Fresh Discoveries, fifth time through **spoilers**

[CerebroDragon]

Hello fellow Ironworker BG fanatics,

I finally took a jump in the deep end whilst feeling inspired about the game and downloaded EasyTutu and a couple of mods, in particular the BG1NPC Project Banterpack, courtesy of Gibberlings3.

I was stuck for awhile as to what class to play, having gone from a dwarven fighter for my first vanilla BG escapade, through to deriving my stats from a Second Ed Pen and Paper Bard the second time by recreating the character for my first shot at TotSC, then to my Avenger Druid for the whole saga, and most recently, a Necromancer for my adventures in DarkSide of the SwordCoast. To be honest, I can't believe how powerfully the game has still gnawed at my consciousnesss, imploring me to have one more romp through!

In the end, I went for a Half-Orc True Neutral Assassin, semi-aware of Dundee's recent epic posts on his own PC Assassin, but also keenly aware that I'd never really ventured to play a Thief as yet, and that the kit would give me ample room to experiment with strange party combinations. (Which will be my intention)

So far it has been like a fresh game all over again - although I did find the BG2 GUI a little unsuitable and downloaded the TuTu classic GUI, which has a wonderfully nostalgic feeling about it. All of this of course, within the confines of the BG2 engine.

On to the gist of my post now: As cliched as it sounds, Is it not astounding to keep finding new aspects of the game that you don't recall encountering from previous excursions? A jaw-dropping example of this for me recently occured whilst wandering around either Nashkel or Beregost (I forget which)...but I was flabbergasted to be waving my directional icon around, leading my characters beside a garden field when woe and behold, it changed into the 'pick up inventory' hand shape. So innocently I traipse over to it and there popped up a hidden piece of Anhkeg Armour+2! I couldn't believe it. Many others found this before?
So I give it to Kagain, who is now quite happily charging around at -5 AC.
Many of you may have already found this on your first go and are scoffing at my ignorance! Well, just goes to show how great this game is I think, that it can dish up these kinds of surprising hidden gifts.

Party wise, I picked up Monty and Xzar Jaheira and Khalid early, only to lose both Khalid and Monty at the assassination attempt at the Red Sheaf in Beregost.
I then took Garrick in for a short time until his mod-altered flirtations with Imoen got on my nerves enough for me to get the brotherly jelousy-thing happening intensely enough to roleplay a backstabbing, which was fun. Picked up Branwen and kindly told 'auntie' Jaheira to push off. Took Minsc on for his quest, then decided to try out Dynaheir for the first time, leaving Xzar all alone awash with corpses, amid the bloody emptiness of the Gnoll Stronghold.
I then took on the mines, but by the conclusion of them, began to find Dynaheir's haughty patronising dogmatism infuriating, so I got Minsc to watch Razfallow test out his poison weapon ability dispatching Mulahey and following through to suitably cripple Dynaheir. She was to make way for my sentimental favourite character, Xan, who ironically, has his most powerful enemy vanquished so far as: a Doomsayer. (from the expeditionary dig...)

Moving towards Peldvale, my party now looks like this:

Kagain (Has had an hilariously edgy exchange with Xan already)
Branwen (Looking forward to the mod-romance...I was always a Branny fan from my first outing!)
PC Razfallow (Assassin) (Two proficiency points for the person who lists where I stole the name from!)
Viconia (The most recent joinee, after Minsc turned on the party for the murderous spree in the Kozah statue dig)
Safana (Imoen's constant annoyingly cute interjections eventually left her cold, naked and in the rain outside the lighthouse)
Xan (Slightly overdone in the mod, but has some great pessimisms aswell as a neat backchat on Evereska)

I'll probably try out Quayle and maybe even (Cyric forbid) Alora later on...There aren't too many NPCs I haven't at least trialed then I don't think!

So what other similar related discoveries have other people made only from playing 4-5 times through?
Feel free to make party reccomendations based upon knowledge of Tutu or the mods I've installed too! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Cheers,
CD

[ 07-11-2006, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]

[Kyrvias]

Try out... Tiax! He rules!

Actually, if you use him right, he can be pretty powerful...

[CerebroDragon]

I've already enjoyed Tiax immensely in my last game through Darkside of the Swordcoast. Didn't even get sick of his megalomaniacal adages. It was definitely a case of roleplaying over powergaming though.

Currently, I'm having a strange little problem with bringing the Bandit Camp map as being accesible on the world map. From memory, I just had to go from Larswood to Peldvale, then trying to move north from there should make it open, but alas, its not working. Hopefully this isn't my first Tutu bug...and that I'm just missing something very obvious.

EDIT:
I'd already killed all of the roleplay entry points into the camp via the generals in each of the areas and had already dealt with Tranzig, so I ended up having to CLUAConsole myself in. That's the first time I've ever had to use the ruddy thing too!

[ 07-12-2006, 02:07 AM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

BG1 is a bit crazy with its hidden items of power. Really.


Armor hidden in fields.... flails in bear caves.... magical manuals in caves, rings in trees...

[Lord]

Originally posted by Neo the Warrior Cat: BG1 is a bit crazy with its hidden items of power. Really. Armor hidden in fields.... flails in bear caves.... magical manuals in caves, rings in trees...

Good luck finding those items without getting the location from others . The hidden items were different in BG2 since the hidden locations tended to be considerably bigger (although the items were considerably more useless).
If you want to find out stuff about BG1, do it by playing the game and not by following cheats/guides. As cool as it is to have 2 rings of wizadry (believe me, I've looked up the location of the second ring as well and picked it up in the past), there really is not much good in having 16 first level spells, etc. The game can be played straightforward without the few extra quirks that exist.

[Kyrvias]

But, if it's your first time through, and you beat the odds by finding that Ankheg Plate Mail, well, that really has to kick ass

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

I generally only get the Ankheg plate and 1 wizard ring. The extra 1st level spells help in the beginning. (Though I have to wonder what the developers were thinking when they made an item that DOUBLES spell slots [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

[Cascade]

Originally posted by Neo the Warrior Cat: (Though I have to wonder what the developers were thinking when they made an item that DOUBLES spell slots [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

Hell yeah. With a specialist mage, and that many daily casts of Sleep and Chromatic Orb... there's very little you need to worry about until a good, good way into the game. Even then, Orb, Identify and MM ain't too shabby!

[Lord]

The ring was modified heavily in BG2 since the developers must have realized the ring was insanely overpowered.

[Kyrvias]

Overpowerd is a huge understatement.