omgFIREBALLS

I'm way too fond of Zealous Endurance and the Herald defensive aura for any party. I also tried Sure-Handed Ila + Rime And Frost... + Zealous Charge kiting and while that was quite powerful it was also quite tiresome. Plus, my paladin was a Goldpact Knight so her Liberating Exhortation (another ability I love) was extra good to use on my priest so she could buff more safely. I didn't even take Sacred Immolation as I needed neither more AoE damage nor more AoE healing. In fact, there was so much AoE healing going on that I lost a chanter twice to death. They heal each other's endurance so much that in a long losing fight they run out of health unless I manage to pull them out and give them a bow. I didn't miss CC so much. Tough fights I would open with figurine summons while I buffed up and accumulated phrases. After that, time was on my side so to speak. The AI seems rather inclined to prioritize weak targets, rather than weighing ease of killing against importance of killing, so summons were always good fodder. Did not kill fast though (the chanters had 10 might), but outlasted like hell. The group was royally awful at killing dragons however. The sky dragon took a long long time to kill and it was just crowding her with ogres that occasionally managed to graze her. I had to do that with the alpine dragon too but that might not have been needed if I hadn't lost my priest to hubris. The group was all pale elves, I got them all a blunting belt, nearly all of them had +10 will/reflex/fortitude talents, all had weapon and shield style, most had deflection bonuses, they had heavy armor etc etc. Even the priest had a breastplate.

Thanks so much for this! I've played a lot of caster groups, but I always found they couldn't casually beat trash encounters, which I just want to blaze through and save micromanagement for bosses. So I moved on to melee-heavier groups with the pronepike and while they were fun, I realized what I really wanted was a tanky squadron that played for a slow, safe victory. And this is it. Four chanters, a paladin and a priest. Each of them pumping defenses and damage reduction, the chanters weaving Dragon Thrashed and protections; there are no easy targets in my party. And for trash encounters I can just throw some mastered spells with the priest, perhaps some invocations from the chanters if it lasts that long. After noticing how much it suited me I started over as a Triple Crown attempt, which was my first such. Expert Mode is actually strangely liberating when you have a good feel for spell AoE size and know the important skill/stat checks; you don't need to worry about those and you are freed from "Should I really say THAT? What will people THINK of me?!" And now I've beaten that! Even Frozen Crown. Killed all dragons to death, never backed down when prompted about high level scaling etc. Though admittedly, the Plan B of run away, stand at a distance and drown the baddies in ogres did feel cheap at times ^^

My issue is that most encounters are easy enough that I don't care to micromanage my party much, but I might still end up taking unnecessary amounts of damage if I don't at least use my per encounter abilities. And that becomes a chore pretty fast. Disciplined Barrage, Vigorous Defense, Charge. Yes, Smashbreak, again. Also you, Breaksmash. Is this possible to handle with a third party program? Any recommendations?

Can't reset it AFAIK, unless of course you still have a save from before speaking to Maerwith.

My good sir, your grasp of this game's buff stacking mechanics is a treasure to this community and a shame to your ancestors.

Nearly fifty? H to the O to the W?

BG2 has a Dungeon-Be-Gone mod which lets you skip, as the author names it, Chateau Irenicus. I sure wouldn't mind one that let me skip Cilant Lis. Are you sure about comparing your checkpoints to the various BG titles though? You can always go back to Defiance Bay after reaching Twin Elms. You can't return to Athkatla after starting ToB.

Since nobody's gracing you with the replies you really wanted, I suppose it can't be too wrong to give other answers to the topic question. I'm not a solo player, rather a diehard merc manager who mostly picks up NPC's for their quests to generate stronghold turns, but there are some things I've noted. Spoilers ahead, as likely as manipulative words out of Thaos' mouth. Can't answer the Edér/Durance stuff with more than "sounds about right" as I haven't paid much attention to it - plus there is a lot to pay attention to when it comes to Durance. But how about, Aloth is involved with the Leaden Key? Or how about, Grieving Mother used her cipher powers to make mothers believe their Hollowborn children were fine. There's also entertaining dialogue like Hiravias asking Pallegina if she has a cloaca, and if she has pubic hair or feathers. Or how about... Edér: Sagani, does your fox bite? Sagani: Yes. Edér: Can I pet him? Sagani: It's your hand. Edér: I'm gonna pet him. And how did that go? Seemingly well, eventually.

I play slight variations of this build on all my priests. I like it when my priests can buff fast and hard. So I'd say the gloves and the flail are pretty damn important, as well as whatever is used to buff up int and dex. Garodh's Chorus? Meh. Your priest's damage is just icing on the cake.

I voted fighter. Some conversations (like with Maerwald or Wymund) that lead to combat force your watcher to the front. This means it's advantageous, however slightly, that your watcher belongs on the front line. 'course, if you go over the usefulness of watcher talents/abilities and also consider disposition effects for paladins/priests, it gets trickier. Also I could argue that fighter is a good choice lore-wise too, perhaps being durable enough to survive the ordeal that leads to the awakening (though perhaps it should be about mental durability?). Seems people are approaching the whole lore aspect as if becoming a watcher is a choice your character makes.

Thought of it... but never really came to something good. Maybe nature godlike pally? A Darcozzi Paladini paladin could perhaps fly (NPI) as a follower of Hylea.

It's strange that editing the value to false didn't help, because that's pretty much the key difference I see between a ToI and a non-ToI save. Anyway, try pressing F5 in a game that shouldn't be ToI. If that quicksaves, you're not on ToI. If it doesn't, you should get an error saying you can't quicksave on ToI. I'm guessing Val Doré is Gilded Vale (the first village you reach after losing Calisca and Heodan), and you say you can't go beyond that without dying (somewhere in the wilderness, I presume), which obviously terminates a ToI run. It might be a small comfort but you have many many hours of content left after that. It's not giving up a lot of progress to start over.

No, it cannot be toggled once you've started. At least not through the game interface. By default it's off in my games. This is the button: http://imgur.com/a/rjmMW It's possible some techy people can help you with this, but the game itself supports neither disabling Trial of Iron nor copying a character. If it's possible to do, it will have to be through editing the save file.

Are you playing on Trial of Iron mode?

My original post is very old. There's been a number of balance patches as well as White March I + II since then. You should probably request fresh answers to all my questions, or ask them again yourself

Came here to complain about something, and it turns out my own old thread was the only place except making a new one. Eh! Problem #2 with the same situation: If you don't agree to frame anyone but simply kill her, the only way to finish the quest is an [Honest] response to Kurren saying Lumdala did it. There is no other conversation option. I mean sure, you're telling the truth, but as opposed to what? It doesn't really feel like some grand display of morals or anything... the deed is done and there's a juicy reward with my name on it for the reporting of it. The reason it annoyed me enough to merit lowering my keyboard's durability is however, that until that point I'd been avoiding [Honest] responses like the plague, and this response alone got me a full rank of [Honest] disposition. Quite willing to console that away, really. Magran's flames burn your "also" to ashes, cur, and let it be widely known that you are so poorly endowed that on the rare occasion that you consummate with a woman, even an orlan, your seed will refer to its last journey as the exploration of the Endless Paths. You have naught but repeated my point using fewer words.

It beats me though that big HoF/Carnage nukes become more of a convenience than a necessity past say level 13 (which ironically enough is when you get HoF?), because similar results can be achieved with Charge (for burst) and Sacred Immolation (for sustained), from classes that I find a fair bit more durable than a barbarian. Fighty fighters are walking death sentences.

Much as I feel I have outpowered the fear of Triple Crown by now, taking most victories rightly for granted, I'm not eager to start basing my battle plans on "jump into the fray and hope you survive"

Ah, I saw the reasoning for TUB/Carnage OP-ness and it all made sense to me, it was really only the barbarian+dagger combo that annoyed me about it. Guess they broke it before I got around to trying it. While you're sharing your insights about squeezing max damage out of a HoF, perhaps you could offer some advice on positioning? I find it hard to hit more than say 4 mobs with a HoF... usually the mobs who decide to converge on my tank.

Thanks for all the replies. I've been experimenting with Gudansthunyr + TUB* on the barbarian, and while the hammer sure is delivering, I'm just not seeing any Firebug procs. I used to cast that spell now and then when I played caster parties, so I know what the visual and the audio are. I cleared out more than half of the Torn Bannermen and everything in Concelhaut's dungeon and I never saw it and never heard it. At times, I would check the combat log after throwing a big HoF but I'd only see slash and crush. Halp. Edit to rule out one obvious question: Yes, TUB is fully upgraded. * [Perception 13] But you said you wouldn't use a dagger on a barbarian. [omgFIREBALLS: Extraordinary Negative]

That's the one I wanted to dupe with the mold - not the skull - but can you really duplicate reagents? I'm just wary of sending more people into melee range, though that dual hammer idea does sound interesting. Thanks.

I'm attempting Triple Crown, and I'm having far more success with it than ever before. However, inattention has caused me some irreparable damage. My party is fighter tank (watcher), paladin off-tank, fighty fighter, tallbarian, chanter and priest. Having slain the sky dragon, I decided I'd enchant my Tall Grass right away. Only, I accidentally used those eyeballs on my chanter's Llawran's Stick instead. I am unsure how to make the best of this situation. I think at the end of the day, the rational choice is to suck it up. TG still has reach and prone-spam. I'll have the option to give my barbarian the Tidefall later when my fighter gets the hammer (much as I am asking for minmaxer input, I'm not giving my barbarian a dagger). Then there's the staff. My chanter does not bring the pain. Even should I commit to pushing her damage, I don't expect she'll get near the fighter. Committing would mean durganizing the staff, and this party does not want for uses for that steel (I've already used it on TG too). I looked at the attack speed invocation, but eh, I don't know that more attack speed is what she needs, or that she can even utilize it all. The staff has +20% already, durganizing would mean another 15%, and then 40% from the invocation, on someone wearing light armor... I admit attack speed calculations are nothing but confusing to me, would any of this go to waste? Does the best way of improving my chanter's damage with reach/range not involve this staff at all, superb or not? And can I use the Helwax Mold on Concelhaut's eyeball? Yes, seriously

I saw them, but apart from maybe the change to single weapon style I don't see how they are particularly relevant to this. Happy for that change though. Mostly I'm cackling manically about the 1/encounter Heart of Fury. That ability is a wrecking ball.

Thanks for all the input. Haven't decided between dualing Drawn In Spring, Bittercut or Purgatory, but at least it's now a narrowed selection. As for Reckless Assault vs. Vulnerable Attacks, do you all agree with Stasis Sword? I'm thinking if I respec to get it I might drop Persistent Distraction because with Sap I have a more effective answer to enemies that decide to target my rogue.

I'm not averse to going for CC but none of those weapons feel roguelike enough to me. Level 13 Abilities: Blinding Strike, Deathblows, Deep Wounds, Dirty Fighting, Escape, Sap, Persistent Distraction Talents: Two Weapon Style, Shadowing Beyond, WF: Ruffian, Vicious Fighting, Vulnerable Attack, Backstab I excluded Watcher abilities/talents. Wearing Purgatory and Misery's End, I guess Glanfathan Sneaking Boots and Rabbit Fur Gloves should be mentioned too. Thanks.