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Chomp8645 posted:I know that Jaheira is reputed to be a pretty strong character when used correctly, can anyone tell me what a good combination of gear/strategy for her is? Give her one of the strength belts, a shield and scimitar and fill up her fifth level spellslots with the ironskin spell. Low AC and when she does get hit it'll just take out one of the skins. edit: Sixth level spell slots I usually fill up with fire elementals
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| # ? May 15, 2009 16:38 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 12:18 |
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Pimpmust posted:Summoned undead works pretty well against Illithids, as they have no brains to drain. This is incorrect, Skeleton Warriors have an INT of 16 and die when it is drained. Mordenkainen's Swords have an undrainable INT of 25 and are so pretty unbeatable against Illithid. Beelzebub posted:Anyone here ever soloed as a sorcerer? I've reached chapter 3 of BGII, but I think I would like to start again and solo the game. I would like to create a character that can lvl fast, and devistate the hell out of enemies before they even let out a whimper. Level 1: Identify, Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Charm Person (should have taken Sleep), Protection from Evil Level 2: Agannazar's Scorcher, Knock, Mirror Image, Resist Fear, Web Level 3: Fireball, Haste, Skull Trap, Slow Level 4: Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin Level 5: Breach, Lower Resistance, Protection from Normal Weapons, Sunfire Level 6: Death Spell, Protection from Magical Weapons, True Sight Level 7: Mordenkainen's Sword, Project Image, Khelben's Warding Whip Level 8: Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Spell Trigger Knock is essential, as are Stoneskin and Mirror Image. Sunfire is absolutely essential as it's the only way to kill magic-resistant creatures quickly - since getting Spell Trigger I've always had one ready filled with 3 Sunfires. It's been fun to play but kind of repetetive. I've tried to not have every fight be me casting Alacrity and 5 Dragon Breaths or resort to cheese in hard fights and send in 20 Planetars via Projected Images.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 17:34 |
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reflir posted:Give her one of the strength belts, a shield and scimitar and fill up her fifth level spellslots with the ironskin spell. Low AC and when she does get hit it'll just take out one of the skins.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 18:22 |
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Iggles posted:Yes! I'm in the middle of ToB with my solo Sorcerer in fact. SoA wasn't very difficult but I have played it a million times and so kind of know what's what. I would agree with the people above who have said you should play a party through first. Also, I didn't really find him that ultra-powerful (in SoA anyway, I didn't level him up past 3mil until ToB) Well, that'd be it. If you're soloing and know the game well enough, you can reach 3,000,000 XP in chapter two. Personally I find that to be where most of the fun of soloing comes from, so I always level up asap.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 18:33 |
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physeter posted:Has anyone ever tried to take Jaheira DW with points in club, scimitar and dagger? Looks like it's time for another playthrough. By the time ToB rolls around, no matter how good your AC is, the enemies you have to worry about are probably going to hit you anyways. Having her dual wield is a good way to increase damage output. Spectral Brand and Belm, I suppose, would be the obvious choices here.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 18:37 |
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Selane posted:Well, that'd be it. If you're soloing and know the game well enough, you can reach 3,000,000 XP in chapter two. Personally I find that to be where most of the fun of soloing comes from, so I always level up asap. I *had* the exp, I just didn't use it as it would have made the game ridiculous.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 19:20 |
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It's 8 hours since I read this thread. In that time I've installed BG1, expansion, BG2, expansion, easytutu and half a dozen mods. Time to my first death? 5 minutes after walking out of candlekeep when I angered a bear and one shooted me. A new record. I had an issue with the game crashing when I clicked on certain characters- taking it down to 1024x768 fixes that, though it makes walking around maps slower. Playing with the NPC patch adds SO much to the game. I now consider it essential. If you've never played BG1 with the NPC chatter it's worth it to hear them yelling at each other. Now I'm Nashkel and off to save the Witch. Playing as a Good Fighter and I think I'll multiclass to Thief around level 6. What level do people multiclass Imonen to mage?
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| # ? May 15, 2009 20:18 |
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Iggles posted:Yes! I'm in the middle of ToB with my solo Sorcerer in fact. Sorcerer with Improved Alacrity, Time Stop, Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power is hilarious "Hello Mr. Dragon." *Cast every spell in your spell book* "Goodbye Mr. Dragon." And if you have high Wisdom and Wish... Well it's beyond broken. General Emergency fucked around with this message at May 15, 2009 around 20:26 |
| # ? May 15, 2009 20:23 |
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Comstar posted:
I think level 5 is the traditional time to dual Imoen.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 20:35 |
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physeter posted:I think level 5 is the traditional time to dual Imoen. I would actually go with lvl 4 here. You don't need skills from a thief past level 4 and Imoen is a fantastic mage in BG1 when dual-classed, so the earlier the better!
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| # ? May 15, 2009 20:43 |
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reflir posted:The problem is that basically all of the kits suck poo poo from a gameplay perspective. The bonuses are too small and the penalties too steep. So are there any decent Kit mods out there to check out?
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| # ? May 15, 2009 21:44 |
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Any good class guides out there, that aren't Dan Simpson? I'm having trouble pulling the trigger on a class to take through the game.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 22:17 |
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Ashenai posted:Bard. Don't play a bard unless you hate yourself. Don't listen to these guys, some of my most fun playthroughs were always bards. Not Blades either, Skalds mostly. Jesters are actually pretty decent in that their song improves and adds more and more status effects as you level up. 2nd edition bards are awesome because they really were jacks of all trades, as they are purported to be. They can learn spells from scrolls and cast like a regular wizard, plus there's some neat bard-only items and instruments. Not like the crap we got with 3rd edition, where they became universal pansy wannabe enchanters, cast like sorcerers, and can only cast lovely charming spells that everybody and their mom saves against. This game isn't THAT hard and you hardly need to min/max to beat it. Keep in mind you can have up to 5 party members, the majority of whom are rather overpowered. If it really gets bad you can always put it on easy. Regarding Baldur's Gate 1: It's not that bad. At the time it was considered great because there was nothing else really like it. With age it's mellowed a bit, but its still quite a bit of fun. I never completed the game but I got a good 3/4 of the way through it, and instead of the sometimes angsty  -inducing plot driven style of BG2 it's much more open-ended and lets players fill in the blanks. It is low-level D&D though, and comes with all the problems of that. I'm pretty sure the reason why there are so many more NPCS in BG1 than BG2 is because they expected you to get a lot of people killed saving your own skin. Especially considering how ludicrously expensive raising is in that game and the fact most enemies can one-shot all but the strongest characters with a Leonard Leroy posted:Any good class guides out there, that aren't Dan Simpson? I'm having trouble pulling the trigger on a class to take through the game. At least, that's how it is for me.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 22:31 |
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I know, that's why I'm asking for another broad class overview guide that isn't Dan Simpson, so I could read up on every class, again, before I pull the trigger, again. I've played through BG 2, 3 times fully, and BG 1, once.
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| # ? May 15, 2009 23:18 |
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Shugojin posted:Chaotic Commands helps, but the only way to defend against their INT-draining one is to not get hit by them. Will the brine potions you find in one of the illithid lairs (don't remember if it's the one beneath Athkatla or the one in the Underdark) protect against the INT-drain or only the charm/domination?
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| # ? May 15, 2009 23:44 |
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It's in the Underdark Illithid lair and it only protects against the psionics, not the INT-drain-on-hit
Iggles fucked around with this message at May 15, 2009 around 23:58 |
| # ? May 15, 2009 23:55 |
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I'm about to play through with a friend. I'm going to be playing a monk, any good suggestions/overpowered builds to use? I know he wants something mage related.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 00:29 |
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juny bug posted:overpowered ... mage related. The world may never know.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 00:38 |
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Is there a select all hotkey that I'm missing or do I have to press that button every time?
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| # ? May 16, 2009 04:20 |
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Leonard Leroy posted:Is there a select all hotkey that I'm missing or do I have to press that button every time? Hit = on the top row of your keyboard. 1-6 select the person in that position; 7, 8 and 9 select 12, 34 and 56 respectively. 0 and - are 123 and 456.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 04:29 |
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juny bug posted:I'm about to play through with a friend. I'm going to be playing a monk, any good suggestions/overpowered builds to use? I know he wants something mage related. Any mage build is overpowered. Well, unless you start as a mage and then dual-class to something else. That would be pretty stupid, I guess.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 04:48 |
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Leonard Leroy posted:Is there a select all hotkey that I'm missing or do I have to press that button every time? In addition to the hotkey mentioned above, there is a keyboard hotkey editor in the ToB configuration program. You can remap almost every function except screen scrolling which is permanently bound to the arrow keys for some reason.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 05:09 |
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Leonard Leroy posted:Is there a select all hotkey that I'm missing or do I have to press that button every time? Yes! It's in the very bottom right, next to the Toggle AI button
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| # ? May 16, 2009 08:16 |
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Leonard Leroy posted:I know, that's why I'm asking for another broad class overview guide that isn't Dan Simpson, so I could read up on every class, again, before I pull the trigger, again. http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/index_tips2.php Go here and download "Riverwind's Guide to Character Classes". The commentary on each class is short but the guide neatly shows you what hp, thac0 , saves and other things every class ends up with. Also touches on various multi and dual classes.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 08:19 |
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I'm trying to do the fight before what I'm guessing is the final boss in Watcher's Keep, but when I turn the key it only has about a 25% chance of actually spawning the enemies I'm supposed to fight. The rest of the time it hides the UI and locks the screen without actually spawning them or putting me in combat. Any ideas?
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| # ? May 16, 2009 10:51 |
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WanderingKid posted:Yeah. I mean you can kill liches in BGII at like, level 8 and smoke Dragons with a level 1 spell if you know what you are doing. Part of the difficulty of BG is trying to force a strategy that isn't working. In BGI its rough for a level 1 at first but avoid what you can't kill now and come back for revenge later. I left the Doomguard for ages and just walked around it until I was strong enough to kick him to the curb. I agree with this. While I probably prefer BG2 overall I find the low level stuff a lot more exhilarating, especially since SoA and ToB just becomes 'buff fighters with same 6-7 spells, fighters chunk enemies mage fires magic missile' for me after a while. I realise that is a limitation of my playing style and I'm going to try to change things up this install but I actually like the terror of running from wolves frantically trying to get a lucky arrow off with 3/12 hp left. Probably the most intense experience I have had in a game was hilariously that pathetic encounter you have West of Nashkel where a wandering Paladin asks you to help her kill some gibberlings. Normally it's a lame encounter with 4-5 easy to kill gibberlings, but with SCS mod and core rules it became insanely fun, with waves gibberlings surrounding your party and forcing you to come up with all sorts of strategies and make full use of your spellbooks and scrolls. I was so proud to figure out a way to not lose a party member in that battle, and definitely gained a newfound respect for 'Grease'. edit: forgot to add an early game tip that I didn't see mentioned in the previous thread and I don't think I've seen in any walkthroughs - If you go back to Candlekeep from the first map and talk to the guard he will give you 100gp which helps out a little outfitting your party at the Friendly Arm Inn. Smorgasbord fucked around with this message at May 16, 2009 around 13:34 |
| # ? May 16, 2009 13:12 |
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Regarding BG2 versus BG1: I realize this probably puts in a tiny minority, but I actually preferred the story in BG1 to BG2. Irenicus is fondly remembered by most RPG fans as a great villain. I think owes more to David Warner than the character itself. Irenicus is an exiled wizard who was cast out from his community for using destructive magic to obtain godhood. . That's pretty standard stuff-power hungry wizard wrecking poo poo. BG1's main villain, Sarevok, has a similar, boring motivation. But I think it's handled in a much more interesting fashion. Whereas Irenicus uses magic-babble to try to achieve his ends-killing the tree of life, or whatever, and stealing your soul with a scary spell, Sarevok is more of a schemer. He tries to engineer a war from behind the scenes all while presenting himself as a concerned and noble business and political figure. In fact, I think BG1 would have been a much better game had it dropped the Bhaal business and made Sarevok and the Iron Throne a more mundane group, concerned with accruing political power instead of godhood. .
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| # ? May 16, 2009 13:24 |
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prometheusbound posted:Regarding BG2 versus BG1: The stories in both are fairly lame, and both villains end up being memorable largely because of the job their voice actors did, although I'm pretty sure Kevin Michael Richardson's voice + BG1 = YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH for most of us.  I mean, BG1 has a story with some good potential, but considering that the plot is hidden behind what amounts to I think 5 or 6 chapters of "go here, kill stuff until you find some letters" it's hard to call it good. poo poo, most of the plot exposition comes from a guy at the very near end.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 13:53 |
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It's asked EVERY thread multiple times, but Dualing Kensai to Mage. Really don't want to wait to dual since I'm doing random quests and just levelling as quick as I had hoped to (really don't need a full party, so I should really just ditch some people). Level 9, or Level 13 to get an extra attack?
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| # ? May 16, 2009 13:53 |
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KGBAgent185 posted:It's asked EVERY thread multiple times, but Dualing Kensai to Mage. 13 if you don't mind a bit more struggle in the early/mid game. The extra attack and improved THAC0 are nice, especially for fights that you don't want to expend buffs on. You also get at least one more weapon proficiency pip, so that's kind of cool. Just try to time it so that your main character isn't stuck with an inactive Kensai class when clearing out Illithids and stuff in the Underdark.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 14:27 |
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Buff Butler posted:13 if you don't mind a bit more struggle in the early/mid game. The extra attack and improved THAC0 are nice, especially for fights that you don't want to expend buffs on. You also get at least one more weapon proficiency pip, so that's kind of cool. I'm really hoping that I have enough scrolls to go through the first level or two just writing scrolls with him being the only member of the party. I already powergamed a bunch of poo poo in the beginning already though, stealing a shitton of gold and buying a piece of the Balduran gear making Korgan almost unhittable at this point in the game. I still only did like 2 major quests so far in chapter 2 and am already back up to almost 30k gold, so it's not like I spent too much time screwing around buying stuff I shouldn't have easily afforded yet. There is just so bloody much you can do in Chapter 2 around the city alone it's a bit maddening trying to remember everything. I went to Umar hills and just turned around and left because I didn't want to do the Valgyar/planar sphere stuff till I have the mage class so I can do that stronghold. Not sure if I did the quest before being a mage if it'd work for being a stronghold.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 14:41 |
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prometheusbound posted:BG1's main villain, Sarevok, has a similar, boring motivation. But I think it's handled in a much more interesting fashion. Whereas Irenicus uses magic-babble to try to achieve his ends-killing the tree of life, or whatever, and stealing your soul with a scary spell, Sarevok is more of a schemer. He tries to engineer a war from behind the scenes all while presenting himself as a concerned and noble business and political figure. In fact, I think BG1 would have been a much better game had it dropped the Bhaal business and made Sarevok and the Iron Throne a more mundane group, concerned with accruing political power instead of godhood. . I think this is a problem of expectations as much as anything else; suddenly realising that your parochial problems are actually a consequence of a huge world, changing event does put a new spin on some things - but when you evaluate the story as a whole then it doesn't seem that special, especially when you've got BG2 bringing up the rear where you kill Bhaalspawn, wizards imbued with the power of the tree of life, vampires, elder orbs and all kinds of crap. A bog standard "epic RPG" is not the way to look at BG1, ideally. KGBAgent185 posted:I'm really hoping that I have enough scrolls to go through the first level or two just writing scrolls with him being the only member of the party. If you're willing to spend a large amount of gold on it, just delete and rewrite. MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at May 16, 2009 around 15:24 |
| # ? May 16, 2009 15:21 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:I think this is a problem of expectations as much as anything else; suddenly realising that your parochial problems are actually a consequence of a huge world, changing event does put a new spin on some things - but when you evaluate the story as a whole then it doesn't seem that special, especially when you've got BG2 bringing up the rear where you kill Bhaalspawn, wizards imbued with the power of the tree of life, vampires, elder orbs and all kinds of crap. That BG1 wasn't a "bog standard epic RPG" is precisely why I think it's a better story than BG2. I think BG2 kind of lost the plot after a while. I mean, after a while, fighting liches and beholders didn't feel that much more compelling than fighting ogres or gnolls.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 15:25 |
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Shugojin posted:YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH for most of us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93XFxKXdbqY
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| # ? May 16, 2009 17:59 |
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prometheusbound posted:
Actually I'd disagree there - but only really if you started out with the wolves and gnolls and kobolds in BG1. Going from that to having power to rival the gods is a journey, if you start from being a godchild with enormous power it's not exactly the same trip.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 18:09 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Actually I'd disagree there - but only really if you started out with the wolves and gnolls and kobolds in BG1. Going from that to having power to rival the gods is a journey, if you start from being a godchild with enormous power it's not exactly the same trip. Well since we love black boxes on this page. This is really my favorite part of Baldur's Gate. You start as a no one with no power running away from wolves and in the end the most powerful people in the realm throw everything they have at you and you just shrug it off. I don't think I would've enjoyed SoA as much as I did if I hadn't played Baldur's Gate first and on the other hand when I went back and played Baldur's Gate again I enjoyed it more than I did the first time I played it. Baldur's Gate, Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal are all good games with nice stories but put together they are awesome.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 18:26 |
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SOS halp The last two times I installed BG2 on two different computers (both vista), when I start the game I can't interact with anything. I can't talk to anyone, I can't open loot boxes, I can't attack poo poo, etc. Please for the love of god if you know what is causing this help.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 18:51 |
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General Emergency posted:Well since we love black boxes on this page. This is why I think people should play BG1 first. It's really not that difficult and all those encounters that people in the thread have complained about can really be avoided if you play smart. The very first area you in that's not Candlekeep proper is a road that you've been waylayed on, had your father killed and are running scared. In that situation if you do what makes the most sense, stick to the roads and get to civilization you'll have a much easier time of it rather than if you randomly decide to wander off. The Ogre is really just saying "You probably shouldn't wander too far off if this is your first time because we'll surprise sex you if you do. Once you know the ropes you'll breeze through this poo poo" edit: Also the characters are really the best part of the Baldur's Gate series and the first time you meet Minsc in BG2 is much, much better if you know who he is because you have a history with him in BG1. Same with other characters like Xzar and Edwin Ddraig fucked around with this message at May 16, 2009 around 19:10 |
| # ? May 16, 2009 19:03 |
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Also running away really does work wonders.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 19:06 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 12:18 |
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Last year I played BGTutu for the first time along with TotSC and really enjoyed it. I imported my character (wild mage) into BG2 and started that but never really got into it. I reckon I might give it a go again now my exams are finished. What would people recommend to stop me getting bored / overwhelmed? I think the main issue I had last time was getting bogged down in all the sidequests in Baldur's Gate near the start of the game and also being kind of unhappy with the NPCs available to me a that point. Also not being able to cast any spells was pretty gay.
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| # ? May 16, 2009 19:17 |
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