To LoB mode or not..?
gismorum
Member Posts: 9
Hi guys,
so I want to play through the full game, starting in BG:EE at Level 1 and right now I'm torn between choosing either LoB (including the 100% extra damage enabled, I think LoB forces it to be enabled but i could be wrong) or Insane difficulty without the extra damage.
Usually I'm the kind of player that goes for the highest, or near-highest difficulty setting in games (as long as these settings are within the realm of the reasonable) so to 1: make it last longer and 2: get a sense of accomplishment out of it, so I'm leaning towards LoB.
However, after having watched some videos of LoB playthroughs or at least attempted playthroughs, I'm not too sure to be honest. Basically all these playthroughs boiled down to: bows for everyone, whole inventory minus 2-3 slots loaded with arrows, one designated kiter you stack your good AC stuff on so he might survive a hit when you mess up clicking, and then single out a mob and kite it around your range camp for 3 minutes until it's dead and repeat with the next. Pull too much > reload, run into archer group > reload and every spellcasting enemy becomes a pure trial and error show too. I watched a guy playing through nashkell mines and it took him like 2 hrs 30 to clear out 4 goblin packs.
Also, I like the idea of playing this game in a roleplaying way, so i like to have a tank, a spellcaster, an archer, a melee fighter and so on, but I got the impression that it is basically impossible to tank or engage enemies in melee on LoB because even with something like -5 AC on a tank a simple basic enemy has a very reasonable chance of hitting and oneshotting you.
I *really* want to play through it on LoB but on the other hand I also don't want to waste hours and hours into a playthrough that will turn into a ridiculous kiting mini-game and ultimately be abandoned, seeing as you can't back out of LoB once you started a game with it.
I'm open to all your suggestions and feedback.
so I want to play through the full game, starting in BG:EE at Level 1 and right now I'm torn between choosing either LoB (including the 100% extra damage enabled, I think LoB forces it to be enabled but i could be wrong) or Insane difficulty without the extra damage.
Usually I'm the kind of player that goes for the highest, or near-highest difficulty setting in games (as long as these settings are within the realm of the reasonable) so to 1: make it last longer and 2: get a sense of accomplishment out of it, so I'm leaning towards LoB.
However, after having watched some videos of LoB playthroughs or at least attempted playthroughs, I'm not too sure to be honest. Basically all these playthroughs boiled down to: bows for everyone, whole inventory minus 2-3 slots loaded with arrows, one designated kiter you stack your good AC stuff on so he might survive a hit when you mess up clicking, and then single out a mob and kite it around your range camp for 3 minutes until it's dead and repeat with the next. Pull too much > reload, run into archer group > reload and every spellcasting enemy becomes a pure trial and error show too. I watched a guy playing through nashkell mines and it took him like 2 hrs 30 to clear out 4 goblin packs.
Also, I like the idea of playing this game in a roleplaying way, so i like to have a tank, a spellcaster, an archer, a melee fighter and so on, but I got the impression that it is basically impossible to tank or engage enemies in melee on LoB because even with something like -5 AC on a tank a simple basic enemy has a very reasonable chance of hitting and oneshotting you.
I *really* want to play through it on LoB but on the other hand I also don't want to waste hours and hours into a playthrough that will turn into a ridiculous kiting mini-game and ultimately be abandoned, seeing as you can't back out of LoB once you started a game with it.
I'm open to all your suggestions and feedback.
0
Comments
and yeah, basically to win, that is one way to do it, kite enemies and use range
the problem with LoB mode is that the bg series was never made to have it, ( it is something that IWD had and beamdog just took IWD's HoF mode and brought it to BG)
if you start BG at level 1 playing LoB mode, its going to be very frustrating, and to be honest, its kind of immersion breaking to, its very unrealistic and I didn't find it all that fun when I played it
what I did when I played it, I took my level 7 team that I beat the game with and imported them to the beginning at candlekeep, and even then, the game was still tedious, but I learned something, the best spell on LoB mode: invisibility 10' radius, that spell is a must, so then you can stealth pass all the low end baddies ( which there are tons of in BG) the give garbage XP and take way too long to take down
I've only ever done it once, and I will only ever do it once, now this is my opinion of coarse, so you can take that with as much salt as you wish, but as I said, the BG series isn't really made for such a mode, and it doesn't implement that well
it implements much better in IWD because was made for that mode basically, since IWD is much more of a dungeon crawler than BG is
but, if you still want to try it, then by all means go for it, try and go all the way, and see if you can manage to beat the game on that mode, maybe you will like it, maybe you will hate it, but best part is, the BG series is a game that you can play multiple times and still get a new experience out of it
although what I would suggest, if you are thinking about playing LoB mode, and eventually go back done to insane difficulty I would recommend keeping the double damage on ( because basically that is all that insane does for BG at least)
that double damage from enemies really changes the tactics on how you do things, and makes it so you can't be so careless all the time, and even though you might die a lot at lower levels, I still find it a better way to play than not having the double damage
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62202/the-free-for-all-lob-scs-solo-challenge
to see that it's perfectly possible to make progress even solo with pretty much any character. If you mix in different buffs and allocate equipment carefully in a party then the tank strategy you refer to is viable for the vast majority of encounters.
If you don't like long battles and micro-management LoB is probably not appropriate for you, but if you fancy a different sort of challenge then give it a go
For instance, SCS Davaeorn and his goons are a whole other beast to tackle with LoB... Good movement and careful planning are essential against him, because you can't rush him with arrows of dispelling to take him out fast. It forces you to change your strategy toward endurance.
And your not helpless either... Even with LoB, a buffed up fighter can take on Karoug and Mendas alone without much trouble. You can see it here. LoB involves a change of mindset, but, if you managed to get into it, it can be really fun.
Bonus damage got me random oneshots out of nowhere and I came to the conclusion that it really didn't add any depth let alone fun as far as I am concerned, but I like that the enemies - especially casters - are not complete HP pushovers and will have a real chance to use their whole toolkit.