This expansion is annoying.

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Plenty of times I played SoA(but only once finished) and now I started ToB. And I must say that it is annoying. Annoying! Although not the game itself but rather the high level party.

There are many tough battles out there(from what Ive seen). They require you to be well prepared. And so it goes! Kill some enemies, teleport to your pocket plane and rest, buff, kill more and rest again after being teleported, then buff etc. And those are just the spells with long duration. When I scout and see something that could threaten me, I must go through casting of all of those short-timed buffs.

And what is this new bug that when during casting if I move the screen, the voice that chants goes silent and echoes? Its driving me mad!

How can you people stand this?!

And no, Im not powergaming a single character. I have a full party who I must manage.

Perhaps its just nostalgia but I dont much care for your pocket Abyss stronghold. Now I know where Bioware got that stupid idea for KotOR and that, on some level, ruined both of the KotORs. Same thing will happen to NWN 2 and, as stated by Gader, in Dragon Age.

 

That's why I usually play BG1 or BG2 SoA. I rarely reach ToB, much with the same argumentation as you. I like the lower levels more than the higher ones for some reason...

 

I feel the same. Playing a low level party with BG tutu (or BG1) is much more interesting, there is more depth in the story as well... I don't like god like characters and higher levels that much. Once a character gets too powerful there isn't much interest in playing (that's why I don't solo the game anymore).

SoA is still reasonably low level for that matter. But ToB? Too many magical weapons, too many powerful creatures.

Yet it is the logical conclusion since you start in BG1 with a level 1 character and if you get through the games the PC is going to become one of the most powerful characters in the Realms. Still I don't find it as enjoyable.

Having back Sarevok however is something I relish.

 

Hmmm, I didnt think many would be of the same of opinion of as me.

I also dont understand how every low-life merchant gets himself these huge amounts of generic +3 weapons. And where were all of these ridiculously powerful NPCs when I was adventuring in SoA? Now it appears every wizard can cast Time Stop.

 

All ToB is is a group of boss fights.

Just stay centered on the caster instead of moving the screen.

You, or an adventurer like you, sold that merchant those nice weapons. And the NPCs were gaining levels, too.

 

Yup. ToB is a pure bloodbath. But as someone who's compelled to read to the end of the book, I feel like I have to finish it every time just for the story wrap-up. It's not as fun as it should be, but thankfully I still get some enjoyment out of the unique tactical situations that develop between having different parties and what happens in each fight to adjust to that.

 

Well, Ascension and Oversight mods keep ToB interesting enough. If not these mods ToB would be very boring, there is no real challenge at all for me anymore in vanilla ToB. And that's pretty sad if ToB's most strong point is fighting epic battles!

But Improved Sendai from Oversight mod on insane difficulty! Now that is something which can keep me VERY interested and excited allways!

 

I don't know about your bug, but did u finished using all your potions? The HLAs should make battles easy too.. Unless you are playing a modded game, that I have not try.. For the unmodded game, I only rest before bhaal-spawn battles.

 

I know this is off topic, but you guys gave me an idea.

I never played the first BG because of some error crashing it. But now mayhap I will try again. However, I must know something. Is BG 1, compared to SoA, a bit more... primitive? SoA seems to be of a lot biger quality and scale.

 

The good of TOB is that it adds plenty of modding possibilities to the game, even if you are going to make a mod for SOA portion of the game. (And there are a good number of mods which will not work properly if you don't have TOB installed). Hence, TOB is strongly recommended even if you don't like it and will not play it.

 

BG1 is somewhat primitive, with worse graphics and fewer class/race options IIRC. (this ofcourse does not mean it is a worse game, indeed, many players tell it is better than the sequel!) But you can get (easy) TuTu mod to enjoy BG1 with BG2 quality and options!

 

It definitely is. But you could use EasyTutu wich allows you use BG2 engine to play BG1.

 

@Mercury Star: I actually thought the game starts to get good combat-wise in ToB...I mean...Yagashura, Marching Mountains, Watcher's Keep, Abazigal, Draconis, Sendai's Lair, Melissan...WOW!!

I think...you prefer more of the normal role-playing and stuff instead of Diablo-esque action, which is probably why ToB is getting on your nerves...

But hey, I can't imagine playing BG2 without HLAs or 9th level spells or the Wild Mage!!

 

Well, imo, there are only a few things from BG2 that I would've liked to have in BG.

- the Tab key to highlight containers
- at least 2 quick weapon slots for certain multiclass spellcasters
- higher ammo stacks

If you do get BG working, play it without any mods at least once.

 

IMHO playing a level 1 Wild Mage with BGtutu is much more challenging (and fun) than playing the same (but high level) Wild Mage in ToB.

 

If you like swinging wildly at a goblin for half an hour before you finally critical for a grand total of 2 dmg...more power to you!

But I prefer mass destruction and carnage to get my gaming juices going...

 

I am also not much of a fan of the scenario-content of ToB. I am glad for the added class, HLAs, items etc. but if there is one thing that turns me off it is the console styled "Haha! So you may have defeated me the first 7 times but now I am back and twice as powerful as I was the 7th time you killed me!" boss-fights. They even overdid this in SoA with Irenicus who would have been a very interesting character if not for me having to tussle with him for what seemed like a dozen fights.

Whenever I get to the 'Pocket plane' portion of ToB I quit and start over with TuTu.

 

That's good. Try SCS mod found at G3. Makes BG1 a whole new experience

 

Downloading now. Am almost through with BG right now so it will probably have to wait for the next play-through though.

 

The problem with ToB is that your character is basically a God. I mean, even before (S)he actually BECOMES a god, (s)he has godlike powers. Godlike powers are annoying because they make you feel less like its your party against the world, and more like your completing this grand destiny. I mean, back in BG1, before you knew you were bhaalspawn (or am I the only person who didn't find that out before it was revealed to me in the game?), the coolest part of the game was exploring the sword-coast north and fighting all those mysterious villans (nashkell mines, anyone?). ToB, on the other hand, is fun to play once for the sake of completing the BG story, but after that it feels too linear, and too "O.K. I have to wade through THIS horde of monsters now in order to kill THIS boss in order to get to THIS boss in order to become a god.