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Speaking of daggers, I love my BG2 Assassin toting the Pixie Prick. Yeah, you're just hit for like 70 damage, poisoned *and* you're asleep. Bitch.
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Aug 4, 2014 01:54
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moot the hopple posted:In IWD2, weapon finesse kind of pales in comparison to a regular strength build, especially in conjunction with a two-hander weapon, because you get to use your bonus for accuracy AND damage. 3.0 two-weapon fighting sucks, as well
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Aug 4, 2014 02:47
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zedprime posted:Its a slightly obscure gotchya from the Easthaven prologue carried into the base game finale and touched back upon in the penultimate expansion dungeon. Yeah I thought that is what you meant. I totally had that:) Can someone explain stealth for me? My rogue ALWAYS "fails to hide in shadows" and when they DO succeed they just pop out and don't do any extra damage. What the gently caress? Can you hide in shadows and sneak attack in IWD2?
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Aug 4, 2014 03:23
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Rogues reroll stealth every round, if they fail they'll have a round to get out of LOS. Your first attack, successful or no, will immediately take you out of stealth, as will any manipulation of the environment (save trap removal or lockpicking, iirc). Backstab requires actually being at an enemy's back, and there are a lot of powerful enemy types who can't be backstabbed. D&D rogues up until 4e are dogshit. A bard with knock is 1000x more useful in IWD2
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Aug 4, 2014 03:49
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Basic Chunnel posted:Rogues reroll stealth every round, if they fail they'll have a round to get out of LOS. Your first attack, successful or no, will immediately take you out of stealth, as will any manipulation of the environment (save trap removal or lockpicking, iirc). Backstab requires actually being at an enemy's back, and there are a lot of powerful enemy types who can't be backstabbed. The only neat thing about rogues in iwd2 is how sneak attack works. They can get sneak attacks on any enemy that lost its dexterity bonus. Meaning they can get sneak attacks on blind enemies or ones caught in web. If given a bow they can even get ranged sneak attacks if they're close enough. I still feel they're the weakest class, but if someone is dead set on using one they have a few neat tricks.
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Aug 4, 2014 03:56
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I'm playing through BG1/2 with the Trilogy mod for the first time in years. I know it's just RNG luck but Khalid tends to land a lot of one shot kills more often than everyone else so I tend to keep him around... even if he does break morale and run at every little kobold.
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Aug 4, 2014 04:44
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For posterity, Imoen starts BG2 as a level 7 thief / level 8 mage. People here keep misremembering her thief level as 8 here, for some reason. I suppose some people like to dual class her at level 7 for role-playing purposes in BG1.
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Aug 4, 2014 04:49
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I remember Khalid being a lot better when you just hand him a bow and let him not get clobbered in melee.
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Aug 4, 2014 05:19
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So I am about to start Baulder's Gate "enhanced edition" (got it on steam a long time ago.) Any suggestions on what class to start with as a new player?
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Aug 4, 2014 06:34
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How new are you to 2E D&D? An inquisitor or berserker are both highly effective through the series and easy to use.
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Aug 4, 2014 06:38
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Basic Chunnel posted:How new are you to 2E D&D? An inquisitor or berserker are both highly effective through the series and easy to use. Yeah I'd recommend either of those. But honestly play whatever class you want. You can get up to five NPCs to join your party so no matter what class you play you can use NPCs to fill in the gaps of what you might need.
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Aug 4, 2014 06:43
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Badcounterpoint posted:So I am about to start Baulder's Gate "enhanced edition" (got it on steam a long time ago.) Any suggestions on what class to start with as a new player? BG:EE is my first 2nd Edition game too, and I'm finding paladin (cavalier) to be pretty easy. Your charisma is high enough that you can avoid Khalid running every fight, you have some heals and Turn Undead, you can dish out a decent amount of damage and take a pretty big beating. That, and the arrogant-sounding voice pack is the best for immersing yourself in a paladin. "I shall attend to it in a trice."
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Aug 4, 2014 07:16
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Badcounterpoint posted:So I am about to start Baulder's Gate "enhanced edition" (got it on steam a long time ago.) Any suggestions on what class to start with as a new player? Half-elf Cleric/Ranger is a good class to learn how the game works as your main character will be able to do a little of everything. A fighting type like the ones suggested is certainly easy to use but you will have to learn about spellcasting at some point for the rest of your party. A cleric/ranger will give you a highly survivable character that can use every type of armor and cast every divine spell. Plus you can swing around two maces to mash some heads.
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Aug 4, 2014 07:18
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I just finished IWD for the first time. Something feels very phoned in about the two expansions: there's very little new art (maps, item icons, barbarian enemies) and the off-kilter makes-no-sense treasure generation where you're drowning in protective items and random poo poo that doesn't match up at all is just odd. Also the difficulty curve is kind of amusing: TotL's spectral guards are incredibly vicious, and it's a huge step down from that to the vaguely dangerous scrags, ice golems, and dragon on the Sea of Moving Ice (not to mention the thousand or so trash mobs on top of that.) Heart of Fury mode is arguably worse: everything's just damage sponges that hit for no damage, and you're starting right at the beginning treasure-wise. I'll go play BG:EE if I want an andar gem and a scroll of Horror to be good loot. It's a shame since an NG+ to really sink my teeth into would be amazing. It was vaguely interesting from a strategy standpoint to see how the orc cave's challenge is simply how fragile you are; the enemies are spaced incredibly widely and just break on a tank that can take more than 2 hits. There were three ogres at the end! They just died to chain lightning and dropped 50 gold. It's just disappointing and I'm not sure why they shipped HoF mode so incomplete. Oh well, saves me time I can spend on the next thing in my backlog.
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Aug 4, 2014 09:16
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49 Hours of Baldur's Gate I EE. 129 hours of Baldur's Gate II EE. 16 Years since I started playing it, at least 6+ attempts to do so. FINISHED. What a ride. I had tears in my eyes when I thought back to that first map outside Candlekeep. My canon was to give away the Godhood, and go travel the Frelm's with Neera. The best time I had was the part of Baldur's Gate where you're walking around the wilderness before you meet anyone except Imoean. Played as a Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief, with Savarok (was Dorn till ToB), Jaheria, Viconia, Neera and Imoean. 22 ST from a sword, 20's in Dex/Int/Con and 12 in Cha and Wis. I still have Planescape to do at some point, if I can get the old disks working. Though by the time I get around to that, I expect to spend some time trying to get to the end of Eternity....
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Aug 4, 2014 13:17
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Arivia posted:I just finished IWD for the first time. Something feels very phoned in about the two expansions: there's very little new art (maps, item icons, barbarian enemies) and the off-kilter makes-no-sense treasure generation where you're drowning in protective items and random poo poo that doesn't match up at all is just odd. Also the difficulty curve is kind of amusing: TotL's spectral guards are incredibly vicious, and it's a huge step down from that to the vaguely dangerous scrags, ice golems, and dragon on the Sea of Moving Ice (not to mention the thousand or so trash mobs on top of that.) Yeah I hear this totally. It was interesting, but felt kind of tacked on and rushed. After all the info on the rogue, I'm definitely remaking a lvl 1 Rogue that will roll into a wizard. Rogues sound really disappointing. I just need the find traps/lock pick and I'll be good.
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Aug 4, 2014 13:27
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Comstar posted:49 Hours of Baldur's Gate I EE. 129 hours of Baldur's Gate II EE. 16 Years since I started playing it, at least 6+ attempts to do so. Goongratulations.
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Aug 4, 2014 15:06
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May as well get Planescape off of Gog, just to spare yourself the annoyance of constantly swapping from 3 to 5 discs depending on your version.
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Aug 4, 2014 15:07
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Ha, I triggered the Firkraag stuff at Windspear, then had to run back to Amn to keep my Thieves Guild from being repossessed. I then got distracted by other stuff, and the Radiant Heart decided to follow through on dude's threat back at Windspear that they'd come after me. I've never actually had that happen. Usually just go ahead and finish the quest while I'm there. It also made me laugh when I cast Chaos on them in the ensuing fight, causing one of them to run off and kill a bunch of the NPCs at the Docks. All in the name of avenging my murders, of course.
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Aug 4, 2014 15:37
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DeathChicken posted:It also made me laugh when I cast Chaos on them in the ensuing fight, causing one of them to run off and kill a bunch of the NPCs at the Docks. All in the name of avenging my murders, of course. On my last ironman attempt at BGEE, the bounty hunter that attacks you upon entering the Nashkel inn cast Rigid Thinking on Khalid. After killing her, he went on to slaughter two innocent bystanders, taking a big rep hit for the party. Then, as the effect wore off he blurted something like ”Gorion would not approve of this”. 
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Aug 4, 2014 16:08
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Is charisma at all worthwhile on a cleric for Turn Undead fun in IWD2? I haven't even seen any difficult undead yet, but a 20 Charisma Aasimar with Improved Turning seems like it would trivialize whatever portion of the game throws a million undead dudes at you. Bonus question: does this gently caress with your own undead summons? Because I love the poo poo you can summon in this game.
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Aug 4, 2014 16:28
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GuyDudeBroMan posted:Heart of Fury mode is loving terrible. The enemies hit so god drat hard that fighting in melee range is no longer an option. The game is basically just CC and AOE spells at that point. A party of 6 casters is pretty much the only real option. I had the same, very negative, experience as you GDBM. Instead of having more, somewhat tougher enemies with maybe more casters and/or buffs and a more intelligent encounter design, it was nothing but 100HP orcs that hit for 40 damage and had an attack bonus of +40 so that they never miss. Bloody awful. I am aware of the mod that you mentioned and have it bookmarked. If I ever do play IWD2 again, I will certainly use it. There is another mod that I found that removes ECL, but I fear that the two are not simultaneously usable. I know that a lot of people are going to say that ECL is necessary for balance and so on, and I would agree... in another environment. You see, I have no issue in a bit of grind in RPG's, but IWD2 isn't that sort of game - there is a very finite amount of content and exp to be had and as a psychotic completionist it is very infuriating to me that I can play the whole game, exploring every nook and cranny for gear and exp, and never get level 9 spells or whatever because I had the unmitigated nerve to play a svirfneblin. I like to play with the more exotic races for flavour: Aasimar paladin (ECL 1, not terrible), duergar cleric of Lathander (cool concept, but ECL 2... ouch), drow rogue->bard (ECL 2, ouch again), Svirfneblin sorcerer (ECL 3... WTF!?) and so on, and I don't like being punished for that. If I could just get into random encounters like a Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior game to level up, that would be fine, but that's not really a part of the Infinite Engine games. I know that some have said that having a party of high-ECL toons gives you more exp because your effective level determines exp per encounter, resulting in a net gain, but I am sceptical about that and don't care to rely on it. IWD2 is a quite difficult game unless you are a ruthlessly efficient min-maxer, so I don't see a lack of ECL breaking it. I know that drow and svirfneblin are objectively more powerful races than humans and wood elves, but it's about variety and enjoying those exotic additions to the game, not min-maxing.
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Aug 4, 2014 19:54
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Given how you'll end up doing most of the Ice Castle and Monastery content gaining 0 xp, ECL "penalties" are something of a boon, as you point out. I agree it's not that well implemented, but it's probably better than just removing ECL altogether. I think xp distribution is one of the things they got wrong in that game; "don't take your level up until well after the next 8 hours of content so that you don't lose out on xp" should not be a strategy you need.
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Aug 4, 2014 19:56
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FairGame posted:Given how you'll end up doing most of the Ice Castle and Monastery content gaining 0 xp, ECL "penalties" are something of a boon, as you point out. I agree it's not that well implemented, but it's probably better than just removing ECL altogether. Can you explain this? You can "bank" levels? So if you hold off leveling for long enough, you will be able to gain 2 levels at once? What is the benefit of doing so?
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Aug 4, 2014 20:02
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That's an aspect I've wondered about. Out of curiosity, has anyone created mods to make the world less player-oriented? Like basing encounters on a timer-based system where the evil army keeps ramping up their troop difficulty without being prompted by the current achievements of Six Special Heroes. Sort of a bare minimum "Hey, it's been three months, of course the villain isn't just waiting for you to kill the wave of hobgoblin bandits. You explored other areas and they killed a farm village, now the guy's sending ogre squads!"
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Aug 4, 2014 20:10
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sweart gliwere posted:That's an aspect I've wondered about. Out of curiosity, has anyone created mods to make the world less player-oriented? Like basing encounters on a timer-based system where the evil army keeps ramping up their troop difficulty without being prompted by the current achievements of Six Special Heroes. This is part of the reason why the IWD games are so hard for me. I think it's immersion-breaking to snooze somewhere for like weeks at a time, so I try and tackle entire dungeons in on sitting. Pretty tough job when you can't just blow all your spells on each encounter. Jastiger posted:Can you explain this? You can "bank" levels? So if you hold off leveling for long enough, you will be able to gain 2 levels at once? You've got it. IWD2 has a built-in penalty where you take a less-than-100% xp award for killing poo poo if you're deemed too high a level. Typically, I encounter this when I'm doing the Ice Palace, which makes that whole area doubly annoying: "Wait, I have to do all this bullshit and I don't even get xp from it?" The solution, of course, is to just not level up. Do the entire Ice Palace and Black Raven Monastery at the level you entered at, collect shitloads of xp, and then take several levels at once when you're done. This has several problems and it's why I tend to take ECL races (which put you at a lower level for penalty calculations) to compensate: 1.) It's too gamey and doesn't feel fun 2.) Trying to clear those levels without the additional spell levels, slots, feats, HP, etc., is a real pain! 3.) When you select the class you level up in, the game doesn't expect you to've used this strategy. If you have 3 levels' worth of experience, you have to allocate all 3 to the same class. So if you're trying to be a Paladin of Mystra/Wizard or something and level up in parity, you can't.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:18
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Comstar posted:The best time I had was the part of Baldur's Gate where you're walking around the wilderness before you meet anyone except Imoean. So until the end of the first map  (I kid)
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Aug 4, 2014 20:44
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It is pretty great being all alone on that road with a possible giant death knight after you when the loving gibblerings are capable of murdering you...and then you run into Xzar and Monty, who offer their shady help and quickly prove to be crazy. That is a great first map.
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Aug 4, 2014 21:56
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Was thinking of playing Icewind Dale 1 again. It's been a very long time. I was going to grab the widescreen mod of course, and maybe the tweak pack. That's kind of it as far as Icewind Dale mods that are worth doing right?
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Aug 4, 2014 23:29
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Install the fixpack and Unfinished Business, too
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Aug 4, 2014 23:43
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MrL_JaKiri posted:So until the end of the first map Isn't Viconia literally in the second wilderness area?
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Aug 4, 2014 23:53
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She's off in one of the eastern maps, I think
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Aug 5, 2014 00:04
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peak debt posted:Isn't Viconia literally in the second wilderness area?
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Aug 5, 2014 00:25
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Arivia posted:I just finished IWD for the first time. Something feels very phoned in about the two expansions: It's been close to a decade since I've played Heart of Winter, so I can't really comment on the additional campaign too much, but people always overlook all the under-the-hood stuff when it comes to the expansion. Heart of Winter was (I believe) the first project Josh Sawyer worked on at Black Isle, and it shows. Classes that have sucked poo poo in every other 2nd edition D&D game were buffed and made viable. It's the only game you'll catch me playing a bard or a druid in. I'm pretty sure they implemented the 3rd ed sneak attack for rogues as well. There's a ton of balance changes. Try playing the original campaign without HoW installed and see the difference. Still, if that is the case about the expansion's campaign itself that's really too bad. Never played TotL and I've been planning on a revisit and finishing up the game and both expansions eventually. Always bothered me that when IWD2 references the original game it says the group disappeared after starting the ToTL quest and were never heard from again - WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BROS? MrL_JaKiri posted:So until the end of the first map The exact same thought was running through my head. I thought most people used Xzar and Monty for a little while at least; I am alone with Imoen literally for about 20 steps. Antignition fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 00:32
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Man, you just saw your dad get waxed, there's no way you're going to let these two weird dudes roll with you the next morning.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:40
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Basic Chunnel posted:How new are you to 2E D&D? An inquisitor or berserker are both highly effective through the series and easy to use. Never played any D&D to be honest, this will be my first adventure into it. I think that I might take your advice, though a paladin sounded good too. It just seems like a really complicated game to start, but looks fun.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:18
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Antignition posted:Still, if that is the case about the expansion's campaign itself that's really too bad. Never played TotL and I've been planning on a revisit and finishing up the game and both expansions eventually. Always bothered me that when IWD2 references the original game it says the group disappeared after starting the ToTL quest and were never heard from again - WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BROS? When you kill the dragon it totally locks you out of the Luremaster content, which was pretty irritating since I didn't do the new dungeon place at all.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:25
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Badcounterpoint posted:Never played any D&D to be honest, this will be my first adventure into it. I think that I might take your advice, though a paladin sounded good too. It just seems like a really complicated game to start, but looks fun. For proficiencies, go with either long swords or two-handed swords. The former will allow you use of the earlier powerful magic weapons and let you use shields. Go for a strength score of 18/xx, with xx as high as possible. As a paladin you'll probably have to choose between good dex or con. Dump wisdom, you don't need it. Don't really need intelligence either, at least until BG2.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:34
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Basic Chunnel posted:Inquisitor's a paladin subclass, easily the most powerful since they have an extra edge against wizards in combat. You trade out the modest paladin healing ability. Can't dump wisdom as a paladin. Class min is 13.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:37
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Keep at 13, I mean. Paladin class has a lot of stat minimums but wisdom is the least useful of all of them. Even with divine spellcasting it doesn't really matter to BG paladins.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:42
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