The "Create Party" function in EE, which allows you to create a whole party of your own without using multiplayer mode, is an excellent antidote to SCS' harder Chateau Irenicus component, which only allows you to rest once during the dungeon. You can simply create a few extra sorcerers and bomb out the first level, saving lots of wear and tear on Charname, Jaheira, Minsc, and Imoen.
This can also be used to carry a solo character through the early game. One of the best buffers against danger is a character you aren't worried about losing.
Did you know that, if a level 30 Icewind Dale mage with Kontik's Ring of Wizardry equipped casts Otiluke's Freezing Sphere on a fire salamander (these have 12% weakness to cold) and the salamander fails the save, the spell will deal 116-232 cold damage? In comparison, Shikata has 97 HP, so even the lowest amount of damage that it could deal would obliterate him.
Now that's why level 30 mages were awesome in Icewind Dale even before all the Baldur's Gate 2 spells came along.
sometime ago I claimed critical hits with level draining effects doubled the level drain. This is infact not true and I was misled by a miscalculation. apologies
Sudden realization after several years: Apart from the parts in Ulgoth's Beard, the Tales of the Sword Coast take place far away from the Sword Coast. The Ice Island and Balduran's Island are far away to the north, and Durlag's Tower is nowhere near the coast.
Something I've only just realised, in BG2 when you head off with Neera to find the Hidden Refuge and come across a man with a broken cart - if you force a conversation with him he just keeps repeating "A fortnight" until he explodes - very similar to the customs and immigration scene from Total Recall.
Okay, so here's a list of some of the highest maximum damages that can be dealt to a single target with Icewind Dale spells.
(note: the damages below assume that the target fails all saves, the target has 0% resistance to all damage types, the caster is level 30, and the caster has Kossuth's Blood and Kontik's Ring of Wizardry equipped)
*Cone of Cold: 173 *Otiluke's Freezing Sphere: 207 *Flame Arrow: 209 *Death Fog: 220 (over 15 rounds) *Acid Storm: 222 (over 3 turns) *Beltyn's Burning Blood: 225 (over 15 rounds) *Sunray: 231 (over 4 rounds) *Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: 240 *Mordenkainen's Force Missiles: 266 *Melf's Minute Meteors: 330 (the total damage from all 30 meteors, assuming no damage bonuses) *Wall of Moonlight: 500 (a creature that takes damage from it can take damage from it again a round later) *Wither: 540 (over 3 turns; contrary to the description, it does seem to last 3 turns at level 30) *Incendiary Cloud: 1440 (over 1 turn) *Call Lightning: 2816 (over 11 rounds) *Static Charge: 7680 (over 30 turns)
This is excluding Whirlwind and the spells that can be exploited using Spell Turning, because I don't know what their maximum damages are.
Somebody shagged a umber hulk, no just no. I'm hoping it's some sort of magical experiment gone wrong because sexy time with a umber hulk is a kink even I would shame.
Oh God... Now I'm gonna have to scrub my brain with a bar of soap to rid my mind of such a scary thought.
When you cast stone to flesh on the statues for the helm of balduran quest, immediately after casting one of them says "I need an ale". This cracked me up.
The demi-lich in watcher's keep actually prefers to bite than to cast imprisonments. If you quickly rush it to melee range and have enough damage, it's perfectly possible to kill it before it decides to cast even one imp. If you stay out of range then you're boned.
The visual effects for Slow and Haste are mirror images of one another. One is a pair of lights spiraling downward around the target; the other is an identical pair of lights spiraling upward.
In BG1 you can kill all the basilisks in the Mutamin Garden map without protection, as long as you can hide, shoot from the maximum range and run away quickly and hide. If timed well, the basilisks dont even follow you as they dont have time to target.
As it seems to be an obvious exploit, I guess this is very well known but I just realised yesterday as it was the first time the ghoul was bitten to death by the basilisks.
In BG1 without SCS you can kill all the basilisks in the Mutamin Garden map without protection, as long as you can hide, shoot from the maximum range and run away quickly and hide. If timed well, the basilisks dont even follow you as they dont have time to target.
As it seems to be an obvious exploit, I guess this is very well known but I just realised yesterday as it was the first time the ghoul was bitten to death by the basilisks.
I added 2 words into your comment These 2 words matter a lot, as always in these cases.
In BG1 without SCS you can kill all the basilisks in the Mutamin Garden map without protection, as long as you can hide, shoot from the maximum range and run away quickly and hide. If timed well, the basilisks dont even follow you as they dont have time to target.
As it seems to be an obvious exploit, I guess this is very well known but I just realised yesterday as it was the first time the ghoul was bitten to death by the basilisks.
I added 2 words into your comment These 2 words matter a lot, as always in these cases.
This implies that SCS is now the default way to play BG. Are you saying that every time we post we must specifically state that we don't have SCS installed?
I'm not sure if this is an SCS thing, or if I haven't tested it enough to be sure, but it seems that Protection from Magical Weapons also defends against any arrows that aren't standard run of the mill arrows, or at least is seems that magical arrows that don't provide enchantment levels, like arrows of piercing and biting, are counted as magical insofar as PFMW is concerned.
In a recent fight with Irenicus in Spellhold, arrows of biting and darts of stunning both came up as 'Ineffective', but standard and poisoned throwing daggers hit him just fine. He never casted protection from normal missiles (scoured the battle log looking for it).
I didn't imply anything, @dunbar. When reading the post by @MacHurto I stopped for a few minutes thinking on why I could never do it in my game. Then I thought about the enemy AI change by SCS and decided to warn that trick could not work for players using SCS. With SCS, Mutamin himself starts to act when you shoot his nearby basilisks. And this nasty gnome always knows from where my character shot. Add to that the gnome is usually hasted and ready to release Ligtning spells...
Does he act if you shoot his blue circled greater basilisk or any in the map? Incidentally, I killed him too with the same tactic. It is just easier with basilisks as they are slower than charname (or so it seemed) so you can move and hide
I'm not sure if this is an SCS thing, or if I haven't tested it enough to be sure, but it seems that Protection from Magical Weapons also defends against any arrows that aren't standard run of the mill arrows, or at least is seems that magical arrows that don't provide enchantment levels, like arrows of piercing and biting, are counted as magical insofar as PFMW is concerned.
In a recent fight with Irenicus in Spellhold, arrows of biting and darts of stunning both came up as 'Ineffective', but standard and poisoned throwing daggers hit him just fine. He never casted protection from normal missiles (scoured the battle log looking for it).
You are correct and often the weapon descriptions do not help. For example, the Arrow of Dispelling description specifically states "considered a non-magical weapon" but the engine considers it as a magical weapon and PfMW blocks it.
Protection from Normal Missiles blocks a set of projectiles that only nonmagical missiles are supposed to use. It doesn't use the weapon immunity opcode like in PFMW. A normal arrow and a +1 arrow use different projectiles with identical appearances, which is how the spell blocks only one of them. If there's a discrepancy, it must be an incorrectly assigned projectile, not the arrow's enchantment.
Does he act if you shoot his blue circled greater basilisk or any in the map? Incidentally, I killed him too with the same tactic. It is just easier with basilisks as they are slower than charname (or so it seemed) so you can move and hide
You can do this with any enemy actually. I usually take out a couple of the amazon bounty hunters first using this brick of cheddar.
Does he act if you shoot his blue circled greater basilisk or any in the map?
He begins to act as soon as you attack a red circled basilisk not far away from him (the same happens when you attack his blue circled greater basilisk).
If your protagonist is called Drizzt and has a poor reputation (11 or lower) at the time you meet Drizzt Do'Urden in BG2 (start of Chapter 6), he will be mad at you for ruining his reputation and attack you.
I think you also have to play an Elf for this to work.
And I am pretty sure this is the only time in any of the games where it matters what your name is.
If your protagonist is called Drizzt and has a poor reputation (11 or lower) at the time you meet Drizzt Do'Urden in BG2 (start of Chapter 6), he will be mad at you for ruining his reputation and attack you.
I think you also have to play an Elf for this to work.
And I am pretty sure this is the only time in any of the games where it matters what your name is.
Actually, in Planescape Torment if you start lying in conversations saying your name is Adahm, it ends up being your name throughout the game.
If your protagonist is called Drizzt and has a poor reputation (11 or lower) at the time you meet Drizzt Do'Urden in BG2 (start of Chapter 6), he will be mad at you for ruining his reputation and attack you.
I think you also have to play an Elf for this to work.
And I am pretty sure this is the only time in any of the games where it matters what your name is.
There is one more. If you're a female PC named Lanfear then in Chapter 6 the wolfwere Lanfear will cast a death spell on Coran. Supposedly a reference to an annoying fan who wanted Coran as a BG2 party member.
I plan on making a team-playthrough with my brother (3 & 3 Characters) sometime this summer, so I'd have a question on this: Do any of those interactions require the named PC to be the Bhaalspawn? Will it work with Drizzt/Lanfear being party members? Those two sound like interesting additions to give a little flavor.
In MP, the game always checks for the main character (charname).
For example, if you as a host is not a druid and one of clients is a druid, this character can't face Faldorn in BG2 - the game just doesn't see that one of the party members (not NPC) is a druid.
So, those interactions require the named PC to be the Bhaalspawn.
Comments
This can also be used to carry a solo character through the early game. One of the best buffers against danger is a character you aren't worried about losing.
Now that's why level 30 mages were awesome in Icewind Dale even before all the Baldur's Gate 2 spells came along.
Most undead aren't actually immune to stat drain, ray of enfeeblement or confusion.
Generic liches aren't immune to level drain.
(note: the damages below assume that the target fails all saves, the target has 0% resistance to all damage types, the caster is level 30, and the caster has Kossuth's Blood and Kontik's Ring of Wizardry equipped)
*Cone of Cold: 173
*Otiluke's Freezing Sphere: 207
*Flame Arrow: 209
*Death Fog: 220 (over 15 rounds)
*Acid Storm: 222 (over 3 turns)
*Beltyn's Burning Blood: 225 (over 15 rounds)
*Sunray: 231 (over 4 rounds)
*Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: 240
*Mordenkainen's Force Missiles: 266
*Melf's Minute Meteors: 330 (the total damage from all 30 meteors, assuming no damage bonuses)
*Wall of Moonlight: 500 (a creature that takes damage from it can take damage from it again a round later)
*Wither: 540 (over 3 turns; contrary to the description, it does seem to last 3 turns at level 30)
*Incendiary Cloud: 1440 (over 1 turn)
*Call Lightning: 2816 (over 11 rounds)
*Static Charge: 7680 (over 30 turns)
This is excluding Whirlwind and the spells that can be exploited using Spell Turning, because I don't know what their maximum damages are.
As it seems to be an obvious exploit, I guess this is very well known but I just realised yesterday as it was the first time the ghoul was bitten to death by the basilisks.
In a recent fight with Irenicus in Spellhold, arrows of biting and darts of stunning both came up as 'Ineffective', but standard and poisoned throwing daggers hit him just fine. He never casted protection from normal missiles (scoured the battle log looking for it).
If your protagonist is called Drizzt and has a poor reputation (11 or lower) at the time you meet Drizzt Do'Urden in BG2 (start of Chapter 6), he will be mad at you for ruining his reputation and attack you.
I think you also have to play an Elf for this to work.
And I am pretty sure this is the only time in any of the games where it matters what your name is.
For example, if you as a host is not a druid and one of clients is a druid, this character can't face Faldorn in BG2 - the game just doesn't see that one of the party members (not NPC) is a druid.
So, those interactions require the named PC to be the Bhaalspawn.