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Dragons and dragonborns

January 6, 2016, 11:20 am
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So this one goes out to all you tabletop DnD players at there who have 6000 DnD hand books including 3.5 and 4th edition.

A while before 4th edition came out (I think at least), I remember reading something about dragons and dragonborns, I even remember seeing a debate behind it as well. The thing I read was in dungeons and dragons, dragons and Dragonborn are in fact actually mammal and not reptilian, and they get mistaken for reptiles due to the similarities they share; is this true? Dragonborns in general have a extremely high body temperature which people who usually would mistake for them having a fever or such.

Personally I would find this awesome. You can't honestly tell me that every single Dragon, a creature that usually is designed by meshing together different species of creatures which are both reptilian and mammalian, are 1 species.

There was a debate I saw that seperate Dragon and dragonborn due to the idea db was mammal but dragons were reptilian, meaning db and Dragon didn't share a common ancestor or common creator, Lo.
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Who in their right mind...?

March 30, 2015, 10:35 pm
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So you wander through Athkatla and stumble into a derelict house. The door was rigged with a nefarious trap that drained your life force a bit, so you will have to go to a temple later to get that fixed. Odd that there would be such a nasty trap on the door to a house that only had a few minotaurs squatting in it (not sure where they came from). A brief search of the house reveals nothing of real interest, so you head to the basement. Suddenly you feel very uneasy as you appear to be in an ancient tomb with monolithic statues on each side. There is an aura of unease and the unnatural that seeps into your body and disturbs you to your very core. There is a giant sarcophagus in the middle of the room and the closer you get to it the more uncomfortable you feel. You open it.

As you open the sarcophagus your senses are assaulted by that horrible feeling and a golden skull starts talking to you and promising rewards beyond imagining if you help it find the rest of its body. You say no and the skull curses you out and mentions something about a coming reign of terror.

Later in your adventures you stumble upon two other tombs that are similar to the one with the golden skull. You are curious as to if these also have golden skulls in them so you open them as well. Opening both of these other tombs seemed to release some manner of lich guardian. They both spoke in tones that were both indignant an somewhat frightened. They spoke dire warnings about some "Kangaxx" that they did not want to get free. Before you could get a straight answer from them they both decided it would be better just to kill you. You survived the battles against these two liches by the skin of your teeth, only just barely defeating them.

You open the tombs again and see parts of a golden skeleton and when you reach out to touch the pieces you become overwhelmed with a horrifying sense of evil and pain. So you wrap the pieces in cloth so you can bring the pieces with you without touching them. Then, for whatever reason, you return to the golden skull and it politely asks you to change your mind about helping it. You have all the missing pieces of its skeleton so you figure "What the hell? Nothing bad could possibly happen." and put the skeleton back together.



So my question is this: Is Charname the dumbest person in existence or what? So many things wrong and so many warning signs... I don't even know where to start! How do you RPers ever justify doing this quest without RPing an insane or intensely stupid person?
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Vipers edge +2

June 30, 2014, 10:41 am
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Found it in EE keeper but I have never seen it in game, found tons of other weird/broken items but none was as interesting as vipers edge +2 and I would rather acquire without cheats so where is it? :)

Also did some experiments with the blade and found out the hard way that if you equip it you instantly die for petrification! Solved that "problem" by drinking a potion of mirrored eyes but it wore off which resulted in another death when I slept or reloaded. So the sword is a bit problematic to use :s. It also poisons the user from time to time in combat but I removed that problem by using the poison resistance necklace.

Even though the sword has some flaws it is a beast in combat and should prove very fun on a mage/thief since it causes wild magic spikes from casting spells and improves the backstab multiplier.

Would really like to know if there is a way to tame this sword and use it effectively! Will add screenshots of the item description!

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Immortal Bosses?

January 7, 2016, 2:43 pm
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Spoilers for TOB content.

While playing through the enhanced edition content I can't help but notice that a significant number of bosses are simply immortal for no reason.

So far Szass Tam and Alorgoth are completely immortal, and I've little doubt I'll come across more later.

Not only are they flat out immortal, they are immune to Imprisonment for no reason, and for Alorgoth, set up in such a way that even reducing him to 1 HP does nothing, unlike BP's Baeloth who at least has the decency to fall down unconscious. Instead he's an unkillable, high level monk who will continue beating you around the face and neck until you kill a dragon after already killing him.


Why does minHP1 exist in the first place?

In the original games, it existed to protect the plot, to ensure critical characters don't get erased before their time is up, and when a boss *is* protected, like Irenicus' first three fights, they are set up that as soon as the boss hits that threshold they are removed from the encounter or the encounter with that boss ends.

Irenicus drops a taunt and death spells the inmates before leaving and triggering a larger scale encounter.
Irenicus falls, but in his demise the party is pulled down to hell.
Irenicus hits 1 HP and teleports out of the ongoing battle to be replaced by his final slayer form, leaving his remaining demons to face you.


In the Enhanced Edition, this doesn't seem to be the case. Alorgoth isn't an essential character, he's not fundamental to the plot. If he lives or dies, nothing changes as far as the game is concerned. Why is he protected? To keep the plot on the rails. Algoroth can't die because Rasaad can't succeed. Except... Why not?

Likewise, what's so special about Szass Tam? Szass Tam can't die because he's... An epic level lich? Elminster doesn't get a min1HP necklace in ToB, why does he?


Because they're famous Forgotten Realms personalities?

That doesn't matter at all. Freedom spells exist, resurrection spells exist in multiple formats, running afoul of the Bhaalspawn would not change or challenge the canon of the Realms.

Because it would break the plot of the game?

How? Take Rasaad's epilogue, he fights against Alorgoth and ultimately fails... If that's set in stone, then that can still happen, because Alorgoth isn't a Bhaalspawn, he has an army of loyal followers who would find him and raise him, or scour the lands looking for him with hundreds of scrolls of Freedom.The only difference beating Alorgoth would have would be to make Rasaad finally feel good about himself for a few hours before Alorgoth gets back up, brushes himself off, and goes back to being terrible.

If Szass Tam fights against the team and dies before he can return them to whence they came... So what? The Bhaalspawn at this point has to have the Pocket Plane ability. They can always leave and get back to their other stuff, the only difference is that they weren't railroaded out of their Lord British achievement in a cheap way.



So how do you feel about immortal bosses? And how would you hope to see it handled in the upcoming SoD? Are they a necessary evil, or do they work against a satisfying gaming experience?
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Dulrag's story eerily similar to Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit by Tolkien?

January 8, 2016, 4:42 am
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I recently finished watching the Hobbit trilogy and can't help noticing the eerie resemblance between some of the story elements found in the dwarf Thorin's family and Durlag's own. Is this just a coincidence or am I overthinking?
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D&D stats for Elric of Melnibone and other Eternal Champion characters

July 13, 2015, 4:35 am
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What kind of stats a character like Elric would have in 2nd or 3rd edition D&D?
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Bug regarding Nalia?(spoiler)

January 9, 2016, 2:09 pm
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I was doing the Imnesvale village quest in Umar Hills when Isaea appeared all of a sudden and abducted Nalia. She was removed from my party and they all disappeared from the area. Or so I thought.

I carried on with the quest and moved on to another area. When I came back from that area(back to where I "lost" Nalia), and started going back to the town again, she was standing there! She stood a little bit to the right, so I didn't see her before. I had assumed she'd disappeared from the area but she had just gone a few steps to the right and got stuck I guess.

Should I be worried about this? I assume that quest is now broken. I've tried reloading the area and rested, but she's still standing there. I can even invite her to my party again as if nothing had happened.

EDIT: Should probably mention that I do have an earlier save before the encounter with Isaea, but it's a while back, and I have to do the whole quest again + some other minor things, so I hope to avoid reloading that save.

P.S. I'm not sure if this belongs in General Discussion or Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition. It's been a while since I last visited the forums.
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So, Viconia romance.

November 21, 2013, 6:23 am
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Late to the party here. I've never romanced Viconia, for various reasons. Her romance bugged out for me once, and I usually don't play evil anyway. I didn't intend to this time either, but upon realizing that Hexxat doesn't bat for that team, I changed course.

First impression: And people call AERIE whiny?

Holy crap, Viconia is the most immature, emotionally manipulative, emotionally scarred, whiny wreck I've ever had the displeasure of talking to, and I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it before experiencing it for myself. Every talk is her trying to manipulate the PC into... I don't even know. It's like she can't NOT mess with a male's head. It's really annoying.

What's worse, is my own dialogue options are extremely narrow. I can either call her a bitch or be some stoic punching bag for her to work her issues out into. It's like high school all over again.

I always play as straight men in these games, but I think I need to roll an evil female PC to see if Hexxat can carry on a conversation without telling me about burning a farmer's family alive and then nailing half of Amn just to try to get a reaction.
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Dwarf Assassin?

December 3, 2015, 3:18 am
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I have recently played Halfling and Dwarven bounty hunters and also a Halfling assassin using darts. The Dwarven character was the most fun. I am thinking now to play a crafty Dwarven assassin from BGEE to the end of BG2EE.

Is a Dwarf viable as an assassin given the dexterity? I will have a 2nd thief with me to handle traps/locks in both games, but am doubtful on the combat side, given that Assassins excel at ranged high APR weapons.

What about weapon proficiency order? Could crossbow/throwing dagger work as his ranged weapons, or best to stick to the higher APR weapons?
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What's your best stats roll?

May 8, 2013, 4:56 pm
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I just started vanilla BG2, and wanted to make a character. I tend to play with the first 80+ roll for my PC. But this one I got upon the very first roll (after stats re-assignment).

STR 18/99
DEX 17
CON 19
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA14

Total 92 with a 18/99. Jesus.
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MinMax question: what's the best ranged damage dealer you can make?

January 11, 2016, 1:11 am
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I'm thinking of making a insanely over powered ranged CHARNAME and I'm just wondering which of these would be the most ridiculous.
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Elf Assassin trilogy run - weapon proficiencies

January 11, 2016, 3:59 am
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See the title. Am thinking short bow and long sword for the Elf THACO racial bonus at level 1. For the 3rd proficiency at level 4, does anyone use darts with Elven Assassins? Darts are strong in BG1, but fall off in BG2 as I hear, so would using darts AND short bows make sense for an Elf, or better to use the pip on another weapon, e.g. quarterstaff? Quarterstaff could also wait until level 12.
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a race question: Your CHARNAMEs throughout the ages

January 11, 2016, 12:21 am
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So is there a race you play more often than not and why?
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There will be a BG2EE stream for Extra Life Charity on October 2nd and 3rd, 2015

September 21, 2015, 4:37 am
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Extra Life is an online grassroots movement working to save kids through the power of play.

If you remember, in October, 2014, Beamdog played IWDEE on Twitch as part of a charity drive for Extra Life.

Now, a man called Thomas Mason will stream BG2EE for Extra Life. It'll happen on October 2nd and 3rd, 2015.

All the money donated through his page will be given to Akron Children's Hospital.

They will be playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition, URealms Live, and BG2EE.

As for BG2EE, they will be doing a dragon disciple run, just burning everything to the ground! October 2nd at 10pm eastern to 3am the next day will be the first session. The second session will be at the midnight on October 3rd. Anyone who want to join is more than welcome to come play!

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=151528
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Baldur's Gate: Gold Edition Big Box

January 12, 2016, 3:34 am
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Something I have been wondering, way back i got a box of pcgames and it had a mint baldurs gate gold edition big box and contents. Is this apparently a rare pc big box game? Checking around I see it not listed anywhere or for like $300+? I also researched that it came with both TotSC and a copy of fallout 1? I dont see a fallout 1 disc so i have idea if it is true or totally complete. I am just surprised because you can find mint BG2 collectors editon for like $25 bucks... And it was similar but more contents.

Anyone here have this BG gold edition box set?
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Saving Throws

December 1, 2013, 6:50 am
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I have been playing BG for years and I am embarrassed to admit I still don't understand how saving throws work. I know they are great and they can protect you from nasty magic and the more the better but that's about it.

I would love a simple explanation of how they work. Is there a limit to how low/high they should be? Will great saving throws make me immune to negative status effects?

Basically I'm making a fighter/cleric and I'm trying to decide between dwarf and half-Orc. Are the shorty saves really that big a deal?

Thanks!!
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Halfling classes?

January 11, 2016, 11:13 pm
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This topic: a race question: Your CHARNAMEs throughout the ages got me thinking I never played a halfling charname, even though they're a lovely race. The main reason is, they have such a poor selection of classes to choose from, I just opened the character selection screen to check, they can be:

- Fighter (plain or kitted)
- Cleric (plain or kitted)
- Thief (plain or kitted)
- Barbarian (wtf?)
- Fighter/Thief (and that's the only multi-class option available to them).

I very much like my charname to be able to cast arcane spells, my most favourite character classes are Fighter/Mage, vanilla Mage, Cleric/Mage and Bard (Blade). But arcane classes are not an option for halflings.

If you want a halfling, you're stuck with playing single class cleric if you want to wield magic. Fighter and Thief classes are boring for a Charname, as they require little more than clicking an enemy or in the case of a Thief, clicking Find Traps, clicking Traps and Chests (I rarely make use of backstabs and mostly never of Traps, I use my Thieves to scout ahead, spot and disarm traps and open chests, more of an 'Adventurer' http://gibberlings3.net/readmes/readme-song_and_silence.html).


Two questions:

1. are there any mods that create more interesting choices for halflings (and not by lifting all race restrictions, cause that's a. plain silly, b. big time cheese)?

2. if you play a halfling Charname, how do you keep things interesting, skill-wise?


BTW, Dwarves suffer almost the same problem, their choice of classes is the same as those open to halflings, but with two extra interesting options added in: Dwarven Defender and Fighter/Cleric.

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How does spell disruption work?

January 12, 2016, 6:38 am
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Ok so I see that an alteration spell is being cast, I want to disrupt that spell via damage (melee, range, energy or arcane damage), I hit, sometimes the spell is disrupted and sometimes the spell caster carries on and casts anyway.

I am genuinely curious to know:

- What is the chance to disrupt a casting via damage?
- Does the level of the caster make a difference?
- Does the damage type make a difference? I rarely ever see poison failing to disrupt a spell, is this because it often acts so many times per round or does it actually have a higher chance to disrupt?
- Does the caster type (cleric, druid, sorcerer or mage) make a difference?
- Does what they cast from (scroll, innate, arcane/divine spell-book) make a difference? I recently read an @semiticgod post about the acid kensai saying scrolls are harder to disrupt (which prompted this topic) if so, what is the % difference in chance to disrupt.

I used to believe, way back, that clerics were harder to disrupt than mages and often used other means to avoid their spells than damage disrupting, whereas mages I would happily disrupt via damage providing I had gotten past whatever protection was needed to do so. Recently however (since EE) I seem to disrupt clerics just fine. Was this belief mistaken all along or did EE change anything in that regard?

I know some casters have undisruptable spells, generally I am not talking about these, although it would be useful to know who they are. Mulahey, I believe is one.

TLDR: What are the mechanics behind the chance to disrupt a spell via melee, range, energy or arcane damage?

Thanks in advance!
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Challenging versus Cheap?

January 12, 2016, 7:50 pm
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Right now, going through ToB for the first time in a decade, I'm playing Ascension with SCS improved bosses. I've just encountered Draconis, who has apparently sixty Improved Invisibility spells and has summoned about twenty invisible stalkers.

Next, I encounter Abazigal. Or rather, Abazigal encounters me, along with five wyverns with all manner of bizarre traits like permanent level draining attacks, stoneskin and invisibility, and a dragon who is, against all logic, not only immune to imprisonment but if targeted by it becomes immortal (to my forced reloading disappointment). Abazigal himself of course heals and polymorphs into a dragon when you defeat his human form, is immune to time stop, casts every spell instantly, and automatically casts Remove Magic and Silence via script time and time again, and the lot of them automatically charge you the moment you enter, so you'd better hope you knew that ahead of time and pre-buffed.

In a way, that's fair enough, the fights are still very much winnable and are certainly challenging, but at the same time, the way it's accomplished is... Unsatisfying to me.

In fact, so much of SCS's "upgrades" feel that way to me. The game is build around universal rules, and when those rules only apply to the player, it very quickly takes my immersion away.

Every single thief carries around half a dozen potions of invisibility? You know how much that would cost? How are they supposed to make a profit if that's how they handle every fight? It's bad enough that invisibility instantly detargets even though it's not like they moved yet, but doing nothing but spam the ability? That's either unbearably deadly or unbearably tedious, depending on whether you have true sight and stoneskins.

Mages reset into full buffs whenever you see them (including if they happen to go out of sight for half a second while you duck behind a corner to heal or hide)? Where are they getting all these spell slots? Why don't I instantly pop out long lists of instant pre-buffs right before every combat even though I was previously in the middle of dinner?

Why can't I have a bunch of Protection from Magical Weapons spells that automatically activate whenever's (in)convenient, and why, oh why, can't I be immune to Imprisonment with no preparations and no excuses?

But so many "enhanced" combats appear to be predicated around this idea of the player running on different rules to everyone else. Illasera vanishes and turns ethereal at will, Yaga Shura is pretty much immune to non-poison damage. Wyverns with energy draining attacks like vampires, dragons which spam remove magic so often they might as well be Beholders...


Is this necessary?

I think of Firkraag's dungeon, where you enter a room and orcish archers are shooting you from all sides, forcing you to search out the secret doors to their hideout while trying to return fire with your own missiles.

I think of Firkraag himself, a hugely powerful attacker with defences that make most players scratch their heads when they first encounter him. And the vampire lair, where you're forced to marshal your resources around anyone you can protect from level drain as you struggle through some nasty fights towards Bodhi.

I even think of some of the good parts that EE has introduced, some fights I found plenty challenging without any obvious rule-breaking (Neera's ToB questline in particular provided one of the most entertaining fights I've had in the whole expansion), and a fight that did break the rules with a completely unkillable NPC attacking you, but in a way that felt dramatic and fulfilling as you were forced to escape, and that part didn't feel cheap, because it was well justified by the plot, wasn't obviously arbitrary about it, and helped move the quest along to a dramatic conclusion.

What are your feelings about introducing difficulty by breaking the rules? Can an encounter follow the rules of D&D, maintain the integrity of the world it simulates, and still be a challenging, enjoyable fight for experienced players, even at the peak of their power? Could simple tactics and scenario features provide difficulty even to a player who has faced that scenario before? What techniques would you be interested in seeing to make a fun, memorable and challenging encounter?
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Request portrait editing

January 13, 2016, 10:04 am
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Hi!
I found an awesome portrait for a monk for my next run, but i need some help, because he has a rosary in his head and i dont want it. Can smbody help me and remove it ?
Thanks for the help.

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