A good favored enemy(Potential spoilers)

Necomancer

Like a guy who never gets anything done I am planning several playthroughs of Baldur's Gate and one of those I would be playing as a ranger, but I'm looking at the favored enemies list and I can't remember many, if any, of these enemies showing up in BG2.

Does anyone else remember differently? If I played a ranger I'd want a favored enemy I face more then a few times in both BG1 and BG2. So far my choices are: Carrion Crawler, Ettercap, Ghoul, Gibberling, Gnoll, HobGoblin, Kobold, Ogre, Skeleton and Giant Spider.

Besides giant spiders and maby ghouls or hobgoblins I can't think of any of those enemies I fight in BG2.

CaptRory

Originally you got to change your favored enemy between games. So if you picked Spiders for the first game (which is a good choice) you weren't stuck with it in the second game.

Dragons, Demons, and Undead are all good choices for the second game but out of the three only undead show up with any regularity in the first game.

I'd say take Spiders 'cause they're annoying and have natural AC that's pretty good then switch for the second game. If it doesn't let you switch automatically just Shadowkeeper it to something applicable.

KidCarnival

Spiders are the most consistant enemy. They aren't in important fights, but you encounter them in the wilderness/dungeons in both games. If you can't pick a new enemy in BG2, it's at least somewhat useful.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

amftron

Spiders or Vampires. Are vamps even on the list ? Been ages since i rolled a ranger.

CaptRory

Vampires aren't on the list of Favored Enemies for BG1. And there aren't any in the game that I can recall.

Chow

Unless my memory fails me, picking Troll will allow you to kill them without fire or acid, which can be a huge asset in the second game.

CaptRory

That would be handy! Though its not usually a big issue to have someone cast Flame Sword and finish 'em off on the ground.

Chow

Every memorized Flame Blade is one less of some other spell you might want to use instead. You usually run out of them before you run out of trolls, anyway.

KidCarnival

Samus said:

KidCarnival said:

Spiders are the most consistant enemy. They aren't in important fights, but you encounter them in the wilderness/dungeons in both games. If you can't pick a new enemy in BG2, it's at least somewhat useful.

I do not know if it is just me but I am finding the spiders in EE to be more tame, particularly in the poison department. Rather than pick a foe who you encounter most often perhaps pick one which is the most troublesome. I personally dislike those enemies that can hold your party members, so the quicker you kill them the better...

Well, I never play rangers and have no clue if the advantage is really notable. There are really not THAT many ghouls or carrion crawlers in BG1. Sure, they can hold/paralyze and are more annoying than spiders, but an advantage against them is as cool as "sword +3 vs shapeshifters". It's certainly useful, but the shapeshifters are rather limited.

None of the creatures is both plentiful and annoying enough to make me want an advantage against them. However, I see potential for a new "3 intelligence" run with a ranger whose arch enemy choice is "gibberling".

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

CaptRory

Chow said:

Every memorized Flame Blade is one less of some other spell you might want to use instead. You usually run out of them before you run out of trolls, anyway.

I agree with you to a point. I usually use it as a stop gap measure to finish off the trolls I've beaten down when I don't have a real fire weapon. Its more efficient to have Jaheria go around and execute three trolls with one Flame Blade than to cast three fire arrows/acid arrows.

Tresset

No one has said ogre yet. They are quite common in BG1 and can do lots of damage. That seems like another good choice to me.

mjs

i'll vote for hobgoblins. they always attack in large groups, so if you can hit them first it's pretty useful

i played a solo archer with hobgoblin preferred enemies, the group above FAI for the joia's ring and the ambush to beregost didn't know what hit them.

THWACK THWACK THWACK!

amftron

As it stands then i'd just pick spiders. Nothing else is really much of a threat.

CaptRory

@amftron I normally agree with you, if you have someone immune to poison in the group, spiders aren't really an issue. I was just thinking of my current game with a Cavalier and thought "If this were a multiplayer game the ranger player could focus on something else 'cause spiders don't really hurt me..."

amftron

@CaptRory, true, but sword spiders still attack multiple times per round, i'd rather just get them killed quickly.

I'm struggling to think of any other favoured enemy that would warrant picking, i suppose hobgoblins maybe, but if you're playing ranged then your THACO should be able to cope with them regardless.

CaptRory

@amftron You make a good point. Not just Sword Spiders though. There are a whole bunch of annoying spiders. Like, Phase Spiders. They may onyl be in range for a couple of rounds before teleporting away again, so a good bonus to clobbering them can reduce their annoyance level.

Ogres would probably be my second choice if you really had no issues with spiders 'cause they can clobber a low level group in no time at all. And they show up quite a bit. And they can be dangerous even once you get some levels and equipment.

Tyranus

Undead is always a good choice. I've never found having Spiders as a favoured enemy to be all that useful, considering they're not much of a challenge outside of Cloakwood. Undead helps against a lot of tough encounters from level 1 to 40.

CaptRory

Unfortunately it isn't just Undead but specific to different kinds. I wish someone would mod the favored enemies to be much broader categories like in Pathfinder so its a more useful ability. Like, Undead vs. specific undead now.

KidCarnival

Not that I know the first thing about Rangers, but isn't it also specifically Giant Spider, and hence has no use against Sword or Phase Spiders? If the categories were as broad as "all spiders", "all monstrous humanoids" or "all undead creatures", it would be a rather obvious choice.

CaptRory

I thought Giant Spider meant all the giant spiders not just the ones marked Giant Spider.

KidCarnival

Are there non-giant spiders? They all seem to be roughly the same size.

EntropyXII

I always pick spiders - for roleplay reasons mostly. IRL I genuinely cannot stand them. I also think it is the most logical choice with a young man/woman brought up in the dusty libraries of Candlekeep with lots of dark corners and cobwebs.

Plus there are a ton of spiders in the game, they can be annoying and deadly - and as with what I said above... why would my character hate undead if he'd/she'd never seen one before?

CaptRory

@EntropyXII

I heartily agree. I HATE spiders. I wouldn't mind meeting a Giant Spider in real life. It'd give my desire to use a shotgun on a spider a non-crazy bent.

element

i think youll be able to reselect in BG2 EE so id pick something purely with BG1 in mind , and in that regard id choose spiders or ogres

Chow

element said:

i think youll be able to reselect in BG2 EE so id pick something purely with BG1 in mind , and in that regard id choose spiders or ogres

I'm fairly sure that's only in the original, which also allows you to choose a kit and stuff - because they did not yet exist. But with TuTu, or EE, they do.

CaptRory

@Chow

Well~ there are also a ton of new favored enemies in the next game. I'm sure they'll fix things for us so we can reselect. Otherwise almost everyone will just fix it themselves and they're trying hard toa void that sortof thing.

Southpaw

for BGI I'd recommend - Spiders, Ogres (Both quite powerful/annoying) or Hobogoblins (not strong, but plenty)
for BGII I'd recommend - Vampires/Dragons/Liches (powerful)

franco

Southpaw said:

for BGI I'd recommend - Spiders, Ogres (Both quite powerful/annoying) or Hobogoblins (not strong, but plenty)
for BGII I'd recommend - Vampires/Dragons/Liches (powerful)

I really agree with the Spiders. The Sword Spiders are doozies. They are so fast, I often feel at risk of losing a party member. I want to see a race between one of them with a thief with boots of speed.

The Hobgoblins, because of the flawed fog of war system, never seem to come at me in more than ones or twos, so they're easy (it would be good to allow the fog of war to permit those in sight to call more of those still out of sight). The ogres usually get softened pretty good by ranged weapons, and are dangerous mostly to lvl 1 characters.

For BGII I agree totally.

Awong124

Kobolds and hobgoblins are probably the worst choices because they're so weak that having a bonus against them is kind of a waste.