majestic

Well you can do Watcher's Keep fresh out of Chateau Irenicus (at least up to the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, farther if you don't mind cheese and rest spamming), and Kundane/Belm is available fairly early. Even with only the normal haste and prior to the final attack per round bonus you can trounce everything and it only gets better from there, and a party size of three or four characters makes sure you dip into HLA level... well, well before the Underdark. Fighter/Mages are better, sure. Whether it is your old buddy Koveras or a home made Kensai/Mage dual class, or even a plain old F/M MC. But an F/T is in my opinion the only way to play a thief character in BG2 without gimping yourself compared to everything else that's available. Except maybe single class clerics. Ugh. I'd rather waste time laying traps than that. Talking about the game is the only way I play it since Ascension came out. Combat being a chore is why my player characters usually end up having fighter levels and never venturing out with a full party of 6. DC or MC... doesn't matter that much. But that's also true for IWD. Start the game with three fighters that DC into a thief, a mage and a cleric (or druid if you feel lucky but that stat roll needed, whew) at level 9. Liberally rest until healed and just walk over traps until you can DC. The proceed to destroy everything a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. The IWD EE and IWD2 being exceptions of course. Bringing a sorcerer in IWD is just ridiculous enough to merit it's inclusion every time (bring a paladin, sorcerer and fighter/druid playing on Insane. Cheese yourself through the beginning and enjoy) and IWD2 is a whole different can of worms.

Sure is, but we're making the best of a SonicMage117 StupidSeal troll thread. So there's that...

The beauty of using Imoen is that you can drop a party member for the added experience gain without missing out on anything. Except access to traps, but I'd rather timestop and nuke everything on screen. It's less annoying to set up and much more of a spectacle. But yes, she's not the best thief nor is she the best mage in the game (although how much mage stats matter in BG2 is an entirely different discussion - it ultimately boils down to two extra spell slots for Edwin compared to being able to wear the Amulet of Power), but she's - imo, obviously - the best of the two for one options when it comes to thieves. No, but I had 10 attacks/round fighter/thief player characters with Foebane +5 and multiple Assassinations. It's probably not as funny as using Mislead to repeatedly backstab but it puts out a lot of raw damage and you can hold your own in fights with completely obliterate enemies that are immune to backstab. I'd put using Mislead like that in the same category as using Simulacrum to circument the summoning limit. It's interesting to do but in terms of convenience nothing beats sending your buffed up meele whirlwind of destruction into the fray and watch everything on screen die in a round and a half. I mean, sure, we're talking about a game where outside of modifications you can beat every fight solo with the most underpowered classes in the game, so that's pretty much purely academic. You sure you're talkin about Imoen here? Because that romance arc is only available in a mod, and it is a contender for the worst modification in the history of ever.

That's all well and true - but only if you assume that you really want a thief character in your party that levels as a thief and it is not going to be your Fighter/Thief player character that can make liberal use of the Assassination HLA bug (that I presume is fixed in the EEs and certainly fixed in all the fixpack mods anyway) and has faster acess to more traps than Jan (due to the way HLAs work in BG2). That's fine, but then we're well past the point of "who is she going to replace who is more useful than her" in terms of raw power and we're back to roleplaying or finding NPCs annoying or not, or silly limitations like avoiding rest-spamming. Whether she replaces Nalia or Jan doesn't really matter. She has enough thieving skills to handle the rest of the game - unlike Nalia - and she fires more and better spells off than Jan at the same experience level, and she's not limited by being an Illusionist with no access to Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. So, nah. I honestly don't know if the EE introduces an extra thief NPC, but... I'd pick none of the available ones for their thievery skills. But I will pick a Tihef/Mage DC over an MC every time.

Funny, in the sea of suboptimal NPCs that the Baldur's Gate series has Imoen is one of the more useful ones. You can make her useful in BG1 and she comes as useful right from the start in the second. Annoying VO aside, in terms of raw power added to the party she's kinda hard to beat in BG2. Not counting mod NPCs of course.

Radio waves and light are both EM radiation of different frequency, i.e. all EM radiation travels at the speed of light in a vaccuum. So... yes. But signal strength diminishes very quickly (squared to the distance traveld if I remember my high school physics correctly, it's been a while).

Back to mandated home office against the background of rising infections. Also super stoked about launching the largest customer project in years from home. 's exactly what I need, my brain beginning to associate the place where I usually relax with crunch.

Don't feed him. Especially past midnight.

Seals, hedgehogs, dogs, communists, it's hard to keep track after a while.

I think I need to rewatch that. Too bad the DVD's locked away somewhere in my cellar.

Started reading Dune Messiah. I'll try to continue Also sprach Zarathustra afterwards. Try being the operative word. Oh boy.

I can still see what you did there, you dawg.

Finished Wasteland 3.

Silly me was giving him the benefit of the doubt after the reaction to Eye of the Beholder 2, but I guess that thread just settles it then.

Eh, wow. Currently at the very end of Wasteland 3 and it's not entirely what I expected. And by "not entirely" I mean... not at all. Holy crap I done made a mess out of that.

I'm usually a fan of getting to know a system on your own but in WL2's case I really recommend reading up on how CLASSIC stats interact with each other and how initiative is calculated. The combat's kind of unforgiving so playing a suboptimal stat spread isn't impossible but potentially not a lot of fun.

Maybe, but I've lost so often it barely matters any more.

The game, and you just lost...

My mom is in a Parkinson's rehabilitation program for the next four weeks. Had to feed her pet today. She calls it Hugo and luckily it is really undemanding, quiet and not much of a problem when left alone. A bit of attention and some food once per week is enough. It's also quite ascetic. All it really needs is some rye flour and a bit of water.

Play Sekiro first. It's easier to go from Sekiro to Dark Souls than vice versa. You might even hate your time in Sekiro that way. Or give up. Assuming you even want to play Sekiro, but who wouldn't?

In my ideal dream world the creative writing team behind a new sci-fi show would be Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz. Doesn't even need to be Trek, although arguably RHW's best work was indeed on Trek (he wrote DS9 episodes like The Wire, Hard Time and A Call To Arms ).

Huh. I watched a bit of that video and tried to remember my Alpha Protocol playthroughs and I can't for the life of me recall having that many bugs or weird things happening in combat. So what's that I hear on the wind? Yeah. Don't play master race games on consoles you peasants.

Sorry man, just having fun. I case it wasn't clear enough already, we don't know which game you're talking about. Oh come on, don't let him/her in on that. They're limited!

Overrated in which way?