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Kenny Logins posted:Good Old Games is having a pretty decent sale on IE games for the next 18 hours or so. It's cheaper (80% off) to buy the whole bundle, but there's still a decent (60% off) discount on individual titles, which include all the games we're talking about in this thread.
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Apr 15, 2015 19:55
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Thaddius the Large posted:Yeah, path finding sucks, there's no way around that one. They did fix it by adding in the pathing options in the original games. I felt like although it wasn't 100% after that it was definitely far better. Somehow the EE broke the pathfinding again.
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Apr 15, 2015 21:01
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Somewhere along the way in BG2 my Kensai lost his kit and is now a plain fighter, despite still having 3 uses of Kai. Yay now I can wear armor? ed: Hm, looks like I lost it somewhere between level 12 and 15. Oh well, now I can dual wield since I'm not dependent on One Weapon Style for extra AC. Parts Kit fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Apr 19, 2015 |
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Apr 19, 2015 23:02
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Ah, Spellhold in BG2. Why put in a few riddles and puzzles when you could put in FIFTY THOUSAND?
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Apr 20, 2015 01:36
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Seriously, someone at Bioware had a raging boner for terrible riddles.
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Apr 20, 2015 02:00
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I have mountains but am flat, I am made of paper or cloth but you don't wipe your mouth or rear end with me.
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Apr 20, 2015 02:01
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Is it stars? No, wait! It's death, isn't? It's always death!
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Apr 20, 2015 03:43
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I like the riddles tbh
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Apr 20, 2015 08:31
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Haha oh man I just obliterated the Shadow Dragon in BG2. It only had enough time to get off its opening dispel magic when it spotted one of my summons. Feels great considering how much trouble that fucker gave me when I first played years ago. Also very much enjoying my shiny new -12 AC thanks to the engine losing my kensai kit.
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Apr 20, 2015 16:10
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So I decided to recruit Haer Dalis, and I did the quest where you save him from the dimensional prison. The toughest part was defeating the warden. What I did was buff the party with Bless, Chant, Haste and Draw Upon Holy Might, all in conjunction. One thing I hate is that (unless I'm missing something) the game never tells you what enemies are immune to what damage types. The warden was immune to slashing damage, so my fighter couldn't attack him at close range, so I had the whole party attack him with range attacks. It took a few tries, but I finally beat him, only losing Jaheira, who I was able to resurrect right after. In one attempt, I managed to beat him, but Aerie died and Minsc was petrified. I was able to resurrect Aerie, but before she could undo the petrification on Minsc, he exploded. The reason I bring this up is because I find it odd, since I'm playing on Normal, where perma-death is disabled. I also have a few annoyances regarding magic: The first is with protection against magic. The majority of spells (at least the ones I have) that protect against magic only extend to the caster, but not to the rest of the party. Another is how spells don't always seem like they're effective. In the warden fight, I had Aerie try casting Silence, but the was still able to cast spells at me. I checked the log to see if the spell had been interrupted or if the Warden was immune, but I didn't see anything (maybe I missed it.)
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Apr 21, 2015 01:08
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Max Wilco posted:The toughest part was defeating the warden. What I did was buff the party with Bless, Chant, Haste and Draw Upon Holy Might, all in conjunction. One thing I hate is that (unless I'm missing something) the game never tells you what enemies are immune to what damage types. The warden was immune to slashing damage, so my fighter couldn't attack him at close range, so I had the whole party attack him with range attacks. It took a few tries, but I finally beat him, only losing Jaheira, who I was able to resurrect right after. Max Wilco posted:Another is how spells don't always seem like they're effective. In the warden fight, I had Aerie try casting Silence, but the was still able to cast spells at me. I checked the log to see if the spell had been interrupted or if the Warden was immune, but I didn't see anything (maybe I missed it.)
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Apr 21, 2015 04:36
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Max Wilco posted:In one attempt, I managed to beat him, but Aerie died and Minsc was petrified. I was able to resurrect Aerie, but before she could undo the petrification on Minsc, he exploded. The reason I bring this up is because I find it odd, since I'm playing on Normal, where perma-death is disabled. That only protects party members from exploding and dying permanently if they get hit for too much damage. I can never remember if its -15% or -15 HP, but a hit that would take them lower than that (i.e. on 5HP and get hit for 21 damage) makes them explode. Its strange that he exploded, petrified people only do that if they take damage. It can happen on the easiest difficulty though.
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Apr 21, 2015 09:30
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fong posted:That only protects party members from exploding and dying permanently if they get hit for too much damage. I can never remember if its -15% or -15 HP, but a hit that would take them lower than that (i.e. on 5HP and get hit for 21 damage) makes them explode. DoT that didn't wear off when he got petrified? Also he wasn't technically in the party since petrifaction automatically removes the character from the party, hence no 'splode protection. (P sure it's -15 hp.)
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Apr 21, 2015 11:31
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Corvinus posted:Pretty sure he isn't immune to slashing, just that he has Stoneskin and a few other buffs. razorrozar posted:Also he wasn't technically in the party since petrifaction automatically removes the character from the party, hence no 'splode protection. (P sure it's -15 hp.)
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Apr 22, 2015 00:13
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Max Wilco posted:Yeah, when Minsc got petrified, his portrait disappeared from the party lineup. That's always the case, otherwise if you had no de-petrify spells you could get trapped in areas ("you must gather your party before venturing forth"). Its an engine restriction, basically.
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Apr 22, 2015 09:49
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fong posted:That's always the case, otherwise if you had no de-petrify spells you could get trapped in areas ("you must gather your party before venturing forth"). Its an engine restriction, basically. Makes sense. Some other things I wanted to touch on:
There were a couple of other things I wanted to bring up or ask about, but I can't remember them all at the moment.
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Apr 22, 2015 13:54
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Max Wilco posted:Makes sense. By the end of Throne of Bhaal I had my eleven Archer at a -27 THACO. It was really neat.
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Apr 22, 2015 14:01
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Max Wilco posted:Makes sense. 1) THACO minus AC is the number you need to meet or exceed in order to land a hit. As MW pointed out, by the time you have a 0 THACO, your opponents are regularly running around with -10 or better AC. Still, once you're in ToB, all melee connect pretty much all the time. 2) You must have a mod going In BG2, Imoen always starts as a dual-classed thief-mage. 3) Jan is really good and quite entertaining. He's definitely behind a bit in your game - BG2 really does punish you for switching characters - but if it really bothers you, you can up his xp via either EEKeeper or the console.
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Apr 22, 2015 22:29
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Taliesyn posted:2) You must have a mod going In BG2, Imoen always starts as a dual-classed thief-mage. Taliesyn posted:3) Jan is really good and quite entertaining. He's definitely behind a bit in your game - BG2 really does punish you for switching characters - but if it really bothers you, you can up his xp via either EEKeeper or the console. My concern at this point is making sure I've got a party that can make through to the end of the game without too much trouble.
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Apr 23, 2015 01:39
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You don't need to do any console fuckery. If you want to keep Imoen as a pure thief, do that. If you want to dual class her, do that. If you want to pick up Jan, do that. Just play the drat game.
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Apr 23, 2015 06:33
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The way XP works he's only going to be a level behind within short order, don't stress.
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Apr 23, 2015 07:16
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Smol posted:You don't need to do any console fuckery. If you want to keep Imoen as a pure thief, do that. If you want to dual class her, do that. If you want to pick up Jan, do that. Just play the drat game. But how does a non-mage Imoen get arrested for unlicensed wizardry? Game breaking plot hole, I tell you
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Apr 24, 2015 08:36
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Krowley posted:But how does a non-mage Imoen get arrested for unlicensed wizardry? Assume her un-removable belt let her cast magic missile in plot relevant moments. Even if she's a wizard the same thing happens if she has zero spells memorized.
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Apr 24, 2015 08:46
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Max Wilco posted:Yeah, like I said, I'm playing the game via BGT (Baldur's Gate Trilogy). There were some other things that carried over as well. I think Minsc's racial enemy in BG2 is supposed to be vampires, but it's still Gnolls, like in BG1. I also think I started at lower level then you would if you had started directly from BG2. The whole point of BGT is that your characters stay the same, so yeah if you never dual Imoen in BG1 she remains a single class thief. It's probably better to dual her at 8 anyway though. Minsc's racial enemy is annoying, since gnolls are a joke by the time BG2 rolls around. I would just change that.
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Apr 24, 2015 08:47
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I actually had the opposite problem with Imoen in my current play-through. When she rejoined the party back in Spellhold, her mage level was set to 24 or some drat ridiculous thing, but with the spell slots and experience of a level 14 character. Easy enough to fix with EEKeeper, of course, and I'm guessing a mod did it, though god only knows which one.
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Apr 24, 2015 11:47
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The OP part about IWD2 being pretty hard is certainly no lie. I found BG2 was easy enough if you have decently-optimized characters and know where to find even halfway decent equipment but this is just a whole new ball game. Finally, a reason to use summon/animate dead spells, and I'm only fighting goblinoids so far. In case anyone is a Mac Air IE gamer, the GOG.com version runs pretty decently, although not quite as well as BG2:EE from the App Store in terms of battery life/system temperature.
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Apr 24, 2015 12:28
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Taliesyn posted:1) THACO minus AC is the number you need to meet or exceed in order to land a hit. As MW pointed out, by the time you have a 0 THACO, your opponents are regularly running around with -10 or better AC. Still, once you're in ToB, all melee connect pretty much all the time.
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Apr 24, 2015 13:46
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Zephro posted:This applies to some of the beefier enemies too (hi Fire Giants!) so bear in mind that it gets harder to use fighters as tanks. By the time you're fighting fire giants your mages should have Time Stop and/or Imp Alacrity plus ninth level spells. Who needs a tank?
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Apr 24, 2015 14:01
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Kenny Logins posted:The OP part about IWD2 being pretty hard is certainly no lie. I found BG2 was easy enough if you have decently-optimized characters and know where to find even halfway decent equipment but this is just a whole new ball game. Finally, a reason to use summon/animate dead spells, and I'm only fighting goblinoids so far.
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Apr 24, 2015 15:03
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Bort Bortles posted:IWD2 isnt that hard in my opinion, but I played it a lot so I learned ways to cheese it pretty well. A good way of cheesing it is having two clerics in your party so you can cast Animate Dead every new map, and have two I don't know for sure but I've read that a patch nerfed Animate Dead a bit by capping the best undead you can get out of the spell lower than on initial release. I guess I shouldn't say it's "hard", but it's definitely more challenging, and more satisfying as a result, is all. I found BG2 got pretty ridiculously easy at points and had some really obvious exploits.
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Apr 24, 2015 15:09
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If memory serves, IWD2 is so lean with spell scrolls that you can kit out at most one non-spontaneous caster, and perhaps not even that. It's been a while, but from what I remember I could not fault anyone for leaning on sorcerers and bards for their arcane magic. Seriously, bards are the dog's bollocks in IWD2 - use one.
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Apr 24, 2015 16:09
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JustJeff88 posted:If memory serves, IWD2 is so lean with spell scrolls that you can kit out at most one non-spontaneous caster, and perhaps not even that. It's been a while, but from what I remember I could not fault anyone for leaning on sorcerers and bards for their arcane magic. I was tempted to slot in a druid, bard and/or monk but for my first time I'm going to go with the more basic classes.
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Apr 24, 2015 16:23
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Kenny Logins posted:I've mentioned it in this thread a while ago (so apologies for repeating) I'm using a fighter 4/barbarian X, axe-cleric of Tempus, paladin 1/cleric of Lathander, aasimar sorcerer as party face, human sorcerer as second caster, and drow rogue 1/conjurer X for thief skills and support. So far not too hard to keep the drow wizard current to the extent of his role, but yeah compared to BG2 scrolls are super rare. My standard was always a drow rogue 1/bard X. A bard can capably fill in for a pure rogue with one level in it, plus (s)he offers arcane support that does not require scroll use. Mind you, with the blasted Level Adjustment, you have to wait longer to get the really good songs. I think that there is a mod out there to remove ECL, but people tell me that high ECL equals more experience and, in the long term, more levels. I am frankly somewhat sceptical. Lathander was also my favourite cleric deity as well. I love the juxtaposition between extra healing spells and fire spells, some of which bear a striking resemblance to a small tactical nuclear strike. Don't count out druids, though - they get an excellent blend of healing, support, and damaging spells. Being able to summon 4 huge elementals and then turn into another huge elemental is more fun than several barrels of especially whimsical monkeys.
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Apr 24, 2015 17:03
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harrygomm fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Apr 24, 2015 17:08
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JustJeff88 posted:I think that there is a mod out there to remove ECL, but people tell me that high ECL equals more experience and, in the long term, more levels. I am frankly somewhat sceptical. So, a drow can hit level 30 just as a regular elf, it just takes them a fair bit longer. But in the end you have the same level 30 [whatever] but with all the attendant benefits of being drow - particularly a level-scaled spell resistance. I'm not really doing the mod thing currently due to the GOG version being a self-contained emulated wrap (and I don't want the headache) but if I were to mod, I'd do the one that makes all the chests forceable and strips all the traps out, making rogue levels unnecessary altogether. Not like they give even a token amount of XP, anymore.
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Apr 24, 2015 17:11
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Kenny Logins posted:I think the jig is that (high) ECL doesn't matter too much in the long run because the cap on character growth is your level number, not the experience total (like in other IE games). Well, hitting max level basically requires playing through Heart of Fury mode, which I tried for just a few minutes before I realised that it was ridiculous. Nevertheless, I see your point.
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Apr 24, 2015 17:18
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The other advantage of ECL races is it keeps your average level down, which affects how much experience you get from combat.
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Apr 24, 2015 17:27
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So I was doing a fighter/mage/thief solo run and hit 8 million xp around midway through underdark and kept going because obviously I removed the cap. After I got back I killed all the main liches without any resting in between them and even kangaxx demilich form died easily to a simulacrum using a scroll of timestop followed by 2 rounds of greater whirlwind. His first form died instantly to a bunch of thief traps. How do I stop myself from power gaming and enjoy the story again?
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Apr 24, 2015 17:58
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cheesetriangles posted:So I was doing a fighter/mage/thief solo run and hit 8 million xp around midway through underdark and kept going because obviously I removed the cap. After I got back I killed all the main liches without any resting in between them and even kangaxx demilich form died easily to a simulacrum using a scroll of timestop followed by 2 rounds of greater whirlwind. His first form died instantly to a bunch of thief traps. How do I stop myself from power gaming and enjoy the story again? Don't solo as a f/m/t with the level cap removed?
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Apr 24, 2015 18:01
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cheesetriangles posted:So I was doing a fighter/mage/thief solo run and hit 8 million xp around midway through underdark and kept going because obviously I removed the cap. After I got back I killed all the main liches without any resting in between them and even kangaxx demilich form died easily to a simulacrum using a scroll of timestop followed by 2 rounds of greater whirlwind. His first form died instantly to a bunch of thief traps. How do I stop myself from power gaming and enjoy the story again? Choose "bad" classes if you like to solo. Some of them have very interesting High Level potential.
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Apr 24, 2015 18:10
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