That one bg moment you have never mastered in 1000 playthroughs...

ajwz

I must have played bg through about 50 times in my life - I know all the text, fights and stats off by heart, from start to finish - this is not an exaggeration.

However, one momemnt I have never mastered in god knows how many playthroughs is the Ritual alter of Amaunator ritual sequences. I remember the ritual ending questions for morning noon and evening, but I always just save-reload until I get the other questions right.

What is your bg related bugbear that you really should have overcome by now?

Daedalus87m

I just use 2 different fire protection spells and try all possibilities to save the load/save times ^^

The trap at the little bridge, before you reach the Avatar of Amaunator at the Beholders cult quest.
I'm alwys rushing through and one milisecond before it triggers I'm like: D'oh!

ElectricMonk

@ajwz I used to have quite a few of these, since breezing through many parts of the game without paying too much attention is easy when you just quicksave and reload when anything goes wrong. One thing that greatly improved my experience with the games was to start playing through them with limited reloads, which began with only saving at taverns/inns. It really makes everything in the game more important, and so you actually have to take the time to get everything right, and things that didn't matter when you had a quicksave to reload suddenly do matter, it was actually a lot more fun believe it or not.

levelworm

I only played BG/BG2 for a few times, so I do have lots of difficult times. The most difficult one, I believe, is to beat the mage at Friendly Arm Inn when soloing.

MooseChangerPat

@levelworm Ugh... I hate that mage. It's so early in the game to fight such a high level spell caster. Especially if you are taking another mage or... well anything really. The best way to do it is to make sure a lot of the guards are around to back you up. Even then it can still be a challenge though.

For me... I've played the game well over 30 times, and I'd have to say the thing that gives me the most problems are the blasted mind flayers in BG2. I finally came up with a strategy a year or so back that made it a lot easier to take them on, which was have a mage with the staff of the archmagi making him invisible, throw a charge from the wand of cloudkill into the room, and shut the door. Mindflayers are too stupid to open doors, and choke to death on the poison cloud of doom. I like to call it, the gas chamber strategy. But now that their fixing bugs and such in EE, they may make it so the mindflayers can open the doors... and then I'll be doomed again.

SkinnyD

levelworm said:

I only played BG/BG2 for a few times, so I do have lots of difficult times. The most difficult one, I believe, is to beat the mage at Friendly Arm Inn when soloing.

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes, no matter what class or race I play and no matter how I prepare for it, that mage seems to have my number. Way back when in my first few attempts at the game, I used to believe he was a boss of some sort. Of course back then I didn't know how to pause the game and I also believed that clicking attack on an enemy more than once yielded more attacks (as was the case in Diablo).

Cheesebelly

I never can get in my head the health gains of multiclasses with maximum possible constitution. I mean, for classes like Cleric/mage it's easy with 16 constitution (5 and 3). But when it comes to a fighter, say, Dwarven Figther/Cleric with 19 con... you get 14 health at the beginning. And I simply CAN'T figure it out sometimes XD

Aside from that, I really know a lot of dialogue combos by heart. But I will always mistake the button to press to get to the shop screen of the Carnival's merchants (some of them have it in the first option, some in the second).

AndreaColombo

I could never kill Demogorgon without resorting to cheats. True story. I know it's shameful.

Ferluci

I did, but only by filling the room with infinite cloudkills etc... In BGEE i'll give it another try!

Cheesebelly

AndreaColombo said:

I could never kill Demogorgon without resorting to cheats. True story. I know it's shameful.

@AndreaColombo : 5 spike traps kill ANYTHING

ElectricMonk

AndreaColombo said:

I could never kill Demogorgon without resorting to cheats. True story. I know it's shameful.

For Shame!! ; )

Seriously, though, it's very much worth keeping at it as finally killing him just feels great, he's such a powerful enemy. Demogorgon is definitely a memorable battle.

morgy321

did not find him to be to much of a fuss realy i just made sure i had as little as posseble hitting me and as many as posseble hitting him

meaning as sone as he spawend any thing i kill it as fast as i was able to

elminster

The mage in front of the Friendly Arm Inn definitely, but I like it because it keeps you on your feet. It also makes for a good use of the potion of speed Imoen has. Considering how substantially difficult he is relative to your level than the other assassins you face, he stands out.

levelworm

MooseChangerPat said:

@levelworm Ugh... I hate that mage. It's so early in the game to fight such a high level spell caster. Especially if you are taking another mage or... well anything really. The best way to do it is to make sure a lot of the guards are around to back you up. Even then it can still be a challenge though.

For me... I've played the game well over 30 times, and I'd have to say the thing that gives me the most problems are the blasted mind flayers in BG2. I finally came up with a strategy a year or so back that made it a lot easier to take them on, which was have a mage with the staff of the archmagi making him invisible, throw a charge from the wand of cloudkill into the room, and shut the door. Mindflayers are too stupid to open doors, and choke to death on the poison cloud of doom. I like to call it, the gas chamber strategy. But now that their fixing bugs and such in EE, they may make it so the mindflayers can open the doors... and then I'll be doomed again.

yeah the mind flayers are really annoying (even in the game NWN), somehow I found a tip in a walkthrough a few years ago and managed to improve my saving throws dramatically.

paulsifer42

From my few playthroughs (when I was 14 mind you) I remember there being creatures that turned you to stone. I simply stopped going to that part of the map. Can't wait to get back in the saddle and figure out how to beat them!

ElectricMonk

@paulsifer42 Ah yes, the basilisk, always a lot of fun. Ultimately they don't end up being very tactically challenging or anything, but quite dangerous nonetheless.

paulsifer42

@jaysl659 Yeah, I never figured out how to beat them. I'm still not sure if I need a potion, or a spell, or what, but I never did figure it out.

Tanthalas

Yep, there's a certain potion or a certain spell that greatly helps you to fight them.

paulsifer42

@Tanthalas Thanks for the help.

ElectricMonk

Well if you want their names:

Scroll of Protection from Petrification and Potion of Mirrored Eyes, both give immunity to the effect, the protection from petrification scroll actually lasts for like 6-8 hours though, so generally you just put in on your tank and try to have him/her clear the area.

paulsifer42

@jaysl659 More helpful, thank you. And thanks for being considerate of me possibly not wanting to know. What a guy.

Xasil

Kangaxx in BG2, I made the mistake to go upstair after he changed form and save, each time I went back down I had a finger of death spell cast on me instanly and died each time lol

MooseChangerPat

@Xasil

Ever think of putting protection from death on your dude?

Lemernis

The only thing that comes to mind now is a key fight in a mod called The Gray Clan, which I undertook while playing an offbeat party to increase the game's challenge in general. All I remember about it was the villain said "Now the fon begins" and cracked open a case of whupass.

I was trying out the Wild Mage using the custom Spellshaper kit. My NPCs were Imoen, Minsc, Xzar, Xan, and "Finch," a custom NPC mod (halfling cleric). I also had SCS installed, although I can't recall if the scripting for Gray Clan and SCS intersects.

Anyway, with only one tank in my party this was just brutal. I couldn't get the win.

levelworm

Xasil said:

Kangaxx in BG2, I made the mistake to go upstair after he changed form and save, each time I went back down I had a finger of death spell cast on me instanly and died each time lol

Try some protection spells.

Bugrat

Has anyone won the final battle of the Ascension mod for ToB? I have done dozens of full clears of BG1 & BG2, and attempted the fight in question a handful of times but I always get trounced.

ElectricMonk

@Bugrat Shameful though it is, I've never beaten the final battle with the Ascension mod, although I think it has a lot to do with ToB in general. I've attempted the battle and failed, and then ultimately tried to start the whole series over from BG1, but something about ToB (even with the Ascension mod and other mods) really lacks replayability for me, and I'll often abandon my playthroughs after the end of SoA and just start a new character in BG1.

Nice profile pic btw.

Aranneas

I beat Ascension on Hard difficulty. Never tried it on insane. I don't recall my exact tactics but it was a nightmare to manage and felt like a truly rewarding accomplishment, especially having already played the encounter in Vanilla. (Man was that a letdown.)

Most of my bugbear moments are probably from tactical encounter mods tbh. I certainly remember The Ritual giving me plenty of trouble (from Tactics), as well as the Improved Bodhi encounter.

Corvino

I never remember the Wyvern random encounters in Cloakwood. I step out of the mines, click the Friendly Arm and get halfway through a sigh of relief before "you have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself". Then my mages get ganked.

Aranneas

Corvino said:

I never remember the Wyvern random encounters in Cloakwood. I step out of the mines, click the Friendly Arm and get halfway through a sigh of relief before "you have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself". Then my mages get ganked.

hahahah yes i totally forgot about that
the sword spider ambushes are my favourite actually

AndreaColombo

@Xasil - try using a Scroll of Protection from Undead on one of your melee-ers and sending them against Kangaxx alone... les jeux sont faits!