David I am with you a lot 90 percent. But gosh I deal with endless grey all day… sometimes a little kickbutt on Sauron’s minions is what I need. That said I don’t particularly like the acronym “SJW” as it implies a negative to what a sane person would think are people that are just trying to secure people’s rights.
So I guess I am torn. Bottom line is I am with you but I also agree with AP usually on RPGs. I am not torn politically … but … maybe a bit in rpgs. Btw did you all notice? Huge patches for all three RPG releases last year --on the SAME day.
Bards Tale :) @KristiGaines Agree about the real world being grey. I dearly hated the time part of my job was to evaluate if cutting headcount was feasible in my sector. On one hand… job security and protecting my lively hood and my daughter’s quality of life… on the other it felt wrong to potentially throw people I respected, knew, and liked under the bus
Most rpgs don’t explore choices like that, thank goodness!
D2 thank goodness they don’t. Sometimes I get a quest in a RPG that reminds me what I do and I am not sure I like it. Then sometimes we get an RPG that does grey and good/evil pretty sophisticated – Knights of the Old republic maybe (the first one – KoTOR 2 was solid grey).
Alek yeah Bards tale got a huge patch today as well.
BG2 still has the best evil enemies imo. They are evil because they can be, often in part because they are really strong (And oh boy does the game do a wonderful job of portraying that power, better than any rpg out there imo), or they simply do not care about others while they are on their quest, which is more often than not a way to become even more powerful. They remind me of Sith, in a way. The best part of course is that these evil doers have realistic motivations, so it’s best of both worlds.
Like @Brad_Grenz mentioned, grey morality does get pretty tiring after a while, especially once it became a cool thing to include in rpgs. And so few developers get it right, most of the time you end up with two not very likeable sides which turns it into a game of choosing the lesser evil, or siding with whoever has the better rewards.
Holy crap this game is making it hard for me to roleplay LG. CG choices are what I’d have picked irl. Very interesting, I never felt like this in BG2 or any of the other popular isometric rpgs, the choice was always more clear cut in those.
Sorry for the reply spam, but I have two more questions. First, should I develop the villages I create in annexed regions? Seems like BPs are in rather short supply, even if I buy them whenever I scrounge up enough gold.
And second, should I even bother with companion quests for people that I never take with me on adventures? I hate switching up party members in rpgs more than anything and the thought of having to carry unleveled, unequipped and otherwise gimped party members with me to a distant place just so they can say a few lines is not my idea of fun.
There are at least some things you should consider building. Teleport circles will allow your party to teleport between settlements and save you a lot of time (both real time and in-game time). An aviary lets you manage the kingdom from neighbouring regions even if you don’t control them. Artisans need to have their workshop constructed before they start making you stuff. Some of these buildings are not unlocked initially.
As for companion quests - I did all of them simply for the xp and loot. Some of them are also quite fun. I think you run the risk of losing at least some of the companions if you don’t do their quests. This could be annoying if you use them as advisors.
Thank you. If you perhaps remember, does any of their quests besides Amiri involve a lot of combat? I noticed that some can apparently be solved without their presence, for example troll that Ekundayo wanted to kill. Basically I’m asking if I need to start hoarding gear on the off chance that one of the people I never use will have to see combat. Because at least at this level (7) it feels like you can’t really have dead weight in your team.
Wow, this is going to test my memory…
Quite a bit of combat: Amiri, Octavia / Regongar, Harrim, Tristian, Jaethal, Kalikke/Kanerah
Eventually some combat (later quests): Valerie, Ekundayo
Hardly any combat: Jubilost, Nok-Nok, Linzi
I did, they have XP that matches mine I just haven’t levelled them up because I’m not familiar with Pathfinder and didn’t feel like reading 6 build guides for npcs that I don’t plan on using. And they all habe starting equipment, but that shouldn’t be a problem for much longer because I seem to get magical belts and other stuff from every second crate.
Honestly not a fan of all this needless busy work, but at least the game is ace when you’re out adventuring.
I’m well pleased at the updates/changes to the game since I had to abandon it last year, and am eager to jump into a new play through here in a bit, I think.
Same, I just hit chapter 5 on my replay and the game is a LOT more stable so far, only one bug selecting a spell for a character and not writing to spellbook. Not octavia this time thankfully! Last go magic missle wasn’t selectable, and she is a decent powerhouse!
I don’t think it’s necessary to spend that much time to get a NPC build that works reasonably well. Here’s how I’ve done it:
Class: Keep leveling the class the NPC started with.
Skills: Max out perception + whatever seems reasonably thematic for the class (e.g. Lore: Religion for a cleric, Stealth for a rogue). My core 5 characters have every skill covered, but perception is great in that it makes perfect sense to have it on more than one character.
Feats: Weapon focus is almost universally good. Power attack + outflank for melee characters, point-blank short + precise shot for ranged. Improved critical + critical focus are pretty universal as well.
This won’t give a perfect character, but good enough to be brought along with 5 more carefully made characters imo.
How do you decide on a weapon focus if you don’t have a magic crystal ball by your side? I don’t want to commit to a weapon class in case I find some ass kicking uniques from another class further down the line.
It’s not necessary. These games tend to not have a great selection of all weapon types. If you are a plain fighter, the pathfinder system helps quite a bit. The developers have stated there are late-game weapons of every type.
Up until this last patch you may or may not have gotten a particular masterpiece.
Weapons that are fairly represented well throughout the game are: longsword, greataxe, dueling sword, scimitar, mace, bastard sword, longbow, kurki
Depending on if the artisans work properly now there may be others that don’t have big gaps waiting for an upgraded weapon.
