New all purpose Baldurs Gate thread

[Qilue]

It depends on what race your ranger is and what his(her?) stats are like. If your character is human, you could dual class to a cleric in BG2.

If not human, it depends on your style of play. If your character is an archer type, BG2 has the Archer kit which provides exceptional bonuses to missle weapons at the expense of melee combat.

If your a sneaky backstabbing thief type, there's the Stalker kit which allows your character to backstab at warrior THAC0.

There is however a little bonus given in BG2 to those who played TotSC. A new character only starts with xp equal to the exp cap of vanilla BG1 (89,000). However, TotSC increased the exp cap of BG1 to 161,000 so any character imported from BG1 having played TotSC starts BG2 from the higher experience level.

Also, there's various stat increasing tomes in BG1 that do not exist in BG2. The paladin I imported from BG1 had stats of str 19, dex 19, con 19, int 12, wis 15 and cha 19 due to the tomes. Such stats are not possible for a character created in BG2 without cheating.

[Jamski]

Or you can download a cap-remover and start BG2 with 2,000,000 EXP if you want... it makes Jonny's Dungeon a bit ridiculous.

-Jam

[Traianvs]

I thought that it didn't matter whether you did Tosc or not. After all BGII's main storyline adapts itself more or less yo your level. If you do lots of sidequests (= lot of XP) then you'll have tougher battles in the main storyline. IF you only do the storyline you won't have that much XP and well basically if they make it too difficult you will be forced to do the sidequests. And in a good RPG it's not the intention to force players to do stuff

[Jamski]

Yeah, it does scale the dungeon encounters according to average party level.
For example :
The Shadow Temple Ruins have groups of undead. They range from 2 skeleton warriors, at levels lower than 10 (I think) all the way up to 2 skeleton warriors, two greater mummies and a lich for each group at levels above 20 (I think) Its a bit of an evil dungeon at high levels, as you have much tougher fights then the Shadow Dragon before you even get there.

-Jam

[Traianvs]

2 skeleton warriors, two greater mummies and a lich

And a Lich!
painful!

[Jamski]

And that's EACH random group. So you have to fight though 5 or 6 liches to get to the dragon...

-Jam

[Traianvs]

And ive never even been able to kill a lich
I've started BG2 about 10 times, trying to do every quest, but everytime I start again I need to reformat, or something bad happens to the computer (and that's on diff computers ) so I have to start all over again.

So I'm a bit reluctant to start me another game
Been a long time since i've played BG!

I've once made it till the point where you get out of the Underdark, but everything after that is a mystery to me. I don't even know the whole BG story

[Dis]

liches can be defeated with some cheese tactics .

I was a high level the first time I did those ruins. And I did face a few liches I believe.

send a few skeleton warriors their way (by casting summon undead or whatever the cleric spell is- make sure your cleric is over level 15 so you get the skeleton warriors). the warriors are immune to most of the stuff the lich can do- and causes the lich to waste his spells like time stop.

[Qilue]

Originally posted by Dissident
liches can be defeated with some cheese tactics .

High level turn undead isn't cheese tactics.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Trajanus
And ive never even been able to kill a lich
I've started BG2 about 10 times, trying to do every quest, but everytime I start again I need to reformat, or something bad happens to the computer (and that's on diff computers ) so I have to start all over again.

I find them quite easy actually. I've killed Kangaxx (a demi-lich) with a level 10 party before. Use Korgan berzerked (cannot be imprisoned, and with hand to hand, he is usually the one aimed at) and have mages use Melf's Minute Meteors, which count as +5 weapons, to harm him. Give Korgan any +4 weapon you have (Staff of Rhyn for example). As for killing normal lichs, I'm not sure what's so hard about them. Time Stop is annoying, but for me they usually use it to buff themselves up, and protect themselves. Put an elemental in front of them and then launch arrows at them. One of many tactics. I find Dragons, Vampires and decent parties you fight much harder, personally. I hate Vampires, but daystar makes them a lot more palatable

As for the lich for parties over level 20 in dungeons, shouldn't be a problem at all. Clerics are usually one of the highest in levels, since they go up quickly, and a level 20 turn undead kills a lich, IIRC.

[Jamski]

Ok, try fighting a lich with a solo 15/18th level fighter/thief and no "Protection for Undead" Scrolls. Man, that was reload frenzy....

-Jam

[Drogue]

True, although with the f/t dual wielding a couple of +3 swords, the lich might not survive long enough?

How did you do it in the end?

[Jamski]

Hide, trigger his true sight, run away.
Wait till it expired, hide, backstab (uneffective against undead, but still +4 to hit) - run away.
Wait for his timestop to expire.
Hide, backstab, then keep hitting him, hoping to disrupt anything he casts.
Run away again.
Take out the mummies with Fire arrows. Take out the skeleton warriors with Blackblood.

Thank god the whole bunch of them are so slow, and I had boots of speed.

Repeat for each group of 5...

The reloads come when he gets to cast Imprisonment....

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I have no idea what you're all on about! Yet.

I played some more on Friday night, and now have 2 saves to choose between. I killed the ogre on the way to Beregost and stole his belts, but the knight (Khalid?) bought it. Do I really need him at the moment? Should I go back to the save before the ogre fight and then do it again, or shall I continue with the corpse of the knight decorating the scenery of the Forgotten Realms?
I played on and got to Beregost, using the opportunity to practise Imoen's lock-picking skills and get some stuff from the various locked houses and treasure chests in the northern part of the town. Is there a decent fighter in the vicinity to bolster my party, because I don't rate Jaheira as a fighter at all? She is spending most of her time healing the wounds of other characters, but she's the only one who is at level 2. I really want to dump the necromancer, but need a suitable replacement. Any recommendations?

[Jamski]

Kahlid is good because he is the only GOOD (i.e. non-evil) pure fighter in the game. On the other hand, his strength is a bit low for a fighter...

There's a good Dwarf fighter upsatirs in one of the bars in Beregost, and when you get to Nashkell there's a very strong ranger. If you head WEST from Beregost there is a ranger called Kivan in the "High Hedge" map wandering about. He's my favorite NPC. Very nice stats apart from low CON. And he has stealth.

Replace the Necro when you get to Nashkell. There you get a choice of 3 mages....

-Jam