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My favourite warhammer in BG2 is the Dwarven Thrower. Tons of fun on a Dwarf Kensai. Also, I still can't believe someone programmed a weapon called the Hammer of Thunderbolts and did not make it cast actual thunderbolts.
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Jun 27, 2017 20:58
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My strength is 18/98 and I'm using Ashideena. I'm only in in BG and a quick look at a wiki shows Hammer of Thunderbolts is in BG2. Just got a bit of time till I get there I suppose.
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Jun 27, 2017 21:12
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Yeah with that strength score you can use whatever weapon you want and you'll hit hard enough. And being a hammer-lover will pay off big time in BG2.
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Jun 27, 2017 21:24
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Good cause my philosophy in games lately is to hit things with hammers as often as possible.
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Jun 27, 2017 21:32
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Warhammers are a hosed up weapon class, because there's essentially 2 tiers. The lower tier is largely lovely 1d4 +x stuff, which includes BG1's warhammers. The better tier is 2d4 +x, including Hammer of Thunderbolts/Crom Faeyr, Dwarven Thrower and Runehammer. It is a good weapon class for BG2, especially since Dwarven Thrower is a ranged weapon that gets bonus damage from strength.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:23
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Of note, almost every weapon class has a super-duper option available in Shadows or Throne. Warhammers have the most famous, but as long as you avoid morningstars, clubs, and maces you're guaranteed to get a great weapon of that type sooner or later.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:29
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Morningstars get a pass because they share the proficiency slot with flails, IIRC. And maces at least have one really useful specialty weapon  Clubs are eternally the chump weapon, though, except for that one acid club you can buy in SoA. Sucks for you if you took five pips in clubs and want to play ToB, though.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:31
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Walrus Pete posted:Morningstars get a pass because they share the proficiency slot with flails, IIRC. And maces at least have one really useful specialty weapon There's also the storm star in Throne for maces, but IIRC it only goes up to +4 when upgraded, not 5 or 6 like the other good endgame weapons.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:37
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Hammers are a pretty terrible specialization for most of SoA, unless you go for throwing weapons. There's no good melee option before Crom, and Crom is best in the off-hand anyway.Mr. Fortitude posted:If you have that issue, try following this guide from Step 6 onwards.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:42
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There's a powerful and really fun club in ToB, but it requires some effort to properly use.Corvinus posted:The lower tier is largely lovely 1d4 +x stuff, which includes BG1's warhammers. The big advantage warhammers have in BG1 is that you can get a good unique one very early in the game.
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Jun 27, 2017 22:44
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The other advantage of warhammers and flails is that they do blunt damage, which is far and away the least resisted of the physical damage types.
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Jun 27, 2017 23:22
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Yeah, see how much you like your party full of sword-swingers when clay golems show up! 
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Jun 27, 2017 23:24
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mitochondritom posted:I think both of the IceWind Dale games are really underrated, yes, there is less (no) NPC banter, but for the most part the game has enough meat to be worth a play through. It is more linear than the others, but I think the story isn't any less bad than the BG games. I also think the art and sound of both IWD games is way better than Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 some of the environments in Icewind Dale are breathtakingly beautiful. IWD was great, played through it many times. But IWD2 there's just something about it that makes it seem like a total slog and I never manage to get anywhere even turning the difficulty way down.
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Jun 27, 2017 23:30
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Yeah even with EE editions there are some glaring holes. Like Clubs has nothing between early SoA and late ToB. Bows basically just get +3 stuff and then at the end of ToB, a +5 bow with tiny boosts for each class (though at least Shortbows get Gesen). Katanas famously top out with a super strong CF in early/mid-SoA and then gets basically nothing from there. Even its ToB super-weapon would look more at home in SoA. On the other hand 2-handed weapons are loaded. Swords, Halberds, Quarterstaves all not only get crazy good high-end ToB weapons far outstripping the above, but they also basically never have a period of real weakness - they all have strong options available compared to other weapons throughout basically the entire series. Spears are weird in that they kinda just suck up until you get murderweapon #1 halfway through SoA and then never look back. At least pre-ToB they come with fairly big trade-offs.
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Jun 27, 2017 23:32
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Foebane's my favourite single handed weapon. Extra damage against particularly difficult enemies, Larloch's minor drain on hit (which increases your max health) and the saving throw bonus to cap it off. It's also available very early in ToB.
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Jun 27, 2017 23:48
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Re: hammers Armour also has hidden extra bonuses and penalties to damage types in BG. Splint gets a +2 bonus against blunt but studded leather, chain, plate and full-plate have +2-4 accuracy swings if you use blunt weapons against them over slash. You fight a lot of dudes in armour in BG and all your non-warriors have arse thac0 so it can make quite a big difference. leather: 2 pierce penalty studded: 1 pierce bonus, 2 slash bonus chain: 2 blunt penalty, 2 slash bonus splint: 1 pierce bonus, 2 blunt bonus plate: 3 slash bonus f.plate: 3 pierce bonus, 4 slash bonus Ratios and Tendency fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jun 28, 2017 |
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Jun 28, 2017 00:02
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Entropy238 posted:Foebane's my favourite single handed weapon. Extra damage against particularly difficult enemies, Larloch's minor drain on hit (which increases your max health) and the saving throw bonus to cap it off. It's also available very early in ToB. SoA. You can complete the first floor of Watcher's Keep fairly early but the statue fight might be a little much.
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Jun 28, 2017 00:10
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Suspicious posted:SoA. You can complete the first floor of Watcher's Keep fairly early but the statue fight might be a little much. That's only the generic +3 version. You can get the cool +4 scimitar from the first floor still, chance to deal extra lightning damage. It glows and leaves electrocuted/charred jittery corpses behind. Lightning was always my favorite on hit effect, better visual than fire/cold and sharper sound effect. Unrelated, any idea why they didnt reuse IWD spell effects for fire/acid etc on hit in BG2? They look so much better.
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Jun 28, 2017 01:59
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Lambs posted:That's only the generic +3 version. You can get a fantastic mace right out of the gate in BG1 (EE only) and a decent anti-undead mace in BG2 pretty early, so it's not a bad 2 pips to spend.
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Jun 28, 2017 02:02
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Lambs posted:That's only the generic +3 version. I think the G3 tweak pack used to have a "use Icewind Dale spell effects" option, but no idea if it works with EE
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Jun 28, 2017 02:07
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Halberds are one of my weapons of choice throughout BG2 and Throne. There's no shortage of good ones and you can keep getting better ones at a smooth pace.
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Jun 28, 2017 02:07
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Dillbag posted:I think the G3 tweak pack used to have a "use Icewind Dale spell effects" option, but no idea if it works with EE I checked and it's only for the casting animation, not the impact effects.
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Jun 28, 2017 02:25
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Insurrectionist posted:Yeah even with EE editions there are some glaring holes. Like Clubs has nothing between early SoA and late ToB. Bows basically just get +3 stuff and then at the end of ToB, a +5 bow with tiny boosts for each class (though at least Shortbows get Gesen). Katanas famously top out with a super strong CF in early/mid-SoA and then gets basically nothing from there. Even its ToB super-weapon would look more at home in SoA. I tend to only ever take 2 pips in a bunch of different weapons, you don't really get all that much from going to 5 and the versatility is well worth it imo. Then you never get accidently locked into something with no upgrades for a really long time either.
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Jun 28, 2017 02:32
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Walrus Pete posted:Morningstars get a pass because they share the proficiency slot with flails, IIRC. And maces at least have one really useful specialty weapon It requires a gimmicky build but You're wrong about clubs
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Jun 28, 2017 03:08
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Washout posted:I tend to only ever take 2 pips in a bunch of different weapons, you don't really get all that much from going to 5 and the versatility is well worth it imo. Then you never get accidently locked into something with no upgrades for a really long time either. EE un-unerfed grandmastery. It's worth getting now.
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Jun 28, 2017 05:03
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Alright. Started up a game of BG II EE. I've played BG II before but my last playthrough was almost a decade ago so a few questions. 1) Am I right in remembering that Gauntlets of Ogre Strength are available fairly early? Because I went with an Inquisitor with 18/38 strength because the roll was otherwise amazing (91 total) and the difference between 18/38 and 18/00 is incredibly significant. 2) I plan on using Mazzy. Will I need gauntlets of <x> strength for her to fix her 15 strength or is she just better being a full time bow lady? If she's better off being a bow lady, does that mean I will need another frontliner? If I need another set of gauntlets can one be found in a relatively friendly timeframe?
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Jun 28, 2017 10:33
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ChrisBTY posted:Alright. Started up a game of BG II EE. I've played BG II before but my last playthrough was almost a decade ago so a few questions. You can buy a belt from the adventurer's mart in the area outside of the first dungeon for a relatively hefty amount of gold that will increase a char's strength to 19. The Gauntlets of strength can be gotten from killing one of the enemies in the planar sphere quest, though that might be one you want to leave till the middle of chapter 2/3 as it's kind of difficult and has a "point of no return". Other strength increasing equipment can be found along the main quest after another point of no return (at least for a while). Assuming your inquisitor has a good reputation you should have access to the Bhaalspawn power "Draw Upon Holy Might", which will give you a big STR/DEX/CON boost. For Mazzy you'll pick up enough STR equipment in the game such that she makes a good front line fighter. IIRC she also has an innate strength boosting ability as well. Bows tend to drop off in usefulness half way through SoA.
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Jun 28, 2017 10:48
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So I am playing through all 4 "games" and just beat Siege of Dragonspear for the first time. When it came out last year I got pretty far in then messed up my save with teleporting cheat which is my own fault. I think it was pretty good. Much better than Beamdogs other original content. I think it works pretty well as a bridge between 1 and 2 and gives some context to that time between games. I'm playing as a cavalier which I'm enjoying a lot. All the paladin kits seem pretty good. I normally always play as casters of some kind and usually play solo too. So I'm forcing myself to use a party. I'm going to try to use characters I don't normally use. Like Mazzy and Haer Dalis. It probably took me longer to beat Siege than it did BG1 since I have most of that game memorized and once I hit the xp cap there wasn't much region to do side quests I've seen before.
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Jun 28, 2017 11:13
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GorfZaplen posted:What's wrong with PoE in your opinion? So clearly it's ripping off BG2, right, but in Baldur's Gate 2, a lot of the character moments were about other people rather than yourself. Like let's take the starting dungeon as a great example. You are just kind of being victimised by Jon Irenicus who clearly has some kind of mad scheme. You being in a cage is about him, and not you. Imoen's busting you out but really that's a lot about her rather than you, again, and theoretically at least the entire second act is about her. Khalid is dead which is a shock for Jaheira. Yoshimo joins up with you but is working towards his own goal. The genie's game about selfishness or selflessness sets the theme up even more, as do all of the hosed up little suicidal things in a jar that tried to profit off the back of Irenicus. The stage is set for a game with a more even balance of power between yourself and the other characters, and even though that changes later on (way too far in ToB, which is part of the reason that was Bad), that change is thematic, and the themes of selflessness vs selfishness continue into Hell itself. Sometimes your party is a bit handicapped by the conflicting aims and personalities going on inside it, or you can't get quite the composition you wanted, but that's alright, because any party can complete the game so long as you have at least one arcane caster, priest, fighter, and thief in your team of six (and even the thief is a little optional), and all the characters have their own take on things, which is great. At the start of PoE some random people join you for five minutes so you can do a sidequest and walk through a quite bad dungeon which would have been slightly too difficult for 1 person (and they die at the end just to reinforce how amazingly special you are and how kind of pointless they were). You then start being a ~special guy with special ghost-o-vision~ that is entirely about you. You then get a castle within about 3 hours despite being Some Guy. None of the NPCs are very memorable. Probably the single worst design decision of PoE though was the (actively encouraged) ability to literally buy yourself a party of your choosing with no personality. That is a disaster in a 'proper' CRPG. The writing is also really undergrad-y which I just don't personally like, the combat is floaty and a bit obtuse, encounter design is bad, and you never get remotely invested in a world the game achingly wants you to think is cleverly designed, but that stuff would have been more forgivable if there were characters you had an interest in carrying on the story with. (Full disclosure, I have given up on PoE several times at about the point you go to a big tree)
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Jun 28, 2017 11:14
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Mazzy with a shortbow is quite the solid killer until mid-late ToB where the insane melee weapons just take over.
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Jun 28, 2017 11:26
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The PoE main character isn't a special snowflake. You meet several NPCs who have the same abilities throughout the game. The one who's truly unique is the villain. No one else can do what he does and he's up to something big. You have to find out what and why. The combat is not obtuse. It's thoroughly documented in the in-game cyclopedia and you can tell exactly what's happening by reading the combat log.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:04
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Suspicious posted:The PoE main character isn't a special snowflake. You meet several NPCs who have the same abilities throughout the game. The one who's truly unique is the villain. No one else can do what he does and he's up to something big. You have to find out what and why. The combat is bad though.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:06
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Well, of course it is. It's RTwP after all.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:09
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cheesetriangles posted:The combat is bad though. Compared to what?
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Jun 28, 2017 12:23
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bongwizzard posted:Compared to what? BG2 the game it's trying to be like. POE is lousy with the worst kind of 4e D&D inspired design. Bad stat system which is about no wrong choices, bad item system where everything is generic and nothing is remarkable it's like a modern mmo where everything is just +2 str who cares, tons of combat encounters but combat gives no xp. Every class has powers but none of them are really strong enough to feel exciting.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:40
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cheesetriangles posted:BG2 the game it's trying to be like. Uh when was the last time you actually played pillars, and did you actually play it an appreciable amount?
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Jun 28, 2017 12:44
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Entropy238 posted:Uh when was the last time you actually played pillars, and did you actually play it an appreciable amount? About a month ago. It was very boring and I stopped. Probably the worst of the CRPG revivals.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:47
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cheesetriangles posted:BG2 the game it's trying to be like. I can kinda agree at the lack of wacky equipment, but man, rarely am I out-groged.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:51
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Suspicious posted:The PoE main character isn't a special snowflake. You meet several NPCs who have the same abilities throughout the game. The one who's truly unique is the villain. No one else can do what he does and he's up to something big. You have to find out what and why. I could tell that Sorting Out The Villain was meant to be important but you barely interact with them and have no real idea what their motivation is even after they try to ruin the reputation of some animancers (who people already hate, so what the gently caress was that point in that?) after you meet them again in the sanitarium. If the pacing was a lot better, I wouldn't have minded that, but when the plot is going basically nowhere in a game with bad combat and weak characters, it's getting turned off. quote:The combat is not obtuse. It's thoroughly documented in the in-game cyclopedia and you can tell exactly what's happening by reading the combat log. It's bloated, it doesn't play smoothly, because it's either piss easy on the easy/normal settings or it becomes a game of juggling five minor debuffs every fight on harder settings (Divinity: OS also had this problem in a big way), and the encounter design is never very satisfying.
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Jun 28, 2017 12:54
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Comparing the combat system to an mmo is silly but there are indeed a lot of obtuse mechanics. Attack speed is nigh impossible to calculate, attribute bonuses stack in some cases and in others not and then there are the profusion of buffs, debuffs and status effects from spells and abilities which also stack inconsistently. It's not necessary to understand any of these things to complete the game on normal difficulty, but it begs the question why they weren't polished or accounting for limited time, trimmed down. The stronghold being foisted on the main character clumsily is a consequence of it's being a stretch goal. Pretty sure the devs have acknowledged that it could have been better integrated into the game. bongwizzard posted:I can kinda agree at the lack of wacky equipment, but man, rarely am I out-groged. This is an Infinity Engine thread after all E: jBrereton posted:I could tell that Sorting Out The Villain was meant to be important but you barely interact with them and have no real idea what their motivation is even after they try to ruin the reputation of some animancers (who people already hate, so what the gently caress was that point in that?) after you meet them again in the sanitarium. If the pacing was a lot better, I wouldn't have minded that, but when the plot is going basically nowhere in a game with bad combat and weak characters, it's getting turned off Yeah, I wish there were some more personality to Thaos. The other driving force in the game is supposed to be ridding the PC of their visions, since they lead to madness. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, they forgot the mantra "show, don't tell" as there are literally no negative repercussions to the player becoming a watcher. I get to talk to ghosts and see into the past. Neat! Why get rid of that? Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Jun 28, 2017 |
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