I cheat a lot, and you? *Spoiler Warning*
gorgonzola
Member Posts: 3,864
I cheat almost always in my BG2 runs.
But I use mainly real life time saver cheats.
I had rolled in the past many charnames, I know the average stats that I can get rolling for 5 minutes, 1 hour or a whole afternoon, and what stats have the same chance as winning the national lottery. So I decide previously how high the stats will be, sometimes in the 10 min range and sometimes in the 2-3 hours one, and I cheat them in saving some time for real playing . But I never, outside testing purposes, cheat in illegal or unrealistic stats.
I use often some tricks to get more XP from the game, the ones that involve fighting, challenge and risk. I love to turn to stone Dragons, to get their XP, then turn them to flash again and repeat, until I am satisfied and satiated.
Sometimes I impose myself to heal them after reverting them to flash, for a little more challenge, sometimes I allow myself to Fleeblemind the first dragon, before turning it to stone for a reduced challenge. I also make good use of infinite spawning enemies and sometimes even gate in some demons just for the XP of the killing. But I never use the ranged attack from the walls of Saradush, as no risk and challenge is needed, or cheese like talking multiple times to get multiple quest XP.
This is maybe a cheese, but not a cheat, but I cheat also there.
When my party has petrified a dragon 5 times I know that it has the potential to do it other 100 times more, when the party has tanked the Demon Prince for half an hour real time to gain the XP of his infinite spawning enemies and is still full of HP and spell memorization ( thanks to spell trap or wish ) I know that it can do it for another week. So I feel not guilty to cheat in the needed XP and avoid to fight the same battle for forever, it become boring and real life time is limited.*
There are other cheats that I use, sometimes I want to have Imoen bard or dual FM, with only 4 fighter levels, or sorcerer, or maybe Nalia pure class or kitted thief, Mazzi multi. Sometimes I like to change weapon proficiences of some NPC's, almost always assign the sword and shield pips to something more usefull (imo S&S is a joke, completely wasted pips), or I want Korgan and Sarewok be GM in other weapons.
As long as I don't change the total of stats proficiencies and skills I feel free to do it and don't feel guilty about it.
There are other cheats I never use outside testing purposes, I never use CTR-Y or CTR-R, never give illegal stats, increased movement rate or APR or resistances or never cheat in equipment or weapons that are not available in that moment of the game. If I want Carsomyr for my pally he has to fight for it and wait until he have enough power to go there and get it. If I want speed boots for everybody the party has to go there and get them one by one and live with the fact that their number is limited so also the number of party members will be limited.
I am interested about how other players deal with the cheats, which ones they use or avoid and the reasons behind their choice.
*I know that using infinite XP tricks, even if "fair tricks", that involve risk and challenge, change the game balance.
But since in my modded game the balance is already changed and with the PWG strategies that I use my usual parties, even without farming bonus XP, are overpowered after just few quests for me is fine.
I like the RP idea of a charname and his party starting uderpowered against overpwered enemies (Tactics Iliych and so on), then growing fast to become the most powerful adventurers group in all Amn. In different runs I chose different quest order to fight them both with the OP and UP option. And when I am OP I try to not overkill, but use the power only as more versatility, to allow more tactics in the same battle. I give bonus XP according to that criteria, I don't want to reach XP cap at the first dragon.
But I use mainly real life time saver cheats.
I had rolled in the past many charnames, I know the average stats that I can get rolling for 5 minutes, 1 hour or a whole afternoon, and what stats have the same chance as winning the national lottery. So I decide previously how high the stats will be, sometimes in the 10 min range and sometimes in the 2-3 hours one, and I cheat them in saving some time for real playing . But I never, outside testing purposes, cheat in illegal or unrealistic stats.
I use often some tricks to get more XP from the game, the ones that involve fighting, challenge and risk. I love to turn to stone Dragons, to get their XP, then turn them to flash again and repeat, until I am satisfied and satiated.
Sometimes I impose myself to heal them after reverting them to flash, for a little more challenge, sometimes I allow myself to Fleeblemind the first dragon, before turning it to stone for a reduced challenge. I also make good use of infinite spawning enemies and sometimes even gate in some demons just for the XP of the killing. But I never use the ranged attack from the walls of Saradush, as no risk and challenge is needed, or cheese like talking multiple times to get multiple quest XP.
This is maybe a cheese, but not a cheat, but I cheat also there.
When my party has petrified a dragon 5 times I know that it has the potential to do it other 100 times more, when the party has tanked the Demon Prince for half an hour real time to gain the XP of his infinite spawning enemies and is still full of HP and spell memorization ( thanks to spell trap or wish ) I know that it can do it for another week. So I feel not guilty to cheat in the needed XP and avoid to fight the same battle for forever, it become boring and real life time is limited.*
There are other cheats that I use, sometimes I want to have Imoen bard or dual FM, with only 4 fighter levels, or sorcerer, or maybe Nalia pure class or kitted thief, Mazzi multi. Sometimes I like to change weapon proficiences of some NPC's, almost always assign the sword and shield pips to something more usefull (imo S&S is a joke, completely wasted pips), or I want Korgan and Sarewok be GM in other weapons.
As long as I don't change the total of stats proficiencies and skills I feel free to do it and don't feel guilty about it.
There are other cheats I never use outside testing purposes, I never use CTR-Y or CTR-R, never give illegal stats, increased movement rate or APR or resistances or never cheat in equipment or weapons that are not available in that moment of the game. If I want Carsomyr for my pally he has to fight for it and wait until he have enough power to go there and get it. If I want speed boots for everybody the party has to go there and get them one by one and live with the fact that their number is limited so also the number of party members will be limited.
I am interested about how other players deal with the cheats, which ones they use or avoid and the reasons behind their choice.
*I know that using infinite XP tricks, even if "fair tricks", that involve risk and challenge, change the game balance.
But since in my modded game the balance is already changed and with the PWG strategies that I use my usual parties, even without farming bonus XP, are overpowered after just few quests for me is fine.
I like the RP idea of a charname and his party starting uderpowered against overpwered enemies (Tactics Iliych and so on), then growing fast to become the most powerful adventurers group in all Amn. In different runs I chose different quest order to fight them both with the OP and UP option. And when I am OP I try to not overkill, but use the power only as more versatility, to allow more tactics in the same battle. I give bonus XP according to that criteria, I don't want to reach XP cap at the first dragon.
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Comments
Ctrl+J to move from one side of the map to another when it's cleared, Ctrl+R to revive dead companions instead of bringing them to the temple when my party has lots and lots of gold. Cluaconsole to manage reputation: C:Eval("ReputationInc(-1)"), Cluaconsole to change romance variables so that my shorties could romance those they want, EEKeeper to change proficiencies if I don't like the ones I've chosen.
Not everytime, but when I find it appropriate.
And you're playing it the way you like it the most.
That's the most correct choice.
The only other thing I do regularly is lower the difficulty when scroll scribing. I quite simply have never accepted the percentages of success that the game suggests. Way too many fails!!
Which ones they use, if and why they feel guilty about, the reasons why they chose to cheat or not.
I could have created this topic as a poll, do you cheat? Never-sometimes-always. But I think that as a poll the focus of the discussion would be more on how much, and not on why and which way.
This game can be played in so many ways according to player preference and I am really interested in knowing how different people find their own way to having fun playing it.
I would like to think that I do not cheat but there are 3 things I regularly do which some may disagree with:
1) Start in BG2 but with BG1 XP and tome bonuses.
2) Give my multiclass characters a kit.
3) Use ExploreArea() on every map, since I have OCD about fog of war.
Kit my PC - Don't consider this cheating, multiclasses should be able to have any kit that covers one or more of their component classes. Depending how dedicated I'm feeling, I may use Keeper to enforce swashbuckler HLAs and remove excess bounty hunter thief skills, and I generally will avoid backstabbing. I also feel no compulsion to stick to race legal multiclass combinations either, particularly for my halfling Barbarian/Druids.
Change and kit NPCs - I tend to keep their stats the same, but I could be running Multiplayer for a full team so I don't blink at turning Imoen into a Skald to give me a little variety during playthrough #9681.
Ctrl J - Constantly. If I can reach a location without getting attacked, I'll Ctrl+J it.
Foreknowledge - I don't know about you guys, but my CHARNAMEs are invariably seers who get prophetic dreams like "Irenicus has escaped", "Imoen has been sent to some place called Spellhold", and "a nasty level 23 mage will teleport into this room and ambush us the moment we touch this suspiciously placed glowing ruby, better lay down a kill zone of ballista bolt throwing death traps".
Double Billing - If I can turn in a quest or kill an NPC, generally I'll give at least a half-hearted attempt at "both", including a sweet 75k Exp from Gaal every time. I will exploit any game mechanic that makes things easier for me, and I will sure as anything pick the pocket of any NPC on a script to disappear, using pause to steal multiple times per second.
Potions of Master Thievery - I will happily chug two thousand gold's worth of these to steal 200,000 gold's worth of stuff.
DoMT abuse - I will sure as anything savescum the Deck of Many Things to get permanent Mind Shield and a +1 stat result, I don't even care.
FAQing - I will look up the Lum's machine codes, because I cannot be bothered to store a bunch of pieces of paper or write them down anywhere. If I'm feeling particularly lazy, I may look up what loot to expect so I can cherrypick what I want rather than slog through every map making sure I don't miss something I've forgotten.
Crossdressing - I will intentionally leave Edwin as a woman so (s)he can party with Neera without whining.
Fake Kicking People - I'll dump Jaheira off in another room to "rest" so I don't have to put up with an Aerie/Jaheira bicker and force choice. Ain't nobody got time for that. When I wake up, I tell her she's crazy and that I never told her to leave.
Scribe Abuse - Not only will I scribe and erase scrolls over and over, I'll kick other party members for maximised power leveling.
Consorting with darkness - If Hexxat is in the party, I will allow her to tank, because I have no shame. I will also abuse the heck out of the infinite Spider generator in her quest, since it's a lot safer and more controllable than the infinite monster trap in the Unseeing Eye rod dungeon.
I generally can't be bothered to wish rest or cycle spell trap combos, but I will send projected images to lay traps where obnoxious cut scene enemies are about to appear.
I won't use the shield of Balduran. Generally because I'm too cheap to pay for it.
No one can tell me it's an achievement to be able to sit there and click "roll" for 20 minutes until the stats come up the right way. Don't waste your life, EEKeeper things in as you think is fair. Waiting 60 seconds while you move from one corner of the map to the next until the last straggler has found their way through that one narrow passage? Ctrl+J and no more impulses to fiddle with your phone while you're "playing".
Where you draw the line is up to you. There is no BG police to come and tell you "actually, you can't add extra stats for the BG1 tomes because you didn't really play BG1 with this character". You want to do it, do it. You're an adult. You can police yourself. Want to play with all stats on 25? By all means. You don't want to, because it's too far for your taste? Limit yourself. Every human being has to find a way to deal with impulses of indulgence and thoughts of reason and measure. You might as well start learning that here, because in the end there is no one but you to stop yourself in the rest of your life, too.
2. I raise the XP of any underleveled NPC's to match the party.
3. I "buy" items that aren't really available. Forex, I'll stand in Thunderhammer's smithy and cheat in the ammo belt and cheat out 300 GP's.
Acts of convenience consider the majority of my "sins".
Infinite ammo/potion stacking? Of course.
100% chance of writing spells? Always. I swear, the RNG for it is the most loaded RNG I have ever encountered. 98%= 3 out of 5 tries at best. I'm usually not a RNG whiner, but this is the famous exception.
Ctrl-Jing to save time? Sure.
Ctrl-Ying the nth number of stupid random monster spawns disturbing my rest? Yeah.
Adjusting the XP-values of new recruits to the level of my next lowest party member, if they are too far behind otherwise? Yep.
Redistributing(not adding, and within their class restrictions) proficiency points of NPCs to something more of my liking? Si.
I don't assign illegal class/kit-combos. I do turn Imoen into a Swashbuckler in BG1 however, and I give her the 10 levels she earned herself in that game, after picking her up in Spellhold.
I don't exploit scroll scribing or other XP-grabs(with the many quest mods I play it is completely unnecessary anyway)
I don't even play with maximized prime stats, and I stick the NWN-style HP-progression on level ups.
I don't use gamebreaking items like SoB or SotM
I limit my use of stuff like the RoV to very few, appropriate moments
I don't use PIs/Simulacra at all, and I refrain from abusing Time Traps with all the cheese options related to them.
"Worst" thing I have done was to import a Kensai I played with in a heavily modded BG1Tutu-run years ago, and give him the 600k xp he still needed to reach L13 via Console and dual him right away in CI to start as a Lvl1 Char.
The irony was, being a full SCS-install, it made the first parts of the game insanely hard. Nothing worse than a low level Thief with Kensai-restrictions, when the rest of your gang isn't exactly stellar either, lol.
But in the end, what Tansheron said. It's not a competitve game, so do whatever you think it's most fun for you.
Stealing and buy back: tried it, felt weird, stopped, nowadays i sell only to thieves but not the one I stole from nor do I steal items more than once.
Infinite xp/etc, came across some, got bored fast, stopped doing it.
Multi class kit, only if role play allows and I restrict the protagonist in other ways.
Kitting/class changing npcs, yes this I still do sometimes when I like the npc but want a different class or kit.
Clua/keeper: only if something is broken (example, under some circumstances related to a hexxat dialogue triggering in the future my avenger could not dual to fighter, so I helped her out. Later the cause was sort of found and I backtracked if manual dual was okay (it was, otherwise I would edit the mistake again).
Disabling takeitemreplace, race and class checks and party size checks in improved anvil games: yep because after having played it straight up several times it started to annoy me that some items were not available even if I had a custom npc with the required race or kit in my party (and some weird code ia has nowadays are supposedly anticheat but when half my party is too far away or dead some items do not drop without me knowing it and then I am searching the whole game for them in vein).
I guess I am relatively nice.
- i reroll for great stats (and it's legit) anyway i abuse of stat books, i usually start the game, get the most easy books and export the character many times till i obtain the points that i want (i love the fighter/mage/thief so many stats are important)
- i use a xp cap remover for bg2 (always because of the fighter/mage/thief)
Many could say that i lose time rerolling and then export/import, but for me it's legit, otherwise it would be cheating. Anyway i think that a single player game should be played in the way that it's more enjoyed.
Having so many ways to play these games made the bg series so amazing, after almost 20 years a lot of people still love them
In multiplayer with a friend I believe I found a way to duplicate loot found on the ground (after an opponent dies), which could easily lead to infinite money or duplicate equips. It's hard to do because it seems to rely on latency, quicksaves and luck. Haven't figured out the pattern yet.
Also in multiplayer, if you rage a barb before resting you get all your health back after a measly 8 hour rest.
Rest until healed in singleplayer, enough said. I'm starting to wonder why bioware even put that in.
Power word : reload can get quickly out of hand with me. Sometimes I just do it until an enemy misses his save. Lame.
I made some characters with vampire bite, basilisk projectile, greater ghast touch, green slime insta-gib and mind flaying as their main weapons. Suffice to say the roleplaying is impossible with those, but i'll be damned if it isn't hilarious to play.
Talk to an NPC, disengage and attack. They get stuck in the "waiting-for-you-to-speak-to-me" pose and do nothing while you beat them up. Using that on a dragon is extremely underwhelming.
Shoot an area-of-effect spell just right out of view into the fog, because your filthy brain remembers there's a group of nasty nasty waiting. A little feeling of guilt here.
Back away from a enemy mage's line of sight, rest and clear his buffs, reengage. That has to be the biggest game-breaker I can think of.
Fight Drizzt and reload a million times until the Stupefier crit + stuns him. Very tedious.
Use my maxed assassin to backstab Elminster and reload until I get a crit for ~115 damage. Silly but legit.
Surprisingly I could never get myself to CTRL+Y something. Not even the ghost knights in BG1. At this point I'm kind of proud of myself for this. Wooho.
Functionally reroll and export/import or cheat in with EEkeeper bring the same result, better stats.
Is just the feeling that change, using EEkeeper would make you feel "guilty", not using it would make others feel "real life time wasters". Both ways can be good or wrong, depending on our feelings.
Being myself curious about human nature I am more interested in this kind of things than in knowing how other players build their F/C.
CTRL-Y is a different beast and using it may have a side effect but there is no real reason to use it while playing (as oppose to testing).
Ctrl-J: Mandatory on PC. I miss it ALOT when playing on Ipad.
Faking charname stats/race: If I start in BG2, is usually have the backstory form BG1 in my head already, so I keeper in the tome stats on the char and sometimes add in items to the chest in Irenicus dungeoun. Wish I could do that on Ipad as well. I've played without racial restrictions for some time now as well. I just want to play the char I want to play, no matter the race and class combination of the original rules.
Kitting MC charnames: Mandatory nowadays, mainly for RP reasons and very seldom for powergaming. Always comes with some self-restrictions though, such as an assassin/mage not being allowed any offensive spells such as fireballs etc, only buffing spells, or adding higher profiences to a blade to mimic haer'dalis doomguard kit but at the cost of bhaal spawn powers or other spell restrictions.
Changing NPC's: Sometimes I change proficences a bit, but I tend to stick with the concept of the char. I might change Jaheira's profs for specialization in scimis and remore clubs etc so she can get better use of Belm or whatever. I also add EXP in some rare occasions when an NPC is very underleveled.
I sometimes, when I want to rush things, steal/sell 'til I get alot of gold.
But I use (rarely abuse) exploits, all of them.
I even try to find new ones
Xzar needs that wisdom time, branwen that dexterity tome, safana that intelligence tome....
Well, in some playthroughs perhaps. I generally use only some on the protagonist, when it makes sense.
Explore area as well. For some reason I have to see the entire map, the top of a mountain or what's on the other side of a lake.
I also cheat in better stats. Either because I didn't bother with bg1 or just because my divine body and soul needs sweet stats to match. Never op them though.
I google the answers for the bard stronghold every time (who learns those by heart anyway) and the combination for Lums fancy machine.
I never change anything about the NPC's. They come with flaws and I keep them that way.
I have consoled in items I have sold by mistake or just couldn't find when I needed them.
I always give myself the Boots of Speed, because otherwise it takes forever and a half to get anywhere.
I like to roll for stats if possible. But if I get nothing good after about five minutes, or click too fast and lose a good roll, I WILL Ctrl+Shift+8 what I want.
If an NPC joins and is severely underlevel, I will boost them up to match XP of the lowest party member.
I will EEKeeper myself a kit on a multi/dual if I so desire.
I remove race and class restrictions. Why can't my Gnome become a Monk? I see no good reason for it.
On solo attempts only, I sometimes give myself an innate Cure Critical Wounds. I'll gladly chug a potion in battle, but I hated finishing a big fight and then seeing "You have rested for 17 days." Did my guy slip into a coma after killing that dragon?? The abilities weren't used in combat, simply to give myself a more realistic rest time.
Sometimes I will give myself a stat boost as if I collected the tomes in BG1, but that's pretty rare.
I think that's about it. If I go too hard on the cheating I kind of lose interest in the character.
Fully willing to admit I abuse Power Word: Reload. Deck of Many Things abuse? Heck yeah I do that too.
When this game was still on disks, I found the Cloak of Algernon and did terrible, terrible things with it. I'd charm all of Candlekeep and then kill off the high exp value wizards with wave after wave of charmed grunts. If nothing else the wizards would waste their spells on the tutors (the ones I couldn't make them waste when they were under my control). Cowardly sages would automatically start trying to run though and I had to keep ordering them back to punching Firebead Elvenhair.
Once, and only once, I actually managed to swarm down Gorion. He was really tricky because he only cast lightning bold and he cut through my enslaved hoard so quickly. Oh how I miss abusing that Cloak. It was so much fun and so evil.
Edit: Is there an honorary Illithid club I can join? Mentally dominating people and making them fight to the death for my evil amusement and empowerment has got to count towards something.
another "cheat" I use which isn't really cheating, but can't be done normally, is give my characters pretty col-lors, the color choices are so small for what your characters can choose, and they cant even choose their metal, leather, or armor colors, so 50% of the time I EE keeper it cool looking colors for my CHARNAME ( or my entire party if im playing a 6 person custom game) because its all about looks baby
next, in game the only crtl+ cheat that I use is ironically the crtl+Y cheat, but only for convience sake, for example in bg1, you can steal from any house any chest easily without getting caught be either A- having high stealth or inivisibility, B- boots of speed or haste or both, or C- knocking out all the witnesses unconscious, but in the real world there is things to do people to see, places to be sort of thing, and sometimes I'm a little lazy when it comes to thieving, so if I get caught and I know im not going to make it out on time I will crtl+Y the dude that is going to make me lose REP points, and then I just pretend that I used one of the above methods instead, so then all is good, and especially in gullykin I have absolutely no guily in crtl+Y on the Halfling enforcers, why in the heck did the devs add those guys in? it completely makes no sense that they even exist, if gullykin had Halfling enforces laying around, then they wouldn't be having problems with the firewine ruins, I've almost been tempted to delete those guys with EE keeper, but I don't know if that will bug up my game so I leave them be and crtl+Y away
when it comes to exploits, I will exploit till im blue in the face, well at least just the item ones anways, if I can get more than 1 item from an exploit by all means I will do it, although the devs having been working meticulously to stop that, there are still a few around that I take advantage of, I don't do any XP exploits except for erasing spells in the spell book and re scribing them, but only in bg2, the XP gain in bg1 is so little for scribing I just sell my extra copies, and the drizzt exploits, ah, there is still so many drizzt exploits to choose from at level 1 that I still use, because those items are just to good to pass up, plus the huge 12 000 XP boost is also nice, for me exploits are rewarding because it really requires some outside the box thinking, and kind of makes me feel like secretly deep down inside my character is a hidden super genius just basking in the fruit of his intellect, although total game/immersion breaking exploits I stay away from because too much exploiting can take some fun out of the game for me, so I know my limits, and I stay with in it
and then I will use cheats to "fix" the game, for example our good ol' pal saemon havarian doesn't like showing up in brynlaw so I have to use the handy dandy console to summon him in so then I can actually continue on with the game, or if some other weird and whacky bug has messed up some specific triggers and things aren't happening then I will use the console to fix those up
and then every once in a while, I will make the "god mode" character where I will just completely EE keeper them up with ridiculousness and just wreck havoc on the realms, the irony with this is, I have found the locations of some of the cooler items in the game because of this, so when I play legitimate non cheating games I will know where to get those cooler items ( like the cloak of balduran in bg1 and the ring of regeneration in bg2) so one time what I did was give alora's lucky foot to every inventory slot to my character and I was dual wielding iron golem attack in bgee, and that was just plain comedy, I was turning everyone into soup, with movement set to 50 with boots of speed, I was basically a fighter jet plane on legs, and to top it all off I made my sprite look like irenicus, gave him irenicus' portrait and I was a kensai dealing 56 damage on normal hits and I got to sarevok in just 16 game days, ah good times
but other than that, im pretty legitimate when I play, I don't even use crtl+J I bask in the glory of walking like big fish getting from place to place, enjoy the scenery, enjoy the immense effort that was put in, to make those maps look as good as they did back in 99/01 and especially for all those folks who like romances crtl+J is your enemy, some romances are based on time and othes based on trigger locations, so saving time and teleporting across the map can cost you romance banters
It is so hard and cumbersome to add so called cheats when playing on Android... Means I basically don't cheat. It is no fun transferring files, connecting a keyboard, yadda, yadda, yadda.
My phone games are clean.
My PC games are different. I do make changes, some of which can be considered cheating.
I dislike the arbitrary class roles placed on races. As far as I am aware the perfect race for a wildmage is a gnome role-playing wise.
(However I understand the shortie saves gives a wildmage gnome clear advantages.)
Kitting multi and dual classes. Why can't my cleric/mage be a Priest of Helm? My fighter become an assassin?
Funnily, I have never broken the duals are just for humans rule. (But I would if I could think of a good role-playing reason.)
Cosmetic. I hate that multis always choose the fighter in a skirt or badly fitting shorts doll. I prefer the cleric doll.
Stat roll. Can't be bothered. Edit what I want or how hard a challenge or to fit a character I want to role-play.
Grandmastery for multis, rangers, paladins. Why deny the fighter extra practise with their favourite weapon? But no extra pips.
Xp cap. How dare you. How very very dare you put a cap on me! (Insert I'm your wife joke... Here)
But that's it. No items added, nadda. The ctrl keys, frankly I just don't use. You may run into some critters that need killing! And xp is important!
So... That's how I bread roll...
No cheats.
No exploits.
No reload.
I play with SCS and the only time I reload is when an enemy bugs out. And a few times during Rasaads quest conversations because they are really really poorly written.
I try not to use unrealistic tactics either. Fog of war isn't realistic for example, I try to think of it as line of sight which should be way longer.
I dont use spells I don't think are implemented correctly. For example project image, I am fine with simulacrum though, I never wish rest either since I think it is a bit silly.
I try not to abuse stupid AI, as in triggering all mage buffs with a low level summon. If a mage is smart enough to learn time stop, he should be smart enough to suspect where that critter is coming from. Same goes to triggering lich buffs and running away. If he is a HLA level mage, why is he slowly walking towards me while his buffs are running out?
Both of these points apply to pulling parts of groups, they should see me, or at least see eachother. So I wouldnt find it plausible if they split up just for my sake.
I try not to play without too much meta knowledge, which works really well since it's been a good 15 years ago I last played the game.
Last run ended when I told myself I just wanted to see the hidden fight where you find staff of the magi, it wouldnt count as a death since I was underleveled and just curious. I would just take a peek then continue. I saw it, I died. I tried again, I won. I deleted. I restarted.