Leveling Up in Candlekeep anyone ever do that?

Gloomfrost

I can understand if your playing a Paladin or fighter class dashing-out of Candlekeep for the Constitution Tome before level 2, but if your not playing one of those classes you can level up quite a bit in candlekeep. You can easily get your reputation to 18 after falling to 1 by selling all those plate armors in the inn to Winthorp. Anyone else ever do that?

sandmanCCL

Yep. Do it quite often.

I don't understand why you'd dash out of Candlekeep for the constitution tome. Bonus HP due to constitution is retro-active. The d10 you roll per level doesn't change, but boosting your constitution post leveling up will still net you +1 HP per level you'd already gained.

Paladin

Wait, by killing the guards? Wouldn't Winthrop go hostile?

sandmanCCL

Only if other people see you.

What you do is wedge yourself as far as you can into the cap between the guard barracks and the building next to it. You can chuck rocks or shoot arrows at the limitless guards that spawn and no one else sees you. It doesn't cause anyone besides that guard to aggro. They aren't even that dangerous because Watchers have really pitiful strength and Thac0. As long as you have some semblance of thac0 through strength yourself, beating their AC from the plate armor isn't too difficult.

You lose a lot of reputation every time you kill a guy, but if you cart a full stack of plate armor back to Winthrop and make sure to sell the whole 16 slots to him at once, you'll make a ton of money. Hoof it over the priest of Oghma in the top right of Candlekeep and bribe him to up your reputation. You should still have plenty of monies left getting your rep back up to 10 or so.

theJoshFrost

Now I'm tempted to try this. How much will you level doing this?

Gloomfrost

going out of the insane Paladin role play for a moment sandmanCCL i honestly had no idea the HP bonus was retroactive, i always thought i needed the full 15HP before leveling up, so thanks for the information.

@theJoshFrost i think killing the watchers in candlekeep is only 125xp each one. Yes its tedious but fun to have some levels before leaving with Gorion.

Again sandman is right sell all 16 slots at once to winthrop for max money.

Lock

@Gloomfrost Dude, you certainly have played this game in some interesting ways judging by your posts. This one I may even try.

sandmanCCL

You could easily hit level 2 abusing this. I wouldn't recommend going much beyond that simply because it's really tedious.

@Gloomfrost: No problem, man. Besides, if you are worried about max rolls, BG:EE will run through the BG2 engine and will likely have a difficulty which always gives you max HP per level. Should make that a lot easier for people who'd rather reload til they got it.

Gloomfrost

@Lock thanks i do try to look for unconventional ways to play, especially with a game that's over a decade old

Gloomfrost

@sandmanCCL yeah that will be nice i usually was hitting CTRL-Z about 50 times each level up waiting for max HP's

Mortianna

sandmanCCL said:

Only if other people see you.

What you do is wedge yourself as far as you can into the cap between the guard barracks and the building next to it. You can chuck rocks or shoot arrows at the limitless guards that spawn and no one else sees you. It doesn't cause anyone besides that guard to aggro. They aren't even that dangerous because Watchers have really pitiful strength and Thac0. As long as you have some semblance of thac0 through strength yourself, beating their AC from the plate armor isn't too difficult.

You lose a lot of reputation every time you kill a guy, but if you cart a full stack of plate armor back to Winthrop and make sure to sell the whole 16 slots to him at once, you'll make a ton of money. Hoof it over the priest of Oghma in the top right of Candlekeep and bribe him to up your reputation. You should still have plenty of monies left getting your rep back up to 10 or so.

Nice! I certainly had never thought about doing anything like that.

With Tutu, which has Find Familiar, I would polymorph my imp into a brown bear and then start the "training" with Jolanthus and Erik, and let the brown bear slaughter them both while I stand out of harm's way (otherwise, once you hit one of them, the fight is over and they disappear). It gets you 175XP each and the longbow from Erik.

Just before leaving Candlekeep with Gorion, I'd head back over to the Inn and take care of Firebead, this time with my imp polymorphed into a sword spider. The continual poison damage usually takes care of his spells and I hurl darts at him until he croaks. I then make off with 2700XP and the Traveler's Robe until I see Firebead's double again in Beregost.

Dee

I'm confused.

Why are you spending so much time fighting the Candlekeep guards, when you could just kill Firebead? That's 2,500 XP all at once.

Of course, it doesn't yield you the cash crop that the guards give you with their armor. But in the end, what's more important: your reputation, or hitting level 3 before you kill Reevor's rats?

sandmanCCL

Mortianna said:

sandmanCCL said:

Only if other people see you.

What you do is wedge yourself as far as you can into the cap between the guard barracks and the building next to it. You can chuck rocks or shoot arrows at the limitless guards that spawn and no one else sees you. It doesn't cause anyone besides that guard to aggro. They aren't even that dangerous because Watchers have really pitiful strength and Thac0. As long as you have some semblance of thac0 through strength yourself, beating their AC from the plate armor isn't too difficult.

You lose a lot of reputation every time you kill a guy, but if you cart a full stack of plate armor back to Winthrop and make sure to sell the whole 16 slots to him at once, you'll make a ton of money. Hoof it over the priest of Oghma in the top right of Candlekeep and bribe him to up your reputation. You should still have plenty of monies left getting your rep back up to 10 or so.

Nice! I certainly had never thought about doing anything like that.

With Tutu, which has Find Familiar, I would polymorph my imp into a brown bear and then start the "training" with Jolanthus and Erik, and let the brown bear slaughter them both while I stand out of harm's way (otherwise, once you hit one of them, the fight is over and they disappear). It gets you 175XP each and the longbow from Erik.

Just before leaving Candlekeep with Gorion, I'd head back over to the Inn and take care of Firebead, this time with my imp polymorphed into a sword spider. The continual poison damage usually takes care of his spells and I hurl darts at him until he croaks. I then make off with 2700XP and the Traveler's Robe until I see Firebead's double again in Beregost.

Dude that's brilliant. Definitely going to try that some time.

Another thing you can do is de-nature the stupid lady who loses the book. Phylidia? I can't remember her name exactly off the top of my head.

But just go and charm person on her, run her down to the same spot I mentioned for fighting watchers. Cast spell, then move during the animation so it fizzles. Rinse and repeat til she's out of spells, then murder her. Because robes!

I actually don't like killing Firebead in Candlekeep because then I miss out on quest XP for handing him that book in Beregost. THEN I murder him in Beregost.

@Aosaw: why not do both?

Xanthul

Sandman, Firebead reappears in Beregost regardless of whether you killed him in CK or not so you can actually kill him, do his quest and then kill him again.

Gloomfrost

Kill them all let God sort them out! .....wait this is Faerun right?

try again

Kill them all let Bhall sort them out!.....wait there is BG2 still

try again

Kill them all, I'll sort them out!

moody_mage

@Xanthul said:

Sandman, Firebead reappears in Beregost regardless of whether you killed him in CK or not so you can actually kill him, do his quest and then kill him again.

Before you do this in BGEE you should be aware this 'feature' has been fixed... If you kill Firebead in CK he won't be in Beregost.

neleothesze

@decado
Or you could kill Firebead, export, import and wham... XP!
Charname: 'I had a really weird dream last night Imoen... I was looking for you at the inn and Winthrop said he'd seen you talking to old FIrebead. When I asked him about you he grinned and grew fangs and leapt at me. So I rushed for the hearth, grabbed the hot poker and stabbed him. As he was dying his face turned into Gorion who told me off for going to the barracks by myself... He was so angry, wouldn't hear any excuses, I actually thought he'd hit me so I ran out of the inn, and I woke up. Strange huh.'
Imoen: 'Must have been something you ate. Told you I can't cook. No idea why Puffguts keeps making me cook.'
Charname: 'Must have been that. I'm off to the barracks. See ya.'
Imoen: 'See ya.'

Shin

It's a well worked-out procedure, but to me it feels so contrived and de-immersifying that I could never do it and maintain interest in the playthrough/character. If I felt it made sense that my character should have some experience from the start already, I would simply edit it in.

Moomintroll

@mortianna how do you polymorph your familiar into a spider or a bear? is that legit?

neleothesze

@Shin
I can (and sometimes) do that now. As you said, sometimes it makes sense for a character to have some xp, sometimes with the background it doesn't. What's to say Shadowkeeper will work perfectly from day 1 in BG:EE? It's hard to keep immersion when reloading the 30th time because that wolf got lucky. Or to explain kiting mobs on any character. I'm pretty sure priests or mages raised in Candlekeep don't have the fitness to keep running and throwing pebbles for 30 minutes without pause... It's hard to explain why your childhood friend introduces herself by name, and many many others.

Shin

@neleothesze Aye, not disputing the reasons people may have for feeling their characters should start with more exp. Even if Shadowkeeper won't work though, Near Infinity very likely will. And then there's also SetCurrentXP through the console.

Jolanthus

Mortianna said:

With Tutu, which has Find Familiar, I would polymorph my imp into a brown bear and then start the "training" with Jolanthus and Erik

Shows how long its been since I played the game. I don't even remember being in it.

neleothesze

@Shin Indeed there are, but I guess most people here would rather do something (anything) in-game to earn the gold and xp... or at least that's the impression I got from the first posts. Otherwise, from a roleplaying perspective, it makes no sense for there to be an infinite number of people who were hired as guards for the same spot in the same fortress. You'd think someone would investigate the Mysterious Disappearing Guards of Candlekeep and notice the wild-eyed, blood-covered man. :P

Drugar

Sounds like true Child of Bhaal behavior.
God of Murder indeed...

Sed

Firebead has died a few times.. by accident of course, running up and down the stairs!

moody_mage

@neleothesze said:

@decado
Or you could kill Firebead, export, import and wham... XP!

Of course - just wanted to point out that bug/exploit had been squished in case you were so inclined to take advantage of it in BGEE.

I have your best interests at heart!

sandmanCCL

Moomintroll said:

@mortianna how do you polymorph your familiar into a spider or a bear? is that legit?

http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Arcane_Spells_List#Find_Familiar

Be Lawful Evil.

Communard

I'd do this with an Assassin because it would actually be in-character...

Moomintroll

@sandmanCCL OMG goodbye pussycat, thanks!

Mortianna

Moomintroll said:

@mortianna how do you polymorph your familiar into a spider or a bear? is that legit?

IMO, the imp is the best familiar in the game for BG Tutu. All the more reason to be Lawful Evil.

I'd say the dust mephit is the best familiar for BGII ToB. It's immune to fire and can cast glitterdust, stoneskin, and prismatic spray.

neleothesze

@decado
Thanks but it was an example. I'd rather console/Shadowkeeper the xp in (if I ever feel like it) than spend the time doing that...
My priority probably won't be XP but meeting the new chars asap, even if it means running through the wilderness with a 4hp mage on the Benny Hill theme song. :P