"she does let you keep Dragomir's Respite (even though, logically, perhaps she shouldn't!"
Heeeh; I know that. Have had it since her first quest way back in Ch 3, despite going back and forth between good and evil groups. Was just being silly, making a sort of divorce settlement joke.
"You can redeem Sarevok, i.e. cause him to change alignment to Chaotic Good, so sometimes he can fit into a Good party. (His redemption takes a while, and requires correct responses in several dialogues, but it makes for a few interesting banters along the way.)"
I am quite aware of that. I was rather referring to my good party composition. There's MC (berserker), Anomen, Keldorn (with Carsomyr), Jaheira, Imoen and Neera (level 19 mages). Who should I drop in favor of recruiting Sarevok? Losing any of these weakens the party more than it will benefit from another fighter type. Imoen and Neera both have Time stop, horrid withering and summon planetar spells, Anomen has summon deva and a whole potload of spititual spells, including 3-4 DUHMs; with these and his star mace +5 he can also serve as a fighter in an emergency. Jaheira's insect plague ruins enemy mages, and Keldorn with his many uses of true sight and wielding Carsomyr is a no-brainer. If we could have a 7th party member, I'd probably be able to accomodate him.
"'m much more inclined to recruit one of the Neutral arcane casters (Jan, Neera, Haer'Dalis) rather than nerf Sarevok by dualling him, or otherwise just leave Edwin to do it all alone, but YMMV."
Yeah, I considered doing that. But the neutral ones won't jump up and down and cheer and pat you on the back, saying "well done!" when you do something obnoxious, like killing innocent civilians.
... even your "vanilla" fighter will be using mostly hand-to-hand weapons; all the fighter HLAs are geared toward that end.
Are you sure about that? I'm not certain that I disagree, and I'm not sure what the original design intention may have been, but personally I've found the Power Attack HLA to be especially useful for archers rather than melee warriors - it works at range, so a ranged attacker can stun multiple enemies-per-round (even if widely separated), which is a terrific ability.
Sarevok seems way too evil to be coaxed into a major alignment change. There's not a whole lot of ambiguity to your ideals when your stated goal in life is to become a mass murderer and drink the blood of entire nations.
Sarevok seems way too evil to be coaxed into a major alignment change. There's not a whole lot of ambiguity to your ideals when your stated goal in life is to become a mass murderer and drink the blood of entire nations.
Well, yes, but ... Sarevok is doing this only for himself, he's free to change his mind about his goals if he really wants to do so, and in some circumstances that's what he says he has done. He's not like a Blackguard, who is supposed (in FR lore) to be irrevocably bonded to Evil, so that redemption would be impossible.
Sarevok seems way too evil to be coaxed into a major alignment change. There's not a whole lot of ambiguity to your ideals when your stated goal in life is to become a mass murderer and drink the blood of entire nations.
The reason he changes is because he lost his Bhaalspawn essence so he lost both his ambition and his instinct to murder. He says: "I no have longer immortal energies to sustain me." When he is fatigued.
Also he realized that since he cannot be a god anymore and experienced his Chaotic Evil afterlife and shown a different way to live as CHARNAME, he wants to do something about it so he doesn't end up in the Abyss permanently.
He's not like a Blackguard, who is supposed (in FR lore) to be irrevocably bonded to Evil, so that redemption would be impossible.
By the way, anyone and anything can be redeemed. Even demons. This is what Paladins strive for in general.
And as Blackguards are basically Antipaladins and Paladins can Fall, so can a Blackguard be Redeemed. It's not impossible just very difficult and improbable.
... even your "vanilla" fighter will be using mostly hand-to-hand weapons; all the fighter HLAs are geared toward that end.
Are you sure about that? I'm not certain that I disagree, and I'm not sure what the original design intention may have been, but personally I've found the Power Attack HLA to be especially useful for archers rather than melee warriors - it works at range, so a ranged attacker can stun multiple enemies-per-round (even if widely separated), which is a terrific ability.
Using Smite with a bow is hilarious btw. Don't wanna fight? Just punch them back a few hundred feet.
"Pure Fighters are awesome. I'm personally all about that Vanilla Fighter but I am a strange man. I like having my fighter be badass at front lining and ranged weapons (you know, other than throwing daggers and axes), but I'll admit that's somewhat silly of me since melee weapons become practically hands-down superior by late BG1. Early on it sorta sucks not to have ranged weapons though..."
You do realize that there is absolutely nothing preventing a berserker from using something like Heartseeker or the Mana Bow? You just can't put expertise pips into archery, but in BG1 that's not a big deal, and if you have a dexterity of 18 (or more) your THACO with a decent bow and +2 arrows will be pretty fair. And by late BG2, even your "vanilla" fighter will be using mostly hand-to-hand weapons; all the fighter HLAs are geared toward that end.
I am aware, but in most of BG1 every THAC0 point is pretty substantial, and you'll have a bit less APR. I did say "badass at ranged weapons," not "decent at ranged weapons."
Just a late addendum. MyChar has hit level 30 in chapter 9, and is armed with Ravager +6. There should be a rule against using Ravager, berserker rage and greater whirlwind all together.
The Ravager is truly one of my favorite weapons. The fact that you can get it by insta-killing its previous wielder with the Wave makes it all the sweeter, in my opinion.
Well, it's the upgrade that makes Ravager a total killer. Speaking of which, there should be a clue when you get an item, that it needs x, y or z to be improved. OK, you can talk to Casper the friendly Imp every time you get something, but that's rather tedious.
In this particular case, I had almost sold the Serpent Staff a while back when I was dumping all my +2 weapons. The only reason I didn't was that it was hidden way down in the bottom of my bag of holding, so I overlooked it. Who knew that it would be needed to make Ravager into super halberd?
I accidentally did that once in an early playthrough. I kept trying to figure out why I couldn't find the upgrade for the Ravager. It's easy enough to check with Cespenar before selling named items once you're in TOB, imo, but if you go through Watcher's Keep in BG2 proper there's no way to know except to know.
Dwarven Defender is by far the strongest class in the game, so you can easily solo the game with it. There really is nothing that can hit you at all as a DD, you have enough saves to negate everything and enough DR to negate phys attacks. I guess the only thing that could stop you would be Imprisionment but you have scrolls of magic for the very few enemies that spam that.
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Heeeh; I know that. Have had it since her first quest way back in Ch 3, despite going back and forth between good and evil groups. Was just being silly, making a sort of divorce settlement joke.
I am quite aware of that. I was rather referring to my good party composition. There's MC (berserker), Anomen, Keldorn (with Carsomyr), Jaheira, Imoen and Neera (level 19 mages). Who should I drop in favor of recruiting Sarevok? Losing any of these weakens the party more than it will benefit from another fighter type. Imoen and Neera both have Time stop, horrid withering and summon planetar spells, Anomen has summon deva and a whole potload of spititual spells, including 3-4 DUHMs; with these and his star mace +5 he can also serve as a fighter in an emergency. Jaheira's insect plague ruins enemy mages, and Keldorn with his many uses of true sight and wielding Carsomyr is a no-brainer. If we could have a 7th party member, I'd probably be able to accomodate him.
Yeah, I considered doing that. But the neutral ones won't jump up and down and cheer and pat you on the back, saying "well done!" when you do something obnoxious, like killing innocent civilians.
He says: "I no have longer immortal energies to sustain me." When he is fatigued.
Also he realized that since he cannot be a god anymore and experienced his Chaotic Evil afterlife and shown a different way to live as CHARNAME, he wants to do something about it so he doesn't end up in the Abyss permanently. By the way, anyone and anything can be redeemed. Even demons. This is what Paladins strive for in general.
And as Blackguards are basically Antipaladins and Paladins can Fall, so can a Blackguard be Redeemed.
It's not impossible just very difficult and improbable.
In this particular case, I had almost sold the Serpent Staff a while back when I was dumping all my +2 weapons. The only reason I didn't was that it was hidden way down in the bottom of my bag of holding, so I overlooked it. Who knew that it would be needed to make Ravager into super halberd?
There really is nothing that can hit you at all as a DD, you have enough saves to negate everything and enough DR to negate phys attacks.
I guess the only thing that could stop you would be Imprisionment but you have scrolls of magic for the very few enemies that spam that.