Information time! The original Blade was the concept of a "Bard" that instead of playing music practiced arts like sword swallowing, knife throwing, knife juggling, sword dancing, and the like. It's a little more bardy that way.
- vanilla Baldur's Gate is the best out of the whole series - Basilisks are cute and scary at the same time (especially when waylaid by one) - powergaming is boring - flail's attack animation + sound = pure awesomeness - romances in games are terrible - rolling a random character and party composition is the most fun way of playing - magical equipment should be more rare - all spells can be useful, the same goes for scrolls, potions and wands
Oh @bengoshi, did you make this thread just for me?
Hexxat sucks. She's the Special Snowflake of the entire series and it shows. There, I said it. A strong independent black lesbian vampire from Chult with 20 STR and 20 DEX who don't need no man. Were they picking a handful of traits from a hat and just went with it or something? With overpowered primary stats to make sure people will use her? She is a mere step above Saerileth. Clara earns a chunking in every playthrough.
The writing of the EE companions is so starkly different from the originals that its painfully, exasperated-sigh-inducingly obvious. Rasaad is the only acceptable one, but having all those snarky responses to give him at every juncture makes said snarkiness less stinging. Its not special if you can give him one for every response.
I hope it's not too late to profess my love for @Flashburn.
I miss the original BG1 Avatars, they had a better medieval vibe to them. The BG2 avatars feel more "fantasy".
This, this, a hundred times this! Not that the BGII avatars are bad mind you, I just greatly prefer the style of the BG1 avatars. Each fit their respective game's art styles quite well though, so that's cool. I hate it when people try to back port Viconia and Imoen and crap, it just looks so out of place I cringe at the screenshots.
Skeletons... Easily summoned using the animate dead spell. They should be the most common encountered undead. And they are.
Zombies are just fresher Skeletons with the flesh still attached. They should be the second most encountered undead. I think they are... Just about...
Ghouls... So many ghouls... How? A ghoul is created by the death of a man or women who savoured the taste of flesh... of other men and women... The number of ghouls I encounter wandering up and down the sword coast speaks to me of a lack of nutritional education and should be resolved immediately!
And as for Ghosts! Does anyone go to the afterlife anymore!
As for Mummies... A mummy is an undead creature, created from a preserved corpse that have been animated by the dark gods of the desert...
Now. I'm pretty sure that:
a) More people have been embalmed than developed a craze for eating human brain burger.
b) The gods have their own animate dead spell, but they do it on a grander scale. Creating mummies.
...
As for Liches... Don't get me started... Although I am fully sympathetic to the plight of the geezer under the pub...
They seem to have a dreadfully overdeveloped sense of their own superiority (with a few exceptions) and complete disregard for anybody else.
Can't get the lantern themselves (because it would be bad if elves went into human lands but there are hundreds wandering around the place anyway) and are so snotty about this huge battle against the Drow but I've just arrived after commiting genocide in Ust Nathor, why didn't they? it wasn't that hard.
And their cities suck. All that time and they still live in tree houses?
a) More people have been embalmed than developed a craze for eating human brain burger.
Not sure. Usually only important persons get embalmed and mummified. This is a very select group, the 1% of the dead. In times of famine, eating human flesh is not an unpopular occupation and is certainly more accessible to the common folk compared to embalming.
Regardless of how many of each are in actual existence, ghouls have a craving for flesh, and this increases the odds of developing beautiful friendship with travelling adventurers, unlike mummies who can spend centuries at a time without opening their casket and would much rather be left alone. All these decorative tombs and sarcophagi that we can't open, they're probably filled to the brim with mummies who don't want to get involved.
Can't get the lantern themselves (because it would be bad if elves went into human lands but there are hundreds wandering around the place anyway) and are so snotty about this huge battle against the Drow but I've just arrived after commiting genocide in Ust Nathor, why didn't they? it wasn't that hard.
If Ust Nathor is easy you're not doing it right. Install SCS with the improved drow and improved Ust Nathor and see how long you survive. The original devs did a crappy job of showing the power of a drow outpost the size of Ust Nathor the place is the size of a small city and you fight like 40-50 drow "mostly commoners" and then leave. Fighting your way through hordes of drow war parties to get to the front gate is one of the most fun things in the game.
OK, I just got to say this, but because I know that this is definitely an unpopular opinion. I like ya @SmilingSword so do take this personally on any level my friend.
Can't get the lantern themselves (because it would be bad if elves went into human lands but there are hundreds wandering around the place anyway) and are so snotty about this huge battle against the Drow but I've just arrived after commiting genocide in Ust Nathor, why didn't they? it wasn't that hard.
If Ust Nathor is easy you're not doing it right. Install SCS with the improved drow and improved Ust Nathor and see how long you survive. The original devs did a crappy job of showing the power of a drow outpost the size of Ust Nathor the place is the size of a small city and you fight like 40-50 drow "mostly commoners" and then leave. Fighting your way through hordes of drow war parties to get to the front gate is one of the most fun things in the game.
MODS ARENT THE FREAKING ANSWER TO EVERYTHING!
I enjoy these forums, but this is by far the most annoying thing I've come across on these forums, it seems you can't even have a simply discussion about anything without someone tossing a mod at you!
"I acrually like bg2 portriats better than bg1."
Use xyz mod, it adds new portriats and even imports BG2 portriats into bg1.
"Let's actually talk about concepts and design behind the."
Here take xyz mod, it changes that stuff.
"Well I feel the spells are limited personally, maybe b..."
Doesn't matter, take this mod, it changes the spells.
I mean shit, there's nothing wrong with sharing knowledge or information, but if vanilla is easy to someone, a mod doesn't fix anything ita just a edit.VANILLA IS STILL EASY. Mods aren't official releases that changes the game for the better. They aren't the end all be all.
Oh, make no mistake, I love mods. I come from TES, we go crazy with the mods
I think Tiax is cute. He's like the Stewie Griffin of the BG series. Whenever he says he's gonna rule the world or whatever, I always say "Aaawww.. your so cute" and continue to treat him like a little baby. I love that character and think he is the most interresting NPC in all of BG1.
I choose Identify as a spell for sorcerers. Every time.
I hate katanas and think they shouldn't roll a D10. They should be no better than a "long sword", since in reality, they aren't. They are worse.
I hate that "long swords" are called long swords. The long swords in BG would probably be better off called "arming swords" or just "swords".
I really dislike the way bastard swords are implemented. The bastard sword was not a larger version of a long sword, quite the opposite really.
Continueing my rant about proficiences, I don't like "two handed swords" since they are actually what would be a long sword in real life. They should have "great swords" instead and increase roll to D12 but give a penalty to AC (very clumsy, can't really deflect/parry all the effecienctly with them)
The game should have replaced daggers with "knives", short swords with "daggers" and long swords etc as I mentioned above.
I hate clubs as a separate proficeny. There's not much difference between a club and a mace and they way you use them is the same. The only difference might be the weight but the game could have just adjusted weapon speed and damage roll to take that into account. A light weight club a small child could swing made out of rubbish wood does D6 and a mace made of iron does only marginally better damage of D6+1?
Flails should be a separate proficiency since it's way of swinging is completely different from any other crushing weapon.
I hate katanas.
I dislike the way damage rolls per weapon is done, except a few like warhammer. I would have preffered to have "pointy" swords to have a roll of D6 for slashing + 2-3 piercing damage, or change the damage typ between slashing and piercing based on enemy armor. If somehas has fullplate? Pierce. Leather armor? slice right through.
I love Cernd and use him over Jaheira alot.
I dislike pretty much every "romance" possible, especially with Jaheira.
I tend to favour higher saves rather than higher AC.
I don't like damage reduction items and think they ruin game play above ~25% or so.
I hate the obsession for APR and think imp.haste should add 2APR, rather than doubling the attacks. I think 5 APR per round should have been the absolute max anyone could achieve. 10 APR is just ridiculous (though ofc I cannot help myself from using it anyway, hehe.. )
I hate that paladins have a charisma requirement when it's not used at all and many paladins are arrogant f-tards.
I don't like the SDCIWC ability system. Yes, this is a major one I know I prefer ie the SPECIAL system and feel that the SDCIWC system doesn't fully capture a characters traits and abilities, such as perception.
I don't particullary like the alignment system either. Especially the way it's implemented for fallen rangers and how NPC's seem to switch alignement in a heartbeat. I like it in theory, but it's very hard to implement in a good way.
....
With all that said, I love the games to death and these are only minor, minor annoyances. I understand this may make me look like a complete whiner, but BG is still the best fantasy RPG I ever played and the pro's very heavily outweighs the con's every day of the week.
I hate that "long swords" are called long swords. The long swords in BG would probably be better off called "arming swords" or just "swords".
I really dislike the way bastard swords are implemented. The bastard sword was not a larger version of a long sword, quite the opposite really.
Continueing my rant about proficiences, I don't like "two handed swords" since they are actually what would be a long sword in real life. They should have "great swords" instead and increase roll to D12 but give a penalty to AC (very clumsy, can't really deflect/parry all the effecienctly with them)
Bastard swords should be switchable between two-handed and one-handed. That's the way they were used in real life.
Can't get the lantern themselves (because it would be bad if elves went into human lands but there are hundreds wandering around the place anyway) and are so snotty about this huge battle against the Drow but I've just arrived after commiting genocide in Ust Nathor, why didn't they? it wasn't that hard.
If Ust Nathor is easy you're not doing it right. Install SCS with the improved drow and improved Ust Nathor and see how long you survive. The original devs did a crappy job of showing the power of a drow outpost the size of Ust Nathor the place is the size of a small city and you fight like 40-50 drow "mostly commoners" and then leave. Fighting your way through hordes of drow war parties to get to the front gate is one of the most fun things in the game.
They also make mention, quite often, about how the outpost has been emptied of warriors and wizards for the war with the elves. Just like how Suldanessar is defenseless against Irenicus because they emptied their defenders to fight the drow.
If Ust Natha was at full strength, then SCS would indeed be the correct way of approaching things.
Still, the elves of the outpost outside the Underdark instantly kill you if you attack them. That doesn't happen in Ust Natha, which ostensibly would be much more dangerous if you're detected. Ust Natha is also weakened, but they're present on their own turf--the elves are isolated from their city, while the drow are not.
This is great, because I have a lot of feelings that need airing.
1. The Jaheira romance bothers me intensely, because 1) she should not just be forgetting about Khalid at the drop of a hat and 2) she's like a mother figure to the whole group, which makes romancing her that extra level of gross.
2. Aerie is great, both in terms of her characterization and usefulness in combat. There aren't enough innocent NPCs out there, and heck yeah, all them powerful divine and arcane spells in one character.
3. Haer'Dalis is annoying. I just...I don't like his personality, okay?
4. Shadows of Amn is the best part of Baldur's Gate in terms of storytelling. It seems to me that it has the most development for Charname, the most emotion-inducing villain, and the most compelling plot twists.
5. Hexxat is awesome specifically because she is a female, black, queer vampire from Chult AND is a well-rounded character. I seriously want to high-five whoever it was who came up with her.
6. There's nothing wrong with using Minsc as a tank.
7. Slings are truly excellent weapons for mages.
8. Viconia is just a tad overrated. I don't say that lightly, what with my obsession with drow and elves in general.
9. Clerics as a class are a little bit overpowered, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Should nearly everybody in your party die, wouldn't you want the person with the resurrection spells to be the one tough enough to be the last person standing?
10. Rasaad yn Bashir is the best of the new NPCs and one of the best overall. He's a right badass in combat (he's only useless if you don't know how to play monks, seriously). His background and story are extremely interesting (Calishite pickpocket turned altruistic monk with the need for revenge slowly consuming his soul? SIGN ME UP). His romance is genuinely good. He's voiced by Mark Meer. What more could you want?
11. Jaheira and Khalid's relationship is actually lovely. Fight me.
12. I feel like there needs to be more Oghma related stuff in the series, given how important Candlekeep is to the whole thing. Like there should at the very least be a Priest of Oghma subclass or something, because that would just make oodles of sense.
@Svar You sure have my vote for most unpopular opinions Everything you've mentioned minus Hexxat and Oghma I feel completely the opposite. And on the Hexxat Oghma thing I only feel indifferent about.
AC continues to matter in ToB--even Melissan won't get automatic hits against a properly equipped fighter.
Archers do more damage than Kensais, thanks to Vhailor's Helm.
Backstabs are often more useful than a fighter's high damage output. A thief does less damage on average, but that damage is concentrated in a small amount of time.
Fighter/Druids are underrated. People treat them as underpowered druids, rather than overpowered fighters.
Pre-buffing makes sense from an RP point of view. No sensible character would enter a potentially dangerous area unprepared.
Wish is overrated. The rest option and Horrid Wilting options are both unreliable.
Irenicus is a strong character even without his voice acting.
Aside from the Unseeing Eye and the Beholder in the City of Caverns, no Beholders should exist in BG2.
Dragons, liches, and other big enemies should be vulnerable to disablers, but have allies to aid them.
It makes sense for Mislead, as a high-level illusion spell, to sing a bard song.
5. Hexxat is awesome specifically because she is a female, black, queer vampire from Chult AND is a well-rounded character. I seriously want to high-five whoever it was who came up with her.
@Svar You sure have my vote for most unpopular opinions Everything you've mentioned minus Hexxat and Oghma I feel completely the opposite. And on the Hexxat Oghma thing I only feel indifferent about.
Ha! First time I ever won anything and it was for being disagreeable! *throws confetti in Corner of Shame*
And @BanArd : Yeah, I knew those weren't going to go down well at all. My apologies.
Comments
- vanilla Baldur's Gate is the best out of the whole series
- Basilisks are cute and scary at the same time (especially when waylaid by one)
- powergaming is boring
- flail's attack animation + sound = pure awesomeness
- romances in games are terrible
- rolling a random character and party composition is the most fun way of playing
- magical equipment should be more rare
- all spells can be useful, the same goes for scrolls, potions and wands
and...
- BG2 is overrated, boring and ugly
Kyaa! Senpai finally noticed me!~
...
Not sure if we are stating opinions here or facts...
This is just not right...
Here is my reasoning.
Skeletons... Easily summoned using the animate dead spell. They should be the most common encountered undead. And they are.
Zombies are just fresher Skeletons with the flesh still attached. They should be the second most encountered undead. I think they are... Just about...
Ghouls... So many ghouls... How? A ghoul is created by the death of a man or women who savoured the taste of flesh... of other men and women... The number of ghouls I encounter wandering up and down the sword coast speaks to me of a lack of nutritional education and should be resolved immediately!
And as for Ghosts! Does anyone go to the afterlife anymore!
As for Mummies... A mummy is an undead creature, created from a preserved corpse that have been animated by the dark gods of the desert...
Now. I'm pretty sure that:
a) More people have been embalmed than developed a craze for eating human brain burger.
b) The gods have their own animate dead spell, but they do it on a grander scale. Creating mummies.
...
As for Liches... Don't get me started... Although I am fully sympathetic to the plight of the geezer under the pub...
They seem to have a dreadfully overdeveloped sense of their own superiority (with a few exceptions) and complete disregard for anybody else.
Can't get the lantern themselves (because it would be bad if elves went into human lands but there are hundreds wandering around the place anyway) and are so snotty about this huge battle against the Drow but I've just arrived after commiting genocide in Ust Nathor, why didn't they? it wasn't that hard.
And their cities suck. All that time and they still live in tree houses?
(I never liked them in LOTR either.)
Regardless of how many of each are in actual existence, ghouls have a craving for flesh, and this increases the odds of developing beautiful friendship with travelling adventurers, unlike mummies who can spend centuries at a time without opening their casket and would much rather be left alone. All these decorative tombs and sarcophagi that we can't open, they're probably filled to the brim with mummies who don't want to get involved.
Fighting your way through hordes of drow war parties to get to the front gate is one of the most fun things in the game.
MODS ARENT THE FREAKING ANSWER TO EVERYTHING!
I enjoy these forums, but this is by far the most annoying thing I've come across on these forums, it seems you can't even have a simply discussion about anything without someone tossing a mod at you!
"I acrually like bg2 portriats better than bg1."
Use xyz mod, it adds new portriats and even imports BG2 portriats into bg1.
"Let's actually talk about concepts and design behind the."
Here take xyz mod, it changes that stuff.
"Well I feel the spells are limited personally, maybe b..."
Doesn't matter, take this mod, it changes the spells.
I mean shit, there's nothing wrong with sharing knowledge or information, but if vanilla is easy to someone, a mod doesn't fix anything ita just a edit.VANILLA IS STILL EASY. Mods aren't official releases that changes the game for the better. They aren't the end all be all.
Oh, make no mistake, I love mods. I come from TES, we go crazy with the mods
I choose Identify as a spell for sorcerers. Every time.
I hate katanas and think they shouldn't roll a D10. They should be no better than a "long sword", since in reality, they aren't. They are worse.
I hate that "long swords" are called long swords. The long swords in BG would probably be better off called "arming swords" or just "swords".
I really dislike the way bastard swords are implemented. The bastard sword was not a larger version of a long sword, quite the opposite really.
Continueing my rant about proficiences, I don't like "two handed swords" since they are actually what would be a long sword in real life. They should have "great swords" instead and increase roll to D12 but give a penalty to AC (very clumsy, can't really deflect/parry all the effecienctly with them)
The game should have replaced daggers with "knives", short swords with "daggers" and long swords etc as I mentioned above.
I hate clubs as a separate proficeny. There's not much difference between a club and a mace and they way you use them is the same. The only difference might be the weight but the game could have just adjusted weapon speed and damage roll to take that into account. A light weight club a small child could swing made out of rubbish wood does D6 and a mace made of iron does only marginally better damage of D6+1?
Flails should be a separate proficiency since it's way of swinging is completely different from any other crushing weapon.
I hate katanas.
I dislike the way damage rolls per weapon is done, except a few like warhammer. I would have preffered to have "pointy" swords to have a roll of D6 for slashing + 2-3 piercing damage, or change the damage typ between slashing and piercing based on enemy armor. If somehas has fullplate? Pierce. Leather armor? slice right through.
I love Cernd and use him over Jaheira alot.
I dislike pretty much every "romance" possible, especially with Jaheira.
I tend to favour higher saves rather than higher AC.
I don't like damage reduction items and think they ruin game play above ~25% or so.
I hate the obsession for APR and think imp.haste should add 2APR, rather than doubling the attacks. I think 5 APR per round should have been the absolute max anyone could achieve. 10 APR is just ridiculous (though ofc I cannot help myself from using it anyway, hehe.. )
I hate that paladins have a charisma requirement when it's not used at all and many paladins are arrogant f-tards.
I don't like the SDCIWC ability system. Yes, this is a major one I know
I don't particullary like the alignment system either. Especially the way it's implemented for fallen rangers and how NPC's seem to switch alignement in a heartbeat. I like it in theory, but it's very hard to implement in a good way.
....
With all that said, I love the games to death and these are only minor, minor annoyances. I understand this may make me look like a complete whiner, but BG is still the best fantasy RPG I ever played and the pro's very heavily outweighs the con's every day of the week.
If Ust Natha was at full strength, then SCS would indeed be the correct way of approaching things.
I like and/or agree with most of what you say. But paladins..........I'm quite the non arrogant fftard. Well, if you're a friend
1. The Jaheira romance bothers me intensely, because 1) she should not just be forgetting about Khalid at the drop of a hat and 2) she's like a mother figure to the whole group, which makes romancing her that extra level of gross.
2. Aerie is great, both in terms of her characterization and usefulness in combat. There aren't enough innocent NPCs out there, and heck yeah, all them powerful divine and arcane spells in one character.
3. Haer'Dalis is annoying. I just...I don't like his personality, okay?
4. Shadows of Amn is the best part of Baldur's Gate in terms of storytelling. It seems to me that it has the most development for Charname, the most emotion-inducing villain, and the most compelling plot twists.
5. Hexxat is awesome specifically because she is a female, black, queer vampire from Chult AND is a well-rounded character. I seriously want to high-five whoever it was who came up with her.
6. There's nothing wrong with using Minsc as a tank.
7. Slings are truly excellent weapons for mages.
8. Viconia is just a tad overrated. I don't say that lightly, what with my obsession with drow and elves in general.
9. Clerics as a class are a little bit overpowered, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Should nearly everybody in your party die, wouldn't you want the person with the resurrection spells to be the one tough enough to be the last person standing?
10. Rasaad yn Bashir is the best of the new NPCs and one of the best overall. He's a right badass in combat (he's only useless if you don't know how to play monks, seriously). His background and story are extremely interesting (Calishite pickpocket turned altruistic monk with the need for revenge slowly consuming his soul? SIGN ME UP). His romance is genuinely good. He's voiced by Mark Meer. What more could you want?
11. Jaheira and Khalid's relationship is actually lovely. Fight me.
12. I feel like there needs to be more Oghma related stuff in the series, given how important Candlekeep is to the whole thing. Like there should at the very least be a Priest of Oghma subclass or something, because that would just make oodles of sense.
Everything you've mentioned minus Hexxat and Oghma I feel completely the opposite.
And on the Hexxat Oghma thing I only feel indifferent about.
AC continues to matter in ToB--even Melissan won't get automatic hits against a properly equipped fighter.
Archers do more damage than Kensais, thanks to Vhailor's Helm.
Backstabs are often more useful than a fighter's high damage output. A thief does less damage on average, but that damage is concentrated in a small amount of time.
Fighter/Druids are underrated. People treat them as underpowered druids, rather than overpowered fighters.
Pre-buffing makes sense from an RP point of view. No sensible character would enter a potentially dangerous area unprepared.
Wish is overrated. The rest option and Horrid Wilting options are both unreliable.
Irenicus is a strong character even without his voice acting.
Aside from the Unseeing Eye and the Beholder in the City of Caverns, no Beholders should exist in BG2.
Dragons, liches, and other big enemies should be vulnerable to disablers, but have allies to aid them.
It makes sense for Mislead, as a high-level illusion spell, to sing a bard song.
Alright, I can live with this, but...
And @BanArd : Yeah, I knew those weren't going to go down well at all. My apologies.