Gothic II: NotR - requesting build advice

[Revenant]

3. Mage - Mage it's pretty much cookie-cutter. The problem is that you should wipe out the orcs in Chapter 2, all of them. As a warrior or archer, that's easy/doable, but as a mage you require intense mana management, as potions are scarce. Most challenging build, but the most rewarding. The storyline for the mage is the most complete. Something tells me PB intended the Nameless Hero to be a mage in Gothic 2.

Indeed, insta-clearing whole rooms full of monsters with Wave of Death in Irdorath feels almost godlike compared to melee/ranged combat. Magic indeed does seem a privilege in the world of Gothic 1/2, unlike "casual" magic found in many other RPGs. By the way, an exemplary debut post! Welcome to the Codex!

 

[Boomhauer]

Indeed, insta-clearing whole rooms full of monsters with Wave of Death in Irdorath feels almost godlike compared to melee/ranged combat. Magic indeed does seem a privilege in the world of Gothic 1/2, unlike "casual" magic found in many other RPGs. By the way, an exemplary debut post! Welcome to the Codex!

Thank you ! I came here because of this problem/bug. Normally I'd start over, but I'm already at Chapter 2, with 16 irl hours spent. I butchered just about everything except for the shadowbeasts, the snorting dragon snapper, the crypt and the cave behind the bandit tower. I even disposed of the thieves guild. On the paladin route, they don't really justify their existence.

Magic really is very powerful. Personally I just stick to heal + light spells, but when I play mage it gets really ugly for a large chunk of Khorinis.

Also, I find magic abit underpowered in Gothic 1, compared to the horribly OP melee fighter. But then again, Gothic 1 is so easy it's not even funny ( for the experienced player ). Best Gothic imo.

 

[Nim]

There is a way to reset the worlds by deleting their file so that it gets regenerated. Might help, not sure, your case seems rather unique. Too tired too look for what the file is called now, maybe someone else will. If not I'll do it later.

Edit: You need a save where you are not in the area you want to reset. Find that saves folder and delete/rename the addonworld.sav to reset Jharkendar.

 

[Thessael]

Lil offtop here: i returned to Gothic 2 NOTR after couple of years and after loosing half of my hair i finally managed to comeup with a solution for mana regen (since mods won't work with current gold 2.7).
I know it's kinda game braking but tbh i finally enjoy this game rpg wise)

 

[Metro]

3. Mage - Mage it's pretty much cookie-cutter. The problem is that you should wipe out the orcs in Chapter 2, all of them. As a warrior or archer, that's easy/doable, but as a mage you require intense mana management, as potions are scarce. Most challenging build, but the most rewarding. The storyline for the mage is the most complete. Something tells me PB intended the Nameless Hero to be a mage in Gothic 2.

Indeed, insta-clearing whole rooms full of monsters with Wave of Death in Irdorath feels almost godlike compared to melee/ranged combat. Magic indeed does seem a privilege in the world of Gothic 1/2, unlike "casual" magic found in many other RPGs. By the way, an exemplary debut post! Welcome to the Codex!

By the time you get to Irdorath you've slaughtered enough baddies. It's a fairly tedious ending to an otherwise great game.

 

[Revenant]

Yes, and that is a part of the reason the mage build rocks because of the AoE damage.

 

[Boomhauer]

There is a way to reset the worlds by deleting their file so that it gets regenerated. Might help, not sure, your case seems rather unique. Too tired too look for what the file is called now, maybe someone else will. If not I'll do it later.

Edit: You need a save where you are not in the area you want to reset. Find that saves folder and delete/rename the addonworld.sav to reset Jharkendar.

My current save is right in front of the portal, on the Khorinis side ! Will try indeed ! Thank you very much for your suggestion and time !

Indeed, insta-clearing whole rooms full of monsters with Wave of Death in Irdorath feels almost godlike compared to melee/ranged combat. Magic indeed does seem a privilege in the world of Gothic 1/2, unlike "casual" magic found in many other RPGs. By the way, an exemplary debut post! Welcome to the Codex!

By the time you get to Irdorath you've slaughtered enough baddies. It's a fairly tedious ending to an otherwise great game.

I, for one, don't find Irdorath that tedious...I find the Chapter 2 Valley whipe-out much more tedious..

 

[Murk]

Oh man, the valley is great. If you go early enough the orcs are so strong you get annihilated by everything and have to be super careful and run away from nearly every enemy. I remember trying to get the one man-at-arms and diego out safely, I had to basically pull the orcs one by one and get their attention -- dodging and blocking them and hoping diego and the soldier would hit them enough to kill them (as I did no damage to the orcs).

 

[Metro]

It isn't necessarily intended that you kill all the orcs in the Valley so I wouldn't call it tedious. If you want a challenge, it's there for you. Otherwise you can just avoid them.

 

[Murk]

That way you can come back with some haste potions and scrolls of fire rain and get 9 levels while running around like an idiot.

 

[T. Reich]

That. And clearing the valley of orcs in act 2 is just plain silly.

One could also go full retard and clear 1/3 (at least) of the castle by simply luring the orcs to the broken ram where they conveniently stop attacking and just stand there while you hack at them.

 

[Gozma]

The Valley is much more fun and interesting if you are sneaking around having to avoid orcs rather than killing them with some super twinked out character, at least in Chapter 2. NotR screws up the pacing there because if you hit it ASAP you will be able to roll the orcs and thus get even more overleveled and overpowered.

 

[T. Reich]

The Valley is much more fun and interesting if you are sneaking around having to avoid orcs rather than killing them with some super twinked out character, at least in Chapter 2. NotR screws up the pacing there because if you hit it ASAP you will be able to roll the orcs and thus get even more overleveled and overpowered.

Well, yeah, but the alternative is going in the Valley as soon as the plot allows, and then being horribly unprepared for the horrors of Seekers. I have once had to abandon (my first) playthrough through NotR because I simply couldn't get past the very first seeker who guards the mine valley exit. On my next playthrough I still decided to go to the valley first thing, and then had to sneak around Khorinig part for most of the act 3, trying to get things done. It was no fun at all.

I feel that NotR is unbalanced in this way, but only when it comes to completists and power gamers. Everybody else would be much better off by going to Jharkendar before the Valley - for much smoother difficulty curve, as well as racking up a few levels to handle the Valley and beyond. In fact, come to think of it, the expansion area might have been designed not to be done in one sitting, but rather to be done partway, to be revisited in act 3 when you would have both better armor and weapons, as well as experienc fighting the tougher foes from the Valley. That would explain new act spawns, as well as certain beefgates on the way to some expansion quest locations (trolls guarding a couple of ruins come to mind).

 

[Boomhauer]

That. And clearing the valley of orcs in act 2 is just plain silly.

One could also go full retard and clear 1/3 (at least) of the castle by simply luring the orcs to the broken ram where they conveniently stop attacking and just stand there while you hack at them.

Heavy Mililtia Armor / Heavy Mercenary Armor + Claw of Beliar + Belt of force ( 5 str ) + Set of the warriors ( rings and amulet ) allow you to take on 4-5 orcs at once. AT ONCE !!! By the end of Chapter 2, the last things in the valley left standing should be the Fire Lizards, and the dragons themselves, with this set-up.

Since the old save got pwned, I started afresh, with a melee set-up
Ch4 lvl 33 87% 2h skill 130 str 140 weapon protection ( almost paladin defense with a knight armor...at paladin armor I should have 190 defense. 190 !! ) and the claw. By this point, the only weapon better than the Claw would be the Large Ore Dragon Slayer, due to superior range and plain chunky damage...Can I even forge it ? As a paladin ?

Anyway, with the Set of the warriors set-up you can tank just about anything short of magic damage, but you get the Eye of Innos as a counter to this sort of mob !

 

[T. Reich]

Heavy Mililtia Armor / Heavy Mercenary Armor + Claw of Beliar + Belt of force ( 5 str ) + Set of the warriors ( rings and amulet ) allow you to take on 4-5 orcs at once. AT ONCE !!! By the end of Chapter 2, the last things in the valley left standing should be the Fire Lizards, and the dragons themselves, with this set-up.

<bragging>

Anyway, with the Set of the warriors set-up you can tank just about anything short of magic damage, but you get the Eye of Innos as a counter to this sort of mob !

You assume that the player would have all of that, do you? Which isn't true by far. You assume that they went to Jharkendar first, instead to the Valley. You also assume that they manage to get all three of the warrior rings (which, btw, aren't that exceptional compared to the other options; I've never used them). You also assume that the player beat Raven. And, finally, you assume that the player chose to use the claw rather than disposing of it in a do-gooder fashion. Or that the player always uses melee weapons in preference of ranged or magic, which also isn't true.

 

[nomask7]

Well, yeah, but the alternative is going in the Valley as soon as the plot allows, and then being horribly unprepared for the horrors of Seekers. I have once had to abandon (my first) playthrough through NotR because I simply couldn't get past the very first seeker who guards the mine valley exit.

That one seeker is pretty nasty if you get to it early. I don't mind it much as I never had trouble killing it with persistence but I can see how it would be annoying to a lot of people. You can always kill it rather easily with melee and mages or archers would have to know to change to melee for that one seeker.

 

[Murk]

I remember using some really weird tactics on that first one when I didn't know how strong they were. Some of it is chance/RNG, some of it is timing. One strategy that worked was me running up onto his face and just shooting him with a bow (was a melee character that had no range on using a bow but had Dex, so had to be point blank). The other times I would try to push them into a wall and stunlock them with left-right combos before they could fire off fire rain or a strong enough spell to kill me. The dragon armor comes in handy here, as does any thing else to increase fire resistance -- tho you won't have these the first time you see the Seekers.

You can also try a scroll of polymorph into an animal that does enough damage like a fire lizard or dragon snapper, but those are a bit rare/limited.

 

[T. Reich]

Well, yeah, but the alternative is going in the Valley as soon as the plot allows, and then being horribly unprepared for the horrors of Seekers. I have once had to abandon (my first) playthrough through NotR because I simply couldn't get past the very first seeker who guards the mine valley exit.

That one seeker is pretty nasty if you get to it early. I don't mind it much as I never had trouble killing it with persistence but I can see how it would be annoying to a lot of people. You can always kill it rather easily with melee and mages or archers would have to know to change to melee for that one seeker.

Yes, that I had to learn the hard way. Though "rather easily in melee" is pretty to close to blatant lies if you consider that seekers have 400-ish HP and 130 melee/bow resistance, which means that if one went to the Valley first, and their char is not melee+str (and probably 2h) based, they'll have to land close to 80 melee hits until the thing goes down. And while it IS possible with die persistence and decent technique (and at least 30% in chosen melee skill, or you're too slow), by the way of keeping the seeker in stun-lock, one mistake - and you get your face stuffed full of harmful magic. And at that stage of the game, 3 or 4 misses like that - and it's reloading time.

Mikayel is correct about using a morph into animal scroll (those range from totally useless to ridiculously OP) - a warg one ought to be enough for seekers, i think; and in fact you could also use an ice block scroll as well to great effect, or waste a fire rain scroll to off the seeker, but that requires some experience (as in knowing what would work), as well as actually having that stuff, which isn't always true.

 

[nomask7]

What I meant by rather easy is that there's a clear tactic you can use, it's easy to figure out and it's straightforward to use.

There are games that have given me a lot more trouble in similar situations: NWN original campaign had a boss that I had to try endless times without having any particular tactic. I stopped playing for a long time because of it. Similarly Mask of the Betrayer had an almost impossible boss character because I didn't have any mind protection spells against her mind control. This encounter I actually liked and didn't feel frustrated but it took many, many tries and again there was no clear tactic that I could use to win in a straightforward and guaranteed fashion.

The seeker is tons easier to beat, so it counts as rather easy.

 

[subotaiy]

This one looks interesting, hope it will be released at some point:

 

[T. Reich]

Personally, I feel that this mod is overloaded with superfluous features, and I have a strong suspicion that it will really mess up the already delicate player-mmonster balance on NotR.

I understand that it's basically aimed at hardcore G2 fans, but still, I'd rather replay vanilla NotR instead.

 

[haraw]

Personally, I feel that this mod is overloaded with superfluous features, and I have a strong suspicion that it will really mess up the already delicate player-mmonster balance on NotR.

I understand that it's basically aimed at hardcore G2 fans, but still, I'd rather replay vanilla NotR instead.

This. Altough those Dragon Dogma-like nights could be great.

 

[bloodlover]

Since this thread gets resurrected every now and then, I might as well ask here:

1. Is it ok to join a guild (paladin in this case) at level 8 or 9?

2. Would it be ok to start the addon shorty after or just play the main quest?

3. Is it reaaaaaaaly necessary to min max for a 1h str paladin? Eating some apples by accident is surely not a big deal.

4. What str/wep skill ratio is good? I mean going for str first is good because I could wield better weapons but wep skill gives chances to hit... Also, I might be mistaken but wep skill also gives chance to hit?

I am trying to do a clear run and preferably not grind my way through the game. I know mobs spawn at the start of every chapter but is it necessary to clear the entire map each time?

Also, small spoiler but

Spoiler

Is it possible to get the key from the judge without having pickpocket? I don't know how worth is it if the Nameless Hero is a str paladin that never used ranged weapons[/spoiler

Ty.

 

[T. Reich]

1) You can join the guild at any time you like (if you can, of course) - it doesn't make the game more difficult.
Keep in mind that you lose access to all the quests related to joining the other camps. Those are usually good to do for early exp regardless of whom you're joining after.
2) There are 3 points at which one usually goes to addon area: right after joining a guild (at the start of chapter 2), right after coming back from the mines (at the start of chapter 3), later on during chapter 3, since there's a mandatory quest that demands you to visit and complete the addon area. Either one is ok if it suits your playstyle, though going there as early as possible and completing it is probably going to make the game much easier in the short run.
3) It's not necessary to 100% min-max any single skill, there's generally enough points to really pump 1 main atribute+weapon skill combo + have a secondary attribute+skill combo up a decent amount, too. Eating some apples by accident is not a big deal.
Just don't go crazy with stat-boosting items early on, keep them for later, when pumping your skills with skill points becomes really expensive.
4) Melee weapons grant % critical strike chance equal to skill %. It's super important to deal any real damage with that weapon type. You want 60-80%+ in your main weapon skill by the end of the game.
Ranged weapons increase effective range and accuracy instead, no crits there.
5) Any weapon+corresponding stat combo is good. Just pick one and stick to it.
6) It's not necessary to clear the entire map to have enough experience for endgame. The difference between fully clearing G2Notr and skipping certain grindy areas with avoidable enemies is basically 3-4 levels max.
Spoiler - no.
If you go as paladin, you need to make a choice: main focus on melee weapons + secondary focus ondexterity for strong xbows as secondary weapon. Or main focus on melee + forget about dexterity and secondary focus on magic for support. Though, I suppose you could try to do main focus on dex + bows (NOT xbows) + thieving, and then secondary focus on 1h for dex-based swords, and then a little bit of magic for support or some str for stronger melee when you can't use bows.

 

[bloodlover]

Hello and ty for the reply. I started the addon after joining the militia and all is fine. A couple of questions though:

1. Is skinning animals from Bosper the only gathering skill worth getting? I found trainers that could teach me to extract claws and horns and stuff but I kept my LPs and so far I have no problems regarding money.

2. What is up with reading tablets skill? I found a bunch of them and I am saving them up for later. I can't "read them" and get the proper skill or stat without the tablet reading skill? Or is the skill referring to some blank tablets that I keep giving to Vatras for XP?