Infinity Engine Games

[Anonymous No.5425854]

Last one hit cap. Thread to discuss any Infinity Engine game. Discussions pertaining to remakes and all opinions on them are welcome.

[Anonymous No.5425857]

And to start us off, arbitrary ranking.

Shadows of Amn > Planescape: Torment > Baldur's Gate > Tales of the Sword Coast > Icewind Dale > Throne of Bhaal > Heart of Winter > Icewind Dale 2

[Anonymous No.5425863]

Before someone posts the Beamdog crimes pasta, here's a genuine crime Beamdog committed: they removed "earshot" from the EE version of Baldur's Gate 2. In the original game, your party members would only respond to stuff like conversations initiated by NPCs within earshot (about a screen's distance). In the EE BG2, even if Minsc is at the very bottom of the Docks and you meet that crazy Priest of Cyric right at the top of the map, Minsc will still react to him when he addresses your MC.
This change is both a blessing and a curse, as it opens up some new dialogue combinations (you now get the full speech from Nalia when she meets TorGal) but blocks others off since no matter where your MC is NPCs will always speak to the MC "first".

[Anonymous No.5425930]

>>5425857
Torment>Baldur's Gate 2>Icewind Dale>Baldur's Gate>Icewind Dale 2

I'm not autistic enough to rate the expansions separately.

[Anonymous No.5426072]

>>5425857
shit opinion
IWD>BG as a series

SoA makes the fatal mistake of going for high level DnD as well as being shallow with a "fake" open part of the game before dumping you into a boring linear path. It has all the seeds of bioware's decline in it. It's a theme park of set pieces where you go around and do cool stuff.

[Anonymous No.5426080]

>>5426075

[Anonymous No.5426082]

>>5426072
based IWD anon

[Anonymous No.5426094]

>>5426072
>SoA makes the fatal mistake of going for high level DnD
This is one of those statements that sounds like it comes from someone who believes in /tg/ shitposts and doesn't have any actual DnD experiences of their own, because there's nothing inherently wrong about high level DnD and even less so with BG2's implementation of it.
>IWD>BG as a series
If you're a pure combatfag AND if mods aren't taken into account.

[Anonymous No.5426140]

>>5426072
>BG is bad because it's a theme park of set pieces where you go around and do cool stuff.
>IWD>BG
Help me understand your shtick

>shallow
You can do anything you want in chapter 2-3 in the order you want, and then you get to spellhold and the Underdark, what's shallow about that?
Also there's no need to be a faggot and try to pull out of your ass some vague traces of what sucks in later Bioware games, it's just not here in BG.
>>5426094
This guy gets it
Even as far as combat is concerned, IWD doesn't have SCS, so IWD loses
BG is just more interesting to play. There's nothing better than getting from one to three million xp in BG2, it's literally the best part of the 2nd ed. And actual high level is ToB rather than SoA.

[Anonymous No.5426393]

>>5426140
>BG is bad because it's a theme park of set pieces where you go around and do cool stuff.
>IWD>BG
>Help me understand your shtick
I've only played IWD2 and this confused the shit out of me too.

[Anonymous No.5426491]

Beamdog is a guilty of a number of different crimes. Here are the major ones.

1. The Enhanced Editions are essentially a collection of free mods that had existed for nearly twenty years. Beamdog gathered them all up, slapped "Enhanced Edition" on it and resold it as a new product. There's very very little in the Enhanced Editions that wasn't already out there, and most of it is stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines).

2. The games didn't sell so well and the originals were still far outselling them, even twenty years after their release, so Beamdog had EVERY digital distributor stop selling the originals and ONLY sell the Enhanced Edition. If you want to buy a digital copy of the originals now, they're "bundled" into the Enhanced Edition. Now these scumbags can claim sales from people just wanting to buy the originals as their own.

3. The infamous 600+ bugs on launch. The game is still riddled with bugs (as even a perfunctory glance over their forums show) but the fact that it took nearly two years for them to get a game that had been working fine for 20 years to reach playability after launch is telling of their wild incompetence.

4. This is where we get to the ones that really piss people off. Beamdog couldn't just remaster the game, they had to fuck with the content too. New dialogue for existing NPCs like Jaheira, Viconia, Safana, Kivan, et cetera was written in to make the characters more progressive and leftist friendly. Beamdog shills will argue that "adding content isn't changing content XDDD" but it is when the new content changes the core personalities of the existing characters. This is in addition to adding a slew of their own LGBT (hitherto there were none in Baldur's Gate) NPCs, all flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite their cancer.

5. Siege of motherfucking Dragonspear.

6. >>/vr/thread/5402232#p5408278

[Anonymous No.5426520]

>>5426491

[Anonymous No.5426575]

>>5425854
>Discussions pertaining to remakes and all opinions on them are welcome.

That includes negative opinions. Whichever cuck here got promoted to hotpockets, quit deleting posts you don't like and follow the board rules.

[Anonymous No.5426590]

>>5426575
Nooo you can't say bad things about beamdog this is an advertiser friendly board

[Anonymous No.5426593]

>>5426590
My bigger concern is that every time a powermad jani gets it into his head he's going to delete on-topic board allowed discussions he doesn't like, those boards get pissed ban-evaders spamming cuck porn, piles of shit and memefrogs all over their catalog endlessly.

/vr/'s a clean board. There's literally no reason for this janitor to try and provoke a war, especially over something that's allowed here.

[Anonymous No.5426607]

>>5426593
This for fuck's sake

[Anonymous No.5426651]

>>5426575
I have a negative opinion about the stale pasta and I report it every single time I see it because the good content in these threads is autists talking about powerbuilds and mod setups and not the same three people hammering the anti-EE shitposting into the heads of the other 33 anons in the thread, 32 of whom already agree.

[Anonymous No.5426779]

>>5426651
Imagine being such an inflammatory little bitch
There is good legitimate discussion about the EE, and it often involves the "autists" (get fucked with that shit by the way) discussing builds and everything else. You don't get to shit that up because you got pounded several times discussing the EE, ffs
I mean if these discussions still exist, it's mostly because there's always an insufferable little shit like you either saying the pasta is fake with no further arguments from his part once he gets btfo, either proudly saying he just reported it or just crying his eyes out and telling everyone to shut the fuck up because it got posted.
You don't get to label everyhting you disagree with as "shitposting", the debate about the EE and beamdog's debatable practices is legitimate.

[Anonymous No.5426810]

>>5426651
I genuinely never thought the vocal two or three posters who shit themselves over the copypasta ever imagined they were in the majority.

Let's find out.

https://www.strawpoll.me/17584063

[Anonymous No.5426812]

I just want another one, goddammit

[Anonymous No.5426817]

>>5426779
No, like I said, we all already agree on the content of the Beamdog pasta, what I don't care for is someone posting an even remotely EE related screenshot or question and (often not deliberately) derailing the discussion into yet another circlejerk.

"t. Amber Scott" used as a conversation ender on any topic is also just a shitty catchphrase. Fuck off with that shit.

[Anonymous No.5426825]

other people should make these

[Anonymous No.5426826]

>>5426817
I only ever see t.Amber Scott replies to non-posts. Generally, anyone who puts effort into their arguments elicits the same from people responding to them. And I wouldn't even pretend to highroad a discussion when your opening post is about how you report on-topic posts you don't personally like.

[Anonymous No.5426835]

>>5426817
t. Amber Scott
you literally asked for it
The EE are a controversial product for a fuckton of reasons that will piss people off forever. I mean, it's now the only commercially available edition, there is literally no way to ever stop discussing that shit. Sure it circles around at times, but it's no more of a circlejerk than endlessly debating the finer points of the gameplay and rules. It's even part of that discussion and I really fail to understand how deleting the pasta will magically make shitty posts disappear. As the last thread showed, it just arbitrarily censors any discussion of the EE, no matter its point or the quality of its posts. It just shits up the threads and makes everyone pissed for no reason.

[Anonymous No.5426837]

>>5426825
>Fighter/Mage/Thief
Why not just go Bard?

[Anonymous No.5426851]

>>5426837
I like having all the options on my main guy. I dont like being neutral, I dont care about pickpocket, I like being elves. It is cool that bards get the melodic chain potentially pretty early, but I can always just wear the robe of good archmagi or the bracers.

[Anonymous No.5426859]

>>5426851
>I dont care about pickpocket
filthy Heroicgoody two shoes missing on amazing early items because he wouldn't lift from a shop to save his life and his party's life
absolutely abhorrent

[Anonymous No.5426869]

>>5426859
oh please
the game isnt hard if youre being a little careful, and you end up with more gold than youd ever really need (I bought damn near every worthwhile potion and scroll at the endgame and still had 3k left over)
besides, I can just have imoen or somebody drink a couple potions and put on those gloves

[Anonymous No.5426871]

>>5426837
Because that comic's logic only pertains to the 3rd edition of D&D, where evenly splitting your levels into F/M/T (or, rather, F/W/R, technically) is a pretty horrible idea due to the way XP works.

Bards do not have backstab, do not have high-level mage spells, mage or fighter HLAs, so they're not the same class.

In the 3rd edition, you're asking to compare a 20 Bard to a, let's say, 6/7/7 Fighter/Rogue/Wizard. Fourth level spell slots, a middling backstab, weak skillmonkey abilities and some Fighter BAB and bonus feats simply do not compare, and Bards in 3e got a lot of support material to make them a really, really strong class.

Later in that comic it turns out Tarquin told Nale bards are underpowered because bards should be ruling the world with their understanding of fictional narratives and not be plucky sidekicks singing at people in dungeons. Nale was just a fucking idiot who never really thought things through.

[Anonymous No.5426874]

>>5426851
For the longest time, my main was always a NG Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief. Since Imoen could handle all the traps and his backstab was garbage, I just dumped all his Thief points into Pickpocket. Lot of good stuff in that Promenade! I don't remember when the realization that a Blade pretty much trumped what I was doing in every way struck me, but once I changed over, I never went back.

[Anonymous No.5426883]

>>5426869
I'm just taking the piss
But from a pure metagame perspective, if you play something other than unmodded core rules wihthout reloading, I wouldn't ever start a BG2 game without getting a ton of free good scrolls and items before facing any somewhat serous fight, it's just asking to end the run before it even starts.

[Anonymous No.5426885]

>>5426874
F/M/Ts are stronger than Blades overall, though, aside from Blades being capable of reaching Use Any Item faster, and being faster to other capstones (like their final spell level). That's not to say Blades aren't a good or even great class, but they certainly do not completely trump one of the most cookie-cutter entry-level solo combinations in the game.

[Anonymous No.5426889]

>>5426651
> the same three people hammering the anti-EE shitposting into the heads of the other 33 anons in the thread, 32 of whom already agree

Are you not even going to vote on the Strawpoll to have one vote support your views?

https://www.strawpoll.me/17584063

[Anonymous No.5426890]

>>5426874
I find backstab to be pretty dang good when you have high strength and a good sword

I remember regularly doing like 45 in BG1

[Anonymous No.5426892]

>>5426885
>F/M/Ts are stronger than Blades overall
only if you play solo, in a party I'd take a blade over a F/M/T any day.

[Anonymous No.5426895]

>>5426885
They're really not. By endgame the FMT is better, sure. But up until that point, early-mid game the Blades are far better. And honestly, they play better, even at the end. Blades are the perfect Gish which is what the FMT wants to be. But ultimately, the FMT just ends up being a M at the end when the FT levels don't matter as much anymore.

[Anonymous No.5426903]

>>5426895
I play mine with mostly buff and anticaster spells, then move to help out in melee if thats appropriate
I let my actual mages do most of the mage stuff like AoE spells

hes actually the thief of the party more than anything

[Anonymous No.5426906]

>>5426892
Sure, I'm willing to concede that - F/M/Ts scale better with levels overall, but in a party, it takes much, much longer for the F/M/T to bloom compared to a Blade.
I'd be somewhat inclined to call Blades functionally closer to F/Ms, though (their only "thief" functionality is pickpocketing and HLA traps very late in the game; the main function of the Blade is to buff up and unleash whirling death), and F/Ms are certainly superior to Blades.
We're still really arguing nuance about tier 1-2 classes / class combos though; it's no secret that those are all very powerful either way.

[Anonymous No.5426917]

>>5426895
>But ultimately, the FMT just ends up being a M at the end when the FT levels don't matter as much anymore.
Yeah, no, if your gish at some point stops using their Fighter abilities (the point of which is unleashing ridiculous amounts of single-target damage, with 10 APR and whatever favourite dual combo), then you're not playing the combo you've chosen properly.
Jan Jansen doesn't suddenly stop being a Thief when he is maxed out, his skills complement one another very well. A CHARNAME F/M doesn't suffer from it etiher. Why should an F/M/T do so?
Of course F/M/T takes longer to ramp up (I'm not sure if they "play better" in the EARLY game, because the Fighter levels grant you useful properties like bonus APR whereas a Bard, at its core, is a single APR class; in mid-game, I'd give the edge to Blade, sure).

[Anonymous No.5426923]

im the guy who posted the aerowyn pic, and I have always thought that blades are superior when it comes to optimization, but thats never been my main focus

if they get the extra attack swords with twf, along with improved haste, offensive spin, and high str (18+1 from bg1), they can really wreck shit, and while they only get lvl 6 spells, their CL gets high real quick

[Anonymous No.5426925]

>>5426906
Depends on the role you give them, overall the F/M is obviously better especially if dual-classed imo (more high level spells, can dual from a fighter kit, gets level 9 spells at 3 million XP, etc.) but the blade can be a sligthly better tank than the F/M, simply because his spells will scale up faster and there are almost no good buffs above level 6 mage spells. So longer buffs, longer stoneskin, more mirror images, etc.

[Anonymous No.5426928]

>>5426906
and the nuance of these tier 1-2 classes is often interesting to discuss because aside from a very select few combinations that are incredibly good all the way from candlekeep to amelyssan, any of these classes will shine the most at different parts of the game.

[Anonymous No.5426945]

>>5426923
>if they get the extra attack swords with twf
Which can also be used by anyone else. Increasing APR is the best way to increase damage, this has never been in any doubt.
The only thing you're lacking in your setup is Offensive Spin, but you're a Fighter, so you're going to get these attacks on your own anyway (you get 0,5 APR from ** in a given weapon that Bards don't get, and another 0,5 APR from Fighter level 7, and then you keep stacking on more and more attacks with new Fighter levels so you can start dropping the APR weapons while remaining APR capped).

>>5426925
>his spells will scale up faster
Against a multi F/M, sure, against a dual F/M, the difference is fairly miniscule (although obviously you have a good point; Bards advance the fastest), especially considering many installs have level caps on the effectiveness of spells.

>>5426928
Sure, I agree, I mostly just found the claim that Blades are 100% better earlier in the thread to be somewhat dubious and figured someone fucked up their F/M/T progression.

[Anonymous No.5428572]

>>5426810
13-3 in favor of the pasta, what a surprise.

[Anonymous No.5428850]

>>5428572
surprised /vr/ can afford three jannies

[Anonymous No.5429525]

>>5428850
I'd buy that there's around 3-5 people in favor of the EE. Anytime the discussion pops up, it's usually because a couple of people are defending the EE. But there's that one hyper-aggressive poster like: >>5426651 and pic related that's almost 100% guaranteed to be the jani.

[Anonymous No.5429549]

>>5426825
I do, but I excruciatingly map out all the characters in excel. Tables for before they're made, during play, and end-stats.

[Anonymous No.5429551]

>>5429525
see you in the archives, bud
>>/vr/thread/5402232#p5408278

[Anonymous No.5429580]

so let me see if i get it, we have a beamdog janny deleting the pasta and posts about it?

[Anonymous No.5429610]

>>5429580
In the last thread he deleted 125 of the posts, all on topic discussion about the pasta, Beamdog, and anything derogatory about the Enhanced Edition. Which is probably why the OP phrased his post the way he did for this one and why the poll is up.

https://www.strawpoll.me/17584063

[Anonymous No.5430252]

>>5429610
>irrelevant factoids
Well, 5 people suffer from cognitive dissonance.

[Anonymous No.5430259]

can anyone give a one sentence summary of the beamdog drama? not about the moderation here but about whatever the pasta is about

[Anonymous No.5430267]

>>5430259
Well, Beamdog is guilty of a num--- wait a second.

[Anonymous No.5430268]

>>5425857
what's so disliked about Icewind Dale 2?

[Anonymous No.5430284]

>>5430268
Well, for starters, not a lot of people bought into the IWD1 fandom in the first place - many customers simply believed that IWD is like a Baldur's Gate spinoff for those who just want to smash faces, and it's often unfavourably compared to Diablo among some people. So IWD was this niche game for combatfags and then IWD2 was released on the heels of NWN1 and Morrowind, both of which were instant cult classics for various reasons, whereas IWD2 was, for the lack of a better expression, "your dad's RPG". There was a guy in a thread a while ago who claimed IWD2 was ruined by being 3e (even though IWD2 shares none of the problems of the 3e that he posited it has because of its video game restrictions), and I assume a lot of people might have been turned off by it being an IE game in a new system that isn't the classic BG.

In general, it was somewhat rushed, it continued on a formula that was a niche in a niche, and a lot of people just kinda can't get into the pacing of these games. I often see people's testimonies saying they got burnt out on the Battle Squares or by the time they got to Dragon's Eye. Lots of puzzle dungeons, intricate combat and encouraging the player to mix-and-match intricate multiclassing combos is just a lot to stomach for a lot of people. Also, it doesn't help that of all the IE games, IWD2 is probably the hardest to get running nowadays due to being in that early 2000 Windows limbo and not having a whole lot of support from anyone anywhere, including Beamdog (supposedly they don't have the source code).

Also IWD2's puzzles and gimmicky puzzle dungeons tend to be a bit of an action stopper. But it's a beautiful game with the usual breathtaking IWD visuals and charm, so I don't think it's really "disliked". I import IWD1/2 voicesets and portraits to every RPG with that option.

[Anonymous No.5430467]

>>5430268
>Icewind Dale 2
I can only tell you what I didn't like about it. It was too linear, and overall just not very interesting. I got about halfway through it before it was just too tedious to force myself through another session.

3e's great, the game looks good, sounds good, it's just that it's a dungeon crawl and nothing else.

[Anonymous No.5430475]

>>5430259
>can anyone give a one sentence summary of the beamdog drama?
Just in case you're actually serious, they re-released BG1 and 2, but they Lucas'd them up by adding (mostly bad) content.

[Anonymous No.5430480]

>>5430259
Shitty bg sequel and autist that can't move on

[Anonymous No.5430516]

>>5426072
I genuinely enjoyed those set pieces, though.

It's just a shame that the game starts off with an "urgent" quest (rescuing Imoen), that is put on hold immediately. Unlike BG1, which eases you into the main quest.

[Anonymous No.5430572]

>>5430259
There's a pasta that lists off some of the major offenses that Beamdog made as a company in regards to the Enhanced Edition remakes. Removing all digital copies of the originals and forcing people to buy only theirs, changing existing NPCs, selling free mods made by others, and heavily politicizing the games. It did such a great job summarizing what the issue with the Enhanced Editions were, it got posted every thread. The controversy was entirely about people who enjoy the Enhanced Editions got tired of seeing their editions "get bashed", regardless of whether the pasta was in the rules or not.

[Anonymous No.5430829]

>>5428572
only pasta likers care enough to vote

[Anonymous No.5430836]

>>5430268
it was largely rushed
it has too many gimmicky events/items
it leans very heavily on the first one in terms of story, when that just plain wasn't necessary
it has a fair number of bugs
some of the areas really drag
the first act is pretty great, which makes wading through the 2nd (and 4th) one a lot harder, imo

>>5430284
>battle squares
thankfully it was largely optional

[Anonymous No.5430839]

>>5430829
Figured it was only a matter of time before one of you tried that.
>80% of the posters here don't want the pasta removed
>"o-oh, its because we pasta haters are too cool to vote! ...except the 5 of us that d-did..."

[Anonymous No.5430846]

>>5430839
we all know you trolls won't quit posting and the mods wont do shit about it
its 4chan, nobody fixes anything

[Anonymous No.5430870]

>>5430475
Which you are free to ignore to be honest.

[Anonymous No.5430875]

>>5430572
The controversy is the fact it's a page long shitpost that nobody gives a fuck about. Besides it mentions SOD which is not retro and should be removed because this board is a #safespace

[Anonymous No.5430876]

>>5430870
How are you free to ignore NPCs that go up to you and still exist in the game?
You're free to mod them out, but there's literally now way to completely ignore the new content if you don't literally remove it.

[Anonymous No.5430889]

>>5430846
>you trolls
This guy for fuck's sake, I swear to me mom...
You're the lone defender of deleting everything you don't like and you're never able to write a sentence longer than 10 words that can always be summed up as 'u suck' or 'u stupid' no matter how well written the most you're answering to. To my knowledge you've never made any contribution to these threads outside of these shitty inflammatory posts.
And you have the balls to call anyone else a troll on top of that. I swear to me mom, this fucking guy.... How can you live with yourself you hypocritical piece of shit?

[Anonymous No.5430897]

>>5430876
You say "fuck off" or ctrl-y them for 1100 damage. Same way you get Nalia to fuck off, or Yoshimo, or Imoen, or any other dickbag that tries to force their way into your party. You literally put more effort into equipping a ring.

[Anonymous No.5430898]

>>5430875
>the controversy is the pasta
No you retarded thick skulled shithead, the controversy is a bunch of hacks remaking a game, politicizing it and adding their shitty fanfic into it
Guess what, when the game in question is a classic and you pull out the original edition from sale, you've just created an endless controversy about what you just did. What a fucking shock.
You're completely free to not give a fuck about this because you have no morals nor values, but then just ignore it and move on and leave the ones who still want to argue about it do it.

[Anonymous No.5430912]

>>5430897
>Just ctrl y everything lmao
What an immersive way to play.
I can never ignore an npc if he is in the game, I might not take him in my party but he is still in the fucking game talking to me and giving me shit to do. I can't act like they aren't on the screen when they are indeed on the fucking screen.
As I said, you can mod them out, but you can't ignore them when they're in the game, especially when their retarded quest lines give retarded amounts of XP.

[Anonymous No.5430928]

>>5430846
You understand that you're in the minority here which makes you the troll, right? We've proven the majority are fine with the pasta and the discussion, it's you who's disrupting the normal flow of the discussion and trolling everyone.

[Anonymous No.5430931]

>>5430912
Excuses excuses.

[Anonymous No.5430934]

>only 21 posters in thread
>somehow 25 votes on poll
>pro-Beamdog option has about 4 more votes than anyone expected it to

You guys just sink lower and lower.

[Anonymous No.5430946]

>>5430934
And people who lurk can't vote because?

[Anonymous No.5430948]

>>5430928
Being a troll has nothing to do with being in the minority or the majority, it's about writing good posts or shitty ones.
This guy has written nothing but seething passive aggressive retorts. Whether he's doing it on purpose or not does not matter, he's either retarded or a troll, but the result is the same. His low quality posts/baits create artificial low quality debates that shouldn't even exist if he just shut the fuck up. Whether he likes it or not he is indeed a troll.

[Anonymous No.5430950]

>>5430931
>says the 'but you can just ignore everything' guy
I hate categorizing people because of the shit they eat, but the staunch EE defenders in these threads really are a bunch of hypocritical little shits for fuck's sake.

[Anonymous No.5430953]

>>5430946
Because if there are indeed many 'I hate the pasta' lurkers we'd like to hear their arguments about it.
Because so far there hasn't been a good one against the pasta ever made.

[Anonymous No.5430962]

>>5430946
Also if you can't defend your opinions by posting anythinh, you indeed have little legitimacy in telling us how you'd like these threads to be. Don't like them? Start posting.

[Anonymous No.5431000]

>>5430953
>we'd like to hear
What if I has nothing in particular to say, too lazy to write anything or not all that invested in this drama?
>>5430962
>defend your opinions
For what purpose?
>have little legitimacy in telling us
Oh, fuck off. What legitimacy do you have? Are you a janitor or mod? It's as if something will be solved because you write a post about it. Yeah, sure.

[Anonymous No.5431007]

>>5431000
>What if I has nothing in particular to say, too lazy to write anything or not all that invested in this drama?
Then why do you bother posting about it now and voting in a poll about it, if you are indeed a lazy fuck who doesn't care about it?
If you don't want to talk about the pasta, fine, just don't talk about it. But do it thoroughly then, and shut the fuck up completely. Either you care and you're defending it, just like you seem to be doing, either you don't and you don't post about it at all, since you supposedly have no opinion on the matter, you can't be in-between in good faith.

I have no more legitimacy than you because you're obviously posting, but imo, yeah, pure lurkers don't have anything to say about how they'd want the threads to be. If they want different threads then they can start posting in them.

[Anonymous No.5431017]

>>5431007
I didn't actually voted, lol. I just pointed out obvious thing what thread probably reads more people that posts in it and voting in a poll is a lot easier than writing a post.

[Anonymous No.5431105]

>>5430953
You just shout them down, call them beamdog shills, and say >t. amber scott though. This is a game discussion board, not gaming politics. If I can't discuss SJW shit on /v/ or /tg/ then it can't be discussed here. It's only fair.

[Anonymous No.5431115]

>>5431105
What a load of shit.
You just shout down any discussion of the EE by reducing it to 'SJW shit', closing your eyes to beamdog's politicization of the game and every single one of their other retarded practices.
I don't give a fuck about 'SJW shit ' I give a fuck about bad writing, unnecessary political discourse and dishonest business practices.
You're the only guy crying your eyes out about the pasta and the EE debate that you're trying to shut off by misrepresenting it perpetually. Nobody is scaring off beamdog-loving lurkers, they just don't exist.

[Anonymous No.5431120]

>>5431105
And again, you are once again incapable of addressing the discussion on these threads without strawmanning it to death, there have been dozens of well-written posts answering to your shit with good and solid arguments, and yet you still choose only to see 't. Amber Scott' and 't. Beamdog shill'
Maybe because they hit too close to home? I don't know but start fucking reading.

[Anonymous No.5431121]

>>5431115
>>5431120
I want to discuss videogames. Not their politics. If you want that, go to a GamerGate board.

[Anonymous No.5431127]

>>5431121
>let me once again ignore your post and strawman as big bad anti sjw goobergate
Just fuck off, illiterate tard.

[Anonymous No.5431132]

>>5431121
And I want to discuss every aspect of a game, including its writing and its writer's intentions. Because that's not politics, that's videogames, regardless of your shitty arbitrary definitions.
Who the fuck do you think you are?

[Anonymous No.5431146]

>>5431121
90% of the gripes about Beamdog and in the copypasta weren't even political. The first was about charging people for free mods that they didn't create, the second was about removing all digital copies of the original for sale, the third was about the enormous bugginess of their release, the fourth was about them rewriting characters that they had no right to, and the fifth only mentioned the political shitshow expansion that was SoD, but never overtly said a word about what was wrong with it.

If you feel like you have to lie to defend your point, maybe it's time to consider that your stance is actually indefensible?

[Anonymous No.5431147]

>>5431132
>Who the fuck do you think you are?
Someone who hates your pasta while owning the DVD release of BG and IWD. Do YOU own the physical game, anon?

[Anonymous No.5431150]

>>5431147
>DVD release
psh

[Anonymous No.5431163]

*chirp chirp*

[Anonymous No.5431164]

>>5431147
Look at those goalposts go flying around.

[Anonymous No.5431172]

>>5431147
No I don't, I pirated the orignal gog versions, why ?
Maybe you're saying that owning cardboxes proves that you like this game more than I do so the pasta should indeed be deleted along with every discussion or the EE, am I following this right?

[Anonymous No.5431178]

>>5431172
Of course it should, because EE's content and its expansion is not retro

[Anonymous No.5431182]

>>5431146
But... But he owns the DVD, how could he be wrong????

[Anonymous No.5431186]

>>5431178
Remind me again what other licenses on /vr/ can't discuss any of its remakes or re-release?

[Anonymous No.5431197]

>>5431186
SOD and the EE additional content is not "re-release", it's a new release which makes it "not retro". Same reason you can't discuss Pokemon FireRed, Tomb Raider Anniversary, or REmake.

[Anonymous No.5431198]

>>5431186
All I'm saying is "Animals have no God!" is not that great a line to be worth playing the original translation over War of the Lions.

Also, original Mr. X > Remake X. Had a better final form.

[Anonymous No.5431202]

>>5431147
>look at me I've got a DVD re-release, I am super based and more legitimate than you to discuss anything BG-related even though I am a mouthbreathing retard who can't build an argument to save his life
lmao

[Anonymous No.5431212]

>>5431197
Don't read the board much, do you?

>>5417156

[Anonymous No.5431213]

>>5431197
>Let me invent new rules that I pull out of my ass
Please point me to a moderation post that tells me that I can't discuss the EE because of it's "not-retro-lel" status even though it's the only commercially available version of the game.
It's not a remake, it's not a remaster, it runs on the original BG2 engine so you don't even the retarded excuses of the other shitty games you listed.

[Anonymous No.5431216]

What even motivates a man to shit up multiple threads with his shitty dishonest strawmanning rhetoric and forever blocking the game discussion he pretends to hold in such high regard?
Money?

[Anonymous No.5431219]

>>5431213
I can point you to an archive that shows that your pasty has been deleted multiple times, and complaining about the mods is against the 4chan rules, but you'll still bitch about it.

[Anonymous No.5431221]

>>5431198
>All I'm saying is unrelated barely comprehensible shit
Yes indeed.

[Anonymous No.5431225]

>>5431219
No one's complaining about the mods, it was the same janitor (you) that deleted that post over and over. Already asked the mods about it in IRC.

[Anonymous No.5431228]

>>5431221
It was a joke. All Final Fantasy Tactics threads are about 50/50 on discussing the original and the PSP remake, with the "Animals have no God!" line being a point of contention over the quality of writing between the two.

Every Resident Evil 2 thread, and there's been a number of them these past couple of months, has likewise had a huge chunk be about the remake.

The point is that the jani is lying through his teeth. No other game is being bombed the way he's doing with Baldur's Gate.

[Anonymous No.5431229]

>>5431219
How does it prove that I can't discuss the EE? You sure couldn't in this thread because every fucking thing got deleted, but I haven't seen anything suggesting that this was normal moderation behavior, nor that it will be enforced again. The pasta maybe, because you're apparently a power mad janny (or pal with one) bent on never seeing it again, but that won't work with every EE discussion no matter how poorly you keep arguing in bad-faith, you dishonest fucking faggot.

[Anonymous No.5431235]

>>5431228
Ah thanks, it's indeed much clearer now!
I don't play FF nor resident evil, so I'm not up to date on what goes on in these threads.

[Anonymous No.5431248]

I wrote the original pasta a long while back in answer to the five millionth newposter asking what everyone's problem with Beamdog was, as a quick summary of the major issues. Someone else (bless that hero) reposted it a million times and made it famous. But just because Captain Hotpockets here has made it his personal crusade against that particular pasta... doesn't stop anyone from writing another one. There was literally nothing in the pasta that violates either board or site rules, so even if against all odds, this jani manages to get the mods to back him killing that pasta off, a new one can take its place easily. And another. And another. And another.

[Anonymous No.5431254]

>>5431248
As a side note, there's a big grammatical error in the first sentence that's plagued me since it started getting reposted. I wouldn't mind someone creating a new one and removing that blemish for me.

>Beamdog is *A* guilty of a number of crimes

[Anonymous No.5431259]

>>5431254
I've posted it a couple times and always tried to correct that mistake
Thank you, nameless hero.

[Anonymous No.5431298]

>>5431254
The pasta writer is Italian. Appropriately enough, because it's a pasta.

[Anonymous No.5431443]

>>5431225
If I recall the mods told you to deal with it and stop spamming it. And I'm not a janitor, and neither is the guy in the hot pockets cap further up the thread

[Anonymous No.5431468]

>>5431443
You recall wrong. The mods aren't actively deleting it, it's just the janitor.

[Anonymous No.5431547]

oh shit Bane beat Abazigal

[Anonymous No.5431581]

>>5431147
you're one sad, strange janny

[Anonymous No.5431589]

>>5431547
Shit I missed the stream today
Is it, dare I say, the run?

[Anonymous No.5431603]

nice it's still on, fucking tense ravager though

[Anonymous No.5432618]

what do you guys think gorion planned to do after taking you to the friendly arm inn?

[Anonymous No.5432752]

>>5432618
Send a text to Elminster, that's probably why that fat useless fuck is hanging around not far from the inn at the start of the game.

[Anonymous No.5432792]

[Anonymous No.5432808]

>>5432792
Jesus fucking Christ this atrocious outline filter. What were they thinking?

[Anonymous No.5432825]

>>5432808
its optional, you fucking tard

[Anonymous No.5432827]

>>5431248
>>5431254
How's this?
Main bad things Beamdog did
1. The Enhanced Editions are mostly made up of free mods and stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines), resold as a new product
2. These editions didn't sell well so Beamdog had distributors stop selling the originals and ONLY sell these editions
3. One new edition had 600+ bugs on launch
4. New dialogue for existing NPCs was written to make characters more progressive and leftist friendly. New LGBT NPCs were added, flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite
5. Siege of Dragonspear

[Anonymous No.5432836]

>>5431248
>>5431254
How's this? (mods plz don't ban, I'm just trying to understand and summarize the drama surrounding this video game)

Main bad things Beamdog did
1. The Enhanced Editions are mostly made up of free mods and stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines), resold as a new product
2. These editions didn't sell well so Beamdog had distributors stop selling the originals and ONLY sell these editions
3. One new edition had 600+ bugs on launch
4. New dialogue for existing NPCs was written to make characters more progressive and leftist friendly. New LGBT NPCs were added, flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them
5. Siege of Dragonspear

[Anonymous No.5432842]

>>5432792
reallygay+ee/10

[Anonymous No.5432852]

>>5432808
>>5432842
replica homo

[Anonymous No.5432943]

Is there an scs equivalent for icewind dale?

[Anonymous No.5432949]

>>5432792
lol at guenhwyvar

how did you build the rest?

[Anonymous No.5432974]

>>5432949
cattie-brie is a half-elf fighter/mage with longbow/longsword
bruenor is a dwarven defender, axes/warhammers, Str 18/77, Dex 15, Con 19
drizzt (MC) is a stalker with his actual stats, scimitars/dual; unoptimal given no grandmastery, so he'll get the ogre gauntlets and the cheetah boots
wulfgar is a half-orc barbarian, Str 19, Dex 17, Con 18, went with dual warhammers since there are no two-handed ones
regis is a gnome cleric/thief, mace/sling, dex 19 but otherwise lame
and yeah, guen is a half elf shapeshifter druid with maxed physical stats and minimal mental ones except Wis 15, never leaves werewolf shape

I changed cattie-brie so her appearance wasnt so large and bulky and because the party needed a mage; she's not really a "grandmastery" tier of fighter anyway
regis because halflings can't be cleric/thieves and because the party needed a cleric; he'd be damn near useless as an unoptimized pure thief

[Anonymous No.5432979]

>people seriously think the janny is in this thread
Alright newfags, quick lesson. Jannies aren't allowed to speak in official capacity, and they're to be anonymous as well. Thinking a user is a janny because he agrees with him and disagrees with your shitpost is probably the biggest compliment you can give to someone literally trolling you.

[Anonymous No.5432995]

>tfw you clear a wilderness map of all its fog and then save

BG 1 would honestly not even be as half as good as it now if it wasen't for the fog of war desu. Its just too comfy

[Anonymous No.5433006]

>>5425863
The beamdog crimes pasta is absolutly right.

This is also friendly reminder that they made the tranny unkillable in SoD in a stealthpatch. Out of all the bugs their product still has this was whats important to them.

Fuck Beamdog.

[Anonymous No.5433018]

>>5426825
The concept of going solo in a partybased game always baffles me. It so much easier to ppay than having to micromanage multiple lower level dudes without them dying than just becoming the Kirito.

[Anonymous No.5433030]

>>5429549
Thats amazingly autistic anon, I like it!

[Anonymous No.5433035]

>>5430268
>>5430284
>>5430836
I always thought that despite the bugs IWD2 had the most polished combat encounters. Someone really put a lot of thought into how the party composition of the enemies should be and how they should interact with each other.

It especially stuck out to me during the Targos-Bridge battle and in the area before the icetemple.

[Anonymous No.5433039]

>>5432995
It feels good to know that Im not the only one who does this.

[Anonymous No.5433042]

>>5432974
>cattie-brie is a half-elf
huh

[Anonymous No.5433157]

>>5433035
Has someone made a mod to remove the iterative attack penalty? That is one of the most retarded things 3e ever did.

[Anonymous No.5433159]

>>5433006
Gonna have to ask you to cite a source on that.

[Anonymous No.5433187]

>>5433157
To be honest I don't think there's a reason for modding it out since fighters have no problem hitting things with or without it, plus the way 3e's iterative attacks work means that you're not as restricted to dual-wielding as in BG2 for maximum attacks per round (= damage).

[Anonymous No.5433195]

>>5433159
Start up the game. Try to kill the tranny and see what happens.

[Anonymous No.5433196]

>>5433195
Right, but true real men do not even have Enhanced Edition installed, so how can I check that if I'm not full of s0i?

[Anonymous No.5433204]

>>5433195
Sorry but that's not an option as i do not own it nor do i want to. Even through piracy. Provide evidence.

[Anonymous No.5433219]

>>5433196
>>5433204
So what you are saying is you demand evidence from me that you could easily get yourself if you just pirate it?

Are you the same sperg from /v/ that argued exactly in the same retarded manner from a few days ago?

[Anonymous No.5433223]

>>5433219
That's some absolutely inventive way of shilling for the EE, beamnigger, but you're not getting me to cuck my HDD with that shit.

[Anonymous No.5433227]

>>5433006
>stealthpatch
Pretty sure you couldn't kill it since launch.

[Anonymous No.5433260]

>>5433219
Well yes, that's what burden of proof is. Of course if I come back and say "you lied" with a screenshot of her corpse you would start saying I "modded the game"or otherwise faked it. So I'm gonna head home in a few hours, console her in, and kill her.

[Anonymous No.5433261]

>>5433227
You can. Drops good loot and a few thousand experience and nobody even goes hostile. You don't even get a rep penalty so it's free stuff.

[Anonymous No.5433403]

>>5433042
read the whole post, *then* reply

[Anonymous No.5433434]

Are all of the EE worse in every way to a modded copy of the original games?

[Anonymous No.5433485]

>>5433434
>in every way
Not really, some of the original BGT/TuTu are simulations of proper engine behavior, EE has modders in the crew that are allowed to work with actual source code, so some things work smoother in the latter - BGEE's Widescreen is much better than the original game's Widescreen Fix, for example. (Although some things are still broken - a friend of mine is stuck for the past 6 months with a bug in the Polish localization rendering the game unplayable and a lot of people report extreme loading times for no reason). Minor EE-only QoL functions (mostly related to inventory management) and some other small improvements aren't present in any mod to the originals. You also won't get to play SoD, but that expansion had mixed reception and the only good part of it is some of the combat encounters, they come straight from SCS school.

If you just like having more content (larger volume of content), there's still a lot of mods (admittedly most are either trash or obscure and nobody bothered converting them) you can only install on vanilla Baldur's Gate. The Black Pits (sorta fun) and Legacy of Bhaal (lopsided as fuck, play it only if you need to prove a point, win a bet or something, SCS-Ascension-Insane is a much more interesting challenge anyway) aren't in the base game.

So, since you phrased your question as "in every way", well, I can't say that's true. It depends on what your expectations are. Most of the EE value can be replicated with your original CDs and the proverbial 20 minutes of modding, so you're not losing much. A lot of EE content is garbage, but as time progresses, more mods are made for EE only.

The only EE conversion that I straight up despise is IWDEE, because it's just a thoughtless mash-up of BG2 mechanics in a game in which they don't belong, turning down the difficulty of the game heavily and getting rid of some useful things (like Character Arbitration button).

tl;dr: Mixed bag, I play and prefer originals.

[Anonymous No.5433487]

>>5433485
Also, on an anecdotal footnote, take it or leave it - I play my original modded game on Win7 and it causes absolutely no problems whatsoever, ever, whereas the EE install I have is *horrendously* crashprone. Likewise, in multiplayer, the Beamdog version has been causing me intense slowdowns and crashes, whereas in the original, the only problem I had was a bizarre desync issue where infinite Skeleton Warriors would spawn in Underdark out of nowhere and kill Solaufein (which is fixable by examining the save in Single Player and using some CLUAConsole magic, then reloading it back), but otherwise, MP worked better. Which is sorta sad considering that Beamdog was really proud of their "fixed multiplayer" even though it took years to get it to any working state, as on release the thing didn't work at all.

[Anonymous No.5433495]

>>5433434
Depends on how you mod it
Imo yes, the EE is worse than the originals modded, I can't fucking stand the new UI and the new font, both look like shit and there's no way to go back to the original even with mods.
Beyond that there are a few gadgets in the ee that you don't have in the originals, namely the zoom (looks like shit), the possibility to run on multiple cores (actually pretty good, although useless even with a heavy mod list) and the loot button (good idea on paper but easily abusable in some specific situations)
But beyond that I guess a modded EE can be alright if you enjoy the new UI and if you mod beamdog's content out.
Personally I think fixpack+tweaks+1ppv4+widescreen+bigger original font is peak BG aesthetics and utility, and I wouldn't switch to the EE for anything after having tried it. But to each his own modlist and preference I suppose

[Anonymous No.5433496]

>>5425854
i'll probably catch flak but i actually like bg 1 over 2. 2 was a technical improvement in so many ways, but bg1 had so many open forest areas and other natural environments to explore which felt more like a d&d adventure to me. spending so much time in the city is a drag.

i also thought throne of bhaal is kind of painful. it's worthwhile for fans at least once. but whenever i play baldur's gate i just play 1 and 2 and skip the expansions for both.

[Anonymous No.5433510]

>>5433496
I agree completely, well almost. BG1 lacks actual dungeons; the ones it has are over simplified. BG2 has pretty darn good dungeons, but no overworld exploration (which is okay, because we got a lot of that in BG1). If you could mix them into one long game, it'd be ideal. ToB really is crap, but like you said, everybody ought to do it once.

[Anonymous No.5433512]

>>5433496
>i'll probably catch flak but i actually like bg 1 over 2
Nah, it's a rare opinion but there's absolutely nothing wrong with having it. A lot of people don't enjoy the forest areas for feeling sameish, whereas BG2 has more self-contained storylines and better combat content, but it's true BG1 has a charm and specific strengths.
>i also thought throne of bhaal is kind of painful.
This is actually a very common opinion. This is why I endlessly recommend to get Ascension, it was written by David Gaider (back when he wasn't needlessly adversarial towards everyone) specifically as a patch that restores the original vision for the expansion (and the enhanced fights do not hurt either to make the experience a bit more testing). Ascension makes ToB much, much better.

[Anonymous No.5433517]

>>5433510
>BG1 lacks actual dungeons; the ones it has are over simplified
This is a massive disservice to Durlag's Tower.

[Anonymous No.5433519]

>>5433517
we already said we didnt like the expansions

[Anonymous No.5433523]

>>5433485
>BGEE's Widescreen is much better than the original game's Widescreen Fix, for example.
Well it has a zooom, so on paper yes, but if you actually use it, everything becomes pixelated immediately, it looks especially bad in BG2 imo, the details are much easier to enjoy without the zoom most of the time. 1600x900 widescreen without a zoom is the best looking option imo.

[Anonymous No.5433535]

>>5433496
I honestly can't replay BG1 like I did the first two or three times, I just can't bear to wander around in half empty maps endlessly murdering helpless groups of shitty enemies, and waiting for a single bandit arrow to put me out of my misery for half the game.
Now I rush basilisks and get to cloakwood asap, I still complete most of the maps but under constant haste. The city of Baldur's Gate is the best part of the game.

[Anonymous No.5433536]

>>5433523
I'm not even referring to the zoom; in my view, the BG2 widescreen bothers me with UI scaling issues.

[Anonymous No.5433542]

>>5433536
Which ones? If you haven't, try 1ppv4, it makes the UI higher resolution, works great with the widescreen mod.

[Anonymous No.5433556]

>>5433434
EE has 64 bit compatibility and internal changes which make it a better modding platform. For instance the dark side kobold horde will bring the engine to its knees but in EE it's much less stressful on the engine as it has more ram to play with. There are significantly less hardcoded aspects.

[Anonymous No.5433842]

Davaeorn giving Amelyssan the business right now!

[Anonymous No.5433869]

>>5430268
I love a lot about IWD2, but its just not as good as others. only by a slight margin I would say, but never the less

[Anonymous No.5433879]

>>5426810
>https://www.strawpoll.me/17584063
How about 'I don't like EE but the pasta is stupid and cringy, and I hate it '?

[Anonymous No.5433893]

>>5433879
what's cringy or stupid about it?
Serious question

[Anonymous No.5433902]

>>5433893
posting it in every damn IE thread is enough to be cringy.
A joke becomes fucking stale, the documentary

[Anonymous No.5433959]

>>5433485
>more mods are made for EE only.
absolutely rebarbative

[Anonymous No.5433976]

>>5433842
BANE NOOOOOOOOOO

[Anonymous No.5433989]

>>5433976
TIL berserking doesn't protect you against Vorpal Hits

[Anonymous No.5434048]

>>5433842
>Davaeorn
Dude's fucking based. Tell him he's got fans on YouTube.
Waiting for his Level 9 Spells vid.

[Anonymous No.5434102]

>>5433260
So I consoled in Mizhena (she has two variants), CTRL+Y'd her (which does damage and only damage), and she died.

Ergo; >>5433219 is a FUCKING LIAR

[Anonymous No.5434181]

>>5434102
>Mizhena
>she
outed yourself as a soiboy janny tranny niggercuck assblasted by pasta, kill yourself

[Anonymous No.5434203]

>>5434181
based and redpilled
>>5434102
cringe

[Anonymous No.5434236]

>>5434102
christ the ee is ugly
>>5434181
wicked

[Anonymous No.5434698]

janny's awake, morning sperg

[Anonymous No.5434743]

>half the thread deleted AGAIN
for fuck's sake...

[Anonymous No.5434749]

suck my cock shithead

[Anonymous No.5434758]

Beamdog is a guilty of a number of different crimes. Here are the major ones.

1. The Enhanced Editions are essentially a collection of free mods that had existed for nearly twenty years. Beamdog gathered them all up, slapped "Enhanced Edition" on it and resold it as a new product. There's very very little in the Enhanced Editions that wasn't already out there, and most of it is stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines).

2. The games didn't sell so well and the originals were still far outselling them, even twenty years after their release, so Beamdog had EVERY digital distributor stop selling the originals and ONLY sell the Enhanced Edition. If you want to buy a digital copy of the originals now, they're "bundled" into the Enhanced Edition. Now these scumbags can claim sales from people just wanting to buy the originals as their own.

3. The infamous 600+ bugs on launch. The game is still riddled with bugs (as even a perfunctory glance over their forums show) but the fact that it took nearly two years for them to get a game that had been working fine for 20 years to reach playability after launch is telling of their wild incompetence.

4. This is where we get to the ones that really piss people off. Beamdog couldn't just remaster the game, they had to fuck with the content too. New dialogue for existing NPCs like Jaheira, Viconia, Safana, Kivan, et cetera was written in to make the characters more progressive and leftist friendly. Beamdog shills will argue that "adding content isn't changing content XDDD" but it is when the new content changes the core personalities of the existing characters. This is in addition to adding a slew of their own LGBT (hitherto there were none in Baldur's Gate) NPCs, all flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite their cancer.

5. Siege of motherfucking Dragonspear.

6. >>/vr/thread/5402232#p5408278

[Anonymous No.5434759]

>>5434102
woah, how did you get so many arrows in a stack?

[Anonymous No.5434763]

>>5434759
not him but tweaks anthology

[Anonymous No.5434782]

it must be frustrating, your inability to ban people for posting what you merely disagree with. not that that works either, volunteer.

[Anonymous No.5434791]

>>5434782
>>5434782

[Anonymous No.5434904]

post count shrinks randomly over time as janny roots out more posts offending his sperg sensibilities

[Anonymous No.5434915]

this feels like a /v/ thread
you fucks need to go back and die

[Anonymous No.5434921]

>>5434915
it really doesn't though
aside from a couple shitposts about a tranny having or not having a 1hp min item in its inventory the thread is not /v/ tier, stop deleting everything you cunt

[Anonymous No.5434969]

Respill me on the find familiar spell. It seems cool but losing con when the creature dies always scared me away from using it.

[Anonymous No.5434983]

>>5434969
You just pack it in your inventory and never let him out, you get a few HP and a permanently used slot in your inventory for no downsides beyond that
Just don't play lawful evil because for some stupid reason, this is the only familiar that doesn't give you 12HP in BG1 (it's my go-to alignment so I often don't even bother spawning it, i'd rather have an inventory slot most of the time honestly).

[Anonymous No.5434985]

>>5434969
>>5434983
it's 12 HP in BG1, 24 in SoA and up to 48 HP in ToB though, so still worth considering for the entire game, an inventory slot is a cheap price to pay for that

[Anonymous No.5434990]

>>5434969
Ive only ever had a faerie dragon, and they're only good for a free casting of invisibility sphere on the whole group

I had no idea it grants hp

[Anonymous No.5434994]

>>5434990
yeah it grants you half of its HP, so 6 HP for most of them in BG1, 12 in SoA and 24 in tob iirc
nothing revolutionary, but it can always make the difference at some point, you never know

[Anonymous No.5435543]

Gonna do a play through of bg1 with a blade, what weapon type should I use? Can't decide between bastard swords, shorts swords or scimitars.

[Anonymous No.5435582]

>>5434994
Because of how HP works in AD&D, that's a ridiculous boost. HP growth flatlines at Lv10

[Anonymous No.5435614]

>>5435543
you should use bg1, not the ee, dumb nigger

[Anonymous No.5435621]

>>5435543
Scimitars, kill Drizzt for his stuff for maximum fun.

[Anonymous No.5435657]

>>5434983
How do I put the familiar in my inventory?

[Anonymous No.5435660]

>>5429549
where are these portraits from?

[Anonymous No.5435662]

>>5434983
>lawful evil
What a faggot.

[Anonymous No.5435665]

>>5435662
eat some more basedbeans faggot

[Anonymous No.5435680]

Are Fighter/Druids any good? Seems like most of the divine spells that a fighter would want are exclusive to clerics.

[Anonymous No.5435721]

>>5435657
Talk to it and tell it to get in the bag

[Anonymous No.5435730]

>>5355593
reminder

[Anonymous No.5435731]

>>5435680
Call woodland beings summons nymphs who have a lot of neat spells and the insect spells shut down spellcasters no problem.

[Anonymous No.5435756]

>>5435730
Beamdog is a guilty of a number of different crimes. Here are the major ones:

1. The Enhanced Editions are essentially a collection of free mods that had existed for nearly twenty years. Beamdog gathered them all up, slapped "Enhanced Edition" on it and resold it as a new product. There's very very little in the Enhanced Editions that wasn't already out there, and most of it is stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines).

2. The games didn't sell so well and the originals were still far outselling them, even twenty years after their release, so Beamdog had EVERY digital distributor stop selling the originals and ONLY sell the Enhanced Edition. If you want to buy a digital copy of the originals now, they're "bundled" into the Enhanced Edition. Now these scumbags can claim sales from people just wanting to buy the originals as their own.

3. The infamous 600+ bugs on launch. The game is still riddled with bugs (as even a perfunctory glance over their forums show) but the fact that it took nearly two years for them to get a game that had been working fine for 20 years to reach playability after launch is telling of their wild incompetence.

4. This is where we get to the ones that really piss people off. Beamdog couldn't just remaster the game, they had to fuck with the content too. New dialogue for existing NPCs like Jaheira, Viconia, Safana, Kivan, et cetera was written in to make the characters more progressive and leftist friendly. Beamdog shills will argue that "adding content isn't changing content XDDD" but it is when the new content changes the core personalities of the existing characters. This is in addition to adding a slew of their own LGBT (hitherto there were none in Baldur's Gate) NPCs, all flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite their cancer.

5. Siege of motherfucking Dragonspear.

6. >>/vr/thread/5402232#p5408278

[Anonymous No.5435759]

>>5435756
continue the good fight.

[Anonymous No.5435809]

>>5435680
No, the only good one you miss is armor of faith, which is amazing late game combined with defender of easthaven and hardiness (85% physical damage reduction), the rest of cleric buffs are useless on a fighter (who needs thac0 as a dual classed fighter/cleric)
In exchange you get ironskin (better than armor of faith), insect plague/creeping doom AND greater earth elemental token which are all better than anything a cleric will ever get

[Anonymous No.5435815]

>>5435680
the only good one you miss is armor of faith, which is amazing late game combined with defender of easthaven and hardiness (85% physical damage reduction), the rest of cleric buffs are pretty much useless on a fighter
In exchange you get ironskin (better than armor of faith), insect plague/creeping doom AND greater earth elemental token which are all better than anything a cleric will ever get
Best thing is to dual class a berserker to druid at level 9 (need good stats though), because there's already Jaheira as a multi class fighter/druid and her XP progression is horrendous (level 13-15 as druid take a while). Dualing at 9, you get all the useful benefits of a fighter except HLAs, and you get the full druid progression which means you'll get spells a lot faster than a multi class.

[Anonymous No.5435843]

>go to the gnoll stronghold
>Raped to death by a mage who throws up enough buff spells to negate all magic I have, several attacks, and ward arrows.
>Fucking difficulty mods
>He also has three goons that backstab me like crazy.
>MustSaveDynaheir.jpg
>Sneaky time
>Get to Dyna
>Recruit and kick out
>She waltzes out the stronghold without any issues
>Sneak out
>Leave the dumbfuck quartet
I'm starting to think some of these fights in Dark Horizons are meant to be bypassed rather than fought

[Anonymous No.5436790]

I used to play Torment once, but I just kept dying. What was I doing wrong?

[Anonymous No.5437079]

>>5436790
You had shit stats, honestly Torment's combat isn't very good, you might as well stick it on an easier setting otherwise it just becomes boring.

[Anonymous No.5437707]

decided to finally try an iron man run, since I feel like im just going through the motions when I play these days

core rules, no max hp, not using any "hidden" items like the ring of wizardry at the friendly arm inn unless it's something that I actually found myself like the ice wand at the mines
I considered trying hard, but im not sure that's necessary if I can't reload. If it gets and stays easy, I'll switch.

gonna use the canon party
>imoen (probably no dual, will focus on pickpocket/open lock/find traps)
>jaheira, khalid
>minsc, dynaheir
I just found out what minsc's rage actually raises his str and dex so I'll actually use it this time, plus I need a mage with dynaheir. I prefer to use kivan and xan over these two.
As of right now (just south of beregost), I have xzar and montaron. I'm actually using montaron to scout and backstab, and he's done some great ones so far. I have xzar throwing daggers and using minor drain on tougher enemies.

So the most fitting option for this party I felt was a half-elf cleric/ranger
Had an 84 from the start, no need to reroll.
>Str 15, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 9, Wis 18, Cha 8
flails/morningstars, slings, giant spiders, will move on to maces and eventually hammers

that gives me three heavies, two healers (one divine, one nature), a stealth powerhouse, a solid mage, and a thief archer face. Later on, I can probably get imoen to scout with items/potions and have minsc just wear plate as well, we'll see.

[Anonymous No.5437771]

>>5437707
Well enjoy, iron man is great fun even on unmodded core rules
The ring of wizardry isn't that hidden compared to a few other early good items, there's a couple dialogues with npcs inside the inn about it, you can get it and stay rp
Minsc's rage will probably lead to a few disasters though, if he gets close to one of your low health party members, he will permakill them pretty easily. Also no potions in this state and he won't retreat with the rest of your party when things go to shit. But that's half the fun of playing no reload after all, gl hf

[Anonymous No.5437796]

>>5437771
>there's a couple dialogues with npcs inside the inn about it
I had no idea

[Anonymous No.5437834]

>>5437796
Try talking to everyone in here, there's one person (on the first floor I think) who will mention that a mage was looking for a powerful ring somewhere south close to the inn and I'm pretty sure at least one other npc will mention it.

[Anonymous No.5437850]

>>5437707
And if you haven't, try SCS rather than increasing difficulty if it stays easy, way more interesting challenge
(increased difficulty only increases the damage you take, SCS changes the AI scripts to make the enemies a lot less retarded).

[Anonymous No.5437909]

>>5433434
If you're a long time fan and deep enough in to be furiously modding everything, then the EEs are currently worse.

If you just want the game to work so you can play it, then the EEs are fine. The new NPCs are largely ignorable and the 'SJW' boogyman stuff is incredibly overblown.

I personally greatly enjoyed SoD, but I thought that the writing in the original games was fairly dull and just carried by great VA work, so I'm an edge case. The combat encounters in SoD are generally really fun and fit in a niche that the rest of the series doesn't.

The EEs were absolutely extremely buggy upon initial release, that part is true. In every case I waited a few months and by the time I got around to them I didn't notice any actual issues, so by now they're fairly stable.

There's a bunch of little UI improvements that'd make it hard for me to play a modded original copy now, but there -are- a number of legitimate bug fixes that patch out little tricks and exploits that a lot of people liked, like turning Ranger/Cleric cheese into an .ini toggle, or stopping Offensive Spin and Improved Haste from stacking so that Blades aren't as much of murder blenders any more.

TL;DR if you're a casual fan, it's good, if you're a long time fan, you might want to pirate the old GoG versions to fuck with.

[Anonymous No.5437941]

I just installed BG1(EE) and installed SCS.
Any tips for a first time player? I'm going to make a Kensei Fighter after I find a good portrait for him.

[Anonymous No.5437961]

>>5426837
Post more BG comics pls!

[Anonymous No.5437976]

whelp, the amazons got me

[Anonymous No.5437982]

>>5437976
I feel dumb, I won the 2nd time because I used the web scroll mulahey had; I didn't even think to the first time

[Anonymous No.5437983]

>>5425854
sigh I wish I could get into Torment

[Anonymous No.5438021]

>>5437941
If you're a first time player you shouldn't be using scs.

[Anonymous No.5438026]

>>5438021
oh
well shit I guess I'll uninstall it then
some guy over in /v/ told me to use it

[Anonymous No.5438035]

>>5438026
>listening to /v/
Its definitely an improvement over the vanilla game so I'd recommend you play with scs eventually but its intended for people who are already familiar with the base game, a new player won't stand a chance against some of the stuff it throws at you.

[Anonymous No.5438039]

how do i get into these

[Anonymous No.5438042]

>>5438035
I see, I thought that most of the really difficulty affecting options were the ones it asks you about during installation.
Know of any good portrait packs?

[Anonymous No.5438047]

>>5438039
>buy/pirate game
>double click icon
>select new game

[Anonymous No.5438065]

>>5438047
i mean emotionally

[Anonymous No.5438078]

>>5437941
If you're a first-time player put it on an easier setting. SCS comes under "Hard, but perfectly fair", and is as rules legal as possible. SCS easy is still slightly above Core Rules but the game isn't hard to begin with. Expect to die to RNG a lot in the beginning, but that's D&D for you.

Kensai however is a really bad choice for newbies. You'll want to go Fighter, Ranger, or Druid for your first playthrough. Fighter is just strong overall, Rangers get two-weapon fighting off the bat and hide in shadows, and druids level fast as fuck until Lv12 to 15 where it slows to a crawl then goes back to fast as fuck, but they still need the most XP to cap out.

[Anonymous No.5438238]

Do you guys clear out all the basilisks in Mutamin's Garden early on?
I want to do it this run to speedup my leveling a bit so I can get to the cool shit faster but it feels a bit cheap.

[Anonymous No.5438239]

>>5438238
arrows and use the ghoul bait

[Anonymous No.5438274]

>>5438238
>but it feels a bit cheap
It is and it isn't.

Basilisks have relatively shit THAC0 and damage, but WILL fuck you up if they hit you. Their real strength is their petrifying gaze, which you can negate with a scroll or spell completely legitimately.

You can roll the dice on their being smart enough to switch to melee and actually hitting you when you get close, and if they don't, that's as a legitimate kill as it could be.

Now if you draw aggro with Koraxx, and don't come in to attack until he's locked them down with his paralyzing touch and natural petrification immunity, that's certainly cowardly. But it is also precisely why the devs put him there.
You're also under zero obligation to accept Koraxx's help.

[Anonymous No.5438343]

>>5438238
Yeah, after a few playthroughs, fuck level 1 seriously.
I mean it's also kind of poetic. You get about 30k if you watch Korax clear the garden, but it's the great lesson about how to win at BG and D&D : RNG won't ever kill you if you are immune to the effect.
RP wise, it almost makes perfect sense to gain so much XP from watching a ghoul killing basilisks with impunity. Your character learnt the essential thing to survive the sword coast.

[Anonymous No.5438452]

>>5438238
no, that's always one of the last maps I do

[Anonymous No.5438797]

I've been away from /vr/ for a while. Is the beamdog pasta a straight up filtered ban now or is there a literal tranny mod going around and deleting the cold hard truth?

[Anonymous No.5438804]

>>5437961
http://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html

[Anonymous No.5438809]

>>5438797
Hopefully that answers your question.

[Anonymous No.5438875]

>>5438078
How does this look?

[Anonymous No.5438884]

>>5438797
>banned for off-topic/not /vr/
How? How are you such a dumb stupid tranny freak? What was off-topic? Discussing the EE? If that's the case fine, we shouldn't ever be allowed to talk about that trash I agree, but you have plenty more work to do in this thread. Do we have to praise the EE in every post we make? Where's that in the rules?

I can't believe you actually get paid to push your faggot agenda on here

[Anonymous No.5438894]

>>5438875
Pretty good, longswords and two weapon style is probably a bit more optimal (easier to find good ones early on and they do more damage if you dual wield because more attacks per round) but who cares, two handed are cool.
And they are perfectly fine too, there are two really cool ones in BG2.
Especially if you dual class to thief in BG2 and eventually get "use any item", which is probably one of the best thing to do with the stats you have

[Anonymous No.5438896]

>>5438884
this but unironically

[Anonymous No.5438904]

>>5438894
Alright, sweet.
What does the /42 mean?

[Anonymous No.5438905]

NGL, Neera and especially Dorn are garbage, and the game is worse for their existence.

[Anonymous No.5438912]

>>5438904
read these articles at some point or another, they might come in handy
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Ability_Scores
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Strength
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/THAC0
basically for fighters only, strenght over 18 is divided into 5 ranges that give you more or less damage, chances to hit and weight allowance. The difference are slim so don't worry too much about it, especially since you will find a book around halfway to the game that will solve your "problem" and put any fighter who rolled an 18/XX on the same footing.
Sadly 18/42 is in the first range so you don't get additional slight benefits beyond having max strenght for a human, but really it's nothing major.

[Anonymous No.5438916]

>>5438912
How does it determine that second number? Is it just a hidden number whenever I roll the stats? Deallocating and reallocating the point doesn't seem to change anything.

[Anonymous No.5438918]

Soon, tranny. Very soon

[Anonymous No.5438920]

>>5438916
yeah it changes every time you roll, so you can always try for more if you really want to
though 88 with a 18/42 is a pretty good roll for a human fighter honestly

[Anonymous No.5438923]

>>5438904
Exceptional Strength, a human's strength caps out at 18/00 (00 represents 100). This is because 19 and above represent the strength of various giants and caps out at 25. Unlike 3e, modifiers in 2e are not linear but rather arbitrary. In your case, you're in the first tier of exceptional strength, granting you -1 to THAC0 (lower THAC0 is a good thing, same with saves) and +3 to damage.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Strength

I really do recommend reading the manual, especially any parts on stats or derived mechanics. The game isn't "complicated" but there are a fuckton of derived values.

[Anonymous No.5438976]

>>5438920
>>5438923
Thanks for the information.

[Anonymous No.5439265]

ahem

FUCK BEAMDOG and FUCK TRANNY JANNIES

[Anonymous No.5439364]

>>5438976
there's no mechanical reason to be a single-classed human fighter; other races are better and other kits are better

a half-orc or dwarf berserker would be better, hell a half-elf would be better, for the same thing
also, shoot for 9 int, so you can use scrolls

you should really only ever be a human if you want to use a class that only humans can use, or if you want to dual class, which as a new player you should frankly just forget about because it's complicated

[Anonymous No.5439389]

>>5439364
To be honest, I just really liked the look of that portrait.

[Anonymous No.5439412]

>>5439389
you can use it for any race you like

[Anonymous No.5439413]

>>5439412
I know, but it just seems dishonest.
It's already kind of dishonest because of the shield.

[Anonymous No.5439534]

>>5439364
Who cares? Its his first playthrough, he doesn't need to make an optimal character.

[Anonymous No.5439590]

What are some good options for baby's first dual class?
Preferably one where I can can get my abilities back before the end of bg1.

[Anonymous No.5439593]

>>5439590
Imoen Thief/Mage. Dual at 4 or 5.

[Anonymous No.5439602]

>>5438923
18/00 Ogre
19 Hill Giant
20 Stone Giant
21 Frost Giant
22 Fire Giant
23 Cloud Giant
24 Storm Giant
25 Titan

http://ancientscrossroads.com/adnd_tools/str_table.htm

[Anonymous No.5439829]

>>5439590
this >>5439593 Xzar 7 to priest and Shar-Teel 6 or 7 to thief are also fun options if you'd rather go with an evil party.
for charname, the classic fighter 9 to mage or figher 7 to mage (berserker is the best fighter kit all through BG1 and the combo is one of the very best classes you can make in BG2) is probably the easiest
7 allows you to finish dual-classing in BG1, 9 makes you dual class at the start of BG2 which is a lot easier
You won't have any down time in BG1, berserker or simple figther are great throughout the entirety of the first game.
And you will be level 8 at around 220,000XP out of the tutorial dungeon in BG2 if you capped XP in BG1 (which you will reach pretty easily if you do most of the content), need 250,000XP to get to level 9, there's a circus nearby, check it out, that should do it.
After that, get a few potions of master thievery, a thief, steal scrolls from the merchants, fire your party, drink a couple potions of genius, write a ton of them, and there you go, you got your fighter kit back and you can enjoy the benefits of dual classing right away.

[Anonymous No.5439898]

>>5439364
>which as a new player you should frankly just forget about because it's complicated
Dual classing isn't that complicated if you read the manual or the wiki article about it beforehand, and it's a great way to find out interesting ways to mix abilities for new players
Definitely recommend trying it out either with Imoen mid or late in BG1 once familiar with the base mechanics or early in BG2 with the main character even for a first playthrough.

[Anonymous No.5440280]

Know what I did to my game by clicking the wrong option while modding it? Removed all experience points from all monsters, meaning killing things with no loot is pointless. I have to rely on quests, reading scrolls, and doing thief stuff to actually get XP and I think this is an improvement to a degree. It means I can't exploit the basilisks for easy XP or otherwise kill easy high-XP monsters easily trivialized by a single item like sirenes.

It's really gonna fuck me over in TOB though. Has anyone done a mod where finding treasure grants XP like in old D&D?

[Anonymous No.5440306]

What's the general opinion on Pathfinder: Kingmaker? Not Infinity Engine but I'm sure it has 90% community crossover. Already played every IE game multiple times and looking for something else to move to.

[Anonymous No.5440315]

>>5440306
Only heard that it's buggy as fuck.
>looking for something else to move to
How about NWN1-2?

[Anonymous No.5440316]

>>5440306
The difficulty is greatly increased compared to the source material to account for it being singleplayer, and is a decent adaption but an average game in its own right.

[Anonymous No.5441503]

>>5440316
I took advantage of the UI edit to make my text box look like this and be in the middle of the screen. This is such a huge improvement I don't know why they didn't do this off the bat,

[Anonymous No.5441690]

>>5440306
as someone who loves the IE games to death, I find kingmaker intolerable

it doesnt look good, feel/play good, sound good
the portraits are garbage, the characters are gay and annoying, the dialogue is some middle-school fanfic shit, the game balance is fucked, you fight too many different kinds of enemies too close to each other, overland travel and camping is hair-pulling, there's this retarded inventory system where everybody shares all the items carried by the party (yeah, these people are fucking commies) so you can't have a strong person carry gear themselves, instead all your weaker people are basically permanently encumbered and everybody moves slowly
alignment is determined by your choices in dialogue (apparently these commies never understood the phrase "it's not what you say, it's what you do")
it constantly takes control away from you and pulls you along

it's complete garbage
the only new game of this type that I like is underrail, and it's basically fallout, not fantasy
ive also tried pillars of eternity and divinity; pillars is mostly playable but its still pretty bad and I never finished it, and divinity was unplayable for me
but I consider underrail my favorite game and Ive played through it several times

[Anonymous No.5442058]

>>5441690
>there's this retarded inventory system where everybody shares all the items carried by the party
Nothing wrong with that if passing items works like Baldur's Ga-
> instead all your weaker people are basically permanently encumbered and everybody moves slowly
Fuck that. I'm playing pass-the-parcel a lot in BG just now because my team involves three weaklings and Khalid has 21 strength from his gear. Thank fuck for containers.

[Anonymous No.5442640]

>>5441690
>there's this retarded inventory system where everybody shares all the items carried by the party (yeah, these people are fucking commies) so you can't have a strong person carry gear themselves, instead all your weaker people are basically permanently encumbered and everybody moves slowly
Especially annoying when my 8 str sorcerer had to do a quest on his own, had to dump everything in a chest and iirc there's no give/take everything option

[Anonymous No.5442654]

Why can't I be a druid/mage?

[Anonymous No.5442696]

>>5440306
I like it. It gets some getting used to and later chapters are a mess, but overall it's a solid game. The story is servicable - nothing special, but it pulls you in well enough. Companions are hit-or-miss. Some like Valerie or Amiri are insufferable, others like Julibost, the tieflings, Ekun or Jaethal are pretty damn solid.
I would recommend it, overall.

[Anonymous No.5442727]

>>5442654
because the rules said so.
play 3rd edition if you want to multiclass anyway you like.

[Anonymous No.5442785]

>>5442727
>because the rules said so.
Apparently it's allowed in the pnp version for half-elf

[Anonymous No.5443763]

>>5442654
Use EEKeeper to do it, could be fun. I've made "illegal" classes and had a blast.

[Anonymous No.5444405]

>>5443763
can you make new kits?

[Anonymous No.5444453]

>>5444405
I've never attempted to make new kits from scratch. What are you looking for?

[Anonymous No.5444474]

>>5444453
I want to make a kit for playing Drizzt.

"Dervish", a ranger kit that loses armor better than chainmail, helmets (but not head slots entirely), shields, and spells, but can gain grandmastery in scimitars and gains bonus AC like a swashbuckler. It'd also be neat to have a guenhwyvar item, but the moon dog is pretty good already.

[Anonymous No.5444593]

>>5444474
You could easily just make him a ranger and adjust weapon proficiencies and AC bonus with EEKeeper, without having to go through the trouble of creating an entire kit. Just limit him yourself by not equipping the heavier armor, helmets, etc.
As for Guenhwyvar, I know nothing about creating items or summons either. If you're happy with the moon dog, you could always just EEKeeper its sprite from a dog into a panther.
Maybe some of the other anons in this thread have experience with creating content.

[Anonymous No.5444982]

>>5444593
actually that all sounds fine
I assume I could keep changing his armor class and proficiencies as he levels up and not all at 1st level?

[Anonymous No.5445125]

>>5444474
>>5444593
Changing the moon dog into a panther would require nearinfinity rather than shadowkeeper I think (or EE keeper as the cool kids use) but it shouldn't be too difficult to change the sprite.

[Anonymous No.5446202]

I'm incapable of making my own decisions, choose for me /vr/.
This is for bg1 and 2 btw
https://strawpoll.com/67fxhbp4

[Anonymous No.5446572]

I really want to like these games but I can't. I don't enjoy the combat.

[Anonymous No.5447102]

what would you say is the optimal weapons to dual-wield with?

Probably crom faeyr, what else?

[Anonymous No.5447469]

>roll a 90
>still not good enough for perfect stats for a fighter/druid
Having only 16 strength as a fighter is triggering my autism, why the hell do I need to 17 charisma to dual class into a dirty hippie?

[Anonymous No.5447478]

>>5447469
That stems from previous D&D editions. To become a bard, you would have to go through fighter and thief, and then at a certain point advance as a druid, which would instead become a bard.

>To become a bard, a human or half-elf had to begin with very high ability scores: Strength 15+, Wisdom 15+, Dexterity 15+ and Charisma 15+, Intelligence 12+ and Constitution 10+. These daunting requirements made bards one of the rarest character classes. Bards began the game as fighters, and after achieving 5th level (but before reaching 8th level), they had to change their class to that of thief, and after reaching 5th level as a thief (but before reaching 9th level), they had to change again, leaving off thieving and begin clerical studies as druids; but at this time they are actually bards and under druidical tutelage..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29

So yeah, sacred cow.

[Anonymous No.5447480]

>>5447469
lower your dex until the other 4 are 18
get the dex gauntlets, and use potions of agility if you want to wear better gauntlets

[Anonymous No.5447550]

>>5447478
That seems like a lot of work just to become a bard, where they really powerful in the 1st edition or something?

[Anonymous No.5447598]

>>5447469
what game is this? (sorry im new)

[Anonymous No.5447614]

>>5447598
Baldur's Gate 1: Enhanced Edition. You can tell by the interface.

[Anonymous No.5447924]

>>5447469
Tank dex to 6.

[Anonymous No.5447927]

>>5447598
You literally clicked on a thread about it, how the fuck would you not know

[Anonymous No.5447980]

>>5447927
there are 4 games in the OP

[Anonymous No.5448187]

guize
I'm playing SCS/ascension no reload,
went through all of soa without losing anyone in the team
started Watcher's Keep (SCS component moves it between SoA and ToB), everythting went absolutely great, nobody in danger of dying at any point
reach the machine of lum the mad, go clear the githyanki encampment, easy shit
rebuff quickly, go for the demilich, what could go wrong, everyone has everything up ensuring they can't get instakilled.
Demilich time stop goes off, no problem, summon Fallen Planetar, yeah yeah whatever, I'll just pfmw as soon as this ends, ez lmao
Time stops ends, pause, cast pfmw, pic related happens in the middle of the 1 casting time (death ward was up btw), portrait gone.
Tough shit
Finish the fight (2x time stop auto attack with staff of the magi ensuring her pfmw eventually goes down because fuck you, you goddamn whore)
Start thinking about who in hell I'm going to get to replace him and how fucked are they gonna be in terms of XP
Rest in the githyanki encampment before doing the dragon and getting the fuck out to get fucking Nalia
Get interrupted by 4 Githyanki
One of them instantly gets a hit on Aerie dispelling her and Vorpal hit her with whatever weird attack they have in here, portrait gone
Her death ward and stoneskin were still up before the dispel too
Now I'm on level 4 of Watcher's keep down to 4 party members and everything went to shit
Who do I replace her with now? Probably Cernd?
I'm unironically sad.

[Anonymous No.5448201]

>>5448187
>jan's severed head flies off his body through the air
>he somehow still manages to talk
he's some illusionist alright

[Anonymous No.5448205]

>>5447550
They leveled fast as fuck out the gate, and got druid abilities on top of the bardic abilities, and this is on top of their already high stats. Remember, they were getting dual class benefits for a second time.

[Anonymous No.5448219]

>>5448201
pls stop I already miss him
I wanted to backstab some drows in Sendai's enclave, makes the whole thing go smoothly
how am i going to do that with some overtall, beardless, long limbed idiot lacking strenght (and thac0)
it disgusts me

[Anonymous No.5448227]

>>5448187
Get a life.

[Anonymous No.5448229]

>>5448227
thanks, I had forgotten for a minute that fun wasn't allowed

[Anonymous No.5448264]

>>5448229
If you having so much fun, what are you complaining about?

[Anonymous No.5448459]

>>5448264
I'm not complaining about anything, what is your problem?
Have sex.

[Anonymous No.5448469]

>>5448187
Who do you actually have in the party? Any of the arcane spellcasters will probably be able to do something. Imoen can Mislead backstab (+ Black Blade of Disaster) with x3, and if you're really somehow insistent on backstabbing, Valygar might work (Armor of Faith + Defender of Easthaven can help keep him tanky, and his backstab is x4). I'd get Edwin, Viconia, Cernd or someone along these lines, but it's hard to tell without knowing your team comp.

[Anonymous No.5448532]

>>5448469
I had Edwin, Viconia and Korgan left, charname fighter 9 dual classed to mage. Would have been a lot better if Korgan and Vicky took the bullet honestly, because I don't really expect them to survive ToB but that's the fun.
I went with Nalia and Cernd, problem with Imoen and Nalia is that they won't backstab anything useful unless I also use a timestop, drows have really good AC especially in Sendai's enclave for example, guess I can still use them for the Oasis and stuff like that, but it's really not mandatory anyway. I could probably finish with a party of 4, but I'm already close to 6 million XP, and I like going with a full party.
If I can get Nalia and Cernd to 3 million they should become relatively useful.

[Anonymous No.5448553]

>>5448532
>problem with Imoen and Nalia is that they won't backstab anything useful unless I also use a timestop
Or Tenser's Transformation if you take very proper care. (A technique used by one no-reloader is to cast Fireshield (Blue) right before SI; Abjuration because you will know your SI:A is dying a round after Fireshield (Blue) stops).
And yeah, casters are pretty much always useful. Remember that Vicky might not be too bad either if you have Cloak of the Sewers, Clerics are some of the better users (due to being able to hurt others with Blade Barrier while in Rat).

[Anonymous No.5448585]

>>5448553
>Tenser's Transformation if you take very proper care
After losing two characters to the feared and despicable dispel-and-vorpal-hit-in-one-attack, I think I won't be using anything that forbids me to cast a contigency pfmw at any moment on my arcane casters for a short while, some kind of trauma to overcome
The fireshield SI tip is a really neat idea though.
As for cloak of the sewers, I was reallly looking forward to get Shapechange on Aerie and eat some brains with it. I guess the cloak could work quite well on Viconia indeed, if have the human flesh and everything needed to get to 100MR, and good fire fire resistance. Combined with the physical damage reduction of the rat form and armor of faith it could actually work quite well to keep her alive, I hadn't tought about it. Thanks!

[Anonymous No.5449962]

Is there any way to keep Edwin and Dynaheir in the same party permanently?
I want to try out the dynaheir romance since I'm using the npc project for the first time but I can't resist Edwin's ridiculous amount spells.

[Anonymous No.5449980]

PS:T has way to much dialog and not enough talking. Icewind Dale has the best setting and plot but not enough plot. BG1&2 should be played as one game and is the best of the bunch.

[Anonymous No.5449981]

>>5432836

[Anonymous No.5449982]

>>5449980
>PS:T has way to much dialog and not enough talking

Meant that PS:T has way to much dialog and not enough fighting.

And that is not even in retro spec, that was when that game was new people were saying that.

[Anonymous No.5449984]

>>5449982
Not all RPG's have to be the same, you have almost every other RPG with too much combat and not enough dialog so once in a time is fine to have the opposite.
I wish Arcanum had taken the same approach, it's the same kind of game but with tons of shit combat and that's what basically makes it worse.

[Anonymous No.5449990]

>>5449984
I'm with ya but it's just to much for me in PS:T, You can go hours without a fight in that game. It's just not for me. I like the pacing in Icewind, just wish it had more plot then it does. I loved Arcanum but it feels so unfinished, needed another couple of months of dev time.


Really wish more people were making cRPGs, I gobble them up like nothing else.

[Anonymous No.5449992]

>>5449990
I never enjoyed IWD too much.
But some weeks ago I started an iron man run and I'm finding it a lot better, maybe playing it in short sessions improves the experience. Only thing I still find pretty bad is inventory management, since you fight a lot you never carry enough arrows and bolts, while at the same time they give you tons of treasure every two steps, so I spend too much time trying to get everything in order.

[Anonymous No.5450001]

>>5449962
Don't quote me on that, but IIRC BG1 NPCProject is a bit more lienient with companion conflicts. You can dissolve the conflict between Kivan and Viconia, and from what I recall, you can tell both Dynaheir and Edwin to go to their rooms and stop arguing. At least for a longer while.

Also, Dynaheir romance is... weird. But fun, and works well with the story. Too bad the conclusion totally falls apart if you decide to play SoD instead of going straight to BG2. One more reason to ignore this DLC.

[Anonymous No.5450009]

>>5450001
I just tested it by travelling around the map to pass time with them in the party. After 3-4 weeks there hasn't been any conflict between them or any dialogue to suggest there will be so it looks like I'm safe.

[Anonymous No.5450019]

>>5450009
I am pretty sure there will be a conflict between them eventually, once you start Dynaheir's companion quest. They just won't try to murder one another outright as it is in the vanilla game. They will just continue to shittalk each other.

[Anonymous No.5450060]

>>5449981
>single-class pure Thief
>overpowered
Her stats are ultimately irrelevant (because they're locked behind the Thief's shitty chassis, and they do not even matter) and the fact she doesn't really die is only useful for glitching people with her cloud aggro.

EE characters are generally fairly low-tier on the power scale. This includes Dorn, and even Neera will not be enjoyed by no reloaders / low reloaders Only Baeloth is really that strong.

[Anonymous No.5450075]

>>5449992
I might be insane but I think that's the point of IWD.

[Anonymous No.5450110]

>>5450060
Hexxat, because they couldn't get fucked to remove the aggro from her cloud form, is technically the best tank in the game and that's fucking sad.
EE characters in general are designed as noob traps, seem to have good stats and great gear ensuring everyone starting the game with the EE will fall for it and take the tards in the team
They all are actually useless, shitty and retarded on top of it but I don't know if it's because of some meta joke of which everyone would be the butt, or more likely, because beamdog sucks at the game it tried to remake.

[Anonymous No.5450132]

>>5450110
Dunno, EE companions feel like "modder's first NPC" at times. Quirky/edgy, one-note personalities, overpowered gear, shit stats and lackluster content. I can find a number of better mod NPCs - in terms of writing, content and mechanics - on the G3 alone. And given how crappy the mod NPCs usually are, this is saying something about the EE companions.

[Anonymous No.5450141]

>>5450132
Yeah that's exactly my point

[Anonymous No.5450151]

>>5450110
>technically the best tank in the game
My own pick would be Aerie or Viconia with Cloak of the Sewers cheese. Being a damage soak is something any arcanist can do, but Hexxat doesn't do anything other than being a taunt.

[Anonymous No.5450168]

>>5450151
Yeah but using the cloak of the sewers somewhat correctly requires a bit of thought, a few other items, a few buffs, also only one use per rest of the useful forms.
Hexxat just has to suck at everything and then die which will happen pretty fast regardless of your skill or game knowledge.

[Anonymous No.5450172]

>>5450168
Yeah but then you have to wager in the opportunity cost of having someone whose literal job description is "do thief stuff and be a hovering taunt" that can often bug out (Davaeorn had to take her as emergency pick after Jan got chunked and it was clunky as fuck)... like, those other characters have much better utility on hand on top of being more than capable at soaking (I'm somewhat hesitant to apply the term "tanking" considering the primitive "aggro" mechanics and the possibility of SCS scripts ensuring that the enemy won't fixate on an useless object). And I don't think having a dedicated "soak" is that important.

[Anonymous No.5450180]

>>5450172
No it's not important and no it's not even useful when you know how to play, but it's somewhat efficient in core rules and the most important is, it's easy as fuck.
It's not bad because it's OP, at all, or else even if it was, everything fun in BG would be bad. It's bad because it's lazily made (seriously, just remove the aggro, other vampire gaz form aren't flagged as hostile), lazy to use and encourages first time players who fell into the noob trap to rely on it rather than finding out that, for example, transforming into a rat and casting armor of faith makes you invulnerable to physical damage.
Which is a shame.

[Anonymous No.5450210]

>>5449992
potion belts, gem bags, and scroll cases were always available in IWD, and ammo belts are in the EE

unless you're carrying shit like battleaxes, helmets, and shields from every enemy, I don't see how you're ever running out of room, especially in a 6 person party

but yeah, definitely don't do more than one big dungeon in any sitting, and preferably break them up into two sittings

>>5450060
her stats and single-classed evil thief aspects are what I actually like about her
BG2 needs an evil single-classed thief, and if it's going to be a single-classed thief, it may as well have the good stats (the high dex adds a lot to the thief skills, so that's nice, and she can do some great backstabs)
IIRC her charisma is also really good, so she could face as well

I found dorn to be solid, myself

[Anonymous No.5450224]

I just like all of them.

[Anonymous No.5450273]

>>5450210
>BG2 needs an evil single-classed thief
no it really doesn't
also there's a ring of human influence in the circus and a fuckton of items, at least two of them easily accessible early on (blade of roses and nymph cloak) that will give you an additional 2 CHA to reach 20 and get max discounts and best reaction rolls with any character if you really give a shit

[Anonymous No.5450291]

>>5450210
I personally wouldn't mind Hexxat myself, if her personality wasn't so obnoxious.
She's this edgy Coldsteel OC that's just unlikeable and a pain to deal with. She doesn't have Edwin's or Korgan's hilarity, she's nowhere near as cool or charming as Viconia or Sarevok, but fuck me, she loves to shittalk other companions. And everybody keeps masturbating on how awesome and badass she is.

[Anonymous No.5450314]

>>5450273
yes it does
>korgan, single classed fighter
>edwin, single classed mage
>viconia, single classed cleric
the only three evil npcs, and each the best of their respective roles
that leaves thief as the obvious next choice, yet aside from yoshimo, there are no single-classed thieves in the game, much less any evil ones

a "standard" party is a bard/cleric/fighter/thief/wizard and either a ranger or a paladin. With EE, an evil party can have a cleric/fighter/thief/wizard/anti-paladin, leaving the MC to be a blade to round that out.

>ring of human influence
takes up a ring slot
hexxat has 18 charisma and the ability to charm people already, and she can use the blade of roses just fine

[Anonymous No.5450319]

>>5450314
>takes up a ring slot
You DO know you can UNEQUIP items, right? You don't have to keep them on forever.

[Anonymous No.5450323]

>>5450314
yeah the ring of human influence takes a ring slot when you need to shop, better take an entire NPC slot with a useless character instead, that's more optimal, you're right
Who gives a fuck what a standard team is, ask 100 people, they will all give different answers, fuck having rangers, paladins and pure class thieves in my standard party. The only reason to ever take Yoshimo is for the story and roleplaying, he's outclassed in his thief role by Jan, and even by Nalia and Imoen for the simple reason tghat they can cast fucking spells in addition of their thieving skills, Jan especially is better at anything than a pure class thief.
Moreover, am I going to take Hexxat if I want to roleplay an evil party? Fuck no, I kill her on the spot, what evil moron would want such a smartass on the team.
A pure class thief in BG2 can be fun yes, but not as long as he's as obnoxious and hilariously poorly designed in its additional special snowflake abilities as Hexxat is.

[Anonymous No.5450329]

>>5450319
anon, that's gay, and so is your attitude

I don't like the EE npc personalities/names/quests any more than you do, but don't oppose the *idea* of a strong evil single-classed npc vampire (str 20/dex 20/cha 18 + charm) thief just to spite beamdog

personally, one of the things I hate about these games is that in the end game you have so many damn items to switch in and out of for optimal benefits that it gets annoying and if you quit and come back later, it's daunting to try and refamiliarize yourself with your treasure hoard

>>5450323
>Who gives a fuck what a standard team is
I do, it's fun and feels right

[Anonymous No.5450337]

>>5450329
>unequipping a single ring is gay
>having Hexxat in your standard evil party 'feels right'
>u gay tho
Projecting much?

[Anonymous No.5450341]

>>5450329
>I don't oppose the idea of a snowflake vampire thief with illegal stats to make it less garbage
>having a standard classic party feels right
Beamdog marketing team is all over the place as usual

[Anonymous No.5450345]

>>5450337
>>5450341
ooh you're mad
more importantly, you're resorting to bad arguments

[Anonymous No.5450353]

>>5450345
says the guy flinging nothing but shit arguments since the beginning of this travesty and who's now resorting to 'u mad lmao'
Pretty hilarious

[Anonymous No.5450540]

>>5450314
>the only three evil npcs, and each the best of their respective roles
Ooo, that's debatable.
But I'm still not sure why anyone "needs" a single-classed Thief. It's a class that reaches a fraction of power of the other classes and only once massive micro is involved. The best thing about them is that they're ridiculously adaptable once UAI kicks in. But there's no real reason to ever save a spot speifically for a single-classed thief. Moreover, Jan or even Imoen have a much more interesting synergy with the evil trio than Hexxat does in both usefulness and party interaction. She's a boring character .

[Anonymous No.5450770]

Okay lads, two questions

>what mods are absolutely necessary for you?

>Is there a mod that removes race/class/weapon restrictions?

[Anonymous No.5450791]

>>5425854
I just started Baldur's Gate for the first time to prepare for some /tg/ gamin sessions. Pretty fun so far. I rolled a Cleric of Helm. My magic sword power has saved my ass at least twice and I only just finished the kobold infested mines. I used Imoen to sneak around and scout ahead, assassinating lone kobolds and retreating if there were a lot, so the party could get buffed and wipe them easily.

[Anonymous No.5450964]

How soloable is Icewind Dale compared to Baldurs Gate?

[Anonymous No.5451002]

>>5450770
>what mods are absolutely necessary for you?
SCS/Ascension/aTweaks are the absolute core, and depending on mood I might get the Monk HLA rework, Rogue Rebalancing, BG1 NPC Project, Ding0's Quest Pack, Unfinished Business.
>Is there a mod that removes race/class/weapon restrictions?
Level One NPC already lets you change up the characters joining your party a lot, so I assume there's something. And if nothing else, Shadowkeeper editing (or EE Keeper) should work too.
>>5450964
It works, but I'm not much of a fan of this approach, IWD tends to enjoy skirmishes with highly varied roving bands and having a couple of people to spread the damage around is less of a hassle.

If you just don't like managing a party I'd recommend getting a friend and 2-manning the game together.

[Anonymous No.5451268]

>>5451002
It was just a roleplay idea I had. I can find something else though, it's cool.

[Anonymous No.5451374]

>>5451268
Well, if it's a roleplay idea, it's easily executed. I'm just not a fan of solo play.

[Anonymous No.5451624]

>>5451002
>Ding0's Quest Pack
Not the guy you were answering to, but this looks pretty good
Do you have to install it before or after SCS to get it to work properly? (i.e. can I just install it right now and start a new playthrough or do I have to make a fresh install?)

[Anonymous No.5451664]

>>5450964
I think it would get boring real quick
the sheer number of enemies would have you standing still and just hacking away at skeleton #453

you'll want optimal AC and preferably stuff like stoneskin
I actually suggest playing a gnome fighter/illusionist or just fighter; a halfling fighter would be better than a gnome one in the late game but that early game low strength would suck

[Anonymous No.5451904]

>>5450019
Edwin ended up killing her after all, I can revive her but I don't really want to risk having more problems with them in the future so I'll just leave her dead.
Anyone got some suggestions on who to replace her with?

[Anonymous No.5452032]

>>5451904
Xan (very end of chapter 2) or Quayle (once Baldurs Gate is unlocked) work well as a second mage. Not that you need one explicitly. Feel free to experiment with 6 slot. Look into Coran maybe.

[Anonymous No.5452037]

>>5452032
Also Shar Teel is genuinely an underrated Evil Fighter, available whenever. Makes a good ranged character.

[Anonymous No.5452043]

>>5451904
So, I'm guessing the romance part didn't work out. Still, try Xan, Quale or maybe Shar-Teel given that you mostly run an evil party. She also comes with the romance. Don't try it.

[Anonymous No.5452061]

>>5452032
Never used Quayle before so I might give him a shot, I prefer having at least 2 casters in my party, its more fun that way and with scs installed I need all the spell casts I can get.
>>5452043
The romance seemed alright so far but who cares about that when I can have Edwin casting 11 magic missiles a day?
Viconia will always be best girl anyway.

[Anonymous No.5452113]

>>5450337
>>5450353
As a neutral observer; you sir are a huge faggot. Please leave this thread and never come back.

[Anonymous No.5452321]

>>5452113
Yeah, suck my dick beamdog shill.

[Anonymous No.5452369]

>>5452113
there's a reason I stopped replying; once you trigger a sperg, the conversation is over

[Anonymous No.5452397]

>>5452369
yet you're still here posting about it?

[Anonymous No.5452754]

>maybe 2 hours in
>pick up Viconia, become fallen ranger

To be honest I knew this shit was doomed to fail. I personally like chaotic neutral (slightly insane) characters but I also love the concept of a stalker. I know I just became a shitty fighter but I'm kinda inclined to continue this doomed existence because "Fallen Stalker" in the character sheet looks cool.

What I'm thinking though is according to the character sheet I seem to have kept the favored enemy, stalkers 2x backstab and a large portion of my hide in shadows and move silently points (65->45, 60->40). I probably can't put points into those skills at level up anymore though right? Because if I can then fuck it, I'll be a shitty fighter.

[Anonymous No.5452827]

>>5452754
What the fuck did you do?
In order to become a fallen ranger your reputation has to fall way down - I think it has to be 7 or less for you to fall. So you either were running around murdering innocent people and this -2 reputation was a last straw, or something bugged out. Because the very act of recruiting Viconia is of no consequence to the ranger.

[Anonymous No.5453067]

>>5452113
reposting, because faggot janny apparently choked to death
suck my dick, beamdog shill

[Anonymous No.5453075]

>>5452827
lol based
>>5452754
what do you have to say for yourself, murderer?

[Anonymous No.5453398]

Suck my dick beamdog shill, fuck these threads really.

[Anonymous No.5453403]

Have a bad opinion on beamdog and its trash npcs?
Welp too bad, your post disappeared, again
Fuck you janny really, you and your gang of hypocritical and dishonest faggoty morons are pissing me off to no end.

[Anonymous No.5453682]

>>5452827
>>5453075
When I entered Feldepost Inn two guys started shittalking and Montaron got pissed. I tried to talk him down but when the conversation ended the two NPCs turned hostile and I had to kill them. I think both of them cost me -2 in reputation. Recruiting Viconia also gives you -2 because people don't dig drows. So there you have it.

[Anonymous No.5453693]

>>5453403
You can have an opinion, though. Neera is a poorly-written piece of shit who doesn't fit into the setting at all, Dorn is just Viconia with rotated stats and worse spells, and Hexxat is just an overpowered mary sue that suffers none of the downsides of a vampire. I would bet money these characters were the D&D characters of the devs inserted into the game.

What you're not allowed is to say "FUCKING BAIT AND SWITCH RING-NECKED NIGGER!" because that's just shitposting, not stating an opinion

>>5453682
The one that hates adventurers? He's a bit tricky to talk down but 1/1/3/3/1 calms him down and makes him say why he hates adventurers so much (his son answered the call and died), I think Montaron just makes the situation worse if you fail.

[Anonymous No.5453694]

>>5453682
BG1 NPC Project is installed? Montaron (or any NPC) doesn't have an allergic reaction to Marl and Dunkin and also Marl's death shouldn't actually lose you rep. Weird.

[Anonymous No.5453696]

>>5453693
>Dorn is just Viconia with rotated stats and worse spells, and Hexxat is just an overpowered mary sue that suffers none of the downsides of a vampire.
I generally agree on the poor quality of the writing, but from a mechanical perspective these are extremely misleading statements. Hexxat is among the worst NPCs in the game (yes, while accounting in her statline) and Dorn is a martial character (closer to a reverse paladin), not a full-blown divine caster.

[Anonymous No.5453715]

>>5453694
I do and I remember Montaron commenting the situation something like "I'll fucking kill you". After that you'll get conversation options to address Monty and even when you try to talk him down the conversation ends and the guys attack. Might have been a bug or a very bad reaction roll? I can't remember how that scenario is supposed to go, I played vanilla BG years ago, before EE was even a thing.

[Anonymous No.5454103]

>>5432808
>What were they thinking?
They thought mobile shitters with fat fingers was their core audience

[Anonymous No.5454105]

>>5453693
>because that's just shitposting, not stating an opinion
shitposting isn't banned

[Anonymous No.5454119]

>>5451624
Install quest packs before SCS.

[Anonymous No.5454201]

>>5453696
See >>5454105
Or if dilating janny wants to delete posts inviting him to go suck a dick, he can also delete the ones in which he calls people faggots for no good reason other than running out of arguments and having no option to save face than resorting to that bait and switch to then accuse me of doing so.
But whatever, this retarded shitty 'debate' doesn't deserve anymore attention, just fucking stop deleting shit you don't like, janny.
>>5453715
I'm definitely sure you absolutely can't defuse the Marl situation with Monty in your party, not entirely sure if it's added by NPC project or in the vanilla game, but still makes sense imo.

[Anonymous No.5454208]

>>5454119
Yeah that's what I did in the end, I was pretty sure there was something about quest packs and other related mods in the SCS readme telling you to always install SCS afterwards or else the SCS AI wouldn't apply to the fights modified by other mods. Everything seems to be in order so far.

[Anonymous No.5454327]

>>5454105
>shitposting isn't banned
Actually, rule 3 and rule 6 cover it, and if I recall there was a point where it explicitly said "Don't shitpost".

[Anonymous No.5454396]

>>5454208
The rule of thumb I follow is ascension first, quests and NPCs next, SCS, then final tweaks. I am always careful about tweaks, cause I find they fuck up installs the most, especially if you use more than one tweak pack.

[Anonymous No.5454396,1]

>>5438884
>I can't believe you actually get paid
because he doesn't LMAO