Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[DragoFireheart]

in SCS2 I had my mage use invisibilty and the cloak of non-detection, only a hive mother or an elder orb would see through that

I thought the Cloak only worked with Stealth and not Invisibility?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I think it protects also from magical means of detection (like the non-detection spell) and oracle, detect invis, invisibility purge etc don't work, true seeing works, but only hive mothers and elder orbs cast true seeing

 

[GarfunkeL]

in SCS2 I had my mage use invisibilty and the cloak of non-detection, only a hive mother or an elder orb would see through that

Ah, I didn't have the cloak on my casters as my rogue wore it. No wonder she managed to do stealthy scouting without being attacked but invisible mage got spotted. I bet that's the difference.

 

[Xeon]

My PC for some reason started walking a few steps and then stopping and then walking again. sometimes repeating the same or stopping for good. I don't know why. Started after meeting the Silver Dragon and turning. Viconia, Jaheira and Imoen seem normal.

I searched and saw people saying its from a script but I kinda had the PC on Standard Attack from the start and I always disable the AI unless there is an easy mob so I am not sure if that's the reason. Another one was to remove magical items that gives bonuses or special states and I did that but kinda feels the same. I'll play for a while until I finish the Underdark area and see if its fixed and if not I'll probably end up quitting.

Tried transferring the save into BG2EE to see if its working in there but kinda felt the same but also I had my potion bag disappear and some items were invisible. Guessing they are the added items from Unfinished Business mod or something and cleaning that kinda feels like too much work so probably won't do it even it worked.

Viconia's items from romance are kinda bad compared to the Full Plate Armor+1 she currently wears. I don't use her for close combat much because of her low HP so her mace is kinda useless. There is probably no need to romance her again. I am not completely sure the Constitution helps with Fatigue but I gave her the Fortitude belt and use it before casting a lot of spells to kinda hope it helps her not get fatigued faster.

Spoiler

I love the Slayer ability the PC got, not the skill itself but the ability to lose 2 reputation without mindlessly committing a crime. I probably will not use the Reputation tweak for NPCs again. Granted the reputation reward is kinda much better than in BG1 but still, the ability to decrease that with the ability and increasing it with donation and making it somewhat easier to control is much appreciated.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

My PC for some reason started walking a few steps and then stopping and then walking again. sometimes repeating the same or stopping for good. I don't know why. Started after meeting the Silver Dragon and turning. Viconia, Jaheira and Imoen seem normal.

iirc, this annoying bug stems from wearing an item that grants regeneration and the drow disguise. de-equip the ring of gaxx/ring of regeneration or deal with it until leaving ust-natha.

 

[SwiftCrack]

What is this about getting items for romancing Viconia?

I've never done that so I don't know what you get and I can't find much by googling.

Is it a mod?

 

[Xeon]

Man, I just tried to find the items and its apparently a common drop from the handmaidens or something (it says various places in GameBanshee). She gets attacked by a handmaiden and a monster and she drops a Dark Elven Chain and a Handmaiden Mace. I thought it will be something rarer since she gets attacked and gets it late in the romance stage like Jaheira.

Edit:
I am about to go to one of the noble races and bring some blood or something. Is there any extra rewards if I do more than one or all three?

Neither DSimpson nor Haeravon's walkthroughs say anything about it. Since walking is a little bugged while being a drow. I might reload a previous save before the Dragon and clear all areas first. especially since apparently new side quests open up in the city after I get the quest but with a very limited time is available complete the quest.

Edit2:
I re-loaded and finished the 3 areas, The Beholder area was the hardest by far I think. As soon as I enter I am greeted with a Beholder boss and a Beholder, PC aside from being hit with Imprisonment was mostly alright because of the Balduran Shield but other party members kept dying at that part and for some reason some of the tries Viconia leaves the party and become uninteractable[?]. Mind Eater's area was kinda easy and the fish people's cave took some time because of how fast the Prince kept regenerating I think.

Edit3:
I just made the Crom Fayer and it raised my STR to 25, Kinda sucks it took the Gauntlet of Ogre Power since now no more Girdle of Fortude for Viconia since she needs the girdle of Strength more than Jaheira. and I am kinda wondering if I should equip a Heavy Plate armor instead of the Robe of Vecna.

Current Setup:
Helm of Balduran -- Robe of Vecna -- Bracer's of Defense AC 3 -- Cloak of the Sewers -- Belt of the Inertial Barrier -- Ring of Gaxx -- Ring of Protection +2 -- Amulet of Power -- Crom Fayer -- Flail of Ages +3/Shield of Balduran
Total AC is: -7 with 2 Weapons -- -11 with the Shield of Balduran.

I could probably turn to a beast with the Crom Fayer weapon especially with the 25 attribute it provides if I go into a melee fight. I would need to replace:
Robe of Vecna --> Red Dragon Scale ||| Bracer's of Defense --> Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise ||| Ring of Protection +2 --> Ring of Free Action
Total AC is: -9 with 2 Weapons -- -13 with the Shield of Balduran

Total AC is without Buffs, I don't think I can change armor in middle of combat so I can't have any buffs during surprise combat if I use the plate. I do have Imoen now so she probably could use the Robe of Vecna but now I just learned how to use Sequencer spells now and it made things a lot simpler to buff and with the Robe it is almost instant. The Ring of Free Action will nullify the Improved Haste state I think and I kinda hope it will not influence the Greater Whirlwind ability. This ability killed Vampires and Drows really fast, Almost 2 enemies per use and the trigger is almost instantaneous as well.

Spoiler

Even the Bodhi fight was kinda of a cake walk thanks to Drizzt tanking and me killing from behind him at the door to the room.

I am using the Rod of Resurrection for healing now. It gives 10 charges of Full Heal and you can sell and buy for a recharge. Probably my favorite item so far. Any suggestion or advices will be much appreciated. I am hoping try and do a solo run in the future after I finish ToB hopefully. There is a Use any Item HLA that could be really good to use for Clerical scrolls to replace the need for Clerics I think that might be needed if I go solo.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Chromatic Demon is a load of horse shit if you lack elemental damage.

Just killed it using Wand of Fire via Agannazar's Scorcher when he was in Ice form. Stupid that my melee did crap damage but a Wand easily killed it.

 

[Xeon]

Finally finished BG2 - SoA.

I loved the final area, there wasn't any trash mobs or needless distraction, only a test of worth or something and then the final boss. Kinda sucks I sacrificed the +1 point of Dex in one of the trials, I forgot what the reward was but I think it was good. Final boss was kinda easy, PC was unable to damage him tho, Breach didn't work because he was invisible or something and Oracle didn't work at revealing him but Viconia did everything really. I summoned Undeads and a Fallen Diva and they killed the boss while I killed the minions. Strange thing is he had a Fiend which to my understanding they don't attack anyone with a Protection from Evil but they still attacked even tho I had one.

What was up with Safana? She was neutral in BG1 IIRC but still kinda felt good but in BG2 she for some reason wanted to kill the PC for a bounty and betrayed Coran too. Oh and didn't know Coran and her were a thing. I couldn't save his ass, he just died so fast, Probably too much of a hassle to try and save him. Yoshimo's diary was pretty great to read, poor bastard.

I didn't do the Watcher's Keep area but I read that the area can be done in ToB too and it was recommended at high level so I skipped it.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Fallen Deva. Whitney Houston is a fallen diva and unfortunately is not summonabled in BG2.

 

[Xeon]

Sorry, I kinda don't understand the joke.

Does Seravok's armor gets found during the BG2's story? I just met him but he said he doesn't have his old armor. I do have his sword but the import is kinda weird, anything inside the bags or anything other than the Bag of Holding disappears and from reading the FAQs of ToB at Sorcerer's Place the Romance doesn't work unless you bring them directly from BG2-SoA which kinda sucks, I hope that doesn't apply to the NPCs personal quests like Jan and the others if I don't have them.

Also the HLA Spells was still gray at the end of SoA, so I am not sure if it still needs a very high level requirement or the tweak doesn't work mid-campaign. Imoen also didn't have them yet so I hope its just high level stuff. Man, if it requires high level then I'll probably only be able to reach it with solo character only since for the most part I only traveled with 3 to 4 characters including the PC and I kinda used no cap for BGEE but I don't think that amount of exp matters much to the amount you get during BG2.

Also I would like to recommend this guy's LP of BGT. I played along From BG1 to BG2 almost similar but kinda a little different at places and a little slower of course.

 

[GarfunkeL]

In the 90's, a certain group of American/Canadian female singers were called "Divas" due to their great popularity and occasionally extreme demands for service-riders and such, plus their larger-than-life songs and antics. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston were the three most famous Divas, emulating the opera divas of late 19th and early 20th century. Later in life Whitney Houston got addicted to drugs and fell from grace as she ruined herself through copious use of cocaine - her comeback tour was a disaster as her voice was nearly completely lost.

Meanwhile, D&D has extraplanar magical creatures called Devas and you can encounter Fallen ones in BG2 and TOB. You wrote "Fallen Diva" instead of "Fallen Deva", so I made a joke about Whitney Houston not being summonable in the game.

And now the joke has been utterly ruined forever :D

 

[agris]

 

[Xeon]

You wrote "Fallen Diva" instead of "Fallen Deva", so I made a joke about Whitney Houston not being summonable in the game.

Wow, I can't believe you noticed a change in one letter. Even when you corrected me in the first post I still didn't notice. Thank you.

Edit:
Entrance to the Fire Giants kinda sucked. Finished Yaga-Shura, I think there was an infinite enemy spawn or something, enemies kept on showing up from everywhere. After a couple of tries I thought I'll just ignore everything and rush him and he wasn't that tough.

Was kinda a close call, my PC barely had any HP left but as soon Yaga fell I was teleported and saved.

 

[Melcar]

I really like Yaga-Shura's lair. It had a Conan type vibe to it.
And about Yaga-Shura with his whole heart thing. I remember a long time ago as a kid I saw this cheesy science fiction movie (looked like 70's to early 80's) where the main antagonist could not be killed because he had his heart inside a capsule on top of a tower or something. Can't remember the name though.

 

[Stokowski]

Finally finished BG2 - SoA.

You are now baptised.
Amen.

 

[MrMarbles]

Finally finished BG2 - SoA.

You are now baptised.
Amen.

Go forth and procreate.

 

[Xeon]

ToB related

Man, The Melissan fight is fucked up, seriously. Am I supposed to fight her every time I put out one of the lights at the side or something?

She summons 2 Shadow Slayers and 2 Fiends I think and 2 Beholders and 1 Efreeti and keeps retreating after a fight to recover or something while I can't rest to get my spells back.

Mordenkainen's Sword, Greater Elmentals, Devas don't last very long against her summons. The only thing is great is Planetar but only Imoen is capable of summoning it. On the second stage it kinda feels like attacking her directly with melee doesn't work, I spent 4-5 of my Greater Whirlwinds attack and she still on Barely, what is up with that?

Edit:
Yea, I am at Watcher's Keep at the moment and I am kinda stuck at the third Seal, The fight is pretty hard and its not like the final boss of ToB with the stages crap but yea, its pretty hard, I am getting wiped so fast and it kinda feels pointless to try anymore. Anyway Watcher's Keep is pretty great overall. I love how every level has a different way of dealing with things. that was pretty fun. Kinda an improved version of Durlag's Tower or something.

I think I am done, Aside from some of the NPCs personal quests and some class based quests, I think I did all quests available. even if I didn't actually beat the game, I am kinda drained from playing this. I think BG1 is probably the best for me, med to high level of it anyway I think. SoA was pretty fun for the most part. ToB aside from most of the plot, I didn't enjoy a lot of the combat. A lot of it felt like chore especially Sendai's and Last boss.

 

[Seari]

I'm replaying BGT with the SCS mod. This time around I've decided to set Smarter Mages to not cast short duration buffs at the start of combat(option 3), will that make fights too easy? Should I move the in-game difficulty slider to compensate or just change it to option 1? Or should I limit myself on pre-buffing?

Side-note: Does boosting STR with the magic tome from 17 increase the strength to 18/00? Also if anyone has experience with BGT; since Imoen is imported, does she get an experience boost once you rescue her from Spellhold, like in vanilla?

 

[hoverdog]

I'm replaying BGT with the SCS mod. This time around I've decided to set Smarter Mages to not cast short duration buffs at the start of combat(option 3), will that make fights too easy? Should I move the in-game difficulty slider to compensate or just change it to option 1? Or should I limit myself on pre-buffing?

In my experience not really, mages are still the most powerful foes you can encounter, and prebuffing, at least for me, is more obnoxious and tiring than challenging.
A better way to add some challenge is lowering XP gained (I'm playing with -25% plus no XP from locks and scrolls - I've done everything except Kangaxx, Twisted Rune and Hell and I still can't cast level 8 spells)

Side-note: Does boosting STR with the magic tome from 17 increase the strength to 18/00? Also if anyone has experience with BGT; since Imoen is imported, does she get an experience boost once you rescue her from Spellhold, like in vanilla?

1) no, it increases to plain 18.
2) depends on other mods you've installed.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

ToB related

Man, The Melissan fight is fucked up, seriously. Am I supposed to fight her every time I put out one of the lights at the side or something?

She summons 2 Shadow Slayers and 2 Fiends I think and 2 Beholders and 1 Efreeti and keeps retreating after a fight to recover or something while I can't rest to get my spells back.

Mordenkainen's Sword, Greater Elmentals, Devas don't last very long against her summons. The only thing is great is Planetar but only Imoen is capable of summoning it. On the second stage it kinda feels like attacking her directly with melee doesn't work, I spent 4-5 of my Greater Whirlwinds attack and she still on Barely, what is up with that?

pump up the cheese

Spoiler

- summon an army of planetars, to do that you need to use the spell Project Image because the projected image of a mage is not subjected to the summoning limit of 1 planetar, so you can summon 5 (for each projected image) , that can look like this
Mage (robe of vecna+ amulett of power to improve casting speed) :
- Project Image -> Timestop -> Improved Alacrity -> Spell-Immunity Abjuration (to not get dispelled) -> Spell Immunity: Divination (to not get dispelled by true seeing) -> Summon Planetar x n (as many as you have memorized) -> remove fear (so your planetars are not affected by the demons fear auras) -> Improved Haste (so they're hasted) -> cast a few dispells in the area, remove magic, malison, emotion etc because you might as well, -> Empty your spell book on the enemies (avoid spells with long casting time like abi dhalzims, only do those last when the timestop has run out) - > leave the image in the thick of battle to be destroyed and then start over with another project image spell (yes a fair share of your lvl7 spell slots should be Project Image)

- memorize one wish spell (lvl9 spell) and have a mage with 18 wisdom (use potions to get to 18 wisdom if required) wish for rest and thus get all your spells back whenever needed

-get all the resurrection wands and have them fully charged for immediate, ranged, full heals

 

[GarfunkeL]

I'm replaying BGT with the SCS mod. This time around I've decided to set Smarter Mages to not cast short duration buffs at the start of combat(option 3), will that make fights too easy? Should I move the in-game difficulty slider to compensate or just change it to option 1? Or should I limit myself on pre-buffing?

Side-note: Does boosting STR with the magic tome from 17 increase the strength to 18/00? Also if anyone has experience with BGT; since Imoen is imported, does she get an experience boost once you rescue her from Spellhold, like in vanilla?

Are you letting the mages to buff at all? If so, then yeah, the difficult is only slightly above vanilla, when it comes to mages. Especially in BG1 parts, where it's very easy to backstab or just focus-fire an unbuffed wizard to death without him/her managing to cast a single spell. I use the option that lets them have long-duration buffs on always and then they will get short-duration buffs when combat starts which is the closest thing to "player behaviour" you can get, IIRC. And yeah, don't pre-buff unless you fail a battle and try to minimize resting.

You get the 18/xx only when you're playing a martial character. Save the STR tome for getting someone to STR 19, like Minsc since he will get to keep the stats for BG2.

A question of my own: I have a character that got double-mazed. Yes, I've never seen that happen before. She got mazed but still got hurt by enemy spells even though she wasn't visible on the map, then the bad guy casted Maze on her again. She stopped taking damage but after waiting for ages, she's still Mazed - and with 19 INT and 19 WIS, she should return very quickly. I don't have Freedom scrolls with me and since she's a player created character, if I dismiss her, she's gone for good. And I'm stuck in Spellhold anyway. Wat do? Just leave the game running for six hours, hope for the best?

 

[Seari]

They still pre-cast stoneskin. Thanks for the help, I guess I'll only use buffs at the start of combat(except long duration ones).

Well that's clearly a bug, so if you don't mind using cheats to fix it, you can use the console to spawn a scroll of freedom:

CLUAConsole:CreateItem("SCRL9Z")

 

[Elfberserker]

Wait a minute!?

I thought only MC could keep stats gains from tomes in BG 1 to BG 2 and not the npc like Edwin, jaheira, minsc and Imoen...

 

[Seari]

They can with the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod.