Also (at least in the EE) you can kill Sarevok in the Duchal Palace, if you are fast enough. That way you skip the entire labyrinth and the undercity and jump to the end scene.
At least twice in this thread by now it has been noted that if you kill Shandalar's daughters he gets angry at you, but did you know that you have to kill all three of his daughters for him to get angry at you? So if, for example, you paralyze Ithmeera, forcing her to watch as you kill her two sisters, and then you stab her a bunch of times with a dagger until she is almost dead, then you cast Feeblemind on her, and finally you punch her unconscious and leave the building, Shandalar won't mind one bit.
Did you know that 3.5 ed. sourcebook Power of Faerun briefly mentions the events happend in BG? Here is a relevant fragment:
In the Year of the Banner (1368 DR), the agents of the Iron Throne nearly sparked a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn by "poisoning" the iron mines above the Amnian town of Nashkel. Although the plot unraveled, both Duke Eltan and his lieutenant Scar were killed and had to be resurrected. Both Amn and Baldur's Gate vowed revenge, but they quickly became swept up in other events.
According to the complete Ranger's handbook, stalkers don't backstab and have no such access to a repertoire of wizard spells. Someone must have rewritten the kit for BG2...
According to the complete Ranger's handbook, stalkers don't backstab and have no such access to a repertoire of wizard spells. Someone must have rewritten the kit for BG2...
Or maybe stalkers are so sneaky, they made the writers believe that they couldn't backstab, just to make it more surprising when they do
In the original non-enhanced Baldur's Gate Tales of the Sword Coast, if you start the mission pack (which places you in Ulgoth's Beard with a party of Abdel, Minsc, Jaheira, Edwin, Viconia, and Imoen) and you go to the Ducal Palace, you will find that Winski Perorate is simply standing there while the Flaming Fist attack him. He has 335 HP, -20 base AC and 100% resistance to physical damage and magic, but no resistance to fire, cold, acid, electricity, or magic damage. The only way to kill him would be to use a source of one of those kinds of damage which bypasses magic resistance. I've looked through the game's files and I think the only weapon available to the player which deals damage of one of those types and bypasses magic resistance is the Flame Blade. It deals 1d4 fire damage and as far as I know that is the only way to damage him. He's not going anywhere, so you have all the time in the world to damage him. The only issue is if you run out of spells.
You can one-shot Demogorgon with Harm, assuming his 90% MR fails (will need a couple reloads). The health check script will kick-in and you don't even need to do that 1 point of damage left.
well, this is more of a reminder to myself. I had no idea. Harm is hands down the best spell in the game if you have the taco. Praise be to the taco.
In pen and paper even a young dragon may be a challenge for a group. Spells, mobility, speed and resistances alone are enough to challenge most groups. Add to that the fact that they are intelligent creatures who probably have allies/minions and, depending on their age, had centuries to plan escape routes and have traps placed inside their lairs and you have to be insane to challenge one without proper preparation.
AD&D 2e dragons were actually not that tough:
Dragons are not that intelligent. If I remember correctly, white dragons are less intelligent than humans (typical INT 5-7), black dragons are about as intelligent (8-10), and green and blue dragons are slightly more intelligent (11-12). Red dragons are the only highly intelligent (15-16) evil dragons.
Spellcasting is not as easy in 2e as in Baldur's Gate. You generally can't move and cast spells in the same round. A flying dragon must glide in order to cast spells. As a gliding dragon loses altitude quickly and most spells have short ranges, the dragon must usually land after casting spells on targets on the ground.
Dragons are not very agile flyers on absolute terms. They can only attack every other round when flying, and they can only hover for one round before they have to land. While flying gives them an advantage against melee-heavy parties, ranged-heavy parties are actually better off against flying dragons.
Dragons tend to be solitary, proud, and arrogant. While they could have minions and place traps around their lairs, they usually prefer not to. They want to face their enemies, especially if they consider the enemies worth their time, instead of using safer hit-and-run tactics. Older dragons are often particularly arrogant, believing that puny humans (/elves/dwarves/etc) cannot be a serious threat.
Flying is dangerous if there are high-level spellcasters around. While dragons are highly resistant to spells targeting them directly, the best way to overcome resistances is to target the environment instead. A sudden Wall of Iron/Stone or a landslide caused by Transmute Mud to Rock can be a nasty surprise to a diving dragon. Illusions can mask obstacles, possibly causing the dragon to crash into them. Telekinesis and similar spells can be used to place obstacles in mid-air.
According to the complete Ranger's handbook, stalkers don't backstab and have no such access to a repertoire of wizard spells. Someone must have rewritten the kit for BG2...
Many classes/feats have been reworked to be viable in BG. Other kits are just bad and extremely niche to be of any use. I'd rather have fun classes/kits than accurate ones.
Cavaliers aren't anti-dragon/demons either, in PnP. And I believe they aren't even a Paladin kit, they're a Fighter kit in the Complete Fighter's Handbook (could be wrong) and also specialized in riding abilities (hence the name).
Many kits/spells etc simply don't work in video game form as they do in PnP. A true to PnP Cavalier would be garbage in BG. There are no horses to ride around.
Cavaliers aren't anti-dragon/demons either, in PnP. And I believe they aren't even a Paladin kit, they're a Fighter kit in the Complete Fighter's Handbook (could be wrong) and also specialized in riding abilities (hence the name).
The complete fighter's handbook actually just has warrior kits. Strictly speaking a paladin, fighter, or ranger could use them (provided they could justify the kit to a DM).
Firkraag only has 3 wisdom so I suspect it might be possible to auto kill him using that horrible wakizashi drain, but even then you'd need greater malison, high APR and lucky saves (or lack of). All this in 2 rounds max. No XP tho.
Wow, even 20 years later I'm still finding new things about the game. Discovered this 2 minutes ago:
Did you know that when you talk to the genies in trademeet and they challenge you "how do you intend to dissuade us from this activity?", If instead of offering to hunt down the Rakshasa, you select the option "Err... Nothing at all", then they laugh at you and give you a magical ring for free.
Sendai has her own version of Harm that is she just targets on somebody and it auto hits regardless of what happens and without her having to land a punch.
If you ever wanted to read in-game books but always didn't have time (all those Histories of Luiren, of Halruaa etc) you now may try this pdf document by Druisaur from reddit. It may be a good reading for your dinner break at work. It combines books from BG1 and BG2.
In Icewind Dale 2, backstabbing (called "sneak attacks" in IWD2) works much differently from the other IE games:
1. You don't need to be invisible to backstab; you only need to be behind your target.
2. Regardless of invisibility, you can only backstab the same target every 3 rounds.
3. The Crippling Strike feat not only drops the target's Strength by 1; it also cancels any Strength buffs, whether from spells like Bull's Strength or items like the Golden Heart of Charname.
4. Rather than multiplying damage, backstabs add 1d6 damage plus an extra 1d6 for every 2 levels after 1st. Thus, a 7th level rogue will deal 4d6 extra damage on a backstab.
Still about IW2: Fighters get an extra combat feat every two levels, but the truth is that the game doesn't limit your selection at all , so instead of a combat feat you can get general or magical feats.
The Vials of Mysterious Liquid in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale both permanently decrease your Constitution by 1 when imbibed.
As I mentioned a while ago in this thread, the vial in Icewind Dale does a lot more damage than the Baldur's Gate one. The vial in Baldur's Gate deals 1 damage per round, for 10 rounds. The vial in Icewind Dale deals 10 damage per second, for 51 seconds! There should be an achievement for if you manage to have a character drink that thing down and survive without curing the poison (you'd probably have to slow the poison).
In Icewind Dale 2, backstabbing (called "sneak attacks" in IWD2) works much differently from the other IE games:
1. You don't need to be invisible to backstab; you only need to be behind your target.
2. Regardless of invisibility, you can only backstab the same target every 3 rounds.
3. The Crippling Strike feat not only drops the target's Strength by 1; it also cancels any Strength buffs, whether from spells like Bull's Strength or items like the Golden Heart of Charname.
4. Rather than multiplying damage, backstabs add 1d6 damage plus an extra 1d6 for every 2 levels after 1st. Thus, a 7th level rogue will deal 4d6 extra damage on a backstab.
IWD2 Sneak Attacks are a workaround for 3E Sneak Attacks, since the Infinity Engine was originally made for 2E gameplay. Icewind Dale 2 uses 3E mechanics and rules, not ADnD 2E.
Sneak Attacks in 3E can be made multiple times per round actually, even more if you are dual-wielding. The downside is that many creatures tend to be immune to it, mainly all Undead, Plants (Treants), Elementals and Constructs (Golems).
It was changed from Backstab in 3E since you don't need to "back-stab" someone. In 3E, it can be made from the sides as well, but also with ranged weapons, though Sneak Attack damage is not multiplied even on a critical.
Generally, I prefer Sneak Attack as a mechanic, it's more convenient, can happen easier and more often and the damage is rolled, like a spell, instead of multiplied, making the damage more average than all or nothing.
As much as I love (and prefer) AD&D, I need to say that D&D3.X made a good job powering up thieves, bards and fighters.
I'll use this discussion to make some questions about things that I don't know (and is kind of small for a proper post):
1) Whats does "Disease" do? Specially the one that Ghasts (ou Ghouls?) gives. I always ignore it until passes.
2) Is there any pratical difference between Slow Poison and Neutralize Poison? Because I always use the first and it effectively heals the poison - it never returns later
3) The item "Beladona" from the Werewolf's Island in ToSC does something? The NPC that requires it doesn't takes it. I know it can be eaten through the quickslot, but for what purpose?
Comments
well, this is more of a reminder to myself. I had no idea. Harm is hands down the best spell in the game if you have the taco. Praise be to the taco.
I'd rather have fun classes/kits than accurate ones.
Cavaliers aren't anti-dragon/demons either, in PnP. And I believe they aren't even a Paladin kit, they're a Fighter kit in the Complete Fighter's Handbook (could be wrong) and also specialized in riding abilities (hence the name).
Many kits/spells etc simply don't work in video game form as they do in PnP.
A true to PnP Cavalier would be garbage in BG. There are no horses to ride around.
Also as a person collecting D&D books from all editions it's somewhat difficult to differentiate between AD&D and AD&D 2e.
yeah this is probably a sucky idea
Did you know that when you talk to the genies in trademeet and they challenge you "how do you intend to dissuade us from this activity?", If instead of offering to hunt down the Rakshasa, you select the option "Err... Nothing at all", then they laugh at you and give you a magical ring for free.
Disgustingly cheap.
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 19
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 19
Wisdom: 9
Charisma: 18
1. You don't need to be invisible to backstab; you only need to be behind your target.
2. Regardless of invisibility, you can only backstab the same target every 3 rounds.
3. The Crippling Strike feat not only drops the target's Strength by 1; it also cancels any Strength buffs, whether from spells like Bull's Strength or items like the Golden Heart of Charname.
4. Rather than multiplying damage, backstabs add 1d6 damage plus an extra 1d6 for every 2 levels after 1st. Thus, a 7th level rogue will deal 4d6 extra damage on a backstab.
As I mentioned a while ago in this thread, the vial in Icewind Dale does a lot more damage than the Baldur's Gate one. The vial in Baldur's Gate deals 1 damage per round, for 10 rounds. The vial in Icewind Dale deals 10 damage per second, for 51 seconds! There should be an achievement for if you manage to have a character drink that thing down and survive without curing the poison (you'd probably have to slow the poison).
Sneak Attacks in 3E can be made multiple times per round actually, even more if you are dual-wielding.
The downside is that many creatures tend to be immune to it, mainly all Undead, Plants (Treants), Elementals and Constructs (Golems).
It was changed from Backstab in 3E since you don't need to "back-stab" someone.
In 3E, it can be made from the sides as well, but also with ranged weapons, though Sneak Attack damage is not multiplied even on a critical.
Generally, I prefer Sneak Attack as a mechanic, it's more convenient, can happen easier and more often and the damage is rolled, like a spell, instead of multiplied, making the damage more average than all or nothing.
More details about the Rogue in 3.5E, here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm
I'll use this discussion to make some questions about things that I don't know (and is kind of small for a proper post):
1) Whats does "Disease" do? Specially the one that Ghasts (ou Ghouls?) gives. I always ignore it until passes.
2) Is there any pratical difference between Slow Poison and Neutralize Poison? Because I always use the first and it effectively heals the poison - it never returns later
3) The item "Beladona" from the Werewolf's Island in ToSC does something? The NPC that requires it doesn't takes it. I know it can be eaten through the quickslot, but for what purpose?