/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4794024
please, /vr/

>>4794024
It shouldn't be too hard, you'll be ok after some fooling around. Mages are tough to fight on your first playthrough, figure out how dispelling their defensive spells works to make things easier. Always have someone detecting traps in dungeons. Save often, and keep multiple saves.

KILL IMOEN

>>4794024
>I've never played an isometric RPG
Then why don't you start with the first one? There's a 2 in Baldur's Gate 2 you know.

>>4794653
I really want to know why as well, were you dropped on the head as a baby?
Its not street fighter! you can carry over your save from BG1 for god's sake!

>>4794664
Then do it faggot. Save the pantaloons

>>4794664
I don't get your point at all. Not being "street fighter" but an RPG with story and continuity means you should start with the beginning.

>>4794653
Because low level DnD isn't fun.

>>4794679
But it is?

this is gonna come off as a bit of a vent, but I don't like most of the new companions they added into bg2 and bg1 in the EE, except the bear. because it cant talk.

rasaad is fine except for when he starts spouting off platitudes, but his questline is garbage with some cringeworthy dialogue choices here and there.

neera is absolutely annoying and LOLSORANDUMB manic pixie bullshit who talks too much with too many anachronistic lines(dont get me wrong there's a lot of anachronisms in forgotten realms and baldurs gate but I digress). questline is boring and I only run it to get the option to get the bear. dropped her as soon as I found edward again, because he's awesome.

Dorn-il-kahn could be better, I do like his voice and some of his lines are nice, but his brand of villainy is so fucking over the top edgy it loops all the way round to being cartoonishly moustache-twirling-tie-the-damsel-to-the-train-tracks shit. he should have been a little more like saverok in his evilness instead, in my opinion.

hexxat was alright, especially the free bag of holding you get (very nice!) but I felt as if it would have been interesting if you could stop claire from being eaten and instead save her for a different companion option. would have been cool to have an ex-vampire-thrall as a party member, maybe she could have been a bard, since hexxat says she was an actor. in any case, I just let her wear the un-upgraded human flesh when I play a good character because she can use it pretty well. she is pretty powerful and the vampire abilities and weaknesses add some interesting gameplay. however, she is VERY buggy.

the bear is fine because I like bears and he doesnt quip all the time. I have a weakness for beast companions in games.


please don't kill me.

>>4794024
those are some nice looking buildings. Is most of the game like this?

>>4794653
Because I just heard it's one of the best, sorry.

>>4794664
That's a neat thing to know thanks

>>4794721
Yes, for the most part most look this good or better. Lots of the CRPG games of the 90's used a mixture of handdrawn art and prerendered cgi captures for their backgrounds. Like Final Fantasy on ps1 did, except that pc could render the image at far superior quality.

Planescape, Arcanum, Baldurs, Fallout, etc.

>>4794801
You should experience things by yourself, not just to follow what the crowd says. And even if you end prefering 2 there's not a single reason to skip 1.

>>4794806
I just assumed it was like a street fighter thing like someone else said since I never saw much talk of BG1 (though I did notice a thread about it up after posting this)

>>4794815
The first game is really different and there's lot of people that preffer it over 2. Even some of us consider it the best game Bioware has ever made.
Still, you need to play it if you want to start 2 and have an idea of what's going on. You will also find old friends and enemies all the time and it would be a shame if you could miss all that.

>>4794826

-so sayeth the wise alaundo

>>4794680
The real question is could you be more of an uptalking faggot?

>>4794024
Hopefully you're playing the vastly improved Enhanced Edition by Beamdog. The original is buggy as fuck and doesn't really work that well on a modern PC.

>>4794024
Serious answer:

Chapter 2 is about recruiting your party. Typically the pattern is that you encounter an NPC who will join you, and then you have to complete their associated quest in order to lock them into your party. If you don't complete the quest they might leave your party after some amount of time. Once you've "secured" them, you can generally remove them from the party and recruit them back again with no penalties, although some require you pay them again.

Also, completing chapter 3, the game locks you in to a long "main plotline" quest and you won't be able to return to the main city until near the end of the game. So make sure you have the party you want before then.

>>4794826
The thing that annoyed me was when they updated the spellcasting voices to that fake Latin shit. I would not have touched that in BG1, and didn't care for it in BG2.

>>4795462
Hold the fuck up, I thought the latin spellcasting from BG2 was the default and overall pretty great? Are you saying the spellcasting sounded better before that?

t. Guy who missed out on BG1

>>4794024
It is one of the best. I don't know about the best. I prefer the original BGs to the Enhanced versions. I don't know what to tell you other than enjoy. I sank alot of hours into that one.

>>4795480
Personally, I'd probably go for the original vanilla experience at low res cause modding takes away from the overall experience for me (creates too much hype and you burn out basically), but SJW shit aside EE verions look decent font wise and the zoom in thing is also pretty cool.

With old games like that where you're forced to read more than on average, basic shit like readability really changes everything.

>>4795472
Oh, yeah. The original casting from BG1 was this really creepy gibberishy stuff. It still goes through my head from time to time.

>>4795472
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_7gzmJVxLc
Here you go

>>4795504
I guess that's the thing? https://youtu.be/i_7gzmJVxLc?t=30 Sounds not too bad

Still, I consider all the Vita Mortis stuff very memorable. Latin is pretty good for chanting.

I honestly cringe over chanting in newer games like PoE

The only other game that I played that had fake chanting that sounded pretty good like that was Sacrifice

>>4795524
Hahahah, holy crap we posted the exact same video at the exact same second. Good stuff, anon

>>4795525
It's just that I know Latin (really well) and it grated on my ears

>>4795529

>>4795530
Odd I thought most people understood simple stuff like "Vita" or "Mortis" I genuinely found it to fun to look up translations later on I guess. Can you elaborate why it was grating?

>>4795538
So for illusion for example:

Veritas Credo Oculos
Translates literally to "I, truth, believe eyes" but eyes needed to be oculis to even attempt to be a sentence because credo governs the dative case (literally "give my belief to eyes")

>>4795538
Divination

Scio didici pecto

Literally: I know, I have learned, I card (like carding wool)

>>4795553
>>4795561
It's not so bad if you consider it like runecrafting where individual elements are disjointed from one another, but the overall meaning is retained

They just couldn't be sentences because if magic existed and were to be crafted in this manner the combinations wouldn't always make sense

>>4795573
hmm... I accept this answer. It's still annoying to me personally. I wish they had allowed both in the options menu rather than having to resort to mods.

>>4795582
I mean, the original ones sound OK, but the thing about gibberish is it reminds you of kids in a sandbox making shit up. It would become totally lame without the sound effects. Not to mention the american voice actors putting on funny R inflections and whatnot

>>4795596
Except if you listen closely, it's not complete gibberish. Some groups of syllables are recognizable in different spells.

>>4795524
these are definitely better than the BG2 latin

why do the mods have favoritism?
I create a thread it gets shut down in 2 mins flat
this isn't retro yet somehow a bg2 thread is ok?

>>4795731
It's only a year off from technically being non-retro but since it's based on an ancient series and so close to the ok year I think it's obviously fine.

>>4795730
I just noticed that the men and the women say different things. It almost gives it that Wheel of Time vibe where men and women access the magical ether differently

Give everyone ranged weapons
Magic is your lord and savior
Charisma is a dump stat

>>4798108
>Charisma is a dump stat
Yes, but that doesn't mean you can walk around with a 3 CHA and expect errything to be candy and gumdrops.

>>4794679
Well you'd be wrong because BG1 is the better game.

>>4798234
You can get a ring that sets your cha to 18 like 5 minutes out of Irenicus' dungeon.

>>4798393
It is true that it's structured better. Better story also. The bane of DM's everywhere has been writing believable stories for high-level characters. While it's a nice touch that each character can get a stronghold they're still basically gods walking the Earth and it gets old after you've killed your 5th great worm or Lich or whatever

>>4798440
You're right I totally forgot about that

>>4798441
I know what you mean. My first experience with a Lich ended with me curbstomping him, and then being surprised that they're supposed to be like one of the most dangerous enemies in D&D.

>>4798479
And the fucking demogorgon. Not even ironically. There's ways to role-play yourself out of the situation but if you just want to kill him you're free to do so and you can actually become that powerful

>>4798479
The only thing they didn't bring out was the tarrasque

And vampires are supposed to be solitary. So why in the fuck are they spamming you with roaming parties of vampires? Fuck that shit. now that I think about it bg1 is vastly superior

>>4798479
aren't lichs supposed to be limitied in numbers and super powerful?
There's like 12 in the game when in a real d&d setting you would only have 1 or max 2

>>4794024
If you don't pick Thief, seek out Jan. He'll make your life a lot easier because he's the only Thief that continues getting Thief levels throughout the game (Imoen/Nalia are dual-ed into Mage, meaning they don't get additional Thief skill points, and Yoshimo has a different problem entirely).

Don't be shy loading your party up with Clerics (there are three), they're not the most powerful class in the game necessarily, but BG2 has a ton of fucking undead/vampires and being in the middle of a dungeon saddled with Level Drain is disgusting. For this reason Undead Hunter (Paladin kit) isn't a bad PC option either.

You can mix alignments in your party, just keep in mind this has consequences. The Evil characters will pick fights to the death with some (not all) of the Good ones and even vice versa at times. They all may also leave the party if your Reputation ever hits the opposing extreme. Most Good characters will leave the party or even outright attack you if you choose certain Evil story options (this also includes Jaheira even though she's supposed to be Neutral), but the opposite will not happen.

>>4798950
I don't think their numbers are specifically limited and a party of gods could certainly defeat a single Lich. It just gets old after a while

>>4798994
There are also happy party mods where your characters will grumble about alignment, but won't leave or fight over it.

>>4798994
Jan is just an entertaining character to keep around regardless.

>>4794679
If you look in the second edition manuals they actually suggest retiring your characters when they get too high of a level. When you're basically playing as gods it's no fun anymore. If you had a really good DM perhaps he could make it interesting but the supposition is that after level 9 you're already settling down like an old man and setting up a keep and so forth

>>4798950
A wizard that can cast the highest-level spells, warping reality itself, combined with the powers of undeath and additional magical fortifications, plus the ability to self-ressurect so long as their phylactery remains undisturbed and in the same plane is indeed "super powerful."
Encountering a lich is basically a death sentence since the fight goes down one of two ways:
1) You die horribly
2) Somehow, you win, but are now on the clock to find and destroy an artefact so difficult to locate it could take years within less than a week before a fully resurrected, fully pissed lich comes for your ass.
Many DMs avoid using liches because they're a Tarrasque-level unstoppable horror without a house rule saying a lich must stay within x number of feet of their phylactery.

It would be interesting if the game actually aged characters after using the haste spell like the manual says to

>>4799039
Right but in BG you just cast invisibility to Undead and then just walk all over the Lich

>>4799039
It's a great game but it didn't really do justice to 2nd edition ad&d. Had it added the phylactery quest to it though that might have been interesting because you're on the clock

>>4799039
What I meant to say by this is yes you're gods but every week or so you're going to have to kill a fucking lich and you have no idea when he's going to show up so that adds some tension to your existence. And you always know he's going to show up when you're sleeping so you'll never have time to buff

>>4798994
>>4799008

Semi-complete list of conflicts, grouped mainly by "aggressor"

Korgan: Will drive Aerie away or kill her.
Valygar: If you approach one particular NPC in Athkatla he will try to kill Viconia.
Anomen: If he fails his quest, he'll try to kill Keldorn and Aerie.
Edwin: He'll eventually fight Minsc and Valygar.
Keldorn: Will absolutely demolish Viconia sooner or later.
Haer'Dalis: If you are romancing Aerie and aren't far into it, he will fuck it up and cause you to either get rid of one of them or let them have each other.

No meaningful conflicts: Yoshimo, Jan, Cernd, Nalia, Mazzy

The two main choices that will make Good characters irreparably leave are siding with the vampires in Athkatla and choosing to fight Drizzt. Almost any other Evil choice in the game will make them admonish you, but they will ultimately stay as long as your Reputation isn't too extreme.

*Viconia is unique because you can force her into a geas when you get her, which in my experience will cause her not to leave with too high of rep. She can be redeemed in Throne of Bhaal to become True Neutral, although this is obscure and will happen so late into the saga that it doesn't affect much. In general, Viconia will cause the fewest number of problems for a Good party for various reasons (which is good because she's the game's best Cleric).

>>4799054
Well that's dumb, then. Any lich worth his salt would have true seeing permanently cast.
>>4799059
I suppose you could argue a wizard already destroyed his phylactery, since that doesn't kill a lich, but keeps them dead if you do.
>>4799073
Yeah. DMs and games usually fudge them down to mere skele-wizards but true liches are nigh god-level threats. Then you have demiliches that can function on different planes from their phylacteries so they typically hide them in the astral plane and fuck shit up at a near planar level. This is balanced by the fact that their power is so vast and their knowledge so deep that a ragtag group of 20th level adventurers would be no different than a group of ants to you.

>>4799086
>*Viconia is unique because you can force her into a geas when you get her, which in my experience will cause her not to leave with too high of rep.
Are you sure this isn't something from Unfinished Business? I play with reputation / alignment stuff patched out because I prefer to mix and match whatever parties for fun and flavor, but I don't recall being able to "geas" Viconia.
>(which is good because she's the game's best Cleric).
Eh, debatable. Anomen has better HP / THAC0 / AC while keeping single-classed Cleric progression and he instantly destroys undead instead of mind controlling them, which is usually desirable. Aerie is better in smaller parties due to C/M spell combos and also keeping in mind that you don't really need more than one Cleric. Jaheira is a much better tank (Greater Whirlwind) and late-game Druid spells are much better than late-game Cleric spells while they fill most of the same niche.
I'd not say there's a clear best divine caster, they have their own niches and roles. Vicky is the best magic damage soak, for instance, due to her inner resistance ability that can be combo'd with stuff like Human Skin. She's also really good when buffed up and armed with a Sling of Seeking.

>>4799120
Of course this is all coming from people who understand how all these monsters work in actual ad&d rules. I suspect that the makers of this game didn't really care too much about that and just wanted to make a game with crazy monsters that you could kill without really thinking about the ramifications or complications thereof

I keep hearing about this shield of cheese...what exactly is the name? Is it the shield of reflection which reflects every ranged attack?

its in the first arms shop right after getting out of irenicus dungeon. its cheap too...I wasn't planning on getting it but I was able to buy it along with many upgrades after killing all the slavers.

I dunno how to kill beholders...I heard there was a shield

>>4799132
Might not be when you get her. I think it’s actually something involving the dragon in the Underdark. There’s a part where you can either trust her or force her into a geas for a reason I don’t recall.

>>4799396
Shield of Balduran. It reflects attacks of beholders, not all ranged attacks.

BG2 is still my favorite game after all these years

>>4794653
Came here specifically to mention this.
People who do this often tend to complain that they don't know what's going on.

>>4794024
don't heavily roleplay a good character on your first play.

i did and i ended rushing the whole game for obvious reasons.

>>4802278
What you did exactly?

>>4800997
The amount of content, tactical variety, and replayability of the BG series is unmatched. There is really no competition to these games.

>>4802432
When I had more time I finished the first one 10 times and the second 5 but still, they aren't that replayable. There's barely any important decisions to make, only one ending and not that much difference between a good and an evil campaign.

>>4802636
I consider party composition and class choices to be an important decision, and there are a ton of options.

>>4802641
Yes, but then it's all reduced to combat. You could consider IWD at the same level, if the encounter design wasn't that bad.

>>4802646
I like the story and consider a plus. And I probably would like IWD as much as BG if the encounters were as interesting. But I don't think it needs to have that many branches. A lot of RPGs have "evil" options that just seem silly and forced. Especially later Bioware games.

>>4802656
>Especially later Bioware games.
I agree with that, I was thinking about Black Isle/Obsidian way to do things. Black Isle was working in Baldur's Gate 3 and they were adding action/consequence and a dynamic reputation system, I would kill just to see the 80% of the game they said it was already done.

>>4802427
Gotta Save Imoen, Gotta Save Imoen from her rapist, Gotta Save Imoen Soul, well gotta save my soul too.

>>4802646
>IWD
IWD was top tier comfy in terms of background art and being a lower level adventure