Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Zboj Lamignat]

Ankheg is for the start, you can get it quickly and cheaply and if you're a pure druid it's a very good armour until you get the one from red dragon.

And of course I didn't imply that Totemic is amongst the strongest kits in the game, it's just the best druid kit, bar perhaps cheesing with shapeshifter and dispel, but I heavily dislike cheesing.

Edit: Also I don't really get the note about Balduran's plate? It's worse than red dragon armour.

 

[Lilura]

Ankheg is for the start, you can get it quickly and cheaply and if you're a pure druid it's a very good armour until you get the one from red dragon.

For pure Druids, yeah.

And of course I didn't imply that Totemic is amongst the strongest kits in the game, it's just the best druid kit, bar perhaps cheesing with shapeshifter and dispel, but I heavily dislike cheesing.

My cheese is sort of selective, it depends what I'm cheesing.

Edit: Also I don't really get the note about Balduran's plate? It's worse than red dragon armour.

Both have the same AC -1, but RDP has +50% fire resistance which isn't really a huge deal, fire resistance is the easiest elemental resistance to get. You have to kill a dragon to get RDP, you can get Balduran in Chapter 1, all you need is the cash.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

+50% fire resistance is surely a bigger deal than a meager hp and charisma bonus? Coupled with the ring you can find in the same dungeon you can get a constant 90% res and aggro enemies for fiery mage bombardment. But red armour wins on the ability to equip it together with protection items alone.

 

[Lilura]

+50% fire resistance is surely a bigger deal than a meager hp and charisma bonus?

Well, yeah. But AC is the most important aspect of those armors.

Coupled with the ring you can find in the same dungeon you can get a constant 90% res and aggro enemies for fiery mage bombardment. But red armour wins on the ability to equip it together with protection items alone.

When was the last time you or a companion died from fire? Just sayin' that fire resistance you have coming out of your ass, so many items and spells cover it, the AC -1 is what counts.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

And the AC potential of the red dragon plate is better, because you can combo it with ring of protection +2 (and the unique +1 ring and cloak that also don't interfere with other protection enchantments)

 

[Lilura]

And the AC potential of the red dragon plate is better, because you can combo it with ring of protection +2 (and the unique +1 ring and cloak that also don't interfere with other protection enchantments)

Rings and cloaks of protections don't stack with either armor, you must have a tweak installed to make them stack with magical armors (and themselves). In the unmodded game there are only a few things that (erroneously) stack with magical armors, like the Earth ring and Sewer cloak, I showed that in my post on page 10 how to get good SoA AC, this would work for a fighter/druid like Jaheira too:

Base AC 10
Dex bonus 6 (18 dex/dex gauntlets)
Balduran armor -5 (Or Red Dragon Plate!)
Balduran helm -6
Gaxx ring -8
Earth ring -9
Sewer cloak -10

That's without a shield, something like Harmony means -13 but -10 and dual-wielding is better. Throw up some ironskins and you're an invincible tank for SoA, at least against mundane foes.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

They do stack with red dragon plate, which is one of the things that make it superior (the other one being that's it has a better bonus).

Also, if you are going for pure ac and have unofficial fixes that make red dragon plate not stack installed there is a plate in SoA that has lower ac (you get it in the underdark). If you are playing without unofficial stuff then red dragon plate still beats it it, because it gives better ac with ring +2 and has a nice bonus (the one from the underdark has none).

 

[Lilura]

They do stack with red dragon plate, which is one of the things that make it superior (the other one being that's it has better bonuses).

Also, if you are going for pure ac and have unofficial fixes that make red dragon plate not stack installed there is a plate in SoA that has lower ac (you get it in the underdark). If you are playing without unofficial stuff then red dragon plate still beats it it, because it gives better ac with ring +2 and has a nice bonus (the one from the underdark has none).

Sorry, neither Red Dragon or Balduran plates stack with protection rings or cloaks unless you tweaked the game to allow it. I know for 100% certainty.
Drow fullplate +5 (-4 AC) crumbles when you exit the Underdark.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Rules of the game state so and it's true for magical armors, but not for red dragon plate - it does stack in the vanilla officially patched game. It's one of those weird things that slipped, like monk being able to wear Keldorn's armor for example. You can amend it with unofficial fixes.

I wasn't talking about the drow plate obviously I was talking about the magical plate you get from one of the dark knights (or whatever they were called) - it offers ac of -2 and doesn't have any special bonuses.

 

[Lilura]

Rules of the game state so and it's true for magical armors, but not for red dragon plate - it does stack in the vanilla officially patched game.

I'm telling you it doesn't stack! FFS! I'd find proof but I can't be fucked.

I wasn't talking about the drow plate obviously I was talking about the magical plate you get from one of the dark knights (or whatever they were called) - it offers ac of -2 and doesn't have any special bonuses.

Yeah, Armor of the Hart +3 is natural AC -2, but still doesn't stack with rings or cloaks of protections. I would still rather wear it than Red Dragon, every AC bonus is more important than shitty elemental resistance. Only in ToB does AC matter much less (unless you lord it really low).

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Then find it, I used this many times when playing the game early after it's release and remember it perfectly, it was the way to get best ac warrior possible. It also worked with ToB installed (and patched with official patch). Oh, for clarification - I'm talking about potato version, but I don't think the potato localization missed and of the official patches.

When I did a replay much later and used the unofficial fixes it was gone, though the ability of pure druids to use it is still in I believe.

As for the -2 armor I just pointed out a flaw in your recipe for highest ac in SoA. The armor is obviously better ac wise than both balduran's and red dragon armors when playing a version in which the red dragon plate "bug" is fixed.

 

[Lilura]

Then find it, I used this many times when playing the game early after it's release and remember it perfectly, it was the way to get best ac warrior possible. It also worked with ToB installed (and patched with official patch).

When I did a replay much later and used the unofficial fixes it was gone, though the ability of pure druids to use it is still in I believe.

lolwhatever, I bet you won't find it listed as a bugfix in any Baldurdash or G3 fixpack for ten years since the last, official ToB patch.

As for the -2 armor I just pointed out a flaw in your recipe for highest ac in SoA. The armor is obviously better ac wise than both balduran's and red dragon armors when playing a version in which the red dragon plate "bug" is fixed.

I never claimed the AC to be optimumly low, there are better shields, certain spell buffs, higher dex AC bonus possible, plus AC bonus against weapon type girdles etc. It was just to illustrate how easy it is to get low AC for the vast majority of SoA.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Btw, I did a quick search and found a topic on Spellhold Studios forums that confirms Red Dragon Plate as stackable. But people in the answers pointed out that this was changed in ToB already. So either I was partially wrong, they are partially wrong or potato version did not receive all the official fixes. I can't be bothered to check, but anyway - it was stackable in SoA.

And thinking about it made me remember something else - wasn't the Gaxx ring stackable as well? Afair it was so that changes the Red Dragon Armor's status to second best in SoA.

 

[Lilura]

Btw, I did a quick search and found a topic on Spellhold Studios forums that confirms Red Dragon Plate as stackable. But people in the answers pointed out that this was changed in ToB already. So either I was partially wrong, they are partially wrong or potato version did not receive all the official fixes. I can't be bothered to check, but anyway - it was stackable in SoA.

I don't care what you or they say, I know for a fact I'm right. Lets move on from this, please?

And thinking about it made me remember something else - wasn't the Gaxx ring stackable as well? Afair it was so that changes the Red Dragon Armor's status to second best in SoA.

Gaxx "erroneously" stacks with ALL magic armors just like Earth ring and sewer cloak, this was never fixed in ToB patches but might be in G3 fixpacks, not sure. It might not even be a bug, Gaxx is a high level artifact afterall, if I was DM I'd probably allow it to stack, but not Earth ring and sewer cloak.

 

[Zed]

Looks like you're assembling the worst possible party. Which is honestly a lot of fun. Though no Jan Jansen? Being a Skald is really fun (to me).

Well AFAIK Nalia is a decent mage and Mazzy is like the best archer. But yeah, not exactly power-gaming my way through the game - just exploring some unexplored characters

 

[Stokowski]

Well, Cernd is a tool, but Valygar

just


speaks



so





slow







ly...

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I don't care what you or they say, I know for a fact I'm right. Lets move on from this, please?

Gaxx "erroneously" stacks with ALL magic armors just like Earth ring and sewer cloak, this was never fixed in ToB patches but might be in G3 fixpacks, not sure.

No, it was not "fixed" in fixpack because it's probably is on purpose, which also makes some sense in case of dragon armor, since it's not a magically embedded +x armor, but simply crafted from a rare and powerful material.

 

[Jvegi]

make a fighter/druid.

You can do that OR you could play ranger/priest. You'll get all druid and priest spells, without sacrificing your fighting skills, since as a multiclass you can only get 2 proficiency points anyway. The only drawback is that you won't get access to druid's high-level abilities list.

 

[CootKeeper]

So what's the best possible party combo in BG2 for maximum lulz?
Must include Jan.

Jan
Valygar
Mazzy
Korgan
Viconia

- The Mazzy - Valygar and Mazzy - Korgan interactions are pretty funny and interesting.
- Jan will pick on Valygar, Viconia will pick on Jan.
- Viconia and Valygar don't like each other though, a fight will erupt (I managed to keep both by casting maze, IIRC.)
- A well balanced party, you can be pretty much whatever class you want, but being a mage would be the sensible choice.

 

[Krivol]

But what about Minsc? Dialogue with The Pirate is hilarious!

 

[Lilura]

Boo likes parrots. They could wrassel.

Minsc has lots of interjections in sidquests and the like.
And the evil-aligns (Edwin, Korgan and Viccy) have some of the best party dialogues.

 

[Krivol]

Ah, Lilura, you reminded me about Edwina jokes. But still, Jan is most funny person, if you like his quotes.

 

[Lilura]

He also has the best death cry, "Don't... forget... to raise meeeeee...."

 

[Sodafish]

He also has the best death cry, "Don't... forget... to raise meeeeee...."

But the single most annoying pain sound in the whole game. If he get's a persistent-damage spell cast on him it's especially excruciating to listen to.

 

[Zed]

Minsc get really tiresome after a while. As soon as I'm done with Nalia's castle quest, I'll start looking to replace him.
I'll do Umar next for Valygar and Mazzy.