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BioWare Forums  Forum Index Baldur's Gate II Series Baldur's Gate II Gameplay (Spoilers!) Is BG2 supposed to be stupidly hard?
Baldur's Gate II Gameplay (Spoilers!)
kingius
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 12 Sep 2009 |
 Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:24AM |
I agree with Dath Muffin.
I started playing the game again a few days ago after I completed the original with a solo character and picking these games up now they feel very difficult at first, compared to modern games that try and hold your hand.
Its a feature of 'old school' gaming and goes back as far as I can remember. The original Bard's Tale, on the 8 bit Spectrum, destroyed my fledgling party so many, many times before I even reached level 2! So in comparison, these games are not as hard, but comparing them to more modern games, they are very hard indeed.
BTW, playing solo is great fun and puts my knowledge of D&D to the test, to say the least! | 
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dark-lauron
Game Owner
 NWN
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
From: From a house of lunatics. |
Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:57AM |
Oh good God, I just finished the demo... so many things were supposed to be different. Like no Pause on the inventory screen, Yoshimo's portrait being the one of Monty, different Imoen portrait with a tatoo on her right eye, different map and especially different and cooler cloud-area spells effect. With this demo you get all the initial dungeon and the intro when Irenicus slaughters the thieves and co. After that it's over. Things I noticed : may be just me but I think you get better rolls on char creation. Also, for EVERYONE that passes by. I am not 100% sure about this, but the dungeon in the demo is harder than the actual one. There are no goblins, but instead, the number of mephits are almost doubled.
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kingius
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 12 Sep 2009 |
Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 12:02PM |
Those pesky mephits!
The bit with the portals got me at first. Colour spray on a monster is quite nasty when you solo and get knocked unconscious. | |
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TheFrozenWasteland
Joined: 03 Nov 2009 |
Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 10:21PM |
You wrote an identical thread in the Baldur's gate I forum which i wrote a reply to. So i'm going to TRY to keep this short.
Baldur's gate is either Brutal, Or too easy. Baldur's gate I is easier than the second one though, Much less to focus on. Even though some people here seem to think it's harder, Certain spells (Can you say Sleeep?  ) Make the first parts much easier, and by the later parts you shouldn't have too much trouble with a well geared team.
Baldur's gate II is based on Spell's. It's all about spells, You can clear it without using a single spell, but to be honest most of the fights got spell casters, one way or the other. So what you can do to make this game much much easier, Is to go through your spell book. Aerie, Imoen, Nalia, Edwin or Jan can all go through every fight in the game, ALONE if required. Meaning if you're stuck, Look at your mages (If you got one!) And go through his/her spell book, I can almost PROMISE you that s/he will be able to kill anything you stand against, alone. If you play him/Her correct.
So first learn the basics, About AC / Thac0 / Resistance and so on. Then go through your spell book, And be creative!
Is someone using True sight? Use spell Immunity Divine magic! Then he can't touch your invinsibility spell. Does he have 1001 different protection spells up? Use Breach and Pierce magic on him! Is the damn thing killing your tank too quickly? Get PfmW (Protection from Magical weapon) Up on your Mage / Sorcerer and let Him/her tank it!
There are some Key spells out there, That can make your game incredible easy if you master it. Even making it possible to solo through insane, with any character.
1.) Learn the Classes.
2.) Learn the Basics.
3.) Go through your spell book.
4.) Profit.
Ah damn, This one became to be quite long. Ah well!Edited By TheFrozenWasteland on 11/03/09 22:32 | |
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Myst Spiritweaver
Game Owner
 SW: KotOR PC
Joined: 30 Oct 2008 |
Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:45PM |
Quote: Posted 11/03/09 22:21 (GMT) by TheFrozenWasteland
1.) Learn the Classes.
2.) Learn the Basics.
3.) Go through your spell book.
4.) ????
5.) Profit.
Fixed. 
Myst
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TheFrozenWasteland
Joined: 03 Nov 2009 |
Posted: Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:55PM | |
Gaah, What could it be? Perhaps running of with an elder brain? :D | |
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The1exile
Joined: 13 Jul 2008 |
Posted: Wednesday, 04 November 2009 02:48AM |
IWD screwed me over so badly. Since I played BG2, I was used to playing with a party of people who wouldn't instantly die when they faced goblins - and by the time you got halfway through the first dungeon, you had a character who had a raise dead spell.
IWD, unless you do all the side quests (a good idea if you know about it...) your party will have barely enough gold to equip three people with swords and you will proceed to have your mage and thief (because being a BG2 player, you will know that thieves can actually fight, right?) be utterly kachunked by a rogue arrow. And wth? Magic missile only does 1d4+1? Oh, and there's no modified thac0 loadout either. And no tab-highlight to find difficult item storage places in low gamma dungeons.
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TikiProphet
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 29 Oct 2009 |
Posted: Wednesday, 04 November 2009 07:33AM |
I think of BG as more of a RTS. You need to basically be able to manuever yourself in a fashion that suits your gameplay and keeps you alive.
The first dungeon is super easy, so is the rest of the game. All you need to do is think before you rush into combat. Since you are new, start with a fighter/pally class. | |
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kingius
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 12 Sep 2009 |
Posted: Wednesday, 04 November 2009 09:17AM | |
One exception to this that I've found so far: the troll leader in the keep. He can smell my thief so hide in shadows and invisibility do nothing to help and he can hit through his armour class like its paper. Nasty! | |
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soteria
Game Owner
 NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Joined: 10 Apr 2009 |
Posted: Thursday, 05 November 2009 12:30AM |
Quote: Posted 11/03/09 22:21 (GMT) by TheFrozenWasteland
...
Baldur's gate II is based on Spell's. It's all about spells, You can clear it without using a single spell, but to be honest most of the fights got spell casters, one way or the other. So what you can do to make this game much much easier, Is to go through your spell book. Aerie, Imoen, Nalia, Edwin or Jan can all go through every fight in the game, ALONE if required. Meaning if you're stuck, Look at your mages (If you got one!) And go through his/her spell book, I can almost PROMISE you that s/he will be able to kill anything you stand against, alone. If you play him/Her correct.
...
If you say so. I just played through BG1/2/TOB for the first time ever with a Kensai/Thief. My casters were Aerie, Anomen, and Imoen, but honestly, after I swapped Viconia for Keldorn I hardly used them. I found most casters died very quickly to a dispel, detect illusions, and a backstab. Bosses and dragons and such I would surround with powerful summoned creatures and then mob them with my warriors (ab)using the heck out of greater whirlwind later on.
I'm sure I was probably misusing my casters as I never really bothered with contingencies and spell triggers and the like, but I never felt like they had reliable damage spells... disintegrate kills loot, and most of the other high-end spells are save-or-die which I just despise. I found myself missing spells like IGMMS from 3.X...
Maybe sometime or another I'll play an evil sorceror and grab Viconia and Edwin to try more of the casting side of the game. I just found heavy melee to be incredibly efficient (final boss of TOB went down almost effortlessly every time). | |
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TheFrozenWasteland
Joined: 03 Nov 2009 |
Posted: Thursday, 05 November 2009 01:47PM |
Quote: Posted 11/05/09 00:30 (GMT) by soteria Quote: Posted 11/03/09 22:21 (GMT) by TheFrozenWasteland
...
Baldur's gate II is based on Spell's. It's all about spells, You can clear it without using a single spell, but to be honest most of the fights got spell casters, one way or the other. So what you can do to make this game much much easier, Is to go through your spell book. Aerie, Imoen, Nalia, Edwin or Jan can all go through every fight in the game, ALONE if required. Meaning if you're stuck, Look at your mages (If you got one!) And go through his/her spell book, I can almost PROMISE you that s/he will be able to kill anything you stand against, alone. If you play him/Her correct.
...
If you say so. I just played through BG1/2/TOB for the first time ever with a Kensai/Thief. My casters were Aerie, Anomen, and Imoen, but honestly, after I swapped Viconia for Keldorn I hardly used them. I found most casters died very quickly to a dispel, detect illusions, and a backstab. Bosses and dragons and such I would surround with powerful summoned creatures and then mob them with my warriors (ab)using the heck out of greater whirlwind later on. I'm sure I was probably misusing my casters as I never really bothered with contingencies and spell triggers and the like, but I never felt like they had reliable damage spells... disintegrate kills loot, and most of the other high-end spells are save-or-die which I just despise. I found myself missing spells like IGMMS from 3.X... Maybe sometime or another I'll play an evil sorceror and grab Viconia and Edwin to try more of the casting side of the game. I just found heavy melee to be incredibly efficient (final boss of TOB went down almost effortlessly every time).
If you're using a caster as a Fireball machine, Then s/he is probably going to be the most useless character in your team. If you actually use the spells you gain, And start using spell triggers and such, They will become the most powerful one in your party.
So i should have said.
- If you know how to use your Wizard / Sorcerer. S/he will be the most powerful character in your team.
- If you don't know how to use them, They will be the least powerful in your team.  Edited By TheFrozenWasteland on 11/05/09 13:49 | |
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Athos the Reasonably Lucid
Joined: 16 Oct 2009 |
Posted: Thursday, 05 November 2009 02:43PM |
Unless you're soloing a spellcaster (in which case he'll have to, not unlike Boo, take care of the details), it all depends on group balance.
I've played games where my spellcaster had the greatest damage output and killed most of the though enemies, while my melee fighters were more like backup. Keep the nasties away from the sorcerer while he kills them...
Right now I'm playing a heavy melee party. Me (Stalker), Keldorn, Saerileth (Mod NPC, Cavalier) and Haer'Dalis basically chew throw anything in seconds. Firkraag died before Jan could even had a little fun. So in this party the spellcasters (Jan and Imoen) are here specially for buffing me and debuffing my foes (and an eventually GM + Slow or something when the enemy can hit hard). I just went through the Asylum without casting a single spell.
So I think it's just a matter of style of gameplay. If you like to micromanage, take a lot of spellcasters and delight yourself with the tactical oportunities the combats offer you. If you'd rather let the AI on, sit back and watch as your party hack and slash all who stands in their way (pretty amusing, I must say), set for a bunch of warriors. Both can get the job done. And it goes without saying that having at least one mage to bring the enemies defenses down will make the game a lot easier. And enjoyable. | |
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