You have been waylaid by the same dumb enemies

GamingFreak

who drop the same useless crap, give you no experience worth the hassle, and are rather boring to steam-roll.

Bandits: "You have been waylaid by annoyed player mashing control + Y"

Lathlaer

That's what Death Spell is for. One cast and they're gone

Shin

There's an SCS component that switches up the random encounters a bit for more variety.

GamingFreak

SCS scares the piss out of me.

nano

At least your life will be exciting, even if it's rather short.

(but really, it's not that bad)

Alexisisinneed

As you know the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time is the charm.

Real

You can just ignore them and walk off the edge of the map?

stargazerb

I laughed. :-) I used to do that, now I just run for the exit. After 15 years of playing Baldur's Gate games, those encounters get very, very tedious.

Lathrael

Real said:

You can just ignore them and walk off the edge of the map?

I usually cast a death spell (amulet of power&robe of vecna) to clear the way when i do that :P

Montresor_SP

I don't remember where I saw this but it went something like:

It makes sense for a bunch of bandits to waylay a group of adventurers fresh out of Candlekeep or Irenicus' Dungeon, wielding a wooden stick and wearing a set of cheap leather armor. But bandits ought to know better than to try and rob you when you're wielding a sword that glows in the dark and you're wearing a set of armor made out of the scales of a dragon you killed yourself, and your five companions are dressed in similar style.

At this point, I usually drown them in cheese for the lulz! ;-)

Lathrael

Montresor_SP said:

It makes sense for a bunch of bandits to waylay a group of adventurers fresh out of Candlekeep or Irenicus' Dungeon, wielding a wooden stick and wearing a set of cheap leather armor. But bandits ought to know better than to try and rob you when you're wielding a sword that glows in the dark and you're wearing a set of armor made out of the scales of a dragon you killed yourself, and your five companions are dressed in similar style.

With something like that in mind...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

selkyra

I really hope I could just yell at these random mooks "Do you have any idea WHO I AM?!" And then they would just scream in terror and say they're sorry and give money and soil their armour.

Maylander

Is it just me or does every trip out of Athkatla and into one of the areas in Amn lead to bandits? It certainly feels that way. I can't recall it being this bad before.

[Deleted User]

I don't know, on my current game I spent a lot of time in Chapter 2 running around basically doing everything, and after a while the bandit attacks just stopped. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a counter that limits how much that last encounter can show up.

kryptix

Just fire a couple of skull traps/fireballs into them, I think that's actually faster... Or a ADHW...

deltago

Montresor_SP said:

I don't remember where I saw this but it went something like:

It makes sense for a bunch of bandits to waylay a group of adventurers fresh out of Candlekeep or Irenicus' Dungeon, wielding a wooden stick and wearing a set of cheap leather armor. But bandits ought to know better than to try and rob you when you're wielding a sword that glows in the dark and you're wearing a set of armor made out of the scales of a dragon you killed yourself, and your five companions are dressed in similar style.

At this point, I usually drown them in cheese for the lulz! ;-)

Out of these two scenarios, which one do you think is worth the effort to rob? High risk, High reward I say. Just keep the cleric back to drag our ass back to the temple if you dont get lucky.

Eudaemonium

Also make sure the cleric has most of the gold supply.

Montresor_SP

deltago said:

Montresor_SP said:

I don't remember where I saw this but it went something like:

It makes sense for a bunch of bandits to waylay a group of adventurers fresh out of Candlekeep or Irenicus' Dungeon, wielding a wooden stick and wearing a set of cheap leather armor. But bandits ought to know better than to try and rob you when you're wielding a sword that glows in the dark and you're wearing a set of armor made out of the scales of a dragon you killed yourself, and your five companions are dressed in similar style.

At this point, I usually drown them in cheese for the lulz! ;-)

Out of these two scenarios, which one do you think is worth the effort to rob? High risk, High reward I say. Just keep the cleric back to drag our ass back to the temple if you dont get lucky.

A statistical analysis:

Waylay low-level party:
Party has valuables worth, say, 1,000 GP.
Chance of success: 50%.
Average loot: 500 GP.

Waylay high-level party:
Party has valuables worth 100,000 GP.
Chance of success: 1%.
Average loot: 1,000 GP.

Conclusion: You've got a point - from a statistical point of view you gain more loot from robbing high-level parties. The downside is, your cleric has to drag 50 times as many corpses to the temple, and pay 50 times the fees for having his hapless companions raised.

:-)

Heindrich

I rather like the fact that the bandits in Amn are around the same level as those in and around Baldur's Gate, Beregost and Nashkel. Yes the party is much more capable in BG 2 than BG 1, but it would be kinda unrealistic if the common humans and thugs around the place toughened up accordingly. In fact one of the things that bothered me about Saradush is that every common soldier seems to be decked in enchanted plate armour, weapons and carrying potions of extra healing. I wish they found some other way of challenging players rather than just arbitarily 'levelling up and gearing up' the entire city.

That said, it is also very unrealistic that low level bandits and thugs think it is a good idea to attack a party of adventurers of some renowned, armed to the teeth in enchanted weapons and armour. In Avernum low level wandering bands of monsters actually run away from you once you get stronger.

nano

If your cleric is evil he may just decide to keep the gold supply for himself.

That would be quite the con, actually... join bandit parties, send them into deadly encounters with the promise that you'll raise them after, hold onto their loot for safekeeping and abscond once they're busy

iavasechui

Of course if your DM is anything like mine, some high level dude with ulterior motives will res them have them do a quest or something he doesn't want to get his hands dirty on in payment and then after they have paid him back he will hint as to what you have done at somepoint and they will hunt you down in revenge.

deltago

Montresor_SP said:

Waylay high-level party:
Party has valuables worth 100,000 GP.
Chance of success: 1%.
Average loot: 1,000 GP.

Conclusion: You've got a point - from a statistical point of view you gain more loot from robbing high-level parties. The downside is, your cleric has to drag 50 times as many corpses to the temple, and pay 50 times the fees for having his hapless companions raised.

:-)

I think it is more than 1%. There have been times in both games where I just finished a massive battle and I have characters Level drained and dead with minimal spells and all I want to do is hit a temple before I rest. And then I get the "you've been waylaid" message, and I am like "seriously, now? I already fought you bastards, leave me alone."

tennisgolfboll

Its 0%. By that time the bandits have absolutely no chance

kryptix

tennisgolfboll said:

Its 0%. By that time the bandits have absolutely no chance

Not quite true, I've been traveling with almost no spells left, injured etc, and some of the bandit mages can put up a real fight especially since I can't dispel their immunities, so a failed save by my CHARNAME etc could be game over...

mylegbig

Shin said:

There's an SCS component that switches up the random encounters a bit for more variety.

Never installed that part. Random encounters are annoying, and I don't need them to become even more annoying by becoming more difficult.

laptopman666

Heindrich1988 said:

I rather like the fact that the bandits in Amn are around the same level as those in and around Baldur's Gate, Beregost and Nashkel. Yes the party is much more capable in BG 2 than BG 1, but it would be kinda unrealistic if the common humans and thugs around the place toughened up accordingly. In fact one of the things that bothered me about Saradush is that every common soldier seems to be decked in enchanted plate armour, weapons and carrying potions of extra healing. I wish they found some other way of challenging players rather than just arbitarily 'levelling up and gearing up' the entire city.

That said, it is also very unrealistic that low level bandits and thugs think it is a good idea to attack a party of adventurers of some renowned, armed to the teeth in enchanted weapons and armour. In Avernum low level wandering bands of monsters actually run away from you once you get stronger.

i generally dislike TOB for that reason. They just overpower the game with insanely high level items on both sides, that and your enemies tend to ALWAYS make their saving throw :P it becomes more or less a hack and slash game

Mike

Maybe i haven't played bg enough but I find myself hoping to be waylaid while traveling so I can laugh at the fact that my sorcerer one shots them every time... Even the cowled wizards have given up!