game is WAY too hard...

Remove all ads!

It is very possible to win against mages and liches with only one breach spell. Buy SCROLLS!

I buy loads and use them all the time. I have 4 scroll cases in my party and at least two are filled with scrolls and i also have a lot in my quick slots.

 

Can you suggest where to find tactics geared for early SoA level characters instead of Throne of Bhaal tactics? A lot of them depend on things like Chain Contingencies, Spell Strike, Limited Wish or other spells that are 7th level or above. It takes a while to get 6th level spells, so I'd like to see some beginners guides for low-level parties. Most guides seem geared for Throne of Bhaal.

Yes, I'd actually like to see them, just to see if there are some easier ways for my own beginning parties to survive without resorting to metagaming, Power Word:Reload, or cheesy tactics such as "let them activate their defenses, start casting a spell, then flee and wait out the durations on their defenses".

 

Alot of people recommend paying Gaylen for the amulet that protects against energy drain. I would actually recommend joining Bodhi as (explore her stronghold a little) you can find a mace that is upgradable and both protects against level drain and hammers undead. I find the mace is better because it is more likely a frontline party member will use it than an amulet.

Take some time to read through spells and see what they do if you want to keep your necromancer. Also the game plot is generally one of a good character. This means if you do bad things (like beating up peasants) your rep drops and some people leave, the same happens with some evil party members if you become too popular (look at your rep-20 is the top). As I usually have a good or neutral party that doesn't bother me.

A good combination to use is web and fireball spellwise (though just IMO).

 

You get the mace in Chapter 3 if you align yourself with the Shadow Thieves as well. So, by going the "good" route you get two items that protect against level drain.

 

Yes you get the Mace later, but I just like having it earlier (as you can get more use out of it then). Also we can disagree about if joining the Shadow Thieves is actually "good".

Chapter 3, IMO, seems to be a choice between evils-not good and evil.

 

I guess that I'm just stunned that anyone would think that BG2 is hard. I don't recall having all that much trouble with it, even the very first time I played it. IIRC, IWD came out just before BG2, so I was pretty up to date on my CRPG D&D tactics, although the spell/counter spell additions to BG2 take a bit to get used to.

The thing to remember about BG2 is that unlike IWD1 or IWD2, it is NOT a linear story. You have many different options, most of which are not of equal difficulty. And it should be further noted that these many different options are part of what makes BG2 so incredibly replayable. You aren't forced down the exact same linear storyline & series of areas every time. One time, you can choose to do Nalia's quest first. Another you might choose to do a different quest first. You have an array of different class related strongholds, each with their own differing quests.

It should also be noted that BG2 has been considered one of the best CRPG's of all time, so somehow I doubt that it's really "too hard", particularly for someone who is already familiar with CRPG's and IWD and BG1, specifically.

I don't mean to be slamming you, Coffinwood, but you must either be picking particularly hard quests too early, or doing something in particular wrong, because this game is NOT that hard.

(Oh, there are most certainly some MAJOR battles at certain points in the game that will be a challenge for any but a BG2 veteran. But most of these uber-tough battles can be avoided. And some of them actually take a pretty fair amount of work to stumble into...)

There are some tricks that you can use that make life easier...

A. Only travel in the City during the day. This will allow you to avoid any of the random encounters with vampires. Find an inn and rest thru the night while in Athkatla.

B. Do the Circus, the Copper Coronet, and Nalia's quests early on. They're easy quests for an early character. Solving the Bridge District murders is a reasonably easy quest as well.



There are probably some other tips that other people could give you. You can certainly choose to bail out on BG2... it's certainly your choice. But it really IS a great game that has really stood the test of time. Heck, I'm starting to feel the urge to play it again after talking about it...

 

Battles you should know about and have to prepare for are a plot error and I agree with you on that point (I hadn't thought about it because I figured the game designers knew people were going to reload from their last save if they died and because I often walk into a battle without preparing just because).

I think a bigger mistake (which thankfully there are few of) is when the dialogue/texts that you find give you no hints at what to do and any reasonable person wouldn't be likely to figure it out on their own. I'm thinking of the demon looking thing that is attacking the avatar when you take Gaul's key to search for the other rod half in the temple quest. Only someone says "Cast cure light wounds on it" most people are unlikely to figure out what to do.

Still most things in the game aren't like this so it does fine with me overall.

 

There is no reason to not be prepared, my party always has protection from evil 10' cast on them, jan, edwin and imoen always have stoneskin cast, and as soon as battle starts I get all 3 of them to cast blur and mirror image. This is just standard, if I know Im about to do a battle thats hard, I cast additional spells on my party. But in all honesty, since nearly everyone trying to kill you is evil, protection from evil 10' is a must unless you are wandering around Athkatla. If any of my party die in a fight, and it has happened a few times since I was in Spellhold in my current game, I use that wand I forget the name of to raise them back up again. Im going to run out of charges soon no doubt, but that shouldnt be a problem because I know Viconia can cast raising spells. If there is vampires and I dont have enough lesser restoration spells, I just get Viconia to use wonderous recall to get them back, and I have her memorize that spell twice actually. It really isnt difficult/shouldnt be difficult, if you cast the right spells.

btw my current party...

Rhakyvv Blackhand (myself), Lawful Evil monk
Korgan
Viconia
Jan
Edwin
Imoen

Ive had no problems with this group, did Spellhold without resting once, only Jan and Edwin have died, Jan twice or thrice (thank you Slayer argh), Edwin maybe the same.

 

Do you have a mod installed to increase the duration of Protection from Evil 10'? I'd like to do that, but the duration just isn't long enough. Unlike the "Protection from evil" spell paladins cast on themselves in Icewind Dale I. In that game I keep it on my paladin all the time.

 

No, its still the same as normal, 1 turn/level.

 

Know the feeling. When I first bought BG2, my reaction was very similar to yours. I WANTED the game to be great, but it felt too hard, and above all, I couldn't really see what all the fuzz was about. I managed to get a little further then you have, but in the end, I gave up; I got stuck somewhere, and didn't really see the point in trying to get further.

Later on, might even have been a year later, I picked up Baldur's Gate 1 (which I had yet not played, having heard so much more about the sequel), played through it, loved it, and then went on into Baldur's Gate 2, which now suddenly became a wonderful game. Kind of a transformation, really.

I suggest that you give it another chance. Start over with a new party, or start over with the same PC and try to follow the advice posted by the other poeple here. You might not feel like doing this right now, but keep the game in mind in the future

 

One thing is, don't be afraid to rest a lot!

If you're having lots of trouble with mages, just keep trying! Mages were extremely hard for me at first too. If you want a huge boost against mages, though, there is an easily available item you might find (item location spoiler warning, but there is no plot spoiler):

Spoiler

Go to the sewers, and go south to avoid the difficult party that killed you. Then, go to the middle of the sewers. You will have to face off against a bunch of kobolds and a rakshasa-like creature, but it is an easy fight. The rakshasa will drop something called the cloak of the sewers. This cloak is relatively unremarkable, except it allows you to transform into a mustard jelly! mustard jellies have 100% magic resistance, so when you are going to face a mage, send in one member of you party only, and have him or her transform into a mustard jelly to soak up all the mage's spells and wait for his protections to wear off. Then rush in with everyone else and slaughter him!

Also, I'd highly recommend reading xyx's spell page (which is available somewhere here on SP in the tips and tricks section of baldur's gate 2 area IIRC). It will give you loads of information on what spells are useful in BG2, and under what circumstances.

 

Couldnt agree more Such sage advice.

 

I'm afraid we might be here .

But I'll second reading Xyx's Spell reference guide. A lot of very good tips to be found there.
Also do not be afraid to use a walkthrough if you feel you've hit a wall, because as others have mentioned before the various subquests found in Athkathla and the surrounding areas vary a lot in difficulty and you can easily end up trying to complete a quest line which is designed for much higher levels than what your party currently is (although quite a few of them can actually be completed at lower levels, it requires you to know specific tactics, or have specific items which can counter what is thrown at you).

 

I'm stubborn, I'm sure I'll return. I mean, right now I'm trying to figure out how to do a full install of BG1 to convert to Tutu just to play through it again with a different lead character this time, not a necromancer, just so I can use that same character in BG2 and give it a second shot.

 

COFFINWORM

If you restart and shoot through BG1 could you start with a fighter, cleric, or thief and then dual to a specialist mage. I know that BG1 lets you do this but BG2 doesn't (if you start in SoA). I suspect that the game will allow you to transfer your character without much change-giving you a specialist mage that could use a decent weapon and wear elven chain.

If you do this could you let me know how it goes?

 

That sounds pretty cool, I might try this and let you know... as soon as I get BG1 up and running that is! Just lacking one file that's corrupted on my disc.

 

Since Tutu uses the BG2 engine you won't be able to dualclass to specialist wizard without cheating.

I doubt that BG2 will be much easier if one of your party members is a little stronger, but if you want to replay BG1 just for making BG2 easier make sure you start with powerful stats, 18 str,dex and con (because of the tome 15 con is sufficient if you don't dualclass from fighter) and 17-18 int. If you plan to dualclass from cleric you need at least 15 wis after reading the tomes, else you can drop wis to 3 safely.

Don't dualclass in BG1, better wait until you reached level 9 (fighter/cleric) or 10 (thief) to get a noteworthy boost from the starting class.
10 thief levels will yield +20 HP and thieving skills (if you're a swashbuckler also +3 to AC and a little bonus to hit and damage), 9 priest levels will yield +36 HP, the ability to use shields and helmets and to heal and bring back dead party members, 9 fighter levels will yield +75 HP, allow to use all weapons and armor, an extra attack per round (only warriors can have more than 1 base attack per round) and a bonus to hit and damage.

 

Ah, BG II... haven't tried it a while, I think I ought to. I have started the game countless times, finished SoA 4-5 (once on tactics, MAN that took some reloading to get the fight right), but ToB only once. It's a darn long game, and a good one.

So... is the OP still looking for something? Vampires were a nasty dog of the female persuasion to me at first; level drain is hurt. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and eventually they are little more than a nuissance if you get the right protections. Anyway, the below is simply my opinion; others may disagree but most of these things work for me. I won't say anything about the order you do quests in - I generally hang around in the city districts, then go for Nalia's quests and the others, avoiding the Rogues' war and the planar prison for a while, but that's me.

The Gaelan amulet is great, of course, especially for a caster, and since I love warrior/caster combos the PC put it to good use. Negative plane protection aside, it iirc speeds up casting, and THAT is just too good for words. As for Negative plane protection, it is annoyingly short but with some luck (or planning) it should not be needed that often. Use game tactics whenever possible - scout out where/how much enemies there are with a rogue or ranger (there are a few scripted encounters invisibility does not help with, though they are quite rare and tend to be boss fights).

Then, when you know what you are facing, plan accordingly - try to "pull" single or small groups of enemies towards the party so you have a numerical advantage, use buff spells (and use space to time them right so you can get the most mileage out of short duration spells), etc. Vampires' melee attack is nasty, but the narrow corridors of the crypt will often allow you to limit their options by using cannon fodder such as summons (elementals and bears worked best for me, with the odd dryad for support). Usually, they are dumb enough to go thwack the first thing they see, as others have said, and 10 or however many levels drained off a bear are levels not drained off the party warrior or mage as they lay down the hurt on the Kindred.

Sometimes, you will not have the luxury of preparation; in such cases, the pause button is your friend. Managing all the abilities of a single character is a pain without it; managing 6 is a feat I haven't seen, ever. There will be a few spells that will be come into play quite often - healing (heal, especially), dispel, haste, direct damage (magic missile deserves extra special mention as a fairly reliable method to interrupt spellcasters), summons, the odd breach (2 rounds of stoneskin-provided immunity to damage are 2 rounds too much for my comfort), web, etc. Pay special attention to spells that harass enemies over time such as web, acid fog or insect plague. Magic is where it's at, basically. Eventually, I tend to switch to gate whenever I need a meatshield, but it has its drawbacks.

 

kmonster

I have BG1 and was able to dual-class to a specialist mage without cheating. You have to know which stats you need to be high in to do it but otherwise it worked totally fine. I haven't gotten anywhere near the end of the game with those parties though so I was hoping to find out how it goes from someone else if they run through BG1 faster than I do (especially if they aren't frequently distracted by other things like me).


Shaman

Big agreement with you on magic missile. A quick magic missile hit on an enemy spellcaster has saved at least a few party members a number of times.