Let's Play - BGT with a Codex Crew

[oldmanpaco]

@waywardOne: It is. SCS is by any means the non-cheesy version of Tactics - none of the mods add many items, the reason it's non-cheesy is it relies more on tweaking AI and less on tweaking monster strength.

The items come many of Paco's other mods. I do suspect NtotSC and DSofSC of being some of the worst sinners though.

There is a balancing mod installed as part of the BiG World setup. It's supposed to tone down the items introduced by the add in mods. Apperently it does a shitty job.

The item revisions mod also really fucks up some standard items like bracers of ogre strength. Instead off putting STR to 18/00 it just increases STR by 2.

RIP Mrowakus

That was very short. I hoped I'd get to shoot white beams of energy or whatever
To die young accompanied by blasts of magick force is the fate reserved to most of the versed in arcane lore.

Con:16 <- make it at least 16 this time around :please:

To use wands all thieves and mage/sorcerer types need 14 INT. I think I took points away from CON and added them to INT when I should have dumped WIS instead. But he still had some really shitty HP rolls to only have 27 HP at level 7.

So.. until next weekend?

More than likley. I can play a few hours here and there during the week but an update usually takes 2+ hours to generate and I don't trust myself to set it up piecemeal.

Anyway I have 5 main sections to go before the end game:

1) Baldur's Gate
2) Ulgoth's Beard (Ice and Werewolf Islands)
3) Durlag's Tower
4) Northern Tales of the Sword Coast
5) Dark Side of the Sword Coast (Might skip this - did them last play-through)

Has anyone done NtotSC before? Are they interesting or shit?

 

[Grunker]

It's been a long time, but AFAIR it's pretty much shit.

 

[DraQ]

What kind of inbred do you have to be to not be able to come up with your own names for the artefacts you sprinkle about the land with retard strength generosity?
(Mod sucks, its maker is a faggot)

 

[Harold]

Holy fucking shit, you're LPing this faster than I've ever been able to play it. Never got past Baldur's Gate in the first game, it just became waaaay to tedious. Following this LP, however, is much more entertaining. Carry on, good sir!

 

[Gonchi]

Not the biggest fan of the large resolution, but do whatever works for you.

 

[Mrowak]

RIP Mrowakus

That was very short. I hoped I'd get to shoot white beams of energy or whatever
To die young accompanied by blasts of magick force is the fate reserved to most of the versed in arcane lore.

Con:16 <- make it at least 16 this time around :please:

To use wands all thieves and mage/sorcerer types need 14 INT. I think I took points away from CON and added them to INT when I should have dumped WIS instead. But he still had some really shitty HP rolls to only have 27 HP at level 7.

I may be misinterpretting what you said there but with 4 hp per level and no bonus from constitution (they start from const=15) at level 7 27hp (out of 28) is quite a lot. So the hp rolls were not only satisfactory - they were miraculously good.

Had Mrowakus had got const=16 (+2 hp per level bonus ) he would have had 41hp - quite substantial difference. I'm mentioning this not to criticise you but because there seems to be a confusion with 3rd ed rules where score 14 would net you +2 hp bonus. In D&D 2nd ed it gives you nothing (a least in BG).

Unless of course it is me who got it wrong and the mods you're using introduce 3rd ed ruleset. In that case I stand corrected.

Most of the locations in addon are banal, shit, boring. Skipping them wil be forgiven if not expected.

And use the resolution you deem most appropriate and convenient to you.

 

[Grunker]

That's true, also for BG.

15 is +1 and 16 is +2 for CON. If you're a fighter, you get +3 on 17, +4 on 18. From then on it gets more complicated; i.e. +4 on 19 but bonus to save vs. poison, +5 on 20 etc.

In reality, there's no sense to it; you have to have the tables to see what different levels in different ability scores yield.

I can find a link to them though.

 

[Nickless]

One wonders what the point of having stats in the 10-14 range is from a mechanical perspective in second edition (Not BG)

 

[Grunker]

One wonders what the point of having stats in the 10-14 range is from a mechanical perspective in second edition (Not BG)

Well, you gain bonuses to a lot of other (completely useless) stuff. Like being able to bend bars with an 8% chance instead of a 5% chance

Honestly, AD&D is just weird and makes no sense most of time. It's a rule system that contains mainly rules, and not as much system.

 

[BethesdaLove]

Image hosting converts BMP to PNG for some retarded reason.

Blondie, Thief/Assassin

 

[Grunker]

Use Picasa

 

[oldmanpaco]

RIP Mrowakus

That was very short. I hoped I'd get to shoot white beams of energy or whatever
To die young accompanied by blasts of magick force is the fate reserved to most of the versed in arcane lore.

Con:16 <- make it at least 16 this time around :please:

To use wands all thieves and mage/sorcerer types need 14 INT. I think I took points away from CON and added them to INT when I should have dumped WIS instead. But he still had some really shitty HP rolls to only have 27 HP at level 7.

I may be misinterpretting what you said there but with 4 hp per level and no bonus from constitution (they start from const=15) at level 7 27hp (out of 28) is quite a lot. So the hp rolls were not only satisfactory - they were miraculously good.

Had Mrowakus had got const=16 (+2 hp per level bonus ) he would have had 41hp - quite substantial difference. I'm mentioning this not to criticise you but because there seems to be a confusion with 3rd ed rules where score 14 would net you +2 hp bonus. In D&D 2nd ed it gives you nothing (a least in BG).

Unless of course it is me who got it wrong and the mods you're using introduce 3rd ed ruleset. In that case I stand corrected.

Most of the locations in addon are banal, shit, boring. Skipping them wil be forgiven if not expected.

And use the resolution you deem most appropriate and convenient to you.

Doh. I was thinking Mages got 6HP per level. Anyway I think I have a HP system that ensures the characters get hp rolls in the top half of what is available - 3-4 for mages ,4-6 for thieves, ect.

 

[Insane Psychic]

Great and entertaining LP, I have a question though: How'd you get all those mods to get to function with each other? I remember the last time I played BG2, it kept crashing because of the amount of mods I'd installed. Does BGT make it any easier?
Finally, are there any of your mods listed, that you wouldn't recommend at all?

 

[oldmanpaco]

Great and entertaining LP, I have a question though: How'd you get all those mods to get to function with each other? I remember the last time I played BG2, it kept crashing because of the amount of mods I'd installed. Does BGT make it any easier?
Finally, are there any of your mods listed, that you wouldn't recommend at all?

Use BiG World Setup from SHS. I would skip anything that added major content like NTotSC and DsofSC. Wish I hadn't installed them. Also not to thrilled with Item Revisions at the moment.

BTW I have about 500 screen shots in BG with about half the content done. Going to move on to some TotSC stuff for a bit though.

 

[Ulminati]

Obviously things will never reach the same lofty hights as they did before the wolves ate me.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Obviously things will never reach the same lofty hights as they did before the wolves ate me.

They unmaned you. No historical revisions in this thread.

Also - mages are real bastards with SCS. Getting a little bit frustrating.

 

[hoverdog]

that's good. real good.

 

[JrK]

Also - mages are real bastards with SCS. Getting a little bit frustrating.

For all the non cheesiness compared to Tactics SCS promises to have, they still have cheating wizards with sequencers and contingencies up the wazoo. I wouldn't mind if it was just for wizards who knew you were around the corner...

 

[Grunker]

Also - mages are real bastards with SCS. Getting a little bit frustrating.

For all the non cheesiness compared to Tactics SCS promises to have, they still have cheating wizards with sequencers and contingencies up the wazoo. I wouldn't mind if it was just for wizards who knew you were around the corner...

Well, you can reload and pre-buff, so in my eyes that mechanic in SCS is quite fair.

 

[JrK]

Fair enough. Can't say I have the tendency to prebuff, but given the limitations of the game I'd agree that makes it fair.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Also - mages are real bastards with SCS. Getting a little bit frustrating.

For all the non cheesiness compared to Tactics SCS promises to have, they still have cheating wizards with sequencers and contingencies up the wazoo. I wouldn't mind if it was just for wizards who knew you were around the corner...

Well, you can reload and pre-buff, so in my eyes that mechanic in SCS is quite fair.

The problem for me is I don't always remember when a particularly difficult wizard is going to show up. When I know they are coming I can get ready; it's the 'surprise' mages that kill people.

Have I mentioned it's a pain in the ass to keep generating party members?

 

[waywardOne]

use shadowkeeper to zero out the class level(s) and you can change everything of a character including portraits.

you may have to delete their innates and applied spells manually. still easy, though.

 

[BethesdaLove]

The problem for me is I don't always remember when a particularly difficult wizard is going to show up. When I know they are coming I can get ready; it's the 'surprise' mages that kill people.

Its ironman, you can always run?

I still cant believe that you somehow manage to kill your archers and mages when you have a thief that can become invisible and walk 50 m infront...

 

[oldmanpaco]

The problem for me is I don't always remember when a particularly difficult wizard is going to show up. When I know they are coming I can get ready; it's the 'surprise' mages that kill people.

Its ironman, you can always run?

I still cant believe that you somehow manage to kill your archers and mages when you have a thief that can become invisible and walk 50 m infront...

Running is for little girls and eunuchs.

Also most of our mage deaths have been from encounters that happen in rooms without room to maneuver. Also call lightning has killed at least four people. Damn stinking druids.

 

[waywardOne]

davidw (the scs guy) has weird targeting principles. engage ranged enemies in melee before making the vulnerable PCs available. his enemies try more to cause as much damage as possible rather than intelligently trying to win the battle.