Baldur's Gate 6: Going for the Gnolls

So I'm still trying to find the Gnoll stronghold, but I've gained quite a bit of experience on the trek. My reputation is now up to 19. I am, as the game says, "heroic." But it's early days yet. 

I've run into some interesting characters along the way, most of whom I have slaughtered. Reading the FAQ later, it seems I did the right things. The idea is to get 'em to attack you, slaughter them and take their stuff. I've got some interesting items from them.

I also saved a kid in a lighthouse. That was nice. Kivin was quite pleased with that "noble deed." 

I think I need to be heading south to find the Gnoll stronghold from where I am, because I encountered some enemies I wasn't nearly capable of defeating. They charmed me and seemed immune to my attacks. Ergo, I turned around. We will tackle those guys when we're stronger.

I have decided to dump Neera in favor of Dynaheir once I find her. The guy writing the FAQ hates Dynaheir because she just isn't in the right class of wizard and she doesn't have the Sleep spell. I must admit, I will miss that Sleep spell. It is awesome. He also hates Neera because her spells have a 5% chance of going wrong, sometimes in our favor and sometimes not. He thinks that's too risky. Actually, I've had no problem with it at all, but she is just so annoying! I know that Edwin is by far the best mage in the game, but he's "evil" and I'm playing "good" this go-round.

But Neera is really getting on my nerves. My choices for a good-aligned mage are pretty limited. Eventually I'll switch to only Imoen once I dual-class her--but I can't do that for another five levels. So Dynaheir it'll have to be. Other longtime players like her just fine. I may dump her mid-game for another fighter. We'll see. It's my game and I'll play like I wanna!

Had a very nice end-of-playing scene tonight. I decided to rest in that cave above the xvart village. First time I've rested in a cave, and there was a different graphic for it (with a spider!). Best of all, when I woke up, there were bats flying around and squeaking in the cave. For a 15-year old game, that's pretty impressive detail.

Anyway, till next time!

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Baldur's Gate 5: Advancing in Wizardry

I'm certainly not a wizard yet. I grow ever more irritated with Neera, the Wild Mage. She's got spells I need, but man she's annoying. Everybody has made it to level three now except Neera, but she's close. When she get that she ought to be able to cast "Hold Person," which the FAQ tells me I'll need to defeat a nasty evil villain, for $5,000 gold pieces, which I sorely need.

I mean, how am I ever going to be able to afford her Archmage Robes until she can do Hold Person?

Well. I went wandering to other areas. I get killed just occasionally. I sure wish I could get a ranged weapon for Ajantis. He can only do melee right now, and that leaves him vulnerable despite his plate mail.

I did have one really fun encounter: a talking chicken named Melicamp. Melicamp, it seems, was a student with the mage at High Hedge, our one-stop shopping place for all items magical. I was able to get him returned to human form, but fortunately the FAQ said to save before you tried that. Good thing.

I'm not really following the FAQ as much as it seems here. I normally go there for general advice, but occasionally remember some specifics I've read. 

Once I get this area done, IF I can do it (that's a heavy reward, and you don't get heavy rewards for easy fights), I'll head on to the Gnoll Stronghold, and then to the Naskell Mines. You have to be able to detect traps there and I've only got Imoen up to 95% trap detection, but I also have a spell that Neera can do to find traps, so I don't have to rely on just one character. Alas, that spell is at level three, so I don't know if Neera will be able to do it. We'll see.

Really, I think 95% probability is pretty good. I'll just quicksave a lot. I can't see the point in waiting any longer. But the Gnolls first.

So the Gnolls and the mine ought to be exciting! 

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Baldur's Gate 4: Fighting Monsters!

Wow! So I'm playing with Ajantis in the lead and I'm really liking him. His automatic responses to my clicks are far, far less annoying than Emerald's. My difficulty with him is that he doesn't have any ranged attacks, he always uses a sword, and that leaves him vulnerable even with the plate mail I got for him. I also stole Kagian's really nice helmet and gave it to him. 

The game uses "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" rules for all of these statistics. Complicated stuff! I understand why so many folks enjoyed playing that game decades ago, before they were available on computers.

However, we've had some good fights. The enemies are getting tougher, as they should. This time I even killed a couple of dire wolves! I'll have to go back to the Temple area and try that again now that I'm stronger. But my spellcasters are stronger now too, at level two, so that gives them more spells per day. I'm really liking the Sleep spell. Everybody's leveled up, and Emerald ought to hit level three tomorrow. 

Of course, eventually I'll give both Emerald and Imoen dual roles ad mages (only humans can do that), but the FAQs all say not to do it before the characters reach level nine. You lose all your advances in your other levels until you also hit level nine as a mage, and then you get them all back, but you can't advance in your original role. Hence, waiting until level nine gives you good fighting stuff while you continue to advance in your magery.

My reputation is now at 15, which is really good, and you can get as high as 20. With Ajantis's charisma and such a good rep, prices for equipment will be lots lower.

I have to admit that I'm not really missing Kagian, but I'll welcome him back in a playthrough with an evil party, heh heh. He's fun.

So, tomorrow I'll attack the Gnoll stronghold. Should be lots of experience points there!

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Baldur's Gate 3: Going Good

Aha! The Great Google has told me that there is no time limit in this game. Ergo, I decided to just go to the areas I'd been to before and clear 'em out. Found the Boots of Stealth and had not terrible fights with various enemies, until I tackled the dire wolfs in the Temple section. They got me several times before I gave up on my different strategies. Encountered my first bandits and remembered to collect their scalps. A couple of my characters are close to leveling up!

I also found the updated version of the FAQ I've been using. The guy recommends having a party that's either aligned to good or evil, but not to mix. I really like my dwarf fighter Kagian, but he does have an evil alignment, so I dumped him and recruited a Paladin, Ajantis, who has a charisma of 17. I put my special cloak on him to boost it to 19, giving us the best possible prices in the shops (prices rise or fall according to how the shopkeeper feels about you--one of the many reasons this game is so special). 

For a supposedly evil guy, Kagian certainly took it well. Everybody else I've kicked out has whined about it. Kagain just said he liked us and will rejoin the group if we ask him. Sadly, it's clear that Ajantis is the better choice for me this time. 

I definately will use Kagian again when I replay with an evil alignment, but the FAQ says that the party alignment matters when you import your characters to the sequel. Anyway, I put Ajantis, with his cloak, into the lead. I like his voice, and now when I click on the party to move, I get his voice instead of Emerald constantly saying "Don't worry about me." That's a relief. Sheesh.

So, that's all for now! I look forward to tonight!

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Baldur's Gate 2: I Will Make Time!

Yes yes, I have no time for this game. Foo. I will make time. Except when I have a deadline looming so close I can barely sleep, I watch Netflix in the evenings. So, I'll replace Netflix with my game (until that deadline starts to loom: I have two more book deliveries coming next week).

When I set up my character ("Emerald," of course, in honor of my good kitty) I chose "scimitar/ninjitode/wasta . . " as my primary weapon(s) of choice. I thought scimitars were kinda cool, and it gave me the chance to dual wield. Once I was into the game I realized that might have been a bad idea. I realized it when my scimitar broke due to the iron crisis on the Sword Coast. Nobody else seems to sell scimitars. I have got one each of the other weapons, but there don't appear to be many replacements out there for those either, and they could break too. Plus, in these fantasy games you always eventually find magically enhanced longswords, but I've never seen a magically enhanced scimitar. 

However, reading a FAQ about the game tells me that there is an enhanced scimitar somewhere in the game, and that in Baldur's Gate II there's a major scimitar to be had.

I can't do anything about it anyway. Fortunately, I put an equal amount of points into longbows, and that's doing better for me anyway. I really prefer ranged attacks. I finally found a buncha throwing axes for Kagian, so now everybody's got ranged weapons.

When I decided to go with the new character, Neera the Wild Mage, I was taking a chance. She is a good-aligned character, and except for Kagian I'm trying to play a good party (I'll try evil later). Gad, but Neera is annoying. She's apparently got an emotional age of about twelve, and constantly rushes into the thick of the battle and gets nearly killed, forcing me to use my rather limited healing spells on her. Finally I got her a slingshot, and she's staying back. I found her a wizard's ring, so she now gets two more spells per day. Plus, she comes with the Sleep spell, which is majorly nifty. Also, she comes with Identify, which is saving me lots of money, but I'm not sure it's worth the accumulated rest time. I don't know how time works in this game, whether it's unlimited or whether you need to finish within x-amount of days. We'll see.

So I finally got to Naskell and went everywhere there, although my FAQ says that there's some hidden plate mail there. I'll be off to get that as soon as I load up tonight. I also went to the carnival, which was fun, but I passed up getting Branwen, the war druid. Lots of people like her in place of Jaheira, but I've decided to stick with Jaheira, who's supposed to be awesome in the sequel (you can import your characters, or some of them, anyway).

I have finally leveled up, as has Imoen. That just happened, so I have to see what new abilities I have. That makes about half my party level two.

I sure wish I could turn off the character comments every time I click, but apparently I can't. Glad I chose the least annoying voice for my character, but it's beginning to grate. I turned off the "always comment" selection in the Options menu, but that didn't stop Emerald from saying things like "Don't worry about me" or "You want it, you've got it" every freaking time I single her out (or Imoen saying, "I've done had enough of this" Sheesh).

I've had some fights, but really nothing terribly tough yet, which is why I haven't leveled up faster. I must say that the Sleep spell is the best ever, and Neera appears to be an excellent mage, despite her mouth.

So tonight I'll be getting more into the wilderness, after I get that plate mail and fetch a few things from Beregost.

Really, this game already is turning out to be super fun. It could be as addicting as my Avernum games, and to me, that's really something!

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http://adventuregameplays.blogspot.com/2013/06/baldurs-gate-3-pretty-well-set.html

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition 1: Couldn't Resist

I don't have time to do this, but sometimes I just insist. I have wanted to play Baldur's Gate, reputed to be the best RPG ever made, for close to 15 years. I got a copy of the original Mac game and tried to play it years ago, but didn't get very far, because I just could NOT learn how do to spells. 

I've been waiting for the game to be ported to Mac on GOG.com, even though I could have played their PC version it in my virtual XP machine. But I wanted a Mac version, drat it.

So I learned that there is this brand new version of the game, the Enhanced Edition. I looked it up on YouTube and found some really interesting playthroughs and decided I wanted this game. According to the YouTube player I was watching, many great new features have been added that streamline the game quite a bit, yet it's still Baldur's Gate! They have added a few characters and some new encounters. 

And it turns out that the Mac App store has it! For Mac! Although one of the commenters said the right-click didn't work, I've kinda learned that some people post stupid stuff in those comment areas. I decided to take a chance. (The right-click works just fine.)

So. I was only going to play the new tutorial section, before the Candlekeep section at the beginning of the actual game. That, turned out to be really necessary for me. I learned all kinds of new stuff, not only how to do spells (finally!) but also how to set and disarm traps. So that was more than worth it.

But I clicked on the actual game and created a character. Lo and behold, I hit maximum luck. I immediately got a score of 92 for the abilities! I was able to max out strength, dexterity and constitution, with plenty left over for decent charisma. The only category I had to skimp on was intelligence, because I wanted to play a ranger, and they don't need intelligence. So, just by chance, I wound up with a really strong character right out of the box! W00T! I didn't even have to roll the dice.

At first I picked a character portrait dressed all in red, but then realized that I wouldn't be able to see the red coloring when my character got wounded. Fortunately, you can change that in the customize menu, although I believe you can never change the ability levels. I switched her portrait, so that was solved.

I wasn't going to play, but I thought I'd just do that area in Candlekeep. Got caught stealing a potion. Reloaded. Was smarter about it and got not only my stolen potion, but the one given to me too.

However, the final quest in that area doesn't work. The character who has a scroll you're supposed to find never gives it to you.

I am thrilled that the music has been left intact. I love the music in the inns. It's the same music in every inn, but I like it and I want it. Wouldn't be Baldur's Gate without the music, and I know some versions have left that out. I don't want to play this game without the music in the inns! (We've all got our little peculiarities.)

The Candlekeep Inn, with great music

But, did I quit after Candlekeep? Oh no. I kept playing and wasted the entire day. I've been to the Friendly Arms, I've got Khalid and Jaheira and the evil mage Xzar and his nasty friend. I'm about to dump the latter two to pick up a new character, a "wild mage" called Neera. Isn't easy, actually. She keeps getting killed because I'm not doing the fight properly. I did find out that she has the Identify spell, which will save gobs of cash, so I want her, even if I dump her later on. Also, I found an Identity scroll, so I can give that to a new mage, should I decide to go that route.

Ha. Turned out that all the characters have different colored little circles that they live in. Normally, enemies are red. Neera's circle is red. I was killing her thinking she was an enemy. Anyway, she's got the identify spell, but only two spell slots per day, so far.

Montdrain got killed in the fight for Neera, and I recruited Kagain the dwarf, reputed to be the best fighter in the game,  and got rid of Xzar (he complained). Then I bipped over to High Hedge and deliberately got Khalid killed off (Jaheira only complained once) and recruited Kivin, another ranger, like me. I may stick with this party to the end. I'm not going to get Minsk and his hamster this time, even if he is a sequel character and entertaining because he's completely nuts.

(I know about all these characters due to a wealth of information about this game on the web. It's far too complicated to go in there blind. You need advice if you're going to be able to enjoy the game fully. I can play again later with different characters--perhaps an evil group!)

Anyway, I have completed the nasty spider quest and am back at the Friendly Arms. Jaheira is complaining that we need to go to Naskell now, so that's where we'll go next time I fire up the game.

And I am having way too much fun to wait too long!

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Oakhaven 4: Endgame with Forbidden Love

Had to stop playing for awhile due to massive workload, but I grabbed the time to finish today. Anyway, I had reached the logic puzzle, which I remembered was my favorite. It didn't disappoint, as I'd completely forgotten it from the first time I solved it years ago. 

And thus we see that puzzle games indeed are replayable. Wait long enough and they all become new again!

Alas, I had a freeze when Dominic tries to pick up an item in the gazebo. Worse, I'd solved not only the logic puzzle, but several more without saving. Fortunately I was able to minimize the game (have no idea how I did that), opened another copy and played up to that point again, but without music (???). Anyhoo, I solved the logic puzzle again, and the few others (a little slider, that simple postcard one and Dominic's visit to the swamp). Saved all along the way, and saved again. Quit that and (somehow) about three other copies that opened up, got back to the original one that had frozen, and it opened right up with music, all sound effects, and unfroze.

Whew!

And there are nice swamp scenes for Dominic too:

Plus, I belatedly learned that you can get out of any puzzle any time simply by right clicking.  Even better, the puzzle picks up where you left off when you click into it again.

So that's good game design!

I admit that I find the reading load rather severe for an end-of-game resolution, but we do get another nice location!

Anyway, aside from my rather scary freeze, I once again enjoyed this simple but fun little game. Also, I have saved a game at the ouija board screen, so whenever I want to, I can consult the Game Gods for free advice.

Much fun! And it's selling now for less than $5.00 as a digital download. That's way beyond worth it! 

Thanks Cindy!