Board 8 > Clearing my backlog, don't know what game to play now that I've bested Thief 3.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Steam games :

Red : Can't beat because mmos or just no end
Green : Bested games
Orange : Run badly on my computer

Not on Steam : Dungeon Siege 1/2, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 2, none bested.

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Oh, add DA:O to games that run badly.

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BG2

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Skyrim

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How can your computer run Skyrim but not DAO?

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GranzonEx posted...

How can your computer run Skyrim but not DAO?

No idea, I run Skyrim almost flawlessly at medium without shadows.

DA:O struggles at low everything.

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Spore

>.>

(Then you can mourn the potential like the rest of us.)

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Baulders Gate 2 is like 20 bucks on GOG.

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from that list

Bloodlines

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I own a physical copy of BG2.

Don't think I have any expansions though.

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Spore

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the GOG one should have it with all expansions

and I think its 10 not 20, Baulders Gate is also 10, so both together are 20. Thats where I got my copies, since I lost my phyiscal copys years ago.

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I can't afford new games though!

Kinda why I decided to clear my backlog.

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well yeah, me either but its 10 bucks

anyway you have it already. so its a moot point. But if you need expansions you know where to look in the future.

So yeah Bloodlines

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I wonder if my copy of BG2 would work with the GoG expansion though.

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Aight, you piqued my interest, bought BG2 Complete (was 10 bucks after-all).

At least with this game I'm sure i'm gonna have help if I need it, especially from Anagram.

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I was going to suggest BG2.

Couple of suggestions:

Avoid these classes for a first playthrough:
Wizard Slayer (completely awful, probably the single worst class is the game)
Any thief (almost every enemy either has permanent anti-stealth abilities or can cast a single spell to remove your stealth, almost all boss enemies are immune to backstab, and thieving skills, the only reason thieves are necessary, can be handled by any of the four thieves you can recruit into your party - thieves aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't a good choice for a first playthrough)
Enchanter (most mages prevent themselves from casting a certain type of spell to allow for more spells of other types, enchanters lose evocation, which means no direct damage spells - since most boss enemies are immune to instant kill and status effect spells, and many, many groups of enemies will go down to a well-placed fireball, this can be a minor problem. You can get around this with buffs and summons, but yeah)

I'd also warn against playing a druid, since mages and clerics are much more fun and have way more options for spells and equipment, but druids are still entirely capable.

Summoning is extremely powerful - most summons are weak as hell, but they can distract your enemies while they chop through them, which is more than worth the effort of summoning them.

Don't rely on stealth to avoid fights. Yeah, it sucks, but you want that experience and those items that they drop.

Avoid the Planar Sphere and Cult quests until you're at least level 11 or so. You can get them immediately, but they're the only sidequests with points of no return, and they involve fighting extremely powerful enemies that you absolutely cannot avoid. All of the other sidequests can be abandoned and started again later or have weaker enemies.

BG2 has a lot of enemies that require tricks to fighting them. I don't know what kind of WRPGs you've played in the past, but you'll be up against enemies with things like "remove 5 intelligence every time they hit you, and if you reach 0 intelligence, you die" or "can turn your party members to stone at will," so you more-or-less have to learn what you're fighting in advance much of the time and prepare yourself, because if you use your general strategy for fighting most monsters on something like mind flayers and umber hulks, you will get killed faster than you can imagine. Fortunately, you can become even more ridiculous once you figure out what the good spells are.

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Daw, and I liked Thieves too! But IIRC Imoen's a thief right? So that'd be redundant right off the bat.

Not too big on anything caster, I prefer stabbing and slashing!

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Ayuyu posted...

Daw, and I liked Thieves too! But IIRC Imoen's a thief right? So that'd be redundant right off the bat.

Not too big on anything caster, I prefer stabbing and slashing!

Thief is the class you need two of the least, yeah. It's a waste of spots to have two. As forr melee hackers, I'd suggest berserker or inquisitor - both are extremely strong (berserkers lose ranged weapons but gain berserk, which gives status effect immunity and improves all of your combat abilities, while inquisitors lose spellcasting and healing but gain anti-mage abilities).

The spells breach, pierce magic, and ruby ray of reversal are your best friends - even the weakest enemy mage will laugh at you without them.

As an aside, you should probably dual wield unless you're a paladin - dual wielding is usually better, but paladins have an exclusive ridiculously powerful two-handed sword.

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How long's the game btw? Let's say I want to do as much as possible, 100% it if no side-quests conflict with one another (doubt it).

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Also no Paladin, Chaotic Good is all I play and Paladins are usually lawful morons.

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Ayuyu posted...

How long's the game btw? Let's say I want to do as much as possible, 100% it if no side-quests conflict with one another (doubt it).

I'd say thirty-to-forty hours, but I can do it in much less beecause I know all of its secrets, so I might be off.

As for paladins, one of your potential party members is a paladin, and he's not like what you say at all - he's one of the most popular characters, in fact.

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Borderlands

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So it asks me if I want to play SoA or ToB.

I guess I pick ToB?

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Get a better computer then STALKER series

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Stalker would probably run alright, it's just that it crashes whenever I try to change the settings and I never found a fix.

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Going with a Ranger.

Str : 13
Dex : 15
Con : 18
Int : 10
Wis : 14
Cha : 12

Is that a good roll!?

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Dude don't play ToB first.

ToB is the expansion pack, you play SoA and it transitions into ToB.

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As for your ability scores, ignore what the game tells you is important. Here's what you need to know:
Strength determines your accuracy and your damage in melee combat, and increases your ability to carry items
Dexterity determines your accuracy and damage in ranged combat, and increases your armor
Constitution determines your hit points and nothing else
Intelligence determines your ability to learn spells if you're mage or bard, and increases your lore (ability to identify magic items - mostly useless because there are a zillion ways to do that)
Charisma lowers the price of items and gives you a handful of extra dialogue options

Strength is all important for a melee warrior. Constitution is nice and everything, but it comes after strength, so ignore the game when it says rangers need constitution first... That said, there are items that passively increase your strength and only one that increases your constitution, so low strength can be worked with. Ignore the game when it says wisdom is important for the ranger, also, lower wisdom to whatever the lowest possible amount is because it's literally useless for anyone except clerics and druids.

As for ranger... you can play it if you want, it's a fine choice, but the way this works is that fighters can put up to five points in a weapon proficiency, and each point increases their skill in that weapon, while rangers, barbarians, and paladins can only put two points (other classes can only put one). If you just want to go in and kill stuff in melee combat, fighters do do the most damage. Rangers get two free points in two weapon combat, charm animal (completely useless), stealth (useless since you also get heavy armor, which prevents the use of stealth), and spellcasting up to level 3, which... moderately useful.

Sorry if I'm overcomplicating this for you.

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It's aight! I might be reroll to a Fighter anyway cause I prefer sword and board and having 2 slots in 2-weapons proficency makes going sword and board kinda stupid.

Also what's up with armor, I equip it and my AC goes down, isn't it supposed to be the opposite!?

It does so with every armor type.

Please note that my D&D knowledge is crappy at best.

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Ayuyu posted...

It's aight! I might be reroll to a Fighter anyway cause I prefer sword and board and having 2 slots in 2-weapons proficency makes going sword and board kinda stupid.

Also what's up with armor, I equip it and my AC goes down, isn't it supposed to be the opposite!?

It does so with every armor type.

Please note that my D&D knowledge is crappy at best.

BG2 is based on second edition. In second edition, you want high hit points and low armor class, saving throws (essentially your defense against magic), and THAC0 (your accuracy). It's bizarre, I know, but that's how it goes. The lower the armor class, the better. Note that the writers didn't actually pay enough attention to the descriptions of spells and stuff, so you'll frequently see things like "this spell gives you +4 AC," which would be bad, but they mean -4 AC, which is good.

As for sword and board, that's workable, but understand your damage will be inferior to other melee types and your most dangerous enemies... well, fact is, will have such low THAC0 that any amount of AC won't matter, or will just use spells and your armor will be literally unimportant. Sword and board will be nice for SoA, but when you reach the expansion pack levels, you'll be hurting for more damage. Don't let me dissuade you, though, it's still fine as long as you have some other party members bring the damage.

As another suggestion, almost every weapon type has a superpowerful version... except clubs. Don't invest in clubs, it's a bad idea.

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I hate blunt weapons anyway so I would never invest in clubs!

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Ayuyu posted...

I hate blunt weapons anyway so I would never invest in clubs!

Just a warning.

For reference, the best weapon types to invest in if you don't know where the best weapons are found are:
Shortbows (there are more good shortbows than good longbows, even though longbows are theoretically better)
Two-handed swords (there are so many good two-handed swords that even if you know nothing about the game, you'll be drowning in them before long)
Longswords (technically inferior to bastard swords, but you'll find many good longswords and only a few good bastard swords unless you know where to look)
Katanas (theoretically, these are the best weapons in the game, but in practice, there are very few with strong enchantments, and only one that can hurt the final boss, which means dual wielders are a little screwed)
Bastard Swords

There are absolutely killer weapons that aren't any of those things, like halberds and warhammers, but they require knowledge of where to find them or craft them.

Keep in mind that if you select your party and tell them to attack someone, even your mages will go up and smack them with their stupid quarterstaves, so it's a good idea to give your mages slings. Not because they'll ever hurt anything with a sling, but just to keep them away from enemies.

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Also what about Dual-Classing? I've seen the option to but I assumed it wasn't beginner friendly so I avoided it.

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Ayuyu posted...

Also what about Dual-Classing? I've seen the option to but I assumed it wasn't beginner friendly so I avoided it.

Okay, here's where it gets complicated.

Non-humans have an option called multiclassing. Multiclassing means you start as two or three classes at once, and you gain experience in all of the classes at the same time, so when your single-classed party member gets 3000 experience, you get 1000 experience in all of your classes. In practice, this means your classes will be approximately one-to-two levels behind your party members, which is actually not too bad. If you're a fighter/mage/thief or fighter/mage/cleric, you could be in trouble, as mages require so much experience (different classes require different amounts of experience to level up: thieves and bards need the least, then fighters, then rangers and paladins, then clerics and druids, and finally mages require the most by far) that splitting it three ways might make you as much as three or four levels behind in your mage class, which actually is significant. Still, certain classes are extremely improved by adding another class that it's often very worth it - popular combinations are thief/mage, cleric/mage, fighter/cleric, and the always popular fighter/mage. Note that multiclass mages and thieves still can't wear heavy armor because it'll interfere with their magic/stealth, and multiclass clerics and druids are limited to cleric and druid weapons instead of their other class' larger weapon selection.

Humans, however, cannot multiclass and gain no racial advantages (all other races gain ability point bonuses and miscellaneous advantages - elves are immune to sleep, dwarves are resistant to poison, etc). Instead, humans get a more complex system called dual classing. You level up in your first class to whatever level, then dual class over to a new class and start leveling as that. For example, you get to level 7 in fighter, then dual class over to thief, and become a Fighter 7/Thief 1, whereas an elf would be a Fighter 7/Thief 7 (or more likely Fighter 5/Thief 6, but you get the idea). You lose your fighter abilities (except hit points) until level 8 in thief, where you gain all of your fighter abilities back - but you can only level as a thief from now on, so your fighter abilities are forever static. You'll be much weaker than the rest of your party members until you regain your original abilties, whereupon you'll become more powerful because your experience is all going to your new class, so you'll catch up in levels to everyone else very quickly.

For absolutely no reason at all, paladins, barbarians, monks, sorcerers, and bards cannot dual class, druids can only dual-class to fighter, and rangers can only dual class to cleric. You need a score of 15 in your primary ability score in your first class (strength for fighters) and 17 in your new class (dexterity for thieves). Never dual class away from a spellcasting class into a non-spellcasting class, only dual class into one - you're allowed to, but it's an extremely bad idea because spells > not spells. Unlike multiclassing, you can't take three classes, you're limited to only two. You also can only dual class into a base class, never a kit - so you can dual class to fighter, but not to berserker.

Dual classing sounds worse than multiclassing, but understand that it's actually better if you know what you're doing - it's just time consuming and needlessly complex. As an aside, if you do plan to dual class, there are only a few levels it's a good idea to do so: level 7, 9, and 13 are the accepted best levels to dual class to something else, with everything else being either too early, too late, or a waste of resources.

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Alright so I restarted as a Fighter/Thief with 18 everywhere but Wisdom which is at 3.

I just couldn't not pick a thief I like them too much.

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Also I tried killing the Golem at the beginning but my weapon was ineffective.

It's Morrowind's Ghosts all over again!

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Fought a bunch of goblin, wanted to try a spell, apparently it was an aoe, everybody died.

Welp.

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League of Legends

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Ayuyu posted...

Also I tried killing the Golem at the beginning but my weapon was ineffective.

It's Morrowind's Ghosts all over again!

The golems in the beginning dungeon are invincible (except for two), they're some of the only enemies that can't be hurt no matter what.

But.... you should be aware that some enemies are resistant to some damage types. As a There's blunt, slashing, piercing, fire, cold, electricity, acid, and untyped. Nothing resists untyped, but only a few spells use it. Blunt, slashing, and piercing are the damage types your weapons do; golems are all immune to one or two types of weapon damage (clay golems are immune to all but blunt damage, stone golems are immune to blunt damage).

There's also magic resistance, which works very simply: if you or an enemy has 25% magic resistance, all enemy spells have a 25% chance to fail outright against you (except for Lower Resistance, obviously). All golems have 100% magic resistance.

As for you Fighter/Thief, I've never heard of a sword-and-board Fighter/Thief, but I suppose there's no reason it can't work. As an aside, the best armor for a thief (and thus the best armor you can have) is obtained in the Umar Hills sidequest, which you can get immediately after the opening dungeon. You'll also want the Cloak of Non-Detection to protect yourself from enemies who can see through stealth. Note that dragons, golems, slimes, and all undead are immune to backstabs... and I think giants might be immune, too, I'm not sure.

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I can't backstab zombies?

It's Thief all over again!

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Also I entered a room with water filled tube and my sound became all crappy.

Wonder if there's a fix.

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Hmmkay, closed the game and restarted and it continued doing it, even in the developers intro and whatever.

I assume it's PC that makes it lag or somethin'

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Also I didn't pick up Minsc because girl powah.

I always play girl powah whenever possible.

I'm screwed heh?

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Ayuyu posted...

Also I didn't pick up Minsc because girl powah.

I always play girl powah whenever possible.

I'm screwed heh?

Hm... I think the only female warriors in the game are Mazzy and Jaheira. Offhand, your party member choices will be:
Jaheira (Druid/Fighter)
Imoen (Thief/Mage)
Nalia (Thief/Mage)
Aerie (Mage/Cleric)
Mazzy (Fighter)
Viconia (Cleric)

Well, at least you can pick up Aerie, who's legitimately very good - if you can put up with her personality.

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So I guess I won't pick Nalia, 3 thieves would be way too much I say, especially 2 Thief/Mage.

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Ayuyu posted...

So I guess I won't pick Nalia, 3 thieves would be way too much I say, especially 2 Thief/Mage.

She's the logical choice to dump, yes. I don't even know why she's in the game at all, she and Imoen are both human female thief/mages with red hair who specialize in shortbows. There's no reason she should exist.

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Oh also, my char has 18/01 Str, what's the 01?

It's also in the description of the Strength spell.

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Oh also, can I trash books after reading them? Because I've got to that library and I'm drowning in them.

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Ayuyu posted...

Oh also, can I trash books after reading them? Because I've got to that library and I'm drowning in them.

Books are useless except for learning more lore of the setting, they don't even sell for much.

The 18/01 thing is complicated. See, for most classes, 18 is the highest strength you can get without items or spells. Warrior classes (fighter, ranger, paladin, and barbarian) can get 18/XX strength - it's a warrior-only benefit, even other melee classes (like cleric and monk) can't get it. The XX is out of 100, with 00 equalling 100. The higher your number, the larger your bonus warrior-only strength is - even 18/01 strength is better than 18 strength... although not by much. Don't worry, though, because 18/01-18/50 is identical, so you always have a 50% chance when you roll for your 18/XX strength to have only a very small bonus.

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