[X] My Assistant

[SubRosa]

Today Tuonetar explored the southern edge of the map from Nashkel all the way west to the Gnoll Stronghold. She and company rescued Dynaheir. I was pretty underwhelmed at first. She starts with absolutley nothing, and only knows a handful of spells. I took her back to Nashkel to buy some gear, and used EE Keeper to give her some more spells. Afterward the party headed back to the Gnoll Stronghold to finish up the critters there. We will see how well she does there.

[SubRosa]

Today Tuonetar and her band of merry heroes finished off the Gnoll Stronghold, and cleared out the regions around it. Dynaheir didn't really impress me. Her voice was fine, unlike others like Jahiera, but with Neera already in the party, Dyna is just superflous. I don't need two mages. Neera's wild magic makes her more interesting (you never know what you are going to get!), so she is the keeper. Since I cannot just fire her without losing Minsc as well, I had to get rid of her in a more proactive fashion. So tonight she sleeps with the fishes.

I also decided to dual-class Imoen. Thieves don't seem a whole lot of use in BG1. There are only a few places in the game with traps for them to detect, and I haven't seen any instance where you *have* to pick a lock. According to the rules, Mage was the only other class I could go to with her. So I used EE Keeper to raise her Strength to 17. That allowed me to dual her to a Fighter. After I loaded her stronger save, I dual-classed her, saved again, and opened that save with EE Keeper again and put her Strength back down to normal. So now she is a Fighter/Thief. That will give her more hit points, a better to hit roll, and allow her to use better weapons like longbows. If I can get ahold of the gauntlets of ogre power, she will be able to use a composite longbow.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 25 2014, 03:27 AM

[Acadian]

I understand about Dynaheir. As I said, she dies anyway off camera in between BG I and II. I'm glad you have another mage you're happy with.

FYI, when you meet your pal Imoen again in BG II, she has already dual classed from a thief to a mage. Of course the nice thing about a character editor is that you can take a character that you like (personality-wise and such) and tweak them to anything you want.

[Renee]

EE Keeper sounds interesting. I might have to try getting that in my game.

[Acadian]

I forget the name of the character editor that I used while playing BG II but they are neat. I changed Jahiera to a ranger/cleric and Aerie to a sorceress for example. And gave Minsc the true berserk power instead of the buggy frenzy thing that he has.

[Renee]

Yeh I tried messing with one editor I found on some website. Trying to cheat a little bit and add antidote to my party. But this editor only seems to work half way. Or maybe I'm not entering the code right. It's a typical thing though with me: I need lots of instructions (clear step-by-step) to get something working on PC, and this site's instrux are only half-baked.

Like here is what I mean... here is an example of some good step-by-step instrux, as found on a Wrye Bash website.


See that? Step by step. THAT's what I like. The BG editor page I found throws a bunch of codes up there, but no instructions, dangit.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jul 25 2014, 02:57 PM

[SubRosa]

It sounds like you are trying to use Shadowkeeper? - the character editor for the original versions of the BG games. I don't think that will work with the enhanced editions, because they are different. Use EE Keeper, it is made for the Enhanced Editions, and has always worked like a charm for me.

[SubRosa]

Tuonetar, Neera, Imoen, and Minsc have succeeded in clearing out the western half of the map, from Candlekeep all the way to the southern edge. They have shifted operations east, and just stared the Gibberling Mountains in the south-eastern corner of the map. I plan to keep working around here until Imoen gets high enough level as a Fighter for her Thief skills to become usable again. It should not be too much longer, she just hit 4th level, and only needs to make 5th.

I also snapped a pic of Neera flattening a gang of hobgoblins with a Color Spray.

[Renee]

Oooh color spray. Prrretty.

Can't get EE Keeper to work. The program opens, and it's asking me to choose which game, but that's as far as I get. I choose BG1 and nothing happens. I wonder if I am picking the right download, first of all. I'm picking 1.0.2.4 > Download, right? Not 'Mac wineskin' and not 'SFX Installer?'

I'll be playing some Oblivion in the mean time.

[SubRosa]

That is the same version I am using, without the SFX or Mac thing. It usually automatically goes to BG1 to me. I think it remembers it from the last session, and since I am only playing BG1, that is it. You probably have to manually tell it where your game's folder is. I had to with both games. From the menu bar up top, click on Settings -> Installation Directory. From there you can browse for both games by clicking on the Browse:BGEE and Browse:BG2EE buttons.

[Renee]

It keeps saying I have to 'reload the game resources' for it to take effect. I mean, the program opens, and I've told it to look in Program Files (x86) > Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. I've also tried telling it Program Files (x86) > Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition > Data > 00766, because the installer seemed to suggest I try looking in a folder with a numerical sequence on it. I have no idea what 'reload the game resources' means.

Clicking the Help button .... I'm not seeing anything that says helpful. I'll be playing some TES 1: Arena in the meantime.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jul 27 2014, 03:27 PM

[Acadian]

Renee, hope you get that character editor mod working - they add a wonderful dimension of flexibility to the game.

SubRosa, thanks for the screenie. I really enjoy following your Baldurventures!

[Renee]

Yes, I got it. I think I got it. Several files were scattered, I didn't realize they all have to be in one place. COOL.

Edit: wow WOW what a neat program! It's so easy to use once I got the hang of it.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jul 27 2014, 03:47 PM

[SubRosa]

Today's Balduring saw Tuon and company finish off all of the eastern side of the map up to Peldvale. Except for Durlag's Tower and Nashkel Mines. Imoen finally got high enough level as a Fighter for her Thief abilities to work once more - 6th level Fighter / 5th level Thief. So once they knock off Peldvale, I will take the band of merry adventurers south to finish off the mines and take a crack at the tower.

I have noticed that even with only 4 members, Tuon's party is much stronger, and higher level, than Scathach's was. I think it was because I was taking the evil option in many quests, I was missing out on a lot of experience point awards. Like with the Melicamp the Chicken quest. Scath simply dropped him off at the wizard's place in High Hedge. But Tuonetar actually stuck around and volunteered to help get him turned back to normal. There have been a lot of cases where Tuon has gone the extra mile like that, and gotten more XP. Now she is breezing through battles that had been really brutal for Scath.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 28 2014, 01:47 AM

[Acadian]

Glad it's working well for Toon-Eater and her small band. Congrats to Imoen for getting her thiefy skills back!

[SubRosa]

I can see where Imoen splitting classes with a spellcaster would be good. She is basically a rear-liner to start with, and making her the magic support as well as the occasional trap finder and lockpicker rolls two jobs into one character. That leaves an extra slot for another front-liner. Or just for one fewer character. As I have noticed - less characters in the party means more experience for each.

Today Tuonetar and company finally knocked off Nashkel Mines. They headed back north, and are about to tackle the Bandit Camp.

[Renee]

Toon Eater! I didn't catch this before.

Sir Vayor, Imoen, Jaheera, and Khalid (I may have spelled those last two names wrong) are exploring some wilderness. Dealing with gnolls, skeletons, and other such baddies. They have 253 gold between them all, and so far nobody's died. I may even bump up the difficulty eventually.

[SubRosa]

Tuonetar and company spent the last few nights exploring Durlag's Tower. I got farther this time than with Scathach. But eventually I got fed up again. I just don't like that place. Too many traps, and the hallways and rooms are just too narrow and small.

So now Tuonetar and her group are exploring Cloakwood. They just picked up Coran, and agreed to help him with his Wyvern hunt. He does not look like much, with an ordinary longbow and plain leather armor compared to the others in the bunch. But he seems to be doing ok nonetheless. A 20 Dexterity helps!

[SubRosa]

Tuonetar and company explored all of Cloakwood today. After selling off the wyvern heads, Tuo parted ways with Coran. He was ok as a team member. But the crew really did not need him. So now it is back to a foursome: Tuonetar, Minsc, Imoen, and Neera. Plus Tuonetar's summoned skeleton of course. I left them on the doorstep of the hidden mine in Cloakwood.

[Acadian]

Glad it's still going well. Your party sounds good!