BG2 Kits

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I've been reading The Complete Book of ... and most of the kits in the game don't even match up close to the kits in 2e. Most of the kits in this game are way over powered. Maybe that is why I stopped playing BG2 when it first came out (at that point I was still playing PNP AD&D 2E).

Well any way I looked into the Druid Shapeshifter kit to see what it stated vs. the Shapeshifter kit in BG2. Big difference in the two kits. First off, you can shapeshift at first level into 1/2 HD of your current level for any normal shape you can shift into based upon your druid branch. Meaning at level one you could shift into any monster/creature that has 1/2 hit dice that matches the creature for your druidic branch. At level 7 you can change part of your body to any creature you can into. For instance you can change your hand into a snake head and attack someone with that bit. Cool, but not as cool as being a Werewolf in BG2 with all the immunities.

Another kit I thought that was out of balance is the swashbuckler kit. First off this Thief kit can become a master in one weapon. He has to spend 1/2 of his weapon prof. on this weapon. He gain a special disarm ability when you using this weapon. Not the bonuses applied applied by the BG2 engine. +1 attack every 5 levels.

As for being a specialist mage, you get ripped in BG2. You loose out on your level 17 & 20 special abilities. To bad that couldn't implement that correctly because than many of us would enjoy playing specialist mages a bit. Of couse you only get the extra spell though from your school of specialization and a -15% to learn spells from any school other than the school you are specialized in. As for being a conjurer you do get first to fourth level divination spells. Something that forgot to implement in BG2. It would be nice to be able to cast Identify, etc...

After picking up my friends books and reading through them, it makes me want to start up a new game in 2E. The only problem I have is that I don't have any to get together with and play. Oh well.


One thing I do wish they would of done in BG2 is allow 1/2 Elfs to multi-class as Druid/Mages.

Does anyone else find the kits in BG2 unbalanced compared to the The Complete Book of kits?

 

Oh yes. But I doubt that comes as a surprise. To repeat what is becoming something of a catch phrase for me of late, BG2 has a lot to answer for.

 

I've not played 2e PnP, so I can't compare the kits.

Just keep in mind, computer games based on PnP games won't be implementing most of what you know or have played with a DM/GM.

 

Just like reading Tolkien's LOTR and finding fault with Peter Jackson's LOTR... movies can't duplicate books, so does PC games. Still, it doesn't mean that we can't enjoy them.

 

If bioware wouldhave made BG a copy of the DD rules I think it might have been a little less good so to speak. It would only be open to DD fans (many of us are) but sales would not be good.

Sales>everything (ooh! news)

But some things are quite irritating for example that a assasin can be neutral good (in ADD it can only be evil or chaotic neutral).

 

Except that Bioware was not responsible for the game itself, but for the interface and engine. BIS was part of Interplay not Bioware.
Bg2 is not exactly 2E. When the game was first announced they claimed that it is going to be based on 3E. And indeed it does have classes from 3E (monk, barbarian, sorcerer) and a would be feats system (HLA's), but looks like it was a 3E adapted so that you could import your character from BG1.
IWD and BG2 are games that prove how you can go in different directions with the same rules. While BG2 focused more on varriants of the classes (kits), IWD with its expansion focused on improving the existing classes.

 

Actually Bioware did develop quite big parts of the game and one of them was the classes.

 

Not quite. The alignment restrictions on the Assassin kit are only "not good". Because while their actions may not be morally good, they could serve a greater good, or at the very least not be because the Assassin just loves to kill people. Note that this is easily fixed in my PnP fixes mod (kudos to Bioware for making such an easily modded game).

There is a Barbarian kit and even class in 2e, as well as a monk kit (Fighting-Monk), though the monk is quite a bit closer to the 3e version. Sorcerer is the only definitively 3e class in the game (the reason why I don't like it being there). As for the HLAs, they are detailed in the 2e High-Level Campaigns supplement. Of course, most of the stuff in the game doesn't match what's in the book, and while I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find some of the stuff in 3e books, they can all be seen as "improvements" on an existing 2e HLA.

I wouldn't really call it a 3e game designed for import, but a 2e game designed to be as close to 3e as possible. (Semantics, I know.) The end result is the same (about 50-50), but the base is clearly 2e. If it weren't, importing would be impossible.