Is BG2 just a wee bit less difficult than BG1?
magnus75damkier
Member Posts: 7
The simple question is found the thread title
I am near the end of BG1, and I'm having serious issues dealing with Slythe and Krystin. I simply can't beat them. At least not if I insist on not sacrificing a member or two. So far, I have been using a guide to help me with the essential stuff, telling me where to go next, who to talk to, etc. Now, where I'm getting at is this: I decided to play (and complete) BG1, just to get the backstory, make a somewhat proper character I would export into BG2 when the time came, and getting the true feeling of an epic adventure. I'm getting a bit tired of getting whooped time after time though, and I fear it will only get worse when I am to face Sarevok. If I recall correctly, I believe to remember that BG2 was a "cozier", even if the only thing I managed to complete was getting out of Irenicus' Dungeon and save/rescue Aerie. So, I was thinking to myself; "Do I really need to go through this ? I surely hope not", and began thinking if I should just skip to BG2, which has been given far more positive credit and reviews, and have romances (yes, I think I would enjoy those). I also feel like I have understood all the major things that needed to be understood during Gorion's Ward's adventures throughout the first game.
Go ahead, call me a wuss, weakling or (even worse) casual for not completing BG1, defeating Sarevok and all that jazz. I might do, eventually. But if you could just answer my little question, you would have my thanks.
Ps. this is all the originial versions of the series (plus expansions), from 1998 and 2000 respectively. Sorry my mediocre english, if there were to be found missing words, typos, or inadequate grammar.
I am near the end of BG1, and I'm having serious issues dealing with Slythe and Krystin. I simply can't beat them. At least not if I insist on not sacrificing a member or two. So far, I have been using a guide to help me with the essential stuff, telling me where to go next, who to talk to, etc. Now, where I'm getting at is this: I decided to play (and complete) BG1, just to get the backstory, make a somewhat proper character I would export into BG2 when the time came, and getting the true feeling of an epic adventure. I'm getting a bit tired of getting whooped time after time though, and I fear it will only get worse when I am to face Sarevok. If I recall correctly, I believe to remember that BG2 was a "cozier", even if the only thing I managed to complete was getting out of Irenicus' Dungeon and save/rescue Aerie. So, I was thinking to myself; "Do I really need to go through this ? I surely hope not", and began thinking if I should just skip to BG2, which has been given far more positive credit and reviews, and have romances (yes, I think I would enjoy those). I also feel like I have understood all the major things that needed to be understood during Gorion's Ward's adventures throughout the first game.
Go ahead, call me a wuss, weakling or (even worse) casual for not completing BG1, defeating Sarevok and all that jazz. I might do, eventually. But if you could just answer my little question, you would have my thanks.
Ps. this is all the originial versions of the series (plus expansions), from 1998 and 2000 respectively. Sorry my mediocre english, if there were to be found missing words, typos, or inadequate grammar.
0
Comments
If you have a cleric, remember to buff before the fight, also make sure to have the dispel invis spell ready. If you still can't beat them, then cheese away, have your thief set some traps out of their sight and lure them into them at the start of the fight.
Remember vanilla AI is really really dumb and you can kite them both with your tank, just give him boots of speed and run circles around both of them.
Oh cast haste before the fight if you have it.
Hope this helps.
I don't personally find BG2 to be easier than BG1, the fights are just bigger and you have many more abilities, spell and such to deal with different situations.
Similar with Sarevok. Dispel enemy spells protections, don't charge, pre-buff. Fight them on your terms.
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Bg1 and Bg2 have different types of challenges. Bg1 is low level so you have fewer tools to work with and mistakes hurt more. On the other hand the enemies are easier to deal with as they have less to throw at you.
Bg2 gives you every tool you need to win any fight. But a few enemies will mince you if you go at them wrong (vampires, beholders, mind flayers, liches and dragons to name a few)
In BG1, you can wreck an entire encounter with a single spell. So can the enemy. HP is low, saves are high, AC is poor, resistances are scarce, and immunities are rare. Fireball the enemy, you win. Get hit by Fireball, you die. There are ways to survive these things, but they aren't many. Veterans only have so many tools to work with. Going on the offensive is much the same: a veteran's damage spell (Fireball) is not going to look much different from a new player's damage spell (Fireball).
In BG2, everybody is a little bit tougher, and more resilient to attacks of all kinds, but disablers are absolutely everywhere. In almost every area in the game, a monster is using a disabler: hold, stun, sleep, paralysis, confusion, level drain, charm, and a fair amount of instant death effects. Gibberlings are replaced by Myconids; Sirines replaced by Vampires, Mages are replaced by Liches.
There are, however, many ways to prevent these spells from harming you. Spellcasters have all kinds of crazy buffs, and fighters can get subzero saving throws without rare potions. Even physical attacks have lots of defensive counters: Armor of Faith, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, various new AC spells, Teleport Field, and eventually PFMW and Hardiness. The spell system is vastly more complicated, so veterans have a lot of tools to work with, while new players get left in the dark. A new player's damage spell (Dragon's Breath for 20d10) is going to look much different from a veteran's damage spell (a Limited Wish+Wish rabbit swarm with Horrid Wilting on all targets for 200d8, plus another 20d8 for every party member, summons, and enemy).
Go walk into a Mind Flayer lair in Chapter 6, as a new player, and you get stunned and killed by INT drain--you don't know how to counter either of those things. Go fight the SCS2 Twisted Rune with a solo character on Insane Mode in Chapter 2, as a veteran player, and you can trounce them--you know all the tricks.
It would help if you told us who is in your party, and what levels your characters are. I am normally hitting the xp cap at this point in the game, but if you don't have Tales of the Sword Coast you are likely a level or two lower, and that might start causing problems.
For this fight, you have a reasonable reason to expect combat exactly where it will occur, so I do not feel back about powering up before this fight with spells and potions - we are also very close to the end game so there is no need to keep hoarding any but the rarest of potions, and even then, only if we want to be sure they are still available for the final fight at the end of the game.
My parties have also, generally, been balanced so that I could rush in with two fighter types and tie up the visible character, the spell caster, and put her down fairly quickly before the other assassin shows himself with a backstab. It helps to have the boots of speed here, as you want your first hit to interrupt any spell casting, and keep hitting to keep interrupting (until dead). Similarly, when the second character appears, you should now be able to focus the entire party on him, and without any spell immunities even mage missile and other low level direct damage spells can help take him down in just a round or two, before he can drink a potion and go invisible again. He is likely to backstab a character close to his girlfriend, so it helps to charge with only characters who have low xp, improving the chances the backstab will miss. My front line fighters usually have an AC of -5 or less at this point in the game, and some spells can effectively lower this further (cleric spells like Protection from Evil 10' Radius are a good start).
Good luck, and do persevere. It is worth it to see the end of the story at least once, and I also find importing a character who has benefitted from the stat bonuses available in BG1 is a nice bonus for BG2, that you cannot replicate from the character generator at the start of the game.