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Baldur's Gate Trivia challenge

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I haven't played the games for quite a while after SoD, but the games are still significantly interesting enough to be kept in my interests. There's something I've been thinking about in the form of a trivia question:

Aerie is listed as an Elf, but what is her real race?

I'm also interested to hear any good trivia questions if anyone cares about it as I do.

Humorous NPC Mouse Click Cutoffs / Dialogue Combinations...

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My current evil party is cracking me up. Sometimes when you interrupt their banter with commands, they seemingly create entirely new statements that don't make sense for the character. And sometimes they just say something that's an appropriate response. Ah... To have too much time on one's hands :smile:


Shar-Teel: "Men are *click* ok!"

Dorn: "I *click* try to keep up."

Shar-Teel: If it bleeds *click* I'll do it.


MAIN: "What do you need?"
Kagain: "I need an ale!"

Struck by lightning, twice!

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My fighter/mage just got *twice* struck by lightning (from the weather, not a spell) on the Valley of the Tombs map within the space of about a minute in real time, she was wearing plate mail at the time - 25 points damage each hit, though luckily she had 50 HP and Viconia managed to cast Cure Medium Wounds in-between! Never had that happen before (not twice, anyway), though I could see the funny side!

[SPOILERS] Are Bhaalspawn technically Tieflings?

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I mean, if you think about it. At least the human ones, elves would be Fey'ri, half-orcs would be half-tiefling-half-tanarruk (I can't find anything on other demihuman evil planetouched, I guess those happen too rarely to warrant their own name).

I have been reading up a lot on Planescape lore lately for ... reasons ... and found out that Tieflings are the offspring of basically an evil outsider, including deities. (Up to that point I thought it only counted demons, devils and night hags.)

Bhaal is an evil deity so I guess his descendants are are tieflings?
Though of course tieflings tend to be a few generations removed from their fiendish ancestor.

My own hypothesis on this is that because Bhaal's main avatar, the Slayer (the canon one, not the ones from the games, I don't know what that one is), "looked like a human male corpse with a feral face, ivory-white skin, and deep lacerations that endlessly wept black ichor that vanished before it struck anything." (From AD&D Faiths and Avatars).
So basically what he looked like in SoD. Which is still very humanoid, so there probably wouldn't be too many funky tiefling mutations going on.

But then you have cases like Sarevok who's eyes glow golden, which looks like a proper tiefling trait to me. Also the special spell-like abilities CHARNAME can gain throughout the story?

While I do try to do my research as best as possible, I am still hardly an expert, so I'd appreciate it if people could bring in some more (counter-)evidence on the matter.

Toodles ~

My "human" dilemma.

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I despise playing humans. In tabletop D&D I have played two human characters, in CRPGs I've played a total of 0 with the exception of Icewind Dale (though it was 2 humans, 4 non-humans).

I hate playing humans in fantasy settings and it's the main reason I avoided Dragon Age 2 for so long. Like if I see an RPG releases with many races in the setting but you only can play as a human I usually skip it such as recently with ME: Andromeda.

I'm not sure where this hatred of playing humans came from or when it really started but even for my story I'm writing all the main protagonists are non-humans save for a few. Even for my own D&D homebrew setting the human population is dwarfed by the Elven one and the only thing stopping the Elves from taking over the world was a Dwarf/Human/Halfling Alliance as well as infighting between the Elven Summer and Winter Courts.

I understand humans are the race people can relate to since we are humans IRL but they never really appeal to me at all. Anyone else share these thoughts?

[PST:EE] Please give us resolution options

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Please let us specify what resolution we render the game at, independent of window and desktop resolution.

What do I mean? I like to to appreciate the art in the IE games - the maps, character sprites, that kind of thing. My main desktop monitor is 1920x1200, and I always disable zoom because I don't care for it. If I play any of your EE games in fullscreen, that means I'm watching ants crawl around the screen in 1920x1200. Enable zoom you might say! But, there's another way where I can have even better control of the game resolution without enabling zoom: I can change my desktop resolution. If I do that, I can play IWD:EE in 1280x800, a resolution that actually lets me see the detail in the art.

But why, in 2017, do I need to change my desktop resolution to play a game in that resolution? Why can't I select the resolution for the game to render in, and have it stretch to full-screen?

Or, even better, make it completely independent of fullscreen mode. That way, those of us with multiple monitors don't have our desktop composition screwed up on the secondary monitor by a fullscreen game changing our desktop resolution.

You might think this is a crazy request, but it actually isn't. The reason it isn't implemented in the EEs is because it wasn't considered, that's it.¹ If I can play Fallout 2 in a borderless fullscreen window, with the window rendered at 1920x1200 but the game rendered at 1280x800 and occupying the ENTIRE 1920x1200 window (yes, no letterboxing or black bars), I believe Beamdog can implement the same.

Give us the option please, even if it's officially unsupported and via an ini tweak.

@TrentOster @Avenger_teambg

¹ Some technical details. In windows, there are generic APIs / 'hooks' that deal with the resolution of a window. It's one of the many tools the borderless widescreen gaming community has used to develop programs that make, well, borderless fullscreen windows. OpenGL, which I believe the EEs render with for Windows, supports exactly what I've asked above. The EE internal renderer (or 'game') outputs to the game window (the 'window' I specify above) to be drawn and managed by the OpenGL API. Think of the game as a picture, and the window the picture frame. This API allows the management of the game window such that content fed to it can be stretched (aspect ratio correct or incorrect, but ofc we want correct) to occupy the full window. That's how you get what I've asked for. It is not programming black magic, it is not arcane or obtuse - but I don't think there's been a clear demand for this feature before so it hasn't been considered.

Would you pay for new painted backgrounds?

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If enough people say they are ready to pay for new interior and exterior areas, we can try to contact either the people who painted the originals for Bioware or the people who work for Beamdog and set up a Kickstarter project. The backgrounds would then be available to modders to use in their work - and ultimately to the fans.

Don't walk away, say you would or not.

Improved scripts for your BG/BG2 playing experience

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So a little while back I made a whole bunch of new scripts for the bg games, these scripts are better improvements over the ones available already ( since some of them will only cast/use select spells or abilities, or sometimes just bug out completely and don't work at all) I've tested out some of them so far, and its been a pretty good go, the range script though sometimes is a little tricky, but still works good enough I suppose

so here is a breakdown of whats of the scripts and what they do:

Melee
MeleeP
Range

- these 3 scripts here are for your main warrior type scripts ( fighters/paladins/rangers/monks and the like)
- the warriors will use their special abilities in combat, (berserk/defensive stance/lay on hands/stunning first/ etc..) and I've tried my best to make it so they use them at appropriate times ( for example: berserkers shouldn't be using their rage against gibberlings/kobolds ect)
- when it comes to ranger/paladin spells, I set it so they only cast their defensive spells, since I believe offensive spells for those classes are much more selective ( although if you want a more offensive spell casting ranger/paladin, you can use one of the cleric scripts below)
- also, if your characters have the special abilities like cure light wounds/slow poisons/vampiric tough, they will use those as well
- the melee option is for those who are planning on staying in melee
- the range option is for those who want to stay range and will stay range as much as possible ( although they will switch to a melee weapon if someone gets to close, although sometimes it doesn't work 100 % perfect)
- the MeleeP option is the same as melee, except that the character will use healing potions/antidotes/elixers of heath as well when needed

now things are going to get a little tricky, so I will try and make it as easy as possible to understand the caster ones, first of all there is going to a lot of abbreviations for all the different types, so I will go through them all here:

DIV- this is for all the characters that use divine spells ( clerics/druids/paladins/shamans/rangers)
MAG- this is for all the characters that use arcane spells ( mages/sorcerers)
BOTH- this is for cleric/mages or illusionist/mages of for characters that can cast both divine and arcane spells

so after one of the above abbreviations there will be some letters afterwards ( M,R,X,D,O,S) these letters represent what these casters will do, as I will explain as follows:

M - M means that once the character has finished casting their spell script ( or action list empty) they will resort to melee attacks

R - R means that once the character has finished casting their spell script ( or action list empty) they will resort to range attacks and prefer range combat

X - X refers to mages who have dispelling type spells ( breach, spell thrust, pierce magic, ect..) I have tried my best to make it so if your wizard has the appropriate dispelling spell, and they see an enemy that has a shield that they can dispel, then they should do it automatically, this applies to arcane casters only and dispel/remove magic are exempt because those spells can dispel beneficial spells to easily,

D - D refers to defensive magic, for clerics, this means that if your team mates hit below 51% health they will cast their most powerful healing spell on the most damage character first ( mass cure light wounds has first dibs) also, if your party members get poisoned/ diseased/ level drained/ etc.. and if your cleric has the appropriate spell memorized then your cleric will restore that character, again using the most powerful version first, then if there is nothing to heal/ restore, your cleric/mage will begin casting defensive spells on itself or the party

O - O refers to offensive spells, your caster will start casting at the highest level spell it has, and for sorcerers/shamans, it will cast crowd control spells before damaging spells, although I've done my best again, to make the AI smart enough that if a baddie is "held" for example your caster shouldn't still be casting "hold person" on it, but I have set it so your caster you will cast out to the nearest 6 enemies for crowd control, so be aware, this script also includes spells like fireball/death fogs/webs and the such, although again I have tried my best to make it so your caster will cast it when your party isn't to close to the badguys ( although its really tricky to make it work flawlessly) be aware, that this script will cast any offensive spell, so watch out for those radius ones, plus this script will also summon in monsters if you have summon spells memorize, but it will only summon 1, starting at the highest level

S - S this script refers to summoning spells, the caster will start at it's highest level summoning spells and keep on summoning until there is 5 summoned monsters ( although your caster will only do this if your caster sees an enemy) this will summon in any creatures except for : the mage elemental summoning spells/ and the demon summoning spells ( since those summons are unreliable) plus when it comes to summoning in planetars or divs, your caster will only summon in 1 since one is the limit

next, the placement of the abbreviations in the script will also determine priority, so for example:

lets say you are using the script; DIVMDO

- this means that your divine caster will prioritize defensive type spells over offensive type spells
- once the caster has run out of defensive and offensive spells, they will resort to melee attacks
- every caster script will either have an "M" or an "R" but even though they are first in the list, your castes will always resort to attack with a weapon last

lets say you are using the script: MAGRXDSO

- this means that your mage will use their shield dispelling spells as priority if they see the need to
- if no dispelling shields is needed, then the mage will begin casting defensive spells
- once the defensive spell casting is finished then the mage will start to summon up to 5 monsters if applicable
- once the monster summoning has finished, then the mage will resort to offensive spells
- if at any time one of your defensive spells depletes or becomes dispelled, your mage will recast defensive spells on itself when applicable
- if all spells are depleted/ completed, then the mage will resort to range weaposn

lets say you are using the script: BOTHDSO

- first priority is healing/curing/restoring type spells
- then mage protection spells
- then priest protection spells
- then your cleric/mage will summon in monsters starting at the highest level alternating between the mage/cleric list
- then if all protection spells are cast/complete, and all monsters are summoned the cleric/mage will begin casting offensive spells starting at their highest level, alternating between the cleric/mage list ( based on level of the spell)

NOTE:
- regardless of script, if you have any script active that deals with mage spells, your character will always have a stoneskin cast on itself at all times (if applicable) this also counts for ironskins as well
- if you have any divine defensive spell script in use, your divine caster will always have protection from evil 10' radius cast on your party at all times ( since this spell has a long duration and is incredibly useful to have on at all times)
- for those of you playing SoA be aware that your character WILL cast spells in town with these scripts on, so be careful about those stoneskins in town
- plus im pretty sure that no matter what script you have active, if your character has the detect traps/illusions option, they will always do that while idling


So with that being said, I think that is the jist of what these scripts do, as I said I play testes some of them, with a team that started in candlekeep and went all the way to the end of ToB and they worked pretty swell, if you have questions or comments please let me know, and hopefully you find these to be useful in your journeys

Assassins using darts after 2.3, still worthwhile?

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With the poison weapon changes in 2.3, are darts still worth it for assassins and ranged-poisoners? Stacking that poison was what made darts great. I guess spreading the pain in groups is still viable, but that sure does take a lot more micro-management.

It seems that without poison-stacking the dart advantage diminishes greatly, leaving short-bows and/or throwing daggers (mainly in SoA) as preferred assassin weapons.

What Kind of D&D Character Would You Be? (D&D quiz)

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I found this cool D&D character quiz (sorry if it has been shared before). easydamus.com/character.html

Here are my results:

Lawful Good Human Druid/Ranger (3rd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 16
Dexterity- 15
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 16
Charisma- 15

Playing with berserk weapon

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I recently started another run of BG saga. This time my CHARNAME, however, is a barbarian. My idea was to create warrior that is exact opposite to Sarevok: our bro is cold, intellectual and collected, and I always imagined that his fighting style reflects that (maximum efficiency with minimal effort). So, my barbarian was intended to be basically savage, raw and wild.
I figured that giving him weapon with berserk curse would be great for roleplay, and currently I'm doing Durlag's Tower, and it's really fun: it requires more micromanagment and planning, but can be very rewarding.
Did anyone else deliberately used cursed item, maybe expect Kargaroth claw? Was it worth it? :)

Pure arcane spellcaster solo bgee black pits.

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So, this thread is an investigation towards whether it is possible to beat BG ee (1, not 2) black pits, using a solo pure arcane spellcaster. My guess, going into this project, is that no, it cannot be done. Sooner or later you will run into a powerful warrior with insane saving throws and magical protection or just a shitton of HP, and thats that. I especially think the fire giant and rakshaasa will be insurmountable obstacle. As it turns out, however, no, wizards really can solo the black pits!!!

We start off with some disclaimers;
1. Has this been done before? Probably. I entered the pits, thinking *I* should beat them using only a wizard. Would kinda spoil the fun if I read someone elses guide beforehand, now would it not? So, if that is my attitude, why did I write this guide? Well, first off to show that it can be done. The solution to all fights are in spoiler tags. You do not need to click them. Secondly, I sometimes like watching people play games on youtube, instead of playing them myself, because I am curious but not curious enough to invest my time. If there are others like me, those people can now read this guide and do not need to try it themselves. Third, why does anyone post anything online, ever, whether they admit it or not? For this --> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=e-peen

2. Bards are NOT pure arcane spellcasters. Whatever your counter-argument is, I dismiss it with contempt, because a class that can dualwield bastard swords is NOT a pure arcane spellcaster class. Also evident in that bards use the thief THAC0 level progression. Needless to say - in case the word 'pure' is somehow unclear to you - any multi or dual class is also disqualified. Now, my answer to the question whether a bard or multimage could solo bgee black pits is "I dunno, I havent tried it", but my guess is "Hell yes, especially a blade or kensai mage".

3. This is not a no reload challenge. Personally, I find no reload challenges stupid, because even a high level char could fail a save against finger or death or somesuch by dumb luck... er.. dumb unluck, and then 20-40 hours of precious game play is forever wasted. Also, some of the fights depend on luck, you may need to try them more than once.

4. I play it on core rules, except when leveling, where I flip it to normal to get all my HP:s. I think at least some of the fights are challenging enough this way. But I dont think it is that very very different on harder difficulties, because of wizards reliance on mirror image and stone skin, so I think it should be doable also at higher difficulties. Havent tried it, true, but still. I am also politically opposed to higher difficulties resulting in tougher generic monsters, or weaker PC:s. Higher difficulties should lead to more generic monsters and better AI and never weaker PC:s, although bossmonsters may get a little tougher, some more levels and/or learn some more trix. A simple damage tweak is, I think, just lazyness on the devs part.

5. This is a legit vanilla play. Also, fighting lower tier fights is not permitted. Now, I havent actually attempted a lower tier fight, but I guess you get some gold and XP for that? I consider the XP and gold restrictions as part of the challenge, and while you anyway cannot gain more than 10 levels, you might be more powerful than you are supposed to be, for some of the fights. So, the current fight only. Also, by the time you reach the last fights you will be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck anyway.


With that out of the way, lets discuss which pure arcane spellcaster is the best pick;
Dismissed; Blank mage. There is literally no reason to play this! Specialist mages gets a very important +2 to defeat enemy save throws, for certain spells depending on their specialisation, as well as an extra spell per level. Now, they lose access to some spells, but if that bothers you, pick a wild mage!

Dismissed: Sorcerer. That one extra spell per level over specialist mages is not enough of an advantage to compensate for a lack of choice. Note that this deficiency is generally not a thing - just pick the best spells - when you do not solo. To the contrary, it is an advantage, as you never when what you will encounter, and picking the for the moment best spell means you will not "waste" memory slots by occupying them for rarely used spells. Sorcerers just suck in the black pits, and only when they solo.

So, wild mage, specialist mage or dragon disciple then? They all have unique advantages, which in my mind makes them fairly equal;

Specialist mages; That +2 to beat enemy saving throws is a REALLY strong argument.

Wild mage; Can learn spells well above their level, and use them via the wild surge spell.

Dragon disciple; Bonus to armor class, HP, fire resistance and an ability thats kind of like a weak fireball, earned at lvl 3? Hell yes! Also note that the fire breath is AOE, which lets it pass some magical defences, and that it is resolved as a breath attack and not a spell (at least I think so?) which also lets it bypass other magical defences. Unfortunately, the breath attack is a cone, which makes it kind of useless when they surround you, which they do a lot when you solo. A less obvious advantage is that early level you will save gold, as you do not need to buy scrolls to learn spells.

So, what did I pick? Well, despite the crippling access to spells, I still went with Dragon Disciple. Since you solo, your spellcaster will be subjected to melee attacks all the time, and even a bonus of as little as +1 AC means every single attack against you ever made have a 5% less chance of hitting. That quickly stacks and over the course of the black pits alone adds up to houndreds of damage you did NOT receive... and dragon disciples gets a total of +3 AC by level 10. Further, those extra HP means you will survive where lesser spellcasters did not.


Warning: I started writing this before I actually beat the game. Due to a circumstance with the final fight, I am not sure the game is beatable without dragon disciples extra HP.

Race; There are only four races that get spellcaster classes.
Dismissed; Half-elves. Half-elves gets no bonus elves do not get, but suffer the same restrictions on specialist mages.

So, elves, humans and gnomes remains.

Humans: can choose any specialist mage.

Elves: Near immunity to sleep and charm, +1 dex (= +1 AC and to hit with ranged weapons)

Gnomes: Incredible bonus to save vs spells.

Humans are only useful if you want a specialist mage not available to the other races. Yes, elves get -1 con which is very relevant for dragon disciples... however, gnomes cannot be dragon disciples, and you are restricted to 10 levels, so you will only get +1 con for a human, which is 19, and thus still insufficient for regen. But even if you did not, 1 HP regen every turn means your char would have like, at most, 3 or 4 extra HP during the length of one black pits battle = shit! Elf would still be the better choice. So, elf it is then.


Stats; Obviously, you will want 18 str, 19 dex and 15 (you get 1 extra at lvl 5) or 16 con for an elven dragon disciple for the combat bonuses. You will also want 15 charisma, because that is the lowest a sorc can go, which with Friends (see below) gives you 21 charisma, which maximises store discounts, and 9 int, so you can use all scrolls and wands. There are rumors that some scrolls and wands reguire more than 9 int, but I am to lazy to confirm this. Wisdom can be ignored. Thus, you need to roll minimum 77, which should take, like, maybe one reroll... if you did not already get it from the top?

Skills: Daggers is actually a good choice, despite dealing less dmg than staffs, since there are also throwing knives and... wait what? Ok, there arent. Again, there is not really a choice here, you just go with the flow and pick staff.

The first two spells I recommend are Shield and Friends.

I use shield as a buff before EVERY fight in the black pits, and friend before I buy anything.

Alignment: You'd think it wouldn't matter, but some enemy clerics have smite good. Others probably have smite evil. So, you might want to pick neutral, but honestly, those smite goods never dealed enough damage to be decisive, so pick whatever. Ironically, I usually play a chaotic neutral alignment, I only picked good because it felt more appropriate for a rebellious prisoner of the drow.

Name; I named my (female) dragon disciple "Skankeeta", feel free to use that name if you lack for imagination.

Some general hints;
1. The ONE advantage mages have over other classes (except bards) is the ability to use spells and scrolls. Yes, they are expandable. Yes, you do not get unlimited gold in the black pits. But quite frankly, I dont think you can beat the black pits without them. However, do avoid using them for battles where you deem you do not need them, to save gold.

2. Buy premium equipment as soon as you can afford it. Fights get progressively harder so you will likely need to buy that amulett or whatever sooner or later anyways - which would have made the earlier fights where you were counting your gold like some greedy dwarf easier! The stores update twice, get all you can afford as soon as possible - especially if stores have updated twice already. There is nothing more to wait for!

3. This one is obvious, but I still mention it, just in case; buff away right before you talk to Baeloth - that way, you can start the battle using offensive spells. Also, obviously, start buffing with the spell that lasts the longest. I.E stone skin - shield - mirror image - blur. Many spells that in the main game are mostly useless, like blur, are actually good in the pits, simply because you can buff several spells in rapid succesion - compare to a main game encounter, where ramping up all those buffs could mean missing part of or the entire fight.

4. Spell and bash; again obvious, but just in case you were not already aware of this, you can only cast one spell every round, but the rest of the round can be used to bash skulls. Thus, spell, bash, spell takes the same time as spell spell. Also, I am not 100% sure exactly how this works, because often it is even spell, bash, bash, spell, despite the fact that mages only have one attack per round. I think spell rounds are longer than attack rounds or somesuch? Or maybe spells have some kind of "hidden" cooldown? Whatever the case, dont stand around absorbing dmg like a fool, when you could be the one dealing dmg instead!

5. Some spells lock you in place, like burning hands and aganezzars scorcher. Avoid these spells, if able (I mean, some of them are really good, such as the dragon breath ability of dragon disciples). Also avoid, if able, spells with a long casting time, such as armor. Except that armor is a buff spell, so for those it doesnt matter, as they are preferably cast right before you talk to Baeloth... except that shield is vastly superior to armor so there is no reason to use armor. But, you know, keep casting times short.


Finally, and needless to say, the fights can be beaten in any number of ways - I present my solutions.

Cite your quotes...

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Cite your favourite BG1, BG2 quotes in this order:
1. Epic quote - "quote here", Name of the person you cite
2. Wise quote - "quote here", Name of the person you cite
3. Funny quote - "quote here", Name of the person you cite

Android query

Recommendation: Avenger in BGEE and BG2EE or IWDEE?

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Hello Forumites,

I'm reaching out to veterans of both BG and IWD for this one. After taking a break from gaming, I'm hopping back into it with the intention of running with an Avenger. I've never played a druid in the BG series and I've never owned or played IWD at all, but I've heard great things about the combat in IWD (I always favored the combat in BG to the roleplaying aspect).

Taking an Avenger through IWDEE would require me to buy it, which I am considering anyway as a small change of gaming flavor from the BG series. Also, I've heard mostly great things about druids in IWD in general. Any input you have would be greatly appreciated.

Baldur's Gate 2.0 Released on the Mac today!

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The full, official release notes for the v2.0 update are attached at the bottom of this post. It details all of the changes to BG:EE, BGII:EE, and the Infinity Engine as a whole. It also includes a section that's just for modders talking about some of the new opcodes, triggers, and actions that the update adds, as well as a collection of guides to help UI enthusiasts get their feet wet tinkering with the new UI system. The document clocks in at just over 30 pages; you won't want to miss it.

The TL;DR Version

- New Class: The Shaman
- New Cleric Kit: The Priest of Tyr
- Class Ability Tweak: Poison Weapon now scales with levels
- Item Tweak: Stupefier +1 has been adjusted to be more in line with the game's other equipment
- Spell Tweak: Enchanted Weapon now modifies the target's existing weapons
- Items can now be placed in the Off-Hand slot while ranged and two-handed weapons are equipped
- Steam Cloud Save support has been added (Steam only)
- Achievements have been added (Steam only)
- The User Interface has been overhauled with a new system
- Dozens of modder-friendly enhancements
- Hundreds of bug fixes

This is our biggest update ever, and it applies to both Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. We have a lot of improvements planned in the coming weeks and months as well; stay tuned for more information!
April fool! (sorry)

Of course, 2.0 was released 12 months ago today, and the current version is v2.3 - unless you are waiting for the Mac App Store update.

Reactivity to SoD in BG2

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This morning, I received a question on my Baldur's Gate Tumblr blog about the Rasaad romance in SoD and how the ending affects interactions with him in BG2. To my knowledge, getting the bad ending versus the good ending only changes whether or not he treats Charname as a stranger when they first meet in BG2, which doesn't allow for Charname to talk about his behaviour when they last spoke or anything, which many people might find narratively unsatisfying.

That got me thinking about reactivity as a whole going from SoD to BG2. There isn't much of it, as far as I can tell, which is a shame, but I do realize that adding that content would take a lot of time and energy and thus I understand why it's not been included.

I suppose what I'm getting at is a question of whether or not there are plans to add more reactivity to future BG2 updates and if not, could there be?

Charname Ethics

Should some encounters be powered up - way, way up?

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In Baldur's Gate and the other IE games, I've noticed that the thrill and the enjoyment were the greatest early on, at low levels. As characters went up in levels, they acquired enjoyable new abilities and it was pleasant to go toe-to-toe with tough monsters or lay low a bunch of enemies with a fireball, but the danger soon started to evaporate and before long, it was gone completely. At some point around, say, level 6-7 if not before, I knew that no encounter could pose a real difficulty. Baldur's Gate kept throwing supposedly tougher and tougher enemies at me - the Cloackwood assassins, Davaeorn, Sarevok's disciplines in the Iron Throne, later Krystin and Slythe - and it was just a question of how many rounds I'll need to bring them down.

Now, in some degree this happens in tabletop AD&D as well, the earliest levels are the most intense because the characters are so weak. But for a Dungeon Master there are enough ways and means farther along the road that don't have to be about throwing tougher and tougher monsters at the players. The computer games are much more straightforward, and the party's power here grows exponentially. Players also very quickly learn to take advantage of the rules. They know the first spell to cast in any fight is Magic Missile at the enemy casters.

Bioware has given a few NPC instant-kill spells. There are also some mods like Sword Coast Stratagems that ameliorate the ease of killing. But they make encounters more challenging when instead, I argue, some should be impossible (or just about). These mods make players work harder, when instead players should not work at all and go somewhere else. The fundamental problem is this: there is no point to adventuring unless difficulty in spots is such that players will want to AVOID combat, even if there is experience, loot, fame and glory as a reward. They must sigh and go take the long road around to fight someone else or try a diplomatic approach.

Instead we can always just kill 'em. It's not that every player plays in Diablo style, but it skews the world picture that we can barge in a little hut or a big castle, whack the owners (bad people, sure) and grab their stuff (heroes' reward). It doesn't matter if we have to work at this. Hits isn't what adventuring is about at all, for any alignment. Adventuring is about exploration of the world and taking action in it, not scouring it for what it contains - experience, items...

In the first Baldur's Gate game there are some places and encounters that should logically be impossible or next to impossible for the party to solve with force. One such is when they meet the Iron Throne leaders in Candlekeep. They are meetings with the Knights of the Shield. These are all high-level and dangerous characters, and they warn the party to stay away. But as things are, I might as well flip a coin on whether I will kill the Iron Throne leaders on this playthrough or won't kill the Iron Throne leaders on this playthrough.

To restore any sense of balance to the world, should these and other characters be made much, much more powerful - not a little so that the party thinks a bit more before attacking, but A LOT so that nine out of ten attempts to use force, nine of ten reloads are going to end in defeat? Then the party might just have to give up on revenge to Rieltar and Co, leave it to the Dukes, to the Flaming Fist, try to come up with a plan... and then they will discover someone has done those people in. We need not difficulty, but virtual impossibility of do-it-yourself brashness in places for a sense of mystery, for plots to work... and, last but not least, to encourage players to go around and talk to people instead - if they want their experience - so that modders feel called to write more sophisticated quests.

If on a map there is a place A that's "no, I don't want to go there" and place B that's "no, I don't want to go there," then where are you going to go? Between A and B, sneaking, or to some place that won't kill you on the spot, like a village with people. They may have an assignment for you with reasonable goals. Then, later, if you really must, you can rearm and try to take on A and B. The world is diverse, with nooks and corners, and it doesn't exist for your sake. This is the sense that's missing in all of the games after the low levels.

What do you think? Would making some encounters WAY tougher encourage flexibility?

Clerics are only saved by draw upon holy might

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Ok, so druids are disadvantaged against clerics for several bullshit reasons;
* Can only multi with fighter
* Non-kitted shapechanging is shit
* Its difficult to find scimitars, but one of the best items in the game is a war hammer
* Even though ninja-to's is listed as a scimitar, druid cant use them (which would give 9 / 13 lvl fighter dual -> druids with three points in two weapons and five points in scimitar both piercing and slashing damage)

On the other hand, they do have one advantages over clerics
* Can use darts, which gives them stun and poison and so on abilities

But lets ignore that and only look at spells;

Druid > Cleric
Call lightning > Flamestrike
Summon insects > Hold person
Call woodland being > Animate dead
Iron skins > Blade Barrier

If it wasnt for the second level cleric spell draw upon holy might, druids are vastly superior to clerics.

Therefore, early level (c:a 1-10) shapechangers eats ANY kind of cleric for breakfast and extremely early level shapechangers (c:a 1-5) also eats ANY kind of fighter for breakfast

Deal with it.
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