Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II Mod Thread

[oldmanpaco]

Only Korgan is better, thanks to his berseker rage.

Last time I went through BG2 I had Berserker(9)/Mage MC and Korgan as main tanks with Edwin and Jan->Imoen debuffing. Rage is the awesome button for BG2.

 

[octavius]

Windspear Hills is a weird area.
It's crawling with lowly vermin like goblins, hobgoblins and orcs, and then you suddenly face Rukh Transmuter, a Rakshasha whose first spell is Prot vs Magic Weapons, meaning the only thing that affects him are spells of lvl 8-9.
Since he's such a cunt I decided to just cast Invisibility 10' and wait out his PfMW, but he still was nasty with his 5 APR.

Then there were more orcs before facing a Juggernaut Golem and his two little brothers.

Then a Troll and some Hobs.

And then things got real nasty with a whole pack of Ancient and Elder Vampires backed up by Ghasts and Mummies. With Negative Plane Protection having such an annoyingly short duration there was no way I could face the whole pack in open battle, so I decided to send in one character alone, protected by a Protection against Undead scroll.
It was either Keldorn with Daystar and his True Seeing ability, or Anomen with FoA, Blade Barrier and Holy Word.
I wanted to try the Holy Word spell so I decided on Anomen and he want in with speed and 25 STR and with the help of the awesome Blade Barrier he got rid of the suckers in short time.
But his Holy Word didn't work! 'Uttering a Holy Word spell creates magic of tremendous power' except all it did was light up the undead, but no damage, stun or anything. EDIT: or is it just that the spell has no textual feedback?

 

[Brancaleone]

But his Holy Word didn't work! 'Uttering a Holy Word spell creates magic of tremendous power' except all it did was light up the undead, but no damage, stun or anything. EDIT: or is it just that the spell has no textual feedback?

It has different effects depending on enemy hit-dice, down to some crappy stuff like 'deafened' or such for the strongest ones.

 

[octavius]

I think I had it somewhat confused with Sunray, which is the undead killer.

 

[octavius]

Just killed the three Rakshasas that hangs around outside Trademeet. I was warned that the leader was a Ruhk, but she was less troublesome than the Transmuter in Firkraag dungeon. The difference was that neither she nor her sidekicks cast Prot vs Magic Weapons, so it was just a matter of hitting them hard and fast to breach their Stoneskins, meanwhile taking some damage from their Cloud Kills, Skull Traps and Fireballs.

According to Lilura

• How to take them out → Detect Illusions or True Sight → Breach → Melf's Minute Missiles (10 ApR).

Unfortunately Breach didn't work when I tried on the Transmuter, so I didn't bother with it (but according to Lilura you need to cast two Breach spells to take down one Stoneskins from a Rakshasa or Lich with the SCS component installed).
So I just had Jan cast Haste, Charname cast Chant (since the Raks are hard to hit) and next round True Sight, and the rest just raining blows on Ihtafeer (swithing to missile weapons when caught by the Teleport field).

Also, according to Lilura:

• Obvious cheese methods aside, you will have to get really lucky to win here.

Really?
I think you overestimate the power of Stoneskin and the need to Breach them.

 

[Parabalus]

Just killed the three Rakshasas that hangs around outside Trademeet. I was warned that the leader was a Ruhk, but she was less troublesome than the Transmuter in Firkraag dungeon. The difference was that neither she nor her sidekicks cast Prot vs Magic Weapons, so it was just a matter of hitting them hard and fast to breach their Stoneskins, meanwhile taking some damage from their Cloud Kills, Skull Traps and Fireballs.

According to Lilura

• How to take them out → Detect Illusions or True Sight → Breach → Melf's Minute Missiles (10 ApR).

Unfortunately Breach didn't work when I tried on the Transmuter, so I didn't bother with it (but according to Lilura you need to cast two Breach spells to take down one Stoneskins from a Rakshasa or Lich with the SCS component installed).
So I just had Jan cast Haste, Charname cast Chant (since the Raks are hard to hit) and next round True Sight, and the rest just raining blows on Ihtafeer (swithing to missile weapons when caught by the Teleport field).

Also, according to Lilura:

• Obvious cheese methods aside, you will have to get really lucky to win here.

Really?
I think you overestimate the power of Stoneskin and the need to Breach them.

IIRC the main one starts friendly so you can insta set traps and kill him before he does anything. If he dies before the others DD in their script won't trigger and they'll stay friendly, allowing you to kill them 1 by 1 with prior surround.

The open door makes this fight a joke though, you can dodge all spell casts too.

 

[octavius]

Of course, but "Obvious cheese methods aside".

 

[santino27]

Windspear Hills is a weird area.
It's crawling with lowly vermin like goblins, hobgoblins and orcs, and then you suddenly face Rukh Transmuter, a Rakshasha whose first spell is Prot vs Magic Weapons, meaning the only thing that affects him are spells of lvl 8-9.

I wasn't playing SCS, but with multiple weapon slots, I always had normal weapons equipped so I could swap to them when facing someone using prot vs magic weapons. (or magic golems)

 

[octavius]

Rakshasas are not immune to normal weapons?

I've used your tactic against regular mages, though.

 

[Incantatar]

Rakshasas are not immune to normal weapons?

I've used your tactic against regular mages, though.

They are immune to normal weapons.

 

[hell bovine]

They also wield normal weapons, afaik. In theory you could tank them with prot. from normal weapons. (aka the spell that no one uses)

 

[octavius]

I think Lilura has mentioned using it on her blog.
Problem for me is that there are so many useful spell, and it's rare that you encounter powerful enemies who wield normal weapons. I guess it's more relevant for a Sorceror to use.

 

[octavius]

Regarding SCS and Smarter Mages, one stupid thing lone mages tend to do is take down Jaheira's Iron Skins with Breach. What's the point if they don't have any fighters or summons to support them? A basic Fireball would have been more useful.

 

[santino27]

Rakshasas are not immune to normal weapons?

I've used your tactic against regular mages, though.

D'oh, you're right. Apologies for the confusion!

 

[Incantatar]

I think Lilura has mentioned using it on her blog.
Problem for me is that there are so many useful spell, and it's rare that you encounter powerful enemies who wield normal weapons. I guess it's more relevant for a Sorceror to use.

No decent Sorcerer would pick that spell.
It does have its uses though, especially with SCS fine weapons installed. You can get many scrolls from random outdoor encounters.

 

[agris]

Not sure where to post this, but I just installed Baldur's Gate II and I'm having massive issues with graphical glitches. Disabling 3D Acceleration gets rid of most glitches (and playing windowed apparently gets rid of the remaining ones), but it also makes the game's spells look crappier.

I'm running Windows 8.1 and have an ATI Radeon HD 7700 Series videocard. Any tips for a bro? I just wanted to enjoy BGII as God intended.

EDIT: In case I'm not being obvious, this is Baldur's Gate II original I'm talking about, with the Throne of Bhaal expansion. NOT the Enhanced Edition.

edit: what kind of glitches? Have you installed the 1PP pack?

 

[Sigourn]

Not sure where to post this, but I just installed Baldur's Gate II and I'm having massive issues with graphical glitches. Disabling 3D Acceleration gets rid of most glitches (and playing windowed apparently gets rid of the remaining ones), but it also makes the game's spells look crappier.

I'm running Windows 8.1 and have an ATI Radeon HD 7700 Series videocard. Any tips for a bro? I just wanted to enjoy BGII as God intended.

EDIT: In case I'm not being obvious, this is Baldur's Gate II original I'm talking about, with the Throne of Bhaal expansion. NOT the Enhanced Edition.

edit: what kind of glitches? Have you installed the 1PP pack?

Here are some screenshots showcasing all issues I encountered.

If you look closely, you can see some sort of grid overlay on the image. Plus the multiple cursors that trail. These cursors appear only in fullscreen, but the grid is there whenever I keep 3D Acceleration enabled on the Configuration exe.

Look at the spells now. Open the images in two different tabs and circle through them. You will notice one of the spells is much more hard around the corners, while the other (3D Accelerated) blends in seamlessly with the background.

This is a perfect example, you see both the grid and how one spell looks much nicer (look at the character on the right being hastened, the spell effect).

And I've now noticed the fog of war apparently looks better with 3D Acceleration.

So in few words:

- Fullscreen + 3D Acceleration: awful grid, awful cursor trail.
- Windowed + 3D Acceleration: awful grid, good looking spells, good looking fog of war.
- Windowed and no 3D Acceleration: glitch free, but ugly spell effects and ugly fog of war.

No 1PP installed. From what I've found it would appear NVIDIA users have the easy solution, but I have an ATI card and no easy solution in sight.

 

[roshan]

Just play the Enhanced Edition.

 

[ga♥]

Not saying there's no solution, but I found none for my crappy old laptop with an AMD card and Win10,I had to get the EE.

(While P:ST works like a charm).

On a sidenote, BG2EE is the best EE. Just new NPCs you can remove, there's a mod for that.

 

[octavius]

I'm sure there are ways to fix Sigourn's graphic problems with BG2.
But I doubt there's a way to fix the bluriness of the "enhanced" editions.

 

[Sigourn]

I'm sure there are ways to fix Sigourn's graphic problems with BG2.
But I doubt there's a way to fix the bluriness of the "enhanced" editions.

Yeah, the EE has a lot of blur everywhere in that bitch. Between mangled spell effects and fog of war and blur everywhere, I'd rather have the mangling. When I'm not so busy I'll see if I can find a solution.

 

[Jason Liang]

I'm sure there are ways to fix Sigourn's graphic problems with BG2.
But I doubt there's a way to fix the bluriness of the "enhanced" editions.

Did you try the cleric spell True Sight?

(sorry, I failed my savings throw, didn't resist)

 

[octavius]

No, I used the Oracle spell.
It told me to install BGT instead.

 

[Jason Liang]

No, I used the Oracle spell.
It told me to install BGT instead.

Are you sure you didn't cast Time Stop by mistake?

Keep Wishing!

 

[octavius]

I see Trent Oster's Mislead spell is still working.