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I was always disappointed that monks didn't have a special dojo stronghold and just got a castle like fighters
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Jul 16, 2017 23:04
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ProfessorCirno posted:Monks are boring and worthless in BG1, and boring and less worthless but still not great in BG2, and then in ToB, they're still boring and not great. Thanks. This confirms my fear.
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Jul 16, 2017 23:12
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GorfZaplen posted:I was always disappointed that monks didn't have a special dojo stronghold and just got a castle like fighters Barbarians are in the same boat. You know, if anyone ever played a barbarian.
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Jul 16, 2017 23:17
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Wizards insisted they be put in because they were basic classes for 3rd Edition. At least Sorcerer still getting the Planar Sphere makes sense.
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Jul 16, 2017 23:30
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I would not be surprised if sorcerers, barbarians, and monks were added waaay later then a lot of other stuff. They were probably put into the game after the strongholds had been designed. After all, they're the 3e classes in the 2e game, and they don't quite fit, because well, duh. If it's any consolation, the actual 3e monk is absolutely terrible, which is why the Baldur's Gate monk is absolutely terrible, becaues it's design is based off the AD&D 1e monk...which was absolutely terrible. Tabletop games are very bad at punchmen.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:13
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Did Shaman come with the EE because I don't remember it in the original. Also they have no stronghold, which really discourages me from using them. Also they sound terrible, which is a shame because a class that poops out summons is very up my alley.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:16
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ChrisBTY posted:Did Shaman come with the EE because I don't remember it in the original. Yes, shaman is from EE. So is the blackguard. BG2 added the monk, barbarian, sorcerer, and kits. Throne added the wild mage.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:19
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ProfessorCirno posted:I would not be surprised if sorcerers, barbarians, and monks were added waaay later then a lot of other stuff. They were probably put into the game after the strongholds had been designed. After all, they're the 3e classes in the 2e game, and they don't quite fit, because well, duh. Yeah, they were clearly very much an afterthought. (The barbarian and the berserker being almost but not quite completely identical is the most blatant evidence I can think of in support of this.)
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Jul 17, 2017 00:19
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Smashing Link posted:Thanks. This confirms my fear. I played through the trilogy as a monk before, it's not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. You can just run around and punch people in the face and it's fine. Just don't expect to beat it with max difficulty and scs. It's basically the same as playing single class fighter or something of that ilk. Like a kensai in BG1 is kind of crap but about the same as monk. docbeard posted:Yeah, they were clearly very much an afterthought. (The barbarian and the berserker being almost but not quite completely identical is the most blatant evidence I can think of in support of this.) There was a 2e spellcasting system using points per level instead of X number of casts that came out near the end of 2E's life. So kind of like a sorc. But in some ways better since you could choose across your entire range of spells. You just converted all the levels (like a level 5 spell slot was 5 points) and then if you cast a level 3 spell it cost 3 points etc. It was totally not vancian at all. Washout fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jul 17, 2017 |
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Jul 17, 2017 00:46
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Am I in the minority of players who doesn't use AI scripting at all in these games? Every time I tried to turn on AI my part would do something stupid and I would rather be the idiot mastermind than allowing my thief to start attacking an enemy from across the map.
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Jul 17, 2017 15:29
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Vargatron posted:Am I in the minority of players who doesn't use AI scripting at all in these games? Every time I tried to turn on AI my part would do something stupid and I would rather be the idiot mastermind than allowing my thief to start attacking an enemy from across the map. The first thing I do when I get an NPC is set the script to NONE, except the Thief who gets Thief Controlled. And I always get annoyed when I'm swapping around NPCs and I forget to do it, causing my spellcasters to waste high level spells against trash mobs.
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Jul 17, 2017 15:34
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I think I always set my spellcasters to basic ranged attack (no spells) and they would just sling or crossbow stuff until I told them to cast a spell. I think I did that with everything because lol ranged stuff in the BG series.
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Jul 17, 2017 16:17
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Vargatron posted:Am I in the minority of players who doesn't use AI scripting at all in these games? Every time I tried to turn on AI my part would do something stupid and I would rather be the idiot mastermind than allowing my thief to start attacking an enemy from across the map. Oh Gods no. I didn't even remember the game having party AI. Upon finding out I disabled it immediately. Not that I mind the AI prebuffing my mages or slinging out heals on their own. But all the other stuff.
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Jul 17, 2017 16:20
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the BG2EE AI was pretty good if you only wanted basic stuff like mage stoneskin and fighters not picking their nose after every kill and thief traps I tried making an IWDEE bard party and the AI didn't work great at all. Singing kinda sorta sometimes worked then would stop working for no reason. So then I just rerolled without a bard  meanwhile I've been playing FF12 HD and the gambit system really has me spoiled, i'm imagining what BG2 would be like if you could set a bunch of conditional "if CHARNAME: hp < 50% -> heal" and it sounds pretty rad tbh
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Jul 17, 2017 16:32
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It's pretty easy to just tap A in BG to turn off AI when you don't want your dudes running wild. I think the AI's good for most fights.
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Jul 17, 2017 16:51
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I prefer having auto-attack on, but nothing else in terms of AI. Works out fine, the only downside is that when your ranged characters run out of ammo, they immediately charge the enemy with their fists up like idiots.
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Jul 17, 2017 16:53
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Oh no, Dynaheir has been charmed! I better start immediately swinging my two handed sword at her! -Minsc made even dumber when controlled by the AI
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Jul 17, 2017 18:02
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Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:the BG2EE AI was pretty good if you only wanted basic stuff like mage stoneskin and fighters not picking their nose after every kill and thief traps I imagine that if you knew LUA well enough you could create your own custom scripts for AI.
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Jul 17, 2017 18:10
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IIRC the EE AI are good and worth using. The basic ones auto attack in a sensible way and thats about it. They got rid of the annoying poo poo like ranged party members charging into melee if they run out of ammo, breaking stealth/sanctuary/invis etc to attack, cancelling actions if a target dies/leaves visibility, etc. Also have some good options like thieves auto-stealthing or checking for traps outside of battle. It's possible I'm thinking of some community scripts and not the EE ones, I just remember the last few play throughs I did actually had good party AI scripts that were worth using, when I'd always immediately turned party AI off in the past.
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Jul 18, 2017 11:05
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bike tory posted:IIRC the EE AI are good and worth using. The basic ones auto attack in a sensible way and thats about it. They got rid of the annoying poo poo like ranged party members charging into melee if they run out of ammo, breaking stealth/sanctuary/invis etc to attack, cancelling actions if a target dies/leaves visibility, etc. Also have some good options like thieves auto-stealthing or checking for traps outside of battle. The current EE's actually have a fairly customizable AI.  further options include auto detecting traps, hiding, turning undead and singing. This lets you setup individual characters to act more or less how you want too. Sure you don't get the conditional complexity of Dragon Age but its good enough to be superior to most general use mod AI scripts at this point.
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Jul 18, 2017 15:15
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I had a revelation a few nights ago while playing BG: I was a dumb kid. I grew up playing Fallout 1 and 2 and Diablo. When I bought BG in the early 2000s I was expecting a game that played like Diablo. I don't think I ever got out of Candlekeep because I got annoyed fighting rats as a mage and dying. I could only cast a spell a few times and then I had to rest at an inn, this is bullshit! Why can't I cut these rats with my dagger, this is bullshit! I thought Baldur's Gate was a janky knock off of Diablo and wrote it off as such. gently caress I was dumb! I didn't notice all the similarities it had with the Fallout games. I feel like such a fool. Anyway, I've been exploring Baldur's Gate and doing quests around the city and it's great. Much better than most big cities in video games, I'm still digging the hell out of this game! Now off to infiltrate the Iron Throne! 
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Jul 19, 2017 02:28
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Living vicariously through someone experiencing the BG series for the first time is always hoot for us old geezers who have played the game a dozen times. Looking forward to reading about your BG2 experiences!
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Jul 19, 2017 04:20
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If I use the Strength tome to go from 17 to 18 Strength after dual-classing from a Fighter to a Mage, will I still get exceptional Strength (18/00), or will I just get regular 18 Strength?
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Jul 19, 2017 05:09
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In the BG games, just regular 18 strength. The 18 strength percentile is only rolled at character creation, and it's only kept in the character files if you created them with 18 strength. A ranger with 17 strength would have regular 18 strength after using the tome of strength.
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Jul 19, 2017 05:23
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Ok, progressing through Baldur's Gate 1. Decide to do Durlag's Tower and fight Aeg'Letec Was there any point to struggling through that bullshit battle other than the XP I got for killing him? There was no loot and I didn't even get anything for finishing the quest line. ChrisBTY fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 06:13
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ChrisBTY posted:Ok, progressing through Baldur's Gate 1. Decide to do Durlag's Tower and fight [/spoiler]Aeg'Letec[spoiler] Really, Durlag's Tower is just a way to get a lot of XP and some shiny loot from the tower itself. Olive Branch fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 06:31
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Wildtortilla posted:I had a revelation a few nights ago while playing BG: I was a dumb kid. I grew up playing Fallout 1 and 2 and Diablo. When I bought BG in the early 2000s I was expecting a game that played like Diablo. I don't think I ever got out of Candlekeep because I got annoyed fighting rats as a mage and dying. I could only cast a spell a few times and then I had to rest at an inn, this is bullshit! Why can't I cut these rats with my dagger, this is bullshit! I thought Baldur's Gate was a janky knock off of Diablo and wrote it off as such. gently caress I was dumb! I didn't notice all the similarities it had with the Fallout games. I feel like such a fool. If it's any consolation, I too was complete crap at the game, and couldn't understand how guards kept spotting me stealing. In my case though, I really couldn't get beyond candlekeep (and the first wilderness, I think?) because I only had the demo. There wasn't money for games so I made do with what I had. Hence I spent weeks perfecting the character build that could genocide all of Candlekeep, and that is why I am now a grog posting in the IE thread.
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Jul 19, 2017 09:54
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Fruits of the sea posted:If it's any consolation, I too was complete crap at the game, and couldn't understand how guards kept spotting me stealing. In my case though, I really couldn't get beyond candlekeep (and the first wilderness, I think?) because I only had the demo. There wasn't money for games so I made do with what I had. Hence I spent weeks perfecting the character build that could genocide all of Candlekeep, and that is why I am now a grog posting in the IE thread. There wasn't money for games at my house either. I was lucky to get something every six months. I find BG + TOTSC at a slightly damaged items but still good grocery store for $3. (I bought Deus Ex that day with BG and thought it was a poorly made FPS... I was dumb.). I wish I had realized what I bought instead of thinking if was a poorly made Diablo ripoff. I could be an old grog now too. 
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Jul 19, 2017 11:22
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Furthest I ever got when I was like 11/12 was Cloakwood - found the game to be very overwhelming with all of the open areas. I was able to complete BG2 around the same age though. Had no idea about thac0 or proficiencies or anything when I did it. Didn't realise that ToB actually existed till I was much older.
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Jul 19, 2017 11:41
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Entropy238 posted:Furthest I ever got when I was like 11/12 was Cloakwood - found the game to be very overwhelming with all of the open areas. I was more like 9/10, but same. I got to Baldur's Gate and totally lost the thread of the story, and had no idea what any of the rules were or even what the XdY notation meant. I was able to and did repeatedly finish BG2 at the same age though.
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Jul 19, 2017 11:51
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Originally bought both games at some point in the 5th grade or right after, got to the steps of the Friendly Arm Inn in 1, quit in 2 after it was clear I was not going to rescue Imoen for a long time. One year later I beat Knights of the Old Republic, if I had come back to them then I think I would have had the patience to figure out what the gently caress like I did with Morrowind.
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Jul 19, 2017 11:54
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Baldur's Gate came out when I was in my 20s  I remember slogging my way through eleventy billion identical dungeons in Bard's Tale II and never really getting anywhere when I was a kid, though.
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Jul 19, 2017 11:57
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I'm almost 31 and I feel like an older gamer, even among my similarly-aged, gamer friends.
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Jul 19, 2017 12:08
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ChrisBTY posted:Ok, progressing through Baldur's Gate 1. Decide to do Durlag's Tower and fight Aeg'Letec Durlag's Tower is okay, but the other fight you're talking about is dumb and bullshit, but you can game the system to make it work. Buy Potions of Shimmering Eyes and Arrows of Dispelling to handle one of the fight mechanics that's really dumb.
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Jul 19, 2017 13:28
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I'm probably younger than a lot of the people itt, but no-one I know IRL likes playing dead gay infinity engines games so I feel old.
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Jul 19, 2017 13:45
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The games themselves are fun but man, some of the mechanics really haven't aged very well. There are two things I specifically wished the EE could have done to match modern-day RPGs: 1) Have an option to auto-pause when an ENEMY spell is cast, not just my own. 2) Expand a tooltip showing what effects/buffs/debuffs are active on a character or enemy, with durations on party-cast spells and potions visible to be aware when they'd run out (enemy-cast spells could have their durations not recorded). Having to scroll up through the message board, pay close attention to spells cast, memorize visual effects from cast spells, and memorize small little icons on my portraits (or have to go into the record screen to check them) is awful. Olive Branch fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 16:49
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Hi thread! I've played through BG2 more times than I can count, but only twice through BG1. I picked up a Kindle Fire 8 on Prime Day with the express purpose of using it to play through the series again, and decided to challenge myself to a (mostly) solo run (I'm going to try to do a Bhaalspawn-only run). I'm currently going through the first few levels of BG1 with my Sorcerer PC and Imoen and while I'm managing to get by, it's really kind of a slog. Are there any particular tricks / route options that people are aware of that might help to speed through the first levels, or should I just grin and bear my wear through Nashkel Mines with a combination of enemy kiting and the Spook spell?
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Jul 20, 2017 18:09
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Montalvo posted:Hi thread! I've played through BG2 more times than I can count, but only twice through BG1. I picked up a Kindle Fire 8 on Prime Day with the express purpose of using it to play through the series again, and decided to challenge myself to a (mostly) solo run (I'm going to try to do a Bhaalspawn-only run). My first suggestion is that you spelt Sleep wrong. (Never don't cast Sleep)
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Jul 20, 2017 18:12
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Dillbag posted:My first suggestion is that you spelt Sleep wrong. He's a sorcerer and Sleep stops being useful and there's no way to switch spells in game. Spook actually remains useful through BG2. One option if you just want a couple extra levels is to get a potion or two of mirrored eyes and go basilisk hunting, if you're immune to their stone vision they're really easy to kill and give plenty of XP
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Jul 20, 2017 18:17
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Skwirl posted:He's a sorcerer and Sleep stops being useful and there's no way to switch spells in game. Spook actually remains useful through BG2. Yeah, I'm picking spells that are going to remain useful throughout the trilogy (or at least most of it). I'll try the potion of mirrored eyes idea, thanks!
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Jul 20, 2017 18:20
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