Actually, you can't reach level 50 without further modding; even in ToB, you can't go past level 40 with just the cheat console.

I could also point out that the HLAs aren't balanced with each other, and some may have different balance properties at different levels. For example, HLAs like War Cry would not be game-breaking at lower levels (though I wouldn't use it simply because fear effects are very annoying in this type of game (both when used on you or against you), to the point where I would not include them at all if designing a game of this sort (or have them work differently)), Scribe Scroll could be quite balanced at mid-levels, and Greater Deathblow, a skill that is often considered not that great, can break BG1 (as well as kill the tutorial person in BG2, causing a softlock.

Also, in this case, what's desired isn't the power from reaching level 40, but rather the task of actually getting there, and I am still curious how long it would take.

We're talking about poverty runs. That means Devas, Planetars, and Elemental Princes.

Either way, if you want to math out a Random Monster Leveling find a map with good respawn-rate, get the exp of the monsters, give it a time during you can defeat it, and multiply the whole thing.
You get mostly 50-100 exp things (gnolls and such), but some maps have vampiric wolves, ghast/ghoul, undead horror (or what), and ogres.
Doing quests are infinitely more rewarding, so unless you get hopelessly stuck, and don't want to just give yourself exp, do quests = play normaly. That's the fun part anyway, figuring out how to advance through naturaly.

------------

Got lucky, and finished off Zordal with somelucky hit passing his images.
The exploding ogre was especialy easy, though for safety cast a Barkskin.

Drienne's Cat is another quest I cannot do because of my aweful Charisma.

Hurt the interdimensional dog, and as being there, stopped the fastest dart thrower brothers too. (reached 5 in thief) Even managed to dispose Sendai&Co! I love 19 STR.

Went and deltwith the Dryad&The Oak. Fully buffed this 2 vs 1 fight wasn't bad. Defeating Ingot wasn't a problem. Theother gnolls went to the soup equaly (traps and the need of sleep came in handy).
After this went to the Nashkel Mines. The kobolds are mostly harmless though they come in groups, so a buff here-and-there is in order. But managed to defeat Greywolf with 3 traps and full buff!
Funny roleplaying note: as the gender no longer matter, and there's no other effect, my character put on the Belt of Genderswap, to not be mistaken again with Greywolf!
On lvl 3 gained lvl in cleric, thus the ability to summon skeleotns. They are pathetic, but ok against kobolds.
Got lucky at the boss, gained 2 skeleton at one casting. My small army easily dispatched the opposition.

lvl 3 spell anaylsis:
- animate dead: probably the best spell in the category. Nothing to brag about, but they can hit stuff, and provide cover. They arealso immun to ghouls/ghasts paralysis.
- cure diseas: disease don't do anything in this game (probably coding error)
- cure medium wounds: sure, would be welcomed, too bad you'll use your slots formore offensive stuf. Still can shorten sleepy-time.
- dispel magic: never seen a use for this (aside being convenience for a party)
- glyph warding: very low damage, and I don't know if it counts fort he trap limit (ifnot, it is highly abusable)
- holy smite: with all the coding mistakes, possible evil characters including protagonist, this is a waste of time
- invisibility purge: a specifictype of dispel magic. with cleric/thief you can do this without spending a slot, infinite times per day
- miscast magic: in every sense a worse version of Silence, which is AoE, svaes thrown at -5 instea dof -2, canbe cast without revealing yourself, and has 100% effectiveness. What were they thinking??
- prot. from fire: conditional
- remove curse: no use in a poverty run
- remove paralysis: no use in solo
- rigid thinking: aka.confusion.
- strength of one: again, if you are a half-or of 19 STR, this is needless
- zone of fresh air: is useless for solo. Totaly conditional either way.

Now, before going to the nextchapter, I crawled back to check out Hurlag's cow realising I have the firepower to solve it. This time I did not manageto find the quest :(

Revisiting Nashkel and Beregost went smoothly.
SSW of Beregost done.
Peldvale got cleansed, and there reached lvl 6 thief.
The Xvart god did not appear for some reason. Otherwise the area went down smooth.
No of Gnoll Stronghold posed no real challenge. And given I only wanned the fight with the entrance half-ogres in the stronghold itself, that was straight easy.
S of Ulcaster was managable. Hint: do not try to fight ettercaps all alone! They'll stunlock you, so you won't be able to attack at all. After this had an animate dead left, so hopped to W of High Hedge for Mad Arcand, and to blast away my spells using The Surgeon. Btw, I didn't try to kill Shoal until now, as she always came to me kissing - this time she had nothing to say for some reason, turned out this method worth way more.
The Lighthouse was uneventful.
S of the Lighthouse was almost fun given how frustrating things can turn out everybody sensing your presence.
Done the group of bandits N of Beregost.
Larswood is ticked ut.
The Firewine Bridge is a good challenge. The swordsman is ok, the real problem is with the ogre mage who hits hugh and is naturaly hasted? What worked for me is 3 skeletons which the mage ignored, so i ran on one side up-and-down.
Fahrington's scroll is another quest I can not do due to reputation-check. NOTE: with this character playingwith low reputation might be advantageous. Because Larloch's, Vampire and in EE even ghoul touch cause damage. While you can hit things unconscious, you can't get rid of them. The abilities can help on that. But the wizards went down suprisingly easy under the numbers. Well, that's when you don't have fireball.

Decided to use my Infinite Invilisbility (stealth) to pass the ankeghs. Though technicaly ankegh-hunting IS posssible (I'm 6/7 at the moment), though demands a lot. To do it find a group of ankeghs, summon a bunch of skeletons (I can manage up to 5 from 2-3 casting - yes, 3 skeletons CAN appear forme from 1 casting), put Chant on the group, Barkskin on you (ankeghs just love to aim you randomly), cast Flame Blade, and rush in on the group of 'em.
Fighting even a single ankegh alone is problematic.
And of course to bring out the corpse, cast a Sanctuary.
After solving even the farmers vs priestess problem, time to meet do a zombies vs skeletons match. I don't expect much HP-damage, so instead of the usual, storing up on weapon-spells.
Btw, one thing is nice on Animate Dead: youd on't have to worry about the duration.

Well, some people just doesn't want to be saved, if their saviour is like an ogre's arse. Zombie Farmer, was nice to meet you. Btw, my 4 skeleton ate the zombies likea steamengine.

Went to Ulcaster, on the basis things do not respawn there. Got 7/7 during the dungeon. Seems skeletons can hit immun to normal weapons things (like vampiric wolf). Watch out forthe fireball traps, that can decimate your forces. Not that you can't sleep when you have to.

lvl 4 spells analysis:
- animal summoning. This must be a cruel joke.
- cause serious wound: nah
- cloak of fear: long casting time, zero duration = not our tool
- cure serious wounds: well, it's healing. What else to say?
- death ward: conditional
- defensive harmony: +2 AC, basicaly.
- farsight: nope
- free action: conditional
- holy power: i think not
- mental domination: some kinda charm effect. Not my favourites.
- lesser restoration: sure, might come in handy in BG2, or something
- negative plane protection: as above
- neutralize poison: weknow how untrustworthy this is. Only use this if you play with low rep thus don'thave this from ability.
- poison: seriously?
- prot from evil 10': sure, if it comes to demon summoning, I'll keep it in mind
- prot from lightning: conditional
This is rly a bad tear.

After this went to the Bandit Camp. A massive wall of skeletons Chanted is needed to steadily remove the opposition. The kinght-guy outside is extra dangerous, prepare with traps.
You CAN eliminate the gnoll cave, if you buff yourself up seriously, put sanctuary on, go to the back-cave, and summon skeletons there (after removing the two gnoll right there).
To get rid of the boss-group the trick with this character is, you can leave the tent whenever you want! So prepare with traps and skeleton army outside, then cast a weapon, and enter, let them start the fight, exit, enjoy your life being easier. You'll still have to fight the archer hobgoblin inside who refuses to move, but that's realy not that big a problem.

NOTE: I don't think C/T has anything to deal with Werewolf Island, so won't even try.
Lacking sudden firepower such things as the ghoul caves, wyvern caves, or the spider nest are out of options. Still can get the Spiders' Bane by sanctuary of course, but otherwise nah.
Interrestingly, officialy you can go as high as 7/8 considering the exp. Anything over that can be a purist's nightmare, hehe.

Aldeth Sashenstar is another of those not valuing inner values :(

In the CW Mines skip the 3rd level with Sanctuary or simply stealthing.
For the 4th level I haveto say, it is entirely luck-based. It is of outmost importance to single out the Battle Horrors. These beast are immun to your traps, so your only chance is to buff up, have 5 skeletons running, and hope you deal enough hits (practicaly criticals) before your squadron is eliminated. A hint concerning the AI here: the BHs like to switch target to YOU after each skeleton demolished. So when that happens, take a step back with the character to ensure it doesn't happen. Also, they last long enough you'll need TWO casting of weapon.
The mage-boss is another issue having all kings of spells and high AC. Start with sending in a/all skeleton to lure out a lightning. Next task is to makethe skellies no wander away, while you getting ahead to syphon up the fireball coming. Next thing is again putthe skeletons fron line to diver the hold, domination whatnot spells. Finally whack away.

Being 7/8 though why not, and tried my luck on Vitiare in the Carnival. 1HKO.

Realizing I can be immun to ghouls by casting Free Action, went back to the Nashkel Mine's exit, and settled things.
And how different can Gullykin be? Well, not much. The respawning enemies in the dungeon are annoying though.

NOTE: Technicaly you COULD dealwith most of the Werewolf Island quest. Sanctuary passes everything. The problem is the curse, which kills you in three days opr something, soyou'd have to make the head werewolf disappear.
Now I wonder if you could do that with traps...

Tested the Archeological Dig, and it'sa big redflag. The Doomsayer is immun to traps. AndI couldn't summon it legaly anyway, as half the crew was turned hostile (maybe got too close when fighting Barge?).

Woah, it was good I finished off Aldeth! His borther shown up ;) 2 traps and a shilgellah finished him (and 1 cast of cure serious wounds). The limited amount of casting realy gets in the way with the time-limited quests.

Nadine will sooner let her son die than trust us with her task.

There's some good news though. A cleric/thief is still a thief, so will get the extra quests for it. Though it's a double edged FlamingBlade as the tests are timed? Also, ifI seeitright, it is actualy stripping you exp to work through the quests. The most beneficial would have been to fail the first test, duel the thief, then rob the apaladin waking him up. Oh well.

And at last even the Ogre Assassin is down, not blocking my way to the Antidote. He's athough cookie, good fortune he can be lured out to the open, so oyu can buff up a little army (and lay traps).

Noralee is one ofthise chick who won't ravdevou you if you are below 170 cm.

Nadarin justleaves people to die to his basilisks, because he'is racist-or-something.

The guys who mess with Gorpel Hind are bloody though. Fortunately this isa game, so you can get out, sleep, and return.

You don't have a chance in Degrodel's home, BUT you can sneak in andout, and when you givehim the Helm you cancast Sanctuary to get out! NOTE: it's abit tricky to leave, because he makes an Invisible Stalker appear in the doorway.

Some quests I did not try, but think are impossible for this character (C/T solo poverty):
- the ogre mage assassin group
UPDATE: yes, there are side-rooms. Sneak there, set traps, summon 4+ skeletons. 2 skeletonswill be sacrifised to pull out spells. The ogres start with some AoE spells (rigid thinking, horror), so thatbetter not reach you. Then they havesome lightning, and summoning. That's when my first skellie expired,andI simply waitedout their summons to disappear. Next they have some aganzanar'sscorcher, that means theirgroup canbe dceimated byalot, and likely they'll attack themselves,removing at least one for you. This is the time I buffed up and went melee.
- 4 thieves looting a house, SW district (I might give this a try fully buffed,maybe they are weak)
UPDATE: yes, this is possible. Sneak in to aside-rrom, set up traps,summon skeletons,buff up, and startw hacking.
- Sunin the mage (again small place, immediate attack group)
UPDATE: same deal as with the above.

Strangely, all of ToTSC might be possible. Though through an aweful lot of work (laying traps like crazy).

Fergus doesn't want Angel Skin Ring from me.

Just to let you know at this point, not counting the already mentioned unachievable quests (and tome/manual gathering), these are the stuff Ivenot done yet:
- The Iron Throne
- the Basilisk Area: there's no point delaying it further. I'd need a megaton of exp to improve on thac0, and I'm overt he TostSC limit already. Of course if we consider my next game is BG2, and there's Siege of Dragonspear nowdays, on a technicality, I could go up to 9/11, and I could defend this on court :D
- those ogre mages: I doubt it can be done, but I don't exactly remember the place
- the three sewer-boss (Ratchild, Sewer King, the ogre mage)
- the TotSC areas
- and of course the remaining of the main storyline

Dealing with the Iron Throne HQ, top floor:
- sneak in the side-rooms
- always have a Sanctuary to cast when needed
- save
- lay traps when you can
- the enemy is very stiking together, so don't hope to single them out. Sacrifise a skele or two to lower their amount of spells, then let your skeletons rush in to cause as much damage in waste of spells and otherwise as they can. Then retreat to the back room, conjure up a new army, and repeat. You can sleep on the roof if you don't want to go out to the Inn.
Though I think technicaly you don't even have to fight this group, you could just sneak in to the conact.

Candlekeep took longer than anticipated, but it's just averagely difficult. I mean it's just doppelgangers. Not even en masse. The best newsis, I can blow up skeletons from now on.
Did you know skeletons are immun to turning to stone? I defeinitely didn't.

Getting back outside, I went to the basilisk area, where I met Shar-Teel. I though, I'll make my belt removed a second time (in BG there's that woman who only give quest to at-the-moment males, and I forgot her previously, and I wouldn't care much anyway, as I prefer fun as long as I canstick to the spirit of the challenge). This timeI didn't thugh, becauseI could initiate the challenge, but my character said, s/he'snot interrested. No otheroption, wasn't ST to reject me being at-the-moment-female.
I thought this is funny, and the game's wiki didn't know about this option, so enjoyas I did!

On the revisiting of BG: Maybe you have chance to fight the military HQ if you got arrested. Otherwise just skip it. I definitely skipped this.

Teleport Island (TotSC) is the place of silence, traps and backstab. The best there was to feel, ankhegs definitely got easier.
Did you know in the first group, the mage on the right (east) is immun to Silence?

I realisedI didn't fetch the map to WWI, and if being there did what I could. When bringing out the Captain, reached 8/11.
Defeating the Undercellar Assassins (I just hoarded my traps there to eliminate the speeded fighter) made me 9/11. And I still did not visit Durlagh'sTower (neither the werewolves)!

lvl5 spells analysis:
- animal summon 2: we all know this is not good.
- cause serious harm: at this level even if it'd be guaranteed hit, would not be much.
- champion's strength: it's not THAT bad, mostly depends on if DUHM comes before or after this. Btw, I think with DUHM I can fully regenerate during a sleep at this point.
- chaotic command: situational, and probably need to run along Free Action
- cure whatever wounds: it's healing.
- flame strike: the casting time is horrendously long
- greater command: it's cheesey, but relies highly on reload. Skip.
- magic resistance: 40% is situational, and relying on reload.
- mass cure: skip.
- raise dead: skip
- repulse undead: why this spell exists?
- righteous magic: well, it looks like a buff...
- slay living: another reload-cheese
- true seeing: compared to the Detect Illusion ability itsadvantage is, it can not be interrupted by your other actions. But if you can avoid that, it becomes inferior. That's about it.

Made an archive save, and went to the wolfweres. Flame Blade has no trouble hurting the creatures.
Obviously you can't fight stuff inside the ship, but you don't have to. First do all quests outside, those can be done. Serious army, replacing skeletons mid-battle, and all combat buffs are included for Pelin's group. The skeletons are not good enough to hit the SirenQueen, but they are a good distraction (beware,aftershe runs out of charm spells, she hits them hard, so whack yourself!).
For the ship you need two(?) items: the logbook, and the spellbook. Go up sneaking, thensave. Reload, and wait 4.5 seconds (watch the pendulum), then start casting Sanctuary. This achieves that the boss moves from the doorway, but still can't reach you, interrupting your casting. Pick up one of thebooks, then cast cure serious wound (or before entering cast prot from electricity). Then get the other one, and leave.
This whole procedure also solves Lahl's quest for some reason.

To get out of WWI enter the chieftress' hut, and summon up a skeleton which'll buy you time to cast Sanctuary after the conversation. To get this rolling, you must have spoken with the hermit-mage who sent you for his spelbook.
Go out, and speak with the mage. Unfortunately a WW is within sight, but no worry. When you enter the house, or after the cave, you have a fraction of a second to hit Sneak. If it works, you are saved.
Go to the ship. The boss there won'tinitiate dialogue, so lay traps on her feet. You might need 7 traps, AND you might still have to reload, but it'll turn out.
NowI seriously hope you layed traps at the start, because the timelimit and all. When ready enter the house, and they'll attack. Just step outside, and by 6 traps for me both got eliminated.
This is how this story ends with this character.

Now or never Durlag's Tower.

In theory, Durlag's work like this:
- for the above levels there are mostly ghasts. I'm not sure for the moment you could exit to the terraces, if not, no basilisk hunting there, but that's the only difference. Summon skeletons against everything.
- minus 1 has ghasts again. Moving on.
- minus 2 has the occasional battle horrors (sneak/sanctuary past them), and the warders. Laying traps is obvious, another possible method can be to cast prot from lightning, luring them to an infinite trap (a trap that doesn't deactivate when triggered), cast sanctuary, profit.
Pro tip: put all 7possible traps on Pride's place (SW), and have 1-2 more traps on you (I can cast traps 3 times without sleep, but it might be lower for you). Somehow these traps removed Averice and Love from the game for me AND near-deathed Pride. So I layed down the traps on me, and lured Prideon them, finishing it off.
- minus 3 has doppelgangers. Yawn. In practice you only have to deal with a single (the second) doppelganger as enemy here. The first will sit in a corner and you can escape the room through the newly opened door. And in the helmet-room you don't have to do anything: you can simply bash the door to the Main Control Room, open every door, then escape the level. Hint: santuary, and a prot. from lightning comes in handy. And in the rage-goblet's room doing some detect trap. I put no point in that skill, and could still sport 4-5 traps.
FUN FACT: if you are invisible. the ghouls ofthe final corridor will go and try to attack the dwarven wardens.
WARNING: if some dwarven-doppelganger seen you, when you'll try to leave thelevel, they'll beported on your head! So you must finish them first. A prot. from lightning and that corridor solves this issue.
- for minus 4 the only issue is the guardian monsters. If I'm correct, in the Ice Room you only have to worry about the bear (actualy, the fact that oyu don't have space. Enter sneaking,and position only 1 wolf sees you, and when it charges you, back out where you have some skellies. Repeat as needed.), as skeletons are immun to cold (and lightning). Poison Room has plenty of space, and what's imprtant is that you hit (flame strike, flame blade), while micromanaging the skellies to not punch. (Tip: leave theskellies,simply buffup.) Air Room again leaves you some space, so traps all the way (7 trap inside, 7 trap AND 4-5 skellies outside, and a full buff backstab). Fire again has some space, but save is necessary due to their annoying habbit of respawning. Thisis actualy the easiest room, as you only have to dispose the melee unit, and it's weak as a kitten, meaning simply 3 trap finishes him.
Well, mention the - I think - easiest corridor, the wyvern one. After defeating 2 (skeletons can help!), make the party finish off the siren! It has too good AC. Also, let the remainingpartywalk into ther doom, while you lay traps, summon more skellies, and buff up. And don't forget backstab ;)
- the Chessboard is easy: get immun to lightning, and sneak until the figures are all down.
- for minus 5 my hope is all battles can be avoided by sanctuary, because itis hugh, annoying, and tiresome.
Battles you actualy have to fight: Grael's hoard.
- at the bottom evidently can't best the demon knight, but it might not be necessary. Break the mirror, and hope the real one looses. But first at arrival summon some skellies for diversion. With everything calming down, start laying traps against the Mirror Fiend. Can't find itsstats, so let's hope there's no immunity happening. And that'd be it.

And back in Ulgoth's Beard? Well... I bet those cultists can't be everywhere, so sneak/santuary to safety, then chip them away. The true problem is the demon's gaze. With summoning, and Flame Strike, and whacking you should try to remove the bodies, then lure it to a corner with skellies, sanctuary the opposite side, and trap all the way,and hope it's enough.
IN PRACTICE: you immediately get conversated with, butno worry. I hopeyou pre-layed7 traps around the entranceof the town. When the talk is over, you have a split second to hide, but if that fials you canstill sanctuary. Defeat everyone from the welcoming commitee - fortunately they do not heal when you sleep (I noticed some enemies do). Then sneak upon the church/library's entrance's guard, and attack it.This prevent him summoning reinforcements. I know, ridiculous. You COULD deal with the cohorts, but it's a lot of sleep, so I skipped. This isn't about leveling anyway anymore.
Next enter the building. This makes all your 7pre-layed traps activate, which hopefully eliminate the majority of the sums there. The Speaker-mage will remain of course: have a sanctuary to remove his mirror image. His only other spell of interrest is a horror. There was for me too an assassin-in-hiding, that's why you don't immediately fight the mage, instead leave, luring the assa with you to the arms of skeletons.
Last thing is the cult. Obviously you layed traps. I aimed for the top people, because the bottom two are free-for-all. This had the problem my traps eliminated the leader instantly, causeing the demon to not appear and thequest unfinishable - a hindsight of the designers. But ifI entered non-sneaking the conversation did trigger, and the battle could start. Fortunately oneof the top corner people fell, so I could get into a corner when I returned from the above floor (obviously I escaped from trouble). I used skeletons to gain time to get rid of the bodies.
At this point I planned trapping Aec'Letec, but it was not needed. Itignored my summons, but being close didn't gaze either, so I just had to run around the skellies. By time it even got stuck in my skellies being big and all. When it turned yellow, I ran to the traps I layed when summoning the skellies, but wasn't berserk, but afraid. And that's all folks! Let's save the queen, or governor, or who.

This all was a the theory. And practice proved it!

--------------

Savingthe dukes isno small feat yet again. To have a CHANCE, enter, sneak, lay traps. Summon 5skellies. Buff hardcore. Position the skellies. Sneak in, and start thebattle by casting Barkskin on Belt (heis the one usualy able to stand longer). Cast Command on the Greater Doppelgangers, and hit the one you targeted with it.
It'll take a coupleofreloads, but it is possible.
Fighting Sarevok at this point is rigged, so when he turns red, just sitthere for a while under Sanctuary.

I am still mapping the fight against Sarevok. Here are the key factors:
- the exist doesn't get blocked until Sarevok makes his evil speech
- it IS possible to make sight with Sarevok but not trigger him moving to you
- his goons can be semi-easily eliminated by triggering the lightning traps on the left (being on the right summons battle horrors)
- Sarevok resets to full HP and to his starting place if you exit
- you are not allowed to step on his starting podium because of a ton of traps.

Despite what the wiki says at themoment, the guy has 285 HP (in the vanilla game).
With 1 casting of Immun to Lightning can take away 25 HP average reasonably. That leaves 210 HP after3 casting.
The traps can deal reasonable 7 dmg per trap, you can lay 7 traps before fight, and have 3 more on you, so let's say 70 dmg. 140 HP remains.
Next cast Sanctuary and activate Sarevok (turn him hostile). Back away, and summon some skeletons preferably near your pre-layed traps, and close to the pillars/statues on the left. NOTE: Wouldn't it be funny if the room would be mirrored, and on the left side would too be coffins, and battle horrors to be summoned?
So, buff up, because YOU will do the majority of the damage. The skellies are distraction.
Calling on skeletons make one lure S from the podium. Backstab him, get behind cover, backstab him again. With 3 skeletons running, this is possible. Also note, that both Rightous Magic and Draw Upon Holy Might actualy provied me 2.5 STR, what means I had 25 STR, and caused 42 dmg per backstab! NOTE: Spiritual Hammer is preferable here for the extra thac0.
So, we are again behind cover. Re-buff, and start summoning skeletons (1 casting). Enter Stealth Mode immediately and backstab. Repeat the process if he's still alive.
PRO TIP: do not try to circle S after a backstab! Instead get away, else he'll hit you hard immediately! Only when you got a step away (out of reach), should you try get behind your summons (and then behind cover).

NOTE: a monk could easily pass this challenge on sufficiently high level, as S doesn't have magical weapon. Obviously clvl20 is unachievable without removing the exp-cap, and doing some serious rnd-monster-farming. But aside that I can't see how they could win. But again, poverty monks can not finish Spellhold...

NOTE on the attachments: I tend to wear items thathave no effect on me. For example Silver Necklace, or Bloodstone Ring. So you see my quick-item bar filled with items I got as quest-reward, but I never had the intention to use them, they are simply decoration.
The defeat of Sarevok is there, because how Trilogy-installation works.
The last picture is the very start of BG2.

Spells and their use until now:
- bless: rare buff
- command: exclusively to save the dukes (could be more useful if we'dactualy know what is effected and what's not)
- cure light wounds: lvl1 slots are plenty, and the spells are weak
- sanctuary: if simple stealth is not reliable (too many enemies, doors must be opened, containers to be looted)
- sillelagh: weapon spell for the early stages
- aid: if you just need a whole set of healing, otherwise skip
- barkskin: regular
- chant: regular buff
- DUHM: regular buff for stronger groups
- flame blade: weapon spell for the majority of BG1
- resist fire: when certain fireball traps are inevitable (very rare occasion)
- silence: very rare debuff, mostly before you have at least 2 castings of Animate Dead
- spiritual hammer: weapon spell forthoseoccasions your have to hit the opponent
- animate dead: stronger than it looks, or at least meat shield. Obvious choice.
- cure serious wounds: with 3 slots on its level I tend to find space to have this. Pretty much mandatory from the point you start to have like 50 HP.
- defensive harmony: mid-rare buff to give some protection for your skeleton horde.
- free action: onlyused in the Cloakwood Forest spider infested area
- protection from evil 10' radius: very rare buff
- protection from lightning: mostly against traps
- righteous magic: you only have 1 casting, but it is handy

So, I think I've proven the person originaly cameup with this challenge never done it at all.
Why do I think this? Well, his list of spell was suspicious already. Then there's the fact you do NOT need to beable to pick lock (that sewer-gate at Gromnir only demands 25 STR, which can be done by any character by turning into the Slayer). And his belief Monk could do this challenge. And medics/druids could not attempt it. But the undeniable thingis, he thought to defeat the Mephit Portals, you need a quarterstaff. I assume because of their size he must have thought a Poverty character can't reach them, given unarmed attack length. The obvious thing is, Poverty characters have spells. A magling can cover itself while blowing the things up, and C or D can summon up weapons. Problem solved.

A QUICK NOTE: to avoid major differences between versions, I never even tried stack-casting any spell.

NOTE: a hugh convenience for C/T is, the character can sneak. What is not a spell. Thuscan avoid any trouble on the streets, what is obviously a good thing.

Minor NOTE: the party in the Promenade has that barbarian(?) amongst them with a berserkering sword. You'dthink you couldinitiate the fight, and they'd attack each other. This isn't the case.
I've delayed this fight for this reason, though I suspect you could win just by traps and sanctuary. Traps are definitely a thing to prevent their thief leaving the scene.

On the Circus tent: the problem is the upper floors. You immediately get attacked, summons are a bad idea making phantasms real, and you won't be able to cast new spells because of the phantasm which though not hurting you, they interrupt casting. So buff up, and hurry to win!

SANCTUARY UNINTERRUPTED
---------------------------------------------
These spells can be cast and not break Sanctuary (1-5 level spells):
- any healing spell
- any cause damage on hit spell (including slay living etc.)
- any summoned weapon
- resist fire/cold
- armor of faith
- detect evil
- protection from evil
- slow poison
- chaotic command
- champion's strength
- greater command
- death ward
- defensive harmony
- cure disease
- farsight
- protection from fire
- repulse undead
- magic resistance
- restoration
- holy power
- free action
- invisibility purge
- hold person*
- find traps
- draw upon holy might
- barkskin
- aid
- sanctuary
- righteous magic
- poison*
- neutralize poison
- negative plane protection
- mental domination*
- true sight
- protection from lightning
- protection from evil 10'
- strength of one
- remove curse.
*: for the above list you have to know if the spell is targeted, I targeted MYSELF. If cast on another, it WILL NOT be true. This MIGHT be true for all targeted spells, but aside what I marked, why would you.
NOTE: Also, laying traps break sanctuary, but no good baalspawn-ability does. Obviously can't tell you about evil abilities, though ghoul touch looks like should work, while the other two shouldn't.

As casting inside is allowed, the thoughs before the Copper Coronet can be dispatched, and the duel can be done with too.

With the enemies being higher level in BG2, Spiritual Hammer becomes more on focus from the summoned weapons

Also, as I never ever took the thief stronghold, I'll do it in this playthrough.

I never tried to sleep in the sewers under Amn, but turns out it is a valid option.
Also, gathered up some loot to have 2,000 gold to pay the kobold shaman right away, and collecting some more to pay down the police. I'm not sure how will I be able to handle the timed quests, so I try to be prepared for now.

I've cleaned the slums, and that pretty much gave enough money to bribe the authorities. ButI think I'll go to troll-hunting instead, so my rising exp doesn't create bigger monsters than it has to (like unnecessary spectral trolls).

Before going to De'Arnise Hold, wentto the Government District. For one to avoid gaining too much money (which later I remembered I won't), and because ofthe Licence, AND because I had the wrong spells stored (no fire damage).
And for being there, I triedmy luck against Anomen's family. With some reload managed to lure out only a fraction of the mob (note: Anmen can come out alone, and not even the guard outside flinches. In the back room is his father, who makes all the guards hostile)., and thus managed to overcome them. The worst wasn't even their numbers but that I got stuck on the narrow bridge before the house.

Also, there's the necessary stop at the City Gate, which has that lich there. Liches, this one particularly, has trouble dealing with the uhm-see-ya strategy, and their mania with imprisonment. So to deal with it summon up some skeletons, and stand 1 at the doorway, hiding the potential others in the fog-of-war. Enter, and backstab the bugger initiating the duel, then escape. Probablyagood idea to wait until its fireshield expires, then repeat until it starts chasing you. Then stay in the inn, and let the skeletons pummel it.
You need to separate you skeletons, because it starts with a death spell. All that remains is to run up-and-down. When got hurt first time it released some fury on my skelies, but then returned to its oldtrick of imprisonment, thus perished without further trouble.

Flame Blade has a terriby short duration, rendering it a conditional spell.

Wow, those trolls are though! I know I could just cakewalk the whole place invisibly, but you know me...
Well, troll are mostly ok. They hurt like heck, and eat skeletons for breakfast (1-2 punches), but the higher variants are the real trouble. A single Giant Troll can consume 5-7 skeletons, a whole set of buffs, and1-2 casting of Flame Blade, and there's Flame Strike too which I used for its promised damage (it only strikes 2 times though), causeing 2*16-24 point damage... Whataver.
What makes things possible is abusing the game engine: step behind a corner/through a door, then immediately hide. Attack with backstab.
Against spectral/spirit trolls: single them out, lay traps, buff hardcore, do the usual.

When you open the drawbidge, don't mind it. The reinforcements will take care of the trolls (the soldiers only activate when the monsters see you,so don't try to use summons and stealth - the skeletons barely have any use at this point anyway), then you can pummel the snake-person with bare hands even stepping behind corners, then finishing it off with whatever you have left (I had a Flame Strike).
To deal with the troll immediately inside, do DUHM, go in southward, backstab the bugger, cast flamestrike, and finish it if you still have to.

I feel like skiping the Splitting Troll on the 2nd floor, just like I mostly never bother with theIron Throneleaders in Candlekeep: too strong, too narrow place, not any hugh reward. So I'll go around the other way. Coming from that side, it is veryeasy to single out and trap things behind corridors.

Also worth to know, you only have to defeat Tor'Gal, you canleave its two bodyguard behind.

Atthe end (before reporting to Nalia) destroyed some aristocratproperty (ti. golems) to lvlup in Medic.

lvl6 spell analysis:
- Aerial Servant: I looked this up, asit evidently just summons some pathetic elemental, only this time your mage doesn't kill itself casting the spell. Seems it can do an ok damage per hit, but without its HP that doesn't tell much. It main advantage seems to be immunity to +0/+1 weaponry.
- Animal Summoning 3: ifI remember correctly this can summon up 1-2 bears if you are lucky. I'll keep looking instead.
- Blade Barrier: this might be ok, but only if the enemy has no True Sight or siilar, AND has terrible saves, otherwise does nothing.
- Bolt of Glory: terrible casting time, questionable damage. I mean what's the use even if you pull thisout if it'll only deal 10 damage to a demon?
- Conjure Animals: guaranteed bear summon. At this level though, bears aren't THAT useful.
- False Dawn: terrible casting time, conditional, and might be redundant with Turn Undead.
- Harm: the ultimate Cheat Spell of non-mageling casters. 'Nough said.
- Heal: Sure, would be useful IF you'dhave slotsto memorize this. Skip.
- Physical Mirror: a pre-cast to protect from arrows. Sure will be useful a coupleof times, like at those WindspearHills orcs. But as you understand, it is conditional.
- Sol's searing orb: well, youcan pre-cast this for some extra damage. Not as good as putting a target to 1HP, but at least this won'tmake you reload a thousand times.
- Wondrous Recall: by theory this is a must-have. In practice, not that much. Sure, gaining back 2 spells is fun, but gaining back 2 Heal Minor Wounds is not. Skip this, unless you absolutely have to have as many spells as you can pack for not being able to sleep, or something.

The next logical step sounds Trademeet. More trolls, you know. I'll avoid the mushroom-people for the lack of firepower though. And if I find the place inconvenient, I might skip everybody, because why not.

Arriving in Trademeet shall start with running away, else a panther will attack us, and interrupt all casting.
Another problem is, the animals at the three (the other two) gates only spawn if you arrive visible. It's nothing major, but easy exp is easy exp.

Oh, a hint: do NOT pick up the Genie Embargo right away! The rasasha will smell it on you, and we need to lay traps!

To defeat the 2nd group of druids initiate the battle - you may start with a backstab with all their spellcasting kicking in giving you time. Then I sent in 4 skeletons, and their wasted all their spells on them. I waited until the summon(s) disappeared, summoned up moreskeletons, layed my traps, and finish the job.

Weird things:
- Cernd reacts to your skeletons (possibly any summon?) by casting charm/hold person/animal. I found it funny after realising it's not enemy activity.
- did you know you can backstab a myconid colony?

To note, I layed down the traps on the head of the Raksasha, and I had couple of spells left, but not enough to actualy advance, so I decided to try my luck. Rightous Magic, DUHM, Enchanted Hammer, Bless, then a backstab, reload until the hit lands. Still there's the random factor of the trap damage, but by 2-3 tries the "woman" actualy fell instantly. This caused its two brethren never to appear.
As the daos accepted the head, it put me in the position that this first time I didnot deal with the skinwalkers, so wether that quest will be available later, isanyone's guess.

I just realized I can go straight to Act3, the siding does not require me to delay it for the sake of the MaeVar quest. Nice!

Didn't know this, but turns out if you travel to anew area while leaving the previous sneaking, you arrive sneaking. This isn't a must thugh, you can escape to safe distance the raiding parties between areas, but is convenient, makes the Fallen Harpers quest easier to start.
I also did not know until now that you can sleep in the Necropolis (Graveyard District) undisturbed. I arrived there to pick up the Welly quest and potentialy others, but when leaving had to face the quest-enemies, butI had no spells to win there, so I tried and it worked.
Also worth noting despite having the money, arriving in the graveyards didn't initiate the Act 3 starting NPCs to appear.

I dunno the EE version, but in mine the Elemental Lich is horridly bugged.First: efreetis are horridly buggedwith their gasous form crap, and this lich has one summon. If you switch area and yu are chased by either the lich or the efreeti, they duplicate, not justfollow you. The efreeti will rush to you even if itdoesn't see you unless the pit fiend is around (reload until the fiend finishes the efreeti for good). The efreeti even turned infinite duration for me once, but I'm not sure if that was caused by gasous form change, or switching area. Both this efreeti and the lich can see the invisible, though the efreeti won't attack if you are invisible, the lich will both by melee or spells. The lich's held-effect doesn't work (fortunately)..
Whatever, it's over at least.

Battle story: when went to do the Meet With Mook quest, 3 random vampires ALSO showed up. I was sooo not happy... But solved it after a couple of reloads - a funny glitch here was, my traps I layed on top of the strairs of the docks (I expected the vampire attack from there) were moved to a slightly different location (which turned out a lucky thing with the 3 random vampire...).

At this point I had to juggle between the couple oftimed quests (Wellyns ghost and whatnot), the Sir Sarles quest (to not finish it, as I wannedthe Thief stronghold), the MaeVar quest, and theAct 3 quests. I decided to not report the 1st Act 3 success, so I didn't have to bother with the timing there.
For MaeVar's 2nd task you can switch floor, pause during the loading screen, then Hide at arrival, and do backstabs against the golems. Cheap, butI'm running thin on patience. I think I'll even let the Buried Alive guys run this once.

So, passing through Chapter 3 (or Act 3, or whatever), sorting things out, just minor things to mention:

- fortunately the Gain Back The Morningstar Ring quest'slast part canbe done any time, not just that night. Aim at start one oftha throwers, and use the mage for your advantage (pre-cast prot. from lightning, and watch out for Aganzanar's). If things go bad, try stepping through the door and hide.
- for the Tanner, at the bottom level right at arrival, I casted Sanctuary. I wouldn't bet on winning this fight. Fortunately you don't have to do it.
- when gaining the illithium, the easy thing is, to cast prot. negative plain, andblow up the ghosts. No rep-loss, 1500 exp per ghost is a good enough reward.

At the moment I have mostly random mob-fight left: Mencar Peblecrusher, the Spider Queen (no good idea for this one), Rogue Stone Doorway, Valeria (had an air servant running from the paladins, lured the team out, they have no magical weapons), Captain Dennis, Guarded Compound, the Windspear Key.

Proper quests left before moving out: Haer Dhalis, Planar Sphere (to behonest, I don't feel fond of this. I might skip it althogether), Beholder Cult, Immensvale, the Fallen Paladins (done), Windspear Hills (C/T is not a mage, so I'll probably skip the werewolves and the tomb-raiders).
Actualy, I start to worry a bit about my exp. I have 1mill+ on each class, but ye know, the cap is 8 mill with ToB, Watcher's Keep an' all...

War stories:
- in the sewers freeing the bard for my own amusement messed with the snake-people in the side-room. The melees were easy, but I hadabitof a trouble with the mages them being many. Sentin a skeleton to lure out their spells, they hit each other with skull trap, and started bashing each other for it. It took along while them being able to land a hit with roll 18+, but ithappened.
- Captain Denniscrew's magesalso caused trouble, so it was aboutal ot of reload. But once a lightning spell "missfired" and eliminated both casters from the game XD

lvl 7 spell analysis:
- Confusion: save negates
- Earthquake: takes forever to cast, can rise another enemy, self-dangerous (though not as much as with a party)... IF it can have the same appliance as a Fireball, it might have SOME use, but for a lvl 7 spell it's just bad.
- Finger of Death: everything meaningful will avoid the main effect, its damage is pretty negligable in itself, and there's no faster casting/continuous casting even in gear for "divine" casters. Because miracles don't happen.
- Fire Storm: it is fire damage, so it'll become obsolate.
- Gate: according to my experience, NPCs have no trouble disposing the creature.
- Greater Restoration: you can't cast it while under a condition, "divine" casters have no spell-containers to make it activate under conditions, makes you equaly fatigued as the "lesser" version, andI'm not sure if it rlymeans a full heal - and there's Heal just for that. I don't remember ever using this spell in any of my BG runs.
- Holy Word: the vanilla games had horrible coding for alignments, andI'll likely never have any idea what Hit Dice means, AND I bet things are immun to it anyway, so this spell is just not for me.
- Regeneration: sure, this exists.
- Resurrection: entirely useless in a solo play. Actualy only have use in a party, no-reload playthrough. Or I think it can be used in a quest, but as that's a quest, there's a Quest Item to solve that, so why bother?
- Shield of Archons: conditional buff against certain mages? Well, you'll use your7th lvl slots to summon devas,and elemental princes anyway, right?
- Sunray: ye, sure, this is a decent spell, though very late it comes. The other problem is, aside being able to just Turn Undead you know, is the longcasting speed. Anything above casting speed 3 is just not battle-compatible, and this is a battle-spell, not a buff.
- Symbol of Whatever: these usualy just bump into me with no noticable effect when I play. Or that's just me? In the end, I do not trust these buggers.

Note: Valygar resets to maximum health if you leave his house in Umar.
I went to Umar because somewhere I encountered a Shadow Fiend, and it blew up (by TU).

There is the room where you turn off the light in the Temple Ruins. Strangely the shadows spawning by this action were not effected by Turn Undead. It didn't stop me, but had to reload to summon up an army.
Also, good to know that you can "turn undead" twice, before hidingin shadow runs out. Usualy youneed the time to run out of sight after the 1st one, but that's not the point.

At the lava-room EVERYONE was able to see the invisible - I suspect bad coding. So I skipped them. The lich that was necessary to be disposed of got lured away, and an arial servant was strong enough to defeat it (helped by me removing illusions - I knew it'll be useful).

How about a bit of roleplay. For the inspiration of the Witcher, I'll not fight any dragon in this playthrough. This obviously means no messing with Demogorgon either, but what's the point of that anyway?

With Shield of Archons running, had time to summon an Aerial Servant, then blow up the minions including Patrick (clvl 14 Medic), then finished the fight surprisingly easy.
Then I got summoned back to the guildhouse. AndI remembered I totaly forgot, I'd to go to Waukeen at night.

To deal with the 1st Stronghold quest (ambush) just hide in shadows and walk away to prevent the event starting, precast what you want, and do your stuff.
Actualy, lay down 2 traps before walking away, because you can do that without trouble, and if they activate like they did for me, they'll rmeove all archer in the 2nd round (poison damage). Well, I have no real idea how traps work (how many targets they'll hit and all).

------------------

So, let's seemy options here:
- I can fight random people, in compound space, no chance to pre-cast (or have to pass doors andlure them). Not my favourite. This includes: Mencar Pebblecrusher, the Spider Queen, random crypts ( can't blow up greter? mummies yet, neither skeleton warriors), the rogue stone doorway (even if I could deal with thelich, the vampire, and by a lot of see-ya the mage, what to do with the beholder? Archon Shield only lasts so long). Tarnor's group could mostly be victim to an aerial servant, but what is the point?
The Guarded Compund would have all kinds of nasties, and even with pre-cast...
The benefit is also low on these.
- the Windspear Key is another of those pointless, hard struggels
- there's the Planar Prison. I could arrive under Sanctuary, if possible faketalk-steal the orb, Harm the cambion, and get out. Not too exciting.
- there's the Planar Sphere, but there are some obstacles, like you can not just abandone the quest, potentialy have to deal with giant golems (iron/adamantium), there are the two cowled wizards (ugh), and the question of the demon...
You know, I never just delivered Valygar's corpseto the wizards though that is an option.
- obviously could advance the main storyline, butit'd be convenient to just walk through the whole thing.
- and there's of course Windspear Hills. Should I attempt it? Could I deal with the knight at arrival? I have all these doubts.
- and obviously there's Watcher's Keep. I't be nice to reach the Machine of Lum for the extra stats. Interrestingly the Deck of Many Things have like no appeal, the extra wisdom wouldnot realy benefit at all. Heck, even if I'dhave all the bonuses (18 starting +3 tomes +1 MofL +1 DoMS), that'd only mean some extra 5th level slots, and who needs those?!?

Analysis of HLAs:
- skeleton warrior: for C/T it became a HLA. Yes, ridiculous.
- Aura of Flaming Death: the AC is... at best moderate, the casting speed makesit a buff, the fire damageis anything but impressive due to its element being resisted left-and right. The main appeal here is the immunity to normal weapons. Ah, I mixed someTears of Bhaal, and turns out 99% of characters will be immun to +1/0 weapons, so skip.
- Energy Blades: casting Speed being 3 is problematic, but more-or-less this is a must have as it deals some damage, and deals it from afar if you have to. It is a finishing move.
- globe of blades: I never seen anything damaged by it. In theory it can be an even better finisher than EB. In theory. UPDATE: I forgot the lvl 6 spell Blade Barrier. So skip.
- Implosion: too slow
- mass rise dead: obvious skip
- storm of vengeance: it is very slow to cast. The good news is, it is an area-spell, and can deal acidic damage. I should plan out what to do if anything at all with potential Desert Trolls...
UPDATE: looked into it, and yes, this is the only ability a "divine" caster can deal acid-or-cold damage. So pick this, OR avoid messing with the trolls at all, locking them into their room (Sanctuary comes to mind). Another place aside WK3 is the Marching Mountains where these buggers appear.
- elemental summoning: this'll pretty much be a must-have in later battles where you can pre-cast. The princes are behemots. Sure, the use therefor is reload-based.
- Summon Fallen/Deva: first, I have no idea how alignment-change might effect this spell. second, it is obviously a must have summon.
- Alchemy: even if you could choose what to create... Skip.
- Assassination: without gear this'll be absolutely useless.
- Avoid Death: it doesn't even make you avoid death, only gives you saving throw bonuses. Skip.
- Evasion: skip. AC is useless, and for saving throws there's reload.
- Use Any Item: ye, in a poverty run.
- scribe scrolls: again, even if you could pick what you create...
- set XXX traps: skip. everyone will be immun to fire (exploding), and even time-trap.
- set SPIKE traps: definitely, a lot of it. Though you might get away not picking these in the end, as you always will have Harm...

Tomorrow next thing to do is finish the Uneesing Eye quest (dispose the cult leader), and finish Kangaxx quest (if that's possible). Turns out Kangaxx is beatable - with a couple more 7th lvl slot filled with Energy Blades (yes, it does deal some damage). So, maybe try again at lvl22 in Medic. Also, with Skeleton Warriors summoned up, them with their MR do last fora while against that imprisonment-business.

The Planar Prison can be done. Arrive under Sanctuary, and go north. There isa safe space to summon up 4+ skeleton warrior, what is an overly effective army. Start sweaping up the opposition. Beware, the Master Thrall cansee the invisible! On the other hand if it hurts you, it doesn't hurt your skeleton army...
Against The Warden it isenough if you keep 2 warrior running. He has some fire shield and other means to cause damage. The most annoying aspect is some illusin spell, dispell those getting closer.

With clvl 16 in Medic I could blow up vampires, so harvest time. The Grimwarders got no effect (are they undead?), so summons were a must. A sligh, but very annoying problem is, when you THINK youswitch area (like going to the bottom floor of the vampires' home), but you actualy don't, and the summon-limit gets in the way.

Windspear Hills:
start by immediately casting an aerial servant, because it is faster than getting skeletons. You just pull it off, then run around to not get damaged. You might summon more stuff when you can to finish here faster.
Sneak into the dragon's lair. The random monsters don't worth the fuss.
Inside you can arrive stealthed, and buffed. Backstab one of the casters. If a mist wanders there, turn undead, no matter what.
Summon up a skeleton and clearyour way to the inside.
You have 2 choice: either have the Reverse Arrows buff running, or Sanctuary in. I'd do the later and skip the golems.
I bet Samia's quest can be done with 5 skeletons, or something. I don't realy care. Heck, they lost to 1 spike + 4 regular trap (said I'll take all the loot, so didn't have to bother with the Immortal Genies).
Pass the werewolves, get across the bridge. At the end of it, the orog group will aim atyou when you open the door forward, but you can close it behind you, so summon your skeleton wherewere you want. Dispose Tazok after this. And actualy, this ends this adventure if we want to.

Your hits will land every time if timestop works. Problem is the Immun to Time Stop enemies, which you want to hit, aka. all the bhaalspawn bosses and the ravager.

-----------------

Ok, face it: I won't get substantialy stronger from here. It's mostly picking more Spike Traps.
To test things out,, I think 'll get BladeBarrier, and Aura of Flaming Death and such crap, especialy as I simply nt that much in the need of HLAs, given Harm.
So it's time to advance the main plot. Sure, I've encountered some vampires I could NOT blow up in Windspear Hills, but I think I made them afraid, and that's equally good with summons (just don't do skeletons, I heared EE made TU party-friendly, but in my version it isn't - what can comein handy if I have theToo Many Summons problem).

But before taking the journey, I thought I'll check out how good the Skeletons are against Mind Flayers. Well - in contrary to the common belief - not much. Sure, they're pretty much immun to the initial mindblast and confusion, but otherwise they are easily shredded. By umber hulks too. 1 vs 5 is working, but don't push your luck.
PS: to get access to this part, had to dispose Tranor's group. Strange, how suseptible Devais to all kinds of conditions (fear, stun, hold).

NOTE: the tax-collector thief did not show up. I heared occasionaly he delays some days. We'll see what happens on this front when I arrive back, and I'll gather the next fiveday's income too. Will he ask for two period, one, or the game bugs out?
Also, I'm planning on skipping the Shark Kingdom for low exp, the beholder city being too tough, same with the illithids. I might evendecide to attack Adalon and skip the whole drow city! Although I barely have 4.4 million exp (2.2 in both classes). And have no idea how to beat the 3rdlevel of Watcher's Keep. I mean i can skip most of it by sneaking, drop large summons on the rest, negotiate with one group, blow up the wraith - but how to beat the tanari(?) group?? Heck, according to the wiki, I'd have to beat BOTH group (or Shadowkeeper my alignment to chaotic good, which would not change a bit of the outcomes yet, or further fortunately).

Right before leaving I realised there's free exp under the Graveyard (though I met a super-vampire which ran but not blew up), and if there, I tried my luck against the spider nest. Summoning a Dave (sufficiently low casting speed) at arrival, leaving, entering back stealthed worked.

Arriving at Pirate Island I did not monkey around (pun intended). Fortunately the Welcoming Wampires were the regular type (blown up).
With 3CHA I had no choice but get the Wardstone and enter that way.

Ginia for some reason was not at her place. This might have to do with I preemptivly disposed Chermy.

Went during night to Spellhold, thought that's a good thing, undeads can't pose a problem. Joke on me. Poison Mist wasn't effected at all, Wandering Horror fled.

On the Final Dream:
IF I could be sure to be able to reach the Machine of Lum, I'd give Constitution, probably. As I can not, and I can not give Charisma, I'll give Intellect.

Energy Blades is the perfet thing to deal with the place which stopps ever solo poverty monk. If you pause quick enough, you'll be able to dispose the myconids too.
Ah, and Lonk did not accept my bribe.

For the fight against Irenicus either have True Seeing (castat the end of the fight), or Deva running to be able to see the Murderes.

NOTE: Just so you know, despite peoplefigured out you can, I NEVER stack-cast spells.

Rescuing Phaere: lay 7 traps, get 5 skeletons, cast Chaotic Command. Also note that you can pass the hostile adventurer party by sneaking through them. I dunno what's the actiual time-limit, but the drow guy mentioned 12 hours, and that's barely enough for 1 sleep, and I arrived at Ust Natha pretty used.
Against the Eye Tyrant, and the Cult use your traps too, in time.

It isa good idea to take on the Kuo Toas, second reason (aside the blood-quest) being to clear the drow group at the exit. Teleporting there would just mean mess.

Drizzt offered his help IF I mentioned I helped him out in BG1 (which I either did or not).
When gathering allies though, NEVER hire the Order, as sooner or later their sword will activate, and that'll mean some extra enemies on your throuat, enemies who can't just blow up. Unless, of course, if you want that sword. In some regular solo playthrough it might be considerable.
Bodhi herself is very strong, make Drizzt (if he's still around) block her until you Energy Blades her.
Also take note that Grimwardens are NOT undead, so they won't blow up.

The only things left to do is Shuldanesselar, and Watcher's Keep. Even if I can not pass till the statboosts, early exp is early exp. Though I have ca. 6 million at the moment, so I have no worries for that.

Reaching the door of S. made me lvl22 Medic, what means 3 slot lvl7 spell, so I decided to check out Kangaxx.
Problem became a Crimson Death, which either is no undead, or unreachably high lvl,as it didn't even flinch on TU.
Problem with Kangaxx: you COULD win here IF you'd have 4*7th lvl spell slots. Then start with a bunch of Spike Traps, 5 minion, and energy blades. The traps get rid of his lich-form. There are 3 problems, namely Kangaxx NEVER moves in its demilich-form so you can't lureit to a second set of traps, the fact that imprisonment ignores magic resistence, and that reaching the end of your second set of energy blades K is at the border of Badly Hurt/Near Dead only, and you run out of minions. So you'd need an Archon Shield, AND a 3rd set of EB, but you simply can't have enough slots.
So the only thing you can do is turn Slayer if you want this badge.

Remember I suffered in Shulda... with my Sorcerer? It is even worse if you try to care, so I gave a flying F-bomb to the place, sneaking around whenever I could. House of Horn? Sanctuary. I mean those golems didn't even try to hurt those elves, probablythey just guarded some hostages for ransom. The head-elf (Demin)? Only gives info, so skip.
The house of Moonblade was especialy troublesome as the enemy outside (rakshasas) reset when leaving/entering (and I had my quicksave inside, and the archive save at entering the city). Fortunately they do follow you in, so cast 2-3 Aerial Servant and in small dozageslure them in. They ignored my summons, so it was a lot of running around Benny Hill-style. Skeletons are not good here, as they lack thac0 seemingly.
At the House of Harp I felt it would be safer to get rid of the golems in front of it, because I had only 1 Sanctuary left (which I even forgot about), and leaving the place sneak would have been risky given no chance to re-hide after it start to fade for stepping through the door.

Btw, at lvl24 Thief, I had all my thief-skills at 100%. So it still overflows.

For the Dragon: obviously it is convenient to give it everythingyou have. IF there's truly a gold-requirement too, I had no trouble reaching that, as not picking up a single coin, keeping everything from quests, spending when quest demanded it (and for inns for sleeping) I had ca. 40K gold. Before leaving to enter S., I sold the quest-items I had no chance to use, wear etc., and ended up almost 55K gold, I had a couple of leftovers for trophy sake, they all gone, except Falil of Ages, which according to this counts as a quest item for some reason. Remember: I never used these, just kept in the backpack so it gave me the feeling of progress.
But this dragon is a very good reason why the original inventor's of this challenge https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/258273-baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn/faqs/32480 rule about forcing you to drop gold is unnecessary. This moment is exactly like a forsight that someone stupid enough would come up with this nonsense challenge.

Before entering the Tree of Life, let's consider the consequences.
I mean I could retroactively reverse my alignemnt to Chaotic Good from Neutral Good. But at the Gate of Tears I'll turn Evil anyway (the only people who not turn evil are paladins, rangers - IF you don't want to be fallen, which I did once with paladin -, or people with the original games abusing the clockwise-bug (if you went from right to left you didn't change alignment independently from choice)), then I'm at the same with the dmeons of WK lvl 3.
But then I'll be Evil, that mean no more blowing up undeads unfortunately. But does is that a problem?
If I am correct, there area bunch of shadows at the start (unless the game rolls the alternatives of course), and maybe 1 room in lvl 2. Lvl 3 has the Master Wraith or what in the room right before the exit-room, but there controlling the ghosts could even be advantageous.

IT REALLY HAPPENED: I clicked on the stairs to Tree of Life, and the note came that my thieves did their 5 days cicle.

Let's analyse the Tear-rewards:
- Pride is obvious, I don't need the exp
- Greed is pretty obvious, saving throws are infintely better.
- Fear is not aproblem. I don't have high CON to be naturaly close to sleep-heal without casting DUHM, neither is a shorty-race, so immunity all the way.
- Selfishness would hurt me a lot and provide little, as the MR of it isn't compatible with the MR-spell. Inexchange it'd take away HD, AC, Thac0, all thieves skill... IF I'd wanna keep my undead-blowing skill because of too many undead, I could go for it, but nah.
- Wrath: CHA is worthless, even if we don't take into account Of Human Influence which never should have make the final cut. And WIS as I pointed out even with ALL the bonuses would only gain slvl5 slots, which I havemore than to know what to do with it. Even slvl 6 slots would be pretty meaningless. I'd accept slvl 7 slots, but I won't get those, will I?

So in theory I could keep my goody-good shoes on, but as it stands I won't even visit WK at all even, so why bother hesitating?

Other note is, that Medic-summons are flat-out immun to Sharevok here, so this is easy.
Also: for yelling at him, got +1 DEX. Dunno how the engine works, this might be because my Stornghold is Thief? Even if that's the case, that'd with all bonuses mean 24 WIS, and that's still no slvl7 slots.

Battle-story vs Irenicus (final):
Came up with 3 Aerial Servant, and 2 Skeletons, buffed myself with Energy Blades, and the group with prot. from evil. This was supposed to be a test-run which worked out, but that's why no Deva ormore buffs.
Knocking on the door, Irenicus appears, conjures up his demons. One of 'em aims at me (darn), and prevents mere-casting my Sanctuary which was taken away by this whole thing rolling. I start running around to get rid of Iranicus/Slayer's Mislead.
By the timeI succeed, Irenicus casts a Death Spell (!!! never seen that move!!!) and gets rid of ALL my summons. Wonderful, isn't it.
I start running to my heap of pre-layed traps, hoping they'll be enough to get rid of the boss, and getting rid of him would eliminated the cohorts too.
And it worked. I think he teleported there? I was worried for a second a demon would waste all my efforts.
Ironic, isn't it?

So now I'm in Tob. I bet it'll be pretty easy. I'll trap and Harm my way through under the umbrella of sanctuary. That's what a real cleric (thief subclass) would do, right? Sitting in a sanctuary, dealing harm to the world! #RolePlay

I wonder. Summoning up Imoen temporarily joining up, would count her as a quest-item? Because of the soul-part.

To beat the 1st Seal: summon up 5 Aerial Servants. It doesn't matter all that much, as both them and skeleton warriors will get hurst since the archers appear, and you'll start to have trouble with the Order. The "good" thing is, aerials start to die during the archers, so recast is easier - that time come up with skeletons and help your crew with energy blades. That thing is awesome.

I have at this point ca. 7 million exp.

Arriving at Saradush: cast Energy Blades before leaving the Pocket Dimension - this will put on you Improved Haste walk speed, so you can get away, summon up some creatures, thus survive.
Then you probably wantto visit the Tavern as customary. Bring there your remaining summons, andlureout the two pestering soldiers to them to deal with.

Then it is about gettng key, getting into the castle. If your reputation is not at max, remember you can refill it by 2 (resurrect the kid's father, save the elves).
For this, a note: you do NOT need any resurrection-spell memorized! It happens narratively, so merely being the right class is enough!

Getting the Sewer Keyis troublesome, and not being a mage makesit disadvisable. So go the prison, which route I maybe took once until now, so this was an exploration. There aresome vampires here, so keep being hidden, and close doors behind yourself to cut off surprises.
Start fromthe entrance go right (east). There'll be a secret door, pass that, navigate all the way aroundon the north to west, where the exit is. This'll put you in a tunnel, which connects to the cellarlevel of Gromnir's castle. You need immediately go up (north), as that's the shortest route, but there'san alarm, and you'll be revealed, and even if you try Sanctuary you'dneed space to prepare... So just summon your army and clear the way.

Gromnir Il-Khan:
This was almost easy. I buffed myself with Barkskin (like that counts), rightous magic, bless and energy blades. Put on Sanctuary and walked up, skipping the pre-fight on the ground floor.
Went to the farthes corner (there's no Fog Of War aside around the stairs here, which I knowbecause anarcher managed to get covered) and summoned a Deva. My plan was to throw 9 discs (I think that's your attack perround with it, I had 2 casting), then summon an aerial (I had4 left, 0 skeletons), continue with this cycle.
For some reason I could dispose the mages without problem. Then to rise the lasting of the summons thinnedout the smaller enemies. At onepointI ran out of minions, but managed to gain distance and the enemies expired aside Gromnir to summon another aerial, and a bit later a second. Then as the blades/Xena-chacrams ran out, casted Spiritual Hammer to help out.
Gromnir quaffed a ton ofpotions, but I won.

North Forest:
Cast Sanctuary and skip the area. Your arenot oblieged to get the info here, simply advance.

Forest of Mir and the Master Wraith:
This place becomes a joke with Evil Cleric. You take control of his minions, and shred the place. Ok, you shred the MW, and the undead adventuring party. The rest ismostly invulnerable to each other. And they might be useful when you return.
Advance.

Marching Mountains:
Conjure up Sanctuary + prot from fire, go in, pick the first two wardstone, activate the gongs. Summon up an army, and take on the monsters in the siderooms: Fell Cats and Burning Skulls can see the invisible. This isn't a guaranteed win, what means you have to actively control the situation. This means refilling ranks, and energy blades.
You don't have to worry about the newly arriving monsters, none can see invisibility.
Go in get to safe place, dispose the giants on the corridor so they can't surprise you. There's the problem of theF ell Cats (there are 2, lay some traps on the corridor), butnot the local boss, but actualy who cares - the cats are weak to your summons, and you can always hop to the pocket dimension to refill your spells. Fight, or just try to pick up the hearts, then get out. First get the one on the bed, as you canget there without any monster in the way. DUHM gives you the proper STR to open the door.

Forest of Myr:
Remember your job is only to destroy the hearts, probably destroy Nyalee, and get out. So grab whatever undead is there, lay 7spike traps on Nyalee (the evil TU is permanent? Idid not need to uphold TU on them while laying my traps), talk to the witch, get out while your monsters hold up the other monsters. A Chaotic Command might be useful in case a nymph tries to charm you.

Yaga Sura
hit him with an Energy Blade, retreat to your summons, murder the heck out of it when it reappears (summoninga Deva on its head helps). Possible use of traps. Use traps either way,maybe spreaded to 2-3 groups, so you have a chance to cause atleastsome damage, and/or eliminate a coupleof soldiers coming from the wrong direction.

Oasis
cast Sanctuary and skip it

Amkethran
What happens if I just skip the whole town? Sure, I must save Saemon outside, but I'm notsure I have to deal with the smuggler. So skip.
Btw, the Major's Daughter quest can be left alone if you go around far enough. TheMajor speaks with you automaticaly, and then you must speak with the soldiers? If there's no time limit on that, none shall care forthiswhole thing. the reason for even touching the subject of course is the potential need of reputation, which I'm not sure still has any consequence in ToB.
NOTE: changed my mind, tried my luck with the smugglers. The goal is to keep theirleader alive, and that means using Energy Blades. Fortunately they have low HP being monks.

NOTE: the monk vs priest quarrel is unavoidable sitting in your way. It doesn't really matter though as there's 2 more reputation to get. And we don't exactly plan on constantly turning Slayer, right?

Sendai
- Force-attack the woodsman outside. Prepare with traps - theanimals aroundthe house will turn to drow, try placing traps in twos to cause the most damage. Help your summoned army with Energy Blades.
- Have Sanctuary AND keep stealthing, otherwise monsters will gather around you. This way you can reach to the Keansai's place. Stay at the door - so you only see 1 drow -, and come up with a Deva. Have Energy Blades on you to help it. Start casting whatever summons you have left (start with skeletons, continue with Aerial Servants). That's it.
- To get to the slave-tunnels you might try 2 things: 1 is casting sanctuary, stepping out, stepping back after the cutsceen, stealth, stepping out - this time the stealth does not immediately disrupted -, use the time to get to the tunnels.
The other methodis safer, asthere's no threat the monsters mob at the doorway: put on Sanctuary AND Energy Blades. Now you can run past the monsters. Then run past the tunnel without doing anything. It's actualy ridiculous, and probably an oversight you don't even have to deal with the headof the tunnel.
- to deal with thelich you don'tneed big brains. Lay down some traps (3 spike is enough), and use the Fog of War to escape the effects of its spells. Cast Remove Fear to prevent that effect. It'll come to touch you with maze/imprisonment as usual, and that finishesit. It doesn't even have a Mislead.
- Ogremoch: traps
- Diaytha: you only have to remove HER, not the whole mob. That half the crew cansee the invisible let's you lure them out, and the vampire is undead. She barely has any interresting spells. The only real trouble wouldbe the beholder, but we can skip it as it does notmove, and is in the back.
- the duel: as soon as you enter you can pause and start summoning a Deva. The engine givesyou enough time for this. Also pre-cast Rightous Magic and Energy Blades. You don't need anything more. After this comes some familiar mindflayer-business.
- Sendai:
#1 enter with EnergyBlades equipped, Remove fear buff. Immediately pause, and start summoning not-Deva (doesn't rly matter if aerial or skele). Get some distance and/or keep disrupting her casting. Keep summoning things till the limit.
#2-3 get rid of the minions coming in, SAVE. Put all summons to the #1 platform and send ONE to the fog. It gets Death Spelled. Send in the rest. Hidden in shadows check how many summons you have left. Sendai tends to charm(?) exactly 1 Deva/Aerial (maybe skele too?), so that comes down. Lay 4 traps at the entrance, and 2 on the platform visible from the entrance. Later willseriously hit #3 but not finish it, meaning you don't immediately have to dealwith double amount of minions. Only hold up 4 summons.
When Sendai #2 is down hope the arriving mage will be annihilated. If not, expect a Death Spell annihilating your army. Don't worry, that's why we started summoning the deva when Sendai #2 got close perishing.
Eliminate Sendai #3 and all the minions, then SAVE.
#4-5: This was when I managed to SAVE next. The non-mage Sendais can't bypass invisibility, so if you have to hop to sleep, you won't rly get into too much trouble.
#6: if you are lucky (this one is a teleporting archer), you can stay on the top of the screen, letting you SAVEafter you eliminate the arriving minions. As #8 is that problematic you probably want to lay 7 traps on the northern platform, and hope she'll teleport on it, finishing this ridiculousness. #7 is nothing special.
You can NOT entrap Sendai #8 when she appears, she becomes immun too fast.
Note: after #7 no more minion appear.
Note: using Evil TU is very advantageous here. One of the problem with Sendai is her unlimited summons. Half the time sheputs out skeleton warriors, which you can turn against her. This doesn't realy awinning condition, but relieves some pressure from your own troops, fill in their ranks, and pushes her to twist her onix ring - aka. teleport to a new platform. Hopefuly to the northern,trapped one.

Draconis
I just hate this fight. Big D is so broken, it's unbelievable. That's one thing his hits can't hitme, but his spell can. He of course has unlimited spells. And unlimited summons. And he has no restriction on the limit of summons, atone moment he had now TWENTY. Andnot just even Invisible Stalkers which are already annoying, but EFREETES. Ye, the Immortal Summons. And at point he somehow became immun to Energy Blades like FOREVER. Idunno whatdi he cast. AND he has Death Spell, meaning aside from Deva nothingis useful here (maybe elemental princes? I should try that spell someday).
So what I did was when things got out of hands ranaway, ported to pocket, slept, returned,summond Deva and Energy Blades, and destroyed the human form ASAP. No buff, just headfirst rush. Then camparound my pre-layed 7 traps which he walked into. Done.

Werewyvern
This bugger sees the invisible. To solve this first cast Energy Blade for the haste effect. Upon entering immediately pause, then run backwards - there's somespace you can run to to get out of sight. Summon upa bunch of things for meat-shield. EB the heck out of it. And while you are at it, clearthis hub just for convenience.

Abazigail's Lair
- first tunnel: cast sanctuary and pass. The bonegolems (NOT undead) will senseyou, but if you got the immunity fromthe Tears that's no issue, and they'll piss off when you swim back.
- second tunnel is thekuo-toas', so summon up an army. The water elementals will decimate your troops, but whatever. Sleep if you need more summons.
- third tunnel leads to the eyes. As we all know with don'tmess with the eyes, so they don'tmess with us. That means Sanctuary. Contract the quest for convenience-sake. Trade the scroll for the wardstone. Now we can enter. Obviously dispose the salamanders first.

Abazigail
This moronic beast poses a couple of problems, like:
- you can not hit it with your thac0. Though somehow I pulled out a critical with only a roll of 19.
- pretty much the only thing thatcan hit it is theDeva
- Globe of Blades is not party friendly
- Abuse-igal can see the invisible
- Abuse-igal prevents you from leaving the area
- Abuse-igal cansee you from out of sight, ti. he'll chargeyou in the entire arena, head-first
So the solution is to lay 7 SpikeTraps, then cast Harm, and hit him. Reload until you roll a critical. That's it.

memorization
Note: Obviously, with doing less/almost none frontline action, some things got changed.
lvl 1: 2*bless (previously 1), 2*remove fear, 2-3 Sanctuary, 2*Armor ofFaith (never used), Heal Minor Wounds the rest
lvl 2: 2*Chant, 2*Barkskin (actualy, 1 was and would be enough), 1*DUHM, 1*Flame Blade (for the occasional troll), 1*silence, Spiritual Hammer the rest (what is overdoing it, but there's no good spell here, could insert Aid)
lvl 3: 1*protection from fire, Animate Dead the rest
lvl 4: 1*Negative Plane Protection, 1*Death Ward (just in case, never used), 1*protection from lightning, 1*defensive harmony (it's an extra buff, and there's plenty of slots), 1*protection from evil 10 foot radious, Cure Serious Wounds the rest
lvl 5: 2*ChaoticCommands, 1*Resist Magic, 2*Rightous Magic, 1*True Seeing, 2*Cure Very Serious Wounds
lvl 6: 1*Harm, Aerial Servant the rest
lvl 7: 1*Deva, 2*Energy Blades

Balthazar
You might try to enterwith Saemon. No idea how to storm the frontgate, or where would you come out from the cave of the undeads.
Have Energy Blade for its Improved Haste effect. Runaway, summon something. As farasI cansee summoning Aerial cannot be disrupted, so my vote goes there.While they are busy with your summonrun in to boss arena. Lay down your traps. Probablyagood ideato cast Chaotic Command, and maybe FreeAction? Alsofound EnergyBlade useful as it preventedBalthazar casting magic missles + Bigbi's Hand, and instead pushed away everybody, and started running around, straight on my traps. The end.

What remain are the Challenges. Yes, they are demanded to complete.

Challenge 3
1vs 1 fight. The summons can dealwith it. Wouldhave been easier if Innocence Slayer wouldn't only concentrate on me., or theDeva could have had a better position amongst the Aerials. Helped out with Energy Blades.
After the fight had to rest twice: once to memorize Restoration, second to get rid of the fatigue.

Challenge 5
Either my game buggedout, or this fight is unwinnable with this build.
One: the Ravager obviously does no move.
Two: traps are out of options either way.
Three: even the Deva can't hurt the beast.
Four: the Ravager is immun to Harm.

Quick theorycrafting, just to plan ahead, I'll exchange this stuff with progress.

- Challenge 2: have True Sight running, Harm the Evil Self, the rest is probably manageable
- Challenge 4: maybe it's not THAT bad. Have True Sight running, but your summons sohuld solve this.
- Amelissan: traps for the 2-4 turns. Who know what beats her first time, because Harm won't.