>Veronica trusts us enough to openly admit to loving us >She trusts us so much in fact that she openly admits it to someone else simply because she knows we share a mutual bond
The protag really did a number on her drow instincts didn't he?
Charname and her brother.
Viconia’s brother complex is in some ways more interesting than most depictions because of how evil and alien Drow society is: To the Drow sex isn’t taboo at all but love is. Their culture is so twisted that the idea of love as we know it, even familial love, just doesn’t exist. The classic incest story is then inverted: her brother harbored forbidden love for his sister, not because he also loved her as a woman, but because he also loved her as a sister. Viconia reciprocated this but due to her lack of experience and exposure initially has no way of contextualizing her feelings, resulting in her mind trying to view them as merely sexual rather than something more complex than that.
I’m am well aware of Viconia’s art in BG2 just being a blue trace of that Slavic pornstar. I was more referencing the fact that Viconia tries to get Imoen to frick Charname in BG2 ToB.
>I finished ToB a few months ago with Imoen and Viconia in my party and I don't remember that, can you post the specific lines?
See pic related
Viconia just wants to ensure that Imoen doesn’t make the same mistakes she did.
That is the dialogue if you romanced Viconia, the ending is slightly different if you have not but she still tries to get Imoen to frick you and be your (sex)slave.
no they didn't, they deviate from the games too much and wotc abdel doesn't line up with book abdel at all. Not to mention everyone hates them, and they were never reprinted which is extremely rare for FR books so barely anyone has read them.
god i fricking hate millenial artstyle slop so much. have a nice day you old fricks, how did you think this artstyle was passable? you are the laziest generation to ever exist
Not Yeslick or Kaghain. Nor the portraits meant for your player character. But there are a couple of original portraits that can be used instead. I guess I'm in the minority but I like the BG1 portraits. I get why many can't stand BG2's art style and portraits.
Nice roster of people of different gender and age from young teen to old men. Meanwhile everyone in BG3 is a horny young dude or girl to frick beside 2 characters who are also already appearing in this image
I would've enjoyed seeing her rendition of the knight, Canderous. AKA Charname, Abdel Adrian. I wonder if she'll make similar portraits for Baldur's Gate 3? Sure they can't be modded in, but still.
In terms of quantity yes, quality frick no, at least in bg1. Bg1 companions are pretty much just voice lines
9 months ago
Anonymous
Best run I ever did was permadeath BG1. You get to know each character, play a ton of classes, and each encounter feels exciting and counts as it’s easy to get killed. Had to stop for the DLC though as no one was left.
Highly recommend it.
A yas kweeen negress vampire with comically high stats. They bait and switch you with this cute mindbroken girl who calls herself Hexxat, only to find out the real Hexxat brainwashed her. Nobody likes Hexxat the vampire. Nobody.
She isn’t blood related because they have different mothers and their father is a shapeshifting god that took on the form of different people for the act.
The scale makes no sense. Why do they have paths seamlessly connecting to each other in adjacent areas when it's supposed to take hours or even days to travel between them?
The whole map is an abstraction. Consider that game time runs 12 times faster than real time. The connecting paths are just to make it clear that it's a continuation of the same path.
Hey there, hi there!
Hop-skip to it!
With a smile!
C'mon people now, smile on your brother! Everybody get together, try to love one another right now!
Isn't this great? All of us, doing nice things, being happy - it's great!
Alora is great, shame you get her so late and her rabbit foot being bugged in the original bg1. Her interaction with Edwin was especially sweet, made even better with the BG1NPC mod. A real shame they didn’t bring her into BG2.
I fricking loved her. Shit character but her lines are good. I’m also surprised how attractive the real person was, artist did her dirty. 100% agree with you.
What the other anon said, at the point you can recruit her most people have a party that they are comfortable with. I use the mod that moves her to the halfling village myself. Imagine all the fun banter she could have had with Edwin in BG2, we ware fricking robbed.
I must not be expressing myself correctly, it’s gay mindflayer sex.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Disguisting.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Ok, you are not getting it. Last time, It’s mindflayer sex, with a man, who admits to raping his best friend.
9 months ago
Anonymous
You keep using offensive patriarchal terms like "gay" and "man". Icky bigoted stuff like this just doesn't fly now, sweetie. Also, you have like literally zero rights to assume the game character's pronouns. Ugh.
How do these portraits work btw? Do you change them manually every time a companion joins your party or do they automatically replace the original art?
>run into Xzar and Montarian >they ask to travel with you >look at their portraits
I'm sure these are upstanding individuals who will be a fine traveling companion. Off to Nashkell it is!
They are definately not Zentharim, what are you talking about?
Actually, BG1 is I think the only Bioware RPG that doesn't give you a tank fighter companion right away, so you are kinda gimped before you get to Friendly Arm.
>played a Pali so i was the tank and killed the dude at the inn instantly >gonna restart as a Sorc >2 low-level casters with 2 low-level thiefs
Ah yes, Pain.
People seriously have a problem with beating Tarnesh? Even 12-year-old me figured out that the best way to deal with him is to stunlock him with Imoen's magic wand.
Only the BG1 portraits were good in my opinion. A variety of expressions and angles within each composition. I don't get how Mike Sass changed it so drastically in BG2. All of the characters face the viewer. The color palette is more muted and the visual aesthetics of each character was a bit much. Like what was with all the piercings Edwin, and why do all the ladies have so many hairbands and beads?
That makes sense, I guess my question still lies more so on the color palette and aesthetic then. If he was working on celebrity models then there was only so much to work off of. Perhaps the answer lies with artistic intent, but something about the BG2 portraits just doesn't strike as well visually.
Damn, so real Imoen has been walking around all that time?
She even looks exactly the same.
Imagine knowing how many neckbeards creamed their pants over your wife
>Like what was with all the piercings Edwin, and why do all the ladies have so many hairbands and beads?
DnD was going for a grungy dungeonpunk aesthetic during that period, and BG2's characters reflected that. It even shows up a bit in Planescape. Thank God they moved away from that.
Don't care, it could be stick figures, it'd still be better than the diversityslop that is coming out right now. You ask why we we are always filled with righteous anger, just look at all the degeneracy out of you. It gets any man pining for war.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Sounds like a very exhausting way to live.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Far left wing propaganda getting shoved into every crevice of every piece of entertainment and everyday life is exhausting yes. I require rest.
The art'snot the best but I don't mind it. The blatant plagiarism on display for Neverwinter, however, was a cut above
at least the games themselves used to be good
It is not blood related but soul related. It isn’t something really comparable to things that can happen in real life, though I suppose there can be religious aspects where a religion considers adoptive children to truly have a soul related to the other children of the adopted. Perhaps two Christian people that have the same god-father but are otherwise unrelated might be the closest comparison? Imoen and Charname do have the same god father too I suppose…
>raised together as brother and sister by Gorion >she's also half related
Seems to be an incest, especially if Bhaal physically fricked those women who gave him a bhaalspawn
Oh, you meant as an enemy in BG1?
Yes, they just did that in the expansion pack. His saves were much more normal in base bg1 though there was some other nonsense.
Right he was a killing machine terminator with twice the attacks per round but you could debuff him, alternatively he was 100% immune to magic damage.
Now I'm faced with the reality that you can't actually beat him as a mage character because of his saving throws and all the times I did beat him I was using a max buffed warrior and out damaging him
Dunk on him with giant hordes of summons.
Specialist mages give a 2 penalty to enemy saving throws and the doom spell can do that as well if you just must save or lose him.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Yeah I heard that mobbing him with hasted summons is a good strategy. The problem is I already feel like I'm cheesing because if you stealth to him the mage will teleport to the beginning of the room which allows you to kill him solo. I just thought going in compeltely unprepared with a 5 man RP team and a mage MC would be enough to not savescum
>you could debuff him, alternatively he was 100% immune to magic damage.
Wasn’t it 100% magic resistance, not just magic damage resist? That would make all spells fail in the base game version.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Hmm, yeah you're right. He was just super easy to kite in the original game with ranged because he wasn't hasted and they added a 50% damage reduction to ranged
9 months ago
Anonymous
Use your party to kill everyone else while you 1v1 him in melee. Doing anything less than this means you didn't beat the game. If you are a filthy non martial who can't do this, you shouldn't even be playing the game to begin with.
9 months ago
Anonymous
I feel a great shame for being a mage and not being able to do anything against him >tfw killed the iron throne mercenaries outside by spamming web and cloudkill and fireball from fog of war
9 months ago
Anonymous
Truly pitiful. Perhaps you can still be of use buffing up your party and fighting Semaj while the real heroes of your group, the melee characters, handle Sarevok since you are not MAN enough to fight your brother with steel on steel.
9 months ago
Anonymous
>Savescumming for spells just to megabuff my team to cheese a solo fight
feelsbadman
these aren't bad stats at all, and rolling more than 90 combined points is rare
the TotSC saves are bullshit though, no doubt. Probably to prevent magecheese soloing
Yeah, Sarevok has awesome stats. Isn't he the only party member with natural 18/00 strength?
On a side note, I found the original characters sheets for Record of Lodoss War's characters.
https://archive.org/details/record-of-lodoss-war-comptiq-magazine-english-translation/page/n17/mode/2up
Interesting, so the importance of stats is a bit different. Found this description, don't know if it's accurate but makes sense with these character sheets. >The one massive difference is the relative lack of importance of high ability scores in BECMI. While in AD&D you are often severely gimped in your class if you have main attributes at less than 16, BECMI characters can do with much less. There are no limits to e.g. spell levels according to Int or Wis, and you can do fine with a Str 13 fighter.
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/difference-between-becmi-1e-or-2e.622546/
In BG1? He's a high level fighter buffed by two high level mages (high level in BG1 terms). That fight is overtuned to frick. The traps and the adds and the two fricking wizards.
It's basically you healing Imoens trauma with hand holding, running naked in the forest, and raw sweaty sex. The only real issue with it is that the mod creator pussied out and had Imoen declare she will never have children, due to the theoretical incest issue. Which is ridiculous, since CHARNAME can be a straight up different race from Imoen altogether, so clearly having the same divine parent does not actually give you the normal issues that result from incest.
No, I am definitely correct. The whole issue of incest is combining two close genetic strands which can result in inbreeding, if you can be a completely different race than Imoen, that means Bhaal does not actually contribute any genetical material to his offspring, only a portion of his divinity, which is why every child of Bhaal gets the entirety of their parentage from their mother. As such, even if CHARNAME and Imoen are, both Human, it is not incest if they have sex.
9 months ago
Anonymous
I hear you but if you were to attempt this today you’d have to impregnate a aboriginal woman with your genetically altered white semen, and replace 0.03% of the genes to be abbo. Your kid would than be 100% abbo, or dwarf, or elf but still be 49.7% yours…
9 months ago
Anonymous
what
9 months ago
Anonymous
We share 40% of our DNA with Apple Trees. In theory you could create apple sperm that’s 40% yours, 60% apple, impregnate the fruit and have a 100% apple tree child that has 20% your DNA. (20% your dna, 30% GMO grafted, 50% mother).
The closer the genetic relation the higher the DNA overlap.
9 months ago
Anonymous
What the frick are you talking about Anon
9 months ago
Anonymous
99% of our dna is just trash that is just to much of a pain to patch out. our bodies are like windows 11.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Probably, but not definitively.
9 months ago
Anonymous
read this again, homie
No, I am definitely correct. The whole issue of incest is combining two close genetic strands which can result in inbreeding, if you can be a completely different race than Imoen, that means Bhaal does not actually contribute any genetical material to his offspring, only a portion of his divinity, which is why every child of Bhaal gets the entirety of their parentage from their mother. As such, even if CHARNAME and Imoen are, both Human, it is not incest if they have sex.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Your looking at this like all or nothing. If we were to do this in real life you can contribute DNA while keeping someone racially or speciesly pure. You just splice in the species or race material while keeping the rest.
9 months ago
Anonymous
you misunderstood me. you said we share 40% dna with apple trees, i say all of that is useless giberish leftover code with 0 purpose. then i say some more stuff and this ends in impregnating imoen being 100% morally corect
9 months ago
Anonymous
Haha, I mean we don’t know it’s junk yet but I hear you. Only way to really know is through experimentation which I guess means you are not just allowed but have a moral obligation to impregnate Imoen, for science.
9 months ago
Anonymous
oh, we actually do know. it's useless shit from billion years of evolution. non of it matters unless you go full horror story or something like hte keyman manga
>that means Bhaal does not actually contribute any genetical material to his offspring, only a portion of his divinity, which is why every child of Bhaal gets the entirety of their parentage from their mother.
That just isn’t true, otherwise it would be impossible to have a male Charname since he certainly didn’t get his Y chromosome from his mother. Same is true for other male bhaalspawn.
However, Bhaal didn’t keep his own genes the same when he took on mortal guises to spread the bhaalspawn, so both Imoen and Charname could still be functionally 0% genetically related as far as consanguinity goes, perhaps even less so than normal humans. This isn’t even something unknown, Throne of Bhaal directly brings this up without any mod needed.
However, at the same time the odd nature of their father could still result in problems for their offspring due to that. This isn’t a matter of blood incest but esoteric god stuff that we can’t really compare properly with real world science or logic. If this was used as an excuse by Imoen it would make some more sense, though I would still disagree with it.
9 months ago
Anonymous
this is a fantasy world, genes probably dont exist.
9 months ago
Anonymous
No reason why they wouldn’t, it is a basic thing.
And as silly as it is for it to be referred to as such considering how murder happy harpers tend to be over anything slightly scientific, Throne of Bhaal is explicit in referencing it from a genetic standpoint.
you misunderstood me. you said we share 40% dna with apple trees, i say all of that is useless giberish leftover code with 0 purpose. then i say some more stuff and this ends in impregnating imoen being 100% morally corect
I should reopen the mod dialogue files and edit them to allow for Imoen habing her fears assuaged regarding children, just like you can do over your initial relation.
It's RNG, imoen can usually interrupt the first cast but there's another that usually kills
if you're a martial character you can usually kill him before he gets it off although all characters can do that because that's how you beat him. It's just he might one shot you sometimes
Just run past him. Recruit Jaheira and Khalid. Jaheira starts with Remove Fear already memorized. Cast it on the party, go outside again, and autoattack while he wastes his round casting Horror. This is the only 100% reliable method.
He casts Larlochs Drain on you, not Magic Missile, which, if he rolls a high enough damage roll, can kill some level 1 PCs. Amusingly, I never had any issues with him even on the first playthrough because I didn't go straight to the Friendly Arm and just ran around leveling in the wilderness zones and was like level 3-4 by the time I got to the area.
May aswell ask it here in one of the many Baldur's gate threads.
Have any of you actually played dnd/pf or really any ttrpg?
How was it? Got any stories?
Or even Has BG made you consider seriously trying out a ttrpg?
I'm mostly asking out of curiosity as a humble fa/tg/uy
i dm'd 3.5 online for about 3 years before burning out hard. it was great but ended up becoming too much work for me. i was regularly running sessions once a week using fully made battlemaps on dungeondraft for everything and making unique tokens for creatures and such, took up a lot of my personal time but i couldn't accept lowering my dm'ing standards for my players lol.
not him but you need to learn when to say "sure!" to something a player asks like "is there a bucket in here" or "is there a key or a note on his body" or "i could probably reach that right" but also when to put a stop to moronation. you have to allow fun while also not passively encouraging the game to go off the rails.
you ask him to take the game seriously, if he does not you have to kick him or quit. it is extremely disrespectful as the dm is putting in hours of prep work beforehand to run the game. it makes your life extremely difficult and slows the game down, wasting in the end everyones time when people like that ruin the game.
It's ok to kill him early in the game if he acts like an idiot and gets into a stupid situation right?
9 months ago
Anonymous
depends on the laws of your country
9 months ago
Anonymous
if say he purposely just walks up to the king or some friendly npc and tries to kill them unprompted as an example then you should probably just stop the game and ask him why he is trying to ruin the fun for everyone. if he responds with something edgy or argumentative you should just cancel the session. do not play along with his bullshit.
9 months ago
Anonymous
>just cancel the session.
That is foolish. Kicking one person is one thing but canceling the entire session is going too far, ruins everyone’s fun.
It's ok to kill him early in the game if he acts like an idiot and gets into a stupid situation right?
Actions have consequences, both good and bad, that is my general outlook. It gives weight to what the players do.
Are there any premade campaigns that require as little input from the DM as possible? I might be able to get my friends play that way, as none of us really want to be a DM.
There's quite a bit of pre-made campaigns that are very thorough and the such just Don't expect them to do ALL the work and make sure to give em a good read to know wtf your doing, just understand that you'll have to do some thinking when the players come up with something the book did not consider.
My brother Inlaw has been running curse of straud and it seems decently well thought out.
I normally avoid book adventures but I have been running Curse of Strahd for a some friends and his family since a friend’s wife wife wanted to play it.
From looking through the different adventures it is by far the best one on offer in 5E at least, with a fair amount of open exploration toward the end goal.
Being a Game Master is the best, I normally prefer it to playing. I like improvising, being quick on my feat and creativity though so I don’t need to do that much prep work on the in person games I run, since by knowing the mechanics and the world I can handle most things, though dungeons are a bit of a chore to put together and map out.
But yes, there are lots of campaign books that can do much of the creative work for you which might be beneficial for a first timer.
>Have any of you actually played dnd/pf or really any ttrpg?
I've had a consistent group for over a decade, and on and off since the 90s.
in D&D we've played everything from 5e to Pathfinder (variant 3.5e) to OSR (0e, BX/BECMI) and have also dabbled in Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, the 40k RPGs, etc. I usually have more fun as a GM than a player, but maybe that's because the rest of my group kind of sucks at crafting a compelling scene and doesn't like putting in the work >How was it? Got any stories?
frickloads. Too many to just pick >Or even Has BG made you consider seriously trying out a ttrpg?
actually it was the old Goldbox games that got me to try D&D tabletop. Curse of the Azure Bonds a best, frick you, fight me
Started playing dnd when 3rd (not 3.5) was released. Only a few games before we lost interest. About 10 years later found some old 3rd edition books at a buddy's house and ran a few more games, but we lost interest again.
Somehow, miraculously, 5e VTT has kept my interest for nearly a decade. When it was released I started a game and nearly dropped the thing entirely after an autistic player threw a fit over a puzzle I made, which he had trouble wrapping his autistic mind around. It felt like DMing for a child. Luckily I kept going.
Currently wrapping up the fourth D&D 5e campaign I've run (all level 1-20), I think I've surpassed 200 sessions at this point. Retained one player from the first campaign, two from the second, and one from the third. The next game is going to be a culmination of all the campaigns, which I hope will have a fitting end.
It depends on the people of course. You need people who gel well together, someone who has good storytelling skills (preferably more than one to avoid burnout), plus time and interest. When I played with my brother and sister we were just a bunch of kids who didn't know what the frick we were doing. We had some good sessions, but there was a lot of down time because one party or another wasn't interested or clashed and quit mid session, etc.
I've been the group DM for a bunch of IRL friends for several years now. We started out playing 5e but I eventually switched to running B/X with various odds and ends from 1e slapped onto it after repeated frustrations with 5e.
Ye. 3.5, 4th (shudders) and 5th edition. Used to play in high school as a Cult Leader Cleric who acted like an idiot but slowly amassed a group of different creatures until I finally founded a compound. The DM got tired of keeping track and controlling my army, so we got raided by the Purple Knights and had to escape with just my crew and my pet goblin. I got pissed off when he killed my goblin, so the next group we were in I would play the most busted min/maxed character and destroy his scenarios.
I got asked to fill in and play DnD with my friend's friend group. It's so awkward. All they do is argue and then lose interest the second they start rolling poorly.
The last game I played when we had to go around and introduce our characters to the party (which I always find and stupid and needlessly awkward) it got to this one dude and he cracked his knuckles, looked down and chuckled, then announced he would be performing his character "in the stylings of Matthew McConaughey" and proceeded to do the cringiest impression I've ever personally witnessed. It was so weird. Thankfully he didn't keep that up the entire time. Everyone pity clapped for him.
DnD is really weird and not particularly fun unless you have a group of actual friends and people with a good mindset to roleplay and just goof around.
Can anyone give me some tips about the early game? I just started playing this game for the first time today and I don't have the slightest idea what to do. I'm really glad to see a BG2 thread up right now.
Here are my main questions:
1. Is real-time the only way to do combat?
2. Which of the followers is the most useful? Is there such thing as "investing" in one character?
3. Why do some items have a purple glow in their inventory slot?
4. It's not as important as the others, but is there a mod pack that will change the portraits but keep the models' likeness?
These guys are soulful and I don't want to replace them with generic anime faces. But BG2 art is really rough to look at.
>1. Is real-time the only way to do combat?
you can tell it to pause at the end of every round, but yes >2. Which of the followers is the most useful? Is there such thing as "investing" in one character?
almost everyone's useful. It's even possible to solo the game so it's not like you're fricked because of party composition. It's easier to say who's useless; being an enchanter, Xan can't access the evocation school. This means he can't do magic missile, fireball, etc.
Viconia is a musthave IMO, even if you're playing good (just don't hit too high a reputation and she won't leave. She'll stick around even at 20 rep if you have high CHA, and mods will make her not care about rep at all). While the other cleric Branwen is stronger by default, give Viccy a gauntlets of ogre's strength and watch her to turn into a blinktank/dps/healer >3. Why do some items have a purple glow in their inventory slot?
magic items that aren't yet identified. You need either a high lore score, identify spell, or ask a shopkeeper (he'll charge you to ID it) >4. It's not as important as the others, but is there a mod pack that will change the portraits but keep the models' likeness?
[...] >These guys are soulful and I don't want to replace them with generic anime faces. But BG2 art is really rough to look at.
there are variant packs, yes
>being an enchanter, Xan can't access the evocation school. This means he can't do magic missile, fireball, etc.
You can use Necromancy spells for nuking instead (Skull Trap is basically a better Fireball) and Enchantment has some pretty good spells that benefit from his specialist bonus. I wouldn't call Xan useless.
>(just don't hit too high a reputation and she won't leave
Well that's gonna be difficult, I'm playing as a Lawful Good Paladin lol mods might be the only way. Thanks anon
>playing as a sorcerer and purging the mindflayer colony with mordenkainen's swords and wizard eyes to give the swords vision while your guys just chill out in the entrance
Easily one of the most fun pure classes in the game. Starts off kinda slow but once you get some higher level spells and robe of vecna (in BG2), you can just completely roll over everything.
i can see liking a game because it was the first of its kind, like playing old madden games to see how they are to compare it to the modern thing.. but this looks awful. how did it even get a fanbase?
keeping in mind it came out in the late 90s and was cutting edge for 2d, has intuitive gameplay that somewhat faithfully enforces the 2e ruleset, a good storyline, memorable characters, etc
gee, how did it get a fanbase?
Heya anon! It's me Imoen. Just a reminder that no playthrough of Baldur's gate 2 is complete without the Imoen romance mod. It adds tons of interactions, give it a chance and romance best girl today.
It really helps address the issue where normal bg2 Imoen has nothing to say or do after you rescue her in BG2 since she was meant to die and they only changed their mind late in development because of how popular she is.
The downside is that it means I always rush spellhold now to get her back immediately.
It wouldn't be so weird if ToB didn't explicitly have the narrative through point of companions wondering what going back to their lives could possibly be like now that they're Demi-God tier.
The island adventure sucked.
The dungeon was pretty great (although the chess fight is stupid)
Overall the expansion didn’t really add much in the way of areas.
It's from Minsc and Boo's journal of villainy iirc
Same book that has Jon Irenicus and Bodhi surviving, Sarevok becoming a priest of Bhaal and Cernd falling in love with another widower character i don't remember
For some reason the Forgotten Realsm wiki doesn't have it despite it being canon
9 months ago
Anonymous
>found the relevant page
you know what? Frick it, sure, s/he can can sex shift all s/he wants. Estrogen is probably better for her mood >bladesinger
I'm almost insulted they made her useful >family name is now Moonblade
lel. Xan's not even the only moonblade wielder
9 months ago
Anonymous
I like the art tbh
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/abeir-toril-astynax/a/xan-moonblade-person
9 months ago
Anonymous
What the frick is this? I see why so many are in BG3.
Stolen from Reddit :^)
Valygar and Xan both work for Candlekeep. Valygar has taken potions of longevity to continue his hunt for evil wizards. Xan, who is a "Blessed of Corellon," meaning his gender changes sometimes throughout his life, hopes to find a worthy heir for his moonblade before journeying to Evermeet.
Kivan and Faldorn are both members of the Emerald Enclave. Kivan is now married to Cernd and is attempting to expose Faldorn as an evil Shadow Druid.
Jaheira continues to serve the Harpers.
Minsc and Boo were petrified and spent nearly a century as a statue in Waterdeep before being freed. They are now members of an order known as the Knights of Bahamut.
Irenicus and Bodhi were placed in the Domains of Dread by the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. They now exist in a dark mirror of Suldanessellar. Irenicus is now a lich.
Montaran and Xzar have also returned from death and are members of the Shadow Thieves. Xzar has become a demilich which Montaran keeps in a bag of holding. There's also an insane simulacrum of Xzar running around.
Imoen also is a member of the Shadow Thieves. She was transformed into a vampire by Bodhi but has retained her good alignment.
Edwin now has the longevity of an elf, thanks to the Nether Scrolls. He is once more in good relationship with Thay and has taken over Razamith's Tower in Baldur's Gate.
Kagain is now a worshiper of Bhaal and leads an unscrupulous band of mercenaries in Baldur's Gate.
Saemon Havarion sold his soul to Baalzebul in exchange for long-life and fortune and is now desperately looking for a way out of the deal.
Sarevok became a homeless drug addict in Baldur's Gate until Bhaal, reborn, found him and made him a high priest of his clergy.
Viconia has started working with the cults of Elemental Evil to further the will of Shar.
EDIT: For those of you who are Neverwinter Nights fans, it also includes Aribeth de Tylmarande who is now a herald of Mephistopheles.
9 months ago
Anonymous
Damn, every one of those is terrible. Is there someone in WotC who has a grudge against the original Baldur's Gate games or something?
9 months ago
Anonymous
There is some unwritten rule that the official written canon for the Baldur’s Gate series must always suck.
9 months ago
Anonymous
>made the coolest Baldur's Gate 1 character gay for the lamest Baldur's Gate 2 character
He must've known this would piss people off. Not only making Kivan gay, but making Kivan gay for Cernd. Or maybe it was a simple as "lol let's pair up the two characters with dead wives." But fricking Cernd man. Or was Cernd a better character than I remember? My brother and I thought he was lame and never used him, but maybe some people like him. I like Shapeshifter druids more now than when BG2 was new. Did anyone use him?
9 months ago
Anonymous
Cernd was garbage, as a character and a person. He was slightly useful in being the only Druid that could cast level 7 spells in the original BG2 but ToB changes that, and even then his kit was always absolute trash that didn’t do what the manual said.
He is also a terrible father and husband.
9 months ago
Anonymous
I don't think Cernd is a bad character. He's an autismo who cares more about being a druid than a husband or father. As a party member he's not very good just because his kit sucks, but he can still Insect Plague and he gains levels a lot faster than Jaheira does.
9 months ago
Anonymous
The shapeshifter kit gets much more hate than it deserves. The werewolf forms are better than the normal druid shapes and armour is not all that important for a druid as they should be in the backline slinging spells anyway.
9 months ago
Anonymous
The shapeshifter kit gets much more hate than it deserves. The werewolf forms are better than the normal druid shapes and armour is not all that important for a druid as they should be in the backline slinging spells anyway.
Maybe I'll give him a shot next time I replay. I do remember liking his story more than expected last time. Might make my party all the characters I ignored. Cernd, Mazzy, and Valygar are all in.
9 months ago
Anonymous
>Kivan and Faldorn are both members of the Emerald Enclave. Kivan is now married to Cernd and is attempting to expose Faldorn as an evil Shadow Druid.
Faldorn gets killed in BG2. Why would a Shadow Druid agree to get resurrected?
9 months ago
Anonymous
That's not even all of them, Greenwood's self insert
>And then Elminster banged another super hot chick who was always naked all the time, for some reason. And it wasn't weird at all that he was more than twice his age, she told me- I mean him, that she preferred it that way >And then he turned into a super hot chick and started to bawd around the palace for a few years, and everyone wanted to have sex with me.
>Him, have sex with him.
shows up too, as well as Mystra's walking contingency plan.
9 months ago
Anonymous
What the frick is this? I see why so many are in BG3.
Stolen from Reddit :^)
Valygar and Xan both work for Candlekeep. Valygar has taken potions of longevity to continue his hunt for evil wizards. Xan, who is a "Blessed of Corellon," meaning his gender changes sometimes throughout his life, hopes to find a worthy heir for his moonblade before journeying to Evermeet.
Kivan and Faldorn are both members of the Emerald Enclave. Kivan is now married to Cernd and is attempting to expose Faldorn as an evil Shadow Druid.
Jaheira continues to serve the Harpers.
Minsc and Boo were petrified and spent nearly a century as a statue in Waterdeep before being freed. They are now members of an order known as the Knights of Bahamut.
Irenicus and Bodhi were placed in the Domains of Dread by the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. They now exist in a dark mirror of Suldanessellar. Irenicus is now a lich.
Montaran and Xzar have also returned from death and are members of the Shadow Thieves. Xzar has become a demilich which Montaran keeps in a bag of holding. There's also an insane simulacrum of Xzar running around.
Imoen also is a member of the Shadow Thieves. She was transformed into a vampire by Bodhi but has retained her good alignment.
Edwin now has the longevity of an elf, thanks to the Nether Scrolls. He is once more in good relationship with Thay and has taken over Razamith's Tower in Baldur's Gate.
Kagain is now a worshiper of Bhaal and leads an unscrupulous band of mercenaries in Baldur's Gate.
Saemon Havarion sold his soul to Baalzebul in exchange for long-life and fortune and is now desperately looking for a way out of the deal.
Sarevok became a homeless drug addict in Baldur's Gate until Bhaal, reborn, found him and made him a high priest of his clergy.
Viconia has started working with the cults of Elemental Evil to further the will of Shar.
EDIT: For those of you who are Neverwinter Nights fans, it also includes Aribeth de Tylmarande who is now a herald of Mephistopheles.
the books is literally non-canon, just like heroes of baldur's gate. Larian got a couple of ideas from it that's about it
9 months ago
Anonymous
Larian have even less to do with canon. It's not even fan fiction, it's just an evil exploitation of the story for money.
actually WotC has toned the Forgotten Realms down from its true canon as outlined by creator Ed Greenwood
you do not dare enter his magical realm
9 months ago
Anonymous
>And then Elminster banged another super hot chick who was always naked all the time, for some reason. And it wasn't weird at all that he was more than twice his age, she told me- I mean him, that she preferred it that way >And then he turned into a super hot chick and started to bawd around the palace for a few years, and everyone wanted to have sex with me.
>Him, have sex with him.
9 months ago
Anonymous
wasn't most of dnd lore stolen from the original guy
9 months ago
Anonymous
what "original guy"? And lore is technically setting-dependent. Ed Greenwood is still very much active and his contract is a writers wet dream
9 months ago
Anonymous
Gygax, pretty sure all the original stuff was stolen from him
9 months ago
Anonymous
oh boy, this is a rabbit hole
Gygax didn't even want fantasy stuff originally, he wanted Conan. He begrudgingly accepted magic and hobbits and shit for Greyhawk
Arneson wanted a badass techno-fantasy with Blackmoor
a lot of fundamental D&D lore actually comes from the B/X and BECMI lines and Mystara/Known World setting by Moldvay, Cooke, and Mentzer
Ed Greenwood created The Realms setting in 1968, published stories in TSR's magazine in the 70s, and TSR bought the setting from him in the 80s to be the main setting for D&D for 2nd edition
and none of this matters because it's all Tolkien
9 months ago
Anonymous
Conan's great, a Conan version of lotr is respectable, I don't think everybody should be a 6th level mage
There are some permanent stat-boosting tomes in BG1 and a couple of gimmick items that do inconsequential special things if you carry them over, but otherwise no
not really but a lot of the people you meet in bg2 are companions for entire game in first game so you are missing a lot of context, guess that hurts the engagement in 2nd game.
Imagine going around killing illithids, beholders, dragons, mages with way too many spells, and then deciding to play BG1 and killing kobolds and hobgoblins.
The games get more grandoise as your level increases, eventually throwing the craziest things at you because you're beyond the player's handbook for maximum level so everything starts to become quite ridiculous in power.
Don't be gay, BG1 is a real adventure whilst BG2 is Uncharted 3.
bg1 is pretty badass, plus you play it in the engine of bg2 these days so it's not like it's out-dated. they did a lot of QOL improvements.
going all the way from bg1 to TOB is an epic experience you will lose out on if you don't start in bg1.
the only downside is that they went back in time and pozzed it up with a remaster, introducing a bunch of quirky AIDS companions.
ok ok I'll start BG1, does player character alignment matter a whole lot?
it's up to you whether what kind of decisions you intend to make in the game. it matters more for your companions as the ones that are good-aligned will conflict with evil-aligned, and they will conflict with you if you do are too good or too bad
9 months ago
Anonymous
I see, I guess I'll pick neutral and commit later when I decide which companions I like.
9 months ago
Anonymous
i think he has a guide for bg companions somewhere too
you can play the game and beat the game with whatever you want to pick, but if you're trying to play on a higher difficulty or you're going to get pissed when you find out you gimped your shit up you should check some guides out
9 months ago
Anonymous
He bases his guides on the SCS mod, played on the highest difficulty, using Iron Man rules. They're good guides, but for new players they're not worth 4 hours per video for info that often conflicts with the actual normal game.
9 months ago
Anonymous
i disagree, unless the mods add new items in. overall the advice still applies.
you won't need to fine tune shit to the tightest degree, but it does cover what is available in the game as far as magic drops go etc.
you wouldn't need to watch the whole four hours, but i think watching the category of weapon you're thinking of specializing in for bg-bg2-tob and seeing what you're setting yourself up for is still decent.
imagine choosing darts or throwing knives or monk
9 months ago
Anonymous
I'm not saying to don't learn anything, but when he says stuff like "Carsomyr is kind of bad", when for a normal playthrough it's God tier, you can spend 15 minutes looking up less insightful and accurate guides, that will end up being just as useful because they're actually geared towards the game a new player will be playing.
9 months ago
Anonymous
you're probably right.
to be fair he does say "if you're not using mods, it's great"
but i think it's fair that most of the guide is geared to a modded difficulty no reload run and a noob might not know where to draw the line
Only for class restrictions, and very few item restrictions that aren't worth mentioning.
If you plan to dual class, make sure your alignment allows it.
A little but not much. It changes your starting reputation (which has a slight impact on shop prices and hits extremes then some companions will leave the party) and some items are alignment locked (though not very many and I think they're all in BG2)
Yes, if you're even remotely evil everybody will hate you and most inns will turn you away and you'll have to sleep in the woods. If you're really evil you will be hunted in all cities
There are some permanent stat-boosting tomes in BG1 and a couple of gimmick items that do inconsequential special things if you carry them over, but otherwise no
not really but a lot of the people you meet in bg2 are companions for entire game in first game so you are missing a lot of context, guess that hurts the engagement in 2nd game.
Imagine going around killing illithids, beholders, dragons, mages with way too many spells, and then deciding to play BG1 and killing kobolds and hobgoblins.
The games get more grandoise as your level increases, eventually throwing the craziest things at you because you're beyond the player's handbook for maximum level so everything starts to become quite ridiculous in power.
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
ok ok I'll start BG1, does player character alignment matter a whole lot?
I am back after logging a few hours in BG1, it was rough to get into it at first but I can see why it's so well liked. The characters are really charming, Xzar is my favorite so far. I'm taking a break after that actress wizard lady vaporized Imoen with a single spell.
I'm in love with my sister!
She's castin' her magic missile and
Her miniskirt tightens
I'm wantin' to give her an heir
By sticking my fiery member up there!
I just completed the tutorial in 1. It's not what I'm used to.
From having to pause the game to issue each command, to the interactive objects looking like normal background objects, to having to do a square select to select my entire party...
Should I keep it vanilla or are there any interesting mods for a first time playthrough?
be sure to check the available AI scripts you can assign to your characters, I think they're under Status
generally you won't want a script that prioritizes spellcasting on anyone as that burns through spell slots fast
one thing Enhanced Edition got right was better AI scripts
copypasting from gamefaqs:
On the top of the left and right hand side columns on the HUD are small reddy brown gem like things, clicking those cause the columns to collapse, the gem things are then at the bottom of the screen, clicking them whilst they're at the bottom brings the column back.
copypasting from gamefaqs:
On the top of the left and right hand side columns on the HUD are small reddy brown gem like things, clicking those cause the columns to collapse, the gem things are then at the bottom of the screen, clicking them whilst they're at the bottom brings the column back.
I played and finished BG2 for the first time today and I cheesed multiple encounters and dragons with spike traps because frick that. Played as a dwarf berserker and had a mostly good time.
she's okay, being a multiclass cleric/mage is fairly strong in theory but she's hampered by the mage class's equipment restrictions and not strong enough to be anything but a backliner
if you put in the investment, she's worth it don't have sex with her the first time she asks, she's not ready yet
no, but it will be very painful the breakup and her subsequent leaving the party, that is. If you want to romance her remember that she's still immature, but the second time she asks for sex she's ready and it won't break the romance
He does. You have to be REALLY dense for Aerie to pick Haer'dalis over you. This "conflict" is stacked vastly in your favour. And even if you allow them to start a fling, she dumps him almost immediately, because he's an butthole to her.
If you somehow get them to ToB without them having broken up, they’ll still break up because Haer is a doomguard so he thinks what happens to the besieged city is beautiful while Aerie rather strongly disagrees.
>sell Wand of Cloudkill to recharge it >oi just use Haer + Jan + Edwin for triple Cloudkills >drop 3-4x stacking Cloudkills turn 1 >even giga AI mod boosted casters can't do shit but be gassed into submission because no matter if they're level 30 and prebuffed to the Nine Hells, they still lack a spell to become immune to Poison damage thus being doomed to spell disruption >throw Hasted Korgan & 5x Skellies inside the gas cloud
is dorn going to hate me for being good aligned? he's the only character who i've taken an interest to and want on my party (based on portrait at least)
Evil party members only leave if you have 18 rep or more
It'll be kinda hard to keep him since the game gives you rep at every moment, but its possible
you can look up what you can do to lose reputation and try to manage it, or enjoy the ride while it lasts and replace him later. or just set him aside for an evil run down the road
is there a shortcut for "take control of this character im mousing over" in 3? trying to wrangle 1 specific stuck ghoul moron out of an army of 20 other summons is impossible
Let's say, that the dude that wrote it has a fetish. There are some moments that are good in this mod and some moments that make you go "what the frick is your malfunction". Overall, I wouldn't call the mod *good*, but it's an... experience.
>Be Imoen >Get raped and tortured by Irenicus >temporarily get free until captured by crazy wizards and then tortured by Irenicus some more >get saved by brother you want to frick >find out you were cucked by Aerie/Viconia/Jaheira
High level fighters are actually pretty strong you just need to buff them for harder fights. A fighter with good gear and improved haste is a sight to behold.
Yeah, I don't think a mage can ever match the sheer damage output that high-level fighters are dishing out. And fighters will always be the most reliable damage dealers in the game.
And? By the time you get your hands on Timestop and Improved Alacrity, the enemy saving throws will be so high, you'll just be wasting offensive spells, unless you start spamming Comet/Dragon Breath. >tfw Nalia oneshot Illasera by dropping a comet on head
Brings a tear to my eye.
You are thinking of whirlwind attack I think, which is a high level ability from throne of Bhaal. Greater whirlwind just sets your attacks to 10 for one round or so. It is okay but improved haste can already let you do that. Critical strike is better, since it makes all your attacks an automatic critical for a round or so.
Whirlwind, that’s it. Did you beat the demogorgon? To my shame I never did. The guides all said you needed to rely on traps and whirlwind. Maybe it was automatic critical and whirlwind?
Oh, right. I usually mod the EE characters out, because they are stupid, so I totally forgot about him.
9 months ago
Anonymous
I wish she and Skie were romance options in BG1. NPCProject picked some VERY weird companions to romance.
So is Branwen the blonde warrior priest the weakest out of all the characters?
9 months ago
Anonymous
She's fine. Good replacement for Viconia.
9 months ago
Anonymous
So who do you rank last out of both games.
9 months ago
Anonymous
In terms of gameplay, or personality? It's complicated, and it depends on your party setup.
In BG1 never cared much for obvious joke characters like Garrick, Tiax or Quayle, those are easily skippable. I never found much use for Xan either, but apparenly he's good in right hands. Some people don't like Khalid, but he's a mainstay in my group, being a decent tank. I also never used Shar-Teel or Faldorn. I guess they are fine, but never had use for them.
In BG2, Haer'Dalis and Valygar are take it or leave it. They are fine, if you know how to use them, but I would rather pick a one womanlet army Mazzy over Valygar. Also, Cernd. He... exists. Jaheira does everything better, IMO.
Don’t know if you played BG3 but they butchered Sarevok bro. Just a shitty copy of a copy of his BG1 self ignoring every ToB character growth. I liked the game but his poorly written ass pissed me off bad.
Mazzy is an overlooked companion. She's fricking great.
I recently made a run with wizard PC, Minsc, Jaheira, Nalia, Keldorn/Mazzy and Yoshimo/Imoen and I recommend this party setup for anyone that wants a competent "feel-good" party.
Ugg this. I’m halfway through pillars of eternity, pathfinder 2, and 85% done pathfinder 1. Having a very hard time getting back in.
I’d recommend wasteland 3 if you haven’t played it.
It's actually worse. Fan fiction implies you like the original and want to be a part of it. BG3 is just evil, mean-spirited and dismissive in this regard. I wish to say they only took the title for easy money and publicity, but it wouldn't be true. They for some reason clearly hate the original, its characters and decisions.
Neither involve the original creators of the Bhaalspawn trilogy and were written decades after so from that perspective they don't really have much to do with it past the name.
However, both are officially endorsed by WotC so from that perspective they're absolutely canon.
The book no one liked was also canon, complete with having cards with the main character. If you go to the corps to decide what's canon and what's not, you've never cared anyway.
>However, both are officially endorsed by WotC so from that perspective they're absolutely canon.
Nah thats bullshit. I can buy a beloved IP by some long dead author, take a huge steamy shit all over it and it will technically be "official" but it will still be fanfiction, legallity be damned, it just means I have more money than the average person.
They technically still have Ed Greenwood as their endorsement machine. I am pretty sure that at this point, they are holding the poor old man at gunpoint, so that they can force him to endorse every idiotic retcon to FR they are coming up with, but it still technically makes it "legal".
How do you homies endure the early game? I took a inquisitor paladin with two handed sword efficiency and two handed style efficiency yet I miss most of my attacks and i die very, very quickly and asides from that, Xzar is mostly useless
Sleep spells and Branwen. You can also cheese quite a lot of experience out of the basilisk garden East of Beregost by using the ghoul to clear them. If your party is small you can get to around level 4 or 5 no problems.
She looks like she got slammed against the fricking wall not just hit it
AI can fix her.
Alternatively.
Post busty mature Imoen please
Can we go bustier and more mature or has science not got that advanced yet?
She looks like she canonically fricks her brother
GIWTWM
Viconia pls
Viconia just wants to ensure that Imoen doesn’t make the same mistakes she did.
>Veronica trusts us enough to openly admit to loving us
>She trusts us so much in fact that she openly admits it to someone else simply because she knows we share a mutual bond
The protag really did a number on her drow instincts didn't he?
Charname and her brother.
Viconia’s brother complex is in some ways more interesting than most depictions because of how evil and alien Drow society is: To the Drow sex isn’t taboo at all but love is. Their culture is so twisted that the idea of love as we know it, even familial love, just doesn’t exist. The classic incest story is then inverted: her brother harbored forbidden love for his sister, not because he also loved her as a woman, but because he also loved her as a sister. Viconia reciprocated this but due to her lack of experience and exposure initially has no way of contextualizing her feelings, resulting in her mind trying to view them as merely sexual rather than something more complex than that.
Google Zdenka Podkapova
I’m am well aware of Viconia’s art in BG2 just being a blue trace of that Slavic pornstar. I was more referencing the fact that Viconia tries to get Imoen to frick Charname in BG2 ToB.
Imoen was cucked by an elf
Though Viconia is such a brocon that she tries to convince Imoen to frick Charname in ToB, even if you romanced Viconia.
Is that from a mod?
I finished ToB a few months ago with Imoen and Viconia in my party and I don't remember that, can you post the specific lines?
>I finished ToB a few months ago with Imoen and Viconia in my party and I don't remember that, can you post the specific lines?
See pic related
That is the dialogue if you romanced Viconia, the ending is slightly different if you have not but she still tries to get Imoen to frick you and be your (sex)slave.
Mutton mongering riff-raff
>mfw it's time for a bit of a rough and tumble
With stepsis
They went with the paperback novel canon and Imoen is a lesbian in those.
no they didn't, they deviate from the games too much and wotc abdel doesn't line up with book abdel at all. Not to mention everyone hates them, and they were never reprinted which is extremely rare for FR books so barely anyone has read them.
god i fricking hate millenial artstyle slop so much. have a nice day you old fricks, how did you think this artstyle was passable? you are the laziest generation to ever exist
>millenial
Cute
We couldn’t protect her smile…
What do you think Irenicus did to her? Haha.
fed her too much icecream
do these portrait packs replace every single character? link? i quit the games every time because the og artstyle is so repulsive
I think that the only portrait that Ryoko didn't do is the one for the mage antagonist in BG2, Haven't tried the BG1 ones.
Also
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate2ee/mods/49?tab=files
Not Yeslick or Kaghain. Nor the portraits meant for your player character. But there are a couple of original portraits that can be used instead. I guess I'm in the minority but I like the BG1 portraits. I get why many can't stand BG2's art style and portraits.
She made some wizards and rogues
Nice roster of people of different gender and age from young teen to old men. Meanwhile everyone in BG3 is a horny young dude or girl to frick beside 2 characters who are also already appearing in this image
I would've enjoyed seeing her rendition of the knight, Canderous. AKA Charname, Abdel Adrian. I wonder if she'll make similar portraits for Baldur's Gate 3? Sure they can't be modded in, but still.
If anything it'll be fanart like she did for Pathfinder.
Does she do comissions
It's crazy how much better BG1 + 2s roster is to 3s.
In terms of quantity yes, quality frick no, at least in bg1. Bg1 companions are pretty much just voice lines
Best run I ever did was permadeath BG1. You get to know each character, play a ton of classes, and each encounter feels exciting and counts as it’s easy to get killed. Had to stop for the DLC though as no one was left.
Highly recommend it.
Naah
help me out here, I haven't played EE
who is Hexxat and why are there two of them?
Sassy black lesbian vampire. The other hexxat is a mortal human dominated by her that she kills after using you two to free her.
A yas kweeen negress vampire with comically high stats. They bait and switch you with this cute mindbroken girl who calls herself Hexxat, only to find out the real Hexxat brainwashed her. Nobody likes Hexxat the vampire. Nobody.
>Weebshit artist can't comprehend dwarves
Checks out
Dumbass homie
It replaces almost everyone. Like two or three are left out, but you probably wouldn't want to use those anyways.
>gets filtered by portraits
>HEY IT'S ME, IMOEN
Isn't she meant to be the player's sister? Twincest?
She isn’t blood related because they have different mothers and their father is a shapeshifting god that took on the form of different people for the act.
kino
>we will never have anything like this ever again
The scale makes no sense. Why do they have paths seamlessly connecting to each other in adjacent areas when it's supposed to take hours or even days to travel between them?
Most underrated rpg. True masterpiece I never here talked about. Only thing I could recommend after playing all the Baldurs Gates.
The whole map is an abstraction. Consider that game time runs 12 times faster than real time. The connecting paths are just to make it clear that it's a continuation of the same path.
better?
BGI is so soulfu.
>Montaron, you are soooo aggravating.
Hey there, hi there!
Hop-skip to it!
With a smile!
C'mon people now, smile on your brother! Everybody get together, try to love one another right now!
Isn't this great? All of us, doing nice things, being happy - it's great!
Alora is great, shame you get her so late and her rabbit foot being bugged in the original bg1. Her interaction with Edwin was especially sweet, made even better with the BG1NPC mod. A real shame they didn’t bring her into BG2.
I fricking loved her. Shit character but her lines are good. I’m also surprised how attractive the real person was, artist did her dirty. 100% agree with you.
The cutest, its criminal she didnt return in BG2.
I thought I was the only fan. Not counting the rabbits foot I’ve never seen her discussed anywhere but this thread.
I think 99% of people just missed Alora. Not only she's a lategame companion, she's also quite difficult to recruit without a walkthrough.
What the other anon said, at the point you can recruit her most people have a party that they are comfortable with. I use the mod that moves her to the halfling village myself. Imagine all the fun banter she could have had with Edwin in BG2, we ware fricking robbed.
I wish she and Skie were romance options in BG1. NPCProject picked some VERY weird companions to romance.
I mean without mindflayer sex why even bother?
Disguisting.
I must not be expressing myself correctly, it’s gay mindflayer sex.
Disguisting.
Ok, you are not getting it. Last time, It’s mindflayer sex, with a man, who admits to raping his best friend.
You keep using offensive patriarchal terms like "gay" and "man". Icky bigoted stuff like this just doesn't fly now, sweetie. Also, you have like literally zero rights to assume the game character's pronouns. Ugh.
Most of these are improvements but what the frick did they do to Montaron? He looks like the obese stoner working the register at a gas station?
How do these portraits work btw? Do you change them manually every time a companion joins your party or do they automatically replace the original art?
>run into Xzar and Montarian
>they ask to travel with you
>look at their portraits
I'm sure these are upstanding individuals who will be a fine traveling companion. Off to Nashkell it is!
They are definately not Zentharim, what are you talking about?
Actually, BG1 is I think the only Bioware RPG that doesn't give you a tank fighter companion right away, so you are kinda gimped before you get to Friendly Arm.
>played a Pali so i was the tank and killed the dude at the inn instantly
>gonna restart as a Sorc
>2 low-level casters with 2 low-level thiefs
Ah yes, Pain.
People seriously have a problem with beating Tarnesh? Even 12-year-old me figured out that the best way to deal with him is to stunlock him with Imoen's magic wand.
Just got to chapter 3, how much further do I have to go?
You are halfway through, more or less. Have you hit the bandit camp yet?
Chapter 3 can be as long or as short as you want really.
Based Ryoko kui, she's the reason I started playing the game
>zoomies filtered by pure, unadulterated SOVL
Tale as old as time.
Only the BG1 portraits were good in my opinion. A variety of expressions and angles within each composition. I don't get how Mike Sass changed it so drastically in BG2. All of the characters face the viewer. The color palette is more muted and the visual aesthetics of each character was a bit much. Like what was with all the piercings Edwin, and why do all the ladies have so many hairbands and beads?
>I don't get how Mike Sass changed it so drastically in BG2
It's because BG2 used celebrity models, whereas for BG1 they did them all in-house
That makes sense, I guess my question still lies more so on the color palette and aesthetic then. If he was working on celebrity models then there was only so much to work off of. Perhaps the answer lies with artistic intent, but something about the BG2 portraits just doesn't strike as well visually.
Damn, so real Imoen has been walking around all that time?
She even looks exactly the same.
Imagine knowing how many neckbeards creamed their pants over your wife
I took it as amnian fashion, doesn't make sense for the non amn natives though
>Like what was with all the piercings Edwin, and why do all the ladies have so many hairbands and beads?
DnD was going for a grungy dungeonpunk aesthetic during that period, and BG2's characters reflected that. It even shows up a bit in Planescape. Thank God they moved away from that.
>Thank God they moved away from that.
You think that current artstyle is much of an improvement?
Over dungeonpunk, yeah.
Don't care, it could be stick figures, it'd still be better than the diversityslop that is coming out right now. You ask why we we are always filled with righteous anger, just look at all the degeneracy out of you. It gets any man pining for war.
Sounds like a very exhausting way to live.
Far left wing propaganda getting shoved into every crevice of every piece of entertainment and everyday life is exhausting yes. I require rest.
They always had this weird asymmetrical look to them.
Normal people are not entirely symmetrical
They are, you're weird.
t. moron, don't @ me you absolute cretin
these look horrible you moron
This might be unpopular to say but BioWare has never had good artists or modellers. They've been the worst but studio at this for the longest time.
The art'snot the best but I don't mind it. The blatant plagiarism on display for Neverwinter, however, was a cut above
at least the games themselves used to be good
i have seen AI """art""" that looks more humanlike
Agreed. Normally I'm not a fan but it's crazy how much AI fixes the art on a lot of these
mod link?
>https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87200/some-stable-diffusion-potraits/
>fressing that slop
consoomers are fricking horrifying
I prefer Drew Barrymore and Zdenka Podkapova.
What's AI Yoshimo's haircut called?
that's the classic norwood 7
I didn’t get the AI appeal but the closer I look the sweeter the pic gets.
Up until you start realizing the obvious AI frickups.
>AI fixes the art
soul v soulless
>all that green and purple
thanks doc
Is fricking Imoen like fricking your sister?
Not blood related, just soul and divine essence related.
Would you feel shame after giving her a cream-pie?
I would feel ashamed if I didn’t.
It isn't like fricking your sister it IS fricking your sister
she is MC's sister
Different mother. Dad went fricking around with near everything.
Have you not heard of half-siblings? They share the same father.
But not the same father genetically. It is why she can be a pure human and you a pure dwarf or some such.
>But not the same father genetically
It's still Bhaal, he still spread his seed to bring forth his progeny.
Sure but it isn’t physically incest.
It is not blood related but soul related. It isn’t something really comparable to things that can happen in real life, though I suppose there can be religious aspects where a religion considers adoptive children to truly have a soul related to the other children of the adopted. Perhaps two Christian people that have the same god-father but are otherwise unrelated might be the closest comparison? Imoen and Charname do have the same god father too I suppose…
So in other words fricking any woman ever is incest because God created both of you.
You are dumb.
>raised together as brother and sister by Gorion
>she's also half related
Seems to be an incest, especially if Bhaal physically fricked those women who gave him a bhaalspawn
She wasn't raised by Gorion, she is Winthrop' foster daughter.
Ha, you're a queer fellow
Stop wanting to frick your sister, Ganker.
IT'S NOT FAIR!
>Ha, ye're a que-GLARK GLARK GLARK GLARK
Based
My sisterwife!
uhghhhhhh I don't feel so good
He's going to show her why he's NOT a queer fellow.
Not quite sure it's her mind that's going to get flayed.
ASS-GAPER
Careful with that barrel!
why does this homie have perfect saving throws versus magic despite his absolute shit stats?
Stats didn’t impact saving throws in 2e unless you were a short race. It was determined by class and level.
All his saving throws are 1, so the devs just set everything to 1 for the fun of it?
Nothing like seeing him save a Slow for my first ever mage playthrough with a dice roll of 1
Oh, you meant as an enemy in BG1?
Yes, they just did that in the expansion pack. His saves were much more normal in base bg1 though there was some other nonsense.
Right he was a killing machine terminator with twice the attacks per round but you could debuff him, alternatively he was 100% immune to magic damage.
Now I'm faced with the reality that you can't actually beat him as a mage character because of his saving throws and all the times I did beat him I was using a max buffed warrior and out damaging him
Dunk on him with giant hordes of summons.
Specialist mages give a 2 penalty to enemy saving throws and the doom spell can do that as well if you just must save or lose him.
Yeah I heard that mobbing him with hasted summons is a good strategy. The problem is I already feel like I'm cheesing because if you stealth to him the mage will teleport to the beginning of the room which allows you to kill him solo. I just thought going in compeltely unprepared with a 5 man RP team and a mage MC would be enough to not savescum
>you could debuff him, alternatively he was 100% immune to magic damage.
Wasn’t it 100% magic resistance, not just magic damage resist? That would make all spells fail in the base game version.
Hmm, yeah you're right. He was just super easy to kite in the original game with ranged because he wasn't hasted and they added a 50% damage reduction to ranged
Use your party to kill everyone else while you 1v1 him in melee. Doing anything less than this means you didn't beat the game. If you are a filthy non martial who can't do this, you shouldn't even be playing the game to begin with.
I feel a great shame for being a mage and not being able to do anything against him
>tfw killed the iron throne mercenaries outside by spamming web and cloudkill and fireball from fog of war
Truly pitiful. Perhaps you can still be of use buffing up your party and fighting Semaj while the real heroes of your group, the melee characters, handle Sarevok since you are not MAN enough to fight your brother with steel on steel.
>Savescumming for spells just to megabuff my team to cheese a solo fight
feelsbadman
What race is he? I can’t tell in this portrait or in BG3
He's human.
One of the cases where I'd say it doesn't matter, he's so Iconic he could be an Australian aborigine
Forgotten Realms version of Mongols iirc
He's human
He’s from the hordelands? That seems unlikely.
Descended i think, not "truly"
>Shit stats
Fricking wot
seconding
Str 18(00)
Dex 17
Con 17
Int 14
Wis 12
Cha 13
these aren't bad stats at all, and rolling more than 90 combined points is rare
the TotSC saves are bullshit though, no doubt. Probably to prevent magecheese soloing
Yeah, Sarevok has awesome stats. Isn't he the only party member with natural 18/00 strength?
On a side note, I found the original characters sheets for Record of Lodoss War's characters.
https://archive.org/details/record-of-lodoss-war-comptiq-magazine-english-translation/page/n17/mode/2up
8 WIS
11 CHA
aryan elves are the best
good find, though Lodoss was BECMI D&D, not AD&D
Interesting, so the importance of stats is a bit different. Found this description, don't know if it's accurate but makes sense with these character sheets.
>The one massive difference is the relative lack of importance of high ability scores in BECMI. While in AD&D you are often severely gimped in your class if you have main attributes at less than 16, BECMI characters can do with much less. There are no limits to e.g. spell levels according to Int or Wis, and you can do fine with a Str 13 fighter.
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/difference-between-becmi-1e-or-2e.622546/
it's a question of the balance target number
0e and Basic were balanced against +0, 2e was balanced against +2/3, and 5e is balanced against +4
Holy frick his charisma
wonder how fast Karla gave up his body
In BG1? He's a high level fighter buffed by two high level mages (high level in BG1 terms). That fight is overtuned to frick. The traps and the adds and the two fricking wizards.
How do I proceed without looking mad?
2 is acceptable.
What mod?
The infamous old version of the Imoen romance mod. The remake of it was much better, and actually a good mod.
Oh. Is the remake just vanilla romance stuff?
Well it is sort of incest, so that might not be considered Vanilla.
It's basically you healing Imoens trauma with hand holding, running naked in the forest, and raw sweaty sex. The only real issue with it is that the mod creator pussied out and had Imoen declare she will never have children, due to the theoretical incest issue. Which is ridiculous, since CHARNAME can be a straight up different race from Imoen altogether, so clearly having the same divine parent does not actually give you the normal issues that result from incest.
You’ve really put some thought into this.
He is right.
Probably, but not definitely.
No, I am definitely correct. The whole issue of incest is combining two close genetic strands which can result in inbreeding, if you can be a completely different race than Imoen, that means Bhaal does not actually contribute any genetical material to his offspring, only a portion of his divinity, which is why every child of Bhaal gets the entirety of their parentage from their mother. As such, even if CHARNAME and Imoen are, both Human, it is not incest if they have sex.
I hear you but if you were to attempt this today you’d have to impregnate a aboriginal woman with your genetically altered white semen, and replace 0.03% of the genes to be abbo. Your kid would than be 100% abbo, or dwarf, or elf but still be 49.7% yours…
what
We share 40% of our DNA with Apple Trees. In theory you could create apple sperm that’s 40% yours, 60% apple, impregnate the fruit and have a 100% apple tree child that has 20% your DNA. (20% your dna, 30% GMO grafted, 50% mother).
The closer the genetic relation the higher the DNA overlap.
What the frick are you talking about Anon
99% of our dna is just trash that is just to much of a pain to patch out. our bodies are like windows 11.
Probably, but not definitively.
read this again, homie
Your looking at this like all or nothing. If we were to do this in real life you can contribute DNA while keeping someone racially or speciesly pure. You just splice in the species or race material while keeping the rest.
you misunderstood me. you said we share 40% dna with apple trees, i say all of that is useless giberish leftover code with 0 purpose. then i say some more stuff and this ends in impregnating imoen being 100% morally corect
Haha, I mean we don’t know it’s junk yet but I hear you. Only way to really know is through experimentation which I guess means you are not just allowed but have a moral obligation to impregnate Imoen, for science.
oh, we actually do know. it's useless shit from billion years of evolution. non of it matters unless you go full horror story or something like hte keyman manga
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-complex-truth-about-junk-dna-20210901/
thanks for proving my point
I think I’ll side with Anon who can read
>that means Bhaal does not actually contribute any genetical material to his offspring, only a portion of his divinity, which is why every child of Bhaal gets the entirety of their parentage from their mother.
That just isn’t true, otherwise it would be impossible to have a male Charname since he certainly didn’t get his Y chromosome from his mother. Same is true for other male bhaalspawn.
However, Bhaal didn’t keep his own genes the same when he took on mortal guises to spread the bhaalspawn, so both Imoen and Charname could still be functionally 0% genetically related as far as consanguinity goes, perhaps even less so than normal humans. This isn’t even something unknown, Throne of Bhaal directly brings this up without any mod needed.
However, at the same time the odd nature of their father could still result in problems for their offspring due to that. This isn’t a matter of blood incest but esoteric god stuff that we can’t really compare properly with real world science or logic. If this was used as an excuse by Imoen it would make some more sense, though I would still disagree with it.
this is a fantasy world, genes probably dont exist.
No reason why they wouldn’t, it is a basic thing.
And as silly as it is for it to be referred to as such considering how murder happy harpers tend to be over anything slightly scientific, Throne of Bhaal is explicit in referencing it from a genetic standpoint.
>how to trick your sister into sex
>trick
I should reopen the mod dialogue files and edit them to allow for Imoen habing her fears assuaged regarding children, just like you can do over your initial relation.
i always got filtered whenever i tried this game by the wizard who appears out of the inn who just fireballs you right near the beginning.
yeah he will frick your shit
how are you supposed to avoid him? i seem to remember save scumming through all the dialog options but none of it seemed to matter
It's RNG, imoen can usually interrupt the first cast but there's another that usually kills
if you're a martial character you can usually kill him before he gets it off although all characters can do that because that's how you beat him. It's just he might one shot you sometimes
Just run past him. Recruit Jaheira and Khalid. Jaheira starts with Remove Fear already memorized. Cast it on the party, go outside again, and autoattack while he wastes his round casting Horror. This is the only 100% reliable method.
backstab him with a stealthed montaron
You can make yourself immune to his damage spells (magic missile) by casting the level 1 spell 'shield' on yourself.
He casts Larlochs Drain on you, not Magic Missile, which, if he rolls a high enough damage roll, can kill some level 1 PCs. Amusingly, I never had any issues with him even on the first playthrough because I didn't go straight to the Friendly Arm and just ran around leveling in the wilderness zones and was like level 3-4 by the time I got to the area.
May aswell ask it here in one of the many Baldur's gate threads.
Have any of you actually played dnd/pf or really any ttrpg?
How was it? Got any stories?
Or even Has BG made you consider seriously trying out a ttrpg?
I'm mostly asking out of curiosity as a humble fa/tg/uy
no but only because I don't have anyone to play with, and I don't wanna do that shit online via tools or whatver. that seems extremely gay.
i dm'd 3.5 online for about 3 years before burning out hard. it was great but ended up becoming too much work for me. i was regularly running sessions once a week using fully made battlemaps on dungeondraft for everything and making unique tokens for creatures and such, took up a lot of my personal time but i couldn't accept lowering my dm'ing standards for my players lol.
Yes, I’ve played DnD, PF, IKRPG, Scion and DtD.
I'm going to dm my first dnd game soon, any advice?
not him but you need to learn when to say "sure!" to something a player asks like "is there a bucket in here" or "is there a key or a note on his body" or "i could probably reach that right" but also when to put a stop to moronation. you have to allow fun while also not passively encouraging the game to go off the rails.
I've been told one of the guys will try and derail everything how should I deal with that?
you ask him to take the game seriously, if he does not you have to kick him or quit. it is extremely disrespectful as the dm is putting in hours of prep work beforehand to run the game. it makes your life extremely difficult and slows the game down, wasting in the end everyones time when people like that ruin the game.
It's ok to kill him early in the game if he acts like an idiot and gets into a stupid situation right?
depends on the laws of your country
if say he purposely just walks up to the king or some friendly npc and tries to kill them unprompted as an example then you should probably just stop the game and ask him why he is trying to ruin the fun for everyone. if he responds with something edgy or argumentative you should just cancel the session. do not play along with his bullshit.
>just cancel the session.
That is foolish. Kicking one person is one thing but canceling the entire session is going too far, ruins everyone’s fun.
Actions have consequences, both good and bad, that is my general outlook. It gives weight to what the players do.
Very fun but hard as balls to keep a group in my Area hoping AI can Dm soon
It got me interested in it but I have no friends.
Also the newer D&D editions look gay as frick.
Are there any premade campaigns that require as little input from the DM as possible? I might be able to get my friends play that way, as none of us really want to be a DM.
not really, someone has to dm to manage the unknown.
Tons. I just know because of Solasta. Some guy turned them all into campaigns you can play for free in the game.
There's quite a bit of pre-made campaigns that are very thorough and the such just Don't expect them to do ALL the work and make sure to give em a good read to know wtf your doing, just understand that you'll have to do some thinking when the players come up with something the book did not consider.
My brother Inlaw has been running curse of straud and it seems decently well thought out.
I normally avoid book adventures but I have been running Curse of Strahd for a some friends and his family since a friend’s wife wife wanted to play it.
From looking through the different adventures it is by far the best one on offer in 5E at least, with a fair amount of open exploration toward the end goal.
Being a Game Master is the best, I normally prefer it to playing. I like improvising, being quick on my feat and creativity though so I don’t need to do that much prep work on the in person games I run, since by knowing the mechanics and the world I can handle most things, though dungeons are a bit of a chore to put together and map out.
But yes, there are lots of campaign books that can do much of the creative work for you which might be beneficial for a first timer.
>Have any of you actually played dnd/pf or really any ttrpg?
I've had a consistent group for over a decade, and on and off since the 90s.
in D&D we've played everything from 5e to Pathfinder (variant 3.5e) to OSR (0e, BX/BECMI) and have also dabbled in Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, the 40k RPGs, etc. I usually have more fun as a GM than a player, but maybe that's because the rest of my group kind of sucks at crafting a compelling scene and doesn't like putting in the work
>How was it? Got any stories?
frickloads. Too many to just pick
>Or even Has BG made you consider seriously trying out a ttrpg?
actually it was the old Goldbox games that got me to try D&D tabletop. Curse of the Azure Bonds a best, frick you, fight me
Started playing dnd when 3rd (not 3.5) was released. Only a few games before we lost interest. About 10 years later found some old 3rd edition books at a buddy's house and ran a few more games, but we lost interest again.
Somehow, miraculously, 5e VTT has kept my interest for nearly a decade. When it was released I started a game and nearly dropped the thing entirely after an autistic player threw a fit over a puzzle I made, which he had trouble wrapping his autistic mind around. It felt like DMing for a child. Luckily I kept going.
Currently wrapping up the fourth D&D 5e campaign I've run (all level 1-20), I think I've surpassed 200 sessions at this point. Retained one player from the first campaign, two from the second, and one from the third. The next game is going to be a culmination of all the campaigns, which I hope will have a fitting end.
It depends on the people of course. You need people who gel well together, someone who has good storytelling skills (preferably more than one to avoid burnout), plus time and interest. When I played with my brother and sister we were just a bunch of kids who didn't know what the frick we were doing. We had some good sessions, but there was a lot of down time because one party or another wasn't interested or clashed and quit mid session, etc.
I've been the group DM for a bunch of IRL friends for several years now. We started out playing 5e but I eventually switched to running B/X with various odds and ends from 1e slapped onto it after repeated frustrations with 5e.
tabletop's for people with social circles, and I'm not sour grapesing at all
Ye. 3.5, 4th (shudders) and 5th edition. Used to play in high school as a Cult Leader Cleric who acted like an idiot but slowly amassed a group of different creatures until I finally founded a compound. The DM got tired of keeping track and controlling my army, so we got raided by the Purple Knights and had to escape with just my crew and my pet goblin. I got pissed off when he killed my goblin, so the next group we were in I would play the most busted min/maxed character and destroy his scenarios.
I got asked to fill in and play DnD with my friend's friend group. It's so awkward. All they do is argue and then lose interest the second they start rolling poorly.
The last game I played when we had to go around and introduce our characters to the party (which I always find and stupid and needlessly awkward) it got to this one dude and he cracked his knuckles, looked down and chuckled, then announced he would be performing his character "in the stylings of Matthew McConaughey" and proceeded to do the cringiest impression I've ever personally witnessed. It was so weird. Thankfully he didn't keep that up the entire time. Everyone pity clapped for him.
DnD is really weird and not particularly fun unless you have a group of actual friends and people with a good mindset to roleplay and just goof around.
VtM, WHFRP 2e, and D&D 3.5, back in my college years. I guess thanks to that, I will always have a soft spot for vampires.
She was based on one of the developers wives and he said it was a huge mistake.
Pics of her?
On my iPad, excuse the source won’t let me post the better pic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/sk49g0/accurate_list_of_all_bg1_portrait_models_thx_to/
She looks hot in the link, thanks Anon
Every character was photoshopped pictures of either the devs or their family.
i guess that's why they used celebrities and pornstars in bg2
Can anyone give me some tips about the early game? I just started playing this game for the first time today and I don't have the slightest idea what to do. I'm really glad to see a BG2 thread up right now.
Here are my main questions:
1. Is real-time the only way to do combat?
2. Which of the followers is the most useful? Is there such thing as "investing" in one character?
3. Why do some items have a purple glow in their inventory slot?
4. It's not as important as the others, but is there a mod pack that will change the portraits but keep the models' likeness?
These guys are soulful and I don't want to replace them with generic anime faces. But BG2 art is really rough to look at.
Thank you in advance.
>1. Is real-time the only way to do combat?
you can tell it to pause at the end of every round, but yes
>2. Which of the followers is the most useful? Is there such thing as "investing" in one character?
almost everyone's useful. It's even possible to solo the game so it's not like you're fricked because of party composition. It's easier to say who's useless; being an enchanter, Xan can't access the evocation school. This means he can't do magic missile, fireball, etc.
Viconia is a musthave IMO, even if you're playing good (just don't hit too high a reputation and she won't leave. She'll stick around even at 20 rep if you have high CHA, and mods will make her not care about rep at all). While the other cleric Branwen is stronger by default, give Viccy a gauntlets of ogre's strength and watch her to turn into a blinktank/dps/healer
>3. Why do some items have a purple glow in their inventory slot?
magic items that aren't yet identified. You need either a high lore score, identify spell, or ask a shopkeeper (he'll charge you to ID it)
>4. It's not as important as the others, but is there a mod pack that will change the portraits but keep the models' likeness?
[...]
>These guys are soulful and I don't want to replace them with generic anime faces. But BG2 art is really rough to look at.
there are variant packs, yes
>being an enchanter, Xan can't access the evocation school. This means he can't do magic missile, fireball, etc.
You can use Necromancy spells for nuking instead (Skull Trap is basically a better Fireball) and Enchantment has some pretty good spells that benefit from his specialist bonus. I wouldn't call Xan useless.
you're right, he's not quite useless. Let's call him highly technical
>(just don't hit too high a reputation and she won't leave
Well that's gonna be difficult, I'm playing as a Lawful Good Paladin lol mods might be the only way. Thanks anon
>playing as a sorcerer and purging the mindflayer colony with mordenkainen's swords and wizard eyes to give the swords vision while your guys just chill out in the entrance
BG3 cannot compare.
How's Sorcerer?
Was thinking on playing Fighter/Mage but just realized model appearance changes with class and i am autistic so not doing that
Easily one of the most fun pure classes in the game. Starts off kinda slow but once you get some higher level spells and robe of vecna (in BG2), you can just completely roll over everything.
Sorceror is one of the best classes in the game, but you have to know what you are doing because you can't learn spells like a wizard
I always try to change it up and just turn into a web/spider caster in the end.
what if i learn spells as a wizard and respec to sorcerer? in bg3
the game will probably just make you have to re-learn all your spells again
>probably
can somebody anwser that doesn't talk outa his ass?
You cannot multiclass or dual class Wizard and Sorcerer.
if i spent 5k gold on learning useless spells, respeced to barbarian and respecd to wizard again, i would ahve to spend those 5k again?
why are you asking such moronic questions
i am moronerd
You cannot dual class back into a class, only out of one.
Gnome Fighter Illusionist For the win.
I'm playing bg1 for the first time and she died almost immediately and I kinda just left there because she was annoying. Did i do good?
Evilmaxxing?
KInda yeah, I just picked up Yeslick and I think it's funny to ride the line so he keeps b***hing but ultimately stays
Traps become a real c**t, especially at the end… It’s nice to have a thief for that one reason otherwise great party.
people actually unironically played this? like, people loaded up this game and thought "hrmm I'm going to play this right now and enjoy it"? why?
It's fun
i can see liking a game because it was the first of its kind, like playing old madden games to see how they are to compare it to the modern thing.. but this looks awful. how did it even get a fanbase?
Some Anon yesterday was saying he could never enjoy the 64 due to the shit graphics when compared to Quake.
keeping in mind it came out in the late 90s and was cutting edge for 2d, has intuitive gameplay that somewhat faithfully enforces the 2e ruleset, a good storyline, memorable characters, etc
gee, how did it get a fanbase?
you are falling for a copy paste
I agree, how anyone tries to peddle oot as the best game ever just because its the first of its kind is beyond me. MM is by far the better game
>madden games
Just by saying this you outed yourself as a subhuman and this is not worth explaining because you will never understand
>looks awful
you get used to it very fast and those old games a lot of the time have much better gameplay
what's wrong, can't wrap your head around 2d?
Amazing writing, and you don’t need to read a minmax guide like pathfinder.
What’s crazy is a new game released in 2017 with these graphics.
While we are on the topic of CRPGs, is pillars of eternity any good?
I always wonder what context this was said (or likely not said) in
Played it till the butchers bay at least 4 times and dropped it every time, so no. Its boring and tedious
I dropped it. Not sure why. Difficulty spiked and I just wasn’t feeling it.
yes
no
I think it's pretty good. Never played PoE2, but PoE was fine.
Fine, ill play at least bg2. Give me your must have mods boomers, for the enchanced edition
Heya anon! It's me Imoen. Just a reminder that no playthrough of Baldur's gate 2 is complete without the Imoen romance mod. It adds tons of interactions, give it a chance and romance best girl today.
http://imoen.blindmonkey.org/
>MFW I’ll never have femdom drussy
Why even bother?
It is actually a great mod even if you don’t want to romance Imoen, has lots of additional content and interactions outside that scope.
I can't replay 2 without the Imoen mod anymore.
It really helps address the issue where normal bg2 Imoen has nothing to say or do after you rescue her in BG2 since she was meant to die and they only changed their mind late in development because of how popular she is.
The downside is that it means I always rush spellhold now to get her back immediately.
>jaheira is in bg3
>she's level 8
how is this possible
Bg2 didn't exist
so she did frick all after bg1 for 250 years
pretty sure just exercising once a week for that long you'd get to level 15
please stop posting about BG3
there's half a dozen threads for that trash
Because it's a video game
100 years older, but than your young sperm revitalizes her to reach level 12 again.
Old people forget things
systems creep, level drain, shit happens
It wouldn't be so weird if ToB didn't explicitly have the narrative through point of companions wondering what going back to their lives could possibly be like now that they're Demi-God tier.
I think its supposed to be age which is moronic but her not going along for most of bg2 onwards makes the most sense
>bg1 - one companion says "huh you're a queer fellow" to the pc
>bg3 - the pc says "huh you're a queer fellow" to every companion
P O E T R Y
R
A
V
O
lel
For me its Neera.
And you?
Nathaniel
I strip her down in the street and take all her shit and sell it all except for the pouch and banish her to a corner in the friendly arm
Rude
I played BG1, but not the expansion.
Worth going back to it or I can just skip to BG2?
skip and play bg2
Durlag's Tower is the best dungeon in the series.
The island adventure sucked.
The dungeon was pretty great (although the chess fight is stupid)
Overall the expansion didn’t really add much in the way of areas.
>Walks into a room
>Gets hit by an arrow
>Dies
>changes gender
>refuses to elaborate
>changes gender again and leaves
I made Jaheira a man
She was already the man in the relationship tbh
Knowing how degenerate DnD is she probably pegged Khalid too
when does Xan change gender?
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Edwin(a)?
Probably the curses belt.
DnD canon iirc
Pretty sure Xan is genderfluid
nothing about it on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and you know they'd be all over that
It's from Minsc and Boo's journal of villainy iirc
Same book that has Jon Irenicus and Bodhi surviving, Sarevok becoming a priest of Bhaal and Cernd falling in love with another widower character i don't remember
For some reason the Forgotten Realsm wiki doesn't have it despite it being canon
>found the relevant page
you know what? Frick it, sure, s/he can can sex shift all s/he wants. Estrogen is probably better for her mood
>bladesinger
I'm almost insulted they made her useful
>family name is now Moonblade
lel. Xan's not even the only moonblade wielder
I like the art tbh
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/abeir-toril-astynax/a/xan-moonblade-person
What the frick is this? I see why so many are in BG3.
Stolen from Reddit :^)
Valygar and Xan both work for Candlekeep. Valygar has taken potions of longevity to continue his hunt for evil wizards. Xan, who is a "Blessed of Corellon," meaning his gender changes sometimes throughout his life, hopes to find a worthy heir for his moonblade before journeying to Evermeet.
Kivan and Faldorn are both members of the Emerald Enclave. Kivan is now married to Cernd and is attempting to expose Faldorn as an evil Shadow Druid.
Jaheira continues to serve the Harpers.
Minsc and Boo were petrified and spent nearly a century as a statue in Waterdeep before being freed. They are now members of an order known as the Knights of Bahamut.
Irenicus and Bodhi were placed in the Domains of Dread by the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. They now exist in a dark mirror of Suldanessellar. Irenicus is now a lich.
Montaran and Xzar have also returned from death and are members of the Shadow Thieves. Xzar has become a demilich which Montaran keeps in a bag of holding. There's also an insane simulacrum of Xzar running around.
Imoen also is a member of the Shadow Thieves. She was transformed into a vampire by Bodhi but has retained her good alignment.
Edwin now has the longevity of an elf, thanks to the Nether Scrolls. He is once more in good relationship with Thay and has taken over Razamith's Tower in Baldur's Gate.
Kagain is now a worshiper of Bhaal and leads an unscrupulous band of mercenaries in Baldur's Gate.
Saemon Havarion sold his soul to Baalzebul in exchange for long-life and fortune and is now desperately looking for a way out of the deal.
Sarevok became a homeless drug addict in Baldur's Gate until Bhaal, reborn, found him and made him a high priest of his clergy.
Viconia has started working with the cults of Elemental Evil to further the will of Shar.
EDIT: For those of you who are Neverwinter Nights fans, it also includes Aribeth de Tylmarande who is now a herald of Mephistopheles.
Damn, every one of those is terrible. Is there someone in WotC who has a grudge against the original Baldur's Gate games or something?
There is some unwritten rule that the official written canon for the Baldur’s Gate series must always suck.
>made the coolest Baldur's Gate 1 character gay for the lamest Baldur's Gate 2 character
He must've known this would piss people off. Not only making Kivan gay, but making Kivan gay for Cernd. Or maybe it was a simple as "lol let's pair up the two characters with dead wives." But fricking Cernd man.
Or was Cernd a better character than I remember? My brother and I thought he was lame and never used him, but maybe some people like him. I like Shapeshifter druids more now than when BG2 was new. Did anyone use him?
Cernd was garbage, as a character and a person. He was slightly useful in being the only Druid that could cast level 7 spells in the original BG2 but ToB changes that, and even then his kit was always absolute trash that didn’t do what the manual said.
He is also a terrible father and husband.
I don't think Cernd is a bad character. He's an autismo who cares more about being a druid than a husband or father. As a party member he's not very good just because his kit sucks, but he can still Insect Plague and he gains levels a lot faster than Jaheira does.
The shapeshifter kit gets much more hate than it deserves. The werewolf forms are better than the normal druid shapes and armour is not all that important for a druid as they should be in the backline slinging spells anyway.
Maybe I'll give him a shot next time I replay. I do remember liking his story more than expected last time. Might make my party all the characters I ignored. Cernd, Mazzy, and Valygar are all in.
>Kivan and Faldorn are both members of the Emerald Enclave. Kivan is now married to Cernd and is attempting to expose Faldorn as an evil Shadow Druid.
Faldorn gets killed in BG2. Why would a Shadow Druid agree to get resurrected?
That's not even all of them, Greenwood's self insert
shows up too, as well as Mystra's walking contingency plan.
the books is literally non-canon, just like heroes of baldur's gate. Larian got a couple of ideas from it that's about it
Larian have even less to do with canon. It's not even fan fiction, it's just an evil exploitation of the story for money.
wotc was always gay huh
actually WotC has toned the Forgotten Realms down from its true canon as outlined by creator Ed Greenwood
you do not dare enter his magical realm
>And then Elminster banged another super hot chick who was always naked all the time, for some reason. And it wasn't weird at all that he was more than twice his age, she told me- I mean him, that she preferred it that way
>And then he turned into a super hot chick and started to bawd around the palace for a few years, and everyone wanted to have sex with me.
>Him, have sex with him.
wasn't most of dnd lore stolen from the original guy
what "original guy"? And lore is technically setting-dependent. Ed Greenwood is still very much active and his contract is a writers wet dream
Gygax, pretty sure all the original stuff was stolen from him
oh boy, this is a rabbit hole
Gygax didn't even want fantasy stuff originally, he wanted Conan. He begrudgingly accepted magic and hobbits and shit for Greyhawk
Arneson wanted a badass techno-fantasy with Blackmoor
a lot of fundamental D&D lore actually comes from the B/X and BECMI lines and Mystara/Known World setting by Moldvay, Cooke, and Mentzer
Ed Greenwood created The Realms setting in 1968, published stories in TSR's magazine in the 70s, and TSR bought the setting from him in the 80s to be the main setting for D&D for 2nd edition
and none of this matters because it's all Tolkien
Conan's great, a Conan version of lotr is respectable, I don't think everybody should be a 6th level mage
they give him that badass sword too, the moon blade?
becomes quickly apparent he can't use it for shit
>Change gender
>Now need an item to remove this "curse"
What did they mean by this?
Genderbending is funny
Nothing more.
>Potion of Fortitude
Solved.
SISTER SEXO!
Is there anything purer?
No.
Should I play Baldur's Gate 1 or 2?
Yes.
They're one story and your main character imports directly into BG2
Is there any downside aside from cluelessness to starting off with BG2?
You miss out on the absolute kino that is BG1. Gotta play the whole thing, from level 1 to 20 and beyond.
ok ok I'll start BG1, does player character alignment matter a whole lot?
it's up to you whether what kind of decisions you intend to make in the game. it matters more for your companions as the ones that are good-aligned will conflict with evil-aligned, and they will conflict with you if you do are too good or too bad
I see, I guess I'll pick neutral and commit later when I decide which companions I like.
i think he has a guide for bg companions somewhere too
you can play the game and beat the game with whatever you want to pick, but if you're trying to play on a higher difficulty or you're going to get pissed when you find out you gimped your shit up you should check some guides out
He bases his guides on the SCS mod, played on the highest difficulty, using Iron Man rules. They're good guides, but for new players they're not worth 4 hours per video for info that often conflicts with the actual normal game.
i disagree, unless the mods add new items in. overall the advice still applies.
you won't need to fine tune shit to the tightest degree, but it does cover what is available in the game as far as magic drops go etc.
you wouldn't need to watch the whole four hours, but i think watching the category of weapon you're thinking of specializing in for bg-bg2-tob and seeing what you're setting yourself up for is still decent.
imagine choosing darts or throwing knives or monk
I'm not saying to don't learn anything, but when he says stuff like "Carsomyr is kind of bad", when for a normal playthrough it's God tier, you can spend 15 minutes looking up less insightful and accurate guides, that will end up being just as useful because they're actually geared towards the game a new player will be playing.
you're probably right.
to be fair he does say "if you're not using mods, it's great"
but i think it's fair that most of the guide is geared to a modded difficulty no reload run and a noob might not know where to draw the line
Only for class restrictions, and very few item restrictions that aren't worth mentioning.
If you plan to dual class, make sure your alignment allows it.
A little but not much. It changes your starting reputation (which has a slight impact on shop prices and hits extremes then some companions will leave the party) and some items are alignment locked (though not very many and I think they're all in BG2)
Yes, if you're even remotely evil everybody will hate you and most inns will turn you away and you'll have to sleep in the woods. If you're really evil you will be hunted in all cities
There are some permanent stat-boosting tomes in BG1 and a couple of gimmick items that do inconsequential special things if you carry them over, but otherwise no
not really but a lot of the people you meet in bg2 are companions for entire game in first game so you are missing a lot of context, guess that hurts the engagement in 2nd game.
Imagine going around killing illithids, beholders, dragons, mages with way too many spells, and then deciding to play BG1 and killing kobolds and hobgoblins.
The games get more grandoise as your level increases, eventually throwing the craziest things at you because you're beyond the player's handbook for maximum level so everything starts to become quite ridiculous in power.
Don't be gay, BG1 is a real adventure whilst BG2 is Uncharted 3.
bg1 is pretty badass, plus you play it in the engine of bg2 these days so it's not like it's out-dated. they did a lot of QOL improvements.
going all the way from bg1 to TOB is an epic experience you will lose out on if you don't start in bg1.
the only downside is that they went back in time and pozzed it up with a remaster, introducing a bunch of quirky AIDS companions.
Eh, only Neera is "quirky"
Dorn is an edgy homie but pretty normal for fantasy standards besides being a half-orc
And Rassaad is white bread the character, he's extremely innoffensive.
People seem to like Baeloth
importing a powerful MC aside, you also miss out on importing some items including the golden pantaloons which are part of a quest in Throne of Bhaal
Lord Soth and Strahd aren't in either of those games. Though Minsc has encountered Strahd
I am back after logging a few hours in BG1, it was rough to get into it at first but I can see why it's so well liked. The characters are really charming, Xzar is my favorite so far. I'm taking a break after that actress wizard lady vaporized Imoen with a single spell.
>Skipping bg1
Don’t you siblingfrickers have a Coffin of Andy and Leyley thread for pretending the game will have incest in instead of BG2?
Love this chipmunk like you wouldn't believe, wish she was in 3. She was a good guy so they wouldn't have clowned on her like poor Vicky and Sarevok.
I'm in love with my sister!
She's castin' her magic missile and
Her miniskirt tightens
I'm wantin' to give her an heir
By sticking my fiery member up there!
More easily readable. If anyone wants to remake it because they'll go >reddit at the sight of it, go right ahead.
Cernd literally has a wife and shows no interest in men in BG2, so of course the nu-writers made him gay.
Bro his wife is dead
I just completed the tutorial in 1. It's not what I'm used to.
From having to pause the game to issue each command, to the interactive objects looking like normal background objects, to having to do a square select to select my entire party...
Should I keep it vanilla or are there any interesting mods for a first time playthrough?
be sure to check the available AI scripts you can assign to your characters, I think they're under Status
generally you won't want a script that prioritizes spellcasting on anyone as that burns through spell slots fast
one thing Enhanced Edition got right was better AI scripts
Ah, I saw that screen. Will experiment with it then.
Eh... I'm not a fan of the portraits but the anime doesn't grab my attention either. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Idk any gameplay mods
But if you want t9 change the portraits and like anime there's some fanart by the Dungeon Meshi mangaka
So uh, why can't I see my character's portraits? it suddenly just stopped working
You pressed something by mistake and hid them
Thanks, I can play the game now
copypasting from gamefaqs:
On the top of the left and right hand side columns on the HUD are small reddy brown gem like things, clicking those cause the columns to collapse, the gem things are then at the bottom of the screen, clicking them whilst they're at the bottom brings the column back.
Happened to me all the time in BG3, not once in 1/2?
I played and finished BG2 for the first time today and I cheesed multiple encounters and dragons with spike traps because frick that. Played as a dwarf berserker and had a mostly good time.
Is Aerie good?
Im not (that) into widows or the mentally ill so she's the other option i have besides Neera
she's okay, being a multiclass cleric/mage is fairly strong in theory but she's hampered by the mage class's equipment restrictions and not strong enough to be anything but a backliner
if you put in the investment, she's worth it
don't have sex with her the first time she asks, she's not ready yet
Will she die?
no, but it will be very painful
the breakup and her subsequent leaving the party, that is. If you want to romance her remember that she's still immature, but the second time she asks for sex she's ready and it won't break the romance
it would be very painful
On the other hand, the god tier robe is even better on her since then it impacts her cleric spells too.
At high, high levels she is god tier.
At the levels you spend most of the game at she is just a backup bundle of mid level cleric and mage spells.
Gameplay wise, yes
Romance wise, she is one of the few virgin waifus in CRPGs if you are in to that
DO NOT PUT HER IN THE SAME PARTY WITH HAER' DALIS IF YOU ARE GOING TO ROMANCE HER
I already know about that
I think his name is stupid so i wont recruit him
I didn't take Haer'dalis but I thought if you already started romancing her he backs off?
He doesn't, he flirts with her anyway and tries to fight you for her love
He does. You have to be REALLY dense for Aerie to pick Haer'dalis over you. This "conflict" is stacked vastly in your favour. And even if you allow them to start a fling, she dumps him almost immediately, because he's an butthole to her.
If you somehow get them to ToB without them having broken up, they’ll still break up because Haer is a doomguard so he thinks what happens to the besieged city is beautiful while Aerie rather strongly disagrees.
Save me, dear Sir.
Please, save me.
Get me out of this BG3 timelinehellhole...
Go away, turnipfricker.
>sell Wand of Cloudkill to recharge it
>oi just use Haer + Jan + Edwin for triple Cloudkills
>drop 3-4x stacking Cloudkills turn 1
>even giga AI mod boosted casters can't do shit but be gassed into submission because no matter if they're level 30 and prebuffed to the Nine Hells, they still lack a spell to become immune to Poison damage thus being doomed to spell disruption
>throw Hasted Korgan & 5x Skellies inside the gas cloud
is dorn going to hate me for being good aligned? he's the only character who i've taken an interest to and want on my party (based on portrait at least)
Evil party members only leave if you have 18 rep or more
It'll be kinda hard to keep him since the game gives you rep at every moment, but its possible
...shit. I don't like playing evil characters...
Not sure what to do now.
you can look up what you can do to lose reputation and try to manage it, or enjoy the ride while it lasts and replace him later. or just set him aside for an evil run down the road
Actually, maybe I'll just run with it and see if any of these ugly characters end up being any interesting
is there a shortcut for "take control of this character im mousing over" in 3? trying to wrangle 1 specific stuck ghoul moron out of an army of 20 other summons is impossible
I take it back. I'm going for an evil cleric first playthrough. I want Dorn.
For me, it's Nalia.
is a full party a must
Yeah, unless you know exactly what you are doing. It definately makes things easier.
where's the imoen romance mod
http://imoen.blindmonkey.org/
Just so you know, the whole mod is a meme.
how memey is it
It is actually pretty damn good.
Let's say, that the dude that wrote it has a fetish. There are some moments that are good in this mod and some moments that make you go "what the frick is your malfunction". Overall, I wouldn't call the mod *good*, but it's an... experience.
Ah, the true v experience.
>Be Imoen
>Get raped and tortured by Irenicus
>temporarily get free until captured by crazy wizards and then tortured by Irenicus some more
>get saved by brother you want to frick
>find out you were cucked by Aerie/Viconia/Jaheira
She just can't stop suffering
And that's a good thing!
Irenicus is too based to rape Imoen. Greatest video game villain of all time.
Yeah he's evil but I doubt he'd do that. Irenicus has a harem of dryads but is even disinterested in them, because they fall short of his lost love.
Fighters are useless in BG2. You NEED mages for the high level fights.
You need a Cloak of Reflection and then you can solo every mage as a fighter. It gets more amusing if you roll an Inquisitor paladin.
>mirror image
>stoneskin
> protection from magical weapons
Fighter cannot compete.
That’s why I found the end and sequels to be one giant debuff arms race. It’s all your wizards casted AFTER buffing your guys and summoning.
Nah, I'll just patiently wait until your magical protection wears off and then whack you with a sword. Cheap, but efficient.
High level fighters are actually pretty strong you just need to buff them for harder fights. A fighter with good gear and improved haste is a sight to behold.
You know the moment the enemy hasted itself you were in for a tough fricking fight.
Yeah, I don't think a mage can ever match the sheer damage output that high-level fighters are dishing out. And fighters will always be the most reliable damage dealers in the game.
>robe of vecna
>improved alacrity
>time stop (optional)
And? By the time you get your hands on Timestop and Improved Alacrity, the enemy saving throws will be so high, you'll just be wasting offensive spells, unless you start spamming Comet/Dragon Breath.
>tfw Nalia oneshot Illasera by dropping a comet on head
Brings a tear to my eye.
In the remake they give them some spinning attack that’s supposed to be OP but I never used it. I hear it’s the only way to beat the Demogorgon.
You are thinking of whirlwind attack I think, which is a high level ability from throne of Bhaal. Greater whirlwind just sets your attacks to 10 for one round or so. It is okay but improved haste can already let you do that. Critical strike is better, since it makes all your attacks an automatic critical for a round or so.
Whirlwind, that’s it. Did you beat the demogorgon? To my shame I never did. The guides all said you needed to rely on traps and whirlwind. Maybe it was automatic critical and whirlwind?
sleep and stab
Is the black guy the best (pure) fighter in BG2?
The black guy in BG2 is a Ranger (Stalker), unless you mean Sarevok and then the answer is yes.
Ah i somehow mixed up what class he was
There's only 3 pure fighters in BG2 and one of them is a fricking bear
Korgan, Mazzy, Sarevok, who am I missing?
Wilson
He's a Fighter apparently
Oh, right. I usually mod the EE characters out, because they are stupid, so I totally forgot about him.
So is Branwen the blonde warrior priest the weakest out of all the characters?
She's fine. Good replacement for Viconia.
So who do you rank last out of both games.
In terms of gameplay, or personality? It's complicated, and it depends on your party setup.
In BG1 never cared much for obvious joke characters like Garrick, Tiax or Quayle, those are easily skippable. I never found much use for Xan either, but apparenly he's good in right hands. Some people don't like Khalid, but he's a mainstay in my group, being a decent tank. I also never used Shar-Teel or Faldorn. I guess they are fine, but never had use for them.
In BG2, Haer'Dalis and Valygar are take it or leave it. They are fine, if you know how to use them, but I would rather pick a one womanlet army Mazzy over Valygar. Also, Cernd. He... exists. Jaheira does everything better, IMO.
Don’t know if you played BG3 but they butchered Sarevok bro. Just a shitty copy of a copy of his BG1 self ignoring every ToB character growth. I liked the game but his poorly written ass pissed me off bad.
And let's not get into what they have done to Viconia. What is Larian's problem? It's so mean-spirited.
True that. Though I appreciated the stonelord. Never much cared for the Harper.
I think the other black guy Dorn is better.
Dorn is a grey half-orc
Dude listened to too much MCR and lost the green color i guess
Korgan is the best. Berzerker us op
Charname>Korgan>Sarevok
Mazzy is the best.
Mazzy is an overlooked companion. She's fricking great.
I recently made a run with wizard PC, Minsc, Jaheira, Nalia, Keldorn/Mazzy and Yoshimo/Imoen and I recommend this party setup for anyone that wants a competent "feel-good" party.
Carsomyr or FoA/Belm?
Carsomyr. I assume you are a paladin?
Then why not both?
Fighter/Thief with UAI.
returning to bg2 after bg3 really finally made me realize rtwp sucks wiener
It's good for very large fights versus trash mobs. IWD did it right.
I can't get into BG3. The writing is just too cringe, even for my very low standards.
Ugg this. I’m halfway through pillars of eternity, pathfinder 2, and 85% done pathfinder 1. Having a very hard time getting back in.
I’d recommend wasteland 3 if you haven’t played it.
Playing bg3 made me realize rtwp rules
Playing BG3 made me realize I can write a better story than a professional videogame company.
>Portraits anime replacer baldurgate download
gaming time
Is it safe to assume that BG3 is a non-canon fanfic, similarly to Beamdog's additions?
are you moronic?
The duality of man
Definitely.
It's exactly as non-canon as any edition of D&D past second edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
It's actually worse. Fan fiction implies you like the original and want to be a part of it. BG3 is just evil, mean-spirited and dismissive in this regard. I wish to say they only took the title for easy money and publicity, but it wouldn't be true. They for some reason clearly hate the original, its characters and decisions.
Neither involve the original creators of the Bhaalspawn trilogy and were written decades after so from that perspective they don't really have much to do with it past the name.
However, both are officially endorsed by WotC so from that perspective they're absolutely canon.
The book no one liked was also canon, complete with having cards with the main character. If you go to the corps to decide what's canon and what's not, you've never cared anyway.
>However, both are officially endorsed by WotC so from that perspective they're absolutely canon.
Nah thats bullshit. I can buy a beloved IP by some long dead author, take a huge steamy shit all over it and it will technically be "official" but it will still be fanfiction, legallity be damned, it just means I have more money than the average person.
They technically still have Ed Greenwood as their endorsement machine. I am pretty sure that at this point, they are holding the poor old man at gunpoint, so that they can force him to endorse every idiotic retcon to FR they are coming up with, but it still technically makes it "legal".
>moron shitting thread with soulless ai slop
literally kys
You've never searched for a good NWN portrait if you think THESE are soulless. They're decent.
AI makes everything better, loser.
>Youre a queer
>I am gone!
How do you homies endure the early game? I took a inquisitor paladin with two handed sword efficiency and two handed style efficiency yet I miss most of my attacks and i die very, very quickly and asides from that, Xzar is mostly useless
By picking your fights responsibly.
Also, mages are going to be useless and lvl1, unless you load them with scrolls.
Sleep spells and Branwen. You can also cheese quite a lot of experience out of the basilisk garden East of Beregost by using the ghoul to clear them. If your party is small you can get to around level 4 or 5 no problems.
Bows.