Replaying Baldurs Gate..

[CerebroDragon]

Sounds like a good idea Dreamer, I'm going to do the same thing as soon as I finish my current BG Tutu game. My Half-Orc Assassin Razfallow is just aching to earn his ToB stripes.

I'm one of the strange individuals who finds the original BG more replayable than the more cinematic, somewhat more linear and widely acclaimed sequel for some reason. One reason is due to the sheer amount of options available in party dynamics compared to the sequel, which disappointed me a little NPC wise.

But I'm curious about some of the mods available particularly in the spell-casting department 'cos as much as I love Edwin, I don't know if I could use him again in my third play through. I didn't really warm to either Nalia or Aerie, though I did use the latter in my very first game through to the end.

Care to elaborate on Tashia IronDragon? Who is she? I can't say I've heard about that one. I'm not really bought and sold on Kelsey either, to be honest.

I've downloaded the Xan mod for BG2 though which I'm really looking forward to testing out, even if my destiny ultimately is doomed.

If you haven't tried out Korgan, Dreamer - he must be seen in action to be believed. I can't see Keldorn or Mazzy topping him, but I must give either of those two a shot. I might even try out that neat little trick I read in the archives awhile back to keep Yoshimo in the party...there's a few options, I guess. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 07-17-2006, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]

[IronDragon]

Originally posted by CerebroDragon: [QB] Care to elaborate on Tashia IronDragon? Who is she? I can't say I've heard about that one. I'm not really bought and sold on Kelsey either, to be honest.

Tashia is a mod NPC.

She is a female elf sorcerer.

She fits reasonably well in the game…not saying she is perfect. Her portrait is horrible and I had to replace it. there is a cut scene involving a blanket that is tedious but otherwise she fits in well.

She is romancable…though I have never gotten anywhere with her…I usually end up being told that we should just be “friends”…apparently my PC’s always have a nice personality.

She is standing around in the Inn in Trademeet. She comes well equipped and has a good spell selection already in place. There is a significant subplot about her old boyfriend that is interesting.

Just a word of warning she can be a challenge to recruit. You need a decent reputation, I forget exactly what but I usually go after her at about reputation 13. I don’t think she will go with evil parties.

I believe you can download her at:


http://www.spellholdstudios.net/mods/tashia/

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

Actually, an all-magic party is going to make it very easy on you unless you refuse to rest when you run out of spells.

Especially if you hav4 multiple arcane casters. Multiple arcane casters = multiple fireballs you can throw at one time.

[Klorox]

I think it really depends on style.

My style is to use as many tanks as possible, and have Mages to boost my physical stats and strip enemies of their protections.

I find using a lot of mages kinda tough.

[True_Moose]

I've been considering an all-distance ranged type party.

Cleric of Talos
Wild Mage
Archer
Totemic Druid
Assassin (using Throwing Daggers)

It might get a touch powerful, but I think it'd be fun, especially if you keep all of them on mostly ranged weapons. No tanks. Heck, you could even swap in a Bounty Hunter for the Assassin, it'd make just as much sense (I always think of a Bounty Hunter as being traps and a bow.)

I HATE using a lot of mages, it bores me. One pure caster, then some half or buff casters is enough for me. I'm a tank guy.

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

Lol. My caster parties abuse the hell out of multi-classed casters. My normal setup usually looks like:

Fighter/Cleric
Fighter/Mage
Mage/Theif
Mage/Cleric
Mage
X


X can be anything, a bard, a Fighter/Mage/Thief, anything at all.

Here's what you get. You get 2 clerics, 4! mages (one pure, 3 half, but all the best damage spells are low level, and by TOB you'll all be casting high level spells) A thief to handle your locks and other junk, 2 fighters that are both very capable in combat (Cleric Fighter buffed with a ton of the self cast buffs you get can be a very potent class combo, and the Fighter/Mage is no scrub with Mirror Image + Stoneskin... by the time he's hit, the enemies are dead.)


The only difficulty is ranged, you only get 1! longbow user and one shortbow/light crossbow user. That's where X comes into play.

You can sling and dart the hell out of your enemies though.


But the real power of the party is the 4 mages. 4 fireballs at the start of any encounter tends to turn the tide very quickly. Unless they're immune to fire, which means you better find another trick.

I like these parties because I like nukers. I just don't want to end up with the boringness of the solo sorceror.


All mages isn't tough if you know how to use them. And I certainly know how to use them

[DragonSlayer25]

Originally posted by Neo the Warrior Cat: Multiple arcane casters = multiple fireballs you can throw at one time.

Or skull traps, which do more damage after lvl 10 andhave the added bonus of staying put until someone trips them.

[crymson77]

Originally posted by Demonheart: quote: Originally posted by Dreamer128: To make the game a little more challenging, I was also considering playing an all-spellcaster party.

I don't mean to shoot you down, but this is likely to make the game anything but challenging, especially if you include Kelsey! I think it would be much more challenging to have an all-melee party, which will make those fights against powerful magic wielding enemies all the more dificult (read: frustrating). That's just my opinion though, hope it helps. [/QUOTE]This is just my opinion about a melee party. If you have a bunch of brutes with god XP, good magic items and at least one dude with a haste spell, like Valygar, then they are darn near impossible to stop.
This is my sixth trip through the game and this time I'm using, Minsc, Keldorn, Valygar, Mazzy, Myself, who is just a regular fighter and Jaheria, but durring battles I just use her as a fighter.
Man we are just wrecking shop. Just cast that haste spell and its almost too easy, but it sure is fun...
And as for an all spell caster party. I did that last time and I deffinatley found it more challanging. Its kinda hard to get a spell off when theres a guy with a sword chasing you and you ain't got nobody to defend you. That, and there is a lot of dying to be done when you AC isn't quite as high as someone with a nice suit of armor.
Just my opinion, but man I really do love the melee party. With the right items and some properly placed proficiency slots these guys can be some real death machines.

[Dundee Slaytern]

All-spellcasters parties are not toooo bad. One of the main reasons why spellcasters rock in BG2 is because of the Robe of Vecna(RoV). In a party of 6 however, only one gets to wear the RoV.

So only one spellcaster has the speed necessary to take advantage of most of the spellcasting cheese available in the game.

That said, there are still multiple tactics that the other five spellcasters can take advantage of. Such as mass whoring of spell sequencers/contingencies. 6 offensive Spell Triggers in the first round of combat is generally overkill( let alone 6 offensive Chain Contingencies...).

You could specialise them. One spellcaster could be in charge of lowering the enemies' magic resistances. Another could purely memorise party buffers. Another could dedicate himself to summoning. Etc...

Cheers.

[Dreamer128]

Just got back from the UK, and I'm currently in chapter 7. Because I did feel it would be too unbalanced to have an 'all-arcane' party, I changed the main criterium to make it an all-spellcasting party, for which I used the following characters:
-PC (Wild Mage)
-Imoen (orginally Nalia)
-Cernd (hadn't tried him before)
-Viconia (originally Kelsey, but for some reason I didn't like him)
-Keto (already one of my favorite npc's)
-Edwin

Now, the reason I went with a mainly-arcane party was because I was rather melee oriented in the past. I felt I could use a change of tactics, even if it wasn't the most challenging thing to do. (which it isn't)
As per Dundee's advice, I did indeed specialise them. The main character is armed with everything from Breach to Lower Resistance, with Edwin as the main damage-dealer and summoner.
Cerebro, I do agree with you on Baldurs Gate I, but I'm afraid I played it too many times already. I've got to consider my sanity.
On another note, perhaps I'll do a Knights and Nobility party next. That should get me quite the personalities. [img]tongue.gif[/img]