Stopping at Infinity: Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, Planescape:Torment.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stopping at Infinity: Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, Planescape:Torment.

«‹›4 »

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

so i got the enhanced bg1+SOD recently, and after getting up to 2 with a berserker i�m kind of itchy to try again with a monk, since the early game challenge appeals with the expectation of getting real beefy later on and i saw some interesting monk items in Siege. is there a particular consensus on how the three monk options stack up against one another?

also, does anyone have an opinion on how the Oversight monk HLAs compare to just have the fighter ones? i used Refinements in the past but i seem to recall them being a little OP?

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 17:11

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:20

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Did the EE games change how party level scaling works? i remember bg1 having xp breakpoints at like level 3 and 5 where they�d level up to match, but is it a little more fluid now?

# ¿ Apr 16, 2018 16:19

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Lucas Archer posted:

I doubt this is the case, but I won't be hosed by ignoring Sarevok's fleeing and just adventure for a while, right? That's not some sort of timer? Also, my party is level 6-7 - what's the xp cap for BG? I'm going to take on Durlag's, then do one big shopping trip to buy all the buff potions and stuff I want before heading down to Sarevok.

With Tales of the Sword Coast, the XP cap is 161,000xp.

What's the best way to play a Fighter/Mage in early BG1? I chose Elf so I'm assuming longbows are the order of the day until I've got a stock of HP / magic that will let me survive as an off-tank.

Zeerust fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Apr 20, 2018

# ¿ Apr 20, 2018 07:54

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Where does Infinity Engine stand in terms of modding accessibility?

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 22:40

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Cythereal posted:

Very, very bad.

Take it from someone who's made a couple of NPC mods for the Baldur's Gate series - it's probably the most modding-unfriendly engine I've ever worked with.

i�m mostly just interested in adjusting existing classes, but the documentation for the modding suites seems patchy. of the two modding programs, which is generally better supported/easier to use, if at all?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 08:52

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

4e had Fighter supremacy, which makes it the best edition.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2018 19:12

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

How much of the Tweaks / Fixes modding stuff still applies to BGEE/BG2EE?

# ¿ May 1, 2018 18:39

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I don't think I was being very clear with that. I mean, do I still need to worry about stuff like getting the un-nerfed THAC0 tables and fixed Grandmastery for BG2, or do the Enhanced Editions incorporate that kind of stuff?

# ¿ May 1, 2018 19:14

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:

with your two examples 'no' and 'no', those are pretty egregious changes that would break the game

"fixed" grandmastery lol yeah "fixed" = 100102938102381023821038 aps

use big world

The BG2EE manual states that you get an extra 1/2 APR with Grandmastery. I just remember that that wasn't the case in BG2, all you got was +1 damage, but that component still exists in the Tweaks Anthology. Hence my confusion.

Looking back at the THAC0 table stuff, I understand better what the deal is with that, but I'm not sure how egregiously broken allowing non-warriors to continue gaining THAC0 is in the game where everyone gets epically busted powers after 20 anyway.

# ¿ May 1, 2018 19:34

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Something odd happened in my last playthrough of Siege of Dragonspear. I picked up Dynaheir at the start, but swapped her and Minsc out later to collect Edwin. After the camp moved to the next location, though, she somehow mysteriously died. Her body was permanently lying near the bonfire where the party members gather, never despawning, never mentioned by anyone else. I figured this hiccup might iron out at some point, but nope, she was dead for the whole campaign.

This made the epilogue kind of hilarious, as I was greeted at the end by Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, Minsc, and Dynaheir's corpse. It's created this alternative narrative for me in which Dynaheir died way prior to the start of BG2 and Minsc had just been toting her body around and pretending she was alive, and everyone just went along with it. :stare:

now that i think about it, the other companions never really bring up her dying in the dungeon...

# ¿ May 8, 2018 13:59

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I just did the Harper Hold fight in BG2 and Jaheira left rather than help me. Has she permanently disappeared, or will she turn back up at some point?

# ¿ May 11, 2018 21:08

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Lucas Archer posted:

- I tried the lich inside the inn at the gate district. I was doing okay until he cast time stop and gated a pit fiend in. It went poorly after that.

So, the thing about Liches is that they're not immune to Protection from Undead scrolls. It's horrendously cheesy, but you can kill every lich in Athkatla before a single scroll wears off, and that's all you need provided you have a weapon capable of hurting them. the Protection scroll means they won't even raise their buffs.

# ¿ May 28, 2018 23:25

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

How do people generally find the Ascension 'Tougher X' fights? I only got as far as the Gromnir fight on my last run and I'm considering starting a new game soon, and while I enjoy a challenge I'm really not a fan of fights that need lots of micro and optimisation to get through.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2018 09:05

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I love the wilderness exploration and cave delving stuff in BG but the city itself is a horrible slog for me. I don't think I've ever done even half of the quests available there because they're all hidden in unmarked houses and it's not that difficult to hit the XP cap without them.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2018 21:34

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Is there one or two Charisma tomes in the BG games?

There's three for Wisdom and one for the rest.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2018 15:58

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

What are the scenarios you can encounter for the final bossfight in SOD? I've fought Argent when she turns against you, and alongside her against Hephernaan, but the achievements imply you can end up with extra help / enemies at the end.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 17:40

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

BG1 exists in an odd little blind spot in my hatred of sandbox models of gameplay - I've given up on Dragon Age Inquisition thanks to its openness on several occasions despite it being ostensibly a very good game, but I'll happily hexcrawl across the Sword Coast without the faintest feeling of tedium.

Well, until I hit the main city, then I beeline all the important quests, cheese for the good equipment, and take a trip to Durlag before wrapping up.

The powergamer in me will literally never let me start a character on BG2 anymore. ability score tomes

# ¿ Nov 14, 2018 19:49

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

My favourite conversation in BG1 is where you can speak to the dockworker about the New World and make a scathing attack on colonisation, to which he responds 'You're right, we'll murder natives by the thousands, but the winners write the history books so no-one will remember, and that's why it's okay.'

It kind of came out of left field after all the lukewarm, nudge-nudge self-aware RPG writing that characterises the game.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2018 08:31

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Liches can't target characters under the effect of a Protection from Undead scroll. Was your whole party protected?

# ¿ Dec 4, 2018 10:19

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I've committed to playing nothing but PoE1 until I beat it and finally get around to PoE2, and I'm having great fun as a Monk that can roundhouse kick bears into piles of bones and soup. The story is pretty serious and gets kind of grim in places, but I feel like you get a lot of levity from the right companions. Avellone mouthpieces Durance and the Grieving Mother are super Mature and Serious, but keeping Eder around helps dispel the overwroughtness a lot.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2019 20:57

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I got a Monk through BG1 all the way up to ToB and the power curve is kind of grim. You basically NEED to go solo to not suck badly in the early game; Dark Moon Monks have Blindness as an innate ability, which alongside darts lets you cheese the poo poo out of some high-XP fights, and your Hide in Shadows lets you get potions from the Ankheg cave that'll let you chunk them with your fists. The first payoff is around level 9 where your fists actually become a threatening weapon and your AC isn't too garbage anymore, then the second one is in BG2 when you get magic resistance.

By ToB I dropped my party down to me, Imoen, Viconia and Edwin, because my protagonist was functionally immune to magic and could Greater Whirlwind melee enemies into annihilation with +4 1d20 attacks. I wouldn't necessarily the tedium was worth it, Monk is just tremendously badly designed.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2019 14:26

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Siege of Dragonspear is easily worth that much by itself, IMO.

# ¿ May 19, 2019 16:31

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

The simplicity and plotting of BG will always have a tremendous place in my heart, but POE has some insane quality-of-life improvements in the overall gameplay.

# ¿ May 24, 2019 16:19

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

To be honest, I think they should've thrown out Attributes altogether, They don't really add anything to the tactical layer of the game, and don't add anything to narrative that couldn't be handled by POE's skill system.

Like the RTWP model it just feels like it was a big mea culpa to keep the Infinity Engine fans on board, and one thing I'm really excited to get into with POE2 is the fact they've built in a turn-based model.

# ¿ May 24, 2019 20:58

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

frajaq posted:

That Paladin sub-class that was immune to Fear and a lot of other stuff, while only losing access to missile weapons was really loving good

Yeah, Cavaliers and Inquisitors are both good. Inquisitors are a one-man disarmament program for the arms race of late BG2 magic.

Berserkers are very straightforward and dangerous, since their rage makes them immune to basically everything that would slow down or disable them. Dual-classing Berserker to Cleric is apparently pretty legit.

Fighter/Mages and Blades are both good hybrid characters, Blades being much better for levelling up and ease-of-use while F/Ms get stronger in the end. Dual-classing a Kensai to Mage at level 7 or 9 is the classic cheese method.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 14:31

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

DeadButDelicious posted:

In people's experience is it worth/enjoyable dualling a kensai at 13 to a thief or is it too much of a pita to get your kensai levels back and 9 is more preferable (Dillbag above said that dualling at 9 meant that they got their skills back at the end of SoD which seems... Fine?)

From everything I've heard it's a tremendous slog to get things going if you dual at 13. 7 is the sweet spot for Fighter dualling since you get your extra 1/2 attack and it's absolutely trivial to get the XP to activate your lost levels.

Go for 9 if you're really jonesing for the extra proficiency point, 2d10 hp and +1 hit and damage a Kensai would get. Otherwise... Ehhh.

e: And like Meyer's-Briggs said, although the Kensai is the classic cheese option, Berserker is actually better. BG1 early levels are trivialised by the Berserk HP bonus and you're not having to give up armour.

Zeerust fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Jun 7, 2019

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 15:58

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

While I do like the simplicity of BG's interpretation and how every class is distinct, I've read the rules for 2e P&P and honestly it looks like a nightmare. There's so much stuff going on and overlapping resolution systems that I don't see how it's really playable outside of massive houseruling. Which, obviously, is what people did, and why people enjoyed it.

The THAC0 system of armour class and attack rolls is extremely elegant as a step forward from hit charts, but from an objective standpoint it's way more complicated than it needs to be. Subtraction is always harder for a brain to process on the fly than addition, and 3e was right to flip everything to 'higher numbers are better', even 3e was garbage for different reasons.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 19:06

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

chaosapiant posted:

I always felt the opposite regarding Thac0. Its a number to beat, so lower is always better. Like Golf. It never seemed unintuitive to me, but I also played PnP back in my teen years.

I don't hate THAC0, and was fine with it as soon as I understood how it worked, but you have to admit it becomes mindbending when you get into the negative numbers. "Okay, so my THAC0 is -8, and the enemy's AC is -4, so I just... I..."

the other problem is that in 2e, not everything is roll under. Skill rolls are (which, tying them to ability scores? terrible idea), then saving throws are roll over iirc. It's not consistent.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 19:48

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Don't get me wrong, I really like 2e as well, partly due to playing the Baldur's Gate games incessantly for the last 20ish years and partly due to recently running OSR stuff that converts 2e/AD&D content over. The systems aren't perfectly designed and contain a lot of janky poo poo, but the presentation and style of 2e captures my imagination in a way later editions and adaptations just can't.

There's a lot of argument over correct game design, and there should always be the drive to building something coherent and mechanically sound, but sometimes a game just manages to foster a positive experience despite 'bad' design, by accident or otherwise.

Zeerust fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Jun 8, 2019

# ¿ Jun 8, 2019 20:44

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

How does THAC0 work with dual classing? Do you get the combined THAC0s of your overall class levels once you reactivate your first class?

# ¿ Jun 12, 2019 20:46

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

If I'm going Fighter > Mage, what's a good weapon proficiency to push for? I know Flail of Ages is generally considered mondo OP, but the Free Action intrinsic seems like a mixed blessing since it stops you getting hasted and you won't have access to Whirlwind Attack to balance it out. Looking at the list, am I right in thinking Axes or Scimitars would also be good options? I'm going to drop a point in Hammers to dual-wield Crom Faeyr.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2019 11:33

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Nearly broke the slave quest by... going to the compound without fully exploring the Copper Coronet. Was wondering why no one seemed to care about me freeing the kiddies

All good though, wiki'ed it to see what's up and got to do a "I've already solved that" dialogue response

I first solved that sidequest accidentally by walking straight into a restricted area instead of the viewing area for the fighting pits, and only like last year did I find the spot Lehtinan was directing you to. :saddowns:

# ¿ Jun 23, 2019 11:06

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Just out of interest, does anyone know if the Cavalier's fear immunity stops the berserk effect from that +3 two-handed sword?

Zeerust fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jun 24, 2019

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 15:10

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I think the problem they're referring to is your PCs randomly switching targets in the middle of combat. I've had it happen to me and it's infuriating.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2019 19:47

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

I don't turn it off, because I don't want to micromanage my party for every trash mob I run into. I would also like it to not slow fights down by having my PCs arbitrarily change their targets. Don't be asinine.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2019 22:20

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Turning off AI stops your party members from doing anything under their own initiative. They won't even respond to enemies engaging them in melee, let alone seeking new targets after they've killed one.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2019 22:51

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

sweet geek swag posted:

I assure you, I play with the AI off all the time, and my characters are constantly retargeting. If you order them to attack they will continue to attack all enemies in range of their currently equipped weapon from their current position until they are all dead. Once all enemies in range of their weapon are down you will have to manually retarget them.

Edit: Just to be clear, here is some raw footage from the LP I'm doing. I order my people to attack once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMMTZYqOYh0

Funnily enough, before my quoted response I went back and tested it myself - I sent my party to stand next to some ogres and they did nothing, I set my protag to fight one and when it was dead they just stood there without choosing a new target. Turns out, if you tell your PCs to attack as a party they do select new targets as you describe.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2019 06:34

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

7 if you want to reactivate your Kensai levels by the end of BG1, 9 if you want more Fighter HP and an extra +1 THAC0 and damage. Personally I'd go for the former.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2019 19:50

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

Is it only from the Enhanced Editions onwards that the Int limit on spell levels? I don't remember Imoen or other sub-18 int mages not being able to cast 9th level spells.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 15:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:20

Zeerust: May 1, 2008; They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.

If you're playing the Enhanced Editions, Hexxat is a Thief.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2019 10:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stopping at Infinity: Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, Planescape:Torment.

«‹›4 »