BG2:DA on extreme difficulty?

Anyone beat it on the extreme diff. setting?

I'm going through it with the DE Monk to try and unlock the last game mode.

Is the monk worth playing...

I''ve only messed around with all characters at low level, and cleric and necro to very high level. Spell casting, plus pet, seems pretty awesome compared to enchanted gloves of ice or whatever...

"Roo" wrote:

Is the monk worth playing...

I''ve only messed around with all characters at low level, and cleric and necro to very high level. Spell casting, plus pet, seems pretty awesome compared to enchanted gloves of ice or whatever...

define worth playing?

As in can you finish the game? then yes..I finished it on regular difficulty with no problem..

With the pierce skill and boosted critical/deathblow I could occasionally hit 399 points of damage in a single blow.

144-250 would be regular criticals...but then add stunning blows etc..

It was basically a breeze.

I''m now on Extreme mode and almost finished BloodMoor Mansion..

On extreme mode the monk almost has to 90% rely on ranged weapons... going toe to toe with more than one foe at a time is risky.. the enemies hit for way too much damage.

I crafted a +5 Fire/Ice Flawless Throwing Dagger that can hit for 60-80 averages with criticals for 150ish...add the Ice''s slow effect and you have a very effective method to clearing out rooms of enemies..

Especially since you can hit them off screen.

Wife and I are still on first go through, with me playing necromancer, and her playing cleric. We do well, but with all of the glowy special effects we create, sometimes hard to tell what''s going on in middle of big fight.

"Roo" wrote:

We do well, but with all of the glowy special effects we create, sometimes hard to tell what''s going on in middle of big fight.

How are you enjoying it? My GF''s and I''s only complaint is that they changed the size of the characters, or the zoom level, or the level of detail, or something, because it''s much harder to keep track of our characters than in the first game.

""Did you see me kill that guy? Wooo!""

""Um, that was me, sweetie. You were running repeatedly into the corner and jumping for no apparent reason while the goblins shot you to death.""

""Oh.""

I have been wanting this one for a while but it is still 45 dollars for a used copy at the stores up here. Still waiting for it to get down to around 30 before I pick it up.

It was good..not as good as the first one though..

I thought the dungeons and environments took a major step back in terms of design and variety

I did enjoy the added skills and crafting items though...so that made it a worthwile play.

I forgot. Can you dual wield throwing weapons?

I remember having a MUCH better fairing using a ranged attack (bow) with my monk than melee.

I might have to pick this up again. I never di solve it. the last time I played I remember trying to unlock the Barbs and Necros secret spells. Did it end up being just finishing the 2,4,8,16K quests?

The monk cannot dual weild throwing weapons...

Not sure about other classes but I suspect not...that would be uber powerful.

at normal skill level as long as you have high pierce skill the Monk can own anyone at melee..

I had no problems with any of the bosses.. I usually beat them on the first try..

The Red Dragon was slightly more difficult only because it could occasionally chomp you for pretty much your entire health bar.

After that it was a breeze..

just keep circling around your foes (especially boss characters) so they cannot get a bead on you and you can keep attacking them from the flank or rear.

I dont know, my barb dual wielding 2 handed weapons I thought was uber but it was allowed/designed.

You definitely piqued my curiousity... I definitely remember the melee feeling methodical and clunky after playing Champions of Norrath. The bosses were a Female Doggo in both those games...

You definitely piqued my curiousity... I definitely remember the melee feeling methodical and clunky after playing Champions of Norrath. The bosses were a Female Doggo in both those games...

Thats next... I''m going to try and finish that one after I finish extreme diff.

Red Dragon in Extreme is going to be close to immpossible I bet...

I''ll have to find a cheese AI exploit I suspect.

On regular difficulty (assuming spoilers are okay) my wife and I were pretty nonplussed with the bosses on the elemental planes. We crushed them all easily and then even she said, ""I got all ready for that?!"" I do like the necro''s unlocked powers, but wife was pretty sad that the cleric''s unlocked powers are all fighter feats. For one thing, that stupid animated sword gets stuck on every object in the map while my shadow guy teleports around. There are *many* standard D&D cleric summon spells. Should have given cleric a weak elemental at least.

I guess I just assumed there would be less variety to what you can do with non-spell casters. When I''m slowing or paralyzing 5 critters, the wife is either slicing them with dual wielded weaons or flame striking them into ashes (or turning them). Turn undead has gone from funny to annoying since they all really do run away.

Sad thing is my wife pretty much leaves the room to let me make magic items, and has no interest even in what kind of stuff I make for her, since she assumes I''ll make whatever is maximal. She hands me the controller, I buy stuff with her +cha cleric, and then craft items with my huge necro discount.

Ya crafting is way expensive.

My +5 fire lightning superior shortbow cost 96k just to make. Thats not including 16K for the runes and 32k each for 8 jacinth and 8 topaz. (I did the 500K cheat to see what I could make) 20-30 damage and something like 4-24 each for lightning and fire damage

Without cheating I made my barb 2 remarkable bastard swords +2 fire/lightning. 26k to make plus 4k in runes and 16k each in topazes and jacinth.

How did you unlock the special spells? Do you have to finish getting the orb of thunder etc. in addition to completing all the 2, 4, 8, 16k donations?

"fangblackbone" wrote:

My +5 fire lightning superior shortbow cost 96k just to make. Thats not including 16K for the runes and 32k each for 8 jacinth and 8 topaz. (I did the 500K cheat to see what I could make) 20-30 damage and something like 4-24 each for lightning and fire damage

That''s one hell of a mark-up.

So Im trying to finish the game on normal diff. Those dam rust crawlers got too close and killed my sweet +4 throwing wep. So Im struggling to get cash to make another.

Its safe to say I was a little pissed that you kill the bad guy but then its not over. (im assuming you have to kill him again.)

Holy crap those nightstalkers are a f''ing Female Doggo! That purple cloud takes 1/3 life every 2 seconds! And this is my Barb!

Bale Arm is a waste. It would have been better if it allowed you to dual wield throwing weapons. Unfortunately, with combat reflexes, you throw at a hair better than twice the speed of Bale Arm throwing 2 weps and it costs no mana. Besides, a bow is faster and it doesnt even need combat reflexes. (it also does more damage than throwing weps too)

Extreme is just that.... extreme.

You basically have to have some sort of cold effect in a ranged weapon... you gotta slow down the packs and break them up..

Trying to melee more than 2-3 opponents at once is very difficult.. as a few hits in a row can drop 1000 hps at once..

With my Level 31 Monk and my +5 Superior Fire/Ice Half Plate Gauntlets I''ve gotten critical hits for 1449 damage.

I''m saving once I get a pair of flawless full plate Gauntlets to make another +5 Fire/Ice set..

I''ll break down the current gaunts to save the gems.. and just buy the 96 runestones again.

The necromancer can get huge discounts (75% off?) with his skill for lowering cost of enchanting items. My wife''s cleric has a nice +4 charisma amulet. So I have her cleric buy stones (at 20% off or whatever) and then I make stuff. Making something with 24 stones total (8 rune, 8 jacinth, 8 jade or whatever) doesn''t cost that much if you''re a necro.

And yeah, to unlock any class'' skills, you just donate til 32,000 I believe. The necro unlocked stuff is awesome; one of them is an improved version of shield (which is cooler than it sounds), another is basically shadow magic missles with all that implies (they never miss, they track target/s, etc.). Like I said, Cleric basically unlocks 5 or 6 figther feats. Since cleric already has two weapon fighting...it''s not too bad to unlock cleave, etc. I basically have my wife all tanked up doing huge damage, while I stay in the back slowing, paralyzing, draining life (can drain from 5 critters at once), or mopping up with the shadow missle things. Slow is a very effective spell, as it works on everything but bosses (and even some of those).

Yeah Ive actually unlocked every classes special feats except the necro.

Hail of knives should be totally uber for the monk. Im pissed that the barb''s elemental resistance is a spell and the monk and rogue get evasion that is a passive permanent feat.

Well Fang, that would be the actual D&D rules. Not that that has anything to do with weapons that do 300 pts of damage, but I suppose if they''re trying to keep *somewhat* in line with the pen and paper game...evasion has always been a rogue ability (since there has been an evasion, that is).

I think there is a flaw/bug in the game with the necro that you can actually make money buying stuff, breaking it apart and selling it back.

I dont really buy the sticking to DnD rules Roo. I mean they gave Barbarians barkskin and an animal friendship type skill.

Oh didn''t mean to imply that it made sense or was consistent, I just think that was their pseudo D&D reasoning. Giving some druid powers to barbarians at least makes a thematic sort of sense (druids having hung out with barbarians.)