Favorit non-scripted moment (epic, fun or random) in an Infinity Engine-Game
justfeelinathome
Member Posts: 353
So I've been playing with the idea of starting a thread like this and just waited for a while to see if one would pop up. If there has been a similar thread on the forums it's either been dead for a while (RIP) or invisible for me.
So here's what happened on my first play-through with both BG games consecutively (Probably 2006): I chose to be a druid, doing most things solo and stumbling my way through the saga, with an increasing number of reloads, which I tried to keep as low as possible.
BG II spoilers inside:
Now I would like to hear YOUR tales!
The idea behind this thread is to share cool stuff that probably didn't happen to anyone else, so I see at least one or two wild surges incoming. 
I continue being thrilled by the possibilities IE-games have to offer and hope you feel the same.
Tymora shine on you. (Not that you'll need it)
So here's what happened on my first play-through with both BG games consecutively (Probably 2006): I chose to be a druid, doing most things solo and stumbling my way through the saga, with an increasing number of reloads, which I tried to keep as low as possible.
BG II spoilers inside:
By the time I reached Firkraag in his dungeon, I had only just reached level 15 and gained the ability of Elemental Summoning for my first epic slot. Again, I did not have a clear idea of what I was doing. When initiating battle, I sent Sunnis, the Earth Elemental Prince (that's where I had started getting lucky) up front and decided that it would be a good idea to unleash all of his special abilities on the dragon.
So while I was in the back-row (spell-)slinging, Sunnis split the ground with a mighty earthquake. From the earth, another massive Earth Elemental erupted and lo! started battling my champion, the prince, who was now beset upon by two molochian opponents.
Of course, I did what any sensible gamer would have done with my amount of knowledge and heightened pulse-rate, and immediately paused the game to start hurling curses at the screen, ready to hit the re-load button, when something crossed my mind.
Just before this dungeon, I had been to the De'Arnise Keep and found a ring, which I was still carrying with me at that moment: The ring of Earth Elemental Control. After a short moment of "What have I got in my pocket?", I slipped the ring on my finger and, with trembling hands, tried to charm the rogue Earth Elemental that had appeared only moments prior (in-game time, that is). I... succeeded.
Under the weight of two mountains and many, many insect bites, even the majestic Firkraag collapsed and I emerged victoriously from my first confrontation with the beast. I've never been as euphoric after a battle as I was back then.
So while I was in the back-row (spell-)slinging, Sunnis split the ground with a mighty earthquake. From the earth, another massive Earth Elemental erupted and lo! started battling my champion, the prince, who was now beset upon by two molochian opponents.
Of course, I did what any sensible gamer would have done with my amount of knowledge and heightened pulse-rate, and immediately paused the game to start hurling curses at the screen, ready to hit the re-load button, when something crossed my mind.
Just before this dungeon, I had been to the De'Arnise Keep and found a ring, which I was still carrying with me at that moment: The ring of Earth Elemental Control. After a short moment of "What have I got in my pocket?", I slipped the ring on my finger and, with trembling hands, tried to charm the rogue Earth Elemental that had appeared only moments prior (in-game time, that is). I... succeeded.
Under the weight of two mountains and many, many insect bites, even the majestic Firkraag collapsed and I emerged victoriously from my first confrontation with the beast. I've never been as euphoric after a battle as I was back then.
Now I would like to hear YOUR tales!
The idea behind this thread is to share cool stuff that probably didn't happen to anyone else, so I see at least one or two wild surges incoming. I continue being thrilled by the possibilities IE-games have to offer and hope you feel the same.
Tymora shine on you. (Not that you'll need it)
11
Comments
In my recent SoD run I stumbled upon the two druids in the Underground River area who were incapacitated by their own Entangle spells. I had two options to help them, casting Dispel Magic or cutting them free. I decided to choose the first option. However, since none of my party members had Dispel Magic memorized I ordered Neera to cast it via NRD. It worked...somehow, as you can see in the screenshot:
This was one of the few bad surges that turned out to be useful in the end.
Quite funny and I started with the deepest respect for wild mages.
And powerword: Reload.
The first time I did the Planar Prison I was getting my but handed to me. I was out of heals, Resurrection wands, potions everything. I had just finished killing the Master of Thralls and was attempting to figure out how I was going to take on the main boss of the level while near death and limited spells.
I destroyed the orb and the remaining Thralls were set free. The ones around the warden started casting spells and summoning creatures. This was all playing out off screen and I was watching the battle via scrolling text in the message window. I thought this helped me and I will wait for them to weaken the warden enough and then I'll rush in and finish him off once the text stopped scrolling.
Except a summoned ettercap got lucky and poisoned the warden. The warden slaughtered everyone but he also continuously took damage from the poison until he too collapsed on the battlefield because of its effects.
When I got to the area, everything was dead and I thought that was the easiest boss ever. I have not been able to replicate the poisoning since.
BG1-Sarevok: I died so many times trying to beat Sarevok the first time in vanilla BG1 (I think SCS Sarevok might actually be EASIER than the vanilla install, or maybe I'm just a better player now). After entering the temple for the umpteenth time I used Imoen to detect traps and give me a bit of breathing room for when the fight actually started. I mistakenly misclicked while having her disarm the lightning bolt trap on the left middle side of the temple and zapped her (that's what potions of absorption are for).
Because of the location where she went over the trap line, the lightning bolt carried on into the distance and struck Sarevok and his cronies off screen.
Realizing this, I had Imoen do a dance on the trap line, a la Napolen Dynamite,to serve as a kind of gun sight while I fired repeatedly into Sarevok's team and fried them to death. There is no honour and glory in war, I say. Only results, right?
I BG2 I was still not very good at understanding the whole spell system, so a casting of Protection from Magical Weapons could leave me dead in the water. When Irenicus did this during the hell battle, I switched my whole party to fists, not realizing the spell only lasts 4 rounds. What followed was a very unceremonious beat down; the thing that saved me was the fact that Irenicus doesn't actually need to be killed to trigger the end dialogue. Being knocked unconscious does it, I guess.
I also beat BG2 with an archer that spent most of her time swinging fists or a two-handed sword... which I think is a 'hardcore' challenge in some circles. Not that I knew it at the time; such was my ineptitude.
Other Highlights:
- Mistakenly killing Sion in the Temple District using the demon summoning trap downstairs. I did not yet know that demons saw through invisibility and tried to run past it up the stairs. It followed me. No luck for Sion.
- Wild Surged a cow. I had already heard the death by cow story on the forums and giggled when I saw it come up in the message bar, thinking the cow would crush my enemies. It landed on me.
- Davaorn knocked himself out with his own stinking cloud in one of my runs through BG1. I was having a really tough time with the fight, and when that happened it was like a 'Move to Go' card.
"I am much more at ease in the forest."
Another surge, this time in Ascension fight, had killed the five, party wounded but fighting tooth and nail for the last half hour, got the big boss down to badly injured, but near the end of my resources, casted a spell and...it turned out as that miraculous area affect HEAL and healed the big boss to full health. Aaargh! I screamed and nearly threw my Ipad away. I think this is one of the reasons why mages...should...not...HEAL!
I think when I realized that Viconia was romancing my half-elf ranger/cleric for the first time. I didn't realize exactly what was happening (hadn't read any walkthroughs at this point), and before you know it she's getting all emotionally S&M on me. I was like wtf? Bring it on, you hot Drow, you!
We had just finished helping Keldorn defeat the cult of the unseeing eye when the jerk totally loses it and started a fight with Viconia! I was like, "hey! That's my illegitimate, evil, leather and chains lover, you holier than thou psychopath! Besides, we just helped you kill off that cult for your stupid church, so what gives??" His arrogance made him deaf to my words, so I joined the fight on Viconia's side and totally kicked his paladin arse. Afterwards, Viconia and I had some *ahem* private time to celebrate our victory...at which point, in our weakened state after we defeated that stupod paladin and the cult of the eyeless, we were slaughtered by a ylochlol, handmaiden of Lloth, come to punish us for our wickedness.
I figured that I deserved what I got. Not only had I just finished murdering a bunch of blind, ignorant, brainwashed people, but I had then murdered a paladin and made sweet, evil love to a wicked priestess. I put the character to rest and didn't reload.
Rest in peace, my friend. You deserved your fate.
After trying MP with other forumites, I've learned that playing BG in MP can be even more memorable.
I will never forget how our party of me, @Tresset, @Gotural and @CrevsDaak took on 4 SCS dwarf wardens in the Durlag's Tower. I will repeat the story so that more people could read it.
The fight started rather well. An archer (CrevsDaak) quickly killed Fear, while Love was under the effect of Insect Plague from my avenger druid and the whole party concentrated on Avarice.
Love then killed our archer and nearly finished our fighter/thief (Tresset), only to die from the half-orc's backstab.
The fight had not been fought yet, as Tresset warned about one dwarven ghost left - Pride. We saw him from the invisibility and I proposed to web him while Pride still didn't see us. And yet, our mage/thief, unfortunately went straight to shoot Pride. That resulted in Pride activating his rage and thus becoming immune to Web due to getting low saving throws. Our mage/thief and fighter/thief fell soon afterwards due to the Pride's high damage and speed.
When only the main character and a FMC (Gotural) were left, we decided to tank Pride with Gotural while I would use his wand on the enemy. And yet, the avenger, under my control, went straight to the web zone (Pride was in his line of sight, the druid had only one order - to use the wand, and still went to the zone).
As you can see, Gotural wished to take the boots of speed from the body of Tresset's fighter/thief, but was several steps away from it. The Quick Loot in BGEE hadn't been upgraded yet and didn't work as it now does, when you can take items without moving to them.
And due to the Pride's high damage and speed, Gotural couldn't tank the enemy. The only way was to run north.
Then my druid became active again, and gulped an invis potion. We were pausing every second then. Gotural gulped the potion of speed... but with the Ring of Free Action the potion didn't work.
And then, the bad thing happened.
We all understood that Gotural is gone for good, because of the Gotural 's principles (i.e a death of the character is final, no resurrection is allowed), of which I have a great respect. I felt as if the game was lost. But then I realised that I simply can't let Pride to kill my druid too. That MP no-reload run shouldn't have been finished. Not yet.
The Avenger had to avenge his fallen comrades.
So, we won in the end. But at what price... And this is exactly what makes Baldur's Gate such an outstanding game. My character, charname, the one we couldn't lose, went straight to the area of Web, which meant Gotural sacrificed himself. That brave dwarf will always stay in our hearts. Understanding someone's character, the one in whom the player had put so much, was going to die in order to save the run, gave me creeps.
I really, really recomend playing BG in MP with your friends. It will be full of epic moments.
Second, the classic multiplayer Thief n00b mistake I always make, "There's a trap nearby don't move your PCs." Then I move my Thief and walk over the trap. Usually to have him/her get killed by it and thus forcing a reload/Temple Rush.
We all know Terminsel is Eliminster and he mostly ignores us when we try to pick pocket him and usually fail - nothing happens. Will this time we pick pocketed him during the Harper Quest story line and the dialogue box that should appear did not because Jaheria was unconscious at the time - so Hexxat thought it was a good idea to try another pick pocket - she downed a potion of mastery thievery - and proceeded to pick pocket him and if she failed it would be only at the cost of one potion. Unfortunately he turned red because of this failed pick pocket which surprised the heck out of all of us - what |"he's not supposed to get angry at us!?" (the game did not go into dialogue with Jaheria so this is a minor bug or something) and he proceeded to kick our butts very effectively - on the bright side I was able to hit him once for a few points of damage.
Consoling Adalon into Brynnlaw in Nightmare mode and roasting her with the scorcher loop in a fraction of a second.
Nailing Cookies the Acid Kensai with an Arrow of Dispelling shot by a Vhailor's Helm simulacrum to remove his saving throw bonuses, casting Death Ward on him to burn out his spell protections, and then hitting him with the Wand of Paralyzation until he finally failed a save.
Also, killing Cookies by creating a feedback loop between the backlash effects of Sanchuudoku and the Yamato from Item Revisions, allowing my character to slash him to death in her sleep.
Going to fight the Twisted Rune in Nightmare mode with a blind Kensai/Thief, and hiding in plain sight because Shangalar, unlike other liches, could not see through invisibility.
Stun-locking Kangaxx with +1 flashers.
1) Guard in Cloakwood mined: "I can take on Drizzit with both arms tied behind my back!"
Same guard one second later: "Arrrgh..."
Wonder how long he would stand against Drizz(i)t, with or without using his hands.
2) Decapitating Nizidramanii'yt in Suldanessellar with the silver sword +3. I spent several minutes buffing up for a fight that lasted five seconds.
3) Khalid, right after wasting a few Shadow Druids in Cloakwood: "Gorion would be proud of your actions!"
Lilancor: Who's your daddy?
Dorn: You have a problem?
Edwin: Yes
Yoshimo: Hiii-ya, the tourists love that stuff.
Viconia: I'm tired of spending my time with fools.
Yoshimo expresses his concern about our travel to spellhold.
I click on a courtesan by accident and she offers her services to Yoshimo.
Yoshimo replies that he will take the deal when he is unoccupied. (you heartless shifty bastard)
I took Rasaad WAAAY after I slept with Dorn just to make his quest, getting extra XP and true sight gem.
Rasaad out of nowhere: You took this animal into your bed? I'm through with you Zariah!
Dorn: Most disagreeable!
(Someone was a very bad monk)
Tazok whipped the tar outa Saervok, killing him, standing over him as he fell. Fantastic looking, never had that happen before, ever. And there I was standing there watching, just playing away on my flute.
I thought everything triggers as long as he is in the party?