Infinity Games Thread

[Anonymous No.6274386]

>Xzar and Montaron because they're insane and homicidal and hilarious
>Quayle and Tiax for egoistic gnome shenanigans
>Alora to piss off Montaron
>Tiax and Xzar also get along swimmingly
>Overpowered Fighter/Mage protagonist cheeses through the entire game while the rest of the party banters about their bullshit
Baldur's Gate 1 is a pretty simplified and easy game compared to 2, but it's shit like this that sometimes makes it worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.6274485]

The banter is really unvaried and low in quantity, though. I think mods and whatnot have obscured this fact over the years but while BG2 has tons of party interaction and deep dialogue trees, BG1 had very little meat to its NPCs. Each of them has some quest right when you meet them, but beyond that you might get like a single exchange of one-liners every few in-game days and that's it. Also, those "quests" sometimes are barely anything, like how Kagain is like "Let's look for my lost caravan!" then immediately says "Eh, forget it." Either that or some of them are hidden in Baldur's Gate and the incentive to mess with your party composition by that point is minuscule, especially since those characters are mostly actually worse or just redundant.

[Anonymous No.6274821]

>>6274485
This.

And if you DO pick up the NPC mod, Tiax starts to get really pissy and insufferable.

[Anonymous No.6275343]

Anyone know why druid/mage isn't a multiclass option? It really annoys me because it seems like it would be a fun combo.

[Anonymous No.6275353]

>>6275343
>Mages spend the entire day indoors in the library
>Druids spend the entire day outside in the forest
How would a multiclass work?

[Anonymous No.6275370]

>>6275353
Only available for elves, to whom indoors in the library IS the forest.

Their spellbook is papyrus or something, not paper.

[Anonymous No.6275381]

>>6275353
I dunno, how does a holy cleric also being a thief make sense?

[Anonymous No.6275442]

>>6275381
By the will of ALL-MIGHTY TIAX!

[Anonymous No.6275627]

Gold Box here, Infinity Engine is a fag.

[Anonymous No.6275762]

>>6275381
Be a priest looking for "donations."

[Anonymous No.6275867]

Is it normal for scs to take fucking forever to install?

[Anonymous No.6275973]

>>6275381
You ever read anything about the Catholic Church before Luther?

[Anonymous No.6276213]

>>6275867
Took me a long fucking time too. Maybe something's changed in the last update.

Speaking of scs, how do you handle mind flayers? Fuckers keep teleporting to me even on lowest difficulty even though they only should on Tactical and higher.

[Anonymous No.6276229]

>>6276213
I wouldn't know, I'm still waiting for it to fucking install.
They seriously need to rework this mod, there has to be a better way.

[Anonymous No.6276294]

Got a BG1 question! I killed Bassilus and got a Hammer with +1 electrical damage. Right now this seems to be the only weapon i own that can damage something like a Vampirewolf. Now i wonder could something like a Shortsword +1 damage these vampirwolves aswell? Or does it need some kind of elemental damage to hit them?

[Anonymous No.6276296]

>>6276229
No there isn't, it already has been reworked, so suck it up.
It takes a while to install because it patches pretty much every single file and there are a lot of them.

[Anonymous No.6276297]

>>6276294
Any +1 or better will do. Your shortsword's fine, just less flashy.

You'll probably want to avoid vampiric wolves until you have a few more.

[Anonymous No.6276298]

>>6276213
Potions of mind focusing, everything that boosts AC (they have relatively low thac0), protection from magic energy for their implosion attacks, improved haste, protection from magical weapons

[Anonymous No.6276302]

>>6276297
Oh i see! I had this like 5minute long fight where the wolf would heal up again and again without much progress dealing damage onto him. Now i feel a bit stupid for selling the two +1 shortswords i found earlier. Gotta go and find more of those magic weapons.

[Anonymous No.6276305]

I'm playing BG1, 12 hours in so far. It feels like it's going to take me a year to get through it. I started with an elf archer, is that dumb? Can I change to mage/fighter or is it too late.

[Anonymous No.6276312]

Did anyone ever try the customisation option in SCS .ini file that allows you to increase caster level?
I reinstalled to enjoy my comfy confinement and put it at 130% and now every yuan-ti mage is level 18 or more
It's pretty great not gonna lie. Still, I'll probably reduce it a bit though.

[Anonymous No.6276318]

>>6276305
Every class is viable. And since you control an entire party you will play different classes anyway
If you really want to start over with another class you can go for it, BG1 seems long but is actually not THAT long. But there is literally nothing wrong with an archer even for the entire trilogy.

[Anonymous No.6276319]

>>6276305
BG 1 is pretty short unless you want to do heaps of sidequests.
Archer is fine, Bows are really good in bg1.

[Anonymous No.6276328]

>>6276229
Dumb entitled zoomer
SCS is one of the most competently made mods for BG btw

[Anonymous No.6276338]

What is this SCS, let me see...

>Move Boo into Minsc's pack

Only a madmen would enjoy this. How could you do this to Boo?

[Anonymous No.6276339]

>>6276318
>>6276319
Archer's in trouble towards late BG2 and ToB, due to a severe lack of magic arrows.

[Anonymous No.6276343]

>>6276338
I stuff aeriebab.itm in a bag of holding I'm a madman

[Anonymous No.6276346]

>>6276339
Shortbow of gesen
Firetooth
EEKeeper/Shadowkeeper if you went for long bow grandmaster like a NOOB

[Anonymous No.6276350]

>>6276339
It's his first playthrough, even if that were true, who gives a fuck?
It's not so shit that he won't be able to beat the game.
>>6276346
Also this.

[Anonymous No.6276351]

>>6276302
You can find a +2 shortsword on the map with Bassilus (I think)
Theres a +2 longsword +1 ice damage on the nashkel mines map

[Anonymous No.6276353]

>>6276351
thanks alot! i will look for them soon.

[Anonymous No.6276365]

>>6276350
>It's not so shit
It's even pretty good
Gesen and Firetooth are both good weapons, as is the sling of Everard (at least in the EE, in the original the strength bonus to damage somehow doesnt apply on its +5 infinite projectile)
Sure it doesn't match the damage of the few absolute top tier melee weapons but dealing damage at a distance is pretty great against quite a few late game enemies

[Anonymous No.6276397]

>SCS finally installs
>All the Icewind Dale spells show up as invalid
Nice.

[Anonymous No.6276486]

Is there a way to change the hotkey buttons? I don't like to access Tiax's trap detection from special abilities and I never turn undead.

[Anonymous No.6276498]

>>6276294
That hammer is one of the best weapons in the game, it does more damage than a shortsword and adds extra electrical damage. In addition, it is blunt, which is the best damage type.

As for you question, AD&D has thresholds at which some monsters can be hurt. Vampire Wolves require +1 weapons to be hurt, but any +1 weapon will work.

[Anonymous No.6276516]

>>6276397
Works on my machine and everyone elses's

[Anonymous No.6276538]

What are some of the best quest mods? Looking for new shit to play.

[Anonymous No.6276754]

>>6276538
I tried a few and most of then weren't that good
Tactics has some good encounters, lich in the docks, illusionist/thief in the dock, the low reputation traps and some of the random encounters. The rest is varying degrees of dogshit.
The questpack for BG2 is pretty good, no big quests but some nice additions. Almateria Restoration project and unfinished business have some really nice small things too, same as Ascension and Wheels of Prophecy for ToB.
I enjoyed Assassinations, which has a couple interesting encounters coupled with SCS. Tower of Deception is the only full quest mod I was really into and that I keep in my regular mod order.
I also tried Tales of the Deep Gardens, Eilistraees Song and Reunion but I didnt get sucked in any of those. Reunion has some nice fights mostly thanks to SCS and atweaks but at the price of unbearably cringe writing.

[Anonymous No.6276872]

>>6276339
This is one of those "myths" that really need to stop being propagated. Gesen shoots as a +4 weapon if you don't load arrows into it and that's the maximum enchantment you need against virtually everyone in the game. Quiver of Plenty is +3, enough with Tuigan to shoot everything else. If you like Crossbows, Firetooth exists. Archers face absolutely no problems in late BG2 and ToB, and the amount of people immune to +3 weaponry is literally like five named enemies, only one of which is a forced kill - Ravager.

[Anonymous No.6276873]

>>6275381
It's kinda like being a Keeper from the Thief series, I imagine. Remember that Thief can mean anything from infiltrator to spy, it's not an overtly literal job description.

[Anonymous No.6276881]

>>6276872
Just to be transparent here - Quiver of Plenty is +2 tops in vanilla install, but enemies immune to +2 weapons are still a horribly narrow list. Either way, with just the arrows you're given by the game, Archer is fine. There are enough +3 arrows to kill anything that actually requires them.

[Anonymous No.6276901]

>>6276881
Why even use arrows when even Tansheron's bow has unlimited +3 arrows and Gesen and Firetooth have a big bonus with elemental damage in addition to higher base enchantment
Even acid arrows and bolts of lightning can't compete compared to the unlimited ammo of these weapons

[Anonymous No.6276937]

>>6276901
In case you're fighting an enemy that isn't immune to +3 weapons (which is the majority of enemies in the game) and need additional burst damage or the elemental damage component for additional interruption through Stoneskin.

[Anonymous No.6276970]

>Forced to bring Keldorn along because I'm shit at fighting mages
>That's Viconia and Edwin right out
>Probably Minsc too since they share a lot of the same roles
How can I make my party fun?

[Anonymous No.6277001]

>>6276970
You can bring Cernd or Jaheira instead for neutrality and Insect Plague, which also shuts down casters easy. If you want evil guys then Korgan is also a good anti-caster in his own right.

[Anonymous No.6277005]

>>6276970
Get high charisma, above 20 you put the chances of the conflict occurring at a negligible chance. You can swap out the items (generally ring of human influence and nymph cloak or something) in the underdark or around that time, you should be good for the rest of the game.
Or disable the conflicts entirely with tweaks anthology, nothing wrong with that especially if it's not the first time you play.

Otherwise, Edwin has a good remove magic, you can put 3 of those in a spell sequencer and it should work against pretty much anything except early liches.
Haer Dalis will have an even better remove magic since it scales with levels. Blades use thief XP table and will have quite a few more levels than mages. If you max XP a bit, his remove magic will be almost as good as Keldorn's dispel. And he can use Carsomyr too, at 3 million XP.
Althogh at this point you're almost better off using the Staff of the Magi during a timestop if you have no fighter/mage type.

There is nothing that complicated about mage chess either and getting around with remove magic and the occasional secret word/breach/true sight is enough for almost anything. Even with SCS on insane, you can use remove magic successfully on almost anything that is not an early lich.
Liches and rakshasas will need ruby ray or pierce magic rather than secret word and can't be breached in vanilla ; this is where having Haer Dalis or remove magic sequencers will be most useful.

[Anonymous No.6277008]

>>6277005
>Get high charisma, above 20 you put the chances of the conflict occurring at a negligible chance.
This doesn't do anything.

[Anonymous No.6277010]

>>6277008
Yes it does.

[Anonymous No.6277013]

>>6277010
No it does not. This is not a mechanic in the game at all. Conflict is completely RNG based, Charisma impact is an urban legend.

[Anonymous No.6277014]

>>6277001
For newbies, to hit invisible casters with insect plague, aim at a ranged guy nearby or a melee guy who isn't too far away. It will spread to them.

[Anonymous No.6277021]

>>6277013
Charisma apparently reduces the chances of the conflict occurring
I disable them entirely now but for a while I kept them active and had no real problem being Keldorn and Viconia along for most of the game without it ever erupting above 20 cha if kept consistently, while it literally always did at the usual dump levels I put it
Maybe urban legend, if you can find the exact formula for the chance of conflict erupting I'll believe you but I'm pretty certain it takes charisma into account and I remember reading it somewhere
a few years back.

[Anonymous No.6277025]

>>6277021
I don't have the data on me right now either, but Charisma doesn't do anything for conflict measurement and "reading it somewhere a few years back" is the problem that spawns shit like Monks being god-tier, Archers being bad in ToB and even this weird legend that only Viconia continues her romance in ToB while everyone else's story just cuts away.

[Anonymous No.6277027]

>>6277025
>I dont have data either but my baseless assumption is better than yours
Glad we can agree

[Anonymous No.6277052]

>>6277027
The thing is that party breaking conflicts are a result of certain banter dialogues and banters are completely random and some of them can't occur inside dungeons. You would have to look into the dialogues themselves, but there's nothing in the files that turns them off if the party leader's charisma or the CHARNAME's charisma is high enough. And there are some scripted ones that are only triggered on certain occasions, like Viconia taunting Valygar if the party talks with a certain NPC.

[Anonymous No.6277174]

Apart from Algernon's Cloak and all that shit on Shandalar, what's there to pickpocket?

[Anonymous No.6277179]

>>6277174
In vanilla BG1, one of the Drizzt swords since he isn't actually dual-wielding them, BG1 simulates this by giving him a ton of APR and a special sprite. Aside from that quest rewards (Aldeth Sashenstar's sword) and such.

[Anonymous No.6277181]

>>6277174
Ring of free action from dushai

[Anonymous No.6277186]

>>6277174
Ring of free action from Dushai, ring of regeneration from Ribald

[Anonymous No.6277191]

>>6277179
Yeah some quest rewards also have a special dialogue if you pickpocket it and then complete the quest, there is one for the light stone from the gnome mayor in the underdark

[Anonymous No.6277214]

Where can i find shoes to run fast in BG1? I need them to explore faster!

[Anonymous No.6277216]

>>6277214
They drop from Drasus in front of the Cloakwood Mine entrance.

[Anonymous No.6277220]

>>6277216
Perfect, im on my way to the Cloakwood right now.

Thanks alot!

[Anonymous No.6277286]

What's this book for? It's not in the wiki or on any walkthrough so it was probably added by the NPC Mod.

[Anonymous No.6277314]

>>6277286
Google search claims that it's from BG1 Romantic Encounters.
>wiki
It's not a good source of information.

[Anonymous No.6277321]

>>6277174
efreeti bottle from the dao in trademeet

[Anonymous No.6277358]

Whose bright idea was it to give scs wizards the tendency to cast Teleport Field? It doesn't make the fight any easier for them, just really fucking frustrating.

[Anonymous No.6277390]

>>6277358
Just like lure them away lmao

[Anonymous No.6277391]

Or use spell immunity alteration if it really bothers you that much

[Anonymous No.6277651]

>>6275381
Clerics of the thief god Mask?

[Anonymous No.6277659]

>>6276970
Minsc is a dual-wielding mace user. Keldorn uses two-handed swords. There's plenty of room for both.

[Anonymous No.6278047]

This is turning out to be a fun venture with this character. I'm on my slow burn, almost-completionist run, playing here and there when I have the time. Original version (non-EE) modded to my liking. Comfy as hell. Coming out of stealth enraged and backstabbing somebody so hard they blow up into pieces never gets old.

[Anonymous No.6278246]

>>6278047
Fighter/thief in all its varieties is the best class in the game. Fun to play, extremely cathartic, but not so stupidly overpowered that you'd break the game in half on their knee, still need the rest of the party for support.

I still prefer kensai over berserker, though, because I'm really stingy about one-use abilities, and when I do use them, Kai makes for even more insanely powerful backstabbing than rage does. Outside of it there's more damage and better AC, and the equipment limitations will eventually go away with Use Any Item.

But I like half-orc multiclasses even more because of the strength bonus, and as soon as you grab the Constitution Manual you'll regenerate. And fighter high-level abilities at the end.

[Anonymous No.6278368]

>>6278246
I could mostly sign my name under this post except I prefer Dwarven Fighter/Thieves for the shorty bonuses as the Strength bonus is mostly a boon in early BG1. But I tend to roll shorties in general for aesthetics.

[Anonymous No.6278407]

Is fighter/mage/theif actually good or is it a meme?

[Anonymous No.6278414]

>>6277025
Monks might not be absolute top tier, but they’re still pretty good overall. I think an underrated aspect of them is that you can distribute more gear to other party members.

[Anonymous No.6278417]

>>6278414
Monks are so-so, they suffer from a lot of problems and the EE further nerfs them by taking away crit immunity from helmets, patching out them being able to use arcane wands and removing Hardiness stacking, which all ends up with Monk being horribly bad at physical defense, which is a problem at 200% damage dealt. You can still play a Monk for sure, and it has a niche in some fights, but some people genuinely believe it's a tier 1 class, which it isn't.
>>6278407
It is very good, very runnable in both solos (where it's very self-reliant and powerful) and full parties (you basically play like a F/T with slightly delayed martial progression but bonus spellcasting, which is a solid tradeoff). F/M/Ts are great.

[Anonymous No.6278418]

>>6278414
They're literally the worst class in the game
Sure nothing wrong with them on a vanilla core rules playthrough, but no crit protection, no spells, no good ranged damage, really nothing at all that can prevent them from dying to literally anything while doing absolutely nothing of note before dying, makes them absolute fucking trash if you play even only on insane.

[Anonymous No.6278425]

>>6278418
While I agree, I think Stunning Blow / Quivering Palm are actually pretty nice utility from time to time. Also, they can cap Armor Class, which helps a little bit. Not really a defense of Monks because they are still bad, more of a "how to make them work at all".
They're probably not worse than, say, pure Wizard Slayers.

[Anonymous No.6278438]

>>6278425
Wizard slayers are pretty good though
The magic items sure are a shame to let go but their miscast on hit is awesome. Completely shutting down SCS mages is really useful.

[Anonymous No.6278440]

>>6278425
>>6278438
Especially if you use the flail of the ages with them, casters literally can't cast.

[Anonymous No.6278442]

>>6278438
The main problems I have with Miscast is that
>if you can hit a mage in melee and do damage (Miscast doesn't go through PfMW), he is already dead unless he has massive HP bloat
>it doesn't seem to work against cleric spellcasters
Monk has better magic resistance scaling and better saving throws, Stunning Blow is just as liable to shut down a spellcaster, stealth opener works nice here too and if you're talking about BGEE Monks (which are the ones that do not get offered crit protection as vanilla BG2 had ioun stones with it) then you can also pick up a Monk kit for elemental damage.
Wizard Slayer is fun in a dual with Druid because you can conjure Fire Seeds and use Miscast Magic in an AoE, though.

[Anonymous No.6278451]

>>6277286
Isn't it the one you use to buy your way back into candlekeep?

[Anonymous No.6278457]

>>6278417
>>6278418
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I don't play on those sorts of difficulty levels in games; artificially inflating damage and whatnot throws off the balance where now you need to engage in some degree of powergaming and throw out certain gameplay options entirely just because they're no longer viable.

I find Monk more usable than most Bards and Rangers. Barbarian's like a wash. In no universe is it better than any caster, but then again that's true of anything in this game.

[Anonymous No.6278458]

>>6278442
>if you can hit a mage in melee and do damage (Miscast doesn't go through PfMW), he is already dead unless he has massive HP bloat
Not in legacy of Bhaal or if you have a small party or a "meme" party without optimized dispel solutions, which is pretty fun to play.
A lot of SCS casters have sequencers and contingencies, often with invisibility, a spell deflection, stoneksins, pfmw etc.
Thing is even worse if you increase enemy caster levels, they will all have ways to rebuff instantly
Miscast shuts all of it down really hard.
Sure its useless in your party with a sorc, a fighter/mage, a fighter/cleric and everything totaling over 1000 physical damage per round and that can dispel any enemy instantly, but if you limit yourself a bit or up the enemy caster levels making then harder or slower to dispel miscast is a really nice tool that has really few downsides at the end of the day. Completely underrated kit imo.

[Anonymous No.6278459]

>>6278457
For the 1000th time, SCS, which is the most common and best way to increase the game's difficulty, isn't about bloating numbers AT ALL

[Anonymous No.6278460]

>>6278457
meant to type any other* caster (i.e. Druid/Mage/Cleric)

[Anonymous No.6278461]

>>6278451
No.

[Anonymous No.6278465]

>>6278459
ah, see I'm not really following this line about "SCS" that I see in the thread. In this particular comment chain one person only even mentioned it briefly, so I figured we were talking in a broader context. I'm talking about the base game *maybe* under the context of light modding/fixpacking but that's about it

[Anonymous No.6278467]

>>6278457
>Monk more usable than most Bard
>In no universe is [Barbarian] better than any caster, but then again that's true of anything in this game.
I mean, all Bards are like tier 2 simply by the virtue of being casters. It's a very good class on its own.
>>6278458
If you're running SCS/LoB then you're actually also capable of "cheating" the scripts by stacking all the lowest AC on the Monk to the point where he isn't actually being targetted by physical damage dealers, as SCS scripts try to ignore your tanky party members. Likewise, Monk is also relatively buffed on LoB because instant-death effects like Quivering Palm suddenly become much better (no need to take down someone with 400 health manually if you can just instantly kill them instead), especially since LoB might still be suffering from the bug where enemies actually have penalties instead of buffs to saving throws.
While I agree Miscast is decent in LoB due to HP bloat (which is what I mentioned already), I still think it has a few problems. Sure, it's underrated, but let's remember that even if there's a "worst class in the game", it's not realistically useless to the point of being dysfunctional, really mostly like 20% worse than the most optimized combos.

[Anonymous No.6278468]

>>6278457
>more usable than most Bards
Then you missed out on how to play bards, really
Start using their spells for something better than the occasional aoe damage or disabler, they can buff themselves and tank better than literally any other class while having more than respectable melee capabilities

[Anonymous No.6278472]

>>6278467
Minmaxing AC in LoB is useless. Even at -26 you'll get hit by anything. Add SCS mages against which monks have literally no defense. Stop defending the indefensible seriously. Monk IS dysfunctional, it's literally the only class that verifiably cant be played on ironman without having the party doing the actual work because its always, from candlekeep to the end, vulnerable to instant death by crit.
Anyway, even with SCS, LoB is trash imo, but even on insane with SCS wizard slayers will have better survavibility and better uses than fucking monks.
Leave this stupid fucking class wallowing in its mediocrity already.

[Anonymous No.6278478]

>>6278467
And again, miscast isnt only useful because of hp bloat, shutting down prebuffing is the main point.

[Anonymous No.6278479]

>>6278478
Rebuffing*

[Anonymous No.6278487]

>>6278468
6th-level doesn't really do it for me. Sure I get Pierce Magic, Spell Deflection, decent Protections, Breach, but if we're comparing the two purely against each other, the Monk eventually surpasses this level of personal protection and will just eat through Stoneskins and whatnot anyway as far as mid-level enemy protections go.

[Anonymous No.6278489]

>>6278472
>Minmaxing AC in LoB is useless. Even at -26 you'll get hit by anything
Luckily you are allowed to hit more than -26 AC thanks to Improved Invisibility (which effectively nerfs enemy THAC0 by 4, effectively giving you -30 AC) and it also can be modified further with slashing / crushing AC, and since Monks can wear the Big Metal Unit and multiple different items (like the Golden Belt), you can easily hit Armor Class into the mid-30s, which works for roughly 75-80% avoidance against most mooks even in Legacy of Bhaal, which is decent. You can't AC tank Abazigal, but then again, no one can, so that point is moot; for any fights of this sort you are still liable to stacking Potions of Heroism / Power and using Hardiness.
>Monk IS dysfunctional, it's literally the only class that verifiably cant be played on ironman without having the party doing the actual work because its always, from candlekeep to the end, vulnerable to instant death by crit.
There was a solo Dark Moon Monk report that actually made it all the way to Amelyssan in SCS/LoB/Ascension and only had fallen there, completing the fight with 3-4 reloads. Unless this isn't admissible evidence because it wasn't recorded on video, in which case the entire no-reloading culture is dismissed except for streamer Davaeorn, in which case I'm not sure if talking about ironman playthroughs even makes sense.
And, again, you're forgetting not everyone plays on the Enhanced Edition, which is the one verison of the game where Monks are robbed of crit immunity; in vanilla, you get crit immunity on Ioun Stones and Mask of King Strohm III.
>Leave this stupid fucking class wallowing in its mediocrity already.
Why are you taking this argument so personally? I'm not even saying Monks are particularly good. You put forth ideas of how WSes are underrated, I put forth ideas that allow to optimize the Monk.

[Anonymous No.6278491]

So what IS the worst class in the game? Swashbuckler? Shapeshifter? Wild mage?

[Anonymous No.6278494]

>>6278487
>the Monk eventually surpasses this level of personal protection
Monk activist in this thread here. No, you are still lacking utility like Arrows of Dispelling for actually dispelling things. Every martial has the ability to just Greater Whirlwind through any number of stoneskins in the vanilla game, except they can also be Improved Hasted with a speed weapon and Monk really cannot. Up to level 6 spells also allow your Bard ridiculous amount of personal protection with Stoneskins, Protection from Magical Weapons / Magical Energies and so on, meaning your own bard is effectively immortal too. He can also Dispel / Remove Magic and stuff. If we're comparing the two purely against each other, even a vanilla Bard surpasses the utility that the Monk brings, and the only metric that is comparable is raw damage (in which case Monk with roughly 285 average damage per round in Best-in-Slot gear is pretty competitive), but Bard simply outlasts the Monk outside of that.

Bards are a high tier class; most martials are fairly mid-tier and primarily used for overwhelming, no-nonsense physical damage. Monks aren't the best physical damage class, even; you only pick them if you really want a relatively equipment-free magic resistant character that requires a ton of micromanagement to even be decent, and it won't outkill a BiS-geared fighter.

[Anonymous No.6278505]

>>6278491
Monk.

[Anonymous No.6278507]

>>6278491
In no particular order
>any Monk (yes, I argued for Monk in this thread but, again, they're not a particularly great class)
>Beastmaster
>Wizard Slayer (although Anon-kun had very good points for them, they're generally still lower tier)
>probably Abjurer or Transmuter due to losing vital spell protections that make it very hard to play, although you're still a wizard
>pure single-class Ranger (sorry Minsc)
>pure single-class Thief (although HLAs really help here).

It also depends on stuff like mod setups and your own preferences. But the thing about Baldur's Gate is that you aren't really going to run into a class that's completely incapable of handling stuff and even the bottom-tier classes can have some use or niche utility, and there is no real "F-tier" that produces horribly underpowered and unreliable characters like a Final Fantasy V Berserker.

[Anonymous No.6278515]

>>6278489
Because you spend three paragraphs and a half arguing about nothing to say that monks arent really that good anyway
You can out AC to -10 000 you stil have 5% of taking a crit and a hit
Sure you can use that quest item loophole, nice idea, but still a loophole and an exploit to circumvent a rule
I dont give a fuck about admissible evidence or 'no reload culture', I have no doubt that someone had the patience to do it, but like most reports of runs and forum posts about 'no reload' runs, yeah, I'm not here to see how many times he actually reloaded (which I dont really give a fuck amyway) but most importantly, it always boils down to doing their best to use exploits that SCS is supposed to prevent, abusing aggro in spite of better calls for help being the most common. Davaeorn streams, which is cool, but most importantly, he doesnt use any of these cheap tactics to complete a run. What's even the point of playing SCS + LoB if you're going to use exploits, loopholes and gamey tactics to win.

[Anonymous No.6278518]

Speaking of no reloads
>Try a backstab, critfail, always annoying
>Reload
>Take position
>Suddenly thief becomes visible and the whole plan's fucked

When is this bug going to be fixed? This game is twenty years old.

[Anonymous No.6278521]

>>6278491
Also
>Swashbuckler
They're okay, can reach the aforementioned AC cap and blow their AC to levels unrealistic for any other class making AC viable for them, they're okay damage dealers, and HLA traps are great too
>Shapeshifter
Insect Plague and multiple other druid spells are broken so a class that has them is also broken even if the kit is underwhelming
>Wild Mage
It's a Mage so it's good, and depending on versions of the game you can completely make yourself immune to ironman-game-ending effects (in vanilla you don't proc wild surge from spells cast from sequencers; not anymore in EE). Anyway, Wild Mages also offer ridiculously broken cheese that is only moderated by the possibility of it killing or debilitating your party, but if you consistently high roll then WMs are very strong.

[Anonymous No.6278546]

>>6278515
>Because you spend three paragraphs and a half arguing about nothing to say that monks arent really that good anyway
Why does it hurt you that there's information out on the internet on how to optimize a Monk and make it play better while fully disclaiming that it's not a particularly powerful option? This way anyone who actually wants to play Monk for whatever reason (flavor or challenge) gets to learn something about making the class survive more. If there's no point in arguing because Monk is underpowered anyway, why not stretch it further and quit talking about anything that isn't a Fighter/Mage?
>You can out AC to -10 000
You can't, which is why I mentioned Monk has a lot of problems against Abazigal, for example, who has unreachable THAC0. Still, reaching high levels of avoidance is still very useful if you can afford it (Monks, by necessity, can), because even if you do take a crit and a hit, it still has to potentially go through the layers of Mirror Image (from Ilbratha or Dark Moon Monk), Stoneskin (from the stoneskin shoes), Hardiness and the HP value buffed by your Ioun stone and any Heroism you might have drank. You aren't built for tanking but it's still, in my opinion, better than just trying to cut any discussion short.
>Sure you can use that quest item loophole
Or Ioun Stones. Monks weren't initially designed with no crit immunity at all. Beamdog did that.
>Davaeorn streams, which is cool, but most importantly, he doesnt use any of these cheap tactics to complete a run
Davaeorn still solos the game and sequence breaks to get a ton of XP early on, and only hires NPCs after his character is high level. This is also gaming the system and using loopholes. I don't hold it against him. Cheese is relative. Most SCS ironman reports aren't the way you wrote it in my experience.
>I have no doubt that someone had the patience to do it
You're moving the goalposts from "verifiably cant be played on ironman", then.

[Anonymous No.6278568]

>>6278546
What even is "not using cheese"? Running in and hoping you succeed a random saving throw roll?

All random chance can be removed as a factor if you play smart.

[Anonymous No.6278576]

>>6278546
>Davaeorn still solos the game and sequence breaks to get a ton of XP early on, and only hires NPCs after his character is high level. This is also gaming the system and using loopholes
No theres a philosophical difference between not hiring useless party members when you dont need them and tjings like cheesing aggro or using specific game knowledge to use specific buffs that you wouldnt cast otherwise.
As for the rest of your post, I'm not even going to bother triggering another overblown wall of text by daring to disagree with anything.

[Anonymous No.6278580]

>>6278576
Suit yourself. I think you have a very specific idea of how the game is meant to be played, which is okay, I just don't think I should stop posting just because you don't like the way I play the game.

[Anonymous No.6278582]

>>6278580
I never asked you that, just to try and argue in good faith and read my post fully before starting to write a wall of text to disagree with literally everything without taking the time to understand what you're already arguing against

[Anonymous No.6278592]

>>6278582
>argue in good faith
I made an attempt to do so the whole time. Are you doing the same thing when you're
>claiming that the impossibility to Ironman the game with a Monk is "verifiably" impossible (who verified this?)
>stating inaccuracies ("Even at -26 AC you'll get hit by anything") as fact
>vigorously arguing for Wizard Slayers while admitting they are arguably one of the worst classes then claiming that me vigorously arguing for Monks while admitting they are arguably one of the worst classes is somehow bad and useless
I mean, I don't know, I genuinely thought we just had a pleasant talk about optimizing bad classes and now you're getting all angry about it.

[Anonymous No.6278598]

>>6278592
I'm not angry, you should really calm the fuck down tho

[Anonymous No.6278604]

>>6278592
there is no use arguing with a powergamer

[Anonymous No.6278607]

>>6278598
I'm calm, Anon, I just don't think we're on the same waves. But eh, let's just be cool. Stay safe and wash your hands, cya.

[Anonymous No.6278612]

>>6278592
>>6278592
I mean all three points you take are clearly stuff you didnt take the time to read
You cant Ironman monk because if you dont cheese, you are bound to the goodwill of RNG gods. So you will verifiably die. It's just how it is.
It's not inaccurate that anything still has 5% chance to hit you at -26 AC. It's not inaccurate that they still could if you were at -10 000.
I also really dont think that Wizard Slayers are bad and I explained why they had almost all strong points of fighter kits and a good gimmick on top of it. Especially since they can dual.
It's mind numbingly frustrating arguing anything because any point ism et with a wall of text that often has seldom to do with the fucking subject at hand
Keep painting me in your mind as an angry memester who spouts simplistic opinions if you so wish, I have some Baldurs Gate to play.

[Anonymous No.6278617]

>>6278612
>you can survive a crit and a hit with a Monk even in SCS LoB and I mentioned how and why, even with bad Monk HP die it has problems
>it's inaccurate to say that "-26 AC will get you hit by anything" because it implies AC doesn't do anything when you can actually reliably hit high levels of avoidance which is noticable
>Wizard Slayers aren't as good as any of the optimized classes which you admitted, and even then you are mentioning things that salvage them. I already mentioned things Monks are salvaged by, which in LoB are the fairly valuable stun, instant death proc and high MR%.
>Keep painting me in your mind as an angry memester who spouts simplistic opinions if you so wish, I have some Baldurs Gate to play.
I never made any attempt to doing that, you're just constantly accusing me of stuff and I don't see why.

[Anonymous No.6278624]

>>6278617
Oh fuck off

[Anonymous No.6278643]

Both of you fuck off. This conversation is pointless.

[Anonymous No.6278685]

for me, it's halfling barbarian

[Anonymous No.6278730]

>>6278643
So are you

[Anonymous No.6278748]

>>6278047
>dualing at 10
Why?

[Anonymous No.6278754]

>>6278748
Not him, but it's not too bad for the bonus point of THAC0.

[Anonymous No.6278778]

>>6276297
>Not beelining to Beregost, grabbing Silke's +1 staff and potion of invulnerability, then shooting over to the temple map with the vamp wolves, having your fighter chug the invuln potion + imoen's oil of speed and go to town on the wolves for literal thousands of XP

GG EZ. Everyone in your party will gain like 1-2 levels that early on.

[Anonymous No.6278817]

>>6276312
To expand a bit on that if anyone is interested by fucking around with this setting as well

I've had some really fun and difficult fights with this on insane so far, +30% enemy arcane caster level and +40% divine caster level
I didnt activate HLAs for all arcane casters (don't want every single mage to pop a fallen planetar) but I did for divine casters and its fucking great
I had the named druids in the druid grove drop elemental princes and earth elemental transformation. Unnamed druids all having insect plague and creeping doom, even dropping a nature's beauty and dispels
Really fucking cool to see all those spells used by enemies
Also makes mage battles a lot more tense. Even the usual low level ones have better spell books than on their base level, and are very eager to use their additional secret words and warding whips on your spell immunity abjuration. Had several full party dispel and close calls and a petrified party member. Remove magic is virtually useless for now, forcing mage battles to go on for quite a while if you run out of breach, which is often.
I only did early Athkatla quests and encounters, the de'arnise keep, trademeet and the planar prison so far but it's really fun. Takes longer than usual too.
Definitely not for everyone, but if you enjoy minmaxing early XP, lengthy mage battles, and know your way around SCS, it's a lot better than going for Legacy of Bhaal if you want a fresh way to play the game.
If SCS keeps adding ways to semi-randomize encounters like this, this shit with item randomizer will eventually top any roguelike honestly

[Anonymous No.6278837]

>>6278748
I'm sure I had a reason why but I play here and there so it was a while back.

[Anonymous No.6278862]

one of the best things about the BG series is that virtually all companions are likeable and have great voice acting, the only characters I am apathetic about are Eldoth and Skie, Cernd and Valygar, I dont dislike them they are just boring

[Anonymous No.6278872]

>>6278862
I mostly agree except I find the EE characters pretty cringy, unsubtle, and unfitting with the rest of the tone.

Except Baeloth. Baeloth is cool.

[Anonymous No.6279204]

Which two characters have the best banter, and why is it Minsc and Keldorn?

[Anonymous No.6279235]

>>6279204
Jan

[Anonymous No.6279379]

>>6279204
Alora and Edwin.

[Anonymous No.6279436]

>>6279379
Based and cutepilled
did she die between both games, explaining quite a few things about Edwin in BG2? Probably not, but in my headcanon she did

[Anonymous No.6279475]

>>6279379
>Hey Edwin, would you like to remove all of my protections and find some new creative ways to use Khelben's Warding Whip? I'm "picking your pockets" right now
>no way fag

[Anonymous No.6279694]

>>6278872
Will Mazzy fight with evil characters? My party is kinda lacking in physical damage and I've never used her before

[Anonymous No.6279698]

>>6279694
I don't think anyone actually pisses her off to that extent. Edwin and Korgan just annoy her by hitting on her, and I don't recall her and Viconia having anything to really fight over.

[Anonymous No.6279849]

>>6275627
What are the best Gold Box games to start with? I want to get into PC D&D, but i can't stand BG1's cheesiness, and i don't like RTWP enough to start with Icewind Dale.

[Anonymous No.6280031]

>>6279849
Well, there's one quadrilogy and two trilogies within each one you can (and should) import your characters from one game to the next. So there's really only 3 places to start, Pool of Radiance is the only starter game I have played and it's a real clunker but it's the start of the biggest adventure of the lot that takes you from 'how do i hit goblin' to farting out dragon killing death rays. The Dragonlance and Savage Frontier games would, no doubt, be less clunky and awkward places to start, but then you might have difficulty going back to Pool. I think getting maximum clunk out of the way first is a great idea. Pool certainly has the most tabletop AD&D design of the lot too, rather than being videogamey as it's based directly on a tabletop adventure module, maps, traps and all.

[Anonymous No.6280038]

>>6280031
This picture popped up in my image search and I just wanted to post it.

[Anonymous No.6280057]

I really like the graphics for unlimited adventures. Are there any good modules for it?

[Anonymous No.6280089]

I'm considering Edwin for my BG2 party, but I hear he tries to flirt with Viconia, which I'm not fucking having. Is it true?

[Anonymous No.6280101]

>>6274485
Kagain's quest is bugged, but you're actually able to find the caravan and complete it.

[Anonymous No.6280176]

bg 1 and 2 are the only crpgs that I can replay over and over again without getting bored.
Something about the gameplay is just so satisfying, especially with scs.

[Anonymous No.6280629]

>>6280089
Some light banter at most. It won't break your romance with her. Or him, if you've modded it.

[Anonymous No.6280657]

>>6280089
It's fun banter
Especially when he tries again in ToB
Poor Edwin

[Anonymous No.6280668]

>>6280089
This thayvian male is as red blooded as his cloak, and has left many a concubine gasping under his erotic onslaught

[Anonymous No.6280692]

Just finished Planescape: Torment few days ago and I loved it. Very frustrating at points but I believe that was mostly due to my cluelessness. I always play as thief so I just stuck with thief class Nameless One through my game. The ending was great and it finally made sense why the Nameless One wanted to become immortal: whatever he did in his mortal life was so bad that he knew he would end up in blood war. He wanted to become immortal because he was afraid of going to hell. Annah was a worthless party member especially with my high level thief Nameless One, but goddamn I love her and I want to protect her.

[Anonymous No.6280695]

>>6280692
Give it a replay as a mage. It goes well with high intelligence and wisdom for all the best dialogue and options, and there are no good mages in the game so you'll fill a better niche.

[Anonymous No.6280701]

>>6280695
Oh I'm totally doing a rerun with a mage. The Dragonball Z tier spells the final boss was doing made me really envious. I've never played a rpg with that flashy spells with cutscenes and all.

[Anonymous No.6280750]

>>6280692
Nameless One didnt actually start the Blood War

[Anonymous No.6280772]

>>6280750
I mean, he might have? I don't think it's ever stated what he did or didn't, just that because of him the whole multiverse is slowly dying.

[Anonymous No.6280847]

>>6274821
>Tiax starts to get really pissy and insufferable
"Just like the developers intended." Like, that's just fucking Tiax.

>>6277220
Cloakwoods will be fun for you.

[Anonymous No.6280849]

>>6277314
The wiki covers a lot, but misses a lot as well.

>>6278047
That portrait is quite perfect for your strategy.

[Anonymous No.6280857]

>>6280629
Oh, good, I don't want that sperg making moves on my woman.

>>6280668
I tore Shangalar's arms out of his sockets, and I curbstomped Kangaxx on his own sarcophagus, don't think I'm afraid of some punkass conjurer.
I have more Str, Con, and Cha than you.

[Anonymous No.6280862]

>>6278507
>But the thing about Baldur's Gate is that you aren't really going to run into a class that's completely incapable of handling stuff
Jaheira comes close in vanilla BG1.

[Anonymous No.6280868]

Why does Helm of Balduran look like ass? How can I with good conscience wear this pot-helmet thing?

[Anonymous No.6280871]

>>6278862
I really love the portraits in BG1. The ones in BG2 are also good, but there's fewer, and they aren't quite as colorful.

[Anonymous No.6280874]

>>6280868
I gave it to Korgan, looks ok on him since he's a dwarf and he wears a horned helmet in his portrait. You're right that it looks hilariously ugly on anyone of normal stature though.

[Anonymous No.6280876]

>>6280868
be dwarf

[Anonymous No.6280879]

>>6280871
I used to think BG1 portraits just looked goofy and silly, but I've since come around.

[Anonymous No.6280883]

>>6280868
I've actually never really thought much about how goofy it actually looks, but now that you call attention to it, I can't stop laughing at it.

[Anonymous No.6280884]

>>6277659
>Minsc is a dual-wielding mace user.
>Not Lilarcor

[Anonymous No.6280937]

>>6280857
Question not my designs, simian, else you too will become an unwilling part of them

[Anonymous No.6280939]

>>6280868
Edit its appearance with Nearinfinity

[Anonymous No.6280940]

>>6280857
Vicky flirts with Sarevok and invites him to fuck her whle youre romancing her, she is a whore no matter what, you cuck

[Anonymous No.6280941]

>>6280937
And I, Edwin, have grown no more appreciative of the sound of your voice since the day I first encountered its nasal whine.

[Anonymous No.6280942]

>>6280940
Nah, she taunts him and he recoils like the filthy cowardly ibblith that he is

[Anonymous No.6280943]

>>6280940
I mean she doesn't mind you fucking whores or drow priestesses either. It's a cultural thing. Embrace it.

[Anonymous No.6280945]

>>6280941
Eh...

[Anonymous No.6280947]

>>6280943
She's actually quite relieved if you don't

[Anonymous No.6281004]

>>6280862
Nah, that's baloney. Low level druid stuff is bad but Call Lightning, Summon Insects and Call Woodland Beings are good spells. And she's still a half-Fighter, so she hits level 7 for that +1/2 attack, and her weapon selection is solid. If you want "useless" BG1 NPCs you should be looking at Skie, who is mostly just really late and overshadowed by every other Thief.
>>6280884
I mean I have him dual-wield axes because dual-wielding simply does more damage than two-handers although Lilarcor + Minsc is very fitting thematically

[Anonymous No.6281158]

Why the fuck does the crazy graveyard skeleton from Quest Pack always corrupt other places of the game with her dialogue? In my last modded playthrough (on vanilla BG2, like ten years ago), all the enemies drinking potions would spout out her lines, or the main character's dialogue - "But we just met!", "Oh, the first blessed words I have heard...", etc. - every time they drink potions. And in my current run (EE), it's pretty much broken the Assassinations mod by making everyone talk a bunch of bullshit.

Every fucking time with this bitch. It's like she curses my game, the same way that one priest cursed her.

[Anonymous No.6281170]

>>6280940
Why's it always cuckolding with some of you people?

[Anonymous No.6281191]

>>6275343
Cause its not an option in AD&D.

[Anonymous No.6281192]

>>6280937
You'll sit down if you know what's good for you, or I'll tell Renal that you were part of Maevar's scheme to assassinate him.

[Anonymous No.6281198]

>>6281004
Maybe I gave up on Jaheira early, I was just never satisfied with her as a fighter nor as a caster. Branwen and Viconia are far better support from the get go, they can heal worth a damn and seem to be better at fighting.

[Anonymous No.6281202]

>>6280031
The only problem with Pool of Radiance is you can't make rangers and paladins like you can with Curse onwards.
So when you import from Pool to Curse, you need to create some new rangers or paladins.

[Anonymous No.6281203]

>>6281158
Did you by any chance load a save made with a different mod order?

[Anonymous No.6281206]

>>6281192
I'll send Edwin alone to exterminate Renal, Aran and the rest of the shadow thieves alone just to spite you, simian

[Anonymous No.6281223]

>>6281170
To be fair, the last ten years of crpgs releases have distorted expectations on that regard
And it doesn't look like it's getting any better, getting cucked is after all one of the first things advertised about companions in BG3.

[Anonymous No.6281238]

>>6281170
i dont care, i was just calling that guy a hypocrite

[Anonymous No.6281271]

>>6281238
How am I a hypocrite?

[Anonymous No.6281276]

>>6281271
youre already a cuck for romancing viconia anyway, she's seen kilometers of dick

[Anonymous No.6281286]

>another good thread invaded by /pol/tards who only want to talk about their favourite fetish
I miss old /vr/

[Anonymous No.6281302]

>>6281286
youre the one talking about not wanting Edwin to "make moves against your woman", faggot

[Anonymous No.6281312]

>>6281302
This is literally my first post on this subject in this thread and you're seeing ghosts retard

[Anonymous No.6281317]

How early do you go to Watcher's Keep? Ever beaten Demogorgon before Spellhold?

[Anonymous No.6281329]

>>6281276
See, there you go again.

[Anonymous No.6281331]

>>6281312
my post still stands faggot, you can take your snide remarks and stick em up your ass

[Anonymous No.6281334]

>>6281331
You can't stop being obsessed with something you can't get even when playing video games. I pity you.

[Anonymous No.6281338]

>>6281331
What still stands? Your obsession with cuckolding?

[Anonymous No.6281342]

>>6281338
youre the one being afraid of being cucked by a video game characters, bitch

[Anonymous No.6281343]

>>6281342
>what's roleplaying in a roleplaying game

[Anonymous No.6281345]

>>6281343
so youre self-inserting as the faggot that you are into the game? whats the point of that

[Anonymous No.6281349]

Can you two shut up already?

[Anonymous No.6281352]

>>6281276
That's now how cuckolding works you fucking memelord.

[Anonymous No.6281374]

>>6281286
Normalfags really ruined this site.

[Anonymous No.6281375]

>>6281374
You'd think normalfags would not give a fuck for a twenty-year-old game.

[Anonymous No.6281408]

>>6280940
lol, she sees through him and uses it as an opportunity to humiliate him. Sarevok made this post.

>>6280884
>>6281004
I stuck him with a composite longbow and just have him use a sword at times. He does a lot better in melee with Lilarcor though.

[Anonymous No.6281416]

>>6281317
Yes, it's not that tough if you know what you're doing
the githyanki enclave, its anti paladin and its demilich, the seal fights and the dead magic zones in the demon infested maze can be bigger problems imo
I do it in-between SoA and ToB as SCS allows, really the best time for it.>>6281329

[Anonymous No.6281417]

>>6281317
Yes, it's not that tough if you know what you're doing
the githyanki enclave, its anti paladin and its demilich, the seal fights and the dead magic zones in the demon infested maze can be bigger problems imo
I do it in-between SoA and ToB as SCS allows, really the best time for it

[Anonymous No.6281431]

>>6281317
there's some nice goodies on the first level so you should try to do that when you can, the other levels you should only enter in late-game SoA or ToB

[Anonymous No.6281437]

>>6281317
>before spellhold
Depending on the party and difficulty the first two levels are easily doable, after that it would probably be a slog. But as always, with enough cheese, anything's possible.

[Anonymous No.6281450]

What's a good custom script for Imoen in BG2? THIEF ADVENTURER has her look for traps, but she will do that and nothing else, anything else has to be done manually. Why is there no stock thief script that includes searching for traps without it being autistic? Better yet one which includes defensive spell casting?

That tab with custom AI settings doesn't seem to work at all.

[Anonymous No.6281457]

>>6281450
I just have all my characters do nothing except take a swing at any enemy coming near them.

[Anonymous No.6281459]

>>6281437
there's no need to cheese anything, if you are around levels 14-16 it's perfectly doable, you already have all the offensive and defensive spells you need. You might need to rest relatively often, but no cheese required.

[Anonymous No.6281468]

Who's this guy? Willem Dafoe? What is he sinking into? I played through Planescape: Torment and I swear I never saw this guy.

[Anonymous No.6281470]

>>6281450
AI scripts beyond the occasional auto attack (or the SCS sript for fast buffing), like in every single game in existence, are shit.
Just play the game, AI isn't going to do it for you.

[Anonymous No.6281475]

>>6281468
I thought it was the assassin that kept following you in different lives?

[Anonymous No.6281479]

>>6281450
btw SCS does have a script that will auto cast long duration defensive spells out of combat (like stoneskin) and give you about two rounds of instant casting with aura cleansing to cast any buffs you want without having to spend 10 minuites on it. It has a setting to cast more defensive spells out of combat automatically, but its targeting is approximate at best so you're better off not using it.

[Anonymous No.6281484]

>>6281468
I figured it was Xachariah.

[Anonymous No.6281559]

>>6281484
xachariah is supposed to be blindfolded though, isn't he?

[Anonymous No.6281585]

>>6281457
That's what I do with all my guys, I just want the one who's looking for traps to also fight back or chip into the fight without having to order them.

>>6281470
I'm not leaning back faggot, but trading one small bit of micromanaging for another is stupid, she should be looking out for traps without me having to tell her to, and without doing so at the exclusion of anything else, including defending herself.

[Anonymous No.6281824]

>>6281585
>she should be looking out for traps without me having to tell her to, and without doing so at the exclusion of anything else, including defending herself.
you want her to also make you a coffee while she's doing that while we're at it? some sugar maybe?
no, retard, she shouldn't

[Anonymous No.6281923]

De'arnise keep's umber hulks are fucked-up on scs.

I take the dog food for them, then as soon as I leave shadows they telepathically home in on my thief through three doors. And if I leave the floor - which I have to do to rest or save the game, because I'm suddenly in combat despite the doors in the way - the umber hulks teleport right after me and I'm in for a fight regarless.

[Anonymous No.6281924]

I like bg1 I don't get why people say to skip it.

[Anonymous No.6281939]

>>6281924
BG1 is fine, it's just the least in almost all aspects among Infinity games. Planescape Torment has the best characters and writing and story, Icewind Dale has the best atmosphere and music and voice acting, BG2 has the best combat and the most to do and is overall the best experience, but BG1 really only has the spooky doppelganger dungeon in the lower Candlekeep - and even that's undermined by them liking to overuse doppelgangers elsewhere.

[Anonymous No.6281962]

Viconia was very impressed by me turning into a Slayer. Do you think she wants me to turn into one in bed?

>>6281924
Why do I hear people keep saying to skip BG1? It's really good, it has some things which BG2 doesn't have, such as lots of wildneress to explore, with lots of fun events and shit to encounter, BG2 has that, but mostly it's confined into Athkatla

[Anonymous No.6281991]

>>6281924
i dont get why people dont say skip them both

rpgs are boring and gay

[Anonymous No.6282009]

>>6281939
BG1 has the best exploration of any Infinity Engine game.

[Anonymous No.6282021]

>>6282009
I wouldn't count that as its merit: exploration in top-down games is pretty inherently rubbish, because you can't see far ahead of you. I'm glad that the other games tightened the focus.

[Anonymous No.6282152]

>>6282021
>exploration in top-down games is pretty inherently rubbish, because you can't see far ahead of you
Seems a pretty subjective statement.

[Anonymous No.6282186]

>>6282152
If you can't see the sky above you or the horizon far away, then the game cannot possibly be any good at exploration, and focusing on such things is folly. It'd be like saying Thief 2 has the best melee combat in the series.

[Anonymous No.6282206]

>>6282186
That's still highly subjective.

[Anonymous No.6282210]

>>6282206
Fight your way through Thief 2 without sneaking at all, then we talk about what's subjective.

[Anonymous No.6282274]

>>6280884
>be Minsc
>come with two pips in mace and in two-weapon fighting
>be a ranger with favored enemy Vampire
>all the mace weapons are Vampire hunting weapons, some even found in Vampire lairs
>no other character is spec'd for maces
>continually get memed into THIRD two-handed fighter for group with lilarcor because low int and memes

[Anonymous No.6282330]

>>6282274
I just gave the Mace Of Disruption to Viconia, then had it pimped out with illithium. With Gauntlets Of Ogre Strength she puts it to pretty decent use.
Mostly I stick Minsc with two-handed and long-bow because that's what he was doing in the first game. Shame he can't use Carsomyr.

[Anonymous No.6282353]

>>6282330
Just use Silver Sword, probably best two-hander for damage in SoA thanks to the vorpal proc. Carsomyr is more defensive/utility than pure damage.

[Anonymous No.6282361]

>>6282353
I only have the blade yet, Saemon foists it on you so he can evade Githyanki ire, thus why I'm in Fishville at the moment.

[Anonymous No.6282451]

Is he really that bad?

[Anonymous No.6282498]

I hate IE powergaming autists so much. If you're going to be such a stick in the mud, at least be a man and play a multiplayer game where you can actually win and lose.

[Anonymous No.6282520]

>>6281202
Yeah, not a big deal. I made the mistake of making a multiclass half-elf in Pool and was glad to replace her level capped arse with a fresh human paladin in Curse. AD&D 1'st edition really is the human supremacy edition.

[Anonymous No.6282550]

>>6282451
He isn't really, it's just that
>a lot of people remember Druids sucking in BG1 so that's imposed onto BG2 perceptions
>they are missing a lot of Cleric spells that a lot of people find essential so it's easy to overlook that Cernd has many other powerful spells (Insect Motherfucking Plague), especially since BG2 makes it seem like you really need all the Cleric anti-undead shit (but BG2 also tosses a ton of anti-undead gear at you)
>he has a cardboard personality and his personal quest annoys a lot of people's sensibiltiies so a lot of people remember him as boring and a horrible father, which somehow seeps into the perception that he's useless
>his kit is meh, it falls off and doesn't let him cast, and a lot of people see the werewolf as the selling point and forget he's a druid first and foremost
>he shares a game with Jaheira so he looks bad although Jaheira takes like 3,000,000 XP to reach the amount of druid spells he can cast
It's mostly a meme at this point, Cernd is perfectly viable and can even be extremely valuable (if only because of Insect Plague for shutting down casters). No one really is straight up "bad" in BG2 and you can build a team around anyone. I take Cernd as Neutral filler often.

[Anonymous No.6282574]

>>6282498
>I hate people who are so invested in the game that they learn the mechanics
Me too. It's like, lol don't these idiots know the difficulty slider goes to the left?

[Anonymous No.6282579]

>>6282574
worked

[Anonymous No.6282695]

Jesus Christ, the Shield Of Balduran is broken as fuck, I was thinking I would just get an edge on Beholders and then have to contend with the Strength penalty, but they outright can't touch you when you rock it.

[Anonymous No.6283037]

I've been playing the first Baldur's Gate for the first time, and it's frankly one of the most over rated games I've ever played. Definitely my least favorite infinity game.
The story is underwhelming, and it scales piss poorly with the way the game is set up. The curve in general is abysmal. The narrative moves quicker than what the encounter would deem ready for the player. And the problem goes the other direction if you grind beforehand (and grinding is one of the worst parts about CRPGs).
It makes everything feel gamey, more so than Icewind Dale. The worst offender is any kind of fear/confusion/movement spell. There's too many and the make the game too much about trial and error, which kills any spirit of role playing. It's probably from DnD, but still. About 70% of the strong encounters in the early-mid game boil down to which mage can cast a doom first. It really takes me out of it. And if you're trying to play it as blind as possible, there's no reasonable way to feel like you're planning. There's maybe one incident where you can plan, with resist petrification with the Basilisk in the warehouse.

All of the companions are one note, and I feel like they should take greater precedence than say Fallout. The main premise of the plot was interesting enough, but everything in between wasn't. It was mostly a very mediocre DnD campaign. I feel like the main reason people love it is the sequel, and because they're intimately familiar with the game from playing it as a kid.

[Anonymous No.6283132]

>>6283037
Cry more, stupid fag

[Anonymous No.6283141]

>>6282498
And play with stupid cunts like you?
No thanks

[Anonymous No.6283165]

>>6283037
blah blah blah shut up, fag

[Anonymous No.6283175]

>>6283037
>The narrative moves quicker than what the encounter would deem ready for the player
So do a sidequest or something inbetween advancing the mainquest, you brainlet.

>It makes everything feel gamey
The worst sin of a video game, right?

>The worst offender is any kind of fear/confusion/movement spell. There's too many and the make the game too much about trial and error, which kills any spirit of role playing
Why? Because you're too bothered to deal with them as they come or preparing for eventualities?

>About 70% of the strong encounters in the early-mid game boil down to which mage can cast a doom first.
That wasn't my experience, I rolled a Berserker and he was pretty fucking good at trouncing mages and casters (and was particularly helpful in fighting sirens and other fucks who likes using charm). I never actually used the Doom spell myself.

>and because they're intimately familiar with the game from playing it as a kid
I barely remembered any important details from then, and I did pretty well.

[Anonymous No.6283186]

>>6282186
>what is ultima

[Anonymous No.6283193]

Based or cringe?

[Anonymous No.6283196]

>>6283193
>best tank in game
>fits every party due to neutrality
>innate racial resistances
>his banter is funny
>he wants to sell Jaheira
>useful utility
i think the answer is obvious

[Anonymous No.6283242]

>>6283193
He's ok, but my party is already full.

[Anonymous No.6283395]

>>6283037
>And the problem goes the other direction if you grind beforehand (and grinding is one of the worst parts about CRPGs).
I am hard-presesd to think of any western RPG released past 1997 that in any way encourages or requires grinding. Baldur's Gate doesn't have you grind at all, you can speedrun all the way to Chapter 5 if you're so inclined and use consumables on the way. Any repeated XP loops aren't necessary at all.
And "Doom" being the most notorious spell? It's only cast by Druids in the first place, and it's not *that* good!

[Anonymous No.6283425]

>>6283395
Diablo 2 is absolutely grindtastic, though only if you want to powergame. The completely mindless powergaming on Battle.net kind of kills the 'casual adventure' appeal that game has.

[Anonymous No.6283443]

Can someone give me a full party build for Icewind Dale?

[Anonymous No.6283458]

I always play with Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Dynaheir and Minsc in my party. How can i break free?

[Anonymous No.6283475]

>>6283443
Paladin
Fighter
Fighter/Thief
Cleric
Mage
Bard

[Anonymous No.6283478]

>>6283443
basic powergaming ideas
>you want a gnome or halfling in a role that can wear helmets for the guaranteed Helm of the Trusted Defender
>you don't need a pure mage (or sorcerer in IWDEE) because it's a heavily martial game and scrolls are rare
>multi/dual everything with Fighter if possible
>get a Bard for free XP at level 1 and a lot of useful utility and great songs
>a Paladin can wield Pale Justice so they're great
>in vanilla IWD1, Rangers are the only characters with "dual-wielding" (it's kind of ghetto, you have to have a Ranger wielding a single weapon, and it duplicates), not applicable in IWDEE ofc
A strong example party for a single playthrough from level 1 would be something like
>Paladin
>Bard
>Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric
>Human Fighter (X) -> Druid, dualled at level 3 at the earliest, because IWD actually has decent spears
>Elf Fighter/Mage (+/Thief if you want) or Gnome Fighter / Illusionist
>Halfling Fighter / Thief if you don't have a Thief (like the Elf F/M/T) already, or any wildcard martial (could be a pure Fighter for some proficiency bonus and high HP, for example).
Yes F/M/T will do well in a 6 man party because even with stunted levelling you get just enough spells.
You don't need to rigidly adhere to that as HoF can be beaten with anything anyway. Feel free to play as you like, but the above is what I enjoyed the game with a lot.

[Anonymous No.6283482]

>>6283458
play evil or play with good characters that you never played before

[Anonymous No.6283487]

>>6283037
You're not supposed to 'grind' but you're supposed to explore, get sidetracked, discover.
That's the most interesting part of the game and the reason why we remember it fondly. You can't throw a rock with hitting adventure, can't go out and take a piss without stepping on some adventure.
The game is packed with unique situations, at every corner of each map, which are huge and numerous.
If you play that way instead of sprinting on the main road, the game is great, and you're never underleveled.

[Anonymous No.6283569]

>>6283458
Kivan, Edwin, shar-teel, kagain, coran, branwen.

[Anonymous No.6283580]

>>6283569
...and no charname, apparently

[Anonymous No.6283581]

>>6283458
Also using the component from tweaks anthology to move some late companions from Baldurs Gate to more early areas is pretty good, Tiax especially, can easily find a spot in a lot of early parties, filling both the thieving and cleric roles.

[Anonymous No.6283585]

>>6283580
These are ideas, Montaron and Viconia can also find an spot, same as Tiax or even Quayle

[Anonymous No.6283591]

Yeslick is really good too, although his awkward location makes him hard to recruit if you dont specifically plan for it

[Anonymous No.6283605]

>>6283458
Drop Khalid and Jaheira after the Nashkel mines and after rescuing Dynaheir for Minsc, then leave those two as well (the Nashkel inn is a good place), then go pick up Branwen at the Nashkel carnival. Consider also trying out Edwin, who's in Nashkel, he's a good mage.

For additional muscle, both Kivan and Ajantis are good muscle, but they're also autistic about alignment, they will eventually lose their shit at evil aligned characters like Edwin, Kagain, Viconia (good cleric), Xzar & Montaron, etc. Kivan also has a timed quest inexplicably tacked onto him in EE, where you must go to the bandit camp, which is quite a lot later considering how early you can pick him up, and you wouldn't be able to do it in time unless you wait to pick him up later.
Xan isn't a particularly great mage (he's good at a few things), however he can talk Ajantis down from sperging out. Shar-Teel is an alright fighter, evil-alignment, vocally misandrist, up to you if you tolerate her, offers a small perk for the main quest much later in the game.

Kagain is evil, but also a pretty good fighter, he has very high constitution, letting him tank pretty well. Yeslick is ok, but you would get him fairly late on, in the Cloakwood mines. Has some bugs in the original game.
Imoen I personally keep just because she's plot important for BG2, but I suppose you could swap her with Alora (who actually gets along very well with Edwin), or Safana, alright thief, very horny for male characters.

[Anonymous No.6283609]

>>6283581
Speaking of Tweaks, it's possible to delete the chance of party members fighting each other or fucking off due to hatred.

[Anonymous No.6283620]

>>6283605
I started to play with the EE a few months back and I never noticed any timed quest or conflicts for Kivan and I take him almost every single run along with Edwin and sometimes Kagain or Viconia, and I don't mod out conflicts (though I use the mod to remove EE content)

Starting with watching korax kill basilisks allows you to recruit pretty much any party you like right off the bat, especially with the tweaks moving some of them.
Another idea can be to edit classes with shadowkeeper, there are just too many single class thieves and none of them is particularly useful.
(or the SCS NPCs customisation component, though I had wierd XP calculations with this so I don't use it)

[Anonymous No.6283629]

>>6283620
I think they patched it so you only have to complete chapter 3, used to be chapter 4.

[Anonymous No.6283636]

>>6283629
Or maybe its removed altogether by something in the mods I use.
I always clean up pretty much everything south of the friendly arms inn before moving on to the bandit camp, cloakwood and BG city. And I never once had Kivan bitch about anything. He has some banters referencing Tazok, and one when you arrive at the bandit camp but most of them come from NPC project I think. Has has some bad things to say to Shar-Teel, Viconia, Edwin or Kagain but it never erupts into actual conflict.

[Anonymous No.6283648]

I like BG1 more than BG2 because I suck really hard at BG2. Like how you do not get your ass kicked to demi liches and shit like that,

[Anonymous No.6283651]

>>6283648
learn how to use spells nigger

[Anonymous No.6283694]

>>6283648
Buff up, nigga:
>Protection From Evil, preferrably the 10ft version (stops you from getting your anuses enlarged if he summons a pit fiend)
>Protection From Undead (can't even target or see the protected character)
>Draw Upon Holy Might (boosts STR, DEX, CON)
>Negative Plane Protection (guards against level drain, make sure you're able to cast it on both your best fighter and your cleric, so they can keep assisting)
>Chaotic Commands (protection against confusion and shit)
>Enrage (if zerker, boosts thaco and protects against some domination, charm, and paralysis)
>Aid
>Protection From Fear
>Bless (barely lasts, so you could skip this one in favor of stronger spells)

Then make sure to debuff that motherfucker as you go:
>Khelben's Warding Whip (slap him with this at the start, it'll keep peeling off buffs of his by increasing levels in each round)
>Pierce Magic (every now and then)
>Breach (this too)
>Silence/Command Word: Silence (he'll use vocalize anyway but it'll halt him for a second)

Then wail away at him and hit him with your best anti-undead and offensive spells:
>Bolt of Glory
>Sunray
>False Dawn
>Melf's Minute Meteors
>Aganazzars Scorcher
Make sure to reapply some debuffs on him as you go. Magic missile will probably do little, if anything.

There's a much easier lich you can face early on, he's got a hidden little tomb in the Crooked Crane Inn, in the Gate District, he's far less strong and has far less good spells, and you don't need to buff up or debuff him as much, if you defeat him you can get a +2 Longsword, Daystar, which in general is just good in the early game, but is extra good against undead (like other Liches, or Vampires), it does more damage against them and can cast Sunray once per day, which splashes nearby undead with holy sunlight.

[Anonymous No.6283712]

>>6283648
If you want a good spellcaster, there's Aerie, who's a Cleric/Mage (and has certain valuable perks through her multiclass, also she wants to fuck), then you have Edwin, who's a ridiculously good Conjurer (at least during Shadows Of Amn), with some minor drawback. You can't fuck him, in the stock game at least, and thank Illmater for that.

Anomen is a pretty good Fighter/Cleric, but he's also an absolutely obnoxious cunt, and may, depending on how you handle his companion quest, cause stupid fucking trouble for precious little reason. He also wants to fuck.
Viconia is a good Cleric, also kind of a cunt, but unlike Anomen, not in a really obnoxious way which makes your temples visibly pulse because of how infuriating he is, wants to fuck too, then doesn't, then wants to. You take a -2 reputation hit for saving her and taking her in your party (for being a dr*w), but unless your rep is very shitty already, it shouldn't be a problem, raising it is easy. Doesn't get along with Valygar or Keldron.

Optionally, you as the player build yourself a good Cleric, or a good Mage, or perhaps you try to be both. The point is, you will SORELY need some decent casters for fighting more dangerous enemies like Liches.

[Anonymous No.6283732]

>>6283694
>Aganazzar's Scorcher
>Breach
Liches are immune to direct spell levels 1-5 and demi-liches are immune to spells 1-8, so those spells won't do anything. You can only use Pierce Shield

[Anonymous No.6283738]

>>6283732
Well, I just keep hitting them with everything, so I guess that's why I don't fail. Still, those are good for other, still somewhat dangerous foes.
Golems are usually worse than Liches in my experience, because they tolerate so fucking much.

[Anonymous No.6283842]

>>6283648
>>6283694
>>6283732
Liches (and rakshasas) are not immune to Breach by default with SCS (which is a shame imo, but you can turn it back on in the stratagems.ini file before installing).
If they are immune to Breach, they aren't immune to remove and dispel magic, despite being level 3 spells.
Keldorn can have a field day with his dispel on them.
The lich in the crooked crane is easy to kill in vanilla but dangerous on the higher settings of SCS due to the very tight space you have, making his AoE effects and summons (that he will have plenty of time to cast) incredibly deadly.

I would add protection from magic energy (especially useful against abi-dhalzim obviously) and some form of elemental protection against them (and everything else really).
Protection from undead scrolls are always the ez option against liches if you struggle against them, not only can't they target you, it's also instant and uninterruptible if you are in a shitty spot.
They can still dispel it with an AoE dispel though, or if they gated something which can do it too, so it's not a complete guaranteed win but it should make the fight drastically easier.

[Anonymous No.6283847]

>>6283738
>Golems are usually worse
improved haste and stoneskin + mirror image + the usual AC buffing suspects on a mage sent to tank are pretty much all that's needed. They melt really, really fast against fighters under improved haste. Like everything else really.

[Anonymous No.6283851]

>>6283443
six mages, each a different colour (red, orange, yellow, white, blue, green), each restricted to using spells whose icons match their colour. was a lot of fun. had over 1000 in game days from all the resting and running back to town to resurrect dead people. elves cost twice as much to resurrect. skew parties are the most fun.

[Anonymous No.6283945]

>>6283847
I do have Kangaxx's ring (that wasn't easy), but I wonder if there's any debuffs which work on bigger and meaner golems.

[Anonymous No.6284091]

>>6283945
Any mage can cast improved haste and you find scrolls from cutpurse in the bridge district at night, and in the red tent Trademeet, which is pretty early. And it's the best damage spell in the game, hands down.
Golems have 100 magic and elemental resistance, they're only really vulnerable to physical damage, improved haste on a couple high attacks per round characters and they die before they get the chance to do any real damage.

[Anonymous No.6284095]

>>6283945
Though they are vulnerable to effects applied by weapons, Flail of the Ages will slow them, Celestial Fury will stun them, Silver Sword will kill them, etc.

[Anonymous No.6284098]

What rules do you guys play by? I think nearly anything is fair game, but I play no-reload and limit myself to one rest per dungeon (before a boss fight).

[Anonymous No.6284117]

>>6284098
I play exclusively mid-tier / limited classes like Monk and Assassin on SCS / Insane, sometimes solo, sometimes in party.

[Anonymous No.6284163]

>>6284098
SCS insane (with full double damage and increased enemy arcane and divine caster levels) and item randomizer, no reload, but I don't limit rests or party composition (just no sorcerer). I always aim to complete BG2 under 55-60 days, but if I blew all my spells and buffs on a fight that went to shit, I sure won't keep forcing through, makes no sense. On the other hand, if I don't really, really need to rest, I won't.
I just generally don't cheese the AI or aggro range, don't gut a mage in the short interval before his scs buffs fire up, nor prepare for specific situations. Like I retreat in front of the black dragon to get protections from acid but I don't memorize and cast it in advance when I literally never do for the rest of the game.
Aside from that, the rest is fair game I guess. I don't really enjoy solo runs or voluntarily getting a dogshit party.

[Anonymous No.6284185]

>>6283175
>fighting sirens and other fucks who likes using charm
Don't forget that Protection from Evil shuts down Charm in vanilla BG1.

[Anonymous No.6284213]

Illithids are by far most dangerous to Minsc.

[Anonymous No.6284215]

>>6284213
They honestly are equally dangerous to anyone, since you are mainly getting killed by being stunned at which point they are probably going to kill you anyway, whether it be 3 hits or 6.

[Anonymous No.6284231]

>>6284213
Tanking illithids in melee in general is a risky proposition unless you deck yourself out in AC gear and get that one potion that raises intelligence because they have shoddy THAC0.

[Anonymous No.6284245]

>>6284213
Potions of genius and mind focusing and Minsc is now a 200+IQ scholar with perfect dex.

[Anonymous No.6284246]

You can also use potions of genius as basically healing potions against them

[Anonymous No.6284252]

>>6284215
They're dangerous sure, but he has so low Int that he can only take a couple of drains before he dies. It's an argument to maybe not dump-stat Int on your own warrior character.

I make him stick to his bow to be safe.

[Anonymous No.6284261]

>>6284252
potions of genius and mind focusing stack and are plentiful, 13 of each in every single temple in the game
any character can reach 25 int if needed

[Anonymous No.6284462]

>>6284261
I admit I didn't think that far ahead.

[Anonymous No.6284465]

Brain Golems suck!

[Anonymous No.6284492]

Is the Silver Sword really that amazing? Are there any other good two-handed swords which are as good or better, which isn't restricted by alignment or something?
I'd feel like an asshole just holding onto the blade and killing these guys when they went through all the trouble to not just get the goddamn thing back, but also for giving me my window to carrying out an Illithid Genocide.

[Anonymous No.6284619]

>>6284492
>Is the Silver Sword really that amazing?
No, you get it late in SoA and it will only really be useful against low level enemies which you can kill in a million other ways
Save vs. death at -2 are easily made by tough high level enemies, 25% chance of the effect happening isn't that great when there is a save in addition to that.
The Ravager and the Axe of the Unyielding will be much more useful if you want a vorpal effect, since theirs doesn't offer a saving throw. And although they have only a 10% chance of decapitating, you will be able to use these constantly at 8 APR or more at this point.
>Are there any other good two-handed swords which are as good or better, which isn't restricted by alignment or something?
Gram the Sword of Grief is pretty great once upgraded, but late.
Carsomyr, obviously, the restriction can be bypassed by a fighter/thief
Soul Reaver is underrated and really useful against enemies with a high thac0, adamanite golems, dragons, planetars, etc.
Overall though, I'd say that if you aren't a paladin or a fighter/thief, quarterstaves (even without staff of the magi) and especially halberds are better two handed weapons.

[Anonymous No.6284643]

>>6284619
Fair enough.

I saw some goons on the BeamDog forum arguing about the morals of the keeping or returning the blade, and a lot of them seemed hung up on the Githyanki being an evil race and giving them a weapon is bad. This struck me as incredibly quaint, because it's literally a sword, it's not like you push a button on it and it destroys a city of people, they aren't waging some big war on mankind where this sword would be the tipping point, the Githyanki probably have half a million swords, and probably a good few dozen as nice or nicer, what seems important to them is the religious aspect of it, and on that point, who am I to deny them when the real concern is spiritual?

Besides, they spend most of their time murdering Illithids, which means they can't be all that bad.

[Anonymous No.6284647]

>>6284643
I don't know, I am a simple man, something comes up and demands half of a sword I have, I just kill it to find out if it has the other half by any chance.

[Anonymous No.6284649]

>>6284647
Valid approach.

[Anonymous No.6284731]

fallen planetars come with a silver sword that has a chance of dispel in addition to the vorpal hit, which is definitely a lot better than the silver sword you can get. They'll hit at 5 attacks per round under improved haste, which is pretty great. And they come loaded with a bunch of amazing spells, high AC, high HP, low thac0, 100 resistance to fire, cold, electricity, 75 magic resistance, etc.
I'd say that once you can cast this spell (which you probably will before even getting the silver sowrd), it's way better than "wasting" a party slot with a fighter wielding the silver sword. This spell is honestly beyond busted, fallen planetars are amazing.

[Anonymous No.6284842]

>>6284619
>No, you get it late in SoA and it will only really be useful against low level enemies which you can kill in a million other ways
This is inaccurate:
>Save vs. death at -2 are easily made by tough high level enemies
Even in ToB most enemies will have a Save vs. Death well north of 6, enemy saving throws aren't that high in SoA at all. Mediocre saving throws among most enemies and on-hit effects scaling well with ramping up attacks per round values is what keeps weapons like Celestial Fury actually competitive in ToB (not only does the stun proc more often than you'd think it would but very few enemies are actually immune to +3 weaponry).
>Axe of the Unyielding will be much more useful if you want a vorpal effect, since theirs doesn't offer a saving throw.
Axe of the Unyielding does force a saving throw - at -4, but it's still a saving throw. 25% chance to vorpal at 10 APR (presuming you mass GWWs on twohander users) vs 10% chance to vorpal at 8 APR... I mean, AotU is still a better weapon overall, but I still feel this should be corrected.
>>6284492
Silver Sword is good because two-handed weapons aren't generally better than dual-wielding and the instant kill proc simply keeps it competitive for sheer destructive potential at least until you pick up Ravager or some other really late game two-handed ToB weapon. It's just really hard to make two-handers competitive for damage or other stats when bonus attacks per round are the best way to multiply damage done and having an offhand is more flexible cause Belm, Arbane, Easthaven and a bunch of others exist (with the exception of Carsomyr which gives 50% MR and dispels, which is excellent value all around even if Carsomyr isn't usually setting world records in damage).

[Anonymous No.6284847]

>>6284842
It's ok, I'm not powergaming THAT hard.

[Anonymous No.6284857]

>>6284847
No problem Anon, you do you. Silver Sword is basically just pretty decent, you aren't missing out that much if you want to get rid of it on roleplaying grounds, so just play what you want. Frankly you can apply that to pretty much everything in Baldur's Gate since the capacity for challenge is so modular and largely self-imposed. I'm sure your party is doing great.

[Anonymous No.6285143]

Anyone else had a lot of problems with the icewind dale spells component of scs?
in bg1 none of the preist spells showed up in my spellbook all my arrows had their name and description. and in bg2 they showed up correctly but all the spell names where replaced with random pieces of dialogue.
This was on a fresh install and scs + tweaks were the only things I installed so I don't know why things messed up so badly.

[Anonymous No.6285175]

I haven't even finished a single IWD1 run in two decades. I always get bored of it. I really prefer BG1+BG2.

[Anonymous No.6285357]

>>6285143
What's your mod install order?

[Anonymous No.6285515]

>>6285175
The encounters aren't nearly as interesting as Baldur's Gate and there's no challenge between Dragon's Eye and the Final Boss.

[Anonymous No.6285695]

>>6285143
Check if your game is up to date, and if you didn't load a save made with another mod list or install order, it will do things like this.
If you're good on both accounts, try the SCS forum on g3 https://www.gibberlings3.net/forum/118-sword-coast-stratagems/
if you don't find the answer by browsing it, post your issue with your weidu.log attached.

[Anonymous No.6285698]

>>6285143
(since it's dialogue from Ascension I would bet on a save made with another mod install order)

[Anonymous No.6285712]

>>6285143
wait no I just noticed you're in Irenicus dungeon
check if your game is up to date and make a complete fresh install, install Ascension BEFORE SCS it seems it overwrote lines.

[Anonymous No.6285717]

and make sure you install Ascension 2.0, not the old one
https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/quests/ascension/

[Anonymous No.6286923]

I feel I'm mostly doing menial shit for Phaere. I hope I can split her down the middle with my sword later.

[Anonymous No.6287073]

>>6285717
My go to order is patches, tobex, fixpack, ascension, BGT, bg1npc, unfinished business, SCS, tweaks anth., widescreen.

[Anonymous No.6287162]

>>6286923
I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!
I don't think I've ever been relieved at talking a woman out of fucking me before.

[Anonymous No.6287440]

>>6286923
>>6287162
When I was playing BG2 for first time, I was also consuming all RA Salvatore books. I was so thrilled by female drows that Phaere was driving me up the roof.

[Anonymous No.6287594]

Whom do I ditch for Sarevok?

>Imoen, backup mage and only thief
>Minsc, who wields Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr
>Valygar, with Celestial Fury and the only one that can backstab at all
>Jaheira, Insect Plague and Elemental Summoning
>Viconia, mai waifu

I'm fighter/mage.

[Anonymous No.6287608]

>>6284213
Illithids have two big weaknesses: can't see invisibility, can't handle skeleton warriors.

Summon a bunch of skellies, then use Invisibility 10' Radius to make sure no one in the party ends up in the firing line. Even the teleporting SCS flayers will fall.

[Anonymous No.6287628]

>>6287608
Their detonate or whatever ability works on skeleton warriors and everything not protected against magic energy even with 100 magic resistance

[Anonymous No.6287636]

>>6287628
That's if you're crazy enough to play on Hardcore or higher, which I'm not. They're enough of a pain in the ass as it is.

[Anonymous No.6287673]

>>6287594
Valygar.

[Anonymous No.6287698]

Everyone always goes on about how great spell Breach is, but I don't think it's ever done fuck-all of good to me.

>Wizard casts (Improved) Mantle
>I cast Breach
>Weapon ineffective

[Anonymous No.6287703]

>>6287636
You should, it's great
Protection from magical weapons or 20+AC are the only defenses worth a damn against them
Or a fallen planetar with chaotic commands

[Anonymous No.6287708]

>>6287698
There was either a spell shield, a spell trap, a spell deflection, a spell turning (though you would have noticed that one) or a spell immunity: abjuration in the way
Or you tried it on a lich, demilich, rakshasa or ruhk
Just read the spell descriptions

[Anonymous No.6287716]

>>6287698
Or you cast it on something that cast mantle while already being immune to low enchantment weapon
Anyway, Breach is great, the only problem with it is usually found somewhere between your chair and your keyboard

[Anonymous No.6287735]

>>6287708
>>6287716
Spell Deflection sounds about right. I usually see it pop up for wizards, I just never thought it'd apply to Breach as well.

I will be ready to take some of the blame for this - but I do think that at least ONE of all the game guides should maybe have mentioned it. It feels like one gigantic footnote next to the Breach spell that no one ever brought up: "...oh, except if the mage cast Spell Deflection, and fucking all of them do."

So, since none of these guides ever did mention this, I will have to ask the obvious follow-up: how do I deal with Spell Deflection? Do I just hammer it with spells until it goes out, then Breach and let Minsc hack it up?

[Anonymous No.6287756]

>>6287735
Secret word, ruby ray of reversal, etc.
Just read the spell descriptions, all of these spells will tell you what they work against
Most guides are bith outdated and bafflingly misinformed, Davaeornlol's video spell guides are probably the only decent resource you can find

[Anonymous No.6287771]

>>6287756
And since I have precisely one wizard, that means one full round between Secret Word and Breach during which the enemy mage can just hammer at my party with no one being able to do shit about it. And that's assuming he won't immediately pull another contingency out of his ass to renew his spell protections as soon as I bring one down, which they usually do.

Joy.

This is the last time I try to play this game without bringing Keldorn along.

[Anonymous No.6287784]

>>6287771
Or just take more mages Jan and Aerie are great choices that will probably teach you a lot about spells and buffs if you try things with them, they're beasts.
Edwin or any other full class mage as sole dispeller is more than enough though, if you cant survive two rounds against a mage its time to buff up and read the damn spell descriptions
Keldorn is honestly not that useful.

[Anonymous No.6287798]

>>6287784
Fine, but I still think that it's the sort of a thing someone should have mentioned somewhere when they're all praising Breach as the be-all end-all of spell combat. If your precious wizard-slaying maneuver can be brought low by ONE basic spell that EVERYONE uses, then you really need to spell it out plain and clean.

Isn't that what all these guides are for? So that we won't have to read the spell descriptions - because someone smarter and more dedicated already did the work for us and summed it up for us?

[Anonymous No.6287832]

>>6287798
>Isn't that what all these guides are for? So that we won't have to read the spell descriptions - because someone smarter and more dedicated already did the work for us and summed it up for us?
Except if the guides are outdated.

[Anonymous No.6287841]

>>6287832
But this shit's been in the game ever since the beginning!

[Anonymous No.6287883]

Don't trust the guides. Azuredge is a fucking beast and blows Mace of Disruption clean out of the water, but how many guides ever even mentioned it? Fucking none.

[Anonymous No.6287891]

>>6287841
So have been noobs, speedreaders and incompetent journos, all of whom love writing guides for games they barely understand for some reason.
You shouldn't need a guide for this anyway, just READ THE MOTHERFUCKING SPELL DESCRIPTIONS

[Anonymous No.6287906]

>>6287883
It's a great weapon but literally no companion can wield it efficiently. Keldorn, who is the best suited for it, can throw at what 2 or 2,5 APR? 4-5 under improved haste? Nice, sure, but not amazing either.
And he's the only companion who can use it without Use Any Item. And even with use any item only a fighter/thief could use it at a decent APR count.
Meanwhile any martial can use the mace, and if you upgrade it, it gives you constant negative plane protection, which is pretty great.
The only big advantage azuredge has is that you cam get really, really early and use it to kill liches and vampires throughout chapters 2-3, which is great if you have someone to use it.
Guides are shit and azuredge is cool, but the mace is objectively slightly better and a lot more versatile.

[Anonymous No.6287910]

>>6287906
wait it's not restricted to lawful, so rangerd can use it too I guess. But rangers, ewww

[Anonymous No.6287924]

>>6287594
backstabs are useless in ToB

[Anonymous No.6287931]

>>6287924
They're always pretty great under Mislead

[Anonymous No.6287935]

>>6287906
Disregard this completely, I forgot you can also use it in melee with belm or kundane

[Anonymous No.6287946]

Any way to move faster? I'm tired of my characters takign an hour to venture forth.

[Anonymous No.6287950]

>>6287946
Tweaks anthology -> Increase out-of-combat movement speed by 50, 100 (boots of speed movement) or 150%
I use 100 personally

[Anonymous No.6287960]

>>6287946
dont be a zoomer

[Anonymous No.6287962]

>>6287950
thanks bro. any other tweaks i should get?

also any way to make the UI not utter dark shit? it fucks up with the contrast.

I'm currently on BG1 EE.

[Anonymous No.6287963]

>>6287946
Alt-tab away to read 4chan while the party moves.

[Anonymous No.6288000]

>>6287962
Lefreut UI
For a first playthrough check especially cosmetic, content and convenience changes
If you just want a short list for a first playthrough, bags of holding, unique containers, remove blur effect on avatar from equipped items, exotic item pack, larger stacks, reveal city maps, add map notes and shapeshitfter rebalancing, from the top of my head. Nothing really needed on a first playthrough but these are light and nice changes
just check the readme (don't bother with rule changes for now) and see what you want
dont hesitate to not install something and come back to it later depending on your experience with that aspect of the game

[Anonymous No.6288010]

>>6287960
Indeed, dying boomers don't mind drooling while watching characters walking like snails across a screen

[Anonymous No.6288017]

>>6288010
stop being an impatient retard, the characters aren't even that slow

[Anonymous No.6288031]

>>6288017
It doesn't feel that slow because when you get older time speeds up. You're old.

[Anonymous No.6288032]

>>6288017
The tweak to increase out of combat movement speed without having to change the fps count and speed up the entire game as a result, was the greatest thing to ever happen to this game since the release of SCS.

[Anonymous No.6288104]

>>6287946
They don't move that slow, kid.

Anyway:
>Oil Of Speed
>Boots Of Speed
>Boots Of Lightning Speed
>Haste
>Improved Haste
>Increasing movement speed with Tweaks

>>6287963
That seems like a great way to stumble blindly into all sorts of trouble (especially with pathfinding not being 100% perfect).
He should do it.

[Anonymous No.6288107]

>>6288031
I'm 27. Why you gotta be like that?

[Anonymous No.6288169]

God, Nalia, can you stop virtue signalling for just a day? Yes, we get it, you like 'helping' the poor, but you're gonna make us look incredibly suspicious as 'drow'

[Anonymous No.6288174]

How do you cheese Kangaxx on scs? He seems to sense my presence even when protected from undead, and keeps Removing Magic on himself to get them out, or summoning dark planetars, or other shit.

[Anonymous No.6288205]

>>6288174
You don't cheese him, you stay alive until he runs out of protection from magical weapon basically, or you use Keldorn or a high level Haer Dalis to dispel him with dispel or remove magic (you can give a spell sequencer scroll to HD for him to store a x3 remove magic, wouldn't hurt)
I don't remember if he's vulnerable to breach by default with SCS, I think he is.
Arcane heavy party + spell immunity abjuration (or divine with Entropy Shield) if you want to use protection from undead scrolls without them getting dispelled. Protection from magical weapon is also the only foolproof way to tank a fallen planetar.
Of course he "senses" your presence, he kinda knows someone just woke him up, and SCS tells him to not just stand there waiting to get killed like he can do in vanilla.

[Anonymous No.6288217]

>>6288174
or if you really, really want to cheese him, get a fighter/mage, a mage/thief or something similar, cast two time stops in a row (6 rounds), his protection from magical weapons expires (4 rounds), get Carsomyr or the staff of the magi to hit him and dispel his stoneskin, and finish him off, gg wp.

[Anonymous No.6288257]

When is the best time to dual Yoshimo?

>Level 10 (probably right when getting him) to get decent thieving skills and the best special traps
>Level 11 to get slightly more powerful special traps that still have a decent chance of stopping the enemy with their power
>Right in the spellhold to fuck him up when he's about to betray us

[Anonymous No.6288820]

>>6288257
Does it even make any difference if he's a fighter or a thief when you fight him? He goes down like a bitch anyway.

I always had more trouble with the murderers, what with being invisible. And even that was only before SCS hardened me to the concept of invisible backstabbing enemies.

[Anonymous No.6288940]

Alright, /vr/, I just entered Cloakwood's mine in chapter 4. How much longer until I finish BG1 so I can move onto BG2?

[Anonymous No.6288947]

>>6288940
You'll soon enter titular Baldur's Gate. That's where all the good bits are: don't rag on the game until you're through them.

[Anonymous No.6288957]

>>6288940
You're about halfway through if you decide to go through Durlag's Tower, about two thirds in if you don't. But you should, Durlag's tower is fucking great.
Approximative estimation depending on how long you spent exploring, since you will now have (a lot) less of that.

[Anonymous No.6288969]

>>6288947
I hope it's worth it because there's only so much low level D&D gameplay, empty forest maps, and banter-less party members I can take; there hasn't even been that many interesting quests since most NPCs I've encounter want to either rob you for iron or money.
>>6288957
That's good to know, I'll probably do that tower because I haven't found that much in the way of gear, most of my party just has torso armor, a weapon, and maybe a ring.

[Anonymous No.6288976]

>>6288174
Crack that whip.

>>6288947
I found Baldur's Gate to be consistently good throughout, the only part which I really dislike is that maze near the end, which feels like it was designed to waste my time.

[Anonymous No.6288983]

>>6288969
>empty forest maps
There's lots of shit to do in the forests.
For Durlag's Tower, it's good, but I hope you've got some levels on you, you're gonna need a few mirror potions, and a thief good at detecting traps. It's tough.

[Anonymous No.6288986]

>>6288969
yeah this part is now done, late game BG1 is closer to BG2, no empty maps and BG city has an alright density of quests. Don't hesitate to enter unmarked buildings, especially if it looks "rich" or otherwise noticeable, you might find good fights with good gear to get or the start of quests.
Durlag's Tower is personally my favorite part of the entire game, it's a great, long dungeon and it will test pretty much all you should have learned so far. Traps can be exhausting but that's part of the first time experience in this place.
If you want some more banter don't hesitate to install BG NPC Project, it's quite good.

[Anonymous No.6288995]

>>6288983
>hope you've got some levels on you
If he's doing it after reaching BG city he should be good
Doing it after going back to Candlekeep is usually perfect timing and feels pretty natural imo

[Anonymous No.6289002]

Ahem.

FUCK LLOLTH
AND FUCK LLOLTH WORSHIPPERS

[Anonymous No.6289006]

>>6289002
FACT:
the best surfacer is a dead surfacer

[Anonymous No.6289007]

>>6289002
I find the Underdark area pretty much the best part of the game actually. It's got some great imagery, great quests, and it's where you get some of your first high-level abilities and hit the best balance of power where you feel strong and mighty without yet getting to the retarded DBZ-tier Throne of Bhaal bullshit.

[Anonymous No.6289041]

>>6289007
I tend to agree, though I tink BG2 is great all the way
The ust-natha fight at the end is probably my favorite fight in the entire trilogy with SCS

[Anonymous No.6289045]

>>6288983
>There's lots of shit to do in the forests.
The only things of note I've found so far include an archaeological dig, a cursed man lording over a spider nest, and a wyvern cave.
>I hope you've got some levels on you
I think most of my party is level 6 and I'm running the canon composition
>>6288986
> it will test pretty much all you should have learned so far
That's good to know. So far, I've been tearing through those monotonous droves of kobolds, hobgoblins, wolves, and wyverns. The only trouble my party had was when they me that summoner who conjured up a few mustard slimes.

[Anonymous No.6289068]

>>6289007
Oh I agree, it's very fun and interesting, it's just Llolth needs to be put down numerous pegs.

[Anonymous No.6289070]

>>6289068
Reckon us storming through the city and slaughtering its great wizards and clerics and matron-mothers should do the trick. Answering the question to the elf mages afterwards ("I did not flee.") is one of the high points of the series.

Just a shame about how Viconia's romance ends. A party of that high level should be able to breeze through Queen of the Demonweb Pits and choke the goddess until she gives up what we lost. But no, pointless angst it is.

[Anonymous No.6289196]

>>6289070
>spoiler
This is what BG3 should have been about tbqh
Fuck larian and fuck wotc

[Anonymous No.6289285]

>>6289196
Bioware was already dead well over a decade ago, I had long since made peace with the notion that Baldur's Gate ended with Throne Of Bhaal, and I'm fine with that.

I don't expect anything about the upcoming new game to be at all good.

[Anonymous No.6289710]

BAHAHA, I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN THEIR FACES, GG

[Anonymous No.6289825]

>>6289285
Either BG3 is just using the name to coast on the brand recognition, or it's rendering the entirety of the first two games' struggles and efforts null and pointless by bringing back Bhaal and returning us to square one (which canon tabletop already did). Either way it's going to be garbage and I'll have nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous No.6289912]

I wish spell descriptions gave you more details about summons, they tell you pretty much nothing about the thing being summoned unless they have a weird gimmick like Nishruu.

[Anonymous No.6289914]

>>6289912
I don't think I've ever cared. If I use one of those more generic summoning spells, I'm only looking for meatshields and speed-bumps. A host of redshirts to send at the enemy mage so that he'd waste his best spells and contingencies on them.

[Anonymous No.6289921]

>>6289914
That was exactly what I was looking for when I did Mutamin's Garden; just walk into the fog of war over there, and if you start getting petrified, I'll blast at where you are with fireballs.

[Anonymous No.6289929]

>>6289914
I doubt it would have a huge affect on how I use them but it would still be nice to know exactly what I'm casting without having to look it up.
Its like if magic missile's description was: "this spell does damage"

[Anonymous No.6290043]

>>6289921
Reminder that protection from petrification is a level 1 spell

[Anonymous No.6290048]

>>6289921
>>6290043
Or you could just have Korax solo the whole place.

[Anonymous No.6290052]

>>6289912
Most summons are bad, fighting them (or trying them) should pretty much teach you everything you need
Imo, Planetars are completely overpowered, skeleton warriors are amazing (100 magic resistance), mordenkainen swords and genies/efreetis are pretty good (but not really worth a level 7 spell slot either).
The rest is pretty much useless.
For BG1, wands of summoning are more than enough to get some meatshields, there are no real good summons in that game, but hasting them will do the job.

[Anonymous No.6290056]

>>6290048
Always better to do it under protection from petrification

[Anonymous No.6290068]

Does any of the Beamdog stuff, SoD or Black Pits or the new characters, have anything remotely worthwhile?

[Anonymous No.6290080]

>>6290068
Not really no

[Anonymous No.6290116]

>>6290068
You can use Black Pits to buff up your character by a couple levels between the games.

[Anonymous No.6290145]

>>6290052
>there are no real good summons in that game
Skeletons are crazy OP in vanilla BG1.

[Anonymous No.6290219]

>>6290145
Yeah they're good especially hasted and against mages, but not broken either
Not Planetars level of broken at least

[Anonymous No.6290465]

Fighter/Mage/Cleric is the best class, because it's the only one that can use Amulet of Power - the best amulet in the game - to its fullest potential.

Debate this.

[Anonymous No.6290715]

>>6290043
Didn't have it at the time.

>>6290048
Korax was pretty helpful, but then I bumped into that group of adventurers which provoked me to fight, and he kind of ate shit somewhere during that battle.
Rip In Peace, you weird ghoul.

[Anonymous No.6290718]

>>6290068
Sure, the SoD campaign is more fun than 90% of RPGs out there. It is lame compared to Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, but is still an infinity engine game running AD&D2e.

[Anonymous No.6290770]

>>6290219
The main balancing factor for skeletons is that it's such a pain in the ass to properly micro a full-sized skeleton horde (24 per cleric at TotSC level cap, or more with wisdom bonuses).

[Anonymous No.6290775]

>>6290770
oh yeah because their damage resistance is bugged in vanilla BG right? Haven't played it in a while, but they take like 1 damage per attack or something?

[Anonymous No.6290789]

>>6290775
I don't know if it's actually bugged, but they generally survive long enough to tie up the enemy while you shoot them with projectile weapons (which are also great in BG1).

[Anonymous No.6290814]

>>6288169
>b-b-but muh peasants

[Anonymous No.6290816]

Are the BG2 banter packs as good as BG1 NPC Mod?

[Anonymous No.6290821]

>>6290816
Avoid like plaque, there's one that bugs out a few quests/areas.

[Anonymous No.6290825]

>>6290821
Yikes. Any specifics? What mod does it, and what parts of the game does it fuck up?

[Anonymous No.6290921]

>>6290825
Think its the first one that comes up on google. Illthid area bugs out your entire journal, which happens if you have a specific set of party members. That one is fixable by fiddling with save file.

The other one locks out an area in ToB, locking your progress. This happens without fail, and seemed unfixable by save file editing and console commands.

This was before EE2, maybe it has been updated? I'd still avoid like plaque unless you want to risk your save file to randomly eat shit due to spaghetti code.

[Anonymous No.6290930]

>>6290814
I treat the peasants better than she does, damnit. Giving a man a fish vs. teaching him to fish and all that.
The fortress staff and the peasants seem to like me better than her dad, and I definitely handled the Roenal's better.

[Anonymous No.6290934]

>>6290921
Mmm. I'd have to uninstall about half of my mod loadout to get them in the right slot anyway. I'll pass.

[Anonymous No.6290937]

>>6290921
Should note that I tested this quite a bit using nothing but this mod, since I was absolutely perplexed how this mod managed to fuck up this badly. Didn't find anyone else mentioning the first issue, but I did find some people talking about the ToB issue.

But again, I wouldn't risk it.

And the writing isn't stellar.

[Anonymous No.6291003]

>>6290068
I use baeloth sometimes in bg1, he's probably the least offensive of the beamdog NPC's. His voice gets annoying though.
Kinda mad they replaced him with fucking hexxat in bg2.

[Anonymous No.6291072]

>>6274386
>>6275442
>>6278047
>>6278862
>>6282451
>>6283193
>>6288257
man the portrait art is hideous

[Anonymous No.6291087]

>>6291072
I'll bite. Can you show us an example of good portrait art?

[Anonymous No.6291093]

>>6291087
Not him, but Icewind Dale has much better portrait art. Drawn by a very talented artist, whereas most BG1 portraits are BioWare workers or their spouses posing in various ways, their pictures traced and then fashioned into fantasy characters. They repeated that in BG2, most famously by tracing a Czech pornstar to represent Viconia, and they continued that tradition in NWN1 where they finally had to edit a few portraits in some patch because they used celebrity likeness for various NPCs (gnome sorcerer Leonard Nimoy, Angelina Jolie was also there somewhere).

[Anonymous No.6291095]

>>6291087
Icewind Dale

[Anonymous No.6291104]

>>6291093
>>6291095
I still wouldn't say BG portraits are that bad, but fair enough, Icewind Dale has way better ones.

What about the new ones added by Enhanced Edition? Is it just me that I find the art pretty decent, but the angles and distances all fucked up, with their heads too high up and too far away so that they look pretty stupid in-game?

[Anonymous No.6291108]

>>6290465
>because it's the only one that can use Amulet of Power - the best amulet in the game - to its fullest potential.
F/M/Cs are strong, but I don't know why that matters at all. -1 off of casting time of mage and clerical spells as well as vocalize is okay but you're fixating on the Amulet of Power alone even though an F/M/C can't get Improved Alacrity and has a much harder time abusing Wish rests, so you are actually using it to only a certain fraction of a potential that a C/M or even an ex-Priest of Lathander (14 or so) -> Mage could unleash.

[Anonymous No.6291112]

>>6291072
>>6291093
A lot of the Icewind Dale ones were more zoomed out and didn't show the face as well, didn't care for that.

[Anonymous No.6291123]

>>6291112
Well yeah, but BG1 portraits are hit or miss in general, some classic ones but also shit like that one generic elf portrait that looks horrible or the halfling that looks like he covers Dropkick Murphys songs, or shit like Faldorn who looks like a hag even though she's really young. IWD1 is all stellar quality.

[Anonymous No.6291153]

>>6291123
I think most of them are good.

[Anonymous No.6291157]

>>6291153
That's okay.

[Anonymous No.6291173]

>>6291104
I think most of the EE portraits look cool but they don't fit the style of the games at all, they stick out like a sore thumb.

[Anonymous No.6291202]

>>6291173
I figure that there's enough variance in style between all the games that the new portraits don't stick out that badly among them. I just wish they'd zoomed in a bit and showed them from higher up.

[Anonymous No.6291283]

YER A LONG-TONGUED LOUT, AIN'T YA?

[Anonymous No.6291320]

What's some of your favorite spoken lines from NPC's in the games? I don't mean main characters and companions, I mean side characters and some of the monsters.
>"I love money, yes I do."
>"SO I KICKED HIM IN THE HEAD UNTIL HE WAS DEAD, NYEHEHAHA!"
>"Ye want some whiskey?"

[Anonymous No.6291327]

>>6291320
AAAH TAVERN IS GOOD FER DRINKIN, SINGIN AND PLAYIN
ANYTHING ELSE ON YER MIND YE MIGHT AS WELL TAKES IT ELSEWHERE

[Anonymous No.6291330]

>>6291320
https://youtu.be/2lEf2wnXSbo

[Anonymous No.6291332]

>>6291330
Doppelgangers really stand a head above anything else in any Infinity game, voice-vice. But in general BG1 has the best lines.

[Anonymous No.6291335]

>>6291332
BG1 has great one liners, but BG2 has a ton of memorable cheesy yet passionate voice acting, and even some unironically really good ones in there.

[Anonymous No.6291340]

>>6291332
David Warner's lines alone elevate BG2 beyond anything in BG1.

[Anonymous No.6291342]

>>6291332
I really just love the fuck out of their hammy acting, it's excellent.
>YOUR TIME HAS COME, PRIMATE!

[Anonymous No.6291362]

I've got Yoshimo drugged up to the balls on Potions of Master Thievery, and I've robbed blind Bernard, Galoomp, Pen and Parchment, Armorer/Fletcher, and Mrs. Cragmoon. What's left?

[Anonymous No.6291365]

>>6291362
Give Ribald Barterman a try.

[Anonymous No.6291367]

>>6291365
Can't steal from Riba- oh yeah, he had the Ring of Regeneration. Gotta nab that. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.6291370]

>>6291362
Ribald for his Ring of Regeneration, the Genie in Trademeet for the Genie Lamp or whatever that summons an Efreeti, Gaxx's second Ring of Gaxx, and probably some others that I forget about.

[Anonymous No.6291375]

>>6291362
Depending on the version of the game you can steal three Rings of the Ram from Tolgerias at the three different times you encounter him. They're mostly notable for being a really good burst damage weapon against Kangaxx.

[Anonymous No.6291384]

>"Long have I rested in the halls below the Old City. Long have I been at peace. Your disturbance shall not go unpunished!"
>Azuredge right in the fucking face
>dead in one hit
Never gets old.

[Anonymous No.6291393]

>>6291362
Cutpurse (slightly north of Mrs Cargnoon at night) and Jayes (southeast of Waukeens promenade at night)
The shadow thief merchant on the first floor of Gaelan Bayle's home
The guy whose name I forgot at the front of Maevar's guildhall
The potion seller south in the temple district sewers
In Trademeet, everyone except the smithy, dont forget the red tent, it has the same inventory as cutpurse and it's one of the best, great scrolls, delicious improved haste, pfmw, spell immunity.
In the Underdark literally everyone, don't forget to check on the duergar merchant twice, before and after getting disguised as drows.

[Anonymous No.6291397]

>>6291362
Also dont forget to check the rest of the merchants, a lot of them have potions of heroism and these are always nice

[Anonymous No.6291767]

I'm just picturing this as The Opening Of The Ark but for vampires, my sword flashes as bright as the sun, searing their unholy flesh, blinding them, melting their eyes out of their sockets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEkkdY3-d7c

[Anonymous No.6291803]

>>6291093
>Czech pornstar to represent Viconia
I had forgotten, thanks for reminding me

[Anonymous No.6291818]

I just ran into a bunch of commoners out in the wilderness, they were excited to see me, then they turned into me and my party and attacked me.

[Anonymous No.6291845]

I don't know why Bodhi is listed as my most powerful slain enemy, Kangaxx was by far a much more difficult adversary.

[Anonymous No.6291930]

Does the "stores sell higher stack of items" -tweak also increase the number of Arrows of Biting and Detonation at the fletcher? Because that would explain why I'm walking around with a Robe of Vecna, Plate/Shield of Balduran, and Vhailor's Helm almost from the beginning of the game.

[Anonymous No.6291960]

>>6291320
I'm partial to "I could break an arm or a leg for a copper or two". The casual tone is what makes it.

[Anonymous No.6292129]

>>6291767
>those hp bars
do zoomers really?...

[Anonymous No.6292243]

>>6292129
I also walk around with containers and doors highlighted :^)

[Anonymous No.6292249]

>>6291845
It is based on XP reward, nothing more.

[Anonymous No.6292256]

>>6291093
>they used celebrity likeness
Vin Diesel and Valygar, Drew Barrymore and Nalia. Not new to doing that.

[Anonymous No.6292263]

Why does every guide think iron/adamantine golems are a big deal? At least they tend to come on their own and always get stuck in doorways where you can snipe them with ease. Clay and stone golems jump at you in packs, the former hastes them and the latter slows you, and in scs you'll also have to deal with the un-healing curse.

[Anonymous No.6292269]

>>6292263
Because they crush you in a straight up fight and are immune to most attacks. Guides are for new players. Its entirely possible to reach the first Iron Golem in Nalia's keep without a ranged weapon that can hurt them.

[Anonymous No.6292273]

>>6292269
But Nalia's keep also gives you the Flail of Ages which can chomp up the golem almost on its own.

[Anonymous No.6292289]

>>6292273
Still hard for a new player. Your flail guy has to hit and run and new players might not know how to use the real time aspect of the combat system to use such tactics. Think a minsc level 8 with the flail of ages. Can he win, of course, is he going to win just standing there wailing on it? No.

Stuff like that is aimed at newbies, because basic "hit the dude" strategy isn't going to end well.

[Anonymous No.6292320]

>>6292263
Because pretty much every guide written for this game sucks
These threads are unironically way better information sources to git gud

[Anonymous No.6292338]

>>6292320
This is the only good Baldur's Gate guide. It isn't a walkthrough:

hxxps://pihwiki.bgforge.net/Baldur%27s_Gate:_Tales_of_the_Sword_Coast

[Anonymous No.6292340]

>>6292129
But seriously, how do you do it?

>>6292249
Fair enough.

>>6292320
That's true actually. I find a lot of guides I look at are lacking, and the wiki is fairly incomplete (and that's I guess for the better a lot of the time). You'd think a beloved game like this would have better guides after all this time.

BG1 is a lot easier to find good information on.

[Anonymous No.6292386]

>>6292338
I disagree with a few things PiH writes, but I like that they have people chiming in with "alternative comments" in case of some contentious remarks, so I vouche for most of what they write.

Also the Davaeorn spell / HLA guides on YouTube are nice, although the format of listening to a guy talking on video might be less presentable even if the guy in question is quite personable for a manlet.

[Anonymous No.6292426]

>>6292338
this is one of the very few I would put in the "not that bad" category, pih also has a few interesting things that you can't find on the wiki (saving throws tables for example)
Problem is that it was likely written before SCS was made.

[Anonymous No.6292593]

>>6292338
It guzzles the "Cernd is useless" meme right down its shirt. Pass.

[Anonymous No.6292660]

>>6292593
Literally has a section explaining what's good about him. He is worse than Jaheira in every meaningful way, though.

[Anonymous No.6292665]

What's the console item code for Rayic Gethras's ring? I'm trying to double-cross Edwin, but I need to bring the ring back too and he seems to have lost it somewhere.

None of the item lists on the web contain this code, and EEKeeper crashes whenever I try to edit a character's inventory.

[Anonymous No.6292698]

>>6292660
He hits the spellslot explosion 3,000,000 XP earlier, which is very meaningful.

[Anonymous No.6292706]

>>6292665
You can find the code on the right when you add an item with Item randomizer, just console it in if you already found it but cant edit the inventory

[Anonymous No.6292747]

>>6292706
What if I don't use Item Randomizer?

[Anonymous No.6292769]

>>6292747
Sorry I was writing this while checking something on the item randomizer readme lmao, I meant EEkeeper obviously

[Anonymous No.6292774]

>>6292769
That did the trick. Thanks a bunch.

[Anonymous No.6293025]

Worst thing about these games: getting your ass kicked by early opponents because you're holding back to save your best stuff for the boss.

[Anonymous No.6293027]

>>6293025
That's why I allow myself one rest per dungeon, to be fully prepared for the boss.

[Anonymous No.6293031]

>>6293027
Weak. I rest about once every five dungeons. In this run I got to Tor'gal before I had to take a nap for the first time.

[Anonymous No.6293192]

It's been ten years since I last played a Kensai/Mage dual. I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to put up Improved Haste and Time Stop and go to town on an enemy host.

[Anonymous No.6293543]

Rogue Rebalancing is mostly good and does good mechanical things, but can't I have it without the cringy, awfully-written, borderline-cutscene, bullshit-difficulty Cyric encounter?

[Anonymous No.6293716]

>>6291320
Come in poor and walk out RICH!

[Anonymous No.6293791]

After actually talking with Korgan, I realize he's actually kind of a creepy sociopath.
>I guess he just really likes figh- oh, no, this conversation we're having is actually pretty disturbing.

[Anonymous No.6293819]

>>6293791
He's a full blown psycho yeah, he's a CE dwarf, not shorty Minsc, he enjoys killing and torture. If you want some backstory, take Mazzy along. He also has a couple banters with Viconia about their common homeland.

[Anonymous No.6293835]

>>6293543
It's an optional component, isn't it? You can also dodge the fight with the right dialogue options and stats/reputation.

[Anonymous No.6294013]

>>6291803
>coom

[Anonymous No.6294112]

Bodhi taking Viconia from me really makes me appreciate just how much she carries the party at higher levels. Not just healing, but supporting buffs like Negative Plane Protection, Chaotic Commands, and Protection From Evil. Hits good too.
Never leave me again you beautiful blue bitch.

[Anonymous No.6294130]

>>6293819
It's fun watching Korgan and Viconia banter, yeah. Still, he's such a good fucking mauler that I don't want to get rid of the guy, who else can you button up in heavy armor, give you your spare Paws Of The Cheetah, and then have him just rush in and chop enemies to pieces?
He's a grandmaster with axes from the very start, and I gave him that +3 one that does extra frost and acid damage, so usually he saves the day when it comes to bigger and meaner golems.

For Throne Of Bhaal, will companions keep and transfer stats and items?

[Anonymous No.6294275]

I'm only half as mean as ye smell, piglover.

[Anonymous No.6294323]

>>6294130
>For Throne Of Bhaal, will companions keep and transfer stats and items?
Yes. Once you beat up Irenicus, ToB should begin right away.

Also, bring Imoen along as well. She gets along with Korgan real nicely.

[Anonymous No.6294351]

>>6294275
I'm sorry, the blood of my enemies seeps into my armor and it doesn't wash out right away. Also I'm sure Firekraag will stop smelling as much after a while.

[Anonymous No.6294494]

>Foebane +5 is bugged and doesn't do its full effect on striking (because Larloch's Minor Drain isn't working properly)
>Flail Of Ages +5 is bugged and does no elemental damage at all on anything which is immune to poison
Thanks a lot, Beamdog.

[Anonymous No.6294785]

Greater bearweres are fucking awesome, but make me hate Death Spell unlike ever.

[Anonymous No.6294846]

>>6294785
How do they compare to Greater Wolfweres? They were doublecunts in BG1, but are easy in BG2.

[Anonymous No.6294856]

How tough is Watcher's Keep? I'm a lvl23 basaka and I'm doing pretty ok with a comparable level party. Just whipped the Chromatic Demon.

[Anonymous No.6294859]

>>6294856
The anti-magic zones of the next floor will be a bit tricky, and maybe try not to fight the Imprisoned One unless you know exactly what you're getting into, but apart from that you should have little trouble.

[Anonymous No.6294914]

>>6294859
there's not much particularly difficult about the imprisoned one imo, and there's never a reason not to fight something in this game
especially at level 23

[Anonymous No.6295121]

Ring of Acuity or Wizardry?

[Anonymous No.6295174]

>>6295121
Aren't they the same

[Anonymous No.6295181]

>>6295121
How is that even a question
Wizardy

[Anonymous No.6295184]

>>6295174
Ring of Acuity gives a Wizard 2x level 2, and 1x level 3 and 4 spell slots.

Ring of Wizardry gives a Wizard 1 x level 5, 6, and 7 spell slots.

[Anonymous No.6295262]

>>6281468
Could just be a random thug, I read the devs said the girl in the opening was just a random chick the Nameless One banged

[Anonymous No.6295506]

How come Mazzy always harps on about not getting to be a paladin, when the Planar Sphere has a bunch of halfling wizards even though they shouldn't by AD&D rules exist either? If they still can, then why not a halfling paladin as well?

Her entire character is a sham!

[Anonymous No.6295671]

>>6295506
Halflings can't be wizards. They are supposed to be from another world, but Halflings can't be wizards in Dark Sun either.

[Anonymous No.6295676]

>>6295671
And yet they are wizards! So why not let Mazzy be a paladin as well? Why this double standard?

[Anonymous No.6295924]

>>6294494
There are hotfixes on forums for this unintended behavior in case you're struggling with this issue, but yeah, maybe these problems will be officially fixed in patch 2.6, which, at this rate, is probably coming around in 2025.

[Anonymous No.6295958]

Twenty years of playing the game, and I JUST discovered that if you right-click and hold it when moving your party, you can adjust the movement order.

[Anonymous No.6296525]

I've been speccing Korgan for Scimitars so I can put Belm in his off-hand and a good axe in the other, to make him a chopping machine.

Is this a good idea?

[Anonymous No.6296534]

>>6295958
YOU CAN WHAT

[Anonymous No.6296543]

>>6296525
It's not a -terrible- idea, but you'd probably still be better off with Crom Faeyr.

[Anonymous No.6296584]

>>6296543
Don't wanna give up the Str boosting gear to make it.

[Anonymous No.6296602]

>Release Chromatic Demon
>Immediately Chain Contingency 3x Incendiary Cloud on his ass
Fuck you and your immunities.

[Anonymous No.6296610]

>>6296525
It's not a terrible idea, but it's not giving you a ton more than just dual-wielding axes. He's already at Grand Mastery with them and you can Frostreaver and Stonefire basically out the gate in Chapter 2. Scimitars represent a lot more unnecessary pips, I usually find either Charname or a secondary character like Jaheira gets more use out of Belm.

[Anonymous No.6296617]

>>6296610
Belm gives +APR is my thinking, and he's already good with Frostreaver and a shield, with quite a lot of HP and AC.
He wouldn't necessary do all that much extra damage with Belm (not on anything big and mean anyway), but he could swing Frostreaver much faster.

Not sure what else I'd put his proficiency points on.

[Anonymous No.6296625]

>>6296617
Korgan comes at level 9 with 5 pips of Axe and 2 pips of Warhammer. Taking the three pips he needs for Two-Weapon Fighting puts him at level 18. The 2 for the bare minimum to get the APR for Scimitars puts him at level 24 (33 if you want GM with Scimitars). That's just too long to wait.

[Anonymous No.6296676]

>>6296625
I guess I could fudge it with EEkeeper and swap his Hammer pips for Scimitar pips. Of course, that would be cheating.

[Anonymous No.6296803]

>>6296617
If you use true grandmastery rule he will already swing axes at 9 apr under improved haste at level 13
If you dont he'll swing axes at 8
Belm in itself is a useless weapon, you use it to get more hits with your main weapon, not to hit with belm. If Korgan has literally 0 pips in scinitars, being a fighter he will stil have decent thac0 with it and no pips he gets in scimitars will ever increase his apr count. You are spending pip to increase thac0 on a +2 weapon that hits once or twice per round, it's completely useless.
If you get 10 apr (or 5 non hasted), he hits 8 times per round with his main hand weapon and 2 times with the offhand.

Give him points in bastard swords instead. Pure fighters will really benefit from Foebane once you reach ToB.
Belm and kundane are better off given to fighter multi classes who cant reach grandmastery or non martial classes altogether with low APR count.

[Anonymous No.6296810]

>>6296803
Also want to point out that Korgan at 10 apr with frost reaver and belm isnt really better off than he would be at 8 apr with Frost reaver + stonefire
And worse off than he would be at 9 apr with true grandmastery rule with frost reaver + stonefire.

[Anonymous No.6296815]

>>6296803
>>6296810
Fair enough. For Foebane, he can fuck off, it's mine.

[Anonymous No.6296830]

>>6296625
>three pips
Don't put in three pips into TWF, two is just enough because, as >>6296803 points out, your offhand only strikes a few times and is primarily used for utility and not actual damage. Only max out TWF when you have literally nothing else to get.
Also, proficiency points put into your offhand never ever grant you any bonus attacks.

[Anonymous No.6296836]

>>6296810
>Also want to point out that Korgan at 10 apr with frost reaver and belm isnt really better off than he would be at 8 apr with Frost reaver + stonefire
This is true for early-mid game weapons, but in the late game when BiS weapons hit there is no better axe than Axe of the Unyielding, so in a game version with no True Grandmastery you obviously would want to hit 8 attacks with your mainhand instead of 6 attacks with your mainhand and with some weaker axe.

[Anonymous No.6296837]

>>6296830
>proficiency points put into your offhand never ever grant you any bonus attacks
But it increases the chance that he won't miss, right?

[Anonymous No.6296845]

>>6296837
Yes, but you rarely care about whether your offhand hits or misses, since most best-in-slot weapons in the offhand are low enchantment utility providers (in cases where the enemy is immune to +2 weapons, Belm/Kundane essentially "copies" your mainhand). If you're an optimized dual-wielding pure fighter using Improved Haste, you can also be using Critical Strike in which case all of your attacks hit during the buff duration no matter what, and you also retain a 95% chance to hit any enemy who is immobilized in some way (disablers like stuns, or Time Stop). The 5% chance of a failure in such a case is the possibility of rolling a critical miss (a value of 1 on the d20) of course.

[Anonymous No.6296850]

>>6296836
By that point he should probably have he defender of easthaven in offhand rather than anything else really

[Anonymous No.6296858]

>>6296837
That he womt miss 2 apr tops with a mediocre weapon that wont add much to his dps
Check his offhand thac0 too, it's probably already at a respectable level, pure fighters don't really need proficiency points for their offhand weapons, they have such good thac0 progression that it doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous No.6296861]

>>6296845
To add to that, think of it this way: Belm, Kundane and Scarlet Ninja-To offhands are efficient because they allow you to spread the good weapons more around your party.

For example Crom Faeyr is often posited in guides as an excellent offhand because of the 25 Strength buff, but in that case you're using a 2d4+5 weapon that grants you -7 THAC0 / +14 damage to every hit as a stat stick that only strikes twice at best, and if you want to maximize its use in that role, you have to slam proficiency points into Warhammers (so that your offhand actually hits something), and you still won't hit 10 attacks per round. In many cases, instead of having one character dual-wielding FoA / Crom you could instead have two characters with FoA + Belm and Crom + Kundane, for example. Especially since the Belm / Kundane philosophy means that you don't even need proficiency points in either Scimitars or Short Swords, making it easier to either invest into a different type of mainhand or perhaps some sort of ranged weapon in case you need an alternative.
>>6296850
Well, yeah, if you need to build for defense instead of offense you don't really offhand Belm.

[Anonymous No.6296867]

>>6296861
>and you still won't hit 10 attacks per round
Except, of course, for situations where we're talking about a 13 level fighter with Grandmastery, True Grandmastery Fix mod, and the Gauntlets of +0,5 APR from Watcher's Keep.

[Anonymous No.6296869]

>>6296861
If you build for offense, you still need to stay alive
There aren't many fights in ToB I would be comfortable sending Korgan in without 60% physical damage resistance.

[Anonymous No.6296873]

Bought picrel on Switch for $25, is the Switch version good? Played some other CRPGs (though none this old) but I've never played Baldur's Gate.

[Anonymous No.6296876]

>>6296869
I actually tend to favor the philosophy of "kill them faster than they can kill you" and rely on Hardiness and stacking consumables and spells to increase AC (which does actually work in ToB to some extent; -26 slashing AC is enough to get hit by Elite Fire Giants only around 20% of the time, for instance) and HP (Potions of Heroism). This is, of course, on SCS Insane. Note that Axe of the Unyielding's vorpal effect benefits disproportionately from increasing your mainhand APR because it gives you more chances to vorpal someone instantly.

[Anonymous No.6296881]

>>6296873
I haven't tried it but playing these games with a controller sounds like torture.

[Anonymous No.6296883]

>>6296876
I agree but you can't reach -26 AC with Korgan in my experience, and you can't even get him at decent AC levels for ToB without completely gimping his ability to resist a high level mage.
In the fire giant temple especially there are a couple nasty spell casters that I wouldnt relinquish the human flesh against.
Imo Korgan has a hard time trying to be viable in SCS insane ToB, his saves and berserk are his saving graces, but an even harder time without the defender and foebane

[Anonymous No.6296912]

>>6296883
>In the fire giant temple especially there are a couple nasty spell casters that I wouldnt relinquish the human flesh against.
I tend not to rely on %based magic resistance against casters because of its binary nature (it works or doesn't, and the possible factor of "doesn't" makes it hard to rely upon, plus SCS mages tend to enjoy Lower Resist), consumables also allowing to further boost saving throws or grant immunities, Korgan himself being one of the few characters capable of immunity to nasty CC (including Imrpisonment). So with Full Plate Mail, the right rings, Golden Girdle, stacking potions of +3 Dexterity, Improved Invisibility and so forth you are harder to hit, which also has the benefit of fooling the SCS AI which tries to prioritize characters that are easier / less resistant to hit.

[Anonymous No.6296915]

>>6296912
I mostly use the human flesh for the +5 saves... The 20%MR is just a really nice bonus.

[Anonymous No.6296921]

>>6296912
Also there is no armor that offers bonuses as interesting as this
50% fire resistance from firkraag plate is nice, but is this and -2AC (you can get base 0 with anyway) worth dropping the human flesh...
Definitely not imo, it's best in slot for anyone that can use it and will help more often than not, one of the best defensive items in the game.
I agree with the rest though.

[Anonymous No.6296927]

>>6296915
I'm concerned that this might be overkill as saving throws for Death / Wand / Spell are already really low on a pure Fighter and further lowered by Dwarf saving throws. With something like Ring of Protection +3 alone a HLA-level Korgan is already looking at a save vs spell of -2. Without Greater Malison or a spell with a hefty saving throw penalty, that's already unreachable by any spells. Greater Malison doesn't stack, so being hit by one only induces a small possibility of failure, and there are more items that can increase your saving throws further (like Foebane).

[Anonymous No.6296934]

>>6296927
I use the save penalties added by high level casters from the tweaks anthology, and it obviously, also works on enemies. Which levels I also make higher with the SCS .ini now. So... Yeah. In vanilla sure you will save against a lot with -6, but if I can get to -20 as often as I can, I sure will.
Anyway, even without that, malison + symbol and you already have to save with a -8 penalty. I lost my last run to a finger of death malison chain contingency from fucking Degardan of all people.

[Anonymous No.6296936]

>>6296934
>I use the save penalties added by high level casters from the tweaks anthology
Ah, I see. Fair enough.

[Anonymous No.6296992]

>>6296873
>>6296881
Assuming it isn't bait, I bought these as a novelty, and they are actually playable (though kiting is not easy, as you would expect). Playing this on Switch with inferior controls, no mod support, or even custom portraits is certainly not what you want to be doing though.

[Anonymous No.6297013]

You guys clearly thought more about it than I did, I just thought +APR would mean chop faster. I guess I'll just give him Searing Blade for his offhand so he can hit for some good fire damage sometimes.

[Anonymous No.6297015]

>>6274386
Beamdog is 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.6297017]

>>6297015
Aren't 4 and 5 the same? At least if you mod out the new NPCs from the base game, which I do.

[Anonymous No.6297030]

>>6297015
I do have some issues with EE, yeah.

What kind of dialogue did they add to existing characters? That seems like it would be pretty shitty.
I made sure to tweak the game so the new Beamdog characters leave me the fuck alone.

[Anonymous No.6297032]

>>6297013
Give him stonefire, Bernard sells it after you cleaned up the copper coronet, you can also steal it, it's an axe and it does 2 bonus fire damage rather than just one
Check your attacks per round on the character sheet, 5 non hasted and 10 hasted are the minimum. If you are already above 4, there is no need for an APR-boosting weapon
But non martial classes, which are forever stuck at 1 base APR will greatly benefit from it. Under improved haste, they go from 2 APR to 4 if you dual wield, to 6 if you dual wield with one speed weapon, to 8 if you dual wield with two speed weapon, to 9 if you add the gauntlet from watchers keep
A mage/thief dealing backstabs at 9 apr under mislead has a better DPS than any fighter.

[Anonymous No.6297035]

>>6297030
Banters with their snowflake NPCs, which are mostly out of character for Biware NPCs
The dialogues with Hexxat especially are mind numbingly dumb

[Anonymous No.6297037]

>>6297032
>5 non hasted and 10 hasted are the minimum.
Maximum* obviously

[Anonymous No.6297047]

>>6297015
What the hell is that archived thread, who's the absolute fuckmuppet who gets killed by like, fucking Carbos, and then blames the game? How do you get killed by Shank or Carbos? I don't think I've ever rolled a weak thief or mage who got merked by those guys.

And I thought I was being a noob with these stupid questions.

>>6297032
That's probably a better idea, actually, and he'd look more symmetric about it.

>>6297035
Oh, it's just stupid shit with the BeamDog companions? Thank god, I though they would have shoehorned in new dialog at other places.
I ain't touching any of those people with a 10ft Pole +2, so that could have been a lot worse.

Can I get away with killing any of those characters for XP and taking their stuff?

[Anonymous No.6297053]

>>6297047
>Can I get away with killing any of those characters for XP and taking their stuff?
Sadly, the one I'd like to kill the most - Neera - will teleport away if you ignore her.

[Anonymous No.6297059]

>>6297047
Also check the Defender of Easthaven, best offhand weapon to get on a fighter even with 0 flail proficiency imo

[Anonymous No.6297062]

>>6297015
>holy shit. you died in the first part of the game?
>sounds like the game dropped YOU and not the other way around, wussy biotch.

[Anonymous No.6297064]

>>6297053
I have it set with Tweaks so that they won't approach me, so she should just be standing there.
What if I cast Death Spell on her? Will she always save against it or something? Are there repercussions for killing her?

[Anonymous No.6297067]

>>6297015
Good idea to post this at bump limit to avoid janny tranny having a meltdown and ruining the threads

[Anonymous No.6297068]

>>6297064
There are no repercussions to kill any companion
Just mod then out altogether if you don't like, I find their very presence offending and immersion breaking personally

[Anonymous No.6297072]

>>6297068
That's what I do.

Without the new companions, EE is just an overall better package that's done a bunch of graphics mods and other convenient shit for me. It saves hours of modding time and still has less bugs than what my own cobbled-together end result would have had.

I've been tempted to drop in vanilla BG1, no TuTu or BGT or anything, though. It's been like fifteen years.

[Anonymous No.6297093]

>>6297072
There is no real difference between modding the originals and the EE, you end up installing the same things. I'm even still pissed off that there is no way to get full 1ppv4 for the EE, which still makes the originals slightly better looking.
Same with bugs, there are almost no differences between BG2+ fixpack and the EE, and there are even still a handful of hombrewed bugs specially crafted for the EE that don't exist on the originals.

imo the main selling point are the loading times and the better use of CPU resources that makes the game more stable and less prone to crash with heavily modded installs.

[Anonymous No.6297103]

>>6297072
also yeah, vanilla BG1 is still a really good game on his own, and the classic rules can be a refreshing change of pace with fun things to do. But on the same ruleset, I find Icewind Dale more entertaining than classic BG1.
If you haven't, I also recommend checking out sword coast stratagems if you plan to go for another run (doesn't work on vanilla BG1 but it's the best way to play these games and you will discover a lot of interesting things to do in combat)

[Anonymous No.6297104]

>>6297068
>Just mod then out altogether if you don't like
Nah, they can stand there, and I can look on at them with disgust, and feel pride about my own party, who are all much better written.

I think what I really dislike is not just a Wild Mage, but one who's constantly apologetic about all the dumb bullshit they subject your party to, as if saying sorry will make up for Imoen (and numerous bystanders) being torn apart by a surprise Pit Fiend. It's not a faux paus, it's actually a very serious incident which had incredibly grave consequences.
It feels like she's intended to be some kind of 'dorky cute' and 'quirky', and you're just supposed to forget about it or tolerate it, but it just rubs me the wrong way incredibly.

Can you imagine that in some kind of horrible industrial workplace accident?
>Oops, I really didn't mean to not properly close the compression chamber, I'm sorry that there's not even enough left of my coworkers for a closed casket funeral!
>I accidentally drained an entire oil tanker in the Mexican Gulf, but I'm REALLY sorry about what happened!

>>6297072
>Without the new companions, EE is just an overall better package that's done a bunch of graphics mods and other convenient shit for me.
In some ways, I suppose.

>It saves hours of modding time and still has less bugs than what my own cobbled-together end result would have had.
Arguably for me. I still had to go through all the tweaks and shit to get rid of a lot of the shit I don't like.

It's been a passable (but certainly not excellent) fixer upper, in my experience.

[Anonymous No.6297107]

Basically why are you still casting spells if this shit keeps happening, god, just go get a menial job.

[Anonymous No.6297127]

>>6297104
>Can you imagine that in some kind of horrible industrial workplace accident?
3.6 bystanders being killed by a Pit Fiend, not great, not terrible

[Anonymous No.6297131]

>>6297103
I already use scs by default. I agree it's pretty great.

[Anonymous No.6297140]

>>6297015
>It's a meme game that oldfags lord over others because of its complexity. It's a shit game.
Holy christ. I'm bumbling half the time in this game and I'm still probably too OP as it is. I can imagine maybe not understanding some of the more esoteric stats, but you don't even need to if you want to succeed in the game.

[Anonymous No.6297150]

>>6297015
>>6297047
>>6297062
>>6297140
BG3's going to be garbage, isn't it? Runny, rancid river of shit, catering to the modern-day ADHD-addled zoomers.

It will probably win all the awards, too, and everyone will laud it as a worthy successor that holds true to the spirit of old while "modernizing" it.

[Anonymous No.6297158]

>>6297150
>BG3's going to be garbage, isn't it?
Yes
>It will probably win all the awards, too, and everyone will laud it as a worthy successor that holds true to the spirit of old while "modernizing" it.
Yes
Just stop caring and it will get sligthly less worse

[Anonymous No.6297224]

>>6297150
Yes, it's going to be worse than Mass Effect and Dragon Age when they achieved their own worsts. Pay no attention to it, it's better for your blood pressure that way.

[Anonymous No.6297246]

>>6297150
Now you know how us Gold Box players felt when BG1 first came out.

[Anonymous No.6297373]

>>6297246
get the hell out of here, Scorpia

[Anonymous No.6297436]

>>6297246
shut the fuck up faggot

[Anonymous No.6297512]

>>6297246
t. 16 years old

[Anonymous No.6297530]

>>6297246
I don't care.

[Anonymous No.6297751]

Hmmm. Playing cards with a demon and getting magical AIDS, or just fucking killing him and taking his magical playdeck?

[Anonymous No.6297757]

>>6297751
You need to kill him in the end for the deck anyway. Might as well go for it.

[Anonymous No.6297762]

>>6297757
He told me that I was no fun.

[Anonymous No.6297797]

I actually didn't give any of the demons on this floor the time of day (they didn't really want to anyway, aside from the gambler, but he can gamble at home where I sent him with my sword).

[Anonymous No.6298061]

Ah, the eternal quandary of getting to raid a drow house with no repercussions and murdering and pillaging everyone and everything within, and not stooping into the service of a blackmailing aboleth when I could be awesome and tell it to shut up instead.

[Anonymous No.6298174]

>>6298061
It was honestly a pretty fun part once you got past doing all the menial tasks for her.

[Anonymous No.6298250]

Phaere's dialogue breaks off when she's about to explain me her egg ploy. Googling it up reveals that this should be a mod issue, which is weird because I played through this same part only a few weeks ago and it was fine then. I haven't installed any new mods since, at least nothing that'd have anything to do with this part of the game.

What should I edit on EEKeeper that I could move on?

[Anonymous No.6298307]

>>6298250
How does it break off?
Try firing your party in case it's a line from one of your companions that doesn't fire up and stops the dialogue

[Anonymous No.6298332]

>>6298307
I'd left the rest of the party outside. Turns out Jaheira had a line here and the game just fizzled up when she wasn't there to say it. It might also explain why the problem occurred only now and not the last time: I didn't have Jaheira in my party then.

Thanks for the insight. That solved it.

[Anonymous No.6298346]

>>6298332
Cool