Hello Everyone - looooong time no see.

I wasn't 100% sure if this topic should go here or general, as it's a bit of both.

I came here with a tale that only feels like it belongs on this particular forum, and I'd like to share it with you all. This contains some soppy shit, fair warning and some spoilers if you're somehow even slower than me at BG2.

So, some of you may remember that I met Pevil through this websites spiritual predecessor, when it was ran by Tribe and contained a (For the time) god tier Baldur's Gate trove of information. I remember playing BG2 and looking up some information, finding Tribe's forum and not too long thereafter, Pevil made a post to say that she won't be posting for a while and some contact details. Not long after that we got together and without boring everyone to death, we had some great times and (my fault) some shit times. I've grown and changed a lot since then, but in recent years Pevil has deactivated her socials and hasn't been in touch - however, I believe she still uses this website which is just one reason I'm posting here.

The second, is that I wanted to share my Baldur's Gate 2 story with everyone here and just a little bit about why it's so special to me that the events of today just happened.

I don't think anyone here knows that a couple of years ago, my younger brother passed away - Covid and subsequent complications - but that's not what I came here to say. What the take-away is, is that Baldur's Gate 2 had a huge place in the childhood Scott and I shared. We played it for hours and hours - even though we weren't amazing at it. When I say childhood, I would have been about 15/16 and Scott would have been 12/13 (Depending on how soon we got it after release.) Scott grew up to be a NWN fan and I never really got in to it, but it shows the influence it had.

Today, after approximately 24 years, I finally completed Baldur's Gate 2 and it's DLC, Throne of Bhaal. I was playing on Core rules (so just a smidge up from medium on the slider) and man, some of the fights in that game were some of the hardest fights of any game, period - and I'm a huge Dark Souls nerd. Sure, there were probably better ways to level up (I did not follow a char building guide) and whilst I did reload on death, that was more just to keep a clean sheet instead of reviving people. I only used items I could find/craft in my natural progression, as in, I didn't look up a "best kit" guide and grab all the best gear along the way - hell, 2 of my toons didn't even have a full armour set by the end of ToB.

I had a custom character as lead - Jupiter Horogan - and then for as much as possible, outside of forced party members due to story events, the usual Jaheira, Minsc (and boo!), Imoen, Aerie (Love interest) and Nalia. Character was Chaotic good, though I did often tend to follow the more lawful dialogue and I used the Fighter Mage Theif multi-class, which was both a blessing and a curse.

The fights I struggled on the most were

- The Final Seal area in watchers keep
- The Ravager final challenge
- The Lich at the end of the sidequest in the docks (Kang? Kangax? Something like that)

The Ravager took me over 24 real life hours. Trying to basically get lucky on rolls whilst being assaulted by his adds.

Honorable Mentions

- The final battle, but at least you had a few points where you could stop and catch your breath
- Any fight where you were thrust in to the battle without the opportunity to cast your buffs and summons
- Weirdly, in the sewers, there's a bunch of people digging and whilst they weren't that hard, the random spawning mobs made it a challenge.

So, today, I come back to as close as possible to where it all began to mark my achievement and say to both my brother and Pevil - I wish you were here to have celebrated this monumental experience with me. It seems so crazy to think about how much time has vanished. I don't have my original release discs any more, but I still have both of the Cardboard box complete releases. I also still have a floppy disk somewhere, with a save file that Pevil and I started when we were living in Scarborough!

"And, where it starts, so it too, shall end."

So Sayeth the Wise Alaundo.

Welcome back, and condolences regarding the loss.

Nice read, Mole, good to hear from you. Sorry to hear about your brother. Gaming can be comforting in a way i think, be it the memories or something else.

Seems like my memory from Throne of Bhaal is very clouded, a lot of these fights don't ring a bell. I think i do remember the final fight in Watcher's Keep you mention, think i got stuck there with my solo assassin playthrough.

I probably have several floppy disks with save files as well.

I appreciate the responses - I know I've been absent for a long time. I was thinking just the other day that Pevil and I use to share a single dialup access point, with no knowledge of how to make a network; and we would each log on in turn to do our "internet rounds" and this forum used to be one of the stops.

A shame that the modern internet experience is basically facebook/social and that's it - great to speak to you again!

I struggled with Watchers Keep too, however, I think it was a necessary evil. The only thing I wish I could have done/wish I knew how to do, was go back to the original BG2 map - I left a lot of great items in De'Arnise Keep that would have help me in ToB. However, except for the aforementioned fights, nothing felt insurmountable, at least not after the first 50 reloads.

I'm thinking about trying a solo playthrough whilst I wait for physical BG3 - however, I am absolutely not knowledgable enough to do it without a guide so I will 100% follow a walkthrough for that.

Great to hear from you all

EDIT: I'll tell you how hard modern socials have a grip on me, I went back and looked for a way to "like" your replies.

Hey man! I'm really sorry to hear about your brother, my sincerest condolences.

Nice to see you closing the BG2 chapter and getting a measure of closure there as well....I'm sure he'd have been very happy to see you get there, even with all the reloading and seemingly impossible fights.

All the fights you describe are supposed to be some of the hardest in the game, so there's no shame in struggling with them! In fact, Demogorgon and Kangaxx are entirely optional battles - they require some pretty specific tactics to get right even at the highest levels! As for the Ravager: it really depends on your character, party and equipment. I think you need a +5 weapon to even just hit him (according to my very dusty memory) so you can really get stuck there without the right gear. Glad you made it tho!

I probably didn't know wtf I was doing in my first BG game either, it took several runs to get "good" at it. You can always try again now you know what you're doing. Or you can just play BG3, which is amazing too!