How many of you use shadowkeeper or other cheats to edit something? If you think about the storyline in the game, you are supposed to be a son of a god if I'm not mistaken. Shouldn't that entitle you to something special? Whether its better character tributes then the game gives you,(ie 19 strength) or some special innate ablitites, I think you should have something special. I am not talking about buffing all the stats up to make yourself a complete superhuman. but maybe adding a few points here and there couldn't hurt like maybe an average of 16-17 points per attribute. does anyone feel the way I do? or completely disagree. I'de love to hear some feedback on what some other gamers think about this. Thanks in advance to any that reply.

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"They come in the dark. Always in the dark..."

No way. Being the son of the God doesn't mean you can act like it. You get what you're given in this game, and that should be good enough. Think of it this way, what would Jesus do? http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...les/tongue.gif

someone agrees with me! shock ! horror! never before has such a thing happened!

ahem, back to normal.

as ive said before, its your game and you know how you want to play it. for my brother its a 25/25/25/25/25/25 mage, for me its more of a 19/19/19/12/8/3 fighter (legit stats)

in the near future im gonna put aragorn and co into the game (complete with anduril and sting etc) and see how it pans out. i'll put in innates acording to the characters - gimli get a whirlwind from the off, aragorn gets heal and some cure critical wounds, gandalf gets a cool staff, etc. will be fun. i hope. does anybody know where i can get som LOR screens for the portraits?

back to the point, you are a bhallspawn, so you are super-human and the D&D 2e system was designed for playing above-average humans(or elves etc). but then most of your power is latent. you can justify it with the plot, so why not.
i dunno. some curse the very name of shadowkeeper. i think its one of the best downloads you will ever make.

ah. slight problem - later in the game you DO get a super special innate ability. but only evil chars would use it. so you do have super-powers, but hey. feel free to add more.

u should get some decent stats, but not overpower. remember, u have to be balanced in bg


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Tis your lives to waste
-Drizzt do Urden

You should ignore StarVid, hes one of those who feel that Bioware can do no wrong. cough cough imoen cough coug mage/theif cough.

oh, and jesus was set on this earth by a benevolent god to create peace (or by an unfaithful mother who came up with a REALLY original excuse, depending on who you listen to), whereas you were set on faerun to cause carnage and mayhem and slaughter and bring about the rebirth of the god of murder.

jesus (apparently) had powers appropriate to his task (which failed miserably, just listen to the news) and so you should have some to. and dont mention slayer change, im playing a good party.

so to recap - jesus would be totally out of his league in the BhallSpawn war, as hes just not cut out for warfare.

note to all the religous freaks preparing heated flames for me - i havent actually agreed with any side of any religious argument in this entire post. just read and think about it again. OK?

To Shadowkeep.
Not to create extremely overpowered characters, mind you, but to correct small mistakes you made earlier (losing a certain item because it was kicked out of your inventory without realizing it; having the plan of dual-classing your character to a mage but forgot your Intelligence has to be 17 at least in order to be able to; reset a certain variable because the game got stuck, or one of the key players in a certain quest never showed up; change a portrait of an npc whose portrait is not to your liking; plenty of reasons not necessarily cheating in a very immature way).

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Not a member of any clan and is cool with that. http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/No...les/tongue.gif
Talk about anything you want at The Elysium.
For online roleplaying, check The Elysium Gaming Project.

I agree with being balanced. I'de like to make my character just a total murder machine, but i think that makes the game less fun. right now my stats are 18/93 str 19 dex 17 con 16 int 15 wis 17 char I am an elf so all the abilities are legit, but i did have to add a few points using shadow keeper. i didnt add any innates or anything like that, but personally i feel the son of a god deserves a little better stats than the average Joe the computer makes for you. Bhaal was a bad dude, so I'mt thinking his son would be as well. Again its just a thought... I'de still love to hear some more ideas on the matter if anyone else has any.

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"They come in the dark. Always in the dark..."

Ehhh... my ranger is superhuman anyway without Shadowkeeping him. I do use shadowkeeper but only in case I screw something up majorly, or in the case of ToB, I used it to set my experience back to what I'd earned for my characters instead of 2,500,000. After playing all the way through BG1, ToSC, BG2, and ToB my ranger was 22/23/22/16/18/17, add in crom fayr and he was pretty godlike, but he'd earned it all. My third role right after I bought BG1 gave me a lowest stat of 15 though so he was easy to bump up *shrugs*

go ahead, use that for that purpose. i would also fix my mages int, so they can learn higher level spells, and higher wisdom for mages for their limited wishing.http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...s/coollook.gif

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Tis your lives to waste
-Drizzt do Urden

I agree with being balanced. I'de like to make my character just a total murder machine, but i think that makes the game less fun. right now my stats are 18/93 str 19 dex 17 con 16 int 15 wis 17 char I am an elf so all the abilities are legit, but i did have to add a few points using shadow keeper. i didnt add any innates or anything like that, but personally i feel the son of a god deserves a little better stats than the average Joe the computer makes for you. Bhaal was a bad dude, so I'mt thinking his son would be as well. Again its just a thought... I'de still love to hear some more ideas on the matter if anyone else has any.

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"They come in the dark. Always in the dark..."

yeah, my very first game, no cheats was Jorlon a paladin. His original stats were 18/59, str, 18con, 18dex,12int,16wis,18char. With the tomes, he had 19str,19con,19dex,13int,18wis,19char. He was good, but then i accidently saved my bard game over him. So i imported him from the beginning, used cheats to make him normal levels, and normal party and items, and made it just in time for Tob. The morale of this story... I have no clue

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Tis your lives to waste
-Drizzt do Urden

Yeah I dont think you can compare jesus with the character in this game, because in that comparison the guy in this game would be the son of the devil, not the son of a benevolent god.

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"They come in the dark. Always in the dark..."

I use it from time to time. When creating a character, I know what I want my stats to be. So instead of rolling for an hour to get a 90 or so, I change them as I see fit. I think the highest I ever actually rolled was a 96. My current character has a 91. All of my characters would pass a "Legit" test though, I just don't like clicking Reroll until my finger falls off.

I use it to change portraits, skin, and hair color. Sometimes I max out party NPC hit points (ie. giving Aerie 4hp per cleric level and 2hp per mage level). I suppose purists would call that cheating, but it doesn't ruin my fun in the least and I don't play multi. However, I won't boost stats or hp to higher than normal, import powerful weapons/armor, or do anything that would seriously affect game balance.

The Toe

Never use any of the cheats. The game just gets boring and you'll never learn to play the game properly. If your character was supposed to have 25 in everything then you should have been able to attain that normally. Same with weapons and such like. If you don't earn the weapon its pointless using it cause you havn't earned it. Same with adding XP points. Your just spoiling the game for yourself and you'll never be as good as you could be. Personally I don't even have the Debug mode=1 cheat on so I can't use it. Its much mroe satifying to play that way I found.

Warby

You can obviously play it anyway that you want.... BUT I just feel that you take away the challenge and a lot of the skill if you pump up your stats or give them weapons before you get them. It makes the game less interesting. I would much rather have my relatively weak archer and have pretty exciting, barely able to survive battles than just cruise through. I played the old gold box AD&D computer games with and without pumped stats and it was definitely more satisfying to play with the less powerful characters. It took more time but it was fun to develop strategies etc. to help win. To each their own though and I don't think it's wrong to cheat..... just less enjoyable overall.

Well, here's my two cents (if anyone cares to listen...):
I figure, many of the othe Bhaalspawn have unique powers, so why not the PC? Logically speaking, why would so many of Bhaal's children have above normal abilities while the PC is just some Joe off the street? I guess you just have to say that the PC's inherited "power" is his/her tremendous willpower and perserverance in the face of superior foes...
On the topic of stats, I seem to recall that 11-13 is about average, so having a character with nothing below 15 is certainly "above average". The one cheat that I think I would accept is giving a single, decent weapon to the PC. After all, there are a number of NPCs with unique weapons that only THEY can use. Why let the NPCs be the only ones with cool equipment? Give yourself a nice (BALANCED) sword, but normal armour, etc. It won't give you too much of an edge, but lets you create a cooler background ("I smite thee with the enchanted sword of my father!!")

Arnabas has a point. but I just want to play the game not cheat. Just act like it was you. BE HONORABLE

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Aenlron TrueSword
Human Cavalier

well, i look at it like this. i think that its pretty crappy that i was imprisoned by a power-hungry ex-elf hasbeen. and it seems that of all of my equipment, stuff that i didnt actually use was left in its stead. my shadow armor? i beat the damn game with it, and all of a sudden, a thief FAR from candlekeep ends up with it. what im getting at is, i earn it, i lose it, i earn it again. wtf is that about? i agree that you shouldnt leave irenicus' dungeon with crom fayer or something like that. but to have say a HIGH stat (just one) wouldnt be too bad. i mean, yeah, EVERY other bhaalspawn has badass abilities. i wish I could turn into a damn dragon. game balance? its pretty one sided to talk about game balance when its completely unbalanced in the first place. the only npc's worth a damn are minsc, jaheira, and keldorn. half of the crap you fight could take on all of those characters. irenicus does. i am the son of the god of murder. i need at least SOMETHING to show for it, instead of a gay ass slayer change, which i NEVER voluntarily use anyhow. if im a mage, i think a high dex would be nice, with a high intelligence. i mean, what am i, the runt of the bhaalspawn litter? hell no. im the protaganist of a badass game, its based on ME, and what I do. so i should be a badass. Hercules, Superman, any of the X-men, they all have badass abilities as heroes in fantasy settings. and so shall i. it isnt overbalanced to have a high stat or two. my whole party isnt that way, not even my WHOLE party of characters of my makeing. only my MAIN character is a badass. so yes, as long as it isnt TOO much, then it is ok. hell, im gonna keep nothing but my name in NWN apparantly, so im gonna have fun while i can. i doubt ill even GET NWN because of that reason, who knows >shrugs<
anywho, ive rambled on long enough.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...les/aniGif.gif



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Morgan Corbesant, Elven BladeSinger, Captain of the army of the Seldarine

You should go ahead and get NWN dude http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif I'm sure there will be plenty of servers that don't require you to be "vault approved" for the simple fact that so many of us have BG characters that we've developed through hundreds of hours of play.

i'm not sure who compared a character to Jesus.... I said godlike as in the gods of the realms we are playing in, major difference there http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif

I've gotta agree with the majority, here. It strikes me that, being the son of a god, you should get at least one pretty decent stat (as in, above 20). You do have to keep it balanced, tho. That's a definite.


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The meek shall inherit the Earth. But the strong shall reclaim it as their own.
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/noncgi/mage1.gif

I don't know if I'm getting of topic here, but what exactly is shadowkeep? Everyone keeps mentioning it, but I've never heard of it before.

Depends of you, I preference: ¡No!

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Principium mors est.
But when the world of the deads comes,
we will already be there.

Hi Dwarf! I'm pretty new here, too...
SHadowkeeper is a program that lets you change your character's abilities, equipment, etc. For example, if you really wanted to, you could give your character over 18 in all his/her abilities, and equip them with the best items in the game right from the get-go. Not that you'd want to do that... Ha ha

ToB minor spoiler
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You will find out that not all Bhaalspawn are godly in strength, and that most are at most peasant like. Only a chosen few are truly blessed, which includes you, but not to the extent of absolute power.

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If not a Sorcerer casting total oblivion, then a Cavalier meting out justice. Otherwise, I think I will just be a Blade and torture my enemies with, "My Heart Will Go On".

Platinium Sorcerer of ALSB, Aerie Loving Sacred Band! She's MeowRrrr, and more!
http://www.gifs.net/animate/dflysb2.gif
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Sorcerer Spell List
Dragon Slaying Tips

What's more heroic:
A: Bhaalspawn who slices and dices through hordes of villains, ammassing god-like power, and is an unstoppable juggernaut

or

B: Bhaalspawn who is a farmer, and through perseverance, conviction, and courage manages to overthrow the evil wizard in a last ditch attempt, only barely escaping the surge of power released in the evil magician's death throes to see his children again (embellished).

The point is, all good heroic fantasy revolves around a protagonist with either obvious character flaws (i.e. plot hooks, which enable good storytelling), or major physical flaws that need to be overcome. The reason the bad guys are usually more powerful is so that the hero use wits and luck to overcome, rather than brute force. Look at the myth of Hercules, or Samson, or any of a number of heroes and they all have either major character flaws which they deal with at the end of the story, or a major physical flaw that does them in, such as Achilles' Heel.

There is no such thing as a godly Hero, because the quality of being heroic is facing adversity and impossible odds when you're less than ready, but persevering through courage and willpower.

What's more heroic:
A: Bhaalspawn who slices and dices through hordes of villains, ammassing god-like power, and is an unstoppable juggernaut

or

B: Bhaalspawn who is a farmer, and through perseverance, conviction, and courage manages to overthrow the evil wizard in a last ditch attempt, only barely escaping the surge of power released in the evil magician's death throes to see his children again (embellished).

The point is, all good heroic fantasy revolves around a protagonist with either obvious character flaws (i.e. plot hooks, which enable good storytelling), or major physical flaws that need to be overcome. The reason the bad guys are usually more powerful is so that the hero use wits and luck to overcome, rather than brute force. Look at the myth of Hercules, or Samson, or any of a number of heroes and they all have either major character flaws which they deal with at the end of the story, or a major physical flaw that does them in, such as Achilles' Heel.

There is no such thing as a godly Hero, because the quality of being heroic is facing adversity and impossible odds when you're less than ready, but persevering through courage and willpower.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...s/Eyecrazy.gif Thanks to all of those that replied. Overall I still feel thats its OK to use shadowkeeper for some thing, maybe averaging out some stats, or other small things like that, but the important thing is that you remain balanced by doing this. I've had some character's that my NPCs are a ridiculous amount better than, and I think thats a steaming load. I also think its cool to maybe give your main character a decent weapon. nothing like spectacular, but maybe a +2 sword sometime pretty early in the game. The way I went through it last time, my main hand weapon,through the beginingof the game on my kensai was a sword of flame +1. now thats good for killing trolls, but if you run into some tought guys you can get into trouble, and i really dont think it would hurt to add a weapon for a time until you find a decent one.


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"They come in the dark. Always in the dark..."