wtf, why is this game so diffcuilt

[DarkLocket]

I am very frustrated with this game and every where I go, I die.

I just finished finding a way out of irencus dungeon. I saved viconia, added anomen, i have yoshimo and korgan, jaheria and myself invoker. Im trying to complete korgans quest of the book. Im in the room that is accross from the 30little spider room. Basically you walk in and it summons 6 evil monsters. Immune to my weapons and kill my guys pretty fast.. not to mention the level draining, petrification, and domenation effects against my party.

why is this game the #1 rpg but it takes like 20 reloads to figure it out.. maybe im just stupid grrr But I want to finish it because I know its a great game.

isnt there some kind of AI in the game that shouldnt give my quests that are too hard. it doesnt seem like these 7/8 chars can do anything. irencus dungeon is lame compared to the stuff im fighting now.

rant over..... thanks for any insights. I need some cheese for my wine.

[Mellagar]

I wouldn't say your doing anything wrong at all. Except you're walking into a pit full of lions with red meat tied around your neck and a small stick. From what you've said so far I take it that you're just starting out, and that9 IMO, is where you're finding the trouble. I'd wait till you get to be a little tougher on the edges before going out and butting heads with vampires in the crypts. Vampires and undead, which I'm sure you're running into, can only be damaged by weapons ranging at +1 if I'm correct. Anyway you might want to do some simpler quests, but others would probably disagree with me and say you should be able to hold your own.

[hagimihale]

Hmm... a few spoilers involved here...
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If this is your first foray into BG2 you might want to turn down the "hardness" level. I think it goes Novice, Intermediate, Core, Difficult and Insane. I'll admit I used Novice my first run through as I was dying too easily on the Core setting. Nothing wrong with it, that's why they have different settings. Some of the hard-core gamers here like running on Insane as they don't get the challenge from an easier setting... but they have countless hours of experience to draw upon.

Also, you want to have spells like Negative Plane Protection and Chaotic Commands ready for this. Anomen, Viconia and Jaheira can use these spells, but at levels 7-8 they probably don't have them yet.

That room is tough without those spells. One other suggestion - go back to the Copper Coronet and talk to Bernard. He has some items to sell. One of them, Azuredge, is a +3 axe that can destroy undead if they fail their saving throw. Very effective weapon.

Now you might have to complete the Slaver quests at the Copper Coronet before you can buy stuff from him. If that is the case, I recommend doing those quests before finishing off Korgan's quest. I don't think he'll leave the group if you take a small detour. You can get some nice experience and some other nice weapons rather early in the game (like Lilacor, a +3 two-handed sword that renders you immune to domination, charm and confusion spells).

Finally, I took another look at your party makeup. You have a few tanks (Korgan, Anomen and Jaheira, who can be a front-line fighter if need be), 1 mage (yourself), 1 thief (Yoshimo) and essentially 3 clerics (Viconia, Anomen, Jaheira). Too many clerics IMHO. I'd drop either Viconia or Anomen. If you drop Anomen you want another fighter to replace his front-line capabilities (Minsc, and maybe Valygar down the line), at least at first while you build up in levels. If you let go of Viconia I'd add another character with mage spells (Nalia, Edwin, Haer'Dalis).

A lot of your party makeup also depends on whether you prefer to play the good or the evil side. If your main character is good (or if you are neutral but will tend to make the "good" choice when forced to choose)... I'd drop Viconia for Minsc. If you play the evil side, Edwin is the way to go (best mage in the game) but that makes you weaker up front. You might want Minsc anyway at first, and then kick him out for Edwin (or Haer'Dalis) later on. Just some things to think about.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[DarkLocket]

whoa.. big thanks on all that advice. I did a little searching on the internet and found a script called the Universal Script (uScript) Created By: Rich Martel (martelr@mediaone.net). wow, this definately helps out with the casters and maintaining health.. not to mention automatic detect for traps. really nice script.

In the end, I was able to beat the room that had the level draining guys with the skelton warriors. Took a few more times and i had to do it all in turn based mode. I summoned in everything I could to help out. I got lucky, they didnt freeze or charm any of my guys and no one died. Also, it helped to have everyone target on the same mob working from the weakest to the hardest. It helped me knocked down the number ratio pretty quick. gee this is will be the second hardest fight that took me around 45mins to figure out and win. other was togal.

For the rest of the level I then used my familiar in invis mode to search out other targets. summon in some mobs and then let go a fireball to lead them into my ambush.. worked great.

yep yep..

I plan on getting rid of anomen and viconia for better tanks. Korgan does a great job so far. I mainly use Jaheria for summoning. I cant picture her being a tank with low hp.. Ill try it someday. edwin is the best eh? hmmm ill have to swap out my mage for oh wait i cant.. i lose the familiar hmm ill have to think about how to work that
out.

thanks for the tips. im sure ill be back for more [img]smile.gif[/img]

[PeeWee]

It's a great game, but one can get lost in it fast. If you aren't aware of the D&D type of play, then go thru the manual when you have time. There is some info there but not a whole lot. I'm still scratching my head on what spells are best and kicking myself in the ass for picking a rogue with low dex. =( 14 dex for an orc bounty hunter...ouchies. str is 18 and con is 16 so those arent so bad but it sure would be nice to get all the bonuses for a higher dex.

Some pointers:

Don't be shy to have different save slots for the same areas in case you get stuck or want to go back. If you tackle a monster or group of enemies and can't handle it, find something else to fight.

Be wary of the times. Some decent EXP "mobs" come out at night. Some unfortunately are a pain. I've been playing CORE level for about a week now until I decided normal would be easier as a first timer.

Read the book on the penalties and bonuses for the weapons you choose for the characters. I first saw dual wield as an option and thought cool.... more dmg. NOPE. YOu get penalized BIG TIME unless you have points that lower this significantly. Then I later found out my rogue can't get more skill points to allocate to his weapon skills. Now he just uses whatever modified weapon he picks up along the way that has a THACO bonus to it plus I consider added affects too. I only consider THACO because most rogues can backstab so that helps me not worry too much on the dmg side.

And with Jah, she is really a great player. She can summon, she alrdy has a point in sword/shield and can easily and quickly have an AC of -2 thru -5 kinda early on, she heals and can dish out decent dmg. I think I have her casting a fire elemental now.

With spellcasting, you should take the same approach as knowing what to mem for the area... clearly, not all spells can be used on a genreal basis. Most can but not all. If something goes wrong, just go back a few save slots and start that area over.

Alot of monsters have their strengths and weaknesses. Undead can't really be mind controlled unless your character is aligned to do so. That helps when you summon skelies to help kick butt against enemies who can confuse and all that wicked stuff. Blunt weapons are more useful against these types as well as fire if I remember right.

Not sure what script you are using, but I recommend you don't fall into a habit of breezing thru the game in areas you clearly shouldnt be in at your lvl. That's just My opinion though.

For groups, that's all up to you in what you see fit. Ideally, you do want at least 2 ppl tanking with some sort of rogue for scouting and all his or her good stuff. Mixing the rest up with healers/mages is up to you but I like Jah and Anomen for now since I'm seeing if Anomen will turn into a knight. I miss Nalia since she had to leave the party so I'm dumping all my spells into Aerie( I just miss how she can cloak into a room and cloudkill it while I have Jah behind her rdy to entangle the ppl if they try to run out). Aerie's crappy low hp hurts but she has about -3 ac right now so she holds her own. Eventually you will get lots of full plate for your tanks if not to sell for money to buy the nice items with.

So..... save alot when in doubt and not saving to the same slot over and over but move down in your saves. Check your weapons for each character, do explore but be wary of what to tackle and what to wait on. There is no AI script that blocks you from entering deadly areas. Oh, and if your party member is saying you need to leave to help on his or her quest, try to do so if you want to keep that character with you in the short run. If not, strip that character of all goods before he leaves to hopefully deck out the next one with. That is how I've managed to save some money. Either that or CLUA it =/

If you play on core, you may permanently lose a character if he dies. Stick to normal for a while. I've wasted many hours trying to fight some monsters over and over in core to get my butt handed to me while my characters were disentegrated out of the game.

And I was given the information that int potions help you scribe better. int of 20-22 and around there helps your success at scribing those cool spells.

Bah, tons to say but I'll stop.

G'luck though and have fun.

[Barlik Longbeard]

It isn't that hard, just turn down the difficulty, change tactics regualarly if it dowsnt work. Ummm, take em on 1 by one. go into the room. kill on of the guys in the tiny rooms to your left/right then hide your guys in there. If that stull doesn't work then go do some other quests and get some better weapons and skills. Then try it again. Use spells frequently. Dont be afraid to rest a lot.

[Memnoch]

DarkLocket, we don't censor people here, and we're not prudish about the occasional swear word or whatever, but mind not using a swear word or acronym in your title next time? It just looks tacky, you know what I mean - and isn't really necessary to get your subject across.

[Memnoch]

On your issue - go to your Options screen and bring the AI down to the lowest level until you're comfortable with what you're doing.

Korgan's quest is pretty tough if you're just starting out I'd go to Nalia's keep first and get yourself some XP. If you want to keep with Korgan's quest, you'll need to use some strategy to neutralize some of the undead away from melee range, especially since you seem a bit light on tanks and overloaded on cleric types (who have lower HP). particularly the skeleton warriors who are pretty tough. Buff your party up with Stoneskin/Haste/Bless etc spells BEFORE you enter the room, so you don't waste time casting them when you're in there.

Get your mage to cast Greater Malison at the start (this will make it more difficult for the enemy to make their saving throws). Your offensive spells will probably be twice as effective after this. A cleric spell like Holy Smite can also do some major damage to these guys. Summon some cannon fodder and put them between you and them.

Leave the vampire till last - he doesn't come out unless you walk all the way to the other end of the room (the bottom end is heavily trapped, btw). Have Vic, Anomen or someone cast Negative Plane Protection on a couple of melee fighters so that you don't get level drained out of existence - once you do this your party should be able to use combined firepower to take the vampire out.

Good luck. [img]smile.gif[/img]