|
Reading this thread convinced me to play through the Baldur's Gate series again. I originally went with a Druid Shapeshifter, but after meeting Zal, the fastest dart thrower in the West, I'm tempted to restart and create my own specialised dart thrower. Is there any way to make a build like that viable or will I be completely useless once I reach ToB? And what class should I choose? I was thinking about a Halfling Fighter with Thief added for some extra utility, but maybe Archer would be a better choice.
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2014 20:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
amanasleep posted:Fairly viable in BG1. Darts of Stunning and Wounding are powerful if you can get them to hit. Archer bonuses would make them pretty deadly, although the Called Shot ability would not do much until BG2. Thanks for your reply. That doesn't sound as bad as I feared, +3 should be enough to hit almost anything in the game. It's a shame the Ranger class is restricted to Humans, Elves and Half-Elves, though. I would have liked to go Halfling, but the Archer bonuses sound too good to pass up.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2014 17:58
|
|
|
Yeah, if you want a throwing character you should go Kensai, as Archers can't get Grandmastery in daggers/axes. Though an Archer with Grandmastery in darts is surprisingly powerful as well. By the end of the game you'll have 10 attacks per round with Improved Haste, each one profiting from the Archer's extra damage and Called Shot ability. You can even equip a shield on top of that.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2015 13:52
|
|
|
CainsDescendant posted:I know I've seen it discussed in here, but I can't find it. What mods/fixpacks are recommended for Arcanum? I tried to get through it a few times as a teenager, I think I'm more mentally prepared for it these days. The old school PC RPGs thread has some info on Arcanum and a lot of knowledgeable posters, so you can ask them for help. You'll definitely want to install the high resolution mod and the unofficial patch. CainsDescendant posted:I'm installing off of cd's! I feel so nostalgic. Are there any specific newbie traps I should be wary of? Yeah, a ton. I love Arcanum more than any sane person should, but if you don't know what you're doing it's very easy to create a weak build and have a frustrating first experience. If you want an easy time, level Dexterity, Melee and Dodge. You can put your other points into anything you want. Both magic and tech are very viable, but the former is a bit easier for beginners to learn. Levelling Charisma also lets you recruit more followers, which helps a lot. I don't want to give any concrete tips because I feel it's best if you go in as blind as possible. Just keep in mind that Arcanum was made in the vein of the early Fallout games, so low level combat is dangerous and it's very easy to wander into an area with high level monsters. It might be best to do town quests early on since they tend to be easier and give decent experience.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2015 14:50
|
|
|
Archer is still a decent class in BG2. Called Shot in combination with Improved Haste is kind of ridiculous, since the debuffs stack.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2015 01:54
|
|
|
How does this work for other stats? Can you walk through fire with 25 Constitution? Does 25 Wisdom give you precognitive powers? Do you turn into The Rock with 25 Charisma?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2015 14:47
|
|
|
Inspector Gesicht posted:Why is Bonzai Buddy answering his own question? Why do people share avatars? That's just the new default "Stupid Newbie" avatar.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2015 16:36
|
|
|
Do slings get the bonus damage from your Strength score in BG2:EE?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2015 21:09
|
|
|
To me, the inherent weirdness of MotB was one of its strongest aspects. Far too many fantasy settings are content with inserting a few magical creatures into a pseudo-medieval landscape and calling it a day, but here the developers succeeded in creating a world and characters that feel truly alien while still tying them to very basic, relatable human concepts, such as love, justice, and the fear of death. It's very much a story that requires you to play along, but it's very rewarding if you're willing to do so.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2015 22:52
|
|
|
IIRC there was originally supposed to be an ending where you tear down the wall Pink Floyd-style, but Obsidian never went through with it because they figured Wizard of the Coast would veto the idea anyway. Of course, then 4th edition came out and did away with the wall entirely, so maybe it could have worked.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
Con was changed to be more meaningful in one of the patches. It's still not necessary to pump it for a tank, but putting a few points in it doesn't hurt either. Though honestly, stats in PoE don't matter too much. There are no breakpoints like in the Infinity Engine games, so you can go with whatever distribution suits you best. The only real advice I can give is that Mechanics not only lets you open chests and disarm traps, it's also used to spot hidden items in stealth mode. So pumping it on one of your characters is a good idea. Other than that, there's nothing to really worry about. Combat-wise, Pillars has the engagement mechanic, which somewhat restricts your mobility on the battlefield, but that's something you'll pick up pretty quickly while playing the game. Everything else feels very similar to the gameplay of the Baldur's Gate series. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Dec 26, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2015 13:32
|
|
|
Coran also has three points in longbows despite being a Fighter/Thief, so he's a cheating bastard all around.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2015 19:41
|
|
|
Playing a Wild Mage is like taking the Jinxed trait in Fallout. You don't do it because it's good, you do it because the results are hilarious.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2016 17:25
|
|
|
So what's next? Completely naked playthrough?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2016 01:51
|
|
|
For BG2, what's more powerful: an Archer with slings or a Kensai with throwing axes?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2016 03:14
|
|
|
Wizard Styles posted:Also, Samuel Clemens, why did you ask about Axes and Slings specifically? Just for the highest enchantment bonuses? I was just thinking about the potential of unorthodox ranged builds. You could throw in darts and throwing knives as well.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2016 14:16
|
|
|
Wizard Styles posted:Pretty sure daggers would be best for the Kensai due to getting more attacks. To be honest, I have no idea what type of Grand Mastery the Enhanced Edition uses. I can't even remember if they implemented slings getting the bonus damage from your Strength.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2016 21:11
|
|
|
Pwnstar posted:Someone at Black Isle/Obsidian has some kind of beetle obsession. Which I can understand because beetles are pretty awesome. My only complaint is that the games don't go far enough. What we need are even bigger insects. 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2016 14:51
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:She apparently might just decide to ditch you right during the end game of SoA, leaving you high and dry. If you're a dude, she never stops talking about loving your sister. If you're a lady and turn her down, she immediately starts loving your sister. Haha, that owns.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2016 07:58
|
|
|
Vanilla Rangers are alright, but there's really no reason not to choose a kit unless you're dual- or multiclassing. But then, that goes for most classes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2016 22:35
|
|
|
Wizard Styles posted:e: I feel like the only weapons to really stay away from as an Assassin are Clubs and ranged weapons that aren't Daggers or Bows. The Assassin's poison ability works with darts and their three attacks per round. 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2016 23:15
|
|
|
I wonder if there's a single player who actually went along with the chess gimmick in that battle. I used to play a lot of chess, and even I couldn't be bothered.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2016 03:33
|
|
|
Wizard Styles posted:Rasaad is kinda boring, and with Hexxat you have to suspend your disbelief a lot because what reasonable people would travel with that? I don't think there has ever been an adventuring party that could be described as reasonable.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2016 01:01
|
|
|
Playing a True Neutral character in a video game is always loads of fun. Killing the evil wizard shifted your alignment towards Good? Better make up for it by stomping on some innocent peasants.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2016 22:46
|
|
|
The iron crisis is meaningless to the player because bows never break, normal weapons are handed out like candy, and magic weapons completely circumvent the problem. Changing the vendor prices wouldn't fix any of these issues. If you wanted the iron shortage to actually feel impactful, you'd need to both increase the chance of breaking and the price you pay when it happens, but that doesn't gel well with a game where you solve 95% of all problems through brute force. It might have worked better in a game like Fallout where most quests offer a non-violent alternative.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2016 12:49
|
|
|
fong posted:There are also all the bandit attacks and NPC encounters that are a result of the iron shortage. They affect the player too. I don't really know why y'all think it doesn't change anything. Right, but bandits are just standard fantasy fare. You travel the countryside, you get attacked by raiders. Whether they want your money or your iron is ultimately of little consequence. RPGs, and that goes doubly for open-world ones, often have trouble getting the player emotionally invested in the story, partly because you're so far removed from the events and partly because most of your time is spent chasing random creatures in the wilderness with little narrative justification. Baldur's Gate is better than most games in the sense that it translates the plot into actual gameplay elements. Unfortunately, it can't go too far with this because then it would end up detracting from the combat/exploration that lies at the heart of the game's design. A good comparison is Mask of the Betrayer; its spirit meter mechanic was a very elegant way of merging gameplay and story, but a lot of players hated it because it didn't mesh with the way they wanted to play the game. That said, this is a bit of a moot discussion either way because Baldur's Gate's largest flaws aren't in its narrative. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Sep 12, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2016 02:10
|
|
|
You're right, the spirit meter's impact on actual gameplay is fairly trivial. But the thing is, it doesn't feel trivial. The game tells you it's important, so you better watch out, and suddenly you're fretting about single-digit drops. It stresses out players and makes them feel constrained in their choices even though its limits are mostly imaginary. You can easily extrapolate this to RPG mechanics in general. For example, a lot of players complained about Wizards in Pillars of Eternity upon release, calling the class weak and pointless. Until people started looking at the numbers and finding multiple spells that were almost game-breaking in their own right. Game balance is as much about perception as it is about mathematics, which is part of the reason so many developers struggle with it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2016 19:13
|
|
|
So you're saying it's a perfect fit for the game?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2016 17:33
|
|
|
Entropy238 posted:Wow, whoever wrote Arcanum's main story did it really really well. So far I've been to Tarant, Dernholme, Ashbury, Black Mountain Mines and the Isle of Despair: Out of curiosity, what's your build? The Black Mines is where a lot of first-time players tend to give up because they realise that all the speech skills in the world won't work against rock monsters. Lemon-Lime posted:I see you failed to do your duty and assassinate him in the name of orcish liberation.  Arcanum is a wonderful game.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2017 01:39
|
|
|
Necromage is Arcanum's easy mode, so I'm not surprised you're having a relaxing time. Good to see you're enjoying the game, though. I definitely recommend visiting Blackroot at some point if you haven't done so already.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2017 21:17
|
|
|
My favourite bit of mechanical trivia about Arcanum is that the strongest melee weapon outside of the final dungeon can be looted of one of the pit fighters on the Isle of Despair and is simply called "Sword". Regarding technology vs. magic, the former definitely takes longer to get going unless you're doing tech-melee, but just about any build ends up very powerful by the end. My biggest gripe with tech-characters is that the randomised shop inventories mean you sometimes have to spend a lot of time just refreshing the stores until you get a particular schematic or crafting component.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2017 21:45
|
|
|
Entropy238 posted:I looked in to these before I started playing and the best one seemed to be "Arcanum Equilibrium Rebalanced". I'm not too fond of the Equilibrium mod; it's a good example of taking one step forward, two steps back. Guns are more powerful now (arguably too powerful), but melee weapons are really awful unless you rush 20 Strength as soon as possible. Some spells have been nerfed, but others are still as broken as they were before. In addition, a lot of fun abilities were removed (Charm Animal and Knockout Grenades, for instance), and having to use unique crafting materials for the best tech items means you can only make them at specific points in the story, which sort of ruins the whole discovery aspect of being an inventor. The mod also increases the DR and HP of many enemies, making the endgame even more of a chore. To be honest, even if you could perfectly rebalance the various builds, combat still wouldn't be very fun because 90% of all enemies do nothing except charge at you and use basic melee attacks. If you wanted to make encounters actually engaging, you'd have to completely rewrite the AI and add in a lot more special abilities. Otherwise, you risk making combat even worse because it'll be just as dull as in vanilla Arcanum, except now it takes a lot longer. Personally, I've come to terms with the fact that the game will be easy no matter what you do and instead derive joy from the fact that every build is broken in a unique way.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2017 04:47
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:To be fair there is a reason for that. Namely, 20 Strength completely warps the game. True, but the sensible solution would have been to nerf the Strength bonus rather than decrease the damage of melee weapons. Forcing people to max out a specific stat if they want to be successful is the opposite of what makes Arcanum's character creation great. ProfessorCirno posted:Meanwhile, most of the best items in the game are magic, and having high magic affinity means you gain BETTER use of them - whereas high tech affinity does not make your tech items better. The whole thing is, frankly, rigged. There are some items that scale with your Technical Aptitude, most notably the Electro-Armor. You make a good point about the magic resistance from TA being bad, though if you're going for a dedicated tech run you probably wouldn't pick up the magical followers anyway, and it's not like healing is scarce in the game.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2017 03:37
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:Sadly, I don't think it's actually possible for a mod to change that. I'm not saying that balance mod was GOOD, just that, at a certain point, you're kinda trying to make do with an engine that isn't working. I admit that I don't know anything about Arcanum's modding capabilities. It's well possible that changing Strength can't be done, but then nerfing melee weapons is still a bad idea because it screws over any builds who never reach 20 Strength, including many followers. ProfessorCirno posted:Really, a good part of it sorta just comes down to the general plot. For all the setting is meant to be about magic and tech encouching and waring with each other, the actual storyline ends up being about, well, mostly magic, and the voiced NPCs in turn are mostly magical. I think the mix is pretty good actually. The most prominent voiced followers are Virgil, Magnus, Raven, Loghaire, Franklin Payne, Torian Kel and Gar. Two of those are magic, three tech, and two neutral. There's also Z'an, but she's more of a replacement for Raven. Besides, it's not like followers have tech/magic restrictions. If you're fond of Virgil (for which I can't blame you because he gets some great lines), you can always recruit him as a tech character. His healing spells will still be useful for himself and other followers, and he does make a solid melee fighter. docbeard posted:I always played tech because you can play a superwizard in any drat game but yeah I certainly don't disagree that magic gave you more bang for your buck. (Hell, with magic you eventually got a teleport spell that would take you anywhere. Teleport is the one thing I always miss when playing pure tech. Everything else can be more or less substituted, but that's a huge convenience you're missing out on. Entropy238 posted:– Are the mechanical dudes that you can create (Automatons, Mechanised Arachnid Variants etc ..) any good offensively or are they just a pain in the rear end that need to be repaired a lot? If I used them would I be able to get by on just having them repaired at Blacksmiths? Automatons are pretty powerful, especially since they don't count towards the normal follower limit. If you're patient, you could amass dozens of them and gang up on the enemy. They're slow, though, so it's more of a novel strategy than a super-powerful one. Entropy238 posted:– What's the best healing solution for Tech chars? I understand Jayna Stiles healing AI isn't great so I'm reluctant to have to arse around with her too much. Put a single point into Herbology. The Healing Salves are very cost efficient and will last you throughout most of the game. If you have points left near the end you could either go further down the Herbology path or invest into the Healing skill. Entropy238 posted:I've read Knockout Gas is pretty good - but does it really achieve anything that Stun Grenades/Paralysis Grenades can't do? Paralysis Grenades and Plastique explosives can be made easily enough with manuals and don't require chemistry tree exclusive components. Knock out Gas is nice because it's basically an AoE instant kill attack. I don't think that's worth seven points in the tree, though, not unless you have plenty of points to spare or also want to invest into Gunsmithy or Electrical Entropy238 posted:– Is it worth going all the way in Smithy? If you have the points to spare, sure. Machined Plate is the best armour in the game, and a lot of your followers will appreciate it. Especially the Ogres since good large armour is hard to come by. The Helmet of Vision is also needed to make the Goggled Helmet, which is the best Perception-boosting item in the game. Entropy238 posted:– Investing in Electrical doesn't seem that great with the kind of build I'm going for. Charge rings are obviously a given, but I'm going to be wearing the goggled hat to raise my PER (so no chapeau of magnetic inversion) and the flow disrupter can be made with manuals. The flow spectrometer is useful, regenerative jacket seems like a pain to get charged and I can't really use the Tesla stuff. Yeah, higher levels of Electrical are mostly for Firearms users or if you want multiple Chapeaus. The Healing Jacket is fairly worthless, sadly. Entropy238 posted:At moment I'm thinking of spending 7 points in Herbology, 2/3 in Electronics, 7 in Smithy, 7 in explosives and then 5 in Chemistry (if knockout gas is good) for 29 points total. Knock out Gas rquires 7 points in Chemistry because you need Anaesthizisers to make it. I don't think that investment is worth it for your build because you're not a dedicated thrower. Herbology 7 might be overkill, but if you have the points to spare, go for it. Though I wouldn't worry too much about the perfect build if I were you. Backstab + Stun Grenades on its own completely trivialises almost every fight in the game.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2017 15:14
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:Chemistry is useless and never does anything. Buy a technical manual. I won't stand for this slander of the Tranquilizer Gun.  ProfessorCirno posted:Electricity you either want two points (charged rings, and EVERYONE wants to have a source of this if you have basically any tech characters at all, they're the best rings in the game for tech and probably not bad for neutral either) or all points - and then, ONLY if you're a gunslinger, because you need a tesla rod to make the tesla gun, and you can't find a tesla rod anywhere. Tesla gun incidentally, is one of the best guns in the game. If you do not want to make a tesla gun, stop at two points in electricity. I actually prefer the standard Tesla Rod over the Tesla Gun. It does less DPS but requires much fewer batteries to function, and I find that ammo consumption is usually a bigger concern for gunslingers than damage. ProfessorCirno posted:Gunsmithing is useless. You can find basically all the worthwhile craftable guns in the game as is, and you can use technical manuals beyond that. I agree if you know exactly where to find the early Hand Cannon, but otherwise I'd say Gunsmithy isn't too bad. The Fine Revolver can be made right at the start and is better than any store-bought gun, and the Repeater and Looking Glass Rifle make the first half of the game much easier. The latter in particular is a huge boon in the Black Mountain Clan mines, which is generally the hardest area for most builds. ProfessorCirno posted:(Machine Gun technically does more damage but burns through all your ammo immediately and is effected by high armor way more; Levered beats Mechanized). How so, I thought they both went against standard DR? ProfessorCirno posted:Also, the Flow Disrupter isn't actually good - remember, magic resistance is bad because the NPCs of Arcanum were never programmed to actually have or use magic, so all it does is block positive spells your allies cast. I think you're conflating different things. There are two types of magic resistance in the game: actual Magick Resistance, which only blocks harmful spells, and Technical Aptitude, which blocks all spells. The Flow Disruptor belongs to the former and is thus universally beneficial, if admittedly rather useless unless you plan to aggro Tulla for some reason. ProfessorCirno posted:Actually, there's a second big flaw - tech affinity doesn't do anything. I think I mentioned this before, but some items do scale with your Technical Aptitude; the Strength bonus from the Mechanized Plate or the DR of the Electric Armor, for instance. Technical Aptitude also affects your to-hit chance with tech-weapons against magical creatures such as Gore Guards, so it's important for gunslingers or pyroaxe/-bow users. ProfessorCirno posted:Tech gear starts off strong because you can beeline to making it (though sometimes you have to wait until you open up Wheel Clan to buy certain items in there), but the longer you play, the more and better magical equipment you'll loot. True, but the first half of the game is usually the one that gives most players trouble. It's all well and good that you can eventually find Arcane Mail which competes with the Mechanized Plate, but if you get unlucky, you're already past all the dangerous fights by that point. I don't disagree that tech less straightforward than magic and requires a lot of inventory management, but then, isn't that sort of the point? Isn't juggling different components, checking shops for upgrade materials and schematics, and slowly assembling your gear part of the appeal of the archetype? If you don't care about any of that, you could just as easily go Melee + Dodge and smash your way through the game with minimal effort.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2017 23:18
|
|
|
The resistances on the Electro-Armor and the resistances as well as the Strength bonus from the Machined Plate scale with Aptitude, the Elite Platemail doesn't. I'm fairly sure Large Machined Plate has the highest DR in the game for a neutral character, so you'll want that for your Ogres once you can build it. The Electro-Armor's biggest advantage is that you can craft it without investing any skillpoints. Edit: Actually, the resistances on the Machined Plate might only get a penalty if you're magically inclined, which doesn't matter much for Ogre companions. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Jan 14, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2017 02:19
|
|
|
Entropy238 posted:I've never actually gotten round to playing the first two Fallout games – should I start with Fallout 1 or Fallout 2? Are there any mods I should definitely get before playing? The old Fallout thread is still around if you have specific questions. Definitely start with the original. It's shorter and easier than the sequel, and they're so similar gameplay-wise that playing one will let you know if you'll enjoy the other.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2017 20:39
|
|
|
If you want to get as much out of the story as possible, having access to most or all of the speech skills helps. Bard is a nice class for that purpose. Rogue would be too if high-level D&D didn't take such pleasure in handing out Sneak Attack immunity to foes.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2017 23:11
|
|
|
Arivia posted:Rogue works fine in MotB. You get an item that removes immunity to crits/sneak attacks in the starter dungeon. Huh, I don't remember that at all. What type of item is it?
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2017 00:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
bike tory posted:Wizards also destroy things like noone's business in late NWN2. Well, it is a 3.5 campaign.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2017 11:54
|
|