IWD2 gets an HD Let's Play!

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You'll get the hell bolter if you slaughter the Duergar at their home, but the movie won't show an element of the game, the surprise in the tomb.

The question is: Do you make the longplay to show the beauty of the game or how to powergame through it ?

 

All right, so I'm definitely not killing the duergar in Chapter 3. I'll decide on my exact path through Chapter 4 when I get there, and if I kill the duergar or not. kmonster, you say that if I kill the duergar at their outpost, even in Chapter 4, I will miss on a movie?

I want to show the beauty of the game more than how to powergame through it, but I'm ready to make a few exceptions for very good items. The Hell Bolter looks a bit too good to miss.

 

Dragu had already built the Hell Bolter before he met the party, but was at an impasse about how to recreate it for the troops. An intelligent party member explains to him what must be done for the weapon to be mass-produced. He's delighted at this, and can be persuaded to give you his first copy, the Doom Bolter. The original is still better, so you must fight him for it. From the storyline, I gather that the Hell Bolter will be there already, if you attack the dwarves on sight.

 

I'm done recording the Black Raven Monastery area. It's slowly arriving on Youtube. I promise loads of carnage at the end.

I'll be recording the Underdark area next. As usual, your input is welcome if you want to see anything specific.

I'm a bit torn on some items though. You can buy a +3 Great Axe there, which seems better than my current +1 Great Axe, but the +1 also has increased chance of critical hit, bringing it to 18-20 instead of 19-20.

Also, Jelynn currently uses a mace that has + 2D6 of fire damage but no other bonuses. Is that better as main weapon than a plain +3 mace?

 

Don't buy +3 weapons unless you're going to kill a spesific, completely optional group of metalheads you passed on your way there. You'll get +4 soon enough.

+3 Greataxe is better than +1 with +1 critical. They're pretty close in damage output if everything connects, but hitting stuff is a lot easier with the +3.

Fire damage mace is just that - an alternate form of damage. You'll do more damage with the firemace, but hitting stuff may be a bit problematic and any foe requiring magical weapons to bypass damage resistance is going to eat away the damage advantage at once.

 

Nobody needs +3 weaponry when you got Xavven Swordsteel, a thousand buffs, and the Club of Disruption.

Thanks for the tips!

 

Am currently preparing Dragon's Eye. I must say this is a difficult and complicated segment. I spent 5 hours tonight just doing a first quick run-through, not even taking any notes.

I wasn't able to expose the fake Nathaniel, even though Izree had his intelligence at 24 temporarily, and Savial always spends her skill points in diplomacy skills. I did it by visiting the real Nathaniel back in Kuldahar, but that doesn't give any xp.

Also the battle for the Holy Avenger definitely took me by surprise, I got brutally murdered on first try.

 

dragon's eye was perhaps the most annoying segment of the game, followed by perhaps the second most annoying!

as for the lost follower i would suggest casting otiluke's resilient sphere on as many of the followers from the get go as possible. I fought them on insane mode with tactics mod with a 2 man party (1 sorc 1 DG decoy) without much difficulty(meaning less than 10 reloads lawls) thanks to ORS and mordenkainen's sword- assuming they dont crit me for 180 damage or knock me unconcious.

 

Nothing can be more annoying than the Battle Squares though, so I'm glad I've been through the worst already. Nah seriously, 250 duels at around lvl9-10, teleporting monsters causing bugs... hooooly crap I thought I would cut that out from the LP.

As for the Holy Avenger battle, yeah my first winning strategy was Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, then I played with positioning and various buffs and summons and I managed to do it without, pretty convincingly. Anyway at this point I feel like the UPP is somewhat overpowered, I just click on stuff and watch it explode half a second later; with just a few buffs (Stoneskin + Bless + Protection from Evil + Emotion Hope + Champion's Strength), just Xavven alone (the main tank) is insane. It does allow me to make a somewhat shorter and more focused LP but in terms of challenge, bleh.

 

I used a mod that allowed me to skip that ridiculousness, yes, cheesy if not straight up cheating but i felt like it was not an enjoyable time investment.

I was actually never able to finish the game with UPP. I was playing on level 6 average rules ( meaning my party average level may not exceed 6) for the challenge aspect and was never able to beat iyatchu xvim and couldn't bring myself to admit defeat and level up. The rest of my breakthroughs(4-5!) were with JUPP to much greater success thanks to pooling levels to a single character instead of evenly distributing them.

i think the point of a UPP is precisely that! that's what insane difficulty and mods exist, to allow you to create the ultimate party but still be challenged.

 

Thanks for the walkthrough! I have started to play through with your example party characters, since i never finished this game, it was to difficult at the time and i was also too biased torward BG series to really enjoy IWD series, but now after a few halfdissapointed runthroughs in DA:O i want to play it, finished IWD1 the other day..

Thanks for sharing your vids, now i dont have to re-enter areas a trillion times!

 

Thanks a bunch! I need that kind of motivation to actually finish recording Dragon's Eye. Nah I'm just too busy with university these days. It'll come I promise.

 

One quick tip for the last Chapter: Please take some time to pre-plan an at least semi-optimal route with the quests. Otherwise you'll be running back and forth for hours in that humongous tower with a literal gazillion of errands to complete.

 

Thanks for the warning. Eliminating running back and forth as much as possible has been a constant concern for me throughout the LP and shall remain as such for the last chapter.

 

I have a question about Dragon's Eye (before I finish recording it). After Nheero Futhma has experienced the Histachii transformation and you have found the library on level 3, you can tell him about it and he will then disappear from the level, saying you can meet him at the library.

Upon returning to level 3 however Nheero is nowhere to be seen including in the library (the north-western area with lots of bookshelves). Will he eventually appear? Does he have anything important to say at that point?

 

You're searching in the wrong library. The right one is on level two, the same one where you create the poison vials. Ultimately Nheero will find his way to the library you've been searching in but that's only after you keep prodding him about the "purple floating thingies".

 

Oh, all right. Unfortunately that piece of knowledge won't make it into the LP as I'm done with Dragon's Eye and the Magma Chamber now. Might add it as an annotation eventually.

Thanks anyway!

 

Well I'm done recording Chapter 5 and preparing Chapter 6. I've figured out a near-optimal path through all the quests and as a result that last Chapter should be quite short compared to some others.

A few comments:
- I'm a bit disappointed I didn't reach level 9 arcane spells. Izree (Drow Rogue1 Mage*) reached level 8 spells just barely before the final fight. I kinda saw it coming, but still.
- Improved Invisibility + Gate(as a decoy) + Meteor Swarm is just ridiculous. Boom - battle over - party unscathed. Expect to see some of that in the LP.
- The final battle is.... meh. Just focus down one of the twins (I had my main tank do it alone while the others just supported), after about 1 minute they retreat, and the 2nd part of the battle was over in about 3 seconds. Litteraly - click Isair - UNPAUSE - 1, 2, 3... - win.
- laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag! Seriously I didn't have any big problems with that during most of the game, but lately it's become a serious issue for no apparent reason, I wonder why.

Anyway, at my current rate of upload (3 IWD2 + 3 NWN2:MotB per week) I expect to be done recording before the end of the year and the whole thing should be on Youtube mid-January or something.

 

Just wanted to say the LP is now finished, and thanks a lot to everyone who's provided advice and tips, or even simply watched the videos, your support has been essential.

 

Nice series. I've had a chance to watch a handful of your videos today. I find them nicely entertaining.

Have some rep.