Going to give BG2 another whirl

Reminds me to give it yet another whirl myself..lots of stuff to find out each time you play.

I also need another play through with an all-evil party.
I'm still stuck (I try every once in a while) at the final battle in Throne of Bhaal,
with my Do-Gooder party.
I've had no trouble with anything else in the game.. I believe my party is quite powerfull too.. But I just cant seem to live long enough to defeat the final foe in ToB.

Originally Posted by thartanian
My current party is my lev 9 fighter, valygar, jaheira, and kelsey. I just finished getting that harper bird to return to Xanthas or that wizard and this vampire named Del attacks me. She's really hard and since Kelsey can't cast any spells because he has no permit, the battle is really tough. Any advice?

Get the permit. I don't think you can even use magical potions w/out it, but if I'm wrong and you can, use potions of Haste, any protections or strength buffs for your fighter, and concentrate on the vampire with your whole party. You can expect to get level drained, so be prepared to fork out cash latter for a restoration scroll or temple fix. All the vampire fights are quite hard. I'm not sure, but possibly you can set the difficulty slider down a notch just for the fight. Sometimes it takes several tries to figure out a winning method. If all else fails, reload and go do something else til you level up a bit. Good luck.

Run inside and cast away - the Cowled Wizards don't care/notice if you cast spells inside, and they don't care at all about magical potions, so pot away even outside.

Edit: Oh, and divine spells (druid and cleric ones) don't trigger the Cowled ones either.

I started playing again (yesterday, after more than a month) and I've come to a serious fork in the road: I'm about to leave the asylum. And the question is: the Underdark or going with Saemon to Sahuagin City? Can I do both (IE going through the underdark to Sahuagin City)? Note that my character is Neutral Good, if that affects anything…

Übereil

Yes, you can do both. In fact the Underdark section is required while the Sahuagin city is optional. If you want the full experience, go to Sahuagin now.

I also like BG1 better, due to the more "realistic" levels and loot. But the interface in BG2 is vastly improved (highlighting, better journal, higher resolution) so if you can get tutu to work thats the best option. BG2 has somewhat better replay value since the NPCs all have different questlines. I was replaying it as evil with my gf this summer, but we have gotten into a LONG pause from it as the the evil paths are rather underdeveloped and convoluted… It's simply very hard to roleplay evil with any consistency, it feels like you make illogical choices for the game engines sake.

Originally Posted by Zakhary
I also need another play through with an all-evil party.
I'm still stuck (I try every once in a while) at the final battle in Throne of Bhaal,
with my Do-Gooder party.
I've had no trouble with anything else in the game.. I believe my party is quite powerfull too.. But I just cant seem to live long enough to defeat the final foe in ToB.

I found haste and greater whirlwind essential here if you have 4 melee fighters or so. You alternate fights with the main baddy (with support cast) and weaker sideshows. Use the sideshows for "resting" and healing, go back to the center when you have recuperated, and take out the main villain before anything else (I think her health is the main trigger).

To me the final battle in BG1 always seemed a lot harder, especially as I didnt use summoning spam…

Originally Posted by KasperFauerby
Yes, you can do both. In fact the Underdark section is required while the Sahuagin city is optional. If you want the full experience, go to Sahuagin now.

Yes, definitely go to Sahuagin now or you'll miss out on some good stuff.

Sahuagin it is then .

Übereil

Sahuagin City is quite cool, and if my six-year-old memories are right, has some good loot--not that anyone plays a role playing game for loot, of course. This is about my burn out point in the game as by then I've done so many sidequests I can't face another one. Someday I really need to go back and beat the game, but the only way for me would be to do only the main storyline quests, and I don't think I have that much strength of will.

Pff, BG2 is 30% about loot … Especially since characterdevelopment is minimized in 2:nd ed D&D. At least so far…

But on the other hand, there are Phat loot everywhere in this game… Speaking of witch, I hope I'll get back to Athkatla. I need to kill one of the dragons, and I need to clean out the Mind Flayer area. Otherwise I won't be able to get Crom Fayr (come to think of it, I've no idea what I've done with my Gauntlets of Ogre Power)…

Übereil

Originally Posted by magerette
Sahuagin City is quite cool, and if my six-year-old memories are right, has some good loot--not that anyone plays a role playing game for loot, of course. This is about my burn out point in the game as by then I've done so many sidequests I can't face another one. Someday I really need to go back and beat the game, but the only way for me would be to do only the main storyline quests, and I don't think I have that much strength of will.

Well, excepting the Underdark (which can actually be finished very quickly by the wholesale slaughter method, in case you're fed up with sidequesting) there's really not too much left after Brynnlaw. It pretty much amounts to just

Actually, now that you bring up the hairy details, I'm sure I've done that. So it must be just Throne of Baal I've never completed.

Quick question to those who've replayed recently--back when I played I had a PIII processor and a generic video card--how does it run on XP with a fast rig? I've found a lot of older games to run too fast--i.e., miss load screen tips, have dialogue subtitles and text fly by, not to mention the visuals being blurry and exaggerated on the widescreen. But I'm thinking the worst part--load times and pathing delays--might be improved. What's your experience?

It runs just like any other game minus loadingtimes. You might miss a few tips you won't need, but it doesn't get worse than that .

Übereil

Originally Posted by magerette
Actually, now that you bring up the hairy details, I'm sure I've done that. So it must be just Throne of Baal I've never completed.

Quick question to those who've replayed recently--back when I played I had a PIII processor and a generic video card--how does it run on XP with a fast rig? I've found a lot of older games to run too fast--i.e., miss load screen tips, have dialogue subtitles and text fly by, not to mention the visuals being blurry and exaggerated on the widescreen. But I'm thinking the worst part--load times and pathing delays--might be improved. What's your experience?

The infinity games dont have a speed problem, and you can always set the game to pause on various events

It should run fine, and if there are problems they stem from buggy 3d settings (messing with hardware acceleration and the like might help if you have such problems). I've played it on windows 98 (P2 and Athlon XP 2400+), and XP (the same Athlon and a P4). It was slow but playable on the P2 (which is below the minimum specs for the game) and for some reason crashed frequently on the Athlon/XP configuration, but my latest reinstall solved the latter problem. I didnt have any problems with BG1 or the Icewind dales either.

Since the game isnt copy protected you can make an image of the disk necessary for the check and loading times will be as short as one can hope for.

Zakhary, do you have anyone with thief levels in your party? If you do, there is a somewhat cowardly way of defeating the final boss:

Spoiler Alert:
1. Round: Kill Melissan in the normal way. She's easy at this stage.
- Now kill the creatures on the southwest platform, but before you kill the final monster, fill the area where Melissan spawns with traps, preferably the epic Spike traps. Use roughly 1/3 of your trap arsenal.
2. Round: Melissan spawns and is instantly defeated by the traps. Returns to the throne. - Now kill the creatures on the southeast platform, but before you kill the final monster, do the trap thing again. Roughly 1/3 this time as well.
3. Round: Melissan is defeated by the traps instantly yet again.
- Final fight, use everything you have, including Devas, Planetars and so on to defeat the pack in the upper right corner of the map. This fight is intense, so be prepared. After that, fill the Melissan spawn area with the most powerful traps you have, and kill off the remaining monsters.
4. Round: Melissan spawns at her most powerful, but.. yet again.. the traps defeat her instantly, and the game is over. The end.

I've also replayed BG2 recently on a modern rig - and it plays very well on new machines I think! I played the game at the maximum resolution (think it was 1600x1200) and with the newest patches and fix-pack and the game actually looked really good that way, considering its age. Hand-painted 2d backgrounds age well…

Thanks, guys. I've had no 'too fast' issues with Icewind Dale, so all should be well when someday I finally go back and finish ToB. I also found that game to have aged well visually. Load times should be quite speedy and that was a bit of a pain in the rear for me with all the BG's back in the day.

Now, finding the time to play it is the only issue left.

Do remember the great unofficial patches available here:
http://modlist.pocketplane.net/index…list&cat_id=97
They fix some pretty major issues and a truckload of minor ones.