The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 7: Baldur's Gate (In Progress)

The writing in Siege of Dragonspear is not very good. Had I not just played BG, it may not have been so noticeable, but it comes off as a pretty bad pastiche.

I'm back home now, and just caught up with the thread.

Congrats ubrakto and Clumber on finishing up! I've leveled you up.

It sounds like quite a few people are making good progress, that's awesome.

I should be able to dig back in tonight and move forward. I'm looking forward to getting back to the game.

LOL I just discovered that spell memorization UI doesn't really clearly indicate when you've got level 2 spell slots. I've been missing out on Hold Person and Silence for like 2 levels!

progress report.

Everywhere South of Baldur's gate has now been cleared, with the exception of Durlag's tower that I'm not intending to investigate until Imoen has her thief skills back after duel-classing.

I'm now just making my first exploration of the city.

Spoiler:

Has anyone else have a problem with the Ulcaster School quest? I went into the dungeon and found the History book, but now Ulcaster is nowhere to be found outside.

Spoiler:

The ghost seems to move around, I had to leave the area then return, then he was at the original spot at the ruins where I'd first met him.

Running Man wrote:
Spoiler:

The ghost seems to move around, I had to leave the area then return, then he was at the original spot at the ruins where I'd first met him.

Spoiler:

I've tried looking all over the place, as well as leaving and coming back. Oh well, maybe I'll try again in a few days.

I dug back in for a half hour tonight and made a bit of progress.

I'm liking everyone in my party except Rasaad, who seems super squishy at the moment. Without any armor, he keeps dying on me.

Monks were really just crowbarred into bg1 EE , so it wouldn’t surprise me if the rest of the game wasn’t properly balanced for them tbh.

My small bg2 progress. My duo of me + viconia is now a trio, with the new vampire rogue lady. Curious to see how she’s been integrated with the whole, Bhodi thing.

The vampire Hexxat is a powerhouse, I've been using her as a front line fighter. Her strength bonus plus regeneration makes her far more useful than a regular ol thief. Unless of course there's daylight.

I kept Rasaad through to the end, as I liked having him in the party. I can't say that he ever stopped being squishy entirely, but it did get a lot better over time. Admittedly, I'd game the system a bit, by having him hang back while my character and Branwen engaged monsters and then sent him in to do damage. He didn't get nearly as much attention that way.

Having never completed the Tales of the Sword Coast content, I ultimately decided to go back and do all that stuff, including finishing off Durlag's tower. There was a lot more there than I expected, and I'm glad I went back for it. Two of the three "big" quests there (the island and the maze) were a good bit of fun. Durlag's tower was more of a slog, but ultimately worth it just to see it through. My party has hit the level cap at this point, but they're very nicely kitted out to go back and try Sarevok again.

I just dumped Rasaad because he exploded one too many times. I swapped in Minsc and Dynaheir for him and Garrick (whose only real use was the resist fear). Bards would be good if their song effect lingered multiple rounds (like later D&D or Pathfinder) or if they could perform normal attacks while singing. As written they just sort of stand around and sometimes identify an item.

My current party is:
Kyrine (elf Sorcerer)
Imoen
Minsc
Dynaheir
Kivan
Branwen

I am going a different direction with Minsc - I specced him towards two weapon fighting instead of the canon two-handed swords and he is a machine. I am using a magic battleaxe and The dagger of Venom +2. The hit rate on the dagger means a lot of poison is inflicted.

I've reached the point in the game (around Cloakwood) where the power curve turns in favor of the party. Basically once you've got enough spell slots to cast magic (HELL YEAH, WEB) through an entire battle the game becomes far easier.

I liked Rasaad's story so far, but in addition to being squishy, he tends to walk the fastest in my party. That means that he's often at the front when we run into random encounters, so he gets targeted by enemies first. He's often in trouble before I can pull him back out of trouble, and sometimes he seems to get stuck dropping back. All in all, it's just not working that well.

I think I'll drop him for Kivan in a bit.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I am going a different direction with Minsc - I specced him towards two weapon fighting instead of the canon two-handed swords and he is a machine. I am using a magic battleaxe and The dagger of Venom +2. The hit rate on the dagger means a lot of poison is inflicted.

I've reached the point in the game (around Cloakwood) where the power curve turns in favor of the party. Basically once you've got enough spell slots to cast magic (HELL YEAH, WEB) through an entire battle the game becomes far easier.

I just had Neera learn Web last night, so I'll have to try that out. And that's an interesting idea on Minsc. So far he's been pretty reliable with the with 2-handed sword for me.

Web is very sticky. To both you and the enemy. Either have a lot of freedom potions handy, or use an item that prevents you getting stuck.

Edit. I’m aimlessly wandering around the city at the moment, picking up some quests and generally exploring. I had a really nasty fight between adventuring groups in an inn I wasn’t prepared for. It was by far the most fun encounter I’ve had so far oddly enough. Spells going off left right and centre, sniper archers trying to pick either other off and Khalid and Minsc bludgeoning anyone within weapon range. It was great.

Sorbicol wrote:

Web is very sticky. To both you and the enemy. Either have a lot of freedom potions handy, or use an item that prevents you getting stuck.

Yep.

Spoiler:

There are a couple of such items throughout, but I think the first one I found was the two-handed sword in the Cloakwood.

That ended up being handy throughout the game, whenever I was either encountering web traps or casting web.

Sorbicol wrote:

Web is very sticky. To both you and the enemy. Either have a lot of freedom potions handy, or use an item that prevents you getting stuck.

I use it at the periphery of large battles to lock down mages and archers that tend not to move close in. Rarely does my group ever wander into the web until all the melee attackers are taken out.

Sorbicol wrote:

Web is very sticky. To both you and the enemy. Either have a lot of freedom potions handy, or use an item that prevents you getting stuck.

For the same reason, I removed Entangle from Jahiera’s repertoire after the first time I cast it. Seemed more harmful than helpful.

LastSurprise wrote:
Sorbicol wrote:

Web is very sticky. To both you and the enemy. Either have a lot of freedom potions handy, or use an item that prevents you getting stuck.

For the same reason, I removed Entangle from Jahiera’s repertoire after the first time I cast it. Seemed more harmful than helpful.

Entangle is not great because it still allows spellcasting and ranged attacks. Web is essentially an AoE Hold Person that works on most enemies and forces a save every round to prevent thje hold effect. It's one of my favorite spells for dealing with groups with casters or ranged attackers.

Good to know! I still haven’t gotten to level 2 spells, will have to experiment when I do.

My primary spellcasters right now are Jahiera and Dynaheir, but I was thinking of ditching Khalid for some good ranged character, which will boot Jahiera too. But I suspect Branwen will be a better spellcaster.

I played a bit more tonight. I dropped Rasaad and picked up Kivan. I'm liking this combination more. Kivan deals a lot of damage with his longbow. With Bond, Minsc, and Branwen in the front line, we can tank damage while Kivan, Imoen, and Neera deal damage from behind us.

I'm in Chapter 3 now, hunting around for the bandit camp.

Kivan is incredible, I hope you find something useful for him at the bandit camp...

Running Man wrote:

Kivan is incredible, I hope you find something useful for him at the bandit camp...
;)

My main is basically Kivan. My THAC0 is currently -1.

That was me, way back when I originally played. I think I even used Kivan's portrait, unintentionally!

So I recruited one of the EE companions, Baeloth the drow sorceror. My party are all about level 4 and he comes in at level 6. Oh, and he can cast fireball three times per day. I feel a lil' overpowered.

Well, slowly progressing through the city when something rather odd happened. I went from a reputation of 20 (heroic, that’s me) to suddenly getting a reputation of 4 (despised) for apparently accidentally stealing the wrong thing.

I’ve lost about 90 minute of the game going back to an earlier save. Not quite sure what happened there.

Edit: mostly recovered.

For those thinking about it, do not wait until Imoen is level 6 before duel classing her. Do it at level 5. Level 7 takes a lot of experience to reach.........

I dualled Imoen at 4 when she got to 100 find traps. She’s almost level 4 mage now which I found kind of painful as I don’t have a backup rogue.

At chapter 4 now, and i find I’m trying to 100% each area before going to Cloakwood... just ran into the basilisks for the first time, one character got turned to stone and I ran around for like 1/2 hour before noticing I lost her lol

Well Imoen finally has her thieving skills back (thank God) and so after sweeping through most of the Baldur's Gate quests

Spoiler:

That first battle in the Iron Throne headquarters was really hard

I went off to complete the Tales of the Sword Coast content before the main plot goes any further.

I've never played any of the Tales of the Sword Coast content so very much looking forward to it.

Sorbicol wrote:

I've never played any of the Tales of the Sword Coast content so very much looking forward to it.

I was really glad I went back to run through it, even with my characters maxing out well before I finished Durlag. The island quest, in particular, I enjoyed. Enjoy!

Thank goodness for Clua console. My Cloakwood was bugged and I could not get past the first section of the woods. I had to reveal all the sections manually. I think this may be the result of a mod that lets you explore the first area of the woods early. Not really sure though.

slowly chipping away at BG2. Just cleared out a dungeon full of shadows...

Spoiler:

will be coming back for the dragon later. Y'er on my list, pal!

...and rescued Mazzy. Not sure if she'll be a permanent addition, a halfling pally is kinda cramping my cool, grimdark trio of ambiguously aligned rebels, but she can stay for the moment.

Next up...probably the rogue druids. I want to clear out all the wilderness stuff before progressing into the next act. Plus I still have Neera's new side area to do as well at some point.