/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6317884
>How much of a difference do shorty saves make in TOB?
Enough to make them the best tanks.

>>6317884
After playing the big ones (black isle stuff/baldur's gates/troika) what else should i check out?

>>6317904
replay the baldur's gate saga (especially BG2) with Sword Coast Stratagems because there's nothing else like it
but depends entirely on what you're looking for, if you're a pure combatfag, have already played with SCS, and don't mind turn based combat Jagged Alliance 2 and eventually 1.13 I'd say. If you're a storyfag who enjoys DnD rulesets, go for NWN (specially expansions or modules) or NWN2 and MotB.

I wasn't expecting him to be quite this much of a bitch.

>>6317938
The followup is educational.
Better you than me, mom, Gorion was a better parent than you could ever be. I guess I feel a bit sorry for Sarevok though.

>>6317960
poor sarevok, adopted by a rich CEO that he chose to murder to get his spot

>>6317967
Don't get me wrong, he made his own way in life and made the his own evil choices, but I also can't help but wonder if he would have turned out better if he got rescued from there.

>>6317978
The fact that he can be turned into Chaotic Good supports the idea that he could have turned out to be a hero as well.

>>6317984
I'll make sure to try for that. You really should be spoilering those parts though, there's people in these threads playing the first game for the first time.

>>6317989
I didn't think of that, I deleted the post.

>>6317978
I don't know, when I roleplay it's usually as a LE or NE edgelord so it's not like my character turned out that much better doing chores in candlekeep
Gorion was probably too busy with harper shit and resentful to take care of his ex-wife's son anyway

>>6317993
You can play as evil, but the games are mostly pretty biased towards playing as a nicer character.

>>6317989
>>6317992
honestly not that big of deal imo, I first played BG1 already knowing you could do that in ToB, it's even one of the reasons I was so anxious to get there and complete the entire saga the first time.

>>6317998
I really hate the canon party and generally acting like a good old DnD goody-two-shoes, and I found my second playthrough as a LE edgelord much more satisfying story-wise and thematically
Especially in a no reload run with SCS, Ascension, Wheels of Prophecy. And NPC stronghold or multiple stronghold and assasinations.
Really makes much more sense to me than suffering through Minsc's bullshit an,d playing a morally righteous character.
Also works great, unsurprisingly, with Conan-type characters, since Baldur's Gate is quite literally Conan.

>>6317884
>How much of a difference do shorty saves make in TOB?
If you're just a plain human fighter and you hit 2,250,000 XP, you have ST of 3/5/4/4/6. Being a Dwarf or Halfling Fighter (Gnomes don't get the Death save) with max CON reduces that to -2/0/4/4/1, which means that you will never fail a regular Death or Wand save and will only fail a save vs spell on a roll of 1. This doesn't include Greater Malisons or spells with penalties to saving throws, but is still notable, especially combined with other buffs (Imp. Invisibility can be cast by anyone on the fighter and grant another -4 to all saves) or simply saving throw boosting gear or consumables.

Remember that in Baldur's Gate if you bring your saving throw low enough you can't ever fail it, there's no such thing as a critical failure on rolling a 1 on saving throw, so those shorty bonuses certainly can and will save you often enough.

The bonus is great to have and relevant for the whole saga (especially on non-caster hybrids or pure fighters; gnomish fighter/illusionists find it nice too, although a bit less pronounced since mages already can bring their saves down really low, so it might be overkill), although bear in mind it won't save you against everything because for example Imprisonment doesn't force any saving throw.

Just remember to watch out for Greater Malison and nasty spells with penalties to save like Symbol: Stun.

>>6318056
I think it's worth noting that these saving throws while always being an advantage over humans in <3 DnD, don't really come into effect organically if you multiclass because what matters is level advantage. I already tripped on this in IWD1 multiclassing.

So while you may get to enjoy some better saving throws in ToB, you will have suffered getting debuffed for most of the game anyway and be forced to mitigate thru other means regardless. So don't feel forced to min-max saving throws, they're not that important, levels are.

>>6318056
>>6318183
Good info to keep in mind, thanks.

Oddly enough, I've found that Shorty saves don't matter much in a no-reload game. You still can't roll the dice, even with better odds, so you approach as if you were always going to fail.

>>6318208
This.

That's how you deal with this shit in tabletop too. It's not about defending yourself against something - it's about ensuring it won't happen to begin with, and if it does, you've already failed barring a miraculous intervention coming to your rescue. That's why they're called SAVING throws.

Then later editions just made them another defense system, like AC, and everything went to shit.

>>6317993
I'm RP'ing NG Berserker who's not too difficult to provoke into a fight, kind of a hot-head, but realizing their divine heritage, becomes really conscious of their bloodlust and tries to keep it in check.

>>6318208
>You still can't roll the dice, even with better odds, so you approach as if you were always going to fail.
Again: there's no critical failure on a roll of 1 in this game. If you have 0 or lower saving throw towards something, you will never fail that saving throw.

>>6318335
Unless an enemy casts Greater Malison, or you use the tweak that gives penalties to saving throws according to caster level.

>>6318338
In which case your saving throw isn't 0 or lower anymore, unless you stack it even further. Point is, there *is* a point where saving throws are very reliable against the effects they're meant to protect against.

>>6318342
Yes, but if it turns out that even this isn't an absolute - that your saving throws can be brought up to 1 or higher by other means anyway - it falls back into semantics. What matters is that your level 20 CON 20 dwarven fighter is not quite invincible after all.

>>6318357
No one argued that's the case. Saving throws won't save you against excessive physical damage (biggest bane of mundane fighters on Insane ToB), spells without saving throws (including the game-ending Imprisonment), and many other things. They're still good to have, and if you want to play a character of a certain class combo, it's usually optimal to roll that class combo as a shorty where applicable.

Well. I've never gotten this far before.

>>6318380
I don't think I've ever actually finished any ToB romance, or redeemed Sarevok for that matter. The game is simply not long enough for them, especially when I tend to finish Watcher's Keep before finishing SoA.

>>6318398
That's why you should abuse resting and grind random encounters. IIRC the romance dialogue only continues if you reached later chapters, so extending your exploration with a 10 minute grind not only makes the larp better by giving you extra abilities from the added experience, but you also ensure your romance actually finishes around the end.

>Viconia asks what love is
>one of the possible replies is "THIS is your question? Go to sleep, Viconia."
Not what I'm going with, but it's funny that you can be such a complete dick.

>>6318398
just install the tweaks anthology and put the time between romance dialogues to 50% or something along those lines.

>>6318453
there aren't enough random encounters in BG2 to grind anything

>>6318519
There's shitloads of dungeons and shit to go do. There should have been a lot more wilderness to prowl through though.

>>6318524
Yeah that's not grinding, it's just completing the game
Fuck wilderness areas though, BG2 has really well crafted encounters, quests and dungeons and not having to suffer through empty maps with 3 bandits and 150gp hidden behind a rock is amazing.

>>6318380
Alright, if nobody else is going to ask: The hell is with everybody's HP? If you pushed it to the limit Viconia would have around 120-125 hp at that level with that con score. Am I missing something?

>>6318557
I put on that max HP roll thing in Tweaks, because I didn't want garbage ones early on. Characters get by default the highest possible rolls when leveling, which at first makes every level a significant upgrade in HP, but those values will eventually platueau, I'm up at the point where CHARNAME gets like 3hp per level, Viconia gets like 1hp per level.

It makes the party slightly tankier, but the tweak is also set to boost enemy HP, so it evens out somewhat. In some ways that makes combat a little slower in some places. I actually ended up raising the difficulty a notch by the time I reached Cloakwoods in BG1.

I've been thinking of buying Neverwinter Nights for the sole purpose of playing Baldur's Gate Reloaded. Assuming pretty high knowledge (i.e. 5 years on tabletop) of 3rd edition rules, is there anything else I should know before going in?

>>6318562
I mean... My figure was based on max hp rolls using the rules from the manual. Typically priests get 2 hp/level after 9th level. At 35: 9d8 + 52 (124 max)

So I don't know if you have that "plateau" modded to a later level or something, but literally all of your party has about 50% more hp than they should. If you're finding that you're breezing through most encounters pretty easily, that's worth maybe looking into.

>>6318578
I guess I sort of am. Maybe I can just crank up the difficulty again?

>>6318519
You're supposed to find an area with a decent encounter you can defeat consistently and abuse rest to respawn them.

>>6318519
>>6318587
Or just shoot giants from the Saradush walls. I thought we all knew of that trick already?

Do mods (decent ones at least) work with EE? I had Tutu and all that shit on a previous system but cant becarsed to go through all that again on a new system. I bought it on some discount a few years ago so it is easier to just start it.

>>6318612
I don't think I can name a single good one that wasn't ported to EE by now. Maybe this one that revised the high-level abilities. I'm not sure Tactics was ever ported either, but to be honest, fuck that.

You're probably fine.

>>6318594
No need to grind in Saradush, you're way overpowered at that point.

>>6318594
Also the point is to rest a lot and progress the romances. Not grinding in itself.

>>6318628
>>6318632
It still works, given how long it's going to take.

>>6318585
On the other hand though, Liches are still fairly tough, and Yaga-Shura actually did beat the crap out of me, once he remembered he was twice my size and after he had ran like a bitch.

>>6318636
It's not about any specific encounter. There are lots of areas with respawnable critters. The goal is to be aware of that and stop for a 10 minut grind every now and then. That way the cooldown period for romance progression is exhausted earlier and you're not missing out, but it's up to you to decide when your buffs are sufficient to clear the mobs consistently.

>>6318615
There's an adaptation for Tactics built for EE that's specifically also supposed to work with SCS. Idk how recent it is, but it should work.

>>6318615
And what are good ones for Bg2? I remember finishing the first one with two mods. Npc banter and another that made it when you release a party member he is not gone for good but waiting for you at an inn. So not something overly drastic.

>>6318684
Convenient EE NPCs/Disable EE NPCs, Lefreut UI, Unfinished business (don't install "bodhi chases you in spellhold" component, it's bugged with the EE), Almateria Restoration Project, Sword Coast Stratagems, Ascension, Wheels of prophecy, aTweaks, Tweaks Anthology, BG2 questpack, Assassinations, NPC Stronghold. Check the readmes and pick what you want.

>>6318643
There's honestly no need to bother with any of that, if you minmax XP like crazy without abusing anything (recuit party late, at 750k or 1.2 mil) and complete you can reach more than 3 million XP with a party of 6 before even leaving for spellhold.
If you really play too fast for the romances to catch up (which happens literally everytime after the first playthrough), just install the compoent from tweaks anthology to lower time between romance dialogues. I play pretty fast and put it at 60 or 65 I think, and have no problem finishing romances, even with good story timing.
You can also just console in CLUAConsole:AdvanceRealTime(50000) to go through it faster.

>>6318878
Is there a mod to get the experience progress bar back on Lefreut UI? Or to get it to Icewind Dale for that matter, while there. It's pretty handy and I've grown fond of it.

>>6319049
don't think so

>rtwp
yikeserino kiddo

as a dwarf, how do i cope with the fact that i cant romance viconia?

why the fuck does the EE crash so much, does EET fix this?

>>6319583
Works on my machine.

How is the NWN EE?

>>6319576
By angrily pounding Aerie's pussy at night while looking at Viccy.

>>6318878
>Assassinations
I guess I don't want to install that one on my goody-two-shoes runs?

Does scs not improve this guy or something?
He had no prebufffs and he didn't really do much during the fight besides autoattacking korgan and one acid breath.

>>6319950
forgot image

>>6319823
aerie and jaheira dont romance dwarves either, aerie romances gnomes and halflings and viconia and jaheira romance halflings
nobody like dwarfs

>>6319583
Probably because you downloaded an obsolete version

>>6319932
Why wouldn't you, nobody is forcing you to assassinate anyone
If you play a paladin the quest won't even initiate, and if you play a heroic lad you can always alert the authorities that someone tried to have you commit murder for money (or tell the shadow thieves)
>>6319950
He should have stoneskin and slightly
more HP than usual

>>6320134
>If you play a paladin the quest won't even initiate
Kinda what I was wondering. I will try it next time I play a neutral/evil character if the content is good.

>>6319950
Also I'm pretty sure he should have a level drain breath attack too

>>6320142
Yeah it's pretty good and gets better the further you go. Just the right amount of edge and the few voiced lines are good.
Very disappointed that there wasn't a 'pssh, nothing personel, kid' line at some point but what can you do
Even has a couple good fights with SCS

When are we going to get Baldur's Gate games modded on Pathfinder: Kingmaker? PF system is objectively superior to 2e in video games.

>>6320481
There's a BG and BG2 mod for NWN2, specially crafted for you 3.5 babies
It's dogshit, unsurprisingly
I really don't see the appeal of such things tbqh, especially when SCS exists and has better AI than any crpg on the market.

>>6320481
I really dislike how stats work in 2e. No difference between 10 and 15 unless it's for some specifics (weight, etc).

>>6320508
That's because computer games never make use of them as D&D players do (or did).
In the ye olden days checks for abilities were made by rolling under your statistic. Dead simple, low hassle.
Makes a big deal at the table but never seems to come up in computer versions of 2e and earlier.

>>6320507
The NWN2 mod is dogshit not because of the 3.5 rules, but because of how those rules are implemented in the game, and because it's simply fuck-ugly. Kingmaker uses the old Infinity engine and is as pretty as ever.

I actually vastly prefer 2e on tabletop, and 1e even more than that, but the later editions work better on video games because of all the mechanical crunch and other dumb shit.

>>6320508
Used to be you made ability score rolls all the time - roll a d20, try to get under your score. In those cases, the difference between 10 and 15 was pretty huge.

>>6320508
I really dislike how they work in 3e and more recent, where everything has the same base stats to allocate and ends up with 25+ in all abilities.
At least in 2e it makes sense roleplaying-wise.

>>6320524
I fucking hate 3e and 3.5 in videogames, literally a MMO ruleset. If you enjoy it good for you, and its not like there is any lack of content or games based on that so I guess you'd be better off playing them rather than starting flame wars for no good reason

>>6320524
Also Kingmaker is made with Unity and has the good old stiff disgusting animations of every isometric game on a 3D engine, I dont know what you're on about with that

>>6320531
>literally a MMO ruleset
But that's what I like it about. 2e and earlier all lean way too much on roleplay and DM interpretation and other such nonmechanical matters, which make them better systems when you play with actual humans, but a pretty big hassle in video games with only a bunch of computers and AI and such. Later editions made everything mechanical and as such work better from video gaming standpoint.

As for the other games, I just like Baldur's Gate for its characters and plot.

>>6320532
Still great backgrounds and sets, though.

>>6320540
>but a pretty big hassle in video games with only a bunch of computers and AI and such. Later editions made everything mechanical and as such work better from video gaming standpoint.
I genuinely dont understand this. BG and IWD have a lot less hassle than trying to figure out how many levels of X class you should pick up to perfect your speciul snowflake.
Just understand the way better and more complex magic system and congratulations, you are now an expert at 2e.
Meanwhile to even reach intermediate in 3.5 you spend hours compiling kit descriptions and theory crafting your character progression. While in 10 minutes you have already exhausted everything fun to try out with magic.

>>6320540
>>6320543
How come everyone tries to move on Baldur's Gate to 3.PF? Why not go the opposite direction and mod it for 1e? Significantly reduced experience from monsters, and you can get that exp even if you diplomance or sneak past them, and finding gold and treasure gets you exp instead. Emphasize stealth and roleplay over fights. Shouldn't be too hard to do.

>>6320551
do it if it's so easy, we'll watch you

>>6320551
You can play Fallout or other boring RPGs for virgin storyfags. These kind of approaches are good for a playthrough or two, but get old really fast.
Meanwhile CombatCHADS will keep replaying BG and JA2 with new party compositions while grinding Diablo on a second monitor.

>>6320520
>>6320524
I was DMing AD&D and I can't say I remember how stats worked, but I think I didn't like it either back then. It was my first time DMing and I didn't even have a monster manual, so can't say it was very structured from my side.
>>6320527
I liked how stats worked, but I didn't like that if you had to do a strength roll, in example, a guy with 18 strength (almost superhuman) just had a 20% advantage over someone with average strength. I tried different solutions with that. I found 3.5 to be quite solid overall in any case, although spellcasters were once again way ahead the fighters.

>>6320543
You could argue the same about dual-classing being confusing. No one's forcing you to min-max in 3e, pure classes are still fine.

However, if you do decide to play a tactics mod/HoF, you get to make logical choices like getting a level of monk to dodge YOUR OWN goddamn fireballs, or ranger for extra feats. You're also not forced to play a stupid dwarf for min-maxing saving throws.

Go play IWD2 and see how much more sense there is to the difficulty curve. You get to have tools to mitigate excessive physical damage, AND ones to improve your saving throw penetration. Shit actually scales like things in a computer RPG should.

>>6320574
One of the books - Creative Campaigning I think - offered some alternatives on stat rolls: rolling 2d10 or even 3d6 to even out the bell curve, or rolling smaller die with bonuses (1d10+8 or something) to make sure that anyone with too low strength can't even attempt the task. I thought they worked fine enough.

>>6320574
>spellcasters were once again way ahead the fighters.
In pnp maybe, I dont know, but from what I played with nwn and NWN2, since there is no pfmw, there is nothing stopping a good number-crunching fighter or assassin type to just inflict enough damage in half a round to go through the best defensive spells

>>6320582
>>6320582
There are literally 3 classes you can dual with, it's far from being a system entirely based around designing OP characters by theory crafting. Sure in 3.x you can play full classes and they work, but if you can personalize character creation to such an extent, why wouldn't you.
As pointed earlier in this thread anyway, stats and saving throws only matter really marginally, and not playing sorties offer you great alternatives to their very limited class selections.
I dont get your bit on IWD2, every RPG in existence worth mentioning has a sensible difficulty curve with more or less effective ways to mitigate the difficulty thrown at you depending on how clever with the rules you are.

>>6320583
I should actually check my old room and see if I still got my old books.
>>6320586
Unless it's with sneak attack, there was just no comparison. Fighters potential scaled via feats, that were kinda underwhelming unless you started adding rulebooks. Meanwhile spellcasters (clerics and druids on top of mages/sorcerers) were getting ridiculous spells. I really liked this combat rulebook that gave fighter-types special attacks. It was called the Book of 9 Disciplines or something like that. It helped to close the gap between casters and non-casters.

>>6320605
You're talking of Book of Nine Swords, and it's honestly not that great. It fixes the problem between martials and casters - by turning martials -into- casters. It misses the entire point, the way only 3rd edition D&D and beyond could do.

>>6320603
Your complaint about forced to theorycraft in 3e really doesn't apply. Pure classes are fine, you just get a slew of extra feats for your shit to improve as you level up, which is natural for a cRPG. You don't fucking want your finger of death to never hit like is the case in BG2.

As for the min-maxing argument... just like in 3e you're optimal build is to dodge AoE spells with an optimal party of 6, in 2e you dual class mages for dual wielding or get a ranger/cleric. Both things aren't that obvious and require research

>>6320613
Yeah, that's the one, I remember the cover. How else would you close the gap?

>>6320605
Again from what I played I find magic a lot less spectacular in 3.x than in 2e, while fighters and shit have a lot more options with feats and stuff (there is literally no ability for non casting classes in 2e before high level abilities, as it should be, a level 6 fighter shouldn't already be Hercules), especially with the possibility of crafting gear.
Meanwhile magic has less devastating spells, needs metamagic feats to be really good, and unless you play a sorcerer you won't even really enjoy the benefits of these metamagic feats.

>>6320620
I genuinely dont understand your point
Yeah you prefer 3.5, good for you?
You don't need to dodge aoe spells, whether damage or status effect, just like, be immune to them.
It's funny you mention finger of death. Because I literally completed MotB with that one spell, wail of the banshee and the level 8 anti undead aoe which name escapes me. 10/10 combat experience, would never replay again.

>>6320623
Not him, but I wouldn't
In a world where magic exists, the virgin fighter deserves to be killed by the chad library rat

>>6320623
In the earlier editions spellcasters are honestly fine, generally speaking. Wizards are pretty fragile and have very limited spells. Clerics are tougher, but a lot of their spellcasting goes to healing the fighters. And speaking of which, back before the general all-around HP bloat (like giving everyone bonus hit points from 17+ CON), fighters were real tough bastards and could swing their swords all day long, and thieves had a real niche because no one else could pick locks or find traps via cross-class skills.

Problems arose when the writers decided that A) casters needed to have a spell for every occasion, and B) needed more options for when they ran out of those spells. It's very easy to just keep piling up more stuff on top of them, since they're all magical and fantastic from the beginning - while fighters and thieves mostly stayed the way they were, except with even their basic abilities and options locked behind feats and other requirements. You need to waste a whole bunch of feats just to do what a clever player could have done in 2e by rp, for fuck's sake! In these later editions, the only ways I can think to curb spellcasters is by bothering with the stuff like spellbooks and material components and such - and even that only works so far, because there are feats to make them non-issues.

>>6320628
>Meanwhile magic has less devastating spells
Not what I remember, to be honest. Clerics and Druids had a very easy time becoming better fighters than fighters themselves, with on top of that having crazy spellcasting. If I remember correctly, Clerics were insane as they had offensive spells that were on par with arcane magic. I haven't DMed in over 12 years so I may be misremembering, but I'm fairly sure that the gap between casters and non-casters was even more massive than in the past.

>>6320650
Materials and so on were minor inconveniences that could be skipped with feats. That's why I think that giving fighters some sort of spellcasting via special abilities make them more interesting and competent. In the other hand, D&D is not necessarily a competitive game, but if your D&D group has a mix of players (powerplayers+RPers) then you end with either very weak monsters or very weak players as they haven't optimized their characters.

>>6320650
>Clerics are tougher, but a lot of their spellcasting goes to healing the fighters
In no edition of D&D was healing ever efficient due to long casting times and the notion that it's a completely reactive play. Even in earlier editions Clerics have a ton of useful spells and even in BG they're best used for their utility and buffs rather than pure healing, outside of spells like Regenerate.

>>6320662
Healing is still pretty useful at low levels outside of combat, but yeah, the mistake many make is considering clerics as MMO healers when it's just not what they are at all.

>>6320660
>That's why I think that giving fighters some sort of spellcasting via special abilities make them more interesting and competent.
You may want to look into 4e, then. Book of Nine Swords from above was basically a practice run for it: it took the special ability stuff and ran with it.

But personally I like the option of having lower-magic settings where not everyone is a DBZ-style superhero. As I say, earlier editions manage those fine.

>>6320662
Healing was fine when you wanted to patch up your melee guys after the fight. Again, back before the HP bloat, even 1d8 hit points could occasionally make the difference between life and death. The stuff came up often and all the time, while all those other useful spells were more specialized and you might never get the chance to use them.

They do get more stuff on higher levels, but even then it's important to keep the party healthy.

>>6320643
Go play IWD2 HoF and fuck off. Then you'll see why 3e makes more sense and is a better challenge. You citing shitty examples of casual gameplay mean absolutely nothing. It would be fine either way.

>>6320674
IWD2 is honestly a pretty bad example, because even with all the powergaming guides I could barely get through the first couple dungeons. The balance in that came is completely out of whack.

>>6320674
>Go play number crunching on inflated stats - the game
Why would I do that again
Play SCS or fuck off back to whatever 3.x circljerk let you out

>>6320679
IWD2 is PURE skill because XP rewards scale with the difficulty. You can level up to 10 in like 20 minutes if you craft your character carefully on HoF. Nothing but skill-based combat where you have to utilize everything at your disposal and a huge selection of buffs.
>even with all the powergaming guides I could barely get through the first couple dungeons
So this is the power of a professional 4channian dnd larper huh

>>6320671
We played 4e for a while. I loved it because it was very MMOish, but my players didn't like it as much. Looking back, I think that it was way too MMOish, but it had really good stuff. And yes, the caster v non-caster balance was one of them.

>>6320681
>SCS
So I can jerk around with quests instead of focusing on combat? IWD2 is pure gameplay, and has a tactics mod, there's no reason to prioritize larping when you have a superior combat & strategy oriented 3e game.

>>6320691
If your maths adds up you will win, if it doesn't you lose, but a consumable might save your life.
Great.
It's not real reactivity to the unexpected with good understanding of rules (which would constitute what is usually called "skill") but just a number crunching exercise. If you pass it, you pass it for pretty much the entire game, if you don't, just pick a different party composition.

>>6320696
Do you even know what SCS is? Are you baiting or some shit?

>>6320707
I'm glad chess is just a number crunching exercise, anon. The same shit applies to your SCS mod btw. God what a stupid fucking opinion. This is a game you play in real-time, not a fucking math equation.

>>6320708
It's a mod that fixes AI and makes it much more sophisticated on high difficulties as well as adds organically implemented pre-buffs for all encounters. On the highest difficulty it provides a suitable challenge, though the gameplay is still bogged down by plenty of quest larping instead of just focusing on combat like in IWD2.

>>6320696
If you really think IWD2 HOF is a difficult exercise, try BG2 with SCS on Insane (once you will have looked up what SCS is because you apparently have no idea) and set divine and arcane caster levels to 140% of their values in stratagems.ini before installing
Then come back and tell us all about the incredible difficulty of IWD2 hof again

>>6320710
>>6320716
Ok you are just retarded, I didn't get it earlier, my bad.
Quest larping in BG2 lmao like just press space faster lmao
Everytime I think I can't read anymore stupid bullshit on this website there's always a dumber fuck in the next post

And here I'd just like Baldur's Gate to work on 3.5 or Pathfinder so that I could make some weird ranger/rogue combo that wouldn't be too good in a fight but would be fun to play. I like rangers and I like sneaking around.

You people are taking this way too seriously. Go outside, take a deep breath, but keep safe distance to not get sick.

>>6320718
I already have and it's nothing to write home about. A min-maxed party with SCS is just what you described - number crunching specific boss fights like Amelyssan, whereas IWD2 is more of a challenge all around where all spells ought to be utilized and the entire party made from scratch.

>>6320726
I played a ranger/rogue in 3.5 with favoured enemy: human. The idea was to be an urban ranger. I greatly enjoyed it, without falling into the vigilante cliches.

>>6320724
Not an argument
>>6320726
Casual play is fine, anon. That's why I mentioned pure classes in 3e are totally acceptable. Play at a level you can handle so you can learn more.

>>6320732
I'm pretty casual but I like the better multiclass freedom 3e would offer. It's why I've been thinking of Baldur's Gate Reloaded lately even though NWN2 is such hot garbage.

>>6320726
>I like rangers and I like sneaking around.
Roll a Stalker.

>>6320739
>multiclass freedom 3e would offer
Yeah, there are quite a few options. Just make sure you're multiclassing into a "favored class" of whatever you're picking, so you're not XP penalized in the end.

>>6320726
>Go outside
What did he mean by this

>>6320732
>Not an argument
Pretty amazing to read that after several non sequitur posts, goalposts moved so far away many times a row, general bad faith in arguments, illiteracy, insults and pure retardation on your part
Go fuck yourself

One of the best things about Baldur's Gate is that its on 2e. 3e is garbage, thank god its in the past.

>>6320787
5e is nearly as bad. WotC still fails to understand what made D&D good to begin with, and instead looks to turn it into a babby's first rpg that draws all the tunblr crowd despite not being good at anything at all.

>>6320783
I skimmed over your le reactivity argument because only a dumb as bricks moron would actually argue 2e fits a computer implementation better.
>Go fuck yourself
I'll leave that to you with your made up nonsense based entirely on preference. You clearly love to lube up the pile of shit that is 2e a lot before diving into the fucking part.

Here's your level 9 spell bro.

>>6320795
>I have nothing to say but retarded shit and insults, 2e bad
Yeah we get it already
Shut the fuck up retard, you're as boring as you are stupid

>>6320878
>retarded shit and insults
That's all you've been saying this whole time, arbitrary putting-down of 3e gameplay without ever offering a single solid argument to how 2e is possibly any better.

>>6320883
>he says, doing exactly that
not my problem if you're too dumb to read

>>6320883
If you were literate you'd have noticed right from the start that pretty much nobody except your stupid ass was embroiled in a retarded 2e vs 3e """debate"""" but everyone was talking about various aspects of both editions and what they do differently
and then you show up with your retarded inflammatory shit about IWD 2 and proceed to bitch to be answered to using the same tone you had from the start. So fuck you and fuck off.

>>6320926
That's not me. I'm the casual guy that'd just like to do dumb multiclasses for fun. You wound me for no reason.

Things 3e has over 2e:
>more character build freedom
>simple and comprehensive skill checks
>sensible saving throw categories
>standardized ability scores that each do at least something for every class and race
>no huge save bonuses for ugly dwarves
>feats are fun

Things 2e has over 3e:
>emphasis on roleplay, creativity, and inventiveness
>rulings over rules
>crazy dungeon crawl heists that emphasize treasure hunting and avoiding confrontation
>high lethality where no one is special and characters die and are replaced all the time
>adventure game mindset where anything might be useful or lifesaving
>random encounters
>point-crawl exploration

Things 2e has over 3e that can be readily implemented in a video game without a human arbitrator managing all your clever bullshit schemes:
>?

You do realize you don't necessarily need to do all those side quest in BG games, right? That you can just follow the main quest line, just like in IWD games, right?
Honestly, IWD series are good games but they are kinda repetitive. Is why I like BG series more.

Mother of god, do these threads hit the limit so often because half of the posts are two turbo-spergs fuming at each other?

>>6320970
They do it even faster when the extreme centrists can't stop themselves from pointing out that everyone is a retarded autist

>>6320970
No, the 3aboo only pops up occasionally.

>>6320951
>more character build freedom
And this is kinda bullshit. In IWD2 you will minmax your stats just like in BG, maybe even more so because you have limited number of ability points, and then you will select those few essential feats you always go for. You are left with one or two open feat selections even with human. Not much of freedom there.
Only the fact that you can theoretically make unlimited combinations of classes makes it more free than the older multiclass system. It's mostly selecting a class for good early level dependent bonuses, though. So this also isn't something worth writing home about but it's something I guess.

Last thread I asked if it's worth pulling through cloakwoods because I was a bit bored with them and people told me to stick till I reach Baldur. Took a while because I couldn't play, but here I come.

Mines were fun, but the woods were my least favorite part of the game so far.

>>6320976
That's because IWD2 is built specifically around all the powergaming and such. If BG were moved on the same system, it'd be far easier and more relaxed and thus allow you to do more stuff and still manage fine.

I mean, unless you also stick Tactics and SCS and Ascension on top of it or some shit. But that's your prerogative. You can also choose not to do these things.

>>6321002
Interestingly enough, I prefer the wilds exploration rather than the city quests. BG2 definitely did all this better.

>>6321010
You have a lot of viable playstyles with SCS and Ascension and pretty much any kind of classes and parties are good as long as you have a vague idea of what you're doing. Because these mods aren't built around inflating numbers and mob stats, mechanically making some playstyles and party compositions completely invalid to play this.
You have the exact same restrictions of playstyles if you play in Legacy of Bhaal, which the BGEE and BG2EE equivalent of HoF, inflating enemy HP, AC, saves, thac0, APR, etc. And is equally uninteresting.

>>6321010
This is not important. Dude claimed that the new ruleset provided more freedom with character builds. Why it is _somewhat_ true, the difference is not that intense. I would claim it's almost nonexistent. Just because you can make a 6x multiclassed shitty character doesn't mean that you have more freedom with character builds. You have more freedom to fuck your shit up and restart the game, maybe.

>>6321036
Yes, but you could also do a rogue/ranger, or a paladin/sorcerer, or a bunch of others that are simply impossible as it is. The difference is not as intense as to be infinite, but it's still a difference - it's still an advantage 3e has over 2e in video gaming context.

>>6321050
So you have few new viable dual classes. But you are still limited in how you gonna build those. This is not true freedom. You just have more options, as in more available content, but it's just an illusion of freedom because all those options are still linear.
By the way, calling it paladin/sorcerer is kinda misleading. You get a level in paladin for the Cha ST bonus and then level up your sorcerer class. There's no "paladin" there, you will end up playing just another caster with some better numbers shown in the character screen. Not very exciting nor creative. And the holy avenger sword is pretty shit in IWD2 anyway.
The same thing applies to other non standard multiclasses. Simply get a level or two for some nice class dependent bonuses. Much freedom.

>>6321082
Irrelevant. We can argue about the extent of it, but it's still more freedom than what 2e gives you. More options. It's still better.

Why would you want to arbitrarily limit options? If we go by your route, why have fighter/druid or ranger/cleric? Or even druid or ranger? Why not just have the four standard classes for humans, and elves and dwarves and halflings as a class of their own? Druid is just another cleric with a couple different spells. Much freedom.

>>6321106
Well it was not me who claimed that either ruleset gave you more freedom in creating your characters so this is not my hill to die upon.
Also, I'm perfectly happy with having only 4 playable classes in an RPG game. If they are all different and play different, why not. Add in the possibility to multiclass them into unique combinations that also have completely different playstyles, maybe add some interesting subkits and the ability to dualclass et cetera. Noticed that I'm talking about BG series?
And^2 druids are not clerics with different spells. They also have the ability to shapeshift and charm animals but I'm not surprised you forgot because it sucks balls, at least in BG series.

>>6321106
It's like he's totally clueless about crazy AC builds that even abuse XP penalty to gain an even higher AC. And all the while spouting pointless nonsense about how there's only an individual option for min-maxing; guess fucking what, this applies to 2e as well, which is even more boring because most people stick to kensai/mage or ranger/cleric or something of the sort, except you get fewer options in the end and there aren't even any feats to make things more interesting.
>BUT the game I like is EASY so I can play more builds
Not an argument, you moron. You're still choosing something that's mathematically inferior to an optimal 2e build, nobody's forcing you to min-max here, and the same shit applies to 3e.

If you're going to rave about 2e in a video game implementation point out its advantages over 3e (there are none, except more newb friendly). It's just a more simplistic system with less combat, so it's padded with questing, and even the tactics only ups the difficulty selectively for specific bosses only (where, surprise, surprise, bullshit unique circumstances apply).

>>6321201
Yes yes, congratulations. You were able to build an extra cookie cutter build with those 72 AC which you can get in a single specific way and that means the game is giving you unlimited freedom in creating the character.
Newsflash, that's not what this argument is about and I'm also not claiming that 2e gives you more options. I'm just saying that >>6320951
>>more character build freedom
is not true.

>>6321192
>>6321228
By the looks of things we have entirely different definitions for the word "freedom". Fine. It still leaves five more points for 3e's benefit, and about seven for 2e that would never work in a video game. Do you have anything to say about those?

>>6321232
you are literally in a thread about games based off second edition which are widely and fondly regarded as videogame classics
Neverwinter Nights 1 is probably the only 3.5 videogame with a truly lasting community, and is often only played after having got into BG first.
Your entire idea based off greentexting simplisitrc notions that 2e somehow doesn't work in videogame form is beyond retarded and so are you.

>>6321228
>more character build freedom
>is not true
You are too dense to breathe. I've no clue how you're posting.

>>6321237
Nobody mentioned 3.5e fucktard.

>>6321237
>idea based off greentexting simplisitrc notions
Too bad you're too fucking stupid to grasp the most basic of them

>>6321237
Baldur's Gate is a classic not because it uses 2e, but in spite of it. Even then it had to twist the system and drop most of what made it good, before it would work at all - and then BG2 went ahead and made itself as close to 3e as the engine would allow it to be.

Shifting the whole game to 3e would only be to its benefit.

>>6321242
>no we were only very specificalkly talking about 3
go fuck yourself
>>6321247
>more meaningless shit
go fuck yourself
>>6321251
>blablabla I'm sure I can make a better game using 3E
then go ahead and go fuck yourself
What the fuck is up with this plague of retards

>>6321260
>What the fuck is up with this plague of retards
The only thing that amazes me is that a single angry troll like yourself could drag three or four people around for so long. We're all bored out of our skull in this guarantine or some shit.

>>6321270
I literally entered this fucking retarded debate two posts ago after leaving it about two hours ago
NOBDY FUCKING CARES THAT YOU LIKE 3E BETTER GO TELL /tg/ ALL ABOUT IT

>>6321251
In spite of the retard shitposting, I'd probably still argue BG2 is better off being the "learning experience" with fun spells like feeblemind that doesn't expire or maze, basically broken spells that new players get a rush from discovering that aren't really useful when min-maxing. That's probably the only argument I can think when considering edition advantages.

>>6321287
I do have some fondness for 2e for all its broken spells and weird balance stuff, but all of that really only works on tabletop where genuine human inventiveness is what really brings it all to life. On computer, with only cold artificial intelligence to play against, 3e's (at least superficially) more thought-out balance would work better.

wowie zowie another autistic shit flinging general

>>6321287
literally no videogame has a magic system as good as BG2, and certainly none based off 3.X
The obsession with having perfect MMO balance with all classes as useuful as the other is shit and ruins PnP as much as CRPGs, and is already represented in too many shitty video or tabetop games to count.
Go play those if you realy like them so much.

>>6321294
>I hate this game but I'm going to shitpost all afternoon in this thread dedicated to it what the fuck could go wrong

>>6321232
Sure.
>simple and comprehensive skill checks
There is nothing incomprehensive about skill checks in BG series. If anything, they are pretty straightforward. It's also kinda funny that you would make this argument in favor of fucking IWD2 where skills are largely marginal and those, which you do use, work under exactly same principles as in BG series.
>sensible saving throw categories
I don't know what was really meant by this but if I got it correctly, dude claims that the saving throw categories are... incomprehensible, again? He just need to read up on game rules.
>standardized ability scores that each do at least something for every class and race
Which you will not use anyway because you don't have enough ability points. You either go all out or go home here. It's as you(?)'ve said, IWD2 is about powergaming.
>no huge save bonuses for ugly dwarves
Stop the bulli pls
>feats are fun
_Some_ feats are fun. Unless you are trying to claim that a feat that rises your will saving throw by 2 or your wilderness lore check by 2 is something super interesting. Also, BG2 gives you bona fide feats through equipment. Either the really straightforward feats which raise your stat or saving throws, or more interesting things like spellcasting or summoning abilities. IWD2 does this too but please, try not to act like there are more gear possibilities in IWD2.

>>6321284
>>6321303
You still have no argument. You're just screeching against the objective fact that 3e would work better than 2e.

Or 2.5e, really. If Baldur's Gate used REAL 2e, it would be wonky as all shit.

>>6321292
>On computer, with only cold artificial intelligence to play against, 3e's (at least superficially) more thought-out balance would work better.
It definitely does and there's only so much that you can do with it as far as improved AI and excess damage is concerned as an experienced player. Pretty much why Pillars added its own system where resting couldn't be abused and exploiting the AI with cheese was mitigated (running away is penalized).

If you're into glitching and speedruns, BG2 has a ton of appeal (int drain, etc). otherwise, it's just a simple game for learners to go >you can dual class? I have to play as level 1? and so on

>>6321313
I'm string to work the idea into your thick retard skull that your shitty band definition of what a good game should be isn't shared by everyone, especially not in a thread dedicated to fucking games based off 2E
You may have dogshit standards but stop cooing with it by trying to force then on everyone, and most importantly, shut the fuck up

>>6321320
>If you're into glitching and speedruns, BG2 has a ton of appeal (int drain, etc). otherwise, it's just a simple game for learners to go >you can dual class? I have to play as level 1? and so on
This is honestly one of the most retarded things I've read all day in a day full of retarded things to read
As usual, insane retards who cant shit the fuck up about their hatred for BG2 or 2e have no idea how to play it and bitch about meaningless shit to cope, what a shock

>>6321330
First off, BG2 has no difficulty. Mods don't count. If you want difficulty go play IWD1 HoF... maybe get some mods for better AI if you're into that.

Again, get through your skull the BG series is a beginner's series. It's supposed to be fun, not balanced, and therefore there's no point whatsoever in discussing min-maxing in BG.

>>6321337
What's so difficult about HoF?

>>6321349
Everything dishes out obscene physical damage and you get massive XP even on level 1. You can use summons to tank things early because summon HP gets boosted as well.

>>6321325
>You may have dogshit standards but stop cooing with it by trying to force then on everyone
You're the only one here trying to force your own standards on everyone else. We'd have a perfectly fine and civil conversation if you could stop flinging shit at everybody. Oh, except for the fact that you'd still be objectively wrong.

>>6321357
Yeah but what's so difficult about that? You either use summons or you abuse kiting or, in the worst case cenario, a weapon with lowest possible speedfactor. I see no problem there.

>>6321349
Like if you start IWD2 on HoF you actually have to dodge every goblin and pick things off carefully but your levels go up very quickly. Then you can quickly get a high level party the way you planned it out instead of doing 5 hours of questing with barely any encounters.

>>6320951
Having played NWN on-line I can say 3e felt a little constrained; the game basically forced you to minmax so even with all the enormous class variety some classes were used all the time and others were rare because they were barely useful at all. Also the stats were of enormous importance so if you wanted someone effective in combat you couldn't do too much experimentation like smart fighters or just characters with more balanced stats.
I don't know if a 2ed based game would have been different, maybe it was just the on-line part that make it that way, but I suspect the rules had something to do.

>>6321364
Nah you would die unless you have an optimal party and get the right amount of clerics and sorcerers. There's too much shit in IWD2 (I'm not experience with HoF in IWD1) to kite effectively.

>>6321372
Had you played on 2e, you'd have experienced the exact same amount of minmaxing. Except with even less variety with everyone either kensai/mages or cleric/rangers.

>>6321372
Well, online is a wankfest because everyone prioritizes optimal builds. It's fine with adjustable difficulty though.

>>6321373
That's not difficult but obnoxious. You just have to use cannon fodder which gets boosted too. It also limits the way you can play the game which makes it extra shitty game design.

>>6321387
It's the hardest difficulty and lets you skip questing entirely because encounters net the most XP.

Would you prefer to repeat the same quests you already know to progress your dual-class to level 12? Not that 2e has any build variety so it's not like it matters.

>>6321337
>mods don't count
Except they definitely do and I don't even understand how anyone can try to argue otherwise.
SCS BG is more interesting and harder than any other DnD based crpg on the market, period. Because it's more difficult than IWD HoF while not being as constraining for party compositons. Which is complete genius, but this is another topic.
There is no AI enhancement for any other of these games, the most modern or far-off adaptations included (Pathfinder and Pillars).
You can plug your ears and repeat that IWD or IWD2 HoF are harder and mods don't count, but it's just bullshit. Through and through.

>>6321383
Kensai mage is heavily overrated, really. The kensai part will get irrelevant once you hit ToB because of your shit THAC0 when it matters. Fighter/mages are much better if you want a cqc mage.

>>6321397
It's not difficult. You shit out your summons and let them do their work. That's extra tedious. You don't even get into range of those little shits. What the fuck.

>>6321398
One is the vanilla game with fixed rules, the other are mods that can be arbitrarily made hard or as difficulty as you want (for the better or worse). Modding does not equal original game.

>>6321401
The real strength of fighter/mage is getting to Time Stop a roomful of enemies and cut them to pieces with your swords (or axes or whatever) while they can't defend themselves. The multiclass fighter/mage won't get level 9 spells until pretty late in ToB, while the dual-class version's shit THAC0 won't matter since you hit them automatically anyway.

>>6321337
By the way, you can also couple SCS with LoB difficulty, which makes your entire shitty argument fall on its ass because even if you somehow managed to argue that HoF mode was actually harder than SCS Insane all along and nobody but you realized it, you mathematically can't argue that SCS+ LoB is somehow less challenging than HoF mode.

>>6321404
No it's a puzzle to figure out which makes new playthroughs more interesting. Find the optimal way to level up your party as quickly as you can, which you can do much faster than in the BG series.

>>6321407
>that can be arbitrarily made hard or as difficulty as you want (for the better or worse)
You have literaly never played SCS and do not know how it works or how it actualy translates in game.
Why do you fucking try to argue about it for fuck's sake.
What so sacred about original games when they're literally all blown the fuck away by a mod in terms of combat experience.
Just play it, you'll like it.

>>6321408
You hit them with 6(?) relevant attacks per round. Not very good.

>>6321409
There's no arbiter that decides your modded difficulty, I refuse to play the tweaking game, nor would it be the same as the other guy's playthrough. The original is the original, mods are just extra flavor that isn't really played for the min-maxing.

>>6321417
Why do you even have an opinion on things you know nothing about?

>>6321414
Die, I have nostalgia for the original game, not your modded zoomer bullshit.

>>6321410
It's not a puzzle. You have to start the game in the same way everytime. You need to have a summoner in your party. Otherwise you will kite as far as the environment allows. There is no puzzle. It's shit.

>>6321420
Are you mentally 12?

>>6321415
Put up Improved Haste first, and you get a total of 30 attacks with the enemy being completely unable to defend itself. It'll turn the tide in any mass fight, or just make mince-meat out of just about any boss. More to the point, it feels extremely cathartic and never gets old.

Why do you even play a mage if you won't za warudo the shit out of every fight? All the enemy mages do it too. They know what's up.

>>6321418
My opinion is perfectly reasonable. That's why HoMM3 HotA is a standard decided by the community. There's no challenge if everyone makes up their own rules.

>>6321426
Nobody makes up their own rules. Fucking stop trying to talk about things you don't understand already

>>6321426
Your post is even more retarded when it can be argued in many ways that SCS is the equivaent of HotA, you utter fuckign mongoloid
how do you even manage to fucking breathe without someone reminding you to?

>>6321425
I already put up the improved hase. You get 6attacks per round with your main weapon. And that's is with the gauntlets from WK. That's 18 attacks per timestop. You can have 30 attacks with fighter/mage, not with kensai/mage.

>>6321429
Yes they do because there's no end to the list of all your mods, content mods, difficulty mods, they change the routing and progression and the whole game basically. It's not the original game.

>>6321437
>the totally chane the whole game by having vaguely different tweaks installed I swear
Just fucking stop, please

>>6321432
Don't compare BG to HotA, your shit is not competitive and is a clusterfuck. Especially with beamdog having split the community.

>>6321434
If you have the patience to wait until 13 before dualing (and you probably do, since you're perfectly happy to let the fighter level even more than that), you'll push the number of attacks to 7, or 9 if you have Belm in off-hand. If the fighter/mage does still get more attacks than that, then the fighter/mage gets to have those attacks for about five fights at the very end of ToB, by which time the kensai/mage's been doing time-stop slicing for all of ToB and a fair chunk of SoA besides.

If we were to count all the time-stopped attacks together, kensai/mage would still come on top.

>>6321434
You get 8 attacks per round with your main hand and 2 with your offhand, totallig 10.
Dual class fighter to 9 with grandmastery in relevant weapon + dual wielding = 4 base apr, 8 with improved haste, 9/2 with the gauntlets and 9 with IH, 5 base with speed weapon (belm or kundane) and 10 under IH with 8 made by your main hand. Note that under timestop, the 2 offhand attacks per round will always hit.

>>6321309
Dudes, don't let me hang here. I'm waiting for the reply to my post here. I wanna discuss videogames.

>>6321453
Fuck off, we're arguing stupid shit.

>>6321442
>beamdog having split the community.
absolutely meaningless
>not competitive
because everyone plays HoMM3 and HotA for their esport potential, sure
most people still playing HoMM3 including in the general play it solo
You have never played SCS, literally don't understand anything about Baldur's Gate or modding it and somehow have a retarded hate boner for mods that aren't HotA, I really don't get it.

>>6321449
You get 2 attacks with level 12, 3 with offhand +1 APR weapon, +0.5 from the gauntlets and +0.5 from specialization. So sorry, you get 8 attacks per round with improved haste. Still a BIG difference. Offhand doesn't count because it's a shitty +2 weapon. Usually it won't even work and when it does, it's not all that great.

>>6321451
>>6321465
The thing about Belm's extra attack is that it adds it to the MAIN weapon. So it does in fact count.

Besides, it's already been established that in time stop, all attacks work automatically.

>>6321471
Yes, I counted that into my main hand APR. I won't count those 2 attacks with the offhand because they are kinda irrelevant.

That's right I'm not arguing anymore because you are fucking gay.

>>6321492
please be my bf (female)

https://youtu.be/Jhi5YKfmD7A

What a fascinating discussion

>>6321567
>What a meaningful conversation!

>>6321567
It's over now anyway.

You guys want to talk about video games?

>>6321618
I thought you'd never ask.

Vongoethe actually put up a good fight, so I guess I'm not as OP as I thought.
He killed Sarevok twice, and polymorphed me into a fucking squirrel, so that was annoying, but as the fight started I could hit him with shield/ward killing spells, and like 5 casts of Sunray, and then some False Dawn, which didn't kill him, but mowed down a lot of his goons.

>>6321627
I never fought the guy. I figured that his claim had a point and that he was actually in the right. If you deal with the devil, you should face the music - telling someone else to beat the shit out of the devil is just petulant and avoiding responsibility.

>>6321685
I see your point, but I just killed him out of principle for being a lich.
Saving Marlowe's daughter and also removing a lich from the world is a net gain, regardless of what happens to Marlowe himself.

For fuck's sake Sarevok, haven't you died enough already? STOP FAILING YOUR THROWS

>>6321420
SCS has been around for a decade and a half, its pretty much universally considered the best BG mod by the community you ignorant imbecile
why are you forming opinions on something you havent played and know nothing about, you obviously suffer from some manner or mental illness and i am afraid the only cure for you is a bullet to the brain

>>6321769
Just dual him into a mage lmao.

>>6321821
Then I need to grind him up to be a good mage, and I already have Imoen and Aerie for that.

>>6320524
>Kingmaker uses the old Infinity engine
I'm sorry, I can't not chime in with a 'what the fuck'. I don't understand how anybody could be so extremely & bizarrely mistaken. This isn't just a mistake that anyone could make, good fellow. This is, as they say going full retard. Please tell me how you came to have this ridiculous belief.

>>6320762
It's the new 'kill yourself' because going outside is now fatal.

>>6320726
>I like rangers and I like sneaking around.
...rangers already do this in 2E you moron. Why the fuck would you ruin the game with garbage mechanics like full attacking and HP bloat for the sake of getting something that's already there?

bump

>>6322714
It's one guy replying to himself for hours on end. Don't sweat it.

Are there any good companion mods?

>>6323470
no

>>6323470
Yea, the one that removes EE companions.

>>6323470
Mod to add new companions you mean?

>>6323470
Saerileth, Edwin Romance, Imoen Romance all have superb writing

>>6323480
Yeah
>>6323484
I want to get around to trying Imoen romance one day but that'd involve me actually taking Imoen.
I like to do almost every quest I can before going to spellhold so there's never any room for her in my party.

I don't get why people think cernd is bad, I haven't gotten around to having him in a party but on paper he seems good to me.

>>6323623
Deadbeat dad who reminds gamers of their daddy issues.

>>6323623
They probably read the kit description and just play him in his werewolf form exclusively, when he's a caster first a foremost. Especially in vanilla, druids are absolutely busted, at least SCS nerfs insect/creeping doom bullshit.
People also think bards are bad, go figure.

>>6323484
>Imoen Romance has superb writing

>>6323484
Don't forget Mystia

"Mystia reluctantly complies, and slugs you in the gut. You forgot about her magical strength enhancement, though, and it actually hurts... but you bite your tongue and do your best not to let it show."

>>6323470
I like Isra, Sirene, Gavin, Fade, the BG2 conversions of Kivan and Xan, and Kelsey. They're okay as far as those mods go.

>>6323858

>>6323858
I really wanna see that mod anon. Reimu would be extremely OP canonically though.

>>6323957
I don't think this was ever public. Doesn't seem to be more than a joke companion add-on with some pedo dialogue and that's it.

I wanted to do an F/T solo but I can't remember much of BG2 anymore - anyone knows the best place to hit early to grab myself good gear / XP?

>>6324293
>thief
>lawful
in open locks and find traps you only need 100 to max out their efficiency

About goddamn time these assholes are quaking in their boots at the prospect of my arrival. They're definitely the biggest jobbers so far, they're easy compared to everyone else, I have SO many Elven Mails and Katanas +2

>>6324313
EE looks like such fucking abortion it's unbelievable

>>6324293
Reroll into something else unless you plan to backstab wth Thief (slow and arduous)

https://youtu.be/KHWKGFeuawA

>>6324324
im playing it right now because it runs better on my toaster than the originals for some reason and i dont know how they managed to make the UI so fucking ugly

>>6324324
It could be better for sure.

One thing which pisses me off actually a lot is that it lacks a lot of the advanced options from the original .exes, such as echoing sound in dungeons, which is something I remember thinking was such a great detail back when I first played BG2 when it was new.
Another is that they gutted out almost all of the tavern music (some which is fucking public domain stuff from the 1500s, are they afraid of being sued by Joan Dalza?), and that really takes away a lot of the feeling of the game.

CDTweaks does a lot to let you fix the flaws of EE, and make it much better, but there's still a lot left to improve.

Duuuude! Finally a face I'm glad to see in this shit hole!

REEEEEEE MINDFLAYERS

Korgan, you're a star!
I'm done for now.

>>6324293
Yeah, athkatla
Drink a few potions of master thievery, reach 235 pickpocket, steal anything you want
The only merchants in the entire game you can't steal from are Ribald, Joluv, Deidre, and the Trademeet smithy. Everything else is literally free to grab.

>>6324506
Dude, only one waifu per party. Do you have no heart?

>>6324530
I can be appreciative of Korgan hacking the head of an Ullitharid without also sneaking him a reacharound at night, ok?

Chapter 3 is the worst chapter in IWD2, right?

>>6317884
Thinking of giving BG 1 a try. What version to use

>>6324687
Im not gonna be buying the game anyhow btw so no money will go to beandong either way

Is it possible to mod any of the baldurs gates so I can make shitty erotic scenes for my degenerate pleasure?

>>6324687
>>6324691
EE is (sort of) ok if you get CDTweaks to change a few things. You'll probably appreciate some of the quality of life upgrades, like the zoom function and what not.
You'll REALLY want to make sure to patch out the BeamDog companions, because Jesus Christ, they're so annoying and terribly written, and their bad writing rubs off on the other party members if they're present.

This also goes without saying, but if you roll a class like a Thief or Mage, which isn't amazing at melee combat, it's a very good idea to pick up an NPC companion (or two) who is, so they can be your muscle.

>>6324702
You mean like animation and stuff? I'm not aware of anyone who's made any. tbqhfam just use your imagination whenever there is a sex scene (so with prostitutes, or in the second game with romancable partymembers).

>>6324687
Steam

>>6324691
get the originals then, it's harder to find a pirated up to date EE version and you can pirate the gog versions (now pulled out of the store, thanks beamdog) which are great and quick to install.

Christ, Cespenar's voice is so grating to listen to, it's made much worse by the lack of echo.
BEAMDOG IS GUILTY OF A NUMBER OF CRIMES!

>>6324791
>now pulled out of the store, thanks beamdog
but that's wrong

>>6324506
>those godawful healthbars that immediately remind you of a cheap fucking browser MMOs beamdog coders probably used to work on
>circles font on the portraits and the whole UI in general
>the fucking smoothing
Jesus fuck how could they be so incompetent

>>6324558
Not really. Exploring the woods is fun if you're into that sort of thing.

>>6324687
Original+reso patch. Nothing else is needed, beamdog cancer can fuck off.

>>6325796
>Original+reso patch
Actually scratch that as ddrawfix is also needed for the FPS not to dip down. I'd get nothing else though.

>>6325805
ddrawfix is included in the gog version

>>6324818
No it's not, you can't buy the original gog versions anymore. You get them for buying the EE, but you can't get them without buying the EE.

Wow, devas suck. They don't even have half the spells devas get.

Meant to say that they don't have half the spells planetars get

Okay, just beat Baldur's Gate. At what levels do people usually beat the game? I think I might be a master of cheesing because I was not anywhere near strong enough to beat Sarevok.

What do I do now? Baldur's gate 2? Do saves carry over?

>>6326357
There's a level cap, so 7-8 is usually the max. Yeah, move into BG2. The main character carries over (his stats and stuff, plus some of the items). BG2 is also a more fun game overall.

>>6326357
XP cap is 160k XP, if you complete the main quest, a bit of side content and Durlags Tower you should have reached it or be near it.

>>6326357
>I think I might be a master of cheesing because I was not anywhere near strong enough to beat Sarevok.
BG1 is full of crutches which become obvious on later playthroughs. Low-level D&D is pretty brutal, so all this stuff is there to help you if you're willing to use it and have cash to buy it. Arrows of Detonation/Dispellling/Acid, all those potions of magic protection/blocking/shielding/, protection scrolls... Granted, Sarevok doesn't play fair either, but at least he is not 100% magic immune like in vanilla non-TotSC BG.

>>6326363
>>6326365
Huh, I didn't realize there's a cap. So what about the expansions? Or should I just go to BG2? I didn't do Durlags Tower either.

One more question, does it import the pre-battle savefile or did beating the game save another savefile?

>>6326439
I managed to separate his underlings one at a time and killed both of them, by the time I was able to face him I was left with my character, Xan and Imeo. Some haste, lots of summoning rods and some spells Xan conjured up and I managed to drop him.

>>6326439
Nothing particularly spectacular about acid arrows, better damage than other elemental arrows but that's it
The rest yeah, many great consumables in this game, too bad you get so few of them early which discourages many new players to use the and usually realise how great they actually are when you try to play without reloading

>>6326465
Do whatever the fuck you want, I'm not your dad
Hoq do you even complete a game without even entering it's most famous dungeon, faggot

>>6326465
Also just checking your saved files will answer your other question

>>6326465
If I remember well you could kill Sarevok just getting rid of the mage that teleports first then just placing an invisible guy uncovering the room and some other shooting from the max. distance, no one could react and Sarevok could take arrows doing nothing until he died.

>>6326465
I don't find Durlag to be that exciting to be worth delaying starting BG2 to do it, but it's such a subjective thing. It's a place to let your thief shine.

>>6326469
Don't underestimate how little I knew about this game (aside from general knowledge) before I started playing, dad.

>>6326472
Sarevok was a beast, my main character could barely even glaze him, and his magic resistance is through the roof. Can't imagine fighting him when he is 100% immune like someone earlier said.

>>6326479
Maybe if I replay the game. I feel like I learned alot about how the systems work (Didn't know anything about how DnD works before this.), so if I replay I can be more effective.

For now I think I'll just go to BG2 and ignore SoD and Black Pits, since they are modern additions to the game.

>>6326467
>Nothing particularly spectacular about acid arrow
Disagree. Acid 1d6+1, +2d6 no save (!), fire 1d6+2, +1d6 save negates, ice 1d6+1, +1d6 no save. Bolt of lightning 1d8 +4d4 save half.

Elemental ammo is all over the place but acid are clearly superior. I guess fire arrows are +2 so they have that in their favor.

>>6326465
Durlag's Tower is pretty good, classic dungeon crawling with riddles, spicy fights, phat loot and fucking traps all over the place holy fuck so many traps.

>>6325789
I'm pretty sure I turned the smoothing off. I'm indifferent to the healthbars.
The circles around the character and the font in the text box is original.

>>6326540
You also get The Burning Earth in that tower, which is a fucking sweet Long Sword +2 that's on fire and does extra damage to undead. I carried it over to BG2 and it served me pretty well early on in that game.

>>6326538
The fuck. You sure you didn't install some shitty mod?

>>6326596
That's the EE values, vanilla bg arrows have the same damage but don't give thac0 bonuses iirc. Note that bg2 (both vanilla and ee) heavily nerfs elemental ammo across the board.

>>6326486
>Can't imagine fighting him when he is 100% immune like someone earlier said.
Lots of things to improve melee thac0 and ranged thac0 (potions of giant strength, potions of mind focusing, potions of heroism, power, spells if you have a fighter/cleric, etc.)
Same thing with AC and HP, potions of mind focusing, defense, fortitude, heroism/power invulnerability, protection from evil, good gear, etc.
You can tank him and kill him with pure physical damage with the right buffs and consummables

>>6326603
No way that's balanced in a low level DnD setting like BG1. Do at least enemies use the same ammunition? Is it sparse? I mean I remember tripping over fire arrows on every second step.

>>6326613
Yeah it's unbalanced the fuck which is the point, with acid arrows (available for purchase in chapter one at High Hedge) you can just steamroll through the game Enemies use fire arrows and arrows of biting (poison, save allowed). One or two endgame dudes shoots a couple of arrows of detonation iirc, but that's it. I don't think any enemy uses acid arrows or lightning bolts without mods.

Oh yeah and it's not sparse at all, you can buy it in spades, some is found in loot. As I said, it's a huge crutch.

>>6326613
It's just the full values including physical damage
Nothing imba in there since there is no str bonus, and I'd rather not have shitty arrows that do absolutely nothing
Late BG1 melee damage is already superior anyway.
>>6326538
Yeah sure but seeing the HP pools of most BG1 enemies, there is not that big of a difference using acid arrows compared to even normal ones in killing speed. They're really good and there is no point buying any other elemental arrows, sure, but they're still a far cry from arrows of detonation/dispelling (which you get late anyway)

>>6326587
I'd rather keep Varscona usually, ice damage is great to interrupt mages through stoneskin
You can get another burning earth in BG2pretty early and there are at least two early swords of fire against early trolls.
Also Daystar later.

>>6326760
I know, and I absolutely love Daystar (in fact I still carry it in a weaponslot for the sake of casting Sunray at times), but Burning Earth is a burning sword, which looks totally cool.

>>6326716
>Nothing imba in there since there is no str bonus
I don't know, being able to do 8-36 points of ranged damage per round on 1st level sounds like terrible overkill to me. Not to menton that these bad boys also sting through stoneskin for 2d6 damage (lmao), should not be blocked by protection from normal missiles and also overcome damage resistances. Those fire arrows should be able to hit pretty much every monster in game. You say that's not imbalanced?

My acid arrows deal 1d3. I guess it's rebalanced via SCS or Tweaks.

>>6324748
I mean text stuff akin to that one guy's fallout mod.

>>6326842
Yeah scs nerfs that shit to bg2 values.

>>6326821
Not really, I don't give a damn about balance anyway tbqh, I'd play Pillars if I did
I don't play with those values anyway since I play with SCS but to me there's not much difference it it takes 2 arrows or 6 to kill something
2d6 through stoneskin is busted alright, but at the same time what really matters is putting damage through it to prevent casting. And if I really don't want to wait for the stoneskin to wear off on its own, I just load an arrow of dispelling instead, the only mage with it you will encounter before getting those is probably Davaeorn.

>>6326047
bg classic was 10 bucks then, and bg classic+bgee is 10 bucks now.
where's the problem?

>>6327315
Giving money to Beamdog.

>>6327332

No one cares. Stop expecting this thread to cater to your autism.

>Draconis
>Abazigal
>there's apparently another fucking one in there too
Oh goody, like I hadn't gotten enough of dragons already. I sawed off Draconis' head, and that's all he gave me, can I expect to be able to skin the other two for a nice new suit of armor?

I'm trying to install SCS but when I run the .exe nothing happens. Tried older versions too but they don't work either. Am I retarded or what's going on?

There's no actual side shit to do in TOB, is there? I already did Watcher's Keep in SOA.

>>6327457
You can add another dragon to the Abazigal fight so that you can fight two dragons with some wyverns and henchmen all at once. It's pretty cool.

>>6327315
Ah yes giving money to literal parasites who hijacked the rights to the series and there's literally zero chance for them to release worthwhile content or competent dev work while they inject SJW writing into at all. No problem at all.

I KNEW IT, YOU FUCKING DRAGON BITCH, I'M GONNA TURN YOU INTO NUMEROUS TACKY BOOTS

Ok, maybe I overreacted.

>>6327341
>where's the problem
>explains what the problem is
>NOOOO IT CAN'T BE THE PROBLEM, NO ONE CARES ABOUT BEAMDOG EXCEPT AUTISTS OK???
tf is wrong with you
dilate

>>6327575
works on my machine

>>6327341
Wow! You're really mad! You are so fucking mad right now. Are you jewish? Are you jewish? Are you jewish?

>>6327720
I'd bet 10$ on him being everyone's favorite janitor if I had 10$ to waste on this stupid cunt

>>6327341
I mean how much do they deserve to be paid for it? They kind of haphazardly threw a bunch of mods together in a package together with some added content which isn't good at all.

It'd be one thing if they compiled a whole bunch of good quality of life mods and what not, and added BG2 kits and stuff to BG1 (possibly as an optional gameplay setting), and then did a good job at not making it broken, and THEN didn't add stupid retarded bullshit companions with atrocious writing, but that's not at all what has happened here.

But seriously, are there no sidequests in Throne Of Bhaal besides Watcher's Keep?

What do you guys think of fighter/mage/cleric?
I never see people discuss this combo.

Summoning a Pitfiend on the monks at the gates in Amkethran is funny as fuck, apparently they can't touch him.

>>6327865
biggest reason to do fighter/cleric is for armor of the faith and DUHM, and armor of the faith is pretty much useless if you have access to mage protections
fighter/mage/thief is much better

Yikes. I'm trying to debrief from that super tacticool SCS D'Arnise Keep experience. Is it just me, or are these Spirit Trolls a truly, truly reprehensible example of game design? They have a zero-casting time, zero-delay improved invisibility they can pop literally between attacks. The logical counter to this - the numerous divination spells I had prepared (2x invisibility purge, see invisibility, detect illusion, oracle) - are completely pointless because the cocksucker will just pop invis again 2 seconds later. But wait, there's more! They drain ability scores (Strength) on hit. The logical way to mitigate this - Restoration - does absolutely fuck-all. Holy shit! So tactical. I can feel my hardcore tactical gamer boner becoming tumescent already. Fuck off.

>>6327937
use true sight retard

>>6327937
>I cant use fireball and I'm retarded, game bad
Never gonna make it

>>6327937
>spends more time bitching than trying to figure out what he could differently
Everytime

>>6327939
Why even bother, cast two fireballs and they're already almost dead
You can just breeze through the entire keep with a few fireballs, a frontline under protection from fire and like two cloudkills for Tor'Gal and his yuan-ti mages and the poor guy bitches because divination spells don't kill trolls

If you really need something against spirit trolls invisibility, cast glitterdust, it has a good chance of blinding them and prevent them from casting
It will also massively decrease their thac0 if it blinds them, as well as other other trolls around since it's aoe.

how do you get the icewind dale fireball effect in baldur's gate?

>>6327946
>>6327952
Fireball really is a fantastic spell, you can shoot them into fog of war and around corners and have great surprise attacks.

I have no problem eating humble pie for not remembering True Seeing, but it's just remarkable how quickly everyone fucking leaps at the chance to prove just how smug of a brainlord they are. Yeah, no shit I brute forced it with AoE, you can't target them. Yeah, no shit the two Giant Trolls from the Torgal encounter glitched and refused to enter their unconscious animation no matter how many hundreds of damage I threw their way. It doesn't change the fact that the Spirit Troll is shockingly out-of-character, consistency and quality-wise, with the rest of the game so far.

>>6327979
It's great because it's also easy to spam without hurting your team, since they should be protected from fire at all times anyway and it's the easiest element to protect against
Level 3 mage spell, 1 turn/level, literally no reason to not have it on constantly on a frontline at the very least

>>6327984
If you really play with SCS, as of last version trolls shouldn't even have to go unconscious, specifically because the rebalancing makes fire or acid damage stop regeneration and allow them to die rather than the vanilla glitch fest that is unconscious state.
Everyone jumps at your post not because they want to prove that they are better than you, but because you bitch about the dungeon like you played it perfectly and still failed, when really, you just don't have the right tactics or strategies. And instead of trying to understand where you fucked up, you bitch and moan.
There is nothing out-of-character or whatever the fuck you're on about about spirit trolls, you're just bad for now. Change your mindset, stop bitching and git gud. Which again means thinking about what you could do rather than bitch and moan.

>>6327984
>>6328001
And when I say git gud I don't even say it with contempt or arrogance, SCS is harder than the base game, even can be really, really hard at times but it's never unfair. You will literally find solutions to every single one of your problems, and it's perfectly natural to get buttfucked by SCS spirit trolls when you're just out of a single vanilla playthrough. But if you want to understand the game and beat it, you need to figure out what you could do differently and how to be always ready to handle or at least survive what the game will throw at you. It's more fun than bitching and moaning.

>>6327865
Fighter/cleric, cleric/mage and fighter/mage are all better in their respective aspects. Too many redundancies between mages and cleric spells to justify abandoning level 9 spells and shapechange (one of the big reasons to combine mage and cleric spellbook in the first place).
Less effective fighter than f/c or f/m because of slow progression, less effective spellcaster than c/m because of slow progression and no level 9 mage spells. Not even jack of all trades because no thieving skills, knock and cleric detect traps are not worth wasting slots.
Triple classes are just not worth it, except in solo. Same with f/m/t imo, f/m, f/t and m/t are all better in their niches and more interesting to play. At least f/m/t is very versatile in BG1, but I'd rather just have a mage/thief in BG2.

Still, having said that, both F/M/C and F/M/T are solid classes. Both are REALLY fun to play solo or in a very small party, with a lot of things to try out.

It kind of would have made more sense for Sarevok to go from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral or maaaybe Neutral Good, rather than to Chaotic Good.
He just doesn't strike me as a guy who'd ever really work as a goody-two-shoes, aside from maybe being a very "the ends justify the means" kind of guy, which could in turn lead to him doing a great number of ugly and villainous things under the rationale of leading to something good, perhaps with the mentality that he should strive to do good things from now on, but isn't conscious enough of his approaches being evil.

I guess basically I wouldn't perhaps trust him to go out on in the world again on his own, because I'd be afraid of how he would use his judgment, he would probably need someone to be a helpful moral compass.

>>6328015
I respect that you feel the need to give really heartfelt lectures to strangers on the internet, and please - don't think your effort hasn't gone unappreciated. Truthfully it's pretty bizarre that you characterized my post as some claim that I did everything perfectly. I mean, I literally copped to forgetting about True Seeing, right?

The simple statement I'm making is that you have an enemy here who eschews the well-established rules of 95% of the rest of the game, invalidates all but one quite frankly braindead strategy of rushing ahead and bombing your fighters from orbit, and flies in the face of what is supposed to be the philosophy of SCS: that the enemies should play by the same rules you do.

Any notion that I'm crying about the game being too hard is 100% an assumption on your part that is desperately trying to stave off the blunt reality that the enemy is just poorly designed. I'm so sorry. You don't have to defend DavidW any longer. Go and taste the freedom.

>>6328042
Sarevok has always been lawful if anything, it was just the law of the gods that interested him. You can't be lord of murder without playing by the rules.

Lawful neutral would have made the most sense for him in the end. He sure as shit didn't fit the profile of a chaotic evil lunatic kind of character.

>>6328042
i always hated how in baldur's gate 2 you can turn characters good but you cant turn characters evil like in kotor 2
imagine evil nalia or evil imoen

>>6328154
There's a glimpse of evil Imoen on one of your dreams. She's absolutely fantastic. Way better than a broken thing the normal Imoen is.

>>6328326
That's not Imoen but avatar of Bhaal talking to the protag through various projections.

>>6328373
that anon didnt say that she was imoen, she was a glimpse of what evil imoen could be and she was awesome

>>6328376
The projection doesn't act evil nor does it embody the character, it's supposed to be the human part of the protag.

>>6328390
i think you have to work on your reading comprehension bud

I am sad that they never made an Infinity Engine game based on the cartoon.

>>6328091
>more bitching and moaning
What a shock

>>6328113
He's not remotey lawful

>>6328091
I feel you. Don't listen to the dude, true sight doesn't help much because it ticks only once per round and fuckers can pop invisible in between those ticks. It's no different from using many single use invisibility purge spells. If you don't want to throw all your evocation spells on the troll and then rest after every fight like a fag (it's also not right on the roleplaying part, the mansion is under attack and you are supposed to quickly find the lord and get out of there, no time for resting), you just have to micro and always focus the spirit troll when he appears. They can be killed even with level 8 party but they really are obnoxious. Get a low speed factor weapon, you will attack before the troll and that means he will not go invisible on you before you have the chance to hit him.

>>6328091
I mean, you have enemies races behaving as they should. you can kill them with fire weapons (arrows, flame tongue, stonefire), with other fire spells than fireball, you can even use whatever damage type you want and finish them off unconscious, you can blind them and reveal invis with glitterdust, and here you are, STILL crying like a bitch because your divination spells aren't the best plan of action.

>>6328695
Fucks sake, you dont have to empty your spellbook every fight, you dont have to use fucking divination spells, you just have to learn how to use fucking spells and pick up some fire arrows or some shit because SCS De'Arnise keep is the easiest dungeon to complete without resting.
Fucking stop wasting all your spell slots on worthless divination spells and you will be less bad at this game.

>>6328695
Also if you're so concerned with the keep being under attack and your sacro saint duty to complete it quickly, why isnt your party under improved haste

>>6328701
Why so mad bruh ;)

>>6328706
Why so dumb bruh

>>6328705
Because it's the first dungeon I go for and you usually can't have improved haste on level 8 or 9. You can't even buy the scroll because no money. Are you one of the dudes that XP hoard before every dungeon and then cream themselves over how good they are when they finish a dungeon no probs because they are 5 levels higher than the highest level monster in there? How many quests do you usually do before going to spellhold?

>>6328091
>>6328695
>>6328709
>he's so butthurt he has to start samefagging
just stop posting my man, you have the advantage of being anonymous so it doesnt matter that you have embarassed yourself

>>6328091
Shut up, racist.

>>6328695
Fuck off, racist turd.

>>6328709
I do everything before going to Spellhold what, do you stop to complete a few dungeons in chapter 6 when your character is supposedly dying from not having a soul? How overleveled are you for these by this point anyway?
Are you one of these guys who plays underleveled, consciously picks the worst spells in the book and plays the worst he can for shits and giggles and arguments on /vr/?
I've completed playthroughs with party, without, with XP minmaxing, without, with stealing, without.
I really don't give a fuck about your retarded assumptions, if you have nothing to say about the game shut the fuck up.

>>6328717
>everyone who disagrees with me is a samefag!!1!
Go clean your room, Timmy. And take out the garbage. That means (you)

>>6328709
Go die in a ditch, racist pissbaby.

>>6328726
>year of our lord 2020
>still posting (you) screenshots as if it meant anything
I mean at least it's not more bitching and moaning

>>6328709
Also I increased caster levels in the SCS .initially, and last time I played it gave every yuan-ti mage 2 level 9 spells, so they were probably all level 20. So don't even try to talk shit about XP management.

>>6328725
Your post is all over the place, I don't even know where to start. Yes I do them in chapter whatever after you get back from the Underdark because even though it's quite obvious, you supposedly don't know where the lantern is and you have to find it. From roleplaying point of view it's the best time to look everywhere. And it's not me who is acting all smug in front of someone who has a legit complaint about the game design, fag.

>>6328731
Yeah, I've edited the picture in 2 minutes while phoneposting. How were you the fastest sperm?

>>6328706
Why so racist, bigot.

>>6328738
You have no legit complaint about game design, you just bitch and moan
The rest of your post is absolutely retarded mental gymnastics and I'm fucking done replying to mental illness for today

>>6328738
Kill yourself, bigot /pol/bab.

>>6328742
Good, bye ;)

>>6328740
>he can't edit text on a picture in 2 minutes while phone posting
How were you the fastest sperm?

>>6328726
Go back to /pol/, fascist normie pig.

>>6328740
/pol/weenie racist slave, go die in a bus fire

>>6328745
schizo redneck slave /pol/turd go die from a seizure

>>6328738
>hey man check out if Bodhi, Irenicus sis doesnt have the lanthorn in her lair
GUESS ITS TIME FOR EPIC ROAMING ABOUT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE DOING CHAPTER 2 DUNGEONS WITH ALL MY HLAs
GOD IM SO GOOD AT THIS GAME

>scs not compatible with windows 32bit
h-how are you hanging in there toasterbros?

>>6327937
/pol/racist ameriracist muttracist fash pig bigot die

>>6327984
shut the fuck up magat boomer nazi sociopath and die already

The fuck is wrong with you

>>6328759
It's not about doing the chapter 2 dungeons with my HLA. Fuck those, they are a drag. It's about doing the most interesting part of the game which also happens to be a part of the main storyline, the Spellhold and the Underdark, while not being a demigod ubermensch. I thought that was clear but I guess it wasn't, huh.

>>6328773
No it's not clear indeed
Nor does it have anything to do with anything anyone was discussing in the first place

>>6328780
I agree it has nothing to do with fighting Spirit Trolls but it has something to do with the post I replied to. It also has to do something with the dude who gave a good advice to use improved haste in the first dungeon you go to.

>>6328773
You know what you should do to prove yourself, you should complete the game with an innocent party.
Fuck HLAs, fuck spells, fuck gear, fuck everything
True gamers play with innocents.

>>6328784
>I-I swear it has something to do with the subject at hand
No
If it really did you would have provided alternative advice, not started thumping your chest about how you finish the game with 25k XP

>>6328786
Dude was acting smug at someone who complained about fighting Spirit Trolls. They ARE a pain to fight, especially on lower levels. Fuck their free action invisibility or whatever it is. The reply was GIT GUD bro. When I sided with the first dude, I was 1) accused of samefagging and 2) replied to with GIT GUD. Then he also advised to use improved haste, from which I assumed he sometimes finish the dungeon with a strong, higher level party, when there is no challenge anymore. So I called him out on that and now here we are. Was there a great deal of assuming done on my part? Yes. Is the guy a fag? Yes. And I did provide an alternative advice.

>>6328794
You probably missed half the post you're so butthurt about if all you got from them was git gud and improved haste
Git gud at reading, retard.

Playing BG2 for the first time and the quality really takes a nose dive after chapter 3. I hope this linear part ends soon.

>>6328794
Also the challenge will always depend on how you play rather than what level you're at. You already have all the tools named in this very thread by the very posts that triggered you at level 10 or lower, level 3 spells aren't exactly HLAs.

>>6328802
I will do my best.

>>6328804
Jesus fucking christ, is this bitching and moaning day?
Fucking hell did a bunch of kindergarten kids somehow stumble onto a BG2 copy and this thread?

>>6328808
You do that.

>>6328804
i cant really think of any points where bg2 is linear besides irenicus' dungeon, spellhold and ToB
what are you talking about

>>6328813
>NOOOO I can't get out from Spellhold to go do something else, it's too LINEAR

>>6328816
i was just trying to comprehend that anon's post, not criticize

>>6328818
I commend you for the effort but I dont think there is anything to understand

>>6328813
Maybe linear wasn't the right word but I'm currently in Underdark and don't really like it.

Racists should not be allowed to play this game.

>>6328861
what about my boy keldorn, he dont like no drow niggers

>>6328826
Underdark is the best part of the game

>>6328973
It does look really cool and the atmosphere is amazing but the difficulty spike is just too much for me. I'm probably going to start over and prepare a bit more now that I know what's coming.

>Spell Immunity: Divination

>>6328738
>Yes I do them in chapter whatever after you get back from the Underdark because even though it's quite obvious, you supposedly don't know where the lantern is and you have to find it.
Who the fuck would have the lantern? Jon or Bodhi.
Who the shit are you unable to reach right now? Jon.
Who the cunt went on the lam? Bodhi.
Where the hell does Bodhi usually hang out? The Athkathla graveyard district.

You wouldn't necessarily assume that Bodhi went back to her old hiding place (in fact this is kind of stupid of her, admittedly also in character), but just very basic deductive reasoning would lead you to at least go looking through her old hideout for possible clues.

You make me so fucking angry.

>>6328861
Don't you dare call me a racist you nigger.

>>6328979
You probably went there too early. How much sidequesting did you do in chapter two? There's a lot of missions and dungeons to check out by that point, I recommend to try to kill at least two dragons (because fuck dragons), they'll have some alright treasure and make for some cool suits of armor. There's also a fairly easy lich hiding in the gate district, kill him not just for XP, but to take his sweet +2 longsword made out of sunlight, it'll really help for doing Umar Hills, and for all kinds of undead in general.

>>6328761
Really? Are you sure? You should be able to install it on the original BG2 on a 32 but system right?

>>6328761
Just what kind of toaster you actually have.
Because I installed win10 64 (ltsb ofc) on a shitty ass lenovo laptop from 2011, B560 I think. It runs relatively fine.

>>6329247
Take a chill pill, friend. I'm not saying you need 140 IQ to figure that one out but lore-wise the PC supposedly doesn't know this. As far as I remember he even says he doesn't know where the lantern is and that he will go looking for it. Somehow he seems to know when he meets Drizzt though. He also wants to find allies to fight with against Bodhi which also gives him a reason to explore the world a little bit. Therefore and purely from the roleplaying point of view, hiking is best done after you get back from the Underdark. At least it makes much more sense than PC wasting his time doing side quests in chapter 2 when he is burning white with rage and wants to tear Irenicus apart or he wants to find your imouto as soon as possible, as he even reminds everyone he meets. The only reason for PC to do anything besides the main storyline quests at that point is making money. So it makes no sense unless you need going through 6 major quest lines to raise 20k. At least raise it to 100k through mods. Blame shitty writing that forces you under a ticking clock at literally every point in the story, ToB included.

>>6329408
>lore-wise the PC supposedly doesn't know this
not him but literally 3 dialogue choices
>it's bodhi
>it's probably bodhi
>it's definitely bodhi but I'm not going to say it out loud because I don't trust eves
It also perfectly makes sense to do all the dungeons in chapter 2 (rather than fuck around in 6 WHEN YOU ARE LITERALLY DYING) if your character isn't braindead because assaulting a mage fortress isn't viable with a level 8 team of underequipped retards.

I regretted picking the EE the moment I've seen how ugly the UI in BG2. Are any of the UI mods decent ?

This is the least offensive one I found.

>>6329445
lefreut UI is the closest to the old BG2 UI (which is my favorite UI of all times)

>>6329424
Yes he knows Bodhi is _probably_ behind this but he doesn't know where she is. He says that in the same dialogue IIRC. And the PC doesn't give shit about his character level. That's just you as the player. At the beginning PC doesn't even know where he is supposed to go, he just wants to go there as fast as possible either to kill Irenicus or to save Imoen. And I always thought that the "dying" part was more metaphorical than anything else. PC is not gonna die in the next 5 minutes from bleeding out. He is supposed to whither away like Irenicus did over the course of however many years that took. Also, I've said that the writing is kinda shitty because at every point you are always supposed to do something urgent so rightfully you shouldn't ever have the time to just dick around the world.

>>6329458
there's nothing that urgent about following Irenicus to Spellhold, not urgent enough to not take the time to raise a decent team and have enough cash to equip them. Especially playing with SCS with increased price asked by Gaelan or Bodhi.
It's just mind boggingly stupid to argue that it makes more sense to dick around in chapter 6 than 2.

>>6329458
>but he doesn't know where she is. He says that in the same dialogue IIRC.
also no
again.

>>6329447
>lefreut
God that is so much better. Thank you so much.

>>6329458
and completing everything in chapter 2 without resting every 2 seconds takes less than 30 in game days, even closer to 20-25 if you don't backtrack.
3-4 weeks to prepare a team and enough cash to be properly equipped and pay the travel fee to storm a secret mage fortress isn't exactly that long

>>6329445
The hell is that UI? That's not what mine looks like.

>>6329274
Thanks for the advice! I played chapter two for around 40 hours and did quite a few side quests but not all. I'll try doing more on my next playthrough.

>>6329471
Personally I hide HP on portraits, the left panel (which is completely useless) and even the circles around character (they still appear in pause anyway)
Overall with a bit of tweaking the EE looks pretty good imo, I still prefer classic BG2 + widescreen + 1ppv4, but the EE does run better.

>>6329462
Only from the top of my head. You tell that first dude that meets you at the slums to go fuck himself with raising his money and to just tell you where Irenicus or Imoen are. Either that or to just tell you the identity of that mysterious organization. You tell the shadowmaster to stop dicking around with his busy work and to just tell you where Imoen and Irenicus are, you will go there alone. You don't even have time to guard his docked shit for one night and complain at every point that he refuses to give you the information you paid for. You tell every companion you meet that your main priority is to find either Irenicus or Imoen. PC doesn't give a fuck about his level, equipment or amount of help he has. In the canon, he is a hotblooded fighter. He would go alone if he could. He doesn't even know where he is going or what he needs so it's kinda illogical to assume this enraged fighter wants to prepare for whatever he is going head first into. If these reasons are not enough, I don't know what else to tell you.
>>6329463
I don't carry in my head a perfect record of every dialogue line that happened in the game. I'm not looking through screenshots or information on the internet. Still I'm pretty sure he said that at some point. Sorry if I'm mistaken.

>>6329475
Called Dragonspear UI, but I didn't really like it.

>>6329492
Yeah I'm going to play around with the options a bit. Thank god the UI is moddable.

>>6329502
>PC doesn't give a fuck about his level, equipment or amount of help he has. In the canon, he is a hotblooded fighter
your PC doesn't give a fuck, and that's fine, but not everyone plays a mentally stunted hotblooded CG fighter roaming around the sword coast with the faggots of the canon party.
The """canon""" book and its ulterior retcons in 5e are completely meaningless in a game that allows you to play whatever class, race, alignment and set of attributes you want.

>>6329512
But it doesn't matter that you are playing as a hyperintelligent mage, perverted bard or pious cleric. PC says all those things and acts like that in the game, too. You can't possibly deny that. You as a player who has beaten the game hundred times knows what is coming but the character itself doesn't. He shouldn't feel a need to get help and better deathstick. I could be able to agree that the single point where you somehow could argue for such a course of action is only after Aran tells you where you are going you could answer with "Wait, I need some time to prepare", and only then go finish all other main quests but that feels wrong. That answer is still not supposed to give you days or weeks of time.

>>6329541
you know literally right from the start where Imoen and Irenicus are. Gaelan tells you, every random in the strets you ask about the cowed wizards wil tell you.
If your character doesn't feel the need to prepare a bit to attack the uber secret mage fortress of the uber secret mage organisation that basically rules Athkatla, he's going to die.
It's just how it is.
I don't get your point, especially if you play with the tweaks that puts the price asked by Gaelan to more than 50k, it makes perfect sense to raise as much money and equipment as possible during chapter 2 and not bumrush Spellhold and die like a retard.
You can try it if you play SCS no reload, the less your character is ready fro Spellhold, the less he's likely to survive BG2 at all. I'd say it's even a miracle he made it through BG1 in the first place.
In this mindset, where you put yourself in any >70IQ character's shoes, it makes complete sense.

>>6329564
What? You know the wizards took them but no one can nor will tell you where and what's waiting for you there. Who exactly will tell you that they are held in a magical fortress across the sea?
Your course of action should be to raise the money to get the information and go straight into the main storyline. 20k you can easily get from finishing a single dungeon. If you raised the amount through mods to higher levels, congratulations, you have given yourself a reason to do more quests, as I've said few replies above. Doesn't change the fact that the moment you get that amount you should give it all to Gaelan because that's who you are ingame.

>>6329586
>What? You know the wizards took them but no one can nor will tell you where and what's waiting for you there.
That's the motherfucking point and which is exactly why you should be ready.
You know that they hold prisoners in a secret fortress that no one even knows the location of. That much is perfectly, crystal clear. Why in the nine hells would you bumrush over there with 20gp in your pocket and a +2 chainmail like a mongoloid?
You have already all the reasons in the universe to do some heavy questing for cash and preparation.

>>6329586
>Doesn't change the fact that the moment you get that amount you should give it all to Gaelan because that's who you are ingame.
And no, I realy, really don't see why. You have literally no assurance whatsoever that this guy or Bodhi are trustworthy and that you just aren't being scammed out of 20k GP.
Which should be all the more reasons to dick around trying to find an alternative plan if nothing else.

>>6329624
> Why in the nine hells would you bumrush over there with 20gp in your pocket and a +2 chainmail like a mongoloid?
Because that's what you are doing and how you are acting in game but nevermind.

>>6329408
I'm going adventuring in Chapter 2 because not only do I need gold, I will in fact need to gather allies, equipment, and other resources, because I'm under full understanding that Irenicus is a powerful mage with dangerous cohorts, I will need further strength and trumpcards to face off with him.

>>6329638
No, that's how YOU are acting in the game.

>>6329458
Are you her fucking lawyer? Bodhi is the only realistic lead that you can pursue, and the graveyard is the first place to look.

>Imoen is now a mage with a kickass scar
I've only been playing for an hour but I already am enjoying this a lot.

>>6329564
>it's even a miracle he made it through BG1 in the first place.
BG1 doesn't get urgent until chapter 5.

>>6329651
Sure but my point was that if a character is in-universe dumb enough to rush to spellhold first thing it's a miracle that he didn't die earlier in the story.

>>6329643
>you're a queer fellow

Tweak Anthology, Ascension, SCS - in what order I install these on BG2EE?

>>6329758
read the readmes, especialy SCS
Ascension first, SCS and tweaks in what order you want (just don't instal shapeshifter rebalancing if you install tweaks after)
Install last the one you think you might install/uninstall components.

>>6329765
The readme for scs says, concerning the anthology:
>The main disadvantage of doing so is that if you modify the spell system, SCS won't be able to detect it - but the effects of that will be fairly subtle.
Does that mean enemy casters won't be able to take advantage of unnerfed/altered spell progression tweak (more slots/casts)?

>>6329836
Yeah if you install SCS first the spellbooks SCS generates semi-randomly on install will obviously not take those revised spell progression tables into account (since the spellbooks are generated on installing SCS).
What you can do, if you're sure not to change this component of the tweaks anthology, is installing it first, as well as other tweaks you are 100% sure to keep, install SCS, and lastly install the tweaks you might want to try out and possibly uninstall later.

>>6329758
>>6329836
aso you should probably check out aTweaks as well, it's not like the tweaks anthology (at all, the name is actually misleading); it will mostly restore some PnP rules and spells (dimension door especially), and make demons, undead and a few other more interesting to fight, giving them more abilities. Also has some nice cosmetic stuff. Fully compatible with SCS and has to be installed after.

>>6318565

Depends on how much you want to BS third edition ruleset. There's a lot of ways to fuck up your character when it comes to multiclassing. In general, though, fighter 4 improves just about anything that isn't going for a dedicated caster. But really, there's so, so many combinations.

>>6318565
Clerics are even more OP than they are on tabletop because the framework of the game is so hilariously slanted in their favor. You *can* just beat things to death to solve all your problems and Cleric is by far the best at doing that thanks to stupid ass self-buffs that nobody else has an equivalent to(everything above Divine Favor for Cleric, for instance), or at least doesn't have an equivalent that works as well on their chassis(Darkfire)

Kinda weird there's no Fighter/Mage companion, its such a popular class but its not represented in either bg game unless you make one yourself

>>6318565
Know that even if you don't like the mod, there's a ton of other modules you can play. If you're super into planning character builds and stuff, you'll have fun. It'll probably be a faceroll, though; there's so many strong characters you can make in nwn. Stories can be really hit or miss however.

>>6330781
if any companion were to be a fighter/mage he would automatically be the most powerful character in the game hands down, so its a good thing they didnt
Haer'dalis is basically a fighter/mage, a blade is fighter/mage but with shittier thac0 and spell progression, but he is still the best tank in the game because he has access to mage protections, i'd say bioware balanced the companions very well
for example they could have added an archer companion instead of mazzy, but mazzy is still an extremely powerful archer

How many mages is too many for BG2 SCS? I'm thinking of F/M, Jan and Nalia/Imoen (skipping Edwin this time). I'm bit concerned about the lack of gear for all.

>>6331224
you can have as many mages as you please