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bike tory posted:Quayle's also a massive rear end in a top hat in BG1. Very different from the few interactions you have with him in BG2, I'm not sure exactly why. I think the idea is that he has mellowed as a result of taking Aerie under his wing? The mod that adds Aerie as a merchant (and hooks her into the wizard hostage situation) in BG1 has the theory that "uncle Quayle" is someone different from the Quayle in BG1, but I think that's silly, and your idea is basically what he says, as I recall.
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Oct 17, 2023 19:32
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| # ? May 29, 2024 08:41 |
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bike tory posted:Yeah whichever mod it is that moves late game NPCs to more accessible locations is very worthwhile. Alora, Quayle and Tiax are all very well worth using but so few people do because of how late they appear. A casualty of how the devs expected players to basically just treat the NPCs like a revolving door. Tweaks Anthology does that, like so much other good stuff. quote:Move NPCs to Convenient Locations
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Oct 17, 2023 22:19
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kingturnip posted:The main mechanic you need to know for BG2 is spell countering. Get used to reading the log to check which spells an enemy mage just cast and hope you have the right counter memorised. Where is this necessary? Tolgerias and the poor unnamed lady next to him? Just bum-rushing the mages generally works, especially after you get a melee weapon that inflicts elemental damage. Then Minsc or Korgan will just stop the bastards from casting stuff.
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Oct 18, 2023 00:36
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Generally you need to strip Liches unless you cheese them with summons or a Cleric with Mace of Disruption +2/Protection from Magic, right?
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Oct 18, 2023 01:10
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Liches are immune to breach and non-inquis dispel so the best you can really do is get rid of the spell trap and use level 6+ spells while you wait for protection from magical weapons to wear off.
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Oct 18, 2023 01:18
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On the critical path I really only remember Irenicus playing the unlock the sequencer buffs game. Maybe some drow? Otherwise every rando mage is usually just stone skinning and mirror imaging or greater invisbilitying which is annoying but fairly brute forceable by the ol' bump and grind on normal difficulty but is greatly simplified by engaging with breach, true sight, dispel/remove magic etc. I think some of the optional party vs party fights have mages with the works (especially Twisted Rune). Otherwise Rakshasa and Liches let you play dispel roulette since dispel and remove magic are special snowflake spells that ignore their spell level immunity. But you also need sufficient caster level as the spell description lies about minimum chance (which is why many people say inquisitor dispel is the only way, even though its just cause they get the OP 2x caster level bonus. Bards suffice in a pinch, otherwise your wizard must be this tall to ride). By TOB every rando mage has the stupid sequencers and you want to engage with the guarantied removal systems if you value your time.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:02
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I was under the impression it's because inquisitor dispel is flagged as spell level 0. Same deal as the old vanilla HLA spells that were level 0 so they worked on demi-liches. Not anymore, though.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:11
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Dispel and Remove Magic as any other castable spell should also be spell level 0 and if they aren't because of the EE or something you should find a mod that turns them back because it's dumb bullshit if you need Keldorn or Spellstrike to avoid the amazing strategy of waiting for minutes.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:50
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zedprime posted:On the critical path I really only remember Irenicus playing the unlock the sequencer buffs game. Maybe some drow? Even at the Tree of Life you can just send a couple of Mordenkainen's swords at him and he'll happily waste all his spells on them, the timer ticks down and whoops most of his protections are gone. A lot of hay is made about the mage chess aspect of the game, and the player sure can engage with it if they want to, but I'm not sure where it's ever necessary. As pointed out above, even liches (lichii?) die to the weapons that insta-murder undead. Maybe the dragons?
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Oct 18, 2023 07:19
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Pretty sure ToL Irenicus uses horrid wilting (huge magic-type damage) which should annihilate mordy swords.
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Oct 19, 2023 02:09
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Being an Inquisitor or taking Keldorn and eventually convincing him to be a bad dad trivializes so much mage combat.
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Oct 19, 2023 02:41
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Suspicious posted:Pretty sure ToL Irenicus uses horrid wilting (huge magic-type damage) which should annihilate mordy swords. I don't doubt you, but does his AI fire it off if you (as in CHARNAME) are out of sight? I am fairly convinced I have cheesed him by just walking off-screen from him and sending in summons to chop him up. This doesn't work in Hell, but the Tree of Life fight can be trivialized. Or I am misremembering wildly.
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Oct 19, 2023 04:39
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Rappaport posted:Even at the Tree of Life you can just send a couple of Mordenkainen's swords at him and he'll happily waste all his spells on them, the timer ticks down and whoops most of his protections are gone. A lot of hay is made about the mage chess aspect of the game, and the player sure can engage with it if they want to, but I'm not sure where it's ever necessary. As pointed out above, even liches (lichii?) die to the weapons that insta-murder undead. Yeah, and you can backstab most Mages in the game into chunks with a high-enough-level Thief, a bunch of invis pots and something that grants Non-Detection, but OP didn't ask how to cheese the game.
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Oct 19, 2023 06:44
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Fair enough, but my question was when is mage chess actually necessary?
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Oct 19, 2023 08:38
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Rappaport posted:Fair enough, but my question was when is mage chess actually necessary? Never if you have an Inquisitor, or (assuming you aren't using SCS or something) very rarely if you aren't. Just casting Breach gets you through most encounters.
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Oct 19, 2023 08:52
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Nothing is absolutely necessary, you can beat the game with a solo of any class. It's perfectly viable and worth doing against most mages you come up against to some extent. At the least popping a true sight and using breach to get rid of stoneskins will save you having to make a bunch of saves against various crowd controls. And there are powerful non-lich mages all over. In the planar sphere as you noted, the planar prison, firkraag's dungeon, the sewers, the guarded compound where you get that OP katana, etc etc. Even against the Yuan-ti mages you encounter all over the place it's useful.
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Oct 19, 2023 10:11
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https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/37267-neverwinter-night-for-baldurs-gate-mod/
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Oct 19, 2023 11:05
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That sounds like an incredible feat, only to port the least interesting campaign in the series.
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Oct 19, 2023 11:20
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One other thing to realize about mage chess is whether you're playing vanilla or SCS you can sometimes skip it with certain spells. For example, Cloud Kill is devastating even on SCS against enemy mages because it's very rare for them to be protected against poison unless they are liches. And since it's not a targeted spell it doesn't give a poo poo about most spell protections. Death Fog can work on Liches since it's a level 6 spell. I'm not sure how often vanilla Liches put up Protection from Acid as I haven't played vanilla in a while but my guess is only some of the time? If they don't put that up, you can drop that on them and it will get some steady damage and interrupts in while you try to get rid of their other defenses. Cloud spells are my gently caress you to enemy casters. I use them even playing on cranked up SCS settings and they're quite effective. And I don't even use them to cheese by dropping them and sitting in another room. Using them actively in combat is still useful as the damage will interrupt enemy casters if nothing else and can often kill them or zone them away as well.
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Oct 19, 2023 17:34
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Calling it chess is giving it way too much credit
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Oct 19, 2023 17:39
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Fruits of the sea posted:That sounds like an incredible feat, only to port the least interesting campaign in the series. Admittedly one of the things I disliked most about it was how it felt like you were playing four connected fan campaigns or something; if you can actually travel between the areas of the four chapters in this version that would tempt me to play it again
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Oct 19, 2023 18:20
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Video Games Thx posted:Calling it chess is giving it way too much credit Ginette Reno posted:One other thing to realize about mage chess is whether you're playing vanilla or SCS you can sometimes skip it with certain spells. If you can apply bees to a caster you've already won.
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Oct 19, 2023 18:47
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zedprime posted:More like mage onion. I'm not the best source on this since I haven't done vanilla in a while but I *think* that on vanilla both Insect Plague and Creeping Doom are insanely OP and just go right through almost anything? Maybe spell trap blocks them? And spell immunity might as well but I don't believe the AI uses that on vanilla SCS nerfs them a bit (though they are still very good on that too).
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Oct 19, 2023 21:53
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Yes, the bees are the most entertaining counter to any spellcaster. I don’t think there is a way to stop them, apart from just having high magic resistance or casting the right spell immunity. Spell trap only works on spells targeting the caster. There’s no save for the magic failure, only the fear effect. I’m not sure what the damage type is, but it works on dragons and lichens.
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Oct 19, 2023 22:10
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Insect plague is level 5 so liches are immune unfortunately. Creeping doom would work I think but I usually prefer other level 7 druid spells.
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Oct 19, 2023 23:11
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Ahh my bad, creeping doom is the one that also damages liches. Druids are spoiled for choice once they get to that level. Another slightly tedious way to neutralize mages is to polymorph into a mustard jelly with the sewer cloak. They have over 100% magic resistance, so unless the mage has some summon spells, you can let them fire off all their spells. That's kinda verging on an exploit though. E: A proper exploit: Fire/frost shield triggers on melee attacks. If you stand in melee range of a mage, any spell that they target on you procs fire shield and since it triggers when they start casting, you're almost guaranteed to interrupt their spell. Being elemental damage and not counting as a spell, it bypasses a surprising large amount of protection spells. Not bad for a level 3 spell, sort of a single target insect plague for low level bards and fighter/mages. Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Oct 20, 2023 |
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Oct 20, 2023 00:06
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If you don't mod druid spell progression they get six level 7 spell slots the moment they get any at all, so you've got a lot of options.
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Oct 20, 2023 00:38
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Heart of Winter in the bag, sans megadungeon because I forgot. Did not take long at all, which is in line with what I've heard. Still, a good time was had. Last boss was easier than the final boss of base IWD even above Core Rules difficulty, but that might be because your toolkit is a lot bigger. I had a Druid, Cleric, and Fighter/Mage slinging buffs, summons, and pain everywhere. F/M casted Time Stop and just start dumping Skull Traps on the adds, then MMs on the boss. The only casuality on our side was the F/T, which might be because I left him too close to the floor-pain I laid down for the adds. Speaking of, a weird bug(?): The F/T dies, we win regardless. I don't bother picking him up because it's the end, so I grab his stuff and trigger the final cutscene. I start a new game from the main menu and form the same party to do the megadungeon. Starts at Lonelywood, as it should. The F/T is no longer "dead" but is completely unselectable. Their portrait has color, but I can't enter their inventory nor select them for anything. They don't show as being resurrectable either. Hopefully I can fix that with EE Keeper..
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Oct 20, 2023 02:23
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I've been told you can finish BG3 really fast so let's add it to the ironman challenge thread! 
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Nov 2, 2023 00:14
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Has anyone tried ironmanning Icewind Dale?
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Nov 2, 2023 04:29
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Rappaport posted:Has anyone tried ironmanning Icewind Dale? You can freely add new members to your party and there's no main character who's death ends the game, so if anything it's probably easier than the BG series assuming you're patient and willing to grind up new members xp.
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Nov 2, 2023 06:38
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Rappaport posted:Has anyone tried ironmanning Icewind Dale? I think someone did this once (with the character in first position as honorary Bhaalspawn) a few years back.
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Nov 2, 2023 07:57
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I imported a dagger wielding l7 Berserker / Druid over to BG2 from BG1 and man he feels almost too strong. 19 in most stats, great AC with a shield and self buffs. And the daggers are great. Dagger of Venom in BG1 paired with berserk shut down most mages instantly. In BG2 the Boomerang Dagger works wonders with its extra attack per round and a ranged attack that adds your full STR bonus. The mages provide a slightly higher challenge compared to BG1 but bees shut most down. I managed best the Twisted Rune on the first attempt. Balduran shield took care of the beholder, while insects ruined the mages. The fighters couldn't get through my AC. I had to cheese the Kangaxx fight by dismissing the party, using a scroll of prot vs undead and a couple of potions of flame breath. Might try some difficulty mod to make it more challenging...
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Nov 2, 2023 20:01
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Sigmund Fraud posted:I imported a dagger wielding l7 Berserker / Druid over to BG2 from BG1 and man he feels almost too strong. 19 in most stats, great AC with a shield and self buffs. And the daggers are great. Dagger of Venom in BG1 paired with berserk shut down most mages instantly. In BG2 the Boomerang Dagger works wonders with its extra attack per round and a ranged attack that adds your full STR bonus. I got through most of BG2 with SCS (I didn't hit a road block or anything, it was just one of a dozen or so runs where I get distracted by another game or another character concept) so I'd recommend that. I haven't actually used it in years but I know a bunch of people in this thread use it regularly so they can probably give you advice on what specific options to enable that make it more challenging and what ones just make certain things more annoying.
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Nov 2, 2023 20:13
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That is an excellent powergaming combo. Magic resistance spell plus some res gear should give you a decent chance against SCS mages too, if you go that route. What is your int? E: throwing knives and darts are low key amazing with the right stats, everybody should try that at least once
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Nov 2, 2023 20:14
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Do darts get bonus damage from STR like slings do?
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Nov 2, 2023 20:24
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Dexterity IIRC, so it needs a different build
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Nov 2, 2023 20:46
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They get no damage bonus, have a shorter range, but have 3 attacks per round. Also the idea of throwing darts as a weapon is stupid
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Nov 2, 2023 20:52
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Jay Rust posted:They get no damage bonus, have a shorter range, but have 3 attacks per round. Also the idea of throwing darts as a weapon is stupid Depends on the darts, there's a lot of historical examples of pretty gnarly war darts out there. As portrayed in the game though, they do seem pretty wimpy.
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Nov 2, 2023 21:59
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Darts of stunning are pretty good. Saved my bacon during a catastrophic Sarevok fight, once.
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Nov 2, 2023 23:17
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