The Adventurer's Lounge: Guidance and Support for Candlekeep Annex Participants- Newbie or Veteran

[Alesia_BH]

Happily, there is a simple solution to this conundrum: The Endless BG1 Mod, from G3. It lets you do the ToSC content after killing Sarevok, which makes a bit of sense.

It's reasonable for charname to test his or her mettle in Durlag's Tower after Sarevok has been defeated. Doing it before is ludicrous, in my opinion. The mod can be found here:

Endless BG1

Endless BG1 — a modification for BG:EE, BG:SoD, BGT, and EET! For the EE games, the main aim of this mod is to provide the possibility to remain in the BG1 "world" after Sarevok is defeated. Original progressing/ending of the game will be done by talking to Duke Belt inside the Palace. For EET, i...

www.gibberlings3.net

 

[JustKneller]

Happily, there is a simple solution to this conundrum: The Endless BG1 Mod, from G3.

Clearly, there isn't a problem in this series that G3 can't solve.

 

[Trouveur]

Happily, there is a simple solution to this conundrum: The Endless BG1 Mod, from G3. It lets you do the ToSC content after killing Sarevok, which makes a bit of sense.

It's reasonable for charname to test his or her mettle in Durlag's Tower after Sarevok has been defeated. Doing it before is ludicrous, in my opinion. The mod can be found here:

Endless BG1

Endless BG1 — a modification for BG:EE, BG:SoD, BGT, and EET! For the EE games, the main aim of this mod is to provide the possibility to remain in the BG1 "world" after Sarevok is defeated. Original progressing/ending of the game will be done by talking to Duke Belt inside the Palace. For EET, i...

www.gibberlings3.net

Funny because initially when ToSC was released, you indeed could import your final save after Sarevok defeat and play ToSC content.

It always seems to make more sense to me than doing it before confronting Sarevok.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Btw, @JanJansen, I found the perfect meme for you:

Spoiler

 

[Alesia_BH]

Following up on our discussion of Aerie, @OrlonKronsteen. I mentioned that she's my favorite NPC. Upon reflection, that may be because I've elaborated on her personality a bit.

In my view of Aerie the saccharine sweetness you mentioned is a cover for a hidden well of rage. She was on the sweet side in her younger days, before the circus. Now it's mostly an act. She's trying to keep up appearances by being the girl she remembers being. She's something very different now, though. The complaints you mentioned are manifestations of her underlying anger, as is her choice of an adventure's life. The rest of the party thinks she's as sweet and naive as she appears, but the PC is never sure who or what she really is.

I've also given her a geeky fascination with creepy things. She likes spiders in particular. She thinks they're strangely beautiful and misunderstood. She identifies with them. She also takes inspiration from them, because they are exquisite despite being thoroughly tied to the ground- not just two feet, but eight. She only shares that side of herself with people she's close to. As of SoA Chapter 2/3 Quayle is the only one who knows about it, and he only learned through observation. They've never talked about it. The PC doesn't learn about it until late SoA, as the confrontation with Irenicus approaches. The rest of the party never knows, with the exception of Imoen.

She always gets Kitthix in my games. She justifies it on practical grounds, since she's the only one who can cast both Web and Free Action, but he's secretly a pet and a friend.

With those adjustments I thinks she's a pretty cool character.

I like this picture of her by Coutelier because her expression makes her seems ever, so slightly unknowable and dangerous, at least to my eyes.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

@Alesia_BH Very cool! It’s great what the imagination can do, isn’t it?

I used to play evil, mostly. But the quest dialogues are mostly written from a ‘goodie’ perspective. I compensated by imagining those lines drenched in sarcasm.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Does anyone know what the deal is with the Legends of Baldur’s Gate comic series? They used to be available for free with an Amazon Comixology subscription. Now they’re not. Amazon only has one edition of the paper version now and the pricing is insane, $72 in acceptable condition. Have they become collectors items, or is that just a rip off?

I had wanted to read them for writing inspiration, but that’s looking like a no go now. Has anyone read them? Are they worth finding? I mentioned them before when they were on Comixology, as some of you may recall , but I never got around to reading them

EDIT: Judging from eBay most of them aren't pricey, but some of them have become collectors items:

Spoiler

 

[Antimatter]

I managed to find this: https://outintheblack.wordpress.com...ns-and-dragons-legends-of-baldurs-gate-01.pdf

As for where to buy (the online version), try https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/8341909/dungeons-dragons-legends-of-baldurs-gate-2 or

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Comics - D comics - Comic Books | Reed Comics

www.reedcomics.com

I think they are fun. A bit like a link between the original games and BG3.

 

[m7600]

Haer'Dalis is the best NPC, my ravens/hounds/sparrows/etc.

Team Sigil for the win!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Haer'Dalis is the best NPC, my ravens/hounds/sparrows/etc.

Haer'Dalis is cool. I agree.

Unique. Coherent. Relatively complex. He's definitely one of the best.

I like Aerie, Nalia, Imoen, Mazzy, Haer'Dalis, Viconia and Valygar, more or less in that order.

If I were to do a tier list based on preference, not power it would go:

S: Aerie, Nalia, Imoen
A: Mazzy, Haer'Dalis, Viconia, Valygar
B: Sarevok, Jaheira, Yoshimo, Cernd, Jan, Minsc
C: Edwin, Korgan, Keldorn
F-: Anomen

 

[m7600]

Unique. Coherent. Relatively complex.

To be fair though, in Sigil he would be a relatively common schmuck. Hive-trash, to be more precise. That being said, in the Prime Material Plane, I'll of course stand up for a fellow Sigilian, trashy as he may be : P

I like Aerie, Nalia, Imoen, Mazzy, Haer'Dalis, Viconia and Valygar, more or less in that order

All great NPCs.

I always thought that Valygar should be a Wizard Slayer. That class sucks but it would have been more fitting from a roleplaying perspective, given his story.

 

[Alesia_BH]

I always thought that Valygar should be a Wizard Slayer. That class sucks but it would have been more fitting from a roleplaying perspective, given his story.

Makes sense. As a practical matter I think they made the right call. The wizard slayer kit is too niche for an NPC

That's one of many builds that I haven't really explored. Since I've played no reload style almost exclusively for most of my career I haven't really finished the game with that many characters.

Sorcerer, Bounty Hunter, Archer, Transmuter, Avenger, Priest of Talos->Mage, Jester, F/M, M/T, Barbarian, Beastmaster, Kensai, Priest of Talos

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

@Alesia_BH re: Look the Sane - thanks for that tip. I didn't even know you COULD talk your way out of that!?!? But, to be fair to me, I've only been playing for about 24 years.

Amazing to be still learning about the game today.

 

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia_BH re: Look the Sane - thanks for that tip. I didn't even know you COULD talk your way out of that!?!?

Lol. When you said he was "incredibly tough this install" I was all:

I figured you'd been fighting him all along.

But speaking of learning things, I had never noticed the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference there and I love both BG and Douglas Adams. Thanks for that!

 

[Enuhal]

Yeah, Lonk is a bit of a tough hurdle to overcome - every single time I've decided to fight him I've regretted it, nowadays I usually just bribe him with 2k gold. He opens with remove magic even in the vanilla game (something that is actually rare in unmodded gameplay and mostly reserved for dragons - who always open with it - and some, but not all high level spellcasters) and has a decent chance to completely ruin the prebuffs for the first Jon battle (obviously he's even worse with SCS). I usually take all the fights and the experience I can get, but this one I will happily skip every time.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Well, there you have it. I reloaded the save, discovered the dialogue to prevent a fight with Lonk, and then mopped the floor with Irenicus. What a difference it makes to show up there with your buffs still intact. Thanks for the education. My no reload run may be over, but I'm going to try to keep going in the interest of finally learning late game, BG2 SCS.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Makes sense! Sometime you just need to play the game to the end to see what you can see. Feel free to share your observations here

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Thanks, Alesia_BH! As strange as it sounds, I’ve only ever finished BG2 about 3 or 4 times. The last time was about 10 years ago, IIRC. And that was unmodded. So I really don’t know the game that well. Restartitus is a real killer. Rarely do I get past Chapter 2. The farthest I ever got on an SCS no reload run was the Shark City, and that was a miracle. That’s why it’s fun to live vicariously through you veterans.

 

[Alesia_BH]

That’s why it’s fun to live vicariously through you veterans.

WeIl, if you're playing in a v35 install this veteran would appreciate some choice intel on what's to come. We've established a back channel for that purpose. This is your contact. He can move between installs with ease, so anything you report to him will make it back to Alena.

Spoiler

He'll be waiting here, in this thread, anticipating your reports.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Can someone please make a Weidu launcher for him? Or will he work if you just drop him in your override folder?

On a more serious note, I'm still using 34, alas. But it does sound like 35 is almost ready for prime time, so after this run I'll probably do a big reinstall (with some other mods, too).