Having a castle looks damn cool. It is also probably the stronghold with the most content. Mages and Bards are also pretty fun, and the final reward for Rangers is I think the best loot.
Druid stronghold is awful, actually, adding an extra subquest here would actually be a worthwhile addition for EE.
Ranger's hut. 1 - The quest to get it is my favorite - long and interesting, with great atmosphere, and full of nice tine sub-quests, like dealing with the peaceful ogres, sword&beer-happy teenagers, 'mysterious diary' and stuffed chicken. (Peaceful ogres is the one I like best - hurray for race-equal rights! ;P ) 2 - I like running the ranger's stronghold best, because you get to actually do stuff. With most other holds you just go to them periodically, listen to people talking to you, then tell them what to do, get some coin or item out of it, and that's it. (Bard, thief, mage, cleric, fighter - they all fall under that pattern. Paladin at least gets to travel around a bit. I'm not sure about druid, my memories of that one are fuzzy). (Admittedly, it is funny than when you play as a good, neutral and evil cleric, you get to advise the same people on the same problems, but your advices are drastically different. But to appreciate it you need to complete the game at least three times - or read the wiki). As a ranger, you get messages about troubles in your town, and go to solve them. Plus the concept of defending a small remote village is most appealing to me of all the options. 3 - After completing all the quests you get your very own moondog, who is awesome.
I would say Fighter... I mean if the whole Bhaalspawn thing doesn't work out in the end for you, you still get to go back to a castle and become a Duke or whatever.
You know, in all the years I've played BG, I've never stuck with one of my bard characters long enough to actually see the play I was producing. Are there different play performances based on the choices you make? (Going cheap vs. putting all your spare gold in, choice of actors, etc.)
The performance itself is pretty much the same regardless of your choices. What differs is the confidence of the actors going into it (they will say different things when you chat with them in the playhouse depending on the play quality) and the reception you get afterwards. Interestingly, the money you invest in the play has no effect on the play quality, but does have a big impact on the amount of money you see out of the playhouse after the play is complete (which also depends on the final quality of the performance).
Too bad that the Sphere cannot travel amongst the planes after
you complete the Valygar's quest
but lets suppose that it could be fixed. What a better "stronghold" than one that can travel to, lets say, the Astral Plane and back.
True enough. However, you do kind of trade up to something better in ToB. Just sayin.
also, you don't need to "Finish" Valygar's quest so much as start it. "Finish" suggests that he needs to be with you as something other than a corpse (at least to my mind). As you can guess, I usually just cut off his hand and carry that around.
Don't count on having any exploits to pick up more than one stronghold. We will likely fix such issues before releasing BG2:EE.
Hey, well, you know guys... you can let a *few* of these bugs through. We won't be mad.
We are hired to find and squash all bugs and we are very good at our job. I know some bugs are liked more than others but many of us are very relentless and merciless in our hunt.
There should be a mod that will allow you to get more than one stronghold though.
Don't count on having any exploits to pick up more than one stronghold. We will likely fix such issues before releasing BG2:EE.
Having not had all the strongholds before I think the best one I have played with is the mage one because it gives you some really nice items and has a nice story I guess. Thief stronghold is kinda interesting but it is like one quest and then all it does is make money for you. Fighter is the only other one I had and it's ok I guess, but you put far more money into it than you can make from it.
I guess I don't see multi-class characters being able to take charge of multiple operations as being an 'Exploit'.
@element - um, you do for most of the strongholds. ... I guess I am not getting the distinction you are attempting to draw.
I think Element's saying that he doesn't think it's reasonable to 'withhold' the reward of the Thief guild stronghold if you make a different set of decisions in the quest leading up to it. That said, I can't remember if it's easy to fall foul of that in vanilla BG2 - the expanded Thief stronghold and Mae'Var questline mods really change this part of the game.
Unlike the other stronghold quests acquiring the thief stronghold is tied to the main questline. As a result a significant choice in regards to the stories progression is denied to the player should they be playing a thief class.
Only PC i got a stonghold with were fighters, paladins and thiefs. Pally's stronghold was not as great as I expected, I always had problems with theif: I got away from town for more then a week, then i had to pay to get back my guild, where i found a glitch that had me have to pay again without never having my guild back, weird, but when i was finaly able to get to the end of the quest, it was kind of fun, short but fun. Then we have fighter, a big castle you had to fight trolls to get, a noble family trying to steal it from you, it was fun.
@the_spyder Unlike the other stronghold quests acquiring the thief stronghold is tied to the main questline. As a result a significant choice in regards to the stories progression is denied to the player should they be playing a thief class.
Oh that's right - the, erm, branching options in Chapter 3 have an influence here. Though I think one of the two options is closed to you simply because you're a Thief class anyway, am I right?
A thief character can't side with Bodhi because Bodhi assumes that a thief won't go against the thieves guild, so a thief can't be denied the thief stronghold
Comments
Druid stronghold is awful, actually, adding an extra subquest here would actually be a worthwhile addition for EE.
1 - The quest to get it is my favorite - long and interesting, with great atmosphere, and full of nice tine sub-quests, like dealing with the peaceful ogres, sword&beer-happy teenagers, 'mysterious diary' and stuffed chicken. (Peaceful ogres is the one I like best - hurray for race-equal rights! ;P )
2 - I like running the ranger's stronghold best, because you get to actually do stuff. With most other holds you just go to them periodically, listen to people talking to you, then tell them what to do, get some coin or item out of it, and that's it. (Bard, thief, mage, cleric, fighter - they all fall under that pattern. Paladin at least gets to travel around a bit. I'm not sure about druid, my memories of that one are fuzzy). (Admittedly, it is funny than when you play as a good, neutral and evil cleric, you get to advise the same people on the same problems, but your advices are drastically different. But to appreciate it you need to complete the game at least three times - or read the wiki).
As a ranger, you get messages about troubles in your town, and go to solve them. Plus the concept of defending a small remote village is most appealing to me of all the options.
3 - After completing all the quests you get your very own moondog, who is awesome.
but lets suppose that it could be fixed. What a better "stronghold" than one that can travel to, lets say, the Astral Plane and back.
...although meeting those knights of (spoiler) was cool in the planar sphere.
...and meeting the peckish halflings.
Planar Sphere you have to track down someone and then take them to the sphere.
Fighter Stronghold you have to be hired by someone and agree to clear out the hold for them
Druid grove you have to take the mission to the local town in trouble and attempt to solve the problems
I guess I am not getting the distinction you are attempting to draw.
Yes @stkaye is correct
Unlike the other stronghold quests acquiring the thief stronghold is tied to the main questline. As a result a significant choice in regards to the stories progression is denied to the player should they be playing a thief class.
@stkaye you're right
yep this is what i was getting at (although i was trying to avoid spoilers) and its probably one of the things which i most dislike about BG2