Will I ever beat this game??

[Kazilan]

SPOILERS! LONG RAMBLING POST WITH SPOILERS!

I've started yet another character in Bg2. I no longer know how many I've played. Once I made it all the way to the final battle in TOB with a fighter-wizard slayer who started in BG1, but after many attempts to win that last battle I gave up in frustration and uninstalled the game. It remained unplayed for a while after that.

The more impressive groups to follow included my evil party that got so disheartened by the crappiness of the human-skin armor that they stopped adventuring - come on, armor made from people and the blood of a silver dragon?? It should be amazingly diabolical! If something that horribly evil turns out that weak, its enough to make the most twisted soul give up on pillaging and destruction.

Then there was my second attempt with my BG1 fighter as a berserker, which lasted until his escape from the underdark. The prospect of all those battles with Irenicus and the TOB bhaalspawn forced him into retirement. Not to mention that my all-time favorite npc was just killed and replaced by Imoen, my second least favorite (Nalia holds the title for most wretched. Absolutely terrible.)

My fondest BG memory was the final battle in BG1. My woefully overmatched party was destroyed time and time again, until I found the Gunslinging Garrick strategy - good ole Garrick loaded up on all the wands I had saved through the entire game blasted his way through the baddies, with the rest of my characters doing their best to stay out of the way. Oh for the days of Garrick! Instead I'm stuck with Haer'Dalis, who kept trying to put the moves on my wizard slayer's girl. Garrick wouldn't have stabbed me in the back like that.

If you've read this far, thanks for your patience. Currently I'm playing as an Avenger, a very fun class I am trying for the first time. I also added two new npcs via mods, Amber and Auren. I'm in my favorite part of the game, just getting into the quests around the amnish countryside.

Any of you who have suffered this same problem - its not chronic restart syndrome, but more of a bored with the game as you get close to the end syndrome, because all the fun quests are done and all thats left is a lot of combat with freakishly powerful bad guys - let me know I'm not alone. And maybe someday someone will make a Garrick mod that will return him to his status as an unstoppable force, and not as a lovesick pansy who won't even acknowledge his old adventuring team.

[Balintherlas]

Hahaha, just when i was gettin ready to stop reading i saw, "If you've read this far" and it gave me the strength to continue. I know where your coming from with the chronic restart syndrome, altough for me its more like chronic cant get into the game and dont even restart. Not in BG though, that'd be akin to blasphemy. But Morrowwind, Heroes of Might and Magic, and even Neverwinter Nights 2 which really pissed me off, the fact that I had just bought a new computer and when i got real excited to play after the opening video i find that my character is in a constant state of instant replay slow motion.
Well thats just my disconjointed, hard to read 2 cents.

[Shard]

I think the human skin armor is a very powerful item. Especially when given to a fighter thief with UAI and large sword normally only used by Paladins.

However, if you still don't think it's good enough you can upgrade it in ToB and the Weidu Item Upgrade mod.

All mages and bards can use wands, so I'm not sure what was so special about Garrick.

[Mahokenshi]

Special about Garrack? I think he was the better bard stat wise in BG1; and bards made better choices for sending to the front lines with wands than the four specialist NPC wizards (who either had high Dex, high con, but never both). Higher HPs, higher level, can use wands and armour, etc etc.

That, and sometimes it only takes one awesome battle memory to warm up to an NPC.

Kalizan, I too am a chronic restarter of sorts. My last two games washed out - one was in Spellhold, the other in Durlag's Tower in BG1. I started a fighter/mage yesterday; and so far it looks promising.

One thing I've noticed: Fighters tend to have a real easy time of it in BG1; and I noticed your PCs seemed rather warrior oriented. Sure, they'll be able to survive the 1000's of hobgoblins per square inch of BG1, but fighers tend to plateau in power by the end of SoA, when they have enough

SPOILERS

Greater Whirlwind Attack HLA's that they can win any battle easily (which is like 2 or 3; until the very, very end of the game.) So you can max out in power by (say) level 22 or so.

Have you thought about taking a different sort of character? I found that I really dig arcane casters nowadays.

Other characters become powerful in different ways, and many do not "tap out" in the early 20s the way a single classed fighter will.

You seemed to like Garrack ... ever thought about BEING a bard yourself? Sure, I know pulling a Bard through BG1 is like pulling teeth. Bascially your PC stands around while the NPCs do the adventure for you. But the bard kits in BG2 might make it a decent choice. With proper combat protection spells, stats, and equipment (none of which Hear'Dalis starts with) a blade can really whoop it up. Or so I hear. My next run through will be a CN blade. Mmm. Stealing, bladesinging, casting, fighting, and all for the low low price of a single class level up. And the coolest sounding stronghold quest to boot.

I feel your pain about cool story-driven quests replaced by freakishly overpowered bad guys. To be fair, I found the big baddie fights of Chapter 6 and 7 in SoA to be story driven enough to be involving. David Warner does such a great job with the "tree of life" dialogue that I always find it a treat. But that's just me. If you want more story in ToB. Hmm. There's Ascension, but that makes the fights MORE overpowered as well as adding story. You've got a couple of NPCs. Maybe download NPCs with ToB segments as well. I know Amber doesn't have ToB content yet, for instance. But there are other mods like Kelsey and Taisha (both romancable socerers; so have love and war) do have such content.

But now I'M rambling. But you're not alone in the "aw crap, I used up the story" feeling by the time you've gotten that lantern.

Personally, I want to see a skald mod. Yes, a SKALD. It is the most useful kit party wise, and yet the one bard kit a PC is least likely to select (yay. I'm great at making everyone else awesome. How heroic.)

[Armen]

i feel your pain - despite all the hours i've spent on this game i think i've finished BG1 three times and SoA more or less the same - i've never finished ToB

i just abandoned an Easy TuTu game in despair after i realised that easy tutu (unlike the last tutu i installed) re-instates the XP cap and my berserker(7)->mage had been sat on 97k XP for about half-a-dozen maps

so annoying . . .

[ElfBane]

My first time to the end of ToB I was so pissed at how powerfull....SPOILER
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...Melisan was that I quit in disgust. But I want to see the ending,,,,so I'm going thru again and if I can't beat her after 3-4 reloads, I'll just use the "insta-kill" cheat to get to the end. I mean,,,who cares about losing the XP when you're not going any further in the game anyway.

[Kazilan]

Now that I think about it, I've never played as a mage or a sorcerer. I think I tried a game as a bard once, but if I did it didn't last long. Maybe I should start up a game as a spellcaster, although I get impatient if I can't run up to monsters and smash them. Maybe a skald or blade would be a good idea, or a sorceror with tenser's transformation.

As for Garrick, he was my only arcane spellcaster for most of that party's run through bg1. I can't remember using a cleric for a long span of time either. So Garrick's limited spellcasting and wand use were extremely important towards the end - I did pick up quayle at one point, but I used him for buffs and counterspells. It was Garrick's job to destroy the enemy.
-Something of a ridiculous statement, now that I reread my post. But true.

[Andraste]

If your ambition is to finish the game, you could consider starting a new party at the beginning of ToB. I've done this a couple of times, mainly to play around with all player created options. In ToB there are no NPC quests to miss out on, just a bit of banter. It means you can get to see what the various classes are like at high level, without having to spend days playing to get them there.

I had fun with a trio of sorcerer, ranger/cleric and fighter/mage/thief, though I cheated by using SK to give them the items they would have had, if they'd been through SoA – Celestial fury, Crom Feyre, etc.

[Armen]

Originally posted by Andraste: If your ambition is to finish the game, you could consider starting a new party at the beginning of ToB. I've done this a couple of times, mainly to play around with all player created options.

now that is a very good idea - multiclass characters i guess rather than duals (generally) - but still a very interesting idea - ta [img]smile.gif[/img]

EDIT: as i'm at work and can't test this for a bit - does anyone know if the bag of holding of goodies gets given to every player created character or just a new protagonist?

EDIT 2: only the protagonist gets it - and it's only got a variety of generic +2 kit - none of the unique items at all

EDIT 3: but on the other hand from a finally finishing ToB perspectie it means you've got some extra motivation to go forward and find some decent kit [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-22-2007, 04:36 AM: Message edited by: Armen ]