|
kingcom posted:Just to confirm the canonical party is CharName, Imoen, Jahiera, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir right? That should be reasonable to go with as Jahiera can mostly cover the cleric bases for BG1 anyway. TotSC demon boss of bullshit may be tough but otherwise your fine. Yes exactly, thanks.
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 15:52 |
|
|
Where is that written as canon? The only NPCs in that list that I have ever seriously used are Minsc and Jaheira.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:04
|
|
God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
|
Well, the people who get captured with you and are therefore in the dungeon when you wake up are Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, and Khalid, and Minsc says that Dynaheir died during the kidnapping, so that's where it's written.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:06
|
|
|
They were the 5 that were with you when you were captured at the start of BG2. Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira escape with you, Khalid and Dynaheir get murdered.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:06
|
|
|
pogothemonkey0 posted:Where is that written as canon? The only NPCs in that list that I have ever seriously used are Minsc and Jaheira. As others have written, the five people in Irenicus' dungeon fill all five available party slots sooooo math.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:13
|
|
|
TomWaitsForNoMan posted:They were the 5 that were with you when you were captured at the start of BG2. Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira escape with you, Khalid and Dynaheir get murdered. Honestly there is no canon party. You can have people moving in and out for the entirety of the first game. The people you end up with at the start of BG2 are just those who happened to be with the main character before he/she got kidnapped.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:14
|
|
|
Oh I know, that's why I put "canonical" in quotes. I just haven't played this game in a decade and thought it'd be nice to roll with that party this time round.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:18
|
|
|
Factor_VIII posted:I'd say it depends on what kind of party are you thinking of using. How many characters and what type of classes. Your PC could be a Wizard Slayer with the minimum stats possible and still finish the game with no problems if you have a decent party. I'll be using all the new characters, so that's a Blackguard, Thief, Sun Soul Monk and Wild Mage (although Dorn's quests sound so murderous I wouldn't be surprised if the monk gets upset). The last few times I played the games I used a Barbarian, Kensai/Thief(or mage, I forget which) and Wild Mage. As the protagonist I guess I'd prefer to do the killing than the buffing so I might end up with Viconia for cleric duties if I don't take it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:22
|
|
|
Boogle posted:Honestly there is no canon party. You can have people moving in and out for the entirety of the first game. The people you end up with at the start of BG2 are just those who happened to be with the main character before he/she got kidnapped. The only canon character is Minsc because everyone should be taking Minsc  Also an actual question, I'm in throne of bhaal at the moment and Hexxat still has a quest to collect something but I dont have any idea how to trigger the 'teleport to get item' part of it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:22
|
|
|
TomWaitsForNoMan posted:Oh I know, that's why I put "canonical" in quotes. I just haven't played this game in a decade and thought it'd be nice to roll with that party this time round. That gives me an idea. Maybe Beamdog should do enhanced editions of the Baldur's Gate novelizations as well. Can't be worse than the originals.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:23
|
|
|
The voice acting in Rasaad's quest is just...awful. I think I would have rathered the devs just not even put in any voice acting than this. If you're going to make yourself look bad in light of 13 year old voice acting you should just not even try.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:28
|
|
|
Captain Oblivious posted:The voice acting in Rasaad's quest is just...awful. I think I would have rathered the devs just not even put in any voice acting than this. If you're going to make yourself look bad in light of 13 year old voice acting you should just not even try. He is the one character I completely ignored so I guess I was lucky. I thought Neera was kinda crap in BG1 but surprisingly solid in BG2, Dorn was pretty great for the most part and real Hexxat was a cool character. Finished ToB with Saverok, Imeon, Viconia, Edwin, Hexxat. First time I've done a mostly evil party so it was fun. I can't go through this game without the family team up for godhood though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:30
|
|
|
Neera's voice acting in BG1 was offensively bad. BG2 she's been downgraded to grating I guess? I can't really fault the actress herself too much because I feel it's not really her fault so much as the writing's fault. There's just no saving Neera's character from being annoying 
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:33
|
|
|
Captain Oblivious posted:Neera's voice acting in BG1 was offensively bad. BG2 she's been downgraded to grating I guess? I can't really fault the actress herself too much because I feel it's not really her fault so much as the writing's fault. There's just no saving Neera's character from being annoying Yeah the writing is pretty dumb in general with Neera, I'm not going to dispute that but for some reason I was just not super bothered by the conversations with her in BG2? Maybe because she was mostly focused on other stuff so it felt like I didn't have to have big long spiels about stuff (they used another NPC to info dump on you)? I don't know. Also I strongly recommend having Hexxat and Aerie in the same party for BG2. Its amazing. Aerie keeps freaking out that theres a goddamn vampire in the party and Hexxat is all 'well I cant do anything about what I am, I just want to be your friend" and Aerie spends the entire game being confused as hell/freaked out because the evil character has done nothing but be nice to her.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:35
|
|
|
Knowing which characters appear in BG2 (and thus have actual personalities) did influence my choices somewhat.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:37
|
|
|
kingcom posted:Yeah the writing is pretty dumb in general with Neera, I'm not going to dispute that but for some reason I was just not super bothered by the conversations with her in BG2? Maybe because she was mostly focused on other stuff so it felt like I didn't have to have big long spiels about stuff (they used another NPC to info dump on you)? I don't know. That is pretty odd. What is Hexxat like personality wise? It sounds like she's fairly chill.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:40
|
|
|
Captain Oblivious posted:That is pretty odd. What is Hexxat like personality wise? It sounds like she's fairly chill. I was a male character so no idea how it works with a female romance but in general shes more accepted that she didn't essentially choose to be a vampire and is more mindlessly following anything that connects her to her old life. It acts more as a lifeline to her being just a normal person but otherwise is not super aggressive or hostile in most circumstances. She is mostly reserved and chilled though, gets along with most of your party members so that the good characters are extremely conflicted about being hostile to the evil vampire who does nothing but back them up. Essentially shes the exact opposite character to Viconia who does nothing but poo poo on people and talk down to everyone. I really like her but I can see people being annoyed by it (and until I can figure out how to trigger her final quest I cant see how her plot ends). I think the best character moment for her is that when Minsc is basically making his move to 'I should kill you evil fiend!', she talks about how awesome his miniature giant space hamster is and Minsc is all 'Oh you know him too!' and she immediately turns around and says to you 'thanks for telling me about that.' I guess shes very good at manipulating peoples perceptions of her but doesn't really use that to harm them? EDIT: I think they use the Hexxat character to poke a lot of fun at every characters personal flaws. Minsc is a good guy but an idiot, Aerie is an emotional child who is unable to think about thing beyond the absolute surface. Its a cool character and it just makes me want to have her mix with everyone to see what they added. kingcom fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:45
|
|
|
kingcom posted:Just to confirm the canonical party is CharName, Imoen, Jahiera, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir right? That should be reasonable to go with as Jahiera can mostly cover the cleric bases for BG1 anyway. TotSC demon boss of bullshit may be tough but otherwise your fine. I guess that you can get by without a cleric, but to be fair that's because most people rest a lot. I am very... realistic with my resting, for lack of a better term, and I had Jaheira and Branwen/Viconia virtually the whole game when I went through BG1EE a few months ago because I never would have made it without them. It does get tiresome, though, having to load up mostly healing spells. Adding spontaneous healing and energy channeling to 3rd edition and beyond was the best idea ever. Admittedly, one problem with healing is that they make even low-level healing spells touch range and slow to cast. Plus, CLW becomes obsolete by mid-game in BG1. I suppose that one could make the case that potions are for battle healing, but I still feel that it undermines the cleric's role an awful lot. Having said all that, talking about the stupid, unbalanced, and just plain facepalm-inducing aspects of 2nd edition D&D rules could keep us here until the end of time and then some.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:55
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:I guess that you can get by without a cleric, but to be fair that's because most people rest a lot. I am very... realistic with my resting, for lack of a better term, and I had Jaheira and Branwen/Viconia virtually the whole game when I went through BG1EE a few months ago because I never would have made it without them. It does get tiresome, though, having to load up mostly healing spells. Adding spontaneous healing and energy channeling to 3rd edition and beyond was the best idea ever. See I'll be honest and say I just forget about healing and ctrl+r to cheat everyone back to normal after fights rather than running all the way back to the entrance and resting constantly. It just makes the game much more fun and expedient.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:57
|
|
|
Many of the BG1 CNPCs are in BG2, just not as joinables. Paladin guy ends up being one of the the knights you kill in the Windspear Hills. Garrick is mentioned by a bard in Trademeet. Faldorn is the shadow Druid taking over the grove. Quayle's in the circus, Tiax is in spellhold, Xzar and Monteron show up in the Harper quest, the evil bard and his lover show up in one of the post-Underdark forest areas (you can save him, possibly, but it's hard). Xan, the dwarves, the ranger, and the Tempus priestess are all absent afaik.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:01
|
|
|
I'm using a Beserker (to Druid in BG2EE) in BGEE, with the new NPCs and Imoen, meaning 3 fighters, one mage, one dualed thief->mage that is currently a level 3 mage, and its completely doable. I just completed the hardest fight in SCS BG in my opinion (fully improved bandit camp), and if you can do that with just mages you can do anything.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:13
|
|
|
TomWaitsForNoMan posted:How difficult would BG1 and TotSC be with either a Cleric or Mage but not both in the party? I want to do a run with a "canonical" party and there's only room for one of them. I've got Jaheira but I figured since she's multiclass she may not be able to take on all the cleric stuff by herself. For what it's worth, I just beat a game of BG1 and TotSC without a mage or a cleric, my only caster was Jaheira and it was not difficult by any means.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
Basic Chunnel posted:Many of the BG1 CNPCs are in BG2, just not as joinables. Paladin guy ends up being one of the the knights you kill in the Windspear Hills. Garrick is mentioned by a bard in Trademeet. Faldorn is the shadow Druid taking over the grove. Quayle's in the circus, Tiax is in spellhold, Xzar and Monteron show up in the Harper quest, the evil bard and his lover show up in one of the post-Underdark forest areas (you can save him, possibly, but it's hard). Xan, the dwarves, the ranger, and the Tempus priestess are all absent afaik. Garrick also has a cameo in the Temple District; he's the bard in that Cyrano de Bergerac cameo!
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
kingcom posted:See I'll be honest and say I just forget about healing and ctrl+r to cheat everyone back to normal after fights rather than running all the way back to the entrance and resting constantly. It just makes the game much more fun and expedient. You know it might actually be more fulfilling to learn how to play these games so you don't have to do either. Cleric/druid healing is hardly necessary, and you shouldn't really ever memorize those spells, except CLW as a druid (because it's not like any other lvl 1-2 spell is worth casting either). And no, you don't have to rest every 2 minutes, you just need to have at least a primitive grasp of tactics and stop hoarding consumables, they're meant to be used.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:27
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:That gives me an idea. Maybe Beamdog should do enhanced editions of the Baldur's Gate novelizations as well. Can't be worse than the originals. The main character in the books is named Abdel and is given a rowboat to go to spellhold, Khalid beats Jaheria, Imoen is a lesbian, Everyone dies apart from Abdel. Sarevok dies offscreen in a fight against an army of dragons. He kills all of them aside from the big named one while unarmed. You couldn't write a worse book without it actually counting as a war crime.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:27
|
|
|
King Doom posted:Khalid beats Jaheria  What? No loving way. You have to be lying.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:30
|
|
|
Roobanguy posted:
The books are really bad. verybad posted:You know it might actually be more fulfilling to learn how to play these games so you don't have to do either. Cleric/druid healing is hardly necessary, and you shouldn't really ever memorize those spells, except CLW as a druid (because it's not like any other lvl 1-2 spell is worth casting either). And no, you don't have to rest every 2 minutes, you just need to have at least a primitive grasp of tactics and stop hoarding consumables, they're meant to be used. I don't really get much fulfilment killing trash mooks scattered throughout a bunch of the dungeons so doing that as quickly as possible to get to the interesting fights seems a lot more fun to me. I mean yea, I'm no expert at the game and I definitely could be much better but theres not a nice and easy guide to teaching me much about AD&D mechanics beyond the basics. If you would like to write a step by step guide on how every spell interacts and what your logically supposed to do in each fight to make the healing essentially unnecessary then thats fine with me, I'll probably read it but I don't think how one person has fun being different to how someone else has fun is much of a problem. EDIT: Hell my solution to killing mages with some of the high level defensive spells is ultimately 'run away until it wears off'. kingcom fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:31
|
|
|
Yup. In the books Khalid is a wifebeater. Happens at the first inn the party stops in. Then later he gets killed off by some sort of weird slime monster.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:32
|
|
|
I'm sure this was covered in the other thread, but what are some great dual-wield combinations? I remember seeing the flail of ages come up a few times, what are some good offhand weapons, early or endgame?
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:32
|
|
|
The axe you can buy in the copper coronet and the axe you find in the de'arnise treasure room/golem storage are an awesome pair, I stick 'em on Minsc and he's good to go till ToB.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:35
|
|
|
Basic Chunnel posted:Many of the BG1 CNPCs are in BG2, just not as joinables. Paladin guy ends up being one of the the knights you kill in the Windspear Hills. Garrick is mentioned by a bard in Trademeet. Faldorn is the shadow Druid taking over the grove. Quayle's in the circus, Tiax is in spellhold, Xzar and Monteron show up in the Harper quest, the evil bard and his lover show up in one of the post-Underdark forest areas (you can save him, possibly, but it's hard). Xan, the dwarves, the ranger, and the Tempus priestess are all absent afaik. Xan and Branwen were in the tutorial. Yes there is a tutorial.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:36
|
|
|
Brownview posted:I'm sure this was covered in the other thread, but what are some great dual-wield combinations? I remember seeing the flail of ages come up a few times, what are some good offhand weapons, early or endgame? The extra attack that Belm (+2 scimitar of speed) and Kundane (+1 short sword of speed) grant you will actually apply to your main hand weapon if you equip either in your offhand. So it's a good idea to pair 'em up with a really kickass, heavy-hitting weapon even though they're otherwise unremarkable +1/+2 weapons.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:41
|
|
|
King Doom posted:You couldn't write a worse book without it actually counting as a war crime. I know. That's the point. IIRC, Imoen is also arguably raped, given the context of coercion.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:42
|
|
|
kingcom posted:I don't really get much fulfilment killing trash mooks scattered throughout a bunch of the dungeons so doing that as quickly as possible to get to the interesting fights seems a lot more fun to me. I mean yea, I'm no expert at the game and I definitely could be much better but theres not a nice and easy guide to teaching me much about AD&D mechanics beyond the basics. If you would like to write a step by step guide on how every spell interacts and what your logically supposed to do in each fight to make the healing essentially unnecessary then thats fine with me, I'll probably read it but I don't think how one person has fun being different to how someone else has fun is much of a problem. I don't have a problem with you enjoying the game in your own way, but I don't it's fair to criticize the game for having bad mechanics if you don't even understand them in the first place (though it may be fair to criticize the obtuse presentation of the mechanics). That was more of a problem I had with the post you were quoting, though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:56
|
|
|
verybad posted:I don't have a problem with you enjoying the game in your own way, but I don't it's fair to criticize the game for having bad mechanics if you don't even understand them in the first place (though it may be fair to criticize the obtuse presentation of the mechanics). That was more of a problem I had with the post you were quoting, though. I wasn't criticising the mechanics? I was just saying that I like to move things a bit quicker so cutting out any downtime between fights is a lot more fun for me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 01:58
|
|
|
Yeah that's why I said it's a problem I had with the post you were quoting. I mean, I still think you'd probably have more fun trying to master the gameplay of these games (I don't think they have that much to offer beyond it) rather than just skipping portions of it because you don't judge them important, but eh whatever who cares.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:03
|
|
|
verybad posted:Yeah that's why I said it's a problem I had with the post you were quoting. I mean, I still think you'd probably have more fun trying to master the gameplay of these games (I don't think they have that much to offer beyond it) rather than just skipping portions of it because you don't judge them important, but eh whatever who cares. Theres only so many mindflayer fights one man can take. Again, I will learn if there was a way to teach me but guides don't seem to come with too many specifics on 'if your in this situation you can deal with them like this.' I'm not the best at learning through through written text anyway to be honest, so loads of trial and error is generally the way for me. kingcom fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:04
|
|
|
Scorchy posted:Xan and Branwen were in the tutorial. They were also in the main quest of BG1 in the first area along the road to the East of the map. King Doom posted:The main character in the books is named Abdel and is given a rowboat to go to spellhold, Khalid beats Jaheria, Imoen is a lesbian, Everyone dies apart from Abdel. Sarevok dies offscreen in a fight against an army of dragons. He kills all of them aside from the big named one while unarmed. You couldn't write a worse book without it actually counting as a war crime. This poo poo 100%. Minsc also had bright red hair... I royally hated that book and actually burned it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:27
|
|
|
kingcom posted:Theres only so many mindflayer fights one man can take. Again, I will learn if there was a way to teach me but guides don't seem to come with too many specifics on 'if your in this situation you can deal with them like this.' I'm not the best at learning through through written text anyway to be honest, so loads of trial and error is generally the way for me. Nothing wrong with trial and error as long as you're not trying to repeat the same actions hoping for a different result. I mean, I guess I can give you some basic advice like "use thieves/invisibility to scout", "use summons to tank", "buff your fighters", "haste/web/glitterdust are op, use those spells" but I'm assuming you already know that much. If you encounter a problem, check what abilities and resources you have and try to puzzle out which of those would help the most (and if all your memorized spells seem kind of poo poo for the situation, check out the spells you didn't memorize and see if they would be better).
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 15:52 |
|
|
verybad posted:Nothing wrong with trial and error as long as you're not trying to repeat the same actions hoping for a different result. I mean, I guess I can give you some basic advice like "use thieves/invisibility to scout", "use summons to tank", "buff your fighters", "haste/web/glitterdust are op, use those spells" but I'm assuming you already know that much. If you encounter a problem, check what abilities and resources you have and try to puzzle out which of those would help the most (and if all your memorized spells seem kind of poo poo for the situation, check out the spells you didn't memorize and see if they would be better). Nah if I can actually see whats coming its normally alright, its the 'poo poo drops on top of you' fights that always cripple me. Or any time i'm fighting hordes of stuff that drops save vs death on you like the beholder area in the underdark.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:42
|
|