BG2 Completed Mods > Six's Idle Meddlings
Volothamp's Comeuppance -- the Feedback Thread
SixOfSpades:
The 3rd Edition of Volothamp's Comeuppance is now online. It has two homepages:
www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/home.htm for those whose monitors are set to 1024 x 768 resolution, and
www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/bgguide.htm for those at 1280 x 720 (or greater) resolution.
Crisper, more aesthetically-pleasing design & layout? Yep.
More relevant, prettier pictures? Definitely.
More accurate, better-written text? Of course.
Easter Eggs? Could be.
If you have any questions, comments, or other feedback to offer about the new edition, this is the place to post it, 'cause I wanna read it.
Intended updates to the site already include: A corrected & re-polished Spell Dictionary, and an expansion of the Theology section to include more gods than just the basic Human pantheon.
jiansonz:
SixOfSpades, you have made a truly awesome and unique BG guide - I really wish I had been able to read this before I started playing as a noob many years ago. Now as a veteran, I can appreciate and understand how you are thinking, especially with the whole 'non-spolier' thing. Very well done overall. ;)
The armor images with the graphical represenation on how much AC they provide against different damage types are excellent, but it sure took me a little while to understand them (even though I know how the armors are working!). But that´s probably just me being a little slow and dense...
There is one thing I do not agree with you on, though, and that his how low you value the Beast Master. Used as a scout + archer in BG 2, this kit is better than a plain Ranger in that role, imo. If you want to hide in shadows a lot, you don´t use heavy armor anyway, and if you rarely enter melee combat, the 'no metal melee weapons' drawback isn´t significant. And in a pinch, there are some decent clubs and staves in the game that you can use. All magical items, other than heavy armors and metal weapons, that a normal Ranger can use are still available, so I think grouping the kit together with Wizard Slayer as 'really bad' is a major insult to the Beast Master. :P
And if you consider BG1 played using BGTutu, I think the Beast Master is a great character for the early game (= nearly all of BG1). You get a Familiar while you´re still in Candlekeep! This early HP boost moves you out of 1-2 hit kills territory, which means you are at a lot less risk for an early death due to sheer bad luck. That´s not a bad thing for a newbie player.
While not important at all in BG2 (because you have such high level and good gear), the extra stealth boost is really handy for scouting in the early game.
If you choose Chaotic Good alignment, that Invisibility 10' Radius spell the Fairy Dragon has is immensely useful in the early game, as you can (once per day, and at no cost) turn the whole party invisible! This is available far earlier in the game than any other similar method becomes available. In a no-reloads game I played, the little bugger saved my party several times when I got waylaid by Wyverns and we were probably too weak to fight them.
(The Animal Summonings are pretty redundant unless you play solo, as Druids/Clerics/Mages are far better at summoning, and they also level up faster.)
Last but not least, a Human Beast Master with high enough stats can dual-class to a Cleric. Once the you get the old abilities back, you have the same powerful spell pool as any Cleric/Ranger, plus you have better stealth and a Familiar. However, the weapon selection becomes very limited, as you can only use slings, staves and clubs. You are probably not a good tank either because of the armor restriction, but you will probably be able to hold off something dangerous a couple of rounds, due to Iron Skins.
I still have a succesful no-reloads game going with this class (a Beast Master 7 -> Cleric), having taken her from Candlekeep to early ToB. It´s not a "munchkin" character, but she has been quite useful and versatile along the journey, and many times very interesting and fun to play.
SixOfSpades:
--- Quote from: jiansonz on March 10, 2010, 09:04:18 AM ---The armor images with the graphical represenation on how much AC they provide against different damage types are excellent, but it sure took me a little while to understand them.
--- End quote ---
Hmmm . . . I'd figured my explanation, plus the picture of the Gnome, should have been enough. Maybe for the (eventual) update I'll incorporate the Slashing/Piercing/Blunt/Missile bits into the image of the armor itself, to reduce possible confusion.
--- Quote ---There is one thing I do not agree with you on, though, and that his how low you value the Beast Master.
--- End quote ---
I won't deny that the Beast Master can, in some circumstances, be an effective character. I simply rated the Beast Master (and the Wizard Slayer) that low because they've always been popularly regarded as the most useless of the kits by far, with advantages that don't even begin to make up for their crippling disabilities. Granted, every playing style has its diehard fans, but the general concensus on the Beast Master is that it really sucks.
Imoen:
I found a really small typo on the 'Familiars and their abilities, by PC Alignment' table, you have TN listed as CN.
SixOfSpades:
Noted, thanks. Good thing this is one of those errors where the player can easily check the game itself to verify the truth.
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