Eschewing the reload function

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In my latest pass through the game (solo Elven Bounty Hunter), I've decided to resist completely the urge to use the reload button for any reason other than resuming my game. I'm normally not too abusive of the reload feature, but every so often I will reload if I am unhappy with my performance, or I'll say to myself "I just want to see something" and do something risky, knowing that I'll bail myself out using reload.

Last night I found myself mad at the game and reaching for the Options button to reload, but remembered my new determination and caught myself at the last instant. What had set me off? For the first time ever, I had approached the Slaver compound by way of the sewer instead of the front door, and even though I suspected that I would still choose to assault from the front, I stealthed and entered from the sewers to have a quick look around. Auto-pause: enemy sighted. Whoops! Not just one, either...lots of enemies in that room. More than I'd expected; the AI must call a bunch of them out front to help when you attack from that direction, leaving fewer in the room when you actually get that far.

Well, my stealth had deactivated upon entering, I couldn't reactivate it in the presence of enemies, and I had no invisibility potions, so I decided to get the heck out of there before I became visible. I clicked on the door I'd just entered through...and was told that it was barricaded from the other side! Nonsense! I just cleared the whole sewer and used that door. I reached for the Options button...and then caught myself. The designers of the game had obviously intended that surprise; they'd just contrived a lame excuse for it. So, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and imagine a better reason why I can't retreat that way. Can I get out of this pickle?

Without foreknowledge of the ship's interior (namely, remembering exactly where all the traps are), I'm sure it would have gotten ugly. But I did know where to find them, so I made use of that knowledge. I detected and disarmed the trap by the first set of stairs and scuttled up them with my invisibility still intact. I was now in the narrow hallway with cells on either side, with two enemies nearby. I proceeded to the end of the hall, and successfully detected the trap there just as my stealth dropped. As the two enemies started toward me, I disarmed the trap and ran through the door.

Quite an amazing piece of luck that the next room (behind the mages, in front of the Yuan-tis) is one of the only rooms in the ship that has no enemies in it. A chance to restealth! But then I remembered...my hide in shadows and move silently skills were at a whopping 45 each. It was quite routine for me to need half a dozen attempts to achieve stealth. But here, I just had time to turn the corner and give it one shot before the two enemies entered the room.

Success! Unbelievably, the game that loves to deal me mis-stealths, failure to set traps with 80% ability, critical misses on crucial backstabs, etc., actually smiled on me for once. I was invisible again. And not only did my two pursuers charge into the room, but 5 or 6 other slavers who must have heard the "call for help" came in behind them. But they were all oblivious to my presence next to them! What a nice piece of luck.

I headed for the short flight of stairs leading to the front of the building, detected and disarmed the trap there, and managed to get into that little empty boiler room near the front door before becoming visible. Then, I restealthed at my leisure, and waltzed past the last two enemies and out the front door.

I paused the game there. I had a huge smile on my face. The last 5 minutes were more fun than I'd had playing in quite a long while! Sure, there was a lot of cheesiness in what I'd done (using foreknowledge of traps, actually disarming a trap with enemies bearing down on me, etc.), but I'd played the hand the game dealt me, according to the rules, and achieved success with quite a bit of finesse (and a spectacularly lucky dice roll).

I'm feeling really happy with my decision to avoid the reload function. You should try it yourself if you've become accustomed to using reload as a crutch like I had sometimes. But I learned that I really need to plan better if I want to continue down this path. I really need to get my stealth up and buy some invisibility potions so I don't have to depend on amazing luck the next time this happens -- I imagine I'd be feeling differently about the whole thing if I'd missed my stealth roll and gotten murdalized by eight enemies.

Anyway, happy playing. Feel free to share your own anecdotes in return!

 

I once thought about doing this but five minutes afterwards I stumbled into a group of werewolves in the Windspear Hills and Minsc got well and truly mashed. No cleric in the party at the time and too far to a temple.

Reload.

 

I don't understand - how can you detect and disarm traps while still using hide in shadows?

 

Try role-playing a Bard. Note his ridiculously high lore. Note how this allows you to actually "roleplay" foreknowledge, and how flexible you can use your "wit" with a rogue class.
You won't find yourself reloading for yet a longer time soon, I'm sure.

Btw,
Bug exploits are not on the Bardic list of justifiable cheese.

 

Hello -

You can't. My Hide in Shadows deactivated automatically during the area transition from sewers to slaver ship, and could not be reactivated due to the presence of enemies. However, it takes a while to actually become *visible* even though your hiding function is no longer active. I literally detected the first trap, deactivated it, got up the stairs, and detected the second trap before I finally became visible. I did have 100% Find Traps at that point.

Are you saying I exploited a game bug? If so, what was it? As far as I was concerned, using my knowledge of trap placement was the cheesiest thing I'd done. But even so, it's nearly *impossible* not to use your knowledge of the game as you play, so I didn't feel too bad. The only other thing I felt to be unrealistic (but still perfectly legitimate) was the idea that you can actually disarm a trap with enemies rushing you.

I haven't tried a bard in quite some time. Perhaps on the next run through!

 

Mind me, but what does eschewing mean? Couldn't find it in my dictionary.

 

Hello -

To eschew something is to avoid it on principle.

 

Well, I don't know how can you disarm traps and keep hidden in shadows, but maybe it's because you have a few seconds to move out before being discovered. As for percentages, I had to try eleven times-reloading, of course-to set a trap to help me killing Irenicus' goons in the Nine Hells...with 95% allotted to the set traps ability. I think the game has so many bugs you just have to reload in order to even up things.