|
Ok, finally finished by Bounty Hunter BG->ToB run. Man, I know some of you find it easy but I don't know how I would have managed some of those fights without Trap cheese. And despite almost getting burned out on ToB I STILL want to do another BG II run for some stupid reason. So I figure I'll start a game, finally get burned out for good and not touch the game for the rest of my natural life. This is the party I'm planning on. Keldorn Jaheira Haer'Dalis Aerie Jan ??? I have some misgivings about this party however. - Having all my mages be hybrid classes makes me worry about my spell potency in Chapter 2. Since I'm using Keldorn, getting Carosymr is a priority and I question this party's ability to beat Firkraag that early. - Seems like there are 3 characters in this party who want strength up gear. I think I have to make Keldorn make do with his 17 since Jaheira NEEDS higher strength and I think Haer'Dalis does too. Also Haer'Dalis is the only NPC that can benefit from Crom Faeyr. - I kinda want the MC to be an Archer. Is this group sturdy enough to not have my MC be a strict frontliner? Is there any point to any ranged weapon aside from the Tuigan Bow?
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 18:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 30, 2024 12:05 |
|
|
The Archer is a pretty strong kit, and you can cadge a nice bow from D'Arnise Hold.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 18:30
|
|
|
Jaheira's the best tank in the game and Haer'dalis can pitch in too. The problem with your party is as you mentioned. You have 3 mages who will be fighting for scrolls, and none of them are single class so you won't get to use high level spells for a very long time. The game is still very beatable with that lineup but you won't be able to just throw a horrid wilting or two to make your problems disappear.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 18:33
|
|
|
And the suck thing is given the run I really don't have much choice in the matter ie: mages. I wanted to put Haer'Dalis and Aerie in the same party since I've never used Haer'Dalis and I figure I might as well see their little romance play out. And I need my trap blankey and Jan is the only one who can do it since Keldorn will just murder Hexxat eventually (and also: pfffft Hexxat). And Imoen/Nalia can't trap for poo poo and never will. The only other option is to do it myself and I just finished a Thief run.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 18:54
|
|
|
ChrisBTY posted:And the suck thing is given the run I really don't have much choice in the matter ie: mages. You'll be fine, go ahead and do an Archer if you want, you really don't need a frontliner MC with that party since it already has 3 potential tanks. if you have the patience to get Aerie up to level 12 in Mage before going after Carosymr try and see if the Doom/Chromatic Orb Minor Sequencer trick one shots Firkaag. I wouldn't get Crom Faeyr, since you need to use 2 strength enhancing items to make it, so I would stick with those and then stock up on strength potions for the big fights. I also think you're putting to much emphasis on rushing for Carsomyr, don't get me wrong, it's an amazing sword, but Keldorn's in built ability to dispel magic is in some ways more useful since he doesn't need to close to people to use it and it works on multiple targets at once, he'll be fine with one of the other great two-handed swords you can get early.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 19:41
|
|
|
If you're doing cheesy stuff like Doom/Chromatic Orb sequencers you might as well just get the additional Mekrath's Tower Wand of Cloudkill on top of the freebee from the starting dungeon and kill Firkraag from offscreen. 'Least that costs you gold because you'll probably want to recharge them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 19:47
|
|
|
Doesn't that not work in EE? Firkraag just heals himself if you cloudkill him too low doesn't he?
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 21:25
|
|
|
Polymorph and savescum.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2017 21:37
|
|
|
jBrereton posted:If you're doing cheesy stuff like Doom/Chromatic Orb sequencers you might as well just get the additional Mekrath's Tower Wand of Cloudkill on top of the freebee from the starting dungeon and kill Firkraag from offscreen. 'Least that costs you gold because you'll probably want to recharge them. I don't think it works that often, even with Doom Firkaag gets a +4 bonus against the death effect and I think Firkaag has decent saves to begin with. I just think it's funny on the rare occasions it works.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 02:27
|
|
|
An Invoker casting Chromatic Orb after Greater Malison and Doom would require Firkraag to save at -2. Still not guaranteed, but far more likely.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 14:09
|
|
|
Not sure if my math is completely right but: – Firkraag's save vs Spell = 6 – Chromatic Orb's Save Penalty = +6 – Greater Malison + Doom Reduction = 6 20 - 14 - 6 + 6 = 6 So, a non-specialised mage throwing a Chromatic Orb at him has a 30% chance of killing him, 40% if an invoker because of the -2 bonus
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 14:19
|
|
|
I'm so confused, why does Chromatic Orb kill him?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 14:29
|
|
|
AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:I'm so confused, why does Chromatic Orb kill him? At level 12 and above Chromatic Orb becomes an instant death spell, though has a harsh saving throw penalty (+6).
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 14:36
|
|
|
Entropy238 posted:At level 12 and above Chromatic Orb becomes an instant death spell, though has a harsh saving throw penalty (+6).
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 15:05
|
|
|
I think that's actually a bonus to the saving throw.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 15:38
|
|
|
Yes, the target gets a bonus of 6 to its saving throw, which makes it very unlikely to succeed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 16:27
|
|
|
I meant "penalty" as in a penalty for the player for using it. Stupid 2nd edition.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 17:20
|
|
|
Well there's no huge rush to Carosymr. Just so long as I get it in Chapter 2 since getting it for the last 10% of the game or so seems pointless. Unless I'm doing ToB and I'm not thinking that far ahead yet. So, highlights of the adventure thus far: - Went to the first level of watcher's keep super early in hopes of getting Useno's Blade for Jaheira. Got the bad encounter roll so I had to put up with the vampiric mists, which are utter, utter bastards at that level. I'm amazed I was able to beat the statues, mainly because I got lucky on Yoshimo's (I don't have Haer'Dalis or Keldorn yet for reasons) trap rolls. Then I find out that druids can't use Wakizashi's/Ninja-To's despite being able to gain proficiencies in them. So Jaheira's stuck with a non-enchanted Scimitar until I can finish my to-do list and actually go get Belm. - Need to do Neera's quests so I can use Jan to rob the Red Wizard shopkeepers blind. Which means I'll want to get the bear which means I'm going to have to have Rashaad in my party for a bit. - When it came time to decide what melee weapon my Archer MC should be proficient in, I didn't know that A: Jaheira can't use Wakizashi's/Ninja-Tos and B: Which weapons Haer'Dalis is proficient in. I went with Katanas because I knew that I could get Celestial Fury pretty early and by the time it starts to become obsolete I'll have pips in other melee weapons. And also I knew that Haer'Dalis certainly isn't proficient in them. So I get Celestial Fury and I wonder if I can find a Katana I can dual wield with. I remember Katanas being my main thing in my Kensai/Thief run so I assumed there was at least one more decent Katana. So I find Dak'Kon's Zerth blade. I read the description and I wonder 'who can actually benefit from this?' Only fighter/Mages and.....ummm.... poo poo. On the plus side: I forgot how early you can get the Tuigan bow. So my Archer is currently a murder blender. And Yoshimo is kind of a fun character to keep around. Shame about what happens And I still hate Yan's character quest to hell and back. I mean you're supposed to, but still. So in short: The run has been kind of a glorious mess so far but I've managed everything well enough (except those effing Vampiric Mists strangely enough). I'm holding off on getting Haer'Dalis until I'm done with Neera's poo poo so I don't have 4 arcane casters in my party at once and I'm holding off on Keldorn so I can swap in Rashaad and Valygar for their respective quests. And also Cernd for the 5 minutes he's useful.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2017 22:42
|
|
|
ChrisBTY posted:And the suck thing is given the run I really don't have much choice in the matter ie: mages. Jan is the most powerful character in the game and can solo it by himself. If you need higher level spells kick the people you can rehire and do the scroll trick to level up one of the mages. Use EE keeper to fix hosed up proficiencies. Washout fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Aug 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 01:41
|
|
|
Debatable... Jan is pretty good though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 01:55
|
|
|
His Thac0 is dogshit without tensers and he can get seven apr max with dual wielding + end game gauntlets, three with any other weapon style. If you were talking about vanilla npcs then Edwin would probably beat him, but he's def up there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 02:22
|
|
|
Don't need thAC0 when you're running Mislead forever. Keldorn would mess him up though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 02:31
|
|
|
Washout posted:Jan is the most powerful character in the game and can solo it by himself. If you need higher level spells kick the people you can rehire and do the scroll trick to level up one of the mages. Use EE keeper to fix hosed up proficiencies. I can not comprehend how characters can solo this game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 03:22
|
|
|
ChrisBTY posted:I can not comprehend how characters can solo this game. Any class can solo the game, some are easier than others.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 05:16
|
|
|
Skwirl posted:Any class can solo the game, some are easier than others. I think he meant how can an NPC solo the game, and I think the other guy meant Jan hypothetically could solo the game if he were the main character, and everyone is dense a.f., but it's ok, I still love you all. vvv ok, i'm the dense one Dillbag fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Aug 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 05:20
|
|
|
No, I mean I struggle to beat this game with 6 characters, much less one. I'll admit that I don't always remember all of my options, all I know is that I had two of the biggest murderblenders in the game, Dorn and Korgan double greater whirlwinding Melissan with breach backup from 2 wizards and she was STILL a pain to take down. Dillbag posted:I think he meant how can an NPC solo the game, and I think the other guy meant Jan hypothetically could solo the game if he were the main character, and everyone is dense a.f., but it's ok, I still love you all. Nah, I was vague. ChrisBTY fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Aug 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 05:29
|
|
|
ChrisBTY posted:I can not comprehend how characters can solo this game. I did elf F/M/T through the trilogy but I had to take off the xp cap and remove the SCS call allies thingy. With what I learned I could easily take a Gnome Thief/Illusionist through now. Previously I did a solo of TOB only with a monk. Other than that I do gimmick parties with party fighting or leaving disabled. ChrisBTY posted:No, I mean I struggle to beat this game with 6 characters, much less one. Well you use the appropriate buffs and weapons. When I did the solo run through I had two in dual wielding and then never more than 2 pips in any other proficiency so I had all the OP weapons and could pick and choose each fight. And then you cheese the poo poo out of it via forcing them to activate spells and then running away and letting them expire before wading back in etc. or you can savescum it until the boss fails a save or die and just gets murdered early in the fight. You can totally do it head on too though but it probably takes a lot more reloads. Oh and finally consumables at totally a thing, you can take full advantage with magic immune potions and all that stuff that really can make you invincible. The most powerful encounter in the game would be Kangaxx but you can just read a scroll and then wander in there and bonk him on the head. Washout fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Aug 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 06:23
|
|
|
Do the majority of the people here play with or without SCS? I honestly can't play the game without it anymore – SCS on core rules is the perfect "tough but fair" difficulty for someone that knows the systems well. Hard enough that if you drop the ball you're definitely going to get punished for it but everything is surmountable with good tactics, without making classes that don't have absolute protection like Stoneskin, Iron Skins, PFMW very weak later on in the game like Insane does or bullshit 200+ damage Horrid Wiltings. Blends in perfectly with the vanilla game without any of the rom-hackey tactics stuff. My main criticism of it is that it makes mages even more necessary than they were in vanilla because they're the only class that can block mass dispels that the AI will throw at you with Spell Immunity: Abjuration. I've never actually played with it but IIRC spell revisions separates spell immunity in to it's constituent components e.g. SI:A becomes dispelling screen, and SI: Enchantment becomes Mindblank, most of which can be cast on other party members which gives them a big buff. I'll probably try and run Spell Revisions the next time I do a full playthrough of the series but that's a while off.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 11:15
|
|
|
The problem with SCS is every fight is basically a boss fight that takes several minutes to beat. It gets tedious fast, to me anyway.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 15:45
|
|
|
I prefer a weird mix of SCS and a good dose EEkeeper related cheating to tune the balance to my liking. However, since SoD came out I cannot for the life of me get SCS to install correctly so I've sort of given up on it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 18:50
|
|
|
I have similar feelings about SCS as Entropy. It's good because it makes the game challenging and forces you to actually play around with all the options you're given, but it's also bad because it highlights just how imbalanced the classes are. Arcane casters are almost a necessity if you don't want to hate yourself.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2017 21:06
|
|
|
Ok, I feel like this question has come up before but... Is it true that timer based event triggers have both a game-time and real-time component? Because I decided to briefly switch Jan out for Nalia to trigger her "Nalia is abducted' event. Guides say it takes 7-10 days. I've waited two weeks, walked around Athkatla a bunch, and no funeral. Starting to think it isn't worth it (It isn't, but she lays a hell of a guilt trip on you).
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 07:39
|
|
|
I rebought the games from GOG since they were on sale and my cd's are somewhere in my basement. Just restarting with Tutu, SCS and the tweakpack. Is Unfinished Business any good or bad fanfiction like every single quest or NPC mod I've tried? I still haven't decided on a class for the PC. I kinda wanna steer clear of the usual overpowered ones but at the same time don't want to play a gimp since SCS can be a pain. Maybe a gnome thief / illusionist? Or a edited half elven thief / wild mage?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:08
|
|
|
Dyna Soar posted:I rebought the games from GOG since they were on sale and my cd's are somewhere in my basement. Just restarting with Tutu, SCS and the tweakpack. Is Unfinished Business any good or bad fanfiction like every single quest or NPC mod I've tried? Unfinished Business is fine, it's stuff that was cut from the game so the writing is mostly from Bioware to begin with.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:24
|
|
|
Dyna Soar posted:I rebought the games from GOG since they were on sale and my cd's are somewhere in my basement. Just restarting with Tutu, SCS and the tweakpack. Is Unfinished Business any good or bad fanfiction like every single quest or NPC mod I've tried? I dunno if you consider it one of the usual ones or not, but Gnome thief / illusionist is definitely one of the most powerful classes in the game, and that illegal thief / wild mage combo would be even moreso.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:27
|
|
|
Yeah, I said the usual overpowered ones meaning like, kensai mage and stuff. I wasn't probably going to abuse the wild mage spells, I just wanna see all the crazy stuff, hah. Last time I played SCS it could be such a pain in the rear end that at least one OP class in the party was a huge time saver. But maybe I'll start with a Blade or something and re-learn all the tricks to beat the game somewhat fairly. Should I install UB before or after SCS? Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Aug 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:35
|
|
|
I know I'm in the vast minority but I cannot stand Minsc and I'm doing whatever I can to get him out of my party ASAP in BG2.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:55
|
|
|
Vargatron posted:I know I'm in the vast minority but I cannot stand Minsc and I'm doing whatever I can to get him out of my party ASAP in BG2. I played both games when they came out and loved Minsc in BG1, hated him in BG2.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 18:59
|
|
|
Wild Mage isn't quite as powerful in EE, and doesn't make for a great multi-class character if you're EE-Keepering it. Your levels are added to your Wild Surge roll so the max on the surge table a multi-class mage would get is +20, whereas you can get +31 if you're a pure mage. Multi-classing will exacerbate the randomness of surges. The total you can push your rolls on a WM in EE because of new stacking rules is [Level] + 25 (Greater Chaos Shield) + 15 (Late ToB Item). If you want a super strong character go for a Sorcerer or a Fighter/Mage variant (Berserker>Mage or multi). The Sorcerer really starts to shine at 3,000,000 xp when you get improved alacrity, fighter/mage when you have a nice selection of level 5/6 spells.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 19:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 30, 2024 12:05 |
|
|
Dyna Soar posted:Yeah, I said the usual overpowered ones meaning like, kensai mage and stuff. I wasn't probably going to abuse the wild mage spells, I just wanna see all the crazy stuff, hah. Before, SCS should be installed as late as possible, whereas UB should be installed fairly early. Personally I prefer to install SCS after the tweakpack, but I don't think it matters either way in that particular case.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2017 19:34
|
|