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Tell a joke thread. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and D&D related jokes

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An idea of this thread has come into my mind recently.

So, let's go!

1. - Did you hear my friend John has been fired?
- Yep, I've just heard it. Apparently he's failed a save, or something.

2. - What is the most useless thing in the world?
- The ring of infravision.

3. [spoiler=because of the size]

(from http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2043):

There are three Flaming Fist Mercenaries on horseback out in the river bottoms. As they are riding along a small wounded gibberling runs out in front of them. It stops and turns their way.

The poor gibberling was mortally wounded (slash through the midsection by a long sword +1).

This was no oridinary gibberling, it spoke Common. The three FF mercenaries were astonished and dumbfounded when they heard this.

The gibberling said, "If you help me, I will grant you three wishes, or if you kill me a great death will come upon you."

The FF mercenaries decided to take the lawful way, and help out the poor monster. They took it to the local healer (Temple of Helm) and he gladly helped out anything in need.

After it was all cleaned up it was about to leave. Than it turned to the FF mercenaries and said, "about the three wishes, you must split them up between you; only 1 wish apiece."

The FF mercenaries were not happy; they thought they were getting 3 wishes apiece. The mercenaries were all different in one way. One of them was very fat, the other was a tall and skinny man, and the last was small and fat.

The gibberling then said, "I can see that you are not happy with my decision, but I will give you two days to decide." Once you have decided I will be waiting here for you," said the gibberling.

The mercenaries left and talked on their way back to their houses. "I dont think that is fair, we cared for that little beast and this is how it repays us," said the fat one. "Yea, I say we get the wishes and then we kill it for sport," said the tall one. The small and plump one was happy unlike the others, because he was a poor halfling with a bad house and job (being a FF mercenary must suck).

As they split up to go their seperate ways they waved good-bye. The tall one went to the left, fat one the middle, and halfling the right.

The next morning the local town crier was distributing the newspaper called the Elven Classic. The fat and halfling mercenaries met in the town square where he was. They asked for a newspaper to check out teh local problems. There on the front page, read in large letters "FLAMING FIST MERCENARY MURDERED"

At the site of this, the fat and halfling mercenaries started to panick. They went to their friends house.. and to their suprise there were many guards out in front. They went up and asked one of them what had happened here. He said that the FF mercenary inside was murdered during the night. They said his head was shoved though a wall with slash marks over his body. The FF mercenaries were scared out of their wits that they ran all the way back to the town square.

By this time it was turning darker, and the sky turned a deeper blue. "I better get home soon, incase my wife needs me," said the fat one. The halfling split up and went his own way to his house. As he entered the door he locked it and checked all the windows. He got in bed with his sword and shield by his side. He got up in the morning to find his body was still intact. He went outside with his armor on. He then went to the town square to meet his friend.

Today was the day he would get his wish he thought as he headed to meet his friend. He arrived and did not find his friend inside the town square. There the town crier was selling more newspapers. The halfling bought one and AGAIN on the front read "ANOTHER FLAMING FIST MERCENARY MURDERED".

The little halfling was shocked and at this he ran over to his friends house. There in front were some more guards. He couldn't believe that his only friends had been murdered by some beast. He than thought of the Temple of Helm and his wish. He ran over there as fast as he could. There just as he said so the gibberling had waited for them.

"Where have you been, its late in the day and I must get going," said the gibberling. "Sorry to be late, but my friends were murdered in the night," said the Halfling. "Sorry to hear that *snicker* *snicker* I hope you are ready for your THREE wishes now that your friends are gone," replied the gibberling. "Really!? I get three wishes now! Cool!," said the halfling.

At that the halfling used up two of his wishes, one on a new house and the other on the strongest shield and sword in the land. On his last wish he thought very hard, and decided to bring his friends back from the dead. At these last words the gibberling casted the spell/wish and his friends appeared in front of him. Just as he did this the gibberling said his good-byes.

He ran off down the ridge and over the hill out of sight. The halfling asked his friends if they were feeling ok. They replied in unison,"We are fine, but we still remember what killed us. In the faint shadows we could see that it was a small beast the size of a gibbe...OH MY GOD! YOU LET THE BEAST GO!!!."

At those words, they glanced the way that the gibberling had ran. "Do you think the wound that that gibberling had was from a sword of an unhappy customer?" said the Halfling. "We shall never speak of this again," they all said together. Was it the gibberling who had done the carnage? Or was it another monster still lurkering in the city limits?

[/spoiler]

BTW, once upon a time, there was a similar thread here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/16145/share-your-baldurs-gate-d-d-jokes

The most entertaining NPC in the saga

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I want you guys/damsels to vote the most entertaining NPC in the saga in your opinion.

You can vote for any NPC be it Bioware, Beamdog or Mod. I will regularly check the topic to update the OP with the votes. I'll do it manually since you can only have 10 poll options.

Note: NPC "enhanced by mods" will still be counted as a vote for said NPC.
Edit: To avoid scattering votes, you can only vote for playable npc!
Stating why you vote for said NPC is most welcome.

NEW IDEA: Add your favorite quote (doesn't need to be 100% exact) from said character.

I vote for Xan thanks to the Xan friendship mod.

Baeloth: 1
Edwin: 2
Jan: 7
Korgan: 1
Minsc/Boo: 7
Neera: 4
Tiax: 1
Xan: 1
Xzar: 2

Voice Actors

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I created this thread because I wanted to complain about how there are not enough voice sets for players to choose from, especially for dwarves! The voice actor that created Gurke in the Jovial Juggler has done an amazing job, how I would love to have my dwarven Defender have that sound set!

Then I realized, I don't think I have ever seen a thread dedicated to voice acting and the actors.

So now there is one, and I also got to complain YIPPEEE!!

Shadowdancer/mage

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Now I may have cheated a tiny tiny bit by adding a kit to a multiclass(EE keepered a mage/thief to a shadowdancer/mage) but dual classing it would probably be way more powerful anyway so I'm unsure what to call it, hate dual classing though. But the thing is that this combination is probably the strongest thing I have ever played, my not so perfect berserker->mage don't even stand a chance so far. This thing is a god.

I can interrupt enemy spellcasting by stealthing while in line of sight, safely cast spell after spell by simply breaking stealth and re-entering after casting my spell. I will later on be able to use vhailor's helm with use any item and spend expensive projectiles(arrows of detonation/dispell/biting) for free along with wands. I can shadowstep to avoid both traps and enemy aoe spells. I can backstab and I will have full access to arcane spells with all the possible stupidly good mage/thief uses. I can stealth past anything I don't want to fight, I can disarm traps and unlock chests for xp along with scribing. I will have access to shadowdancer HLA that will basicly be another *free* simulacrum. I have higher saves and as an elf I'm pretty much immune to charm and sleep effects. I could without problem go on about how I can tailor this combination to pretty much be immune to anything with use any item and how ridiculously powerful it can become and its insane solo potential but I think this brick of text is enough. The only "bad" is the required attributes.

So to my question, how in ever is this not considered the absolute best combination in the game? So far I can't see how it would be inferior to anything available?

Diviner --> ? Dual Class

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Hey everyone, I wanted to start a new playthrough of BGEE and was trying to think of a unique class combo I haven't tried before. Was wondering if anyone tried dual classing a diviner. My thought process is some kind of warrior or thief who has a vague notion of the events to come. I would limit myself to only divination spells and dual at some point to thief or warrior. Maybe use EEKeeper for an assassin so Charname just kinda "knows" where his targets are or maybe a bounty hunter, again, just "knowing" where and when to lay down some traps. A wizard slayer combo is also of particular interest. Charname would know when he would come into combat with magic users, and using his divination "gifts," be able to counter them more efficiently. This would also kinda account for meta game knowledge.

Anyways, if anyone had any insights/suggestions into a playthrough I would appreciate it, i.e. when to dual class, interesting dual class comobs, etc.!

Thanks!

"Advertise" Your Written Play-through(s)!

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So as I'm sure we all know, there are a lot of really cool written play-throughs of the BG saga on these forums. Some of them are very challenge based, while others are more for the role-play. There are several prominent writers of these as well as a few who have just started and only have one or two of their play-throughs up. Sometimes one of the more well known writers will make a new play-through, (example: @Blackraven‌) but someone who reads all of their work will miss it and only find it a week or two later. (example: me) The idea behind this thread is that writers of these "play-throughs" can "advertise" their play-throughs, thus making for easy access for others, as well as a visible and concise back catalogue for new members of the forums. I'm not going to include my own writings in the main post, but I'll place them in the comments, same as you all. The "format" for these would be...

[Title of the thread/character's name/what kind of challenge it is/however else you'd want to title it] [release status i.e complete/BG1 complete/on break/on hiatus/ongoing/etc.]

[Link to first page of the thread]

[short description of the thread]

Any extra details or notes you might want to add beyond the description is up to you, though I don't know what you'd put in that section.

Now, I'm not sure whether to leave this in General Discussion or Challenges and Playthroughs. I think I'll leave it in General Discussion for at least a week, just so it can garner attention. Once that's done I'll toss it into C&P, since it definitely belongs in there.

With all that done, I'm going to tag a few people who I know have written play-throughs on the forums, since they'll hopefully be interested. @Lemernis‌ @Heindrich‌ @lolien‌ @bengoshi‌ @meagloth‌ @MacHurto‌ @BelgarathMTH‌ @SionIV‌ @Aurorus‌ @Gotural‌ @SharGuidesMyHand‌ and Blackraven (previously tagged)

Do you collect and read all the ingame books throughout the Game(s)?

What is your least favourite weapon?

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I'm curious, what do you think the most useless weapon type in general.

Name all the Jansens

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That are in the game, either physically or mentioned by Jan or someone else.

K go!

The best of Drizzt!

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This has to be my favorite shot of Drizzt in the game. I feel it does the character all the justice( Just Us ) he deserves. On his back while my fearsome foursome has a laugh and loots his body.

"Help me or die!" ~Sanctimonious Prig

"How about we help you die!"~Fearsome Foursome

The Autumn urge to go dungeon crawling

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School has started back, some of your friends have headed off to college, the evenings are getting darker, the weather is colder and people don't want to do much during the weekdays anymore now that Summer is over.

Then a quick flashback of playing Baldurs Gate hits you and you get the urge to do another play through.

Anyone else get this? Its about the same time every year for me but I'm going to have to suppress my urge to go adventuring until SOD is released.

Bugs

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Hello, I'm writing this for the beamdog employees to view.
First off, I'd like to say that I like the new ideas that were put forth into the game. A few new NPC's, few new quests, etc.
Secondly, I'll state it plain and simple: You have taken on an old, basic game. It is not like anything most employees (or players for that matter) are used to. Most people never even heard of Baldur's Gate except for seeing it's console counter-part in a display case several years ago. It's basic, it's easy, and the original version (officially patched) works flawlessly. Leading me to:
My third point. I bought BG:EE about a year ago and it took me 4 tries to actually play it through. I can play through BG1/TotSC pretty easily and with my only frustration being the countless deaths I face on hard difficulty. (I've been playing Baldur's Gate since it was released, I bought BG2:SoA and ToB the night's they were released so I find it necessary to challenge myself.) But what took me so many tries, was the frustration of the countless bugs (and for one of the tries because a bug made the game crash every time I tried to load my saved game). I understand completely. Games have bugs like this... in BETA TESTING. Bugs that literally take it to the point of either not being able to complete a game, or making it mentally exhausting is completely unthinkable once they have exited beta testing and are purchasable.
So, I finally was able to finish, and uninstalled. I figured since it IS an old way of coding, most of your employees not knowing how to add content without there being a slew of bugs would be expected. So I gave you the benefit of the doubt and figured I'd reinstall after awhile to give you all enough time to get it working smoothly. So 9ish months later I reinstalled and gave it another go. It still isn't smooth at all. All of the bugs I faced, are still there. In your logs, you say you've fixed them, but then I go looking on the internet, and all that you've done is when faced with 4 ways to go about a situation, you make 1 work. That doesn't make it smooth. That is half-ass'ing it because you have someone sit on a bug trying to fix it for a week, and they can't figure out how to get it to completely work, so they just do what they can. Understandable, but not when you're promising players that their money was well spent.
At this point you have few options. Either:
A. Start firing people that don't get the job done right. Which no one wants to do, but if you can't do a job, then don't take the job.
B. Start telling customers BEFORE they accept a purchase that it is full of bugs for the time being, and that your company is "doing what they can" to resolve them but STOP promising them fixed because 2 years of lying is unacceptable to anyone, for any reason.
or C. Start from scratch. You're editing old software and trying to make it do new things. Which is why it is hard to do. You can't have your 90's DOS computer trying to run anything even as old as counter strike. It just doesn't work. So you can build a new game from scratch, using new coding, to make it look at work exactly like Baldur's Gate does. Yes, this is very time consuming, extremely even. But as a company you're just giving yourself a bad reputation. The whole "Oh wouldn't this be great? Oh well we've kinda made some mistakes, but we're going to fix them, don't worry!" sounds pretty similar to a presidential election/term.

Remaking the program would not be impossible. Black Isle was a smaller company then you, and had next to no funding. They all worked their normal jobs, then had the second job of making a good, well-built game. The game eventually let them quit their normal jobs because they put real time and effort into it. They were passionate about it. Don't go taking something that someone was passionate about and not do everything you can for it. That's messed up, and quite frankly disrespectful.

The Flipside: Who is the most overrated NPC?

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This is probably a more delicate topic than the "most underrated NPC" poll, so I want to point out this is not about popularity of an NPC, it's about their (percieved) cheesy-broken-overpowered status. This topic is meant to inspire discussion about the downsides of NPCs that are said to have none, compare them to their "weaker" class counterparts and maybe find new ideas for power parties and strategies involving the "b-listers".

Edwin is hands down my favorite BG2 NPC, but I also think he's pretty overrated. Extra spells don't mean that much in a game with tons of wands and scrolls. Like I said - popularity isn't the subject here and I hope no-one will take it personal if their favorite companion makes the list or is critized.

Quick breakdown why I put these NPCs on the list:

Edwin - frequently called overpowered due to more spell slots from his amulet
Keldorn - often listed as a "must have" due to his Dispel Magic/class
Imoen - highest roll among the NPCs, considered a "must have" by many
Haer'Dalis - often called overpowered due to kit, especially in HLA territory
Minsc - considered a "must have" by many, for reasons that are beyond me
Viconia - considered a "must have" due to her magic resistance, even by non-evil parties
Baeloth - said to rival, if not surpass Edwin in spellpower due to extra casts
Dorn- seen as overpowered due to the illegal race/class combo
Jan - not sure he's a "must have" because he's Jan or because he was the only progressing thief
someone else - I considered adding Anomen, Aerie, Neera and Jaheira due to their power and class (combo), but all seem to have fairly balanced love/hate fronts and are generally seen as "appropriately powerful", not "borderline OP" or ouright cheesy. Feel free to vote for them or any other NPC anyway.

A Wizard Slayer's Odyssey

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Hey everyone, after the retirement of Morhild in Amn, I've had four more solo no-reload Wizard Slayers who failed to save the Sword Coast (one fell to the trap in Tazok's tent, two to Charms, and the last one couldn't keep Dukes Belt and Jannath safe from Sarevok's wrath). Stubborn as a donkey, I went on to roll yet another Wizard Slayer, and soon hit the jackpot: a 96 roll with 18/63 STR. Ironically, for a solo Wizard Slayer this is arguably an inferior roll to say a 78 roll with 18/00 STR, due to the unavailability of the STR tome below Candlekeep. I felt it would be a shame to just ignore the 96 roll, so I decided to go for a role-played party run, more like some of the runs I posted last year, and switch from no-reload to minimal reload if necessary (which is why I'm not posting in the no-reload thread).

Nurim Stonefist of Candlekeep[spoiler]image[/spoiler]is generally a good sort, accomodating, hard-working, fairly sociable for a Dwarf, and with a fine - if raunchy - sense of humor that in Candlekeep is matched only by Winthrop's. But his good spirits tend to vanish with the mere mention of the topic of arcane magic. Nurim distrusts and disapproves of 'sorcery' (he calls all arcane magic 'sorcery', usually pronounced with contempt or concern in his voice, irrespective of who practices it). This aversion stems from his belief, shaped first and foremost by the abusive nature of Ulraunt who governs the citadel like a dictator but also by his history studies, that arcane magic does more harm than good and that it makes the more talented practitioners more powerful than is healthy for them, inevitably vitiating them.
Nurim has a special Know Alignment ability (2x/day), given to him by his matron deity Berronar Truesilver, It helps him detect the nature of wizards and other folk he has dealings with. Nurim won't act against good-aligned wizards he has no proof of abuse against, but wizards he identifies as evil with his Know Alignment ability, or wizards whose actions are overtly evil should not expect him to remain passive.

In Candlekeep Nurim always keeps his distance from anything arcane magic-related, preferring to read with the Monks and train with the Watchers. Thanks to the former he's quite the scholar (16 INT, 15 WIS), while the latter helped him become as strong as an ox and an able wielder of his weapon of choice: axes and throwing axes (two pips in Axes, two in dual-wielding).

Nurim won't accept the company of wizards in his party or even folk that sympathize with magic. But, to be clear, Nurim's misgivings about magic are strictly limited to the arcane. They do not concern the powers of priests bestowed upon them by their Gods or by nature, so priests will be welcome to associate themselves with him. I considered rolling a custom party but I think it's more interesting for Nurim to look for allies amongst the available NPCs and to try and build the best possible anti-arcane party with them.

I find the Wizard Slayer's inability to use enchanted bracers, jewelry or cloaks a bit arbitrary, especially considering the fact that armor or weapons with the exact same enchantments are prefectly usable. I'll roleplay that Nurim's fine with magical enchantments on weapons and armor that make the wielder/bearer a more formidable combatant (Dwarven smiths he cannot but respect excel at making those) but that it's a decision of his to refuse to use other magical trinkets rather than not being able to. Companions may use such items, at their own peril.
I'll also roleplay that Nurim doesn't know right away that he's a Wizard Slayer. He's never been part of an order that could give him any specific training towards combating magic, and none of the warriors in Candlekeep seems a Wizard Slayer. I'm not sure yet if/how his stance toward arcane magic will evolve.

There's not much to tell about Nurim's journey yet, except the following.

Yesterday Nurim left Candlekeep with his foster father, the sage Gorion, after an assassin poisoned the Dwarf. Nurim had to use Dreppin's antidote or die.[spoiler]image[/spoiler]He chose to quaff the antidote that was not his.
On his way with Gorion another attack followed, mere hours from Candlekeep. A party led by a tall human warrior had demanded Gorion to hand Nurim over. Gorion refused and battle followed. Nurim took an arrow in the shoulder (reminding him he wanted better armor than his splint mail) and was told by Gorion to retreat. But his foster father's magics alone were not enough to subdue the warrior. The Dwarf witnessed from afar how Gorion was slain by the fighter. There was little he could do but hide and tend to his injury. With difficulty he removed the arrow, and when he drank a healing potion, his wound soon mended.

The next morning Imoen, a rogue and his childhood friend from Candlekeep, joined him. She told him she had followed Gorion and him. Nurim liked the lass, and was therefore glad to have her company.

Doing Something Wrong, importing FS from BG TO BG2

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I have the save showing when I launch BG2 "load game", but it won't play.

All I did was move the file from documents - save from BGEE to documents-save BG2 EE. And it says it's there. But I know it isn't (so hard to explain when I don't understand/know any of the correct terms), it's kind of sitting there with a title but what's inside is still inside the folder. Does that make sense?

If anyone could try and explain what to do in simple terms I would be very grateful.

Lawful Good:Why all the flack?

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Why so many gamers are mean spirited and mocks lawful good characters?

Idea for a wizard slayer 'fix'

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For me, the wizard slayer thematically doesn't make any sense. He can't use 'magical' items like potions, rings, necklaces or belts, but he can wield magical swords and wear magic armor. That just doesn't add up in my mind.

So I had this idea, and for those more mechanically smart, would this work?

Wizard Slayer:

* Wizard slayers cannot use any magic items of any kind (no weapons, armor, helms, rings, necklaces, potions, etc), except for healing potions and antidotes.
* When wielding normal weapons, at lvl 8 the weapon counts as being +1. This increases to +2 at lvl 12, +3 at lvl 18, +4 at lvl 22 and +5 at lvl 26.
* When wearing normal armor, at lvl 8 the armor counts as being +1. This increases to +2 at lvl 12, +3 at lvl 18, +3 at lvl 22 and +5 at lvl 26.
* Wizard slayers have bonus to magic resistance of 1% for each level and in addition, starting from lvl 20, they gain 5% magical resistance every second lvl.
* Every successful hit also lowers the chance by 10% to successfully cast spells.
* Wizard slayers' attacks always count as being both magical and nonmagical.
* Wizard slayers gain the skill 'detect illusion.' They get 5 ability points per level, which is automatically added (much like how a ranger's hide and sneak skills automatically increase).


With this, wizard slayers would really be magic free. They would also be viable, as like monks their basic attacks would increase. They wouldn't be at the mercy of spell casters who can use illusionary magic to wreck wizard slayers, but unlike inquisitors they'd need to take time to actually use a skill to see through it. And best of all, they'd remain warriors with magic resistance and anti-magic attacks.


Would this be a viable change to wizard slayers, and would it make them worth taking?







Baldur's Gate in the real world...

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Let us hunt down the secrets of Faerun on this planet and find the lost cities, towns and wonders of Baldur's Gate! :D

I'll start us off...

The Friendly Arm Inn (Hedingham Castle and Rochester Castle)

image

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Deleting Pre-Generated Characters

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Is there any way to remove the pre-generated characters like Abdel, Halen and Adelia in BG:EE and BG2:EE? I've tried looking for their character files (01FIGHT) but no luck...

The most annoying npc

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Have you ever had a particularly annoying npc in your game? If so. Please feel free to vent your frustration here! :)
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