I just restarted Baldur's Gate II: SoA!

[Werthead]

Baldur's Gate II (including Throne of Bhaal) is now on Good Old Games.

Baldur's Gate (including Tales of the Sword Coast) is also up there, so the enterprising gamer can grab both plus the Tutu mod and have their entertainment needs for the next six months or so taken care of :)

[Lightning Lord]

And is that really a status quo you're happy with? Does the blackness of your leaden heart not weigh heavily on your chest and drag you down to pits of misery and lonely disdain?

I suggest you go out into the street, grin like a madwoman and start sprinting in a random direction. As you reach your peak velocity open your arms wide and scream 'Faster than Chikkita Fastpaws!!!!'. You'll feel a happier person.

That would get me arrested here, I think.

I stopped playing this game. My computer crashed and I wasn't willing to go through the early game stages again (especially since they took so damn long).

[oneeye]

I am thinking of loading up a new game and doing the whole thing once more over thanksgiving )

[Zoë Sumra]

Yes. It's better in every respect unless you object to high-powered gaming.

[Zoë Sumra]

Particularly if you have the Throne of Bhaal expansion pack, all your characters will end up ridiculously high-levelled with ridiculously powerful... er, powers. As a result, the enemies are also very high level. Lots and lots and lots of very potent abilities running around in there.

[denstorebog]

One of the things that I didn't like about BG 1 was it felt like you got to the highest level you could (which wasn't very high)

By the time you finish BG2:ToB, a typical 'action' in a battle will be something like:

1) Stop time

2) While time is stopped, pull down a bunch of meteors from the sky, call in some dragons to breathe on your enemies, oh, and why the fuck not - summon the general of a celestial host.

3) Restart time and watch shit blow to hell.

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Other than mods that fix bugs, which are probably included in the GOG version, I would go without mods the first time through. The game is pretty well-polished, so you're better off getting that experience first.

For your second playthrough (and you will want one :thumbsup: ) if you want a challenge, you could go with the Tactics mod for BGII and Ascension for ToB. They can be found here. I think both of these mods are great, and they make the game much, much more difficult, which is nice.

[Daeric]

Question: If a party member leaves you because you aren't getting to a quest of theirs quickly enough, what are your prospects of getting them back? I got myself in a situation in which Nalia or the Paladin whose sister dies was going to leave me. I stuck with Nalia, and I'm really glad i did, but I wonder if it means that other guy is gone for good?

NPC leaving can be quite iffy in bg2, sometimes they leave and a day or so later they come back, sometimes they are appear at the inn, or they just go for good.

[Mjolnir]

Yeah, your NPCs' general happiness is something you really have to watch if you want to keep them around. I don't know what happens in the particular situation you've found yourself in with Nalia and [i assume] Keldorn, but there are cases in which you can lose them for good. There's even at least one case I know of in which one will try to kill another, and I'm pretty sure there're more.

Just in case you don't know, another thing to note if you're digging the NPC interactions and want to continue following up on them, [though this may have been fixed in a patch or something, as based on my limited experience it can bork your game quite badly]: There's a spell some of the nastier enemies can cast called imprisonment, and due to the way the scripts for the game work if it's cast on one of your NPCs they're technically no longer in your party. They reappear after the duration's done, and will follow you around and do what you tell them as normal, but I've known it to break their conversation-based progression [because, again, so far as the game's concerned they're not in your party anymore.] They will never speak to you again. So far as I know [and I'm not an authority, as I haven't played in years] there's not a whole lot you can do about it beyond using protection from undead when you fight liches, but it's something to be aware of.

[Nas!]

OK, this game is crack. Or if it isn't crack itself, it has similarly addicting qualities.

Yes. I nearly lost everything to my BG2 habit.

*shudders*

[aimlessgun]

Shit, why is this thread here to remind me of BG2

Now I feel the need to reinstall and try to finish my ranger solo Ascension run. (Then I'll take a few more cracks at Melissan and realize it's impossible)

Anyways, really really good game, and I played it for the first time a year ago, so it has aged well for a videogame.

[Jon AS]

I finally got going on the quest where the Shadow Thieves want you to go down and wipe out the vampire guild below the graveyard. Once I get to the actual vampires though, I start to get absolutely smoked. I guess I need to head out and look for other stuff to build myself up some more?

Depends on your level and how you good you are at the game (at this point, probably not good enough ;) ). For vampires (and some other level draining beasties) clerics who can cast Negative Plane Protection are very useful. Some items have that as a permanent effect (though one of the more useful ones can only be gotten in the vampire lair, and then you still have to finish a sidequest in a specific way... of course, since you are not even halfway through the game at that point that's not a major concern). Other useful cleric spells vs. Vampires are False Dawn and Sunray, both pretty high level but at least you can get a sword from behind a secret door in the inn at the city gates that can cast Sunray once per day (careful, it's guarded). You don't actually have to be using the sword, just equip it in one of the weapon slots of one of your fighters.

You can also buy scrolls of Protection from Undead which will probably make this much easier.

Key to making the game easier is magic. A lot of big monsters are not immune to "save or die" spells, though quite a few have very high magic resistance. You can lower their resistantes with, uh, Lower Resistance or Pierce Magic, lower their saving throws with Greater Malison (this even stacks IIRC) and then you can hit them with Finger of Death or, if you don't have that yet but are at least level 12, Chromatic Orb.

Another general tip: always carry some magical blunt weapons around. There are some monsters that are immune to everything but magical blunt damage, and while they aren't all that terrible, they can do a lot of damage in the time it takes you to figure out why your +5 Sword of Uberpwnage won't do anything against them.

Personally I usually do most, possibly even all, sidequests in Amn (Umar Hills, De'Arnise Keep, Trademeet, Unseen Eye, Bridge District Murders, Windspear Hills, Planar Sphere, Thieves' Guild...) before continuing with the Shadow Thief/Vampire plotline as after that you'll leave the country for a while and when you get back it'll just feel wrong to spend so much time with other things.

[Demonblade]

I've played 7 or 8 hours today which is totally unusual for me.

I finally got going on the quest where the Shadow Thieves want you to go down and wipe out the vampire guild below the graveyard. Once I get to the actual vampires though, I start to get absolutely smoked. I guess I need to head out and look for other stuff to build myself up some more?

You should be going after the vampires at around lvl 10 or 11, IIRC. If you're worried about having a mage around, getting Imoen back as soon as you can is what you should be focusing on, because she is a much better thief and is a better mage than Nalia, though I have managed to play with both of them. I think as the story progresses, Imoen should be able to return to your party at around lvl 11 so if you manage to align it so that you reach her via her questline at around that level, then so much the better.

p.s. What is your main character's class? I like having my main as a fighter/cleric, so then I wouldn't have to pick Anomen and thus leaving another free slot for someone else.

[Demonblade]

For your next time, try using a multi-class. It'll give you more experience with using different classes and once you know how to use more classes you can try experimenting with dual classes. Kensai mages are crazy powerful and I've had a lot of fun playing with a fighter/cleric. I was going to try a dual thief/mage but I've always thought that was a bit of a waste of time, given that Nalia and Imoen are already this.

[Jon AS]

I just wanted to start playing, so I didn't do a ton of thinking or research. I'm a half-elf ranger, and I don't know that I did my numbers in a wise way. I'm really well rounded, like 14 or 15 on everything. But I am realizing now that I probably should have sacrificed intelligence or something to give myself a higher strength or dexterity.

Is negative plane protection a spell? I can't picture ever seeing that one. I've never heard of false dawn or sunray either. Damn.

There are items that can help you out with Str and Dex. What are your attribute scores anyway?

For this game, you really want a cleric. That means either Anomen (who apparently ran out on you), Viconia (the best spellcasting cleric, but she is kinda evil and will leave the group if your rep goes above 18) or Aerie (who suffers from being a multi-classed character and only really starts to shine in the latter stages of the game).

For your next time, try using a multi-class. It'll give you more experience with using different classes and once you know how to use more classes you can try experimenting with dual classes. Kensai mages are crazy powerful and I've had a lot of fun playing with a fighter/cleric. I was going to try a dual thief/mage but I've always thought that was a bit of a waste of time, given that Nalia and Imoen are already this.

I think if you're going to go thief/mage then multiclassing is the way to go. I was toying with this idea the last time I started up the game: create a character who uses the abilities of both classes to complement each other (instead of just being a mage who can pick locks), i.e. use invisibility spells instead of putting points into stealth etc.

[Relic]

I'm DLing the complete BG2 off of GoG, and have the following mods ready to go:

-Baldur's Gate II Fixpack

-BG 2 Unfinished Business.

-widescreen mod

-Baldur's Gate II Tweak Pack

Any other suggestions?

[The Imp's Advocate]

I'm trying to do Watcher's Keep which seems like it could be a really cool little side quest so far.

It is anything but a cute little sidequest. It's an enormous dungeon crawl, takes hours, and gets really hard. There's some backstory around it (demon lord), and a tiny plot, but it's pretty separate from the rest of the game.

[Jon AS]

Man, if you had trouble with the vampires you are going to get absolutely slaughtered on the lower levels of Watcher's Keep. Seriously, it's part of the expansion and was basically designed to be played at level 18+.

What level are you and who is in your party?

I realized that i just hadn't snagged a key to get into the priest's chamber because I thought it was a wand. That makes me think...what are these wand keys? Do I need to hang on for them? Are they good for anything?

I love the lab level of this place with the little written histories of how the mages were plotting against each other. But I am getting absolutely annihilated by these air elementals.

Wand keys? From the opening dungeon? Those can be used to take the wands mounted as traps there, after the opening act they are useless as you can't go back.

And why aren't you picking up everything that isn't nailed down? This is an RPG after all.;) The least you can do is sell the stuff if you can't find another use for it.

You can use the fan on the lab level to help you deal with the various monsters by directing the air current from one lab to another.

[Jon AS]

Oh wow, I didn't realize that. Since it was available early on I figured it was something to tackle now.

I'm to the ice golem now, but I can't touch him it seems. It felt like there was some trick I wasn't achieving, but maybe I'm simply on too low of a level?

A lot of higher level enemies are immune to ordinary weapons, and often even low-level magic ones. The nastiest ones require +5 weapons to hurt, and there are spells that will render you immune even to those for a short time. It's one of the reasons why trying to tackle high level quests early isn't such a good idea, enemy scaling is very limited in this game.

Luckily you're generally free to abandon quests and come back at a later time, the few time-sensitive ones tend to be pretty obvious about the fact that you're running out of time.

I'm only around level 10 or so. Maybe even 9. I've only had the game for a few days.

I've got my main character, Minsc, Keldorn, Nalia, Jaheira, and the guy who is the ancestor if the guy in the sphere.

As I said, a real cleric would help, as would Yoshimo, the only dedicated thief in the entire game. Some of those traps can mean instant death, which means game over if it happens to your main character.

That is what I'm mostly doing...but sometimes I get stuff and I worry that I need it for something important. Like I have this air elemental statue that I've had for a while now. It feels important, but I have no idea if it is important.

It's from the opening dungeon as well. It opens a door on the first level, near the imprisoned cambion. You actually get Sarevok's Sword of Chaos there. It's only +2, but if you hang on to it until ToB and can be turned into a +5 weapon.;)

I was able to use the fan to get the poison gas into the ice chamber, but I can't tell if that's actually done anything for me. I hacked away at the ice golem for a while and he was literally uninjured. Fireball doesn't hurt him either.

As much as I'd like to claim otherwise, I don't know everything about the game by heart. Likely it's just immune to any of the weapons you have right now (Keldorn and Valygar only start with +2 gear), if there is a simple trick to it it can be found in the notes scattered around the level.

[zakalwe7]

Relic

I pretty much always use Kelsey now. It's a good mod with a couple of encounters, dialogue and it gives you a sorceror from the start:

http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=81&Itemid=66

I've always previously used

Quest Pack http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=128&Itemid=100