Just sat down and finished it on the 23rd of October, feck it. But there was also level 11 in the Lower City before that.
^ So Yenna is the Orin Victim this time around. It should have been Jaheira, who was in my camp, but existed in a weird quantum state wherein I hadn't spoken to her since Ketheric's throne room in Act 2 and sometimes it would show her name as a potential item recipient, sometimes not. Because I hadn't spoken to her and Halsin (the usual Orin Victim) had been sucked into the Shadowlands forever (sorry), it was this poor young girl. Don't worry, I'll save you, eventually! Maybe! I think if I've fought Orin maybe... 12 times say, Lae'zel was the Orin Victim once (blasted her by accident) and maybe I had Yenna one time before idk, but the other 10~ times it was Halsin.
^ When I used SH to Hold all these people in one go and was so completely successful we were able to hop over and murder them all in one round, I felt confident enough we would beat this game one way or another.
^ Absolutely mandatory, causing the annoying wizard demonstators outside Lorroakan's to accidentally kill a bunch of people. I threw down a bottle of Grease and created a daisy chain of other explosives near the demonstration and the wizards did the rest. The way they sprint off immediately makes me laugh every time.
^ Stopped to buy a couple of scrolls and offload loot but once again I was here to kill the mad wizard above.
^ The squad in the vault. Very smoothly looted everything I possibly could, Gale read his book and marked all the expensive books worth 2000 gold as Wares and moved on out.
^ Book store/magic shop fight. Another oops moment. Instead of booting me out of the restricted area on returning from the vault, they were simply hostile. Must be because I had minions in there? Ah well. Most of the party were here killing staff while SH had gone through the portal alone somehow to Lorroakan so once again was a weird two halves battle.
^ Lorroakan. SH and her couple of minions went up first and got separated from the rest of the party. So not for the first time, she waited patiently there in turn based combat round 1 while the rest of the party slaughtered the book store below. The portal to Lorroakan wasn't there! But it reappeared shortly after and everyone joined the battle. Someone, probably the Djinn, knocked Lorroakan 100 feet below as usual to knock out most of his health. Made sure to grab the excellent staff below for Gale but routinely forgot to use it. Plus Gale fittingly use Divine Intervention in the wizard tower after the fight to restore a lot of long rest features plus health etc.
^ House of Shar or whatever. It all went to shit quick when I thought it was a great idea to plop a corpse out of my bag into the middle of the reception, the Sharrans aggro'd and we fought our way down to Viconia. Lol. The entire army of nihilists came running at us BUT we had set up a Corridor of Death as above. First time using Blade Barrier in this game ever for me, I think. They literally had no answer to it they all died in agony and I don't think they got any shots in. Eat shit, Shar.
^ My Parents are Moon Motes. Also, the mirror of loss would not work for anyone so I got out just as quick as I came in.
^ OOPS. We dominated Cazador's crew as planned from a distance and had no issues but failed to stop Astarion from going nutty and full vampire. Ah well. Chaos mode.
^ Cool pic from near where the thing on the wall is that leads to a staff and the awesome Helldusk Helmet. Didn't even try to open that door as my party has no Intelligence lmao. Plus yes time before HoH; my crew taking a bath and on the way to free Hope.
^ 4 insect plagues on top of each other. One way to wipe out these asses by the dinner table.
^ Raphael all alone goes down. Yurgir would not side with me so I banished him. Killed Korilla again (will save her one day). I didn't use a Globe to protect myself as usual here, so it was a straight fight between me and my mobs and the cambion crew with Raphael. Most of my minions were slain by them but we wore them down.
^ Tricking Sarevok. Did not use Friends this time as I did not feel like fighting all these particular Bhaalists and that woudl risk
^ Before I tried to knock one of those Sanctuary mooks off the edge. I was worried as they simply would not fly off as usual; the Djinn helped knock one or two off and I eventually managed to do it but the Bhaal's Edict popped off 3 times and maanaged to kill Gale and Astarion - SH managed to save herself by killing something.
^ Sorry Bhaal! Everyone got a few licks in and we got lucky that Orin's multiattacks didn't cause much issues this time. Obligatory 'drop water bottle, skeleton archer breaks it' near Orin there. Gale dropped a couple of lightning nukes to take off 100+ HP as usual. By the end everyone was glugging Short Rest Teas as I like to call them, plus later some of the Long Rest Teapots too. (Angelic Relief/Reprieve whatever they are called). AND Yes, Yenna survived - I didn't actually end up using any area of effect spells or anything for the Orin fight so there was no accidental collateral damage, unlike that one time with Lae'zel. Nor did I forget her there after the fight like that one time with Halsin.
^ Get wrecked. He didn't really feature in this one - I resolved not to attack Gortash early on into this playthrough as a change of pace. Plus just general fatigue fighting that battle (especially after the Karlach Khaos) and this run needed to end quickly. I usually fight him in the belltower but decided I would do the auld alliance instead.
^ Pre pre-final battle. I hadn't fought the 'enemy army' since my first playthrough in December 2025 I think. Last dozen times I just stealth passed them with one person and get them to teleport everyone up the brain stem. This time I decided I would
^ That Insect Plague was not particularly effective. But was fun throwing people through it.
^ Some mid fight carnage. The red dragons bombed that giant that was tossing barrels down. The enemy army REALLY did not like Astarion's vampire goon squad, they tanked most of the hits it was mad.
^ Gale volunteered to go around and teleport us all up. Cheers! He didn't offer to blow himself up, though. I was a little nervous but figured I could just use the cantrip if things went to shit.
^ Usual two stage bullshit. Mind Sanctuary and Globe of Invulnerabilty to help me take out the Dream Team led by the Emperor plus wear down the Dragon. Then second stage is going around the sides and killing the Mind Flayer artillery. Helps that I had all my minions to take some of the hits.
^ This dealt like 120 damage. Too good.
^ YES. Well done Bhaalist Armour Dual Wielding Piercing Necro Damage Astarion.
^ EXCELLENT idea, Vampire Lord Astarion.
^ He DID say kill him after all this was done, he didn't specify exactly when... or maybe he did idk. Chaos!
^ Tee hee! Wasn't arsed sitting through the victory party so best to just end this.
^ I had barely indulged that much, I didn't even have the Astral Tadpole consumed but alas I could not pass the roll even with my Con set to 23 with the Amulet. I had been using the other amulet of health to get some crazy efficient healing done (simply pass it around the party) but had so many potions in the end I switched over.
^ Ah well, I tried. Who better than an illithid to rule over the Neo Illithid Empire?
^ Lovely shot of the Gallows near the Basilisk Gate. I was obsessively hitting F5 to save the game after beating it once again so I would not feel the need to redo it (sometimes it saves right at the foot of the brain stem and I like to replay the final battle).
Assessment of the team
Shadowheart Level 12 Light Cleric of Selune
I used the light domain spells way less than I thought I would. They were a bit of a crutch in previous runs where I had a Light Cleric on the team but here I had so many magical options and minions it stood out less.
She equipped the Giant Gloves at the end and ditched the Hellrider ones after having them all game (probably didn't that get much use out of them) so was able to equip the Light Spear for more options and retire the mouldy old Stick of Hill Giants which had served her so well as party lead looter. Another fine performance by an MC, Main Character - good at most stuff but not outstanding. Charisma 10 and Friends was funny as ever, it went horribly wrong a few times but created one of my most memorable runs ever probably.
Astarion Level 12 Death Cleric of Illmater
It was really satisfying anytime he'd stab someone and acid, piercing and necrotic damage numbers would shoot out. He was also a Vampire Lord which helped a bit.
I didn't use that many necrotic damage spells in the end so didn't get a ton of use out of his ability to bypass necrotic resistance from Death Cleric in enemies but the stabbing damage was enough. Plus he was wearing Bhaalist Armour (fitting as he landed the killing blow on the Shitey Little Elephant) so enemies had Piercing Vulnerabilty near him too.
Lae'zel Level 12 War Cleric of Tiamat
She didn't cast that many spells, she would be the designated Level 5/6 Aid caster and occasionally summon minions but her main function was Great Weapon Master womping of enemies. Sometimes her bonus action was used by GWM or by War Cleric charges but either way, she was the only one other than dual-wielding Astarion who could get up close properly. Hill/Cloud Giant Elixir helped a lot as well of course.
But as pure war cleric isn't the toughest warrior anyway she served the role well but previous incarnations of Lae'zel as a Fighter and so on were way more useful to me. I can see the appeal of taking a dip into War Cleric in future though, those charges for extra attacks are tasty.
Gale Level 12 Tempest Cleric of Mystra
Probably the MVP in a boring (read: reliable, cheesy, not terribly exciting) sort of a way - Channel Divinity for max lightning damage plus stuff like Chain Lightning Scrolls and Domain Spell Call Lightning was just godlike. I didn't long rest in Act 2 or 3 but by the end I had used 3 out of 4 Divine Interventions and maybe 5+ pots of Angelic Reprive to keep the Short Rests coming and Channel Divinity maxed out. Plus everyone had a few pots of water on them and Create Water as well so lots of big enemies would get Wet (Lightning and Cold Vulnerability) then zapped.
Conclusion
So that about does her, wraps it all up. I had been tapping away at that since mid-September so it was nice to put it away. Also, just wanted to finish it so I could move onto other games. I want to do a Dark Urge insanely evil, possibly all-sorcerer run (maybe, maybe not - could be all mages) but will leave that for some other time. Adieu.
