Hello from France...

After browsing through the messages & topics, I came upon
the conclusion that well ... there might be a problem
with you guys ...
BG2 is a great game, granted. So why are you spoiling it
with all these "I've-got-the-best-stats-you-ever-f..ing-saw"
and "My-wizard's-most-powerful-and-casts-level13-spells" or
whatever. This is sad, so sad.
The game is fun to play when your characters have WEAKNESSES
(you know the word, don't you?), just as in a REAL RPG game.

What's the point of wielding this two-handed +8 Holy Avenger sword
i wonder? None, absolutely none ... especially when it
throws 36-dice fireballs ..

In France, this illness is called : GROS BILLS, and it's very
common. Obviously, the net has the same problem.

If you guys try to play the most powerful characters in the game,
PLAY DIABLO 2, that's what it's for!!!!

Please ... I finished BG1 with a thief whose stats were STR 14,
DEX 16, CON 12, INT 13, WIS 6, CHA 17. Now I was happy when I
managed to get through hard times.

So long everyone!!!

ditto....

Thanks for the support

I'm mad .... sheeshhhh

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Diablo 2 is boring, I played out that game for about 25 or 26 times, BG2 on the other hand is a pretty good challenge, because you don't have to own the biggest sword to play out the game like in Diablo2. And Diablo2 was just far too easy, in 4 days I recieved the title of Baron, so mutch for a challenge... point is that BG2 has more and better gameplay then any other RPG (except maybe for Wizards and Warriors) and it is pretty cool to play with a powerfull character although those characters can't become invincible because they ALWAYS have weaknesses like not able to cast spells or not able to wear armor and other things. So it really doesn't matter what level of character you have, you always have a weakness in this game.

You don't seem to understand ...
But I figured it would be so!!

When i read about characters like:

Cleric/Fighter level 15/18
STR 18/00
DEX 18
CON 18
INT who cares?
WIS 18
CHA who cares?

My stomach makes strange noises.... such a
character, when equipped with magical items
and spells, is INVICIBLE...

Frankly, when you get six characters like the
one above, you get a tank/bulldozer team
that almost nothing can stop, which is, from
my point of view, totally uninteresting!!

Try playing BG2 with a team of normal-stated
characters and come back ... Besides, the race
for power is a thing I hate in RPGs ... but
maybe You don't have the same problem ...

Cheers

when you go down the more moderate character road you don't spend a hour making a character and you get to start playing quicker. i must admit i was nearly kicking my computer to get it to install faster so i could get to playing straight away, so didn't get the time to make superman

It really doesn't matter if you power it up or not. The game takes a lot of this into consideration. Have you ever met up with the NPC's at different times? Well, I played BGI without any mods. I played it more than once and picked Jaheira and what's his name the first time right away. But the second time, I came back and let them join much later. They adjust their level to close to where I was. Although I haven't really checked up on this in BG2, I am pretty sure it is still so. By outfitting your stats higher, you are kind of pushing more/ or harder fights on yourself. Doesn't really make it really that much easier, but it does let you try out some of the stuff that those lower stats won't let you. You get certain benefits for at least having a 15 in your prime stat. You get more experience points. By not accepting this, you are making things harder and if that's your shot, that's cool. I have somewhat limited time so I try to get as many bene's that I can. Makes for a quicker game usually, but not necessarily easier. Just less fluff. Regardless of whatever way it goes, as long as you find items on your own and solve puzzles on your own, what difference does it matter about your stats?

What's the bleeding point of surfing through the game and only finding huge treasure's and
downloading character editor's so you can easily just play along.

My charachter is weak in some situation's and you have to change your attack strategy once in a while - that's the fun part right!

Bleed evil cheaters bleed i will have your
hart!!

Aegis

So, now we know how you enjoy a game more. Great.

The thing about role playing is, you get to be somebody that you are not. If that means you make an invincible character so be it. None of us are invincible in real life, so it is fun to make a super hero and play him in a game.

Yes, your thief sounds like he was challenging. Good for you, it sounds like you had fun.

Personally, I like to make characters that have a few high stats and then some average ones. He is larger than life in some areas, but not others, which helps to facilitate role playing. So I guess you and I are in agreement on that.

However, please don't tell me how to enjoy my game and that I am playing it wrong. Please don't tell me that I shouldn't have fun with the magic items I find. And don't criticize me for having fun when it isn't harming you. Everyone has their own style. In America, we have a phrase for such presumptuousness, its called BEING RUDE.

And if you didn't notice you are bragging too. Bragging about playing with a super character isn't any worse than bragging about how much better a game player you are because you play with a character with weaknesses.

I agree 100 percent. I played Ultima Online for two and a half years before finally quitting, because my character was maxxed out in all of his stats and could kill pretty much anything easily. It gets boring when the game is no longer a challenge. My funnest days were when I was a newbie and just trying to survive.

I'm not being rude ...
Or so I thought!!!

Anyway, my reaction's maybe that of someone who's
played RPG for nearly 15 years now ... maybe I lost
my capacity for being objective. Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe playing an invicible character does not
take off the pleasure of impersonating him/her/(it??).

I'm not trying to tell you how to play RPGs (especially
computer RPGs like BG2) ... I'm just trying to
have some people realize that, as in real life,
a character ought not to be invicible. If he/she is,
much leasure is lost, and well, what's the point
anyway!!!!

Cheers everyone ...

Don't ever play a RPG game with me as a Game master ...

I agree... you should not use the reroll button to much. I only reroll 3 times (like the AD&D rules permit) and choose the best, but when I got
STR : 18/96
DEX : 18
CON : 18
INT : 7
WIS : 14
CHA : 18
in second roll, I used them. To compensate I started with the harder missions from the beginning 40000XP+ quests
so not all with high stat cheat, some (like me) are just lucky.

Khaza Moonblade
Half-elven Ranger

I'm fine with that!!

My current character looks like this (dont recall
it by heart), also after three rolls:
Class: monk
STR: 16
DEX: 15
CON: 14
INT: 9
WIS: 13
CHA: 10

"Whaaah not bad!!" was my first thought ...

And goblins dont kill me either ...;

Cheers

I think it all comes down to the whole "son-of-Bhaal" thing. Yes, yes, you DO play the child of a god, but that doesn't mean that you should BE one. Don't let things like that get to your heads

Well, you have to remember one other thing here too. The game we are mainly talking about here is BGII. This is a computer RPG. Computer is a DM. Ok, that's cool with that. Only thing is that the game really doesn't reward you for playing a certain type of character a certain way (in many respects anyways). I don't mean good and evil here, although some of that comes into play too. I mean about how you deal with the problems in the game. When NeverWinter Nights comes out, I'm going to treat the game a little more seriously. There is supposed to be a LIVE HUMAN DM in that game. Then we can at least get some real roleplaying in the games. I'm going to reserve some of my hopes until I can see how powerful they are going to allow this DM to become, but if we decide to do odd things that actually have a chance to work, it would be great if we could actually do that. You see, so far, most role playing games (computer) promote stats over ingenuity. I too have been role playing for some time. I started back in 78 and have been playing off and on ever since. Actually got the 3rd edition rules and stuff and hoping to get a real PnP adventure started soon. I feel that if you are playing the computer then it's ok to mod up your characters cause the computer is gonna do the same too. It's how they offer a challenge to role playing games. I mean, look at how they fight. Have you ever noticed how magic users get really stupid a few minutes into a battle? They seem to have the need to do something and will just cast everything they have in memory. They do have some intelligence in what order they cast their spells, but I mean it's just about crazy. I was fighting some Yuan-Ti Mages and they were casting CONFUSION and CHAOS around like they were going out of style. They actually did affect my party members (It was me, a fire elemental, and an invisible stalker), but they just kept on casting the spells on them. WHY? They already were controlled. Then they finally ran out of those spells and cast DOMINATION on them. Ok, why again? They were already controlled. Eventually, their spells ran out and the stalker actually took everyone out (including the fire elemental). I did have to go and mop up the stalker, but hey . . . It was either that or go rest somewhere until he was unsummoned. Again, they don't give you too many options. Now, don't get me wrong here. There is a lot of co-ordination involved in programming something this intense. I believe that Black Isle did a GREAT job with this game. It's just that you can't really create an artificial intelligence that can capture a human yet. Then there is the point about savegames. You want realism? Get rid of savegames (except for day's end maybe). Make it so that if you die, you die. You never did say if you used that option in the game (or I was reading so stupidly earlier that I just missed it). I have a friend that only saves his game when he is finished playing for the day. Never goes back. If he makes a mistake, it's on him. He always overwrites this same file when finishing for the day too. He does export his character, but only when he is going to join a multi-player game. Everyone has their own flavor. I'm not telling you that you should play different. I'm just saying that it's not really too important how we play. Either way, it's still a computer game.

Good lord Tobbin thats a paragraph the size of Minsc! Ever thought about becoming a scribe? I need a new scribe.. Hours are good, benefits competitive, evilness ensured...

Hey, I may not be Lao, but I am pretty good with scrolls. You ever need anything, just ask. lol