I played BG 2 religiously about 2 1/2 years ago...finished it as a good PC and then got really caught up in life and haven't played computer games a lot since. Now I find myself with some time for PC games again and I find I have this uncontrollable desire to play this great game through again [img]smile.gif[/img] . So I have two questions: 1. Is anyone else still reading and posting on this board that was playing the game back in 2002?
2. Can anyone direct me to a good general FAQ for these two games as I've forgotten just about everything I knew about them [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
Okay...one more question, can anyone recomend any good mods that have come out since "the good old days" that are worth getting?

I haven't posted to Ironworks for a long time either...ahhh it's nice to be back.

1) Probably yes. A lot of members have been here since that time, but there are also a lot of new faces around.

2) There's heaps of decent mods out there. Tactics, for instance, makes Baldur's Gate 2 a lot harder by enhancing enemy scripts, placing new enemies in Amn etc. Ease of Use does what the name implies: it makes part of the game easier (taking away certain restrictions). Another mod is the Item Upgrade mod, which allows Cromwell to forge even more items for you. Check the forum FAQ for links.

Welcome back!

I joined the forum recently, but I got bg2 when it came out, and bg1 about 4 months after it came out (though I never finished bg1 until now--Diablo was more addicting and I was only like 10). I've beaten BG2 many a time, and it is very enjoyable until the game gets too easy. Thats where the revolutionary weidu mods come in.

www.weidu.org holds the new mod installation tool which backs up your old files, allowing mods to be installed and uninstalled separately, and almost all of them are compatible with eachother. Usually full conversions are not all that compatible, however. weidu.org holds Ascension and tactics mods. Ascension makes the boss battles of TOB much more challenging, and adds a different, and quasi impossible final battle. Tactics adds improvements to enemies' AI, as well as munchkin items and opponents who cheat. Of course, most of this is justified because the PC is a person, and AI is not. A major problem with tactics is that it is too hard, especially on insane. Improved faldorn is, as far as I know, impossible without cheese, even on easy play. The best part about weidu is that if you don't want improved ilyich or faldorn, just don't install them.
www.baldurdash.org has the ever famous baldurdash fixpack, a veritable necessity to counteract the bugs in bg2. Just install the whole thing, it's not even worth checking what it fixes.

And remember to install weidu mods LAST! Fixpacks go on first, after official patches.

[ 04-07-2005, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: whathuh ]

Here's a good general FAQ site, by one of our most knowledgable members... and I've been around since 2002.

http://www.geocities.com/sixospades/bg/bgguide.htm

I would get Unfinished Business. Adds quite a lot of cut out stuff to the game. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Just out of curiosity, can someone list some of the NPC mods they like/recomend. I am already thinking about my next game [img]smile.gif[/img] and it will be fully modded. I would like to have as many custom NPC's as possible. Which ones have the best dialog/subplots and are worth playing through with?

Personally my favorite NPC mod is Solaufein because of the introspective and brooding aspects of his storyline, and also if you're into challenges, his quest specific battles.

Some may find the special item and abilities he gains later to be somewhat overpowered which is true in a regular, standard BG2 install, however, with Tactics installed in combination with his quest challenges set at hard to insane difficulty they even things out. Not to mention the player has control of how he/she chooses to utilize his abilities anyway.

Keto is another NPC mod that i've heard good things about.

Here is a very good review of a bunch of NPC mods out there. The ones reviewed range from the really crappy the excellent, so it's worth a read-through.

Keto is best.

I disagree about Tactics being too hard. The hardest part really is the beginning. Slogging your way through the dungeon being awakened every morning by two very magic resistance duergers, battling through packs of duergers consisting of two mages casting confusion(which you don't have chaotic commands yet to defend against), stoneskin and two melee gets annoying very quickly. The battle with Ilyich is very tough requiring a lot of reloads. It's possible people are turned off at this point and that's a shame because all the other improvements are done very well. I did Ilyich once it but removed that portion for my other parties.

I love the improved Torgal, Maevar, Bodhi, Beholder Dungeon(nasty!) and Twisted Rune. Twisted Rune was so poorly done originally with Layene gating in a daemon and then casting meteor shower and not even using the SotM to its abilities. Now it's a total riot. Layene continously goes invis with the SotM, Shangy pops off a continegncy of remove magic and double horrid wilting, Shyrissa ignores anyone with a MoD. I have more fun replaying that than any other battle. Beholder Dungeon was a surprisingly difficult improvement. It took me forever to clear and I only did so because of the Staff of Command. The Cloak of Cheese doesn't work here [img]smile.gif[/img]

Bodhi in chapter six is tough depending on the level of your party. Frankly I don't know how it can be done with a low level party if you decide to rush things. However if you take the time to do questing before/after Spellhold/Underdark then you have the necessary levels to make this very winnable. You need PME to counter the Touch of Death. You need cold resists to counter her damage shield. You need cleric regen to counter her damage, lots of potions and complete heals and mostly you need massive DPS to kill her fast.

Right now I'm getting my assed kicked in the final battle but man I'm loving it. So much more fun compared to that sad letdown of a cakewalk in the original.

My advice is to remove the Improved Ilyich and keep everything else enabled.

Tactics is freakin' impossible (nearly). I usually end up importing finished ToB characters to play with it on. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I think that I am going to skip tactics for now...I have always been one of those players who has trouble squeezing every last bit of performance out of my characters. I am almost embarassed to say it but BG 2 and ToB in their original form seem plenty hard enough for me ATM [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Maybe after I beat it a few times I will feel brave enough to try Tactics or other difficulty enhancing mods. :D

I would still reccomend Unfinished Business. It doesn't really make it any harder, just adds quests that were supposed to be in the game, but were cut.

Alot of people talk about how hard Bodhi is but for me I always wonder.

Get 3 fighters. Improved Haste them. Have them all use Critical Strike. She dies in like 5 seconds and gets no chance to do anything. If you don't have fighter HLAs, blanket the place in Fire Storms and watch her sizzle. Her defense is nonexistent so you should be able to kill her real fast.

What I find a bit disappointing about Tactics is that the distinction between "make the player develop new and smarter battle tactics to employ" and "make the player learn the computer's AI and use cheesy Reload knowledge to force the game to accept unrealistic weaknesses" is a very thin one indeed. For example, on my last trip through Jon's Dungeon, I cleared all of Improved Ilyich without Resting or Reloading, because I know how to make the crew forget their script and stand all huddled in a corner, not doing anything. It was sheer abuse of the AI, but I figure that if Weimer thinks it fair to pretend doors can't be closed and the enemy deserves to have a Fallen Deva, etc., then I can do whatever the hell I want.
I'd much rather prefer a battle that was realistic on both sides--Improved Guarded Compound and Twisted Rune are both quite balanced now.

[ 04-13-2005, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

Heh, yes, I'll agree that you need reload knowledge to be able to beat tactics. I'm sorry, but for someone who doesn't realize that a pit fiend can rip you to shreds in about 5 seconds past the point where you can run away safely you really need the reload knowledge. Also, they tend to spawn up in the most unlikely places. Fire Giants tend to kill everything in about 3 seconds. If you are a mighty warrior who killed a giant dragon, why should you be scared of a simple fire giant anyway?

The guared compound still has the flaw of somehow the stairs disappear from behind you... But the twisted rune, in my opinion, is MUCH better.

Isn't Fire Storm a lvl 7 cleric spell? You'd still have to be a pretty high level to get that.

My reply to that is why are you still in chapter 6 with a party with HLAs? [img]smile.gif[/img] If it's too easy for you then next time rush to Spellhold, don't do many side quests and try that same fight with a 10-12th lvl party to make it more challenging. Obviously any of the Tactics fights are made easier with more levels with the exception of Ilyich since you don't have the option of xping elsewhere and returning. Torgal was impossible for my party of 8-9 but a breeze when you have a 10th lvl mage and lower resistance for slow to land. Bodhi was just right for my party where no fighter was above 16.

Well, I'll compare the Guarded Compound's trick of "You can't leave until we're all dead" with Improved Mae'Var doing the same think.

With Mae'Var, anybody that goes downstairs encounters some invisible barrier that somehow prevents them from going back upstairs again (or leaving through the back entrance, etc). Yet those party members who have been left upstairs do not encounter that barrier, it somehow parts for them and they can enter the fight at any time they choose. This inconsistency is not present with the Twisted Rune: The barrier is there, rock solid, until Sion is dead and passage is free once again. (The only problem is that some enemies might get Morale Failure: Running, and they can still flee downstairs. What would happen if Sion runs away, and you can't follow him until you've killed him?)

Sion is a Level 18 Conjurer, exactly the sort of person who could call a Wall of Force spell into being, and have it open and shut solely on his command (given his continued existence, that is). Mae'Var, however, is some poncy little Thief/Mage, and a good deal more Thief than Mage.

If you're looking for excellent NPC/romance mods you need to check out the chosen of mystra. The NPC Fade, in particular, is very balanced and well writen. All the mods there, excepting maybe Khertic (sp?) are very well done. As far as tactics being too hard...sometimes it is but it tends to snowball. Meaning that things like Improved Ilyich and pit fiends are almost impossible at first but beating them makes you so much tougher yourself that your much better equiped to take on tougher challenges. After beating Improved Ilyich you can basically plow right through Mencar, sell 15,000gp of equipment, do the tent quest, fully equip every character you could get without leaving the promennade and STILL push right on through to spellhold. Hell, you could even rescue Imoen before the first week was up. In a sense though tactics forces you to roleplay, no more soloing through Dungeon Irenicus for exp. BTW six, how did you make Ilyich just stand there and take a beating? He usually takes about 4-5 reloads when I'm prepared for him.

I answer questions like this one very obliquely, if at all. So here are my hints:
The only way to make Ilyich shut up and take his medicine like a good boy is to make him stop running.
The only way to make him stop running is to know how to open & close doors.
The only way to open & close doors is to not need to Reload.

It's anything but a fair fight, but then that's not what Ilyich is about.

Ugh, riddles... I guess I'll just stick to my nymphs, insect plauges and stoneskin/fireshield.

I answer questions like this one very obliquely, if at all. So here are my hints:
The only way to make Ilyich shut up and take his medicine like a good boy is to make him stop running.
The only way to make him stop running is to know how to open & close doors.
The only way to open & close doors is to not need to Reload.

It's anything but a fair fight, but then that's not what Ilyich is about. </font>[/QUOTE]Lock him in a room with cloudkill?

The Saerileth NPC Romance Mod is great, as is the Imoen Romance Mod.

Not exactly. Get him & his pals to stand in a little huddle, then nail 'em all with a Web, Greater Malison, and Emotion at the same time, then follow up with 3 more Webs, then nine Fireballs, two Holy Smites, and a Tank under Free Action. Since all of the enemies have essentially no time to react (as they've almost certainly been immobilized during the 1st round), it's not cheesy.

Not that the standard party could have done this, mine was a Multiplayer party. I Shadowkeepered everyone to the ToSC EXP cap, and distributed the effects of the Tomes among them, and gave them all their spells memorized from the get-go, but I didn't do anything illegal.

somebody said they had trouble with bohdi? i found that she was unneccicarily easy. even without dizzt

Maybe in one of the harder mods. She's always been a piece of cake for my group, though at first a couple got level-drained.

i always use the holy water from elthan before i engage her, maybe that helps. i dont use mods, so maybe they make her heaps harder.

Normal Bodhi is a joke. The talk was about Improved Bodhi in the Tactics mod. Was a good fight for my 14-16 level party, probably too easy if your group is 20th with HLAs and probably damn hard if you are low teens [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 04-21-2005, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: Keldin ]