Roleplaying and Timekeeping in BG2

DeVore

I'm stuck into Baldurs Gate 2 at the moment and I have a question for anyone who's played it...

Does the length of time you take to play the game (in game terms) matter ?

Example: My flat mate is also nuts about it and has completed the first bit in 2 game-days.

I was a bit more gungho about it and got cut up a lot, so I slept a few times more and it took me 5 game-days to get the party out into the daylight...

I also tend to sleep the party longer then he does.

My question is, does it matter? Why not just sleep your party as often as you want to and always have full health then...

Does the passage of time actually effect the storyline at all?


DeV.

Saruman

It does not make any difference at all... Or of it does i never noticed any.

Celt

Nope, however some(1?) quests have a certan time limit in game days after which they expire

PHB

The only game I can think of where theres an overall time limit is fallout, also you say you are resting longer than he is, maybe you have "rest until healed" turned on?

Kairo

Does that 'rest until healed' actually use whatever healing spells you've memorized? Or does it just naturally heal you. I think the longer you sleep, the more chances of encountering an enemy you have...if your in a dungeon or the wild that is.

Celt

Originally posted by Kyro
Does that 'rest until healed' actually use whatever healing spells you've memorized?

Yes.

Hobbes

The time does effect a large number of the subplots and some quests.

For example, a lot if not all NPC party quests are time based. If you do not complete them within a set time the NPC will either leave you or the quest will vanish. They normally give out to you a lot if you don't do it.

Some sub-quests if not completed in a set time will fail and close off other quests (eg. Cure for Jarhira quest).

Saruman

Yeah thats true actually... i had Minsc and Boo with me in BG1, i took too long finding his charge and one day he started ranting more than usual then boom he goes beserk and starks attacking everyone.. so we had to kill him.. i missed him... BUT he was alive and well again in BG2 so that was good...

DeVore

Well I just finished the "Save the keep from the trolls" subquest and the guy was dead at the end... now I have a sneaky suspicision he's gonna be dead regardless of how long it takes but I did have to sleep a fwe times during it... (that room full of Umber Hulks is a TOTAL BIATCH!)

Also, is there anyway to get the goodies from the Golems room without becoming roadkill? The only way I could do it was with a speed potion and then leggit. Unfortunately I legged it upstairs right into the Umber Hulks!
Restarting, I figured I needed the speed potions for the Hulks and left the Golems have their gear.

Got **** all money too, but loads of XP. Thought I'd get a lot more cash from it though, considering the difficulty and the length of the subquest.

BTW, anyone know where you have to go with the acorns... it tells me the town name in the journal but I cant see it on the map (or indeed anywhere else).

DeV.

Rev Hellfire

If you picked a fighter you'll be getting an income from your recently aquired property. As for teh golems I legged it as well

Hobbes

>Also, is there anyway to get the goodies from the Golems room without becoming roadkill?

You give them more targets. The golems don't trigger until you loot the gear and the middle golem is the strongest. What I did was cast a load of animals, elementals and stood them around the big guy.

Then I hasted a person (which no stuff on them) and sent them into grab the stuff. If they died you could ressurect them again and loose nothing. The golems can't leave the room (at least the big one can't).

The Umber Hulks there are a way to deal with them, but to learn that you must ensure that the servants aren't killed by the trolls when you walk into rooms.

>BTW, anyone know where you have to go with the acorns.

Go to the inn in the slums. There is a guy offering a job there that opens up the area you would hand over the acorns.

Rev is correct. If your main character was a fighter they can own the castle and run it for cash. Each character class has their own keep. Again the keep is time based when you own it. I had a thief character as my main and I got to own a thieves guild, but I didn't go back to it for a long time and it was taken off me.

I believe of all the keeps the mages (Sphere in slum) + bards (theatre at city gates?) are the most fun. The second time I went for the thieves guild I killed a guy in the place by accident and the whole place went nuts. Everyone ran away screaming "The boss, he's gone mental!".

Draco

Originally posted by DeVore
Also, is there anyway to get the goodies from the Golems room without becoming roadkill? The only way I could do it was with a speed potion and then leggit.

If I remember correctly, when you take a weapon, a pair of golems activate. I killed them off the ones that activated then took the next weapon. The biggest one was still a bollix to kill. I think I had to do the Umber Hulk room about 5 times before I got them...I think I settled on a "open door, fireball room, close door" strategy in the end.

lordsippa

easiest way to kill the iron golem:

assemble the flail of ages <yes that does require the whole legging it through the room and grabbing it tactic>. The other golems are easiest to kill so bring them out <move away more and more until only 1 or 2 are following you> and kill them. then after repeating that and finishing the flail, go back and get minsc or another fighter type to stand at the doorway alone and kill the golem. he can't move out of the door and if you position it right, he can't hit you. so you kick his ass. muchos! yay! XP!

And, unless you've initiated a quest, time means nothing. It took me over 80 days to get out of chapter 2. so there.

Saruman

My main guy was a sorcerer.. he was pretty powerful and you gotta love timestop!!

LoBo

Slightly off-topic, but since your question re: time seems to have been answered..

Has anyone played Icewind Dale through? I tried the demo and found it very enjoyable and (though functionally the same) different enough from BG - especially fun to design your whole party not just the main char (you could do this with BG by playing in multiplayer mode)

Basically is it worth my while looking around for the full IWD? Must be cheap by now..

Have played through and greatly enjoyed BG + ToSC and BG2.

LoBo

PS. If you're smart you can get past those hulks easily.. they can't see an invisible/hidden character... you can use that to 'do something'

Saruman

IWD is very good.. i played it and the add one heart of winter... excellent game.. not as much of an RPG as BG, bit more of a hack n slash but it does have rpg aspects and is still very good! Go for it.. you can probably find IWD and HOW in a double pack

nesf

Hmm, IMO I didn't enjoy IWD nearly as much as BG or BGII. But then as you said it is a different type of game.

Pugsley

I found an easy way to get the items off the golem
Get any charecter, and give ALL his equipment to someone else (i gave it to minsc) and then he runs in and grabs the loot and then runs to near the small room just outside the main one, but just before he dies give all the loot to another charecter standing in the bedroom just outside, then let your man die. If its done right you can ressurect your suicide guy without the golems noticing you, and you wont have trolls swarming the whole floor of the building.

And for the umber hulk room (which is a complete biatch) i just gave all my casters LOADS of summon spells, and stealthed into the room then charged in all my animals, while the hulks are busy with the animals, get your stealther back, close the door, repeat, usually takes about 3 goes to kill them all. But while the animals are fighting cast more from the other room into the hulks to keep them occupied for longer...... (a quick fireball at the end is also quite useful).

Hobbes

If anyone actually bothered to *roleplay*

The umber hulks can be beaten very easy by making the stew for them and dumping in the feeding area. All the servants give you clues on how to do this. Once they are in that area you just close the doors and go kill the baddie.

lordsippa

IWD is much more restrictive... less plot, more hacking... fun all the same...

can't wait for the sequel... sounds SO good! mmm...

Saruman

IWD was a great game in its own right... not as good as Torment or BG but it was in there!!

Draco

Originally posted by Hobbes
If anyone actually bothered to *roleplay*

The umber hulks can be beaten very easy by making the stew for them and dumping in the feeding area. All the servants give you clues on how to do this. Once they are in that area you just close the doors and go kill the baddie.

Heh...now that you mention it, I think I did that and *then* killed them with the multiple fireballs. That's roleplaying! Maximising your xp while outsmarting the monsters!

Saruman

Summon a few golems to kill the other golems.. i did not do it that way but it might work (though i could only summon clay golems i think...)

nesf

I must agree with Hobbes on the roleplaying point. Think of what a GM would do to a party in a RPG if some of the approaches above were used. As for the sacraficing and ressurecting the character to get the goodies off the golems, I don't even want to know what some of the GM's I'd know would do the party afterwards...

Squall

If i remember correctly that umberhulk room was a cinch for me, i just lined all me fighters in a semi circle outside the door with my spellcasters outside them then opened the door and hacked um and Magicked um to death. Of course by that time ide finished all quests within Amn and i was using a character imported from BG1 so i was fairly experienced at the time. Still just legged it from the golems, couldnt be arsed killing them really.

Anyone know how many dragons there is in BG2? I killed 3 ones, Firrkrag, The shadow dragon, The green dragon, plus a couple of other nameless ones along the way (Didnt kill the white one cause im a Lawful good fighter with rep of 20 so probly wouldnt of been a good idea) Was there anymore i missed? Im on to TOB now but im just wondring for if i ever feel like playing it again.