Insane difficulty in IWD, and Legacy of Bhaal/Nightmare mode in BG, are both a lot harder than normal mode. The XP gains aren't nearly enough to overcome the drawbacks, even with the XP cap removed.
Insane difficulty in IWD, and Legacy of Bhaal/Nightmare mode in BG, are both a lot harder than normal mode. The XP gains aren't nearly enough to overcome the drawbacks, even with the XP cap removed.
Ironically, I'm not sure I've ever finished IWD on normal. I just want that War Chant pronto, dammit, and I'll take having even my tanks turn squishy if it'll get me to Bard level 11 faster.
Okay, I have to add an unpopular opinion based on what just happened in game, and my brain is still spinning.
I just one-shot Firkraag with a Dark Moon Monk. It was jokes. I saved just to freak around and try it. Had no idea it would actually work. Was expecting to get eaten, then re-load and try the fight for real.
So my unpopular opinion is that Dark Moon Monks are insanely OP. I have higher magic resistance than any NPC, immune to poison and disease, my AC is insane, I have a fighter's THAC0 but hit for more damage, and with more attacks per round, and I'll always be ahead of fighters due to Cleric XP table. Fighter's get STR bonus advantage for a bit, but as soon as we get back to Candlekeep I'm at 19 STR just like fighters. Can't be charmed, have Mirror Image and Blur on command, can punch through Stone Skins with my cold palm, at +4 fists there's only, what, 3 things in the entire game I can't punch? Also, will be getting Whirlwind soon, along with immunity to normal weapons. Can grab Hardiness to protect against magical ones. And all of this is before I even add 1 item to tweak it.
I need to just solo this cat, because I'm getting to the point where I'm not even managing fights anymore, just hitting the spacebar and watching them like movie scenes.
BG2 portraits are far superior to BG1 portraits, the chubby Imeon and mundane Jaheira from BG1 annoy the hell out of me but the worst offender is the not actually a drow Viconia portrait. I know drow can have a variety of different skin colours from black to blue to brown to grey to anything in between but their one common trait is silvery white hair and that is something that portrait does not have.
Mentioning Noober whenever people ask about NPC's isn't funny. I believe it's never been.
Agreed, though I did think it was funny in the beginning. Nowadays though, when someone tries to be funny by mentioning Noober or Neeber, I cringe and just scroll past it as fast as possible.
Another one, similar to that one: when people tries to be funny by making overly ambitious references to a particular giant space hamster for the umpftenth time.
spells with permanent duration are incredibly stupid. such as feeble or contagion. especially when they ram through protections and even full MR like butter. even moreso when they're only curable by one or two extremely specific spells.
@SirBatince , I never see the new content in BG1 or BG2 for just that reason. I don't like any of the npc's required to do the content. (A wild mage, a monk, a blackguard, and a *vampire*? None of my characters would ever be associated with any of those except the monk, and the monk is dead weight in the party for all of BG1 and part of BG2.)
I do meanwhile appreciate that EE sweetened up his voice-set after the romance progresses, if I correctly remember in the original his gruff and ill tempered reactions persisted throughout the game!
As I have somewhat expounded elsewhere, my view is not because I'd find Ano particularly nice character to start off with, in fact he is quite outputting as most would probably agree.
However, after his domestic scene with Lord Cor, I found truthfulness and major underlying complexity to his portrayal. I became to see him as a survivor of domestic abuse and childhood of fear in hands of violent, overbearing, drunken and tyrannical father. From thence Ano grew on me, and I was rather on his side in his search to emancipate himself rather that against him.
I start to HATE the game once it reaches ridiculous levels, 15+ or so. 2ed just wasnt designed with that kind of high levels in mind and it shows, everything just becomes broken and anything that isnt arcane magic becomes utterly useless. A highly buffed cleric might survive for a while. A fighter or a thief has no chance unless his friends cast dozens of buffs on him and he uses every single magic item he can find. It doesnt make sense from a Roleplaying point of view either; sure CHARNAME is the son of a god, him reaching 20+ level is passable, but what about the companions? by the end of ToB they could challenge any god of the forgotten realms if they felt like it.
I like Anomen quite a lot, I don't think he's nearly as annoying as everyone says. His quest is a lot more dynamic than anyone elses, simply because of that alignment shift.. Which means he's either the perfect neutral or good character. Essentially a good way to keep him in a evil or good party.
I start to HATE the game once it reaches ridiculous levels, 15+ or so. 2ed just wasnt designed with that kind of high levels in mind and it shows, everything just becomes broken and anything that isnt arcane magic becomes utterly useless. A highly buffed cleric might survive for a while. A fighter or a thief has no chance unless his friends cast dozens of buffs on him and he uses every single magic item he can find. It doesnt make sense from a Roleplaying point of view either; sure CHARNAME is the son of a god, him reaching 20+ level is passable, but what about the companions? by the end of ToB they could challenge any god of the forgotten realms if they felt like it.
when you solo at some point you get a crazy snowball effect where you level up every 3 fights. its crazy
I like Anomen quite a lot, I don't think he's nearly as annoying as everyone says. His quest is a lot more dynamic than anyone elses, simply because of that alignment shift.. Which means he's either the perfect neutral or good character. Essentially a good way to keep him in a evil or good party.
Indeed, I never would make him fail though, it would seem cruel - or exactly the point of an evil play-through. Glad also to see there is more Ano-love around, lol. :-)
Actually, the fact that you can still lose him after romance has culminated depending how you handle that last stage of his personal story is pretty compelling in my view, and adds a certain dramatic depth to the romance. Since I also happen to be a big Keldorn fan, I like the dynamics between Ano and him, and evolution from Ano's over-compensatory ego-stance to more contrite amiability after Ano has managed to affirm himself in "Sir Ano" scenario.
I start to HATE the game once it reaches ridiculous levels, 15+ or so. 2ed just wasnt designed with that kind of high levels in mind and it shows, everything just becomes broken and anything that isnt arcane magic becomes utterly useless. A highly buffed cleric might survive for a while. A fighter or a thief has no chance unless his friends cast dozens of buffs on him and he uses every single magic item he can find. It doesnt make sense from a Roleplaying point of view either; sure CHARNAME is the son of a god, him reaching 20+ level is passable, but what about the companions? by the end of ToB they could challenge any god of the forgotten realms if they felt like it.
There is a mod called Ding0 XDing0 which I use to alter only quest XP rewards to 10 percent its original value, that way you can end SoA at level 15 or 16, and ToB at level 20 or 21 . for me its quite necessary because the game is too easy if you reach ridiculous levels.
Specialist mages (including Wild) suck. One extra spell slot per level does not make up for loosing an entire school of spells/summoning a pit fiend when you try to cast Stoneskin.
Specialist mages (including Wild) suck. One extra spell slot per level does not make up for loosing an entire school of spells/summoning a pit fiend when you try to cast Stoneskin.
Well, that's why people optimizing care less about the school they're specializing in and more about the one they're ditching. Me, I think Conjuration is expendable enough that a Diviner works well, as I said a little while ago.
Specialist mages (including Wild) suck. One extra spell slot per level does not make up for loosing an entire school of spells/summoning a pit fiend when you try to cast Stoneskin.
Well, that's why people optimizing care less about the school they're specializing in and more about the one they're ditching. Me, I think Conjuration is expendable enough that a Diviner works well, as I said a little while ago.
I read a lot of hate about Irenicus. I actually found him incredibly appealing as the central antagonist, much more than Sarevok.
Unpopular Opinion:
Icewind Dale is better than either BG. The villains are better, the story is better, the plot is better, the writing is better. The only strikes against it are lack of npc dialogue and its linearity. (Cowers in corner in he fetal position, arms over head)
I don't like wild mages. I know, they are really powerful - right up until the point where they gate in a pit fiend or drop a cow on themselves and you have to reload.
Anomen is an incredibly annoying character. This goes to show how much effort the developers put into fleshing him out - he is a complete person with a complicated background! I like that.
I don't like wild mages. I know, they are really powerful - right up until the point where they gate in a pit fiend or drop a cow on themselves and you have to reload.
Anomen is an incredibly annoying character. This goes to show how much effort the developers put into fleshing him out - he is a complete person with a complicated background! I like that.
I'm in the case where I adore Neera and she's probably my next romance option after Aerie but I'm always super scared of casting with her. I've only used her in BG1 though so maybe she's more reliable in BG2.
The aggravation over the Cleric/Thief thieving skills button being located in the innate abilities bar is the single most overrated, first-world non-issue being mentioned on this forum and doesn't even deserve the attention of modding or changing.
It is so ridiculous and minor an issue that any amount of work done by coders to change it is wasted work that could have been better spent on something else more important...
...like swapping the 'erase' and 'done' buttons in the spell information tab.
ARRRRRRRGH!!!! [pulls out hair]
But seriously, use a hotkey. It's easier than if the thieving button were actually located where 'turn undead' is.
Specialist mages (including Wild) suck. One extra spell slot per level does not make up for loosing an entire school of spells/summoning a pit fiend when you try to cast Stoneskin.
True, because they cannot be ... Edwin. And by implication, rest of the recruitable mages seem quite lack-luster to a good-aligned player character. :-(
Comments
I really want a Groucho soundset now.
I just one-shot Firkraag with a Dark Moon Monk. It was jokes. I saved just to freak around and try it. Had no idea it would actually work. Was expecting to get eaten, then re-load and try the fight for real.
So my unpopular opinion is that Dark Moon Monks are insanely OP. I have higher magic resistance than any NPC, immune to poison and disease, my AC is insane, I have a fighter's THAC0 but hit for more damage, and with more attacks per round, and I'll always be ahead of fighters due to Cleric XP table. Fighter's get STR bonus advantage for a bit, but as soon as we get back to Candlekeep I'm at 19 STR just like fighters. Can't be charmed, have Mirror Image and Blur on command, can punch through Stone Skins with my cold palm, at +4 fists there's only, what, 3 things in the entire game I can't punch? Also, will be getting Whirlwind soon, along with immunity to normal weapons. Can grab Hardiness to protect against magical ones. And all of this is before I even add 1 item to tweak it.
I need to just solo this cat, because I'm getting to the point where I'm not even managing fights anymore, just hitting the spacebar and watching them like movie scenes.
Another one, similar to that one: when people tries to be funny by making overly ambitious references to a particular giant space hamster for the umpftenth time.
probably not that unpopular though
It should have been like how Bioware nailed it with Nalia and HaerDalis.
Fighter: "What can you do?"
Monk: "I'm a monk!"
Fighter: "What's that mean?"
Monk: "I fight people without armor or weapons."
Fighter: "Well, it's easy to fight people if they don't have any armor or weapons. Can you fight armed monsters?"
Monk: "No, I mean I fight people when I don't have any armor or weapons. My opponents have swords and plate mail and stuff."
Fighter: "Can you punch through plate mail and block blades with your fists?"
Monk: "Not yet, but someday I'll-"
Fighter: "Good. Makes this that much easier." *draws sword
I do meanwhile appreciate that EE sweetened up his voice-set after the romance progresses, if I correctly remember in the original his gruff and ill tempered reactions persisted throughout the game!
As I have somewhat expounded elsewhere, my view is not because I'd find Ano particularly nice character to start off with, in fact he is quite outputting as most would probably agree.
However, after his domestic scene with Lord Cor, I found truthfulness and major underlying complexity to his portrayal. I became to see him as a survivor of domestic abuse and childhood of fear in hands of violent, overbearing, drunken and tyrannical father. From thence Ano grew on me, and I was rather on his side in his search to emancipate himself rather that against him.
It doesnt make sense from a Roleplaying point of view either; sure CHARNAME is the son of a god, him reaching 20+ level is passable, but what about the companions? by the end of ToB they could challenge any god of the forgotten realms if they felt like it.
Actually, the fact that you can still lose him after romance has culminated depending how you handle that last stage of his personal story is pretty compelling in my view, and adds a certain dramatic depth to the romance. Since I also happen to be a big Keldorn fan, I like the dynamics between Ano and him, and evolution from Ano's over-compensatory ego-stance to more contrite amiability after Ano has managed to affirm himself in "Sir Ano" scenario.
Specialist mages (including Wild) suck. One extra spell slot per level does not make up for loosing an entire school of spells/summoning a pit fiend when you try to cast Stoneskin.
Just finished watching two seasons of Penny Dreadful and it's better then Game of Thrones.
In fact i have never seen anything ever in 45 years of Television as good as it is.
+the voice of David Warner...
Unpopular Opinion:
Icewind Dale is better than either BG. The villains are better, the story is better, the plot is better, the writing is better. The only strikes against it are lack of npc dialogue and its linearity.
(Cowers in corner in he fetal position, arms over head)
Anomen is an incredibly annoying character. This goes to show how much effort the developers put into fleshing him out - he is a complete person with a complicated background! I like that.
It is so ridiculous and minor an issue that any amount of work done by coders to change it is wasted work that could have been better spent on something else more important...
ARRRRRRRGH!!!! [pulls out hair]
But seriously, use a hotkey. It's easier than if the thieving button were actually located where 'turn undead' is.