Baldur's Dale, The Infinity Engine Games Thread Options

[SubRosa]

I don't think a body actually appears that you can carry. Talk to the priest and click on his Healing Tab. He will probably have three or four tabs for different kinds of services. It will be the one on the far left. At the top be things like Cure Light Wounds, etc... At the bottom of the list should be a Raise Dead option.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 12 2014, 11:28 PM

[SubRosa]

I just got back from the grocery store. The cart I had the luck of picking had a rusty wheel that just would not stop squeaking. In no time at all I was thinking "The squeaky wheel gets the kick!"

[Acadian]

Go for the eyes, Boo!

Ah, hamsters and rangers everywhere - rejoice!

The bigger they are, the harder I hit!

Buttkicking, for goodness!

[SubRosa]

Evil everywhere... careful not to step in any.

[Lopov]

When it comes to quotes, Minsc and Edwin are my favorites, especially:

"'Edwin do this,' 'Edwin do that,' somebody get this jerk a banana!"

[SubRosa]

A few nights ago I started up a BG2 EE game, importing my kensai Scathach from BG1 and changing her alignment to Lawful Neutral. I have to say, I am liking Imoen even more in this game. At least I was until the game took her away from me! That just got me ticked off. She is my favorite NPC in the series. It almost made me stop playing the game completely, and did make me stop that night.

I read up, and found that at least I can get her back, eventually. Sigh. So I spent the last few nights since escaping the Irenicus Tutorial Dungeon recruiting Nalia and Viconia. Once I got the two of them, I ditched Jaheria and Yojimbo. I cannot stand Jaheria, and Yojimbo just seemed useless. He couldn't pick a single lock in the time I had him, and never did much of anything in combat.

So now I have a solid cleric, and a decent Thief/Mage. That fills out the must-have specialties. Scathach and Minsc are both bricks. So all I need are few more sluggers to keep the enemies busy. I am thinking of maybe picking up Cernd and Valgyar for future companions. I have heard Cernd isn't all that great, but apparently there are some mods that make him an absolute badass when he shapechanges. I get the impression that the Dwarf Fighter (I forget his name) is a good tank as well, but I am not sure I want another evil character in the party.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Oct 18 2014, 06:50 PM

[Lopov]

So you started BG2, eh? I was curious when will your adventures in Amn begin. I played BG2 before BG1 so I didn't miss Imoen that much because I had no idea what role did she play in BG1.

The Dwarf fighter (Korgan/Kargan?) is a tank but it's difficult to keep him in a party if you're not evil. Also, he's rather demanding about his personal quest and if you don't do it in short time, he'll leave.

I had Cernd in my party but just during the related quest, I'm not big fan of druids and I never properly learned to handle druids.

Yoshimo is not really useful but he's...interesting. There's more to him than meets the eye but I won't say anything more, else it'll be too spoilerish.

[Acadian]

Good on you, SubRosa! Yes, loosing Imoen is a bummer and it does take a long time to get her back. Nalia can fill her slippers in the interim. Minsc (and Boo) is a keeper of course. If you can keep Minsc and Nalia in your party with Viconia along, then you should be able to add Sir Keldorn Firecam (paladin). As I like to say about Savlian Matius, when it comes to a noble selfless hero, he is the gritty real deal. I simply love Keldorn (especially if you tweak his stats to what they should be for his class). And his 'kit' of Inquisitor is absolutely the best of the paladin kits (true sight and dispel magic!).

I agree with your assessments that Jahiera is annoying and that both Yoshi and Cernd are worthless without some serious tweaking.

[SubRosa]

Today the party explored the Umar Hills, and added Valgyar to the ranks. Going on the Temple Ruins, they also joined up with Mazzy Star, and defeated the Shade Lord. I find I am liking Mazzy. She is quite good with that bow of hers. Valgyar is not impressing me, so I think he is going to get cut from the team. Though I understand I do need him to get into the Planar Sphere back in Akatha-whatever the city's name is.

Now I have plenty of money. More than enough to pay off the Shadow Thieves to get at Imoen. So I am not sure if I want to do that first, or try tackling that Planar Sphere. I might do the Sphere first, that way I can sack Valgyar afterward.

One thing I am curious about. Is Mazzy a Paladin or not? Her character sheet says she is a Fighter. But she has Paladin powers like Lay on Hands, and she certainly acts like a Paladin.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Oct 19 2014, 09:20 PM

[Acadian]

Sounds like you're having fun!

Mazzy is a 'wannabe paladin'. The only reason she is not a paladin is because paladins must be human and Mazzy is a halfling. Talk about unfair! She'd be welcome in my order any day, for her arm is strong and her heart is pure. She's a good addition to almost any party as long as you stay fairly 'good'.

[SubRosa]

I am still Balduring on. I finished off the Planar Sphere the other day, and finally gave Valgy his walking papers. So far I have not replaced him with anyone.

Instead I gave the Gauntlets of Ogre Power to Viconia, along with the Flail of the Ages. I used EEKeeper to move around her proficiencies, to give her two points with Flails so she can use it well. That along with the Dark Mail have turned her into quite a tank. She has the best Armor Class in the bunch, nearly the best to hit, and can really dish it out with that flail. Throw in some of her buff spells like Armor of Faith, Bless, and Aid, she is something else. In the Planar Sphere, she was often the only one in the entire party who could do any damage at all, since the Golems are immune to spells, and apparently all magical and non-magical weapons. Only elemental damage enchantments on weapons could harm them.

Scathach is still the top damage dealer, and a 1 to hit Armor Class 0. Which I imagine is the best you can get. Throw in her Kai power, that makes her do maximum damage on every hit, and she can really wallop bad guys. She just picked up the Clestial Fury, which I am looking forward to putting to use. Not the least of which because it has a chance of doing electrical damage. That will give me two characters that can harm golems.

Scath's only downside is her Armor Class. At 0 it is the worst in the party. Not being able to use bracers, helmets, and other things that help armor really hurt. But I managed to find a Shield Amulet, which can get her AC down to -6. On point better than Viconia's. Of course that is when I remember to use it.

Today the party went off to see the Shadow Thieves and paid them to get into the Cowled Wizard's prison. Naturally it is not so easy as that. Scathach and company have to do some work for the thieves first. I left them at the docks, looking for Mook (how perfectly named!).

[SubRosa]

I have been in the mood to play Persephone again lately. So now she stalks the Sword Coast! It was not easy creating her in BG2. I had to first create a Sorcerer. Then I used EEKeeper to dual class her as a Fighter. Since the way the game works, she wouldn't be able to cast spells when wearing armor, I made her a Kensai. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it with a Dual/Multi class character, as opposed to a Sorcerer/straight Fighter, but it worked.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Oct 25 2014, 02:59 AM

[Acadian]

Wow! I'll bet P-10 will be kicking some butt as a sorc / kensai! I really liked both those classes.

One thing I learned about kensais is that they can't used ranged weapons of course, but they throw things just fine. Throwing knives have the same range as arrows, while axes have a shorter max range. So my kensais always opted for throwing knives when they needed a 'ranged' weapon. There's a couple throwing knives that will come back to you after you throw them so don't have to resupply knives. Where all this came in handy was with a kensai dualed to thief. They could engage with the throwing knife from right at the edge of stealth detection (just like an archer).

[SubRosa]

So far the Sorcerer/Kensai combo has worked well. Better than the pure Kensai did in Scathach's game. The Ghost Armor spell works well to help with the armor class, which seems to be the most difficult issue for the Kensais, given how they cannot wear armor, bracers, gauntlets, or helmets. Pretty much everything that lowers your armor class!

Is there a Summon Zombie spell? I know there is Animate Dead, but that always seem to bring a Skeleton. It would be nice if I could find a way to bring Darryl into the game as well.

Speaking of the game, last night Persephone made her escape from the tutorial dungeon. This afternoon she explored about the market a bit, and poked her head inside that circus tent and teamed up with Aerie. Afterward I decided to cut her though. It is just too confusing having all those Cleric spells and Mage spells in one character. I cannot keep straight what she can do. For good measure, I sacked Jaheria and Yojimbo as well.

That leaves just Peresphone and Minsc for now, kicking butts for goodness. But I am thinking a visit to the Copper Coronet will yield Nalia and Amonen, and surely Mazzy Star will be found somewhere in the near future as well.

[Acadian]

Can't go wrong with Mazzy, Amoen and Nalia. I liked Aerie very much, simply because she was such a naive little sweetheart - I turned her into a sorceress and she worked much better for me. I still recommend you find and get Keldorn Firecam (beef up his stats some). He can be a really good tank with a couple nice mage-busting abilities, and a fantastic personality/noble nature. He makes a great complement to Minsc up front.

My fave class was the fighter (with 5* bow) then dual classed to thief. They can clear whole dungeons by sniping, handle traps, locks etc. We'd ignore melee and give her a 'summon' animal spirit power to use instead when it was 'hands dirty' time.

[SubRosa]

I never thought about changing Aerie's class. I could make her a pure cleric. That might work. I mainly picked Amonen for a cleric. He seems alright, but can be annoying, so I am not sure if I am going to keep him around. It sounds like Keldorn is a better pick than him anyway, so there might be a replacement happening there pretty soon.

I did pick up Amonen and Nalia in the Copper Coronet, and while I was at it, went exploring around the property and discovered a den of slavery and gladiatorial games. Persephone smote evil most smitily. Next up it looks like the slavers den. Though I'd still like to get to Nalia's castle, and get down to that Faery Queen with the acorns from those nice dryads in the tutorial dungeon.

[Acadian]

Ahhh.

Brings back many wonderful hours of memories!

[Lopov]

It brings wonderful memories back indeed.

As much as BGII is a great game in its vanilla state, a lot of content got cut and was later restored in the Unfinished Business Mod. It continues the quest from the circus as it was supposed to, and it also makes Nalia's quest longer. And it does many other things but these two come first to my mind.

[Colonel Mustard]

As someone who seems to generally like CRPGs, but also as someone who's put off by having to learn reams of excessively fiddly rules, I've got to ask if the Baldur's Gate games are for me. I mean, they sound cool, but while I really liked Planescape Torment I found that I just couldn't get into it because the gameplay felt so obtuse (compare to Shadowrun Returns, a very slick, simple CRPG that I really enjoyed).

So basically, is Baldur's Gate like Planescape? Because I'm interested in buying it but I don't want to waste my money.

[SubRosa]

I never played Planescape, so I am not sure. I know it uses the Infinity Engine as well, and it was made by Black Isle. Black Isle also developed the Icewind Dale games, and the original Fallout games, and published the Baldur's Gate games, if that gives you something to compare by.