Baldurs gate - how should I start. - Page 14

Marid Audran · January 21, 2004, 04:23

You should play the class whose stronghold quest you've yet to experience.

If you're familar with every stronghold quest, then the Skald gets my vote. Most interesting stronghold, and a fun class to boot.

Then download the Chloe Kensai NPC lesbian romance at:

http://home.centurytel.net/Crossroad...loeMod-v12.rar

...and tell me what it's like.

Recommended Party:

Chloe
Anomen
Jaheira
Jamski (female bard)
Yoshimo
Edwin

...for maximum banter hilarity. Hopefully.

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 04:34

How about I take Kelsey instead of Edwin and make sure to use the "multiple romances at once" fix from the EoU pack?

Banter insanity

I know all the strongholds backwards though... perhaps I'll play as a theif-type, then I can take someone instead of Yoshimo... perhaps... Solufain?

Now THAT would be a banter-mad party.

Me as assassin, or perhaps fighter/theif?

-Jam

Marid Audran · January 21, 2004, 05:14

Kelsey would be a fine alternative. Hell, the FW designers for Chloe even made her banter-a-rifically compatible with Kelsey.

However, IMO WeiDu really butchered the Solaufein project, casting him as some 3rd-rate candy-ass Byron-lite Chaotic Good fighter/mage!! I always pictured him a stern, unyielding, Lawful Neutral fighter type. A waste (besides he won't banter with other 3rd-party mods. And most of the game "improvements" and added encounters bundled with the package also suck and are needlessly overpowered).

I have a personal axe to grind concerning sorcerors, feeling they are the ultimate munchkin class, and not in harmony with AD&D treatment of magic at all (influenced more by a Final Fantasy "mana" paradigm). Whenever I take Kesley on board I always go into Shadowkeeper and tweak his character into an Abjurer or something. And revert his goddam elf mage avatar to its proper human one.

As for the class, I never liked thieves much, so my opinion is somewhat biased. Between those two suggestions I vote fighter/thief tailored as an archer than can pick locks and disarm traps.

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 05:26

Fighter/thief as a dual-wielding back-stabber is MUCH more fun.

Perhaps I'll take Haer-Darlis instead of Solu then... or just run 5 characters.

I'm making my character now

-Jam

Marid Audran · January 21, 2004, 05:39

Haer'Dalis is always fun; an amenable solution.

However, you truly haven't lived until you play a gnome fighter/illusionist...

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 05:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
Then download the Chloe Kensai NPC lesbian romance at:

http://home.centurytel.net/Crossroad...loeMod-v12.rar

...and tell me what it's like.

That's it! With a lesbian Kensai I'm being a female Sorceror

2 man party... oh man this will be fun

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
Recommended Party:

Chloe
Anomen
Jaheira
Jamski (female bard)
Yoshimo
Edwin

...for maximum banter hilarity. Hopefully.

Wouldn't you want Minsc and Jan for banter hilarity? Or maybe Minsc and Aerie?

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
How about I take Kelsey instead of Edwin and make sure to use the "multiple romances at once" fix from the EoU pack?

Banter insanity

Kelsey? Is that a mod NPC?

And multiple romances at once just doesn't seem realistic to me

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
I have a personal axe to grind concerning sorcerors, feeling they are the ultimate munchkin class, and not in harmony with AD&D treatment of magic at all (influenced more by a Final Fantasy "mana" paradigm). Whenever I(besides he won't banter with other 3rd-party mods. take Kesley on board I always go into Shadowkeeper and tweak his character into an Abjurer or something. And revert his goddam elf mage avatar to its proper human one.

I always think Sorcerors go best as the PC. You are a Bhaalspawn, you have in you inate magic. You haven't had enough time in Candlekeep to have learned all the fine arts of Magic, but as a sorceror, when you get stronger, your natural abilities get stronger. IMHO Sorcerors are not only better than mages, they are more in keeping with the story.

As for thiefs: Kensai Thief!

Hide in shadows, and backstab for ridiculous amounts (more than an assassin by a long long way). And he can even stay there and keep killing.

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 05:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
Perhaps I'll take Haer-Darlis instead of Solu then... or just run 5 characters.

I could never fight with only 1 mage. IMHO 2 is the minimum for a 6 person party. And Anomen and Jaheira seems a bit much together. Clerics/Druids are awful as characters, but you need one for healing and some nice spells. But two? Seems like a waste to me

Always wanted to go for main character Cleric, dual at 13 to Druid and end with a 13/14 character. Would be nice with spells, though would take ages to get to 14 druid, and so would have a long time without cleric spells.

Traianvs · January 21, 2004, 06:05

what's that flirt pack??

hmm if it is what I think it is I don't need it, the romances don't interest me that much

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I don't manage to have romances anyway, maybe i'm being a bit blunt or something?

Marid Audran · January 21, 2004, 06:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Drogue

Wouldn't you want Minsc and Jan for banter hilarity? Or maybe Minsc and Aerie?

I find Minsc to be the single most abhorrent character in Baldur's Gate II, so no, I don't opt for him. Whenever I hear his voice I want to gouge my eardrums with a pen-knife. He's simply unfunny, and an inbecile to boot. He's an insult to Rangers too.

Jan is hilarious the first time you let him join up, but his long-winded schtick wears thin pretty quick. I like gnomes but Jan is a bit much; he doesn't compare to Quayle from BG1.

My favorite NPCs are Korgan, Yoshimo, and Keldorn. I think they all represent their classes very well with likable personalities.

Quote:

Originally posted by Drogue

Kelsey? Is that a mod NPC?

Yes, Kelsey is a 3rd-party mod PC. A human male sorceror, romancable by females, with original voice acting, banter, compatibility with flirt-packs, the odd scripted quest or two, etc. In other words designed to live up to the Bioware standard.

Quote:

Originally posted by Drogue

As for thiefs: Kensai Thief!

Hide in shadows, and backstab for ridiculous amounts (more than an assassin by a long long way). And he can even stay there and keep killing.

I'm sure quite a few savvy players have found inventive ways to unleash their uber-thieves' 300 damage backstab and so forth, but I still have never liked thieves. Consider them more a "necessary evil" to a party than anything. More to the point I don't believe they are well-represented in IE games. Arcanum was better for thief-type characters.

Of course, nothing beats Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: The Metal Age as far as immersive thieving experience goes.

Can't say I agree with you at all on the topic of Priests (clerics/druids). Their spells are of immense offensive/defensive value (not just glorified healers), and they are capable in battle in a way that wizards aren't.

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 08:42

Theifs RULE. Of course Kensai/theif is better, but its soooooo cheezy. My female elf assassin is pretty tasty thankyou

(Its the HLAs that really make the class supreme. Assassination - every hit counts as a backstab (damage x 7) that round.)

Clerics RULE too, as you can easily get them to have STR of 25, huge bonuses to hit, and immune to everything. In a straight fight, the cleric is better than a fighter even (as long as he has time to buff) Also both Jaheira and Annoy-man are multiclassed with fighter, making them even more useful.

Multiple mages... this is really a matter of taste. With Edwin or Kelsey, I'm not sure you NEED another mage.

-Jam

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 09:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
Yes, Kelsey is a 3rd-party mod PC. A human male sorceror, romancable by females, with original voice acting, banter, compatibility with flirt-packs, the odd scripted quest or two, etc. In other words designed to live up to the Bioware standard.

Anyone got a link to DL it. Also, about flirt packs, I have one, but it doesn't seem to work for Virconia. Is there a full version for all romances? If so, can someone link it?

Another human sorceror would rule

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
Clerics RULE too, as you can easily get them to have STR of 25, huge bonuses to hit, and immune to everything. In a straight fight, the cleric is better than a fighter even (as long as he has time to buff) Also both Jaheira and Annoy-man are multiclassed with fighter, making them even more useful.

Well, only on ecan get to 25 Str, and they still have few attacks per turn. Straight clerics suck in fights, IMHO. My solo character now has 18 in almost everything, near the begining, but still struggles. Sure, he can't be hit that much (-4 ac is good for the begining) but he doesn't hit much either.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
Multiple mages... this is really a matter of taste. With Edwin or Kelsey, I'm not sure you NEED another mage.

Without those I'd be looking at 3. I love mages. Without multiple breach spells I'm not sure how I'd survive.

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 09:29

Drogue - all the mods there are. ALL OF THEM!

http://forums.interplay.com/viewtopi...24c87f3f0f8e12

No Drogue, all clerics can buff their STR up to the maximum. DUHM is a good starter... just have a quick flick through the cleric spells. I also like the other bonuses that go with the cleric self-buffs. Extra AC, CON, DEX, Thac0... all hits do maximum damage... yum.

As for multiple breaches.... try using Keldorn and/or a PC paladin with the Holy Avenger + someone (Imoen?) with the Staff of the Magi. I love "dispels on hit"

-Jam

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 09:42

Oh, what I actually wanted to post...

I now have the first 4 members of my party :

Me, Jamskianna, a female elven Assassin (longsword +1)
Jaheira, female (forced to be lesbian) half-elven Fighter/druid (romance started)
Anomen, male human Fighter/cleric (romance started)
Chloe, female (freely lesbian) Kenasi (romance started)

I'm intending to add Kelsey too, and romance him.

So... I really can't decide on the 6th party member. Its either :
Keldorn (Paladin, truesight, dispels, Carsomyr, etc) or
Edwin (mage, über)
Haer Dalis (bard, blade, cool but fragile)

I really can't choose.

-Jam

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 09:50

If you have Kelsey, maybe Keldorn, for the Holy Avenger? Personally I like Edwin (he get's so many spells

) but either of those two would be good.

"And remember: love bards, unless they're that Haer'dalis jackass"

(You have to love Jasper St. Baird

)

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 10:58

I now have Keldorn too

Its such a shame he can't cast cleric spells.. what with Jahs and Anomen in the party...

This is quite a butt-kick party now. Just have to remember to buff properly - Chloe needs a STR booster, Keldorn needs Barkskin, Prot from Evil for all = happy party.

-Jam

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 11:29

Without Virconia though

She's definatly my favourite romance (though don't tell Louise that

)

Looks like a good party. I'm either going to do a female sorceror with Chloe, or a have a party of Chloe, Kelsey, Keldorn, Edwin and either Virconia and female assassin or Yoshi and female cleric.

What weapons does Chloe specialise in? Please tell me she can dual wield longswords or katanas?

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 12:36

She specialises in Scimitars(***) and Shortswords.(**) WARNING! She only starts with 1 star in two-weapon-fighting, so I'd wait till she picks up a second star before doing that.

She also starts with a +3 Scimitar and a +2 Shortsword, has a DEX of twentyfive, 100% electricty resitance and is not able to dual class.

And an American accent

-Jam

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 13:10

25 Dex?

Damn, if she could dual to a thief...

But hey, that's not too bad. Scimitar's means she can use belm and her +3, which isn't bad. She only needs get 2 stars in dual-wield and 2 in scimitar and she'd be great

4 attacks with belm too

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 15:13

She now has the second dual weild star, and the belt of Hill Giant Strength, which combined with her Kensai bonuses make her hit a LOT and hit very HARD. Nice. Everyone else has a better AC though, even Kelsey.

-Jam

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 15:51

Jamski: How do you intstall her? I've DLed it, but there's no setup program

What do i do?

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 17:07

Its a WinRar self-extracting archive. If you have WinRar it will install with a double click. If you only have Winzip, nothing will happen.

Google for WinRar and download for free. Its just like WinZip, but with more file types supported.

.rar is much smaller than .zip, and can run a script onOpen.

-Jam

Traianvs · January 21, 2004, 18:16

Does anybody (Jamski?

) know where I can get the BGI/II/IWDI/II music (downloading or other means...?)

I often like music in games and play them whilst browsing this forum etc.. anybody know how I can get that specific music?

PS: I have the official games! (except IWD II, eheh that copy is cough ***** cough)

NeOmega · January 21, 2004, 19:35

thiefs/assassins kick ass. It is all I ever play as my major character. In BG II you could easily, using a thief with boots of the cheetah, edefeat entire powerful enemy parties all alone. It was also very satisfying to poison my crossbow, fire a bolt, hit a priest a mage, or a fighter, hide back in the shadows, and listen to them die a slow, agonizing poisoned death....

Plus, being a thief really takes the hack 'n' slash out and replaces it with tactic.

Not to mention a good thief makes the best scout.

Drogue · January 21, 2004, 19:41

Thank's Jamski. DLed WinRar. Was using WinAce, but it doesn't like .exe files in rar.

Started a new party. So far just out of the dungeon, with Yoshi, Chloe and main character is a neutral good human Priest of Lathander, with Virconia's pic

Should be fun

Jamski · January 21, 2004, 21:08

Quote:

Does anybody (Jamski?

) know where I can get the BGI/II/IWDI/II music (downloading or other means...?)

I know everything about IE games

http://www.interplay.com/interact/do...t.asp?Dltype=1

Get all the music from BG, BG2, IWD, PS:T etc in mp3 format.

My favorite - the Dragon fighting music from BG2

Quote:

thiefs/assassins kick ass. It is all I ever play as my major character. In BG II you could easily, using a thief with boots of the cheetah, edefeat entire powerful enemy parties all alone. It was also very satisfying to poison my crossbow, fire a bolt, hit a priest a mage, or a fighter, hide back in the shadows, and listen to them die a slow, agonizing poisoned death....

Plus, being a thief really takes the hack 'n' slash out and replaces it with tactic.

Not to mention a good thief makes the best scout.

Guess what I've been doing since 10am (its now 2am) - new game with me as an Assassin. Poison weapon + Short Sword of Mask + Sneak attack

Poor poor poor Torgal

Poison from Assassins kills trolls BTW...

-Jam

centrifuge · January 22, 2004, 00:08

Okay, so it would appear that this thread has departed from the original intent of discusing BG1.

okay by me, since I dig all of these games

None-the-less LOTM, please keep informing us of your progression

FYI, I just finished Soulbringer I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I thought the story was quite cool, the npc interaction was really cool (it's one of the few games where the npc's not only have different personalities, but you can also hear, as opposed to read all of their dialog), the combat was also pretty cool, but missile weapons aren't worth using

and sometimes the battles against the main opponents seemed too easy, while lesser opponents seemed more difficult. All in all it was good, but I don't think that replayability is really a factor, since you can't choose different classes etc. If you can find it, however, I do recommend it, somehow it seemd like a breath of fresh air. I think that some of the IE games could have benefited greatly from using some of its ideas.

...So now I've started on NWN, I've decided to put PS:T on the backburner for a while. So now comes my question about NWN...is it possible for a monk to go solo through the original campaign and the 1st expansion?
(sorry Jamski, I haven't given "the dungeon ago yet

it's 2nd on my list

) I've heard, many bad things about the original campaign, but figured that I should give it a try and decide for myself at least it should give me good feel for the game.

Marid Audran · January 22, 2004, 01:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
Oh, what I actually wanted to post...

I now have the first 4 members of my party :

Me, Jamskianna, a female elven Assassin (longsword +1)
Jaheira, female (forced to be lesbian) half-elven Fighter/druid (romance started)
Anomen, male human Fighter/cleric (romance started)
Chloe, female (freely lesbian) Kenasi (romance started)

I'm intending to add Kelsey too, and romance him.

Sweet mother of Mystra. Everyone in this party is going to require major therapy when they're ready to hang up their swords and spellbooks.

You should have pressed Aerie into your gang as another forced lesbian romance to really top things off.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
She now has the second dual weild star, and the belt of Hill Giant Strength, which combined with her Kensai bonuses make her hit a LOT and hit very HARD. Nice. Everyone else has a better AC though, even Kelsey.

-Jam

Am I the only soul who regularly employs the 4th-level Necromancy spell Spirit Armor? Shwing!

She's practically invincible with that buff.

I'm familiar with the woman who voiced Chloe, who has made other soundsets, and done some voice-work for Thief: The Metal Age Fan Missions too.

Thieves that frighten me: Forget your kensai/thieves and assassins; 'tis Alora from BG1, armed with her lucky rabbit's foot and overpowering good cheer. Her rare selected soundset .wavs were the stuff of nightmares. Her "rep-building" comment is rather terrifying too...

Jamski · January 22, 2004, 04:07

Quote:

So now comes my question about NWN...is it possible for a monk to go solo through the original campaign and the 1st expansion?

Easily. Probably the easiest solo class. Try to keep your AC high. and you'll be ok. An AC of ((1.5 x your level) + 20) is acceptable but I'd aim for ((1.5 x your level) + 25) to make sure everything you fight needs to roll a natural 20 to hit you. [/powergamer]

Quote:

I've heard, many bad things about the original campaign, but figured that I should give it a try and decide for myself at least it should give me good feel for the game.

The main problem with the OC, as you will soon see, is the "zen level design" which makes each chapter radial. There's a certain meditative, repetitive quality that some find very relaxing. You'll see this clearly in Chapter 1. There's a central "hub", with 4 "town quarters" each of which has 2 ways to get to a "dungeon" which has a boss and an ingredient. Its neat, but somehow contrived.

Chapter 2 is the same.

So is Chapter 3.

There are times when you just have to grit your teeth because you know that you'll have to fight x Zombies to get to the stairs...

A general comment : You are very often fighting large crowds of weaker creatures. Cleave and Great Cleave and anything that increases number of attacks. This is your mantra.

Quote:

Am I the only soul who regularly employs the 4th-level Necromancy spell Spirit Armor? Shwing! She's practically invincible with that buff.

My only spell caster is Kelsey... and he doesn't have the 4th level slots to spare, but this is my usual tactic with a Kensai Mage.

Quote:

Sweet mother of Mystra. Everyone in this party is going to require major therapy when they're ready to hang up their swords and spellbooks.

Don't forget Keldorn too

Its INSANE with these talkative people, combined with the flirt pack and the banter pack my party spend more time chatting than any other activity. Chloe and Anomen rile each other rotten. Jaheira and Anomen ditto. Jaheira and Chloe aren't sooo friendly. The only way to get more chat would be to add Imoen (and the Imoen romance) then I won't actually be able to play any more. Of course there's also 8 romance talks per hour (4 active romances, and the speed mod to double rate they come at)

AAAAAAAAAGH!

-Jam

lord of the mark · January 22, 2004, 10:00

ok, ive done most of the sidequests that have come up.
Did the merchant company thing.
Dealt with the poison/assasination thingy.
Found the undercellar. The physical connections in both directions are quite clever.
Wasnt able to do get the cure at low lantern tavern. Apparenlty having messed up the first dialogue, theres no other way to get it than stealing it, and doing so causes Flaming fist to show up immediately. even charming the guy who owns the cure doesnt work. I suppose if i were prepared, and has fists available, and used strength potions, i could manage to beat the FF and commoners without killing anyone - but this doesnt seem to be an essential sidequest, so i've decided to just skip it (on the reload)

Ive got plenty of money despite having just resurrected Imoen, after the Merchants company adventure. Next I'll head back to the big sorcery shop, since Dynheir just got to level 7 (as has Khalid) and I can now use 4th level wizard spells (7th level wizard gets 4th level spells - those D&D folks didnt get the word "intuitive" did they?

)

Then I'll proceed to Silvershield estate. After that its on to Seven Suns and Iron Throne, in that order, I presume.

Jamski · January 22, 2004, 11:56

Prepare to be disappointed with the fourth level spells.

The best levels are 1st, 3rd and 6th - 9th. 4th and 5th seem a bit lacking apart from Stoneskin and Breach.

-Jam