Some BG 2 Questions
Heindrich
Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
I got a few specific questions that kinda follow on from my last thread
but I thought it'd be better to start a new one to save u guys some reading
I've only got as far as freeing the slaves in the slums (been busy so not played much), so please NO SPOILERS in your answers as always. I'm considering reloading cos my game's gotten a bit messy RP-wise, and before I do I wanna check the following:
1)
Context to the question:
Will a party consisting of Fighter/Mage Charname, Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen/Yoshimo be reasonably capable of completing SoA and ToB? Bearing in mind I will not be min/maxing and playing semi-'blind', so will probably miss out on various uber weapons and easter eggs. I know (been told) Keldorn is very powerful, but RP-wise, my Charname would just recruit Anomen when they first meet at the Copper Coronet, so I'd prefer to just use him.
2)
Is the quest to save Imoen particularly challenging? Or rather roughly what level should I be before I try?
Extra context:
3)
I've been playing with no mods that I'm aware of, just as downloaded from GOG. Thus far I've not noticed any bugs, but people keep mentioning fix-packs and mods.
What bugs are there exactly in the Vanilla? Are they significant? (don't answer me if it involves the plot) I'm really reluctant about installing any mods encase it messes up my game or changes the experience in any way. I just want to play 'the original experience' BG 2.
but I thought it'd be better to start a new one to save u guys some reading
I've only got as far as freeing the slaves in the slums (been busy so not played much), so please NO SPOILERS in your answers as always. I'm considering reloading cos my game's gotten a bit messy RP-wise, and before I do I wanna check the following:
1)
Context to the question:
I was recommended to pick up Keldorn for his mighty dispelling capabilities, and I know magical duels will feature hugely in this game. However, I am playing a RP-focused run (as opposed to powergaming), and the process of getting Keldorn at the start felt very 'metagamey', (I had to avoid the nasty encounters near him and abruptly stopped his investigation of the Eyeless). Also when his quest came along and I played it the way my Charname would handle it, I lost Keldorn permanently -.-
Will a party consisting of Fighter/Mage Charname, Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen/Yoshimo be reasonably capable of completing SoA and ToB? Bearing in mind I will not be min/maxing and playing semi-'blind', so will probably miss out on various uber weapons and easter eggs. I know (been told) Keldorn is very powerful, but RP-wise, my Charname would just recruit Anomen when they first meet at the Copper Coronet, so I'd prefer to just use him.
2)
Is the quest to save Imoen particularly challenging? Or rather roughly what level should I be before I try?
Extra context:
RP-wise, rescuing Imoen is the absolute priority for Charname. But common-sense wise, I fear the Cowled Wizards will be way stronger than my party, (actually I deliberately cast magic to get them to appear, hoping that I could talk to them, but they just attacked on sight and wiped out my party, lol, so I'm guessing that's not how you're supposed to save her) so I've been spending gold on improving gear and buying a magic license before paying Gaelen(?) to save Imoen. However, it bothers me (Charname) that he has raised over 20,000 gold, but spend most of it on gear instead of saving Imoen asap.
3)
I've been playing with no mods that I'm aware of, just as downloaded from GOG. Thus far I've not noticed any bugs, but people keep mentioning fix-packs and mods.
What bugs are there exactly in the Vanilla? Are they significant? (don't answer me if it involves the plot) I'm really reluctant about installing any mods encase it messes up my game or changes the experience in any way. I just want to play 'the original experience' BG 2.
0
Comments
[Spoiler] Keldorn isn't only an incredible powerful character, he also has an amazing personality and adds very much to the story. He has dialogues and opinions about many things in the game, and he also prevents you from taking some options (Cleric stronghold) by lying to people, he will say "I am sorry to say this but CHARNAME didn't tell you the whole truth" . The problem with him is that most people would let him go back to his wife when you're doing his quest and remove him permanently from your party. He is worth taking with you and he will influence your playthrough towards good actions. [/spoiler]
2.)
[Spoiler] Getting to Imoen isn't hard, it is what happens afterwards that is difficult. Sadly Imoen wasn't ment to be gotten early on as she has almost no dialogues at all between the quests in chapter 2-3. So don't worry about her and just do the quests you can before getting her [/spoiler]
3.)
There are almost no bugs in the game when it's patched. All this about fix packs are all nice and dandy but you can play the original game with the ToB patch and never run into any bugs at all.
Imoen:
Without spoiling too much, Imoen's quest is a thing you do and leave everything else behind, that is as far as I remember. The most powerful weapons you will get later on, HOWEVER there are a lot of powerful weapons and side missions you will also miss if you go straight to Imoens quest.
About your party, I wouldn't worry too much, my only concern is that you have no real "bow" users, and I'm not talking about thieves since they can only spec 2 in bow. So what you probably have to realise is that Aerie should be used as a buffer/debuffer so that your melee characters, MT, minsc, jaheira, and Anomen will be able to land some hits. Without the low THAC0 of a bow user I think you will struggle picking down a lot of smaller/medium enemies, so making sure no buffs stands between your target and the enemy, would be my way to go.
Hope it helps
you can rescue imoen whenever it is not hard
2 party
Fighter/Mage Charname, Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen/Yoshimo
pretty good party with 2 not fighters should work great
3 bugs and mods
mods are only for things like true grandmastery that gives +0.5 apr and other things it doesn't really "fix" things you can play without them easily no problem
4 keldorn
i think keldorn is great but vanilla bg is so easy that you don't need keldorn your 2-3 mages with spells will do
Odd game design if true, seems a bit strange to penalise players who try to save their best friend asap, which is the 'noble' thing to do RP-wise. I guess I'll have to RP it as 'Charname realises that he needs time to regain his strength after the tortures of Irenicus and also acquire proper equipment before confronting the powerful Cowled Wizards to save Imoen.' I'll just trust that there's a good plot reason for this...
From a gaming perspective, I wanted to find Imoen asap cos I'm concerned she's gaining no xp whilst she's a prisoner, so I didn't want too-big an xp gap to develop between her and everyone else.
1.) The person is busy talk bug in BG2 ToB before patch fixed it.
2.) BGT and Tutu crashing in Beregost.
I might be lucky but i have played so many games with only the original patch and never ran into any big problems.
I go for rescuing Imoen quickly. I really dislike the idea of letting her rot in Spellhold for long. I adventure just long enough to be able to afford her rescue (and complete Nalia's quests) before I go after Imoen.
Just like BG1; you then end up with a lot of quests you can finish up, even though perfect role playing would probably have you scurrying off on the main plot. But I take my time once I rescue Immy anyway. The game won't actually force the issue. And none of the old quests actually time out, they are all waiting for you.
The party you have will be fine; although Keldorn would be more helpful than Anomen.
Your party should be alright if you get Imoen reasonably early. With just multi-classed mages and no Keldorn, you are rather low on caster levels (high-level spells come late, no overpowered Dispel or free True Seeing). Imoen can help with this, but not if you get her too late.
She can be level 11 or level 13 when you rescue her, so going around level 12–15 is pretty reasonable. The other stuff isn't that difficult and can be handled at those levels, even by someone who isn't powergaming their brains out.
[Edited] : Just want to say i'm not against the Fixpack and i think people should install it to get an improved gaming experience. BG2 just happens to be one of those games that you can play with the original patch and play a bug free game. Wish more games that get released today had the same amount of testing.
I haven't experienced alot of those bugs myself
That said if the fix-pack is a general improvement, I might as well just install it for peace-of-mind. As I said, the main reason that I hesitate is that I don't want to taint the vanilla experience with some optional fixes that might be motivated by D&D fans trying to mod the the game to better reflect PnP. I also hope this fix patch won't improve enemy AI or make my life tougher in some other way, since I am already penalising myself by playing RP-focused, semi-blind and not using min/maxed PC.
Also when I was watching 'mynameisnotlilly's Let's Play, I noticed that he experienced more bugs and crashes than I did when I played BG 1 as downloaded from GOG, whereas he had installed some fix packs.
The only bug I noticed in BG 1 Vanilla (I only played to chapter 5) was that when u went into a cave, ur party formation often got switched. Thee only bug I noticed in BG EE was Tethtoril's quest.
I thought I'd be able to do a fair few quests before I'd have anything close to 20k gold, but I got bombarded by quests every district I walked into, and even though all I've done thus far is wipe out the slavers in the slums, I've somehow managed to spend about 9k gold on equipment, 5k on a license and still have 6k gold left. It seems money comes much easier in BG 2 than BG 1, especially early-game. Ah well in my reload I guess I'll try find some sort of balance on the Imoen issue. My normal 'completionist' instinct is really clashing with my 'RP' and 'Realism' instinct.
Yes, BG2 is not Temple of Corrupting Your Save. But describing it as bug-free is a pretty big mischaracterisation.
I don't think its that hard to justify a stop by the Temple District early. The only issue then with Keldorn is dragging him off to rescue Imoen before coming back to finish his quest. Although, for the record, his quest really isn't that long, you can just as easily finish it quickly. It can be VERY difficult if you aren't really prepared for it; but its one of those, if you know what's coming its not really all that hard.
It is a little meta-gaming, but you will be overwhelmed with quests regardless; one more doesn't matter to me that much!
I often don't take Keldorn, especially if I'm playing a paladin myself. But when I want him, I get him early.
Money will come very fast, 20K is not a big deal.
Reference the discussion above; the game plays easily enough with no patches at all. The Fixpack is one you can probably take that won't hurt balance in any way. But it is truly not needed. The game runs just fine without it. I finished through ToB two or three times before I even heard of the thing.
[Edited] It's also why some people prefer to go solo to start with in BG1/BG2 to ramp up some levels faster and then get a party so they already start with a higher level. If you get 300 000 experience and get to level 11 in a class then when you recruit your 5 people they will all have gotten the 300 000 - 400 000 experience which could mean the same as having got 1 500 000 experience for your whole party.
That said, if I install this fix, does that mean my existing saves will no longer work? Or will they still function, but just without the benefits of the fix?
Start as a multi-class at level 1/1, take Imoen into your party. Level her all the way up, go south to pick up Kivan. He's level 6 (the maximum level you can obtain him at). Reload, kick out Imoen. Pick up Kivan. He's level 2 (the minimum level you can obtain him at). Go to Beregost and pick up Garrick. He's level 1. Reload and level up your multi-class to level 1/2 (Kivan is still at level 2) and pick up Garrick again. Now he's level 2 (this time your average level was closer to 2, while last time it was closer to 1).
In BG 1 I had originally intended to 'allow' Jaheira to get killed in a battle and then not raise her, and do like-wise with Minsc, so I could replace them with Kivan and Branwen. But then I realised there was such a thing as a canon party, and I wanted my trilogy play-through to make sense, so I've just stuck with them for the entirety of the game.
It is actually a bit annoying you cannot somehow recruit extra characters (but still only being allowed to use 6 at a time). From a RP perspective, my Charname would have certainly agreed to join forces with Kivan, Yeslick, Branwen and Ajantis in BG 1. They could make it so that characters in your expanded party, but not currently in action, gain half the xp of characters currently in action, without stealing the xp of the 6 active characters.