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When to play NotR contents? Along other Gothic 2 Q's

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
Just installed G2+NOTR, and wow, so much stuff going on. But then I noticed NotR content is not only big, but also perfectly embedded in the main world. I just noticed (from spoilers) that the "Missing People" quest is actually part of NotR plot (I thought it was main plot all along).

Now I'm still in chapter 1, obtained citizenship, haven't joined any of the three main guilds yet, but Lares is already ready to take me to the water mages. There are still almost two dozens of quests in my quest log, so I'm afraid that my head will explode with all the stuff going on if I go to play the NotR plot too early (which will put even more quests inside the log). I'm afraid that after finished NotR I'll forget what's going on back at the main plot...

So two questions:

1. What's the better moment to jump into the NotR plot? I've heard it's the earlier the better.

2. What's the definite line which means you're already in the plot?

3. Does joining the 3 main guilds affect if I can join the Ring of Water?

4. I haven't spent a single LP yet. I'm still pretty wimp against regular bandits (I can't win even fighting 2). Shall I play a bit more at the main plot, learn some more stuff, or what?

5. Why shall I join the 3 main guilds at all? I think I've read during one of the conversations that it's nessecary because the paladin boss will only see people high in the place in one of the guilds?
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
The new areas can be somewhat overwhelming, personally I'd say to do the new areas after joining one of the guilds and coming back from the Valley of Mines with Garond's letter. This gives you some time to build up some strength as there's a few moments in the new area where you're more or less pitted against some heavy hitting enemies, and if you can't do enough damage to a certain enemy that you absolutely must kill you're pretty much fucked. Luckily, you can always use scrolls of transformation to temporarily take out some of the more dangerous enemies.

If you want to take on the full brunt of difficulty, then go as soon as you can. If you want to make it a bit easier, then wait until the Dragon Hunt begins.

2) You've been in the plot all along...

3) The ring of water is a separate organization from the 3 guilds and is more or less a required step. Joining any of the 3 guilds will not interfere with it at all, and you will soon come to find that the ring of water operates above such... hrmm... short-sighted allegiances.

4) What kind of warrior are you planning to become? Definitely learn lock-picking and skinning of animal hides, at the very least. Don't take black smithing unless you join the Mercenaries tho, the other two guilds won't benefit from it much.

5) You have to join one of the guilds, and the guilds not only have philosophical and political differences but they also define what class you join.

A) Mercenaries are the purist warriors, if you want to be a melee monster or an archer then this is the path for you. The other two can dabble a bit but won't have enough LP spread between their other abilities to turn into a walking death machine and/or laser-jesus.

Order: mercenary -> dragon hunters

B) Fire mages are the pure casters and are the only ones who can learn proper rune magic that ranges from fireball to the oh so loved fire rain. They are probably the most LP intensive class and are probably the hardest to play given how long it takes to get to the point that you can kill 50 orcs in 2 seconds.

Novice -> fire mage (note, this is the only guild that lets you become their second tier class in the first chapter, the other two won't let you into the cool kids club until the dragon hunt begins).

C) Paladins are the gishes of the game, they are mostly melee warriors but get some magic (their magic is different than fire mage's magic) and are a bit more conservative in LP requirements than mages, but not as much so as mercenaries.

Milita -> Paladin. Milita are warriors only and have no magic yet, they also have the gayest of all the armors.


My suggestion? If you want to use bows (not crossbows but bows specifically) go merc no matter what. If you want to use magic then go mage (paladins get very little).

If you don't really care then pick the guild that you like most.
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
1. Basically the earlier the better. I think you will be hard-blocked until chapter 2 IIRC so that's the earliest it can be done.

2. There's no point of no return I think, and you'll know when you're in the expansion bits.

3. Nope, makes no difference and in fact NotR kinda annoys me because it kills most early difference between the 3 classes by giving you multiple sets of armor and dozens of scrolls. Feel free to learn stuff, I would say the main things you would regret in min/max terms would be spending LP to earn money (LP is much more precious) and using stat-up potions before you've put a hundred or so points into your main damaging stat (str for melee, dex for missile). If you want to play a mercenary you should learn the health potion recipes when you don't have anything better to buy so you can make the full health restore potions eventually.

4. Feel free to do main plot into Chapter 2 or 3, doesn't matter.

5. Correct.
 

Admiral jimbob

gay as all hell
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
9,225
Location
truck stops and toilet stalls
Wasteland 2
I did most of it after I unlocked chapter 2 and found it to be reasonably challenging. I left the mansions of the builders until later, because I was having trouble with those fucking stone sentinels, and I definitely would've been raped at the time; however, I left it until the end (I think) of chapter 3 and breezed through it with absolutely no difficulty. I hate to say it, but it probably could've benefited from a bit of scaling, being a totally seperate area that's a bit annoying to get to and that you're not really sure when you're expected to do.

Also, if you're going pure fighter, don't make the mistake I did of splitting LP between strength and dexterity. I think bows are cooler too, but you'll suffer for it, I eventually gave up and just went with crossbows... probably having wasted about 30 LP between dexterity upgrades and bow training. However, it meant I could use the ludicrously powerful master sword for most of the game, so it paid off somewhat.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
The Claw of Beliar is the best sword for archers regardless, as eventually even the master sword (or betty for that matter) +strength won't be putting out enough damage for certain enemies but the Claw does that guaranteed 100 at a reasonably frequent rate.
 

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