Attempting to finish Baldur's Gate for the 7TH TIME!

[DraQ]

If you have 19-20 rep, Xan won't join no matter what. Same with evil rep (5 and below I think). Adjantis and Xan can get into some discussions but they won't kill themselves and/or leave. Of course, I only remember trying that combo once, so I can't say for sure.

But I think I've heard somewhere that those discussions put some serious damper on Ajantis' murderous rage once he starts to wind up.

 

[Shadenuat]

I tested TuTu + NPC Mod and joined Xan in my group with 20 Rep. Characters like Viconia did't join or ran away if I hit 19 rep. So Xan is probably vanilla thing. I don't remember what else to expect, as last time I played vanilla I did a solo run.

 

[almondblight]

For example, we have someone like Kagain, who is generally lawful evil and loves his golds more than everything else apart from maybe beer. High rep should make the fucker content for purely selfish reasons because people like you, are more inclined to give you stuff and give you better prices, therefore more golds, but fucking no.

Yeah, the same thing with Jaheira. She'll cheer you at first if you are rescuing puppies or whatever, but rescue too many puppies, and she'll complain, so you have to murder a villager or something to make her happy. Of course, you don't have to murder the person if you don't rescue the puppies. It's about "balance", apparently, which ends up being psychotic.

Anyone seen that movie Spoorloos/The Vanishing? True neutrals are kind of like the psycho there.

 

[SCO]

If you have viconia in your party she lowers your reputation by 2 ... permanently.

I don't remember if that's enough to be permanently "neutral".

Even so, i think some wankers, like Shar-Steel, may leave if they remain for enough time on the party.
Not Vic though. Guess she has nowhere else to go.

The reputation is also a problem when you ask a npc to leave the party. If they like your reputation, they'll stay where they are (or meet you somewhere with the right mod). If they don't, they'll leave forever.
There's a absurd situation here with Jaheira and Khalid. Jaheira (without mods) is true neutral, so if you are outside her range, she leaves forever and takes Khalid. Khalid is good. So he waits if you are good - so you need to ask the right one of them to leave.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Honestly I never understood why people make premade 6 man parties to make combat easy/powergame/blabla. BG2 combat is already shitty/broken/beyond easy. BG2 is all about the story, the NPCS, the locations, the "fantasy world" and "epic saga" and all that guilty pleasure shit (I really enjoyed it when I played it as a teen even though I skipped through 95% of dialogue since my english reading comprehension was horrible, maybe I'll replay it some day now for nostalgia value if anything). It was really enjoyable to romance that bitch Viconia and get that bittersweet ending at the end of ToB, it was the first time I've ever seen that happen in a video game and it was novelty if anything. I know it's probably bad from the "literary point of view" or something but who gives a shit

 

[octavius]

Honestly I never understood why people make premade 6 man parties to make combat easy/powergame/blabla. BG2 combat is already shitty/broken/beyond easy. BG2 is all about the story, the NPCS, the locations, the "fantasy world" and "epic saga" and all that guilty pleasure shit (I really enjoyed it when I played it as a teen even though I skipped through 95% of dialogue since my english reading comprehension was horrible, maybe I'll replay it some day now for nostalgia value if anything). It was really enjoyable to romance that bitch Viconia and get that bittersweet ending at the end of ToB, it was the first time I've ever seen that happen in a video game and it was novelty if anything. I know it's probably bad from the "literary point of view" or something but who gives a shit

Funny, to me BG2 is mostly about character development and fun combat (after I got used to the RTwP system), thanks to excellent encounter design. It's so much more fun to encounter bounty hunters, assassins and other adventurer parties than yet another group of generic monsters.
Most of the NPCs are nice and a welcome change from the form-your-own-squad formula. The story is also good compared to most CRPGs, although I got really tired of the dream cut scenes.
The romances I couldn't really care less about, but I enjoyed the party banter and insults between party members.

 

[Cynic]

I just did the encounter with Kirian, Lindin, Baerin and Peter in the Basilisk area. That was a good one. They hacked me to pieces the first time, due to summoning some strong Worgs, second time round I charmed it with my ranger, held person with my dude on their fighter and generally fucked them up pretty bad. Good times.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Honestly I never understood why people make premade 6 man parties to make combat easy/powergame/blabla. BG2 combat is already shitty/broken/beyond easy. BG2 is all about the story, the NPCS, the locations, the "fantasy world" and "epic saga" and all that guilty pleasure shit (I really enjoyed it when I played it as a teen even though I skipped through 95% of dialogue since my english reading comprehension was horrible, maybe I'll replay it some day now for nostalgia value if anything). It was really enjoyable to romance that bitch Viconia and get that bittersweet ending at the end of ToB, it was the first time I've ever seen that happen in a video game and it was novelty if anything. I know it's probably bad from the "literary point of view" or something but who gives a shit

the things that really break BG2's combat and make it easy mode are fairly obscure, unintuitive tricks that you really have to go out of your way to research.

if you don't do that, the combat holds up fine.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Cynic
Have you installed difficulty mods like Improved Anvil or SCS?

 

[Aeschylus]

the things that really break BG2's combat and make it easy mode are fairly obscure, unintuitive tricks that you really have to go out of your way to research.

if you don't do that, the combat holds up fine.

Having the spell reflecting cloak completely breaks combat, but other than that I agree it's pretty good. Some class combinations are a bit overpowered -- multi-classed fighter/mage in particular, but I agree that combat overall is pretty solid. Definitely not *hard*, beyond one or two encounters, but solid.

 

[Cynic]

Cynic
Have you installed difficulty mods like Improved Anvil or SCS?

Nah, I don't have time for a million reloads. I'm basically going through on Core Rules and using zero exploits. Basically going into every fight blind, no pre buffing, no reloading when my chars roll a 1 when leveling up for HP, trying not to rest until the team is exhausted. No metagaming to get all the phat lootz either. It makes a big difference and feels a lot better this way.

 

[Incantatar]

I seriously recommend playing BG1&2 either with the SCS mods or with minimal reloads. BG1 is not that hard to do without any reloads at all.

Another thing. Many people complain about the RTwP combat. It is entire possible to play the game turn based, although you do need a whole lot of experience. For an example look for the posts on the bioware forums of Alesia_BH and Saros_Shadow_Follower. They are the most hardcore players i know and the game is purely a tactical chess game for them. The basic thing is to know when the char's aura is cleansed, so he can do another standard action.

 

[octavius]

Cynic
Have you installed difficulty mods like Improved Anvil or SCS?

Nah, I don't have time for a million reloads. I'm basically going through on Core Rules and using zero exploits. Basically going into every fight blind, no pre buffing, no reloading when my chars roll a 1 when leveling up for HP, trying not to rest until the team is exhausted. No metagaming to get all the phat lootz either. It makes a big difference and feels a lot better this way.

This is how I play most CRPGs too, but in the IE games I use a stealthed or invisible character to scout the area and then buff if needed.
I also use SCS for a fair challenge (high level paranoid mages will cast Detect Illusion on the scout, for example).

The basic thing is to know when the char's aura is cleansed, so he can do another standard action.

What do you mean by "aura cleansed"?

 

[Incantatar]

It sounds strange i know but the wording is in the engine. It basically means you can do an action like casting a spell, using an ability or an item. Things you can only do once per round. You have these actions, but also have e.g. movement and attacks. So a good caster casts a spell, moves around and attacks all in one round until he is able to cast another spell.

 

[Cynic]

Can I install SCS after starting a game?

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Can I install SCS after starting a game?

http://www.gibberlings3.net/readmes/readme-scs.html

You don't need to start a new game to install SCS. It's recommended that you do, though - SCS affects things right through the game and if you install it part-way through, you'll almost certainly miss things.

 

[Incantatar]

It's not like you miss quests or items or something. Go ahead. You should start it slowly and only install some AI stuff without prebuffing. Even i hate AI prebuffing because i larp and like to avoid metagaming encounters.
SCS is fucking great but you shouldn't think the AI doesn't cheat. It does cheat if you won't install certain tweaks also for yourself, so don't hesitate and get some tweaks too.

 

[Cynic]

Well I installed it and didn't like the sound of prebuffing so I didn't put those parts in. I loaded up my game and suddenly got instattacked by some bounty hunters on the streets of Beregrost which wasted me like 5 times before I beat their asses solidly. Liking it already.

 

[waywardOne]

Lol yeah. He moved the hunters around so they're triggered by events instead of waiting somewhere for you to stumble across, so you might've accumulated one or more groups. Fortunately there's still a timer to separate the groups.

 

[sigma1932]

[Drizzt] can be killed but you need cheese.

I killed Drizzt in BG1 with a solo single-classed mage and no monster-summoning or pathfinding cheese... straight up one-on-one battle.

I also killed Shandalar and his script-spammed spells, and I also beat Sarevok and all 4 of his cronies without pulling them individually.

A big part of the fun of the BG1 is figuring out how to do stuff like this with the XP cap since once you do hit the cap, you can't just say "I'll come back in a few levels"... instead you have to make what you have available work, which is what RPG's are all about.

Sololing everything in BG1+TotSC (haven't done BG2 yet-- starteda few times but kept getting sidetracked and forgetting about it) is still one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I've ever had.

Overall its worth to take him out, since he had the boots of speed and the +3/+5LG swords

He doesn't drop boots of speed in BG1 (those come from another named enemy) even though he has the haste effect on him... instead, he drops Chainmail +2 or +3 (don't remember for sure since I never used it), and two +3 scimitars, but one listed as a +5 gives +2 AC and +3 tohit/damage.

Bros, I am also noticing that I am gaining levels VERY fast. What is the meaning of this?
...
I've done almost all the side quests

You answered your own question...

 

[Thor Kaufman]

[Drizzt] can be killed but you need cheese.

I killed Drizzt in BG1 with a solo single-classed mage and no monster-summoning or pathfinding cheese... straight up one-on-one battle.

You answered your own question...

How did you kill him? By buffing up and beating him with a stick and mirror image?
I guess one can call a lot of stuff cheese, who cares, anyway.
He can also be killed with a decent high level thief and backstabs btw.


Shandalar is most easily killed by using a few vampiric touches/magic missiles on him iirc. Or try to use the wand of paralyzation (that one is pretty imba anyway)

 

[Incantatar]

[Drizzt] can be killed but you need cheese.

I killed Drizzt in BG1 with a solo single-classed mage and no monster-summoning or pathfinding cheese... straight up one-on-one battle

How did you kill him? I played so many mages but never a really evil one.

Edit:

By buffing up and beating him with a stick and mirror image?

The buffs wouldn't last long enough for melee only.

 

[sigma1932]

How did you kill him? I played so many mages but never a really evil one.

Like this:

By buffing up and beating him with a stick and mirror image?

Only makes sense considering his 98% MR makes offensive spells useless.

The real problem lies more in getting your Thac0 low enough to hit him reliably and then being able to do enough damage when you do hit him rather than putting up defensive measures (although buffing your AC as much as possible is still pretty significant so you don't have to waste time re-casting Mirror Image).

I'll leave it up to you to figure out the overall gear/buffing scheme... but I'll give you a two hints:
1) Knave's/Adventurer's/Traveller's Robes (whichever gives +1 AC vs. slashing) are better than Robes of the Archmagi
2) You'll want to buff your STR for the bonus to Thac0 and damage.

Shandalar is most easily killed by using a few vampiric touches and magic missiles on him iirc.

IIRC, Vampiric Touch requires a to-hit roll, so you'll need to crit with it a couple times in a row between re-casting it. In theory, I think it'll work, but it's far from ideal, as is the wand (though I wouldn't go so far as to call it cheese).

The problem with Shandalar is he doesn't cast his spells, but rather is script-triggered behind the scenes to fire off the major damaging spells in the game faster than would normally be possible, and the script also makes it so they can't be interrupted (IIRC). Plus, he disappears at the end of the script, so you have a limited amount of time to take him out.

I did it like this:

Gear/Buffs:
Potion of Insulation (Immune to electricity)
Potion of Magic Shielding (saves always succeed, damage from spells reduced 50%)
Potion of Magic Protection (+50% Magic Resistance)
Robe of the Archmagi (+5% Magic Resistance)
Cloak of Balduran (+25% Magic Resistance)

Combat Sequence:
Round 1-- He's still neutral, I cast Magic Missile at him.
Round 2-- He casts Globe of Invulnerability, I cast Dispel Magic to get rid of it.
Round 3 thru end of battle-- script starts slinging useless spells-- Mostly lightning bolts (I'm immune to electricity) or save-to-negate spells (saves always succeed), and anything else is handled by 80% MR and 75% spell damage reduction from auto-saving for half-damage, and having it cut in half again by the potion. Meanwhile, I just plaster him with Magic Missles till he pops.

All in all, takes me around 6 MM's total and 1 Dispel Magic, while he takes at most a third of my HP off (20-ish HP), and kills a bunch of commoners and innocent chickens.... OH! THE POOR CHICKENS!!!!!

 

[Johannes]

IIRC, Vampiric Touch requires a to-hit roll, so you'll need to crit with it a couple times in a row between re-casting it. In theory, I think it'll work, but it's far from ideal, as is the wand (though I wouldn't go so far as to call it cheese).

It doesn't roll to hit, it's automatic. At least in BG2.

 

[Incantatar]

Some minor comments.
1. I'm pretty sure the last tactic won't work in vanilla BG1.
2. Vampiric Touch does not require a to hit roll.
3. Knave's Robe is the one giving +1 AC vs. slashing.