What is your playing style?

Remove all ads!

I like to play no reloads style, and in fact, no party member death style. I also play some head games with myself as to what kind of pre-buffing is allowable, and what isn't. Once you have played the game a few times, and know what and where the enemies are, if you make full use of your pre-knowledge and cast all the right buffs all the time, the game becomes too easy. So for instance, its ok for the mages/druids to have stone/iron skins on if we are going somewhere that might be dangerous, since they last so long, and as I've seen said on the boards before, what mage wouldn't cast stonskin when he gets up in the morning? On the other hand, if we are about to fight, say, umber hulks, it is not ok to cast whatever Chaotic Commands we happen to have first, unless for some reason the party might be able to infer that they are about to fight them. I have to make some exceptions to the general rule. For instance, there is no way for the party to know that Bohdi is going to appear when you stake that 3rd coffin, but any party that tries to fight her without making preparations is going to lose members. And if I happen to avoid a certain corridor in Spellhold, can you blame me?

I have always played a frontliner type, since it would seem wrong somehow if the PC weren't the first to go charging into battle, and I generally prefer melee over spellcasting. I also make very little use of thieving, beyond disarming traps, and picking locks.

 

I use magic when it's really needed, and my spellcasters never attack otherwise. The only exception to this rule is Imoen, who's a decent thief apart from a mage and can hold her own with a bow.

My playing style is based on scouting ahead and the use of hit and run tactics, until I lure the enemy to where my tanks wait.

 

@Shaman I generally end up getting stuck using one of the thief combo's in the game and using them more as a mage than as a thief. Doing it that way Imoen works really well. Since I'm not modded to hell and back she joins at roughly the same level as my party and I save scrolls to teach her all her magic but she goes in as backup. Then I give her the bow of Gesen and when I don't need her to be casting I let her blast the hell out of things with the Gesen Bow's unlimited lightning arrows.

I generally pick my PC and then arrange the NPC's in my party based around what that one is and my usual party combo. My Mages getting heavy use the farther through the game I go and I don't feel right not having two of them. Sometimes I end up with three because I technically classify Imoen as my thief slot most of the time when I take her.

For some reason I just don't play a lot of thieves. There is one Pure Thief in the game and sadly there is just no way at all to keep him which kind of annoys me. Due to his kit and everything he is a very powerful thief and he would certainly get a lot more praise for his usefulness than he does. That thief is Yoshimo. It seems almost like some of the weapons in the game were made with him in mind. Combined with his traps if you could take the Celestial Fury and the Bow of Gesen and a couple other things he'd be a powerhouse of thief might since his traps can be laid at a distance and he's quickly good enough to have them get set every time and safe enough that when they fail horribly at low level nobody gets hurt.


I tend to limit myself to a style though that I don't let my party die. all have to survive the fight which probably makes some things a lot harder on me than they would necessarily have to be.

 

Except non-magical ammo I never spend items which are gone after use, no potions, items with charges (except once per day items) or magical ammo. (the freedom scroll was used by a PI.) When a party members dies or could only be cured by using a scroll or paying the temple I reload. I also try to sell everything I find and even spend time to try to get the best prices.
It's always nice to be perfectly prepared in case the game becomes unfair.
I really hate games where you can get into a dead end (happened with the poison quest in BG1).

I try to be able to cast all spells (mage, cleric, druid) but I only use a few of them.
Spells are mainly used for buffing and healing, long term buffs like strength or PfE 10' are always active. Long lasting summons protect the party when they are dungeon exploring, every party member uses a missile weapon often.
I hardly use any nuking or "save or else" spells and try to rest as little as possible. The battles had to be fought, spells are for improving the fighting ability, not for killing. My kensai/mage used timestop + physical attack in hard battles.
Against enemy mages or special monsters I usually tried to get at them directly, I probably never used special spells like "breach", "chaotic commands" or "remove fear".
I didn't use the "wish" for the spells to be refreshed since I considered this too cheesy, but I sometimes used "projected image" for additional summoning capacicity and to save spells and resting.

Never liked scouting. The party stayed together.

 

@Silverstar: Yep...when a Cleric/Mage does a better job of pwning the Wrath of Wraith than a Fighter...you REALLY need to reconsider class choices!

I'm going to be taking on Ascension soon. I decided to pick up Keldorn as well for Ascension as I'm playing on Insane and I really dont have the patience to sit and powergame my way through Ascension solo like I usually do...so yeah...

As of now, I'm just summoning a Planetar and letting it loose with a Wizard Eye summoned so I can still control it. Easy as pie!! Sendai's lair was cleared out without my party bothering to make a single kill...