BG II - newbie thoughts

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A Paladin and an evil cleric in the same party... surely you knew that it could not last.

 

Get rid of either one right now. If you wait till Viconia starts turning undead in ToB . . .

Going after Haer'Dalis will at least net you a good pair of boots.
IIRC the falen Paladins quest gets you another rep point. Can you afford it?

 

Harbourboy, how many dragons have you fought/met so far? Just out of interest?

 

We have encountered three dragons that I can remember but we didn't have to fight any of them. We either talked to them, snuck past them, or did a deal with them.

And despite your pleas, we're not about to go back and pick a fight with any of them now just because you're spoiling, I mean "hinting", that there might be some powerful items guarded there.

We have no outstanding Windspear related quests in our journal so I'm going to stick to my attempts to roleplay this unrepeatable first run through this game.

But, as a concession, we will go and do the Planar Prison quest, because we can justify that on the basis that Arya can't go on knowing that she might have been able to save Haer Dalis so will take a detour there on her way to see the elves. She will take the following 4 person party:

Arya - Kensai 12 / Thief 18 single wielding Celestial Fury, backstabbing, and occasionally setting traps.

Minsc - Ranger 16 - wielding Lilarcor or Vorpal Sword depending on immunities required. Sometimes uses his bow.

Nalia - Thief 4 / Wizard 16 - Cloak of Mirroring and Vecna's Robe. Favourite spells: Haste, Improved Haste, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Breach, Animate Dead, Melf's Magic Meteors

Viconia - Cleric 15 - wielding Flail of Ages. Favourite spells: Animate Dead, Heal, Chaotic Commands, Barkskin (on Arya), Holy Smite (but only when she can get herself out of the way)

 

Pansy ass Bride you have, groveling for dragons My characters, good and evil have always been to stuffed full of pride they could never leave an unfriendly dragon alive in their wake. In my first run I reloaded a lot.

That said I am impressed by your committment to pure roleplaying. My own personal curiosity and want to do as much as possible have always overidden my roleplaying desires.

 

If you like casting Barkskin on Arya, maybe casting Spirit Armor is worth considering.

 

Finally! We told you to do that a log time ago.

You won't regret it.

 

Originally posted by Harbourboy:

Really, c'mon everybody. Let's just read HB's "journal" and have fun by living our first time all over again through him. Even if you were spoiled, don't ruin his first time. He truely wants to roleplay this, and he's doing great!

 

Ah, you're right. These Boots of Speed are perfect for improving Arya's ability as a scout / backstabber. Cool.

 

Whoa, HB.. just read the entire thread, and I absolutely love your narration. It really makes me want to take a break from World of Warcraft and dust off the ol' BG2 CDs


Good luck on your further sojourns into the Realms, I wish Arya the best


Personal note: After the indignities you suffered at the hands... claws? of a certain monstrous red dragon, I'm somewhat surprised you're leaving him unpunished. Could just be me and my vengefulness, though

 

Well, that planar prison was much briefer than I thought. I was expecting something on the scale of the Unseeing Eye or Planar Sphere quests but it was pretty short (and easy for characters that are now around level 16).

But somehow we've managed to come away with another party member: Haer D'alis. We had to spend a while sorting out his inventory and getting him ready but now he's part of the team (even though he has about 10% of the XP of everyone else). First observation: he's terrible at scribing scrolls. Nalia gave him about 12 to learn and he failed about 8 of them.

Anyway, it's now time to go back and see Elhan and see what happens.....

 

You really need to have the scribe gulp down some potion(s) to get Intelligence to 18 or more before doing that.

 

Personally I hated HaeD', the game has no room for him and makes a somewhat usless addition to the party...

 

He's only there because Splunge keeps raving about how cool Blades are. So far, in the early encounters in Lothlorien or whatever it's called, Haer D'alis is standing around playing his harp because there's not much else for him to do. Arya and Minsc are now such awesome fighters, they don't need much help anymore. Even golems don't seem to be much of a problem for them.

 

Because of Splunge I did pick Haer D' up fairly early in one game and he did pretty well.

 

You have to plan on having the blade in your party to make him work--he's not "just another character." If you play him like a fighter, or a magic user, or a thief, of course you won't like him--he's none of those things, and yet all at once.

I agree that it will be hard to integrate him (or anyone else, for that matter) into your party at this point, HB. But having him stand around and harp is a GREAT way to use him, and that probably makes him more useful than any other late game addition you could have.

 

Can someone remind me what his harp actually does? Because it doesn't seem to do anything.
Anyway, we're pretty much just spending our time smashing golems and picking up bits of broken stone in various tree-houses at the moment. Even Nalia is not doing much. It's the Arya and Minsc show for now.

 

I think it boosts the luck of the party, which would translate to +1 to everything, to hit bonus, damage, saving throw etc. However, that's a guess and I fully expect to be wrong.

Also...HB, when you get to the stage of UAI, I would HIGHLY recommend picking up Improved Bard Song IMMEDIATELY!! Oh, and get HD to learn Mislead...it should help to...uh...maximise the benefits of Improved Bard Song.

 

Yo HB: just for the record, could you give us another official update on your current party (level, favorite items, etc)?

 

Bion - not much different from the last update, other than we now have 300,000XP Haer D'Alis on board. Arya has just passed 3 million XP and Minsc is on about 2.9 million.