BG II - newbie thoughts

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Or it might be time to find Imoen; if HB plans to use her later in the game, he might want to make sure she gets a bit more XP. He can always do some of the countryside quests after he picks her up.

Or maybe he's just a city boy!

Question about dual classing: will HB, as a 12th level kensai (1 mil XP), get his kensai abilities back as a 13th level thief (660,000 XP) or as a 15th level thief (1.1 mil XP)? IIRC, he has to exceed not just the old level, but also the old XP...

 

He will get his kensai abilities back when he becomes a 13th level thief - experience is not part of the equation.

 

Yes, I'm aiming for that 660,000 as the target for Arya to be back to full power.

In the meantime, we've found the ore for the Temple of Helm and Anomen has become a knight (which seemed like an awful lot of XP for doing nothing). This has helped Arya up to Kensai 12 / Thief 9. She has loads of thief skills now so we've sent Jan back to his turnips and brought Nalia back and bought her that robe that helps speed up her spellcasting.

As we've almost seem to have run out of city quests (other than that orphan one) we've decided to head off to Windspear (mainly to find those dryads as we've been carrying those old seeds for so long now).

Arya has also been practising her backstabbing which takes a bit of work to get right but she's managed to pull of a few x4 hits which are pretty cool.

I think once we're done in Windspear it'll be time to go after Imoen as there will be no plot reasons left not to.

 

Since that orphan quest seems to be stuck in your journal, I'll drop you a line: it's a very, very short "quest" that you can resolve on the same map area where you first start it.

Time for joacquin to boo me now.

 

Which orphan? You dont mean the kid who came to Atkathla from Umar hill do you?

 

They're talking about the kid in the graveyard with the priest trying to find her a guardian.

 

Well, we're still in that Windspear dungeon. Arya is crept up to Kensai 12 / Thief 10 (only 3 more levels to go) but progress is slow as we struggle to deal with those super-hasted magic resistant Clay Golems.

Questions: Can Golems be backstabbed? And if Arya has Improved Invisibility cast on her will this still count for just one backstab?

 

I think golems can be backstabbed, although not many blunt weapons can be used in a backstab. Improved Invisibility will only give you one backstab; the residual "invisibility" affords you bonuses, but people can still see you and target you.

 

HB: enjoying the postings on your kensai's progress. Any thoughts about your general BG2 experience thus far, vis-a-vis IWD, etc?

 

Bion - so far I am enjoying BGII. It is less linear than IWDII which can be a good and a bad thing (good because it gives you more choice, bad because there is so much going on which is just plain irrelevant and thus diverts you from the drama of the main plot - real characters wouldn't care about getting more XP).

The decisions as to which NPCs to join with adds a nice dimension although I miss being able to create more than one PC (I want a sorcerer and a monk as well).

I like the fact that there is lots of hidden dialog that only shows up in certain situations and the fact that there are many interesting minor characters (the developers have spent a lot of time fleshing out the world). I like funny in-jokes like the D&D cartoon characters on the wall of the Adventurers' Mart.

I think I prefer the IWDII levelling up system as I think dual and multiclassed characters in BGII are a little bit overpowered due to the fact that lower levels are gained so quickly (a BGII Fighter/Wizard would be miles stronger than an IWDII one because he'd have way more levels).

Overall it is still fun. Definitely getting my money's worth so far.

 

You may have already figured this out on your own, but you cannot backstab golems.

 

Golems cant be backstabbed. They are constructs having no vital or critical parts.

 

Kensai-Thieves are a lot of fun when they get their abilities back. When you hit Throne Of Bhaal, they are both exceptionally useful and frighteningly powerful. Even in SoA, they're still nearly the ultimate one-hit wonders (especially when backstab hits x5, with the Kensai levels active again) and can stand and fight much more effectively than an Assassin.

Just remember, HB - what you expect and what you'll find are rarely the same in BG2. Prepare thyself.

 

You can create more than one PC, just start a multiplayer game and then cut and paste the mp save into the single player game folder. In my current game I had two PC's, one mage/thief and one monk.

 

Wow, we've finished Windspear now and picked up stacks and stacks of XP for it. Arya is now Kensai 12 / Thief 11 (only two levels to go). In Arya's absence from the frontline, Anomen has stepped up to the plate and proven that he is more than useful as a fighter, especially now that we have given him the Flail of Ages.

Meanwhile, I think the time has come to go and start trying to find Imoen as she is more important to us than Haer Dalis (whom we left after he got sucked into some sort of vortex).

 

Actually, you might want to go after Haer'Dalis. It's not too hard, it doesn't take long, there's reasonably good experience, and you'll get a few decent items as well.

 

Yeah, thats one of my faveourite quests. I hope you told the bounty hunters that they would have to fight you or the vortex closes and you can't follow. Playing evil sucks ass sometimes

 

Hmm, difficult to justify going after Haer Dalis from a roleplaying point of view (i.e. we barely knew him and that swirly vortex looks really dangerous).

Anyway, we are now finally into Chapter 3 after exhausting all urgent looking Chapter 2 quests. We couldn't find the person we were supposed to meet in the graveyard, despite turning up at every possible hour of the night so we gave up and paid our money to the thieves.

We spent ages wandering around their damned building until we found the person we had to talk to and, not surprisingly, there are some more errands to run (sigh).

Meanwhile Anomen has been trying to put the moves on Arya everytime we stop to rest.......

 

There's a very good reason why Anomen is nicknamed Annoy-man by certain folk, my self included...and I think HB is finding out why.

Seriously though, don't you feel like sending him naked against Kangaxx everytime he talks to you in that annoying, nasal voice?