Phosphor

I like utility characters, characters that have range of useful skills and abilities geared towards survival and exploration. I don't like magic very much, and if I do have a character with magical capabilities I use it very, very rarely, and then usually as part of the aforementioned survival and exploration aspects. Often I am for diversity rather than specialisation; I'd rather be able to do a few things competently than one or two things exceptionally. The latter gets really boring, I find.

The Guildmaster

Did that fix the problem?

I'm sure many people do. It's better to PM admin and us moderators, we can reply to you a lot faster.

You have to get admin to do it as he has access to the database.

All in all, I really enjoyed Bloodlines. The gameworld was very immersive and I had a lot of fun with it, but I'm not too sure about replayability. I would have liked it to be a bit less linear and have more paths and options depending on the sort of character you make. I very much want to play in that gameworld again, so I'm hoping for a sequel or expansion, or even user-made modules. I hated the combat. Ranged fighting was fine but melee was terrible, and melee is unfortunately the more required way to go given the nature of most opponents. The automatic switch to third person for melee with the wonky camera was extremely distracting, so I tried to go with ranged fighting as much as possible. All the assessments of the last 1/3 or 1/4 are right. I didn't mind the Hallowbrook Hotel in itself, but what made it ultimately bad was that the game never recovered to a RPG after that, but stayed in the combat-oriented groove. Had the game rebounded to the more immersive story-driven state after that level, that level would have been fine, but for me it marked the start of the downward slip. Unfortunately, like Troika's last game, TOEE, by the end I just wanted to get it over with and I didn't have the patience to keep trying that last horrible battle, so I resorted to cheating. After finishing the battle, I cannot fathom winning it "properly" as the game controls are, to me, so cumbersome and awkward, I simply lack the finesse to use them properly. But, all tolled, it was a fun game and well worth buying.

Their saves are probably ramped up for HOF. You can still cheese that in TOB. I forget the particulars but I did it last time I managed to play as far as Firkraag.

The first time I played BG/TOSC the random encounters really bothered me, but on my second play-through some years later, I really had fun. I quite liked my party (PC Halfling Cleric, Alora, Ajantis and Imoen - I had Coran before Alora) finding they worked extremely well together and gave a nice dynamic, so I had fun with them. A four-piece seems more manageable and engaging than the six-member juggernaut. Whenever I do try and play BG2, I use the Dungeon-Be-Gone mod to avoid Chateau Irenicus, but even then I get bored. I don't like any of the NPCs, the quests are dull, and I just don't have fun. Last time I went to play though I found out my TOB disc no longer read, so that pretty much ended that endeavour. And no, I'm still not giving away my discs

I have the same problem whenever I try and replay BG2, I just can't stay interested enough.

In fights against something like the barbarian tribe, it's good to keep in mind what kind of saving throws your enemy likely has. Babarians for example have low WILL saves, so hitting them with enchantment and domination magic is fantastic; you can easily scatter their number, hold them and even get yourself some allies. Mutliclass character can be quite effective if you approach them logically and use the mix of abilities to the best advantage. In the long run, most multi-classes underperform in comparison to single-classed character, but some combos do work well. My Rogue/Barbarian/Ranger was a life-saver in a few occasions right up into the end, for example.

True enough. My last play through was a couple of years ago and I played a Cleric, so of course those Tomes went to my PC.

You'll get more mileage out of your processor with more RAM, and 1GB ought to be enough for today's games, but I really don't think you can have too much, so load up with as much as you can afford.

I found with IWD2 there to be more "skin of your teeth" battles than in any of the other IE games. Usually, you either plow through with ease or get your arse handed to you in short order. With IWD2, I had more evenly-matched battles where there was a real ebb and flow of combat, and I used tactics more than in any of the other IE outings, using each of my characters in a very specific role and task. The only other IE game that had individual character usage like that was when I played my BG1/TOSC four-member team. Most of the other times it was just mob tactics.

How fast can I lock this thread?

I dual classed Imoen and she turned out great. I forget what the level split was, something like 6th thief and the rest mage. It proved to be a very good choice and it made her an excellent asset to my party of four. Interesting. I didn't know she had a WIS score high enough. As for good healers, if you yourself aren't a Cleric, Yeslick is an excellent addition to the group.

In many, many games you fill find, should you choose to delve into the code, elements of content that was left out. It's simply a matter of the design of the game's story and plot development being changed as development progressed. It's not necessarily a sign of cut material due to time constraints or anything like that. You're reading far too much into a very common occurance.

I only found the final battle of IWD2 hard, the rest ranged from nicely challenging to fairly easy. Now, I've never done the fight for the holy avenger sword, and I hear that one is tough. BG2 was the hardest IE game for me, due to the heavy dependence on magic, and I've never been good at playing spellcasters.

I agree.

This is only going downhill.

I know of Rifts, and I am very familiar with the Palladium system, and I really hate it. But I was thinking on Hades idea, as I was washing the dishes, and I think it could be really neat. Basically, take something like a basic fantasy D&D setting and blow it up via a magical apocolypse. Through the abuse of magical forces, all those who tapped into the magica forces damaged and weakened it irrevocably, and ultimately destroyed it, causing mass destruction. All magic users are killed, and the lands ravaged. Set the game some time after the event (a decade perhaps). There is no contact with the gods, they may or may not still exists, some priests might even consider mages god-killers and hate the very utterance of any magic reference. So while priests exist, they are healers by traditional methods, and can curse and bless only through their followers believing that it's possible, so faith is just that - belief and dogma. There'd be charlatans, fanatics, doomsayers and whatnot. And in this world the races and cultures are struggling to rebuild and crawl out from under the ruin. Could be fun.

wait that could be a good idea taking a fantasy setting where magic went dead then advancing it a few thousand years and then doing something with that <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'd be interested in playing that.

Moreso than IWD2? What was it about BG that was so disappointing?

Last night's episode was pretty dull. The whole thing was a tedious set up to, wonder of wonders, a big fight. Again. The backstory to Charlie seemed mostly like filler, and could have been pared back to one flashback; yes, we get the idea that he's looking for control of a situation and to look after someone, no need to beat it over our heads. Speaking of that character, I find it very suspect he was able to find a black handgun in the muddy area of a fight at night in the rain and, with no firearms training, be able to shoot Ethan down like that. A small detail in the show, but does anyone know if any of the writers for Lost are fans of The Office? I noticed that Charlie's "love interest" said her father was away to buy a paper company in Slough. A paper company in Slough (UK) being the setting of The Office. I'm beginning to wonder if they're stranded in Newfoundland. It's possible a polar bear could wander down from the northern area of Labrador, it would explain Ethan as he's from Ontario, explain the crazy French woman, and also explain why no-one is looking for them. I think soon they're going to run into someone who says they're From Town.

This thread has been pruned back considerably. Please refrain from trolling and flaming; there's absolutely no reason for it whatsoever. It's a pretty good topic, and I think worth keeping open, but if it gets out of hand again it'll be locked.

Neat! I think I'll pick up the Conquest pack. I'd like to support Strategy First, they aren't doing too well these days and I'd hate to see them go under.