we already have one up

>male human fighter 1/cleric x or half-orc cleric (depends on something I havent checked yet), is the bhaalspawn
>male dwarf fighter
>male elf ranger
>male halfling thief
>female halfelf bard (party leader)
>female gnome illusionist

I wanted to do no kits, single classes, two 18s with everything else kinda low or one 18 and two 16s for stats. A self-imposed rule that if a ranged character is engaged in melee, they cant run away to kite, they have to switch to melee and fight. SGS, tweaks, spell revisions, rogue rebalancing.

>>3986792
I saw an IWD thread, but no BG or IE one.

I am almost always a fan of exclusively playing cRPGs with custom parties and eschewing the “companions”, however I think BG2 is one of the few games that suffer for it. Probably one of the last cRPGs with likeable companions. You do miss some of the experience without them. I did this a few years ago (made a custom party of four and imported from bg1 through ToB) and it feels a bit empty.

>>3986797
thats about what I expected
the last time I played bg2 I picked all the companions I actually like (except korgan; no more room and he'd desert anyway), despite them not being very synergistic with each other, so I feel I can skip npcs this time without feeling bad about it
I intend on playing slowly to soak up the atmosphere; maybe that'll help as well

>>3986792
just lying for the sake of being annoying

I was just thinking today how retarded it is that some village days away sends a lone child to the big evil city to get help. How could such a retarded system ever survive a D&D world?

making your own party instead of using npcs takes away a ton of dialog and fun in return for making the game way easier. what is the point

>>3987116
Id say its only easier if you make better builds than the npcs; mine are going to be pretty tame

>>3987098
D&D games in particular are pretty bad about this. Devs apparently cant be bothered to think about the differences between the real world and one like this

>>3987116
>making your own party instead of using npcs takes away a ton of dialog and fun
Most modern cRPGs have shitty and obnoxious NPCs who actively detract from the experience with their presence.

>>3987130
he meant in bg2, in which case he`s got a point, but its already been brought up and responded to

>>3987126
kek, no shit
>party of adventurers cant walk five feet outside the city without a dangerous random encounter
>a small child somehow navigates/keeps himself fed/travels 200 miles without a scratch
not to mention the fact that the village should have some way of sending word, like a mounted messenger, carrier pidgeons, a mage with a spell, fucking something

>>3987098
>>3987231
Accepting that quest causes Minsc to pressure you to get it done, that's probably why they used a little boy. BG2's writing only cares about the vibe and not about role play. When you encounter the big dragon his dialogue is like 'You are small and insignificant in my eyes' and your character's follow up is 'You are toying with me like a cat with a mouse'. Basically just forcing the vibe all the time.

>>3986794
cleric: str 18/60ish, con 16, wis 16
or
str 18/60ish, wis 18
im undecided; I know the con route is objectively superior, but im kinda going for a theme here (everybody having a maxed main stat)
>morningstars *****, sling **, shields **, will use medium shields

dorf: str 18/90+, con 19
>axes *****, warhammers *****, maybe hammers **/dual ***, but I really prefer shields, will use large shields

elf: str 18/01-50, dex 19, wis 15
>longbow **, longsword **, shortbow **, mace **, staff ** (will use the mace of disruption and that golem-killer staff when appropriate), will use small shields
he'll be my scout earlier on, then later he'll wear ankheg plate and be a switch hitter as necessary

thief: str 16, dex 19, con 16
>will use bucklers (most of the time)
>locks/traps earlier on, then takes up scouting and backstabbing later, will level detect illusions asap in bg2, then traps after that I guess

bard: str 15 (for weapons), dex 16, int 16, cha 18
>xbow *, halberd *, greatsword *, two-handed *

gnome: dex 16, con 16, int 19
no hard choices here

>>3987269
Ugly stats. Then again, half the stats are broken, so what do?

>>3987292
can you try posting again more clearly?

>>3987269
Clerics don't get exceptional strength.

>>3987425
you didnt read my earlier post

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>>3986791
>play BG for the first time
>get EE
>play on normal because core sounds scary
>make cleric
>stepdad gets murdered
>run to friendly arm inn
>meet a strange guy
>he attacks my party of 4
>fears everyone but the dwarf
>kills the dwarf in one hit
>everybody is running around helpless
>kills me with one spell
>game over
i might have made a mistake

>>3987458
you were supposed to instagib crit him through his mirror image spell

I just got spoonfed a "Companion Tier List" gamer-chud (formerly known as munchkin) video for BG2. Do you enjoy playing like this? I'm not judging, it just never crossed my mind. I can't even remember if I ever played BG2 on the highest difficulty. I did complete it as a solo monk or sorcerer, but I don't think I played at higher than normal or whatever the default was. Apparently you need to also have "SCS" and other mods, whatever they mean, to get proper respect, because the highest difficulty alone doesn't cut it.

>>3987461
nobody plays for respect
you run scs for the challenge, so the game stays fun when you get too good for the vanilla game

>>3986791
Strongest character? Either Gnome Fighter/Illusionist or Half-Elf Fighter/Mage. Dual Fighter/Mage just doesn't compare. You have to use Transformation for full THAC0 and you don't get Fighter HLA's. Fighter/Mage Dual is really for people who want to play a mage that does transformation and goes into melee after he runs out of spells. The Gnome or Half-Elf is the true Gish.
>>3987458
>the dwarf
You mean Montaron? He's a Halfling and his stats make him a little fragile at the beginning. But that guy can be hard for a first level party.
>>>kills me with one spell
Your character? It's a good idea to pump CON as high as possible. Having 14 HP instead of 10 can help.
>>fear
Hard to deal with. If you have no clear as I suspect you have Imoen, Xzar, and Montaron you don't quite have the tools for the fight unless you were able to find a scroll of sleep to give to Xzar. If you did then make sure Xzar learned sleep and has it prepare and to cast it asap. If you go explore around instead and find a cleric companion then you should be able to use the spell command on him. If he's in the process of casting even better because command is faster than everything he casts and he immediately lies down losing the spell. Your guys then get free hits on him. The other option is to find a scroll of resist fear and cast it before the fight or if you're lucky have the cleric unaffected and cast remove fear on someone.

>>3987458
Use Imoen's wand of missile as the nage starts to cast his first spell. It will disrupt it and cause it to fail. You can also run, and let the FAI guards attack him once he goes hostile.

>>3987458
Poor design
>you're dead
>reload and try again now that you know what will happen
It's a RPG, am I supposed to roleplay a fucking clairvoyant

>>3987602
Yes.

>>3987461
>R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me

>>3987461
>highest difficulty
Just exploiting AI. Who cares?
>SCS
Just exploiting better AI. Who cares?
>respect
Falling for youtube video essayist drivel is unworthy of respect. Just play on something like core or normal and enjoy the game.

What's the best 'total experience' playthrough for the whole of the classic games at this point? Like, the original games did a shit job of letting you carry stuff forward from BG1 into 2, and putting 2's mechanics into 1 lets you break this (and screws up the fun of summoning dozens of skeletons).

>>3987554
I think gnome fighter/illusionist
however, I think elf is better than halfelf

>>3987602
youre not smart enough for a 1998 crpg

>>3987642
Heh, I bet you never even tried to obtain daddy Sawyer's respect by getting the Super Special Awesome Hardcore Mode cheevo in Pliers of Externality.

>>3987781
>Sawyer's
I always laugh when I read his name. Funny feller.

>>3987666
>the original games did a shit job of letting you carry stuff forward from BG1 into 2
how so?

>>3987666
With minimal spoilers, there's the 'canon party' which is supposedly....
BG1:
>MC
>Imoen
>Jaheira
>Khalid
>Minsc
>Dynaheir
And BG2:
>MC
>Yoshimo / Imoen (when Imoen is available)
>Jaheira
>Minsc
>Aerie
>Keldorn (Subbed out in Throne of Bhaal for a story-companion from ToB.)
Keldorn is the obvious choice if your MC isn't a Paladin because he gets along well with the others, and uses Greatswords, which allows someone in your party to use one of the best weapons in the game. The dude he is subbed out for is also a Greatsword user so you effectively have the same sort of melee character in that slot.
I think that Heir'dalis is also a contender for the 'canon' party in BG2 because Minsc is attached to Aerie, and Aerie w/ Heir'dalis will instigate a love triangle romance with a Male MC. I like denying feelings for Aerie to let those two weirdos have a (probably doomed) relationship.
Then of course there's the Jaheira romance, but some people
>But what about the MC?
Because (you) were raised in a temple/library, caster classes stick to your backstory very well. Especially Bard, as growing up hearing stories from your foster father is essentially the perfect backstory for a Bard. That said, Bards aren't exactly the best unless you want to play a very support based game plan in BG1. I think any Fighter/Cleric or Fighter/Mage would work, too.

>>3987896
>Yoshimo
>Keldorn (Subbed out in Throne of Bhaal for a story-companion from ToB.)
>Heir'dalis is also a contender for the 'canon' party in BG2
Cursed post

>>3987903
yoshimo is definitely intended to be used
I can see the logic with keldorn, but other than yoshimoen, jaheira, and minsc, I dont think any are meant to be "canon"

>>3987911
Only reason I considered Aerie was because she is a pretty big part of Minsc's story if she is in the party.
I also skipped evil NPCs, even if personally I prefer them.

I think im the only person who's noticed the easter egg in the trademeet daytime background noise. Its a reference to the movie Office Space. Ive only heard it once though; I dont know how often it cycles

>>3987896
There are NO canon parties, stop trying to force this shit. You have the choice to have no idea who any of the characters are from the first game in BG2, and BG2 itself has good reasons for any of the companions to be with your group.

>>3987896
I've already played through the games and am aware of this. The issue I'm getting at is that the base game assumes that you have a very specific party at the end of BG1, as opposed to having a variety of things happen at the start of BG2 depending on how you finished BG1, so the continuity is minimal and I was wondering if there were any mods that improved this aspect.

>>3987461
SCS means Sword Coast Strategist, referring to the fact that only the most brilliant strategists can beat this mod compilation on the hardest difficulty, which filters much of /vrpg/, because they don't have the strategical or tactical mind required to beat Baldur's Gate without affirmative action difficulty benefits.

>>3988188
there is no need to be upset

>>3988317
ive never heard of anything like that

>>3987269
The nice thing about a full party of single-classers is that you never have to agonize over who gets what item, or what item to use on a given character. You just load your thief up with the thief items, your fighter gets the best tank items, the mage gets the best wizard shit, etc.

>>3988188
There's a reason I said
>Supposedly
and
>'canon party'
With quotes. Some characters just fit the narrative for Good/Neutral party cuz of Gorion's advice or just the fact they are in the Irencius dungeon. From there I figure that NPCs that have interesting connections to them are just fun to have around.
I've never actually used such a party, fwiw.

>>3986791
>I really wish indie devs would give us more games like this that aren't fucking terrible
yes please
Id almost kill for a new one thats at least as good as the originals.

Ive had an idea for one for years now, but im too averse to fucking around with software to ever do it.

>>3988442
do it nigga, I need it

>>3986791
>I really wish indie devs would give us more games like this
Sigh how many more do you need to realize

do dwarfs really get no romance option?

>>3988951
>do dwarfs really get no romance option?
And people say video games are unrealistic

>>3988951
dwarves dont have sex
there are no female dwarves
they just pop out of the stone, already bearded

>>3988979
>>3988985
brutal dwarfcels btfo'd

>>3988329
>dude immersion breaking pre-buffing and HLAs from every single mid-game mage lmao

>>3987714
what else are you supposed to do?

>>3989054
think ahead
prepare for the unexpected

some people literally cant do it, if thats you, just forget it and play something else

>>3989025
mages are smart, they predicted the battles they were going to have with you

>>3989025
u know whats immersion breaking, every powerful mage not having Stone skin up 24/7 when that spell lasts 12h

>>3989215
I already beat BG1 and BG2 with constant reloading

>>3989252
yeah, because you cant think ahead or prepare for the unexpected

>>3986791
I really wish EE wasn't such a pile of shit.
The original Infinity Engine games had a neat launcher with an option panel where you could alter the framerate (the speed of the game is tied to it) so you could speed shit up by increasing the framerate.
EE is a slow shitty slog.

>>3989257
how would I know what comes next and what it does?

>>3989263
kek, I knew youd say that

>>3989260
the original bg1 was VERY slow, the bg2 engine in the EE has them walking a lot faster
that said, zoom zoom

>>3989263
You memorize every step of the game in the past 20 years of replaying the game, duh

>>3989263
use thief to scout or invisibility spell

>>3989276
use scout to see enemies which you don't know if you can beat as you can't see their stats.

>>3989300
>can't see their stats
Or strats

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>>3989300
u are supposed to know every enemy and their resistances by reading dnd rule book and manual, or use BGradar overlay
https://github.com/tapahob/BG2RadarOverlay

butthurt filtered pleb hour
it must suck being brown or white trash

>>3989305
wtf this changes everything

>>3989305
mos of the resistances are common sense

big metal dudes cannot be stabbed. skeletons and things with lots of holes cannot be pierced by arrows easily

people are just conditioned by games to not think of the game world as a world, but as some sort of adhd skinner box

>>3989504
The lich ones are not knowable

>>3989510
electricity immunity is kind of random, nothing else is unexpected

>>3987130
Good thing this is an infinity engine thread retard

>>3989816
>Good thing this is an infinity engine thread retard
I had previously posted in this thread >>3986797
recommending that OP use the NPCs because using BG2 is old enough to have decent companions, in contrast with modern games. I then separately played devils advocate and answered that other anons question in a more general sense, using “modern” as a modifier to make it clear that I wasn’t talking about BG1/2, dipshit-san.

>>3987461
>I just got spoonfed a "Companion Tier List" gamer-chud (formerly known as munchkin) video for BG2.
I also saw that video. The guy is very entertaining, I'll give him that. I wish I could have that kind of autistic passion about Bioware slop.

>>3987116
lmao Bioware introduced premade companions specifically to make their games easier and more accessible.

>>3989814
bruh

>>3990462
NTA but I think it’s more appropriate to say arbitrary rather than random. It’s some dumb pathfinder tabletop homebrew. Thematically I would expect them to resist fire more so than electricity.

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So do you guys reroll your stats until you get a roll with a ton of points to spend, or do you consider that cheating? I don't wanna lame the mechanics, but the early levels are so brutal it feels the game WANTS me to have an 18 score in half my shit

>>3990537
Strictly roll 3d6 in order for your stats, then pick your class based on what you qualify. Then use Gatekeeper to set your stats to what you rolled, if needed.

>>3990543
Wtf?
>>3990537
For bg I go with 90+. Takes like 5 minutes or less. I did a 8 attribute run and ultimately it doesn't make much difference. The beginning was rng.

>>3990537
the stats barely do anything. consult the stat tables. you'll still die in one hit. you still wont hit anything. dex will make you get hit less often bbut you'll still die in one hit

>>3990537
I think most people max them stats. I do. I can't imagine playing a bard, thief whatever with mid stats on top of that.

I always thought the character creation roll thing was.. not good.

>>3990543
I have no idea why classic tabletop is so adamant about rng-ing what you will be. Like you make up a sophisticated play pretend system where you can be whatever you want and then you start gambling what you will spend your time with for the next fucking 50 hours if you want to or not and if you get really unlucky you will be shit at everything.

>>3990550
>I have no idea why classic tabletop is so adamant about rng-ing what you will be.
Roleplaying.
>Like you make up a sophisticated play pretend system where you can be whatever you want and then you start gambling what you will spend your time with for the next fucking 50 hours if you want to or not
Because then the focus become munchkin min-maxing optimizing, and not roleplaying. The mechanics are there to facilitate roleplaying, they're not there as the final end in themselves.
>and if you get really unlucky you will be shit at everything.
Some of the most interesting, memorable, and fun characters are flawed. A perfectly optimal blob of statistics is boring and uninteresting.
It is surreal to me that these things need to be stated on a board that is ostensibly about roleplaying games, but here we are.

>>3990552
I guess I'm not severly autistic enough to have the need for a tard wrangler that ensures I play the game in the "right way" instead of going full obsessive compulsion disorder on minmaxing whenever possible. Spergs really need external force to exist.

>>3990557
>tard wrangler
Please, anon. The term is “dungeon master”

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for me, it's IWDII

>>3990537
The only time I'll ever manually allocate points is INT on a mage. Every other character gets the better of two natural rolls. If that means I'm playing a Fighter with 16 WIS and 11 STR, so be it. Everything's eventually fixable with items anyway.

>>3990462
I can only assume youre retarded

>>3990469
ive always thought skellies should have high fire resistance

>>3990537
depends on how I feel like playing
in bg, for my main character, I want to have the stats I feel like I should have
that doesnt mean the highest roll possible, just good enough at what I care about
but sometimes I want to powergame king conan and have four 18s and two 10+s
but when Im making a whole party, I dont need particularly high stats on every character, just two or three good ones and the rest can be meh

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>>3987458
skill issue

>>3987458
man, i wish i could have this experience again

>>3987462
scs just forces you to cheese encounters in a different way than you would unmodded

>>3990537
I'm playing the child of a god. I should have high ability scores.
If Sarevok can have 95 total points then I can too.

>>3990537
I seriously hope you guys aren't rolling a thousand times for each character instead of just opening the char file with NearInfinity and setting the stats how you want them.

>>3989271
>was very slow
NIGGER, I literally told you how to fix this by opening the fucking launcher options and up the FPS.
EE did away with that, and so remains SLOW as fuck.

>>3987602
You're supposed to not be a retard that walks into potentially hostile situations unprepared, unless you WANT to die or only survive by fool's luck.
I'm not going to claim save/reload isn't a thing you'll end up doing a big in infinity engine games, but when you pay attention to what you are told of a place, hear of a place, read of a place, and how the place looks, you can often anticipate encounters of difficulty before you encounter them.
I'll say it is harder to be well-prepared for the unknown in BG1, since it starts you off at lvl1, with spells and abilities being a slow process to gather. But even so, that's where ye olde rest button and taverns come in handy for memorization.

Again with BG1 there are some actually bullshit points that, if you go in blind, you couldn't have anticipated - most notably the cheeky faggot outside the friendly arm inn

>>3991289
It's still there, nigger, just in the settings file. You do know how to edit a text file, right?

>>3991292
>you couldn't have anticipated
but you could have

there were assassins in candlekeep who knew of you
there were killers outside candlekeep who knew of you and knew where to find you
so....since you planned on going to the inn, shouldnt you expect....?

>>3991260
Sarevok can hit for 250 damage, can you?

>>3991299
>having to navigate to directory and an ini file vs having the option given to you by the game
You're the nigger; you purchase a thing, and the proprietor tells you that you need to clean his store too, and you do this.

>>3991301
That is a fair point actually

>>3991308
Nta that's hardly the same

>>3991260
thats a damn good point
fuck sarevok
imoen has 87, which is about what I expect to have on a serious bhaalspawn
drizzt has 96
elminster (in the game) has 98
elminster (in canon) has 114

>>3991299
>>3991289
changing that setting was always retarded cause it fucked up everything else as well, sped up spell animations,attacks speed, how long turns and rounds lasted etc not just movement. There are mods (like tweaks anthology) which increase movement speed only out of combat so game plays like modern isometric CRPGs and this is what you should be using(together with spell alacrity out of combat). On top of it recent v1.0 EEex release framerate got detached from engine and now u can play at monitor refresh rate plus its other component called spell UI BG1/2 is basically a modern game.
https://github.com/Bubb13/EEex

>>3991507
>it fucked up everything else as well, sped up spell animations, attacks speed, how long turns and rounds lasted etc not just movement.
I don't get it. All of those are nice to have and the setting worked flawlessly since BG1. And why would monitor refresh rate make a difference in a game like this?

>>3991468
He read quite a few tomes.

I'm having more fun listening to autists talk about what the best and worst class and whatnot is than actually replaying the game

>>3991888
>best
Paladin (because this dungeon has a sense of… EVIL about it)
>worst
Bard (because they only get pickpocketing in this which I never use, and so I can’t use them as trap/lock skill monkeys to replace the thief)

if you are going to play BG with a customer party, make it a party of four so you can pick up one or two of the Bioware characters long enough to complete their side quests.

Even if you don't do that, a party of four is probably the optimum party size to have fun with. To complete the game without going to ridiculous lengths, you need thief skills, healing, a tank and a magic cannon. Anything over and above that is just padding.

>>3987903
Yoshimo is for the betrayal plotline and hence replaced by Imoen. Personally I disgree with KEKdorn and Haeryball'gobbler. Minsc is also just a joke character so he can be omitted. Arguably Jan Jansen (for the banter) and Edwin (for the Nether scroll, every party needs someone to bully) should take their places.
>>3987896
>>Aerie
She's only 109 years old you sick fuck. You fucking pedos just have to adventure with a child. Let me guess you romanced her too... You belong behind bars. Replace her with one of the adult clerics like Viconia or Anomen.

>>3991260
Just rush candlekeep dungeon a few times and pick up the tomes in BG3. You'll get to 150 in no time.

>>3991907
hot diggity damn, this feller plays on storymode diff

>>3992231
Bg3 has tomes?

Why do you like BG3 more than BG2?

>>3992344
>hot diggity damn, this feller plays on storymode diff
Baldur’s Gate does not have a “story mode” difficulty, which you would know if you had played the game, my broccoli-haired newfriend

>>3992365
>injured feelings zoomie projecting & grasping onto straws
story mode is every difficulty below Insane+SCS

>>3990557
nta, but rules for games exist to make it more fun. When you don't follow the rules, you get shit like Monopoly where no one actually knows how to play it, they settle on flawed rules and then think the game is boring.

>>3986791
Growing up is realizing Real-Time with Pause Combat is retarded. Go full turn based or action RPG but RTwP is gay and bad.

>>3986791
BG games? Fighter/Mage/Thief solo, sometimes I add my waifu (Viconia) if I feel lonely while playing, bust mostly solo, abusing the engine.

IWD? 2 Fighter/Mage/Thief + 1 Fighter/Cleric/Mage. Or 4 Fighter/Something party. Also abusing the engine.

>>3993399
Heh, you're a queer-

>>3993438
Let it go, unc. Turn based won.

>>3993400
Sounds boring. Played solo monk once. Easiest playthrough ever.
>>3993450
Nta, but consider getting help.

>>3993399
>Growing up is realizing Real-Time with Pause Combat is retarded. Go full turn based or action RPG but RTwP is gay and bad.
I’ve always had a pet theory that RTWP is only beloved by a certain subset of late millennials/early zoomers who were adolescents in the late 90s/early 2000s, but were too young to remember older turn-based RPGs, or the prime era of RTS’s popularity.

>>3993451
I like magic but I don't like faggy mages.

>>3993450
I think m-m-much clearer with rest! Might we ....stop?

>>3993487
No wonder. Can always make super duper shadow keeper character. Or just play as arkanis, the one hit wonder.

>>3993718
if I could play a pure fighter who spams only scrolls when needed, I would do it.

>>3987602
the protagonist knows Power Word, Reload which is the most OP ability in the entire rulebook; god-tier ability actually

>fighter 9 > mage x thac0: 12
>fighter 21 thac0: 0

am I even going to be able to hit shit with my sword in ToB if I play fighter mage dual

>>3995126
It’s THAC0, not MAGE0, chud

>>3995126
fighter/mages are better anyway

>>3995126
Tenser's Transformation would give you plenty. iirc you can still cast from sequencers while it's active.

>>3995126
SCS has completely busted summons if you have that installed. Modders always enforce the summoning meta. Otherwise start with Kensai if you can bare the shame.

>>3995553
>the summoning meta
Summoning is fucking gay. I just don’t use it.

It finally clicked for me why somebody would want to play a fighter/mage/cleric. I never considered the angle of having basically every buff available on a single character, plus heals. Also you can use every spellcasting item (wands, scrolls).

>>3995553
>SCS
Isn't that the mod that makes a single shitty kobold shaman a huge threat for level 2-3 parties since its able to instantaneously pre-buff itself with deflection and mirror image spells, and can melt your party with horror + lightning bolt spam?

>>3999232
Yes, but SCS doesn't really become mage duel buff debuff cancer until the layer parts of BG1 and then most of BG2.

>>3999232
>>3999255
I played SCS BG1 with a solo paladin. The hardest fight was definitely the ogre mage from the jar. I finished the run but didn't really enjoy it, and skipped SCS for BG2 because I knew it would just be puzzle game tedium.

>>3999260
>The hardest fight was definitely the ogre mage from the jar.
Oh shit, that gives me flashbacks.
>Mortals, before you die, know that you have pleased Kahrk, mightiest of the ogre-magi.
>minor globe
>prot from normal missiles
>mirror image
It's rape time!

>>3999232
I didnt have any trouble with the mine kobolds, but the wolf of ulcaster is just bad design. Ran into him today. It's like a vampiric wolf, but with like three times the hp, throws a fear spell at you for free every round + summons two dread wolves and sometimes a ghast. Less often, it hits you with dispels and greater malison so you will eventually become permafeared and surrounded by an ever growing horde of dread wolves. I'm playing a solo character, so I dont know what I'm expected to do. I tried alpha-striking hard with a backstab and the ice wand, but that only got him down to "injured".

>>3999317
on 2nd thought, maybe just that
I'll come back with some invisibility casts/potions and just whittle the fucker down

>>3999406
Isn't Remove Fear a level 1 spell?

>>3999260
SCS isn't really a puzzle thing, it's just an asshole's egotistical toxic GM masturbation session. That guy spent a lot of time justifying and rationalizing the mod with various "well, *technicallyyyyyyy...*" type of shit, when the truth is that it just doesn't make the game fun. It makes it tedious and anti-fun.
You don't need SCS. You just don't.

>>3999529
yes, but it gets dispelled almost immediately

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>>3999317
>>3999406
Yep, that was the trick. I went to high hedge and bought a couple invisibility scrolls, and prepared one invisibility and one resist fear myself. Used a hill giant potion.

Stealth in, backstab, icewand, invisibility, retreat
Stealth in, backstab, fire wand agannazzars scorcher, invisbility, retreat
Died to the third backstab, then I just fireballed all the dread wolves a couple times.

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This guy is my favorite character in bg1. I suspect he's a harper agent; he was probably one of the devs personal characters from a D&D. I've heard they use several of their own in the games.

>>3999531
u realize theres difficulty slider retard, SCS is pretty damn fair, if u want true asshole design play Improved Anvil or tactics remix

>>3987458
Yeah for some reason they put a superboss RIGHT at the start. You're supposed to know to dig through your friend's inventory and do some kind of animation cancel to stop him from casting instant death.

>>3999748
>>3990986

>>3999737
Would explain soul

>>3999229
That justifies mage/cleric. Adding fighter levels is just diluting your spellcasting capabilities. You have lots of spells so you should be using them, not wasting rounds hitting people.

>>4000033
next time don't @ me

>>4000043
no

>decide to give IWD another try after dropping it a while ago
>get farther this time.
>after while, realize that the fun feeling of triumph after beating a tough battle is a lot weaker than it was in BG1&2
>nearly every battle leaves the party almost dead with no spells remaining.
>start noticing just how often it goes against the rules set in Baldur's Gate
>aggro-ing enemies also aggros nearby ones too.
>sometimes pulls enemies in other rooms entirely
>my tanks in full plate armor with tower shields still get destroyed by trash mobs.
>enemies randomly target squishy back-liners who die even quicker
>there isn't even a large list of side quests leading to alternate locations that I can do to grow my party's power before trying again.

Am I just at a low point before I get some powerful spells or gear to deal with this kind of thing, or is this just the game from here on out? And is it worth sticking out to the end? I'm at the third level of Dragon's Eye.
Baldur's Gate 1, I thought, was really tough, especially in Durlag's Tower. BG2 really smoothed out the difficulty, and I never really felt like I was met with any "Well what the fuck am I supposed to do?" moments. Icewind Dale from what I've heard, is more difficult overall.

I don't really want to play these games checking the wiki every few minutes for items and quests I'll miss so I can give myself every advantage possible, otherwise go back to the reload loop.

>>4000925
you are indeed at the hardest point
levels 2, 3, and 4 of dragons eye are the hardest in the game imo, though you'll probably have trouble with 5 as well
trolls and wights are a bitch, try to make use of choke points, and use turn undead against the wights (unless you fell for the 6-person party meme, lmao)

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>>3999722
on 3rd thought, I probably could have just used a scroll of protection from undead; I think those wolves are all undead
still would have trouble with fear though

>>4000930
That's pretty reassuring actually.
While I wasn't checking, I kept going, and managed to clear 3 and 4. Oddly enough, 4 was actually way easier than I thought it'd be. Maybe it's just because the enemies are a lot more susceptible to some of the spells I have. (and also having three whole fireball casts to abuse now.)
But yeah, now it's feeling like it did in the Veil of Shadows, at least for now.
If it gets too hard again, I might just decide "fuck it" and either lower the difficulty (I'm on Core Rules at the moment) or do the ol' Export and restart trick.

>>3987126
game devs/writers always resent writing for some other setting and that sentiment shows a lot in bg2. they "forget" that geas is easily removed, even in bg1 there is a quest to remove a geas. they "forget" that resurrection exists despite the fact that it happens multiple times in bg1...


hell bg2 even has a murder mystery quest when any old low level cleric can just ask the victims who killed them, bioware didn't care about any of these things because they weren't interested in writing a dnd adventure
>>3999317
you could just play the real game where this thing doesn't exist
spellcasters using spells is one thing but inventing fanfic abilities for custom encounters is stupid

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>>4001119
I'll remember it, though
if it was just another vampiric wolf, I'd have killed it via unbuffed swordswinging and forgotten about it within a week
im playing with scs because its harder than vanilla, which is too easy

>>4001127
there's a difference between it being easy and giving an enemy a busted version of fear aura that makes you save every round + at will animate dead. those kind of abilities are more suitable for a lich than some random wolf in babbies first dungeon

>>4001133
well, its the dungeon boss, not just a random wolf
and I did manage it; in fact it was very easy once I realized I could just cheese with stealth
and im playing solo; with a party it would have been that much easier

>>4001135
the point is that the dungeon doesn't normally have a boss though, they just made it up for the mod

>>4001136
the vampiric wolf was the boss

>>4001137
a vampiric wolf is a generic trash mob that you fight in many places
the vampiric wolf in the tomb is even a spawned encounter too iirc and not even a set mob

>>4001141
its neither generic nor a trash mob, its merely not unique
im pretty sure the one in ulcaster is static; placed right next to the big pile of corpses at the very end

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>>4001142
yep, theres only three statics in the game, and thats one of them

Baldur's Gate 1&2 is on sale 65% off on Switch (and IWD+PS:T for the same price)

I've been really curious how the controls work on console. Should I just go for it? It's only $17.50, which isn't nothing, but it's not the $50 it usually goes for though.
I did a bit of research, and the brave search AI said that the minus button is the pause button, and it can't be remapped. Not sure if info from Baldur's Gate 3 leaked in or something, but that sounds like a terrible idea for a RTWP game. On Steam Deck, I mapped it to A.

>>4001142
any generic mob is a trash mob
anyway i just have a problem scs because it is lore breaking and only adds tedium.

any solo mage (in universe) should be easy as anti magic zone and execute yet these things in scs are extremely annoyign time/spell wasters. it's literally just a magewank mod, as if the game didn't need more.

Throne of Bhaal is still fucking dogshit, overtuned anti-fun bullshit and fuck the Watcher's Keep

>>4001500
>any generic mob is a trash mob
Stopped reading here. “Trash mob” does not mean “non-unique mob”.

>>3987116
Disagree. My favorite BG2 playthrough was years ago when the only means of making your own party was some sort of multi-player exploit. I made five characters with enough diversity that they could use every powerful weapon in the game. I use the last slot to cycle through story characters until their quests were complete. I kept Keldorn and gave him Carsomyr. It bothers me that games like this give you tons of powerful items but limited chance to use them without a very specific party build. This was the best way to be able to use as many as possible and still get a lot of extra dialog. I still think BG2 has one of the best loot drip rates of any RPGs.

>>4001567
>the only means of making your own party was some sort of multi-player exploit
I don’t consider it to be an exploit, the game explicitly allows players in a multiplayer game to create and control multiple custom characters as intended functionality. Contrast this with DOS2 or BG3 which require launching four instances of the game and then joining your own hosted game, rather than just doing it from within the menu of one client.

>>3986791
How shit will the remakes be?

>>4001569
I always play with 4 tavs. Nazi swen promised us it will be easy to do in single player and lied big league.
>>4001567
Ye, the drip is awesome, but the loot is where the game shines.

>>3986791
I think I still have the original 5 disk set of Baldur's Gate.

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>>4004049
I do. Sometimes I forget about the original fmvs and loading screens.

>>4004052
Is owlcucks doing the bg remakes? Please not obsidian. Legitimately no studio can make something like bg 1,2 or 3.

>>4004080
ive never heard of any new bg remakes

>>4004083
Weren't they announced or is it still rumors? Makes sense to train with bg1 and 2 before tackling bg 4. I just don't see them turnout good.
>bg3 hound
The initial story wasn't even that good. The mechanic could've been fun, but would likely end up convoluted crap.

>>4004089
Wish they would just make new games and leave old stuff alone.

>>4004105
>Wish they would just make new games and leave old stuff alone.
Many such cases

Anyone played SCS with the resting limitations? How did it work out?

>>3991292
BG1 has Shoal the Nereid, who is non-evil, non-hostile, and unavoidably instakills you with no save if you talk to her. Game over if you did the usual thing and had the PC lead the party.

>>4004428
>BG1 has Shoal the Nereid, who is non-evil, non-hostile, and unavoidably instakills you with no save if you talk to her. Game over if you did the usual thing and had the PC lead the party.
Fucked up my solo paladin run something fierce. I think I had to go recruit Ajantis for a minute and have him take one for the team.

>>4004322
Scs is mostly pigeonholing or cheese.

I just beat Yxunomei in IWD:EE, but the whole dungeon was pretty tough. Does it get too much harder from here?
Roughly how much of the game percentage wise am I through?

If I'm asking these sorts of questions, should I just shelve the game for now and move on to something else? (I'm thinking either Arcanum or Neverwinter Nights next on my legendary CRPG Odyssey)
I've been playing on Core Rules all this time, so maybe "Normal" difficulty would feel a bit better.

>>4004554
no, its all downhill from there
probably about 33%
core rules are better than normal

>>4004554
The next few dungeons are relatively easy. There is another dungeon later that's similar in difficulty to Dragon's Eye, but the game gives you a breather until then.
Heart of Winter isn't that bad either, but Trials of the Luremaster is nightmarishly difficult.
>I've been playing on Core Rules all this time, so maybe "Normal" difficulty would feel a bit better.
I think Core from the start is genuinely the hardest way to play the game other than the bullshit Heart of Fury (which is more of a NG+ mode anyway). Higher difficulties add more handplaced monsters, but they also increase exp gain so you have more tools to deal with them. Easy difficulty doubles exp gain as well.

>>4004582
>TotL
I did it once to say I did, but was tedious as hell and not very fun

>>4004498
Nobody's forcing you to install the mage battles component. You can just get general AI improvements and stuff like resting limits. That's what I do

>>4004586
This. It's litterally "that part" of the game for me. Good thing is you can ignore it completely.

>>3987554
>The other option is to find a scroll of resist fear and cast it before the fight or if you're lucky have the cleric unaffected and cast remove fear on someone.
You just run past him into the Friendly Arm Inn, recruit Jaheira like you were told to, and have her cast Remove Fear (she already has it memorized). Then everybody goes back out again and melee him while he wastes his turn casting Horror.

Are there story or quest mods for either iwd?

>>4005920
>Are there story or quest mods for either iwd?
Why would you want this? It’s a dungeon crawler. There is already an adequate story and quests for what it is.
You may want to play Baldur’s Gate instead. You can make a custom party through the multiplayer menu.

>>4005922
Want to replay iwd 1 and 2 again. Iwd 1 is kinda stale as its a long game. Stale for a second playthrough. Next bg run will be bgt+iwd+nwn in one go. Hence me wanting an iwd run that holds something new.

>>4005928
Could try gimmick runs. Themed parties, some interesting combination that play significantly differently than you normally do. Don’t use classes you typically rely on, or use exclusively classes you think are shitty. Like one time I did a ToEE party with no full casters, only half casters. Or I had a 40k-themed ork party in IWD2

>>4005920
There is a unfinished business mod for IWD that adds back a few deleted quests. It's already included with IWD1EE by default though.

>>4006011
Iwdee is best ee, safe for Iwd2ee. Isn't there some way to add iwdee spells to bgt?
>>4005930
I always have themed parties. Played iwd2ee with (half) drows. Everyone was either bard or rogue and multiclass only. Allowed mc was sorceror (form of bard) and fighter (form of rogue).
Hopefully solasta 2 comes with an editor. Love the bg3 editor, custom classes are fun.

>>4005930
>40k-themed ork party
Was to slow. Horc? What classes did you use?

>>4006024
I don’t remember, it was like ten years ago. Pretty sure there was a sorceror weirdboy, a fighter/thief kommando, a flash git with a crossbow…

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>>3986791
>Bought BG 1 and 2 from steam sale
>Never played a Baldur's gate game
Starting with the first one in a day or two. Is going fighter and maybe dual classing into druid later a good idea for a first run?

>>4006023
>Isn't there some way to add iwdee spells to bgt?
Not sure. I think there is a way to add IWDEE into BG2EE, though. Possibly compatible with EET?

>>4007210
Don't reroll your starting stats or you are certified scum.

>>4007211
Ah, right. Mightve been ee only. That means that I need mods to restore the old looks. Pc gaming is superior x but tedious. Can't ai install that?

>>4007210
Fighter is a solid choice, but dualing to druid is probably the best way to fuck your character unless you're doing it purely for roleplay reasons.

>>3987231
Kid is less importamt and cheaper and if he dies village wont be missing pair of working hands but has one mouth less to feed.

>>4007254
Maybe this is the mod you're looking for? It adds IWD spells and bard songs to other IE games.
https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/spells/iwdification/

>>4007210
no reason to dual class on your first playthrough, assuming you're not playing on anything above Core Rules the game is pretty fucking easy. i'd say re-roll your stats a bit so you aren't completely fucking gimped (depending on what you originally got) for your first playthrough.

install the NPC mod too. takes 1 minute to do and is a nice touch. fighter is a good choice for first playthrough, ~2 frontline fighters with the rest going ranged/magic is enough to steamroll the game.

IWD is actually easier on insane because of double XP and ideally your characters should be either wearing a helmet or using Stoneskin to mitigate crits

>>4007660
That is exactly what I was looking for, cheers.

>>4007368
>>4007948
I mainly just want to play a frontline guy in heavy armor that can maybe also cast some spells. Paladin isn't really an option because i don't want to be stuck being the lawful good guy on my first playthrough

>>4008209
dwarf fighter/cleric is easily one of the best builds
max str/con/wis, at least 9 int

>>4008209
Fighter dual into mage is very powerful. If you're playing EE, Berserker or Kensai into mage is broken.

>>4008320
Does kensai mage uses offense spells?

>>4007948
>no reason to dual class on your first playthrough
Correct.
>>4008209
>I mainly just want to play a frontline guy in heavy armor that can maybe also cast some spells
Play a cleric. Optionally, consider a fighter/cleric multiclass if you want to sacrifice some spellcasting ability and slower spell progression to hit things better.

>>4008320
dont play dual 1st playthrough, in fact dont do it even ur first 2 playthroughs, u will be stuck as pure fighter entire BG1 and then hate ur life in bg2, just play fighter/mage multi

>>4008372
Defensive buffs first, then stuff that removes protections, the whatever you want.

>>4007210
Just fighter (maybe berserker if you want something slightly better) is perfectly fine. For dual class meme shit I personally like kensai/thief because I really like use any item, but there's some long periods of the game you'd suffer for playing that way and it ultimately doesn't pay off much more than just being a fighter.
Honestly dual classing is a pain and you'd be better of just making a multiclass character if you really want to do two classes

>>4008789
At some point it's just much stronger than a fighter, especially if used with correct gear. Kensai thief can instakill pretty much everything.

>>4008476
Thought as much

>>4008814
Sure, but your group will be carrying you for a long time or you know the game well enough to navigate a lot of bullshit. Compared to just being really good at killing and having high saves consistently I don't think it's actually a better experience for a new player.
If you really want to be op without the hassle I think inquisitor is the answer, but he said he wasn't interested in paladin earlier

>min/maxing your first playthrough
good lord modern gamers are terrible lol

>>4008818
Ah, really depends on how you farm xp.
>better experience for a noob
That is true. Here fighter is likely the best option in terms of pacing. No meta gimps multi builds very fast.
>paladin
Even the undead hunter has its uses. Off topic but 5e did paladin right, albeit it being completely op.

ToB is arguably one of the worst expansions ever made.

>>4008901
expansions are rarely good
they're well known for unbalanced content, brightly colored toy-looking items, and long undetailed slogs
they always feel like there was no editor going over the content before release

The first time I ever played this I wanted to be a sword guy that could cast debuff spells, so I did that human thing where you level 2 classes simultaneously without realizing what it meant. My guy died in 1 hit to everything, could land zero attacks, and had no spells. It took forever before I gained a level because the xp gets split between my two classes.
I brute forced my way through the game past the forest sequence after the Nashkel mines.
This time I decided to play a monk and even though it turns out they get to do nothing in this game, having a single class level up and land attacks has made it a breeze so far.

>>4008855
>Off topic but 5e did paladin right
I would struggle to come up with an opinion more wrong than this.

>>4008472
Yeah ok. I assumed the game would be longer but apparently 1 ends when you hit levels 6-8. Guess i'll just make a neutral fighter or cleric and just roll with the punches

>>4008819
One reason I like kensai/thief also just because I just liked the idea of going from "studying the blade" to "maybe digression is actually good" after a really bad experience getting kidnapped by a wizard rather than just the minmax shit like grandmaster weapon proficiency on a staff of ram/magus/holy avenger(for the backstab immune). Not that I don't also like that part
>>4008910
Monk great other than the times you're forced to use a weapon to deal with enemy immunities and suddenly your damage plummets. It might be kind of rough for BG1 if I remember my Tutu run of it, but I haven't bothered with Enhanced Edition. There's no real attempt for monk gear in BG1 because they weren't meant to be there, but monks also barely need gear anyway. iirc they also get cockblocked on haste so certain parts of the game might be a little worse for them, but not significantly

>>4008978
trying to play monk in bg1 is the only time you are entirely justified in meta abuse to powerlevel because that homebrew jank class is unplayable at lower levels
>>4008963
dualing TO mage is fine because scribing gives a ton of exp for some reason. you just save/buy every scroll and keep scribing and deleting them over and over. you can clear the dual class xp requirement as soon as you get out of the tutorial dungeon of bg2

you feel like a loser doing it though so i never
honestly dual classing is stupid unless thief to whatever

>>4008818
if you want to be op without hassle and breeze through the game just play a dwarf berzerker, godly saves(you can get most to 1 in bg1 even... very balanced), a mountain of hp and immunity to pretty much every annoying thing enemies can do.
honestly by bg2 the hp bloat, saves and immunity pretty much let you tank an entire enemy mages spellbook anyway so just hack away

>>4009281
>breeze through the game just play a dwarf berzerker
this is how my current playthrough is going. i rerolled a little bit at the start to get decent stats (total was ~90 or something) but i'm currently playing through SoD and i have 145hp while Dorn has 88, the second highest lel. Even on core with this amount of HP i'm never in trouble; game is still fun, but the challenge has pretty much gone away.

>>4010613
The shorty bonus is pretty ridiculous. If the game actually told people up front you could get up to a +5 in all saves more people would probably talk it up. The only real downside of dwarf in particular is I don't think you can access most of the romance options (but honestly that's not even much of a downside). I think halflings can though. Not sure about gnomes

>>4010630
gnomes just get aerie

>>4010630
It's even better when you think about it as being a flat 25% reduction to the chances of almost everything negative of being inflicted on you.

>>4009281
>just play a dwarf berzerker, godly saves(you can get most to 1 in bg1 even... very balanced)
BG1 didn’t have berzerkers or any other kits, so yeah no shit the game isn’t balanced for it

>>4010650
What makes it great is stuff that's more BG2 concerns anyway. I mostly associate BG1 with archery being good

Having 6 characters close together hinders positioning imo. Map design needs to be different to encourage positioning. It's also not easy to set ambushes when you are the one invading castles and dungeons.

>>4010731
Icewind Dale got me into the habit of sending a stealthed Thief forward to get vision on enemies before luring with a tanky character and piling on with the rest of my party. Doorways become useful positioning tools when you do that.

>>4010733
Iwd kinda forces you to that, due to limited potions and sheer unending waves of enemies.

>>4010733
Use your thief to spot for your mage to throw a fireball or grease/web first. The fighter then stands in the choke so your other party members can use spells and ranged damage.

How is a CN blackguard for a first BG I and II playthrough?

>>4012043
One, the blackguard class is disgusting and stupid, and is a B*amdog addition
Two, BG1 didn’t even have kits at all
Play a fighter instead

>>4012051
>B*amdog
I don't know who or what that is but i still want to play one

>>4012053
Beamdog, the developer for the “Enhanced” editions, which I am assuming you are playing since you mentioned a class that is only in them. They are mostly known for tasteless additions/alterations, shitty NPCs, and new bugs.

>>4012058
Yeah, i bought the enhanced editions from the steam sale. I'll take the fighter under consideration but i still kinda want to go with the black guard. A plate wearing asshole that even poisons his weapon sounds a bit more fun than just a regular guy in plate

>>4012043
pretty sure you have to be evil for that
its alright, a solid choice but nothing overpowered

>>4012186
>a solid choice but nothing overpowered
That's because poison weapon got nerfed pretty hard.

>tasteless additions/alterations, shitty NPCs
god you people are fucking miserable lol

>>4014028
There's nothing miserable about playing a game unaltered by someone "remastering" it. It's pretty enjoyable.

>>4014049
based bait biter

>>3994228
kek

Don't forget to Vote
https://strawpoll.com/xVg71o7vzyr

I feel almost compelled to try to play through BGEE with Shaman because EVERY fucking place I saw discussing them amounted to endless wiseass comments to the tune of "best thing you can do with Shaman is restart with a better class LMAO" and that grates on me far more than it has any reason to

>>4017605
I have a pirated version of EE I've barely touched, and I don't even see the class there so I mostly don't know what they even do. I don't know if it's a version thing or what. I've heard they don't get a stronghold quest in 2 which kind of sucks though

>>4017605
I've used Shaman in Icewind Dale EE a few times and it's a pretty good class. Spontaneous casting with divine spells is way more broken than it sounds because of how many of them are situational, and you can burn all of your spare spells per day on healing without sacrificing utility each rest. It's probably worse in BG2 because of how much weaker Druid spells are, but on the other hand that'd just make the choices on which spells to learn easier.

>>4017881
Yeah, they get jack shit. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is. I mean they'd probably get the Grove if anything, and that one's the least interesting, so it's not a huge loss. There's a mod for it though if someone really cares. Does other shit too but it's all optional.

>>4017903
Yeah the spell list is worse in BG, but at the same time >SoD adds several unique items for Shamans that close the gap a little, and I think all of those are in BG2EE somewhere, so you don't even need to slog through that.