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Montalvo posted:Yeah, I'm picking spells that are going to remain useful throughout the trilogy (or at least most of it). Be careful getting to the basilisks, I think it's the map immediately before them that has a vampire wolf, which would almost certainly thrash your duo, it's not super hard to avoid, just make sure to save plenty and reload the moment you see it.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:24
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Potions of mirrored eyes only last 10 rounds though. The level 1 arcane spell protection from petrification lasts 50. I usually buy scrolls at High Hedge and scroll-cast the spell.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:26
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Skwirl posted:Be careful getting to the basilisks, I think it's the map immediately before them that has a vampire wolf, which would almost certainly thrash your duo, it's not super hard to avoid, just make sure to save plenty and reload the moment you see it. Having run away from them several times, I know exactly where on the Temple map they are. 
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Jul 20, 2017 18:27
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Skwirl posted:He's a sorcerer and Sleep stops being useful and there's no way to switch spells in game. Spook actually remains useful through BG2. When I made the Valerie NPC mod for BG1 (a sorcerer), you wouldn't believe how many people complained to me about her not starting with Sleep. 
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Jul 20, 2017 18:28
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Montalvo posted:Hi thread! I've played through BG2 more times than I can count, but only twice through BG1. I picked up a Kindle Fire 8 on Prime Day with the express purpose of using it to play through the series again, and decided to challenge myself to a (mostly) solo run (I'm going to try to do a Bhaalspawn-only run). Yea, you should be able to go to the basilisk area and the ghoul there can kill everything iirc as long as you don't trigger the main fight. edit: oh you made a sorc and didn't take sleep, gg. Washout fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Jul 20, 2017 |
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Jul 20, 2017 18:31
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Cythereal posted:When I made the Valerie NPC mod for BG1 (a sorcerer), you wouldn't believe how many people complained to me about her not starting with Sleep. If you weren't planning on using her in the second game it would almost make sense to use Sleep, because it's powerful for a good chunk of the game, and powerful for the hardest part of the game, but if you're taking a character into BG2 I think it's definitely not worth the early power boost to only have 4 options for 1st level rather than 5.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:31
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You get like five level one spells, it doesn't actually matter if by the end game one of them is Sleep! You can just use all your casts on any of the other spells (and it's probably mostly magic missiles anyway)
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Jul 20, 2017 18:32
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Yeah, Sleep makes sense anyway, especially when you're playing with a restricted party. There aren't that many essential level 1 spells, 4 is more than enough. Magic Missile, Shield and Spook are probably the most generally useful later on, and then you can pick whichever you like best out of Chromatic Orb, Protection from Evil and Identify. Protection from Evil is probably the safe choice for this run.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:36
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The level 1 spells I plan on taking are Magic Missile, Spook, Protection from Evil, Shield, and Chromatic Orb. I'd rather just cast Sleep using wands and scrolls in the first game.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:39
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Montalvo posted:The level 1 spells I plan on taking are Magic Missile, Spook, Protection from Evil, Shield, and Chromatic Orb. I'd rather just cast Sleep using wands and scrolls in the first game. You make the early game super hard by not taking sleep. Really the only necessary level 1 spell is magic missile, you are probably not going to use anything else hardly ever in BG2.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:41
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Washout posted:You make the early game super hard by not taking sleep. Really the only necessary level 1 spell is magic missile, you are probably not going to use anything else hardly ever in BG2. For a 2 man party I'd use Protection from Evil a bunch, and Spook gains saving throw penalties as you level up, and it's not that much worse in the early game than Sleep.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:45
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Skwirl posted:If you weren't planning on using her in the second game it would almost make sense to use Sleep, because it's powerful for a good chunk of the game, and powerful for the hardest part of the game, but if you're taking a character into BG2 I think it's definitely not worth the early power boost to only have 4 options for 1st level rather than 5. Yeah, she started with Magic Missile and Identify. Her BG2 component is pretty much dead and not happening, but her BG2 version added Sleep, Protection From Evil, and Shield as her other level 1 spells.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:45
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Skwirl posted:Spook gains saving throw penalties as you level up, and it's not that much worse in the early game than Sleep.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:57
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I've already purchased the Wand of Sleep from High Hedge and a couple of sleep scrolls so i'm not really suffering for not having it. I'd rather have a harder time in the early game in order to take the most long-term efficient spells.
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Jul 20, 2017 18:59
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Okay, I admittedly forgot the Sleep wand was available that early.
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Jul 20, 2017 19:03
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I think there's a second one in Sorcerous Sundries. Don't get me wrong though, I'm fully aware that I'm artificially making my life harder by not taking Sleep; but I'm okay with dealing with a bit of savescumming. 
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Jul 20, 2017 19:04
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So I put BG I behind me. Traps are a lot of fun. Now I'm on Siege of Dragonspear. I only have one complaint about that game. Much of that game can be summed up in a single Futurama quote. "You guys like swarms of things right?" At least it makes Fireball/Cloudkill the best spells in the game. Also: Did they nerf the Monster Summoning spells? Because the wands seem much more efficient and Animate Dead is way better than either of them. I also don't remember only getting 1-2 monsters per summoning in the original game. And: once I hit level 16 do I lose a ton of damage dealing ability once I get the lame Otiluke's Resilient Sphere trap or do I get that in addition to my special snares? ChrisBTY fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 19:36
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Just finished my first full play-through of Icewind Dale after stopping and starting a few times since 2014 when I first bought it. I'm so glad I brought an Undead Hunter Paladin instead of going for a 5 man party because holy poo poo at least 75%-80% of the enemies are undead. Paladins absolutely rock. Don't have much to say about the base game. The artwork was really beautiful and the combat was pretty tight but the plot and characters weren't particularly inspiring and I nearly burnt out at a few points from the drudgery. Itemisation was really nice and I loved the story of Pale Justice (but had to EEKeeper it in because of some bullshit thing the enhanced edition did by adding in a quest from unfinished business). Heart of Winter was a different story – all of the good things about the base game with much more interesting characters and plot. The artwork in it is completely out of this world and I actually quite liked Trials of the Luremaster. The Seer was great and I felt very sympathetic towards Icasaracht. The voice acting for both was amazing. I was playing on Insane and ended up with about 5,400,000 XP for each character by the end (Double damage vs Double XP). Wasn't using any fighter/mages so not using absolute defences made it a fine trade-off I think. I've a feeling that some of the spells from BG2 in the enhanced edition seriously unbalance the game, kits less so.
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Jul 21, 2017 21:24
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Entropy238 posted:I was playing on Insane and ended up with about 5,400,000 XP for each character by the end (Double damage vs Double XP). Wasn't using any fighter/mages so not using absolute defences made it a fine trade-off I think. I've a feeling that some of the spells from BG2 in the enhanced edition seriously unbalance the game, kits less so. The kits make it super easy. If you just take a normal IWD party and add even some of the bad kits like dwarven defender and stuff you will do it much easier than without. I remember every major combat being a real difficult puzzle when I first played through when it was released. Later when I played IWD:EE and use stuff like skalds and dwarven defenders it was much easier. Less pre buffing and big aoe spells required for every fight.
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Jul 22, 2017 03:58
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Washout posted:The kits make it super easy. If you just take a normal IWD party and add even some of the bad kits like dwarven defender and stuff you will do it much easier than without. I remember every major combat being a real difficult puzzle when I first played through when it was released. Later when I played IWD:EE and use stuff like skalds and dwarven defenders it was much easier. Less pre buffing and big aoe spells required for every fight. The only two kits I used in my run were the Undead Hunter and the Sorcerer. Undead Hunter's bonus definitely gave me a bit of an advantage but I wouldn't say it was decisive. Sorcerer on the other hand probably gave me access to spells that I shouldn't have had access to and I felt a bit bad about using it in the end. If I ever play it again I'll probably go with a plain wizard or just another Bard as my main caster given how forgiving the game is about resting. Dwarven Defender would be extremely good but not that much more overpowered than your typical fighter/mage variant laced in Stone Skins, Mirror Images, Fireshields, Trollish Fortitude, Seven Eyes, etc ... I would think. Though I guess in vanilla there wasn't spell immunity:abjuration so all of your buffs would go out the window as soon as you get dispelled. As far as I know Defensive Stance can't be dispelled. I'm not sure if a skald would make things that much easier vs. an ordinary bard in IWD given how nice stuff like War Chant of Sith is, though getting +4 to hit, damage and AC seems like it'd scale a lot better. I feel like an Archer would be OP as gently caress with all of the nice bows there are around. Stuff from the EE like Improved Haste (doubling fighters' effectiveness), Timestop, Mislead, Protection from magical/normal weapons, Wish, Spell Triggers etc ... all played a larger role for me at least in my playthrough. I'd say my front-line of four dual wielding improved haste fighters with around 7-9 APR killed Icasaracht in about 10-15 seconds.
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Jul 22, 2017 10:42
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I just noticed in BGEE if you move your mouse quickly from side to side, the pointer changes from the normal gloved hand pointer, to your system mouse pointer, and if you continue to move the mouse quickly the pointer grows in size.
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Jul 22, 2017 13:13
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Wildtortilla posted:I just noticed in BGEE if you move your mouse quickly from side to side, the pointer changes from the normal gloved hand pointer, to your system mouse pointer, and if you continue to move the mouse quickly the pointer grows in size. Normal OS X behaviour as of 10.11.
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Jul 22, 2017 13:27
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Wildtortilla posted:I just noticed in BGEE if you move your mouse quickly from side to side, the pointer changes from the normal gloved hand pointer, to your system mouse pointer, and if you continue to move the mouse quickly the pointer grows in size. 
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Jul 22, 2017 13:40
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kujeger posted:Normal OS X behaviour as of 10.11. Now I wish quoting avatars was a normal thing. I wasn't just shaking my mouse for the hell of it. I know there was a staircase in a room I was in but I couldn't find it so I was moving my mouse erratically waiting to see the icon change.
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Jul 22, 2017 13:48
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I read your post then looked over at your AV and about fell out of my chair. That cat is so loving freaked out about the mouse pointer.
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Jul 22, 2017 13:50
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Does a bigger cursor give you better hit rolls
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Jul 22, 2017 13:59
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bongwizzard posted:I read your post then looked over at your AV and about fell out of my chair. That cat is so loving freaked out about the mouse pointer. Louis Wain painted cats and over his career his cats became more and more paranoid and psychedelic as his own schizophrenia worsened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain Bringing this back to BG, I just finished the quest Tremaine's Son and after this dude brought his son back to life they just walked out of the the house and I didn't get any experience or finish the quest. ffffffffffffuck edit: I had to talk to the kid still in the house. Of course the child has 2,000 gold to give me. Should I do as many quests as possible in BG's before I investigate the iron throne? I'm skeptical that I'll be booted out of the city when I do that, but I have no idea. Wildtortilla fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jul 22, 2017 |
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Jul 22, 2017 14:09
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Wildtortilla posted:Should I do as many quests as possible in BG's before I investigate the iron throne? I'm skeptical that I'll be booted out of the city when I do that, but I have no idea. There's a few decent things to do in Baldurs gate but I wouldn't worry about missing the odd thing here and there in the grand scheme of things. It's a good idea to explore the house to the west of the inn named "The Helm and Cloak" in the Northwestern District, as well as the big ship in the Docks District. You'll also want to explore near the mages tower beside the Duke's Keep.
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Jul 22, 2017 14:30
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Wildtortilla posted:Louis Wain painted cats and over his career his cats became more and more paranoid and psychedelic as his own schizophrenia worsened. Oh man, that is amazing. Some of those cats are great, thanks for the link!
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Jul 22, 2017 16:15
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What would be the best weapon to achieve Grandmastery in prior to dualing a Fighter -> Thief?
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Jul 22, 2017 16:39
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What weapons do you intend to use? Are you going to backstab a lot?
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Jul 22, 2017 16:57
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Depends on whether or not you care about backstabbing. If you do, pick either katana or longsword. If you don't, your options are wide open. Common choices for "best" would be flail, greatsword, or halberd. If you pick a one-handed weapon, make sure to get 2 points in dual-wielding (or 3, but the third point isn't as useful as the first two) and 1 in scimitar, war hammer, or both.
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Jul 22, 2017 17:12
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My dwarf F/C is 6/6 currently and my weapon profs are 2 each in Warhammer, sling, and sword shield. Not sure what else to give him going forward. Should I get ready for another weapon type for early game BG2?
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Jul 22, 2017 19:22
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Wildtortilla posted:My dwarf F/C is 6/6 currently and my weapon profs are 2 each in Warhammer, sling, and sword shield. Not sure what else to give him going forward. Should I get ready for another weapon type for early game BG2?
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Jul 22, 2017 19:32
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Wizard Styles posted:You should start building towards eventually dual-wielding Flails. I've been thinking about using EEKeeper to pull the two points out of S+S after reading that it's mostly useless. Maybe L will finally do that.
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Jul 22, 2017 19:36
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Walrus Pete posted:Depends on whether or not you care about backstabbing. If you do, pick either katana or longsword. If you don't, your options are wide open. Common choices for "best" would be flail, greatsword, or halberd. I was leaning more toward just having high THACO and APR and dual-wielding. Would 5 pips in scimitars and 3 in two weapon fighting be overkill?
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Jul 22, 2017 19:40
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Wildtortilla posted:I've been thinking about using EEKeeper to pull the two points out of S+S after reading that it's mostly useless. Maybe L will finally do that. Smashing Link posted:I was leaning more toward just having high THACO and APR and dual-wielding. Would 5 pips in scimitars and 3 in two weapon fighting be overkill? You want Grand Mastery in whatever your characters main hand weapon will be. As for backstab weapons, Katanas are great for SoA, not so great in ToB and pretty poo poo in BG1. I think there's a good one in Dragonspear, but I'm not sure. Long swords are a safe choice throughout the entire trilogy. Short swords are actually decent, too, but often resisted and several NPCs use them. Quarterstaves become ridiculously devastating, but only in ToB.
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Jul 22, 2017 19:50
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Do weapon mastery bonuses apply to off-handed weapons? I think that extra attacks per round don't apply for off-hand weapons, unless you are using a weapon that adds an extra attack, but I'm not sure if the extra damage and THAC0 bonuses apply.
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Jul 22, 2017 22:38
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Olive Branch posted:Do weapon mastery bonuses apply to off-handed weapons? I think that extra attacks per round don't apply for off-hand weapons, unless you are using a weapon that adds an extra attack, but I'm not sure if the extra damage and THAC0 bonuses apply. Damage and THAC0 apply, but the off-hand weapon only ever attacks once per round. Even Belm (+1 APR) in the off-hand gives the extra attack to the main hand weapon. Smashing Link posted:I was leaning more toward just having high THACO and APR and dual-wielding. Would 5 pips in scimitars and 3 in two weapon fighting be overkill? 3 in two-weapon fighting is only worth 2 THAC0 for the one off-hand attack per round, so unless you have nowhere else useful to put the point it's better spent elsewhere. Focusing on scimitars is fine, but you'll be hurting for a powerful main-hand weapon for a while. I think the best you can get in SoA without going into Watcher's Keep is a generic +3 scimitar with Belm in the off-hand. Which isn't bad, but it's got nothing on ridiculous weapons like the Flail of Ages or Celestial Fury.
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Jul 22, 2017 23:18
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Thanks for the tips. I like having only two bladed weapons or two blunt weapons for dual wielders for ~~~aesthetic~~~ reasons. Sounds like scimitars are a solid choice and long swords maybe a good number two.
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Jul 22, 2017 23:49
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