Volourn's Wowwy Journey With NWN2:Spoiler Edition

[Wistrik]

You might as well try to finish it. Dragons are among the tougher things you'll face, and there aren't any after you head to the Vale.

 

 

*stares back at Darque's avatar*

[Dark_Raven]

KOS is the uber bad guy which you have to fight three incarnations of. Yeah I'll last long with that. Too many reloads will get me pissed off and quit.

[Volourn]

"You, for some random reason, refuse to use one type and therefore limit yourself, because breach spells are extremely useful."

 

How am I limiting myself by not using a spell you claim is 'extremely useful'? If it was so sueful, I would need it. I didn't, and don't. Nor was I ever limited.

 

 

 

"but at least NWN2 lets me avoid some battles through skillful dialog, which is an improvement."

 

Not really. Games have been doing that for over ten years now.

 

 

"But, Volo, I assume when the enemy fired a chain contingency with Protection from Magical Weapons, Pro. from Normal Weapons and Spell Mantle, you just sat there twiddling your thumbs until it wore out."

 

Yup. 'Cause they usually couldn't hurt me ever. On top of that, situations where such a scenario occured were so rare I'd likely be able to count them on one hand if I remembered more.

[Darque]

KOS is the uber bad guy which you have to fight three incarnations of. Yeah I'll last long with that. Too many reloads will get me pissed off and quit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Reloads?

 

You can take him in one go.

[Deraldin]

"But, Volo, I assume when the enemy fired a chain contingency with Protection from Magical Weapons, Pro. from Normal Weapons and Spell Mantle, you just sat there twiddling your thumbs until it wore out."

 

Yup. 'Cause they usually couldn't hurt me ever. On top of that, situations where such a scenario occured were so rare I'd likely be able to count them on one hand if I remembered more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I knew there was a reason that I used the Tactics mod. "

[Pop]

KOS is the uber bad guy which you have to fight three incarnations of. Yeah I'll last long with that. Too many reloads will get me pissed off and quit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Load Z with heals and mass heals, preserve your rod of res, and keep using the statue powers and he is indeed a pushover.

 

Totally unmemorable boss fight.

[Spider]

I still maintain that the latest IB (I think) Torgal battle was impossible in Chapter 2. Just impossible. He regenerates at about 5hp a second and hits about 4 times a round oding 20-30 damage and.. yeah. It was like fighting 3 Ravagers at once.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

IB is Improved Battles, right? I installed that once and hated it. Almost every fight in that thing led to me getting completely pummeled. I hadn't had so much experience with Tactics then as I have now though, so I'd like to try it again sometime. Only it's not currently available (at least not last time I checked). The mod-fight that always gets me though is Tactics Improved Faldorn. I don't think I've beaten that yet.

 

In regards to the usefullness of Breach, by the way, there is a world of diference between paying BG2 with or without Tactics. Without it's pretty much a wasted spell slot, since most fights are pretty damn easy anyway. But with Tactics it pretty much becomes the most important spell in the game. All of a sudden mages become inteligent, have good pre-buffs AND a good spell selection, so if they don't go down quickly, they will cause serious damage to your party.

[Darque]

KOS is the uber bad guy which you have to fight three incarnations of. Yeah I'll last long with that. Too many reloads will get me pissed off and quit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Load Z with heals and mass heals, preserve your rod of res, and keep using the statue powers and he is indeed a pushover.

 

Totally unmemorable boss fight.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I wouldn't say unmemorable.

 

That second wave was pretty cool.

[Tigranes]

Yup. 'Cause they usually couldn't hurt me ever. On top of that, situations where such a scenario occured were so rare I'd likely be able to count them on one hand if I remembered more.

 

Volo, I agree with you for vanilla BG2. And that's probably what you were talking about, so we wins, game over, etc.

 

IB is Improved Battles, right? I installed that once and hated it. Almost every fight in that thing led to me getting completely pummeled. I hadn't had so much experience with Tactics then as I have now though, so I'd like to try it again sometime. Only it's not currently available (at least not last time I checked). The mod-fight that always gets me though is Tactics Improved Faldorn. I don't think I've beaten that yet.

 

Since I finished BG2 about +20 times, I had the opportunity to extensively try both Tactics and IB - the two best battle mods, afaik. Tactics mod was pretty good, but it felt a little neutered for some of its changes and generally, I was getting bored. IB is definitely more radical; some, like Torgal, I learned not to install. Improved Abazigal is pretty damn insane as well; I'm sure there's a key to beating him, but I never figured it out. Another is Improved Illasera. She goes invisible, then just does it every time you dispel it; she fires arrows that hit every time, even if you're concealed, and does it like 4 times a round, each of them with slow and other status effects. She has great DEX, blade barrier I think, and som eother crazy things that block spells. Her minions were pretty good too.

 

Still, most of those battles rae pretty damn fun becuase each time you die you can modify your tactics, ands ometimes try pretty crazy things.

 

edit: KOS was pretty damn easy. The second wave was pretty good though. But if theres a boss fight where there's only one enemy (first and third), I expect it to have some pretty neat things. It would have been awesome for the first KOS to have BG2 dragon Wing Buffet; imagine the KOS coming out of the portal, waving his arm then your party flying to the far corners of that circular room, knocking them out and fizzling ze spells. Some unique spells / abilities for the boss as well. It's not a real boss if all it does is have 500hp and sit there dishing out physical damage. Stupid and boring.

 

Of course, I remember vanilla BG2's Irenicus tree fight. Totally roleplaying my solo Rogue, he noticed that Irenicus didnt even notice him before the guardians were killed; so cunningly he placed all his available traps right next to him, then disabled the guardians. Traps fire before Irenicus gets protections up, Irenicuse dies in 0.5 seconds. Even if you don't do that and go into the battle unprepared & unbuffed, Irenicus is pretty easy as long as you spread your praty out.

Edited November 22, 2006 by Tigranes

[alanschu]

How am I limiting myself by not using a spell you claim is 'extremely useful'? If it was so sueful, I would need it. I didn't, and don't. Nor was I ever limited

 

 

That's not true at all. The Carsomyr is very useful, but I don't need it. Timestop is insanely useful, but I don't need it. Armor is useful, but I don't need it.

[Wistrik]

"but at least NWN2 lets me avoid some battles through skillful dialog, which is an improvement."

 

Not really. Games have been doing that for over ten years now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps, but I've only played a few CRPGs in the last ten years, namely the BG series, IWD series, and NWN, where 99.9% of combat is inescapable through dialog, if dialog is even present. Sure you can sneak past while invisible, but I'm not counting tactics. So for me, NWN2 is an improvement.

 

The fixed version of Carsomyr works well because it dispels things properly. Since I used to always make paladins, that came in handy. Breach was fun to throw in just before my three fighters triggered greater whirlwind. Boom, another dead dragon. Not much survived long in ToB, and I never had to use Time Stop. (Not much of a mage player.)

[Volourn]

"namely the BG series, IWD series, and NWN, where 99.9% of combat is inescapable through dialog, if dialog is even present."

 

Please, don't exaggerate.

[Wistrik]

I'm writing of my own experiences with the games. That means I may not know of certain dialogs that could allow avoidance of combat. For example, I've never played an evil or neutral aligned character, so monsters often attack me on sight purely out of principle (I suppose). Where there is a chance to communicate, many times my attempts to avoid combat proved futile.

 

My 99.9% figure wasn't meant to be exact, as no statistic ever is. I wished to convey my feelings that the majority of combat in those games was inescapable, based on my experience. I've been surprised by the number of battles I've been able to avoid in NWN2, even while playing a LG character, and so I feel it's an improvement over the games I mentioned.

 

Maybe you had different experiences, but that doesn't negate what I experienced.

[Dark_Raven]

Second game and I am at the point before I go to the elven ruins, which is before Act 3. I am making sure I get all of the Keep upgrades, people there that I missed in my first play game. Yay I got both miners there.

[Wistrik]

I found out last night it takes 20 influence points to get Elanee to tell you about her druid test, and several other things of a more personal nature. It took me until Jerro's Haven to get her to open up about that. That's almost Act 3 (where I went immediately after the Haven). I now have 22 influence points with her and I haven't even visited her druid circle yet. She's easily got the highest influence requirement in the game for unlocking a dialog subject.

[Hurlshort]

I decided to pump all my interest in Shandra. I liked her better than Elanee. Let me tell ya, I nearly cried myself to sleep last night over that bad choice.

[Tigranes]

At least the game doesn't have the Stat Tomes, or you'd really be crying.

 

[Pidesco]

I decided to pump all my interest in Shandra.  I liked her better than Elanee.  Let me tell ya, I nearly cried myself to sleep last night over that bad choice.

 

I did the same thing. I even bought her painting for extra money. >_

[Cantousent]

Please don't flaunt the depraved nature of your personalities to the board. :Cant's grinning icon:

[Pop]

I would have preferred an option to keep her alive. I think I could have lived without the Web of Purity or Ammon Jerro.

[Deraldin]

I would have preferred an option to keep her alive. I think I could have lived without the Web of Purity or Ammon Jerro.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I want to know what the heck my characters were doing while the Jerro's where playing teleport tag. <_<

[Darque]

Shandra was one of my favs, I wish we had the option to save her also.

[Dark_Raven]

I would have prefered Shandra over Ammon. That guy was a **** for killing his own blood.

[Darque]

At least you could make him feel remorse over it. That was a definate story plus. And kinda sad too.

[Dark_Raven]

I would prefer to bleed him.