Er. . . has anyone finished BG2 without reloading?

[waverider]

i use that tric to


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so sweat , you find them no sweater than this ...
no prettier than this ..

you can geus who it is

!!!!! AERIE !!!!!!

[Debaser]

I think it's safe to say that playing through the whole game without any reloads is near impossible. no matter how much of a "master" one might be, there is too much unpredictability and randomness in the game to ensure that no human being be able to do such a thing.

[Skunk]

Well what's the point of cloudkill if not to cast it at a distant enemy? Anyway, if you cast it, you get targeted. Naturally, my next step is too slow them down with web.

Hey, if the goblins? in the sewers can cast entangle and then shoot me with their arrows, why can't i do the equivilent?

All spells are legitimate. Another tactic is to lay a long line of traps down a corridoor and get an npc to chase you down the same coridoor.... ouch! ouch! ouch! ouch! Death... Is that also to be considered cheesy?

[IrishHound]

Let me say this, first, having an npc die is not considered a failure, your in a D&D world, where ressurecting the dead is possible... I say the more challenging thing is to play the game on core rules and adhere to what happens, I've tried 3 times now and always lose to many ncp's permenently to finish the game without relaoding, so that's my goal!

Chessy tactics, skunk, are ones that take advantage of the limited 'AI' of the monsters, do you really think a dragon is going to stand there or let some thief plant a crap load of traps right in front of him, or not move from a cloudkill area. Try playing with a sense of truth, and it will force you to be more creative in your fights and make the game more enjoyable...or so I think anyways.

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To quote the pestering peasant, Neeber, of tradesmeet: "I killed a rabid rabbit! I'm experienced, now!"

[Dundee Slaytern]

There are plenty of fun ways to defeat a Dragon, teeheeheeheehee... ...



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If not a Sorcerer casting total oblivion, then a Paladin meting out justice. Otherwise, I think I will just be a bard and torture my enemies with, "My Heart Will Go On".

Platinium Sorcerer of ALSB, Aerie Loving Sacred Band! She's MeowRrrr, and more!

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Baldur's Gate Item Mart

[TheCrimsomBlade]

what do you mean by not reloading? Does saving and going to bed count as
reloading? Or are talking about reloading after death of your main character
as reloading? Because I played a super cheat game in multi-player and only
used one character except for the NPC's needed for game quest and removed each
NPC as I finished each quest. First I started with a Multi-classed character
A Fighter/Mage/Thief and ran through the first part of the Irenicus Dungeon
and freed Jaheria & Minsc then saved game and quit then I opened Shadow Keeper.
Before I had started I had loaded the Experience Cap Remover and the BG2 rules
fix. so when I opened shadow Keeper the first thing I did was give him 35,000,000 XP then I reloaded the game and leveled up to 40/40/40 level then
saved game and quit. then back to shadow keeper and put 12 spell memorie spaces
in each level and 5 proficencies on every weapon, then 100% resistance to every-
thing and loaded up every supply item I thought I would need including armor
elven +5 that a mage can wear and still cast spells. don't forget the rod of
resurrection with 100 charges on it placed in quick space and 150 time stop
scrolls so you can stun and destroy anybody that gets in your way and boots of
speed also all ability scores set to 25 after that its but kicking time.
ever Kill a dragon wiyh a dagger try it they can't hurt you (look down on the ground,-- is it a bird?---is it a plane?---- NO---- ITS SUPER BHAAL SPAWN .
everyone should try this at least once!




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The Blade Makes The Man
The Man Made The Blade
Death To All That Stand
In Their Way! BEWARE ALL!

[IrishHound]

Sorry, Crimsonblade, but that kind of game would hold no pleasure for me. What I meant by relaoding was when I play a core rule game, I do an intial save of the game from the Jon's dungeon and if I don't make it through the game like I want, ie. to many npc's permanently killed, I relaod that intial game and start again. It does get trying though so It's not everytime I do this.

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To quote the pestering peasant, Neeber, of tradesmeet: "I killed a rabid rabbit! I'm experienced, now!"

[Mahlennacht]

Good grief, Jerome - less than 10 reloads?! - that's pretty godlike right there!!! I average maybe 5, 6 reloads per difficult battle. I'd like to reload less - I reload so much I don't even consider memorizing Raise Dead.

This is a bit off the main topic, but:
...RE: "cheese tactics" - yes of course, the FUN way to play is the correct way, I suppose, but a lot of us have fun defining our own rules of engagement, as it were. e.g., one could get to the top of Half Dome by going up the back slope - nothing to be ashamed of if you're a newbie; the veterans try to go up the vertical face. I think both are OK, but it's quite another thing to get to the top via helicopter - no law against it, may be fun, but no one should be high-fiving over it as an achievement.

There was mention of exploitation of AI shortcomings - true, I SHOULD try to avoid doing that , but for myself I'm also concerned about exploiting knowledge of future events... I would like to TRY to play the game as if it were a plausible plot even though I know what is going to happen. I don't always follow that principle, but then I'm not as experienced a player. OK, look - I'll tell you what I did against the Twisted Rune, and why I feel guilty about doing it this way - I don't regret it totally, I was having a REALLY hard time and I wanted to advance the game along any way I could... but I can never pat myself on the back the way I did it:
SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER
...I found out that if you quaff the Oil of Speed you can (most of the time) haste across the threshold to the circular room without causing the lich to materialize. [I WOULD NEVER HAVE LOGICALLY DEDUCED THAT.] So, Edwin and I are safely in the main room, busy laying 15 Skull Traps where the enemies will dimension-in. [NOW HOW THE HELL COULD WE HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN WHERE ENEMIES WILL SPAWN, EXCEPT BY EXPLOITING INFO OBTAINED FROM EXPERIMENTING AND RELOADING.] Then we get back to the small room, make the lich materialize, and instantly the beholder, the vampire, and the mage are killed by multiple Skull Trap damage. From there it's easy to focus on the lich. Setting traps is fine if you lure enemies into them, but putting them at spawn points ahead of time?!...

I don't feel AS bad about my way of killing the City Gates lich - even though I refer to it as the Three Stooges method:
*Walk in on lich. He begins casting spells.
*We all go "NYAAAAH!!!!!" and run out. "Is the coast clear?" "I think so."
*Peek inside. He's about to cast Time Stop. "NYAAAH!!" and we run out again.
*Lich follows us into the tavern. We rush back into the tomb. "WU WU WU WU"
*Listen to nasty pit fiend sounds on the other side of door for a while...
*Eventually, lich has exhausted his spells and protections have expired.
*We waste him with +1 weapons.

See, in real life I WOULDA ran away like that. So, for me, it's *less* cheesy; wimpy, maybe, but not as exploitative... But next time I'll try to be more Valiant about it. I've read about way cooler ways to kill liches.

Currently, I'm debating whether to continue my practice of handling mindflayers by using 3 invisible members to block a hallway, allowing the other 3 to safely hit them with ranged weapons. I think I ought to refrain from it, but I've been at this game for 6 months now and I'd like to finish it once before the year is over. Next time through I'll try to use more elegant tactics.

hope the post wasn't too long - JUST PLAY THE WAY YOU LIKE!

[PS - sure I've OFTEN used god-mode to zip through some games' storylines faster, but then again those games generally weren't that fun to actually play... not as fun as BG2 ]

[floyd]

for that city gates lich, I just:

used a 20 strength potion, and a oil of speed on keldorn. protected him from evil, protected him from fire and equipped him with carsomyr +5 (he was only level 10 though). Left my other characters in the bar and moved keldorn in. Attempted to dispel magic right away, not sure if it worked. Ran right up to the lich and started hacking away. Eventually he time stops, and hits me with meteor storm, but it doesn't damage Keldorn (prot. fire) at all. Then he gates in a Pit Fiend, and starts attacking it (liches always seem to attack their pit fiends). By then Carsomyr has dispelled the liches protections and one 45 hp critical kills the lich. Keldorn shows off by criticalling the Pit Fiend for massive damage as well. Lost about 20 hp. Bottom line: I don't run from liches.

[hagimihale]

Mahlennacht that was one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time! I was downstairs covering the phones as a favor in our lobby and almost spewed my coffee all over the desk! ROTF!

I have to admit that I use some of the "cheese" tactics occassionally, but I consider myself a newbie and am still learning different strategies. I DID beat the shadow dragon in a fair fight without resorting to cheese. (May not impress most members of this board but I was enthused that my learning curve is starting to kick in)