BG II - newbie thoughts

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kiwiboy, the solution is obvious: rather than starting over as a sorcerer, install the Kelsey (NG sorcerer) mod!

Anomen's dispel magic doesn't help? I suppose you could use cheese for the time being (run into the room so the spellcasters buff themselves, then run out again and wait for the buffs to wear off...)

and tho people suggest a 4-person party for IWD2, you might consider using 5 or 6 for BG2, if only for the additional party dialogues...

 

I highly recommend a full party for BG2, especially in your first run. As for the mages, as long as you dont have tactics installed you should be able to just stay alive until their worst protections wears off and them grab. Even if you insist on going with a four people party you really should get yourself a proper mage. Jan is good as a back-up mage but in this game you need atleast one full fledged arcane spell caster, Nalia is good enough but Edwin is the supreme caster. Even if you start over as a sorcerer you wont be able to cast the protections as fast as the enemies, they have a bunch of contingencies on (high level spells which lets you cast many spells instantly at the same time) and they have more of them on than the game allows the player to have, so no dice for you. Also those protections are not as good when you figure out how to by pass them. Breach is your friend my friend.

Your main problem in the planar sphere ought to be golems I would think. Those are a real bother for me every time I go through the game.

Hmm, I think you should brave the sewers for a quickie, if you have problem with mages there is a nice guy down there for you.

 

Uh, you want Harbourboy to meet a guy in the sewers for a quickie? Doesn't Athkatla have some kind of secluded park for that sort of thing?

OK, seriously now, I seem to recall someone suggesting to Harbourboy before this thread began that he import his BG1 paladin as an inquisitor...

But there's no reason to start over, unless you've grown tired of your kensai. Adding another NPC or two, especially a spellcaster, will help alot. And as a general rule, it doesn't hurt to have some depth (i.e., more than one member of the party) in both clerical and arcane spells. This isn't so difficult to pull off, as so many of the NPCs can fit multiple roles (i.e., Anomen can both tank and cast).

 

The problem is that I can't go and add any party members or get any new spells because we are stuck in the planar sphere.....

So are there no non-cheesey solutions to this? Should Anomen or Jan's dispel magic work?

On another point, the golems weren't too hard. A hasted, barkskinned, Arya weilding Flail of Ages took care of them.

 

It's usually a good idea to put points in single-weapon style, since they can't use shields either. That's +2 AC bonus right there.

 

Their dispel magic will probably not work, do Jan have secret word or anything like that memorised? Dispel magic is mostly useful for dispelling confusion, hold and the like on your own people. I also dont think it is overly cheesy to atleast wait out the protection from magical weapons spell which is most probably giving you the most problem. It wears off after a few rounds and then the flail of ages will make short work of any spellcaster. Keep your low hp people back and avoid the nastier things the mage cast, mages tend to be more annoying than lethal as they dont throw too many damaging spells and even so it takes quite some time for one spell caster to cast enough spells to wipe out an entire party. Watch out for those Abi-dalzims though, they are nasty.

 

Yeah, it was the Horrid Wilting that was killing us.

Anyway, we finally did find a way through. Jan cast Improved Invisibility on himself before going through the door, which seemed to give him enough time to get off Greater Malison, followed by Chaos. That tied them up long enough for some of the protections to expire, after which the wizards were mincemeat. What a pain.

Anyway, we've now finished the Planar Sphere, sorted out some issues at the Keep, kicked out Valygar and recalled Minsc, and now have a choice of:
a) helping Jan with some domestic issues
b) investigating the bridge murders
c) finding Jaheira (she's been waiting a while)
d) going to Windspear
e) visiting the graveyard
f) giving that thief his gold

Thanks for the other comments, but we can't just go and investigate the sewers in order to find a certain NPC because a) we don't know where the sewers are and b) we have no in-game reason to go there. Until then, we'll just carry on to wherever the game takes us.........

Ooh, and Arya should be reaching Level 11 some time during the next adventure.

 

Go find Jaheira, you shouldn't leave the ladies waiting!

I'd put off Windspear for now. There's so many things to do in the city anyway that you're probably better off completing some of those before venturing out.

The bridge murders isn't a hard quest, but it's a lot of fun. Helping Jan is pretty easy as well.

 

I'd say "Help Jan" first - I think it's one of the better NPC quests in the game (behind Jaheira's and Edwin's). Following that... practicality suggests you sort out the city-based quests first, but listen to your heart, Harbourboy.

Just head to the Temple district or the Five Flagons Inn in the Bridge district if you want an excuse to sewer-crawl. Ah, the urban warrior's dungeon...

 

It is kinda rude that you have left Jaheira hanging as lnog as you have, she did help you out when you first started adventuring you know. It tends to be a good idea to do NPC's quest as they pop along, some get angry if you keep them waiting.

 

Do windspear. Its not as if you'll meet any dangerous creatures there.

 

I recommend doing Jan's quests HB. They're fun.

Also, after that, I'd say you should do the other quests in the city...namely because you need to be of higher level if you want to do the Windspear quest. I realise its not very role-play-sensitive, but it IS practical.

 

Well, we investigated the bridge murders and ended up in Umar again (I really wanted to answer "Gavin McLeod"). As we have no idea where to find a silver dragon,we went to visit Jan's family (because he kept pestering us about it). Now we are in a race against time to complete that quest (sorry, Jaheira).

But, because Jan is now on family leave, we recalled Nalia to help us out. As soon as we did that, she got an urgent message about an issue with HER family. So we have to go and do THAT as well.

PLUS, whilst hunting around for the Janssens, we've stumbled upon a load of slave traders. So we have to deal with THAT too.

It's all happening! Too much to do, no time for rest.

 

I have a question here.. is arya your main characters name?

Because i dont seem recalling a npc named that in soa or tob unless she is a addon mod of some kind.

Example of this being chloe the Kensei who is found in the plane of air in the first dungeon is a mod.

 

Arya is the PC. She is currently a level 10 human kensai, specialising in single-handed katanas (even though her portrait shows her dual wielding) with flail as a back-up weapon.

 

Just calm down HB and take one thing at a time. Your brain will explode if you try to juggle a whole bunch of quest at the same time. Pick one quest and finish it so it shows up as finished in the log and then do the next one. I am a bit curious as to why your supposedly good aligned party is interested in pursuing the creation of armour made of human skin?

 

Yeah, face it Harbourboy, you're neutral evil...

 

Joacquin, I thought we had to go to Umar to finish the bridge quest (i.e. chasing the culprit). I thought we might get more money for doing that. I'm still not really clear on what the skin was being used for.

 

No, you don't have to do anything with the skin in order to finish the quest. I've never done it, and it's never been an issue.

 

Well, we've finished Jan's quest now and for the time being we have both Jan and Nalia in the party because Nalia's higher level spells are quite useful and so are Jan's thieving skills. I guess now we will go and check out the funeral (after the corspe patiently waited while we helped the Janssens). After that, we should clear up this slave business, and, oh yeah, Jaheira...... Man - this is a LONG chapter.

Another thought: Anomen has been with the party for weeks now (and has the second highest XP after Arya). I wonder when we will get a quest related to him.........