New Playthrough

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I'm starting up a new playthrough, and I thought I'd post, with a couple of questions, and also to straighten my thoughts a bit.

First off, this is a playthrough of (almost) vanilla BGII + ToB. Only thing I have installed is a few Ease-of-Use components (mostly the convenience ones, like item stacking, but not the stronghold one or the unhappy party members one) and parts of the G3 fixpack. I decided to go vanilla since I've played almost every decent mod out there, and wanted a return to the original.

My first question for those of you who choose to respond is this - should I install Ascension, or not? I've been waffling back and forth - my current instinct is to say no, and then if I actually make it all the way through this playthrough and start another game, I'll install it then.

My second question is in regards to Ease-of-Use. Ever since my first playthrough of BGII, I've always had the component allowing you to use both magical rings and armor, as per PnP. Since BGII isn't exactly PnP all the way through, though, I want your opinion. Do you think this significantly impacts the gameplay in an unbalancing way? I can hardly remember what its like to not have this installed. Right now I installed it, but I'm thinking I might uninstall it. Would this render rings all but useless in the late game though (since magical armor is highly prevalent)?

My third question (more on the lines of musing, really) is in regards to character class. I've decided to play something physical, since I'm almost always a mage, and I'm trying to decide between a Berserker, a Barbarian, and a vanilla Ranger (possibly dual-wielding). I also considered Berserker dualled to Cleric and Fighter/Cleric, but I figured I'd save those for a possible later run through. Since difficulty shouldn't be high, cheese power is not a high factor.

Last bit is as to NPCs. I'm planning on being Chaotic Good (since this is the most natural alignment for a BGII protagonist, to my mind, other than maybe Chaotic Evil murder-pwn-lord-of-doom). I'm thinking of using NPC's I haven't much before, and wanted opinions, though this part is more putting my thoughts down on paper. I'm tentatively favoring, at the moment, Minsc (I use him almost every playthrough, I just love him) Jaheira (romance) as my kind of core theme, and then supplemented with any of these:

Imoen (usually don't like her cuz I don't like rushing to Spellhold to get her)
Yoshimo (usually don't use him for spoiler reasons, but if I used Imoen, I might)
Haer'Dalis (think his character is nifty, but usually he sucks too much to use. In vanilla BGII though, shouldn't be a problem. Leaning towards him).
Valgyar (His personality kind of bores me, but he would kind of fit the vague natury theme)
Cernd (Pretty much as Valgyar, only I don't want another druid that much at all)
Nalia (I haven't used her in a very long time, her whiny-ass personality might fit the group, sort of, and she's a mage. Prolly either Imoen or her, though. Maybe drop her for Imoen? Depends on how the playthrough goes)
Anomen (Haven't used him in forever, might be interesting, he's kind of abrasive, him and Jaheira together might grate amusingly lol)

Not using Jan, Korgan, Edwin, or Viconia because I've used them too much. Keldorn, Mazzy, and Aerie I'm saving for if I do a goody-two-shoes Paladin/Monk run. Anyone else I forgot?

Don't feel obligated to respond, but if you feel like wasting time with me, go for it Maybe I'll provide posts on how it goes if I feel like indulging my roleplaying element a bit.

 

I played Ascension once, and while I like what it tries to do to the game, keep in mind that it makes the final battle in ToB very, very difficult. I didn't have much trouble with the vanilla fight, but I never managed to win the Ascension one (at least not without cheating).

The mod that allows magical rings with armour doesn't work in the same way as P&P. In P&P, the AC bonuses from the ring and the armour do not stack (only the highest counts) but you still get the saving throw bonuses from the ring. In BG2 the AC bonuses do the stack, and considering how important AC is (especially in SoA - by ToB you get hit frequently even if you have the best AC allowed by the engine) that's a big exploit. It's up to you though, depending on whether you feel too cheated by the loss of save bonus or you feel like a cheater with the AC bonus.

I was going to suggest a Ranger/Cleric, as it's a very fun build to use. Your NPC selection also means the only cleric you can take is Anomen, and I wouldn't recommend this unless you're a masochist at heart. With a R/C you can then take Haer'Dalis and Valygar, and maybe Nalia if you can put up with her until you get Imoen back. The problem with this party, however, is that you will have no thieving skills to speak of until you rescue Imoen (Nalia is by far the worst thief in the game). But if you take Yoshimo as the interim thief then you have no arcane magic to speak of until Spellhold, and I consider arcane magic to be essential (unless you rush chapter 2 and rescue Imoen ASAP).

The alternative, of course, would be to do a mage dual or multiclass. You could multiclass a plan fighter/mage, but dual-classing a Beserker/Mage or a Kensai/Mage is much more interesting. But if you really don't want any arcane magic in your PC, then you just have to hope that HD does a good enough job by himself.

 

Hm. Thanks for the response. As to Ease-of-Use I think I'll actually keep it, but voluntarily impose no rings/amulets with AC bonuses, at least till ToB, when I might add them in, reasoning that AC matters in SoA but is far less crucial in TOB. Or perhaps I'll constrain myself to only allowing protective jewelry in situations where it doesn't boost my AC above what it would be with the best possible non-magical armor plus a ring (i.e., weaker magical armor plus rings). It just seems kind of silly to think of level 15 or 16 characters running around in plain chain mail so they can wear their ring of protection +1. I've decided no Ascension too. As for the character classes and NPC, I'm still thinking those over. I'll prolly decide right now. The reason I'm going no mage and leaning against cleric is I was planning on having a magic light run, since I usually am very mage heavy, but I had forgotten that HD is a caster, too (since I usually just throw him out as bait, lol). But maybe I could go Ranger/Cleric, I've heard they're great but never played one so never really understood what the fuss is about. Might be fun to experiment with it (only done one cleric run through BGII before). In any event, the only NPC I've decided to definitely include is HD. That leaves me two spots to play with - leaning against Yoshi, so that means probably Nalia -> Imoen (or keep Nalia if I *gag* actually like her this playthrough ("FOR THE NEEDY!")). Last spot, if I go cleric/ranger than def Valgyar, if I go Barbarian, I think I might go Anomen, and if I hate him, go Valgyar.

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Well, I made two characters, a Ranger/Cleric and a Barbarian, and the Barbarian just appealed to me much more, both in terms of roleplay and gameplay, so that's what I'll be going with. I'm worried my inclusion of the n00bish Nalia into my hard-bitten party of tough guys doesn't make much sense, so I'm skipping her - we'll see how well I do with HD as my only mage till Imoen - better pick him up fast lol. Until I rescue her I'm going to take Anomen and Valgyar, and drop whichever one I hate more once I rescue her.

 

Why keep Haer'Dalis? If it was a choice between him and Nalia I'd readily take her.

You may want to consider cleric or druid, but not both in 1 party. They both serve party healers and the cleric only really matters when dealing with undead, (yes this gets more complicated w. no cleric but it is doable). Though I'll admit you'll miss the banter if it means that much to you.

 

Yeah I know I could def do no cleric with Jaheira, even as a multi-class druid. The reason for no Nalia is less a gameplay decision and more a roleplay decision - I don't feel she fits in with the attitude of the group, which cares less about proper conduct and rules than Nalia does, even with all her charity. My party would be frustrated with trying to bring I. Roenall to justice, for example - they'd probably do something more martial, and potentially more stupid lol. They're also a more rough and tumble group; she's a little soft. HD fits I think because he's all about action, even if he doesn't much care where or how, and Anomen I think fits because even though he's all Lawful he's very actions oriented, and IIRC he often quibbles with even the lawful organizations (I think he has a banter with Keldorn to that effect). Admittedly, I'm toying with the idea of taking him Chaotic Neutral. Also, I have to admit Valgyar very much fits this team, I just...don't really like him that much lol. I think he's pretty shallow. But he does belong.

 

Well, in the spirit of resurrecting that original game flavor, I've played all the way through Irenicus' Dungeon for the first time in forever. I'd forgotten how good certain aspects of it are, and how terrible others are lol. The atmosphere is really well done - creepy people in tanks, clones, OCD trapped rooms, and it felt nice to play through it again. Of course, the hordes of annoying and random goblins were also fun, and the stupid backtracking (why do the dryads have the djinni flask? Who knows? Good thing you have to hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies to get it - what's that you say? All you have to do is ask them? Oh...) I have to admit, being careless and almost dying to mephits in the Air Elemental pocket plane thing was kind of hilarious. All in all, a lot of nostalgic fun so far.

 

Barbarian is a great choice and given the different armor available in the game, you really don't have a down side (except no grand mastery -- which is hosed anyway).

I ran a 'freaks-of-nature' campaign once and it was a lot of fun:

Protagonist -- Barbarian
Minsc
Jaheira
Cernd
Valygar
Fifth slot remained open to add other characters for their quests but was finally filled with Imoen (I took Yoshimo to Spellhold -- I love that plot point).​

I was really amazed at how powerful Cernd was. I mean *holy crap* kind of power when he gets the greater werewolf. He is absolutely ridiculous with the Shapeshifter Rebalancing Mod. I think that was the ultimate tanking group while maintaining reasonable alignment compatibilities (just make sure your barbarian can use maces).

 

I'd use Cernd, but I just finished a playthrough as a solo evil (in theory) druid shapeshifter, who was an absolute (pardon the pun) beast. So I've had my fill of the class for now. But maybe if Anomen proves a poor fit for the party, or just pisses me off. I don't know, for whatever self-hating reason, I'm jonesing for some Nalia and Anomen.

 

I did a Barbarian playthrough once and they're an absolute beast. Lots of fun if you want a standard basher. Some of the best armours in SoA are leather anyway (the dragon armours are pretty good until well into the game) and as T2 has mentioned the masteries are nerfed to death in BG2 anyway, so you get very few disadvantages compared to the fighter and some very nice perks (more hit points and the rage ability, which is loads of fun).