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We'll be seeing that Frostreaver axe again in the next game, probably. You normally find it in the De'Arnise Keep, if I remember right.
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Aug 12, 2012 19:57
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ETB posted:Small update? That's plenty for me, considering the amount of action! Yeah totally agree. That was an awesome update - smaller updates with more frequency works for me! I can't wait for the new addition to come out so I can play along - don't see the point right now eh  Oh wait, the new one's just BG2 - Nevermind!I never did get this far in the game. Probably because back in the day when I first played it I just had NO CLUE what I was doing.
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Aug 12, 2012 20:01
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Smaller updates are fine so long as we get more stories from Uncle Firehair 
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Aug 12, 2012 20:04
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For those of you saying "I never knew this area existed." I'm pretty sure it's a mod added area. Both because it isn't in any hint guides I've seen and because it reuses the unique level 2 Candlekeep crypt map.
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Aug 12, 2012 20:13
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caleramaen posted:For those of you saying "I never knew this area existed." I'm pretty sure it's a mod added area. Both because it isn't in any hint guides I've seen and because it reuses the unique level 2 Candlekeep crypt map. Oh wow. So this place is that short in the original or am I missing something?
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Aug 12, 2012 20:27
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Garbageman posted:Oh wow. So this place is that short in the original or am I missing something? Yeah, Ulcaster and Firewine are basically Baby's First Dungeons with Firewine being marginally more involved. They give you a Macguffin and a mazelike hole in the ground so new players get a little practice with claustrophobic corridors and scouting with the party rogue and that's about it. It's not until Chapter 6 and the Tales of the Sword Coast content that you begin to see real classic PnP D&D dungeons, the kind your party basically lives in for a week or two as you unravel the puzzles of the place.
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Aug 12, 2012 20:35
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Willie Tomg posted:Yeah, Ulcaster and Firewine are basically Baby's First Dungeons with Firewine being marginally more involved. They give you a Macguffin and a mazelike hole in the ground so new players get a little practice with claustrophobic corridors and scouting with the party rogue and that's about it. Well there are the Nashkel and Cloakwood Mines as well I guess (though they aren't really dungeons as much as hideouts). But in general the only real classic dungeon in the original game is the Candlekeep crypt. That one's a bitch since once you start it you have to finish it. TotSC adds a couple more dungeons, though the Ice dungeon is pretty short. Durlag's Tower is the largest dungeon in the game, and it's pretty cool. It's probably the biggest and most involved dungeon you run into until you do TOB.
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Aug 12, 2012 20:54
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Man - I really wish I had kept up with the game, then. Just build it out slowly, Vorgen's LP is great though and he's adding so much with the narrative he's built with Syv.
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Aug 12, 2012 21:03
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Garbageman posted:Man - I really wish I had kept up with the game, then. Just build it out slowly, Vorgen's LP is great though and he's adding so much with the narrative he's built with Syv. If you gave up before Chapter 5 then you seriously missed out. Its rough as hell by design in early levels. The Nashkel mines are kind of tedious, clearing the bandit camp is pretty neat especially if you have a bunch of summons to sweep the area clear, pushing through Cloakwood is like taking a full course in Combat Hell 101, and the whole thing generally feels kind of loose and inconsistent. I have my gripes with BWP, but the modders try to fill in the gaps which is to their credit. But after all that wandering around and scraping and saving money and magical items and stuff, you get to the titular urban hub of the Sword Coast and it's such a shocking contrast to the rest of the game and you can't throw a brick without hitting three or four interesting things to do and they all shower you with either magic items that exponentially increase your power, or money to buy the items to exponentially increase your power while the story and objectives get a LOT more focused. It's a transition no other game has done quite as well IMO, and is the exact point where BG1 goes from a sort of okay-ish but not great western CRPG to the game that's absolutely classic and worth gushing praise over.
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Aug 12, 2012 21:31
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Strangely enough my memories of Baldur's Gate the city are really hazy. I've started the Big World Project a couple of times before and gotten to the point where I entered the city, only to be discouraged by a stutter bug or deciding to reinstall a newer version or being distracted by another game. I actually haven't played the Baldur's Gate city portion of this game for a long, long time. Maybe 10 years. I vaguely remember stealing a bunch of poo poo from a museum, tracking down the big bad in some district, a water temple, and that's about it. And, of course, the final showdown. That's clearly burned into my memory. But I have the feeling that I skipped over most of the content you guys are talking about in the original game even, because I was so focused on finding and killing the big bad. So when we get to the city the feel of this Let's Play will change. It will no longer have an omniscient narrator, and instead I'll just be  ing it up with the rest of you.
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Aug 13, 2012 02:21
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Vorgen posted:Strangely enough my memories of Baldur's Gate the city are really hazy. I've started the Big World Project a couple of times before and gotten to the point where I entered the city, only to be discouraged by a stutter bug or deciding to reinstall a newer version or being distracted by another game. I actually haven't played the Baldur's Gate city portion of this game for a long, long time. Maybe 10 years. I vaguely remember stealing a bunch of poo poo from a museum, tracking down the big bad in some district, a water temple, and that's about it. And, of course, the final showdown. That's clearly burned into my memory. But I have the feeling that I skipped over most of the content you guys are talking about in the original game even, because I was so focused on finding and killing the big bad. So when we get to the city the feel of this Let's Play will change. It will no longer have an omniscient narrator, and instead I'll just be Same here, but to be fair that may also be related to my starting up this game about a thousand times and never having the patience to see it to the end, or even much past the Nashkel Mines. Similarly, I've played BGII more times than I can count up through escaping the Underdark, but only to the end three or four times.
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Aug 13, 2012 07:05
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Vorgen posted:
Also...  Just how many little references like Yeslick's little singing ditty here are there in the game now?
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Aug 13, 2012 12:11
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I don't really know. There are a ton of little references though.
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Aug 15, 2012 02:11
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And in some mods, I've discovered. Vorgen, any plans to show off the dialogue if you repeatedly click on NPCs? I know the Bioware cast have some, don't know about mods.
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Aug 15, 2012 02:20
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I could do that I guess... I'd have to work it into the narrative somehow though.
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Aug 15, 2012 02:22
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Vorgen posted:I could do that I guess... I'd have to work it into the narrative somehow though. Not really. Just have a little side note whenever you recruit a core character into your party. It's just a line or two and it often breaks the fourth wall.
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Aug 15, 2012 03:51
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 23 Hammer, 1370 Firebead goes off on another tangent, but an extremely valuable tangent. We are talking about mage-on-mage battle tactics. He tells us that if we ever learn how to cast Protect Image, Contingency, and Restoration, we can quadruple our effectiveness in battle. He says that we should create a Contingency containing 3 Project Image spells, and have it automatically trigger if we become helpless in battle. Then, in battle, we should cast Project Image again. The spell counts as rendering us helpless. When it does so, the Contingency fires, and suddenly four images of us appear that are controlled by our minds, can act independently, and function at 60% effectiveness. The first thing we should direct these images of us to do is to cast Restoration on each other, all at once. This will bring them up to perfect copies. Then, through our four images, we rain down destruction upon our enemies with wild abandon. And, if our images should be destroyed, we can simply enter the battle ourselves as normal. I am buzzing from the excitement of imagining four golden goddesses striding across a battlefield raining fire and death upon all in my name, with my visage. I might have been too excited, because when I come back from my daydream the room is silent and everyone is looking at me. I clear my throat, nod, and say that it is a good idea, something to keep in mind. Then I suggest we prepare for today.  We all begin to cast protective spells. Yeslick gives everyone Aid. Imoen gives herself Physical Agility. Edwin goes with Mirror Image. I give myself some chaos daggers to penetrate mage shields. And Firebead does the old Stoneskin/Minor Globe of Invulnerability combo that everyone seems to love. It is conservative yet effective. Also, Yeslick manages to remove the curse from Kagain, and he takes up Frostreaver. He seems quite happy with it. When we are all ready, I trigger the Rod of Refuge again. We return to battle.  But there is no one to greet us. Where have they all gone? We advance towards the last known enemy position, and find the skeleton warrior shortly.  I join the dwarves in melee. The skeleton warrior hits me once and Yeslick once. We both hurt.  When Yeslick gets hit a second time, he retreats to heal. I retreat to stay alive.  Kagain finally drops the pesky undead.  While Yeslick heals us up from the fight, Firebead decides to check out the center of the room, which we have not yet seen. He finds another skeleton warrior.  The battle drags on, and Kagain gets hit. But of course Yeslick has his back.  And, when he finally takes him down, Kagain grunts in realization.     Gameplay note: Wow, 14 hit points on level up! Kagain's 20 con is really showing strong right now. I check the bodies of the skeleton warriors. One of them was wielding a +3 two-handed sword, although it is nothing special otherwise. They both have some gems as well. Then Firebead says that he should take care of what comes next on his own. He says that the rest of us are too weak to stand up to a wizard of Anton's caliber. He says that with the right combination of spells and luck, he will be able to take the specter out on his own. He commands us to stay clear until and unless the cloud effects dissipate. Then he strides off to face Anton alone. We do not argue. Firebead starts off strong, with Chaos. Anton replies with Stinking Cloud.  Anton saves against the magical onslaught, but he does not save against Firebead's dagger flying through the air a second later. It catches him in the shoulder. HA!  Firebead follows the dagger up with a first-level spell, Chromatic Orb.  Gameplay note: Chromatic Orb is so random in its effect. At Firebead's level it can lower AC, or spell resistance, or blind or confuse. But Anton Valor is immune to the Aquamarine effect, which is magnetism, -4 to AC. He's probably still got a Minor Globe of Invulnerability up and there's just a glitch with the graphics. The next spell comes from Anton Valor's fingers, and it is Fireball!  It is nothing to Firebead Elvenhair. He is immune. He begins casting his answer - Remove Magic.  Anton Valor is running out of spells if he is desperate enough to cast Magic Missile against an immune opponent. He's also lost his spell protections. His next spell is equally useless - Lightning Bolt.  Firebead answers with Hold Person.  And then follows it up with another Chromatic Orb.  We are watching the Stinking Cloud effect, waiting for the moment when we can help out with this. But as long as Firebead is completely and totally immune to everything that's being thrown at him, we see no real reason to help out yet. But then Firebead's spell protections disappear, and he becomes nauseated.   He retreats to the rest of the party, but Anton Valor throws Web at him, and the spell follows him back to the rest of us. Yeslick is webbed, although the rest of us escape the area. I think it is my turn to see what true magic can do, so I throw my first random spell at an incoming Anton.  But instead of affecting Anton, the Weave swirls around me and offers me complete immunity to one spell school. I quickly choose Evocation.  As I am casting my spell, a Chromatic Orb sails past me and hits Firebead Elvenhair.  Then the Weave finishes its work upon my body, and I am completely immune to Evocation magic.  This makes me completely immune to spells such as Stinking Cloud, Web, Magic Missile, and Chromatic Orb. This is not a coincidence. The Weave is on my side! I run right up into Anton Valor's face and begin to cast another spell. But Anton Valor is not done with Firebead. He finishes his own spell, and sends another Lightning Bolt at the old mage. Without his spell protections, the old man falls this time.   Pawn discarded. I'll have to find another group if this keeps up.I cast Polymorph Other at Anton Valor, hoping to turn him into a more manageable creature. It doesn't work though.  In rage I swing my Sword of Flame at him. I hit him once.  But I don't want him to go out this way. I want him to go out under the force of my magic. The bastard throws another Lightning Bolt, this time at me. I laugh. He cannot use the Weave against me!  I point, and the chaos blades that were floating around me all fly at Anton. He is hit with five shards of pure chaos, and looks Badly Injured.  I try to polymorph him again. He will become a squirrel for me!  Unfortunately he resists. It is infuriating. He hits me with yet another Lightning Bolt. It has no effect, of course.  Then I reach out and throw raw magic at Anton. I reach through Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to try to cast a Chromatic Orb at his face. And that is when I receive the greatest sign that the Weave has ever given me. I have received boons before, and banes, but never before have I received anything close to such a gift. The Weave flows through me and forms a perfect Chromatic Orb within my hand. And as I throw it, the Weave stays with me, and fills me, and restores every spell I have already cast!      Gameplay note: All my spells are refreshed. It is as if I haven't yet cast anything. This is a Sign. This is a Portent. I am going up against one of the most potent magic users I've ever seen, one who killed a more senior mage than I not 20 seconds ago, and I have received a complete arcane torrent of energy straight from the Weave. I am the Chosen One of the Weave. I am its Avatar. I will obliterate all mine enemies, for they are also the enemies of Magic Itself! I throw Random Spell II at Anton, and the Weave flows further around me, protecting me even more.  Then Anton heals himself somehow, and comes in with a blue-glowing dagger in hand. Is he out of spells? Has the Weave deserted him? I test things out with another Polymorph Other.  And then another!  I am temporarily frustrated by this unholy spell resistance, but I will not be deterred. I cast another Blade Shower at Anton.  Spell resistance can't protect the bastard from chaos shards! So I do it again.  BOOYA baby! The Avatar of the Weave has struck you down with great vengeance and furious anger! Suck it! I laugh and turn towards my companions to drink in their adoration and praise. But they are busy. They are fighting a Death Knight?! I was focused so closely on my magical duel with Anton Valor that I didn't even notice that the Death Knight was in play. Huh.  Well, I know what can help here. I throw another shower of blades at the Death Knight.  And since that's not enough, I go in to strike him with my sword.  Eugh. The Avatar of Magic needs food badly! I mean healing. Yeslick moves to heal me and casts his spell. But nothing happens!  The Minor Spell Turning is still active, and it deflects Yeslick's healing spell! Crap! I quickly down an antidote to counteract the poison and move to the back near Imoen and Edwin. But I can't stay still. I lower my Staff of Fire and shoot it at the Death Knight.  Success! I am not only the Avatar of the Weave, I'm not so bad in a melee either. I loot the bodies of the Death Knight and of Anton Valor. The Death Knight has a magical bastard sword on him, the Viper.  And Anton has a magical dagger, The Shocker.  He also has five scrolls of Lightning Bolt and five of Magic Missile. Too bad he never got to use them. Neither Imoen nor Edwin know Lightning Bolt yet, so I give them a copy each, and put the rest into my spellbook. Then we go to the body of Firebead and respectfully prepare him for transport. I shouldn't have brought such an old man into combat. He should stay where he is content, in a secure magical location. It is much better to have Finch with us. At least she knows the risks.
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Aug 15, 2012 17:49
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Hope the rings and amulets were worth it, Firebead... Once you're high enough level to memorize Raise Dead you're gonna save so much money...
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Aug 15, 2012 19:00
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Willie Tomg posted:Hope the rings and amulets were worth it, Firebead... Firebead's resurrection bill is going to be several orders of magnitude larger than the previous ones too. Still, that was a pretty cool mage duel, even if most of the fun spells were resisted. Vorgen, if you installed everything from SCS, I believe there's a component that adds a penalty to saves at higher levels. Maybe you've just had rotten luck recently with all Syvishtara's spells being resisted, but your chances of success should improve over time rather than get worse thanks to that component!
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Aug 15, 2012 19:07
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Well he went down depressingly fast.
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Aug 15, 2012 19:39
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Wait, can you actually cast restoration on project images? And if you can, won't the spell slots still be unfilled?
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Aug 15, 2012 21:45
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Cat Army 
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Man, that magic duel was epic.
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Aug 15, 2012 22:19
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Brainamp posted:Well he went down depressingly fast. it's a wizard's duel. It goes, lots of nothing, then a spell works and one of them wins.
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Aug 15, 2012 22:32
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Welp, we have all the evidence we need, now. Syvishtara is a Chosen of Mystra.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:29
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The Iron Rose posted:Wait, can you actually cast restoration on project images? Yes you can in fact do what I outlined. The spell slots will still be unfilled but the level of each image will be your level for spell penetration and level dependent spell effects at least. edit: OH and I forgot one higher-level step that will fix the missing spell slots completely. But it takes a lot more to-do so I was going to reveal it later. I'll have Firebead tell it to me before he leaves next update. Vorgen fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 23:36
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Shei-kun posted:Welp, we have all the evidence we need, now. Syvishtara is a Chosen of Mystra. Hope that she isn't. That would put her at an extremely high risk of getting boned by Elminster.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:38
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The Iron Rose posted:Wait, can you actually cast restoration on project images? The same trick works for simulacra, which gets a little insane in base BG2 with Vhailor's Helm opening Simulacrum to fighter-types. Even in the absurd SCS "improved" fights there is very little that can stand up to a full round of two Keldorns wielding Carsomyr.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:47
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Cythereal posted:Hope that she isn't. That would put her at an extremely high risk of getting boned by Elminster. Why do you think he's been constantly stalking me ever since I was level 1? He was scoping out potential "talent".
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Aug 16, 2012 02:30
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Vorgen posted:Why do you think he's been constantly stalking me ever since I was level 1? He was scoping out potential "talent". Elminster probably arranged for Syl to turn into a woman. He was like, That dude's got spunk. Hey, Mystra, baby-doll. You know I love you right? Yea, that's right, I was just thinking. You know what would be funny? Turn that guy into a chick. What? Bone her? ME!? NEVER! I only got eyes for you sweet cheeks. Other girls? Don't worry bout them, only you baby! Now turn him into a her and go take a vacation, I got to...uh...study...
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Aug 16, 2012 04:06
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Vorgen posted:Yes you can in fact do what I outlined. The spell slots will still be unfilled but the level of each image will be your level for spell penetration and level dependent spell effects at least. I... I got Baldur's Gate I when it came out. I've played this game on and off for over a decade. How did I not know this.
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Aug 16, 2012 04:10
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The Iron Rose posted:I... In the base game you can also (spoiler due to spells we haven't encountered yet): Get around the one "Summon Planetar" limit by casting Project Image or Simulacrum and having your Image or Simulacrum cast infinite "Summon Planetar"s. I cheesed a bunch of battles this way and did not feel in the least bit bad because of how utterly absurd some of the final battles are. You can also use the same mechanism to cast as many Mordenkainen's Swords as you please, to get around the normal limit of five.
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Aug 16, 2012 04:57
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Vorgen posted:Why do you think he's been constantly stalking me ever since I was level 1? He was scoping out potential "talent". Certainly explains her romances so far.
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Aug 16, 2012 07:17
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The Iron Rose posted:Wait, can you actually cast restoration on project images? Project images don't need Restoration - they come standard as a perfect copy of the caster. Which only makes the 4-PIs-at-once trick all the more insane. In a good way. It must be mentioned, though, that one of the fixpack mods limits the number of Projected Images active at once to 1... But that's remediable. The spell that does benefit from restoration is Simulacrum, which functions similarly to PI, but doesn't disable the caster, effectively giving you another high level mage on your side. Now, I wonder if simulacra come with copies of the contingencies the caster had active when the spell was cast? Repeating the PI trick with the simulacrum and getting a total of 8 copies of yourself out of the deal would be pretty hilarious.
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Aug 16, 2012 09:09
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So old Firebead was wrong? Oops! Well, he's not high enough level to know and cast those spells himself so it fits that he is working off of rumor and hearsay. I don't think anybody in all of Candlekeep can cast Project Image or Simulacrum or Restoration.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:42
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Bobfly posted:Project images don't need Restoration - they come standard as a perfect copy of the caster. Which only makes the 4-PIs-at-once trick all the more insane. In a good way. It must be mentioned, though, that one of the fixpack mods limits the number of Projected Images active at once to 1... But that's remediable. Simulacra do not lose any special abilities (including HLA's) regardless of their resulting level. Please also note that the formula that the Infinity Engine uses to calculate the simulacrum's level results in simulacra cast by your simulacra being much higher level than the original. To add back spells, either cast Wish to get the rest option, get a really lucky wild surge, or have the Simis cast Spell Trap and then cast spells at them.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:55
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Cythereal posted:Hope that she isn't. That would put her at an extremely high risk of getting boned by Elminster. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. After all Syvishtara boning Elminster is only a wild surge away!
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Aug 16, 2012 13:04
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Amnistar posted:Elminster probably arranged for Syl to turn into a woman. All I'm going to say here is "Edwin's future if you win the game with him in the party". Dude will have previous by the end of the game!
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Aug 16, 2012 13:38
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amanasleep posted:Simulacra do not lose any special abilities (including HLA's) regardless of their resulting level. I thought it produced a level-drained (like by vampires) copy of the caster? So they'll know the spells and abilities, but not be able to cast them? I could very well be wrong, I'm just going by what I've read on the internet, I haven't even played this game since the last ironman ended. Can't seem to get my (windows) game working and modded on my little OSX-running laptop (yeah, get windows, I know, don't tell me)
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Aug 16, 2012 14:26
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Shei-kun posted:"Fun" Fact: Everyone and everything wants to sleep with Syvishtara. Wild Magic is an aphrodisiac. It will get worse in BG2. Oh so much worse. Particularly if Romantic Encounters is installed. Here's a few of Syvishtara's future suitors:  "Have I mentioned I'm a lesbian today?"  "I hate you and your entire race. But I'm also prettier than you, so I expect you to overlook that."  "Technically, it's not pedophilia." Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 14:29
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Cythereal posted:It will get worse in BG2. Oh so much worse. Particularly if Romantic Encounters is installed. Here's a few of Syvishtara's future suitors: I... But... One of those is a paladin who's a MARRIED MAN!
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Aug 16, 2012 15:12
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