Challenges for experienced players

[CEO]

Ok, here's yet another freak playing a 7 year old game lol. Anyway
ive been playing bg & totsc ,bg2 & tob for quite a while and i'd like to advice people to try and make the game harder and not easier by power gaming, but in anycase here are the challenges ive done already:

Soloed wizard bg1 & totsc
Soloed Bard bg1 & totsc
Soloed Necromancer Bg1 & totsc

Soloed wizard bg2 and tob (not leveling for more than 2925000, the exp limit for soa before the end of soa)

Soloed Bard bg2 and tob (not leveling for more than 2925000, the exp limit for soa before the end of soa) , well actually i got stuck with melisan here.

Soloed Necromancer bg2 and tob (not leveling for more than 2925000, the exp limit for soa before the end of soa)

Soloed Stalker bg2 and tob (not leveling for more than 2925000, the exp limit for soa before the end of soa)

My latest was to Solo with no objects (you cant grab anything but money or keys or quest items and only for the quest) Soa with a Sorcerer which i personally dislike (i find it to easy not to need to think in advance spells and boring due to how few you have).

Ive tried others (its probably much harder to do the same with a druid avenger) but found it really boring as there options are so reduced compared to any "wizard spell" caster. Also ive tried mods to hardend things up but ascension for me was ... hardening things up in a way that lost part of the sense the game did (though i beated ascension too)

What else have you tried so far? Any interesting challengues? Please post them.

[fable]

Ok, here's yet another freak playing a 7 year old game lol.

Um, I think you may want to rephrase that, bearing in mind 1) anything that has merit is not devalued by time, whether it be a book, motion picture, painting, joke, or emotion; 2) any intelligent gamer would look at the quality of a title, rather than how old it is; and 3) there are a lot of people here who are hardly "freaks" but enjoy playing SoA/ToB and discussing them.

[Elrohir.]

Tried mods?

I hear that Ascension which improves lots of things, or so i hear. Also i tried Solafeiun mod and the battles it adds, well for me they were impossible.

Why dont u post on SoA forum, way more popular

[Thrifalas]

Try tactics+ascension+solaufein... you'll find that some battles there are insanely difficult and almost requires cheese... improved illyich, the eclipse party, ToB ending... your party will get stronger as you'll gain better items, and the fights will be much harder...

there were some battles, like improved bodhi, improved irenicus, eclipse party and melissan that was *so* awesome... I, for one, found them *really* entertaining... far more than any other battle in the game.

[CFM]

@CEO-I still enjoy BG1 (released in 1997?) and its sequel & expansions. And I still enjoy the discussions. And I am a freak. All purely coincidental, I'm sure.

A good challenge, imo, would be to start a new game (BG1, core rules, no exploitation of engine flaws, playing the way it was meant to be played) and finish all the way thru the end of ToB *without re-loading*. If your main dude dies, you lose the challenge.

I started BG1, and at some point in Chapter 3 (which was the drama with the Bandit Camp), my hard drive died.

When I re-started BG1, knowing the first third or so of the game, I challenged myself:
1) to not use buffing spells before I entered combat, unless my 'in-game alter-ego' would guess that trouble is ahead, and...
2) to not get wacked, or otherwise have to reload.

I made it to Chapter 5, did all the city quests (expect the string of quests leading to Chapter 6), all without getting my main dude smoked. Then my luck went south, literally & figuratively, when I went to Durlag's Tower. Several reloads in *that* place, let me tell you (not to mention that Aec'Letec thing in Ulgoth's Beard).

After my first 'demise', of course I reloaded and continued onward. But the game lost alot of the tension after that. It seemed to become a constant rush to get through whereever I was, so as to see the end.

I hope to someday re-live the BG experience. I have this list of other games I'm trying to get through, there's never the time, blah blah blah. But if I do start it up again, I'll employ 'challenge parameters' to recapture that awesome tension I had with the first part of the Saga.

Finish everything, start to finish, without getting punked...
and you are the Alpha & the Omega.

Anybody done that before?

[Aztaroth]

How about this:

Solo SoA with Tactics installed, and especially Improved Illych. I haven't tried it, seeing as how Illy and his party just about raped me when I had a party... I probably should try it, just to see how friggin' impossible it is

[masteralef]

Originally Posted by CFM

A good challenge, imo, would be to start a new game (BG1, core rules, no exploitation of engine flaws, playing the way it was meant to be played) and finish all the way thru the end of ToB *without re-loading*. If your main dude dies, you lose the challenge.

It's generally known as "iron man." The only typical exception to the rule of "no reloading" is when one is Mazed (not imprisoned but mazed), because that kills a solo character when it shouldn't.

[CFM]

"Iron Man." A great name for it... I'm hip to the lingo, bro. Good point too about the Maze'ing.

I've been through the entire Saga only once (as a Cleric). My next time I'm gonna play a Fighter/Mage half-elf bad guy. While I'll keep the re-loading to a minimum, I can't imagine going the whole way without dying, even knowing what's around each corner (though I'm hoping I'll have forgotten alot by then).

Without using game engine exploits, using Core rules... am I being naive to think that going through the whole Saga without getting killed would be really really hard?

[Aztaroth]

Not necissarily... depends on your skill and what kind of character you play. If you're going with a F/M then you might make it... again, depends on your skill. Also, remember that there's no shame in fleeing a battle and returning later with more experience