Tigranes

There aren't many intelligence related options. I'm not sure what [insight] calculates, but there are a few of those. Mostly it's about wisdom. In Act 2 with second evil-ish play through, it seems to be really hard to get influence with One of Many because there aren't that many opportunities... it sucks

Well, I'm decking myself out with about 60 scrolls before letting Safiya go, I assume she will be like a sort of Garrisoned Scroll Shop while she waits out of the party. Also gave Kaelyn and Gann Scribe Scroll, and my UMD of ~23 is able to handle up to 7th level spells so far. (19Rogue/1Assassin) The Rogue is spraying Improved Rapid Shot arrows (anyone know why the hell we can't craft bows??), Gann is By the way, what did you guys do with the

Of course. I just wanted to know if my idea of arcane spell-slinging rogue with archery feats could be achieved. Time to get to it, then.

Just spent 2 hours looking at different builds, can't really decide. I'm going to take One of Many , and Gann, and maybe Kaelyn. I'm trying to figure out a really weird (and probably horribly inefficient, but eh) build, mainly a Rogue with emphasis on firing lots of arrows with the shortbow (working up to One Shot epic feat), while using Use Magic Device to cast lots of spells off the scrolls you find in the game. I'm so out of date with 3.5 rules though - can you use Use Magic Device to use arcane scrolls? If so, what's the DC/req/thing if you want to do that with level 9 scrolls? Is that too high? And it doesn't seem worth it to get a level or two of Ranger, since the Ranger Specialisation feats don't seem to count as prerequisites for higher feats?

In MOTB enemy spell resistance isn't especially strong and if you have Spell Penetration, you shouldn't need much else. Traditionally, I never get metamagic feats because fights don't last that long (Extend), your party gives you good cover (Quicken) and you are rarely silenced (Silent). If your main character is a wizard you'll be picking spells you want as you level up anyway, so you should be able to fill out the spellbook with spells at your level. That's just me though. Otherwise, Cant is right about skimping on Strength/Fighting stuff and going for superhigh intelligence. Especially if you have epic spells, which are given to you once a day 'free' (not in Spellbook)..

Ah, I see. I was there but I didn't really check that out. I missed pretty much all the cool epic feats and spells this time round too, cause I didn't look at the requirements. This time I'll plan my character a bit, and also take One of Many.

No. And you still can't get rid of the "really sell?" confirm thing, or press Enter to make it say OK. Sigh. But then, each store only sells like 5 heal potions.

Yeah, I really don't know how it happened. From what I remember, Jaguar, you can find But I do miss a lot of things on my first playthrough usually, so it's time to start again, probably try and devour a thousand things this time.

Well, finished the game. The two really strong points were plot and artistic direction: everything looked really beautiful and thematic, and the plot was a joy, though it unravelled a little fast in Act 3. Kaelyn was well written (though I couldn't seem to get everything out of it yet), and it did present nice dilemmas. One big thing I didn't get though - I maintain that the gameplay stayed too 'static' for most of the game: while the lack of variation in enemies is understandable, the fact that their range of attacks and abilities were mostly inconsequential was disappointing. I could pretty much ignore who the enemy was, even most of the bosses, and just throw straight damage spells until they fell. I think spellcasting enemies seriously need an AI upgrade, and then the battles will get a lot more fun. As it is now, though - it's alright, and especially in the first half, pretty fun. I'd put it on par with OC combat, which I liked mostly. Going to give it a little break then start again with a different character, and definitely try out One of Many. I did indeed miss a lot of things - Pop: I took Spirit Shaman, who's actually as good as Okku at fighting with a spear - so I guess that was part of the reason. Along with Kaelyn wielding a mace with , I could take down most people in a matter of seconds.

Spider/Pop: Conversely, the game dropped into OC-level difficulties somewhere around the middle of Act 2 - and I've just started Act 3, for reference. Okku is an insane tank of course, but I think the bigger issue was that none of the spellcaster enemies really had resistances or offensive spells that really made you go "oh CRAP". Okku could pretty much kill everything with proper healing, for example, but in general it hasn't been much harder than the OC, which is a bit of a pity. We'll see though, the plot/dialogue is damn good.

Played more MOTB till 3am, I just can't stop. Amazing game, and the performance improvement really brings out the best of NWN2. It doesn't exactly froth with mindshattering originality but it's an xpack and it's very, very fun and well written. Second xpack... any outlandish setting would do me. Hell, why not Kara-Tur?

Radiohead - Faust Arp Seriously awesome.

Yeah, but were I a Chelsea fan, I wouldn't even want to watch them play. It's so boring. Then you are left with the knowledge that your team has won, rather than the experience of football itself. The overused term 'not a true football fan' is so accurate there.

I currently have a party of myself (Shaman/Stormlord), Okku, Kaelyn and Safiya. I haven't met One of Many yet, Am I able to progress in that area if I go back now, or do I have to wait until later in the story? As for the combat, at Hardcord difficulty and with a pretty unoptimised party in all things, most combat is alright but the key fights are pretty difficult.

Well, we shall see. It's 5:30pm, I'm home and I'm ready to fire up MOTB, after just finishing the barrows as an Air Genasi Spirit Shaman. I have at least 8 hours.

Yeah Mus, I know how you feel. I just wish I hadn't spoiled myself about the Genasi. Throwing metagaming out the window I just picked on whim - Air Genasi, Spirit Shaman lv18, now I have all prereqs and will go Stormlord. Fits a sort of weird concept, throwing lots of thunder and air around and what with all the spirits about. I just played the first area and god, the performance boost is awesome, even from 1.07. I have a freaking Radeon9600Pro, of course, but even at med-low settings, it looks alright (I dont mind too much) and its just so much more smooth. Once I get the X800 in after I fix my power supply, it should be able to handle normal mapping at least. It just makes the game so much more enjoyable, because now it runs as smooth as the IE games for me. It helps that I've never ever been bothered in thes ilghtest by NWN camera (I seem to be the only one) and I'm trotting about with a single angle/zoom. I really love the loading screens and basically the new feel, it's really elegant and classy. Tingling to know more but it is 3:30am.

So, um, I haven't kept up with all the info for this game, and now I'm spending 30 minutes trying to pick a class. I used to plan my characters to death in IE games but with 3.5ed D&D I'm not really in touch - generally I like spells and NWN series thieves suck even more than IE ones (with their traps and chunking backstabs), so I'm looking at either Spirit Shaman with mb Stormlord, or a straight off Wizard - Red Wizard. What are the companions that are available in MOTB and their classes? I don't want to be a wizard for example if you get a really cool wizard companion you see... EDIT: Oho, never mind, here we go: http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=301, though I don't know yet which ones are fun to have around. Damn, from the descriptions Kaelyn is well developed, and I just want One of Many in there. I guess I'll try the Spirit Shaman (though I don't know what prestige classes go well with that) and see how the game goes.

Bloody dinosaurs, I reinstalled NWN2 then patched it up before installing MOTB - that took an hour and about 4 downloads because it can't jumpt ot 1.16 or whatever in one go. And now there's another 30mb to go after MOTB is installed.

Finished my mdia401 research proposal, which will result in my spending half of next year researching a particular online forum all of us know. No, not this one.

Hey, trust me. We all complain that everything's 'stupid epic' in TOB, but I'm playing now and I memorise 9 disintegrates with Edwin, he puts things to dust on a minutely basis. The BG2 disintegration animation as a whole has to be one of the most satisfying 'kills' I ever get in all of gaming. There's just something about it. Woosh green ball, shreds of dust. I should have mine in a day or so, having it sent by buddy from US since it doesnt' even come out here for at least 2 weeks. *glee*

Civ4 takes much too long to load then lags too much on my POS, but I always liked the game, so I"ll be following the thread. Never was very good at it though. My early game is more of a random expansionfest.

The thing is, your idea (unless you've lived on the US for a few years?) of the 'average American' can be pretty biased as well. In fact, the 'average American' in terms of the 'war on terrorism' especially is a thus far un-quantifiable chimera, and it's difficult to tell how many are the typical Texan stereotype that can't tell which hemisphere of the globe North Korea is on and thinks America is the best in the world spreading its awesomeness all over, and how many are the cynic, or the pacifist, or whatever. I think it's a big and rash call to say that most Americans don't understand the situation at all. I do concede that you are in a more advantageous position to collect more data. But I question whether your interpretation of that data is suitable, especially from the way you speak of 'fact' and 'information'. There isn't a single version of history that makes it possible to tell what happened, why, where, when, and be certain. For example, how do you know that some of your Muslim sources (whose names I wouldn't even know) are not biased, and inflate, say, an Israeli bomb misfiring to kill 10 palestinians to a planned atrocity on a 100 palestinians? While your rhetoric would put off many Westerners, in a way this isn't wrong. Though I would argue that the current situation of animosity is only worsened by the reaction of some Muslim minorities (as well as US foreign policy, the Western media's portrayal of Muslims, the Muslim media and organisations' portrayal of the West, and so forth). But it's like two kids fighting in the mud - they ain't never gonna stop at the same time, before somebody gets hurt. Equally, if one kid just puts up his hands and says let's stop, he'll get pummelled. My proposition isn't intended as a solution to the problem; it's a preliminary step to the solution, rather, that the Muslims can take. There are steps the West can take, too, and others. But I'm not concerned here with what, say, the average American should or could do. Because no matter what vitriol you might spit at them, you won't affect that, Yuusha. What you and your 'side' in the conflict can do, is ensure that the terrorist, radical minority of the Muslim cease to represent the rest of Muslim so inaccurately, by refusing them your support; by ensuring that when an idiot 'journalist' calls Palestinian suicide bombers 'honourable', they are shouted down by the Muslims who actually live by the fatwa, not just use it for their own ends.

Trust me, there were massive roars here in New Zealand over that. Apparently the ref was a Frenchie lover or something. And the All Blacks continue their decades of underachievement.

A matrix of biased sources does not result in objectivity, because you come from a particular background and thought and you come with your own biases in analysing these coverages, because unless you believe everything every isngle oone of them say, you are applying your own standards of judgments on them. You are more likely to empathise with pro-Muslim sources; you are more likely to approach big name conservative Western media as deceptive, just to name examples. And if you hold any delusions about you making 'objective and rational' judgments about them 'purely on merit'.... nobody does that. Nobody can. Sorry, I just start simplifying terms when I repeat them - I don't mean you hate western culture or something like that. No, because that is completely and utterly irrelevant to this part of the discussion. Are you saying you should be horribly biased just because the US government or media is too? Really? I understand why you would say something like this, but I also think after thinking about it a bit more carefully and calmly you wouldn't really repeat it. As I say, becoming what you hate isn't a very nice thing. *shrug* Not really... I may, but it is easier to hold higher moral ground when you personally don't have a direct investment int he issue. I mean, I'm Korean living in New Zealand, so I'm not exactly speaking from the heart of Texas as a Bush voter. Keep in mind I don't know exactly what your situation is, except that you are a committed Muslim living in Indonesia. I do think that it is, and has been all of last century, a very difficult time to be a Muslim not only because of direct Western hostility or interference, which sometimes has existed definitely, but also because of continuing concerns about how to reconcile the Muslim tradition with new ideas of the social and the state, and to date it has proved extremely difficult to construct a position of a Muslim state or culture in the global world that is sustainable, defensible and actually Muslim (without contradicting itself). It's not easy to 'be' a Muslim and have a Muslim state and I imagine this will be the case for some time to come (without going too much into theory). I can't provide an answer on that, because I realise that the answers I give are often blindly rooted in Westernised ideals (not saying they're bad, but they aren't universally applicable). But this is where I return to what I've been saying - I think the first step would be to have a purpose that has nothing to do with the West (or rather, US foreign policy). Rather than your primary purpose or motivation being, say, for Muslim nations to break out of the negative influences of US foreign policy or 'show those bastards something', I think the important thing is to conceptualise a proper Muslim identity and state and work to achieve *that*; the rejection of US foreign policy is only a side effect. That's not the most important thing. Showing them who's the boss isn't the main thing. But your comments are coloured with that extreme distaste and hostility and if that drives you primarily, it can only end with sorrow.

But what you say you are - 'just a little bit more informed perhaps' - is very different from what you do - which is hurl derogative insults at the Architect (regardless of whether he 'deserved' it or not). Also, yes, it is valuable to have a different point of view like yours which is not as inundated by western media; but you have to understand that the kind of information YOU receive is biased in its own way. It is indeed biased of certain western media to highlight every single UK/US troop death in Iraq while speaking of massive civilian sufferings there in an almost 'historical' discourse. But it is also very biased to speak of Israeli war crimes and atrocities, while claiming that Palestinian folk are just honourable, underdog heroes. Both sides are up to their neck in mud, including your Ahmadinejad. I don't pretend to be an expert in 20th century Muslim faith, state and people. But I am convinced that the right way to understanding the troubles of many Muslims in contemporary society does NOT lie in a one-dimensional condemnation of the West. To that end lies Al Qaeda, of senseless policies of hate and anti-West reactionism that cannot create but only destroy. I do think Western foreign policy in regards to Muslim nations are fundamentally flawed in that they ignore the unique characteristics of the Muslim epistemology and try to impose their own value systems. There are indeed some Western men who think their idea of freedom of speech and expression, their idea of democracy, their idea of capitalist society, are the best in the world and it is a crime NOT to impose this on everybody in the world. (Not pointing fingers at all, this is just an extreme example.) But the correct way for the Muslim people, or the Middle Eastern people, or etc, to combat this influence and assert their own future is not through angry condemnation of the West, because if taken too far, you become blind to your own doings. How is a Palestinian suicide bomber honourable, if an Israeli war criminal is not? The very reason people find it so hard to take sies on the P-I debate is that through decades of conflict, both sides have committed so many atrocities it's hard to just champion one. The world is not one of binary oppositions it is not one of black and white. I do not question your desire to assert the Muslim (or the Palestinian, etc) in the face of a world stage that in areas is extremely unjust towards it. But there are ways towards getting there, and you have to be careful that in fighting the thing that you hate, you do not become just like it in the process. The policies of Al Qaeda or the Ahmadinejad; the Gush Emunim of Israel; the Society of the Muslim Brothers in 60-70's Egypt; the particular elements in the American Fundamentalist movement in the 80's that ended in the Scandals of whatsitsname; they have all fallen prey to this trap, and in the end they have ended in failure, and cannot even face history and say, I have had integrity and honour.