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Should I feel like I'm cheating for toggling on max HP on level up in Icewind Dale? When I was messing with the options before I started playing I turned it on thinking it would be good for me as a new player, but I've almost completed the vale of shadow's and so far the game has been really easy. Does the game get harder or is getting max HP on level-ups such a boon that it wrecks the game balance?
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Aug 2, 2014 16:06
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Jygallax posted:Should I feel like I'm cheating for toggling on max HP on level up in Icewind Dale? When I was messing with the options before I started playing I turned it on thinking it would be good for me as a new player, but I've almost completed the vale of shadow's and so far the game has been really easy. Does the game get harder or is getting max HP on level-ups such a boon that it wrecks the game balance? Just raise the difficulty to Hard or higher and enemies will hit harder to compensate for your HP bloat. It should also make things a bit deadlier as healing spells and potions won't be as effective anymore.
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Aug 2, 2014 16:12
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It's a pretty big boon, but it's not going to break the game entirely. You have it set to at least normal difficulty, right?
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Aug 2, 2014 16:12
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Arivia posted:It's a pretty big boon, but it's not going to break the game entirely. You have it set to at least normal difficulty, right? Ya, it's set to normal. I think I'm going to raise the difficulty some if I don't start getting creamed soon
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Aug 2, 2014 16:21
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It's a weird thing though, as increasing the difficulty also increases your XP gain. I almost feel like I'm cheating for playing on insanity, which gives double...
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Aug 2, 2014 19:29
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I kept getting my rear end beat in IWD1. They would just beat the crap out of my paladin, and my thief was almost useless. His best thing was to agro and then run around since he was useless in combat. Had -6 AC on my guys and they'd still get owned  I also didn't like how the AI seemed to notice who had the lowest, and would turn to fight them from time to time.Ah well, gonna start IWD2. I think I might ditch the rogue, give a level of rogue to my wizard and then replace the rogue with a bard. I just want to be able to open everything and sense/disarm all traps. I hope one level of rogue will allow me to keep pumping stats into it. In IWD2 is wearing armor on a theif/mage worth it, or is the chance of spell failure too high?
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Aug 2, 2014 19:33
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Jastiger posted:I kept getting my rear end beat in IWD1. They would just beat the crap out of my paladin, and my thief was almost useless. His best thing was to agro and then run around since he was useless in combat. Had -6 AC on my guys and they'd still get owned It will allow you to keep pumping the skills, yes. I'm not exactly sure how IWD2 interprets it, but basically "trapfinding" is a thing anyone can do in 3e, it's just that rogues have a class ability at 1st level that's necessary for finding some traps. By taking a rogue level, you get that ability, and you also make it so you can get higher points in it than classes that don't get disable device/open lock/search can. Armour might be worth it - you can take some feats to decrease the arcane casting failure. It's a percentage listed per armour.
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Aug 2, 2014 19:37
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Factor_VIII posted:Now that you mention it, I remember encountering this bug in BG2EE as well.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:06
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I said this earlier in the thread, but the key to IWD2 is to make good use of the long term buffs you get. Spells like bulls strength, cats grace, mage armor, and bark skin all last a fairly decent length of time and will dramatically boost the effectiveness of your party. To that end, you are going to want to take one or more divine spell casters, and at least one mage. Druids can be nice too, though to be honest I just beat the game and I didn't find mine to be terribly useful outside of barkskin which is a fantastic buff. Druids get some great offensive spells but most of them are not party friendly and are difficult to line up without hurting your party as well. Clerics are fantastically powerful in IWD2 thanks to the fact that the 6th level spell "heal" is instant cast in this. I can't overstate how overpowered that makes clerics. I had a Dwarf Cleric in the party I just ran who ended the game with over 200+ hps since I pumped the poo poo out of constitution on him and he was nigh impossible to kill even on insane difficulty because of his glut of hps and insta cast heal. Note also that Clerics in IWD2 are nothing like single class clerics in BG/IWD1. Clerics can fight almost as well as Fighters, and are actually vastly more powerful when you apply the innumerable buffs that clerics get. In IWD/BG that's not true just because single class clerics get less attacks per round than fighters, but in this, the difference is not dramatic. Clerics get one less attack than Fighters per round and acquire new attacks per round more slowly, but it's far less pronounced than BG where they max out at 1. What I'm saying is third edition Clerics are basically like fighters that also get a diesel spell list.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:11
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Ginette Reno posted:I said this earlier in the thread, but the key to IWD2 is to make good use of the long term buffs you get. Spells like bulls strength, cats grace, mage armor, and bark skin all last a fairly decent length of time and will dramatically boost the effectiveness of your party. To that end, you are going to want to take one or more divine spell casters, and at least one mage. Druids can be nice too, though to be honest I just beat the game and I didn't find mine to be terribly useful outside of barkskin which is a fantastic buff. Druids get some great offensive spells but most of them are not party friendly and are difficult to line up without hurting your party as well. I'm very familiar with 3.0 and 3.5 so this sounds about right, though on Pen and Paper clerics got far less attacks per level than fighters. They were on par with I think Monks and Druids. WHich isn't terrible, but isn't the slice and dice that Fighters get. I think the big strength is that they just generally get more attacks than the 1 they get in the prior games. This is exciting to hear that Heal is instant though, woot woot! Arivia posted:It will allow you to keep pumping the skills, yes. I'm not exactly sure how IWD2 interprets it, but basically "trapfinding" is a thing anyone can do in 3e, it's just that rogues have a class ability at 1st level that's necessary for finding some traps. By taking a rogue level, you get that ability, and you also make it so you can get higher points in it than classes that don't get disable device/open lock/search can. I did not know that, thanks. I'll have my wizard start as a level 1 Wiz, then take 1 level of thief then the rest Wizard. Awesome. One thing that DID bother me was that in IWD I got all these bad rear end level 9 wizard spells and my wizard never got high enough level to use them. Her INT was pretty high, but just not enough XP in the game, even after the extra dungeon.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:13
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Take thief first. You get a x4 bonus to your skill points at level 1, so it's important to get that bonus and be able to put it into your thief skills to keep up; you won't be able to do that if you take wizard first. You'll be fine without a wizard at first level - you might have to pay for someone to identify something for you, big whoop. edit: Also regarding IWD don't forget there's a new game+ mode in Heart of Fury, so you are supposed to have something to progress towards!
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Aug 2, 2014 20:51
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Arivia posted:Take thief first. You get a x4 bonus to your skill points at level 1, so it's important to get that bonus and be able to put it into your thief skills to keep up; you won't be able to do that if you take wizard first. You'll be fine without a wizard at first level - you might have to pay for someone to identify something for you, big whoop. Ahhh...good to know, good to know. I just don't want to gimp myself, ya know?
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Aug 2, 2014 21:23
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So I'm going through the games again as a bit of a celebration. I'm thinking of actually using some mods but I want goon opinions first. - How is the bg1 banter pack? My big problem going back to BG1 is how flat all the companions are so the idea of a banter mod is appealing. Is it actually well written though? - Same question for IWD and the NPC mod. I assumed it was written by the same person who wrote the IWD2 NPC mod, but apparently it wasn't, and most people consider the IWD2 mod to be not worth it. Lots of nongoon praise for the IWD NPC mod though, so curious if it's worth a look. - How can you tell if Luremaster is installed? It isn't showing up on my splash screen, but I can't install it since this is the Master Anthology.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:40
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I don't remember the BG1 NPC mod being that great (trying to nail characters with such broad personalities isn't as easy as people assume) but it's not terrible either.* It helps if you're used to BG2 and un-inert CNPCs (I started my infinity engine career w/ BG2 and BG1 always felt empty in so many ways). It also acknowledges when you pull the old trick of killing and kicking Khalid to free his space and keep Jaheira, which is admirable. *barring the romances, one assumes
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Aug 2, 2014 21:57
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I remember the banter pack being a bit of a mixed bag, at least for myself. Companions would interject themselves into most of your conversations, and while that sort of interaction is nice, it felt like it made their involvement the sole reason the conversation would end like it did. And this was with the light interjection option.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:54
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So is anyone else having problems with Anomen's knighthood quest? I can't get the drat thing to start. Also, they seriously haven't fixed the Harper's Call bug yet? Lock it up Beamdog.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:02
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Rookersh posted:- How is the bg1 banter pack? My big problem going back to BG1 is how flat all the companions are so the idea of a banter mod is appealing. Is it actually well written though? I think it's fairly solid. Just make sure to install the BG:EE version because it involves bugfixes. You should find it under BG:EE mods subforum on their forums. Also the romances are... rudimentary and not all that great. The conversation options in the romances feel like minefields you have to tiptoe around to not accidentally end the relationship in one conversation.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:35
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Deltasquid posted:I think it's fairly solid. Just make sure to install the BG:EE version because it involves bugfixes. You should find it under BG:EE mods subforum on their forums. I have absolutely no intention of going through a romance in a RPG, especially not one written by players. Just wanted the characters to feel a bit more alive.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:37
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Rookersh posted:- How is the bg1 banter pack? My big problem going back to BG1 is how flat all the companions are so the idea of a banter mod is appealing. Is it actually well written though? Judgning solely by Vorgen's BWP Let's Play, NPC banters are good, dialogue interjects (same mod, I assume) are kinda off, and romance/flirt mods are bad. Whoever did Yeslick's banters nailed it. Way Strong Pimphand posted:So is anyone else having problems with Anomen's knighthood quest? I can't get the drat thing to start. Is your player character female? If so, it'll happen on the romance timer, which is based on your actual play time instead of in-game hours passing. I don't know how far into his romance it happens, since his very first romance dialog tends to end the romance for me. Otherwise, I dunno, maybe you missed the messenger. My fighter stronghold quests ended halfway through because a messenger was supposed to show up and never did.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:42
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Rookersh posted:I have absolutely no intention of going through a romance in a RPG, especially not one written by players. Just wanted the characters to feel a bit more alive. I've never had the interest in doing an RPG romance, but really wish the game would function with Intel's integrated GPUs. The way people describe Dorn's romance thread is hilarious. Hey Rookersh... We've been posting together in this thread for a while now. It's been nice to read your posts. Sure I'm a burly half-Orc and you're three feet tall, but - drat society's rules. You DTF after a quick wrestle?
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Aug 3, 2014 01:19
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sweart gliwere posted:I've never had the interest in doing an RPG romance, but really wish the game would function with Intel's integrated GPUs. The way people describe Dorn's romance thread is hilarious. I'm really surprised there's never been a romance mod to feature an actual JO crystal.
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Aug 3, 2014 01:35
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Antignition posted:What soundsets do you guys use for your PC? For IWD 1+2, I always end up using the same voices for my characters because a lot of them start with samples where they are just shrilly screaming, grunting, or doing the taking damage prompt for some stupid loving reason. It turns me off enough that I don't bother cycling through them to get a more indicative idea of what they actually sound like, so I just use the ones that don't start off obnoxiously.
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Aug 3, 2014 01:39
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in me since my PC keeps the same voice throughout the trilogy), but it's kind of a bummer how few lines he has compared to the BG2 soundsets).
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MegaGatts posted:I'm really surprised there's never been a romance mod to feature an actual JO crystal. Now I'm imagining the most awkward possible modified version of "Lay on Hands"
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Aug 3, 2014 01:50
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sweart gliwere posted:Now I'm imagining the most awkward possible modified version of "Lay on Hands" M4M Lookin for adventure bro to come and fill JO crystals. When fully charged they summon a carrion crawler, JO only no gay stuff.
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Aug 3, 2014 01:57
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When is BG:EE 1.3 coming out? 
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Aug 3, 2014 02:40
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You can download the beta patch off the forums if you want.
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Aug 3, 2014 02:42
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Does icewind dale 2 have favored souls, or was it just the neverwinter nights 2 expansions that had them?
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Aug 3, 2014 03:34
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IWD2 is 3.0 and only has the core classes + divine class kits. The favored soul / spirit shaman is a cool idea but afaik the divine spells still pull from wisdom for spell modifiers so you're gonna be casting more than a core class but will be less effective.
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Aug 3, 2014 03:40
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LibbyM posted:Does icewind dale 2 have favored souls, or was it just the neverwinter nights 2 expansions that had them? Just NWN2's expansions. IWD2 uses 3E Dungeons and Dragons. Neverwinter Nights 2 works in 3.5E and includes several classes introduced in later splats like the warlock, favored soul, spirit shaman, and swashbuckler.
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Aug 3, 2014 03:41
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Makes sense. It's been a long time since I played icewindale 2 so I couldn't remember for sure. Really liked favored souls but they're in basically no d&d games, I guess as they are 3.5.
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Aug 3, 2014 04:10
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It has been absolutely forever since I've played the original Baldur's Gate- I'm normally more of a fan of the sequel. Still, I've just recently picked up the enhaned edition for my tablet and have started up a new game. I'm a half elf ranger with fantastic stats- I'm not sure what party to throw together though. I would like a party mostly good, but maybe with edwin. Maybe try out some of the new enhanced edition characters? What can you fine goons recommend to me. Also after having been to the friendly arms and picked up imoen, jaheira, khalid, xzar and monty I'm unsure where to go other than to nashkel- should I?
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Aug 3, 2014 08:38
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You have to go to Nashkel if you've got Jaheira and Khalid. Xzar and Montaron are pretty much dead weight.
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Aug 3, 2014 11:39
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Basic Chunnel posted:The favored soul / spirit shaman is a cool idea but afaik the divine spells still pull from wisdom for spell modifiers so you're gonna be casting more than a core class but will be less effective. They're like sorcerers though, as so so many spells are completely useless the Favoured Soul is just flat out better because the downside isn't really a downside.
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Aug 3, 2014 12:21
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Quantumfate posted:It has been absolutely forever since I've played the original Baldur's Gate- I'm normally more of a fan of the sequel. Still, I've just recently picked up the enhaned edition for my tablet and have started up a new game. I'm a half elf ranger with fantastic stats- I'm not sure what party to throw together though. I would like a party mostly good, but maybe with edwin. Maybe try out some of the new enhanced edition characters? What can you fine goons recommend to me. Also after having been to the friendly arms and picked up imoen, jaheira, khalid, xzar and monty I'm unsure where to go other than to nashkel- should I? After nearly finishing BG1EE and BG2EE after starting BG1 the week it came out, and never completing the series till now, I like Neera and Dorn.
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Aug 3, 2014 14:05
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Quantumfate posted:It has been absolutely forever since I've played the original Baldur's Gate- I'm normally more of a fan of the sequel. Still, I've just recently picked up the enhaned edition for my tablet and have started up a new game. I'm a half elf ranger with fantastic stats- I'm not sure what party to throw together though. I would like a party mostly good, but maybe with edwin. Maybe try out some of the new enhanced edition characters? What can you fine goons recommend to me. Also after having been to the friendly arms and picked up imoen, jaheira, khalid, xzar and monty I'm unsure where to go other than to nashkel- should I? Neera is alright if you can handle her voice, and like the main character, actually attempts to fill in lore bits as to what is happening in Faerun thanks to the Time of Troubles. ( Namely the fact that Wild Mages are now a thing, and what the hell ARE they. ) She's also one of the only good aligned Mages in BGEE that doesn't suck, so I'd say grab her and turn off voice responses if her voice drives you crazy. She's hanging around in Beregost, so you can pick her up on your way to Nashkel. Minsc is in Nashkel, he'll give you a good front liner to go along with Khalid. He has a quest to go save Dynaheir which you should do for the exp/to make sure he doesn't leave but Dynaheir isn't really the best character so I usually get her killed/leave her behind. Outside of that there aren't that many NPCs you could go pick up. If you want you can go to High Hedge to pick up Kivan, who trivializes most of the game thanks to his high stats, but if you don't get to the Bandit Camp fast enough he'll leave your party with all the gold/items you invested in him. If you want a Cleric rather then a Druid you can also go to the Nashkel Carnival and buy a Stone to Flesh scroll to turn Branwen back into a human, she'll join your party for it. If you really hate Khalid, you could go north from the Friendly Arm and savescum your way past the Ankhegs to pick up Ajantis. He's got the personality of a wet board, but he's a better "good" frontliner then Khalid is. The thing is though, the "canon" party has the most personality of all the characters in BG1, and they function just fine. I'd say Jaheria edges out Branwen as a divine caster, Khalid/Minsc are fine frontliners without Ajantis, Imoen is the best Thief you'll have until Baldurs Gate and at that point why replace her, and Neera is about on par with Edwin. Dynaheir is the only weak link, but you can leave her behind in Nashkel by locking her in a building. It also makes the intro to BG2/using Minsc and Jaheria again in BG2 that much better since you actually have been traveling with them for days. As for the other EE NPCs, Rashaad is disliked by goons both for his class as well as his personality, and Dorn is a totally evil Blackguard with a very pushy romance.
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Aug 3, 2014 14:12
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Quantumfate posted:It has been absolutely forever since I've played the original Baldur's Gate- I'm normally more of a fan of the sequel. Still, I've just recently picked up the enhaned edition for my tablet and have started up a new game. I'm a half elf ranger with fantastic stats- I'm not sure what party to throw together though. I would like a party mostly good, but maybe with edwin. Maybe try out some of the new enhanced edition characters? What can you fine goons recommend to me. Also after having been to the friendly arms and picked up imoen, jaheira, khalid, xzar and monty I'm unsure where to go other than to nashkel- should I? Nashkel is a good place to go. Once you go there to get everyone to stop nagging you about the time limit, go explore a bit. Keep Imoen if you want her, dual-class her around level 8 or so to mage. Jaheira & Khalid are solid, but Khalid is kinda sorta dead weight, so feel free to get him killed to make room for someone else. Dorn's an evil dick but he's amazingly powerful and I think he only comes to blows with Shar-Teel. He's also Blackguard which makes him like some unholy Paladin of Death. Good stuff. Edwin excludes both Dynaheir and Minsc from your party. Neera's a good mage. Rasaad is a good monk, but monks don't shine until BG2. Ajantis is a strong Paladin and face to the party. Garrick is a neato bard, and unlike the old BG, bards in EE aren't useless. So if you'd ask me, I'd say: Charname, Imoen, Neera/Edwin, Dorn/Ajantis, Khalid + Jaheira or Jaheira and someone else like Rasaad or Garrick. Kivan is amazing as well but it's hard to get him in since EE fixed his time limit, so you can't really pick him up until going to Cloakwood. Also if you're a ranger I'm going to assume you're the archer on duty. Also remember to keep your reputation neutral if you start mixing good/evil characters in your party. EDIT: ^^ People... dislike Dorn? I don't care about his pushy romance but he's a strong frontliner. And I like Rasaad since he gets good in BG2. (Give him a sword or something in BG1 to make him not-useless.) Deltasquid fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 14:15
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Deltasquid posted:EDIT: ^^ People... dislike Dorn? I don't care about his pushy romance but he's a strong frontliner. And I like Rasaad since he gets good in BG2. (Give him a sword or something in BG1 to make him not-useless.) Nope, I think he's great in Evil parties. Guy was just saying he wants to keep a good party, and Dorn doesn't really fit in that mold at all, being evil as hell.
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Aug 3, 2014 14:24
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Rookersh posted:If you really hate Khalid, you could go north from the Friendly Arm and savescum your way past the Ankhegs to pick up Ajantis. He's got the personality of a wet board, but he's a better "good" frontliner then Khalid is. One could recruit Kivan early in the game and then avoid side-areas and just go straight down to the Nashkel mines and then up to the bandit camp. You can then follow that up by going quickly to Cloakwood where you can also recruit Coran (a Fighter/Thief whose also one of the best ranged attackers in the game) and Yeslick (an excellent Fighter/Cleric) while the party is still low level. These NPCs are good, but will be underleveled compared to the party if you do all the optional areas before reaching Cloakwood. Kivan thus gives you a bit of extra motivation to go there fast.
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Aug 3, 2014 14:33
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I never got those guys in any of my parties. I feel like I may be missing out. I found Dynaheir to be a pretty effective mage *shrug*. I'm sure Edwin is better, but..he's evil and messes up having Minsc in the party. Khalid was just a good meat shield. Sure, others may be better, but I didn't like splitting him off since I'm all sentimental.
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Aug 3, 2014 16:27
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Do note that NPC's level with your party if you don't speak to them. so for example, if you talk to Kivan at level 4, he'll be level 4 upon recruiting as well. The problem is that most of the time, the game does a shoddy job at maxing their HP per level up (which was semi-random, not sure if it still is in BG:EE) and choosing proficiencies. On the other hand, unless you're trying to min-max, who cares?
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Aug 3, 2014 16:27
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