September #9 Shadowheart Origin #6 Honour Mode part 3 Act1:2 almost done

Finishing off Act 1.

The party

Shadowheart Trickery Cleric 7

Nothing too exciting, my MC is usually fairly balanced and not too specialised in any direction. She has the ring and gloves that make her bless and blade ward everyone when she heals them.

Lae'zel War Cleric 7

It's way too easy to burn through her divinity and war priest charges but she's a solid warrior.

Gale Tempest Cleric 7

My main nuker when I need him. Throw a water bottle, cast call storm, use divinity charge to deal 60 damage. Managed to 'one-shot' Ethel so she would beg for mercy (and give me everything).

Astarion Death Cleric 7

Occasionally using his touch of death or whatever to do some bonus necro damage; recently discovered that a level 4 animate dead spell summons not 1 but 3 skelly archers/zombies so that's great. Shame I'm so close to the Shadowlands were it'll be less useful if at all.

Timeline

September 21st - Played Bg3 a little bit! Long rested and started the Grymforge. I was struggling a bit but 4 skeleton archers are so good.

September 23rd - Cleared as much of Act 1 as I could handle; finished off Grymforge; I managed to one-short Ethel with Gale’s Call Lightning, Water and Max damage ability. Phase spider was easy too, could not reach Flind, Spectator was annoying but I had 4 drow on my side; partially cleared the monastery.

September 24th - killed the Gremishkas and went into the creche: usual process but took my time, it’s much harder as I can’t deal much damage (yet) but discovered I can summon 3 skeleton archers with 1 level 4 spell slot, very handy. They can also drink elixirs (discovered in a prior run) and have stuff like mage armor cast on them so I have lots of options. I had levelled up to 7 prior to defeating the sub-overboss and her wolves easily, got the Blood and the final fight was my beloved gith trader. All that’s left is the overboss and undead patrol outside, will have to do that in October.

Assessment

Every fight I'm used to being somewhat quicker in previous runs takes a bit longer. Having a small horde of animated undead helped get me back into the game. Need to maybe optimise my characters a little more; maybe re-spec some of these feats and whatnot before the Shadowlands. I also have the Dexterity Gloves and so on so can dump dexterity on one of these characters (all of them have 16) and redistribute as usual. I went with Resilient Constition on 3 characters (Con15>16) but was a bit of a waste as I'm not casting that many concentration spells.

Got to level 7 quicker than usual probably because I killed almost everything I could.

September #8 Shadowheart Origin #6 Honour Mode part 2 Act1:1

Mainly just clearing up the middle of Act 1.

The party

Shadowheart Trickery Cleric 5

Nothing too exceptional so far, I don't think I'll get much more use out of disguise self or anything for a while.

Lae'zel War Cleric 5

I'm out of charges at the moment so Lae'zel has mainly just been swinging swords and pushing with the help of an elixir.

She has a lovely ability to add +10 to a missed attack.

Gale Tempest Cleric 5

He now has some fantastic options, making him more of a killer. One amazing moment was having someone throw a water bottle at one of the giant owlbears, then having Gale use Call Storm and his maximise damage abiltiy to do 60 lightning damage. That could pay off really, really nicely later.

Astarion Death Cleric 5

I can now Animate Dead (with everybody too) so he had a couple of skelly boy assistants. I foresee having a lot of summoned help later in the game!

Other than that he has a nice necro damage boost I have used.

Timeline

September 19th - tried to attack the Goblin Camp again and got wiped out (almost). Gale's necrotic aura killed a bunch of them after I fled with SH.

I killed all the Zhents and went into the back of their cavern to get to the Underdark. I think I just fought various things down there, Hook Horrors etc to get to help get to level 5.

I went back to the Goblin Camp and destroyed them.

I systematically wiped out the interior, who were neutral/friendly while the outside had been hostile due to Crusher. Astarion fled and revived Gale mid-combat and came back. Limited resources on my part call for unusual tactics! Dror got blown up and Minthara, who had left for the Grove, came back. Damn. Killed her too. Everyone level 5.

Cleared the Arcane Tower and then back to the surface to kill Flind, who was trapped inside the cave rock. So killer her warband but not her. Oh well! Then I took out the Owlbears I think.

Not much left to do in Act 1; Ethel, Phase Spider, Gith Patrol and off the Act1 part 2 (forge & creche). Will treat myself to a long rest before doing those, maybe long rest before Ethel/Phase/Forge then go to the mountain pass as usual and get a long rest there. I usually try to limit it to 2 long rests anyway, have not taken one yet.

I got a few level 2 and level 3 spell slots from levelling up so that helped extend the options I had.

Assessment

Flying it and finding all sorts of new and weird stuff.

September #7 Shadowheart Origin #6 Honour Mode part 1 Act1:1

 I had limited time before leaving the country for a couple of weeks so I thought maybe I'd try to clear Bg3 again with my last remaining Origin character: Shadowheart (SH).

The party

Note: pretty much all 4 members have the same stats, 10/16/15/8/16/8 except SH who had 10/16/14/8/16/10. I gave the other 3 members Resilient:Constitution as their level 4 feat while SH took Wisdom to 18.

Shadowheart Trickery Cleric 3

I decided to keep her Trickery (more like I forgot to change it) but also had some vague plan that I would keep her on Trickery domain until act 2 and if she decides to dye her hair I'd go Light Domain then.

Lae'zel War Cleric 3

I was originally going to kill her like I did SH in the Lae'zel run BUT as I was in control of SH, SH didn't do her usual "ew a Gith" dialogues by default so was much more reasonable on both sides.

War cleric charges are AMAZING I burned through them so quickly though. You get an extra attack with your bonus action which is like gold dust before level 5. And I'm all-clerics so we don't have access to Extra Attack anyway (I think).

Lae mainly rocked the Everburn blade for a bit but would switch her to Dexterity based stuff later and a shield.

Gale Tempest Cleric 3

This class didn't pop off yet (later it would)

Astarion Death Cleric 3

Starts with Sleight of Hand so he's my lock picker when I don't just tear down doors/break chests. Nothing too exciting (yet)

Timeline

September 18th: I didn't actually end up doing all that much but it was eventful. Managed to command:drop the Everburn blade. I escaped the Nautaloid with a very friendly/helpful Lae'zel and Us and had to fight the Intellect Devourers alone. Blow up the tank next to them and just kite away and shoot back at them. Took only one psychic blast to the face but killed them.

Almost ran into Astarion but instead went around and got Lae'zel first - messed up the scene so had to figth the two Tieflings to the death (they are way stronger) but then recruited Lae. She is so single-minded about the zaithisk purification. I was watching for any tension with SH specifically but all seems well.

Got Astarion and Gale and then cleared the bandits/Withers' temple easily enough. I have a thing on thse 'all-class' runs where I'm not allowed click any other class so Astarion was 'Rogue and Cleric' and Gale was 'Wizard and Cleric' etc for a bit but then later got to re-spec everyone at camp to pure Clerics. I believe it was after the battle outside the gate of the grove, which I finished in record time by simply blowing up two nautaloid tanks next to the goblin warband. Combat ended after round 2.

Usual Grove checklist EXCEPT I messed up after a bit; I had Lae'zel use her Mage Hand to pick up the Druid's statue which caused the druids to become hostile. You have to rob it later, not mid-ritual. Cue huge druid versus tiefling war. I managed to escape relatively unharmed out the back door with Sazza but it was a massacre. I left Lae'zel behind (she was stranded on the Harpy beach) and noticed all the druids bunched up in the druid prison cell. Had an idea: what if I blew them all up?

So I went around the map with 3 characters and grabbed every firewine, oil and smokepowder barrel I could find. I talked my way through the Blighted Village (SH had Trickery: Disguise Self so became a Drow) and into the Goblin Camp. Basically searched most of the map short of the main blockages (Flind, Ethel, etc). I accidentally aggro'd the outer Goblin camp (sigh) by trying to finish off Crusher in a duel. Crazy run. So fled out of there for the moment.

But then finally at the end of this particular session I blew up all the druids.

Assessment

It's fine - slightly more interesting than my failed all-Wizards run even with almost no spell slots left.

September #6 Ogame bits

 I was mainly trying to unlock level 18 in Lifeform techs again; got closer to level 15 on most of my planets.

		Quarters	Farm	School	HiSchool	Silo	Skyscraper	Lab
1	Iasryugard	65	60	13	8	42	29	27
2	Phair	67	60	13	8	42	29	27
3	Ophi*	65	60	14	10	42	30	27
4	Aether	65	60	13	8	42	30	27
5	Emerald	65	60	13	9	42	30	27
6	Six*	66	60	14	9	42	29	27
7	Kala	67	60	14	10	42	29	27
8	Xenog	68	67	13	9
9	Necut	70	62	15	10	42	32	27
13	Dragonine	67	68	15	10
10	Fimbul	65	60	13	8	42	30	27
11	Myrna	66	60	13	9	42	29	27
12	Elfenglasse	66	60	13	8	42	29	27
	human 18:	74	68	15	10	42	29	27
	(rocktal) 18	75	78	16	11

I had to park it in late September but managed to get planet 13 mines in line with everywhere else and completed the Silo/Lab/Skyscraper minimum requirements on all planets. Many of them were around 38/27/25 or something like that but got them to 42/29/27 on all human planets easily enough, even started to expand the schools/hischools. Will probably have to switch some of these over to Rocktal eventually, maybe just the 4 deuterium planets but idk.

September #5 Halo 1 co-op online

 I got to play a couple of sessions of Halo 1:CE this month, myself and my friend Dave got as far as just after Assault on the Control Room. Firts session we just did Pillar of Autumn but session 2 we got through AOTCR.

Hopefully we'll clear Halo 1 and 2 over the coming months, he's never played those.

September #4 Gears of War Reloaded Co-op Campaign part 2

 We cleared Gears 1 easily enough!

September #3 Gears of War Reloaded Co-op Campaign part 1

Dom-curious!

Dom stealing some artwork... I was Dom for once!

It was good fun - we managed to clear as far as Act 4 on Normal mode. No sense going for unnecessary frustration with Hardcore mode or whatever.

I don't actually have the Hardcore or Insane achievements on the Steam version (plus all the multiplayer ones ugh) so will have to go back for that one day. Plenty of time, I hope.

September #2 GTA: San Andreas Definitive Edition & the quest for 100%

 I had finished the game on 1st September 2026 but had a ton of stuff to do. Work was postponed for a couple of weeks at the start of the month so not much else to do.

1st September - Horseshoes, Snapshots & Vigilante all an hour or so each (with a map guide and a tank).

2nd September - Oysters & extra missions (Cesar car missions, Woozy heist missions)

4th September - conquered all territories, cleared Ambulance & Taxi; maxed weapons and skills;

5th September - cleared all the races for a million dollars; started the pimping missions but failed before the end

11th September - cleared pimping missions despite flipping the car again and whatnot; Cleared Mt Chiliad Challenge, Boat & Bike Schools; then all the asset missions (throwing parcels through hoops) then all the stadium missions. I finished the valet missions and then the Quarry ones. Nothing too difficult anywhere

12th September - cleared trains, trucking and then finally the 30 cars for import/export to get 100% complete

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Still need to get the perfect dance, basketball 30 points and redo Madd Dogg rhymes mission but am otherwise done; I see I have GTA Vice City and 3 Definitive Editions too, will have to go back and do them one day. Will move onto Wrath of the Righteous I think and then maybe GTA 4 sooner or later (need to complete the DLC)

September #1 GTA: San Andreas The Definitive Edition

 Finished this once again; nothing was too difficult especially when I did the Firetruck missions early on for fire immunity.

The Definitive Edition isn't much to look at - some QoL improvements but other than that it's just an upscaled version of the original. Some of the character models are UGLY

August post #8 Kingmaker Challenging Run

 This was my 4th time playing it to completion; I usually play every September-ish but this time I brought it forward a bit. I usually play on Custom/super easy mode but this time I went for the Challenging difficulty achievement.

Achievements left (7); now 70/74

Challenging difficulty (done Aug 2026)

Unfair (2027)

Kill bear at level 2 on Hard (done Aug 2026)

100 random encounters (done Aug 2026)

10 artisan masterpieces (attempted, RNG let me down)

Tenebrous dungeon RNG item quest (7/16+5; will continue to work on)

Secret ending (briefly attempted)

The party

I love having a Charisma MC so Zacharaya would do the job. I also enjoy 'supervising' my autopilot party with spells and buffs so its perfect. Some sections where being squishy is a terrible idea and there were quite a few reloads because I was swiftly killed but nothing too obnoxious. Also I get to have a Leopard pet who was cool. I pretended it was a ocelot.

Linzi is ever-present; I usually follow the Neoseeker guide but I just have to stop doing that. It makes her a rogue/eldritch knight and I hardly ever use it correctly. I mainly just use her to play music. Also she had a level in sorcerer and thus an Elk that would die a lot.

Valerie is my rock, but idk once again the character build is weird and sometimes she would get clowned. She might be better with less gimmicky cheese builds and just be a straight shooter fighter with some stalwart defender? Maybe in my Unfair run next year.

Amiri is my more fragile rock. The Neoseeker build makes her more useable but 

The playthrough goals

The plan was to clear it on Challenging, which I managed to do.

I tried to get all the masterpieces from the artisans but RNG meant I only got maybe 5/10 of them? Onslaught is amazing.

I also finally grinded out the '100 encounters' achievement, Survivor. I checked the JSON code and I had like 45/100 at one point so just kept track of it on paper. I went back to the 1000 Voices area in Act 6 and 7 and farmed it up to 100. Nice!

I briefly tried to keep up with Curse research but I think I only did 1 so no Secret Ending this time. Some other time maybe.

After I finished the game I re-specced Zacharaya's brother (?) Zachariah my original MC from 2023 as an Elven Alchemist and bombed the Owlbear to death on level 2. Easy! Had tried it before but kudos to the Gamefaqs guide for actually helping me get it this time.

Also I actually finished the game this time; last year I stopped before the House at the Edge of Time just because of the tedium; this year I beat it in like 2 hours easily, I have gotten way better at the game and understanding it but the Gamefaqs guide makes it bearable, especially if you ignore the 'get the books' sidequest.

Playthrough timeline (diary entries in "")

12th August 2026 - "Cleared more of Kingmaker, up before the Great Elm or whatever it’s called. Challenging is proving… fine! I learned a little bit from the last few playthroughs so with a few guides I am doing fine."

13th August 2026 - "played a tiny bit of DayZ then Kingmaker." before work presumably

14th August 2026 - "Cleared Act 1 of Kingmaker anyway on Challenging. It’s not too much tougher but a lot of saving and reloading."

15th August 2026 - "mainly just played Kingmaker all night, cleared Act 2 and tried to sort various Artisan quests and whatnot. It may not be possible to resolve all 10 of them (Bokken kicked my ass?) but will get the Challenging Achievement plus maybe the elusive 100 encounters one and hopefully the Secret Ending."

17th August 2026 - "played a tiny bit of DayZ followed by a few hours of Kingmaker."

23rd August 2026 - "played Kingmaker until 10 [Monday 24th morning after work]. Am in Act 4 near Varnhold. "

24th August 2026 - "I played Kingmaker (a great session got a ton done)"; this was the night work got cancelled due to cyber attack so had a 10-12 hour follow up session "All I did was play Kingmaker, cleared Act 4 and deep into Act 5, I have to clear Armag’s Tomb next. Will I ever get a chance to upgrade my fucking advisors? "

25th August 2026 - Work still off; "Played Kingmaker all night, got as far as Act 7, it’s almost over. Have 88 random encounters, some of the masterwork artisan pieces and am almost finished re: Challenging. So that’s 3 achievements there but I doubt I’ll get the Artisan one, even with Kingdom maxed out. It’s too random." Added comment: Pitax was way easier. Who knew buffing was so important (half-joking)

26th August 2026 - no work so: "played Kingmaker all night once again, managed to grind out the 100 random battles achievement in the far western 1000 voices. I knew I had around 88 so it wasn't too bad. Artisans would not deliver masterpieces so that’s out of the question. I actually did House at Edge of Time (skipped it last year) - much shorter than I remember, totally fine and just spammed Mass Heal with not-Linzi, my replacement bard. Cleared it fine and am now in the capital city camp; will rid me of the curse and finish the game tomorrow."

27th August 2026 -  "I finished Kingmaker, the challenging run complete, was not too hard overall. Quickly used a hitherto unused Gamefaqs guide to clear the ‘kill bear on hard at level 2’ BS achievement [used Elf alchemist, Expeditious Retreat etc] Nice consolation prize for missing out on artisans and secret ending. I will just have to get them next year!" Confusing myself with these dates, but actually finished on 28th technically (night shift goofiness)

Assessment

That pesky artisan quest. MIGHT pop back in and see if I can figure out Tenebrous Depths, I think I have some of the items needed for the 1 achievement left: checked and I have 7/16. I've done 4 prior runs so maybe will keep tapping away at it, like I said in September 2024 (didn't bother playing TD in 2025).

I was way better this time; partly due to actually following the advice of using Resist: spells and buffing. Maybe playing on Custom/very very easy for so long was not so good, but feel like I've learned a bit inside and outside of Kingmaker. Looking forward to playing Unfair next year.

What's next

Need to play some new games. 

August post #7 assorted DayZ baloney

 I still had a holdover Survivor from May so ran around as them for a bit. I still had a bunch of gear so was a bit gear fear'd. I stayed in Solnech and managed to kill 3 people before killing that character in full view of a random freshie near the town train station. I had been logging in and out for a few minutes at a time and was bored senseless, I had everything.

Spawned back in near Elektro I think and ran all the way back to Solnech. I was decently geared by the time I got back to my body - gone, of course. That's fine. I ended up hanging around Solnech again not doing much, then one day I killed a guy in a house with a pistol. My pistol jammed so was trying to fix that when a girl appeared out of nowhere with only her underclothes on - she managed to punch me out. I woke up to see her wearing all my clothes and she finished me off. Why does no one double tap?

Cue the old guy. I seem to alternate between old guy with white hair and little redhead girl. Anyway this was the run I managed to make it Tisy, but I got most of my gear from the NWAF. Tisy was disappointing actually. Then I ran all the way back to Solnech and hung around the industrial yard. I love playing King of the Hill here and players love to play too. They were getting increasingly smart though, shooting me through the walls and floor. I even got knocked out briefly by a guy with a P1 and nothing else on him; again he didn't double tap so I was able to hop up and punch him out! Insane! That made it all worth it. I had racked up 12 kills before a Russian dude managed to shoot me with a very powerful gun through the walls/floor. Not even mad; I'm almost certain he had people with him nearby as I had seen a humvee drive up nearby.

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Is this the end of DayZ Szn for a few months? I was almost about to set out and wander the countryside with my trusty CR and tons of ammo but then that happened. I'll probably hop back on the server again tomorrow and see where I spawn in and what I can do. I am also halfway through a Kingmaker Challenging playthrough so that is September Kingmaker Szn covered. We shall see

August post #6 Karlach Origin #5 part 5: Act 3 finished = Honour Mode finished 8 times

 It's over. Honour Mode cleared 8 times in 2026. Time to give it a rest; I was playing it less in August anyway but had to finish off this run. Managed to clear it in one final 8 hour session.

The party

Karlach Barbarian Giant 12

Shared-MVP with Lae'zel, probably edged her out overall. Had 25 AC in the end thanks to high Dex, Graceful Cloth, no armour and 23 Con from the Amulet and other sources. Just throw and kick stuff!

Lae'zel Barbarian Berserker 12

Solid, just wallop stuff with Sword. Writing this I realise I forgot to grab Silver Sword off Voss after HoH, oh well. Soulbreaker is just fine. Started to run out of strength elixirs by the end.

Shadowheart Barbarian Wild Magic 12

Nothing spectacular, I moved around her gear dropping armour in favour of Barbarian Clothes and she performed a bit better. Solid but unremarkable, the Wild Magic features are benign but fairly weak.

Jaheira Barbarian Wildheart 12

I didn't bother doing her personal quest and acquiring Minsc. I was very boring and just had Bear aspect so when I did rage, lots of resistance. Dual-wielding menace.

Timeline

21st August 2026 - cleared the House of Hope; looted everything I could and managed to free Hope relatively painlessly, then kill Raphael et al. Quickly took care of Ethel next but was probably a waste of time; then Orin I believe who managed to almost wipe me out. Jaheira ran away and revived everyone. I blame rustiness on my part. 1 Long rest in act 3 after all this.

Went back and killed Orin then charged the Gortash coronation yelling objection. Giant clusterfuck! Painful waiting for a small army of enemies to resolve their turns. Had to retreat and come back. Gortash didn't heal from the barrel pile I left at his feet so was not too hard, I just kept going up and down the stairs. Not very forward barbarian of me but would have been wiped. So Karlach kicked Gortash to death and took all his stuff, then had to go back to grab his corpse and bring it to camp to resolve her personal quest, dodging small army. Sigh.

Anyway was done so went to Morphic Pool after buying as many vendors stuff as I could; squid Karlach (messed up my stats a bit as usual) ; final fight was GRAND good use of haste spores and Globe of Invulnerability wiped out the Emperor's Dream Squad (had freed Orpheus), could not finish off the dragon so ran around and took out the Illithid artillery arcanists and into Brain. 4 rounds, 3 rounds dealing damage. Fin.

Assessment

43 hours to do this; it was fun and saw some different stuff but time to give Bg3 a rest. I want to do a Shadowheart All-Cleric run and a Durge III pure evil run but they can wait. In a better place atm so don't need my new comfort game as much BUT 2026 has certainly been the year of Bg3.

What's next

I had started a Challenging Run on Kingmaker for the first time so will try to finish that, am in Act 3 and its relatively smooth.

I was not too into DayZ for DayZ Szn in August but then my May holdover character died and suddenly all was fresh again. So that's kind of my chill mid-week game.

Need to play something completely new to mix things up, not sure yet what that is.

August post #5 DayZ 'win loss record' of sorts

 I keep decent records of stuff and decided to take 30 minutes to go through old screen shots plus notes I kept myself on my first few playthroughs of DayZ back in August 2023 and managed to compile this list.

I think this is fairly accurate; maybe missing a few quick runs that ended ignomiously (killed instantly, died of starvation etc)

DayZ kill/death calculation?
time	description	kills	deaths	how	extra info
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	two people on highway 3 infected treated me first and then killed me due to fracture
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	shipping container peek guy w/ bat
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	negan
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	stabbed by motorcycle helmet no resistance by me
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	2	1	repeater jam	double KO/farmgirl draw/
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	1	1	shipping container insanity	killed a guy w/ crowbar
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	indian dudes beat me up
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	4	1	small child killed me	(12-17)
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1	shot to pieces inside house	[18]
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	1	1		killed afk w/ sledge
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	0	1
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	3	1	cannibal ended spree	hammer spree
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	2	1	gal in shed with bandages ended spree for good	cannibal guy gave back hammer!
August 2023	(win loss rec.)	2	1	killed in the rain	managed to recover from 2 double kos/win
August 2023	weird audio tour	1	1
August 2023	got tied up	5	1
August 2023	melee farming	2	1
August 2023	melee/tie black	1	1
June 2024	quick death	0	1	suicide
June 2024	nice run	3	1
July 2024	mummy run	7	1		tie up people achievement
August 2024	letmebandageu	3	1		peaches
August 2024	letmebandageu	1	1	asked to be shot	patch 30 people
July 2025	glob stream	1	1
July 2025	nerdy girl	5	1
July 2025	'letmehitat300m'	2	1		first car
August 2025	The knight	8	1	headshot helmet	300 metres+ achieve with a sawnoff blaze
October 2025	200km progamer	19	1	shot in back in solnech
November 2025	105km wolf dude	9	1	killed on roof/duo killed 1
May 2026	autumn crown	2	1
May 2026	mummy	1	1		killed a logger
May 2026	witch girl	1	1	suicide?	i think she killed someone in fisticuffs while bleeing from multiple cuts
May 2026	witch man	3	1	rando
May 2026	black death	14	1	gunned down prone inland
May 2026	55km walked	4	1
May 2026	insane fisherman	2	1
August 2026	still from May	3	1	suicide gift
August 2026	redhead	1	1	naked girl
August 2026	old again	0	0
		113	38

August post #4 Wrath of the Righteous initial impressions

 I played WOTR in April 2026 and found it underwhelming.

I was playing a Sylvan Sorcerer from the start assuming my companions would form a balanced team, nope. Every new companion I seemed to acquire other than the excellent archer Wenduag and the strong mounted (!) paladin Seelah was a gimmicky spellcaster or niche class. I needed strong warriors not another perosn who is really good at one specific kind of spell or skill.

tbc

August post #3 Karlach Origin #5 Honour Mode #8 part 4 Act2 done; Act 3 half finished

t

The party

Karlach Barbarian Giant 12

Superb when Enlarged, good when not. Throwing Nyrulna now so everything simply dies.

Lae'zel Barbarian Berserker 12

Soulbreaker Sword is just so good. 

Shadowheart Barbarian Wild Magic 12

Solid but I hardly ever use the rage effects, they add very little especially at this stage of the game. 

Astarion Barbarian Wildheart 12

Have him sorted as a pretty damn good archer; he can also dual wield well.

Timeline

9th August 2026 - I cleared Act 2; I cleared Rivington minus Ansur and Gortash, went to Lower City and managed to kill Dolor immediately, Lorroakan easily enough, cleared the Shar House and then Cazador; I couldn’t convince Ast to stay good so we had to fight him to death. Jaheira now has all his stuff, oh well. Halsin is on Orin’s desk and I’m thinking I’ll either accidentally kill him like I did Lae that one time or I will forget to free him and he’ll walk. I’ll collect some more good gear then work on the Coronation battle.

Assessment

Just need to attack Gortash on sight. I managed to walk passed it earlier so will return in a bit; 

August post #2 Karlach Origin #5 Honour Mode #8 part 3 Act2 75%+ done

I cleared the end of Act 1 and most of Act 2 on August 1st & 2nd; I managed to do a small few bits a few other days during August

The party

Karlach Barbarian Giant 9

Throw Returning Pike twice and maybe kick people. Repeat.

Lae'zel Barbarian Berserker 9

Very good at whacking stuff with her Soulbreaker Greatsword. 

Shadowheart Barbarian Wild Magic 9

She's just sort of there; solid all-around though.

Astarion Barbarian Wildheart 9

Have barely used any of the powers, he's just a really good archer. 

Timeline

1st August 2026 - played for ages; beat Phase Spider, Ethel (took Hag hair and Mayrina) Flind, Tyr paladins, hook horrors, could not find Bulette; Duergar on beach; Myconid king; all of Forge minus Grym; made it to level 6 and went to monastery/Creche; sent Lae into the pod this time and almost lost her, the doctor aggro’d the next room over but not full creche.

2nd August 2026 - cleared creche, moved into Act 2 and did almost all of that; got halfway through Trials and am almost level 9; it’s getting testing not having magic and so on.

5th August 2026 - I googled how to get a scroll of knock in Act 2 and turns out there is a guaranteed one in the Mason’s Guild so I got that and got to the end of the Trials; cleared the Library fight, then the big  Shadow Mound to get to level 9; and Yurgir (auto-hostile, no talk because I was in menu at the time? Apparently it’s because I went in the wrong way) but he was easy even with all his servants, and took almost no damage. Stopped again after an hour; will finish next time.

Assessment

Trucking along fine, slightly more amusing than the all-fighter run.

I have 3 or 4 rage charges on everyone left so will probably burn through them before the restoration pod (I will not be long-resting in Act 2). Maybe the Inn fight, Moonrise entrance, Ketheric, lab fight? Then restore pod and fight Myrkul and the gith ambush on way to Act 3, but whatever.