Baldur's Gate 2 Assistance

Might be I want to try Shadows of Amn again, so I want to get it right this time. My primary issues last time were:

-Suffering too much damage
-Knowing when you're strong enough to do certain events
-Getting charmed and frozen
-Not knowing how to counter what spells
-What is level drain, from vampires?
-Best combination of party companions
-Specialising in 2 handed weapons or ranged bows?
-Do shields protect you much, or are you better off with a two-handed sword?

What's a good male player to create? Is a fighter-mage okay? Are there adv to a half-elf rather than full elf?

 

Damage is bad. Make sure that you have a cleric in the party, at least one. If all else fails, turn down the difficulty, which will turn down the damage. The game is more about the plot than the fighting, so I see no problem with turning the difficulty down. My suggested party for a beginner is Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, Nalia, and Viconia. Viconia makes a good primary healer, Jaheira acts as a backup healer/tank/ranged, Imoen and Nalia provide magical firepower, and Minsc is your primary tank. Those guys together can cut through just about everything.

I suggest saving regularly. If you can?t handle a fight, go back to an earlier save. Technically, just about every fight you can do in Chapter II is beatable from the moment that you escape from the dungeon, but realistically you may need to be of a higher level or know exactly what you?re doing if you want to have much success against the likes of a certain Red Dragon.

Getting charmed and frozen is really annoying, but I rarely find it annoying enough to bother bringing spells against it. Mostly, I work around it.

Vampire Level drain weakens characters. It?s vitally important to have Restoration spells or scrolls to counter it, because otherwise you?ll very quickly be very screwed.

I suggest that you use the weapons that the party members are already well suited for (staffs for Jaheira, etc). The exception is Minsc: make him capable of dual wielding and give him a one handed weapon in each hand. For the main character, dual wield if possible. Unless you?re a Paladin, in which case go for Carsomyr. Mmmm. Carsomyr.

I usually don?t bother with shields. I?m more into offense than defense though.



Finally, the easiest character for a newbie in my opinion is to be a male Paladin, using any of the kits. If playing as a Paladin, use whichever of the kits has the weakness that will affect you the least. The Undead Hunter and the Cavalier weaknesses are so slight that they never affect me at all.

 

I cant remember the exact name, it was "breach" or something. That spell and a couple of others are VITAL to bringing down enemy mage's defenses.

Spread out to avoid area of effect damage, like dragons or fireballs

Pause ALL THE TIME during combat and give your characters orders

I dunno about a fighter/mage if you are having trouble, cuz you can't wear armor. Paladin is a good choice, like Raven said. Cleric if you don't mind your character being in a support role in combat, it will help with healing A LOT

 

Too much damge: Read the manual and see the descriptions for spells. Spells like Stone Skin and Immunity To Weapons/bows help reduce damage. Also try and get belts of protection or items that give Elemental protection. These will reduce a certain amount of damage. Damage mitigation is more important then healing. Also use spells that will increase your chances of avoiding attacks in the first place. Like Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility. Use your mages/cleric to buff up your party before a fight. Send out your Thief to scout or an Invisible party member so you know whats coming. This way you can control the fight and dictate the outcome before you even start.

Getting Charmed or Frozen Have your casters (mage/cleric) have spells prepared to grant immunity to such status effects. You can also equip equipment that grants immunity to certain status changes.

I found the easiest way to beat the game was as a dual classed Cleric/Mage. Takes more work to play as a caster but once you know your spells and how to use them you can rip through anything. At the beginning you might be weak but towards the end of the game casters are godly.

As for party mix. Minsc, Jhaiera, Haer'Dalis and Jan were always part of my core group. But there is no real killer group. It all comes down to play style, hell you don't even need NPC's. You can solo the game.


Elf and Half Elf have their differences. To me a Half Elf is like a gimped Elf. Personally I never go with anything other then Human. So I can dual class and because they have no real weakness. All other races can only Multi-class and generally have a minus to their stats (except Half Elf).

Easiest class to go with is Dual wielding Kensai. You will chew up anything that gets in your way. But you will need to pay close attention to your gear. Their a bit too cheesy though so I've never been able to play the whole game as one. Mage would have to be the top class, their end game makes them unstoppable, but you have to know what your doing.

 

Thanks! Forgot fighters can't wear armour. I was a Kensai human fighter last time, and yes, I equiped weapons that gave charmed immunity to my party. I did save frequently, but got screwed since while Imoen's gear is left on the ground when taken captive, I didn't know they disappear after several days. So I lost the sword parts you exit Jonny's dungeon with!

I've done heavy online research over the weekend, not that any of it stayed in my head. I heard you can backstap a wizard whilst invisible. So, Paladins can wear armour, eh? I had serious trouble with the mephits in the opening dungeon, so this time I'll choose them as my natural enemy.

A silly question, but how do you select spells from your memorised book so your characters can use them on your action screen menu?

 

Fighters *can* wear armour. *Kensais* cannot, as compensation for turning into threshing machines at higher levels. This can make them harder to play as a newbie since you will get hit much more often. Best thing to do is to get enemies to attack someone else then run in and Kai Shot them.

At the bottom of your screen in the action bar (where it displays your quick use items, talk, attack, etc) there should be a button which shows three stars and a crescent moon (something similiar). This only shows when you have a magic user selected. Clicking on this will display all castable spells in the action bar, select and click on target. It is also possible to create quick cast spells in the slots next to this button by right-clicking the slot and selecting the relevant spell.

Enemy magic users will often cast Protection from Magical Weapons on themselves...cast Breach in this instance. Removes a great many of their protection spells. Most confusion type effects can be removed by a dispel magic (depending on the enemy mage's level) but this also removes any positive effects.

Important spells include Breach, Dispel Magic, and Fireball or Skull Trap (something to hurt your enemies with).

 

I had serious trouble with the mephits in the opening dungeon, so this time I'll choose them as my natural enemy.

Not a good idea. Mephit's may be annoying in the beginning but overall they're nothing but a minor inconvenience. Undead's are nastier plus there are more of those.

I would recommend you make your PC a cleric. There are enough henchies for other classes. Viconia is the only pure cleric NPC and she's evil. And high level cleric is a killing machine, especially against hordes of vampires.

 

Hey, there's nothing wrong with Viconia being evil. You just make sure that your reputation doesn't get too high and you're fine. And once you hit Throne of Bhaal, you don't have to worry about it at all anymore (assuming you make the right dialog choices).

Ah, Viconia.

 

Good point! The Athkalta vampires were killing me in two hits, what are a few mephits? But I really didn't like mephits. And I'll avoid the armourless Kensai this time.

An Undead Hunter Paladin looks good . . .

If undeading kills vampires and such, how come my undead characters didn't kill vampires before last time? You need to be a highler xp level, perhaps? And for a racial enemy, Minsc could kill only one out of three easily.

At the bottom of your screen in the action bar (where it displays your quick use items, talk, attack, etc) there should be a button which shows three stars and a crescent moon (something similiar). This only shows when you have a magic user selected. Clicking on this will display all castable spells in the action bar, select and click on target. It is also possible to create quick cast spells in the slots next to this button by right-clicking the slot and selecting the relevant spell.

That I know, the three quick slots. What I couldn't work out was how to put memorised spells into those slots. I'll give it a go next time.

 

I remember reading that a human Kensai dual classing to a mage was the best, just kinda hard at the start

 

I'm of the opinion that the Ranger/Cleric is the best rounded class in the game.

The Kensai/Mage is highly overrated, but does have a very high kewlness factor.

The Mage/Thief is the most powerful class, and very hard to use properly.

 

I remember reading that a human Kensai dual classing to a mage was the best, just kinda hard at the start

Dual Kensai/Mage chews up most things but I wouldn't give them top honors, though. Ultimatley they are still a melee class and as such still suffer from the vulnerabilites of a melee class. Cough.... cough.... Timestop, Breach followed by your choice of nuke. Thats an oversimplefication though. Haven't played it in years so not even factoring in what a mage can do with Contingency, Sequencer or Simulcrum and of course my favorite, imprisonment.

 

I used a Bard I didn't know what to choose in BG1 and it seemed the most well rounded. He went through both games + expansions. Didn't have much trouble as long as I picked the right party

 

I'm going with an Undead Paladin, I like his stats. And this time, I'll do a full installation of 2 gigs. I really didn't like swapping discs for new maps, but if I keep Homeworld 2 uninstalled I'll have just enough memory. With 300 spells and three days of research, it's time to practice it out.

This'll keep me until Warcraft 3 arrives.

Found some online cheats to fill the monetary coiffers, so lets see if I can make $$$ this time . . .

EDIT: I can't get the English Patch Version 23037 to work. Will also installing the expansion fix the it?

 

If you have the expansion, install it immediately. Removes the level cap which is extremely useful, as well as other fixes.

 

I reinstalled Baldur?s Gate II today, and I?ve already started reminiscing. How many other games have:

-Pirates,
-Ninjas,
-Vampires,
-Dragons,
-Cults,
-Demons,
-Assassins,
-Secret societies,
-Wizards,
-Opportunities to travel the Planes,
-Evils Gods,
-Talking swords,
-And last but not least, Miniature Giant Space Hamsters?

 

Im thinking about going through the whole series again

 

I forgot to ask, as an Undead Paladin what weapons proficiency should I use?

If I don't select a bow, does that mean I can't use a bow and arrow? Or does that have to do with your strength? And the more stars you choose for, say, two weapon hands, the less penalty, right, just like KOTOR?

Should I spread my measely 6 allocated stars across several weapons, or put all into one?

And how does backstap work? I heard it's a good tactic for wizards. Shadow yourself, and hit, and that's called backstab?

Thanks!

 

You're an Undead Hunter Paladin, not an Undead Paladin.

Go for Two-Handed Swords, Two-Handed Weapon Style, and longbows. It's very important to go for Two-Handed Swords as a Paladin, because if you do you end up getting the very best sword in the game.

 

Undead Hunter, I know. I was going for the shortcut of typing.

So it's better to spread my 6 allocated points on two handed swords?

Can I still use weapons that I didn't allocate points in the creation menu later?

 

Can I still use weapons that I didn't allocate points in the creation menu later?

Yep, and you'll get more points later on as well.

 

That's good to know. And one last question before I begin, when allocating points in the creation menu, is there much difference between 2 handed weapon and 2 handed sword? Thanks.

 

One star means you can use the weapon, more stars mean bonuses to attacks

Thats the clincher, you can either be bad-ass with one weapon, or be able to use a bunch. If you put them all in two-handed swords and find a magic longsword you wanna use, meh

Wasn't that only for thieves? IIRC, you had to be flanking an opponent with another person in your party, and they got a big bonus. I remember it was hard to do, and often happened by accident

 

I experimented Minsc in shadow, and he killed goblins in one or two hits. Seems like that's backstab.

The mephits take a lot of punishment.

I focused my 6 starting points into 2 handed weapons as I would for KOTOR, and 2 handed swords, and a bit for 2 handed magic weapons. I hope I made the right choice in attributes:

15 Strength
15 Dex
15 Con
8 Intel
13 Wisdom
17 Charisma

Or something like that . . .

 

Rangers can't backstab, Minsc killed goblins because he's as strong as an ox.

You can use weapons you don't have stars in. Without 1 star, you get -2 to hit and -2 to damage or something similar. With 1 star, no penalty, with 2 stars and above, bonuses.

2 handed weapon style applies to all 2 handed weapons such as staffs, spears and broadswords, and IIRC gives you more damage. 2 handed swords only applies to swords obviously. 2 weapon style is different again, and makes it easier to hit holding 2 weapons (which gives massive penalties normally). 2 weapon style is possibly thematically not the best for a paladin, but it really doesn't matter.

Charisma is useless in this game, and you can quickly get a ring that sets it to 18. You should have left it at 10 and put those points into strength and constitution, even dex. However you should be able to complete the game with those stats.

Another edit: Try getting a ranged weapon proficiency as well, either longbows or crossbows. I usually leave bows to Minsc and take crossbows, especially with the expansion that has a nice one at WK.