I wholeheartedly agree, but: How do you think that's unpopular as an opinion?
BTW on my IWD play through I stacked resistances on my Dwarven Defender until he was invulnerable by physical damage in Defensive Stance, Endgame. That's how IWD is for power gamers!
@justfeelinathome I think it's an unpopular opinion, anecdotally, from how I got jumped on by some powergaming afficiandos in another thread for suggesting as much.
Most of the EE items have poor / annoying stats. And I'm keeping it polite.
Like the wazikashi that drains 2 wisdom. Sounds great on paper right? Instakill when it reaches zero!
Except a normal save vs death cancels it AND it only lasts 2 rounds, making it impossible to stack without whirlwind. By the time you have whirlwind, nobody fails their save.
Infact, has any worthwhile enemy ever failed a save that doesn't have a malus in BG2? I'm starting to question myself if I really enjoy dice rolls after all.
I don't always have a bag of malisons at my disposal
@SirBatince That's... a terrible example. If you're talking about Kachiko's Wakizashi or whatever it's called that's not an EE addition, but part of vanilla BG's collectors addition items along with the Robe of Vecna and Defender of Easthaven.
Enemies fail their saves often, even in Throne of Bhaal. Only the player characters and a few rare bosses (like Ascension Melissan) achieve subzero saving throws.
A normal Throne of Bhaal enemy vs. spell or death is close to 5, compared to roughly 9 in Shadows of Amn and 14 in Baldur's Gate. They'll make their saves more than half the time by ToB, but far less than 90% or 100% of the time, as many people claim.
I don't like the Staff of the Ram. I have Cespenar create it but I stick it in the bag and never use it in game because I detest the knockback effect. The first time (and last time) I used it I almost lost Jaheira because she went chasing after the stupid drow guard in Sendai's barracks and went right into the middle of the rest of the drow there.
I don't like the Staff of the Ram. I have Cespenar create it but I stick it in the bag and never use it in game because I detest the knockback effect. The first time (and last time) I used it I almost lost Jaheira because she went chasing after the stupid drow guard in Sendai's barracks and went right into the middle of the rest of the drow there.
I almost stop caring about weapons in TOB, because it's like, "Hm, +4 Longsword of Smiting or +5 Staff of Laceration? Eh, whatever, GWW will kill everything anyways, so I don't even need proficiency anymore..."
I have a solo SCS insane sorcerer halfway through SoA that can summon infinite dark planetars so I feel like I already won the game and am planning a non-arcane playthrough. It feels more absurd than my thief/illusionist playthrough. What's the point of stealth when you can literally clear a map with zero risk? It's kind of a disappointing discovery because now that I have all the high level spells I don't ever need to use any of the lower-level ones, except to remove spell protections from liches.
I am now keenly aware of restartitis, and even though it feels like a betrayal or an abandonment, I'm already setting up BG1 for this playthrough. Sigh. Will I ever complete this one?
You can try NOT to level up in SoA when your character reaches 3 mln XP and wait till ToB. This will be a really unpopular thing to do but it will help against killing everything with planetars, @jtth
You can try NOT to level up in SoA when your character reaches 3 mln XP and wait till ToB. This will be a really unpopular thing to do but it will help against killing everything with planetars, @jtth
I most certainly do not have that kind of self-control. I started a new playthrough with a party so this doesn't quite happen.
I've been playing SoA recently, starting fresh in the Irenicus' dungeon (i.e. with 89k starting XP). Full party, constantly 6 characters (with exceptions only for deaths). A completionist playthrough, with solving each NPC's quests in chapters 2-3 (except for Dorn's quests). I've reached 3 mln XP in the Underdark, when going through the Illithid city as a part of the Ust Natha quests. This came even taking into account the fact I didn't do the Twisted Rune, both dragons and all liches in Athkatla before setting off for Spellhold. But I finished the Jaheira's romance (thus getting additional 100k XP).
So, even a party doesn't save you from reaching HLAs in SoA, @jtth All depends on how detailed your playthrough is.
- Mazzy is a great NPC. Whenever I'm looking for a fighter, I take her over Minsc, Valygar, and often Keldorn and Korgan. She's probably the NPC I use the most. - Jan is insufferable and his banters look like a mod from someone who tried too hard to make their character the star of the show. - Neera is great, her personality is great, her voice acting is great, and she will romance any race. She's the mage I use the most (though Edwin is better ofc). - The dispel on hit on Carsomyr is overrated - if I'm hitting a wizard already, I don't care that I'm dispelling things, they'll be dead soon enough, and if I'm hitting them then I've already dispelled the protection I care about the most - I think Druid spells are more useful than Cleric spells.
- Mazzy is a great NPC. Whenever I'm looking for a fighter, I take her over Minsc, Valygar, and often Keldorn and Korgan. She's probably the NPC I use the most. - Jan is insufferable and his banters look like a mod from someone who tried too hard to make their character the star of the show. - Neera is great, her personality is great, her voice acting is great, and she will romance any race. She's the mage I use the most (though Edwin is better ofc). - The dispel on hit on Carsomyr is overrated - if I'm hitting a wizard already, I don't care that I'm dispelling things, they'll be dead soon enough, and if I'm hitting them then I've already dispelled the protection I care about the most - I think Druid spells are more useful than Cleric spells.
How Ironic, my opinions of jan and neera are exactly the opposite ( I love him and can't stand her).
He's most entertaining during a fight; it's out of one that he gets annoying, since it's basically like hearing your NPCs' "I'm bored, let's get moving" scripts 24/7.
Comments
BTW on my IWD play through I stacked resistances on my Dwarven Defender until he was invulnerable by physical damage in Defensive Stance, Endgame. That's how IWD is for power gamers!
Like the wazikashi that drains 2 wisdom. Sounds great on paper right? Instakill when it reaches zero!
Except a normal save vs death cancels it AND it only lasts 2 rounds, making it impossible to stack without whirlwind. By the time you have whirlwind, nobody fails their save.
Infact, has any worthwhile enemy ever failed a save that doesn't have a malus in BG2? I'm starting to question myself if I really enjoy dice rolls after all.
I don't always have a bag of malisons at my disposal
A normal Throne of Bhaal enemy vs. spell or death is close to 5, compared to roughly 9 in Shadows of Amn and 14 in Baldur's Gate. They'll make their saves more than half the time by ToB, but far less than 90% or 100% of the time, as many people claim.
I am now keenly aware of restartitis, and even though it feels like a betrayal or an abandonment, I'm already setting up BG1 for this playthrough. Sigh. Will I ever complete this one?
So, even a party doesn't save you from reaching HLAs in SoA, @jtth
You must gather your party before venturing forth.
- Jan is insufferable and his banters look like a mod from someone who tried too hard to make their character the star of the show.
- Neera is great, her personality is great, her voice acting is great, and she will romance any race. She's the mage I use the most (though Edwin is better ofc).
- The dispel on hit on Carsomyr is overrated - if I'm hitting a wizard already, I don't care that I'm dispelling things, they'll be dead soon enough, and if I'm hitting them then I've already dispelled the protection I care about the most
- I think Druid spells are more useful than Cleric spells.