05-04-2004 01:41									#241
	Inflate your Upload Space

well i managed to win (on only the 500th reload too!), just got lucky with a holding spell and my guys got a few lucky hits

another question(s), do you see the priest who was down in dragon's eye again, and if so where (like where on the way out)?

also if you start with only 1PC, where do you find NPCs to join your party?

thanks

	05-04-2004 02:30									#242
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quote: also if you start with only 1PC, where do you find NPCs to join your party?

You're joking, right?

-Jam

	05-04-2004 02:51									#243
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err, no

<---- real newbie

	05-04-2004 03:36									#244
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You don't get any. But you guessed that already I suppose

-Jam

	05-04-2004 14:08									#245
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Stop using spoilers for stuff I haven't reached yet!

I played a bit on Friday night. I didn't advance the plot at all, or even take any more sidequests. I just went to the area southwest of Nashkel with the waterfall and caught a couple of wolves (), found the cat and protected the tree (dumb quest - if I'd have been evil then I would have chopped it down - is this possible?). I also got the bracers of archery by casting silence so they couldn't talk to me and start the fight, then setting Minsc on the chucky bloke and the others piling onto the other man. It's a good job my PC has both a composite bow +1 and a longsword +1. I'm now rich, and with a rep of 20. , er....
I went back to the Nashkel mine, and am now ready to set off east in search of fame, especially fortune, more rep points, exp, and some decent fights. "Spin the wheels!"

	05-04-2004 14:11									#246
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Nice work Duke

Can I reccommend you clean the whole West Coast of all those rich Sirenes and Hobgoblins

-Jam

	05-04-2004 14:39									#247
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Well I'm going east first, to see what I can do. I'm going to avoid Durlag's Tower for the time being, because I reckon it may be a little too difficulty for my motley band of level 3 and 4 heroes.
I could do the west coast too though. Silence works against Sirens too right?

	05-04-2004 14:48									#248
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Silence is your wonderspell at the moment, eh?

What works best with Sirenes is stopping them casting, either by disrupting their spells with arras or chunking them with a good backstab(s) or indeed, silencing them I suppose. I have to say its a spell I almost never use.

-Jam

	05-04-2004 15:21									#249
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No, I'm fond of grease as well, but I like the ability of Silence to get you free hits in a fight, by starting the fight before the aggressor is ready.
Oh, and MM, and Chromatic Orb, but I'm not at a high-enough level to deal mega-doom with these two quite yet. One day......

	05-04-2004 15:51									#250
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I never use area spells like grease etc... Because all I do is entangle my own units in it so in the end I'm ****ed instead of my opponents. Most locations in the BG games are so cramped or annoying with trees or hallways etc that I always butcher myself. I think fireball has a way too big radius to be effective. A fireball hurts nearly all my characters, often the caster as well!

Also with grease and web etc I can't backstab or go melee. Basically enemy spellcasters just hurl devastating spells at me so I die

	05-04-2004 15:59									#251
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

[Sid Waddell voice]
You need....... arrers! Big Jocky Wilson at the back, cast grease. The enemy isn't going anywhere! Fill 'em fuller arrers! Wun 'undrerd anatey!
[/Sid Waddell voice]

Simple - just cast grease (with the fight paused, obviously) and stop your melee fighters running into the spell. Then stand well back and use missile weapons. Simple!

	05-04-2004 15:59									#252
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You're missing out on the most effective strats in the IE games. Hold 'em in place, then toast them.

• Use an invisible or stealthed character to locate the enemies.
  
• Move up wizard (for Web), another wizard (for Grease) and a ranger or druid (for Entangle) all nice low level spells.
  
• Keep the casters back so they cannot be seen by the enemies.
  
• Pause the game.
  
• Cast all the entangling spells at once, so they overlap, and cast AHEAD of the enemy group, so the area effects them, without moving your casters into their sight.
  
• Then release pause.
  
• Use the whole party to eliminate anyone that escaped being held who tries to rush you (hopefully noone unless you were careless and got seen.)
  
• Now pile on with the area effect spells, starting with "cloud" spells with long durations, while peppering lightly with arrows.
  

Last edited by Jamski on 05-04-2004 at 16:10

	05-04-2004 16:54									#253
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quote: Originally posted by duke o' york I played a bit on Friday night. I didn't advance the plot at all, or even take any more sidequests. I just went to the area southwest of Nashkel with the waterfall and caught a couple of wolves (), found the cat and protected the tree (dumb quest - if I'd have been evil then I would have chopped it down - is this possible?). I also got the bracers of archery by casting silence so they couldn't talk to me and start the fight, then setting Minsc on the chucky bloke and the others piling onto the other man. It's a good job my PC has both a composite bow +1 and a longsword +1. I'm now rich, and with a rep of 20. , er....

I just did that part. Walking into Nashkel with 7 WW pelts was nice, especially since I had 15 grand in my pocket I have no idea how I've got so much, but I now have Shadow Armour, Composite Long Bow+1, Mace+1, Full Plate and ordered Ankheg I have virtually no money left, but with a rep of 20 and characters so hard it almost hurts, I don't really need it

	05-04-2004 16:58									#254
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by Jamski Can I reccommend you clean the whole West Coast of all those rich Sirenes and Hobgoblins

I'll second that. Much experience, much loot Hard fights though. I usually try to do Sirenes one at a time, but found out I can put Dynaheir up front to get dire charmed (she hardly does any damage) and hide my ranger in the shadows. So I appear with Minsc, my PC and Imoen backstabbing. They didn't take long at close range.

As for West vs East, I never even bother with the East. Some of it's hard, there's little loot of note, it just seems a bit pointless. I might bother with the Basilisk area, Firewine isn't worth it IMHO either.

	05-04-2004 18:09									#255
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Firewine dungeons are good for picking up infinite fire arrows though

-Jam

	05-04-2004 18:39									#256
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Where's Firewine, at least where's Firewine from where I am?

	05-04-2004 18:52									#257
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Firewine is East of Beregost. Past the Ulcaster School ruins, you get Firewine Bridge. When in Beregost, go to the top floor of the run down wooden bar near next to where you fight Silke, and talk to the people sitting up there. They'll tell you tales of the Firewine Bridge.

	05-04-2004 23:58									#258
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quote: Originally posted by Jamski You're missing out on the most effective strats in the IE games. Hold 'em in place, then toast them. Use an invisible or stealthed character to locate the enemies. Move up wizard (for Web), another wizard (for Grease) and a ranger or druid (for Entangle) all nice low level spells. Keep the casters back so they cannot be seen by the enemies. Pause the game. Cast all the entangling spells at once, so they overlap, and cast AHEAD of the enemy group, so the area effects them, without moving your casters into their sight. Then release pause. Use the whole party to eliminate anyone that escaped being held who tries to rush you (hopefully noone unless you were careless and got seen.) Now pile on with the area effect spells, starting with "cloud" spells with long durations, while peppering lightly with arrows. This techique will kill 95% of the monsters and bosses in BG1, BG2, IWD and IWD2. Spiders and Dragons may pose a problem though. -Jam

I just use web and fireball.

And even without web, fireball is a very useful spell. You just have to get accustomed to the radius, and make sure you cast it away from your party. Make sure the ai is off when you use fireball. You eventualy learn where to cast it. Often I'll only use it once in a battle. After that eventually the enemy gets close to you. But one fireball is usually enough to kill or severely weaken many monsters. Later in BG2 there are better spells like Jamski said. Cloudkill, Horrid Wilting etc.

	06-04-2004 14:14									#259
	Got spare money?

Once I get to the fireball level then I'm planning to equip Minsc with a ring of fire protection or something similar, and then cast it. This will let him run into the fray unharmed, toast the baddies, and let all the others stand back and fire arrows/slingshots in.
Is there anything wrong with these tactics?

Oh, yeah, and I'm off work until next Thursday and will get quite a bit of BGing in tomorrow. I'm off on "family business" with the duchess until Tuesday, but I've thought ahead and can play more BG next Wednesday too (we're doing a hit at Skanky Burns' bar ).

	06-04-2004 14:21									#260
	Got spare money?

What's wrong is a ring of fire protection only gives 50% fire resistance at the best, so you need to combine it with other items that give fire resistance.

Interesting to note, is that if you have more than 100% fire resistance, fire will HEAL you.



-Jam

	06-04-2004 14:25									#261
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That's silly.

	06-04-2004 14:35									#262
	Got spare money?

Not as silly as having such a high constitution that you can heal yourself really quickly.
It's the same principle as using heal spells to damage the undead in various RPGs.

	06-04-2004 14:39									#263
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I think heal spells damaging the undead is much more rational than fire healing you. Once you hit resistance of 100% that should obviously be the limit.

	06-04-2004 14:52									#264
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That's the power of magic!

	06-04-2004 15:34									#265
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Its a simple line in a script that subtracts damage from fire by the amount of fire resistance you have. Silly programme doesn't know better and applies negative amounts of damage to you.

In the game rules, it shouldn't happen, but its a nice trick vs firebreathing dragons

-Jam

	06-04-2004 17:57									#266
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quote: Originally posted by duke o' york Not as silly as having such a high constitution that you can heal yourself really quickly.

Why is that silly, having more HP? Have I missed a trick?

quote: Originally posted by duke o' york It's the same principle as using heal spells to damage the undead in various RPGs.

Actually, that's a plot feature in BGII

My party's just done Larswood and is heading towards bandit camp. Is there any point doing Peldvale too, seeing that I can already go to the bandit camp? Anything of interest there, or anywhere else for that matter, that isn't an important map?

	06-04-2004 18:11									#267
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No Drogue, apart from getting more HP, a high (21+) constitution means that you get regenerative powers. The higher your constitution, the more you can regenerate, and quicker.
eg (as in, numbers not correct, Jamski will put them right ):
Con 24 = 3HP regained / game hour.

	06-04-2004 18:53									#268
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Not an important map, but some good stuff to kill, as always

And Duck is correct, a high CON score will cause you to regenerate. A good trick is to cast DUHM with a already high CON score just before resting to heal all hit points in 8 hours

-Jam

	06-04-2004 19:21									#269
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I didn't actually know that about CON, Is DoY right that it's 21+ CON? My main character's is 19, is there any other way to get it up perminantly (used the manual already)?

Jamski: Nice trick, although a bit cheesy, since DuHM shouldn't last 8 hours. I can't be bothered with maps just to kill things, unless there's some decent monsters (Golems, Sirenes, Basilisks, Wyverns, anything worth more than 1000 XP) or some decent magical items. I'll hit the XP cap before the end of the game, so extra XP isn't of concern. I have most of the magical items I want (waiting on Ankheg Plate, and money for Robe of Good Archmagi and Dagger of Poison). I just want to get on with the plot, since I'm enjoying that part, and get to BGII to see how my character duals, although I don't want to miss anything interesting.

When I get to BGII, I think I'll use Shadowkeeper to put the characters to how they were at the end of BGI, for example, I've put Jaheira and Minsc up in different attributes than they have in BGII, and so for continuity I'd like them to be like that. Although I'm tempted to turn Minsco into a dual wielding longsword man, rather than a two handed sword man, since I'll have Keldorn in my party. Although another bowman might be nice, and go with Lilacor. The fact I won't be able to use Celestial Fury is annoying too. Having Minsc with Celestial Fury and Daystar might be nice, and helps with undead killing, but having two people not able to use missile weapons is annoying.

What's bets to roleplay Minsc. I always thought of him as a two-handed sword wielding berzerker, but with the Ranger dual wield bonus, it seems that Rangers are meant to be dual wielded. His strength suggests large weapons, but his Ranger status suggest dual wield

	06-04-2004 19:38									#270
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He's a strange one, is Minsc. No points in two-handed weapon, so I don't know where this idea of him as a bash-with-big-sword guy comes from... Its a shame not to use one of the Ranger's big advantages and dual wield him for cheap, though. And he can still use missile weapons, just you have to go into the inventory and swop them. Its a pain to do it all the time, but still...

If you go to Peldvale, there's some Elite Bandits who all carry a nice stack of +1 and Ice arrows, and some spiders too for the EXP.

-Jam