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verybad posted:Oh god the SCS bandit camp is disgusting. My "tank with Xan" tactic did not work as well as intended, as even one attack getting through mirror images had a decent chance of killing him on the spot. I really should've gotten level 5 on him, then I could've used Vampiric Touch to boost his HP and he wouldnt've been affected by sleep, either (I'm beginning to suspect that the elven sleep resistance was never implemented in these games...) Tanking with a mage?
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Jan 17, 2014 13:53
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Ilyich posted:Tanking with a mage? Mirror images + other assorted buffs. SCS ranged AI has a tendency to focus fire squishies anyway, so it actually works out okay.* I think he had something like -9 AC against missile attacks? I had already gotten every tanky character killed by this point, and I really wanted to utilize Xan's moonblade this run, so I've been using him as a frontliner with buffs to keep him alive. It's been alright (I had to fool around a bit with Near Infinity to give him that Elf +1 THAC0 with swords he used to have in BG1) but since Mirror Images don't work like they did in the original game (real one gets hit last, instead it's now a random chance dependant on how many images you have) he occasionally gets one-shot by a lucky hit. Anyway, I reached level 5 with him now and Vampiric Touch should really help with that. Since I'm playing on Core, and just taking the HP roll on level up, the highest HP character has like 35 hp right now (level 5) - Xan can actually beat that with a lucky Vampiric Touch. I can't imagine playing this on Insane, just about everything that hits you would one-shot all but the most tankiest characters. *soons as I get the spells for it I'm going to have Xan beat Drizzt in a duel. verybad fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 14:10
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Oh OK that makes sense. I'd never play with SCS on Insane, even though I've used the mod for years double damage just isn't my thing. It's probably possible to beat SCS on Insane though, I remember years ago someone soloed Tactics and Ascension with a Cleric of Helm on Insane, got through all of SoA and ToB, but had to revert to Core to beat the final battle. Tactics was less forgiving than SCS is too.
biscuits and crazy fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 15:03
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v1ld posted:The BG2 fixpack docs say: "Elves and half-elves are supposed to have 90% and 30% resistance, respectively, to sleep and charm effects. This was not being applied." 
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Jan 17, 2014 15:22
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bathroom sounds posted:I don't see BG2EE BG2EE on Gamersgate: http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-BG2EE/baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition Looks like it was a pricing error - I bought it about 16 hours ago for 6.25 USD but now I'm seeing it as full price.
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Jan 17, 2014 16:38
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gradenko_2000 posted:BG2EE on Gamersgate: Good on you for getting it while it was so cheap, though. I really wish that the BGEE's, both of them, had just had a setting between Core and Normal. I want full monster damage but max HP on level up and no bloody spell scribe failure. I know that you can set it to Normal and use one of the tweak or fix packs to fix the other two things, but it just seems silly to me.
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Jan 17, 2014 17:42
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JustJeff88 posted:Good on you for getting it while it was so cheap, though. For what it's worth, I think the game is actually more interesting with random level up HP (or rather, average HP - random HP can be pretty punishing sometimes) and scribe failure. Planning out how to use your limited potions of genius actually presents an interesting challenge, though the scribing failure rates at 95-99% seem to be kind of bullshit.
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Jan 17, 2014 18:19
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Playing through BGEE SCS with my multi rebalanced shapeshifter/fighter on the second highest difficulty setting has been pretty good so far. Starts off insanely OP (as in, more than half the enemies in the game can't really hurt you) because of the immunity to normal weapons that's implemented and has now started to taper off a bit because of the fixed stats (fixed 16 Dex/15 Con) compared to Dorn and Coran. Fights that would normally be hard are still hard because of enchanted weapons and lower health compared to most tanks (and the higher difficulty settings). No chance in hell this char is going to be able to go toe to toe with Sarevok so I'll probably end up playing chicken with the speed boots while Coran et al. take pot shots with piercing arrows. I imagine this char will probably get comparatively weaker than the other chars moving in to double digit levels in bg2 until I hit 13 and all hell breaks loose with GWW form  What's peoples' experience with Hexxat? Not a fan of pure thieves so I was thinking of making her something more interesting; maybe a F/M/T or Shadowdancer/Fighter. I read somewhere that if you load up Dorn with arrows of explosion and trigger poison weapon everything the arrows hits gets poisoned? Is this for real?
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Jan 17, 2014 22:27
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Hexxat is really good. You'd think she'd suffer for the outdoor penalty (and you'll get tired of hearing "Quickly, get me to Dragomir's Respite" in a real drat hurry), but you're rarely outdoors enough for it to matter. Any other time, I had her dart off with Boots of Speed, hide out until a fight was going, dart back in and backstab while enemies were busy. With her absurd strength stuff tends to die painfully. On the other hand, good aligned characters *really* don't seem to like her, so you're not going to able to use Mazzy/Keldorn/whatever goody goody while she's there.
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Jan 17, 2014 23:00
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With SCS I could not keep Hexxat alive without babying her every second so she became nothing but a detect illusion/trap bot. Her immunities are nice and with HLAs becomes a bit more tanky and useful but pure thieves are so pointless. Dorn is just a monster though. One of the best archers in the game and dat Firetooth crossbow is sooooo cheap.
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Jan 17, 2014 23:28
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I was one of the lucky ones to grab Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced so cheap I guess. Can anyone recommend a good build for a first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 and roughly, what my generated stats should be? I'm kind of new to D&D so I'm learning as I go.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:28
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verybad posted:For what it's worth, I think the game is actually more interesting with random level up HP (or rather, average HP - random HP can be pretty punishing sometimes) and scribe failure. Planning out how to use your limited potions of genius actually presents an interesting challenge, though the scribing failure rates at 95-99% seem to be kind of bullshit. I absolutely see your points, but I am big on not abusing resting, and having a level 8 figher with 18 con who has 112 HP is a virtual necessity. Average HP for that level would be roughly 72, and 50 hit points lost is just too much for the way I play. I try to be "realistic" about it where I don't rest in dungeons and I only rest outdoors if my lads are fatigued, and given that outside of resting the only way to get spells back is to use Wish (and use it well), I'd smash my face against a wall if my PC mage-type guy only got 3 HP at level up. I already don't like the fixed HP gains starting at level 9 or 10. I just find part of the fun being intelligent use of resources, and when you can press a button just about any time and you're fully healed with no consequences, it takes a lot of the resource management and tension out of it. For someone who doesn't care about that, and I realise that I am very much the minority, much less of a deal, though having less HP in major fights is a significant loss.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:52
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Mr. Fortitude posted:I was one of the lucky ones to grab Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced so cheap I guess. Pick whichever class sounds fun to you. Most characters will want 18 dexterity, 16 constitution(18 for warriors) and 18 in whatever your primary class attribute is, ie strength for warriors, wisdom for priests, intelligence for mages. Don't sperg about getting 18s in everything, most of the npcs have gimped stats and they work fine. If you're really lost as to which class to pick just go fighter with 18/-- str, 18 dex, 18 con.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:51
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Mr. Fortitude posted:I was one of the lucky ones to grab Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced so cheap I guess. I'd go with a fighter/cleric multi-class. Dwarf is a good choice if you're OK playing a short character. You can cast all your spells in full armor and can buff your dude up before you walk into a fight. Ideally, you would want to max STR, DEX, CON, and WIS. Draw upon Holy Might is a level 2 cleric spell which will boost your main stats higher anyway if you don't feel like hitting the ROLL button until you get all 18's.
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Jan 18, 2014 02:24
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Zarfol posted:I'd go with a fighter/cleric multi-class. Dwarf is a good choice if you're OK playing a short character. You can cast all your spells in full armor and can buff your dude up before you walk into a fight. What is the maximum possible raw points roll in the BG games? Has anyone established it? I've seen 100 exactly once and only once, and I nearly fell out of my chair because I didn't think triple digits possible that possible. Presumably the ideal would be 108 (18 x 6 = 108), but I don't really know.
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Jan 18, 2014 03:21
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JustJeff88 posted:What is the maximum possible raw points roll in the BG games? Has anyone established it? I've seen 100 exactly once and only once, and I nearly fell out of my chair because I didn't think triple digits possible that possible. Presumably the ideal would be 108 (18 x 6 = 108), but I don't really know. It's 108, which you can achieve by enabling cheats in the .ini file and hitting CRTL + SHIFT + 8 at the stats screen during character creation.
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Jan 18, 2014 04:17
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If you don't want to completely cheat, you could leave this program running overnight. It will give you a good set of stats. (Even having it run for a couple of minutes should give you a stat total in the 90s.)
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Jan 18, 2014 04:31
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Factor_VIII posted:If you don't want to completely cheat, you could leave this program running overnight. It will give you a good set of stats. (Even having it run for a couple of minutes should give you a stat total in the 90s.) Seriously, what? You may as well cheat to give yourself the desired stats anyway and save time.
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Jan 18, 2014 04:32
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Mr. Fortitude posted:Can anyone recommend a good build for a first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 and roughly, what my generated stats should be? I'm kind of new to D&D so I'm learning as I go. dsimpson's AD&D Rules FAQ is a useful introduction to the somewhat confusing rules. He's also got one for 3rd Edition D&D. Play It Hardcore's BG wiki has overviews of classes and whatnot that I found useful in coming back to these games after a decade. It's intended more for the powergaming, solo, ironman run types, but it's succinct, well put together and quite useful nevertheless.
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Jan 18, 2014 04:39
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Yeah I normally roll until I've got a half decent set of stats and use Keeper to reroll manually later to maxed (18/19) primaries and 16 on dump stats. Nothing you can't do by sitting there rolling endlessly or playing through BG1 for stat books a couple of times if you're really dedicated. VodeAndreas fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 18, 2014 05:50
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Dillbag posted:It's 108, which you can achieve by enabling cheats in the .ini file and hitting CRTL + SHIFT + 8 at the stats screen during character creation. I remember that now, actually. Is it really possible to roll it, though, or does the game just say "18x6 = 108", here it is you cheating douche!"? The highest I've ever heard anyone say they rolled is 103.
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Jan 18, 2014 06:06
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JustJeff88 posted:I remember that now, actually. Is it really possible to roll it, though, or does the game just say "18x6 = 108", here it is you cheating douche!"? The highest I've ever heard anyone say they rolled is 103. It's somewhat random, so in theory it should be possible. I've never heard of it happening either though.
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Jan 18, 2014 06:27
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JustJeff88 posted:The highest I've ever heard anyone say they rolled is 103. And I thought my 94 was baller.
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Jan 18, 2014 06:45
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At the lower range I think the games cheat via minimum stats required for a class but at its base its the popular 4d6 drop the lowest stat gen. I forget all the math to do anything rigorous but an Excel simulation says its about a 1 in 1 trillion chance to get all 18s. e. if its just 3d6 then as below even less chance vvvvvvv zedprime fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 18, 2014 06:49
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The roller just does 3d6 for each stat, then bumps anything less than the minimum for your class up so it meets the requirements. The odds of naturally rolling 6 18s are about 1/10^14. Possible, but very much not happening in reality. Of course, make it 10^16 if you're a warrior and want 18/00 Strength...
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Jan 18, 2014 06:50
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Was BG2:EE patched yet this year? Have they fixed the ToB quest arcs for the new characters?
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Jan 18, 2014 06:52
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Do ranger/clerics work the same way in Icewind Dale (including Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster) as they do in Baldur's Gate? Icewind Dale 2 is obviously a whole different system and Icewind Dale is the Infinity Engine game that I know the least about, and lately I've been thinking of having a go. I was putting together parties in my head, and I definitely want a single class bard (those are fantastic with HoW and great backup mages), a gnome illusionist, and a straight cleric. Probably a fighter/druid as well, some kind of pure tank, and then... If ranger/clerics are the same, I can really see myself benefiting from one, so much so that I might not need a druid at all. If they work according to the rules, though, far less exciting. 2nd ed rules are just rubbish anyway, especially when it comes to priestly classes... forcing you to only use crappy slings and blunt weapons for cleric multis and duals and flimsy druid armour, more slings and limited druid weapons for druids is such a buzzkill.
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Jan 18, 2014 07:02
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The game redoes rolls below a certain minimum, not just if your stats would disqualify you from your class. I think it imposes a lower bound of 70 or something. We did a load of research on this on the old BioWare forums but those went down years ago. I think the main participant ended up as a BGEE dev/collaborator so maybe asking around on their site would produce something.
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Jan 18, 2014 08:43
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JustJeff88 posted:Do ranger/clerics work the same way in Icewind Dale (including Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster) as they do in Baldur's Gate? Icewind Dale 2 is obviously a whole different system and Icewind Dale is the Infinity Engine game that I know the least about, and lately I've been thinking of having a go. I was putting together parties in my head, and I definitely want a single class bard (those are fantastic with HoW and great backup mages), a gnome illusionist, and a straight cleric. Probably a fighter/druid as well, some kind of pure tank, and then... I do not think a Ranger/Cleric multiclass would work the same. I do not think you get the free dual-wielding feats for free, but I could be wrong. Overall any party composition can work as long as you have at least 1 of each of the core classes (Rogue, Fighter, Cleric, Mage). There are cool chat options/things you can do for bonus XP and/or magic items if you have people in your party with 18 in certain stats (Definitely Con and Int, possibly others but its been a while). And it really does pay off to have a character with 18 Charisma and Diplomacy, Bluff, and whatever other chit-chat skills there are. But tl;dr as long as you have a well rounded party and dont play like a fool you should have fun and be successful; IWD2 is a great game.
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Jan 18, 2014 10:28
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Rascyc posted:Was BG2:EE patched yet this year? Have they fixed the ToB quest arcs for the new characters? Nope. They seem to completely focused on the Android version at the moment so I wouldn't expect a new patch before that is out.
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Jan 18, 2014 10:34
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Mickey McKey posted:I do not think a Ranger/Cleric multiclass would work the same. I do not think you get the free dual-wielding feats for free, but I could be wrong. Ranger/Clerics in IWD only get Druid spells up to level 3, like they're supposed to. If the expansions are installed, Rangers DO get a kind of dual wielding thing, where one-handed weapons are granted a free second attack if you don't have a shield equipped. IWD doesn't support putting weapons in the off-hand. In IWD 2, your spellcasting is based on your respective class levels, so it's completely different, but if you have any levels in Ranger, you get Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting feats for free, even if you don't meet the requirements, so long as you're wearing light or no armor.
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Jan 18, 2014 15:35
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Leofish posted:Ranger/Clerics in IWD only get Druid spells up to level 3, like they're supposed to. If the expansions are installed, Rangers DO get a kind of dual wielding thing, where one-handed weapons are granted a free second attack if you don't have a shield equipped. IWD doesn't support putting weapons in the off-hand. I was referring to 1, thanks... I worded my question ambiguously. Fair enough - I don't think that I'll go that route, then. I want to have access to the full druid spellbook and the full cleric spellbook, but pure druids still aren't great in Icewind Dale, so I think that I'm going to pull a Jaheira and go F/D, or possibly dual-class. Again, I know sod all about IWD1... do you really need a rogue? I honestly don't want one - certainly single class and not really dual/multi either. Bards could fill in admirably for one in IWD2 handling traps and locks, but 2nd edition doesn't work that way and I don't know enough about this game to know if I can really get through it without at least a half a rogue. I would definitely want a bard no matter what as they are brilliant in IWD1 provided that Heart of Winter is installed. Opinions appreciated by those more experienced. Now that I think of it, a druid/rogue would make for a loving sweet multiclass. Pity that it's not an option, but I could see it being a great dual-class option.
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Jan 18, 2014 17:24
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Is there word out on if Overhaul is going to be making EEs for the Icewind Dale games? I don't think I can go back to playing the unenhanced versions after so many hours of smooth area transitions and zoom wheel. Not to mention that IWD2 looks and runs all kinds of awful with modern computers...
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Jan 18, 2014 17:31
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Is every enemy in Aerie's recruitment quest supposed to one-shot you? I don't remember this 
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Jan 18, 2014 18:54
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I think the orcs hit pretty hard, but they almost never make it into melee range so uh no definitely not.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:26
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JustJeff88 posted:I was referring to 1, thanks... I worded my question ambiguously. Fair enough - I don't think that I'll go that route, then. I want to have access to the full druid spellbook and the full cleric spellbook, but pure druids still aren't great in Icewind Dale, so I think that I'm going to pull a Jaheira and go F/D, or possibly dual-class. So with that said, pure druids are better mages than mages are with the expansion - spell casters are really there to cast movement impedance area of effects and druids get the ones that do damage as well as slow stuff a lot earlier than mages. I've always been a fan of the druid and mage working in concert to just stop everything in their tracks a few times a day. A thief is almost entirely replaced by a cleric casting detect traps. A fighter/thief is solid enough if you want to check off the trap removal checkbox and remove any doubt, there's places that will have you tap dancing to avoid or blowing healing spells early if you don't have removal but nothing game stopping.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:28
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zedprime posted:The rule of thumb to really bend over IWD is to dual from or multi class everything possible with fighter. But that can get mechanically boring and isn't anywhere necessary. Thanks for the input. The problem being that, while clerics can cast Detect Traps, they can't do much to disarm them, and I'm sure that there are places where some nefarious trap sits completely blocking an area that the party simply has to cross. I'd heard about the fighter thing, and while I might do that for one character (say, a thief->fighter or fighter->druid), I've no intention of milking it. I'm a completionist, but not a power gamer. Like I said, it's a pity that there is no thief/druid multi/dual, because I could see a fair amount of synergy there. Certainly in terms of armour, but for my purposes it would allow me to get a few handy thief levels and then switch over to a druid, a class that levels up very quickly initially and would get past the dualclassing hump relatively quickly.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:39
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verybad posted:I think the orcs hit pretty hard, but they almost never make it into melee range so uh no definitely not. I think my game is bugged. All the werewolves are hostile and each hit insta-kills a character. I can't even make it past the second room in the tent.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:50
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Draile posted:I think my game is bugged. All the werewolves are hostile and each hit insta-kills a character. I can't even make it past the second room in the tent. Yep. What mods are you using, if any?
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Jan 18, 2014 19:53
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Captain Oblivious posted:Yep. What mods are you using, if any? None. The just-released iPad version of BG2EE.
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Jan 18, 2014 19:58
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