Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear - Gameplay and Mechanics Thread (NO political crap!)

[Turjan]

So, apart from the subpar writing, does SoD actually offer worthwile gameplay elements, i.e. interesting encounter or level design?

The game is currently unplayable because the difficulty shifts downwards every time you load, you can't just re-up it because it messes with the increased spawns.

This might've been patched, I saw other reports, but haven't run into it yet.

The last patch also introduced this bug into BG:EE. There, changing the difficulty back, immediately saving (no quicksave) and then reloading the savegame fixed the bug for good for me.

 

[ArchAngel]

So, apart from the subpar writing, does SoD actually offer worthwile gameplay elements, i.e. interesting encounter or level design?

Do enemies in PoE use invisibility potions and then backstab your characters?
Are traps on top of enemies and if you move to melee to engage you set the trap? For instance web traps that if you get caught those enemies make a short work of you.
Archers behind locked door shooting you through windows?
Mages that start combat with sequencers and Contingencies?

SoD has all of this and more (on Insane difficulty at least).

Is your PoE PTSD really so bad that you're presenting things modders implemented better 15 years ago as some kind of Beamdog accomplishment?

Read the last few pages of this thread: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-baldurs-gate-series-thread.80753/page-67

I'm pretty sure he just wants a job at Beamdog.

It would surely beat my current 2nd world job.

 

[Jvegi]

The thing that quickly made me stop playing, is this new AI that makes enemies run around like chickens. Not sure what the point is, or if it can be diseabled somehow. Having to chase them thourgh the levels is annoying and not present in the original game or any AI fixes I remember.

Other then that I look forward to spending a few hours with it at some point. Looks better then Black Pits, that's for sure.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

In light of the thread discussing Irenicus, I'd like to point this out:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/49846/male-commanding-voiceset-david-warner

 

[boobio]

I have a gameplay question; What should I pick?

Spoiler

 

[Gay-Lussac]

I have a gameplay question; What should I pick?

Spoiler

I'd go with:

 

[DeepOcean]

So, apart from the subpar writing, does SoD actually offer worthwile gameplay elements, i.e. interesting encounter or level design?

I'm on Chapter 9 and I dunno, the game is a mixed bag and so far the bad is annoying me. There are some fun elements, messing with DnD spells remains fun, DnD combat remains better than that mess that passes for combat on PoE but everything else is or boring, or shitty or underwhelming.

You are railroaded and handholded all the time, the starting dungeon on chapter 7 is okay, I found Irenicus Dungeon on BG 2 far more interesting but it was an okay section but it is on Baldur's Gate city on chapter 8 that the railroading gets annoying and disappointing in terms of level design, there are scripted story shit all over the place, BeamDog wants you to go on a certain path and fuck the rest and so far... their story is weak as fuck. I will give a second chance to the game and keep going to see if it gets good but I have to say that, so far, BeamDog deserve the reputation of being amateur modder losers.

This feels like one of those thousand mediocre Neverwinter Nights mods but on the IE engine.So far... unless you are a retard that misses Minsc and other Bioware cliche one dimensional DnD characters or think the boring shit BeamDog writes is good, this expansion is very amateurish. I will see if there is some nice combat on the future to make my mood better after Baldur's Gate city...

 

[Theldaran]

I expected it to be on par with TotSC and ToB, and even if Beamdog did it better and removed the horrible crap from it, or if some other company did it, it would still be something along those lines.

 

[Lilura]

My links got buried in that other thread but have a read of the first two parts of my walk-through; it's just about the campaign and nothin' else.

Siege of Dragonspear Walkthrough Part I
Siege of Dragonspear Walkthrough Part II

 

[Naveen]

I was reading the other thread in hope of finding an answer to the question why my mage is casting cure light wounds on other party members.

It may be a bizarre bug, but if it's your main character (good/neutral alignment) he may be using his Bhaal powers, for scripting purposes I think they are considered "special skills". I think the AI scripts are under Character Screen > Customize > Scripts

 

[Delterius]

Was Slow always an AoE spell? I remember some discussion about how select spells were changed to be more closely related to their PnP counterparts and am wondering if that could be it.

 

[ArchAngel]

Was Slow always an AoE spell? I remember some discussion about how select spells were changed to be more closely related to their PnP counterparts and am wondering if that could be it.

I think it was. At least since BG2.

 

[Jaesun]

Was Slow always an AoE spell? I remember some discussion about how select spells were changed to be more closely related to their PnP counterparts and am wondering if that could be it.

the 2nd Edition Player Manual states:

Area of Effect: 40' cube, 1 creature/level

 

[Reapa]

I was reading the other thread in hope of finding an answer to the question why my mage is casting cure light wounds on other party members.

It may be a bizarre bug, but if it's your main character (good/neutral alignment) he may be using his Bhaal powers, for scripting purposes I think they are considered "special skills". I think the AI scripts are under Character Screen > Customize > Scripts

thx, that explain's it.

 

[Space Insect]

I haven't bought SoD but I tried Legacy of Bhaal difficulty and it is not very good in my opinion. This was the point were it was possible for the rats to kill my minmaxed fighter. It seems to just bloat enemies rather than give them real tactics at least in the main game. Insane with SCS is a much better choice imo.

 

[Rivmusique]

It says right on the difficulty select screen what it does. It's clearly for people who are down with a full mage, mage/x party, so you can use RI, MI, protection from missles/weapons/whatever, stoneskin etc. to make the enemy multiplied damage and high thac0 a non-factor. Or meta the shit out of it to use potions/scrolls efficiently for similar effects.

 

[Bubbles]

More complaints about the party's power level:

Spoiler

Seriously, what is up with the enemies you encounter in the expansion? On the first "real" map (ignoring the prologue and Baldur's Gate fluff), you kill a lich. Next, the game strongly pushes you to go look for a wardstone to bypass a bunch of crusader cannon fodder... which entails killing two dragons, assorted horrors and mindflayers. A bit later, you start encountering giants as trash mobs. Finally, you invade hell. The only thing that's missing is that time when CHARNAME blew up the death star.

Then the party gets captured and it's back to killing goblins. Yay? Jon must have been using some extra strong level drain spells.

Am I the only one who finds that somewhat off-putting? It's a bit difficult to believe we got to having to fight goblins by murdering too many dragons. Today, I had to close the game twice in a "you have got to be joking" reaction.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/228280/discussions/0/371919771749022205/

 

[Rivmusique]

Spoiler

You get an "anti-lich" item to kill the Lich, removes all protections, 3 charges. I only saw one dragon in that segment, it's sleeping and the popup hints that you can sneak around it. I didn't bother killing it, though I imagine you can with some poison resistance (or maybe acid, I don't know, green dragon), remove magic and kiting/stoneskin-tank. There's one mindflayer. The giants are those same guys from Icewind Dale, that you visit right after the kuldahar graves. You do a quick dip in to hell, hit a target, then leave on the back of Caelar's best doing a fair bit of clearing the way.

The goblins in Jon's Lovepalace were never meant to be a challenge to your party, were they? You clean them up in a couple of hits. Dragons, packs of vampires, lichs, mindflayer groups etc. are still threats to the bhaalspawn. The only odd thing remains: Amn average adventurer/mercenary could be gods in BG. And no need for level drains, Dynaheir ended my SoD playthrough at level 11 (not cap, don't know what the xp cap is).

 

[aVENGER]

A couple of notes on some of the more powerful opponents in SoD.

Spoiler

The lich, dragon and mind flayer fights are optional in the sense that you don't have to kill them in order to advance the main plot. In addition, when players encounter these creatures, the game advises them to either avoid combat (sneaking past the dragon) or to complete the fight using a specific approach (employing the dwarven relic to weaken the lich). This is similar to how the Shadow Dragon and the Unseeing Eye were handled in BG2. Of course, players are free to ignore this advice and face the creatures directly, in which case they should expect a very challenging (and on some difficulty settings almost unwinnable) battle. If the players do manage to win, they often get a unique reward for their effort.

 

[Lhynn]

A couple of notes on some of the more powerful opponents in SoD.

Spoiler

The lich, dragon and mind flayer fights are optional in the sense that you don't have to kill them in order to advance the main plot. In addition, when players encounter these creatures, the game advises them to either avoid combat (sneaking past the dragon) or to complete the fight using a specific approach (employing the dwarven relic to weaken the lich). This is similar to how the Shadow Dragon and the Unseeing Eye were handled in BG2. Of course, players are free to ignore this advice and face the creatures directly, in which case they should expect a very challenging (and on some difficulty settings almost unwinnable) battle. If the players do manage to win, they often get a unique reward for their effort.

That sounds great. Im guessing the only enemies that get their stats decreased from their Monster Manual entry are the ones on the last strech of the game? The trip to hell and all that.

 

[aVENGER]

That sounds great. Im guessing the only enemies that get their stats decreased from their Monster Manual entry are the ones on the last strech of the game?

On the last areas of the game:

Spoiler

Actually, if you play on the Core Rules difficulty setting (and above) the fiends that you encounter in Avernus are very close to their 2E AD&D counterparts in terms of stats and abilities. However, if you play on Normal or Easy, then the fiends don't use their most powerful abilities at all and will employ other abilities far less frequently than they should. That said, fiends in 2E AD&D are generally weaker than in D&D 3.x both in terms of stats and available abilities.

On the final boss:

Spoiler

As for Belhifet himself, on Core Rules and above, you need a +3 weapon (these are very rare in SoD) to hit him and his stats and abilities are pretty much on pair with what he had in Icewind Dale. However, if you play on Normal or Easy, Belhifet only requires a +2 weapon to hit and like the other SoD fiends, he uses his spell-like abilities far less frequently.

To summarize, the PnP accuracy of SoD enemies entirely depends on the difficulty setting that you are playing on. On Core Rules and above, enemies get everything that they are supposed to get in PnP, but on Normal and Easy, they don't.

 

[Lhynn]

Jesus bro, you should have started there on the other thread. Now i actually want to play the game.

Final question. Why did you adopt 3.5 attribute modifiers instead of AD&D ones for magical items, ie +1 to X instead of Sets X to 18+?

 

[Shadenuat]

Spoiler

As for Belhifet himself, on Core Rules and above, you need a +3 weapon (these are very rare in SoD) to hit him and his stats and abilities are pretty much on pair with what he had in Icewind Dale. However, if you play on Normal or Easy, Belhifet only requires a +2 weapon to hit and like the other SoD fiends, he uses his spell-like abilities far less frequently.

Uh, any hint on finding one in the game full of crap +1 swords? Aside from Volghin's magical weapon spell (that didn't seem to work before patch, at least judging by statistics in inventory), phantom blades, melfs meteors, fire elemental summons and such. There are 1-2 cursed/rare weapons, I believe there's a hammer and a rashemi blade I couldn't get from Minsc's counterpart.
I basically had to replay whole Hell part so I could go back and remake my whole party, which I didn't have any trouble with before actually reaching final boss. Or maybe Shining Lady is supposed to kill him with her Nerevarine's flaming sword?
Where's my axe +1/+5 within a dragon’s flight distance of Baldur's Gate?

I was hoping to fight whole Shining's Lady party which you see for the first time on the bridge in the beginning of the game, and got that random crap from other game thrown at me instead lol.

Also how do you don't fight final boss? I think no matter what options I picked, I ended up fighting either him or him + blackguardnow chick.

 

[Rivmusique]

I had a

Spoiler

shortsword +3 from cyric temple (never used, who puts pips in SS?), that 2h +3 from rashemi, a +3 warhammer (sunder-something, description mentions crom faeyr) whose location I forget and finally +3 ammo that was around in containers on the way to the final chat with the shining lady

aVENGER

Spoiler

What's the non-straight fight way of dealing with the mindflayer? Nothing stood out to me on my playthrough. Was a fun fight though.

Also, going through it again quickly with an evil mostly-custom party to see some alternative situations and encountered a bug: if you side with the Lich and have Edwin in the party, Edwin asks the Lich to help out when you confront the SL, Lich agrees, doesn't give you a reward (though dialogue implies he did) and your journal never updates. Talk to him after and he asks for necklaces again, which you don't have. BTW, what is the xp cap in SoD? Don't think I hit it with my character that I made just for SoD, but that does start 100 000 xp behind what an imported character would.

 

[Shadenuat]

Hm I think I always miss +3 short sword, where do you get it?

Funny how obscure these items are, while you go around killing dragons/liches and gain almost nothing from them (leather armor lel). Put a +3 weapon on green dragon ffs, 99% of players would probably never kill her/him even on Story Mode

Also, I liked classic version of Enchanted weapon spell a lot more