Ya know, I have played this game many times, with good and bad charnames, and I never once decided to go for that gear. It just seemed too cheesey to me.
The more I think about it, the more I think this is actually the better direction to go. Fire is still hot, isle is still cold, poison is still poisonous. Balance things by having most spells that cause physical damage bypass MR (not MM though, that's purely magical) - there are, after all, other resistances that cover most kinds of damage. Turn MR into a more limited protection against magical status effects.
Yes, I think that's essentially the same as the way I also suggested that it ought to work.
As think about this, it really wouldn't be very hard to implement. Just one checkbox in about two dozen spells, I think. Maybe another dozen or so items... still, it would only be about a half hour's work. And it would be easy to apply via WeiDu - if I knew WeiDu. Hmm, I think I'll include this in the "Scales of Balance/Lactose Intolerance" mod that I'm slowly, slowly working on. (Super slow, only because of not knowing WeiDu - that's really all I have left to do.)
Back on topic, the real question is, why is Drizzt in this game in the first place?? It's a stupid encounter, he doesn't need my help with those folks and I don't need his. Best to remove him from the game completely (and thus remove the temptation to get his stupid gear that makes the stupid rest of the game stupid easy). Hey - I'll make that another component of my mod!
Drizztbgone. I guess this kind of already happens lol as evidenced by several "whoah Drizzt got smoked by lightning!" threads but you could have him show up on the map but he gets struck by lightning whenever charname goes to that map. And then his scimitars disappear after he's dead.
I'm not sure the point of a Drizzt Be Gone mod. I mean, if you don't want his gear, then don't take it. It's not as if you can make a mod that would prevent people who do want his gear from taking it.
Just a crazy and wild swinging idea here, but instead of removing/electrocuting/disintegrating/whatevering him and removing his gear in a mod... replace him with an interesting, RP-wise more logical, non-overpowered npc with reasonable gear?
Replace the animation, items, some text strings and tadaaa
Hmm could be.. it might require something more special perhaps... Maybe some BG2 npc appearance?
Now there's an idea for a mod right there! Our favorite bounty hunter Yoshimo, out to hunt you! And after you beat him up (and he is resurrected), he goes limping to Amn, where he blabs about his run-in with a Bhaalspawn to a certain mage...
Kiting involves using a character with a ranged weapon to repetitively *attack-move* against melee opponent, while maintaining a constant distance from it.
As an example, assume your Charname/NPC is equipped with a bow and can make two attacks per round.
This simply means that you are able to attack once every 3 secs (for a 6 sec round). Once the attack animation is over, you Charname/NPC will **just stand there doing nothing for the other two secs**, then the attack animation goes off again. However, your opponent will be busy trying to close the gap (i.e. he will still be moving towards you ), even during those two secs of wait time.
To effectively 'kite' an opponent, you need to not waste the time between the first and second attack animations, by moving your Charname/NPC away (during those idle two secs) such that you maintain a *constant* distance between yourself and the opponent.
Scenario: Without kiting: Charname attacks bandit at a distance of X tiles. After the first attack, he stands there idle for 2 secs before the next attack kicks in, while bandit has closed gap by Y tiles, reducing the effective distance between you and him at X-Y tiles. Remember, using a bow in melee range gives severe thac0 penalty.
With kiting: Charname attacks bandit at a distance of X tiles. After the first attack (and before the second attack starts), bandit moves Y tiles towards Charname, while Charname moves Y tiles away from him, thus maintaining your distance , while still capitalizing on the maximum number of attacks/round available to you.
Contrary to popular perception, kiting does not require any crowd control abilities on your behalf (although, ofc they are helpful). It is also ridiculously easy to pull off in games like BG etc. where spacebar can pause the game. However, there are a ton of other factors which influence gameplay much more strongly in BG series than this skillset. Your thac0, opponent's AC, spell/buff effects etc., play a much more important role in determining whether you can hit him in the first place or not. Also, its much more difficult to 'kite' someone inside a small room. In this case, simply run around them in circles hitting occasionally, just like most of us.
The concept actually comes from real-time online MOBA games like Defense of the Ancients, Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends etc. where it goes by different names like orb walking /kiting/attack move etc.
+1 to IkMarc's suggestion. As long as it remains a player created mod...
Actually kiting in rooms can be fairly easily accomplished by using obstacles to "freeze" the target - he gets on one side of a table with you on the other - you move one way he moves to intercept - you go the other way he goes the other way and you can keep him changing directions and unable to reach you while you pelt away in between - the room at the Candlekeep Inn is useful for this when trying to kite Firebead - lots of furniture to manuever around and confuse him once he runs out of spells - or so I've heard - never done that myself of course...
Actually kiting in rooms can be fairly easily accomplished by using obstacles to "freeze" the target - he gets on one side of a table with you on the other - you move one way he moves to intercept - you go the other way he goes the other way and you can keep him changing directions and unable to reach you while you pelt away in between - the room at the Candlekeep Inn is useful for this when trying to kite Firebead - lots of furniture to manuever around and confuse him once he runs out of spells - or so I've heard - never done that myself of course...
Something like that is my main strategy with Ankhegs. Getting his attention with Minsc or Khalid equipped with Bow and maintaining distance with carefully timed changes of direction which causes Ankheg to rotate and seemingly resets the timer for Ankheg's 'missile' attack. Meanwhile Super-Tank is giving him the Bum's rush from the flanks and rest of Party is range-attacking. Works great as long as there is only 1 Ankheg at a time...
Which reminds me. How do I set traps [with Imoen for example]?? Have seen no explanation of that. Is it available in BG-TotSC? How long does it take?? Should be @3-5 rounds..IMO, Trap-setting ought to require Inventory Space, 5lb. Weight, and fairly expensive purchase [50GP?] from limited number of Outlets, perhaps Thunderhammer Smithy or the Lotus Tent at Nashkel Carnival [Groovy! Like, Ka-boom..! ] and one other place in Baldur'sGate and perhaps a third in Ulgoth's Beard..
And, while I am at it...Clearly, when I import a BG1 game into BG2 I will also be importing PCStats, Proficiencies, Spellbook, etc. Don't know whether I will retain Armor, Weapons, Rings, Cloak etc as, if I understand correctly I begin from Prison of some sort...
But do sequel NPCs, such as Imoen, always show up in BG2 factory-wrapped? I am assuming they do and that there is no particular benefit in playing sequel NPC for the BG1 run-up...
Thanks for all comments, though I should think there are plenty of other threads specifically about playing Romper Room with Drzzt [which, of course, I also will take a shot at some time in the future. Cheers!
Which reminds me. How do I set traps [with Imoen for example]?? Have seen no explanation of that. Is it available in BG-TotSC? How long does it take?? Should be @3-5 rounds..IMO, Trap-setting ought to require Inventory Space, 5lb. Weight, and fairly expensive purchase [50GP?] from limited number of Outlets, perhaps Thunderhammer Smithy or the Lotus Tent at Nashkel Carnival [Groovy! Like, Ka-boom..! ] and one other place in Baldur'sGate and perhaps a third in Ulgoth's Beard..
You set traps by using the respective skill in your special abilities menu (star-icon to the far right of the action bar). Setting traps in BG is almost instant and requires no reagents of any kind. It does however require a successful check against your "Set Traps" thieving skill.
And, while I am at it...Clearly, when I import a BG1 game into BG2 I will also be importing PCStats, Proficiencies, Spellbook, etc. Don't know whether I will retain Armor, Weapons, Rings, Cloak etc as, if I understand correctly I begin from Prison of some sort... But do sequel NPCs, such as Imoen, always show up in BG2 factory-wrapped? I am assuming they do and that there is no particular benefit in playing sequel NPC for the BG1 run-up...
You retain some specific items; which items those are is fairly complicated and follows a weird priority system (i.e. "do you have item X? if yes keep it, if not, do you have item Y? etc...). You can keep some nice items, including the Claw of Kaz'goroth, but if you're interested in specifics, best check one of the many resources on the topic. It's also possible to keep ALL items you imported by means of an exploit...
Other NPCs do indeed come "factory wrapped" as you put it. Only CHARNAME is imported, not anybody else. They will have no gear except their un-removables (hey there, Boo!) and they also may have different stats than they did in BG1. Note that CHARNAME *does* retain all stats from BG1, including modified ones from tomes. So there's an incentive to do the whole journey! I'm not entirely sure what happens with your XP; I do seem to recall that if you have more than the BG2 starting default, you keep that, and if you do not, you gain the missing XP. Better check somewhere if you want to be sure.
Actually kiting in rooms can be fairly easily accomplished by using obstacles to "freeze" the target - he gets on one side of a table with you on the other - you move one way he moves to intercept - you go the other way he goes the other way and you can keep him changing directions and unable to reach you while you pelt away in between - the room at the Candlekeep Inn is useful for this when trying to kite Firebead - lots of furniture to manuever around and confuse him once he runs out of spells - or so I've heard - never done that myself of course...
Something like that is my main strategy with Ankhegs. Getting his attention with Minsc or Khalid equipped with Bow and maintaining distance with carefully timed changes of direction which causes Ankheg to rotate and seemingly resets the timer for Ankheg's 'missile' attack. Meanwhile Super-Tank is giving him the Bum's rush from the flanks and rest of Party is range-attacking. Works great as long as there is only 1 Ankheg at a time...
Which reminds me. How do I set traps [with Imoen for example]?? Have seen no explanation of that. Is it available in BG-TotSC? How long does it take?? Should be @3-5 rounds..IMO, Trap-setting ought to require Inventory Space, 5lb. Weight, and fairly expensive purchase [50GP?] from limited number of Outlets, perhaps Thunderhammer Smithy or the Lotus Tent at Nashkel Carnival [Groovy! Like, Ka-boom..! ] and one other place in Baldur'sGate and perhaps a third in Ulgoth's Beard..
And, while I am at it...Clearly, when I import a BG1 game into BG2 I will also be importing PCStats, Proficiencies, Spellbook, etc. Don't know whether I will retain Armor, Weapons, Rings, Cloak etc as, if I understand correctly I begin from Prison of some sort...
But do sequel NPCs, such as Imoen, always show up in BG2 factory-wrapped? I am assuming they do and that there is no particular benefit in playing sequel NPC for the BG1 run-up...
Thanks for all comments, though I should think there are plenty of other threads specifically about playing Romper Room with Drzzt [which, of course, I also will take a shot at some time in the future. Cheers!
Remember with Ankheg's that sleep and command are very effective as well.
Traps are set with the button on the far right with your thief. Click that and it will bring up any special abilities - including the trap function. You need a pretty decent trap skill to make these really useful. I haven't looked into it in any detail but my rule of thumb is that your trap skill roughly translates to the % that the trap will be set (a 100 skill always works, a 50 skill works about 1/2 the time, etc.). Traps can generally only be set outside of combat and require no inventory.
In vanilla BG1 and BG2, there was no carryover with sequel NPC's so they came factory wrapped. With BGT, your NPCs carried over with their experience, stats, spells, etc. from BG1 so there was an advantage and continuity in playing them - using Imoen, for example, her stats varied depending on if and when you dual classed her and using Jaheira, for example, her wisdom varied depending on whether you used the tomes of wisdom on her.
For BG2:EE, we don't know for sure whether there will be continuity and, if so, what that entails. I am hoping for full continuity but not holding my breath. At a minimum, I would hope the romance aspect of it carried over but they are so early in the process that it may just start everyone as if they have befriended the NPCs.
@AHF, Thanks. The Special Abilities button is what I needed to know. Doink! and, OMG, Ankhegs succumb to Sleep?! Always assumed they were too big for some reason. I think I was having too much fun after all the pointless slaughter of Gibberlings, Gnolls et al to investigate more thoroughly.
I am playing, according to my Computer something labeled Baldur's Gate Complete purchased via Download Code from Gamestop. Is that what people call Tutu and what you mean by BGT or is BGT=Baldur's Gate Trilogy
Full continuity in my case would be problematic, as my First-Run [still ongoing, I like to really think through the RPing] includes attempting to re-recruit Edwin on the Nashkel Bridge with Minsc in party [on the way to Gnoll Fortress/Dynaheir] -- after having checked him out earlier just to see what his Stats, etc were. He became Irate and....Oops, his corpse is still sprawled on the Bridge some weeks later. Will certainly have to call Berrun's attention to his duties as Mayor!! Not the sort of thing Corporate Prospects like to enounter..
@AHF, Thanks. The Special Abilities button is what I needed to know. Doink! and, OMG, Ankhegs succumb to Sleep?! Always assumed they were too big for some reason. I think I was having too much fun after all the pointless slaughter of Gibberlings, Gnolls et al to investigate more thoroughly.
I am playing, according to my Computer something labeled Baldur's Gate Complete purchased via Download Code from Gamestop. Is that what people call Tutu and what you mean by BGT or is BGT=Baldur's Gate Trilogy
Full continuity in my case would be problematic, as my First-Run [still ongoing, I like to really think through the RPing] includes attempting to re-recruit Edwin on the Nashkel Bridge with Minsc in party [on the way to Gnoll Fortress/Dynaheir] -- after having checked him out earlier just to see what his Stats, etc were. He became Irate and....Oops, his corpse is still sprawled on the Bridge some weeks later. Will certainly have to call Berrun's attention to his duties as Mayor!! Not the sort of thing Corporate Prospects like to enounter..
I'm not sure how Baldur's Gate Complete compares to Tutu or Baldur's Gate Trilogy. Tutu has no NPC continuity. Even BGT doesn't penalize you for NPC's that ended up dead - Edwin will still show up in SOA so don't worry about that.
@AHF, Thanks. The Special Abilities button is what I needed to know. Doink! and, OMG, Ankhegs succumb to Sleep?! Always assumed they were too big for some reason. I think I was having too much fun after all the pointless slaughter of Gibberlings, Gnolls et al to investigate more thoroughly.
I am playing, according to my Computer something labeled Baldur's Gate Complete purchased via Download Code from Gamestop. Is that what people call Tutu and what you mean by BGT or is BGT=Baldur's Gate Trilogy
Full continuity in my case would be problematic, as my First-Run [still ongoing, I like to really think through the RPing] includes attempting to re-recruit Edwin on the Nashkel Bridge with Minsc in party [on the way to Gnoll Fortress/Dynaheir] -- after having checked him out earlier just to see what his Stats, etc were. He became Irate and....Oops, his corpse is still sprawled on the Bridge some weeks later. Will certainly have to call Berrun's attention to his duties as Mayor!! Not the sort of thing Corporate Prospects like to enounter..
You can ask Edwin about his death when you meet him in BG2. He says something like you are a monkeybrain.
Quick! I was at 1.8gig on downloading EE, and my new laptop auto restarted doing updates! Will the progress have to be redownloaded?! It's only at 16% with the windows updates atm. So might have enough time for it to finish the little it had to download.
What would happen if I disbanded a Party Member [Khalid] in Chapter 2 after posting him in the very room in which I meet the Bandit Informer in Chapter 3. Could I use Charm Person?
My favourite cheese is to give a weak character a strength potion then load up on the equipment they cannot use due to low strength then just leave said equipment equipped...
Viconia regular runs around with a large shield due to this tactic...
I call this my aged stilton.
My next favourite bit of cheddar is using the pause when spotting enemies... This is legit. BUT you can get your character to run in the opposite direction immediately. Usually the enemy will not follow allowing you to prepare or launch area effect spells without the enemy engaging you.
I call this my melted canambeir.
Lastly. Those people that have good stuff on them but give you bad reputation if the only way to get said good stuff is by decapitation. (I rarely loot helmets).
Charm the chump.
Send chump into battle...
Let charmed chump take a beating... Don't let him fight! He could hurt someone! Like an innocent wolf!
Collect loot from charmed chumps dead body glad that your reputation is as clean as Baldurrans Boxers.
Comments
Ya know, I have played this game many times, with good and bad charnames, and I never once decided to go for that gear. It just seemed too cheesey to me.
But that's just how I roll ...
I would tend to agree. He's hundreds of miles from his usual stomping grounds. It was silly to include him.
Replace the animation, items, some text strings and tadaaa
Just saying...
Maybe another group of adventurers like the Amazons or the crew in Mutamin's Garden?
Kiting involves using a character with a ranged weapon to repetitively *attack-move* against melee opponent, while maintaining a constant distance from it.
As an example, assume your Charname/NPC is equipped with a bow and can make two attacks per round.
This simply means that you are able to attack once every 3 secs (for a 6 sec round). Once the attack animation is over, you Charname/NPC will **just stand there doing nothing for the other two secs**, then the attack animation goes off again. However, your opponent will be busy trying to close the gap (i.e. he will still be moving towards you ), even during those two secs of wait time.
To effectively 'kite' an opponent, you need to not waste the time between the first and second attack animations, by moving your Charname/NPC away (during those idle two secs) such that you maintain a *constant* distance between yourself and the opponent.
Scenario:
Without kiting: Charname attacks bandit at a distance of X tiles. After the first attack, he stands there idle for 2 secs before the next attack kicks in, while bandit has closed gap by Y tiles, reducing the effective distance between you and him at X-Y tiles. Remember, using a bow in melee range gives severe thac0 penalty.
With kiting: Charname attacks bandit at a distance of X tiles. After the first attack (and before the second attack starts), bandit moves Y tiles towards Charname, while Charname moves Y tiles away from him, thus maintaining your distance , while still capitalizing on the maximum number of attacks/round available to you.
Contrary to popular perception, kiting does not require any crowd control abilities on your behalf (although, ofc they are helpful). It is also ridiculously easy to pull off in games like BG etc. where spacebar can pause the game. However, there are a ton of other factors which influence gameplay much more strongly in BG series than this skillset. Your thac0, opponent's AC, spell/buff effects etc., play a much more important role in determining whether you can hit him in the first place or not. Also, its much more difficult to 'kite' someone inside a small room. In this case, simply run around them in circles hitting occasionally, just like most of us.
The concept actually comes from real-time online MOBA games like Defense of the Ancients, Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends etc. where it goes by different names like orb walking /kiting/attack move etc.
+1 to IkMarc's suggestion. As long as it remains a player created mod...
lol, DrizztbGone sounds nice.
Which reminds me. How do I set traps [with Imoen for example]?? Have seen no explanation of that. Is it available in BG-TotSC? How long does it take?? Should be @3-5 rounds..IMO, Trap-setting ought to require Inventory Space, 5lb. Weight, and fairly expensive purchase [50GP?] from limited number of Outlets, perhaps Thunderhammer Smithy or the Lotus Tent at Nashkel Carnival [Groovy! Like, Ka-boom..! ] and one other place in Baldur'sGate and perhaps a third in Ulgoth's Beard..
And, while I am at it...Clearly, when I import a BG1 game into BG2 I will also be importing PCStats, Proficiencies, Spellbook, etc. Don't know whether I will retain Armor, Weapons, Rings, Cloak etc as, if I understand correctly I begin from Prison of some sort...
But do sequel NPCs, such as Imoen, always show up in BG2 factory-wrapped? I am assuming they do and that there is no particular benefit in playing sequel NPC for the BG1 run-up...
Thanks for all comments, though I should think there are plenty of other threads specifically about playing Romper Room with Drzzt [which, of course, I also will take a shot at some time in the future.
You retain some specific items; which items those are is fairly complicated and follows a weird priority system (i.e. "do you have item X? if yes keep it, if not, do you have item Y? etc...). You can keep some nice items, including the Claw of Kaz'goroth, but if you're interested in specifics, best check one of the many resources on the topic. It's also possible to keep ALL items you imported by means of an exploit...
Other NPCs do indeed come "factory wrapped" as you put it. Only CHARNAME is imported, not anybody else. They will have no gear except their un-removables (hey there, Boo!) and they also may have different stats than they did in BG1. Note that CHARNAME *does* retain all stats from BG1, including modified ones from tomes. So there's an incentive to do the whole journey! I'm not entirely sure what happens with your XP; I do seem to recall that if you have more than the BG2 starting default, you keep that, and if you do not, you gain the missing XP. Better check somewhere if you want to be sure.
Traps are set with the button on the far right with your thief. Click that and it will bring up any special abilities - including the trap function. You need a pretty decent trap skill to make these really useful. I haven't looked into it in any detail but my rule of thumb is that your trap skill roughly translates to the % that the trap will be set (a 100 skill always works, a 50 skill works about 1/2 the time, etc.). Traps can generally only be set outside of combat and require no inventory.
In vanilla BG1 and BG2, there was no carryover with sequel NPC's so they came factory wrapped. With BGT, your NPCs carried over with their experience, stats, spells, etc. from BG1 so there was an advantage and continuity in playing them - using Imoen, for example, her stats varied depending on if and when you dual classed her and using Jaheira, for example, her wisdom varied depending on whether you used the tomes of wisdom on her.
For BG2:EE, we don't know for sure whether there will be continuity and, if so, what that entails. I am hoping for full continuity but not holding my breath. At a minimum, I would hope the romance aspect of it carried over but they are so early in the process that it may just start everyone as if they have befriended the NPCs.
I am playing, according to my Computer something labeled Baldur's Gate Complete purchased via Download Code from Gamestop. Is that what people call Tutu and what you mean by BGT or is BGT=Baldur's Gate Trilogy
Full continuity in my case would be problematic, as my First-Run [still ongoing, I like to really think through the RPing] includes attempting to re-recruit Edwin on the Nashkel Bridge with Minsc in party [on the way to Gnoll Fortress/Dynaheir] -- after having checked him out earlier just to see what his Stats, etc were. He became Irate and....Oops, his corpse is still sprawled on the Bridge some weeks later. Will certainly have to call Berrun's attention to his duties as Mayor!! Not the sort of thing Corporate Prospects like to enounter..
Anyone?!
Viconia regular runs around with a large shield due to this tactic...
I call this my aged stilton.
My next favourite bit of cheddar is using the pause when spotting enemies... This is legit. BUT you can get your character to run in the opposite direction immediately. Usually the enemy will not follow allowing you to prepare or launch area effect spells without the enemy engaging you.
I call this my melted canambeir.
Lastly. Those people that have good stuff on them but give you bad reputation if the only way to get said good stuff is by decapitation. (I rarely loot helmets).
Charm the chump.
Send chump into battle...
Let charmed chump take a beating... Don't let him fight! He could hurt someone! Like an innocent wolf!
Collect loot from charmed chumps dead body glad that your reputation is as clean as Baldurrans Boxers.
I call this my smelly bit a Brie.
All my cheeses are great on crackers...