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My bad then, I wasn't really paying that much attention to ToB-related changes (and ToB in general, for that matter).
It still makes the improved hell battle with Irenicus a lot easier, making hive mother free XP - but the SCS II made beholders able to steal cloak and shield of Balduran, no?
My bad then, I wasn't really paying that much attention to ToB-related changes (and ToB in general, for that matter).
It still makes the improved hell battle with Irenicus a lot easier, making hive mother free XP - but the SCS II made beholders able to steal cloak and shield of Balduran, no?
Sounds cool, gotta try SCS II again soon (possibly after full tactics run with jester or maybe morituri?), last time I tried it, my game was nearly unplayable with all those spell sequencers activating immediately after entering the area.
I made it to the part where you are kidnapped (again) by Irenicus and the dream sequence where I have to kill "Bhaal" by bringing it in front of Imoen. However, my Thief PC while being very effective as a team and on ranged attacks cannot defeat the fake god at all. Am I missing on something ?
I must admit I cheated my way out of this battle, but it felt like nothing could be done. I guess I could have reverted to an earlier save and beef up my character.
I'm replaying BG2 with the "tactics" mod and it makes some fights much more challenging. I just got my ass handed to me by a lich : he summoned two pit fiends (that didn't turn against him) and they tore my party to pieces.
I'm replaying BG2 with the "tactics" mod and it makes some fights much more challenging. I just got my ass handed to me by a lich : he summoned two pit fiends (that didn't turn against him) and they tore my party to pieces.
The only part of "Tactics" that I liked was Improved Torgal.
I absolutely loathed the souped up "lizard men" (I don't recall their name; enemies of the Sauaghin) with their godlike THAC0 and paralyzing bolts.
Which is weird as hell, because this fight should work similar to the first encounter with Bodhi - after certain period of time it should be over (Bhaal telling you he's your instinct, yadi yadi yada), so more likely something was fucked up with the script, 'cause you can't "kill" Bhaal per se. Tried to reload a save just before a fight?
he summoned two pit fiends (that didn't turn against him) and they tore my party to pieces
Liches 1v1 aren't that difficult - protection from evil (but liches will propably dispel it) against summons, spell resistance (potions) against Abi Dalzims, spell immunity + abjuration for imprisonment (must have). IMO the best mage in BG2 - tactics included - is the one who knows how to use this + protection from m. weapons, spell traps and so on.
Liches are immune to 1-5 (afaik) level spells, so use all protection you can get. Against them - arrows of dispelling work pretty nice.
Or just squish the crap out of them with protection from undead scrolls
Which is weird as hell, because this fight should work similar to the first encounter with Bodhi - after certain period of time it should be over (Bhaal telling you he's your instinct, yadi yadi yada), so more likely something was fucked up with the script, 'cause you can't "kill" Bhaal per se. Tried to reload a save just before a fight?
My problem is not killing Bhaal, my problem is surviving him. He kills me before I get his HP low enough for the game to go on. As I said, I have a crappy main character which is only good with a crossbow, pretty useless in 1vs1.
Finished playing SoA with most of the Tactics mod installed. Sorcerer PC, Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, Aerie and Nalia (later replaced by Imoen).
Well, not really finished, since I was completely unable to win the first fight against Improved Irenicus in Hell. At best, I managed to kill three of the five monsters, but Wrath and Selfishness always end up kicking my ass.
All in all, the mod is pretty good (though I wouldn't recommend it to someone playing BG2 for the first time). It makes demons and dragons scarier (I really had fun fighting Firkraag). Mages are better prepared and will no longer summon demons just to attack them immediately. Liches are downright dangerous. Mind Flayers are no longer vulnerable to the cheese tactics of sending Skeletal Warriors and Swords of Mordenkainen to kill them : they'll teleport to your party's position almost as soon as they're aware of the threat (that made the illithid dungeon in the Underdark so annoying that I gave up on it halfway through and reloaded a previous save).
The fire giants were probably made too powerful, since they now move very fast and have access to plenty of powerful fire spells. I'm also not a big fan of Improved Undeads.
Other than that, some parts of the game were made more difficult, such as the fight against Torgal or the beholder dungeon in the Underdark. The difficulty increase is especially apparent in the sahuagin city (normally a very easy part of the game) : the Improved Sahuagins are pretty tough and use stunning darts ; there's even a sahuagin priestess that will send against you a minor avatar of Sekolah (highly resistant and can sometimes Imprison target on a successful hit).
Improved Bodhi is pretty challenging, even with proper buffing. I had to leave Athkatla for Watcher's Keep in order to strengthen my party sufficiently to deal with her !
I haven't tried the Acidic Kensai or Improved Kangaxx.
isnt that the very defitnion of tactics by any military standard? what is cheese if not an unfair advantaje by way of the clever use of the tools you got at your disposal?
There's no cleverness involved. Dualling to cleric from ranger at level 2 to exploit druid spells the character shouldn't have is like saying using a ladder to dunk a basketball is clever just because the referees don't stop you from doing it.
I made it to the part where you are kidnapped (again) by Irenicus and the dream sequence where I have to kill "Bhaal" by bringing it in front of Imoen. However, my Thief PC while being very effective as a team and on ranged attacks cannot defeat the fake god at all. Am I missing on something ?
I must admit I cheated my way out of this battle, but it felt like nothing could be done. I guess I could have reverted to an earlier save and beef up my character.
It's not just BG2 - straightup rogues in 2nd ed are not only weak solo characters, but extremely utility based. They're a great boon to a party (casting detect traps, invis and knock isn't a particularly practical alternative unless you know the game in advance or are save-scumming - even if you're willing to have your caster a hefty dose of their spells to multiple detect traps, invis and knock), but their only real combat contibution is the ability to take out a mage before the fight starts, together with range attacks that are marred by the inability to use compound long bows and the fact that if you're taking advantage of their backstab it's difficult to get them back out of harms way to pull a bow out.
Having said that, BG series does offer a few ways around it. Firstly, BG1, BG2 and ToB are balanced such that a multi-class thief (which are insanely useful) is more than adequate for all your trap/lock/stealth needs. Moreover, from BG2 on, even a few levels of thief is enough for your party's needs if you pump the skillpoints into traps and locks (and use a ranger or invis for stealth, or don't stealth - you can survive just fine in BG2 without stealth, but you need someone to detect traps and open locks): Nahlia with her puny 4 levels of thief is adequate for the entire game, while Imoen's 7(? roughly 7) levels of thief is enough to handle all the traps, almost all locks (enough that it's adequate just to have the occasional knock spell memorised as a backup) and stealth to boot.
Secondly, if you do go full thief (and the only reason you'd do that is for a challenge, especially given the way that the games keep handing you top-notch thief characters on a platter), both games give you equipment based solutions. Those arrows that cast fireball are plentiful by the end of BG1 - I found the easiest way of clearing Saverok and goons was to just send in the fighter-thief NPC with boots of speed and a fuckload of fireball-arrows (would wipe out Sarevok's support squad in seconds, and weaken Sarevok enough to make him an easy kill when you send the rest of the party in). Cheesy, though not in a way that forces you to play counter-intuitively - but it means that if you gear up, any thief is essentially able to act as a thief-mage, casting fireball from stealth.
In BG2 cheese arrows are a lot rarer, and less powerful (they're more likely to be useful for specific encounters - flaming arrows v trolls, arrows of destroy undead v liches; able to trivialise some fights but never a 'catch-all tactic' like the exploding arrows in BG1). BUT if playing straight thief you should be copying what the enemy NPC thieves do and make sure you're always stocked up on invis potions. Carry at least 3, more if you can, and use them whenever your thief gets targeted in melee and against hard opponents who deserve multiple backstabs.
The thief sets in BG2 are very powerful. Swashbuckler (was that his name?) is an excellent fighter and Bounty Hunter is plain broken if you abuse traps.
The thief sets in BG2 are very powerful. Swashbuckler (was that his name?) is an excellent fighter and Bounty Hunter is plain broken if you abuse traps.
I soloed the game with a swashbuckler, you get enough attack rate and Black Blade of Disaster scrolls (usable with UAI) to take down the big guns who can't be ensnared.
I chose halfling for the saving throw and thief skill bonuses, but a dwarf would be slightly easier due to no str penalty and con bonus.
backstab can be insane but immunity is common, pure thieves are saved from combat irrelevance by HLAs, namely spike traps for one-shotting and Use any item for versatility.
Assassin dualed to fighter can wreak havoc, too. It require lots of patience (ass21) but you eventually get septuple backstab mult and critical strike backstab at will. Against backstab immune tanks you use venom activate with GWW to inflict loads of poison. Otherwise, assassin is weak.
i never liked Bounty hunter mechanics, but apparently you can do interesting things with their PrC traps.
for any newbies I would say if you like to play thief try out a Kensai9/Thief.
Many people underestimate the thief in BG2. A multiclass thief/mage is very powerful due to the ability to cast invisibility/improved invisibility and then sneak attack for shitloads of damage even in the thick of combat. Another extremely important aspect of the thief in BG2 is that it is the only class that can get through a mage's Improved Invisibility+Spell Immunity: Divination spell combo due to his ability to detect illusions (you won't be able to dispel the invisibility with True Sight, won't be able to Breach the mage due to him being invisible and won't be able to simply dispell him unless you outlevel him). It's not that important in vanilla, where every enemy is a pushover, but it's extremely useful in Tactics and Ascension (especially when fighting the lvl40 Mage Irenicus in Ascension's finale who uses a lot of imba arcane spellcasting tactics).
Also, I've never done this myself, but there is a way to turn every attack into a sneak attack with a thief/mage multiclass character. I've seen Improved Mae Var from Tactics do this with some kind of spell combination (something involving Nondetection, Improved Invisibility and some kind of Spell Immunity) and then proceed to be an invulnerable cunt who backstabbed my whole party to death. Needless to say, this tactic is game breaking and turns pretty much every encounter into a joke.
A pure thief is also quite powerful. A good strategy is to pick the assassin kit and get Use Any Item as fast as possible, which allows you to use Carsomyr. Coupled with a girdle of frost giant strength that gives you a significant strength boost (and, consequently, melee damage bonus) you can make insanely powerful sneak attacks (assassin reaches 7x backstab multiplier) that will one-hit kill most of the non-dragon SoA enemies, especially the Chaotic Evil ones. Another thing about the Assassin is that he can use a scroll of Time Stop and then his Assassinate High Level Ability to kill even the toughest bossess (like dragons or the Ascension final bosses) in the blink of an eye, since every hit is an automatic success during Time Stop.
You can't backstab or by extension assassinate with two-handed swords like Carsomyr, and Ascension or Tactics/SCS2 doesn't change that rule, you must have another mod (there is one that does it, can't recall name).
Low level assassins can use Celestial Fury in SoA coupled with Crom and then in ToB use Staff of the Ram.
Once they get HLAs then UAI lets them backstab with Black Blade and Shapeshift scrolls (Iron Golem).
Assassinate is ok but a pure assassin can only choose it once and gimped thief ApR doesn't help, which is one reason I dual to fighter.
Overall comparatively weak PrC undualed, mainly for flavor and fun (7backstab, venom).
This post is directed to octavius who declared that BG is almost perfect game with the right mods. I wonder if he consider it the perfect game despite the explioitable Pause/real time combat system, instant death traps, annoying loot/inventory managment and extremly slow gameplay. Or somehow the mods help to aid those problems.
This post is directed to octavius who declared that I wonder if he consider it the perfect game despite the explioitable Pause/real time combat system, instant death traps, annoying loot/inventory managment and extremly slow gameplay. Or somehow the mods help to aid those problems.
How is the RTwP combat system exploitable?
What instant death traps? There are none in BG1, and only one in BG2:SoA. All other traps are avoidable. That's what you have thieves with the Detect Traps skill for.
I didn't find the loot/inventory managment annoying.
Extremely slow gameplay? How? And compared to what?
You didn't quote my post, so I don't know in what context I claimed that "BG is almost perfect game with the right mods".
But I think vanilla BG1 is a rather mediocre game, and that it's drastically improved by mods like the BG1 NPC Project and especially Sword Coast Strategems.
I'm currently playing a solo insane BG2 game with a Wizard Slayer. While it's generally one of the classes people give the most shit to, I've found that it's actually fairly solid. The key is that the miscast magic ability actually doesn't require you to actually damage the target. That means that it works even through stoneskin and mirror image, which means you can completely disable a mage in 10 hits without even doing any damage to him. You can get 10 attacks in a round by using GWW or improved haste/dual wielding, so it's certainly possible to completely disable a mage in just one round. I imagine the fight with Irenicus will end up being a gigantic cakewalk, since he'll just try to cast a bunch of spell and fail at it. It works for spell-like abilities, too, so it's not just great against casters.
Obviously, the negatives are fairly bad. No belts, gauntlets, or rings, but you can still wear helmets (as in Vhailor's helm when soloing if cheese is the name of the game) and boots (boots of speed). Right now I'm debating whether I should dual my guy to thief around level 13-15, which would be fairly cheesy due to getting UAI and thus not having the item restriction anymore, or just sticking with the class as is (past level 20, the class starts getting some ridiculous magic resistance, which will more than make up for not having Ring of Gaxx, Kaligun's amulet, etc). I suspect dual classing will be more powerful, due to cheesy thief traps, backstabbing, and using Carsomyr if I really need MR, but sticking as a single class would let me get hardiness/GWW, as well as permanent 100% MR (with the Human Flesh armor). Of course, playing a solo single class fighter is also kinda boring since the tactic in most fights is just "hit guy until dead." Decisions, decisions...
