.

Also took that, in case I encounter undeads.

Slums Sewers

But for now, I'll go into the sewers. Specifically I want to go see the Illithid camp, and get my hands on the Cloak of the Sewers. Anything else is a bonus, and a way to try my new weapons and scrolls.

I backstabbed a Kobold and got this Circlet. THACO +2 is great. Not sure if Caster level will apply, and the Bless spell on the summoned spirit will definitely not apply. I prefer my Vhailor's Helm, but this is interesting if I need to increase my THACO.

Also got this staff to create Goodberries. They heal 1HP each. Not very interesting. Unless I can sell them. Still, it's an easy way to fill a Simulacrum inventory, if I ever need that. Oh actually, maybe I could want to fill their inventory so next thing they pick up falls on the ground.

I'm putting all that in my bag of holding; we'll see if they stay there or disappear.

I tried the Harp of Pandemonium on a group of Hobgoblins. They were sent flying backward and are confused. Not sure when I would need to send ennemies flying away.

The Harp seems to always send people away, but they are confused only on a failed save. So that can be interesting to clear an area that is not well situated for me.

Thanks to Arbane and its protection from charm and confusion, I can fight those mushrooms easily.

Once in the Slaver's Compound, I charmed them and made them fight each other.

I managed to polymorph another into a squirrel.

So the Sleep effect of The Sleeper actually bypasses Mirror Images. One mage down, I can focus on the next one.

I actually removed the Ninja-to from my offhand to keep Arbane. Its protection from hold is so useful, I will take the Ninja-to when I'll have another way to protect from those.

I found three of those on the corpses. That's the first time I see this potion.

I was attacked on the street on my way back to the Copper Coronet, and got some help from an Amnian guard. That's good to know, they attack hostile creatures. Meaning I can charm someone, wait for the spell to end so they turn hostile, and have guard kill the NPC without any Reputation loss for me.

I have also purposefully cast some magic, so an Enforcer arrived. I will have to summon more of them to get my license.

I found "Storekeep", aka. a fence, that was ok buying my goodberries for 1gp. INFINITE GOLD EXPLOIT! No, just kidding. She does not buy stolen stuff, though.

I gained this from finishing the Slaver's quest, as well as a Plate Mail. Plate mail, seriously? Not even a magical one.

I tried the Potion of Icedust, it gives +100 Fire Resistance to everyone in an area. It stacks with gear, but only lasts 1 round. It's a nice potion to drink when you have a Fireball incoming.

Illithid camp

Now going to the Temple district, to find an entrance to the main Sewers. I want to open the Illithid door. I might take a detour to the Guarded Compound to have an interesting fight while I'm there.

Bought some scrolls from the priests of Helm. This one is best defense against Undeads of any kind. For two whole hours, no Undead can attack me. They cannot even initiate dialog (which may be a curse or a blessing).

Found a group of adventurers in the Sewers. Now, we'll have our battle.

I tried the Harp of Pandemonium against six of them, but my first target moved in the fog of war before I could use it, so it actually canceled the item casting, but still used a charge. So now I know, it's better to target the first target as something that won't move.

My second casting was a Dire Charm. I managed to get a few of them. Now I'll use them against their comrades.

One of them is a Priest. So many spells I don't even know.

Those two spells are marked as Blade Barrier, but with different icons. I'll have him heal me.

This one cast Hold Person on his friend.

While this one is firing arrows on the mage and keeping him distracted.

And this one is healing me while I kill his friend.

The spell finally ended, but it allowed me to deplete them of many important ressources.

The Robe of Vecna when chain casting spells from scrolls is incredible. I don't have the casting delay anymore for most of my spells. Here, I was chain casting a lightning bold (just because I had the spell lying around, as it is effectively exactly the same as using the wand). And it fired them all at the same time, dealing a lot of damage.

Found this on their corpse. Charm immunity is always useful, but a helm that does only that... nope.

Found another throwing axe. I need to see if I can dual wield them at range.

Ah, no I can't. So it's clearly inferior to Azuredge +3.

Ah, this is much better. I can't backstab with that, but it's a great thing to dual wield with the Ninja-to for poison damage.

Got stunned on my way to the entrance of the Illithid camp. Arbane didn't protect from that. I STILL don't know what protects from Stun.

Got myself into a room full of hostile people. I'll need to find a way to kill them in large groups.

I had my clone summon a Fiend from a scroll in the room. We'll see how it goes.

Didn't work so well, the Glabrezu died quickly. Instead I'm pulling enemies one by one with arrows, and backstabbing with the clone in the corridor.

I invoked a Nabassu this time, and closed the door. I can hear the sound of spells being cast, but the Nabassu fell quickly; from what I can read mostly from the Umber Hulk damage.

I managed to turn the Umber Hulk into a Squirell, but the others are hasted and on me. And they stunned me and are now eating my brain. Shit. Really, stun is the most powerful effect.

This time I opened with my clone one-shotting the mage with a backstab. They all then went around him, and I could send a Skull Trap with my main character, harming most of them. Then I closed the door, and put a Time Stop trap in the corridor. Drank an Oil of speed, cast MGI.

And open the door...

Hit one of the fighter during the Time Stop, not enough to kill him. Then managed to turn him into a Squirell; I'm going to use him to block the others while I'm trying to charm them.

Charmed the Assasin, sent him on a suicide mission.

I finished the Umber Hulk on my side of the corridor.

Managed to hide in shadows when the Assassin died.

Blinded the archer, killed the squirrel so I can hide again, and attacked the fighter. The archer can't see me, so I can kill the fighter directly.

Hahaha. I managed to stuck the Mind Flayer behind a door. What a mastermind. Well, I can't backstab him but I guess I can have him from afar.

Oh, he managed to get away. The good news is that now I can backstab him.

Next room seem a whole new level of complexity. What I need right now is a Potion of Clarity. As I don't have, the closest thing is the Helm of Charm Protection. I'm backtracking and picking it up again. Yes, I know I could sleep, but I want to see how far I can go without sleeping.

I managed to backstab an Ulitharid than ran away. They sent me a lot of spells, stunned me and drained some intelligence from me. Luckily, I was too room away, so they didn't pursue.

Then, it was a matter of backstab, running away, backstab, killing the one fleeing, and so on. Apparently, they have a limited number of casts of their spells.

The last one, in the last room, is an Alhoon. This one is casting spells. I hit him with Carsomyr to dispel the protection, then backstab.

Hmm, this is not over. I have a tactic that works: bringing them one by one, and backstabbing, but it's a bit boring at this stage.

Ah shit, not so boring. It failed. They managed to stun me while I was still pretty close. I guess I'll have to be more careful.

Ah shit, I tried again and this time the Alhoon just killed me outright by stunning and devouring my brain.

This time I'm trapping the area.

I opened the door and this happened. I thought my traps where melee damage, but apparently they can fire missiles?

Wait, what? They are poisoned? I really need to read the spell description.

I don't know why, but they all gathered here. I unfortunately don't have any AoE right now. I'm going to try to loot the room to see if I'm lucky. It could have worked. One of the spells hit me and I got confused in the next room; they all gathered around me and kill me. I'm sure there is a way.

Oh, actually there is this Skull Trap scroll I bought earlier. I'm going to try that. Didn't really work, they are highly resistant to magic.

I drank my last Oil of Speed and looted the container, then ran to the entrance. I'm tailed by a lot of spell. My plan is to close the next door and even if the spells land, they wouldn't be able to pursue me.

Oh, I was lucky. I managed to close the door and none of the spells worked!

One nice hammer in the loot. Part of Crom Faeyr IIRC.

And the Wand of Wonder. One of my favorite items. The Flesh to Stone effect is random, but has no save. I remember winning a duel in my guild with that. Sorry, Ather. Also, back in the days, firing the wand on a loot on the ground was discharging all effects at once. Thanks Keelor for that tip.

Now that I have the loot I could just walk away, but I want to try the wand on the group.

Holy shit. I tried to fire the wand on the loot container, and it discharged everything as planned, times 6 because I used it with the Wand of Lightning. And I wasn't properly aligned with the container so everything started bouncing on the walls.

They seem to not care AT ALL. Magic Resistance FTW. Let's try again, this time targeting them directly.

Hmm, seems like I petrified one.

I tried to fire the wand at an object on the ground, oriented so I could have the Illithids, but I forgot that it would also cast web, and now I'm entangled in my own web.

I stabbed my way through them all; this one is still petrified. Could not pickpocket because was still hostile. Tried hitting with Carsomyr to see if it would unpetrified, but it killed him.

Next time I should try to Charm them, see if I can pickpocket them, or unpetrify them once charmed, or dispel the stone effect.

I guess the next couple hours will be learning to use the wand to the best effect.

Temple Sewers

I continued in the Sewers. I dropped an item in the center of the pit, walked far away and targeted it with the Wand of Lightning and the Wand of Wonder. My cursor was registering that I had a valid target, even if in the fog of war.

And I was actually able to discharge the wand safely from afar.

Oops, it apparently went very far and hit a bystander.

Ah shit, made him hostile. And I need that guy for what he is selling/buying. Well, gotta reload.

Tried again from another angle and backstabed the Rakshasa (he's immune to most spells of the Wand). Got this in exchange, which I think is the best cloak of the game. +1 AC that stacks. But also polymorph into a jelly (immune to magic and backstab) or a rat (immune to damage when equipped with the Defender of Easthaven).

Roger the Fence is actually, a fence. I bought a potion of Master Thieve from him, drank it, the sold Carsomyr and a few other expensive items and stole them back. Then sold them again and stole them back again. Easy way to have infinite cash. But items are marked as stolen now, so I won't be able to sell them to anyone else.

I also did it with Vhailor's Helm, the Harp of Pandemonium and the Horn, which recharged their "per day" charges.

I found a secret entrance in the sewers leading to what looks like a wizard tower.

Some interesting spells found already, especially Contingency. This seems to also be a potentially-glitchy spell that I will have to try.

There is a group of Yuan-Tis in the room behind the fog of war. I'm targeting the chest with the WOL from where I am, and trying to see if I can use the horn from there.

It definitely seem to have worked. I can cast spell items without line of sight when using the WOL and targeting a container. I need to test if it works from any distance and if the WOL is needed.

This didn't kill them and I got confused by the Yuan-tis, but fortunately, kept hitting them. I think they had a Stoneskin because even if the combat log was telling me I hit, I didn't see them take any damage and they surely didn't get poisoned. I start to feel like the poison effect of the Wyvern's Tail is not that potent.

So this time I'm staying at the opposite of the level and trying to use the Harp of Pandemonium through the WOL on the container in the rightmost room.

My character moved all the way to here and cast it. So there is a maximum range, but no need to have a line of sight. Interesting.

So I will use the multiple wand on Mekrath, the mage hiding here.

That got him unconscious and panicking in no time.

Got a wand of Cloudkill and one of Resurrection. I don't think I'll ever use that one as the Wand of Wonder is better, but I'll keep it in case I need a less devastating wand. As for the Resurection one, I still don't know what to do with it. As I'm playing solo I will never have to resurect party members. Maybe I can resurect dead sprites? Or kill undeads with it? The interesting thing is that it has "Range: Unlimited". Maybe I can use it to trick another item into having an unlimited range?

Well... actually it seems to have worked. I clicked the Wand of Resurection, selected a chest in a nearby room, then switched the Wand of Resurection with one of Cloudkill, and it send a Cloudkill through the wall, into the room. Now just for scientific purposes I need to test without the Resurection part. No, my character attempts to move. And with the Lightning one? Ah this time it works. I managed to send 6 cloudkills through a wall.

Hmm so maybe it's just the fact that I'm swapping two wands that makes it go through walls. I'll try in reverse. Nope, this time didn't work. So I could send through walls with Resurection and Lightning as the first wand. Now I'll need to test the range.

So I'm in the lowest part of the room and I'm going to try to send some Wonders on the altar at the top.

It worked, but I forgot that it would send a lightning bolt, which does not goes through walls, so it can be pretty dangerous to do this tactic with the WoW. So, Cloudkill is actually a great wand.

Went to the altar room and can confirm it worked. Worked with both lightning and resurection. The room is pretty small here, I will need to test on a larger area to see if one wand or another does any difference. But anyway, being able to cast wands from the other side of the map is a pretty beefy exploit.

Also found the Harp of Discord, another "per day" item that I'm sure I'm going to use a lot.

And this, but this is pretty useless I think.

I did a few more tests with the "use wands through wall".

Monster Summoning: Didn't work, moved my character to the range limit before summoning

Frost: Kinda worked. My character didn't move, but the cone was still bursting from me.

Fear: Kinda worked. I had to move closer, but the range is still longer than Monster Summoning.

Fire: Kinda worked. Same, had to move closer, but range more than Summoning, but less that fear

This whole range thing is weird, it does not reflect what is written in the description. For reference, here are the actual ranges written: Frost (100ft), Fear (100ft), Fire (90ft), Cloudkill (60ft), Summoning (20ft). And in my tests, Cloudkill can be cast from the edge of the map (same for Frost). Then Fear, Fire, and finally Summoning.

The WoW has no range written, but seems to very long as well.

I also give up on the Wyvern's Tail. I remember it to be a VERY potent weapon in the original game as it was inducing a DoT poison damage almost on every hit. I remember getting killed by that in duels. Maybe it was re-adjusted in patches, or maybe it was another weapon. This one is only adding +5 Poison damage on a failed save, not as a dot. So... useless, I'll ditch it.

Actually, that's exactly what's written. I should know better.

While the Ninja-to is explicit about it being a damage per round.

Guarded Compound

Now I'm doing a detour through the Guarded Compound. I still haven't slept, but I recharged my "per day items" (PDI), and got a new wand trick to try, so I'll give it a try against those guys.

Exactly as I remember, many creatures are being invoked.

But (and I didn't remember that), because I'm invisible, they actually attack each other. I'll watch. I Nishruu saw me and attacked, but I quickly dispatched it in a small room.

Now it's only the Efreeti and Glabrezu that are left. I'm going to help the Efreeti.

I killed the Glabrezu but the Efreeti turned into Gazeous form to regenerate, twice.

I was weighing my options in terms of buff before going upstairs and saw that my item actions didn't have a number. Does that mean I can use them as many times as I want?

Ah no. And shit. It means the Nishruu ate the charges. Even the ones that were in the Inventory. Fuck. It made the WoL disappear. This will make things more challenging, for sure.

But not impossible, I'm still gonna try. With Carsomyr and a Potion of Magic protection, I'm at 100% MR. This should help a lot. With the WOW and some backstab, it should work ok.

Oh, that's a mistake, being all grouped like this. I'm going to drop something at their feet and use the WoW. It took some of them in the Web, I could fire arrows at them and hide in shadows when they came to my room to investigate.

Then Koshi (the one I was shooting) came into the room while at Near Death.

I quickly killed him and looted that beauty. Booming Thunder is very nice. As I have ~3 APR, and it stuns for 1 round, there is a far chance of stunlocking them. Shocking Blow is interesting in its wording. 5% is the same as a Critical Hit. Is that two different rolls, or the same? If same roll it means that with the fighter HLA that makes every hit a crit, it will also proc the +20 Lightning damage on each hit.

Now testing if I can cast Agannazar from a scroll through the wall with the wand. No, and I got myself stupidly into my own web. Luckily I managed to get away but I still brought two of them in my room before being able to hide.

Argh I died stupidly stepping on a trap...

Ok, let's try again. This time I managed to stay hidden so maybe I'll open with a backstab.

Yes. One mage down in one hit. Funnily enough, his contingency still cast stoneskin on his dead body.

They all grouped in the small room, gathering where they saw me the last time. Same tactic, using the WoW on a container from afar.

Holy crap, I got one hit by Koshi and I'm down. That's very unlucky. He will do the stunlock I was talking about. No, I'm lucky he got entrapped in the Web, so can't hit me. If I'm lucky enough I'll be able to flee before the end of the round. Nope, not lucky enough.

Third try, same opening move. Backstab and having them grouped here.

This time I equipped Carsomyr and went into the spells (as I'm immune) to hit them. But because I dispel on hit, I also removed the Web on the minotaur. I guess I'll have to kite him outside and backstab him.

Ah damn, there was an assassin hidden. Ok, I'll run into the spell room again.

Oh actually, I'm going to create another spell room right here.

I managed to hurt them badly enough. I finished one trapped in the web with arrows, backstabbed Koshi twice, and I'm now about to backstab another one with Celestial Fury that I just looted.

Great. This does pretty good damage.

Finished the Minotaur one-on-one. With Celestial Fury proccing, it's easy.

The other interesting loot is this; if I want to protect myself from elemental damage of any kind. Full MR is actually cheaper but hey, why not.

I'm now going to open all the chests with my 100% MR.

Arf, I'm not alone.

Killed her with Celestial Fury (CF) and looted a Wand of Paralysis and of Frost, some Potion of Invisibility.

Also found this that seems very very potent for someone proficient in darts.

I also decided to finally level up and rest before continuing on my journey.

I have 3 abilities to take, so I guess I was 3 levels behind.

I choose to took Power Attack (all attacks stun for 1 round) so I could take Critical Strike (all attacks are Critical for one round). If it's a critical, it means that it hits. So, that's perfect for an opening backstab. I also took Evasion (-4 AC, -2 Saves for 3 rounds).

I memorized some spells I never use, to try them out.

Bodhi's Request and Cowled Enforcers

Now, I'll be heading to the graveyard, to meet with Bodhi. I don't have a Wand of Lightning on me because a Nishruu ate mine. I'm ok continuing without one, because it's part of the challenge, but it's also an important part of my combos so... I guess I'll continue until I find another one. I'm sure I'll find another one soon.

So, she is right there. Can I steal from her? Feeblemind her? Feeblemind failed because of Magic Resistance.

So I listened to her offer and accepted. I think it's the first time in all my runs that I side with her. I have been thinking about the game difficulty and realized that considering my current level and the spells and items I have access to, the game is going to be relatively easy. So I decided to "rush" the main quest so I could unlock Throne of Bhaal quickly and have some real challenge there. If it's too hard, I will finish exploring BG2, but I don't want to spend too much time exploring all the areas here.

I also changed my mindset from "find the best build" to "discover as you go". I hit a sweet spot in power already (as the Firkraag dungeon proved) and I can bypass most dangers even without armor and no rest, so I don't need to have all the best gear. I'd rather explore and discover, testing items as I find them.

I also explored a tomb. The lightning damage is not tied to the critical hit apparently. But the Shadow Fiend took a lot more damage. I didn't know they were vulnerable to lightning, that's interesting.

Yeah, definitely not tied. I had it proc without a critical and not proc on a critical.

Found a nice scroll that could act as a trap. I think scrolls are always cast at level 10, so it would last 5 rounds.

I cast Stoneskin when arriving at the docks. I forgot that it would summon the Cowled Wizards. And one vampire friend is here. We'll see how it goes.

Hmm, I think I can handle that, but maybe I will need Carsomyr for protection.

Ah, the vampire fled. And the others are buffing. Well, I guess I'll have to kill the mages the usual way. For now I'll just wait and see what they cast.

Wonderful, I also got aggroed by the thieves at the same time. The docks are going to get bloody tonight.

I tried to hide in a house, but more thieves arrived.

Emotion: Hopelessness cast one one of them had another fall. So it's a kind-AoE effect. I'll ignore the one sleeping for now and try to kill the others.

The stun effect really proc very often. The dance is to stop hitting one when stunned and attack another. For fun I also had them confused through the Harp.

Something is weird here. All the thieves are hostile, drinking potions, but not attacking me. Ah my bad, they are attacking me, they were just too slow and I killed them before they had time to drink their potions.

I then tried to sneak up on the mages, but they saw me. I cast Spell Immunity: Divination, but they breached it and send a fear spell. So now I'm running at full speed in the area.

Haha, I have been running for so long that the sun is coming up.

I went too far down and met this the dockers I'm supposed to kill. Cast a Mirror Image for protection and apparently, it triggered more enforcers. I don't understand why my previous SI:D didn't trigger them.

Anyway, gonna try to backstab this one.

Ah, talked to me before I could hit him.

Those idiots are sending lightning bolts in the city.

This was bound to happen.

Ok, so I need more preparation. I moved into an empty house to buff, and we'll try again. Ah shit no, they silenced me... Ah it's over.

But they followed me here. Ok, game on.

Good to know, the stun effect can proc (and work) even when the target as Stoneskins on. Gives me more time to peel the layers.

DO YOU REALLY THINK NOW IS A GOOD TIME?

Hitting them wit Carsomyr to debuff the Stoneskin, then Celestial Fury works great. I shouldn't even bother to buff as they debuff me too quickly (and I don't have any anti-debuff memorized).

They are now attacking themselves because of a misplaced fireball.

Ah but I have an Abi-Dalzim on my heels. Time to hide in a house.

So, now will be a good time to test the range on my wand exploits. I'm at the topmost point of the map, the Wizards are Down to the Shipyard Docks. I'm going to try to use the WoW there through the Wand of Resurection.

Argh no, didn't have time, one of them followed me.

I sent a Sequencer with two Melf Acid Arrows in it into it, and it triggered another Cowled Wizard group.

I have no idea what they're doing, but they're killing each other. Fine by me.

Oh no, I killed a fisherman with a Skull Trap. Minus 7 reputation. I could reload, but it won't be fun. I'll give money to a Temple afterwards.

Got a +3 throwing axe. Make a dual wielding warrior specialized in axe possible. But not very useful in my case.

Also found these. Albeit not magical I think they could be useful against mages. Gonna try them right away.

I think it was the last one. Maybe I should try to cast something else to bring more of them?

But first, let's fix this reputation issue.

I tried the wand once again. It is not unlimited range, and there seem to have no need to go through another wand. It seems that it is possible to target a loot or a container even through the fog of war, and the character has to move to the range limit to cast. It usually is not an issue as normal targets are enemies, so they are visible in the fog of war.

Using the wand did summon the Cowled Wizards though.

Haha, but he appeared right in the middle of the lightning bolts and it almost killed him. And then I managed to stun him. But he's invicible, so he finally summoned the others and with Carsomyr + Celestial Fury killed them. So far, no other mages appeared, even when I cast some spells.

I continue visiting the area and found a vendor selling Throwing Daggers. I bought a stack, to see how they fare in combat.

Bought a Nymph cloak, hoping that it would be one with a lot of charges, but it seems that this only works when looting it, not when coming from a container.

I will have to do some tests with a Nishruu if I can invoke one and see how it impacts charged items.

Selling and stealing back Carsomyr to fences is also a very quick way to make money.

On my way to seeing Bodhi, I visited a few tombs, hoping to find parts of Kangaxx. Instead I met two Skeleton Warriors that hits with Azuredge just killed outright. Either I was very lucky, or this weapon is devastating against undeads.

I also found this on their bodies. This does recharge spell slots when hit with spells. I need to test that with the clone. Can it regain slots of higher levels than what he initially had? Is MMM considered a spell?

So this is the spells my Simulacrum has before testing Spell Trap.

I cast Feeblemind on my clone and here are is spells. Same, but Feeblemind didn't land. Magic Missile was absorbed.

But he still took damage from the Skull Trap.

I had my Simulacrum summon a Djinni before the end of the spell, to test that as well.

The djinni has a few spells, I'm going to try them on the Spell Trap. It correctly blocked the Lightning bolt damage, but the bolt still was reflected against walls.

Stinking cloud was not trapped. The spell fired, and the effect was still working. So I guess it only traps spells directed at the user (so it would trap an AoE, in regard to gaining more spell slots), but won't prevent the effect from triggering. That's why I was hit by the Skull Trap, and the cloud.

It does not appear that I can gain more spells than I initially had.

Which made me realize Stinking Cloud is a level 2 spell, but my highly trained clone still was affected. So, not to be underestimated.

In comparison, the wand of Cloudkill mentions two different effects. It does kill every 1-4 creature. 5-6 are allowed a Saving Throws (not sure if at -4 or not). And 6+ should still take damage every round, but my experience is that many creatures are marked as immune. I think it's because they are too high level, so I'm unsure if the description is accurate or not. If it really does deal poison damage every round to everyone, then it's a weapon I'm going to use more.

Actually, I'm going to try right now. And yes, my clone is taking 1d10 damage every round, yay.

Now I will need to try to see what happens if I cast spells at myself. Would casting a level 1 spell at myself regenerate a level 1 spell slot, thus allowing me to cast them infinitely?

So I CAN cast Magic Missiles at myself, but if someone else does it, they are absorbed.

I also tried casting Simulacrum from a Simulacrum and it kinda worked. The new one does not seem to have any gear except for quick slot items, but it does have the exact same spells as the first-generation Simulacrum.

As well as all my innate abilities. So that means I can put three Time Stop Traps if I want.

The Simulacrum also seem to have a buggy hit box. When I requested them to pickpocket me, they actually just went on the exact same spot as myself. Maybe that's something that can be exploited to get past some people? Anyway, 2nd generation clones do not seem to be able to attack. Even if it seems that they have items equipped in their melee weapon, clicking on it does not select it.

They also move slowly, indicating that they don't wear the boots of speed.

But if I cast Ghoul Touch, now they can attack. I guess the same will happen if I cast any summoned weapon. I had it use Critical Strike to hit me, but all I got was "Critical Strike Averted", because I was wearing a helmet.

Oh, I tried to have it use the quickslot items, and apparently it's a glitch, just like the weapons. It is displayed that it has some, but he can't use it. Seems like he can only attack (if a weapon is conjured), use innate abilities, cast spells and pickpocket.

I did some tests with the Nishruu as well. Whenever it hits, it drains one charge from a charged item either equipped or in the inventory. I tried to have my gear bar opened so I could cast the ability even once drained, but the bar actually updates in real time (as opposed to the weapon that removes spell slots). Items with "per day" charges seems to stay in the inventory (Cloak of the Sewers, Harp of Pandemonium), but items with limited charges will disappear. It does not affect potions or scrolls.

I also discovered that "per day" items don't recharge if they are on the floor while you sleep.

This is my inventory before being hit by a Nishruu.

After one hit. It actually drained from all items at once, so there is no possibility of putting one buffer item in the inventory to absorb the charge draining. Only items on the floor or in containers (including Bags of Holding) are safe.

But it only drains one charge per item on each hit, so if an item has several abilities (like the three polymorph of the Cloak of the Sewers) only one is drained each time.

Also, as soon as you start casting the ability, it can't be drained, even if you're hit while casting.

Nishruu can't be dispelled, but can be stun through Celestial Fury.

Regarding item recharging: they recharge if they are in the inventory when sleeping, even in a bag of holding. They don't recharge if they are on the floor or in a container (excluding bag of holding). They always recharge when they are sold to someone.

Back at Bodhi's Lair, found an interesting Mace, pretty similar to Azuredge, but can't be used at range, so I'd rather use Azuredge (but I think this mace can be upgraded later).

I visited the spider nest as well, avoiding the spiders, just for the loot.

Backstabbed the one that looked like a mage. It triggered the combat music but did not turn the other hostile. I looted this nice figurine on her.

Also found this, which I don't think I'll use.

Visiting further, I was attacked by some undead. I'm going to test the Mace of Disruption and Azuredge further on them.

I didn't kill any of them with one-shots, and the vampires drained a few levels from me.

Exploring another crypt the Crypt King feared me. Thankfully I'm too fast for him and we are just running in circle around the coffin. The rare times he manages to hit me, I then regenerate.

But won a Silence Sword +2 as a result. I might have to try the ability, see if I can cast it on NPCs, see if it prevents them from initiating dialog. If at least I can cast it without them turning hostile, that could be a great way to start a fight (maybe against the Cowled Wizards)

I took Jan Jansen with me just long enough so I can take his gear.

A +1 crossbow.

Immunity to Blindness and the ability to detect invisibility. I don't think I'll have any use of that.

I'm not wearing any gloves, I can wear that.

Oh, apparently I can't. Even with UAI.

Well, apparently I can't use any of his items. That's too bad, I thought that I could use stuff from NPCs with UAI.

Stole this from Tolgerias in the District Area. I remember back in the original game I could steal that from him when meeting him outside the building, and again once inside the building. Seems like he is no longer outside the building now.

While picking up the key on Gaelan Bayle, in order to kill the Shadow Thieves, I summoned some Cowled Wizards. I'm going to try Namarra on them.

Law enforcement at its finest.

Haha, the Amnian soldier is actually attacking the mages.

I finally did it with a +50% MR potion and Carsomyr. One mage kept having tattoos (contingencies) firing up with a Mirror Image whenever I was dispelling it.

The good news is that I found this scroll on the bodies. This opens a lot new combos.

I tried casting Wraithform (to summon more Wizards and take advantage of my potion), but it didn't summon them. And the spell prevented me from casting anything else. I'm immune to normal weapons, but that's too expensive a price for not being able to cast spells.

I attacked the Shadow Thieves with my WoW on a table.

Hmm, I got myself Entangled in my own web even with Arbane.

I tried killing people with throwing daggers. It does a lot of damage (~20) from afar, which is interesting, but it fires pretty slowly. Daggers take a long time to fly and hit their targets. Bows do a lot less damage (~10) but fire more quickly.

Wand of Wonder in an area, then firing missiles from a distance works very well.

I found a scroll of Carrion summons, so I summoned some. I didn't expect much, but they can paralyze, which could be useful when there are many opponents.

Found this, not useful. I might have to discard all the loot that seems not interesting.

Great loot on Mr Linvail. Vocalize will be very useful against all those mages trying to silence me. Magic Resistance is always good to have. Immunity to Level Drain was sorely needed, and decreasing spell casting in addition to what the Robe of Vecna is already giving me will be powerful.

My first Ring +2 since BG2 started, I can replace my +1 I had before.

Nice, but not interesting compared to other armor (Vecna) I can have.

Oh, this is new, and interesting. I'll have to keep it until I can get another WoL and see if I can invoke several djinnis.

A quick test shows that the Djinni has a few spells. Melf Acid Arrow is nice, as is Stinking Cloud (a level 2 spell I might be using more).

Back outside I cast another spell to summon Cowled Wizard. This time it summoned a named one. I set a Teleport field to confuse them and turned into a Jelly. Somehow they summoned creatures and started attacking them.

They are just firing AoE and getting teleported while I stand in my gelatinuous form, immune to their damage. Finally finished them all off, the Named one included, but could'nt find her body. I killed an innocent bystander in the process, so I'll have to give some money to a Temple.

I actually found a faster way to get money, thanks to Roger the Fence in the Sewers. Just selling the most expensive gear I have, and then stealing it back.

Roger is the only fence in the game I know, so I made sure to do the trick a few times, to not have to worry about money for a long time.

I tried to pickpocket Bodhi and managed to get a Shadow Thieves dagger. This is weird as she already gave that to me earlier, but I guess her sprite always have that equipment. I got greedy and tried to steal again, but this time she caught me and killed me. I'm gonna try again, and wanted to see how I could escape if she caught me.

On to Spellhold

Well, Brynnlaw is lawless. Most of the pirates are hostile to me as soon as I arrived.

I cast Clairvoyance to reveal the map, making moving around easier. Just beeline to the interesting areas.

Pickpocketed that from a Pirate standing in the middle of the street.

Bought a Wand of the Heavens at the temple. Only 5 charges, I'll have to sell it and buy it back, but not here as the priestess does not buy it back.

I tried to set traps where an NPC would appear to kill him before he could kill the mage I was talking to, but it didn't trigger.

I hacked my way through Galvena's underground.

I managed to backstab + stun Galvena without her even talking to me. The other two didn't react. But, it broke the script as they stayed silent and Claire couldn't give me the hint to get into Spellhold.

Next try I had time to send a poisoned dagger into the mage before the dialogue started. It should incapacitate him.

Next, met with Perth, the mad mage, and he killed himself with a fireball.

I could loot his magical spellbook.

But his Mislead clone stayed up. I had to kill him again. This time I got the XP. Weird.

I duplicated the tome by having my clone turn one of its page, then killing him. It would be easier with the WoL but I still haven't found one.

The whole Spellhold dungeon is clearly not my favorite part of the game. I might be rushing it a bit, in order to get to the Sahuagin city faster.

I managed to outrun the Coordinator in charge of the guided tour and went all the way to Imoen.

Ah shit, I just realized I don't have my Harp of Discord anymore. I remember putting it on the floor in a fight, to use it to target it with the WoW but I don't even remember when it was. I might even have been in the Shadow Thieves compound. Well, I guess the Harp is lost now...

Yay, found another Bag of Holding. I will now have one bag to hold every item I need to use regularly, like one-per-day items and various weapon combos.

I can confirm that the goodberries in a Bag of Holding do not disappear after 24h.

I summoned an Illithid, an Umber Hulk and a Beholder, but thanks to a Potion of Clarity and the Shield of Balduran, killed them quickly. Found this ring, I'll have to test it and see how it impacts the Boots of Speed and Stun.

I does cancel the boots of speed, and even if I remove the ring, I need to re-equip the boots to have them work.

There is a Lich, just lurking around, but I cast a Protection from Undead, so it should be easy. Hmm apparently she cast Time Stop right when I was casting my scroll and it somehow didn't land on me. So I ran, hid behind a closed door, and will cast again.

Here were all the twelve riddles.

Which got me another ring of regeneration. I might swap my Ring +2 for that.

Teleport Field + WoW is fun. All that is left to me is to shoot enemies when they appear in my LoS.

The Shield of Balduran also reflect Gauth rays, so this one got paralyzed by trying to attack me.

WoW in small areas works wonder™.

I also got a Limited Wish spell that I will need to try. But, to make this easier I might have to wait to find another WoL.

More riddles.

Got this in the riddle game. This, coupled with a clone is a perfect way to send infinite lightning bolts.

+2 AC that does stack with other rings. I find the Amulet of Power more useful in the long run (spellcasting decreased, Vocalize, immunity to level drain), but this is also good to have in case I want to have the best AC ever.

Found this on the altar. Simple +2 club with some more damage to undeads. I don't think I can see any usefulness to that.

Same kind of not-so-useful gear. +2 AC against Slashing is great, don't get me wrong, as many enemies deal slashing damage, and this will stack with other AC, but I won't have enough hands to carry all the good swords.

Way too situational. More damage toward Evil creatures, when you have Carsomyr that does even more damage to everyone, this is not so useful. Same for the MR, this is not as good as Carsomyr.

Ha, finally a scroll I can get some use of. I will have to try on a Simulacrum, what effect it has. I want to see what happens if the Simulacrum ends before the Maze, does he come back for an infinite amount of time? Can I Maze a Mislead, and be always under the effect of Invisibility?

Found another of those.

Now I'm close to Irenicus. I'm supposed to gather the inmates and attack him with everyone at once, but I want to try to kill solo. The issue is that whenever he sees me, he kills me in a scripted "Wish" event. So let's see how we can circumvent that.

My first thoughts are sending some AoE in the room, or going there with summons and a Wizard Eye.

Aaaah. I cast Wizard eye but before I could cast it a scripted Slayer transformation interrupted it. I'll have to sleep again.

Wizard eye can go inside without triggering the event.

I sent summons to attack him, which started the fight. We'll see if I can win that.

Ah, I thought that triggering him hostile will prevent him from speaking to me, but apparently no. Hmm ok, now I'll try with a clone and try some blindness/feeblemind on him.

My project him could go as far as there, weirdly enough there is no fog of war there. But I don't see him either.

A Wizard Eye cast by a Projected Image does reveal the fog of war. That's interesting.

I had the projected image turn a page of the book of infinite spells. This way, he has an item in his inventory, so if he dies, there is a loot on the ground I can target with my wands.

I tried Feeblemind and Blindess, but he always saved against it. I'm going to try to backstab him and turn into a jelly.

Project Image disappeared, now going with a Simulacrum. Irenicus takes damage from Skull Traps.

He killed my Simulacrum with Power Word: Kill.

But now there is loot I can target from the other side of the wall.

He is Near Death and webbed, I sent my spider killing him. I kinda think he can't die but, we'll see...

I discovered that the Lightning bolt from the Book of Infinite spells can go through walls as well.

I think he's invicible, there is no way I'll kill him like this. I guess I'll have to ask for backup, but maybe he'll still be injured.

So yeah, it worked, he was Near Death even after I summoned all the inmates.

And it's done. In just a few seconds I killed him (well, he escaped) but all the inmates died as well.

But I forgot about the assassins. I'm in trouble here, so I turned into a rat to take no damage.

Last loot of the area. I should try the Lightning spells with the Cloak, maybe it will heal me. I tried both directly on me and it didn't do anything. No damage, no heal, no rebound. I should try with a clone and see how it goes.

And a Horn of Silence. I should try if it prevents people from talking to me.

And I can now transform into a Slayer. STR and DEX upgrade is the same as my base stats. -9 AC is what I can have once equipped. MR 40% might actually reduce it, I'll have to try. 4 APR, need to see if it increases with gear. +100HP is nice, need to see if I can have +600 with the WoL. And Immunity to Stun! At least something that protects from Stun.

I also did some tests with Lightning Bolts. On a Projected Image, it didn't reflect anything and the Projected Image actually took damage and died I think. On a Simulacrum it does reflect the ray back at me in a loop. With the right angle, it does create a lightning ray of death that no-one will be able to cross. This is something I will definitely need to try in an encounter next.

Sahuagin City

Now leaving Brynnlaw. Attacked by Githiankis and Sahuagins. I lost the Silver Sword Saemon just give me.

And now, I'm heading underwater.

The only problem is that I was targeted by a Hold spell on the boat, and I still have it affecting me during all the talking. I just hope it will go away before the fight.

It went off just as the fight started. I cast Feeblemind, and the Ettin stopped attacking.

I stole a Magic Rope, and some quest items from the King, which allowed me to also open the Treasure chest and got this rod. Gonna try it in the next battles.

The area is clearly one of my least favorite areas to explore. I don't like the Sahuagin sprites, they seem too cartoony. I don't like the map and its corridors. The enemies are too low level to be a challenge, and the only way to get out of here is to use the rope. But there is some good loot, so I'll do it, but I guess I might just kill everyone to get it over with.

Found a +2 Cloak, which is actually interesting as I don't wear +X rings so far.

And this, I never really understood how to use them, but I will give it a try. Seems like a Protection from Normal Weapon once per day. Not that useful at that level.

I killed the King with a Spike Trap the moment he became hostile. I didn't even had to put the trap exactly near him, it triggered even from a distance.

And THIS. This is the best I think. Especially when running solo as I know most spells will be targeted against me. I'll need to see if it blocks things like Finger of Death.

Underdark

And I'm finally in the Underdark. On my last play-through, this is where I stopped because I was bored and I am again feeling this boredom of the game. Everything is too easy right now and I have too many magical items.

Some of them are extremely powerful just by themselves, others are interesting when combined together. I feel like I don't need to find new combos as what I already have in stock is usually enough for the encounters. I rarely need to improve my AC as enemies die quickly enough thanks to the stun effect.

But I know in the Underdark there is a shopkeeper where I'll be able to get some Improved Haste. With that, much will be easier. So I might wait until then, and keep exploring everything.

I might start rummaging through my old bags, finding items to get the best gear to cruise through encounters. Or I try to refine some tactics.

Actually I liked the double lightning thing, and I think I will need to refine it. But my clones don't last long enough for me to have it as a permanent spell. Also I don't have lightning wands.

I leveled up. I put one pip in Katana, because I thought I had one, but I didn't. Now I have my 9/2 APR. I also took one more level 6 slot and one more level 7 slot, as this seems to be the two best levels.

I now decided to be rummaging through my old Bag of Holding and see if there are any items I could use.

First on the list is the Staff of Striking. I want to see how good this is for backstabs.

Ah yes, this is pretty impressive. Only 25 charges on the staff, but nothing I can't recharge.

I attacked some drows by having them waste their True Sight while I was wandering around. Then I cast a WoW from afar, and killed the others with arrows of biting, to prevent them from casting.

I encountered some Myconids that confused me, but they kept coming at me, so my confused characters chopped them down. But there were too many of them and at some point I aggroed a wandering Kuo-Toa and he killed me. I need a way to protect from confusion, but I don't have any more potions of Clarity with me. I should have taken the bottle bag.

I also bought this spell. I want to study its effect on the Maze spell. Can I Maze a clone and then Free him in another area? Can I use that to "smuggle" quest items from one zone to another? Like the death ray machine from the Cult of the Eyeless.

Finally! This will be my go-to level 6 spell, doubling my attack speed.

I also bought this, but I don't think I'll need to use it as I will be able to get one of them from the Book of Infinite spells.

I could also pull another infinite money trick with this and the WoL. Just use this 6 times to create 6 Rods when turning a weapon back and selling it. Pretty slow process, but would work without needing a thief.

Found this in my bag, would have been useful in the previous fight. I'll keep it handy.

I tried that with my 25 DEX, but it didn't change the value at all.

I released a mad mage from a soul machine and he started casting Maze on me. Thankfully, the Maze animation is slow, so I had time to cast SI:Conjuration. Oh, but it apparently didn't work. I'll need to do more tests about that.

So I first tried to auto-Maze me and it worked. I then tried with SI:Conjuration, and it still worked. I don't know why. Oh ok, I found why. It's because I was casting it on myself, and in that case it seems to bypass all resistances. When a clone was casting it on me, I was correctly protected. However, I have to be protected BEFORE the animation starts, otherwise it still works.

Got this on the last guy invoked. Killing them was actually pretty easy as they take a few seconds to appear, but you can still target them and attack during the animation. So I could backstab them, and if lucky they died in one hit, otherwise I still had time to hit once or twice more, and sometimes they even got stun. So, most of them I killed without them even attacking me.

I found this cursed ring in the Svirfneblin village. Dragomir cloack only reduces INT and WIS by 2. I will need another item that reduces more. I could try with the Wakizashi that reduces it even more on hit.

Well actually, just wearing the ring puts my screen black and there is nothing I can do. I even try with a Contingency casting Remove Curse on myself when helpless but it didn't trigger. There is nothing I can do with the character.

I think I will need to get my hands on some cursed scrolls and do some testing. They should decrease some stats, so in combination with the Cloak of Dragomir, I should be able to have some negative values of stats without stopping on zero.

Also, I will need to test if I can use the WoL trick to really decrease the values or if I can pick another target than myself for them. I think I have a bunch of those scrolls on my other scroll case at the Copper Coronet.

Got some Bracers for helping saving a child around here. It does improve my AC by one, putting me at -3.

Killed a Balor with a Spike Trap and some hits from the Katana. Got this Mace in return.

But I died to Svirfneblin that were Stunning me. Then I reloaded and died to the Balor this time, Stunning me as well. He is casting Symbol, Stun which seem to be really powerful, and a spell I'll need to learn. Next time I got on the surface, I'll go grab Mazzy because she seem to have a sword that can protect from Stun.

This makes those darts also very powerful. I'm not proficient in it, but I might keep them, just to see if I can stun a whole group with 10 APR.

Some mildly interesting items found on Demon Knights. The Soul Reaver could be interesting if I ever need to keep a monster alive but not doing any damage. Don't know why I'd need that, though.

Found a bunch of those on Kuo-Toas. This is even better than the Darts as I could fire them very quickly. If I can find a way to duplicate them, it will make using a Crossbows very very useful.

Finally managed to kill the Kuo-Toa Prince. He was regenerating very quickly so I had to stun and Critical Strike with Improved Haste, but he finally fell. And I got those bracers. I don't think I'll wear them, better having an Improved Haste spell ready.

Ah and finally a Mordenkainen Sword. This will be helpful. Casting 6 of them and hasting them makes fighting horde easier.

Met a bunch a Drows on a bridge. Did not even tried to discuss, and killed them through the Wand of Wonder and some Skull Traps.

Found some other bolts of stunning. Every single monster around here seems to stun.

Also found this, which sets my APR to 4 (9 with IH), which is good enough for me, and would work well with all those Stun bolts I'm finding.

I could also pickup an infinite amount of Corrupted Tadpoles. Interesting if I can sell them maybe.

Equipped with the Cloak of Reflection and the Shield of Balduran, this was easy.

The Beholder feared himself while trying to fear me, and the Gauth kept casting Cause Serious Wound on me, which got reflected.

Killed some other Beholders in another cavern with the same combo (plus SI:Conjuration as they were casting Maze).

Got myself a small trinket.

I somehow even dominated one, as he was spamming domination at me and it got reflected.

Found this in a small alcove. Gotta try it on the next monsters.

Finally, found a Gemstone Amulet in this run. Killing the wandering Illithids will be so much easier.

I can't believe this is actually an easy fight.

Got myself captured by Mind Flayers, and now I have to fight in an arena to get out. I have absolutely no memory of this part of the game from my previous playthrough; this feels like something totally new to discover. I love it.

After the first fight, I go some allies in the Githyanki, which helped me open the arena doors. Now, I'm cruising the complex, killing Kuo-Toas and Illithids. With the Greenstone Amulet, it's a piece of cake.

Found this, which would be useful weren't I running solo.

I managed to charm an Illithid to open the doors, but my so-called allies then told me they will flee. I quickly attacked them, turning them hostile and killed them. Somehow it teleported me in my cell, with Illithids quickly teleporting behind me.

I have no idea why, nor if I'll be able to open the doors. I'm going to kill them, except for one that I will charm. Well, it didn't work, they just keep popping each time. I guess I broke something by attacking the Gith.

Instead I put a time stop trap next to the door, so the moment the dominated Illithid turns hostile, it triggered, leaving me enough time to kill it and move through the door, without having the Gith dialog initiate.

Allowed me to wander in the dungeon on my own. Thanks to the Greenstone Amulet, I could fight each group one by one. Their devour brain ability is still very powerful, so I had to resort to a lot of Improved Haste and Critical to kill them quickly.

I then found that. Domination with no save? Really? That seems too good to be true.

And 21 charges? This really seems too good to be true.

Once sold and bought back it goes all the way to 25. I'm going to have so much fun with this staff!

Some items to buy in Ust Natha. The +10% MR is only useful if I can get a full set to 100%, but I kinda think Carsomyr and drinking a potion would be enough, or turning into a Jelly.

As for killing golems on hit, why not if I get to a place where there are a lot of them.

A throwing dagger dealing fire damage. I'll have to try this, I'm proficient in daggers. But at that point in the game, any weapon does basically as much damage.

Oh, but that is better. Nice AC boost, I'll keep it.

Won a blade in the pits. The fights were so quick the mage didn't even get the chance to cast anything before I was on them and stunning them.

Stole this from Solaufein before he could teleport away.

And again after he teleported.

A nice halberd on a group waiting for me outside.

This does a lot of different damage, I'm going to keep it for when a target is only vulnerable to a specific kind of damage.

I also continued questing for Phaere and Solaufein in the city, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Accidently discovered that I can trigger my own Symbol: Stun spell and stun myself.

Phaere wants me to kill Solaufein and bring his piwafwi cloak as proof. Even prior to killing him I have two of them that I managed to pickpocket off him. Maybe I won't have to kill him and can finish this quest?

That worked. And didn't even had to move from here nor talk to Solaufein. I'll check him out later and see what he has to say.

Stole this off of Ardulace. Not that useful considering I have a cloak with a permanent similar effect, but I should still try this thing.

Had to kill a bunch of slimy monsters for a side quest.

Wand of Wonders in the center, then Bolt of Stunning from afar.

Killed Deirex the Lich following Jarlaxle clever plan. I only had two Protection from Undead scrolls and didn't want to waste them, so I had my simulacrum cast one on myself.

Meh.

Meher.

Mehest.

Weird loot there.

So, I infiltrate the Jae'llat house, but everyone is hostile. The good news is that none can detect invisibility, nor is casting True Sight. It means I should be able to kill them with stuff that does not break my invisibility. Maybe confusing them, or turning them against each other?

Well, using the WoW did break the Invisibility. Wasn't I able to use wands from invisibility before? Or maybe it was only items/spells that didn't require a target, like Sunfire. Anyway, the horde of guards just kept coming at me, but they were easy to defeat with Improved Haste and my Fire Shield and my regeneration. No loot, though.

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