Advice to get better at the game?
LundmaN
Member Posts: 43
I recently finished Icewind Dale and intend to play the Heart of Winter expansion next. Icewind Dale is the first Infinity Engine game I've finished and I finished it on Normal. However, I'm interested in learning more and challenge myself further than that, especially for my playthrough of the HoW expansion, but also for future playthroughs. I'm a huge fan of the Souls series and have done several challenge runs in all three of them, and the Infinity games seem to bear the same potential from what I've seen from solo runs etc.
So what are the best advice you can give to somebody who kind of knows what they're doing, but is not an "expert"? Such as, the most viable party setup, which spells and items to use(potions, arrows, quick-use items etc)for different situations etc.
I am aware that doing successful challenge runs include a great deal of knowledge. However, I'd like this thread to be as spoiler free as possible when it comes to locations of items, and rather be more focused on general advice regarding the combat and so on, as well as minor tips and tricks, that takes you farther than the Normal difficulty, if not even further than just that.
EDIT: Grammar
So what are the best advice you can give to somebody who kind of knows what they're doing, but is not an "expert"? Such as, the most viable party setup, which spells and items to use(potions, arrows, quick-use items etc)for different situations etc.
I am aware that doing successful challenge runs include a great deal of knowledge. However, I'd like this thread to be as spoiler free as possible when it comes to locations of items, and rather be more focused on general advice regarding the combat and so on, as well as minor tips and tricks, that takes you farther than the Normal difficulty, if not even further than just that.
EDIT: Grammar
Post edited by LundmaN on
6
Comments
So my advice would be to drop the fighters and get some mages and clerics, make sure that you can't win a fight with brawn, but have to use your spells and mind to do so.
Once you learn the arcane and divine spells, the game will open up to you and you'll be able to complete the most intense and unrealistic challenges. People have completed Baldur's Gate with a solo sorcerer that had 3 in all stats and was naked, because they knew what spells to use and when.
[Edited] : An idea for a team could be the following.
Halfling Rogue
Half-Elf Conjurer
Gnome Diviner
Dwarf Priest of Helm
Human Priest of Lathander
Human Avenger
You could change the team if you want, but the Idea is that you have many people who aren't that strong early game and once you get some good spells you'll get stronger, some of the harder fights you'll really have to think about and make a tactic for as well. A cleric with 16 constitution and a plate mail is a great tank, he just doesn't deal that much damage unless buffed to high heavens. So using a cleric or two as a front line to keep your mages and other party members safe, while they throw spells at the enemy. You can buff up your cleric front line with protection from fire and lightning, this way freely trow fireballs and lightning bolts at the enemy without having to worry about your tanks.
It's just an idea, but it would really become a completely different game without fighters in it.
I'd highly suggest getting into BG1 and BG2. Both have exceptional stories and the banter/interaction between various NPC's is worthy of replay value year after year.
One good way to learn how to use powerful spells is to play the higher leveled games and see how enemy spellcasters kick your arse with them. Some spells are all but useless, some seem useless at first glance but can be particularly powerful in the right circumstances.
Reading other players' strategies for hard battles may give you some ideas of powerful combinations of items, spells, and tactics.
In general, I'd say auto-pause is a very handy feature and you should get used to using it. With the most powerful abilities only lasting a few seconds auto pause makes every bit of time count.
Summons are incredibly useful and clever use of traps can make some seemingly impossible battles much more manageable.
Really without seeing how you're playing now it's hard to say what "obvious" stuff you might be missing?
Reading about other people's runs can be very informative. Ras is a good example. The sword it summons doesn't last long, but it's virtually invincible. But I would never have known that if I hadn't heard @Blackraven mention it in one of his own runs.
About the auto-pause, in which situations do you recommend using it more? Because thus far, I've only used it to pause the game in the start of an encounter.
Enemy sighted
Trap found (this one is extremely important!)
Character injured
I use these situationally:
Character's target destroyed (hard fights with multiple targets)
You might also find it helpful to play with these a bit to get an idea of how the round system works:
End of round (this will make it turn based)
Spell Cast (so your mages don't waste too many rounds just standing around)
What the guy above me said for sure. Trap detected, enemy sighted, enemy defeated, spell cast. In IWD or BG1 it's not so important since you're only doing 1 thing per turn usually so you won't miss a lot. In BG2/ToB where you can often have 10 attacks per turn (and enemies are sometimes doing the same)wasting even a second of real time can start to tip the balance of a hard battle against you... if you're at an easy part of the game feel free to turn them off, of course, but as the power level of the battles increases it becomes more and more useful.
Spell triggers can be very handy, and at high level Chain Contingency is incredibly powerful.
If you use an evil priest "turn undead" can charm enemy undead and you can make them fight for you which I find much more useful than them just running away from you.
A good RPG strategy in general is to save often and in many different slots. If you find a game-breaking bug or you made a big mistake the less you have to go back in time to fix the problem the better.
Edit: Could work for summoned weapons too, but I'm not sure about that one.
"No effect?"
"Blasted beggar's immune!"
Alright. Enemy sighted, Trap detected, Character injured, Enemy defeated, Spell cast and Weapon unusable.
Thanks a lot.
Preparation is essential, you can buff your party before the fight with long lasting buffs (i cheap with potions, but be wizer than me and drink a lot of potion for this battle: potion of insulation and potion of speed come handy in this fight, but visit my myconid comrade and their duergar partner, you will find more useful potions by them. Put the party member with the highest charisma on the lead for best prices, if (s)he is an arcane caster you can use the friends spell for more charisma.
Finally, consider casting some spells more than once. 2 Webs in BG1 will hold almost anyone reliably, imagine tossing in Greater Malison! This is why having 2 or more casters is considered a good strategy in BG, as you can set up nasty, nasty situations at low levels that even a ToB enemy can fall victim to. A sequencer with 2 Webs, and a cast of Greater Malison is a brutal, brutal trick 2 casters can drop at BG1 levels, and the odds of avoiding both webs are downright bad. An enemy with a save vs spells of 0 has a 51% chance of being webbed at least once. More casters means you could easily do 2 sequencers of Web, and 1 Greater Malison, giving about a 75% success rate vs a normally very safe save.