|
I know IWD EE added a bunch of spells and stuff from BG2, but do enemies use them? Because if they don't and there are no bullshit contingencies and sequencers to dismantle in this, the GOG deal is really hard to pass up. If they do, I still might go for it, but ehhh.
|
#
¿
May 7, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 16:54 |
|
|
Metal Meltdown posted:When I played through IWD:EE I don't recall any complicated mage battles like BG2. IWD is the uncivilized lands so it's actually pretty rare you'll be fighting the casters that are so common in Baldurs Gate. Arivia posted:There's one in Chapter 6 which includes contingencies, but it doesn't involve Breach or similar. Time to start thinking about party composition, then. Hughlander posted:Thinking about going back to my bg2 illusionist fighter. What would the dual wield weapon progression look like? BG1 without ranged weapon proficiencies was rough for the character, though. Fighter/Mage multiclasses are strong throughout the game(s), but they still have some fairly pronounced ups and downs at lower levels that you'll feel a lot more if the character's hanging out in melee all the time.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2015 21:12
|
|
|
PRESIDENT GOKU posted:Well gently caress. Later on, dual-wielding is generally better, but in BG1 and early BG2 sword and board definitely has its place. General advice for a bastard sword-using Ranger would be to level a ranged weapon and a melee weapon that does a different damage type, preferably crushing. The first is more important in BG1, the second in BG2. Hammers can cover both to some degree, but aren't the only option.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2015 20:26
|
|
|
All good points if you're optimizing your weapon selection, yeah. Personally, I wouldn't go with Hammers, actually. At least not in combination with Bastard Swords, because that's gonna be a looooong time without even one decent set of weapons in BG2 unless you rush Watcher's Keep (and even then you don't get anything too special iirc).
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2015 20:51
|
|
|
PRESIDENT GOKU posted:I'm playing Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition.  General advice still stands, but it's hard to say what the best proficiency to invest in would be due to lots of stuff being random loot. I want to say that I remember there being a good non-random Morning Star later on, but to be honest, that might as well be wrong. quote:At what level should I attempt the big tomb in the vale of shadows? The number of undead shitters that run around on level 2 and 3 is loving ridiculous. My lovely mage knows something like 3 spells, but my fighters all have +1 weapons, so I shouldn't be being stomped on so regularly.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2015 12:49
|
|
|
I finished IWD twice so far, once with four, once with five people in the party. Even if it's harder than with a full party, it's far from the worst mistake you could make. Crowd control and summons help a lot and obviously benefit from faster leveling.Washout posted:With only a 4 person party I see no reason to dual class anyone, just multiclass instead. That way you can make the f/t a halforc the f/c a dwarf and the f/m an elf. Anyway, small parties mean less class downtime when dual-classing, so I wouldn't just rule it out, but three out of four characters dualing, likely at the same time, sounds miserable.
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2015 06:12
|
|
|
Washout posted:Dual class Berserker or Kensai 9 / Mage Either of these is in contention for "most op class combo in the game" Any warrior/caster combination, multi- or dual-classed, is really good though, so you can kind of do whatever you want and it'll be fine. PRESIDENT GOKU posted:My problem seems to stem from being pretty ignorant about a lot of the mechanics in the game, as well as core D&D rules. Earlier you posted that you want a bunch of dual-classed spellcasters, but also didn't enjoy the constant micromanagement, which casters require more than other classes. So I'm wondering if you do want to micro, just not a party of six, and, yeah, basically just what playstyle you want to go for.
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2015 16:06
|
|
|
Skwirl posted:He's playing IWD which has a much lower level cap than BG2. I'm not sure he'd ever get his fighter levels back if he waited until 13 to dual class. Actually, as strong as they are when fully realized, I personally wouldn't play a Kensai/Mage ever again. You really want those 13 levels to get something out of it that a Berserker/Mage doesn't also offer when you need it while also being selectively immune to everything. And gently caress 13 levels of downtime. no thanks posted:If you're hell-bent on a 4 man party with one of them being a bard, I'd suggest something like this: You can squeeze in at least one more Thief level in a small party like that, by the way. I took mine to level 6 and the downtime lasted for a few areas that didn't really require Thief abilities anyway. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 20:40 on May 11, 2015 |
|
#
¿
May 11, 2015 20:32
|
|
|
Washout posted:My first play through bg2 was as a kensai/mage, and then I started over and ran a kensai through BG1. It's just that, ultimately, while a Kensai 13/Mage 14+ is amazing, and a straight Kensai is pretty okay even at low levels and only gets stronger, I wouldn't want to go through all that time as an underleveled Mage again. Arivia posted:At least in BG2, it's viable. There are good melee quarterstaffs (the staff of the ram, the staff of striking), and a fighter/mage with quarterstaff specialization is a HUGE asset against golems with the staff you can buy in Ust'Natha.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2015 14:22
|
|
|
Well, excuse me for not cheesing the game.  Apart from playing a Fighter/Mage combination.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2015 14:48
|
|
|
Cleric/Mages in a full party of six being not as good as they could theoretically be is just kind of a fact of life in the IE games, I think. They can pull off some really slick spell combos, but they don't unlock them quite fast enough when XP are split six ways. As for party composition, I'm not sure because I don't remember the scroll situation in IWD. I could see myself taking your party but going down to one Fighter/Mage, dual with either kit or multi, kicking out the Cleric/Mage, and filling the two open slots with an Avenger and Archer. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 00:22 on May 13, 2015 |
|
#
¿
May 13, 2015 00:09
|
|
|
Two-handed swords are pretty popular with the NPCs, though. I'd just go with Flails. They're probably the best weapon proficiency to have in BG2+ToB, and nothing in BG1 is that special anyway.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2015 16:02
|
|
|
I don't remember any, just lots of things with 50% or higher damage resistances. It's been years since I last actually finished ToB, though.zedprime posted:You start falling into weird, dark, holes when you start talking about the best weapon that lead to weird stuff about the odds of an instant kill while wielding the vorpal sword during a gww (strangely good) or tedious dances involving a thief with UAI, Staff of the Magi, and Staff of the Ram. For what it's worth, I suggested Flails not just because I think the Flail of Ages is the best weapon in the game (it totally is, though), but also because Berserkers can reach Grand Mastery, so staying in one proficiency is worthwhile. And the combination of Flail of Ages and Defender of Easthaven can last a character through most of the game, although the Defender is expensive. Also, no companion uses Flails by default.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2015 05:42
|
|
|
Yeah, level 3 should be fine but level 2 means half your party can go down in a round of arrow fire from bandits if you're unlucky. Also, go straight for the bandit camp, don't explore the forest areas around it. There are Black Talon Elites that can spawn there and they can straight up one-shot a level 2 character.
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2015 01:45
|
|
|
Washout posted:Update on my all mage party, my 3 mages have finally all hit level 2, this is hard as poo poo. You don't get to level quickly like you would as a solo mage, but you still have all the drawbacks. Still not able to do the rebalanced nashkel mines or fight things like cave bears and winter wolves, they wreck me. Maybe once they all hit level 3 I can not be so afraid of every little ogre or whatever that I come across.
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2015 22:37
|
|
|
Washout posted:Max
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2015 23:37
|
|
|
I would say keep him if you've avoided any spoilers about how exactly he's involved in the main plot. If you know his story already, eh.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2015 13:42
|
|
|
Anomen or Jaheira (or both) would be my suggestion. They both can help a lot with some of the more annoying enemies in the game and help you cover a lot of bases just by themselves. I'd recommend keeping the last slot sort of open as kind of a revolving door deal if you want to keep some NPCs around for their personal quests or just to try different people out. That's mainly because I don't have a second recommendation, though, your party's solid already. fong posted:Really though, that fight is so broken. The engine is nowhere near capable of doing what they wanted in that encounter, so that's basically the only way to do it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 8, 2015 22:23
|
|
|
This is a very specific question, but has anyone played IWD with a party of six and included a thief->whatever dual-class character? I want to try a Swashbuckler dualed to Fighter and was wondering when would be a good point to dual out, especially with regards to traps. Washout posted:Mage/Cleric is really weak in IWDEE, I'd go illusionist/fighter or Archer over that. It was easily the weakest least contributing party member on my last run through. The ranger/cleric had duplicates of all his cleric spells and the sorc has so many casts per day of your important spells that he just usually has nothing to do.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2015 19:05
|
|
|
Taliesyn posted:As long as you have both a straight (or dual) class healer and a straight (or dual) class mage as well, a cleric mage makes a perfectly viable back-up. Instead of using them for your die-per-level attacks or primary heals, use them for save-or-die effects, buffs, debuffs, things like that. The sheer amount of spells they can toss around is amazing, and having access to both cleric and mage HLAs is really nice. Of course, at some point, when you reach really high levels, multi-classed characters are just better than single-classed ones, but you don't really get there in regular IWD. Washout posted:I did this with imoen in BG1 and dualed her at like level 5 to mage. Just maxed out find traps and open locks. Guess I'll just jump in, though, because I also definitely don't want to read through a FAQ just to find out when to dual-class one out of six characters.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2015 17:06
|
|
|
Washout posted:I made a swashbuckler and dualed him to fighter at 5 in my current party. He's only got 100 open locks and 75 find traps, but I'm sure that's good enough for the whole game. If you are paranoid about it then go to level 6 swashbuckler before dualing, or take a thief instead, or a multi class thief like an illusionist/thief or horc fighter/thief, those are both extremely powerful.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2015 20:04
|
|
|
kujeger posted:is there any reason to think it will be good? the new stuff in the bg:ees games are not exactly very promising
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2015 22:43
|
|
|
Every NPC gets infinitely worse as soon as you reach romance content. I don't know what it is about romances in Baldur's Gate, but it's best to just not touch the poo poo, really. Of course that didn't stop me from romancing Neera out of morbid curiosity. Anyway, I finally started IWD:EE and, although playing on Insane gets tedious at times, it's fun. I didn't really consider how slowly two multi-classed Fighters would level early on and what that would mean when they're the party's only tanks, but that's nothing Sleep can't handle. Also, I hadn't seen the option for conning a gem out of a random Easthaven townsperson that dwarves get before, that was pretty funny.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 3, 2015 21:44
|
|
|
I've been playing this game with mods for so long that I've kind of grown accustomed to just making sure the game is balanced myself by Shadowkeepering experience away and modding some of the more insane stuff mods add. So if Dragonspear gives you to many XP I'll do just that. Not that it wouldn't be questionable from a design standpoint, but I wouldn't really be bothered by it. In general, I'm getting a bit more enthusiastic about this than I was before. Beamdog's stuff always offered good encounter design and quests that had a good length for what they are. The new areas they made have also consistently gotten better, and some of the previewed stuff for the interquel (lol) is really pretty. Beamdog writing has always been poo poo, but Avellone's help should have propelled it to mediocrity at least. Maybe there'll even be some good bits, who knows? So now I just hope they have some money left for decent voice actors. fong posted:It looks like Goblins will become a playable race now, too? Either that or they're just introducing the one NPC who is a goblin. Also, bears didn't become a playable race when they made Wilson either, unfortunately.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2015 19:19
|
|
|
None that I'm aware of. Adding a new race that's selectable at character creation would probably be a pretty big hurdle, and then there'd be a lot of sprite work to do after that.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2015 19:47
|
|
|
Washout posted:Well I'd think you would just reuse existing monster sprites and not add any of the really insane stuff. Ah well my dreams of playing an Ogre or Pixie are crushed. The main problem is that equipment won't be displayed properly in pretty much all cases. That's where the extra work would come in, anyone dedicated to a mod like that would need to go over the existing sprites and alter them to have versions for all armor and weapon types. Also, an inventory paperdoll, clearly the most important part.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2015 20:06
|
|
|
Don't play a single-classed Thief, poo poo is terrible. Early on you won't notice it as much, but the class just doesn't get enough out of level-ups. Multi- or dual-classed Thieves are decent and having one is nearly mandatory when you don't know the game, but don't go for single-classed. For a first time playthrough, you should probably avoid dual-classing as well and just stick to multi-classing. Also, the first NPC that joins you is a Thief.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2015 17:00
|
|
|
Early in the game you'll want to keep several backup weapons for your characters around, because they can break due to plot reasons. This only applies to iron weapons, so clubs and slings and stuff are safe. Also, I think some of the advice here is getting a bit extreme. Barbarians and non-Inquisitor Paladins are good and decent picks for a new player as well. I think Suspicious said it best, just go Fighter/Something (unless you just go with a warrior class of some kind). Fighter/Thief, for example, will be almost as good at the Thief's class abilities as a single-classed one while getting a lot of survivability and dependable damage output out of multi-classing. Actually, I'll go the opposite way and just write down what classes and kits I would say new players should give a wide berth: Sorcerer: Good class, but only learns a very limited number of spells, so you need to have some idea of what spells are good. Monk: Hard to get off the ground. Only take this if you really want to be Bruce Lee, but be prepared to look like a concussed Steven Seagal for a long time then. Kensai: Can be okay in BG1 but is always a bit worse than just taking a regular Fighter, Paladin or Ranger. Also requires consumables to shore up its weaknesses, which isn't great for new players. Beastmaster, Wizard Slayer, single-classed Thieves of any kind: Just bad. Did the Shapeshifter get fixed in EE? If not, that's also not worth it.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2015 09:34
|
|
|
I don't disagree, Berserkers and Inquisitors are great, but that doesn't turn other kits into unplayable trash. It's really just outright recommending people don't play Barbarians or non-Inquisitor Paladins that's going a bit far. Especially since those offer something Berserkers and Inquisitors don't. Barbarians can get some nice resistance-stacking going later on, and Inquisitors are very different from their base class. Basic Chunnel posted:I made my own "Shapeshifter fix" here, but I don't remember if it's for EE or vanilla.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2015 19:35
|
|
|
Blowdryer posted:Will I make it through just fine if I just naturally go through everything instead of trying to gather my party immediately? I was planning on going to the Inn and seeing what's up there and eventually down to Nashkel before Xzar and Montaron leave the party. 1. NPC level is set when you first enter their area and goes up to 6. How much level 6 means kind of depends since different classes level at different speeds, but if you want someone who joins later on in your group it's something you might want to consider to avoid getting an underleveled companion. 2. In case you want Kivan in your party: He wants to get to the bandit camp badly and puts you on a timer when he joins. If you don't get to the camp within a couple of days - I think it's like 5, so not a lot of time at all - he fucks off. Anyway, I just finished IWD:EE and all I want to say is that whoever designed IWD's maps had clearly never played an Infinity Engine game. At all. Kuldahar and some later areas make the pathfinding poo poo itself pretty much as soon as you tell your party to take more than five steps forward. I'd probably have quit playing early on without Ctrl + J. I sort of remembered that from earlier playthroughs, but I had forgotten just how bad it was. Still, it was fun. Highlight of the game was my dwarf conning a random Easthaven resident out of a low-value gem to buy armor during the tutorial by telling her that he was totally going to explore ancient dwarven ruins and reclaim tons of buried riches, only to, many weeks later, end up doing that and paying her 500 gold as a return of investment after freeing her from the cyclopes that had overrun Easthaven while the party was busy clearing said ruins. Btw, has anyone ever not killed Marketh (the thief in Lower Dorn's Deep that's really into himself, slavery and domestic violence)?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2015 22:24
|
|
|
docbeard posted:Isn't he the one they brought back in Icewind Dale 2 with some elaborate and bizarre backstory about how IWD 1 Marketh was an evil clone or some drat thing?  Also, IWD2's story is a total clusterfuck.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2015 22:47
|
|
|
Bort Bortles posted:What? Mehrunes posted:NPC level isn't set until you recruit them. Until then the game loads a template near your level or exp total (not sure which) whenever you enter their area. This is even true for Imoen.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2015 11:21
|
|
|
Just the game failing to load the correct Minsc, I guess. I tested it on Xzar and Montaron just to see if my game was bugged in general and, no, it's loading the appropriate files whenever I enter the area like you said. Kind of weird I never realized how this works in over a decade of playing these games, but I usually have a set team in mind and recruit party members at the earliest opportunity.Bort Bortles posted:Oh, yeah, forgot about the Malavon thing and the timeloop thing. I couldnt care less about Malavon but the timeloop was pretty tedious. Overall I have rose-colored glasses about the game because the overall gameplay is so great to me: enemy Mages arent super OP like they are in BG2, the general quests are all pretty straightforward with some deeper stuff thrown in here or there, all the encounters are pretty well designed, the 2.75 ruleset was neat (though I wish it was just 3.0). I actually started a playthrough with an all-caster party just now, but, after playing the Enhanced Editions and Pillars of Eternity, going back to a game without quality of life things like area looting is hard.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2015 23:49
|
|
|
Yeah, buffed up summons would be one thing for this party. I'm also kind of curious if I can reach a point where I put out enough AoE bombardment that I can use it to not just soften up but outright kill a lot of enemies. Time will tell I guess, it's not really something I planned. I just noticed during character creation that a Priest of Mask gets good tanking spells (like Mirror Image) in addition to the general Cleric buffs and decided to replace a warrior type with one. And then it kind of snowballed from there and I ended up with a party of two Clerics, a Bard, a Druid, an Enchanter and a Sorcerer.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2015 00:20
|
|
|
I'd just use EEKeeper. Altering the game would involve changing a 2DA file (basically a rules table in this case) to allow characters to put proficiency points into additional/different weapon classes. Using NearInfinity, this isn't hard and would take like 2 or 3 minutes. But after that...well, every single weapon has individually set flags to make it unusable by certain classes. So you'd need to uncheck every "unusable by" box you want gone for every weapon you want changed. If you only do that for a few weapons (like just a few crossbows) that's still a sane amount of effort going into this, but if you'd want to do it for more, or even all weapons... 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2015 01:07
|
|
|
If it's a multi-class, there's not that much of a reason to go Fighter/Cleric either, though. The warrior side levels faster, but in return you lose out on free dual-wielding and some other things Rangers get. The biggest benefit the R/C misses out on is being a dwarf, really.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2015 19:06
|
|
|
Comstar posted:Godsdammit. Least I knew that before I got further than the 1st town. The Ranger/Cleric lost its main draw, but it is still a good class combination, like all warrior/caster builds. (Also, you weren't going to reach the really good Druid spells, mainly Ironskins, in BG1 anyway, so not much of value was lost here.) Btw: Washout posted:archer/mage
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2015 10:54
|
|
|
Rangers could always dual, although I'm not sure what the stat requirements were/are in their case. I'm pretty sure Stalkers couldn't, but in the EEs, every Ranger kit can dual. Stalker/Cleric seems like it could be legit, actually. NinjaDebugger posted:Maybe gnomes can do ranger/thief?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2015 14:58
|
|
|
Worth noting that BG and BG2 give Bards pretty bad spell progressions. Capping at spell level 6 means no Simulacrum, for example. IWD unfucks their progression, but you don't reach the high levels where it really matters in the regular game. Tzarnal posted:They don't on the whole. Certainly not the massive trigger at the start of combat or loading the map.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2015 22:04
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 16:54 |
|
|
RNG is not a big problem if you know the games and apply the right buffs or use the right summons. If you don't know exactly how to deal with Rakshasa or Demons, or what tricks some levels of Watcher's Keep are going to throw at you, things can be tough and then luck can decide a battle. Apart from that I can think of only a few examples where RNG plays a big role, but they mostly involve going up against too many Beholders for summons to handle, without a Berserker or the Shield of Balduran. Or making the big mistake of installing the SCS component that gives Beholders telekinesis so they can take even the last piece of equipment that protects from their bullshit away. I still want to know who thought that Beholders are an enemy type that can, and in fact should, be spammed. Fighting vampires before you're ready for them can also come down to luck, but those fights are generally avoidable. Edit: On that note, I can only recommend adding Korgan to the party for a first BG2 playthrough. Fighting wizards you'll figure out at some point, so an Inquisitor isn't all that needed, really. But the game will never stop throwing new weird enemies with gotcha-you're-dead abilities at you, and Berserkers like Korgan just shrug all of them off. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jul 26, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2015 19:01
|
|