Baldur's Gate

[Tigranes]

rn:

-> Yeah, I do have high lag tolerance - I plan to buy an entirely new PC next year though, then I can finally finish The Witcher. I figure it's about time if I even want to think about playing FO3 (Yes, I will try it out), Alpha Protocol, etc.

-> I was getting a bit tired of Liches at that point, so I actually got the Vongoethe quest, then left Amkethran - tow hich irenicus commented, 'good, we have better things to spend our time on anyway'. I suppose that didn't do so much good. Your talk of reviving Chapter 6 dream and stuff utterly confuses me though, that never happened at all. Hrm.

 

Anyway, to the priest debate - yeah, since nobody ever wants to take Anomen (hahahahahaha), it's a tossup between Viconia and Jaheira. For Viconia, I usually invest in Ribald's Frost Giant Strength Belt relatively early, which balances things out - and at least you can give clerics the Flail of Ages, or a good warhammer (there are a lot around, even before Crom Faeyr). But she's still not that good at getting into melee combat. I don't know, I've never been able to utilise a priest character to full efficiency, I think. By Throne of Bhaal, Viconia just helps with Chaotic Commands before battle, runs around casting True Sight / the anti-paralysis spell, and casting Heal on the fighters - then, when she has the leisure, casting some high level offensive spells like Implosion. If you're fighting someone like Abazigal, neither Viconia nor Jaheira seem to be able to stand on their own toe-to-toe long enough to be of any use.

[Tale]

One thing that is currently bugging the crap out of me with regards to Baldur's Gate I and II is the abysmal selection of portraits. And the even worse ones people have on various sites around the internet. The male human mages that ship are either fruity (I'm looking at you, guy with purple outfit and his hands in the air) or Edwin. The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

Edited June 3, 2008 by Tale

[Moatilliatta]

Thanks a lot Tale, you just brought back horrible memories of looking for portraits for hours only to find that 50% of them is thinly veiled fantasy porn.

 

I'm so happy we are moving away from portraits.

 

The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

Or simple and quite horrible recouloring of the original portraits. Imoen with horribly yellow hair?

Edited June 4, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Tale]

The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

Or simple and quite horrible recouloring of the original portraits. Imoen with horribly yellow hair?

http://www.gibberlings3.net/portraits/thumbnails.php?album=4

[Moatilliatta]

I knew I shouldn't have clicked that link.

[Gorth]

Heh, Viconia does kind of piss me off as my Cleric. Every single time I play, without fail, her low strength score will catch my by surprise.

Isn't that why there is a bunch of belts/gauntlets of XYZ Giant Strength in the game?

 

Give her a nice belt, the biggest, baddest armour, the shield that reflects missiles (can't remember it's name anymore), alternatively some +5 shield and either flail of ages or a mace of your choice. She makes a good frontline fighter and a good cleric (high wisdom).

 

Edit: I can't remember if there are things she can use that improves her innate magic resistance, I should keep an eye out for that next time I play

[Tale]

Heh, Viconia does kind of piss me off as my Cleric. Every single time I play, without fail, her low strength score will catch my by surprise.

Isn't that why there is a bunch of belts/gauntlets of XYZ Giant Strength in the game?

It just catches me by surprise. I'll always get a weapon or armor that she simply can't equip without the belt. I'll think "WTF, WHY CAN'T SHe... oh... yeah. d'oh"

 

To be so repeatedly fooled is frustrating.

[Gorth]

Heh, Viconia does kind of piss me off as my Cleric. Every single time I play, without fail, her low strength score will catch my by surprise.

Isn't that why there is a bunch of belts/gauntlets of XYZ Giant Strength in the game?

It just catches me by surprise. I'll always get a weapon or armor that she simply can't equip without the belt. I'll think "WTF, WHY CAN'T SHe... oh... yeah. d'oh"

 

To be so repeatedly fooled is frustrating.

Ok, I understand what you mean

 

After playing the game the first few times, I realised that strength was a dump stat. Imoen can wait a while, my first earned money usually go to strength enhancing equipment (either for Aerie/Viconia or myself)

[Dark_Raven]

Jaheira's personality sucks but she is a good magic user which is why I keep her in the party.

[Darque]

Jaheira is teh awesome!

[Pop]

Charisma was my dump stat. Unless I was a paladin or bard variant, the ring of human influence was permanently grafted to my finger.

 

And I never use Viconia as a front-line fighter, since there's no item that has a static con boost effect. She's tissue paper.

Edited June 4, 2008 by Pop

[Tale]

Charisma and Wisdom are the dump stats for my Wild Mage. He's a Wild Mage! If he was wise, he wouldn't have picked the class in the first place. And tossing about spells randomly is likely to make people not like him as much.

 

I like to think of him as a cross between a mad wizard and the guy who juggles chainsaws.

Edited June 4, 2008 by Tale

[Tigranes]

That's true, BG2 practically forced the ring of human influence onto your hands. Silly decision.

 

I generally import IWD series portraits to use, I have long given up on finding any good portraits online.

 

Since I only play thief/mage, constitution is my dump stat. Hah!

 

Yeah, my mages die in one hit when the stoneskin runs out.

[Tale]

Anyone else experience slight graphical oddities?

 

See how the inventory items have a darker background and the inventory bag has that black box around it? Well, floating text also has that black backing to it, such as Irenicus' words in the beginning of BGII. It seems that some form of transparency is gone.

 

I'd wager it's most likely simply a consequence of newer hardware (and drivers) than anything the game was intended for, but I figure I'll ask anyway.

Edited June 4, 2008 by Tale

[Tale]

Awesome. It seems there are workarounds for the problem. But that's not the awesome part. The awesome part is it seems limited to nvidia cards. Which I'm only using temporarily.

 

For future reference: http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?showtopic=30840

That's probably the link with clearest information.

Edited June 4, 2008 by Tale

[Humodour]

Jaheira was more awesome in BG1.

[Darque]

True!

[random n00b]

-> I was getting a bit tired of Liches at that point, so I actually got the Vongoethe quest, then left Amkethran - tow hich irenicus commented, 'good, we have better things to spend our time on anyway'. I suppose that didn't do so much good. Your talk of reviving Chapter 6 dream and stuff utterly confuses me though, that never happened at all. Hrm.

You probably went too fast. In one of those rest-triggered sequences, you should have that dream about Ellesime and the Tree of Life again, and Irenicus will freak out. A crucial conversation comes after that.

 

 

One thing that is currently bugging the crap out of me with regards to Baldur's Gate I and II is the abysmal selection of portraits. And the even worse ones people have on various sites around the internet. The male human mages that ship are either fruity (I'm looking at you, guy with purple outfit and his hands in the air) or Edwin. The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

I always use NWN portraits. Not much better than the ones shipped with BG2, but they add variety and the art is similar, which helps not to break the feel...

 

As for Jaheira in BG1, that meant Khalid. So she loses by default...

[Pidesco]

Use the Icewind Dale portraits, people. They are varied, and they look oodles better than Bioware's awful excuses for in game portraits.

[Humodour]

One thing that is currently bugging the crap out of me with regards to Baldur's Gate I and II is the abysmal selection of portraits. And the even worse ones people have on various sites around the internet. The male human mages that ship are either fruity (I'm looking at you, guy with purple outfit and his hands in the air) or Edwin. The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

I always use NWN portraits. Not much better than the ones shipped with BG2, but they add variety and the art is similar, which helps not to break the feel...

 

As for Jaheira in BG1, that meant Khalid. So she loses by default...

 

I used the IWD1 portraits and soundsets. Waaay better. I have a script that converts your IWD1 soundsets to BG2 compatible ones if you want it.

 

As for Khalid - just kill him when he's in your party, then drop him once he is dead. Alternatively, send him to a Basilisk if you think you might want him later. His script only loads if he can talk.

 

I always preferred BG1 portraits to BG2 and NWN1 portraits, as well. Though Torment and IWD1 trump BG1 again.

[random n00b]

I used the IWD1 portraits and soundsets. Waaay better. I have a script that converts your IWD1 soundsets to BG2 compatible ones if you want it.

 

As for Khalid - just kill him when he's in your party, then drop him once he is dead. Alternatively, send him to a Basilisk if you think you might want him later. His script only loads if he can talk.

YEAH! IWD soundsets are totally WIN. I was so happy when I found that script you mention. Portraits, not quite so much, seeing how they are a bit blurrier (is that a word?) and less cartoonish than BG's. They ARE better, but I don't like it when stuff looks out of place.

 

And regarding your Khalid "solution"... um... that'd be too evil, even for my CE, Gate-in-town-casting Wild Mage.

 

 

I always preferred BG1 portraits to BG2 and NWN1 portraits, as well.

Lol fatty Imoen.

[Darque]

Hey, Khalid is awesome too!

 

All he really needs are the gauntlets of ogre power....

[Checkpoint]

Hey, Khalid is awesome too!

 

All he really needs are the gauntlets of ogre power....

And a complete change of attitude. Jaheira is only mildly annoying next to her inconceivably irritating hubby.

[Tale]

I actually like NWN portraits. But I can't find them for use in BG2.

[Pidesco]

A few of NWN's portraits were an improvement over BG's portraits, but a lot of them were the same kind of atrocious.