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I started a game as an Undead Hunter with the goal of creating a good-aligned only party but i got annoyed after a while with Nalia's pathetic thieving skills (even after SK-ing them). Longing for Imoen, i wondered what would be a good level to go to Spellhold and that got me wondering about the order in which to complete quests. Do you have a specific order? Is there some logical order? What do you think is an appropriate level at which you go to Spellhold?

No logical order, no, though everybody has their preferences. Some actually prefer going to Spellhold early on, leaving the bulk of chapter 2 quests until they return. Others prefer to do all the chapter stuff, first. I prefer this second kind of approach, myself.

Two quests can be done very early, in my opinion. First, the circus tent, possibly the sinplest quest of all. Brings in a few useful items, some good experience, a potential party NPC to hire. Secondly, Nalia's manor. There are some tough areas for a young party, but you get a lot of experience, a great item, and a lot of free, very good ammunition for ranged combat.

As Fable said. Just Nalia's keep I find very hard to be my, or anyone's I am guessing, 2nd quest. Trolls will give your party really hard times. I prefer doing the circus tent quest 1st ofc, then killing slavers in Copper Coronet. Maybe Bridge district soon after to solve those murders. And a few more quests in town. After that I go to Umar Hills or Trademeet. After that Nalia's manor will be more interesting to do because you won't suffer that much.

my 2 cents... (please note that I am mentioning only the unmodded game. I have just started my modded career )

I usually just flow with the game (except Firkraag which I do depending on the amount of challenge I am willing to face. Sometimes if I am soloing I ignore that quest as it can make you quiet powerful too soon) ...

Circus tent - gang in the inn in Waukeen's Promenade - Copper Coronet - Nalia or Jan (if I decide on Jan, go to government district, collect him and Umar quest) - De'Arnise keep ( this will trigger Harper quest [Renfield??], which in turn brings up Monteron quest. I finish these 2 before going to De'Arnise keep. Oh, and I am feeling particularly cheesy, steal the Daystar on the way ) - then come back to Athkatla and gather the quests I can. If I am dualling (usually, this is around the time I dual), I complete small quests like graveyard (3 that I can recall now - buried alive, paladin, crypt king), skinner quest in bridge and then take it from there. Umar hills and trademeet come after this. If I am going to have Imoen in my party, I go to spellhold before Umar hills and Trademeet.
I prefer doing Twisted Rune, Gaxx and Planar sphere in chapter 6 as they provide powerful items. I feel that having them earlier, makes the game relatively easier.

I started a game as an Undead Hunter with the goal of creating a good-aligned only party but i got annoyed after a while with Nalia's pathetic thieving skills (even after SK-ing them).

If Nalia bugs you, I would strongly recommend having Jan. He will also be your back up mage for Imoen in the long term. His thieving skills are far better than Nalia at the beginning of the game and only gets better as the game proceeds.

Hope this helps

If you want Imoen, just go get her! I always go to Spellhold right after I get 15000 gold, so I can have her in my party. There's only a few hard fights if you go early, and those can be all the more fun bacause of it.

There's far more interesting loot in the Underdark anyway, and when you get back to the surface, you can actually use some of Cromwell's items for a while before TOB items outclass them.

Elessar wrote:If Nalia bugs you, I would strongly recommend having Jan. He will also be your back up mage for Imoen in the long term. His thieving skills are far better than Nalia at the beginning of the game and only gets better as the game proceeds.

Hope this helps

Yeah, thing is, i impose silly restrictions and want an all-good party with none of the NPCs i used in my last game (Jaheira, Keldorn, Haer'Dalis, Anomen, Jan). I was thinking of simply SK-ing Nalia to be a higher level Thief but to stay "pure" i would have to create a Thief>Mage myself and level it accordingly using CLUAConsole to get the right saving throws/proficiencies/etc to give her.

Your playing order is fairly similar to what i did last time, it does feel "right", doesn't it?

Rav wrote:If you want Imoen, just go get her! I always go to Spellhold right after I get 15000 gold, so I can have her in my party. There's only a few hard fights if you go early, and those can be all the more fun bacause of it.

I think that in my mind i'm sort of mixing TOB Drow/Ulithid/Beholder parts with the Underdark. Or i'm just still scar(r)ed from the first time i went there. Maybe i shouldn't be such a wuss and get on with it.

Hmm, i wonder if the Holy Liberator's Subversion makes you immune to those damn Ulithid psyonics...

it is FAR easier to change a NPC with SK

1. delete his/her wep profs and set her hp to 1 and reset his level to 1
2. give him the desired class, thief in your case
3. if you want to dual give the "first" class the end xp you want
4. dual and give the 2nd class your desired xp

edit:
1. delete his/her wep profs and set her hp to 1 and reset his level to 0

Yeah i tried that but at the time i was too stupid too figure i could make a level 1 Thief myself to get the right saving throws and proficiencies.

Actually, to get the correct results you should set the XP to 1 and level to 0, not 1, then use SK again to add the necessary XP.

anarchistica wrote:I think that in my mind i'm sort of mixing TOB Drow/Ulithid/Beholder parts with the Underdark. Or i'm just still scar(r)ed from the first time i went there. Maybe i shouldn't be such a wuss and get on with it.

A lot of the encounters in BG2 are actually scaled up and down depending on your level, meaning that if you normally do everything in Chapter 2, doing everything in chapter 5 (6?) now, you'll have different encounters from what you are used to. The Underdark might actually be easier for you too.

galraen wrote:Actually, to get the correct results you should set the XP to 1 and level to 0, not 1, then use SK again to add the necessary XP.

I'll try that, thanks.

Yeah i know encounters are scaled to some extent, but that only changes things so much. I usually did pretty much every quest available before going to Spellhold.

Now i've got just one thing i'm not sure about. You can do those Shadow Thief quests after going to Spellhold, right? Does it matter if i've got Unfinished Business/BG2 Quest Pack that adds a quest to destroy them?

difficulty factors

how does the generator know what level to pitch random/adjustable enemies?
sometimes I have a party that on average is well below the level of the PC - when a bad-ass mo-fo group of enemies arrive - most of the NPCs can end up being cannon-fodder and the PC ends up soloing the fight - I have often had the experience of soloing a battle because the rest of the gang died on me. sometimes fights like the Twisted Rune or Guardians of the Seal can end up like that. OK so I can do TR sensibly and without much danger normally, but sometimes things do go wrong. (hint - Projected image + protection from undead then magic can help a lot!)

does anybody know what does determine the difficulty?

Afaik it works like that

All levels will be added up, single, multi and dualchared
then all classes will be added up, the solo fighter, dual fighter/thief and the multi priest-mage
so it would be 5 in this example
the level will be divided by the classes and then you got your party level

this is a bit odd since multi/dual classed will move your group level down a lot

for easyier understanding here with numbers

Level 15
+ 5 / 9
+ 10 - 9

which would get you this

15 + 5 + 9 + 10 + 9 = 48

the classes are as mention 5

fighter + fighter + thief + priest + mage = 5

so you would get

48 / 5 = 9,6

so your party level would be around 9,6