I'm going to replay the BG games again soon with a custom party. I beat the EE with a custom party back when I first got it in jan 2015 (I played the original several times by then, relax), but I didnt take them to bg2. This time I will, it will be the first time I go through bg2 without npcs; I'm wondering how much that will change the experience. I really wish indie devs would give us more games like this that aren't fucking terrible. Anyway: infinity engine thread.
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 illusionistI 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. >>3986792I 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.
>>3986797thats about what I expectedthe 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 itI intend on playing slowly to soak up the atmosphere; maybe that'll help as well
>>3986792just 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
>>3987116Id say its only easier if you make better builds than the npcs; mine are going to be pretty tame
>>3987098D&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 funMost modern cRPGs have shitty and obnoxious NPCs who actively detract from the experience with their presence.
>>3987130he meant in bg2, in which case he`s got a point, but its already been brought up and responded to
>>3987126kek, 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 scratchnot 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>>3987231Accepting 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.
>>3986794cleric: str 18/60ish, con 16, wis 16or str 18/60ish, wis 18im 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 shieldsdorf: str 18/90+, con 19>axes *****, warhammers *****, maybe hammers **/dual ***, but I really prefer shields, will use large shieldself: 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 shieldshe'll be my scout earlier on, then later he'll wear ankheg plate and be a switch hitter as necessarythief: 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 guessbard: str 15 (for weapons), dex 16, int 16, cha 18>xbow *, halberd *, greatsword *, two-handed *gnome: dex 16, con 16, int 19no hard choices here
>>3987269Ugly stats. Then again, half the stats are broken, so what do?
>>3987292can you try posting again more clearly?
>>3987269Clerics don't get exceptional strength.
>>3987425you didnt read my earlier post
>>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 overi might have made a mistake
>>3987458you 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.
>>3987461nobody plays for respectyou run scs for the challenge, so the game stays fun when you get too good for the vanilla game
>>3986791Strongest 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 dwarfYou 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 spellYour character? It's a good idea to pump CON as high as possible. Having 14 HP instead of 10 can help. >>fearHard 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.
>>3987458Use 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.
>>3987458Poor design>you're dead>reload and try again now that you know what will happenIt's a RPG, am I supposed to roleplay a fucking clairvoyant
>>3987602Yes.
>>3987461>R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me
>>3987461>highest difficulty Just exploiting AI. Who cares?>SCSJust exploiting better AI. Who cares?>respectFalling 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).
>>3987554I think gnome fighter/illusionisthowever, I think elf is better than halfelf>>3987602youre not smart enough for a 1998 crpg
>>3987642Heh, 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'sI 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 2how so?
>>3987666With minimal spoilers, there's the 'canon party' which is supposedly....BG1:>MC>Imoen>Jaheira>Khalid>Minsc>DynaheirAnd 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 BG2Cursed post
>>3987903yoshimo is definitely intended to be usedI can see the logic with keldorn, but other than yoshimoen, jaheira, and minsc, I dont think any are meant to be "canon"
>>3987911Only 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
>>3987896There 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.
>>3987896I'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.
>>3987461SCS 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.
>>3988188there is no need to be upset>>3988317ive never heard of anything like that
>>3987269The 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.
>>3988188There's a reason I said>Supposedlyand>'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 terribleyes pleaseId 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.
>>3988442do it nigga, I need it
>>3986791>I really wish indie devs would give us more games like thisSigh how many more do you need to realize
