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Cythereal posted:Though note that all of those tricks except Dorn will not change the romance's dialogue, so they'll consistently refer to you as a man or woman [in]appropriately. Yeah, I don't know if there's a mod that will change the pronouns for the built in romances, they askedalso for a setting to make the game not dare. I've never gotten too far in any of the romances, I know Anomen says "my lady"a bunch, and you can knock up Aerie, but I don't know how much gender comes up in the other romances.
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Dec 23, 2018 15:23
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You can get Aerie pregnant? lol
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Dec 23, 2018 15:27
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Phlegmish posted:You can get Aerie pregnant? lol Yes, because her romance is written as heterosexual and that trick just deletes a tag in the romance's coding to let both genders romance her. It doesn't change anything about the romance itself. At least when I was writing Valerie's BG2 romance, she specifically brings up the possibility of having kids with the female PC via magical assistance.
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Dec 23, 2018 15:31
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I actually had no idea even a heterosexual character could do that in vanilla. I'm now morbidly curious as to how it plays out.
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Dec 23, 2018 15:34
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Phlegmish posted:You can get Aerie pregnant? lol The baby becomes an inventory item you end up shoving into a bag of holding and forgeting about.
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Dec 23, 2018 15:35
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Skwirl posted:The tweak pack let's you remove race and gender requirements. In addition in the EE editions Dorn will romance any gender without mods, though you have to commit mass murder with him. Thank you, this is what I'm looking for. I didn't want the trouble of the girdle swapping. Cythereal posted:Though note that all of those tricks except Dorn will not change the romance's dialogue, so they'll consistently refer to you as a man or woman [in]appropriately. Yeah I didn't expect anyone to insert re-recorded dialogue or anything. Phlegmish posted:I actually had no idea even a heterosexual character could do that in vanilla. I'm now morbidly curious as to how it plays out. If you sleep with her in ToB she gets pregnant and after a long time she gives birth to a healthy smiling inventory item and nobody says anything about it ever again.
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Dec 23, 2018 16:35
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You can also do an epic swerve after the baby is born and kick them both out of the party through a romance dialog. IIRC she calls you an evil, evil bastard or something.
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Dec 23, 2018 19:10
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Dillbag posted:You can also do an epic swerve after the baby is born and kick them both out of the party through a romance dialog. IIRC she calls you an evil, evil bastard or something.  Like father like son, huh?The epilogue to that should have the PC hanging out with Cernd and Coran, fighting for the title of worst deadbeat dad of the saga.
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Dec 23, 2018 19:29
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Ulvino posted:
What about keldoran????
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Dec 23, 2018 19:47
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Oh right, Keldorn too, I guess I forgot him because I never really had him in my playthroughs back in the day and I have yet to reach BGII in my Ironman attempts. Between all these role model dads and Mass Effect 2 daddy issues, BioWare must have been a hell of a broken home.
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Dec 23, 2018 20:04
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I’m actually quite impressed by how far Beamdog has gone to make IE games playable on a tablet
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Dec 23, 2018 21:05
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Ah, the Child of Bhaal has awoken. It is time for more... character rolls. I made the 2019 Baldur's Gate Ironman thread so get out there.
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Dec 23, 2018 23:20
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So Siege of Dragonspear is 99 cents on Android right now. I've actually already bought the other games so I can't tell if the rest is on sale, but it's likely, NWN for Android was just 2 bucks a couple days ago.
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Dec 24, 2018 06:54
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I just finished up SoD last night and thought it was really good. I liked the pace and there was always at least a feeling of a sense of urgency. So as a question because I want to see all the dialogue, I saw there was a way (though buggy) to take off the gendered requirements of relationships but is there a way to make my (and other, I guess) characters polyamorous? I just hate missing out on dialog and development.
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Dec 24, 2018 17:31
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KKKLIP ART posted:I just finished up SoD last night and thought it was really good. I liked the pace and there was always at least a feeling of a sense of urgency. So as a question because I want to see all the dialogue, I saw there was a way (though buggy) to take off the gendered requirements of relationships but is there a way to make my (and other, I guess) characters polyamorous? I just hate missing out on dialog and development. There is for the Bioware bunch, but it's buggy. Check Gibberlings for the tweak pack, it's in there. It won't work with mod characters, though, if that's your thing.
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Dec 24, 2018 17:35
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KKKLIP ART posted:I just finished up SoD last night and thought it was really good. I liked the pace and there was always at least a feeling of a sense of urgency. So as a question because I want to see all the dialogue, I saw there was a way (though buggy) to take off the gendered requirements of relationships but is there a way to make my (and other, I guess) characters polyamorous? I just hate missing out on dialog and development. I'm glad someone else enjoyed this. I adored it and, with the exception of a few story beats, thought this was a fantastic adventure that made the BG series feel more complete. Also the best UI is packaged with this expansion. I'm playing a Baldur's Gate Trilogy modded game now, and using this UI as my UI for all three games.
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Dec 24, 2018 17:38
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Olive Branch posted:Ah, the Child of Bhaal has awoken. It is time for more... character rolls. I actually plan to take part in it this year for the first time in like 5 years!
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Dec 26, 2018 19:31
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KKKLIP ART posted:I just finished up SoD last night and thought it was really good. I liked the pace and there was always at least a feeling of a sense of urgency. So as a question because I want to see all the dialogue, I saw there was a way (though buggy) to take off the gendered requirements of relationships but is there a way to make my (and other, I guess) characters polyamorous? I just hate missing out on dialog and development. There is a multi-romance mod for vanilla characters. Alternatively, editing the scripts yourself is drat easy. This will allow you to make it work for mod characters as well. John McCain fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Dec 28, 2018 |
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Dec 28, 2018 05:42
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I'm going to say some words at this thread regarding the BG series and see if anyone agrees with me. Here goes: the BG series is the best job Bioware has ever done in regards to playing good or evil characters. In BG, you can play a totally evil creep, but you actually have to be smart about it. There's room to be a dick but, like Sarevok, you want to have the appearance of someone who means well. It's a lot more nuanced (even though it wasn't intended to be) than Bioware's later "save baby/eat baby" alignment system. I'm currently playing a female fighter/mage with a neutral evil alignment. Most of the quests are the same but I get to navigate other NPCs emotions by being a lying, manipulative, sneaky bastard who, in the end, will one day become a god. Those are my words.
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Dec 28, 2018 17:17
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In terms of the overall plot maybe, but completing quests in any way other than the good path or good dialogue almost always locks you out of the best rewards in the BG games. They got much better at that in later games.
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Dec 28, 2018 20:28
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bike tory posted:In terms of the overall plot maybe, but completing quests in any way other than the good path or good dialogue almost always locks you out of the best rewards in the BG games. They got much better at that in later games. Agree. IMO Torment is leagues ahead in terms of evil roleplaying, although still falls into the trap of making all the "good" options the best options.
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Dec 28, 2018 20:34
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Pillars of Eternity is much more subtle: sometimes doing what looks like the right thing to do screws up other things
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Dec 28, 2018 21:03
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The Forgotten Realms setting lends itself well to evil roleplay since adventurers amassing wealth and power just for the sake of it is an established part of the universe. Becoming Bhaal is a great motivation though. Mass Effect was weird in that you're always trying to save the universe but can also choose to be a space-racist. I remember Dragon Age having some pretty nuanced moral dilemmas. Becoming a blood mage is always kind of evil though and some of the moral quandaries boiled down to helping the nice people or the jerks.
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Dec 28, 2018 21:29
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the moral choices in the bg series were always pretty straightforward. the writing was typically more interesting however since it had to do more of the work.
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Dec 28, 2018 21:53
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gender illusionist posted:Pillars of Eternity is much more subtle: sometimes doing what looks like the right thing to do screws up other things Being subtle can just be cruel, though. I am fine with moral choices where it's clear that a generous act can have complications, such as "You can convince the arsehole king not to invade his neighbour, but that neighbour might smell weakness and invade itself", in which case the game might give "shades of grey" options. What I cannot stand is when you do something that seems innocuously kind with no apparent risk of repercussions and something horrible happens, like in the first Eye of the Beholder game where you find the bones of a halfling thief who died, take him to be resurrected and then he robs you with no warning; he's not even evil-aligned. I'm fairly sure he's the first potential companion in the game, which is just a dick move to me.
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Dec 29, 2018 00:04
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JustJeff88 posted:Being subtle can just be cruel, though. I am fine with moral choices where it's clear that a generous act can have complications, such as "You can convince the arsehole king not to invade his neighbour, but that neighbour might smell weakness and invade itself", in which case the game might give "shades of grey" options. What I cannot stand is when you do something that seems innocuously kind with no apparent risk of repercussions and something horrible happens, like in the first Eye of the Beholder game where you find the bones of a halfling thief who died, take him to be resurrected and then he robs you with no warning; he's not even evil-aligned. I'm fairly sure he's the first potential companion in the game, which is just a dick move to me. Even worse imo are games where whatever you pick is the wrong choice - you kill someone potentially infected with plague to prevent it spreading only to later be told he wasn't infected, or spare them only to later he told he went on to infect others. This kind of thing has become fairly common in the intro/tutorial sections of recent games as a reminder to the player that their actions have consequences, and I hate it.
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Dec 29, 2018 01:01
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bike tory posted:Even worse imo are games where whatever you pick is the wrong choice - you kill someone potentially infected with plague to prevent it spreading only to later be told he wasn't infected, or spare them only to later he told he went on to infect others. This kind of thing has become fairly common in the intro/tutorial sections of recent games as a reminder to the player that their actions have consequences, and I hate it. I'm with you. All you have to do is write a situation where, say, the player has the choice to let go, execute, or turn in to the authorities a known criminal who swears he'll go straight if freed. To add context, the criminal can threaten you that his powerful friends would avenge him, but you also know that he has escaped from prison many times. In that case, the player doesn't know what will happen but he's informed and wouldn't be out of place slitting the bugger up and dumping the body, but the player couldn't claim to be overly surprised if he gets attacked later in vengeance or the criminal escapes justice yet again. I've been playing through DQ3 and Kanvar (a.k.a. cockney Robin 'Ood), does this twice; you win a fight against him twice and he begs for his freedom. Both times it's a "But though must!" situation and you have to relent, but at least he gives you a useful hint later and doesn't go slaughter a village when you have no choice but to let him go. I've heard that the Witcher series has moments like this. I don't know much about the series so I can't comment, but it seems unfortunate for a series well-regarded for good writing.
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Dec 29, 2018 01:13
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Unintended consequences to the player's actions are pretty cool from a simulationist perspective. It helps build a believable world. Got kind of a Dwarf Fortress vibe, where things carry on without the player and npcs have agency and minds of their own. If the story only revolves around the PC as main character then fine, make results predictable.
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Dec 29, 2018 10:14
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I think it's mostly a question of scale, if it results in major character dying or locks you out of an extensive quest line or potential companion and it's a seemingly innocuous choice then it's bad game design. If it's something minor like slightly less money or a minor item. Witcher 3 is kind of an exception, because there's 3 (I think) endings that are mostly determined by a bunch of small choices you make, but those choices completely fit which ending you get, so it's determined by what kind of roleplayer you are (minor spoiler about the kind of choices, no details for the endings) it's based entirely on what kind of father you are.
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Dec 29, 2018 18:55
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JustJeff88 posted:Being subtle can just be cruel, though. I am fine with moral choices where it's clear that a generous act can have complications, such as "You can convince the arsehole king not to invade his neighbour, but that neighbour might smell weakness and invade itself", in which case the game might give "shades of grey" options. What I cannot stand is when you do something that seems innocuously kind with no apparent risk of repercussions and something horrible happens, like in the first Eye of the Beholder game where you find the bones of a halfling thief who died, take him to be resurrected and then he robs you with no warning; he's not even evil-aligned. I'm fairly sure he's the first potential companion in the game, which is just a dick move to me. I haven't played the game so maybe there's some additional context I'm missing but resurrecting a thief and him robbing you sounds fine because lmao how did you not see that coming.
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Dec 29, 2018 19:15
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I'm going to do a Shaman run for this year's Ironman. Or more if the first Shaman dies. So I'll dump my thoughts on spell selection here. I'll be using the IWDification mod because the Druid spell list is almost depressing to look at without it: https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/spells/iwdification/ Spell descriptions here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussi...to-other-spells Level 1: Cure Light Wounds is good early on and nice to have as it's used automatically on rest later on. Sunscorch is okay scaling damage with a Blind effect although the casting time is slightly annoying and enemies will save against it most of the time later on. Bless is not the worst thing to cast.  Armor of Faith is a great later pick. After those, I could take or leave Curse, Doom and Entangle. I guess I'll take Entangle because even weak CC that's easy to save against can be valuable when poo poo goes wrong. Level 2: The worst Druid spell level but at least Writhing Fog is good. I'll take Slow Poison and Resist Fire and Cold mostly because they're okay utility to have on tap. Slow Poison will probably actually save a life at some point in BG1 or SoD. Apart from that, eh. Alicorn Lance doesn't scale but seems like a decent early pick anyway because the guaranteed AC debuff can be important considering early game BG1 combat is usually ten idiots flailing wildly to no discernible effect. I might get the Cure spell for more rest healing. I can't even think of a fifth spell I'd want. Terrible level!  Level 3: There's a lot of okay stuff here but not a lot that's really amazing. Dispel Magic is decent to pick up eventually but will of course never work when you need it to. Call Lightning does good damage but even when you can actually use it has a terrible casting time and hits random enemies. I prefer Spike Growth as the damage spell for this level because persistent AoEs are rarely terrible and I really dislike Call Lightning and its random enemy thing. Summon Insects is bad when cast in the middle of a fight but a good spell to cast out of hiding against problematic single enemies, especially mages, until better alternatives become available. Moonblade is cute - counts as +4, should bypass Stoneskin, stops spellcasting entirely; too bad it requires a Shaman to hit but there are ways to help with that. Miscast Magic is not the worst spell but I prefer the insects and the blade. So far I'd take Summon Insects, Spike Growth, Moonblade, Dispel Magic in that order with the fifth spell thrown in where appropriate. Strength of One seems like the obvious choice for early game power - it can help a lot of BG1 companions and definitely helps summons a fair bit. Level 4: Call Woodland Beings and Defensive Harmony are the always good, must-take spells here and will be my first two picks. After those two I want an offensive spell. Probably Giant Insect because Bombardier Beetles are great. It would be another summon but different enough from the Nymph. Poison would be another option. It's awkward to use but the damage potential is there. I definitely prefer the beetles, though. I like Smashing Wave but it doesn't scale and is unreliable, making it a subpar pick. Death Ward is also almost mandatory to take eventually but I'm okay with waiting until level 13/making it the 4th pick. No idea what the last pick could be. Probably won't really matter since it comes at level 23. Level 5: The main question here is what order to take Chaotic Commands, Iron Skins and Insect Plague in. I might go Iron Skins first because Ironman, followed by Insect Plague. I think getting Chaotic Commands from another party member should be okay for a while. The next pick comes at level 15 and I don't think there are that many spells that are still all that relevant to take at that point. Probably going to come down to a decision between Magic Resistance and True Seeing which will depend on the party I settle on. Level 6: Because Shamans unlock this level so much later than Druids, Conjure Fire Elemental won't be as much of an unholy terror in their hands. Still definitely worth taking as a first pick at level 12. Heal is good of course. Wondrous Recall is a great pick because more Insect Plagues and Iron Skins can never be a bad thing. Entropy Shield is a great defensive spell. Dolorous Decay is cool but Shamans get a single target disabler for free here so probably not. I'm not sure about this level. If I take the Elemental - and I'm fairly certain I want to - it seems like it has to be at level 12, but then one out of Heal, Wondrous Recall and Entropy Shield would have to be delayed until level 21. Level 7: Nature's Beauty is great for AoE blindness with no save. Probably my first pick here followed by Shield of the Archons and Regeneration. Afterwards HLA spells come online and regular picks matter a little less. I'll probably take Impervious Sanctity of Mind as a caster-only upgrade to Chaotic Commands. Any thoughts or Shaman trip reports would be appreciated.
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Dec 29, 2018 20:09
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Wizard Styles posted:I'm going to do a Shaman run for this year's Ironman. Or more if the first Shaman dies. No shame in that, vanilla druid spell selection is really boring until the level 5 spells, and having some basic damage spells means your shaman will actually be able to contribute to fights. Having slow poison available on demand should be reaaaalllly useful. I would skip miscast magic if you have an arcane caster or don't mind spamming Sunscorch. Blind is a level 2 spell and neutralizes casters just as effectively since the AI can't cope with blindness. Plus Glitterdust at level 3 is the same except with a small AoE. Seriously Blindness is amazing, enemies just stand around doing nothing while you plink away at them with ranged weapons. Just make sure to move the party away, they will still attack or cast spells if you are adjacent to them. Call lightning has a long casting time as you mentioned, and it only works outdoors. A spell that only works half the time isn't great, and the most challenging combat tends to be indoors/underground. It's worth noting that the shaman's spirit dance is kinda lovely, but having a neverending horde of summons is a very effective way of creating a bottleneck. This can be a game-changer in some situations. M'Khiin's spirit dance plus a couple extra summons saved my rear end in one of the penultimate fights of Siege of Dragonspear. Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 21:54
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IWD spells make things different, but I have found Shaman to be decent AoE damage dealers with the default BG spell list - entangle, their level 2 AoE slow&DoT spell, and the level 3(?) nuke make short work of big packs or the various mercenary/bounty hunter parties. M'Khiin was a godsend in SoD with all of the massive enemy groups you fight They combo incredibly well with an AoE focused mage or sorc. Just don't forget to cast your level 2&3 protections from fire and cold, but with them your party can get amongst it with impunity and even be healed by the damage. voiceless anal fricative fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 23:46
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Sorry wrong thread.
cheesetriangles fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Dec 30, 2018 |
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Dec 30, 2018 19:07
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Did the IWD-in-EET mod ever get released or is is still being worked on?
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Dec 31, 2018 03:34
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I still think it’s totally bonkers that they stuffed Icewind Dale into Baldurs Gate.
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Dec 31, 2018 15:05
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KKKLIP ART posted:I still think it’s totally bonkers that they stuffed Icewind Dale into Baldurs Gate. I don't get the point now that IWD:EE exists, I could see wanting to use the BG2 engine for the kits and stuff, but actually playing through with a character who's also going through the BG games will leave you massively overleveled for 2 out of 3 of the games. There's no plot connections and, baring a mod I'm not aware of, no banters for the BG npcs. There's a mod that adds recruitable npcs to IWD that have banter, if that's your thing.
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Dec 31, 2018 17:23
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There are few things more satisfying in this game than sending in a fully-buffed Keldorn with Carsomyr to engage a group of Mind Flayers and watching him wreck their poo poo effortlessly. brain drain that, you fucks
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Dec 31, 2018 18:00
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Oh absolutely. One of the few very clear memories I have of my original way back when playthrough of the game was Keldorn entering the undead part of the sewers (where you find the ghoul king) and turn undead just exploding them all. Didn't even have to engage. Baldurs Gate 2s power curve is immense.
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Dec 31, 2018 18:51
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A high level cleric can explode liches by turning undead.
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Dec 31, 2018 18:52
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