BG II - newbie thoughts

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Oh I've always believed you. I just want to know how and why it is happening to you. Must...know...

 

I, too, am interested. I'm quite certain no such oddity appeared when I played.

 

It sounds like you have met what I called the 'lovable floating giblets of doom'. Can't remeber how I got rid of em, I think I slept or something until the giblets are remived from the game. What I do remember is that they 'spin' really fast. Its like clipping. Just a bug pure and simple. Did you install Baldurdash fixpack. I know its your first and only time playing but this helps correct eveything that is wrong in the game.

 

About the levitating, spinning, giblets of imortal arcane iritation.
I actually posted what they were, and how to get rid of them, but it got edited out as an unsoliceted spoiler.
So say the word and I'll spill the beans.
Otherwise, have fun and don't forget to make lots of saves.

 

Those pyramids are real but are solvable by patching the game. It's just a bug. I used to kill them with area of effect spells like fireball or cloudkill. Those will do damage and kill it rather quickly. Be sure to get out of it's sight and cast at the edge of your sight, this way it cannot target you with spells. Since this is a bug don't worry about cheesiness

 

Oh well, I've left the last one far behind now. Right now we are trying to tackle those pesky mind-flayers. Not sure if we've quite worked out the right tactics yet as we are relying a bit too much on Arya's snares, and a load of summons to distract their attention but it is still taking a long time to deal with them. Those Umber Hulks are a nuisance because we have to deal with their confusion attacks as well as the MindFlayers psionic blast. Plus, if Arya moves in for a backstab she almost always gets nailed in the next round.

Viconia has just reached Level 13 but that didn't seem to bring much in the way of useful Anti Mind Flayer spellpower.

 

ok, i don't want to spoil the fun out of mindflayers but maybe you should check your 4th/5th lvl cleric spells again, harbourboy. there is one extremely useful spell ..............

 

And one summons is practically immune to everything the mindflayers can toss at you, a rather low level but deadly summons which lasts for ages. Heck, both mages and clerics can summon it.

 

If it's what I think it is, it can still get killed by the special attack, although I have no idea why that happens... It's supposed to be a brain drain, so why...

 

I've had the spinning triangles of death and usually a powerful area effect spell gets rid of them.

As for Mindflayers, I use the potion you can create in that area, give it to my Kensai and watch him make mincemeat out of the evil little beasties.

 

Phew, at last we are done with that Mind Flayer lair. One thing that made it frustrating was that Arya had laid traps all over the place. Whenever we managed to control a mindflayer to help open a door he would inevitably run over a forgotten snare, take damage, and turn hostile again. What a pain. Stupid snares.

 

There were other ways to open the doors than to control a mind flayer you know... A being with a strong mind, of divine power...

 

I kept running out of charm spells and those little necklaces you use after freeing those guys in the south east room around this point, it was really frustrating that I had to do all of the "break out" thingy all over again cause I kept messin it up! The only thing I like about this dungeon is I think its the only time you have to start using tactics, most other battles before this are suprisingly easy, unless I've missed somthing...

So what now? Beholders? Drow City? I am lost as to where we are... Did we dive straight into the mindflayers layer?!?

/me hates mindflayers with a passion

 

OK - we've finished the Mind Flayers so we've managed to escape back into that Underdark Cavern. We sold a load of stuff to that gray dwarf merchant then wandered around and around trying to find that Adalon character that the gnomes said we had to find. Finally found her in a part of the map that we'd avoided in the past because Drow warriors kept teleporting there and killing us.

So now we have been disguised as Drow (except Viconia) and are wandering around the Drow city. This is espcially confusing because I am currently reading "Homeland" by R. A. Salvatore which is all about matron mothers and stuff so I'm getting mixed up as to what is happening in that book and what is happening in the game.....

Arya is now Kensai 12 / Thief 16.

 

The book Homeland doesn't really relate to Ust Natha because the book is set in the city of Menzoberranzan. Good book though!

Unless you have Arya initiate every dialog in the city, remember to have your male NPCs act like pitiful worms, and have all your female NPCs act like supreme beings when talking to other drow.

 

What's Ust Natha? Is that where we are? Well, it might not be exactly the same city but it feels like exactly the same place.

In other newbie thoughts, Arya's Celestial Fury is a quality weapon. In the mind flayer zone she got trapped by two brain golems and couldn;t escape. She had no blunt weapons to hand but kept swinging at the golems because Celestial Fury kept stunning the golems which, despite doing no damage, tied them up long enough for Viconia to finish her Umber Hulk and come to the rescue with Flail of Ages.

 

CF is arguably the best weapon in the game. Are just a few weapons which rivals it and it is questionable if any tops it.

 

Of all the weapons available my Kensai is useing Spectral Brand and continues to use CF even though there are more powerful weapons damagewise because of the stunning abililty.

 

Nice battle story with the CF. I still think the Flail is better, and frankly I think Blackrazor gets undervalued on this forum.

When it comes to TOB, Spectral Brand is a keeper, but I've always been partial to Foebane. I think it's the bastard sword thing. But those are items for future posts of the amazing tales of Arya the Bride.

 

Im sure Ive seen far to many topics on best weapon blah blah... the next time I run through Im hoping to dual with FoA in main hand and CF in off, should be interseting...