The 50/50 chance of victory

[Tancred]

Time for some whimsy.

Battles in Throne of Bhaal. Some people say they're the hardest thing since the titanium toffee scone. Some people say they're easier than a game of tiddlywinks against a man with no arms. Me, I see every battle in Throne of Bhaal - and several in SoA too - as obeying a simple system. Every time you go into combat, you -

- Are not prepared, and die swiftly.

- Are over-prepared, and don't take a scratch.

It's getting on my nerves.

Has anyone ever succeeded in striking a balance between these two? Is there anyone out there, anywhere, who has succeeded in playing a heroic, nail-biting game, where every conflict brought you to within a knife-edge of death, but clever planning and heroic behaviour saw you through? If so, was that fun, or just very expensive in terms of healing? Or is the only way to be successful in ToB to use every single power you have in one combat, rest, and continue fighting and resting ad infinitum?

Is there room for such a thing as dogged heroism and true grit in the Infinity Engine? Your opinions are welcome.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Solo Cavalier versus Improved Abazigal. All the preparations in the world is not going to make this fight easy. Try it, you will either come to love it, or hate it.

Speaking of resting, my solo Sorcerer did not rest at all during the entire course of ToB.

Party wise, the battles in BG2 can be easily overcomed because you have the resources of six people, and can mix and match their talents.

[Draggor]

I kept it challenging by limiting my resting. I don't like resting after every single little fight. It's unrealistic and wastes time. I only rested when i was out of all healing spells and drastically low on hitpoints. 9 times out of ten I'd rest because I was waiting for some in game dialogue to happen. I'd more often than not do whole dungeons without resting. It annoys me too all these people who go "oh the game was so easy" or "he/she/it was a push over". It would be easier if you completely buffed yourself up for every fight. Would a real DM let you rest every time? I don't think so. It was most rewarding beating Firrkraag for instance when I stumbled onto him unprepared. Besides, theres plenty of healing potions around.

Improved Abazigal/Balthazaar. Only chance (and difficult on novice in the later case) made me win thse batlles. otherwise, everything was friggin easy

[selena]

I'm probably the worst person to post a reply to this, since 99% of the t ime my technique is to just charge whatever happens to be in my way, then (usually) reload a previously saved game [img]smile.gif[/img]

But , in SoA the only battle that was fairly hard was the last one against Irenicus - the last, last one that is. Everything else went along OK, but then I either ended up killing things alright, or dying t o them, reloading, casting every conceivable spell I could (I still have no idea what some of them do) and then wandering in. However, even doing this against Mr I wasn't enough to finish with everyone alive.

In ToB I'm having a harder time. Draconis and Abazigal were haaaard, much harder than Firkraag and Thaxll'ssillya(sp?) were, although they seemed to die when Minsc sneezed at them *shrug*

I dunno. I've never tried solo-ing, much too much of a scaredy to try it yet, but I usually only have 3 people in me parties until I'm about to go after Bodhi for the thieves. Plus, I'm highly arachnaphobic so my playing time is severely limited if my husband isnt at home to wipe out spider infested areas for me, so I've missed out on a few battles but he said Sendai's spiders were tough in the tunnels.

I agree with you Tancred.

- Are not prepared, and die swiftly.

- Are over-prepared, and don't take a scratch.

It gets on my nerves too. Hammered to pieces and reload and by by little monster in no time.

[Luvian]

I have a big problems with infinity engine games.

I usually like to play magic user, and always try to have as much of them as possible.

My good aligned team is usually:

My sorcerer
Aerie,
Imoen
Nalia
Jaheira
Valigar (I take him to get my stronghold, and keep him because there is no other good aligned magic user)

My problem is that I rest as little as I can, I hoard every items with charges and don't want to use my spells. What if I use a spell against some monsters on my way to the end of the dungeon, and then find out I would have needed later? What if I use up my wand, and find out I would need it later? So I end up beating all enemies in the dungeon using only melee attack, wich is not very efficient with my party.

I am the kind of guy who play a rpg, but never use items not sold in shop. I could have a one time item who can revive all my party memeber and have 5 party member dead, but would not use it, because I might need it more later, so I end up finished the game with lot of items who would have been usefull in the game, but never got used. As an example, what is the use of a wand of fear when you are at the last battle?

[ 03-14-2002: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Tancred]

Heh! I know that story well. I've got a bag of holding stuffed with wands and rings of invisibility, energy, charm, fear, fireball etc etc... two potion bags full of various potions I picked up... four scroll cases filled with handy scroll-like loot I thought might come in handy... the main problem, I think, is that I've got no way of knowing exactly what I've got unless I go through it all, and seeing as I haven't needed it yet, will I ever?

[Draggor]

Thats me too. I'm a hoarder. I hate using one use or limited charge items, even when I know I'll probably never need them again. I usually end up walking around with bags of potions that I'll never use but too stingy to sell them either.

[djein the all powerfull]

i also horde things but not very important things
eg every time i kill any thing i just stuff it in a bag of holding if i ever get round to sell ing it all i will be very rich cos its all chain mail+3 and +2swords and maces etc