Why BioWare did such amazing job with necromancy on BG1/2? but MADE THE WORST iteration of necromanc
Jul 17, 2020 21:59:24 GMT
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Post by l0rdv1ct0r on Jul 17, 2020 21:59:24 GMT
Baldur's Gate 1 = over 300 spellls
DA:O = Over 90 spells
DA:O = About 20 spells
But is not only in general that spellcasting is worse on modern BioWare games. You could have a skeleton army on BG1, on BG2 is got limited to 5 however, the summons are far better in quality. You can summon skeleton warriors that scales with your level and combined with cloudkill and ice storm for eg, can be insane deadly since skeletons are immune to cold and poison and on higher levels, your necromancer specialized mage feels far more like a true master of life and death. with undead servantS. OHK spells like Finger of Death and Wail of The Banshee, the army slaying spell.
Now look to Dragon Age Origins, only about 90 spells, only a single animate dead spell, no OHK spells, boring cooldowns everywhere and a lot of ludonarrative dissonance. You can use blood magic in front of templars consequence free. Inquisition? One of the starting dialog options is "i don't need a staff to be deadly" and then, all spells scales with your weapon. It not only contradicts the dialog but also contradicts how magic is supposed to work since DA:O. Why spend so many times controlling mages when you can just disarm then? All conflict between mages and templars on second game becomes irrelevant. Modern games don't even care to make the mechanics and lore in line. DA:I also only has about 20 spells and by far the worst iteration of necromancy ever. Is just spiritualist skil ltree from origins missing a lot of spells with far more boring cooldown management.
Recently, I've soloed BG2:EE - Shadows of Amn campaign on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty. A difficulty where only 0,4% of players managed to finish according to steam achievements.
And i could OHK even Demon Lords and Dragons as a specialist necromancer. Chain casting LR + GM can make the enemy lose a lot of magical resistance and make the save vs spell with -8 penalty which translates to about 60% of chances of OHKilling a dragon by fingering then like a succubus with Finger of Death.
My end game stats
OHK spells VS dragons and the demon lord
My spellbook after the final SoA battle.
Detailing my experience as a necromancer specialized mage on BG2 Chapters 1 to 4 bellow
Chapter 5 and 6 bellow
Chapter 7 bellow
DA:O = Over 90 spells
DA:O = About 20 spells
But is not only in general that spellcasting is worse on modern BioWare games. You could have a skeleton army on BG1, on BG2 is got limited to 5 however, the summons are far better in quality. You can summon skeleton warriors that scales with your level and combined with cloudkill and ice storm for eg, can be insane deadly since skeletons are immune to cold and poison and on higher levels, your necromancer specialized mage feels far more like a true master of life and death. with undead servantS. OHK spells like Finger of Death and Wail of The Banshee, the army slaying spell.
Now look to Dragon Age Origins, only about 90 spells, only a single animate dead spell, no OHK spells, boring cooldowns everywhere and a lot of ludonarrative dissonance. You can use blood magic in front of templars consequence free. Inquisition? One of the starting dialog options is "i don't need a staff to be deadly" and then, all spells scales with your weapon. It not only contradicts the dialog but also contradicts how magic is supposed to work since DA:O. Why spend so many times controlling mages when you can just disarm then? All conflict between mages and templars on second game becomes irrelevant. Modern games don't even care to make the mechanics and lore in line. DA:I also only has about 20 spells and by far the worst iteration of necromancy ever. Is just spiritualist skil ltree from origins missing a lot of spells with far more boring cooldown management.
Recently, I've soloed BG2:EE - Shadows of Amn campaign on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty. A difficulty where only 0,4% of players managed to finish according to steam achievements.
And i could OHK even Demon Lords and Dragons as a specialist necromancer. Chain casting LR + GM can make the enemy lose a lot of magical resistance and make the save vs spell with -8 penalty which translates to about 60% of chances of OHKilling a dragon by fingering then like a succubus with Finger of Death.
My end game stats
OHK spells VS dragons and the demon lord
My spellbook after the final SoA battle.
How many spells i've used
Detailing my experience as a necromancer specialized mage on BG2 Chapters 1 to 4 bellow
On chapter 1, i Decided to start by importing a lv 14 necromancer. I need at least animate dead. The initial dungeon was no problem to my army of animated skeletons and summons also receive the LoB stat inflations.
On Chapter 2, i got my ass kicked trying to reach Firkraag by adamantine golems. Ater it, quickly moved to chapter 3 and did a lot of side quests. On chapter 3 i also "Fingered" the first Dragon Firkraag and since i did a lot of side quests, including some that broke my "solitude" BUT even a planetar. By using summons as distraction and casting two lower resist and a greater malison, i can make the Firkraag has to save the FoD with just 5% MR(instead of 65%) and a -8 penalty on his save(-2 from FoD, -2 from necromancer specialization and -4 from GM).
On chapter 4, nothing that impactful happened until the jon irenicus laboratory, where he was relative easy to my army of summons however, the thieves could OHK me and i had to try 3 times, not thanks to him, but tahnks to backstabing thieves. Memorized 4 stoneskins for that battle.
On Chapter 2, i got my ass kicked trying to reach Firkraag by adamantine golems. Ater it, quickly moved to chapter 3 and did a lot of side quests. On chapter 3 i also "Fingered" the first Dragon Firkraag and since i did a lot of side quests, including some that broke my "solitude" BUT even a planetar. By using summons as distraction and casting two lower resist and a greater malison, i can make the Firkraag has to save the FoD with just 5% MR(instead of 65%) and a -8 penalty on his save(-2 from FoD, -2 from necromancer specialization and -4 from GM).
On chapter 4, nothing that impactful happened until the jon irenicus laboratory, where he was relative easy to my army of summons however, the thieves could OHK me and i had to try 3 times, not thanks to him, but tahnks to backstabing thieves. Memorized 4 stoneskins for that battle.
Chapter 5 and 6 bellow
On Chapter 5, the mindlayer dungeon was not hard but was tedious since is just waiting until my summons kill then all. I wold't try kill then knowing that they can insta dominate and cause game over. despite their great magical resistnace, cloudkill + skeleton squad does a good job against then. On the Drow city, i did the route which involves sleeping with a drow and fighting the Demon Lord which can only be harmed by +5 weapons. Not even my Planetar had chance against it. The solution? Stop Time, Triggers and so on to reduce his saves and after 3 LR and a GM, i stoppped the time and casted a couple of Finger of Deaths. That demon lord got Fingered like a Succubus the point of being a necromancer is to finger succubus.
After i've killed him, now the entire city is against me. I has almost no high tier spells left. What should i do? RUN!!!!. Luckly i had a haste and just runned faster as i can. Haste + The Paws of the Cheetah made me able to escape that harsh situation. Delivered the Eggs and now an back to the surface. Bohdi on chapter 6 was easy and she was also fingered like a succubus.
After i've killed him, now the entire city is against me. I has almost no high tier spells left. What should i do? RUN!!!!. Luckly i had a haste and just runned faster as i can. Haste + The Paws of the Cheetah made me able to escape that harsh situation. Delivered the Eggs and now an back to the surface. Bohdi on chapter 6 was easy and she was also fingered like a succubus.
Chapter 7 bellow
On chapter 7, i had some problems with the adamantine golems, but nothing that some magical swords and planetars can't solve. The black dragon? Also fingered like a succubus. Everything was easy until i reached hell. Did all challenges on good side since i an Chaotic Good.
The final SoA battle was very hard. I've used
In addition to the spells used on the battle, i also used a LIMITED WISH to use a one time wish and cast a chain contigency and a sequencer and a spell trigger BUT don't remember which spells i picked and i don't have the usage on my spellbook. So we can sum + 9 to the spell usage. I also placed a lot of skull traps and rested, placed and rested on the arena, considering 5 skull traps per rest and 4 rests, I've casted 20 skull traps before the battle. That results in 59 spells being used to kill the enemy in that crazy high difficulty.
The final SoA battle was very hard. I've used
- 5 tier 9/epic spells -> 3 * summon planetar and 2 * stop time
- 7 Tier 8 -> 5 * horrid wilting + pierce shield (and forgot to unmemorize the spell trigger)
- 6 tier 7 -> 3 finger of death + limited wish + Mordekainen's Sword (only because i forgot to unmemorize the sequencer)
- 4 tier 6 spells -> Two Invisible stalker + Spell deflection + True sight
- 2 tier 5 spells -> Two lower resists
- 1 tier 4 spell -> Greater Malison
- 5 tier 3 spells -> 5 skull traps
- Zero tier 1/2 spells. I an a necromancer. Necromancers can't cast the good low level illusion spells.
- Total : 30 spells in battle
In addition to the spells used on the battle, i also used a LIMITED WISH to use a one time wish and cast a chain contigency and a sequencer and a spell trigger BUT don't remember which spells i picked and i don't have the usage on my spellbook. So we can sum + 9 to the spell usage. I also placed a lot of skull traps and rested, placed and rested on the arena, considering 5 skull traps per rest and 4 rests, I've casted 20 skull traps before the battle. That results in 59 spells being used to kill the enemy in that crazy high difficulty.
