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That doesn't mean you have to be completionist, but you do want to come to a stopping point.
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Mar 19, 2016 17:40
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Is there a difference between importing a save and importing a character? Because I was thinking of using import character so I could also import two members of my BG1 party until I can find official ones that have the same classes (so my initial party will be MC/Imoen/Minsc/Jaheira/BG1 archer/BG1 wizard). If necessary I'll throw away all their gear before exporting them as BG1 character files so they can start BG2 properly. E: one mod I'm definitely getting is the wizard staffs mod. Color-customizable staffs that zap people with magic. It looks absolutely awesome. E2: First thoughts on BG2EE: much less janky than BG1EE. Menus look better, transitions are smoother, saving is faster, fonts look better and scale correctly. Also am I going to get all my equipment back eventually? I've already found a few pieces, including the helm of true sight, Balduran's helm, and Varscona. Woolie Wool fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 17:46
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Woolie Wool posted:E2: First thoughts on BG2EE: much less janky than BG1EE. Menus look better, transitions are smoother, saving is faster, fonts look better and scale correctly. Also am I going to get all my equipment back eventually? I've already found a few pieces, including the helm of true sight, Balduran's helm, and Varscona.
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Mar 19, 2016 21:24
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Barbarians (Dragon #63, Unearthed Arcana, Dragon #148, Oriental Adventures, Complete Fighter, Complete Barb, PO: Skills & Powers, 3e PHB) Not unlike the monk, the Barbarian has a long history as one of the game's non core classes, which tends to drop in and out of the initial PHB as editions change, but always at least comes back in a supplement. It started out in a 1e Dragon magazine article from Gygax, got expanded in the infamous Unearthed Arcana book, and was dropped as part of the shift to 2e. While, like the monk, it got a crap kit (in Complete Fighter) which wasn't worthy of its printing space, it then got a full Complete series book to itself. The Complete Barbarian was a really fun one in my opinion, giving you tons of unique things to roleplay, and did a lot to stop making the barbarian not-Conan, which was beyond blatantly what the Gygax versions were. 3e then switched up things a bit by giving the Barbarian the Rage ability present in the game, and removing one of the significant remnants from the early Barbarian days, the hatred of magic. Common throughout the Barbarian versions, including BG, are the fast movement, the d12 HP, and the backstab resistance. In 1e and 2e, this was 'back protection', which was based only on a chance (increasing with levels) to detect an attempted backstab. You would then avoid it, and get a free counterattack, which makes up for it not being a total immunity as it is in BG. In 3e, this is only a protection against being flanked, which can also be overcome by much higher level Rogues. All tabletop Barbarians begin illiterate and have to spend time and effort becoming so. Obviously that wasn't going to be accounted for in-game, and you presume that being brought up in Candlekeep preventing you from being unable to read for too long. Though really you don't want to think too hard about how a 'Barbarian' originated from Candlekeep in the first place. The Rage is almost entirely 3e. In tabletop, it starts off worse, in that it has fatigue penalties after you've finished raging, rather like the Berserk of the Fighter kit. However, it increases its bonuses beyond the BG Barbarian over time, and loses those penalties by level 20. I presume that the immediate lack of penalties for Barbarians in BG was partly to try to keep the Barbarian and the Berserker distinct. While the Ravager kit for the Barbarian has a frenzy with penalties and bonuses, and was probably the inspiration for the later 3e/BG rage, it's much closer to the BG Berserker kit (and I mentioned it there.) The best part of the BG Barbarian Rage is getting all those immunities, though, which are only a fairly minor save boost in tabletop. BG's damage resistance likewise imitates the 3e damage reduction, though the game's version is much better under almost every circumstance, being a percentage resistance instead of small, flat reduction of a couple of points of damage. It does apply to every damage source instead of just physical ones, though. The armour restrictions for BG barbarians are one of the few things where 2e seems to be the major influence. As part of the retooling of the Barbarian class, making it into its own thing beyond literally Conan, the Complete Barbarian designers opted into representing essentially Stone Age tribal societies. That meant a total restriction on all metal items as being unfamiliar and causing superstitious dread. For armour, you could get magical war paint to help you out instead, but you had a pretty limited weapon pool. While I won't go through all the extraneous parts of the 1/2e Barbarian classes, since the BG class is firmly rooted in the 3e one, there's a couple of fun aspects worth going over. First, the ability to summon a hundreds or thousands-strong barbarian horde if your party really wants to ransack a country. Again, it's part of the early editions' focus on followers and grand campaigns, like the Fighter's small army or the Beast Master's animal horde. Secondly, the hatred of magic which the early barbarians shared. Gygax's class had a character arc built into it, in that as you levelled you got to start using magic items, having become familiar with them over the adventure. That was nerfed in one of the Dragon revisions which tried to tamp down on Gygax's familiar lack of balance, and 2e again kept you in awe or dread of magic items. You'd use stuff created by your shamans and homeland magic, but outworld arcana, especially if made of metal instead of familiar wood or bone, was verboten. There's a reason the Wizard Slayer kit was originally a Barbarian and not a Fighter. Also from Complete Barbarian: 
Sleep of Bronze fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 21:46
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That image is fantastic  Barbarians rule.
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Mar 19, 2016 21:51
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Sleep of Bronze your posts are extremely cool and good.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:01
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Jaheira sucks, how long until I can recruit a cleric?
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Mar 19, 2016 22:03
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Woolie Wool posted:Jaheira sucks, how long until I can recruit a cleric? Go to the Copper Coronet for good/neutral or the government district for evil.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:05
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Woolie Wool posted:Jaheira sucks, how long until I can recruit a cleric? Go do the quest in the pavilion right near where you got out of the prison and get Aerie.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:16
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Angry Lobster posted:That image is fantastic Going back through old D&D for some of posts these has been fun and hilarious. 
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Mar 19, 2016 22:20
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Yeah there's like 3 clerics/cleric-multiclasses pretty much instantly, and there's another pure druid in Trademeet which is one of the simpler quests to make money in Act 2. I always find my party runs a bit heavy on divine magic and light on arcane because of it.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:26
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Jaheira is not a good replacement for a cleric, but she turns into an amazing melee fighter.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:44
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How much magic in general is a good idea for BG2? In BG1 I ran one arcane, one divine, and four martial characters, which matches my Pillars party.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:44
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You definitely want a fully leveling (not multi-classed) Sorcerer or Mage. You should have a second one that can be multi-classed, but you can also go without. You don't absolutely need a fully leveling Cleric/Druid if you don't want to; Jaheira or Aerie can cover everything you absolutely need them for (status protection). Definitely doesn't hurt to have one, though, especially in the early/mid game. There are things like magic resistance, immunity to spell levels that lowering resistance can't get around, and wild/no magic zones, so don't go overboard.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:52
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4 martial characters is probably overkill. You can do just fine with even just 2.
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Mar 19, 2016 22:55
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In BG2 sure, you can do fine with only 2 dedicated melee characters, but in Throne of Bhaal heavy melee power pays off more than magic.
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Mar 19, 2016 23:40
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Angry Lobster posted:In BG2 sure, you can do fine with only 2 dedicated melee characters, but in Throne of Bhaal heavy melee power pays off more than magic. true but you still need one magic person to strip off protections, unless you have a greater whirlwinding paladin with carsomyr I guess.
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Mar 19, 2016 23:48
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Now that you mention it, is there a mod that makes Carsomyr a longsword?
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Mar 20, 2016 00:05
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Woolie Wool posted:Now that you mention it, is there a mod that makes Carsomyr a longsword? No, but there is a Bastard Sword version of Carsomyr in Watcher's Keep. If you're looking for a one hander so you can shield/dual wield. If you're looking for a longsword specifically, no, you're SoL, use a real weapon type.
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Mar 20, 2016 00:08
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Has anyone tried playing this online via beamdog? i've had some of the best and worst bg1 experiences ever online in the last few days.
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Mar 20, 2016 00:47
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Woolie Wool posted:How much magic in general is a good idea for BG2? In BG1 I ran one arcane, one divine, and four martial characters, which matches my Pillars party. At least for the base, non-EE game: Full divine is like Cernd (single-class Druid which is a bit weak), Viconia (-2 rep on joining, but she's a good Cleric!), and Anomen (eventually solid as a cleric). Half divine is Jaheira (although she accelerates quickly due to Druids having good experience progression until double-figure levels) and Aerie (she's okay). Minsc, Keldorn, Mazzy, and Valygar can all do a bit of healing, if not a ton, as can a Good/Neutral PC. Full arcane is Imoen but you don't get her for a while, Nalia (annoying) and Edwin (best mage full stop) Half arcane is Aerie, Jan, and Haer'Dalis. Haer'Dalis is slightly tricky to actually obtain but he's a fun guy to have around. Valygar can do a bit, as can an Evil PC (Horror on a near-instant cast is fantastically powerful) In terms of thieves you basically have Yoshimo (full thief, trash as a result), Jan (serviceable but very annoying) and Nalia/Imoen (total money sinks in terms of needing potions to do her job as well as being annoying). Pick your poison. jBrereton fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Mar 20, 2016 00:53
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Jaheira is full stop the best tank in the game and Aerie quickly becomes the best anything in the game, so ditch/skip them at your own peril.
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Mar 20, 2016 01:12
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Skwirl posted:Jaheira is not a good replacement for a cleric, but she turns into an amazing melee fighter. She starts out as a great melee fighter and gets amazing when you give her dual wield and a couple scimitars, donno where the powerful clubs are tho. Woolie Wool posted:How much magic in general is a good idea for BG2? In BG1 I ran one arcane, one divine, and four martial characters, which matches my Pillars party. Pure mages/sorcs are actually the best melee characters in the game, but they are annoying because you have to put up all the buffs. But you can time stop mid fight put on tensers transformation and then black blade of disaster and then murder anything that looks at you funny. Actually gnome thief/illusionist is the best melee with mislead but that's an exploit, but then again a lot of encounters are practically impossible without exploiting something. Jan Jansen is probably the most powerful NPC in bg2. You could easily solo the whole game with him. Washout fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Mar 20, 2016 01:19
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After solving Trademeet's problems, you can buy/steal blackblood (club +3, +3 acid) at one of the shops. Conveniently you'll also find belm (scimitar +2, +1 attack per round) solving said problems. Personally I never dual wield with her, I prefer going the spear route with the impaler (spear +3, +10 damage).
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Mar 20, 2016 01:26
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So I finished De'Arnise Keep, and now I've got the 20,000 needed to move to Chapter 3. I'm going to do a couple more quests, though, to get some additional experience and items.Are there any quests I should do specifically to make things easier down the road? I'm playing as Dwarven Defender, so I thought about doing the Windspear Hill quest so I could get one of the components for Crom Fayer, but I'm hesitant, because it seems like once you go there, you have to complete the whole quest line so you aren't attacked everywhere you go, and it seems like you would get 'stuck' if you make it up to the red dragon at the end, and you aren't able to beat him. Regarding party roster, I was going to drop Nalia and pick up Haer'Dalis, but I wasn't sure about the rest of my party. I have Minsc, Jaheira, Jan, and Aerie, but I don't know if that's really an adequate party, or not. Jaheira sounds like she works really well as a front-line fighter (I have her in the back for the most part, using a sling). Jan is the only character that gains levels in Thief. Aerie seems really useful since she's got both Mage and Cleric spells. Also, do there exist Bags of Holding in BG2:EE? I found out you can buy gem bags from the trading center (which would have made inventory management throught De'Arnise keep a little less frustrating), but I didn't see any Bags of Holding. Is that something that's only possible through mods?
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Mar 20, 2016 01:38
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You're not stuck in Windspear Hills because lord Windspear goes clear your name with the order immediately after the first fight. It's pointless to get crom faeyr components immediately because you won't be able to forge it until you're back on the mainland anyway. Yes, you'll find a bag of holding in Spellhold.
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Mar 20, 2016 01:44
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Max Wilco posted:So I finished De'Arnise Keep, and now I've got the 20,000 needed to move to Chapter 3. I'm going to do a couple more quests, though, to get some additional experience and items.Are there any quests I should do specifically to make things easier down the road? I'm playing as Dwarven Defender, so I thought about doing the Windspear Hill quest so I could get one of the components for Crom Fayer, but I'm hesitant, because it seems like once you go there, you have to complete the whole quest line so you aren't attacked everywhere you go, and it seems like you would get 'stuck' if you make it up to the red dragon at the end, and you aren't able to beat him. Get mislead for Jan, cast it at the edge of a map as soon as you enter and leave the decoy there, then jan backstabs with every attack. Jan and Aerie by themselves are super powerful, probably the two most powerful in the whole series. With aerie if you are having trouble just cast sanctuary and then she can't be attacked and can cast buffs/heals/dispels etc then when you are ready throw out confusion or chaos. Jaheria can wear full plate and still cast spells, give her either dual wield with the scimitar of speed in trademeet and that club or the spear the other dude was talking about and she will mow down anything in your way, the spear gives you the advantage of being able to get in position to attack easier since it's longer. Your least powerful character is probably Minsc. Nalia is also super powerful but in the whoops she killed everyone by accident kind of way. You could swap her out for edwin if you still want a powerful mage that is more dependable, but you need the mod that won't allow companions to leave unless you want to juggle your reputation to keep it in the middle. Honestly though she does not blow up the party that often. Keldorn Firecam is super powerful just don't do his quest or he leaves you. His automatic dispel is fantastic. If you want an optimized OP party it would probably be Keldorn, Jaheria or Korgan, Jan, Aerie, and Edwin. I'd take Korgan to make killing mind flayers easier but you can do just as well with a bunch of hasted undead. Washout fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Mar 20, 2016 02:38
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Keldorn doesn't leave you if you do his quest, there is a dialog option to release him for a day to be with his family and then you can come back in 24 hours to pick him up again. In fact, he will leave if you go to the Government District with him and you don't do his quest. I believe every part of it is on a timer.
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Mar 20, 2016 02:55
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Keldorn doesn't leave and you don't need to give him a break. At the end of his personal quest just say "please serve until we rescue Imoen" or something similar and he'll stay forever. His quest takes like 10 minutes and involves no fighting so just do it ASAP to get it out of the way.
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Mar 20, 2016 03:18
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Washout posted:Get mislead for Jan, cast it at the edge of a map as soon as you enter and leave the decoy there, then jan backstabs with every attack. Jan and Aerie by themselves are super powerful, probably the two most powerful in the whole series. With aerie if you are having trouble just cast sanctuary and then she can't be attacked and can cast buffs/heals/dispels etc then when you are ready throw out confusion or chaos. Only problem I see with taking Korgan is that (based on what I read) Aerie has a conflict with him, and will leave the party. Same problem with having Minsc and Edwin together. That's actually something I find really annoying with the Baldur's Gate games; NPCs either have quests you have to fulfill in set amount of time, or they have issues with other NPCs that causes them to leave the party (BG1 seems like it's worse in that regard, since a lot of the NPCs you recruit come in pairs (Jaheira/Khalid, Montaron/Xzar, Minsc/Dynaheir, Eldoth/Skie)) I suppose the mod you mentioned also addresses the NPC conflict, but I'm not sure if I want to mess around with mods after the issues I had with setting up BGT. I think I might stick with who I've got now and see how I fare, and depending on how things go, maybe I'll swap Minsc out for Keldorn, since he seems like he's got much better abilities. I wonder, though, if at this point, he'd have trouble catching up in terms of experience. I'd still like to pick up Haer Dalis, since his Bard abilities seem like they'd be helpful (in terms of having additional buffs). This is sort of a silly thing to ask, but in terms of the story, is there an ideal party to take? For example, the way it's set up now, I'd have no room for Imoen once you get her back in Chapter 4. If you aren't able to take her with you, do you miss out on anything? I don't know if that goes into really heavy spoilers (which I'd like to avoid if I could), but I'm curious.
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Mar 20, 2016 03:50
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Suspicious posted:You're not stuck in Windspear Hills because lord Windspear goes clear your name with the order immediately after the first fight. It's pointless to get crom faeyr components immediately because you won't be able to forge it until you're back on the mainland anyway. Hexxat also gives you a bag of holding but her stats are horrible. Also surprise #1: opening a random sarcophagus and a lich pops out going OHAI I'M A LICH NOW YOU DIE. Surprise #2: I actually managed to kill it.
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Mar 20, 2016 03:54
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Suspicious posted:Keldorn doesn't leave and you don't need to give him a break. At the end of his personal quest just say "please serve until we rescue Imoen" or something similar and he'll stay forever. His quest takes like 10 minutes and involves no fighting so just do it ASAP to get it out of the way. But the game makes you feel super guilty about it.
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Mar 20, 2016 04:00
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Max Wilco posted:Only problem I see with taking Korgan is that (based on what I read) Aerie has a conflict with him, and will leave the party. Wait, poo poo, too many similarly named characters. My bad for not reading properly. Yeah, Korgan and Aerie conflict. quote:This is sort of a silly thing to ask, but in terms of the story, is there an ideal party to take? For example, the way it's set up now, I'd have no room for Imoen once you get her back in Chapter 4. If you aren't able to take her with you, do you miss out on anything? I don't know if that goes into really heavy spoilers (which I'd like to avoid if I could), but I'm curious. Sleep of Bronze fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Mar 20, 2016 05:11
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Korgan and Aerie have a conflict. They don't actually fight, but Korgan keeps calling her useless (oh the irony) and at one point Aerie has enough and says "Yo, <CHARNAME>, me or him?" and whoever you don't choose leaves the party forever. I know the Keldorn/Viconia and Minsc/Edwin fights can be avoided by just reloading when they happen because they're like random banter and not actually on a timer, but I don't know if you can do the same for Aerie. PS: Choose Aerie. Korgan would be the most useless NPC if it weren't for Cernd.
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Mar 20, 2016 05:16
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Washout posted:If you want an optimized OP party it would probably be Keldorn, Jaheria or Korgan, Jan, Aerie, and Edwin. I'd take Korgan to make killing mind flayers easier but you can do just as well with a bunch of hasted undead. Korgan as a general countermeasure against stuff like psionics, imprisonment, level drain etc. Jaheira or Keldorn as a second warrior with anti-Mage abilities Edwin because yeah maybe take the strongest NPC along if you're going for OP Anomen Jan or Imoen, maybe even Nalia if you don't care that much about having your Thief skills completely covered At that point it doesn't even matter what your own character is. Could be a Swashbuckler and the party would still deal with everything easily. e: That's if you're going for a full party of 6, drop down to 4 and I'd probably rather have Aerie around, no matter how useful Korgan's Enrage is. Of course, I have never played with that party, and the first time I completed the game I'm pretty sure I brought both Minsc and Mazzy along, Jaheira was the only one in the party with divine magic, and my charname was a Monk because I was 13 and wanted to be Bruce Lee. 
Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Mar 20, 2016 05:37
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Wizard Styles posted:and my charname was a Monk because I was 13 and wanted to be Bruce Lee. Same, except Goku.
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Mar 20, 2016 05:43
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Suspicious posted:Korgan and Aerie have a conflict. They don't actually fight, but Korgan keeps calling her useless (oh the irony) and at one point Aerie has enough and says "Yo, <CHARNAME>, me or him?" and whoever you don't choose leaves the party forever. What? Korgan is a beast, behind Keldorn he's the best single class fighter type in BG2.
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Mar 20, 2016 05:45
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The bg2 tweak pack works fine with BGTUTU, and yeah the NPC tweak resolves all conflicts and lets whoever you want to have stay forever and there is a separate option so they won't fight either. Barbarian enrage is worth it's weight once you to the underdark.
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Mar 20, 2016 06:16
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Washout posted:The bg2 tweak pack works fine with BGTUTU, and yeah the NPC tweak resolves all conflicts and lets whoever you want to have stay forever and there is a separate option so they won't fight either.
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Mar 20, 2016 06:42
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The Inquisitor's dispel magic ability is awesome. It makes those stupid cloaked wizards die very, very quickly.
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Mar 20, 2016 06:42
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