Can you get back to Athkatla after... (SPOILER!)

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:32 pm

Alright, BIG spoiler warning if you have not ventured beyond Chapter 2:

Can I get back to Athkatla after Chapter 4 (Spellhold)? I thought I'd be able to sail back freely after Chapter 4...but everything points toward that not being possible! I am in abit of a panic here because I have lots of unfinished quests from Chapter 2, and my party is definately not optimal now that I've rescued Imoen (and been betrayed by Yoshimo)! All the journal talks about his chasing after Irenicus...which is something I definately do not want to do. I predicted something like this might happen, and yes I have saves from before chapter 4. Problem is I did not realize just how long chapter 4 would be, and can't say I'm too keen on doing it all again... :S

Isilion · Post by **Isilion** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 2:06 pm

short answer: yes and you will have the time and opportunity to finish anything you didn't do yet

long answer: yes, but it will be a while. you'll have to make due with what you have now. depending on your choices you might skip a zone right after spellhold (and you can't go back to that). Don't worry about being too weak, you'll manage. sure there will be some difficulty spikes but it is possible. Besides you'll find some cool stuff

as for the things you skipped, many places in the game, especially the zone and quests you can do in chapter 2, scale with your level. For example, if you go somewhere you might find a group of mummies, at higher level thy'll be greater mummies, and at very high level there might even be a lich amongst them. Not every group of enemies scale, though. so you won't have to wade through endless waves of liches at the end

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 2:25 pm

Hmm, gah! How long?! Oh, don't answer that. :X I'll blow right through the Stronghold quests, there are items (and party members!) I'd want to retrieve and quests I'd definately want to do before this... time to ponder how to proceed... Thanks, Isilon.

Isilion · Post by **Isilion** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 2:58 pm

Thomas Brorsson wrote:Hmm, gah! How long?! Oh, don't answer that. :X I'll blow right through the Stronghold quests, there are items (and party members!) I'd want to retrieve and quests I'd definately want to do before this... time to ponder how to proceed... Thanks, Isilon.

If I were you I'd just continue
Don't go back to a previous save. redoing spellhold will just be frustrating. it would be for me.
This is your first playthrough, allow yourself to be amazed and taken away by the twists and turns of the story. it's the only time you'll be able to do that, on any next playthroughs you'll know what's going to happen. In next playthroughs you can organize your questing for more efficient playing.
all you need to know is that you don't have to worry, the quests from chapter 2 will be waiting for you when you return.
if you have any npcs there you wanted in your party, they can still join. yes they will be behind in exp then. If that's a big deal for you (understandable) consider not taking them this time, but in a next playthrough.

i'm curious now
who's in your party and where in the story are you?

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 3:42 pm

Oh, rats, you wouldn't be talking about... the Underdark?! I barely know how to kill an Illi- scratch that, I DON'T know how to defeat an Illithid! Is that the zone I can skip? Because I definately don't want to do it NOW, at the same time, I really don't want to miss it... *sigh* perhaps you are right though, I am leaning towards just trudging onwards...

My dilemma is that I am not sure if I even will *want* to do another playthrough, ofcourse I do, but time is limited and BG2 is a VERY long game...

Well, I made a mistake and dual-classed Yoshimo to a Fighter/Thief, and so I ended up taking Nalia, instead. So now I have 2 Thief/Mages... bleh. I also wanted to bring Keldorn along, but ended up taking Jaheira instead as that would be more interesting for the story I thought. Also, Aerie... I LOVE Aerie, but wanted Jaheira for the story and took Nalia as the thief...I really miss Aerie.

I currently have: Main Char (Kensai/Mage, female), Anomen (Romance interest), Minsc (The only char I'd NEVER dump. For any reason.), Imoen, Nalia and Jaheira.

Oh, forgot - I have just completed Spellhold, back in Brynnlaw.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 5:13 pm

Don't worry about what might happen in the future, just continue playing your game. If you get into trouble you can still ask for help then.

Isilion · Post by **Isilion** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:51 pm

kmonster is right on
don't worry too much about what might or might not happen
if you do face enemies which feel like a brick wall you can always ask for help
and yes, there are some pretty nasty monsters in the game, especially if you've never faced them before. it would be a boring game if all monsters were gibberlings and kobolds

if you get stuck, go over your options. maybe you have items that can help you. potions, wands, scrolls, items with "use effects". or maybe some spells that you've overlooked until now. don't be afraid to experiment and test stuff, and reload if it fails. It's like a puzzle sometimes, and finding the solution is very gratifying

you have a solid party. quite a bit of muscle, lots of arcane pewpew, sufficient buffs and heals, and adequate thieves.
a kensai/mage might even be a bit too powerful for a first game

i bet you read how strong that combo was

your party is, in fact, almost identical to my first party. I played a male elf ranger and had Aerie as a romance, instead of Anomen.

If you're afraid you might accidentally skip the skippable zone, make a safe, continue playing, and ask here if you missed it.
If you're still in Brynnlaw you haven't missed anything yet

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 7:27 pm

If offered a choice, sail by ship.

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 2:04 am

Isilion wrote:a kensai/mage might even be a bit too powerful for a first game i bet you read how strong that combo was

Tsk, I knew someone would say something like that.

The amazing thing is that: No, I did not.

I played a Paladin in BG1, and wanted to try something else in BG2. I knew I wanted some type of fighter, and some type of spellcasting. I thought about Fighter/Cleric, but, was turned off by not being able to use swords (my fav weapon), so instead I started looking through the Fighter/Mage combos, and bam, found the Kensai. "My God! Mages can't use armor anyway!" I thought, and that's how it was. I only read about the combo on the internet afterwards. I scorned myself abit for choosing such a powerful class (I like challenge), but in the end decided to keep playing becuase it seemed like alot of fun, and, I figured it out myself i.e. didn't read about it in some guide.

Allright, your advice certainly seem sound and good, truly. I am a bit of a perfectionist, however, and these situations cause me no small amount of stress. ^^ Just to clarify; If I sail by ship, I will not miss anything?

Isilion · Post by **Isilion** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:22 am

indeed, if you leave Brynnlaw by ship you will not miss anything

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:26 am

Isilion wrote:indeed, if you leave Brynnlaw by ship you will not miss anything

Oh? Phew, thank you. (And Roller too ofc for the initial suggestion!)

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:17 am

I've played some more, but this just doesn't feel very good, at all. I need to know.

Will I be able to get back to Athkatla before going to the Underdark? Because I really don't want to do the Underdark before I have my party in good order etc. Some of the chars I have (Jaheria and Nalia) I really don't want to keep, and definately not take with me into ToB.

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 2:11 pm

the party makes its way to Alkathla through areas, including the Underdark. And its a one-way road. If your uncontent with the group, replay. Better to do now than to abandon the game later after dragging unwanted people. Nalia really doesnt have that great of the personality. Alternatively get used to them, they have unique personalities for a reason. Jaheira is a very developed char with a story, and even likes to talk to dragons now and then, although quite bugged in vanilla, and is the most powerful character in your party, especially in ToB. To get her quests started one has totally not obviously rest in a wilderness area above the surface. Although Keldorn is cool too.

Isilion · Post by **Isilion** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 2:47 pm

ok, there are some things you can do
BUT this might be considered a cheat and it will give you (the player, not the character) a lot of power, so make sure not to abuse it, abusing your power will suck the fun out of the game, only use it for emergencies
if you really hate your current party, i'd say that's enough an emergency to justify such a move, and it's better than starting over

have you ever heard of the clua codes?
they allow you to change and fiddle around from inside the game. abusing this power can make you overpowered, so use it moderately and wisely!
edit the baldur.ini file by adding the line Debug Mode=1 under the [Program Options] heading and saving the file. (make a backup first, you never know)
Then during gameplay press Ctrl+Space to display the console and type CLUAConsole:EnableCheatKeys()
when that is done, select your entire party
press ctrl+space again and type CLUAConsole:MoveToArea("ar0700")
boom, you'll be in waukeen's promenade
ditch the characters you don't want and recruit those you want
i'd advice to refrain from continuing the quests, just do the character switch and get it over with, try not to break the flow of the game, i.e. the immersion.
when you have the characters you want, select the entire party again and type CLUAConsole:MoveToArea("ar2300") to get back to the sahuagin city.

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:24 am

Aye, I'm familiar with the console. And that is one way to do it...but I think I will attempt to replay, as I don't really like cheating. Don't get me wrong, it's good advice, but, teleporting back and forth feels...well...it would break my immersion too much, sadly.

While your advice of continuing onwards is definately sound and good to any sane individual...I am not such a person. I am abit of a perfectionist and when things like this happens...it's very hard for me to focus, and accept. I would reroll my personality if I could.

I am in this situation because I dual-classed Yoshimo (If you look at my party, you can see that I like dual/multi-classes...Minsc is the only pure class in there! ^^), thus forcing me to take Nalia as thief. Nalia isn't a very interesting character, imo. If I had taken Jan instead I'd probably continue...but I try to keep my party mainly good-aligned, and Jan is abit too goofy for my main character's tastes - she does not really trust him. Jaheira is well and good, but the thing is, I simply like Aerie much better. I swapped her out for Jaheria because it felt like she had more stake in the fight with Irenicus (obviously), and intended to swap her right out for Aerie, after I got back. I simply was not prepared for how long it would be, and how much xp poor Aerie would be behind in. As a Cleric/Mage Aerie is also incredibly useful, because she can place cleric spells in spell triggers! Imo, she's one of the best NPCs in the game.

Swapping out some chars I like was simply meant to mix things up abit and get some new flavor. I simply underestimated how long it would take to get back - thought Id just get in, rescue Imoen, then get back. So I will try replaying, see how that feels, and if it feels like too much work I'll simply continue. Thanks for all the advice.

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:08 pm

Well if you care about XP there is a much easier way around. Play on, and on rejoining set Aeries XP to the same level as Jaheira or mainchar. I do this with every char i want to play with, default system is just too rigid. It isnt even cheating since NPC could level on their own in the meantime. Ironically every single game made by Bioware since then autolevels NPCs. Nwn (2) , kotor (2), jade empire, dragon age, mass effect, all with autolevel so NPCs are not "destoyed" if left behind. I guess you will be around half the game at return point, and can assemble useful artefacts. Ofc these other games handle xp a bit different, so technically it could be expoited if you, for example, intentionally play solo, collect x6 exp then take party and set their levels, but since you are playing in a full party anyway, swapping them around provides zero advantage. In fact, setting their xp prevents a vanilla exploit as you could do the same thing. Level solo, which forces higher level NPC to spawn, because they are based on level, then take them in. IIRC a 220k xp thieft, would cause a 900k Keldorn to appear, so there are 600k free exp.

CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP("64000")

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 3:39 am

Haven't really noticed xp of NPCs being based on levels; everyone I recruited would start with ~400k. Exceptions to this would be the ones you start with, Jaheria and Minsc, and Aerie (Since you can get her very early). Imoen only started with 400k aswell, so she is definately abit behind in xp, actually further behind Aerie still, as I kept Aerie around for the most part of the game before Spellhold. Imoen, right now, in the City-of-Caverns, has ~700k, while Aerie had almost 1 mil when I left her behind.

I have no idea how much xp I will get before I get back...that's the problem. If I am only halfway through the game when I get back, as you say, then it might still be worthwhile to recruit Aerie then. I have no idea if it would be possible to "grind" xp in bg2 - rest assured I DO like swapping characters back and forth to get as many quests as possible, but at the same time, I naturally would want as strong a party as possible to take with me into ToB.

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:09 am

spawn level is based on average party level and once spawned it stays there. Imoen can also start with 1.2kk xp, if party's average level is.. i think lvl13. There are certainly places with respawnable mobs to grind. One is the mindflayer area you are approaching the other is in tob starter city. I remember seeing more but dont recall exactly where, not really care about grinding.

NocturneN · Post by **NocturneN** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 2:50 am

Alright, 'twould seem this topic has been resolved. Thanks everyone!