More Magical Questions
BaldursCat
Member Posts: 432
So, I'm lead to believe certain magical protections last hours: death ward, for example. If this is the case how do I check they're still active when I finish one battle and move on to the next? I know some are obvious but seemingly I end EVERY battle with no protections at all and no idea which enemy actually stripped them or even if it was someone in my own party trying to remove a spell nasty.
And realistically, do they last hours or do they just last one round until something or other strips all your protections with a dispel/remove spell?
And realistically, do they last hours or do they just last one round until something or other strips all your protections with a dispel/remove spell?
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I haven't tried Death Ward yet, but all the protection spells state their duration in the spell description. They also all seem to have different symbols that denote if they are active or not, and you can just check your character info page to check. I've just learnt to distinguish between the most common/useful ones like Chaotic Commands, Resist Fear, Spirit Armour, Stone Skin, Mind Shield, Free Movement, Stunned, Confused, Panicked... etc
That said, I am increasingly coming across enemies that throw out a tonne of debuffs. If I am expecting a battle, or about to venture into a potentially dangerous place, my usual long term protection checklist is Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Resist Fear (that's a new one I've only just started using), Stoneskin (Mages) and Spirit Armour (Charname only). As a battle develops, I use Chant and Bless, they don't last long anyway.
I think I got a scroll for Mass Invis... but none of my Mages can use lv7 spells yet
@BaldursCat
Link to my battle vs the Warden. I totally noobed it. I even celebrated early, thinking I had killed him when actually I just killed his Mislead clone
You can see what I'm doin differently maybe. I don't seem to have a major problem with debuffs, in fact it's only become a major factor once I reached the Underdark.
I RP these games, and cannot justify Charname trying to solve every crisis and injustice in Amn before going off to rescue his dear sister.
Also, that was some very interesting information about the frame rates! I will make a note of that!
As for leaving elves to die in their sacred city while you take your sweet time setting traps around Firkraag... good riddance. I hate elves. It's their mess in the first place and they deserve it for the most part.
I've tried to roleplay my character, so initially it was clear that he needed to re-equip and find allies to take on Irenicus/Cowled Wizards. He was desperate to rescue Imoen, but knows summoning a squadron of Cowled Wizards and attacking would result in certain death, or his own capture, which won't help Imoen's cause. A few quests were justified by the rationale that Charname being lawful, detests the idea of working for either the Shadow Thieves or their rival, and hopes to get Imoen back through lawful channels (working for the Cowled Wizards, Council of Six, Temple of Helm/Order of Radiant Heart), once this falls through, he can wait no longer and chooses the lesser of the two evils.
Once he got the crazy vision about Irenicus at the start of chapter 3
Also, given all that Irenicus has done, and because I've tried to immerse myself, I feel a genuine sense of hatred towards Irenicus, lol.
@Heindrich1988,
So, it's always a good idea to have Death Ward active on Charname at all times. (Luckily it lasts a long time.) I never can memorize the complete list of casters in the game who use Power Word:Kill, Slay Living, Finger of Death, and Disintegrate. I've had my Charnames slain by these spells before I learned to use the Death Ward spell to avoid uneccessary reloads.
Oh... I had always assumed Horrid Wilting got him. I think I've been quite lucky with insta-death on the whole. Maybe just beginner's luck and I will die horribly when I play BG 2 EE
Check my request for changes to level drain over in the feature request section, for what vampires are SUPPOSED to be like.
The ones in BG are a silly joke by comparison.
As it is, BG is not a particularly easy or even beginner friendly game. Your own experience is heavily distorted by the fact that you are a D&D veteran and a BG veteran. I am all for interesting challenges and 'realism' (I guess Level-drain has something to do with draining life force in D&D lore), but the game needs to be playable for a beginner without reading a walkthrough or a massive manual, or requiring experience in D&D PnP. Otherwise you never give a beginner the time to get immersed.
If I were to comment on the state of the vanilla game difficulty, and what I'd like to change, it's that the difficulty seems very 'spiky' for a beginner. There are some things which are just very tricky if you don't have metagame knowledge. For example like knowing to buy Shield of Balduran vs Beholders and how to kill a Clay Golem. I don't mind having to learn things like immunities and spells as I go along, but it would be helpful if the game offered some hints along the way. Like maybe one of the NPCs could have said, 'Oh no! That's a Clay Golem, we're gonna need a nice hammer to hurt that!' the first time I came across one. The changes you are proposing will make Vampires another one of those 'difficulty spikes' that can be frustrating for a noobie. Remember also that the game cannot just be for powergamers with optimised stats. I don't want to be compelled to roll 18/18/18 for every character just to stand a chance of getting to the end relatively intact and without cheesy tactics.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for the game to be nerfed to the extent any child can romp through mindlessly. In fact I don't mind if the 'general difficulty' was increased a little, I just don't like 'spikey difficulty'. All it achieves is create extra hoops that beginners will need to learn to jump through, whereas veterans will hardly notice the difference precisely cos they already know what to do.
For example whilst I disagree with ur proposal for Level Drain, I'd actually quite like to see companion deaths having more of a consequence than it does currently. Because 'raising the dead' is so easy in BG, it totally devalues the impact of death, unless it is permanent. I feel there needs to be a middle ground between 'oh damn I lost a bit of gold' death and 'oh shit Aerie is gone forever, I need to reload' death. The obvious solution to me is that whenever somebody is raised from the dead, there is a chance (say 50%) of permanent loss of 1 random physical ability point. That way death will have serious consequences, but won't force a reload each time.