Current Events > I've been playing Baldur's Gate 2 (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

After numerous BG3 runs, I figured it was time to finally give BG2 a real playthrough. Last time I played (sometime in 2021 or 2022) I didn't finish and actually quit pretty early into it, but I'm committing to finishing it now. I even replayed BG1 (which I did finish before) to prepare.

Still don't really get THAC0 but I've been doing okay so far anyway. >_>

Is there anything I need to watch out for? I missed a few good items in BG1 (I was kinda rushing lol), but I'd like to avoid that this time. Best party composition? I'm playing a Paladin/Cavalier if it matters.

And of course, the most important, who to wife: Probably will be Aerie since I hear Jaheira's romance is bugged and I'm playing Lawful Good so Viconia might not happen. I'm surprised Imoen isn't an option since RPGs love drawing from the "childhood friends" well.

I'm playing Enhanced Edition btw, if that matters.

Ivynn posted...

Still don't really get THAC0 but I've been doing okay so far anyway.

It means to hit ac zero. Essentially you have to roll that number to hit an armor class of 0. I maybe wrong tho

Did you skip the siege of dragonspear?

solosnake posted...

Did you skip the siege of dragonspear?

Yeah since I don't have it. I do have Throne of Bhaal tho.

Ivynn posted...

Still don't really get THAC0 but I've been doing okay so far anyway. >_>

Lower number = better

Hospy posted...

Lower number = better

That seems counterintuitive lol

Ivynn posted...

That seems counterintuitive lol

Welcome to AD&D.

Learn to love disabling other mages with your own mages.. use true sight, dispell, breach, etc.

and always buff up your party when you can.. use bless and haste (especially improved haste) right before battles

you can get the flail of ages+3 pretty early on by going to the DeArnise keep (this is Nailias quest who is located at the Copper Coronet) and a decent 2H by freeing the genie in the beginning dungeon (I think you have to talk to the woodland beings twice to get what he needs)

oh and do spam summons.. skeletons especially are great for enemies like umber hulks and beholders

forgot to mention that you should get a scroll case and a gem bag from the adventurers mart ASAP

keep all the scrolls, sell all the gems

KanWan posted...

Learn to love disabling other mages with your own mages.. use true sight, dispell, breach, etc.

I always beeline towards the mages first. Spellcasters delenda est.

KanWan posted...

and always buff up your party when you can.. use bless and haste (especially improved haste) right before battles

Yeah, I'm always casting Haste on my melee fighters. Bless I don't use much because I honestly don't see much of a difference.

KanWan posted...

you can get the flail of ages+3 pretty early on by going to the DeArnise keep (this is Nailias quest who is located at the Copper Coronet) and a decent 2H by freeing the genie in the beginning dungeon (I think you have to talk to the woodland beings twice to get what he needs)

I got the Sword of Chaos +2 from the djinni, but I'm spec'd for longswords so I had to give it to Minsc. I'm a sword and board tank. I'll watch out for the flail. Speaking of Nalia, is she a good party member? or someone to drop after I do her quest. I'm committed to keeping Minsc, Jaheira and Aerie, so that leaves 2 slots open.

Ivynn posted...

Speaking of Nalia, is she a good party member? or someone to drop after I do her quest.

She's basically Backup Imoen.

Don't click that unless you've gotten out of the first area.

DrizztLink posted...

She's basically Backup Imoen.

Don't click that unless you've gotten out of the first area.

yeah, Imoen's been taken already, I'm in Athkatla now.

Then yes, she essentially exists to give you a person who fills Imoen's party role.

There's another Mage/Thief squaddie but they're not human so they use the multiclass instead of dual-class rules.

Because AD&D is an entire shitshow.

Yoshimo is a good one to have for his thief skills, if got the space. I think his kit has some nice traps as well, if into using them.

Ivynn posted...

...

And of course, the most important, who to wife: Probably will be Aerie since I hear Jaheira's romance is bugged and I'm playing Lawful Good so Viconia might not happen. I'm surprised Imoen isn't an option since RPGs love drawing from the "childhood friends" well.

I think they excluded Imoen as an option because
1) it's canon that the player character thinks of her like a sister
and 2) she is the player character's half-sister
and 3) her absence from much of the game limits the opportunities to build a relationship

of course, if you have the enhanced edition Neera is another option
I don't know why they restricted the female options for male characters to all having elven blood of some sort
(though Siege of Dragonspear Castle allows a fling with the human Safana)

So I'm at a bar where a bunch of characters are throwing themselves at me: Nalia, Amonden, Hexxat, and Korgan. That's a lot of people in a short time! And they all have quests attached that seem pretty urgent. Is Nalia's quest timed? If so, I may focus on that. But I also wanna help Hexxat because, well, I have a weakness for goths, I'm not gonna pretend otherwise.

Which ones should join my merry band of Me, Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie and Yoshimo

It isn't timed, but it has nice rewards and is more or less the "expected" next step.

Ivynn posted...

Yeah since I don't have it. I do have Throne of Bhaal tho.

Throne of Bhaal was the original ending of the series and pretty awesome... Siege of Dragonspear is hit or miss depending on if you really like the gameplay. It's the by far the least important part of the series story wise since it got tacked on after the enhanced editions came out and they never got to follow through on finding ways to integrate the new story into BG2.

DrizztLink posted...

It isn't timed, but it has nice rewards and is more or less the "expected" next step.

That's good to know that I can take my time. I ended up doing Hexxat and Korgan last night so she was sent away. But man what a fakeout with Hexxat, turns out that goth was just a decoy and the real Hexxat is like an African vampire queen lol. Since she's Neutral Evil, she probably won't be a permanent member. Same with Korgan.

I'm glad I did Hexxat first tho since I got a unique Bag of Holding out of it which I desperately needed.

Before going to Nalia's keep, some good things to have are ways to do fire/acid damage to permanently kill the trolls. Also, summons work great against the umber hulks. They will cause confusion against the first party member they see.

Fun fact, there's a character duplication bug in BG2, I stumbled on it the last time I played.

Any character that hangs around wherever you drop them off can be duplicated but characters that return to a specific location when removed from the party cannot be duplicated.

Before you beat Shadow's of Amn and go on to Throne of Bhaal? Drop off whoever you want to duplicate outside the entrance to Watcher's Keep. When you start Throne of Bhaal the character will be both at your base and also still standing around outside Watcher's Keep and you can get both of them.

This works in the Enhanced Edition of the game, I don't know if it works in the original. I stumbled on it when I left Wilson (the bear) there in my last play through and found him and was able to get 2 Wilsons. I tested things a bit and it didn't seem to break anything but I reloaded and left him there just in case.

Man, hearing David Warner voice Irenicus reminds me how good he was at playing villains. RIP I still miss him.

Shadow20201 posted...

Before going to Nalia's keep, some good things to have are ways to do fire/acid damage to permanently kill the trolls. Also, summons work great against the umber hulks. They will cause confusion against the first party member they see.

Good to know. I feel like sometimes if I go into a battle/quest without the proper equipment or spells prepared, I'm more or less screwed. But you often don't know what exactly you need to win until you're already in it and then it's too late if you don't have save far enough back. :\

So many quests sound like they have a time limit. It's kinda stressing me out lol

Are most quests timed or just a few? Please say few and I'm just being paranoid. >_>

For the most part, timed quests are just companion quests, with the exception of Nalia's (if you take too long she'll go off on her own but she'll wait for you at the location).

Your companions will sound off on those quests a couple of times before they take off to do it themselves.

For example, Minsc will want you to go to Umar Hills (quest received in the Government district), but that's the one that's the least obvious. Most of them are either right off the bat (Korgan wants you to do his quest pretty soon after recruiting him) or pretty obviously important to them (someone's poisoned sister or in-danger love interest is probably gonna be something you should get on quick-like).

Beyond that, you'll end up in a specific city in Act 5 and working undercover. The "main story" quests will almost all be timed, but they're relatively generous and clearly stated ("We're good for now, feel free to hang out here, but if you don't meet me within 3 days we're gonna have a fuckin' problem"), that sort of thing. Then someone in the same place wants you to break into a wizard tower, which you should probably just do as soon as it comes up.

Then your "stronghold" quests will usually be timed, but I've never played a Paladin so I don't know what that questions is like.

I finished Nalia's quest and got a huge payday. I can give the 20000 gold to that guy now to begin the Imoen rescue mission but I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of all the quests I can do right now. When is a good time to turn that money in?

Also it's funny how Aerie is so waifu before waifu was a thing. I feel like younger me would have been enamored with her, but old adult me feels she's kinda whiny lol >_>

You can turn the money in more or less whenever, that's just step one in the process. You've got another questline to get through before you're actually ready to go. I recommend doing it, though, the guy you'll be sent to talk to gives you several great items, including an amulet that'll be useful on someone for basically the rest of both games.

I'm usually cheating my ass off so I get the quest and turn it in on the spot, get back-to-back "new chapter" videos.

Why is Anomen so mean? I hate clicking on him, he gives such an attitude.

I got his and Aerie's quests in quick succession so I suppose I gotta do those now since they are likely timed? Sometimes I feel like every step I take, I get flagged down by an NPC for a new quest, it's worse than Skyrim lol

I dropped Nalia for Yoshimo. Figured I should try to spend as much time with him before...something. I got spoiled that he isn't gonna be with me for much longer. :\

Anomen gets better but you may have to romance him for him to do so. Just think when this game was current Anomen was the only romance option for women.

Ivynn posted...

Why is Anomen so mean? I hate clicking on him, he gives such an attitude.

He's a pompous dick, but his personal quest is a good one.

Funkydog posted...

He's a pompous dick, but his personal quest is a good one.

yeah, speaking of his personal quest, I encouraged him to get revenge on Saerk for the death of his sister but I didn't expect Anomen to kill Saerk's innocent daughter to do it. I didn't even get an option to talk him out of it.

Did I do bad?

There is a katana, Celestial Fury, in a building in the main city held by a group of more or less high level adventurers. If you can trap cheese them it is one of the best weapons in the game.

Ivynn posted...

yeah, speaking of his personal quest, I encouraged him to get revenge on Saerk for the death of his sister but I didn't expect Anomen to kill Saerk's innocent daughter to do it. I didn't even get an option to talk him out of it.

Did I do bad?

Yes. You did.

If you tell him not to seek revenge he gets better and gets a big stat upgrade.

You need to tell him to follow the law i believe and maybe confront his father? To get the good ending.

Ivynn posted...

yeah, speaking of his personal quest, I encouraged him to get revenge on Saerk for the death of his sister but I didn't expect Anomen to kill Saerk's innocent daughter to do it. I didn't even get an option to talk him out of it.

Did I do bad?

You dun goofed

Damn. Reload old save I go!

Ivynn posted...

Did I do bad?

That one's written to be a little bit of a "damned if you do damned if you don't" situation.

Letting him do it changes his alignment and gets him booted out of the Order, and the dude was innocent.

Stopping him also changes his alignment and it comes with a (very needed) Wisdom upgrade, but in that case the guy is guilty.

DrizztLink posted...

That one's written to be a little bit of a "damned if you do damned if you don't" situation.

Letting him do it changes his alignment and gets him booted out of the Order, and the dude was innocent.

Stopping him also changes his alignment and it comes with a (very needed) Wisdom upgrade, but in that case the guy is guilty.

So the plot changes itself depending on what choice you make? You get revenge = he was innoncent, you don't get revenge = j/k he's guilty? that's weird.

There is no right answer and sometimes nobody is happy.

This theme ties itself to Anomen's overall character arc, as he can do nothing right and his existence actively makes the world less joyful.

Ivynn posted...

That seems counterintuitive lol

The way AC used to work is that your enemy's AC was the final modifier you added to your dice roll after your proficiency, str or dex modifier, and weapon enchantment, and 20 or above was a hit.

THAC0 is just the number you need to roll to achieve a 20 without any bonus from enemy AC.

I redid Anomen's quest and pushed him to pursue lawfulness (which I should have done anyway since I'm Lawful Good). I also recruited Haer'Dalis, is he useful? He's a Bard but I don't know how Bards play in AD&D rules.

I'm gonna try to knock out every active sidequest before continuing on. Might try to get that Paladin homebase too.

And I see why future Bioware games would make use of camps and stuff, because characters randomly starting conversations when you're in the middle of something is quite annoying lol

I've been stuck in this room. Is there a way to get rid of the lava or is that something I just have to deal with

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/29c8ea0b.jpg

pls respond I'd like to continue playing and I'm still stuck

Pop a Protection from Fire or something, but if I remember correctly it's pretty minor damage even if you just tank it. It's less lava and more "ouchie ouchie hothothot."

You can also just send your trap-finder along the edges, you should be able to skirt the pool to get to the back room.

There's one pretty nice magic item in the pool, and it'll technically help solve the problem you caused by walking over to it.

Is dimension door a thing in BG2? I can't recall

HighSeraph posted...

Is dimension door a thing in BG2? I can't recall

Not until very, very, VERY late.

If you have the console enabled, there's always (I think) control + J.

If that's the Enhanced Edition then Beamdog removed Dimension Door anyways because it could sequence break events and so the console will be the only option.

Cleared the temple, tried to fight the shadow dragon but it burned my ass so perhaps later >_>

Recruited Valygar who has like the most boring, white-collar voice imaginable, did the VA even try lol

Jaheira and Aerie had a huge blowout over me, felt kinda awkward. But they made me choose so I chose Aerie, woulda like Jaheira but I heard her romance is bugged. Plus the fact that she never references feelings for Bhaalspawn (or CHARNAME as it seems the fanbase calls them) in BG3 makes me think it's not canon anyway.

Speaking of bugs, is there some unofficial patch available that I probably should have downloaded >_>

I explored the Copper Coronet's basement and scored a talking sword so that should be fun

Ivynn posted...

Plus the fact that she never references feelings for Bhaalspawn (or CHARNAME as it seems the fanbase calls them) in BG3 makes me think it's not canon anyway.

I hate to break it to you but thanks to 5e's Murder in Baldur's Gate, no romance is canon and Gorion's Ward died alone

Jaheira's romance isn't actively bugged but it's easy for events in the game to trigger it because if she dies or is petrified at any point that counts as her being removed from the party which automatically fails her romance and this can also cause issues for events in her romance itself that have her temporarily leave the party.

I'm getting close to giving up on the "rest as little as possible" mindset and just resting after every battle because man that planar sphere just has doozies every room.

Funkydog posted...

Yoshimo is a good one to have for his thief skills, if got the space. I think his kit has some nice traps as well, if into using them.

:(

Is it smart to try to finish everything in Athkatla before moving into the wider world? There is A LOT of shit to do here lol. I'm trying to knock out everything in my journal before moving on but new stuff keeps getting added. >_>