Lame musings and questions upon finishing the game

Kyle Marksteiner · Post by **Kyle Marksteiner** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 11:29 am

1. Time Stop + triggered lower resistances + spellstrike + breach (w/ true sight previously cast)= good combo. I think they should make higher level stuff in TOB immune to certain thingslike time stop. (not just resistant, since resistance can be lowered).

2. Bears make surprisingly good tanks- I started using bears instead of fire elementals midway through and was very surprised. Give bears a try! I'm serious.

3. Probably been speculated- but I think the end plot at TOB will somehow involve Cyric- or at least his forces. Cyric would have every reason to try to keep the Bhaalspawn down. And, is it possible that the dudes around the table are like Cyric's high council, or do we already know differently?

4. Wish the game was a bit less monte-haulish, like an option setting that makes magic items more rare. I know- nothing making me use stuff- but if it's there it's hard to put down. TOB- with its "whirlwinding" and "Dragon breaths" 40th level chars and incredible equipment, sounds a lot like Diablo II.

5. Never actually finished Jaheria romance- got the "dawning of the day" message and beat all kinds of harpers, but the poser Elminster never showed up- is it possible to resume romance where I left off in TOB?

ki-master · Post by **ki-master** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 12:56 pm

Well I believe the guys around the table are other bhaal children(I could be wrong).
And about the jaheira romance: I tried it over and over again but it's so bugged I gave up and started romancing Viconia.It's quite impossible to complete the jaheira romance without patches and a lot of stress.
It requires all kinds of complicated things because it's so messed up.I think it sucks because I wanted to romance her for tob.

Kyle Marksteiner · Post by **Kyle Marksteiner** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 2:39 pm

but don't they call you "the child of Bhaal?"

Blackrose · Post by **Blackrose** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 4:28 pm

I think the robed guys are priests of Bhaal since the symbol on the table is Bhaal's.
I suspect that you'll have to fight an Avatar of Cyric for the final battle.
Lots of people have complained about Jaheira's romance, just use the search facility and you'll get lots of answers. Maybe it's just me, but i had no problems with the romance and that was pre-patched. With the patch i've noticed that her romance dialogs are more frequent.

Kyle Marksteiner · Post by **Kyle Marksteiner** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 4:59 pm

maybe I'm smoking crack here- but wasn't Cyric's symbol really similar to Bhaal's?

Metatron · Post by **Metatron** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 5:18 pm

Originally posted by Sloanzilla:
maybe I'm smoking crack here- but wasn't Cyric's symbol really similar to Bhaal's?

No. Cyric's symbol is a skull surrounded by a black sunburst. The symbol on the table that those men were sitting around is definitely Bhaal's. I find that interesting, myself.

No, I'm not a pathetic fanboy. I just happen to have the Forgotten Realms campaign setting materials right at hand here.

Lorenoth · Post by **Lorenoth** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 5:29 pm

Originally posted by Sloanzilla:


TOB- with its "whirlwinding" and "Dragon breaths" 40th level chars and incredible equipment, sounds a lot like Diablo II.

there's nothing wrong with sounding like Diablo2. As it is now, BG2 is a very dull and unexciting game. I think we need more powerful stuff than the screen going gray for a few seconds.. Timestop was lame.. and meteor swarm? it looked like orange mud falling oh so slowly from the sky. I'd call it something other than mud but I'd probably be banned. A little of D2 in it wouldn't hurt, this game needs some spice.
and yes I like D2 more than BG2, sorry...

Irenin · Post by **Irenin** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 7:41 pm

d2 isnt even a rpg.

Vehemence · Post by **Vehemence** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 10:51 pm

Originally posted by Lorenoth:
there's nothing wrong with sounding like Diablo2. As it is now, BG2 is a very dull and unexciting game. I think we need more powerful stuff than the screen going gray for a few seconds.. Timestop was lame.. and meteor swarm? it looked like orange mud falling oh so slowly from the sky. I'd call it something other than mud but I'd probably be banned. A little of D2 in it wouldn't hurt, this game needs some spice.
and yes I like D2 more than BG2, sorry...

Yikes! Tell me he didn't really say this!

Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn should never be compared... it's like comparing rabbits with trampolines. Theres no common link besides they're both fun to jump on

The only link between D2 and BG2 is that they are both games.

Lorenoth · Post by **Lorenoth** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 4:28 am

Originally posted by Irenin:
d2 isnt even a rpg.

incorrect. and here's why..

1) more player development. You can choose from only 5 classes so far, but, every level you advance your stats, every level you choose what spell/skill you want, whereas in BG2 you find the spells at stores or quest related areas, and you can only choose your stats once unless you have shadowkeeper
2) be good or evil, or whatever... this really only works in multiplayer however, as you can decide to give the newbies your extra infernal torch, or just slaughter them.
3) Quests are more realistic. What I mean is, NPC's of course give you quests, but you don't have to do them all if you don't want to.
4) Faster. I mean who here was impressed by the fact that Minsc takes a swing with his 2 handed sword, and then waits 5 seconds, and then swings again?
In D2 it's much faster and more realistic. Also, huge spells cast multiple times won't lag your computer to hell- most of the time. In BG2 whenever I got into a big magical battle I always had to predict the computer crashing, and I have a pretty good PC.
5) Better Multiplayer environment. I've never ever gotten Mplayer to work. And some people will say Battle.net is unreliable, but let's be honest, it works most of the time. up to 8 people to a game, all of which you can decide to attack, befriend, run from, or ignore, or even trade.
6) Better item variety. This is kinda a go both ways thing. What's nice about BG2 is that if you mention the Celestial Fury or whatever the katana thing is, everyone will know what you mean. In Diablo2 unless you have a unique or set item, if you say I have the Doom Breaker, well you'll have to tell people what it is. I like randomized items, it adds variety and makes every character unique.
7) Now here's the main argument:
First of all, what is an RPG? If Diablo2 isn't an RPG, well then neither is FF7 or any other FF for that matter.. simply because there's no dialogue choice? Well the fact that you're limitted to only so many dialogue choices defeats the purpose. Bioware has set out 2 specific paths, you just have to choose which one to take. Either way you'll kill the bad guy.
But seriously though, RPG means roleplaying game. And that means any game where you play a role. So in MarioKart when I play as Toad that means that I'm playing an RPG. In this case, I'm playing the loser character because I'm fairly horrible at MarioKart. I really think that before anyone get's all "high and mighty" on D2, they need to take a look at the slowpaced, predictable, limitted, boring, buggy, BG2. Don't get me wrong, I love BG2, but it just has let me down in so many areas. I guess we'd all be better off if we just went out and played 3E with each other. I have a level 5 Psion if anyone wants to email me.

Please don't get mad at me, just don't get on D2's case. Remember, all of that was an opinion up there, ok?