Playing BGII for the second time

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Oy. Actually, Yoshimo leads you right to Edwin (via the Shadow Thieves) if you bring him to the Docks district. And now you've dropped him.

 

Edwin is unbelievably overpowered! 2 additional spells per level! I'm not going to imagine winning some hard (Improved ) battles without his help. As soon as he reach lvl18, he can slay everything without MR.

If I finally finish ToB (Yes, I haven't done this before as some scripts didn't want to trigger. Now I'm powergaming this &$%^@ with my 16mln broken 3-class character), I will have to do all possible quests - there are many in Radiant Heart (I wouldn'y find it if it wasn't mentioned in one tip), other strongholds, Cromfeyr (?), Adalon's Armor, and of course whole Big Picture . There are many characters I've never tried, such as Mazzy, Jan, H'aerdalis. There are also many added in mods (Irenicus in ToB? Insane! }:]).

 

Edwin's not that overpowered. Granted he's got the best item boost for any spell caster in the game but there are one or two things that can make up for that.

 

If you're snoopy, like moi, you'll find Edwin without help from Yoshimo. I never found Yoshimo that great thief anyway, prefering Jan or Imoen as a replacement.

 

Well, it will probably be a while before “The Edwin Question” is resolved, because at the moment, we are miles away dealing with the troubles in Umar. Currently we are struggling with a distinct lack of magical weapons, as Liam (Flail +1) and Minsc (Sword of Chaos) are the only people who seem to be able to hit the Shadow monsters. We’ve also got a couple of magical short swords, but Jaheira can’t use them so they’re a bit wasted (and Jaheira does not have much to do other than heal Minsc and prattle on and on and on about Khalid)

 

Two words man. Turn Undead.

 

Hmm, this area is certainly different from what I remembered. I'm sure that I encountered Bone Golems down here last time, but this time it's only Skeleton Warriors. This must be something to do with only having about 220,000 XP at the moment.

At least we have Mazzy now, which is one more person who has a magic weapon they can wave at the undead.

 

I do like the way some of the areas change depending on what level you are when you do them. If you save Umar for the end of SoA, not only do you have to deal with Bone Golems, but Greater Mummies and Liches

I've always found it worthwhile to buy Jaheira a +1 Scimitar right out of the 1st dungeon, just so that, when facing shadows and the like, I don't have to hear her cry: weapon has no effect!

edit - tried to set up a visual effect where each word of Jaheiras cry was on a higher line, but the board edits out all my careful spacing. So I changed what I originally wrote slightly, but by that time Harbourboy had already replied, so I put it back

[ January 25, 2006, 21:17: Message edited by: Truper ]

 

That's so right, Truper. Jaheira moans about her no-effect weapon even more than she moans about Khalid. She is easily the most annoying party member at the moment (and therefore closest to being subbed off).

 

The ghoul town in the Unseeing Eye quest also gets more undead the higher level you are.

 

Tell you what, I have the tactics component of deadliest encounters possible. So whatever my level, it does not matter for the game. There are always an improved smarter Lich, an improved killer Pitfiend, and their army of Skeleton Warriors and Greater Mummies (I want my mummy! )
in ghoul town, dark temple etc. Even when I am fresh from Irenicus Dungeon. (though I have +3 weapons as I also have Improved Ilych) Improved Ilych is great as he drops a +3 club, which Jahiera puts into good use. She doesn't yell 'my weapon is ineffective' for quite a-some time.

But for some reason, sometimes, mummies and PF start a fight. As mummies are not protected from evil I guess. It lasts short as PF is capable of releasing 20d6 fireballs whilst mummies can not damage him. I just wait a little for the mummies to die. Or just enter the battle when they are about to die, release a fieball of my own and take the huge XP. I know it is evil, but I also will have to survive the wrath of the PF and that ever-smart Lich. Gmummies are annoyingly efficent casters for some reason. Greater Malison and then Finger of Death? TOO MUCH! (save vs spells at -6 or die)

 

All the Khalid talk just means she likes you, man...

 

Oh yeah, nothing turns a guy on like a grieving widow!

 

Yes, but surely the forbidden fruit has its own charms. wink, wink! It may feel great to cheat Khalid for some! Go for it!

Ah, and bychance you get Turnabout mod, you can revive Khalid for the final Mel showdown, and if you are romancing Jaheira there is some...cool dilaogue!

 

Well, we're done with Shade Lord now and the Umar people have given me an old run-down cabin as a reward. Yippee.

So now we're off to check out Trademeet, which is another place I somehow never went to last time I played (not sure how that happened). Anyway, this is like playing a new game, because this area is completely new to me.

The tactical challenge for me at the moment is what to do with all my multi-classed spellcasters. Effectively I have 4 support casters and no specialist casters so they pretty much all have the same range of lower level spells. Deciding on the most effective use of Jan and Aerie is a bit of a trick.

 

You'll enjoy running around in Trademeet--people to see, things to do...

I know what you mean about using Jan and Aerie, I'm running into something of the same situation with them in my Enchantress' party--also dealing right now with a temporary lack of tankage--Keldorn's busy spending some catchup time with the wife and kids and I dumped Jahs a while ago (I've always had her as a core party member in my other outings and I wanted to see what it was like without having to depend on "Junior", the fire elemental, for room and hall sweepage), leaving Minsc as my only tank. I'll probably hit the Umar Hills and get either Mazzy or Vally--I was toying with the idea of Korgan, but my character likes her companions, with the exception of Keldorn, to be one of the following: Cute, but dumb (Anomen), Pretty boy/girl (Aerie), or funny and/or sweet (Minsc, Jan). Keldorn she sees as a father figure...

What I've been doing with Aerie/Jan is using Aerie as my helicopter gunship/artillery while I use Jan for "pinpoint sniping" with my enchantress playing all sorts of mind games/emotional havoc--so far it's working...

 

Jan and Aerie are the hardest to get their full potential out of in my opinion. But it sounds like your doing a very fine job.

 

Partialy. In ToB, they will show their full potential and be getting new, cool abilities to the end of game.

Personally, I find them very interesting because the number of options available. They cannot fight well, but the game is far more than simple "create as overpowered warrior / caster as possible and launch your combo", isn't it?

 

Oh they have a lot of potential once you can figure out how to work it for you. I'm not denying that. Considering Aerie's cleric spells can be put in spell sequencers and spell triggers. She's got a vast array of spells when you can get those. But these two really are not all about just having high level spells. they are creative use of what you can get your hands on.

Your other two casters will sort themselves out and end up mostly like specialist casters with a few added abilities once they reach their highest points. It's just getting their levels up a bit. Until that point they can be a bit rough but you won't be complaining for devestating launches of multiple different kinds of spells once you do. Unless of course one of them is Jaheira. She'll of course turn into a fighter with buff's.

 

Hmm, there was no room to fit Cernd into the party when we met him in Trademeet jail. We said we would try and solve the mystery without him so I hope that is still possible. We haven't really had a chance to look around Trademeet yet because the mayor has sent us to deal with the druids and the genie has sent us to find a rakasha. Still not sure what will happen to the composition of my party but Mazzy has been pretty cool so far so I might try and keep her as well as Aerie and Jan.

Jan is just a useful guy to have around because I think he's a good thief (if you ignore backstabbing) and his special crossbow bolts are great when he actually hits.

At the moment, Mazzy is carving up trolls with her killer archery skills and Minsc is surviving better now that he has a regenerating stone on his head.