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"Why doesn't Elminster solve the problem?" is kind of a running theme with the Forgotten Realms, to be honest. The results of having way too many *IMPORTANT NPCS* imo.
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Apr 5, 2020 13:49
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SoD mostly takes place to the north of Baldur's Gate, but you get to visit a handful of locales in the prologue. Elminster is a character you should just avoid having around at all, but I do enjoy that Jaheira's quest makes it obvious that he spends a lot of time stalking your party.
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Apr 5, 2020 14:01
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Skwirl posted:There are 6 recruitable female npcs in BG2, 3 are elves and those are the three you can romance. The "guy who wrote romances in BG 2 had a massive elf fetish" kinda explains why I wasn't able to romance my true waifu, Nalia. Actually, I was always more interested in knowing more about her instead of Jaheira or Aerie (I mean, it can't get more "Original content donut steal" than a super duper rare winged elf orphan (iirc) that has lost it's wings working in a magic circus) and I always bench Viconia despite her being the probably most powerful Clerics (and the only pure Cleric iirc) in the game. I usually roll with blandy m-vanilla goody two shoes party all the time. Me (human), Minsc, Nalia (or Edwin if I want some change), Keldorn, Anomen and Imoen (muh immersion? also she never betrays or gets into fights with other npcs and disarm traps while being a wizard).
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Apr 5, 2020 14:12
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Galewolf posted:The "guy who wrote romances in BG 2 had a massive elf fetish" kinda explains why I wasn't able to romance my true waifu, Nalia. I do appreciate the thought process behind making all the romance options divine casters, though, and in fact including all but one of the game's divine casters. In a time before the ubiquity of online guides and info, you might not know that the game has romances or who they are. But you are very likely to want a divine caster for healing purposes, and so this maximizes the chances you'll stumble into a romance. As for me, my party is almost invariably Minsc, Mazzy, Jaheira, Imoen, Aerie (or sometimes Nalia), and a mage PC.
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Apr 5, 2020 14:19
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In one of the 3E books they have Elminster address the question of why he, a very high level character, does not do more to fight on the side of good, and his response was some weak response about 'hmmm yes maybe we could but what if we were unsuccessful hmm'.
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Apr 5, 2020 14:36
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Max Wilco posted:I know this dead horse has probably been beaten into glue by now, but the issue with Elminister being involved is that it prompts the question why he didn't do more to make sure his friend Gorion didn't get beaten to death in a forest by Sarevok, or why afterwards, his only contribution to helping CHARNAME was to show up at random times and cryptically hint about the future, despite knowing what was going on the whole time. Basically one of the running themes of the Realms is looking after your own problems, especially in stories involving Elminster. He could intervene but he’s more likely to make things worse than any better, and he’d be pulling himself away from the things he should be doing. The popular misconception of Elminster as an epic level mage with nothing to do is very very wrong; think of him as engaged at all times in a shadow game with other forces of similar power and you’re closer to the truth.
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Apr 5, 2020 14:36
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The romance options are also all your divine casters. Except Cernd, but who the hell ever remembers that he exists? That turns out to be my main beef with party composition in BG2. You're drowning in mages and fighter types, and either Imoen or Jan can cover your thieving needs (and you're nuts if you don't want either of them around) but I don't really like any of the clerics. Viconia is alright, but she conflicts with my desire to do good deeds and not have party members bitch about it. One of the low key best changes to the EE is that neutral party members will actually be happy to have a high reputation. At least Jaheira gets her own version of raise dead, but it'd be nice to have a party member who could memorize restoration and a couple of "kill all undead" spells. I know there's no reason for Yeslick to be around for any of BG2, but he was always my favorite. Just a kindly old dwarf who's a bit too dense for his own good. He even manages to get through to party members like Shar-teel and get them to be a bit nicer, while paladins like Ajantis and Keldorn never convert anyone to anything. E: It's very hard for me to ever boot Minsc, Jaheira, Jan or Imoen from my party. I try to vary up the last slot, but I don't think I've managed to boot the four for any long stretches of time. I always put off going to Spellhold, because as long as I haven't gone, I have two free slots. Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Apr 5, 2020 |
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Apr 5, 2020 14:37
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i always have viconia in the party and i always do good runs. like any healthy relationship, you go into it seeking to fundamentally change the other person.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:38
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Chairchucker posted:In one of the 3E books they have Elminster address the question of why he, a very high level character, does not do more to fight on the side of good, and his response was some weak response about 'hmmm yes maybe we could but what if we were unsuccessful hmm'. I think that's in the Faerun 3rd edition Hardcover which is, in my opinion, one of the best tabletop Forgotten Realms books. He explains that getting a drop on Szass Tam would be fun but ultimately trigger world-shaking events which kinda feels like how Cold War was with wars through proxies and satellite states. I mean, the whole Bhaalspawn Saga is basically overly powerful beings saying "gently caress it, imma become a god" and destroying half of the main continent.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:44
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Elminster is a Harper isn’t he? They’re whole shtick is not to get too heavily involved with things because of “balance” or whatever. It’s still lame as hell but it makes some degree of internal sense.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:45
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chaosapiant posted:Elminster is a Harper isn’t he? They’re whole shtick is not to get too heavily involved with things because of “balance” or whatever. It’s still lame as hell but it makes some degree of internal sense. He is, but the tricky thing about that is the Harpers are already involved in your life as the Bhaalspawn. That's why Gorion, Jaheira and Khalid look after you in the first place.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:50
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chaosapiant posted:Elminster is a Harper isn’t he? They’re whole shtick is not to get too heavily involved with things because of “balance” or whatever. It’s still lame as hell but it makes some degree of internal sense. Yeah I never particulary enjoyed Harpers and their "balance in all things [while the world around us burns into the ground]" gimmick but I guess it makes sense internally like you said. I liked Khelben more than good ol El, tbh.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:53
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The problem with any "don't get too heavily involved" fantasy organization is the line for what "too involved" means is always completely arbitrary.
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Apr 5, 2020 15:53
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Does anything come dialogue wise of Nalia's dark and gloomy turn in Throne of Bhaal? I've never actually used her in it
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Apr 5, 2020 15:58
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Viconia rules. She's (crazy) hot and alternates between telling a male PC how much he sucks and encouraging him to become a god perfect waifu
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Apr 5, 2020 18:24
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:The romance options are also all your divine casters. Except Cernd, but who the hell ever remembers that he exists? That raises another issue I had with BG2, and it's that (outside of using mods) assembling your ideal party is sometimes impossible because of how they conflict with each other. Viconia is especially bad, since she conflicts with both Keldorn and Valygar. The EE characters probably add in new issues as wwell. Conflicts aside, you also have to worry about your reputation getting too high in fear of alienating evil characters. The party I ran with in BG2 was Keldorn, Aerie, Jaheira, Jan, and Edwin. I know a lot of people like Minsc, but in my experience, he was always prone to getting hit more than he should, and Keldorn's Inquisitor abilities seem a lot more useful against mages. Jan is the only character who keeps leveling in Thief skills.
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Apr 5, 2020 18:47
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Jaheira is bossy, Viconia is crazy, Aerie is a child. Don't do romances.
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Apr 5, 2020 18:47
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Suspicious posted:Jaheira is bossy, Viconia is crazy, Aerie is a child. You left out Anomen who, let's be real, might be the most insufferable NPC ever written. He's great from a powergame perspective though so what can you do
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Apr 5, 2020 19:58
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Anomen has his moments. His comments when you recruit Viconia are pretty golden, and he has a lot of banters with various party members calling him a turd. Jan's in particular is gold. E: He's also the only party member you can tempt into being more evil. I haven't seen Viconia's redemption arc, and maybe it's fine, but Sarevok's is pretty dumb. Unearned redemptions are a dime a dozen, but the inverse is much rarer. I wish Anomen were just a smidge less in-your-face insufferable, because I respect a lot of what his character is about. Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Apr 5, 2020 |
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Apr 5, 2020 20:04
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Anomen does get a less insufferable if he becomes a paladin, having him apologise for his past actions to Keldorn was a nice touch.
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Apr 6, 2020 10:21
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I actually really like Anomen's personal quest because it shows that a bunch of murderhobo adventurers are still nothing against overwhelming political power
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Apr 6, 2020 10:35
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I must be a monster by thread standards because even when playing a goodie-goodie I can't bring myself to pick up Imoen out of Spellhold. By that point I probably have a party sorted and don't really have the desire to swap things up too much, so... Sorry Imoen!
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Apr 6, 2020 15:31
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DeadButDelicious posted:I must be a monster by thread standards because even when playing a goodie-goodie I can't bring myself to pick up Imoen out of Spellhold. By that point I probably have a party sorted and don't really have the desire to swap things up too much, so... Sorry Imoen! Surely gotta do the Yoshimo - Imoen swapover.
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Apr 6, 2020 16:12
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A lot of the time I ditch Yoshimo, because I'm of the opinion that there is no need for a pure Thief in BG2 at all, and just take Jan. So I end up with Bhaalspawn, Jaheira, Minsc, Jan, someone else for the front line to be replaced by Sarevok in ToB (usually Keldorn but sometimes Mazzy), and a pot luck character based on what I feel like - even Cernd. I should really do another playthrough of BG2 but holy poo poo I do not have the patience to deal with how insufferable Mages are in that game, and just end up playing BG1 + expansions before burning out.
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Apr 6, 2020 16:18
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I felt a little bad betraying Krystall just because Blackrose told me to and to get more exp but it was worth it for the dialogue where you tell Blackrose that you'll eventually win any fight against him because you're immortal.
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Apr 6, 2020 17:08
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I've left the game running for 24 hours after having what I know to be the last chat with Jaheira, and Elminster still hasn't reared his stupid face to finish that questline. That dude fuckin sucks.
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Apr 6, 2020 17:14
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I don't think I had too much of a problem with mages even on hardest difficulty because the last full playthrough I was rolling with two Inquisitors (me and Keldorn) and 360Noscoping Inquisitor dispels while Nishruus and Hakesars eating mages faces off made things easier. The hardest battle was, I think, the Twisted Rune fight but I remember tackling it after like 10 odd reloads. In my current run with only one Inquisitor, I feel more of that hate against mages 
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Apr 6, 2020 17:23
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Yoshimo is awesome because his traps are awesome and I like to surprise Firkraag.
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Apr 7, 2020 14:51
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I'm not having that tough of a time with mages, got a sorceror with a Robe of Vecna and a load of Breaches and Minsc with a big sword at the ready, plus a handful of Wands of Spell Striking on standby. Mislead is a bit of a pain, but I've got a Gem of True seeing and a casting prepared on Jaheira for backup. I've never bothered dropping the spell protection on anything that's not a Lich, because swords do a much faster job. The alpha strike usually hits hard enough to interrupt the casting of Time Stop/Horrid Wilting/Chaos, and the vorpal sword's effect isn't blocked by Stoneskin. It's pretty great seeing the contingency pop up, only for their next casting to be interrupted by their head rolling on the ground.
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Apr 7, 2020 15:20
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Wands of spell striking make a huge difference, simply because half the party can dispel protections at a moment’s notice. I’m pretty sure they added those in ToB (and made them accessible early in SoA via Watcher’s Keep) for the express reason of simplifying the game’s mage fights.
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Apr 8, 2020 08:52
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I open a mysterious hidden door in a common looking inn. A lich threatens me and buffs up. I see “Time Stop” and wonder, “never had a lich do this before now, must be on that new poo poo”. Cue a disaster. BG2 has been a real rollercoaster out the gates. I am happy to have went straight through from beginning to now.
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Apr 8, 2020 17:25
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The first BG2 play through is the best. I don't have the will-power to not cheese the gently caress out of everything when I replay it now (like the above lich encounter, where he buffs to hell and I simply leave and rest a few times and come back and is now completely defenseless).
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Apr 8, 2020 17:46
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My only lich experience before this was SOD and both were bopped with some dumpy quest item. Neither really did anything other than fall over and die.
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Apr 8, 2020 18:11
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It is not easy to not cheese or beeline for items that break the game into half but I still enjoy going head-on against everyone without cheesing. The first run of BG and BG 2 was probably one of the best gaming experiences I had, on par with first time FN:NV.
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Apr 8, 2020 19:26
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Finally started NWN: Shadows of Undrentide last night, and I'm still not super impressed. Still playing as a sorcerer, with the thief companion. Could just be that I haven't gotten that far into it yet. Currently, I'm pressing through the kobold caves. At the moment, I'm thinking about dropping the game for now and playing something else. I dunno, as much as I struggled with Baldur's Gate/Infinity Engine, I feel like I prefer it to NWN. I went into NWN thinking I would take to it a lot more.
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Apr 8, 2020 21:45
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Max Wilco posted:Finally started NWN: Shadows of Undrentide last night, and I'm still not super impressed. Still playing as a sorcerer, with the thief companion. It gets better after the cave. It tries to do as much with the engine as it can. It's also not super long. So, if you power through it rather than going for a completionist playthrough, it won't take too long. I first played through as a wizard and would have lost the final fight if not for tensor's transformation. If you're doing a dps sorcerer, I'd be curious as to how you win.
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Apr 8, 2020 22:22
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Melfs Minute Meteors made all the boss fights easy IIRC.
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Apr 8, 2020 23:46
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:The romance options are also all your divine casters. Except Cernd, but who the hell ever remembers that he exists? A bit late, but: Funnily enough, if you get the 'friendly' file and put it into your override folder, I think it just flips the evil NPC's reputation reaction table, and once you hit 19 reputation the evil NPCs start giving their happy lines instead. I tend to like having Viconia as the party cleric, so this little modification is a must for me. I think I've only done Viconia's romance once or twice because romances are pretty cheesy in BG2 IMO.
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Apr 9, 2020 10:25
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Is there a mod that makes it so evil clerics still explode undead instead of controlling them if they're high enough level? That's my only issue with Viconia as a cleric and I think in PnP evil clerics got a choice. You don't have to be cool with the undead just because you're evil.
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Apr 9, 2020 10:30
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| # ? May 29, 2024 09:37 |
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https://twitter.com/NineOfNein/status/1247959269602967552
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Apr 9, 2020 11:04
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