Just finished Underdark and kinda bored
Kneller
Member Posts: 438
Truth be told, I've yet to finish this game. I'm really trying to power through this trilogy run. Right now, I'm further than I've ever been as I've returned to the Athkatla after underdark. I really want to finish it just to say I've finished it, but I'm just bored with it. I'm bored with all the battles and magic has become tedious (everyone's saving throws are apparently like 2, anyway). I really just want to run through the rest of the story and be done with it.
I'm know there's a lot of chronic restarters out there and other people that have trouble powering through this game. Anyone have any tips so I can power through? Thanks.
I'm know there's a lot of chronic restarters out there and other people that have trouble powering through this game. Anyone have any tips so I can power through? Thanks.
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I think a lot of it has to do with a lack of urgency. When you just start out, you're always under a lot of pressure:
1. Escape the dungeon before Irenicus catches you.
2. Rescue Imoen, quick!
3. Get back your soul, before you are totally corrupted!
And in the meantime many sidequests demand urgent attention as well.
After you rescued Imoen, and especially in ToB, that sense of urgency is dulled. Melianthe is a laughably obvious cheater and I feel the need to delay her jobs as much as I can, in order to hinder her agenda or at least to annoy her. Really I wish it were possible to side with Gromnir, call that horrible woman out on her lies and fight her right away, and then settle for a truce with any of the more reasonable baal spawns. Too bad the game doesn't offer such an option.
So far I only finished the job once; usually I restart before I finish.
So what can you do? I think the best idea is to create your own narrative. Make up stories about what your character is doing and what drives him forward.
I've only ever managed to finish SoA once; every other time I have lost interest in the middle of some sidequest or other. However, my advice would be that powering through isn't going to help. It will only get more boring if you are not really engaging with the game and you are just gritting your teeth and praying for it all to end.
I think the best thing to do is to make things harder for yourself and so increase the challenge. Personally, I like playing without potions so that the characters have to rely on their own abilities and aren't constantly buffing themselves before every fight but you could try other things like getting rid of wands or getting rid of the party member you most rely on.
If it is more of a challenge it might feel like less of a slog.
I did finish ToB to the end, once, because I just happened to be having fun that time, and I was posting screenshots and stories from the run into a minimal reload thread back on the old Bioware boards.
Jaheira got chunked by a fire giant, and that was very sad. Accepting consequences and avoiding reloading/save scumming is one way to keep the game interesting. Every run will be different, with a constant sense of danger around every corner, causing just the right amount of suspense.
But, like you, I was finding the combat becoming pretty tedious by the end. I doubt I'll ever play a trilogy run all the way like that again, at least not any time soon. It's already been years. I get the most enjoyment out of starting new characters in BG1 and leveling them, until my fancy turns to leveling some other character in some other game, which it always does within a few weeks. I have about a dozen or so games that I play over and over in a constant rotation year by year, and I rarely finish any of them once I start. It's the journey, not the destination, that's fun for me.
Look for the positives and the highlights.
The game does become a bit of a slog post Underdark, but there are some interesting battles/locations to look forward to.
Maybe it's because I'm not a great player (and it doesn't worry me that much), but there are some battles where I (or party members) can still die, and that's what provides the entertainment.
Can you up the difficulty level, or are you already playing "insane"?
Another thing, invest your imagination into the story and the NPC. Like any book or film, if you don't care about the characters, you are going to find getting to the end boring.
It's no different to "War and Peace" or "LotR" or any long saga, if you don't put something of yourself into the creation.
There's a reason for the name RPG, it's not just a description, it tells you what the game demands/needs from the player.
Anyway good luck, but drop the idea of powering through, it will never work. The concept, the reason for the game even existing is antithetical to the idea of "powering through". It's not a FPS.
I hate magic so much right now. It's not fun, it's doing my taxes. I have both Imoen and GW (cleric/mage) and all we're both doing is this metamagic crap. I think that's part of the problem. I would equate BG2 to The Office (U.S. version). It's a great show and all, but they let it go on for far too long. Now, they're just doing crap for the sake of keeping the show alive. It's all just so drawn out with no real arc.
With BG2, it builds pretty well until Spellhold, then the thing happens with the souls, which would feel pretty urgent, but is super sidequested with dealing with the shaugins and then the nonsense with the drow. I don't think it was a good place to put sooooooo much filler. Now that I'm back in the world, I don't really care anymore.
But, it's like the "epic CRPG" of the 90s/00s and pretty much the only game I have that I never finished. Every year or two, the urge to knock this out resurfaces and I just kinda want to be done with it.
I'm wondering if I should trade my cleric/mage in for a sorceror. I hear they can just nuke their way through everything.
I agree with you the game is unbalanced after Spellhold. I think all the scenarios are great but the way they put them together is wrong. The arc is gone because it becomes hard to suspend disbelief when on the one hand you've got no soul and that's a big deal but on the other, you theoretically can live reasonable OK without for bloody ages. Also the NPC have used up most of their "lines" and stop really saying much, nobody seems to care what's going on.
I'm super lazy when it comes to fighting mages, tend to use the same tactics as BG. Send in the skeletons or perhaps Mordy swords to waste the spells, stay out of their target sight and hit them from ranged until or when the protections wear off.
(Not forgetting I always have a 50 charge wand of cloudkill handy, just in case)
All that stripping defences, just wait a bit and stay out of sight would be my advice. I do try and strip defences, but whether I do it correctly is a bit hit and miss other than True Sight which is vital.
There's two reasons why I'm struggling in TOB. One, I've been playing this trilogy for a year (as I only play one night a week), so I'm finally getting tired of this run. And two, TOB is a linear combat game, where your character never changes, because at these levels, leveling up doesn't really change anything. So, it's the same style of fight for every battle, and as a result, it has a different feeling than BG1 or SoA.
This will be the third time I've run through the whole series (and the first with Dragonspear), and I disagree with it not being worth struggling through the game if your not happy. At least for me, when I finished TOB those other two times, there was a great satisfaction of having taken that great epic run with my character and the NPC's that I'd chosen. Seeing those closing stories for each character is fun, and an emotional thing. Also, you have now finished your Bhaal story. You've made your decisions through the run, and you now have closure. So, for me, it's worth struggling through these final stages to finish the game. But, everyone is different.
I've been playing the game off and on since it was brand new and over all these years it is always a game I return to and thoroughly enjoy the most (it's the only game I've played more overall than Fallout 2 and Morrowind). Everything about it is nearly perfect to me, from the interface design and early 90's Forgotten Realms logo font to the implementation of the supplemental materials like the Volo's Guides, and everything in between. The game is utterly massive and being that it was the last time a video game brought the Sword Coast to life in the Infinity Engine, besides Siege of Dragonspear, I am immensely grateful for its vastness. I have still never seen some of the strongholds (namely, the Bards, the Thieves and the Rangers, not that I've not played the classes, mind you), just learned yesterday that Imoen can gain Bhaalspawn powers (I've never played the mod which makes this likely), and with every replay I revisit the combat system and read about other players strategies.
I'm certain that a significant portion of my absolute adoration for the series is nostalgia but there is much more to it than that. I still laugh out loud every time I hear Irencius say, when approached in Spellhold, "What is this? You've released all of my test subjects? How wonderfully mad of you." and the classic line if you respond a certain way to him once he reveals himself as the Coordinator:
IRENICUS: I trust you remember my name now?
CHARNAME: A lowlife knobgoblin that deserves only death!
IRENICUS: Typical. If I had a sense of humor left I might find that funny. I do not, on both accounts.
Anyway, something I do to in some of my replays to entice me to continue upon exiting the Underdark is to leave a few of the more difficult side quests open, so that by the time I get back to Athkatla and can resume them, the encounters have more and higher difficulty versions of the monsters, such as the Liches in the Temple Ruins, the Beholders in the Sewers, &c. This way the dungeon crawls are more interesting and rewarding, and I have fun incentives to continue to play beyond rushing to finish the main quest. And of course there is Watchers Keep, of which I only will ever finish the first level prior to Throne of Bhaal in order to get the items that I like to take into the Underdark with me, such as the Firetooth crossbow, the Crimson Dart +3, the Ammo Belt, Quiver of Plenty and Case of Plenty, Foebane, Paladin's Bracers (if I'm playing one or have Keldorn), Usuno's Blade +4, and the Golem Manual, &c.
But, I can't remember if I've done this myself or just read the dialogue files (probably the latter), there's having Minsc with you and getting yourself committed to Spellhold.
PC: Minsc, explain to this pirate lord why we need to be admitted.
Minsc: You are a pirate? They are not righteous! Let Boo have a look at you.
Pirate Lord: Er, why is this man pointing a hamster at me?
Later..."ENOUGH! I feel I am stupider for having listened to this! Stupider? More stupid? WHATEVER! GUARDS, SEIZE THEM!"