Gromnir

"I think the problem is people expect way too much. They somehow have this foolish notion that because of origins that BIO was actually making 5 different games. Come on, people. Get realz." hyperbole or strawman? take your pick. from the origins you get lots of extra... how did alan describe? fluff? yeah, fluff. "consequences" were a word biowarians kept using during development, and other than fluff and flavor we ain't seen much (any) genuine change in game after +45 hours of gameplay. Gromnir is the person who kept telling people Not to expect 5 different games... am one of the folks that kept saying that with a single critical path we didn't see the origins as being having a significant impact on rest of game. more than a couple folks, Gromnir included, noted that bio likes to give players access to as much of game as possible w/o possibility of missing... entire party of followers goes with you on ebon hawk, and the there ain't gonna be no special tangential stuff for those who play class x as 'posed to class y. etc. ... is not that people expect too much. if you think that is the case then you didn't pay attention when Gromnir and others expressed reservations. we expected little, but we has actually gotten less. the strange thing is that it were the biowarians who assured us that we were underestimating and undervaluing the origins. left to our own devices and prognostications, we woulda' predicted that the origins woulda' had 'bout as much impact as they actually have had. however, based on biowarian feedback and claims, Gromnir expected at least a couple additional side-quests and Some meaningful additional consequences. our meager expectations is what bio made 'em. thank goodness we didn't actually believe their entire sales pitch or we would be real disappointed. HA! Good Fun!

is folks who suggested that the origins would be unique starting locations but that beyond the initial portion there would be little noteworthy material other than some unique dialogue options... nothing that would significant alter the critical path. Gromnir went so far as to suggest that each origin could probable support a couple of minor tangential side-quests that would be unlocked/available during course of typical play. biowarians assured Gromnir and other cynics that the origins would have far greater impact than we suggested. ... am seeing Less than we expected, rather than more. given how the biowarians insisted that the origins would result in numerous and tangible gameplay consequences, am genuine surprised by how little we has seen. honest, we figured at least a couple o' tangential sidequest options would open up as we played, but am nearing the end and have seen nothing like even what we had modest expected, given biowarian claims and indignant responses to the cynics. is a fine game... am just not impressed by the unique origin material, especial in light of fact that biowarians defended the innovation and impact o' the origins. HA! Good Fun!

something we noticed last night... Gromnir didn't take petrify for wynne, 'cause it seemed like less pay-off than cone of cold. however, we bought those arcane talent boosting books and played around with a saved game we had just before meeting the crimson oars mercenaries. is only 4 potential baddies, but 2 gots yellow lettering for their naming. yellow name enemies almost never shatter when Gromnir crit hits 'em while frozen. however, the petrified crimson oar leader shattered each time we replayed... am supposing that combined with death hex, such a combination could be lethal to all but a few critters in the game. am doubting it works on revanants, but we will test this eve. HA! Good Fun!

end of game is the absolute easiest place for developers to add such stuff, 'cause there is no bifurcation or consequences beyond that point. Gromnir enjoyed the ToB epilogues and the end options for ps:t, but such stuff is hardly new, and at least from a design pov, is not particularly impressive. however, if the execution were good, that counts at 'least as much as does innovation. is nice to hear that end is satisfying. "As a dwarf commoner, I had a ton of dialogue choices based on my race. " dialogue options not actual = change in consequences. mass effect dialogue wheel should have taught people that lesson. as a dwarf commoner there is an obvious portion o' game where results potentially could be changed. am wondering how significant those changes were. have an occasional reference made to facial tattoos or such stuff is... nice. however, that doesn't sound like what bio were suggesting. HA! Good Fun!

quick question: how much difference did origins make in your play through? have played human noble, and am noticing very few places where alternative options is available past the origin portion. however, having played through the complete dwarf noble section, and a few minutes o' the dwarf commoner origins, am seeing potential places in dwarfy portion o' game where you could get unique options. so, for those o' you who played stuff other than human, did the origins alter your game significant past the origin portion? bio made big claims 'bout origins feature and impact on game as whole, and while game has been very fun indeed, am not personally seeing origins impact in our game. HA! Good Fun!

our weapon swaps, so far, has been of 2 flavors: ranged v. melee enchantment configurations the ranged v. melee should be obvious... those area effect spells makes ranged weapons more useful. enchantments, on the other hand... am finding that is sometimes nice to have a darkspawn killer v. a undead weapon... am still trying to figure out the resistances o' various categories 'cause the numbers is hard to decipher, but various weapons and enchantments seems particular geared towards undead and darkspawn, so we switch on the fly as needed. armour penetration? am knowing it exists in game, but is no noticeable effect so is tough to make choices based on such.... heck, am still trying to figure out hits v. misses. according to our heroic statistics, our warrior has been hitting 79% of time. am pretty sure that number has not changed all the way through game, which seems... unlikely. HA! Good Fun!

Guess what my reaction to the mage spell list was. overwhelmed players with too many choices? HA! the thiefy talents coulda been opened up to both warriors and mages... and the combat stuff coulda' been provided to warrior. "overwhelmed" players is almost as ridiculous as making combat tactics slots a freaking skill. rogues exist 'cause the warrior/rogue/mage breakdown is traditional, familiar and expected, but folks trying to rationalize some other way is looking foolish. btw, no classes would be fine... just has skill trees and attribute points. problem is that bio went with classes. 2 classes maybe seemed like too few... am recalling when people were suggesting classes and alternative labels for rogue. were silly. skill-user, ranger, bard... were all alternatives mentioned. so bio takes all that crap and dumps into the leftover class. again, Gromnir ain't saying that rogue is weak or unplayable, but it is unnecessary... is bloat. create a third class just 'cause you had too many skills/talents for 2 classes? is not a genuine suggestion, is it? HA! Good Fun!

so far, Gromnir has bought potions and potion making materials. we also bought 2 backpack upgrades (am at 90 slots.) the big-ticket items we has purchased: books. as wynne were royal screwed, we bought the arcane powhaz books for her... and we bought a skill book for our main character... as well as one talent boosting book. paying big gold to boost a single attribute point didn't seem worthwhile, so we skipped those books. we could also buy 1 additional talent book for our warrior, but Gromnir anticipates that we will level at least 1 additional time before we finish the game... and there is really only 1 more talent we is interested in adding to our character. in any event, we current has 134 gold, 41 silver, and 11 coppers... and our chest at soldier's peak is full o' sellable 1007. am assuming that if we sold extra stuff, we would have over 200 gold. HA! Good Fun!

Did you get the achievement for 75% of sidequests done? What level did you end on? some people finished bg2 in less than 40 hours. *shrug* our brain goes kinda numb when folks tell us how short a game was.. or how easy/hard. for every person that says they finished in 40, there will be an equal odd personage that claims excess o' 100 hours... 'course, with all the re-tracking through empty maps with dog and the bard... and recognizing the craptacular inventory management issues we got, am guessing that we should shave close to 10% off our somewhat bloated gameplay hour total. HA! Good Fun!

a simple way to make any battle easier: dump the bard. 2 mages with force field and cone o' cold would make short work o' that bunch. HA! Good Fun!

bio wanted you to not think of rogues as simply stealthy lockpickers... 'course then they goes ahead and makes stealth and lockpicking rogue-specific abilities. morons. HA! Good Fun!

Which ones are these? While I don't deny it'd be possible to render a character useless, I would think you'd have to specifically try (like Dex dump a mage or something). LOL, I kept giving Leliana rogue talents (the "Dirty Fighting" chain), the mechanism talents, and her bard talents. That meant that in combat she would fire twice and then run in and attempt to melee without having any particular aptitude for it, nor the stamina to use the rogue abilities I gave her. Basically, the best role for her at that point was to miss with her arrows and sing. Not much use there IMO. On my current game, I'm going to give Lel Melee Archer and other ranged talents first, and then move on to bardic and mechanical abilities. I made the mistake of having Morrigan delve too deeply into healing, and Wynne too deeply into fire. This gave me more flexibility, but at the cost of decreased effectiveness in their primary roles. I set up some nice tactics for them both to take advantage of the flexibility, but they chugged pots like mad due to constant lack of mana. This time around, I'm keeping them focused where they are. am wishing we had delved into fire for wynne, 'cause we followed the paths stared by the developers and discovered it weren't smart. we finally got use from earthquake, but only if claudia black is casting blizzard, or shale does bombardment. regeneration? does health actually improve when you cast regeneration? haste sounded swell, but didn't seem to work out in practice. etc. we did get the mind blast, force field sequence o' spells, and am gonna buy those arcane books to perhaps give her the fire spells... 'cause other than stonefist and arcane bolt she not got useful offensive powhaz. would probable be smarter to get cold stuff as having claudia and wynne alternating with cone of cold and force fields would be incredible effective. however, when we not have shale in party we would like to have some ranged artillery. am suspecting (no spoilers please) that claudia black is not gonna be helping Gromnir at/near end of game... and if we gotta depend on wynne as she is current built... Gromnir didn't hardly look at the rules before we started playing, 'cause we wanted it to be a genuine novel experience. am playing on hard, but we got mauled MANY times. for us it has not been easy by any stretch o' the imagination. sudden get mobbed by multiple enemy archers all with scattershot? yeah, that were fun. wolves with overwhelm? wolves? am still not sure we is playing anywhere near optimal, 'cause some o' the rules seems bass akwards... or the rules is unknown so am not sure what is genuine going on during combats. but allistar's 4th tier templar power looks keen. if we hadn't acquired force field, largely by accident, we would be getting thoroughly smoked. btw, after finishing some tough battles we went back and played on normal to see how much difference it made... and typically those battles were still pretty damned hard. HA! Good Fun!

really? champion would appear to have the best powhaz. war cry, with knockback, is extreme useful... and if it it imposes penalties proportional to rally... the damned rules not being transparent makes comparisons difficult, but rally + motivate would appear to give a +10 bonus to both defense and attack to any party-mate in the zone... including the champion. am doubting that such stuff stacks if you got 2 champions, but am gonna look next time we see. honest, we don't see any warrior specialization that genuine compares to champion. HA! Good Fun!

level 4 for spirit healer is actual pretty good for a couple reasons. the waves o' healing is nice, kinda like getting multiple group heals, but most useful attribute is the heal injury aspect. Gromnir has party members die during fights... often. am very frugal 'bout potions and am playing on hard, so tough battles typical result in 1-2 Gromnir party corpses. spirit healer's aura heals not only health, but injuries. our typical party includes both jnpc mages. am actual glad 1 of 'em is a spirit healer. wynne's starting spell selection were hardly optimal, but am not bothered by the healer specialty. HA! Good Fun!

On normal difficulty, one tank taunting all the time (to prevent Dragon from targeting other characters) + Force Fielding the tank while your mages are blasting the Dragon, works. I've tested this tactic five times succesfully against the High Dragon. Against Flemeth, I had to do things the old fashioned way because I couldn't bring Morrigan... it's possible Flemeth is smarter than the High Dragon. I'll have to test it when I'm replaying with a PC mage. Immunity against knockdown is recommended; also stay at the flank of the dragon all the time, to prevent the tank from being grabbed or slapped by the tail. Of course, fire resistance is important... going into battle with Drake scale armour + would help too. haven't tried on normal, but we got saves previous to some revanant battles and dragons, and the taunt + force field didn't work so well. used shale as the taunting tank, figuring we could possibly take advantage of it's special defensive aura while held by force field. revanants complete ignored shale in force field. dragons were kinda odd. am assuming that bio made dragons purposeful stoopid to keep 'em from slaughtering every party. dragons evident use the same target prioritizing as does most dragon age enemies: targeting based on party member armour. if dragons genuine attacked mages, am suspecting that the battles would be serious short and ugly. in any event, it seems that while shale is a superior tank to Gromnir's 2-h fighter, enemies is possibly entranced by wade's dragonbone plate... which Gromnir wears. will put allister in our best armour and sees what happens. HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir is playing on hard, so perhaps that is why the dragons seemingly ignored our taunt attempts. tried your tactic twice... took our tank out of the fight. abandoned the tactic. Cone o' cold did work, but it also froze our character... but yeah, cone also interrupts the grab. as for healing through the grab... am not sure how that would work unless your heal spells is far more effective than we has seen in Gromnir's game. the amount o' damage being done is overwhelming. even with two casters simultaneous doing heals, plus wynne having cleanse aura active we sees tanks go down... hard. perhaps with a lifeward thrown in as well it might be enough. HA! Good Fun! ps were asked elsewhere, but does anybody know a way to dispel hexes and curses? templar abilities do not work.

so far, the only way we has discovered to effective interrupt a Grab is to simultaneous cast force field on the critter in question... otherwise is pretty much insta-death. have run into 2 genuine versions o' the beastie in question (the one in the forest ruins is a pip-squeak by comparison and we not count) and both times we were able to interrupt a grab with a timely force field. 'course, the critter has ridiculous resistance, so even force field is probably having vegas odds of success. HA! Good Fun!

2 mages with force field can really supplement control o' the battlefield. does anybody know what factors influence the duration of force fields? some boss creatures can be held via force field for a considerable time, but others... again, as am not understanding the mechanics, we cannot explain the differences. HA! Good Fun!

I have the impression Cleanse Area removes effects/buffs on enemies only. I encountered a mage with anti-magic shield and a lot of other bruhaha, and Cleanse Area removed everything of him. am pretty sure cleanse area works on own party as we used to remove a cone of cold effect a couple times. perhaps we were simply slow and the freezing effect wore off simultaneous, but it sure seemed to work.will test it next time we play. is one of the few things we can test as friendly fire with cone of cold is possible. regardless, this is yet another example where the in-game description is less than complete. in any event, if cleanse is not 'posed to work on hexes and curses, is there anything that does work? HA! Good Fun!

part of the issue with identifying bugs in da is that we don't know the rules. a majority o' the bugs in d&d crpgs is almost always related to incorrect implementation o' rulez. with da we don't know if something seeming wacky is broken on purpose or by accident. dagger damage is confirmed busted by bio, but am not sure if some o' the bows is working right as different bows is resulting in very odd damages. HA! Good Fun!

is templar's cleanse area 'posed to be ineffective 'gainst hexes and curses? cleanse is 'posed to remove magic in the area..."dispellable effects." am gonna assume that hexes and curses ain't dispellable? anybody found a way to counter curses and hexes? Gromnir chose templar as one o' his specializations... 'cause we wanted righteous strike and cleanse area. unfortunately, most o' the serious whammy spells coming our way at high levels is hexes, curses... or they is instantaneous with no chance to dispel. HA! Good Fun!

that worked. is an encounter to honnleath... but not from honnleath. "I believe that random encounter is Warden's Keep only. " possibly, but it appears to happen only on the way to honnleath. odd. HA! Good Fun!

yup

pretty far, but we didn't get the meteor encounter some folks mentioned. am guessing that means that we simply won't get it this time 'round? HA! Good Fun!

old tegrin gets around. have seen the dwarf merchant at least ten times. am thinking that Gromnir's game is bugged. anybody else got this problem? if we could kill him and his ox we would... 'least that ways we wouldn't have to see him outside of redcliff and frostback mountains and... wherever. HA! Good Fun!