Any way to make extra gold? Also, anybody try to pickpocket? The gloves must exist for a reason?
BP2 is beyond broken atm, at least that's how i see that game. 500.000 party XP bound for each fight, you can't get xp by repeating old fights, useless items in existence, broken dialogues, multiple versions of poison quest, broken swap spirit scroll quest (same ingredient for both the old mage and the wild mage, and the wild mage version never finish), no reaction to the cooks death...
I realize I'm a bit late to the party here and I appologize for kind of necro-ing this thread, but I wanted to post some feedback, having seen a lot of people being pretty negative or not bothering to even try Black Pits, while I thought it was pretty good.
First off, I got the game after Christmas, so I'm not sure how bug-infested it was prior to 2014, but seems like everything works perfectly fine now.
I see Black Pits 2 as a nice tool to test different kits and party compositions. You level fast, fight against a variety of pretty difficult (at least some of them) and cool encounters, you get access to almost all the best gear and the per-character experience rewards are nice for dual classing. Works great for the purpose of seeing if you'd like to commit to a full playthrough with a certain class.
And there are other good things. I find some characters, like Lea Gosh'Aar, Feldrak Feldrak'i, Dulf Ebonbeard and Dennaton, really funny.
I've done 3 playthroughs so far (one with the default party, one with my own party, and one solo) and I'm kind of done for now, but just wanted to say it was a nice addition, pretty much improving on all that was good in Black Pits 1 (which I also liked) and adding some nice things - other gladiators, gifts from the audience, quests, an actual compound to explore (though it still wasn't that big or great).
Speaking of soloing, though, there's one really minor complaint I have. When you try to kick other characters from your party, they will simply be put back into it after ~2 seconds. You actually have to kill them and then kick them out, for them not to return immediately after. Not a big deal of course, just something I've noticed. (I used other characters to carry my main guy, whom I've immediately dual classed, through the first encounter and then wanted to get rid of them all to get a proper solo run going)
In general, Black Pits 2, in my opinion, is a good, condensed, Icewind Dale-like experience. If you like that type of thing, I encourage you to try it out, chance are you'll enjoy it.
For the demiliches, setting spike traps works great. First, I had my mage cast haste on the party. My cleric cast death ward on my character (a barbarian), just in case. I selected barbarian rage and charged to the demiliches in order to keep them a good distance from the rest of the party. He then attacked them with greater whirlwind attack to weaken them. My mage then cast mass invisibility on the rest of the party. I moved everyone except the thief as far from the demiliches as I could. I had the thief set three spike traps on one corner of our starting point and three on the other. I had her join the rest of the party when she finished. While this was going on, I had my barbarian renew his rage a couple of times and then lead the demiliches to the traps. The first one died at the first set of traps and the other one at the second set. Too easy!
I really liked the Black Pits and II. I really wish you could see the stats for all the monsters you beat in all games like this. But my big complaint about the Gladiators of Thay is you don't have a spell prep room before the fight. Your guys aren't performing nearly on the level they could with buffs, and there's no time to cast them in combat. (I always start every fight with haste and protection from evil but that's all.)
I'm planning on playing it more. There are a whole bunch classes/kits that I would like to see at 30th level but don't plan on spending the time to go through the whole campaign with. Really I want to see all of them as the Bhaalspawn wearing the Ring of Gaxx and all the attribute bonuses you get through BG and BGII, but what are you gonna do?
I also wish they had made all the artifacts you can make in TOB available. The +5 Axe of the Unyielding is the best weapon in the game. But where's Angurduval? Carsomyr? The Flail of Ages? Or for that matter Celestial Fury?
I also want more money. The one game I've finished so far all my fighters were still wearing ordinary plate mail (with +2 protection) because I couldn't justify spending 8,000 on full plate while my archers were still in regular studded leather. I'm glad I didn't have a wizard because those 9th level mage scrolls are insanely expensive. Replaying old matches gives a trivial amount of money. Maybe you could add a mini-quest that allowed you to steal from the shops or just lined pockets with gold.
But I really want a walkthrough.
****SPOILERS*****
The last fight, with the bounty hunters, is just about the hardest fight in any Infinity Engine game. The Twisted Rune and the final key in Watcher's Keep get honorable mention. Probably the hardest is Demogorgon himself. The only thing that could compete is the twins at the end of Icewind Dale II. (ICD is much harder all the way through, and I like that about it. The first time I played BGII I didn't find the Shield of Balduran or the spell trap cloak in shark man city, and the beholders in the underdark were a serious problem! But that's just because I didn't have the right equipment.)
My first playthrough I couldn't beat the last fight because of the damn golem, so I figured out how to do the body swap on him. First I had my mage bodyswap. Then I discovered that he lost his spells and kept his THACO, so really what I'd done was neutralized the golem and neutralized my mage at the same time. Then I had the clever thought of putting my fighter/thief in that golem body, and oh my goodness what an a**kicker he became. But then the Winged came up and vorpalized him. (Isn't that a pain?! Its sword only does 1 point to him, but it can still cut his head off. Doesn't that seem like a vorpal paper cut?)
Somebody in this thread mentions you can get the djinni from the Black Pits to impersonate the efreet. And poison Joker. I didn't figure either of those out. But I notice people in the game keep telling you the Winged would turn on Dennaton. So, I'm thinking there's some way to getting the Winged out of the last fight. If you could remove the golem and the Winged, it would be a cake walk. And I'd really like to know how to do it and whatever else you can do.
Dont think you can turn the winged. At least yet. There are a couple of items but they have no purpose at the moment, iirc.
The last fight with joker poisoned, the golem neutralised and the djinn on your side is quite easy. You just need to overpower the planetar
About Lv9 spells, in BP2 you need to use sorcerers! :-) plenty of money for the rest. Also if you replay matches and ask for items, those pretty much equip your party
You can pick up rat poison and wine from the kitchen to poison the joker. There are some broken quests - the Winged's bracers and feather do nothing. On previous comments about how bp2 is 'too easy' - put away your Inquisitors, Ken/Mages, and Berserkers - those classes are broken Using the mind-switching scroll on the Golem is not a good idea unless you're a UAE rogue.
Any way to make extra gold? Also, anybody try to pickpocket? The gloves must exist for a reason?
You should use pickpocket in BP2; you can get a lot of magic arrows and potions off of the guards and their captain and a magic ring off of the weapons merchant.
Also the way I took out the demi-lichs was to cast the 4th level spell "Death Ward" on my mage as well as the 5th level spell " Spell Immunity-Adjuration-" this made him completly immune to all there attacks then I wiped them out use the 3rd level mage spell "Melf's Menute Meteors" it bypasses their magic resistance also don't worry if they imprison your other party members they are freed as soon as the demi- liches are dead.
That was expert necromancy you did with this thread.
By the way, if anyone still wonders, demiliches are a piece of cake with club of detonation. And the winged Gloves actually do have a utility: if you steal them she cannot use them, meaning she will be easier to hit (5AC is A LOT) and will not have that nasty retribution effect that bypasses everything
I ended up killing them with 8 GWWs and the mace of disruption... I guess they nerfed the weapon or significantly buffed their saving throws.
Less difficult and more annoying are thieves - even when I use true seeing they are revealed for a brief moment before using another potion of invisibility.
I have played BP2 for the first time in the last weeks; I see some of you suggest some tactics involving imprisonment, but It doesn't work as needed in the version I have. If you imprison an enemy the battle is stuck forever, since it won't count as a kill; I wasted a precious 9th level slot for my sorcerer, and I don't think it's a great idea to waste another slot on Freedom to use imprisonment as a supercharged maze (that is, imprison the strongest one, kill everyone else, freedom and face the nasty alone). Also if you summon a planetar or deva and it's imprisoned, you can't summon another, just as if the summoned one was still there. Also mace of disruption doesn't work on the demiliches, I have personally seen the message 'Undead destroyed' and the demilich was still there; also the Slayer form is not immune to imprisonment, only Spell Immunity, Enrage and Bersek work against it. Not a tough fight, just use minute meteors and whirlwind attacks and they will go down before they imprison everyone.
@Max_Damage that's certainly because BP2 AI already is SCS AI.
But then, the demiliches arent spellcasting are they? Thats what i ve noticed. This is good to know if this is true but the challenges arent there rly.
Demiliches really are inconsistent indeed, but it is not due to a bad AI. The devs gave an AI very similar to SCS for all new content. The thing is that, SCS does add quite a few new spells and abilities to some enemies, and demiliches are among them. They get a spellstrike for example, as well as other spells. But this is not a matter of AI, really. By the way, the best way to notice the AI was improved is the fight 201 against vampires. The two "female" vampire use shadowstep just after you cast GWW or improved alacrity for example, to temporize the effect and prevent you from using GWW as well as forcing you into the 6 sec cooldown that comes with it. This fight is quite because of that. Same goes with the penultimate fight, where Bhaal cultists use potions of invisibility right after you spot them with true sight. By the way, you cannot say BP2 is no challenge, the fight against the planar hunters is harder than every single SoA/ToB fight if you do not ruin joker, dormamus and bannor prior to the fight.
Just completed this last night and wow loved it from start to finish. Really expanded on the idea that was Black Pits. I don't think I went for an overly OP team and had plenty of tought matches. That Planatar fight for the fourth tier was absolutely brutal!
I do have a question, I see there was a post by Mr Diagle back in 2013 who said there was possibly going to be an update to expand somehow on BP2. As I have played it on v1.3 did this update occur and what did it include? I'd really love to see more BP and of course our very subtle friend Baethloth who I was heartbroken did not feature as a playable character in BG2EE.
Comments
First off, I got the game after Christmas, so I'm not sure how bug-infested it was prior to 2014, but seems like everything works perfectly fine now.
I see Black Pits 2 as a nice tool to test different kits and party compositions. You level fast, fight against a variety of pretty difficult (at least some of them) and cool encounters, you get access to almost all the best gear and the per-character experience rewards are nice for dual classing. Works great for the purpose of seeing if you'd like to commit to a full playthrough with a certain class.
And there are other good things. I find some characters, like Lea Gosh'Aar, Feldrak Feldrak'i, Dulf Ebonbeard and Dennaton, really funny.
I've done 3 playthroughs so far (one with the default party, one with my own party, and one solo) and I'm kind of done for now, but just wanted to say it was a nice addition, pretty much improving on all that was good in Black Pits 1 (which I also liked) and adding some nice things - other gladiators, gifts from the audience, quests, an actual compound to explore (though it still wasn't that big or great).
Speaking of soloing, though, there's one really minor complaint I have. When you try to kick other characters from your party, they will simply be put back into it after ~2 seconds. You actually have to kill them and then kick them out, for them not to return immediately after. Not a big deal of course, just something I've noticed. (I used other characters to carry my main guy, whom I've immediately dual classed, through the first encounter and then wanted to get rid of them all to get a proper solo run going)
In general, Black Pits 2, in my opinion, is a good, condensed, Icewind Dale-like experience. If you like that type of thing, I encourage you to try it out, chance are you'll enjoy it.
I'm planning on playing it more. There are a whole bunch classes/kits that I would like to see at 30th level but don't plan on spending the time to go through the whole campaign with. Really I want to see all of them as the Bhaalspawn wearing the Ring of Gaxx and all the attribute bonuses you get through BG and BGII, but what are you gonna do?
I also wish they had made all the artifacts you can make in TOB available. The +5 Axe of the Unyielding is the best weapon in the game. But where's Angurduval? Carsomyr? The Flail of Ages? Or for that matter Celestial Fury?
I also want more money. The one game I've finished so far all my fighters were still wearing ordinary plate mail (with +2 protection) because I couldn't justify spending 8,000 on full plate while my archers were still in regular studded leather. I'm glad I didn't have a wizard because those 9th level mage scrolls are insanely expensive. Replaying old matches gives a trivial amount of money. Maybe you could add a mini-quest that allowed you to steal from the shops or just lined pockets with gold.
But I really want a walkthrough.
****SPOILERS*****
The last fight, with the bounty hunters, is just about the hardest fight in any Infinity Engine game. The Twisted Rune and the final key in Watcher's Keep get honorable mention. Probably the hardest is Demogorgon himself. The only thing that could compete is the twins at the end of Icewind Dale II. (ICD is much harder all the way through, and I like that about it. The first time I played BGII I didn't find the Shield of Balduran or the spell trap cloak in shark man city, and the beholders in the underdark were a serious problem! But that's just because I didn't have the right equipment.)
My first playthrough I couldn't beat the last fight because of the damn golem, so I figured out how to do the body swap on him. First I had my mage bodyswap. Then I discovered that he lost his spells and kept his THACO, so really what I'd done was neutralized the golem and neutralized my mage at the same time. Then I had the clever thought of putting my fighter/thief in that golem body, and oh my goodness what an a**kicker he became. But then the Winged came up and vorpalized him. (Isn't that a pain?! Its sword only does 1 point to him, but it can still cut his head off. Doesn't that seem like a vorpal paper cut?)
Somebody in this thread mentions you can get the djinni from the Black Pits to impersonate the efreet. And poison Joker. I didn't figure either of those out. But I notice people in the game keep telling you the Winged would turn on Dennaton. So, I'm thinking there's some way to getting the Winged out of the last fight. If you could remove the golem and the Winged, it would be a cake walk. And I'd really like to know how to do it and whatever else you can do.
The last fight with joker poisoned, the golem neutralised and the djinn on your side is quite easy. You just need to overpower the planetar
About Lv9 spells, in BP2 you need to use sorcerers! :-) plenty of money for the rest. Also if you replay matches and ask for items, those pretty much equip your party
I still don't know exactly how to poison the joker; perhaps you need her bottle of wine in your inventory when you get that one guy to talk about her?
On previous comments about how bp2 is 'too easy' - put away your Inquisitors, Ken/Mages, and Berserkers - those classes are broken
Using the mind-switching scroll on the Golem is not a good idea unless you're a UAE rogue.
You should use pickpocket in BP2; you can get a lot of magic arrows and potions off of the
guards and their captain and a magic ring off of the weapons merchant.
Also the way I took out the demi-lichs was to cast the 4th level spell "Death Ward" on my mage as well
as the 5th level spell " Spell Immunity-Adjuration-" this made him completly immune to all there attacks
then I wiped them out use the 3rd level mage spell "Melf's Menute Meteors" it bypasses their magic
resistance also don't worry if they imprison your other party members they are freed as soon as the demi-
liches are dead.
By the way, if anyone still wonders, demiliches are a piece of cake with club of detonation. And the winged Gloves actually do have a utility: if you steal them she cannot use them, meaning she will be easier to hit (5AC is A LOT) and will not have that nasty retribution effect that bypasses everything
It's like a mini Icewind Dale mode.
"Create your party and kill stuff."
Less difficult and more annoying are thieves - even when I use true seeing they are revealed for a brief moment before using another potion of invisibility.
Also if you summon a planetar or deva and it's imprisoned, you can't summon another, just as if the summoned one was still there.
Also mace of disruption doesn't work on the demiliches, I have personally seen the message 'Undead destroyed' and the demilich was still there; also the Slayer form is not immune to imprisonment, only Spell Immunity, Enrage and Bersek work against it. Not a tough fight, just use minute meteors and whirlwind attacks and they will go down before they imprison everyone.
By the way, the best way to notice the AI was improved is the fight 201 against vampires. The two "female" vampire use shadowstep just after you cast GWW or improved alacrity for example, to temporize the effect and prevent you from using GWW as well as forcing you into the 6 sec cooldown that comes with it. This fight is quite because of that. Same goes with the penultimate fight, where Bhaal cultists use potions of invisibility right after you spot them with true sight.
By the way, you cannot say BP2 is no challenge, the fight against the planar hunters is harder than every single SoA/ToB fight if you do not ruin joker, dormamus and bannor prior to the fight.
I do have a question, I see there was a post by Mr Diagle back in 2013 who said there was possibly going to be an update to expand somehow on BP2. As I have played it on v1.3 did this update occur and what did it include? I'd really love to see more BP and of course our very subtle friend Baethloth who I was heartbroken did not feature as a playable character in BG2EE.