11-07-2009, 06:59 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-07-2009, 07:00 AM by Swiss Mercenary.)
Quote:I'm a fan of everything about BGII... except the AD&D 2 magic system. That crap blows.
Every freaking spell level has at least one "protection" spell that makes the caster immune to something and one "protection removal" spell that helps you break through the opponent's protections. A good half of your memorized spells are buff / debuff spells. Another 1/4 are spells that you cast and have no effect unless the target is affected by 2 or more debuffs lowering saving thows. and 1/2 the remaining spells are AoEs that you can't use because they don't differentiate friend or foe, and you don't want to roast your frontline fighters.
As soon as you break down a caster's protections he's complete toast due to spell failure on taking any damage. So mages are either indestructible or dead. As a result, melee / archers are either crazy powerful or completely neutered. I realize it promotes a balanced party but really, it's gotten to the point that all my mages do are cast "breach" type spells and Level 10 spells (HLA's from expansion) which all are AoEs that don't affect friendlies.
There are also some pretty cheesy loopholes in the game design, but those are easy enough to ignore (like you can stand right next to a dragon and buff your party, summon devas, set traps and cast delayed fireballs in his lair and he just stands there waiting for you to talk to him before he attacks you? Riiiight. I guess this is a self-control difficulty setting.
HLAs break everything, as do level 9 spells. With enough Time Stops, you can cheeze almost anything. Chain Contingency, OTOH, is border-line BROKEN. I'm actually a fan of SoA-level mage combat - although I also use Sword Coast Strategems, which makes enemy mages much more defensive then in vanilla.
Pre-buffing is not fun, yes - but (IMO) playing the "Find a way to strip that Spell Immunity: Divination, so you can dispel Improved Invisibility, so you can get a Breach, before your party gets fried" is an interesting chess match.