Technical inquiries
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
My curiosity has been aroused by a number of speculations and odd questions that occurred to me during the course of playing my first game of BG2. First, a three part question about class stronghold quests.
A) Is it possible to have two strongholds at once? (My money's on NO, but can't hurt to ask). For example, MyChar starts out as a human warrior with an IQ of 18, does the warrior quest and gets the Keep as his stronghold, then duals over to mage and does the planar sphere quest. Or perhaps you're a half elf fighter/mage, and want to do both quests at once. What happens?
B ) Assuming that one is limited to one stronghold, and you later change class, do you temporarily lose the use of that stronghold? (I'm also betting NO here as well).Theoretically you aren't a warrior any more, but you will get those abilities back eventually, after all; it's only a temporary disqualification.
C) Is it possible to resign the ownership of one stronghold in order to qualify for a different one after a profession switch?
Number 2: What is the experience cap for SoA? Initially I was told 8,000,000, but that has to include ToB as well.
Number 3: I have been trying to spread out the experience and get a number of NPCs to relatively high level, figuring that I'd then have a larger selection to choose from when I hit the chapter 4-5 area of the game. Recently I read a few pieces on the forums here suggesting exactly the opposite. They felt that one should rescue Imoen ASAP and then do a bunch of left-over chapter 3 subquests, thus giving Imoen more experience in order to maximize Imoen's mage level for later on in the game. Is this really a problem?
4: Multi-class vs dual class. If you aren't planning on sticking to one profession all the way through, it seems to me that dual class is superior (which would make human the default race of choice.) Get the first class to a specific cut off point, then switch so as to maximize the potential of the second class. If you do multi-class, make sure one class is fighter. Someone like Aerie seems a bit misplaced. Yeah, she can use clerical spells as a pre-combat buff, but she could get most of those elsewhere. Once the fireworks begin, she's going to be casting mage spells almost exclusively, as these have the more destructive potentials, while 11 levels of fighter as a base would have given her a lot more HP if she wants to use something like Tenser's Transformation, or just to be able to endure more damage. Comments?
5: The bridge district seems to have some odd stuff going on. Not far from the Balthis estate there is another estate belonging to someone named Saerk something. Apparently it's the same deal; you enter, there's nothing there except a bunch of guards who attack you, and if you kill them your lose reputation. Is this another side plot that was planned but never implemented?
6: Just a comment on the Rasaad quest. I have to do what and take him WHERE in order to initiate it? Damn! If someone hadn't clued me into this on the forums here, I would never have guessed. I would have figured his quest was just broken. Nowhere can I recall a clue that even suggested such a thing; I was dragging him all over Trademeet, hoping we'd bump into someone who would trigger him. Sheesh.
A) Is it possible to have two strongholds at once? (My money's on NO, but can't hurt to ask). For example, MyChar starts out as a human warrior with an IQ of 18, does the warrior quest and gets the Keep as his stronghold, then duals over to mage and does the planar sphere quest. Or perhaps you're a half elf fighter/mage, and want to do both quests at once. What happens?
B ) Assuming that one is limited to one stronghold, and you later change class, do you temporarily lose the use of that stronghold? (I'm also betting NO here as well).Theoretically you aren't a warrior any more, but you will get those abilities back eventually, after all; it's only a temporary disqualification.
C) Is it possible to resign the ownership of one stronghold in order to qualify for a different one after a profession switch?
Number 2: What is the experience cap for SoA? Initially I was told 8,000,000, but that has to include ToB as well.
Number 3: I have been trying to spread out the experience and get a number of NPCs to relatively high level, figuring that I'd then have a larger selection to choose from when I hit the chapter 4-5 area of the game. Recently I read a few pieces on the forums here suggesting exactly the opposite. They felt that one should rescue Imoen ASAP and then do a bunch of left-over chapter 3 subquests, thus giving Imoen more experience in order to maximize Imoen's mage level for later on in the game. Is this really a problem?
4: Multi-class vs dual class. If you aren't planning on sticking to one profession all the way through, it seems to me that dual class is superior (which would make human the default race of choice.) Get the first class to a specific cut off point, then switch so as to maximize the potential of the second class. If you do multi-class, make sure one class is fighter. Someone like Aerie seems a bit misplaced. Yeah, she can use clerical spells as a pre-combat buff, but she could get most of those elsewhere. Once the fireworks begin, she's going to be casting mage spells almost exclusively, as these have the more destructive potentials, while 11 levels of fighter as a base would have given her a lot more HP if she wants to use something like Tenser's Transformation, or just to be able to endure more damage. Comments?
5: The bridge district seems to have some odd stuff going on. Not far from the Balthis estate there is another estate belonging to someone named Saerk something. Apparently it's the same deal; you enter, there's nothing there except a bunch of guards who attack you, and if you kill them your lose reputation. Is this another side plot that was planned but never implemented?
6: Just a comment on the Rasaad quest. I have to do what and take him WHERE in order to initiate it? Damn! If someone hadn't clued me into this on the forums here, I would never have guessed. I would have figured his quest was just broken. Nowhere can I recall a clue that even suggested such a thing; I was dragging him all over Trademeet, hoping we'd bump into someone who would trigger him. Sheesh.
1
Comments
2. Initially it was 3M but this has been removed. SoA shares the lvl cap with ToB but there's only so much exp you can get from SoA.
3. On chapters 4-5, you don't have a chance recruit anyone except Imoen. Whoever you start chapter 4 with, you are stuck with them until Chapter 6. And honestly, it won't break your game if you go for Imoen late. Going for Immy right away is powergamer-talk. Or simply roleplaying it that way. Just enjoy the ride!
4. Multiclasses gain HLA's from both classes. That's their ultimate upside. There are good things in both, although it is much easier to screw up a dual than a multi.
5. Apparently you haven't done Anomens personal quest yet? Saerk plays a big part there. Edit: Or if you resolved it the good way, you have never actually needed to come here.
6. I actually haven't done this yet. Still running my evil party through ToB..
PS Edit. Sorry for the minor spoilers on the third question but seriously, Chapter 4 should come with a warning sticker about this!
EDIT: oops partial overlap with @Yannir 's post. Well, I keep it as is.
1- There are mods allowing to concurrently or sequentially run several stronghold adventures. One in the BG2tweak pack enabling all of them but not sure this always works (druid stronghold for instance) - you can still refuse to take those strongholds anyway. David Wade (SCS) also created a mod to preselect the strongholds you are interested in IIRC.
2-SoA initial XP cap was 2925000 or so. With ToB it was increased and we now have 8M XP no matter whether you are in ToB, WK or still in SoA.
Same mechanics with BG. BG had a cap set at 89K, adding the TotSC set it at 161K.
3-Matter of choice. This is technically wanted if you have no other mono class mage in your team. Probably not the case and highly debatable anyway. I think the main reason remains RP driven - up to you...
If I decide to save her, I don't explore WK without her so that she can boost her XP before ToB but that's just me.
Now if you want to postpone her rescue and if you play a full 6 member team I guess you will be around 2M XP per headcount if you do everything but WK. IIRC she will join with 1.2M XP so basically 2 mage levels behind you. Substantial but nothing critical. Depending on your party setup and quest coverage she may not reach lvl 25 and get all HLAs but again nothing critical.
4-No comment
Oh one remark though, a cleric/mage even Aerie (illegal class for an elf, to be checked) reaching 6MXP (and more) is a rock star in ToB and ascension, specifically because she can cast spells of both divine and arcane types.
ToB final boss is a C/M, Sendai is a C/M. Play them with SCS, you'll see.
5-NPCs quests.
Yes, I know. After fuitlessly wandering about Trademeet I actually dragged Rasaad back to the Copper Coronet, but still nothing happened. I figured he was broken somehow. If someone hadn't clued me in (the way you just did), I'd never have gotten the quest at all. The Gate district is one I haven't gone to in a LONG time; there's nothing there once the Silly Bonnie and Clyde kids scenario and the Lich are done with, so ... I never stop there anymore! Who knew?
"I actually haven't done this yet. Still running my evil party through ToB..
You haven't done the Rasaad quest in SoA at all? Ooooh; it has some killer stuff. And what is "BP2"?
What is "WK"?
Ah; ok, I have no idea what HLAs are. Let me rephrase that; I know what the abbreviation stands for, but do not know of what they consist.
Warrior-HLA's, rogue-HLA's and caster-HLA's.
Warrior-HLA's focus on making you hit harder and faster. There's also a few survival tricks there. These are for Barbarians, Fighters, Rangers, Paladins and Monks.
Rogue-HLA's focus on survival and utility. They are for Bards and Thieves.
Caster-HLA's bring additional spells mostly and do a number of things. For mages and sorcerers this means lvl 10 spells, for clerics and druids it's quest-spells.
Some certain kit-classes, such as the Shadowdancer, gain special High Level Abilities that are related to their kit. I'll give no specifics but that's basically how the cookie crumbles.
BP2 stands for Black Pits 2, which is the add-on that came with the EE. WK stands for Watcher's Keep.
Yeah, I instinctively figured it would be bad to let a LG guy like Anomen run amok for the sake of revenge, so I talked him down. We never went there. I got clued into the fact that killing the guards was a "bad thing" when two of the folks opposing us were the cook and the maid. And of course, the reputation drop afterwards.
OK, this gives me a vague idea of where I'm at. Any idea how much total experience is available in SoA? It doesn't matter so much for MC; as a half-orc he's not going to be changing professions, but for some others it might be more of interest.
Yes, so I had heard. How does this work anyway? If I go to rescue Imoen, do I go with only 5 people, or do I go with 6 and end up leaving someone in Limbo? Do I have a choice about Imoen? Maybe MC hates Imoen and doesn't want to rescue her! Can we do ToB without her?
I had two EE members in my team though. It is worth noticing because their quest brings quite a lot of experience compared to standard NPC quests.
"I had two EE members in my team though. It is worth noticing because their quest brings quite a lot of experience compared to standard NPC quests."
Let me guess: Neera and Rasaad? I'm doing all three, myself; I just make sure to get "Al" and his thugs out to accompany Hexxat around.
You certainly forgot our dear Dorn Il-Khan. He is located in the temple district, west to the main entrance of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart.
I think you would be ready for the 1st and 2nd levels, but the 3rd level is extremely hard without HLA's. I suggest clearing the 1st level because it has a lot of convenience items, and then leave the rest for ToB.
Which also leads me to comment on the resemblance between their two names. Just a coincidence that paladin and anti-paladin have such oddly similar monikers? I think not!
This reminds me the first time I played it. I could spend only a few hours in the WE to play it and in the end I forgot a bit why I was there.
MC has had two serious (and unintended) losses of rep with Keldorn around; he complained but didn't leave. As for what "Big Al" does when he isn't around ... well, what he doesn't know won't cheese him off, right? I have been presuming I can run to a temple and just toss some cash at a god and bribe him/her to restore our street cred before re-recruiting Keldorn. Might be expensive but it worked the last two times.
Everybody has had their quests finished AFAIK, except for Hexxat. She and Dorn should get on well together.
Arrrg! Stop teasing me! Is there some reason Keldorn will find out what we do when he isn't around? What, Dorn's quest is so terrible that even the abysmally uninterested Amnian guardsmen take notice and chase us all out of the city forever?
It would make some sense actually, if there were such a mechanism in effect. "Big Al" and his thugs invaded the home of one of the City Councilors, killed his guards and trashed the place. You'd think they'd be under a death sentence or have arrest warrants out, or something of that nature.
And the blame is all on your heads!