Hello, all
Vorona
Member Posts: 12
I always feel like I should post an introduction before I start posting in forums. So, here I am!
I'm a terrible gamer, but I love it anyway, so in terms of role playing vs. power gaming, I tend to do a lot of power gaming up front so that I don't have to worry about my bad player skills and tactics later on, and can thus enjoy role playing. So, I tend to fit in the extremes at different points. For example, I tend to reroll forever until I get the stats I want, but when it comes to an actual fight, I can't seem to remember to use any potions other than antidotes or healing potions, nor traps, so expecting me to remember to trap enemies with a closed door is way beyond me. I also have a strange dislike of fighters, so my parties tend to be unbalanced. It probably doesn't help that I have a thing for bards as the main character. Back on the power game side of things, I went through Candlekeep a million times to load up on star sapphires, so I have an ungodly amount of gold to deal with the iron crisis when it starts affecting my characters.
Currently, I'm playing on a Mac because my main computer got infected with a nasty virus that my Google Fu was unable to solve (even rescue disks like Kaspersky and such wouldn't boot properly), but when I get my PC back, I plan to start over since I've already made some dumb mistakes. Also, I'm thinking about trying the Tweak Anthology so that I can recruit some of the later characters earlier.
As for Baldur's Gate . . . I have this compulsion to not start 2 until I have finished 1. I got the disks ages ago, then migrated to GoG when my computer could no longer play the disks, and now I have EE as well. Despite that, I have never gotten past the vampiric wolves in BG1, so I have not even started BG2. I have never really played any other games of this sort, though I do have Neverwinter Nights, and I started Planescape: Torment once.
More recently, I have played Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (but seriously, why so many colons?)
My current party is Lyrien (Skald, main character), Melysene (gnome Illusionist/Thief-unlock), Imoen (Thief-scout/traps), Jaheira, and Khalid. I took Edwin to the gnoll fortress and let him and Dynaheir "work things out". Then, I returned to Nashkel and just recruited Minsc to round out the party (I will have to see what to do if he starts wanting to save Dynaheir -- my curiosity is what prompted this method of getting just him rather than the more usual methods). I plan to replace Khalid with Kivan (because so far, Kivan is the only fighter I can stand). I wasn't really planning on a "good" party (my characters are both neutral), but I didn't want to wait to get a party together or go too far out of my way hunting down potential recruits. I'm not a big fan of Montaron and don't feel I need any more arcane spells, even though I won't read high levels with either of my arcane casters -- so Xzar is out, even though I like him. I also note my lack of tanky characters, which is why I decided to go with Minsc rather than Viconia (who I like a lot more) -- Kagain (another fighter I don't really like) got killed already, and I did not bother to resurrect him. I'm not really excited about Minsc, but the gnoll fortress was difficult enough to keep my ranged characters from getting into melee range. I tried Ajantis, but his dialogue really irritated me. I'm pretty sure I will get Yeslick at some point, though I've never experienced him, so I don't know whether he will irritate me or not. But I know it would be good to have some actual Cleric spells in there, rather than just Jaheira's druid spells.
I'm playing on Core Rules mainly for the spell writing. I went high in Intelligence specifically so I wouldn't fail in writing spells as often, so having it succeed automatically feels wrong and a waste of that effort. I wish I could have that and everything else (indifferent on the hit point thing) from Normal/Easy, so sometimes I switch the difficulty down in a fight, although I haven't been doing as badly as I thought I would, so it's been at Core most of the time despite this -- probably a result of the stats and some of the gear (although I haven't changed much out yet, and I left the wand of magic missiles accidentally with Edwin in the gnoll fortress). I thought I would need Easy, but so far, I have only lowered it to Normal, and not as often as I expected.
Quest-wise, I need to go back to Beregost to get some quests that I didn't get, and then we'll see. I have a lot to do before I actually start the Nashkel mines.
I'm not sure why I wrote all of that. I guess I wasn't sure what else to put for an intro! Hope it was at least vaguely interesting.
I'm a terrible gamer, but I love it anyway, so in terms of role playing vs. power gaming, I tend to do a lot of power gaming up front so that I don't have to worry about my bad player skills and tactics later on, and can thus enjoy role playing. So, I tend to fit in the extremes at different points. For example, I tend to reroll forever until I get the stats I want, but when it comes to an actual fight, I can't seem to remember to use any potions other than antidotes or healing potions, nor traps, so expecting me to remember to trap enemies with a closed door is way beyond me. I also have a strange dislike of fighters, so my parties tend to be unbalanced. It probably doesn't help that I have a thing for bards as the main character. Back on the power game side of things, I went through Candlekeep a million times to load up on star sapphires, so I have an ungodly amount of gold to deal with the iron crisis when it starts affecting my characters.
Currently, I'm playing on a Mac because my main computer got infected with a nasty virus that my Google Fu was unable to solve (even rescue disks like Kaspersky and such wouldn't boot properly), but when I get my PC back, I plan to start over since I've already made some dumb mistakes. Also, I'm thinking about trying the Tweak Anthology so that I can recruit some of the later characters earlier.
As for Baldur's Gate . . . I have this compulsion to not start 2 until I have finished 1. I got the disks ages ago, then migrated to GoG when my computer could no longer play the disks, and now I have EE as well. Despite that, I have never gotten past the vampiric wolves in BG1, so I have not even started BG2. I have never really played any other games of this sort, though I do have Neverwinter Nights, and I started Planescape: Torment once.
More recently, I have played Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (but seriously, why so many colons?)
My current party is Lyrien (Skald, main character), Melysene (gnome Illusionist/Thief-unlock), Imoen (Thief-scout/traps), Jaheira, and Khalid. I took Edwin to the gnoll fortress and let him and Dynaheir "work things out". Then, I returned to Nashkel and just recruited Minsc to round out the party (I will have to see what to do if he starts wanting to save Dynaheir -- my curiosity is what prompted this method of getting just him rather than the more usual methods). I plan to replace Khalid with Kivan (because so far, Kivan is the only fighter I can stand). I wasn't really planning on a "good" party (my characters are both neutral), but I didn't want to wait to get a party together or go too far out of my way hunting down potential recruits. I'm not a big fan of Montaron and don't feel I need any more arcane spells, even though I won't read high levels with either of my arcane casters -- so Xzar is out, even though I like him. I also note my lack of tanky characters, which is why I decided to go with Minsc rather than Viconia (who I like a lot more) -- Kagain (another fighter I don't really like) got killed already, and I did not bother to resurrect him. I'm not really excited about Minsc, but the gnoll fortress was difficult enough to keep my ranged characters from getting into melee range. I tried Ajantis, but his dialogue really irritated me. I'm pretty sure I will get Yeslick at some point, though I've never experienced him, so I don't know whether he will irritate me or not. But I know it would be good to have some actual Cleric spells in there, rather than just Jaheira's druid spells.
I'm playing on Core Rules mainly for the spell writing. I went high in Intelligence specifically so I wouldn't fail in writing spells as often, so having it succeed automatically feels wrong and a waste of that effort. I wish I could have that and everything else (indifferent on the hit point thing) from Normal/Easy, so sometimes I switch the difficulty down in a fight, although I haven't been doing as badly as I thought I would, so it's been at Core most of the time despite this -- probably a result of the stats and some of the gear (although I haven't changed much out yet, and I left the wand of magic missiles accidentally with Edwin in the gnoll fortress). I thought I would need Easy, but so far, I have only lowered it to Normal, and not as often as I expected.
Quest-wise, I need to go back to Beregost to get some quests that I didn't get, and then we'll see. I have a lot to do before I actually start the Nashkel mines.
I'm not sure why I wrote all of that. I guess I wasn't sure what else to put for an intro! Hope it was at least vaguely interesting.
10
Comments
Don't worry about mistakes during your playthroughs, you will have new playthroughs where you will try other things.
And bards are nice! If properly used, they can add a lot to any party.
your intro reminded me of the good ole days and the problems i encountered on my first time through. unlike you, warrior types are my favorite classes, especially the berserker. not all that fond of mages. mainly due to not totally understanding the magic strategies. every time the enemy casts something, i have to refer to my notes to figure out what my mage needs to cast to counteract that spell. a pita for me when i'd much rather just be hacking and slashing. still have alot of fun playing the game regardless, which is what really matters.
@JuliusBorisov Well, I've tried to finish this game a million times, and eventually get to a point where it is just too hard. Of course, I don't think the original had options for difficulty, so maybe turning the difficulty down will help in those cases. Anyway, the main reason for starting over is to use the new computer (and well, I really like creating characters -- the other reason I've started so many times without getting far!)
@Nimran , the cookie was great, thank you! Mmm mmm!
@ber5nie5 Ha! I get you. I don't understand my problem with fighters/warriors. Not only do I not really like playing them, but in most games I also tend not to like the NPC fighters. Makes it difficult to have a balanced party. It's particularly bad in Dragon Age: Origins -- I want Zevran and Morrigan and Leliana. Sten and Shale are okay, but I really wish we could recruit Ser Cauthrien. At the same time, I never want to be a warrior myself! Baldur's Gate is a little better since you can make do with multi/dual classes to a certain extent. I understand the difficulty with magic, too. I never really know what to cast or when to cast it, but I have fun anyway! I also have troubles with melee fighters -- I can keep my mages from the action these days, but for some reason, my frontliners with decent AC and HP are always the first to fall. I did much better when I could kill everyone with ranged weapons. I generally save magic for boss or boss-like fights.
@sparkleav Thanks! I am sure I will have questions
I am using both EE and original, as EE has new features but the original is better for some old mods that I like that are not usable in EE.
@gorgonzola Yeah, I should have worded it as "I don't remember the difficulty settings for the original" -- I probably thought that once you chose a setting, you couldn't change it or something, but I'm pretty sure I would have set it to the easiest setting (that's what I always did until more recently) and I remember still failing at spell writing. Of course, it was ages ago, so maybe I did start on a higher setting or maybe this is one of the things changed in the EE.
I actually plan to replay the original too at some point -- I still have the GoG version on my main computer and I have better portraits for that version. Good point on the mods, too!
About mods many of them are now compatible with EE, and some of the new ones are only compatible with EE and not with the original. I am referring at some old school difficulty enhancing mods, like Soulafein mod, Superfirkraag, Deeper Shadows of Amn, mods for who has no problem in beating the vanilla game and seek more challenge in the old school approach of having enemies cheating, having special powers from nowhere and so on.
There is plenty of good mods for EE now, optional quests, new NPCs, difficulty enhancing ones, mds that rebalance spells and items. No need to use the original if you are not a lover of the old school approach to the game...
As for intelligence/spell writing/difficulty settings -- it could also be that I was relying on the book (which I still use and love!) and didn't pay attention to what it said on the screen about ability to write magic, or saw it when I selected Easy but then forgot what it said when I actually started learning spells/rolling stats. Or it could be your other suggestion. Who knows? I know that NOW I choose Core specifically for that reason.
Thanks again for your thoughts!
@mlnevese Good point about mistakes! And I am having fun.