Playing BGII for the second time

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Sounds like you're not realy getting much out of your mage power. You could at least throw around some magic missles and fireballs

 

Or just dump Aerie to get more xp for the others

 

HB, just read through this entire thread, and I have to say that I'm enjoying your commentary emmensely. Particularly loved this:

I laughed out loud.

I admire your approach to the game...I'm much too greedy/lazy to role-play it properly. Please continue to keep us posted on your progress!

P.S. If you don't take Edwin and do his quest, you are missing out on what I consider to be the highlight of the entire BG saga.

 

You should really use Aerie more. Her spells will really help. Or give her a wand of monster summoning and keep her summoning bait endlessly. Or give him a wand of frost and have her blast enemies into frozen chunks of meat.

Or use Greater Malison AND then Chaos, with -8 penalty to save vs spells, it will really cripple huge groups of enemies!

Or give her a good weapon, buff her with priest and mage spells, with protections on, wade into melee, she will do awesome! Stoneskin+MImage+Fshield:Red+Holy Power+Draw Upon Holy Might+Imp. haste+haste her and she will be pretty tough mele-er as well. The strategies are endless, she is a very versatile chick like most C/Ms.

 

If you're not using your spellcasters then you aren't getting the best out of your party. Magic is powerful, and I find experimenting with it makes the game considerably more fun, but it's entirely up to you whether or not you can be bothered with it; if not then I'd drop your spellcasters as soon as possible and take Keldorn instead.

Chaos is wonderful because it's one of the few ways of breaking an enemy's script. Stop dragons from using their wing buffet and breath weapon...

 

Yeah HB, your R/C will make the bulk of the kills, because R/Cs rock in this game.

And probably 90% of the battles will go perfectly fine with the R/C doing most of the work... it's the major battles (the other 10%) where you'll have to draw more on the powers of your other companions...

Jaheira will become very useful once you get her a decent weapon, ironskins, and some nice anti-mage skills...

 

I think Bion has hit the nail on the head for me. My usual plan is to try and win through melee without using up my most powerful spells because I might need them later if I happen to come up against one of those 10% of monsters where we need wheel out the whole arsenal. So Liam the R/C charges into battle and every one else hangs back and chips in if required (a little healing here, a Haste there, a Breach there).

Actually the biggest reason why Liam needs the other 4 characters is that he wouldn't be able to carry any treasure without them.

Silverstar - that list of buffs for Aerie sounds like a complete nightmare. I'd have fallen asleep by the time I finished putting them all on (and some of them would probably have worn off by then).

Anyway, we have just finished the Windspear Hills quest now and Jaheira has just received some sort of pin for sticking to her Harper principles. I thought her quest had finished ages ago, so I'm glad I kept her long enough to actually see this part of it, which I had never seen before.

EDIT: Hey, how do I rescue Palerl Flynn? I've killed all his captors but the idiot won't talk to me. I'm sure he is mission critical so I pretty much can't carry on without him!

[ February 28, 2006, 10:37: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

Bah, seeing as nobody bothered to answer my question, I had to search for the answer myself. It seems that nobody else has had this problem since March 2001, when some people who I have never heard of puzzled over this and discovered that you had to go downstairs to kill some guards who had run away. Having done this, Palerl Flynn will consent to being rescued.

I guess not many people end up doing the 'noble' option when working for Bodhi.

 

Well, we have now finished all Bodhi's tasks (which were quite interesting) and now have to make that ever-popular decision: whether to go to Spellhold now, or whether to wait and do some more quests on the mainland. I'm really not sure what to do. Outstanding quests at the moment are pretty much anything to do with the Temple District (which we have never even visited), the Bridge District, Anomen, Keldorn, Haer Dalis, Edwin, or Korgan. We also only have one proper +3 weapon (Flail of Ages). Any advice at this point welcome.

 

What you do next will probably depend on (1) what your average current party level is, (2) how much extra stuff to get before you go to Brynnlaw, and (3) whether you want Imoen in the party or not.

If Imoen isn't important, then you can take as long as you want and level up as much as you want, because you won't be keeping her when you get to Spellhold. If she is, then you should probably go there before your single-classed characters hit level 13, if you can.

As for the +3 weapons - there is a decent club called Blackblood that you can buy for Jaheira in Trademeet after you finish the Druids quest (adds acid damage). Celestial Fury is in the Temple District, and is a great weapon for Valygar. Since no-one in your party likes two-handed swords, you won't have much use for Lilarcor. Also, the Flame Tongue sword and Daystar (in the City Gates inn) are both counted as +4 weapons for determining what they can hit. The improved Mace of Disruption also hits well above its enchantment level - you'll need to visit the Temple district, and to retrieve the Mace from its bloody resting place.

You could have picked up a +3 short sword for completing the Thieves' Guild quests... which would have required you to do it before you agreed to work for Bodhi.

Keep up the updates, HB - it's really enjoyable, following your progress through the darker side of BG2.

 

Hmm, the problem with all those swords is that nobody in my party is really any good with them. Liam and Jaheira can't even use them at all and Valygar has no proficiency in them. By the way, nobody in the party is any higher than level 11 yet (single or multi-classed). Also, we need some sort of RP excuse to go to the Temple District all. Finally, will Bodhi complain if it takes us weeks to "restock our equipment" as we told her when we left her last?

 

your character is a ranger/CLERIC and you need a rp excuse to go to the temple district? don't you think it's a high time to check what's the rest of the clerichood doing in this town?

[ March 08, 2006, 01:05: Message edited by: Tim Tim ]

 

Hmm, good point Timmy. But it's too late for now, because we have set sail with Saemon and could be a LONG time before we are back...... Liam is on about 1.3m XP so hopefully that will be high enough to handle the challenges ahead. The main thing I miss from my current party is a proper dedicated fighter-tank-type who can use a range of different weapons, including swords. Oh well, the current weapon set up is still:

Liam - Flail of Ages + Harmony Shield (or a sling)
Jaheira - Belm Scimitar + some big shield (or a sling)
Valygar - Ripper Bow or Colthara Family Katana
Jan - his Jansen Bruiser crossbow thing
Aerie - a sling

 

Imoen!

We have found Imoen again and she has rejoined the party, although at some point I will need to decide what to do with her. She has come at level 11 which means she has the same spellcasting level as everyone else, but everyone else is multiclassed. Not sure how she will fit into an already tank-lite party, but we'll have to see how it goes.

 

Immy is neat addition, a pure mage will be much more powerful than MC counterparts, especially in ToB, where she can cast all those really evil 9th level spells!

Plus she can use some good bows for support!

 

Blade Barrier! Now that is a cool spell for Liam. I have never really used that before because it usually ended up killing my own party members. But because Liam so often has to charge into battle by himself, it is fantastic. It's great how different spells are good for different types of characters. Liam pretty much only uses 3 spells now. Ironskins when he wakes up, Blade Barrier before going anywhere dangerous, and lastly Champion's Strength. Champion's Strength is perfect for him because he has no need to cast spells once he is in battle (he has Aerie, Jaheira, Jan, and Imoen do cover any in-battle magic needs).

 

yes. I love blade Barrier. Depending on my party though I tend to use it a lot or not at all. For the very same reason as you said. FireShield for the mages is another one like this that I like to use more depending on how I approach battle. Fire Shield is really a nice spell to toss on say a Blade.

 

Party Composition, part 34562.

The party is now Liam, Aerie, Jan, Jaheira, Imoen, and Valygar.

By far the most underused character is Valygar. He is really only still there because he can use weapons that nobody else can use. But his inability to wear heavy armour seems to weaken him a bit too much, especially since we never ever use his stalking abilities. If we wanted to sneak ahead, that can be done by Jan, who could set traps instead of backstabbing. Any ideas on how to get the best out of Valygar?

 

Well he is a stalker so let him stalk. While Jan is more skilled and has a better backstab modifier, Valygar has better STR, THAC0, and can sue the nastiest weapons more effectively than Jan, which makes him a better back-stabber I guess.

Plus he should get some mage spells as priest spells, use them too!

His own armor is kinda OK, but do not hesitate to buff him with Barkskin, Spirit Armour, etc. improved haste him, let him dual-wield, and he will rock! Hopefully. He is not a helpless character, just like no NPC is.

 

I hate level drain!

I am having all sorts of trouble with Bodhi in Spellhold. Every time I rest, Bodhi and her buddies show up to shove us around and it only takes 3 level draining hits for someone to be unraisably killed. And because they always attack straight after we've worken up, there's no time to get Negative Plane Protection on properly. Also, you can't even shelter the weak party members that well, because the vampire show up in a random place each time you reload (trust me, I have tested this theory many times).

This sort of encounter is reason enough to play as an Undead Slayer next time.