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I wrote a BG/BG2 guide on just the essential rules to know for people who have never played D&D: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489416794& I didn't want to cover things like the calculations for attack rolls or THAC0, thief skill rolls, saves, magical combat, class building, min-maxing, story elements, or anything else that would add needless complexity. I know some of it is kind of general advice that's not completely "true" (like party making and weapon proficiencies), but it's supposed to be written for someone who knows absolutely nothing about D&D to be able to manage their first game on their own. Maybe someone will find it useful.
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Aug 3, 2015 01:00
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I thought of the worst thing. I tried to do an all 100% arcane spellcaster run through BGEE but gave up because it was hard and boring, but someone should try playing a pure class thief and use nothing but other pure thieves in the party, there are a ton so it should be pretty easy. Imoen Alora Safana Skie Hmm only 4 but there are a couple fighter thieves, I suppose that would not break things too bad to allow those. Montaron Coran That would allow a pretty good selection.
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Aug 3, 2015 02:51
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Just imagine having Imoen, Alora and Skie in the party at the same time. poo poo would make your ears bleed.PRADA SLUT posted:I wrote a BG/BG2 guide on just the essential rules to know for people who have never played D&D: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489416794& But some advice about stat allocation is...wrong, to be honest. Like: quote:Secondary stats should be 14-16, and tertiary stats should be 12-14 I'd rework that section to basically say "get max Dex, 16 or max Con depending on whether or not you're a warrior class of some sort, max your primary stat". I guess Strength could do with some more detailed advice due to carrying capacity and armor requirements, also because everyone who wants to melee wants high Strength but the stat is easily raised by spells/potions/items.
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Aug 3, 2015 03:22
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Wizard Styles posted:Just imagine having Imoen, Alora and Skie in the party at the same time. poo poo would make your ears bleed. 15 seems to be the key where most get something, but there's a few, like 13 for a reaction adjustment and 0% spell failure. I'll modify it upward a bit, to just note 15 on anything important, and won't worry about the lower bounds. The thing is that each of the six stats has a falloff at a different level, and I don't want to go in to the exact calculations of every single stat for every possible class (which may or may not even be relevant), it will make it needlessly complicated and min-maxy. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 03:57
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Skwirl posted:I think the enhanced edition includes most of the basic quality of life stuff you'd want to begin with, but the main QOL mod is BG tweak pack here http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2tweaks/ the biggest changes in that for game play are probably loving around with spell progression and druid leveling, or removing of racial restrictions on classes, dual classing and multi classing. Definitely check out the readme before running it. Wizard Styles posted:The fixpack is integrated. Thanks to both of you, seems like the tweakpack had pretty much everything I wanted aside from faster walking speed but EE-Keeper fixed that. For some reason I thought that I'd need to find EE versions of each mod, didn't know you could just apply the old ones 
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Aug 3, 2015 08:34
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 I hope he realizes the same will undoubtedly be true of his romance, and it will be all his fault.
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Aug 3, 2015 20:43
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PRADA SLUT posted:The thing is that each of the six stats has a falloff at a different level, and I don't want to go in to the exact calculations of every single stat for every possible class (which may or may not even be relevant), it will make it needlessly complicated and min-maxy. I think it would be okay for that section to be a bit more in depth than the rest, though. After all, people are going to spend 40+ hours with a character.
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Aug 3, 2015 21:44
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Head Hit Keyboard posted:
What happens between them eventually?
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Aug 3, 2015 23:31
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Aerie breaks it off because he's too pessimistic and Haer'dalis is like oh well it was doomed to end anyway, and that's pretty much it. Before release, he was planned to be a romance for female characters and his little fling with Aerie would have been a love triangle where he ultimately chooses your character. Suspicious fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 23:41
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They hook up in SoA but Aerie ends it in ToB when she realizes how serious Haer'Dalis is about his philosophy, that this extends to their relationship, and that he's not going to change. It's easily the best romance in the game. ^^^^ Might want to spoiler that before Head Hit Keyboard reads it.
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Aug 3, 2015 23:41
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It's worth it to start the Aerie-PC romance with Haer'dalis in the party. Trust.
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Aug 4, 2015 00:47
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Basic Chunnel posted:It's worth it to start the Aerie-PC romance with Haer'dalis in the party. Trust. Alas I am a Half-Orc and thus Aerie has no interest in plowing me.  I think Edwin's short a few memos.  
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Aug 4, 2015 03:01
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Just set AerieMatch = 1 with the CLUAConsole
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Aug 4, 2015 04:32
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I'm trying to solo the BG series as a Stalker and it's my first time soloing without being a Thief multiclass of some sort. Is there any way to improve my ability to bash locks open other than buffing strength? Some locks just don't seem to want to open even with cloud giant strength. Also any tips for not dying to traps?
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Aug 4, 2015 07:00
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Mountaineer posted:I'm trying to solo the BG series as a Stalker and it's my first time soloing without being a Thief multiclass of some sort. Is there any way to improve my ability to bash locks open other than buffing strength? Some locks just don't seem to want to open even with cloud giant strength. Also any tips for not dying to traps? Traps: quickload  Re: the locks: On the left is strength. On the right is the equivalent lockpicking skill when bashing. Strength is the only determinant of bash chance for a given lock. 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 18 18 20 18/01-50 25 18/51-75 30 18/76-90 35 18/91-99 40 18/00 45 19 50 20 55 21 60 22 65 23 70 24 75 25 80
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Aug 4, 2015 12:18
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Mountaineer posted:I'm trying to solo the BG series as a Stalker and it's my first time soloing without being a Thief multiclass of some sort. Is there any way to improve my ability to bash locks open other than buffing strength? Some locks just don't seem to want to open even with cloud giant strength. Also any tips for not dying to traps? When you get to level 12, you get Minor Spell Deflection as a level 3 Priest Spell. This will absorb the spells thrown by many traps. Excluded are traps that throw arrows and poison. Keep in mind that it will only protect you from 2 lightning hits, so be careful if those start to bounce.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:31
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MrL_JaKiri posted:18 20 Can someone remind me why this exists. Its so absurd and one of the dumbest things about the ruleset in Baldurs Gate / Dnd. No other attribute has this system, just strength. It's never properly explained and just sort of sits there, being strange.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:12
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I think it bogs down to dick measurement contests, p&p-style.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:16
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As it was related to me, they had stated that it was a hard rule that 19 in any stat represented a superhuman level that was only attainable by magic or by being something that wasn't human, but then they decided that they wanted a higher degree of resolution between characters' strengths for the purposes of contested strength rolls. When you have two guys shoving on a boulder from opposite ends, and they both have 18 strength, which way does it roll? One guy pushing a door open, one guy pushing it shut? Arm wrestling? You can see how that sort of situation could come pretty often in a fantasy PnP game. They wanted to increase the number of possible strength scores a creature could have, so that there would be fewer unsatisfying stalemates, but they already had sold all these books and written all these stat blocks that had stronger-than-any-human ogres with 19 strength, so they decided to introduce a % spread between 18 and 19. It's harder to imagine what a contested intelligence or wisdom or constitution check or whatever would look like, and apparently such situations didn't come up in games as often, so other stats didn't get the % treatment.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:44
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Someone asking Gygax a question posted:...And the 'old': regarding AD&D ability scores, and my passion for strength training that you're well aware of... Gygax posted:As for Strength in OAD&D, I did indeed use reasoning along the lines you suggest, and exceptional strength was reserved to the fighter class for exactly the reason you note--training. Gygax posted:At first blush I decided that 18 was the maximum for a human, but then to make fighters more viable, and because the concept of degrees of strength in the 18 cap followed logically, I used the percentile measurement. As for strength over 18, any such ability is superhuman and must be magically endowed in my view. The 18/% did give the fighter a real boost.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:57
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mitochondritom posted:Can someone remind me why this exists. Its so absurd and one of the dumbest things about the ruleset in Baldurs Gate / Dnd. No other attribute has this system, just strength. It's never properly explained and just sort of sits there, being strange.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:00
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Fun is a secondary component, the real point of D&D is to steal agency from your rival players in any way possible to make sure you get all the gold and experience and they get killed so often they are either constantly behind in experience and net worth from rerolling one tier below you, or forever in your debt for covering raise fees in a high magic enough setting. All this feel good teamwork and have fun stuff is a corruption of the true spirit of the game which of course has a winner, being a game. Most of the silly stuff, even through parts of 3 and 3.5e, can be explained by the developer intent being a PvE ruleset, with an adversarial element among PCs about being the best in the party through luck or just being a dick.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:31
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It's just one of the many weird idiosyncrasies that made 2.5 the special and wonderful thing it was.
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Aug 4, 2015 23:59
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Yeah… but like a lot of weird unnecessary things requiring their own special tables and dice, that was in since version 1. Gygax was all about that poo poo.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:40
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mitochondritom posted:Can someone remind me why this exists. Its so absurd and one of the dumbest things about the ruleset in Baldurs Gate / Dnd. No other attribute has this system, just strength. It's never properly explained and just sort of sits there, being strange. It was a carryover from 1st edition AD&D. I never saw an explanation of why Gygax added it; perhaps he just felt that +1/+2 was just too little bonus damage for fighters.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:28
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It was to make warriors better. He felt that they weren't much better at melee combat than clerics when it was supposed to be their specialty.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:35
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Which is a little odd, when you think about it, as the 'official' way to roll stats in 1E was 3d6 six times, assigned to stats in order, then pick the class that was the best fit. 4d6k3 was an optional rule for 'powergamers', and point buy was unheard-of. So not only did you have to get an 18 on 3d6 (which is a 1 in 216 chance, or a bit under 0.5%), but you had to do it on the first roll. Using the RAW, fighters would normally have 14-16 strength and no to-hit bonus, and usually no damage bonus. Using the first alternate option, which let you assign your scores to stats as you saw fit, at least allowed you more ability to play the class you wanted, but didn't really help you get that 18 and thus the exceptional strength roll. If you've read the Dragonlance books, you may recall how much was written about Caramon being a veritable giant of a man, and being one of the strongest men alive. He had a 17 strength, giving him a whopping +1 to hit and +1 to damage.
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Aug 5, 2015 02:45
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Yeah 19 strength was like pick up a small car kind of strength, the 25 strength that you get from crom faeyr is like tear down the castle walls with your hands kind of strength. It doesn't translate very well to combat really, like at 25 there'd be no need for a weapon, you'd just be able to tear enemies in half
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Aug 5, 2015 13:49
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How does this work for other stats? Can you walk through fire with 25 Constitution? Does 25 Wisdom give you precognitive powers? Do you turn into The Rock with 25 Charisma?
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Aug 5, 2015 14:47
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I really loved PS:T's descriptive text along with the stats changing with the numbers edit: at 24 or so of charisma, TNO is described as charismatic enough to lead all the planes to war kujeger fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 15:17
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Samuel Clemens posted:How does this work for other stats? Can you walk through fire with 25 Constitution? Does 25 Wisdom give you precognitive powers? Do you turn into The Rock with 25 Charisma? 25 Dexterity makes you Hawkeye. +5 Reaction adjustment (i.e. initiative), +5 to missile attacks, and -6 to armor class. 25 Constitution makes you Wolverine. Regeneration of 1 hp/turn, 100% system shock and resurrection, +4 to poison save. 25 Intelligence makes you a polyglot (20 languages) immune to all illusion spells, capable of learning any (wizard) spell at 100% certainty, and possibly a really potent psion to boot. I don't really know a superhero comparison for this or the remaining attributes. 25 Wisdom makes you a magical bulwark: gives you +4 to magical defense, immunity to cause fear, charm person, command, friends, hypnotism, forget, hold person, ray of enfeeblement, scare, fear, charm monster, confusion, emotion, fumble, suggestion, chaos, feeblemind, hold monster, magic jar, quest, geas, mass suggestion, rod of rulership, antipathy/sympathy, death spell, and mass charm. 25 Charisma gives you a Rock-the-Dwayne-Johnson-like fanbase: 50 henchmen, with perfect loyalty, and +14 Reaction adjustment meaning everyone thinks you're totally awesome all the time. Kenny Logins fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 15:31
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Real time follow-up for fans of the OD&D Deities and Demigods: there were only a half-dozen or so out of the all the gods in that book that had 25 in every stat. As expected, they are the heads of the pantheons: Zeus, Quetzalcoatl, Indra, Amaterasu Omikami, Odin, and of course the stupid Elric pantheon's, which was called Donblas. Many of the pantheons had gods without a 25 in anything, and some pantheons had no gods at all with a 25 in anything. Long story short, the old-school stat system was not really well planned out and it's amazing it persisted until 3rd edition.
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Aug 5, 2015 16:11
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Wow, that would be the ORIGINAL, pulled-from-the-shelves Deities and Demigods. The printing I had (from 1983-ish?) was after they yanked the Moorcock and Fahfrd(?) pantheons.
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Aug 5, 2015 22:18
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Taliesyn posted:Wow, that would be the ORIGINAL, pulled-from-the-shelves Deities and Demigods. The printing I had (from 1983-ish?) was after they yanked the Moorcock and Fahfrd(?) pantheons. Nowadays, you can literally Google "AD&D deities and demigods pdf" and it's the first result.
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Aug 6, 2015 01:48
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So I've been through Renal Bloodscalp's stuff and killed Mae/var, or should I say, he got dominated by Jaheira's Nymph and told to commit suicide by his own guild.  Since then I've stopped a waste of time holy war between churches in the streets, (mostly) solved a serial murder case in the bridge district, freed a bunch of slaves from the Copper Coronet, and went to see Keldorn's family and dealt with his family issues. Oh and saved Viconia from lynchers, again. I think at this point I've seen most of what there is in Athkatla, so it's time to go see the big wide world. I've got a quest in to find this Valygar person from when I was trying to figure out how to get the Cowled Wizards to stop harassing me while I defend myself from Harper morons, a quest to investigate deaths in Umar Hills, animal attacks in Trademeet, and something in Windspear Hills. The Windspear quest already promises me 10k gold so that sounds like a nice place to start. Let's go there and kill some Ogres-oh god they're turning into people what's goi-  
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Aug 6, 2015 04:53
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I never feel that bad about it because you can legit try and talk to them and be like "hey there's obviously something weird going on here, lets talk about it" and he doesn't even pause to cast detect evil. His own dumb fault imo, lovely paladin-ing
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Aug 6, 2015 05:52
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Ajantis was never very smart, asking random strangers if they're friends or foes as his opening line.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:02
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This is all true. He was dumb but for a dumb person this was a dumb way to go. Was caught off guard a bit by it.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:05
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How often in gaming does something happen that truly evokes a wtf kind of reaction, like hey holy poo poo I've been BETRAYED!!! BG2 so good.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:13
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Sorry but the canon death of Ajantis is being killed like a chump after being called a walking garbage can by the Bhaalspawn in BG1.
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Aug 6, 2015 09:54
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