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.

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

MegaGatts posted:

How did you get bracers on that guy? I thought monks were restricted from them.

Nope. There's even some gauntlets/bracers specifically made for monks. In the Sahuagin city taking a certain side (I never ever remember which one) gets you gauntlets that increase unarmed THAC0 and damage by 4.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 23:50

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 02:20

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Tenacious J posted:

but I'm sort of new to BG2 (I've started playing it a dozen times but never went too far). I am basically familiar with the game mechanics. I just bought BG2:EE and think I'll seriously play through it this time. My problem is that I have never liked managing a party - is it possible and fun to play through with just one character? Maybe two would be ok if that's fun.

If so, any recommendations? I heard something about making a kensai, 5 points into quarterstaves, and going to get the staff of magi right in the beginning? Thanks.

I would love it if you tried to do this.

You can dual class a Kensai to a mage and you'd certainly be able to solo the game - or take a support character with you like Anomen or Aerie. You can solo the game with any class. I did a paladin team up once and strolled through with my Undead Hunter and Keldorn. If you dislike micromanaging a party but want as many gameplay options as possible you might want to do a multiclass character like a Cleric/Thief or Fighter/Druid. You can multiclass as 3 classes, for instance a Fighter/Mage/Thief but this might not be ideal unless you also have an experience cap remover mod.

Factor_VIII posted:

any surviving vampires

pft

# ¿ Nov 23, 2013 09:46

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

jBrereton posted:

I like how people playing allegedly good characters are hankering for the "kill literally everyone who helped you but may be engaged in things that are Bad Form" approach here.

OK so you have Bodhi's crew and the Shadow Thieves. Do you then pop down to the Government District to generally take out the trash, Punisher-style? Every Cowled Wizard, maybe? (not that they can't just go to a different plane for a bit and wait it out or whatever Because Magic). After that, do you hang around being some kind of weird dictator to stop anyone possibly evil getting near power?

Hey does anyone remember the opening cutscene of Baldur's Gate at all?

I have taken out pretty much all of Athkatla with a post-Underdark solo chaotic evil half-orc barbarian before

so racist

# ¿ Nov 23, 2013 19:12

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Suspicious posted:

Chaotic commands is important to protect against their psionic blast spam. If they manage to stun someone, the enemy AI will beeline to that party member and attack. All hits vs. incapacitated targets are basically automatic (+10 or +15 bonus to THAC0? something like that), so he or she will die very quickly to brain drain.

There's not a bonus to hitting incapacitated targets, it's just automatic. In the feedback there's no roll to hit shown, as there is against a normal enemy, it just shows the damage done.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 07:34

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

LibbyM posted:

Can your alignment actually change in bg1/2? I don't remember. I remember having a game of NWN2 where I was a chaotic good warlock, and then I made too many lawful decisions and wasn't allowed to level up anymore.

General Emergency posted:

No, your alignment is static in BG1/2.

This is incorrect - you can change alignment at the end of SoA (only to Evil though) I don't think that your alignment changes if you become a Fallen Paladin/Ranger but I'm not certain.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 11:47

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Welp, that's why I don't try Ironman runs. My Jester moved Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Montaron and Xvar north to get the Ankheg treasure. In spite of trying to avoid all combat everyone dies except my Jester. I pick up the loot, get Ajantis and run south. While travelling in the area south of the Friendly Arm Inn Ajantis is killed by a Gibberling that does 12 damage on a single hit and my Jester runs away straight into a group of kobolds. RIP.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 22:52

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

I thought of doing an Ironman Jester and a solo Ranger/Cleric multi but decided I had it backwards. I'm now strolling around the Sword Coast confusing things for shits and giggles. I had a look at Rogue Rebalancing but decided against it. I don't really find Confusion to be overpowered - as it only lasts for 1 round you can hardly rely on it in a fight.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2013 23:58

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Factor_VIII posted:

His constitution is great, though his strength (16) and dexterity (12) aren't that great. I guess you could slap the gauntlets of dexterity or strength or the belt of strength from the enhanced edition to turn him into a physical stat juggernaut, though that would deny these items to other characters. He does have the advantage that he can get grandmastery though and he does level faster than rangers, paladins or multiclass PCs so he certainly has advantages.

This was exactly what I did. He was the only tank, everyone else had ranged weapons so it worked well

# ¿ Dec 6, 2013 21:46

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Ugly In The Morning posted:

Don't they end up with +5 weapons for hands and immune to anything less than a +3, in addition to their punch that can kill things instantly and insane AC bonus?

This is like a legend of a monk that has grown in the telling

IIRC Their fists end up +4, they're immune to normal weapons, they have an ability that makes anything they hit for 1 round save vs death or die and their AC gets better as they level up but as they can't wear armor or shields it never gets insane.

They do also end up with a natural 83% magic resistance, immunity to slow, poison, disease, charm, move amazingly quickly and have +2 to saves vs spells

Iggles fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Dec 7, 2013

# ¿ Dec 7, 2013 21:11

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Does anyone know for sure how spells that have a level-based duration work with dual classed characters? I was thinking about a Cleric of Lathandar dualled to Fighter at level 6, which lets you get to level 8 in BG and wondered how long Boon of Lathandar would last for as it's meant to be 6 seconds/round according to the kit description, though I know that's not always accurate.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2013 01:05

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Iggles posted:

Does anyone know for sure how spells that have a level-based duration work with dual classed characters? I was thinking about a Cleric of Lathandar dualled to Fighter at level 6, which lets you get to level 8 in BG and wondered how long Boon of Lathandar would last for as it's meant to be 6 seconds/round according to the kit description, though I know that's not always accurate.

Skwirl posted:

I'm pretty sure it just counts the levels of whichever class is casting the spell. So level 8 in this example.

Taliesyn posted:

Actually, he said cleric dual-classed to fighter at 6, so it would be cast at level 6 (cleric 6/fighter 8). Other than that, though, you're correct.

I timed how long it lasted irl (CLUA'd the exp to test it) and it lasted a minute. Which doesn't make much sense to me.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2013 07:38

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Zephro posted:

If I wanted to solo BG2, or perhaps even BG1 and BG2, is there a class combo that stands out from the others as far as raw power goes?

Ranger/Cleric multiclass. Get all divine spells while staying a good natural fighter that can then buff to a great fighter.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2013 14:12

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Angry Lobster posted:

The casting failure effect is only marginally useful, so don't bother trying to abuse it.

Sorry but this is bollocks. The casting failure effect makes any mage encounter trivial - especially the final fight with Irenicus

Factor_VIII posted:

Maybe Aerie wanted to have a child in order to use it to bind CHARNAME to her. A possible solution for the PC might have been to kill Aerie and then instruct the priest raising her not to bring the fetus back to life as well.

Maybe people would have paid more attention to the baby if you could use it for something. E.g. having it so that if you drop it on the ground when running away from a monster causes the monster to stop pursuing the PC and to go for the baby instead.

Iggles fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Dec 14, 2013

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 03:03

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

verybad posted:

oh, did I happen to mention that the clone in Irenicus' dungeon dropped a scroll of simulacrum?

I've seen high level scrolls spawned in the room with Khalid's corpse. It seems 95% chance it's a worthless gem and 5% an amazing scroll.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 21:04

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Azuth0667 posted:

Is it possible to do watcher's keep in the Shadows of Amn part of the game and do you have to do it all in one go? I was thinking about making a run at the first level early for foebane.

Yes and no.

Don't do it too early because if you're low-level the guy who drops it as loot doesn't spawn. Unfortunately I don't know the cut off point for this.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2013 04:08

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

amanasleep posted:

They are all fun for different reasons.

R/C Multi is the easiest. No frills powergaming. Have fun in the late game with your Greater Whirlwinds/Globe of Blades and your Hardiness/Armor of Faith combos.

Duals have some interesting effects but generally require long waits as a vanilla cleric for the latent Ranger class to kick in. There is good reason to believe that the easiest dual is unkitted Ranger->Cleric at 9:

Beastmaster->Cleric should dual at 13, requiring a total of 2.85 mill XP meaning don't expect to have fun with this in SoA unless solo. Can only be proficient in Clubs, Staves, and Slings and gets in return insane access to Animal Summoning 1, 2, and 3 (and Find Familiar). Neat, but not worth it.

Stalker->Cleric should dual at 13 also, gaining x3 backstabs and Haste, Minor Spell Deflection, and Pro Normal Missiles as 3rd level priest spells (ie virtually unlimited). As mentioned previously this is like a Fighter/Thief/Druid/Cleric multiclass with a few mage spells thrown in. Very flexible.

Archer->Cleric can dual at 9 or 13. **Not for the faint of heart** Say goodbye to grandmastery in bows and hello to regular specialization in slings! Why? You can use Called Shot to inflict huge save vs. spell penalties on tough opponents before hitting them with trash save or else spells like Poison and Slay Living. You can give these penalties an area of effect by appying them to Fire Seeds. You can Strength Drain people with Energy Blades. Throw history's deadliest Magical Stone spell. Whee!

I did mine the opposite way and went from Priest of Lathandar to Ranger. Boon of Lathandar is an incredible, er, boon to being a good tank. IIRC I dualled at level 17, which meant the Ranger didn't get many HLAs but as he could do 400 damage per round without them it didn't matter too much. Solo, obviously.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2013 15:42

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Leofish posted:

Why 17? For the extra 7th level spell? I would think either 14 or 15 would make the most sense. You get level 7 magic at 14 and at 15, I think, is when you get an extra Hold Undead, no?

Yeah, I definitely wanted more than one level 7 slot. I'd never want to be without Greater Restoration but it's hard to not have a Nature's Beauty.

Hold Undead was pretty irrelevant. I don't think I used it, or even needed to use it, once.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2013 17:14

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Sleep of Bronze posted:

aTweaks for all your needs. Like, all of them. Install this mod now.
Table 5: Table of old and new rewards for evil quest paths juxtaposed with rewards for good quest paths.

Old Evil / New Evil / Good

Advance to Chapter 3 - 36,750 xp / 45,000 xp / 45,000 xp
Trademeet - 2,000 gold / 37,500 xp, 3,000 gold, Jade Hound, 5 Blessed Bolts / 18,000 xp, 2,000 gold

I agree with the aims of the mod but these two feel excessive. Why would Evil Trademeet be so much more beneficial than Good now? Also, I think it's fair that Bodhi gives you less experience as you get better items doing her path - and of course she's winning so you're picking the easier path.

Iggles fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Dec 29, 2013

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 12:00

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

I thought you stil fought Faldorn after poisoning the grove after she loses her superpowers? It might not be for the same xp as the challenge though? I'm playing a solo evil jester now so I'll report back

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 12:06

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Sleep of Bronze posted:

The good path for Trademeet has the Heroes of Trademeet note for a reason. There's gold, XP and rep gains in the followup quests for you too, which the evil route locks you out of completely. And statues of yourself are cool, yo.

I think if anyone wanted to go the evil route they'd complete the Djinn quest first so that's a large slice of the gold (IIRC) and another Shield of Harmony. Can't argue with the statues though. I made sure that all my party were shapeshifted in some way once so the heroes were a rat, werewolf, wolf, spider, flind and jelly.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 15:09

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Well that was unexpected - my Jester now confuses and slows with her song at level 15. Does anyone know what other changes happen with progression?

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 15:49

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

VodeAndreas posted:

It should be listed in the Kit Description on your character record screen.

Hahaha you think the kit description screen is accurate. You haven't played BG2 very much obviously. It's better than the manual I suppose

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 17:26

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Thanks Samopsa, that's very useful. It might be worse for my playthrough. She's been turning groups against themselves, which is harder when they're slowed/unconcious. I might amend the effect to just give a penalty to enemy saves vs Confusion rather than different effects with progression but :effort:

Obviously slow/unconscious is very useful for a party but in a solo game not so much. Maybe if I've just buffed up fully and can do godlike damage in the round following knocking them unconscious.

Iggles fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Dec 29, 2013

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 18:42

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

You could just have bought/Console'd in a scroll of Freedom

# ¿ Dec 30, 2013 23:10

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Jabor posted:

Dual-classing is for minmaxing spergs who want to really suffer through the challenges in the midgame, in exchange for a little extra power at the endgame where you're usually ridiculously overpowered anyway (that's why I do it all the time ).

I don't find it suffering, I think it's a lot of fun to go through some mid-game encounters as a low-level peon. It tends to help you think of innovative solutions. I remember one of my most satisfying moments was taking out an Umber Hulk in the Umar Hills with a level 3 Thief. Of course if you're clever about it you can easily arrange enough easy xp to be available after dualling that your level quickly gets up into the teens.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2014 13:45

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Hughlander posted:

Cursed belt of hill giant strength (sets strength to 19 but int to 6)

It would be quite funny if that actually raised your INT due to you minmaxing

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 22:58

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

verybad posted:

The thing is you can't actually buy potions of master thievery until you reach Baldur's Gate, but all the items you listed are accessible way before that

Erdane at Durlag's Tower has loads of them. Even if you can't fight past the doomguards to get to the tower you can stock up on some equipment there early on.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2014 01:02

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Entropy238 posted:

Certainly don't see how it could be any stronger than Fighter/Mage or Ranger/Cleric in the long run

Corvinus posted:

Weimar's fix makes the Greater Werewolf overpowered, even for ToB. GW form sets STR/DEX/CON to something like 25/20/25, regens at 3 HP/s, gives base 50% elemental resist and 40% MR, and the paw is a +3 dagger that hits for 2d8 and gives a plain Shapeshifter Druid 3 APR, which translates into 5 APR really easily with a shapeshifter/fighter dual. Need to hit something like a demi-lich? Just offhand the paw and mainhand Spectral Brand or Club of Detonation.

You didn't mention the greater werebears that replace the mountain bears in Conjure Animals. They said it was to make them a viable alternative to Summon Fire Elemental but what they actually did was to make a couple of bears who can literally take down a dragon (the Shadow Dragon. I just stood back and watched).

# ¿ Jan 7, 2014 09:09

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Factor_VIII posted:

PS: Maybe someone could try playing a character who's a priest of Eldath, the goddess of peace, and try to complete a pacifist run of BG.

A good few years ago I tried completing SoA while killing as few people as possible. IIRC it's absolutely necessary to kill about 40 people/monsters without exploiting bugs or anything. This includes:

The mephit portals
A few vampires
The kobolds, Dace Sontan, some goblins, 2 spore colonies in Spellhold
Adalon (I think that's the Underdark exit with least killing)
Bodhi
The guardians of the Tree of Life parasites
Wraith Sarevok
Irenicus

There's probably some that you could arrange for others to kill (Bodhi being the obvious example) but I think Imprisoning would just be semantics.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 21:04

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

I just had a hell of a lot of trouble with the greater werewyvern in the entrance to Abazigal's lair. I don't remember him ever being especially hard so could his regeneration have become bugged? My Jester has 8 APR for 20-28 damage, Fireshields red and blue and throwing spells at him but just could not kill him. A couple of times I got him down to Near Death but he got scared, ran off and was back at full health very quickly. Eventually I killed him by using a bundle of traps after he'd run out of sight.

The Ravager was also very difficult. I had to use up my Spell Sequencer of 3 x Skull Trap that I'd been hoarding all game, as well as using 4 x Ring of the Ram via Vhailor's Helm.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2014 10:19

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Abilifier posted:

I'm just saying scrolls of Freedom aren't exactly rare, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem to just free the deva.

What? Yes they are. The only ones you can buy in SoA are in the Underdark or Adventurer's Mart after completing the Underdark.

Entropy238 posted:

Viconia got changed to a fighter/cleric with the same stats as Anomen because I couldn't face using Anomen because he's Anomen. Nothing interesting here - she became a standard FoA/Crom or DoE wielding monster like other cleric based characters towards the end of the game. Boring but effective. As the game progressed it became harder and harder to keep her in the front line because of her low CON so I could only really throw her in the thick of things properly with Armor of Faith, Hardiness and DoE stacking physical resists. Mages completely wrecked her at every point in the game.

#1 Why do you not give her the Girdle of Fortitude?
#2 How can Viconia get owned by mages when she has 65% natural MR? Do they use a lot of Lower Resistance? If so that would give you a fair bit of time to take them out, no?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 10:34

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

OregonDonor posted:

Are Rings/Cloaks of Protection +k worthwhile in BG2? It seems pretty easy to compensate for the AC and THAC0 bonuses and still be able to use other magical gear.

It depends on your party and equipment of course. +1 start off useful but become less so when you get some Dragon armors and some useful rings. I think the Rings and Cloaks +2 (and especially the Ring +3) should definitely be used in a 6-person party. You can get an extra Ring +2 in Hell and I have toyed with the idea of forgoing the PC's elemental resistances to get it. Probably not worth it on the whole.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 23:47

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

GreatGreen posted:

They did, but if everybody is mostly ok, you still have to rest multiple times for your sorcerers to get all their spells back.

Maybe it would be easier if you could just make resting always last 24 hours.

Sorry but that's just bollocks - every time you rest you regain all spells,no matter your party's health. You're doing something wrong

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 22:07

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

MegaGatts posted:

I don't know if it still works in ee, but you used to be able to equip the rod of terror with the ring of human influence. The ring will keep your charisma at 18 but the rod will reduce your actual stat. So if you start with a stat at 3 you would need to see 4 messages of attribute changes. Be careful, if you miscount and take it off when your stat is at 0, game over. But if the bug still works the 4th charisma modification will roll you over to 25. The beat way to do this was to just wail on a ko'ed troll.

Leaving aside the sheer pointlessness of not just using Shadowkeeper, what else could you rollover?

CHA - as above
STR - use any belt and letting a couple of Shadows attack you
WIS - equipping Hrothgar's Axe and the Silver Ioun Stone and getting hit by Kachiko's Wazikashi (tough as you'd need a low, odd starting WIS and high attacking APR as the effect only lasts 2 rounds)
DEX - Gauntlets of Dexterity and Haer Dalis' Chaos Blade
CON - Girdle of Fortitude and Find (then kill) Familiar?
INT - The reduction via Illithid would be easy but I'm struggling to think of an INT booster apart from Golden Ioun Stone which as it's just +1 wouldn't help I guess

Iggles fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Mar 2, 2014

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 22:25

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Factor_VIII posted:

Do thrown daggers have an advantage over thrown axes though? The Azuredge Axe +3 is available at the Copper Coronet and can theoretically be purchased right after a PC exits from Irenicus' dungeon. The same applies to the Rifthome Axe +3, which is found in the Adventurer's Mart.

I don't think Rifthome is found in the Adventurer's Mart, I've only ever seen it when doing Bodhi's tasks.

There's Hangard's Axe, which is similar but only +2.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2014 19:41

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

Hollismason posted:

What was the spell mod again that put Icewind Dale spells in BG2 and BG?

Yeah Jaheira is really good. That experience climb to beyond level15 for Druids is steep though. Then when you hit it you have so many spell slots.

God yes, I had to grind out 3mil experience just to get Jaheira to level 15 before the final fights. Cue a bunch of resting in the marching mountains. And that was after starting ToB with 4mil experience. Worth it to have 7 elemental prince castings though.

I did a 2 handed weapon gimmick party - fighter thief pc, Jaheira, Mazzy, Valygar, Keldorn, Minsc/Sarevok. Hard going in the middle of SoA but jesus did they kill things quick when I got some whirlwinds.

Starting a new game as an Archer and I just rolled 101 :stare:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2016 21:02

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

fong posted:

Thats a pretty insane roll. To put it into perspective for you, even a bot rolling 100 times a second would take 33 days to get 101.

e: that doesn't account for stat minimums actually. Rangers have kinda high stat minimums, and I'm not good enough at stats to figure out the answer in that case.

Wow, that is crazy. I only took about a minute and would have been happy with 90s. 101 is just so far above anythingt I'd seen before. A bit sad I didn't do it in bg1

# ¿ Jun 21, 2016 16:10

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 02:20

Iggles: Nov 24, 2004; By Jove! Commoners!

bike tory posted:

Nah the watcher's keep you access in SoA is different from the one in TOB. You can do it twice in one playthrough if you really want, but if you stash your stuff there in SOA it'll be gone in TOB because it's technically a different area.

While you're right about putting things in chests, anything you sell to Sister Garlena in SoA you can buy back in ToB

HoboTech posted:

Holy poo poo, does the Jester stay as broken in BG2 as they are in BG1?

No because enemies will be making their saving throws. And if they don't they're fodder anyway. There are more useful things your Jester can do every round.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2019 04:02

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