@Isair - Its kind of the opposite with me, I have to focus on the IWD Series, SoZ, and that little adventure pack for NWN2. I mean, I did start a SoZ playthrough this morning before I went to bed. lol. Maybe someone should remake IWD2 in the NWN2 Engine. Theres some improvements, as well as some bad things, like how Female Drow are supposed to have Cleric as a favored class.
Also, I'm just sad that crafting doesn't make much sense in BGR. Oh, and no healing kits. I was actually planning on making a character that went like Wizard/Rogue/Arcane Trickster, and still planning to do so.
@reedmilfam, yup, encounters are harder in BGR and monsters hit much harder. I started out with the difficulty slider on hard core D&D, and it was turning into an exercise in frustration.
So, I swallowed my gamer's pride and turned it down to normal. I even turned it to easy to get my wizard toon and Imoen out of Candlekeep and to Monty and Xzar, and through the Tarnesh fight to get to Jaheira and Khalid.
On normal, I'm having a much smoother play experience that feels appropriately challenging. No more 1 point hits (while the monsters do max damage on every hit), and Cure Light Wounds spells that actually cure 8 hit points instead of 2, all makes a huge difference.
Also, I learned to avoid certain encounters until later, such the vamp wolf pack, and even the gnoll stronghold. (Sorry Minsc, we can't rescue Dynaheir if we're all dead.)
I'm glad you've got it working. I've been having great fun with it over the last week or two. I've got an extended summer vacation, so I'll be playing all day for quite some time. BGR has made my summer break.
@manero, yeah, the problem is that NWN2 considers dark elf to be an exotic race, and there's a large xp penalty over the early levels, keeping her about two levels behind the rest of your party.
I guess the devs had to decide whether to keep her a dark elf, or make her a regular elf in the program and then just give her dark skin. They probably figured people would complain worse if her character sheet didn't say "dark elf" and have those racial abilities, than if they changed the race to just "elf" to give her a normal level progression.
The dark elf level adjustment is brutal in a low-level game, so I'd steer away from her. It balances out later (magic resistance would be awesome late-game), but we're capped at Lvl 10.
It does indeed seem that skills affect dialog choices; I've only got 16 charisma, but have points in persuade, and I've been getting the traditional 18 charisma responses.
@Malicronand everybody else that needs it; this Link leads to a fix that makes NWN not stutter so much in x64 bit operating systems. Worked like a charm for me.
Here are some more promotional shots from my first epic battle with Centeol and her spiders. (Yep, she's now a boss who can move around and kick your butt. I'm not even sure she can be damaged until all spiders are dead.)
I'm getting to where I would like to start a minimal reload thread for BGR, but I would want at least one other person to do it with me. I guess we'd start it in the new "challenges and playthroughs" thread.
So, in this first shot, Xan has been cornered by a sword spider and an ettercap. The close quarters are causing problems with party coordination. I tried to help him with a few stabs from my spear from behind, but I had to go back to Centeol, because she was kicking our butts single-handedly. Xan failed all his concentration checks to cast his memorized magic missiles and fireballs, so he had to turn to his wand. That wand and his ghostly visage spell saved his life. That and the haste spell he cast before we went in there, and the two dozen healilng potions we bought from the Temple of Lathander.
These next shots show the wrath of Xan. All magical hell is breaking loose after he gets that ettercap and sword spider out of his way. These shots show the classic example of the party wizard saving everyone else, since none of us could hit the blasted hag in melee. You can occasionally see lightning and frost effects from AJ's +2 hammer and Khalid's +2 longsword.
To the victor go the spoils! The hag Centeol had the remains of the poor foolish cursed boy in her stomach! Eww!. There was also a wand in there that I already gave to Xan. I don't know what it is yet - even with high lore skill, he couldn't identify it, so I'm going to have to go someplace safe and get him to memorize an identify spell. (EDIT: It's a Wand of Frost, which actually has 100 charges of Cone of Cold. Wands are a wizard's best friend in BGR. Lest you think that overpowers the game, it totally doesn't. This isn't your grandfather's BG, and everything is MUCH harder. You need a wand-wielding wizard to stand a chance in BGR.)
EDIT: Can anyone please remind me how to post a clickable thumbnail from Photobucket? I was going to post these shots in clickable thumbnails, but it posted the thumbnail photos without being able to click-to-enlarge. Thanks.
You have been waylaid by enemies, and must defend yourself!
Two wyverns, two giant spiders, and two ettercaps. Imoen is dead,.and Khalid is level-drained from a previous unpleasant surprise on the last map. The wyverns look pretty cool.
BGR was a reason for me to buy NWN2 in the GOG sale a few weeks ago. And it's made even more nice by there being a IWD remake as well! Well, all the more reason to keep on living for a while, much too much to game yet :-).
Well, I am now officially hooked on BGR. I know because my chronic restartitis has kicked in, and I always know that my restartitis disease kicking in marks a really, really good game.
You see, I love D&D games as a form of self-exploration. In a world of magic, monsters, and wonder, who would I be and what would I be?
So, I have noticed something about my fighting style in BGR and other games, as well as in real life. I am never going to be somebody who "gets up in the face" of my enemies. I hate conflict, and yet, I am fiercely loyal, and I desire the power to heal my friends of all pain and woe, while they are hopefully leading me and our "squad".
My automatic reflex is to recoil or run from immediate physical danger (or even immediate emotional danger from wars of words on the internet). Many not-so-charitable warriors would label me, "coward", at least until they needed my healing or other magic.
So, my style, as defined by the WoW roles of "Tank", "Dps", "Healer", just has to be "Healer". I stand back away from it all, and use my powers to protect my party and to prevent party wipes. I certainly was never even tempted to take any other role in the infamous PUG squad dungeons of WoW.
At the same time, I have a "shadow" side. When cornered, I want to give a "surprise" for my laughing enemies, who think they have me all alone and beaten - I can all of a sudden "go berserk", (magically) and give mass destruction. I also despise undead, and want to be very good at turning and obliterating them. I have a lot of fantasies about taking my cleric characters into "The Vampire Diaries", "Twilight", or "Interview with the Vampire."
So, I've restarted BGR yet again, this time as a cleric of Eldath, with Healing and Water domains. (Healing domain for amplified healing spells, and Water domain yields Ghostly Visage at first level, several ice spells, and all the way up to Horrid Wilting at high levels.)
And, just because you can wear medium and heavy armor, doesn't mean that you have to. I will wear nothing heavier than good leather or hide, and I will use a crossbow most of the time, and I will do my squad positioning exactly as a wizard. My Ghostly Visage when under attack gives damage reduction 5, as though minor hits were passing right through me. Call me Casper, I suppose.
I took Combat Casting and Skill Focus Concentration as my feats, so that, when things are desperate for my tanks and dps, I have an enormously high chance of healing them to full, even in the middle of combat.
So, I am still having great fun with BGR.
It looks like my posting pattern is indicating a desire to blog and document runthroughs, so, I'm not really sure where an appropriate place to post such things would be.
At the moment, I feel like I am one of about ten people in the whole world who are getting into and who want to socialize about BGR. I am open to suggestions about where I should be posting the kinds of things I'm posting here.
Two people on the official download posting board just basically told me to get lost, and that they were only interested in bug reports and complaints about BGR.
So, where should people post who are already "sold"?
I do apologize for this very long, rambling post, which a lot of people very well may not read very carefully.
I'm a rambler myself and while I can't speak for anyone else, I know I don't mind your posts at all and to me this seems like a perfectly appropriate place for them. I haven't really been able to find many other forums actively discussing BGR, as you say the download board seems mostly for bug catching. There do seem to be a couple of topics on the Bioware Social network too.
A few people seem to be past the Nashkel Mines, so I'm curious: did anyone find the vials of mysterious liquid? They're supposed to be dropped by kobolds in the mines, but I haven't found any of them and the blacksmith asks for them but obviously I don't have any.
@belgaratmth Thanks for the screenshots, they look interesting! I've never played nwn2, although watched my roommate at college play it some. I couldn't make him to play Bg2, which I have said was the superiourgame, but he couldn't play it because of the graphics. (Blasphemy! Lol) And this is a guy who is a fan of japon rpgs with railroad plots and very polygonal 3d blocky characters, with most quests like:'-will you help us? -no -but you must! Will you help us?' Ooohkay ^^
And feel free to post more about your 'ramblings' I look upon you as a kindred spirit, we really have similiar ideas and tndencies, like most players here! :-))
You have been waylaid by enemies, and must defend yourself!
Two wyverns, two giant spiders, and two ettercaps. Imoen is dead,.and Khalid is level-drained from a previous unpleasant surprise on the last map. The wyverns look pretty cool.
I don't see how anybody gets that far in BG:R. Huge balancing problems and, for me, too much frustration. It's not that the mod isn't well-done, but that the NWN game engine seems set for player one to be a hero and isn't super party-control friendly. That, coupled with ridiculous loading times and (in my opinion) poorly balanced engagements (Silke is ridiculous) keeps it from working for me.
@reedmilfam, swallow your pride, as I did, and put the difficulty slider on easy. This will do nothing in mage battles, but will make melee battles survivable. (Mages everywhere are of levels 5-9, and most of them have several fireballs - Resist Elements is your friend.)
The devs have included Potions of Extra Healing in unlimited quantities for 110 gold each at the temples. Buy LOTS of them. Throughout the game. Every character should have 5 to 10 in their inventories and on their action bars at all times.
Quicksave every 30 seconds.
Having the difficulty slider on "easy" gives a game experience that is challenging but not insurmountable, and it duplicates the feel of playing the original for the first time. Most of us vets have forgotten what it feels like to be overwhelmed by the danger in BG when we were noobs. (Flame Strikes for the amazons, Combust and Fireballs for every mage, unlimited cleave hits for every hobgoblin, oh, my, I'd forgotten what a difficult rpg really feels like.)
And then, if you're still just not up for a truly difficult classic rpg feel, the devs have promised to tweak the balance down in their next patch. For now, it's like they've released the game with SCS by default. Imagine how you might have reacted if the original BG had been SCS.
Here are a whole bunch of BGR strategy tips gained after spending the past 14 hours playing BGR, in no particular order.
-Turn the AI off to save yourself constant grief. The settings for the AI keep resetting themselves contrary to your control tweaks, and even when the AI is exactly as you set it, it still keeps doing really stupid things. This is just like in BG:EE. No classically difficult RPG is ever going to give you a satisfactory AI. Control your party yourself.
-You can right-click-hold on the ground with any character, and issue all of the four commands that make any difference whatsoever in NWN2: Stand Your Ground, Follow Me (without attacking), Guard Me, and Attack Nearest.
-The hobgoblins south of Beregost are currently all bugged into Elite Hobgoblins, whether their label says that in your game or not. You need to avoid them at all costs when you are first starting out south. Even if you have the difficulty slider on "easy", as I do, these Super-Hobgoblins, as I call them, get unlimited cleave hits, power attack hits, and attacks of opportunity for any movement in combat at all, or any potion drinking. And there are dozens of them, even if you stick to the main road.
-There is a path to avoid all the SuperHobgoblins. Once you leave Beregost to the south, go straight south on the main road in the first southern map. If you want, collect the dead halfling's message, and hike back to Beregost to get the RoP +1. That is actually a good idea. Then go straight south to the area transition. Do not pass go, do not collect 5 free healing potions in the cave, do not try to make camp and rest on this map. All the hobgoblins are SuperHobgoblins, and if you try to rest, you can be attacked by a ghast and two ghouls.
_In the second map south of Beregost, you must go WEST, not south along the main road. If you try to go due south, you will be overwhelmed by about eight SuperHobgoblins. Don't do it. You have a 99 percent chance to die, and maybe even have your run permanently ended if you have neither an acceptable save to go back to nor at least two dozen healing potions. You can go around those SuperHobgoblins, and trust me, you WANT to avoid the SuperHobgoblins.
-If you speak to Imoen, you can change her future level ups to the wizard class. DO IT, without hesitation. This isn't your grandfather's BG dual classing. Imoen's single level of rogue gives all the search and disarm traps skill you are ever going to need. Finding and disarming traps in BGR is governed by skill plus intelligence, and there are dicerolls made at every attempt. Imoen comes at first level with enough find and disarm traps, given her intelligence bonuses, as you are ever going to need for traps.
Meanwhile, changing her immediately to wizard levels does not turn off the great roguery she got when you met her (grew up with her?) She can meet all your rogue needs in BGR with only the one level. And, she will be able upon obtaining second level to use wands and cast Acid Burst, Magic Missile, and Resist Elements. Those are the three critical spells for low-level wizards.
-Just turn off the AI and lead your party yourself. It will save you all manner of grief. The game expects you to be leading your own party. This will make everything harder for wizards and sorcerers, but hey, low levels for wizards and sorcerers are supposed to be hard. If you are careful, you will usually be able to see enemies at a distance, and start firing your crossbow while your melee-capable toons rush up and protect you.
-Imoen as either a rogue or a wizard can use heavy crossbows. Heavy crossbows are your friends. They do 1d10 damage. WAY more than shortbows. Xzar can use heavy crossbows. Xan can use heavy crossbows. Your wizard or sorcerer Charname can use heavy crossbows. I repeat, heavy crossbows are your friends. They are the high-powered rifles of BGR. They have enormously long range, more so than any bow weapon, and definitely longer range than slings or darts.
-In the NWN2 engine, xp is hard-coded to reward quest returns. You can get 325 xp for your Charname during the Candlekeep scenario by turning in quests. That's huge in BGR. Killing even the strongest of monsters is always going to yield very underwhelming xp. (Kill a basilisk for 45 xp, anyone? No? I didn't think so.)
The whole game of BGR is set up to punish you for doing the stupid thing and leaving the main roads. You will get NO benefit from trying to do anything but to follow the main quest and turn in as many side quests as possible.
Later, when you have at least five levels or so, you might want to go on an expedition of exploration, if you want to, and it might be fun to enjoy all the 3-D scenery, but you won't be getting much xp or treasure for it. You get significant xp for returning quests. Killing monsters, even the strongest ones, is always going to yield "meh" xp, unless you have a quest associated with them that you can return.
-The Resist Elements spell is your best friend at low levels. You need to have enough party spell slots of it to have it cast on ALL your party members, including animal companions, at all times. It lasts for 24 hours after casting. Or at least, cast it with your clerics (who can fill all their first level slots with Resist Elements and then spontaneous cast them as Cure Light Wounds), just before entering into a known enemy wizard or cleric encounter.
Every enemy wizard in the game has Combust, and most of them have Fireballs. Every enemy cleric (except Neira) has Flame Strikes, as well as multiple Cause Wounds spells (I still haven't found any defense against those Cause Wounds spells - they're like Harms memorized by every cleric in the game - including Neira.)
-If your Charname falls unconscious and bleeding with an X on his or her portrait, but is not at -10 hit points, there is still hope, if a party member can stabilze your Charname. All hope is only lost if your Charname goes down to -10 hitpoints, and gets his or her portrait replaced with a skull and crossbones. At that point, you have to reload.
-BGR is like playing the original BG as though it had SCS in it upon release. Even the toughest BG vet is going to struggle in BGR, with the difficulty slider on "easy".
Every BG vet playing the traditional game who does no-reloads, is using memorization, not skill. You can solve new puzzles in BGR, and memorize new solutions for the whole game. I think that's fun. The more I practice the game, the better I'm getting. It's a whole new BG experience, just like the first time I ever played BG.
-I've got about 1001 more of these advice hints floating around in my head. I guess I'll think of more of them later.
EDIT: When you start Imoen out on the path of her Willowish witchy awesome sauce, and you should do so immediately in BGR, select beetle for her familiar. It's like a free Toughness feat - 1 extra hp per level, permanently, as long as the beetle is on the board. You should do the same for your wizard Charname. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
@belgarathmth: you are wonderfully committed to helping others get through BGR. If you ever feel like doing it, you could write a very helpful FAQ, though I wouldn't know which site you can post mod-walkthroughs. Kudo's!
I think they have made the best mod to nwn2 so far. I like the game and think the difficulty of the game is fine. If you run into something you cant handle, you can always kill it when you have gain some lvls. The world is big and you have the freedom go to where you like.
I play on nightmare difficulty and yes it is harder than bg insane difficulty. But not that hard that is make it too hard to play.
I play as a Yuan-ti Pureblood/Paladin, so I am lvl 3, as rest of my party is lvl 5. My 5 companions are: Imoen (she stay as rogue), Khalid, Jaheira, Garrick, Safana.
Hardest enemy I have killed until now is Icharid in Ulcaster area. He take time to kill and hit like a train, the bg version of him is very easy, this version is not. First try on him he crit/1hit both Jaheira's pet and the summon from wand of monster summoning in 2 hits. After some fail attempt, he finally died in a summon/shot/run tactic.
Here are some tips: 1: Melee is better than range in nwn2, but with good arrows/bolts/stones, you can do fine with range. You can buy very low price acid arrows or lightning bolts or +1stones of Thalantyr in High Hedge. It is always good to be out of harms way with most of your team.
2: If you got a druid or ranger or cleric with animal domain. Use the pet well, if it is close to die, unsummon it and you can summon it again after 20sec with full hp. When Jaheira become lvl 3 you can invest in the Dinosaur companion feat. The Dinosaur is a better meat shield than the common pets.
3: After comming out of nashkel mines, in that area is a wand of monster summoning in 1 of the tombs. It have high amount of uses to get all the way to baldur's gate without running out. so you can buy 1 in the big city if need.
4: If 1 from you group go down (not 100% dead). Healing spells work also to get them up again.
5: The one in your party you have right click on. Most of the times will enemys go after that person. If it after a talk dialogue with a enemy, have a pet or summon stay close by and when the dialogue is done. Pause the game and right click on the pet or summon and run away with the talk person. You might get hit a few time if the enemy is range, but the enemy will fast focus on your pet or summon rather than your talk person.
6: If you can solo a enemy. You gain alot more xp in doing it. Make rest of your team run the other way, so they are out of range. The rest of the team get the same xp as you. Good way when you got a higher lvl and better equipment to solo fine. If I count right it is 6x the xp of what you get when your 5 companions are not out of range.
@Sachery, great advice. I'll have to try some of your hints. For one, I didn't know that the dinosaur companion for Jaheira was that much better than the bear. I'll have to have her select it next time.
I've got a run going where I'm playing a druid Charname, but I want to stick with my panther for role-playing reasons. I aspire to be a Lion of Talisid, and I think that the panther just makes the most sense for that. Plus, I'm a cat lover in real life, and I love games where I can bring one of my pet cats in with me and pretend that it can shapeshift into a giant panther.
(Aside: Playing my cat druid in BGR has given me an idea to try a Spirit Totem druid in BG:EE, now that you can control which spirit animal you call. I've got so many roleplaying game ideas floating around in my head, it's going to take me forever to have time to play with all of them.)
I'm glad BGR has all of Kaedrin's pack in it, including feats that enhance animal compaions. What fun!
EDIT: Well, I tried giving Jaheira the dinosaur animal companion, and I reloaded and took it back to a bear. That dinosaur looks almost as big as a T-Rex on the screen, and I just didn't think it fit in with Baldur's Gate. (Where in Faerun would you find dinosaurs that big and dangerous? I don't think they exist anywhere on the sword coast.)
Anyway, if dinosaurs are your thing, it might be fun to play a Charname druid, use Jaheira, and have a pair of them. They have boohoodles of hit points. You could pretend you're adventuring with a pack of velociraptors or something.
Also, I've had to turn the AI back on and keep fiddling with the settings again. It turns out the companions don't consistently obey commands with the AI turned off. A lot of the time, they just stand there. Oh, well, that just kind of goes with NWN2. At least you can use Tony K's AI with BGR, which makes things a bit easier to manage in all the AI settings.
Whelp, it appears that the difficulty slider in BGR does not do what the slider says. If the slider is on "easy", the monsters are supposed to do half damage, and get no critical hits against the player. That definitely doesn't happen. They get critical hits, and boy, they get them a lot. And, "half damage" my foot! Most of them have power attack and always use it, and they have insane base attack bonus.
The only thing I can see that the difficulty slider set to easy does in your favor, is to prevent attacks of opportunity when you drink a potion. That's pretty major, but still, the game should be "easier" than that if you have the difficulty slider set to "easy".
EDIT: Also, charisma does very little in BGR unless you are playing a Charisma based spellcaster (sorcerer, warlock, favored soul, or bard, plus that druid witch-doctor character class -spirit something.) So, when you go to the gnoll stronghold, you really don't have to spend your time getting the tome, unless you have a charisma-based character you think will benefit from it.) Get it, rescue Dynaheir, get out. Get the Tome if you need it for a charisma caster. Nothing else to see here, unless you're a masochist.
@belgarathmth As for whether it's appropriate to post about BGR in General, I could get overruled on this but, personally, I don't see this as terribly different than posting about Tutu or BGT with mods. It uses a different game engine, yes. But I think it can also be seen as part of a larger whole experience of enjoying this game, and contributes to it living on and on. (Long live BG!)
Overall, BGR ultimately serves to maintain interest in BG:EE, I should think. One of the things BGR drives home is how incredibly appealing the story and characters are. So I think after playing BGR we come away with an even deeper appreciation for those foundations to BG:EE. And I think that, frankly, it may have the fan base reconsider some long held convictions that BG:Next (BG3) should use a 2D isometric camera. I know it has got me thinking about what BG:Next could be.
If you wanted to post about one of your BGR games in Playthroughs and Challenges I would certainly enjoy hearing about the experience. But either here or there is fine.
I do think this is the best nwn2 mod and like it alot. But I still pref bg engine over nwn2 engine. The graphic in bg is more like artwork. More rich on details.
I have always play on hardest difficulty in nwn2. So I did not know the different, other that what it say on paper. Today I load a more early savegame in Ulcaster. I put the difficulty bar to easy to see what the differents betwem easy and very hard is.
My fight with Icharyd was more easy than on very hard. This time I did not need to run as I did alot before. My main char try to tank, but Icharyd did still too much damage to make it work. On very hard if my main char tank he got rape in 2 sec. Where here I hold like 8sec. Did get up again with Jaheira help. Only 1 summon and 1 pet, where on very hard I uses them like 5 times. It feel like he was more easy to hit on easy than on very hard. It become a faster fight than before.
What it say in the info, you should get 400% (50%easy/veryhard200%) more damage from easy to very hard from enemys. But it feel more like 150%. Dont know if the high % count crit into in it, it might make sense.
Under the fight I did see 1 crit to my summon with lower damage than I see on very hard. But it was still a crit, so I had to test more.
I clear out the rest of Ulcaster for mobs with my main char as tank (no pet/summon). I did not see any crits made on my char and in a fight with a big group of skeleton archers I survive, where on very hard I did die when I try to tank.
belgarathmth when you see crits on easy, was that made to your pet/summon or to your main char or to companions?
But what I testet it look like your pet/summon can get crit, but main char can not. Did not test companions if enemys cound crit on them.
...I do think this is the best nwn2 mod and like it alot. But I still pref bg engine over nwn2 engine. The graphic in bg is more like artwork. More rich on details...
I barely have time to play now, but I had about 45 minutes yesterday and split it between BGR and BG:EE. I too was reminded of the richness of BG:EE's artwork, even if it is 2D. And even now as BGR is all new for me, I find myself preferring the game mechanics of BG:EE (classes, kits, spells, combat).
With NWN2 I'm still a little vexed by things like how to tweak the camera settings to have a smooth visual experience (the camera way overreacts to mouse movement in Character mode), and consistently having all party members follow one who is taking "point." I evidently don't really get the nuances of toggling between Exploration, Strategy, and Character camera modes.
@Lemernis I stick with exploration mode in NWN2 occasionally zooming in or out - I have enough trouble getting one camera option working in a manner I can deal with never mind switching between three LOL.
Comments
Does make me feel like playing it, haven't for quite awhile. Should probably focus on finishing BGR first.
Also, I'm just sad that crafting doesn't make much sense in BGR. Oh, and no healing kits. I was actually planning on making a character that went like Wizard/Rogue/Arcane Trickster, and still planning to do so.
So, I swallowed my gamer's pride and turned it down to normal. I even turned it to easy to get my wizard toon and Imoen out of Candlekeep and to Monty and Xzar, and through the Tarnesh fight to get to Jaheira and Khalid.
On normal, I'm having a much smoother play experience that feels appropriately challenging. No more 1 point hits (while the monsters do max damage on every hit), and Cure Light Wounds spells that actually cure 8 hit points instead of 2, all makes a huge difference.
Also, I learned to avoid certain encounters until later, such the vamp wolf pack, and even the gnoll stronghold. (Sorry Minsc, we can't rescue Dynaheir if we're all dead.)
I'm glad you've got it working. I've been having great fun with it over the last week or two. I've got an extended summer vacation, so I'll be playing all day for quite some time. BGR has made my summer break.
I guess the devs had to decide whether to keep her a dark elf, or make her a regular elf in the program and then just give her dark skin. They probably figured people would complain worse if her character sheet didn't say "dark elf" and have those racial abilities, than if they changed the race to just "elf" to give her a normal level progression.
Here are some more promotional shots from my first epic battle with Centeol and her spiders. (Yep, she's now a boss who can move around and kick your butt. I'm not even sure she can be damaged until all spiders are dead.)
I'm getting to where I would like to start a minimal reload thread for BGR, but I would want at least one other person to do it with me. I guess we'd start it in the new "challenges and playthroughs" thread.
So, in this first shot, Xan has been cornered by a sword spider and an ettercap. The close quarters are causing problems with party coordination. I tried to help him with a few stabs from my spear from behind, but I had to go back to Centeol, because she was kicking our butts single-handedly. Xan failed all his concentration checks to cast his memorized magic missiles and fireballs, so he had to turn to his wand. That wand and his ghostly visage spell saved his life. That and the haste spell he cast before we went in there, and the two dozen healilng potions we bought from the Temple of Lathander.
These next shots show the wrath of Xan. All magical hell is breaking loose after he gets that ettercap and sword spider out of his way. These shots show the classic example of the party wizard saving everyone else, since none of us could hit the blasted hag in melee. You can occasionally see lightning and frost effects from AJ's +2 hammer and Khalid's +2 longsword.
To the victor go the spoils! The hag Centeol had the remains of the poor foolish cursed boy in her stomach! Eww!. There was also a wand in there that I already gave to Xan. I don't know what it is yet - even with high lore skill, he couldn't identify it, so I'm going to have to go someplace safe and get him to memorize an identify spell. (EDIT: It's a Wand of Frost, which actually has 100 charges of Cone of Cold. Wands are a wizard's best friend in BGR. Lest you think that overpowers the game, it totally doesn't. This isn't your grandfather's BG, and everything is MUCH harder. You need a wand-wielding wizard to stand a chance in BGR.)
EDIT: Can anyone please remind me how to post a clickable thumbnail from Photobucket? I was going to post these shots in clickable thumbnails, but it posted the thumbnail photos without being able to click-to-enlarge. Thanks.
EDIT2: Oh, yeah, spoiler tags will do the trick.
Two wyverns, two giant spiders, and two ettercaps. Imoen is dead,.and Khalid is level-drained from a previous unpleasant surprise on the last map. The wyverns look pretty cool.
You see, I love D&D games as a form of self-exploration. In a world of magic, monsters, and wonder, who would I be and what would I be?
So, I have noticed something about my fighting style in BGR and other games, as well as in real life. I am never going to be somebody who "gets up in the face" of my enemies. I hate conflict, and yet, I am fiercely loyal, and I desire the power to heal my friends of all pain and woe, while they are hopefully leading me and our "squad".
My automatic reflex is to recoil or run from immediate physical danger (or even immediate emotional danger from wars of words on the internet). Many not-so-charitable warriors would label me, "coward", at least until they needed my healing or other magic.
So, my style, as defined by the WoW roles of "Tank", "Dps", "Healer", just has to be "Healer". I stand back away from it all, and use my powers to protect my party and to prevent party wipes. I certainly was never even tempted to take any other role in the infamous PUG squad dungeons of WoW.
At the same time, I have a "shadow" side. When cornered, I want to give a "surprise" for my laughing enemies, who think they have me all alone and beaten - I can all of a sudden "go berserk", (magically) and give mass destruction. I also despise undead, and want to be very good at turning and obliterating them. I have a lot of fantasies about taking my cleric characters into "The Vampire Diaries", "Twilight", or "Interview with the Vampire."
So, I've restarted BGR yet again, this time as a cleric of Eldath, with Healing and Water domains. (Healing domain for amplified healing spells, and Water domain yields Ghostly Visage at first level, several ice spells, and all the way up to Horrid Wilting at high levels.)
And, just because you can wear medium and heavy armor, doesn't mean that you have to. I will wear nothing heavier than good leather or hide, and I will use a crossbow most of the time, and I will do my squad positioning exactly as a wizard. My Ghostly Visage when under attack gives damage reduction 5, as though minor hits were passing right through me. Call me Casper, I suppose.
I took Combat Casting and Skill Focus Concentration as my feats, so that, when things are desperate for my tanks and dps, I have an enormously high chance of healing them to full, even in the middle of combat.
So, I am still having great fun with BGR.
It looks like my posting pattern is indicating a desire to blog and document runthroughs, so, I'm not really sure where an appropriate place to post such things would be.
At the moment, I feel like I am one of about ten people in the whole world who are getting into and who want to socialize about BGR. I am open to suggestions about where I should be posting the kinds of things I'm posting here.
Two people on the official download posting board just basically told me to get lost, and that they were only interested in bug reports and complaints about BGR.
So, where should people post who are already "sold"?
I do apologize for this very long, rambling post, which a lot of people very well may not read very carefully.
A few people seem to be past the Nashkel Mines, so I'm curious: did anyone find the vials of mysterious liquid? They're supposed to be dropped by kobolds in the mines, but I haven't found any of them and the blacksmith asks for them but obviously I don't have any.
And feel free to post more about your 'ramblings' I look upon you as a kindred spirit, we really have similiar ideas and tndencies, like most players here! :-))
Protip: You can hide the HUD/GUI/whateverthehell if you want to take screenshots. Default key is H, I think.
The devs have included Potions of Extra Healing in unlimited quantities for 110 gold each at the temples. Buy LOTS of them. Throughout the game. Every character should have 5 to 10 in their inventories and on their action bars at all times.
Quicksave every 30 seconds.
Having the difficulty slider on "easy" gives a game experience that is challenging but not insurmountable, and it duplicates the feel of playing the original for the first time. Most of us vets have forgotten what it feels like to be overwhelmed by the danger in BG when we were noobs. (Flame Strikes for the amazons, Combust and Fireballs for every mage, unlimited cleave hits for every hobgoblin, oh, my, I'd forgotten what a difficult rpg really feels like.)
And then, if you're still just not up for a truly difficult classic rpg feel, the devs have promised to tweak the balance down in their next patch. For now, it's like they've released the game with SCS by default. Imagine how you might have reacted if the original BG had been SCS.
-Turn the AI off to save yourself constant grief. The settings for the AI keep resetting themselves contrary to your control tweaks, and even when the AI is exactly as you set it, it still keeps doing really stupid things. This is just like in BG:EE. No classically difficult RPG is ever going to give you a satisfactory AI. Control your party yourself.
-You can right-click-hold on the ground with any character, and issue all of the four commands that make any difference whatsoever in NWN2: Stand Your Ground, Follow Me (without attacking), Guard Me, and Attack Nearest.
-The hobgoblins south of Beregost are currently all bugged into Elite Hobgoblins, whether their label says that in your game or not. You need to avoid them at all costs when you are first starting out south. Even if you have the difficulty slider on "easy", as I do, these Super-Hobgoblins, as I call them, get unlimited cleave hits, power attack hits, and attacks of opportunity for any movement in combat at all, or any potion drinking. And there are dozens of them, even if you stick to the main road.
-There is a path to avoid all the SuperHobgoblins. Once you leave Beregost to the south, go straight south on the main road in the first southern map. If you want, collect the dead halfling's message, and hike back to Beregost to get the RoP +1. That is actually a good idea. Then go straight south to the area transition. Do not pass go, do not collect 5 free healing potions in the cave, do not try to make camp and rest on this map. All the hobgoblins are SuperHobgoblins, and if you try to rest, you can be attacked by a ghast and two ghouls.
_In the second map south of Beregost, you must go WEST, not south along the main road. If you try to go due south, you will be overwhelmed by about eight SuperHobgoblins. Don't do it. You have a 99 percent chance to die, and maybe even have your run permanently ended if you have neither an acceptable save to go back to nor at least two dozen healing potions. You can go around those SuperHobgoblins, and trust me, you WANT to avoid the SuperHobgoblins.
-If you speak to Imoen, you can change her future level ups to the wizard class. DO IT, without hesitation. This isn't your grandfather's BG dual classing. Imoen's single level of rogue gives all the search and disarm traps skill you are ever going to need. Finding and disarming traps in BGR is governed by skill plus intelligence, and there are dicerolls made at every attempt. Imoen comes at first level with enough find and disarm traps, given her intelligence bonuses, as you are ever going to need for traps.
Meanwhile, changing her immediately to wizard levels does not turn off the great roguery she got when you met her (grew up with her?) She can meet all your rogue needs in BGR with only the one level. And, she will be able upon obtaining second level to use wands and cast Acid Burst, Magic Missile, and Resist Elements. Those are the three critical spells for low-level wizards.
-Just turn off the AI and lead your party yourself. It will save you all manner of grief. The game expects you to be leading your own party. This will make everything harder for wizards and sorcerers, but hey, low levels for wizards and sorcerers are supposed to be hard. If you are careful, you will usually be able to see enemies at a distance, and start firing your crossbow while your melee-capable toons rush up and protect you.
-Imoen as either a rogue or a wizard can use heavy crossbows. Heavy crossbows are your friends. They do 1d10 damage. WAY more than shortbows. Xzar can use heavy crossbows. Xan can use heavy crossbows. Your wizard or sorcerer Charname can use heavy crossbows. I repeat, heavy crossbows are your friends. They are the high-powered rifles of BGR. They have enormously long range, more so than any bow weapon, and definitely longer range than slings or darts.
-In the NWN2 engine, xp is hard-coded to reward quest returns. You can get 325 xp for your Charname during the Candlekeep scenario by turning in quests. That's huge in BGR. Killing even the strongest of monsters is always going to yield very underwhelming xp. (Kill a basilisk for 45 xp, anyone? No? I didn't think so.)
The whole game of BGR is set up to punish you for doing the stupid thing and leaving the main roads. You will get NO benefit from trying to do anything but to follow the main quest and turn in as many side quests as possible.
Later, when you have at least five levels or so, you might want to go on an expedition of exploration, if you want to, and it might be fun to enjoy all the 3-D scenery, but you won't be getting much xp or treasure for it. You get significant xp for returning quests. Killing monsters, even the strongest ones, is always going to yield "meh" xp, unless you have a quest associated with them that you can return.
-The Resist Elements spell is your best friend at low levels. You need to have enough party spell slots of it to have it cast on ALL your party members, including animal companions, at all times. It lasts for 24 hours after casting. Or at least, cast it with your clerics (who can fill all their first level slots with Resist Elements and then spontaneous cast them as Cure Light Wounds), just before entering into a known enemy wizard or cleric encounter.
Every enemy wizard in the game has Combust, and most of them have Fireballs. Every enemy cleric (except Neira) has Flame Strikes, as well as multiple Cause Wounds spells (I still haven't found any defense against those Cause Wounds spells - they're like Harms memorized by every cleric in the game - including Neira.)
-If your Charname falls unconscious and bleeding with an X on his or her portrait, but is not at -10 hit points, there is still hope, if a party member can stabilze your Charname. All hope is only lost if your Charname goes down to -10 hitpoints, and gets his or her portrait replaced with a skull and crossbones. At that point, you have to reload.
-BGR is like playing the original BG as though it had SCS in it upon release. Even the toughest BG vet is going to struggle in BGR, with the difficulty slider on "easy".
Every BG vet playing the traditional game who does no-reloads, is using memorization, not skill. You can solve new puzzles in BGR, and memorize new solutions for the whole game. I think that's fun. The more I practice the game, the better I'm getting. It's a whole new BG experience, just like the first time I ever played BG.
-I've got about 1001 more of these advice hints floating around in my head. I guess I'll think of more of them later.
EDIT: When you start Imoen out on the path of her Willowish witchy awesome sauce, and you should do so immediately in BGR, select beetle for her familiar. It's like a free Toughness feat - 1 extra hp per level, permanently, as long as the beetle is on the board. You should do the same for your wizard Charname. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
I play on nightmare difficulty and yes it is harder than bg insane difficulty. But not that hard that is make it too hard to play.
I play as a Yuan-ti Pureblood/Paladin, so I am lvl 3, as rest of my party is lvl 5. My 5 companions are: Imoen (she stay as rogue), Khalid, Jaheira, Garrick, Safana.
Hardest enemy I have killed until now is Icharid in Ulcaster area. He take time to kill and hit like a train, the bg version of him is very easy, this version is not. First try on him he crit/1hit both Jaheira's pet and the summon from wand of monster summoning in 2 hits. After some fail attempt, he finally died in a summon/shot/run tactic.
Here are some tips:
1: Melee is better than range in nwn2, but with good arrows/bolts/stones, you can do fine with range. You can buy very low price acid arrows or lightning bolts or +1stones of Thalantyr in High Hedge. It is always good to be out of harms way with most of your team.
2: If you got a druid or ranger or cleric with animal domain. Use the pet well, if it is close to die, unsummon it and you can summon it again after 20sec with full hp. When Jaheira become lvl 3 you can invest in the Dinosaur companion feat. The Dinosaur is a better meat shield than the common pets.
3: After comming out of nashkel mines, in that area is a wand of monster summoning in 1 of the tombs. It have high amount of uses to get all the way to baldur's gate without running out. so you can buy 1 in the big city if need.
4: If 1 from you group go down (not 100% dead). Healing spells work also to get them up again.
5: The one in your party you have right click on. Most of the times will enemys go after that person. If it after a talk dialogue with a enemy, have a pet or summon stay close by and when the dialogue is done. Pause the game and right click on the pet or summon and run away with the talk person. You might get hit a few time if the enemy is range, but the enemy will fast focus on your pet or summon rather than your talk person.
6: If you can solo a enemy. You gain alot more xp in doing it. Make rest of your team run the other way, so they are out of range. The rest of the team get the same xp as you. Good way when you got a higher lvl and better equipment to solo fine. If I count right it is 6x the xp of what you get when your 5 companions are not out of range.
I've got a run going where I'm playing a druid Charname, but I want to stick with my panther for role-playing reasons. I aspire to be a Lion of Talisid, and I think that the panther just makes the most sense for that. Plus, I'm a cat lover in real life, and I love games where I can bring one of my pet cats in with me and pretend that it can shapeshift into a giant panther.
(Aside: Playing my cat druid in BGR has given me an idea to try a Spirit Totem druid in BG:EE, now that you can control which spirit animal you call. I've got so many roleplaying game ideas floating around in my head, it's going to take me forever to have time to play with all of them.)
I'm glad BGR has all of Kaedrin's pack in it, including feats that enhance animal compaions. What fun!
EDIT: Well, I tried giving Jaheira the dinosaur animal companion, and I reloaded and took it back to a bear. That dinosaur looks almost as big as a T-Rex on the screen, and I just didn't think it fit in with Baldur's Gate. (Where in Faerun would you find dinosaurs that big and dangerous? I don't think they exist anywhere on the sword coast.)
Anyway, if dinosaurs are your thing, it might be fun to play a Charname druid, use Jaheira, and have a pair of them. They have boohoodles of hit points. You could pretend you're adventuring with a pack of velociraptors or something.
Also, I've had to turn the AI back on and keep fiddling with the settings again. It turns out the companions don't consistently obey commands with the AI turned off. A lot of the time, they just stand there. Oh, well, that just kind of goes with NWN2. At least you can use Tony K's AI with BGR, which makes things a bit easier to manage in all the AI settings.
The only thing I can see that the difficulty slider set to easy does in your favor, is to prevent attacks of opportunity when you drink a potion. That's pretty major, but still, the game should be "easier" than that if you have the difficulty slider set to "easy".
EDIT: Also, charisma does very little in BGR unless you are playing a Charisma based spellcaster (sorcerer, warlock, favored soul, or bard, plus that druid witch-doctor character class -spirit something.) So, when you go to the gnoll stronghold, you really don't have to spend your time getting the tome, unless you have a charisma-based character you think will benefit from it.) Get it, rescue Dynaheir, get out. Get the Tome if you need it for a charisma caster. Nothing else to see here, unless you're a masochist.
Overall, BGR ultimately serves to maintain interest in BG:EE, I should think. One of the things BGR drives home is how incredibly appealing the story and characters are. So I think after playing BGR we come away with an even deeper appreciation for those foundations to BG:EE. And I think that, frankly, it may have the fan base reconsider some long held convictions that BG:Next (BG3) should use a 2D isometric camera. I know it has got me thinking about what BG:Next could be.
If you wanted to post about one of your BGR games in Playthroughs and Challenges I would certainly enjoy hearing about the experience. But either here or there is fine.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19326/baldur-s-gate-reloaded-general
I'll let this stay on the front page of the General section to get people's attention that BGR is a thing.
I have always play on hardest difficulty in nwn2. So I did not know the different, other that what it say on paper. Today I load a more early savegame in Ulcaster. I put the difficulty bar to easy to see what the differents betwem easy and very hard is.
My fight with Icharyd was more easy than on very hard. This time I did not need to run as I did alot before. My main char try to tank, but Icharyd did still too much damage to make it work. On very hard if my main char tank he got rape in 2 sec. Where here I hold like 8sec. Did get up again with Jaheira help. Only 1 summon and 1 pet, where on very hard I uses them like 5 times. It feel like he was more easy to hit on easy than on very hard. It become a faster fight than before.
What it say in the info, you should get 400% (50%easy/veryhard200%) more damage from easy to very hard from enemys. But it feel more like 150%. Dont know if the high % count crit into in it, it might make sense.
Under the fight I did see 1 crit to my summon with lower damage than I see on very hard. But it was still a crit, so I had to test more.
I clear out the rest of Ulcaster for mobs with my main char as tank (no pet/summon). I did not see any crits made on my char and in a fight with a big group of skeleton archers I survive, where on very hard I did die when I try to tank.
belgarathmth when you see crits on easy, was that made to your pet/summon or to your main char or to companions?
But what I testet it look like your pet/summon can get crit, but main char can not. Did not test companions if enemys cound crit on them.
With NWN2 I'm still a little vexed by things like how to tweak the camera settings to have a smooth visual experience (the camera way overreacts to mouse movement in Character mode), and consistently having all party members follow one who is taking "point." I evidently don't really get the nuances of toggling between Exploration, Strategy, and Character camera modes.