Wow, it's great to hear tips directly from Edwin himself! Amazing that Edwin actually has his own youtube channel and is sharing his superior strats with us inferior beings.
One minor correction though! The Flail of Ages +4 is THE best weapon in the game. +5 gives you Free Action (which sucks in BG2), which negates Improved Haste. The most broken part of the weapon is the no save slow, and the +4 gets that as well. Attacking 4-5 times per turn is nice, but 8-10 is op when each attack has a chance to slow. And if you're using it on a Fighter, you'd rather be spamming Hardiness and Critical Strike than Whirlwind (just to get the 10 APR).
You are 100% correct. In this playthrough I had it all the way to +5 for some reason I don't even remember. Normally with a party like this I would have haer'dalis wielding flail of ages but in this case nobody was actually using it and korgan had 5 pips in longswords while using foebane so I dunno what the hell I was doing in this playthrough xD By default I never upgrade flail of ages from +4 to +5 for the exact reasons you stated.
@@DinkSmalwood that's fair enough. Personally I like it since it can only be made after fighting Abazigal, so there isn't much left of the game at that point.
I watch this video every few months and I always learn something new or remember something I need to know. Masterpiece video! Thanks so much for the work making this one.
Awesome vid. I had doubts about how things worked with Abjuration Immunity, I was worried none of my antimagic worked; but it does. Few things: Korgan has 9/2APR. He doesn't have nine-and-a-half attacks per round, he has nine-attacks-per-two-rounds. So he gets Five Attacks one round, Four the next. Pro tip: If you're going to use Improve Alacrity with Vecna and Power; set your auto-pause to 'spell cast' and you'll get the most out of it.
Thank you :D Yeah, I know how the 9/2 APR works, I'm just not very good at verbalizing it lol Regarding Improved Alacrity + auto-pause I would agree with you 120% *but* there is one slight detail regarding that: Spell casting has some issues with auto-pause. This is nothing related to any mod mind you, it's something from the game engine, but with certain spells, auto-pause can create weird behavior. At the time I found this while using the sunscorch spell from a druid where I would cast sunscord on a character, it would show in the console that the enemy saved against sunscorch, but he was still blinded. I talked to a dev about this and I'll quote what he told me at the time: "If the game pauses when a spell is cast, it doesn't get the effect order right. So if it's mixing in save and non-save effects, you get multiple saves, even on individual effects--in this case, the actual blind, 'blinded' string, and blind icon are all separate effects". And in practice, once I turned off auto-pause, the issue never happened again. For most things you won't even notice it, but since I am now aware it exists, I'm trying to avoid using auto-pause precisely to prevent the issue from happening (to my great great sadness specifically because of imp alacrity). Sorry about the wall of text :p
@@CoredumpedGaming For real? I've never noticed that. Truthfully, I doubt I actually would notice. If and when I do this trick, I give my Wizard boots of speed, Imp haste and completely unload my spellbook. There is *so* much going off by the time the Timestop ends, the battle is over in glorious screenfilling magical effects :D
@@redelephantsdotnl yeah, like I said, for the most part it's not even noticeable. And also, as you correctly state, with the utter armaggedon of effects that go off once timestop ends... it's not really going to matter much if a save was incorrectly calculated or not in the middle of all that glorious madness :p
Great video. One nitpick--Spell Shield isn't removed by Spellstrike etc. because that's what the spell is intended to do, absorb ONE anti-spell-protection spell then fizzle. Which I'm sure you understand but it wasn't real clear in the video why spell shield wasn't removed from spellstrike attack (it isn't because of the delay). Look at the description for spell shield, it clearly says it protects the wizard from the next magical attack including spellstrike. The description for spellstrike is confusing because it sounds like spellstrike should remove ALL the spells in the list AT ONCE including spell shield. For clarity it should say something like "Spellstrike will simultaneously remove all of the following spells--list spells--unless protected by spell shield, in which case only spell shield is removed." You also left out my favorite tactic for mages, give staff of the magi or carsomyr to a fighter or fighter/thief with grand mastery and improved haste (or greater whirlwind) and beat the mage to death with each hit giving dispel magic @ l30 per hit. It's been a while since I played SCS but I'm pretty sure this was my go-to tactic and my kensai/mage solo completely wrecked enemies. Also staff of the magi has a built in spell trap that lasts EIGHT HOURS! It's a nice weapon... SCS mages cheat btw, have you looked at their scripts? It's been a while but IIRC they have all kind of ridiculous contingencies using ReallyForceSpell, which means they sometimes can put multiple buffs up instantly without actually using memorized chain contingencies. I'm replaying the series in advance of BG3 full release. Just finished BG1. Onward!
He forgot to mention how to overcome enemies that use Spell Immunity: Divination and Abjuration. Irenicus was tough in that final battle :-( Great vid though. Didn't know about the Spell Shield delay when dispelling it with Time Stop.
Thanks to you I finally know the difference between the breach and the warding whip. Turns out I've been using it wrong all the time, but somehow casting them simultaneously proved to work just fine. And finally I know what the secret word is for. I kept forgetting about it's existance xd But now I don't necesairly understand the difference between the remove magic and breach xd
The general idea for remove magic and breach is as follows: Breach is single target and it will guarantee that you dispel 100% of their combat protections (assuming they don't have any spell protection that counters breach like spell deflection/turning/trap/shield). This spell is the reason why learning how to strip spell defenses from enemy mages is so crucial, if an enemy is hit by breach, your fighters can rip them to pieces. Remove magic is an area of effect spell that can dispel everybody in the area but it is not guaranteed. Remove magic is based on a few rolls and takes into consideration the level difference between you and the caster of the enemy protections. If you're at the same level or higher than the enemies, remove magic can be absolutely devastating as it also bypasses a lot of the spell protections that stop a breach. There are a few protections that stop remove magic however, like Spell Immunity: Abjuration. Overall, I like to use this for groups of enemies, even enemies that are not necessarily casters, to remove their buffs. So if you are fighting a pack of "normal" enemies, Remove magic is likely the strongest option, but if you are fighting a "special" caster enemy e.g. a lich or just a high level wizard, breach would be the way to go.
Godspeed mr. Sorin :p Scs mages are a biiig bump in the difficulty when you start playing with scs for sure, don't feel bad for having trouble against them. I would suggest also taking a look at these mods here: th-cam.com/video/ceSuvPXkQXA/w-d-xo.html as they will also help out a LOT :) If you have any questions feel free to let me know!
@@CoredumpedGaming Thanks! I am definitely going to grab the ones for the spells menu and the enemies info, they look soooooo usefull!! I wish I knew about them earlier.
I just spent the last 5 days or so modding the hell out of BG2. like most of the items, companions, kits, portraits, and now just remembered that i wanted to install SCS or some similar mod. Do i need to do a fresh install or can i install most of SCS over the top of my modded game if i'm careful what parts i install?. I havn't touched any AI or enemies but have made a few priest spells available to mages and messed with some of the kits and made a bunch of innate abilitys. I understand that SCS makes alot of kits available to NPCs.
Scs modifies the way enemies behave and allows them to use things they didn't before like for example fighters drinking potions. Given your description of the mods you have installed, SCS should be fine to install after those. Enjoy! :)
@@CoredumpedGaming No i've been modding it myself with near infinity ... so didn't want to waste all that work, but good to know you think i might be able to install over the top.
@@hardywatkins7737 SCS also greatly improves the scripting options so you can make really complex AI scripts (for enemies, or for player scripts). That's the main reason I really like the mod. Pocketplane has a really good scripting guide if you're interested. I've yet to see a game with better player AI than BG2 with SCS, though it can take a while to write.
If you are just starting out with SCS I would recommend keeping it at the default difficulty setting which is "Tactical". If you feel something is too easy/hard to your liking you can always go to the menu > Gameplay > Fine-Tune Difficulty and change any component you wish. Once you get more comfortable with SCS feel free to start upping the difficulty if you enjoy the challenge. I wish you the best of luck for your SCS runs and hope you have a lot of fun! :D
@tammo100 Which components are you referring to? The ones you choose during SCS installation ? edit: if what I mention above is what you mean, the components I usually install in my game can be found here: BG1: pastebin.com/2miMuPfe BG2: pastebin.com/mvUyXvJh For both of those, if you are only interested in SCS, you can ignore all entries that *do not* start with "~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~". Other than that, if you want to play with Icewind Dale spells (I personally enjoy having them and enemies will also use them), also install that component from SCS. Edit2: if you are talking about the components from the "fine-tune difficulty" then yes, just leave them default for now.
Great video! Thank you so much. I think I'm ready to give SCS a try. I only have one reservation. In games like this, I eventually get tired of all the pre-buffing. Is there a mod that let's you customize precisely the pre-buffs you want to use and then trigger them all via shortcut? I think I saw one that lets you pre-buff by using a shortcut but it doesn't let you customize the buffs you want to use.
I totally understand your reservation. There is indeed a lot of pre-buffing :p And there is also a mod exactly for that, it will automate the pre-buffing and cast it instantly on your party, or you can also have a mod that makes it so you have improved alacrity (essentially means there is no pause between spell casts which makes buffing much quicker) while out of combat. The one I know of and have tried is this one - github.com/Gibberlings3/Enhanced-Powergaming-Scripts - latest version being this one: github.com/Gibberlings3/Enhanced-Powergaming-Scripts/releases/tag/10.4 It works well and removes a lot of the tedious aspects of buffing, just make sure to read the README so you understand how to work with it. *It has the exact feature you mentioned as well, press a shortcut and all pre-buffs are applied.* This will also allow you to automate spell casting in combat as well without need to manually intervene. As an example: An enemy buffs himself with Spell Immunity to Abjuration, the mod would immediately make one of your party members cast an anti magic spell at that target like secret word or ruby ray. Personally I don't like to automate those things, but this mod can also do it if you want it. The guy who made the mod is also awesome (cheers to mr. morpheus562).
There are several reasons for it. 1. First, ruby ray is the first spell available that can deal with any spell protection coming at level 7 instead of level 8, which is a significant difference. 2. Ruby ray has a faster cast time as you also noted 3. You will very likely want your level 8 spells to be different things as there are many potent spells at this level like horrid wilting, spell trigger, etc. 4. Pierce shield being a level above ruby ray is slower and what it provides as a bonus over ruby ray (small reduction of MR) isn't very relevant. So, as a summary, ruby ray is in practice essentially as effective as pierce shield for 99% of situations, it is more efficient, faster, comes earlier and in a less contested spell slot. Pierce shield would be something I would have on a mage for those specific situations where it may come in handy. I also normally take spellstrike at some point as a level 9 spell for that "one cast dispel everything" spell effect which does feel like a superior effect for a higher spell slot.
I think you answered around 41:00. I’m asking as this is my first playthrough with SCS. I’m at Davaeorn. I’m planning my ambush. I should use Spell Thrust first, then Remove Magic. Right??
No, spell deflection only works on spells that actually target. Remove magic does not target. However, remove/dispel magic basically compare your level with the enemy level in order to determine if it will work or not. There's still some RNG involved, but with Davaeorn typically being much higher level than you it would be very unlikely it worked. So yes, spell thrust is your best bet for that situation
base on what u mention, how many spells do i really need? i dun thjink my mages can prepare all the spells required. then you also won't know what spells they are going to use and how they going to attack
It really depends on the fights but outside special enemies, enemy mages don't put up that many protections. Often a remove magic is enough to dispel them, or a secret word/ruby ray + breach. Tougher caster enemies like liches would need more anti magic spells naturally but this is something that you start getting the feel for as you play the game.
@@CoredumpedGaming how about Melissa? Seem kind of hard to hit her even i cast Remove Magic on her immediately she cast Stone Skin. My party is kind of weak. i have minsc, jaheira, neera, imoen, Aerie and my own character which is a mage. Also ho do get to expand your log screen so bbig? Mine was just a pathetic small screen which can't enlarged further. My BG2 was a enhanced edition.
Melissan is tough. Some enemies will reapply defenses so you need to continue taking them off. If she doesn't have other spell defenses like spell deflection/turning/trap you can hit her with a breach which will remove her combat defenses like stoneskin. The log you can just click at the top of the log window and drag it to resize :)
@@CoredumpedGaming she cast protection from magic weapons but it din show up in the log at all. all i see is 'the weapon doesn't work at all'. Then i know somewhere is wrong. seriously. even i cast breach on her, they still can't even hit her. no where in the log mention her what defensive spell she has cast except the offensive spells she has cast on my party. she summon all the monsters and my 2 fighters went down real fast.
I just installed BG1 Tutu and SCS and am playing vanilla at the same time. I dunno. The charm of the game, for me, and the reason I prefer it to its sequel was how straightforward the combat was. I hate having to dedicate my spellcasters to almost exclusively remove immunities from and apply debuffs to my enemies, as well as patch status effects on my own party. Maybe I misunderstood you, but i'm not so sure I'll stick to my SCS playtrough. Maybe, I'll instead impose myself some rules that limit my ability of rushing enemy spellcasters ;) :)
That's totally legitimate. Not everyone needs to enjoy what SCS adds to the game. I will however just make a quick note here that SCS is customizable in game, so you can choose for yourself what you want the mod to add for any of its components. You can even say that you want fighter types to be smarter but maintain the spellcasters the way they were. We all enjoy things differently, so don't feel like you're playing an inferior version of the game because you don't want to use SCS.
@@CoredumpedGaming Great point & Thanks for your kindness! EDIT: If you ever feel like reviewing great community made cRPGs, consider the great "Swordflight" series for NWN1 by RogueKnight333
@@nmpltleopardi thanks, I always like getting these suggestions :D so far I've only played a community made campaign for Solasta by mr. Silverquick which was quite good.
Hey bro, awesome video. Very helpful. In case you got some time on your hand, what would be the ideal / most fun/ BiS custom party for BG2 into ToB in your opinion? I have berserker dual into mage at 9 as fixed spot since I love the class so much. I'm running SCS, ascension + some more mods on hardcore. No cheese mods like improved items, even though it's tempting. I know a full custom party might tip the scales a bit in my favour, but prefer the game now without NPC interuptions. Atm. I feel like I can't decide on weapon proficiencies. I feel like my staff of magi on my wild mage is kinda wasted as he does not use it to hit anyone. SCS removed invisibility from it.
Ok, so for a custom party and taking into consideration your main char I would probably do something like: Berserker > Mage (your main) - Axes - dual wielding Dwarf Fighter/Cleric - War hammers - dual wielding or with a shield for flavour/fun Kensai > Thief - LongSword/ShortSword/Wakizashi/Katana (really anything you might like and that is eligible for backstabbing) - dual wielding Berserker > Cleric - Flails - dual wielding Archer - Shortbows and/or Crossbows (This slot could be anything else really, I just like having at least one dedicated ranged dps. A third arcane caster would also be awesome) Sorcerer I always play with NPC companions as I love having them around :p But if I ever did a full custom party to be as powerful as possible and also fun, this would be a good bet. Happy to hear you liked the video :D Best of luck on your run!
@@CoredumpedGaming Thanks for the reply man! I ended up restarting my BG2 playthrough now with: Zerker into mage Zerker into cleric Fighter/Druid Kensai into Thief Archer Wildmage (since I won't be doing any companion quests, I EE-keepered Thayan circlet and Goodman robe in Irenicus dungeon, a bit cheesy, but not gamebreaking in any way).
@@Madzak A very solid party for sure. As for the wild mage, I understand your item choices there :p It does smooth out some of the weird randomness that can kill the entire party if something goes wrong eheh And a properly used wild mage... is probably the strongest class in the game.
@@CoredumpedGaming Definitely, I did mate. For the sake of conviniencie I followed a bunch of walkthroughs with tons of spoilers which was an unfortunately. Now I gotta finish TOB with my good archer on Android and replay the game with my new badass berserker /mage and his evil party on PC version ;)
Why does Ruby Ray remove the Spell Deflection first, Spell Turning second, then Spell Immunity? What's the logic behind that order? Why doesn't it remove the Spell Turning first? Or Spell Immunity for that matter?
Hello friend! Looking at the description of ruby ray it says the following: "This will always dispel the highest-level spell protection affecting the target; if more than one same-level protection is active on the target simultaneously, one of them will be randomly chosen and dispelled." - taken from baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Ruby_Ray_of_Reversal Hopefully this answers your question, if you need anything else let me know :) Thank you for your comment!
@@CoredumpedGaming Yeah I see. The confusion is you said Spell Deflection then Spell Turning, but looking at Edwin, it actually was Spell Turning then Spell Deflection, which agrees with the description. So I think you just got them mixed up when talking, which is easily done. Do you happen to know if Secret Word and Pierce Shield/Magic work the same way as Ruby Ray (dispelling highest first)? They don't mention anything in their description like Ruby Ray does.
@@awesimo4684 Ah, right you are. I just said the wrong thing there, sorry about that. The spells you mention work in the same way as ruby ray, not sure why the devs didn't add that information for those spells, but it is the same thing. Khelben's Warding Whip also works the same way btw. Another cool thing that might be worth mentioning here is that, let's say for example that an opponent has Spell Immunity: Abjuration(lvl5), Spell Deflection(lvl6), Spell Turning(lvl7) and Spell Trap(lvl9). If are only interested in removing his SI: Abjuration to then hit him with remove magics for example, if you use a Spell Thrust, it will remove the SI: Abjuration :D Since it only removes protections up to level 5, the only one it can remove is SI: Abjuration eheh could be handy.
Keldorn is very nice for his dispel (if you don't nerf its power via mods) and true sight. He's not as good as other fighter types but I do love having him in the party because I really enjoy his character and voice acting :D and he can also wield Carsomyr which is a nice bonus!
The whole story is very confusing and very buggy, but here is the base algorithm as I understand it. On offence: 1. Check if the target has improved invisibility. If not, your main goal to reach breach. If yes,- remove magic. 2. Check if target has spell immunity- abjuration. If not,- u can use remove magic. If yes or target is too high level ,- go to 3. 3. Check if target has spell shield. If yes,- use Ruby Ray to cancel it. Notes: 1. Ruby Ray is the best because it is not abjuration spell and it pierces anything. 2. Breach doesn't work on magic immune targets (liches) in vanilla and does work in SCS. 3. Improved invisibility is bugged as hell. Sometimes using scroll on target works, but "native cast" never does. Def has similar logic. U need spell immunity- abj, spell shield and any protection of lvl 6+ (to stop something from hitting spell shield). Behind this,- use standard protections like stone skin etc.
I find it a little sad that the enhanced editions havent changed much here. Tho i did notice some enemies trying to flee,the ones susceptible to morale failure, or switching target to my casters. I wouldnt want every mage to have every spell tho, its just not realistic. For a mage to have all those spells they'd have to be rich or have adventured for a reasonably long time, like nonstop adventuring since BG1 as my mage has. I can see the Cowled Enforcers having everything... But not Corneil for example, the one in the gov. building.. Or why would every caster the Cowled Wizards employ be a normal wizard and not a specialist? that Gethras mage that you have to kill is the best example. He casts protective spells, one of which is Prot. from Magic Weapons, but he's not a Lich with an innate resistance to +2 or lesser weapons, so you can literally use mundane weapons to hit through his protection... And apply poison with an assassin or a wizardslayer's spellcast failure. Its not SCS, but it has a realistic feel somehow. Also having mages behave and memorize spells according to their wisdom stat. I mean Edwin is smart, but he's not wise.. so him being a nuker is like the obvious thing for him to be.. he'd have an escape spell, but thats about it. Whereas an archmage like Elminster will have planned contingencies and actually have those spells every mage in SCS automatically gets.
I get what you're saying. Realistically yeah, most mages should probably not be as well equipped with magic as SCS makes them but from a gameplay perspective it makes encounters more challenging and fun. SCS doesn't give all mages everything btw, it scales as you progress through the game. So a Lich will be a force to be reckoned with, with a bunch of high level spells, contingencies and even HLAs, whereas a "random" unnamed wizard is not as well equipped and can usually be taken down with some simple counter magic. And what you say is true and I even reference it in the video, if an enemy wizard casts protection from magical weapons, just beat them up with sticks and regular swords :p
Very good video man. I'm playing now with Keldorn for the Holy Avenger and seens like he kind of solves the "mage problem" on his own, on hit disispell is pretty powerfull, it is like at least 2 free ruby ray per round, on top of sick DMG.
Keldorn is a very powerful anti-caster character to the point where I usually nerf the inquisitor dispel magic ability. The holy avenger is excellent like the staff of magi, the problem is if the enemy has protection from magical weapons. If they don't though, they will be sad :D
You are in luck my friend! Recently I saw this mod (and I just tried it out after receiving your comment) - forums.beamdog.com/discussion/84149/2-6-bg2-radar-overlay-released/p1?new=1 It still has some stuff to improve, but for the most part it will give you a LOT of very useful information!
about the minute 48 (when Edwin has the bunch spell protections including spell turning + stoneskin) magic missile wouldn't be a good way to get to him, correct? It'd need to be an AoE
Yes, correct. At the time I mentioned magic missiles it was because edwin did not have shield or protection from magic energy but yes, with the specific prots he had up it wouldn't work, the missiles would just get reflected back due to spell turning. A horrid wilting would hit though.
gotcha. Sort of related question, if Edwin had spell deflection + spell turning in the magic missile scenario, would spell turning always block it before spell deflection? Or does it depend on the order you cast them? I guess the same could be asked of stoneskin+mirror image?
@@carlosrb5860 from what I remember, the highest level protection triggers first. I know for sure that when using something like ruby ray it always removes the highest level protection possible and if there's more than one of the same level, it chooses randomly between them. I believe it works the same way when throwing something against them like the magic missiles (I would encourage testing this however to be 100% sure). As for stoneskin and mirror image it's different. If an enemy swings at you he has a chance to hit an image or the real caster. Only if the caster gets hit does the skin get consumed.
How does detect illusion skill work? Does it go off at a random time/segment within the round? I usually use the second level Detect Invisibility spell if I need to quickly break enemy mage invis cause it goes off at 2 but IDK if Detect Illusion is quick/reliable enough for combat. I'm still on my first SCS playthrough right now. Your videos have helped me a ton!
Hi, first of all, thank you! Very happy to hear the videos were helpful :D As for detect illusion, it triggers in the same way that a detect trap would, so every time a new round begins, it will check for illusions and dispel them. If you were unlucky enough to start detecting illusions just as a new round started, then you would have to effectively wait up to 6 seconds before it would trigger. In my opinion, what you are doing is the best approach. Detect Invisibility, to me, has always been the most reliable way to dispel invisibility from enemy mages if you need to do it quickly. If it's not really a major priority to bring enemies out of stealth, then detect illusion or a spell like true seeing are more efficient since they dispel every round. For thieves and backstabber type enemies I always use my trusty Detect Invisibility though because those need to get out of stealth ASAP :D
Best video on BG ever! Years ago, I played hours on end on the PC (complete Big World setup). I developed what I called "No Hands" scripts, which were just that; I'd get an encounter, and the only thing I allowed myself to do was reposition the team, nothing else. This makes me get excited to go back and re-look at these scripts for buffing and debuffing. Also, once I get BG on Steam, to rewrite all the scripts in the new language.
Ah, very nice! I imagine developing those scripts can be quite interesting and I've met some modders that work on stuff like that, they're always excited to show them in action :D
Here is a vid that needed to be done - thanks dude! Now only if Spellhold Studios site wasn't' down so I can grab all of the necessary mods [BGT fan here]! Those guys really need to back up ALL their files to a generic server for us to grab.
Thank you good sir :D Always happy to hear it was useful. Yeah, I've also had trouble in the past with Spellhold Studios... Thankfully most of the mods I use are hosted in the Gibberlings3 website (maybe check if the ones you need are also there)
The only thing i dont like about scs is that it makes that feel all mage/cleric fights the same. a few years ago i played a mod BG High Power wich makes every single! fight unique. i wish scs adopt that unique unique fights feature :) but yes scs is still great!
While I don't feel like fights play the same (as I feel they progress in difficulty and level scaling) I do understand your point. High power is a mod which I am not familiar with, I will investigate! Thank you for sharing :D
Yep... you can kind of work around that by removing the weapon, buffing with haste and then re-equipping, but it's really not worth that trouble imo, I would definitely just leave it at +4
What? Mods in BG?!? Since when?! The only "mods" I remember at the time were adding custom portraits and replacing sounds (if you got eng version and wanted another language). Omg 😱, just only the first 30s and already worth it 🤩. Sub in a heartbeat!
They've been around for many years and some of them are really really awesome. The ones I use, especially Ascension, SCS and Tweaks Anthology, I just can't play without them anymore :p I've also quite recently uploaded a video showing the installation process of the mods in case you are interested - th-cam.com/video/Dpumgv99_iI/w-d-xo.html
I found this very helpful....i play these games on my pc while my wife watches tv....so i play with no sound at all so i dont hear what the chars say and sometimes I can't be bothered checking the logs.....that means when i actually do meet a high level mage type enemy I don't really know what to do for the best and i just pound away at them with weapons while i try to figure out what spells to use....i watched your video on what spells to choose if you play a mage and yes by myself i had about 75% of the same choices you made but others and your description of how to use them will now have me making different choices in future. Thx. 👍
Thank you! I am glad to have been of help. Also, may I suggest headphones? That way the wife is not disturbed but you can also listen to what's happening in the game :p Otherwise, how are you going to be able to listen to Edwin's wonderful voice? Edit - also something you might like are the mods shown here - th-cam.com/video/ceSuvPXkQXA/w-d-xo.html - which also help if you are playing without sound
Wow, it's great to hear tips directly from Edwin himself! Amazing that Edwin actually has his own youtube channel and is sharing his superior strats with us inferior beings.
You simians may refer to me merely as "sir" if you prefer a less... syllable-intensive workout.
Also, thank you :D
Do I detect a Tuga accent? :) If so - it's a small world xd
This is a great video for anyone wanting to install, or uninstall, SCS.
Ahahah I definitely understand what you mean :p
I will still take that as a compliment though!
@@CoredumpedGaming Oh it was! SCS can be frustrating, this video will help people.
Been playing this game for more years than I care to remember and this is by far the best magic tutorial I have come across. Kudos mate!
Thank you good sir! That means a lot :D
Glad to hear you liked it
@@CoredumpedGaming Have never played EET and am about to buy games. Do you recommend Steam or GOG and why. Cheers mate, keep up the great work.
I own the games on GoG sinply because I prefer the GoG platform. I don't think there's any actual difference in getting the game on either one.
One minor correction though! The Flail of Ages +4 is THE best weapon in the game. +5 gives you Free Action (which sucks in BG2), which negates Improved Haste. The most broken part of the weapon is the no save slow, and the +4 gets that as well. Attacking 4-5 times per turn is nice, but 8-10 is op when each attack has a chance to slow. And if you're using it on a Fighter, you'd rather be spamming Hardiness and Critical Strike than Whirlwind (just to get the 10 APR).
You are 100% correct. In this playthrough I had it all the way to +5 for some reason I don't even remember. Normally with a party like this I would have haer'dalis wielding flail of ages but in this case nobody was actually using it and korgan had 5 pips in longswords while using foebane so I dunno what the hell I was doing in this playthrough xD
By default I never upgrade flail of ages from +4 to +5 for the exact reasons you stated.
There are mods that either remove the Free Action or neutralize it so you can use IH with it.
@@morpheus562 That sounds sweet, but honestly that makes the weapon too op for my tastes.
@@DinkSmalwood that's fair enough. Personally I like it since it can only be made after fighting Abazigal, so there isn't much left of the game at that point.
@@morpheus562 True true, it's not gonna make or break your final fights.
I watch this video every few months and I always learn something new or remember something I need to know. Masterpiece video! Thanks so much for the work making this one.
Fighting mages is the most important thing to know when playing with SCS and also my favourite :D It's a very fun topic for me eheh
I love the breakdown videos. It makes it easy on anyone running into problems
Awesome vid. I had doubts about how things worked with Abjuration Immunity, I was worried none of my antimagic worked; but it does.
Few things: Korgan has 9/2APR. He doesn't have nine-and-a-half attacks per round, he has nine-attacks-per-two-rounds. So he gets Five Attacks one round, Four the next.
Pro tip: If you're going to use Improve Alacrity with Vecna and Power; set your auto-pause to 'spell cast' and you'll get the most out of it.
Thank you :D
Yeah, I know how the 9/2 APR works, I'm just not very good at verbalizing it lol
Regarding Improved Alacrity + auto-pause I would agree with you 120% *but* there is one slight detail regarding that: Spell casting has some issues with auto-pause. This is nothing related to any mod mind you, it's something from the game engine, but with certain spells, auto-pause can create weird behavior. At the time I found this while using the sunscorch spell from a druid where I would cast sunscord on a character, it would show in the console that the enemy saved against sunscorch, but he was still blinded. I talked to a dev about this and I'll quote what he told me at the time: "If the game pauses when a spell is cast, it doesn't get the effect order right.
So if it's mixing in save and non-save effects, you get multiple saves, even on individual effects--in this case, the actual blind, 'blinded' string, and blind icon are all separate effects". And in practice, once I turned off auto-pause, the issue never happened again.
For most things you won't even notice it, but since I am now aware it exists, I'm trying to avoid using auto-pause precisely to prevent the issue from happening (to my great great sadness specifically because of imp alacrity).
Sorry about the wall of text :p
@@CoredumpedGaming For real? I've never noticed that. Truthfully, I doubt I actually would notice. If and when I do this trick, I give my Wizard boots of speed, Imp haste and completely unload my spellbook. There is *so* much going off by the time the Timestop ends, the battle is over in glorious screenfilling magical effects :D
@@redelephantsdotnl yeah, like I said, for the most part it's not even noticeable. And also, as you correctly state, with the utter armaggedon of effects that go off once timestop ends... it's not really going to matter much if a save was incorrectly calculated or not in the middle of all that glorious madness :p
@@CoredumpedGaming Let's just agree that timestop+improved alacrity is the *one* thing that makes you feel like the ultimate magical badass.
@@redelephantsdotnl We are in perfect agreement there :D
This might be the greatest accent I've heard on a person.
The Edwin accent! (well, Portuguese in this case :p)
This complexity is why I think that Baldurs Gate had the best magic system of all games I've played so far.
Complexity, if done right, is the best thing that a game can have. Baldur's Gate, with SCS especially is just the perfect combination for me.
totally. This massive magic system is one of the reasons I love so much this game
Except it doesn't. It has a simple magic system. It's the SCS mod that gives you the massive improvements to make this video possible
@@Byssbodit has a complex magic system that vanilla npcs are too dumb to use
Great video. One nitpick--Spell Shield isn't removed by Spellstrike etc. because that's what the spell is intended to do, absorb ONE anti-spell-protection spell then fizzle. Which I'm sure you understand but it wasn't real clear in the video why spell shield wasn't removed from spellstrike attack (it isn't because of the delay). Look at the description for spell shield, it clearly says it protects the wizard from the next magical attack including spellstrike. The description for spellstrike is confusing because it sounds like spellstrike should remove ALL the spells in the list AT ONCE including spell shield. For clarity it should say something like "Spellstrike will simultaneously remove all of the following spells--list spells--unless protected by spell shield, in which case only spell shield is removed."
You also left out my favorite tactic for mages, give staff of the magi or carsomyr to a fighter or fighter/thief with grand mastery and improved haste (or greater whirlwind) and beat the mage to death with each hit giving dispel magic @ l30 per hit. It's been a while since I played SCS but I'm pretty sure this was my go-to tactic and my kensai/mage solo completely wrecked enemies. Also staff of the magi has a built in spell trap that lasts EIGHT HOURS! It's a nice weapon...
SCS mages cheat btw, have you looked at their scripts? It's been a while but IIRC they have all kind of ridiculous contingencies using ReallyForceSpell, which means they sometimes can put multiple buffs up instantly without actually using memorized chain contingencies.
I'm replaying the series in advance of BG3 full release. Just finished BG1. Onward!
Ha! And they have the audacity to say SCS mages don't cheat and play fair in the rules lmao
This video is so didactic and fun, thank you for teaching us all about mage duels in BG2!
My pleasure good sir, glad to hear it was useful :D
i'm trying SCS for the second time, first time didn't go so well, and this video is the motivation i needed, here i come kangaxx, you got nothin'!
Godspeed friend! Show that lich who's boss :D
I can imagine a remake just touching graphics and some ai utilities for bg1 and 2, and with your awesome vids it could be incredible. Thx for this man
He forgot to mention how to overcome enemies that use Spell Immunity: Divination and Abjuration. Irenicus was tough in that final battle :-( Great vid though. Didn't know about the Spell Shield delay when dispelling it with Time Stop.
Fair point sir. For that a thief with detect illusion 100 would be the best bet :D Otherwise they can be very annoying indeed!
Thank you for that :D
@@CoredumpedGaming You are most welcome!
Thanks to you I finally know the difference between the breach and the warding whip. Turns out I've been using it wrong all the time, but somehow casting them simultaneously proved to work just fine. And finally I know what the secret word is for. I kept forgetting about it's existance xd
But now I don't necesairly understand the difference between the remove magic and breach xd
The general idea for remove magic and breach is as follows:
Breach is single target and it will guarantee that you dispel 100% of their combat protections (assuming they don't have any spell protection that counters breach like spell deflection/turning/trap/shield). This spell is the reason why learning how to strip spell defenses from enemy mages is so crucial, if an enemy is hit by breach, your fighters can rip them to pieces.
Remove magic is an area of effect spell that can dispel everybody in the area but it is not guaranteed. Remove magic is based on a few rolls and takes into consideration the level difference between you and the caster of the enemy protections. If you're at the same level or higher than the enemies, remove magic can be absolutely devastating as it also bypasses a lot of the spell protections that stop a breach. There are a few protections that stop remove magic however, like Spell Immunity: Abjuration. Overall, I like to use this for groups of enemies, even enemies that are not necessarily casters, to remove their buffs.
So if you are fighting a pack of "normal" enemies, Remove magic is likely the strongest option, but if you are fighting a "special" caster enemy e.g. a lich or just a high level wizard, breach would be the way to go.
Awesome video, thank you! I was about do uninstall scs 'cause mages are way too powerful and I couldn't move on, but I will give it another try.
Godspeed mr. Sorin :p
Scs mages are a biiig bump in the difficulty when you start playing with scs for sure, don't feel bad for having trouble against them.
I would suggest also taking a look at these mods here: th-cam.com/video/ceSuvPXkQXA/w-d-xo.html as they will also help out a LOT :)
If you have any questions feel free to let me know!
@@CoredumpedGaming Thanks! I am definitely going to grab the ones for the spells menu and the enemies info, they look soooooo usefull!! I wish I knew about them earlier.
@@nicolaorsi4862 I only found out about them not too long ago, they relatively new. But they are indeed very useful :D
I just spent the last 5 days or so modding the hell out of BG2. like most of the items, companions, kits, portraits, and now just remembered that i wanted to install SCS or some similar mod. Do i need to do a fresh install or can i install most of SCS over the top of my modded game if i'm careful what parts i install?. I havn't touched any AI or enemies but have made a few priest spells available to mages and messed with some of the kits and made a bunch of innate abilitys. I understand that SCS makes alot of kits available to NPCs.
Scs modifies the way enemies behave and allows them to use things they didn't before like for example fighters drinking potions. Given your description of the mods you have installed, SCS should be fine to install after those. Enjoy! :)
@@CoredumpedGaming No i've been modding it myself with near infinity ... so didn't want to waste all that work, but good to know you think i might be able to install over the top.
@@CoredumpedGaming Just installed it ... most of it. Everything seems ok.
@@hardywatkins7737 SCS also greatly improves the scripting options so you can make really complex AI scripts (for enemies, or for player scripts). That's the main reason I really like the mod. Pocketplane has a really good scripting guide if you're interested. I've yet to see a game with better player AI than BG2 with SCS, though it can take a while to write.
Really well explained. I want to start with SCS. What settings do you recommend?
If you are just starting out with SCS I would recommend keeping it at the default difficulty setting which is "Tactical". If you feel something is too easy/hard to your liking you can always go to the menu > Gameplay > Fine-Tune Difficulty and change any component you wish. Once you get more comfortable with SCS feel free to start upping the difficulty if you enjoy the challenge.
I wish you the best of luck for your SCS runs and hope you have a lot of fun! :D
@@CoredumpedGaming Yeah, starting out so tactical is fine. And what about all the other components? Just ignoring them for now?
@tammo100 Which components are you referring to? The ones you choose during SCS installation ?
edit: if what I mention above is what you mean, the components I usually install in my game can be found here:
BG1: pastebin.com/2miMuPfe
BG2: pastebin.com/mvUyXvJh
For both of those, if you are only interested in SCS, you can ignore all entries that *do not* start with "~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~".
Other than that, if you want to play with Icewind Dale spells (I personally enjoy having them and enemies will also use them), also install that component from SCS.
Edit2: if you are talking about the components from the "fine-tune difficulty" then yes, just leave them default for now.
The question is, do you want superpowered Planetars being dropped in the middle of your party at lvl 10-11? If yes, then go for insane difficulty.
@@CoredumpedGamingI meant the ones like tougher enemies and end of chapter battles. Thanks for your help!
Great video! Thank you so much. I think I'm ready to give SCS a try. I only have one reservation. In games like this, I eventually get tired of all the pre-buffing. Is there a mod that let's you customize precisely the pre-buffs you want to use and then trigger them all via shortcut? I think I saw one that lets you pre-buff by using a shortcut but it doesn't let you customize the buffs you want to use.
I totally understand your reservation. There is indeed a lot of pre-buffing :p And there is also a mod exactly for that, it will automate the pre-buffing and cast it instantly on your party, or you can also have a mod that makes it so you have improved alacrity (essentially means there is no pause between spell casts which makes buffing much quicker) while out of combat. The one I know of and have tried is this one - github.com/Gibberlings3/Enhanced-Powergaming-Scripts - latest version being this one: github.com/Gibberlings3/Enhanced-Powergaming-Scripts/releases/tag/10.4 It works well and removes a lot of the tedious aspects of buffing, just make sure to read the README so you understand how to work with it. *It has the exact feature you mentioned as well, press a shortcut and all pre-buffs are applied.* This will also allow you to automate spell casting in combat as well without need to manually intervene. As an example: An enemy buffs himself with Spell Immunity to Abjuration, the mod would immediately make one of your party members cast an anti magic spell at that target like secret word or ruby ray. Personally I don't like to automate those things, but this mod can also do it if you want it. The guy who made the mod is also awesome (cheers to mr. morpheus562).
Why use Ruby Ray when you can use Pierce Shield? Is it because of the faster casting time?
There are several reasons for it.
1. First, ruby ray is the first spell available that can deal with any spell protection coming at level 7 instead of level 8, which is a significant difference.
2. Ruby ray has a faster cast time as you also noted
3. You will very likely want your level 8 spells to be different things as there are many potent spells at this level like horrid wilting, spell trigger, etc.
4. Pierce shield being a level above ruby ray is slower and what it provides as a bonus over ruby ray (small reduction of MR) isn't very relevant.
So, as a summary, ruby ray is in practice essentially as effective as pierce shield for 99% of situations, it is more efficient, faster, comes earlier and in a less contested spell slot.
Pierce shield would be something I would have on a mage for those specific situations where it may come in handy.
I also normally take spellstrike at some point as a level 9 spell for that "one cast dispel everything" spell effect which does feel like a superior effect for a higher spell slot.
Does Spell Deflection reflect Remove Magic if they don’t have Spell Immunity: Abjuration?
I think you answered around 41:00. I’m asking as this is my first playthrough with SCS. I’m at Davaeorn. I’m planning my ambush. I should use Spell Thrust first, then Remove Magic. Right??
No, spell deflection only works on spells that actually target. Remove magic does not target.
However, remove/dispel magic basically compare your level with the enemy level in order to determine if it will work or not. There's still some RNG involved, but with Davaeorn typically being much higher level than you it would be very unlikely it worked. So yes, spell thrust is your best bet for that situation
I love this video, works well for a rookie like me.
Great video.
base on what u mention, how many spells do i really need? i dun thjink my mages can prepare all the spells required. then you also won't know what spells they are going to use and how they going to attack
It really depends on the fights but outside special enemies, enemy mages don't put up that many protections. Often a remove magic is enough to dispel them, or a secret word/ruby ray + breach. Tougher caster enemies like liches would need more anti magic spells naturally but this is something that you start getting the feel for as you play the game.
@@CoredumpedGaming how about Melissa? Seem kind of hard to hit her even i cast Remove Magic on her immediately she cast Stone Skin. My party is kind of weak. i have minsc, jaheira, neera, imoen, Aerie and my own character which is a mage. Also ho do get to expand your log screen so bbig? Mine was just a pathetic small screen which can't enlarged further. My BG2 was a enhanced edition.
Melissan is tough. Some enemies will reapply defenses so you need to continue taking them off. If she doesn't have other spell defenses like spell deflection/turning/trap you can hit her with a breach which will remove her combat defenses like stoneskin.
The log you can just click at the top of the log window and drag it to resize :)
@@CoredumpedGaming she cast protection from magic weapons but it din show up in the log at all. all i see is 'the weapon doesn't work at all'. Then i know somewhere is wrong. seriously. even i cast breach on her, they still can't even hit her. no where in the log mention her what defensive spell she has cast except the offensive spells she has cast on my party. she summon all the monsters and my 2 fighters went down real fast.
I just installed BG1 Tutu and SCS and am playing vanilla at the same time. I dunno. The charm of the game, for me, and the reason I prefer it to its sequel was how straightforward the combat was. I hate having to dedicate my spellcasters to almost exclusively remove immunities from and apply debuffs to my enemies, as well as patch status effects on my own party. Maybe I misunderstood you, but i'm not so sure I'll stick to my SCS playtrough. Maybe, I'll instead impose myself some rules that limit my ability of rushing enemy spellcasters ;) :)
That's totally legitimate. Not everyone needs to enjoy what SCS adds to the game. I will however just make a quick note here that SCS is customizable in game, so you can choose for yourself what you want the mod to add for any of its components. You can even say that you want fighter types to be smarter but maintain the spellcasters the way they were.
We all enjoy things differently, so don't feel like you're playing an inferior version of the game because you don't want to use SCS.
@@CoredumpedGaming Great point & Thanks for your kindness! EDIT: If you ever feel like reviewing great community made cRPGs, consider the great "Swordflight" series for NWN1 by RogueKnight333
@@nmpltleopardi thanks, I always like getting these suggestions :D so far I've only played a community made campaign for Solasta by mr. Silverquick which was quite good.
Hey bro, awesome video. Very helpful. In case you got some time on your hand, what would be the ideal / most fun/ BiS custom party for BG2 into ToB in your opinion? I have berserker dual into mage at 9 as fixed spot since I love the class so much. I'm running SCS, ascension + some more mods on hardcore. No cheese mods like improved items, even though it's tempting. I know a full custom party might tip the scales a bit in my favour, but prefer the game now without NPC interuptions. Atm. I feel like I can't decide on weapon proficiencies. I feel like my staff of magi on my wild mage is kinda wasted as he does not use it to hit anyone. SCS removed invisibility from it.
Ok, so for a custom party and taking into consideration your main char I would probably do something like:
Berserker > Mage (your main) - Axes - dual wielding
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric - War hammers - dual wielding or with a shield for flavour/fun
Kensai > Thief - LongSword/ShortSword/Wakizashi/Katana (really anything you might like and that is eligible for backstabbing) - dual wielding
Berserker > Cleric - Flails - dual wielding
Archer - Shortbows and/or Crossbows (This slot could be anything else really, I just like having at least one dedicated ranged dps. A third arcane caster would also be awesome)
Sorcerer
I always play with NPC companions as I love having them around :p But if I ever did a full custom party to be as powerful as possible and also fun, this would be a good bet.
Happy to hear you liked the video :D Best of luck on your run!
@@CoredumpedGaming Thanks for the reply man! I ended up restarting my BG2 playthrough now with:
Zerker into mage
Zerker into cleric
Fighter/Druid
Kensai into Thief
Archer
Wildmage (since I won't be doing any companion quests, I EE-keepered Thayan circlet and Goodman robe in Irenicus dungeon, a bit cheesy, but not gamebreaking in any way).
@@Madzak A very solid party for sure.
As for the wild mage, I understand your item choices there :p It does smooth out some of the weird randomness that can kill the entire party if something goes wrong eheh And a properly used wild mage... is probably the strongest class in the game.
Just beat the vanilla bg2 for the very first time. Yet I don't have balls for SCS. Nice video though.
The first time going through baldur's gate is quite the experience! which sadly you only get to enjoy once :( Did you enjoy your playthrough?
@@CoredumpedGaming Definitely, I did mate. For the sake of conviniencie I followed a bunch of walkthroughs with tons of spoilers which was an unfortunately. Now I gotta finish TOB with my good archer on Android and replay the game with my new badass berserker /mage and his evil party on PC version ;)
perfect video
This is Core Video. Great!
Why does Ruby Ray remove the Spell Deflection first, Spell Turning second, then Spell Immunity?
What's the logic behind that order? Why doesn't it remove the Spell Turning first? Or Spell Immunity for that matter?
Hello friend! Looking at the description of ruby ray it says the following: "This will always dispel the highest-level spell protection affecting the target; if more than one same-level protection is active on the target simultaneously, one of them will be randomly chosen and dispelled." - taken from baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Ruby_Ray_of_Reversal
Hopefully this answers your question, if you need anything else let me know :)
Thank you for your comment!
@@CoredumpedGaming Yeah I see. The confusion is you said Spell Deflection then Spell Turning, but looking at Edwin, it actually was Spell Turning then Spell Deflection, which agrees with the description. So I think you just got them mixed up when talking, which is easily done.
Do you happen to know if Secret Word and Pierce Shield/Magic work the same way as Ruby Ray (dispelling highest first)? They don't mention anything in their description like Ruby Ray does.
@@awesimo4684 Ah, right you are. I just said the wrong thing there, sorry about that.
The spells you mention work in the same way as ruby ray, not sure why the devs didn't add that information for those spells, but it is the same thing. Khelben's Warding Whip also works the same way btw.
Another cool thing that might be worth mentioning here is that, let's say for example that an opponent has Spell Immunity: Abjuration(lvl5), Spell Deflection(lvl6), Spell Turning(lvl7) and Spell Trap(lvl9). If are only interested in removing his SI: Abjuration to then hit him with remove magics for example, if you use a Spell Thrust, it will remove the SI: Abjuration :D Since it only removes protections up to level 5, the only one it can remove is SI: Abjuration eheh could be handy.
@@CoredumpedGaming Wait, so would a Spell Trap not absorb the Spell Thrust? That makes Spell Thrust way stronger than I thought if true.
Edwina looks like Aria Giovanni.
I... am not sure how to respond to this.
Also, you're going to explain my browser history to my wife.
BTW, Keldorn is a GOD in SCS
Keldorn is very nice for his dispel (if you don't nerf its power via mods) and true sight. He's not as good as other fighter types but I do love having him in the party because I really enjoy his character and voice acting :D and he can also wield Carsomyr which is a nice bonus!
The whole story is very confusing and very buggy, but here is the base algorithm as I understand it.
On offence:
1. Check if the target has improved invisibility. If not, your main goal to reach breach. If yes,- remove magic.
2. Check if target has spell immunity- abjuration. If not,- u can use remove magic. If yes or target is too high level ,- go to 3.
3. Check if target has spell shield. If yes,- use Ruby Ray to cancel it.
Notes:
1. Ruby Ray is the best because it is not abjuration spell and it pierces anything.
2. Breach doesn't work on magic immune targets (liches) in vanilla and does work in SCS.
3. Improved invisibility is bugged as hell. Sometimes using scroll on target works, but "native cast" never does.
Def has similar logic. U need spell immunity- abj, spell shield and any protection of lvl 6+ (to stop something from hitting spell shield). Behind this,- use standard protections like stone skin etc.
why bother when you can just have an inquisitor in the party ^^
I find it a little sad that the enhanced editions havent changed much here. Tho i did notice some enemies trying to flee,the ones susceptible to morale failure, or switching target to my casters.
I wouldnt want every mage to have every spell tho, its just not realistic. For a mage to have all those spells they'd have to be rich or have adventured for a reasonably long time, like nonstop adventuring since BG1 as my mage has. I can see the Cowled Enforcers having everything... But not Corneil for example, the one in the gov. building..
Or why would every caster the Cowled Wizards employ be a normal wizard and not a specialist?
that Gethras mage that you have to kill is the best example. He casts protective spells, one of which is Prot. from Magic Weapons, but he's not a Lich with an innate resistance to +2 or lesser weapons, so you can literally use mundane weapons to hit through his protection... And apply poison with an assassin or a wizardslayer's spellcast failure.
Its not SCS, but it has a realistic feel somehow.
Also having mages behave and memorize spells according to their wisdom stat. I mean Edwin is smart, but he's not wise.. so him being a nuker is like the obvious thing for him to be.. he'd have an escape spell, but thats about it. Whereas an archmage like Elminster will have planned contingencies and actually have those spells every mage in SCS automatically gets.
I get what you're saying. Realistically yeah, most mages should probably not be as well equipped with magic as SCS makes them but from a gameplay perspective it makes encounters more challenging and fun. SCS doesn't give all mages everything btw, it scales as you progress through the game. So a Lich will be a force to be reckoned with, with a bunch of high level spells, contingencies and even HLAs, whereas a "random" unnamed wizard is not as well equipped and can usually be taken down with some simple counter magic. And what you say is true and I even reference it in the video, if an enemy wizard casts protection from magical weapons, just beat them up with sticks and regular swords :p
Very good video man. I'm playing now with Keldorn for the Holy Avenger and seens like he kind of solves the "mage problem" on his own, on hit disispell is pretty powerfull, it is like at least 2 free ruby ray per round, on top of sick DMG.
Keldorn is a very powerful anti-caster character to the point where I usually nerf the inquisitor dispel magic ability. The holy avenger is excellent like the staff of magi, the problem is if the enemy has protection from magical weapons. If they don't though, they will be sad :D
nice video :D
start playing SCS in my 40s，really a informative video🎉
Never too late to get into Baldur's Gate SCS :D Enjoy sir!
is it there any "inspect enemy" mod? sometimes i get overwhelmed with the log info
My previous comment got deleted, but yes. EEex and BG2RadarOverlay both do this.
You are in luck my friend! Recently I saw this mod (and I just tried it out after receiving your comment) - forums.beamdog.com/discussion/84149/2-6-bg2-radar-overlay-released/p1?new=1
It still has some stuff to improve, but for the most part it will give you a LOT of very useful information!
@@morpheus562 You are the second person that I've seen youtube remove their comments... Did you get any information on why that happened?
@@CoredumpedGaming How about making some videos of fighting Kangaxx and other baddies with this awesome mod?
@@НиколайЗахаров-в9ъ I will try to brew something with this :D
about the minute 48 (when Edwin has the bunch spell protections including spell turning + stoneskin) magic missile wouldn't be a good way to get to him, correct? It'd need to be an AoE
Yes, correct. At the time I mentioned magic missiles it was because edwin did not have shield or protection from magic energy but yes, with the specific prots he had up it wouldn't work, the missiles would just get reflected back due to spell turning. A horrid wilting would hit though.
gotcha. Sort of related question, if Edwin had spell deflection + spell turning in the magic missile scenario, would spell turning always block it before spell deflection? Or does it depend on the order you cast them?
I guess the same could be asked of stoneskin+mirror image?
@@carlosrb5860 from what I remember, the highest level protection triggers first. I know for sure that when using something like ruby ray it always removes the highest level protection possible and if there's more than one of the same level, it chooses randomly between them. I believe it works the same way when throwing something against them like the magic missiles (I would encourage testing this however to be 100% sure). As for stoneskin and mirror image it's different. If an enemy swings at you he has a chance to hit an image or the real caster. Only if the caster gets hit does the skin get consumed.
the bg content i crave
Shit, it really sounds like Edwin! Great vid btw
:D
Fantastic guide, thank you so much!
Happy to hear you liked it friend :D
Have you ever considered making a flow chart about this???
It would also be funny if someone made a little mini game for iOS or Android about mage duels where you can dispel other mages 😅
Lol it could be yeah xD
Never considered making such a chart no, I'm not much of a chart making guy :p
Thank you for your expansive visual guides.
How does detect illusion skill work? Does it go off at a random time/segment within the round? I usually use the second level Detect Invisibility spell if I need to quickly break enemy mage invis cause it goes off at 2 but IDK if Detect Illusion is quick/reliable enough for combat.
I'm still on my first SCS playthrough right now. Your videos have helped me a ton!
Hi, first of all, thank you! Very happy to hear the videos were helpful :D
As for detect illusion, it triggers in the same way that a detect trap would, so every time a new round begins, it will check for illusions and dispel them. If you were unlucky enough to start detecting illusions just as a new round started, then you would have to effectively wait up to 6 seconds before it would trigger. In my opinion, what you are doing is the best approach. Detect Invisibility, to me, has always been the most reliable way to dispel invisibility from enemy mages if you need to do it quickly. If it's not really a major priority to bring enemies out of stealth, then detect illusion or a spell like true seeing are more efficient since they dispel every round. For thieves and backstabber type enemies I always use my trusty Detect Invisibility though because those need to get out of stealth ASAP :D
Best video on BG ever! Years ago, I played hours on end on the PC (complete Big World setup). I developed what I called "No Hands" scripts, which were just that; I'd get an encounter, and the only thing I allowed myself to do was reposition the team, nothing else. This makes me get excited to go back and re-look at these scripts for buffing and debuffing. Also, once I get BG on Steam, to rewrite all the scripts in the new language.
Ah, very nice! I imagine developing those scripts can be quite interesting and I've met some modders that work on stuff like that, they're always excited to show them in action :D
Here is a vid that needed to be done - thanks dude! Now only if Spellhold Studios site wasn't' down so I can grab all of the necessary mods [BGT fan here]! Those guys really need to back up ALL their files to a generic server for us to grab.
Thank you good sir :D Always happy to hear it was useful. Yeah, I've also had trouble in the past with Spellhold Studios... Thankfully most of the mods I use are hosted in the Gibberlings3 website (maybe check if the ones you need are also there)
The only thing i dont like about scs is that it makes that feel all mage/cleric fights the same. a few years ago i played a mod BG High Power wich makes every single! fight unique. i wish scs adopt that unique unique fights feature :) but yes scs is still great!
While I don't feel like fights play the same (as I feel they progress in difficulty and level scaling) I do understand your point. High power is a mod which I am not familiar with, I will investigate! Thank you for sharing :D
Ironically flail of ages +5 is strictly worse than Flail of ages +4 because you lose improved haste.
Yep... you can kind of work around that by removing the weapon, buffing with haste and then re-equipping, but it's really not worth that trouble imo, I would definitely just leave it at +4
baldurs gate content
POG
What? Mods in BG?!? Since when?! The only "mods" I remember at the time were adding custom portraits and replacing sounds (if you got eng version and wanted another language). Omg 😱, just only the first 30s and already worth it 🤩. Sub in a heartbeat!
They've been around for many years and some of them are really really awesome. The ones I use, especially Ascension, SCS and Tweaks Anthology, I just can't play without them anymore :p
I've also quite recently uploaded a video showing the installation process of the mods in case you are interested - th-cam.com/video/Dpumgv99_iI/w-d-xo.html
@@CoredumpedGaming thanks for the comment! I'll check these mods and your video out for sure
Really well-done sir. Please give your brother Edwin my regards.
I thank you my good man :D
Wow, Edwin Odesseiron is a much nicer dude than i would have ever imagined
You just have to get to know his good side :D (and do his bidding)
Edwin best conjurer of the game!!
I see what you did there sir.
Korgan shall be paying you a visit shortly.
I found this very helpful....i play these games on my pc while my wife watches tv....so i play with no sound at all so i dont hear what the chars say and sometimes I can't be bothered checking the logs.....that means when i actually do meet a high level mage type enemy I don't really know what to do for the best and i just pound away at them with weapons while i try to figure out what spells to use....i watched your video on what spells to choose if you play a mage and yes by myself i had about 75% of the same choices you made but others and your description of how to use them will now have me making different choices in future. Thx. 👍
Thank you! I am glad to have been of help.
Also, may I suggest headphones?
That way the wife is not disturbed but you can also listen to what's happening in the game :p Otherwise, how are you going to be able to listen to Edwin's wonderful voice?
Edit - also something you might like are the mods shown here - th-cam.com/video/ceSuvPXkQXA/w-d-xo.html - which also help if you are playing without sound
Easy solution... DO NOT INSTALL SCS CAUSE IT SUX