Oh No! Not another Baldur's Gate thread!

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Drogue
He did SoA solo with minimum stats for class, and plays using tactics and hardest difficulty usually. However solo with no items is also quite a challenge!

I did cheat myself up to straight-18 stats and switched difficulty down from impoissible when I leveled up to maximize HP, but that was mostly for surviving traps, not enemies (There are a couple of traps that do 100-120 damage around (at least on impossible), and under the SoA XP cap you can have trouble getting that many HP soon enough on the random rolls). I haven't tried playing with tactics yet - but I intend to .

On the itemless wizard game I was feeling a little more confident, so I took an honest statline - I even restrained myself and didn't cheat in a Bag of Holding at the start.

[Dis]

has anyone rescued Imoen immediately after exiting Irenicus' dungeon (soon as you scrape together 15,000 gold)?

[Drogue]

I was tempted to, but I wanted to do my stronghold and get the bits for Chrom Fayer first.

[Jamski]

Well, first of all try and do Tactics with a normal party on normal difficulty. That's harder than any "special challenge"

THEN

Try the solo Tactics.

THEN

Try solo naked jester Tactics.

I don't reccommend no items with a non-spellcaster when using Tactics though. There are too many creatures you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EVEN HURT without +whatever weapons.

Oh, and a nice challenge is the no-reload solo run

I normally take the first roll of the dice for the starting stats too...

BUT

You need to know and use massive cheese tactics to get though the harder challenges. At the very least you should be stealing EVERYTHING in Atkatla & Trademeet after ODing on Potions of Master Thievery

-Jam

[Traianvs]

solo naked jester tactics
is that possible

[Jamski]

Naked means no armour, not no weapons, so its not tooo bad.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I finally found the golem cave, after getitng a bit confused, because I fought three sirenes all together, as well as a huge gang of hobgoblins and then assumed that they were the three I was looking for. After much wandering around, I came across another three, and one of them talked to me, so I knew I was on the right track. They weren't too keen on fireballs though, and no-one got dire charmed. Yay!
I then did the next area, and got the mad captain back to Nashkel. I left the cursed artefact in the tomb though - does anything good happen if you steal it?
Also, how can I decursificate the sword? I'd be very keen on having a +3 sword, but have no idea whence I can get a remove curse spell. Do temples do that?
I've nothing further to do in the south, apart from the Firewine bridge, and to get some Ankheg armour built, but the Ankhegs are to the north anyway. I'll be off bandit hunting then.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Dissident
has anyone rescued Imoen immediately after exiting Irenicus' dungeon (soon as you scrape together 15,000 gold)?

I saw someone reporting that they did that with a solo assassin once, IIRC they had big problems defeating

Spoiler:

the Balor in the underdark menacing the villiage

and then they gave up not long after that due to lack of interest. I'd like to try it with a Sorcerer - I think that would be the besst way to do a "speed run" of BGII (Completing it in the least possible game time).

Originally posted by Jamski
Well, first of all try and do Tactics with a normal party on normal difficulty. That's harder than any "special challenge"

THEN

Try the solo Tactics.

Yes, I think you're right. It's time I gritted my teeth and played with tactics. I do have Ascension installed, but have yet to win the big finale, so getting some practice in with tactics would probably help .

Are there any parts of tactics which should be avoided? I've had trouble with Ascension crashing on me and had to uninstall some of it...

On the subject of tactics, I have written my own variant of the Improved Mages section thereof, and it could probably do with some testing by somebody other than me.

I wrote it mainly to test the new version of the detectable spells I had put together, so the focus is on the mages trying to be really clever about examining what spells you have cast on you (and what they have cast on themselves), and responding accordingly. There are risks with trying to be really clever, of course, but I hope I've avoided most of them. It's certainly smarter than the tactics mages, and doesn't cheat so much.

It seems to work quite well - I've tested it with a normal party game through SoA and Watcher's Keep, and noticed a marked improvement in the performance of mages (particularly liches, but I was forbidding myself Protection from Undead scrolls... The Twisted Rune was worst, of course, I think I had to leave it until the very end of SoA, but I can't remember for sure). Would anyone care to give it a try (It requires ToB)?

THEN

Try solo naked jester Tactics.

For some strange reason my brain interperets this as easier than tactics with a party - perhaps it's suffering from an integer overflow...

I don't reccommend no items with a non-spellcaster when using Tactics though. There are too many creatures you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EVEN HURT without +whatever weapons.

Well, that's why I chose Monk - with +3 fists, only Kangaxx is untouchable.

Spoiler:

Although, I did have problems in Irenicus's dungeon, when you get ambushed by the two golems, because my fists weren't yet enchanted so I had to dodge past them and run away... With tactics installed there would be rather more things I'd just have to run past and not kill (which is very unsatisfactory).

Even so, there are ways around being unable to hurt someone - such as using your Bhaalspawn abilities (if you have the right kind, but they are so feeble that they would require absurdly cheesily frequent reloading, and would be hopeless against regenerating opponents - Bodhi springs to mind), and then later there's the option of Slayer Change.

However, I think you're right - it could well be impossible. In particular, I can't think of any way to get through Bodhi (using tactics or not) without some items or enchanted fists or decent spells... But if I can come up with a couple of ideas of the top of my head, then I'm sure there must be more out there to be found )

In any case, for non-spellcasters I think it would probably be wise to change "no items" into "weapons only". If that's too easy I guess you could advance to "weapons only, and only ever using one hand".

Oh, and a nice challenge is the no-reload solo run

Meaning reload only if you die, or stop completely if you die? I guess it would focus your mind a little .

I normally take the first roll of the dice for the starting stats too...

Do you allow yourself to fiddle the numbers, or just accept what you're offered immediately without complaint?

BUT

You need to know and use massive cheese tactics to get though the harder challenges. At the very least you should be stealing EVERYTHING in Atkatla & Trademeet after ODing on Potions of Master Thievery

I have yet to steal anything from a shop in any game of BG - I seem unable to play non-lawful alignments (I'm just too much of a goody two-shoes ), but for the sake of cheese, I might be able to bring myself to .

I'm a little out of practice for those tactics I decided were simply too cheesy to use, but I'm sure they'll come back to me if the need arises.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I will gird myself to install tactics once my current games are done .

[duke o' york]

I'd like to see you start stealing from shops in the game without reloads.

I too was unaware that there was a time limit on the game. I'm a long way in, but still on chapter 3, mostly due to my wandering around lost and resting frequently, but it's my first time through so that's understandable.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Drogue
A year possibly? I didn't know there was one either, but then I've never played through ToB yet. My current party will do though

It might well be a year, but I don't know how many days there are in a year in the BGII universe...

[duke o' york]

If you want to test it then just spend the game either pressing the rest button, or travelling non-stop from the Gnoll stronghold to BG and back.
At least with the latter option, you'll get the odd fight in between.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by duke o' york
If you want to test it then just spend the game either pressing the rest button, or travelling non-stop from the Gnoll stronghold to BG and back.
At least with the latter option, you'll get the odd fight in between.

Clicking rest 1000-odd times is not really my idea of a great evening in .

I know where to find the number on the interplay forums, but they seem to be down at the moment

Our message boards are currently unavailable. Please check again later.

. Perhaps there's a forum-killing plague going around...

[Drogue]

Originally posted by duke o' york
I left the cursed artefact in the tomb though - does anything good happen if you steal it?

Interesting, yes. Good, no.

Originally posted by duke o' york
Also, how can I decursificate the sword? I'd be very keen on having a +3 sword, but have no idea whence I can get a remove curse spell. Do temples do that?

You can't. A remove curse spell with remove the curse on someone using it, ie, if will de-equip it, but re-equiping it again means you get cursed again. Also means the resale value is only 500.

Originally posted by duke o' york
I've nothing further to do in the south, apart from the Firewine bridge, and to get some Ankheg armour built, but the Ankhegs are to the north anyway. I'll be off bandit hunting then.

Ankheg armour also takes ages to make. 10 days IIRC.

[duke o' york]

I knew that it would take a long time, so I was hoping to go and get three or four Ankheg shells, hatloads of cash, and then let the blacksmith in Beregost do his work while I go off and advance the plot.
I didn't know about the curse thing though. That's rubbish.

Back to the time limit on the game: will this give me the time to play BG and ToSC, or will it carry on afterwards?
Also, if I take my PC through to BGII, then can I choose a ranger kit for her, or will she always be a bog standard one? (and can I take the bracers of archery with me? )

[Drogue]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Back to the time limit on the game: will this give me the time to play BG and ToSC, or will it carry on afterwards?
Also, if I take my PC through to BGII, then can I choose a ranger kit for her, or will she always be a bog standard one? (and can I take the bracers of archery with me? )

The time limit's for BGII. You always start BGII at the same time, so BGI has no time limit, I'm aware of.

You can't take items with you, except for the Golden Pantaloons, and I'm not sure of kitting a chatacter into BGII, I think you can, but not sure at all. I've only ever done it with Tutu (when you can't).