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i haven't picked up DoS2 in years. Did they ever change anything about how the xp system worked? I remember having to do literally everything at the beginning of the game just to be close to the monster levels. I know endgame gets busted, but the early game killed all enjoyment of the game for me. I never got past the 2nd area because of it.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah
i haven't picked up DoS2 in years. Did they ever change anything about how the xp system worked? I remember having to do literally everything at the beginning of the game just to be close to the monster levels. I know endgame gets busted, but the early game killed all enjoyment of the game for me. I never got past the 2nd area because of it.
It was like that the last time I played. One could get ahead of XP curve by the end of chapter 2 but first couple tenths of hours require a very completionists attitude.

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Oh no! I'm really feeling it. Not even off Fort Joy and the item management is getting too much, just like BG3 by the time you get to the Underdark.

Less is more! LESS IS MORE!

I'm losing hope for BG3. DOS 2 was hailed as awesome, so I thought I'd feel better about BG3. Instead, I'm losing hope.

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I would usually reach endgame with like half a screen worth of crafting materials and potions. After thinking on it, my advice is: Don't hoard them. Use them. I never really did and now I recognize the game would probably be a lot easier for the majority of people if you dispose of hoarder mentality.

It's worth noting you can combine smaller potions to make stronger ones. But like runes, after a while you need certain flowers called Augmentors to craft the strongest ones.

There's a lot of random useful stuff you can craft. Like...

Any bladed weapon + teeth = Shocking arrowhead (you retain the bladed weapon afterwards)
Any bladed weapon + antler = Knockdown arrowhead
Arrowhead + Jar of Honey = Charm Arrow (you also get an empty honey jar out of this, which can be refilled at certain beehives, this is super abusable early into act 2 especially when you consider charm arrows sell for a fortune)
Arrowhead + any source of oil = Slowing Arrowhead (they do slightly higher than normal physical damage. If the source of oil is an oil barrel, said barrel is resuable)
Arrowhead + any source of water = Water Arrowhead (If the source of water is a water barrel, said barrel is reusable)
Arrowhead + poison barrel = Poison Arrowhead
Shocking Arrowhead + any source of water = Static Cloud Arrowhead

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 05/08/22 02:07 AM.
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Originally Posted by GM4Him
Oh no! I'm really feeling it. Not even off Fort Joy and the item management is getting too much, just like BG3 by the time you get to the Underdark.

Less is more! LESS IS MORE!

I'm losing hope for BG3. DOS 2 was hailed as awesome, so I thought I'd feel better about BG3. Instead, I'm losing hope.

Oh no, DOS 2 will be much, MUCH worse than BG3 when it comes inventory management.

You'll deal with ten times the amount of loot... And you'll basically required to refresh it constantly, as well (as in: most items tend to be more or less obsolete two levels above when you find them).

My suggestion is to NOT get too attached to random shit.
Sell things often, keep only the absolute best.

Last edited by Tuco; 04/08/22 10:34 PM.

Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
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Yeah. Especially on Story Mode, my goodness, I never need potions, food, NOTHING. It's bad. Story Mode means you literally breeze through. But man! I really don't want to start over again. Ugh.

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There's A LOT of random ass crafting materials all over the place in DOS2, and I don't expect BG3 to go anywhere close to touching DOS2's special brand of inventory fuckery for that reason alone. It looks like BG3 is actually distancing itself from any kind of elaborate crafting system now, though you can tell that they were considering it at first with all the random herbs you could occasionally find (that weren't highlighted when holding onto the highlight button).

DOS2 had such an elaborate crafting system to the point where you could craft scrolls into blank spellbooks to learn a spell, and you could craft random ass ingredients and essences into scrolls. This usually wasn't very worth it though, outside of one fringe case I can think of where I believe you could learn the Tornado spell (which clears out ALL surfaces, -including cursed fire and deathfog-) or Superconductor like 3-4 levels earlier than when they first start appearing in shops, because certain NPCs carried the specific crafting materials needed to forge a skillbook for those spells. But you wouldn't know this from normal gameplay at all.

But yeah, you realistically never had any use for like 90% of the recipes in that game.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 05/08/22 02:17 AM.
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It's seriously too much. It is bringing back memories of various BG3 playthroughs once I got to the Underdark. I remember feeling so over-itemized that I stopped looking for items. Even when I did my party of 6 playthrough, every character had top gear by the Underdark and I felt like what was the point of finding new stuff? I had plenty already of everything I needed, and item management was starting to become the game for me. I was frankly sick of all the crap and I just didn't want anymore. I remember even dropping items instead of selling them because I had plenty of money and didn't need anymore.

That's how I'm feeling in DOS 2 right now. Haven't even left Joy and I feel like I'm maxed out.

I really do not want to start over, so I'll probably start ignoring items until things start to get even remotely hard. I don't know. This is starting to be no fun, but starting over on classic again doesn't appeal either.

Man! I'm getting worried about BG3. It's either going to be booty easy or hard as nails.

Last edited by GM4Him; 05/08/22 02:45 AM.
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You can't ignore items in the game. Because of the system, you need to change items every level.

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Not exactly “every level, but yeah, the way the system is purposely tuned means that your best “Unique” item at level 10 will probably be outclassed by an average “Common” by level 12.
Save for a handful of Unique it’s also worth stressing that every other find is randomly generated and randomly placed, so you can’t make some mental map of your ideal setup but make work for you whatever you’ll find.

In fact having Lucky charm maxed means you’ll constantly trip over “Epic” items opening random containers.
On top of that, merchants’ inventories are refreshed every time you level up or after a certain amount of time.

I said this in the past: I’m not a fan of this type of frantic hunt for better items even in single-character hack’n’slash like Diablo, but whoever decided this system would be a good fit for a party-based game where you have to “refresh” the equipment of a lot of characters was horribly misguided.

Then there’s the very questionable mismatch between a game with a finite number of non-repeatable encounters and items being unreliability random.


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So... Status update?

I keep forgetting that it is worth noting that the magic schools don't actually scale off of weapon damage (or well, the vast majority of them don't to my knowledge), and scale entirely off of your Intelligence score + elemental modifiers from levels in each magic school and so on. Since you won't really be regular attacking with your mages late-game, it is best to hold onto wands and staves for their stat bonuses and pay no mind to their base attack values. Basically stat sticks.

This also means that you don't have much of a need to keep upgrading wands and staves as much, until you find one with better secondary bonuses (like higher critical hit rate and intelligence bonuses, or access to certain skills that you normally can't use without drastically altering your current build otherwise). Critical modifiers are especially valuable, even moreso after you consider that the definitive edition slashed critical hit rate bonuses in half from the base version.

Stuff like this is also why (IMO) full mage runs are far easier than full physical runs in this game. Sure, you're generally squishier against physical attacks, but when you play this game at a super high level of tactical knowledge, you begin to realize that your positioning is your primary defense in this game to begin with. Not to mention most attacks that can hit you from range target your magic armor to begin with.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/08/22 07:54 PM.
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Eh. Dos2 really is all about CC + Teleport skill on each character. This way you don't have to move during fights. Like at all. Or if you have to you can do so for 1 point. Kinda annoying. I had a blast discovering it though during my first playthrought. Once you know how it works it becomes easy. Way too easy.

G4M you asked if there's an in-between ? Well..there isn't. That's the main issue I think. It's still a good RPG though.


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What's going on with the run? Guess he didn't make it.

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From "Fear" thread:
Originally Posted by GM4Him
And I'm playing DOS 2 right now as well. I'm not feeling the love and thus not super excited anymore to finish either. Back to Pathfinder Kingmaker and WotR maybe. And maybe I'll play more of the Solasta DLC Lost Valley.

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Damn, didn't even make it to Act 2 there

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I don't think one can properly judge the game until partways through Act 2. Or at the end of Act 2. A lot of things are there that are not on Reaper's Eye, feature speaking. Also, wondering what GM's party is.


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I'll keep playing it. I think I just needed a break especially after the negativity I've been reading on the forum here about both BG3 and DOS games. It's hard sometimes to feel very motivated to play a game people bash to pieces so much.

I'm playing a Rogue named Brin - so Custom Character. I couldn't help it. I REALLY like custom characters, and there was no one that I thought, "I really want to play that person's story." I figured that I'd play as a Custom and then if there are any Origin Characters I really like I'd go back and play as that person to get the full impact of their story. That's kinda my plan for BG3 too.

Yeah... maybe that's backwards as you can't really BE that person on a second playthrough, but whatever. Honestly, I've been a DM for so long, and I have developed stories/characters on the fly so many times that I've gotten pretty good at putting myself in just about any character's shoes to act as I think that character would act - as if I don't know what's coming in the story. So, it probably won't change my future gameplay much.

My party is Lohse, Ifan and Beast. So far, they are the only characters I even remotely like, and the jury's not in yet on any of them. Lohse is my favorite, though, but her being possessed by some crazy evil spirit thing - whatever it is - has me a bit hesitant to want to get too close to her too. I'm thinking she might knife me in my sleep. Ifan too. He's some crazy Lone Wolf guy who's hunting what now? Oh yeah... ME! And Beast... I don't know enough about him other than he's a pirate. So...

I can't help but think of the song "Professional Pirate" from Muppet Treasure Island when it comes to Beast. "Some say that pirates steal, and should be feared and hated. I say we're victims of bad press, it's all exaggerated. We'd never stab you in the back [pirate gets stabbed in the back with a knife right in front of him]. We'd never lie or cheat. We're just about the nicest guys ya'd ever want to meet." Smiley winky face!

So Lohse's my second in command, basically. I buff my main first and Lohse second. Then Beast and lastly Ifan. Beast is my physical fighter/tank and Lohse is my magic DPS. Ifan is my ranged huntsman support person.

I'm almost done with Fort Joy, I think. About to face Alexander. Game's glitched a few times in weird ways. For example: some seer lady in the Seeker camp was dead for no reason, so I couldn't ever talk to her even though it gave me the quest to do so and people told me to. She's laying dead right in front of them, and they're like, "Talk to her."

The item management is what's getting me the most right now. I feel like all I ever do is pick things up and sort them and try to figure out what's good and what's not. I've given up on crafting altogether because I don't need to, so I have a lot of crafting items that I don't really need and I'm thinking if I just sell them it'll make me happier. Too much inventory clutter. Gives me no hope for BG3's item management at all. I had the same issue with BG3 when I got to the Underdark. Suddenly, I started not caring about picking up anything, even magic items. I already had everything I needed and often vendors sold things that were better than anything I picked up. So why bother?

You just got Phalar Aluve. It's a super special magic sword that they made a big deal about. Checks inventory. "Um. I already have weapons that are way better. Guess I'll sell it." Wha wha!

I'm experiencing the same thing in DOS 2. Picks up new gloves from a secret chest. Armor is only slightly better than what I have and the gloves I have allow me to teleport people. Sigh. Add it to the pile to sell.

Speaking of teleport, though, I DO love that spell. I also love the levitating items to wherever I want. Then I got to thinking. "Why the heck didn't they implement Mage Hand just like the whole levitating items thing in DOS 2? From a distance you can levitate items to spots you want them to go to with a glowing hand animation or you can use it to open doors, pull levers, etc. Then, if you're an Arcane Trickster, there is no animation, but the mechanics are the same - adding picking locks and picking pockets to the possible options of what you can do with it. Why'd they come up with a weird hand minion who can fight instead?"

Anyway. I liked the silver dragon, but I hated the witch part associated with it. She was nasty, and what I didn't like was that I wasn't given very good dialogue options. Also, none of my companions came to my rescue to stop her from kissing me and spewing insects or whatever into me. So, I didn't have a choice but to be weirdly and creepily messed with, and no one thought to come to my aid. I did NOT Like that scene at all. I was pretty mad that I didn't even have the option to just plain attack her (unless, of course, I triggered the attack without talking to her at all).

I DID like the choices, though, like whether I should put the crucified out of their misery or leave them to see if I could save them for later. I put them out of their misery. Then I found out a way I could have potentially saved them. Nice. That's the kind of stuff I like. You sit there and wonder, "Am I making the right choice? Should I do this? Should I not?" I don't like when choices are obvious. That's kinda my biggest critique of Solasta. VERY obvious choices, if you even have any.

Finally, I found some crazy door, and all I could think of was Necromancer's Lair in BG3. Really? Way too similar. This is part of what's making me so worried now about BG3. How many OBVIOUS things are they going to just copy/paste from DOS 2? Astarion/Sebille, Escaping being a prisoner on a ship in the prologue, animals that are all rude and sassy, surfaces, party of 4, no day/night, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, that's my update.

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Those three party members are honestly probably the most stable throughout. Beast is generally considered the most forgettable though, but it’s likely a symptom of him not really having anything crazy going on compared to the rest of the party. Loshe is great throughout, and actually the only party member you can later ask for her opinion on various important NPCs you’ve met.

Fane is very obviously the writer’s pet, you miss out on a lot of background lore without him. Though he was written by Avellone (just without the typical angst his characters usually have), which shows.

I think Avellone also wrote Nok-Nok in Kingmaker, who was also not angsty at all.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 15/08/22 09:43 PM.
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Originally Posted by GM4Him
Anyway. I liked the silver dragon, but I hated the witch part associated with it. She was nasty, and what I didn't like was that I wasn't given very good dialogue options. Also, none of my companions came to my rescue to stop her from kissing me and spewing insects or whatever into me. So, I didn't have a choice but to be weirdly and creepily messed with, and no one thought to come to my aid. I did NOT Like that scene at all. I was pretty mad that I didn't even have the option to just plain attack her (unless, of course, I triggered the attack without talking to her at all).
They evolved companions in BG3, but I think that in D:OS2 you shouldn't think of them as "companions" - rather recruitable NPCs with some unique content. What I mean by that is that can interfere precisely in the way you describe - you can switch to other party member during conversation and attack the witch - that is something that could happen in COOP, but as a solo player you are by yourself - companions aren't robust enough to fill for lack of players.

I must say, this lack of ability to attack through dialogue does feel off to me, too. I can't decide if it's my expectation (years of RPGs restricting player choice mostly to pre-written conversation trees) or if it is something in Larian design that is off. Afterall, if I remember correctly Fallout1&2 has for the most part worked similarly - a lot of paths were behind mechanical interactions rather then layed out conversation options. There is something about D:OS2 and BG3 where I feel like I am breaking a quest when I do this stuff - it feels to me like I forfit game content, rather then make a choice.

Last edited by Wormerine; 15/08/22 09:49 PM.
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Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Those three party members are honestly probably the most stable throughout. Beast is generally considered the most forgettable though, but it’s likely a symptom of him not really having anything crazy going on compared to the rest of the party. Loshe is great throughout, and actually the only party member you can later ask for her opinion on various important NPCs you’ve met.

Fane is very obviously the writer’s pet, you miss out on a lot of background lore without him. Though he was written by Avellone (just without the typical angst his characters usually have), which shows.

I think Avellone also wrote Nok-Nok in Kingmaker, who was also not angsty at all.
Yup, I would switch Ifan for Fane anytime. Way more interesting back story. Also, I just disliked ifan. When I played with him I just spent half of the playthrough wondering when will his personality evolve or become a bit more interesting. It never did.


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