u/LoneWanderer1113

First and foremost, I genuinely love this VN. Pixelfade definitely wanted it to be in perfect shape since they really took their time in making it before the game was finally released. Kinda sad that the studio retired a few months after their final project. But hey... I guess it's a case of "don't be sad cuz it's over, be happy because it happened".

Anyway, I just finished my second run of the game with Iris as my romance option. It was surprisingly much longer this time, considering in my first playthrough I didn't romance any of the girls and just played the game normaly. I was kinda mad at myself for making it boring for myself like that and I knew the fault was very much my own.

But all that aside, Iris' path was genuinely wholesome. I will NOT spoil anything but I will say that her romance was very unique since it took time to develop. I'd even go as far as to say that she was my favorite one. I mean really, she's the captain and you're the pilot of her ship. What better chemistry could there be?

Even though I haven't even tried Vaela or Luna's path. I am currently on a third run and this time I'm going for Vaela's route and I guess Luna is next once this run is also over...

Honestly I'm enjoying this VN more and more. Pixelfade sure knew how to keep things simple and still develop not just a great VN but also a memorable experience for everyone.

Wherever they go now and whatever they do now, I wish them the best.

Thank you Pixelfade!

Me personally? It was actually disastrous for me. Since I was a newbie I actually died a lot... and I mean, A LOT!

Back in the dry meadow, I actually died once or twice to dogs. Can you believe it? Regular dogs who barely even pose a threat. And if dogs were a bit of a problem for me, you folks can only imagine how bad the huge dogs were, considering how rapidly they attack. Almost like chompers...

Savages were also a bit of a problem, specially the ones with wooden staves, I mean really... the reaching range of that weapon is actually bad news if you have to get close to land a hit on the savage attacking you.

I also got lost quite a few times during dark hours before 08:00 PM and even though I had picked the navigator skill, I still struggled in navigating around. Probably because I wasn't really paying good attention though... suffice to say, the "floor gore" which is the red trail that engulfs you if you stay in the woods after dark and away from your hideout actually got me a few times as well. I guess I wasn't good at managing the time very well...

And the banshees? Oh boy... I really hated them and every time one appeared in front of me with that horrific face appearing on the screen, I actually preferred to run away because of how irritating the scream was, making me lose focus and all. And when I did decide to kill them, let's just say I regretted it big time when the babies ganged up on me. It's even worse if you've set traps around when you're trying to run from the babies.

Eventually, once I entered the old woods and encountered chompers, I realized then that the further you progress... the more difficult the game gets. Which is why I actually started a new playthrough right after entering old woods, and in my second run I learned more and more and got slightly better at it.

The game is still scary for me though, even after I got a hang of everything...

This might end up being a ridiculous post to share but honestly, just as the title says, I really did have a weird dream which takes place in BG2 (At least I think it was BG2).

And at first I felt embarrassed to share it and people would think that you might even be making it up. But then I thought to myself "It's not like anyone actually shares stuff like this very often so... give it a shot."

So, here's how my stupid dream went on: It all started with me and my party being inside a building which seemed to be secluded. Oh by the way, the dream was in 2.5D just like the game. At least I think 2.5 is the way to describe BG games.

Anyway... after a few seconds, my party actually came across two doors. The door on the left was slightly open and seemed to have a light on, which made it look like a room of a sort. The door on the right on the other hand had something written beside it: "cellar of torture". Feeling uncomfortable I figured I'd try the left door. And what was inside was a party of people no different than ours. 7 or 8 people I'd say, the leader among them seemed to be a mage woman since she's the one who started talking to us... asking who we are and how the hell we discovered their "hideout".

Now here's where the whole scenarios of " quick save and quick load" came into action for me.

Scenario 1: Somehow something in the dialogue apparently led to us fighting her group, the woman who was a mage obviously cast her defensive buffs and occasionally, she even summoned spiders for some reason. There were also a couple of rogues and fighters around. But somehow we prevailed and killed them all.

Scenario 2: Quick loading back before the fight, this time the conversation went on more peacefully between us and the wizard lady. Except this time, she actually ordered one of her rogue companions to escort us to the "cellars". And here's where things get surreal. The game suddenly turned into a first person view and I could actually feel like I was there in person. The rogue standing in front of us and the right door leading to the cellar wasn't saying a single word, but did motion to us with his hand to "enter" once he took a step away from the door. I tried analyzing the entry and the door seemed to lead into a corridor with a staircase leading down at the left side of the corridor.

Obviously overwhelmed with fear I decided to step back and walk backwards to the exit, the rogue didn't like that of course but instead of stepping up to apprehend me, he just simply walked towards us slowly with his hood covering his face and also a gloomy frown on him. Suddenly some kind of "feeling of security" overwhelmed my mind, it's like something was telling me "go inside, it's okay." And that's not all, as we approached the exit, some kind of "force" was actually trying to push me to the front, like some kind of strong wind, at this point the rogue was just standing still with the same expression on his face. I did my best to resist it and stood my ground, eventually opening the exit door and tossing myself out. The game was back in 2.5D mode and looking at my surroundings I noticed that I was in the bridge district of Athkatla, except here in my dream it was much more crowded as I kept walking around, grown-ups and children everywhere.

Scenario 3: The last phase which is where I actually abided by the rogue's commands and entered the cellar of torture willingly. He escorted us downstairs and once we went further, to my surprise there were just empty cells and no "prisoners" in sight. At least not until a few seconds later... a few meters ahead of us, we could see some kind of riot going on in the hallway, some of them appeared to be illithids (mind flayers) and others seemed to be a group of both githyanki and humans trying to fight off the illithids together. Seemed pretty similar of an experience like the illithid city in the underdark, >!where you are captured by mind flayers and eventually rebel against them with the help of the gith at your side.!<

Since the rogue leading us was distracted by this with his back against us, we saw this opportunity to strike him unconscious by smacking him on the head. Since we didn't want to get involved with that riot, we decided to just make our way out of there.

And that's it... that's where my dream ended. No more quick load for different scenarios.

It's weird I know, and honestly once I woke up a few hours later I thought to myself "for crying out loud, if I'm gonna have a bad dream, can it at least be scary but not so strange at the same time."

Still, with all that being said, it's not every day you see yourself in a dream where you are placed in one of your favorite RPG games.

I know there are plenty other outdated champs who are still sitting in the roster in need of a proper buff. Like Og Thor and Wolverine.

But if I had to pick two favorites, I'd say Symbiote Spidey and Moon Knight. Seriously... if there's anyone in need of a proper ramp-up, these two are definitely candidates for it.

NOTE: For those curious about why Clara is in my party... it's all thanks to the mod "living Clara", which lets you save her from Hexxat and have her join your party instead once you raise her using a restoration spell.

Anyway... so Edwin obviously turns into a lass (Edwina) once his nether scroll quest is done and he examines the scroll for a few days before finally using it. This happened a while back for me.

We're currently in the copper coronet and just got done with freeing Hendak and the other slaves. Once we were done, a few seconds later this banter started with Clara wanting to give a girdle of masc/femi to Edwin as a gift.

Turns out the girdle was enchanted to work specifically for Clara only, and Clara was just trolling Edwina with it. I legit burst into laughter... lol

I won't lie, when the conversation was over I got the idea to put the girdle on Clara but then I thought "Nah... she's fine just the way she is." Later on, I sold the girdle for a measly 30 gold.

And for the record, there's no voice acting for the banter but I'm personally fine with it. Just the fact that she actually talks with other companions like she's making friends is enough for me. I wonder if she'll have one with Imoen as well once I rescue her from spellhold and replace Jan with her. It's probably wishful thinking on my part but I think Imoen will like her.

I didn't do anything to make him wear it for the record. XD

I just stumbled up on him and saw him wearing it, I wonder if it's just a rare occurrence for me...

Never paid attention to it before but yeah, I saw this on the ground where the savages made those sketches. Dry meadow...

I just got back from Trademeet and this encounter triggers not long after I arrived, where Sansuki the shadow thief who's getting chased by the vampire called "Del" asked for my help.

It's kinda my own fault for picking the city gate out of all the places in Athkatla. But hey, somehow we all survived with my MC just getting energy drained once. Cernd's insect plague and call lightning really came in clutch in this fight... :D

So, I've actually taken eagle eye two times before and each time I compared my vision before taking the skill and after taking the skill to see if there's any slight difference. If my vision degree has perhaps increased a bit.

Problem is, if the skill really is working and giving me a benefit that I'm not noticing, then I maybe I too need eagle eye in real life to actually notice the difference in the game. lol

So... all that aside, I'm asking this hoping that someone can provide an insight and tell me what I don't know myself. How exactly does this skill work? If at all...

NOTE: This is all thanks to the Mod "Living Clara" which came out recently. It's obviously NOT possible without it, she dies in the base game all thanks to Hexxat no matter what. There's also the Mod "all things Mazzy" but that mod adds multiple stuff, not just the possibility to save Clara. This mod "Living Clara" is all about Clara and nothing else which makes it a lighter option.

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So here's a rundown of how everything happened for me:

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I start Clara/Hexxat's quest and enter the tomb all accordingly. Once I get to the one called Burich and defeat him, he drops the rod and also a wooden stake. Not sure if the stake dropped by Burich is thanks to the mod or not but either way, you need a stake later on.

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When I defeated Dragomir and also went past the purple barrier which leads to "the sleeper", Clara came face to face with Hexxat and she bit her neck resulting in her death. This is all actually part of the process, so don't panic if you also try this mod for yourself. Believe me, I stressed over this a lot when I first tried and thought maybe the mod was the problem, which it wasn't!

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Hexxat started a conversation with me, but I wasn't having it so I immediately chose a dialogue that resulted in battle. First dialogue was the one I picked. She was defeated and right after that, I picked up the bag of holding called "Dragomir's respite" which holds the coffin that Hexxat retreats to in her mist form.

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Now here's the kicker... once you pick up the bag, you get the option to permanently kill Hexxat with a wooden stake, I obviously used the one I picked earlier from Burich. After that, you get the option to raise Clara with a restoration spell which can be either a scroll of restoration or a memorized one by a Cleric. In my case I had Anomen who had it memorized, so he cast it on Clara and boom! She stood alive before us and could also talk appropriately.

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She came back to life with only one hit point though, and I was like "Anomen, cast a heal on this poor girl will ya?" XD

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Also, if you're curious why her portrait changed after her resurrection, it's all just part of the mod.

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Anyway... so, about Clara's stats: She's apparently a shadowdancer (in this mod at least) which means she'll miss out on set snares. There are methods like keeper to change her class of course if you don't want shadowdancer as her class, maybe just a normal thief?

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She's lawful evil, which I couldn't care less about. Edwin is also evil-aligned but then again, I still have him in my party as a permanent companion. If anything, I genuinely wish I could give Clara a hug and reassure her that no harm will ever come her way again. Yeah I know she's evil and will probably push you away but I'd still do it. :D

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And finally, about that last picture, it's just my party talking to Bodhi and hearing about her offer and Clara also shares her opinion just like others. I just thought I'd share it to show a small piece of the mod's content. Don't worry, I didn't actually join Bodhi's side, wouldn't even think of it with Clara in my party, I'm currently on my way to Gaelan Bayle to give him the gold.

Thought I'd just share my view on 5 of the tweaks from the tweaks anthology mod that I really like and can't possibly imagine playing without them again. So here goes the list...

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•1 Remove weapon restrictions for cleric multi and dual classes as well as druid multi and dual classes:

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So what does this tweak do? Simple. It allows multiclass or dual-class clerics and druids to use weapons they can't normally use in the base unmodded game. Which is bladed weapons for the most part: Daggers, swords of all kinds, bows, darts etc... this is absolutely true in case you need reassurance. Characters like Jaheira and Anomen CAN use all these weapons with this tweak. Obviously they can't achieve grandmastery with them but hey, at least you can invest like one or two proficiency points in any weapon. Same thing with cleric/thief companions which would be >!Tiax and Glint (SoD)!<, so if you ever thought about having these two little rascals go around and backstab enemies with daggers or any other backstabbing weapons or even let them use bows instead of slings then this tweak lets them do that just fine. Not sure about single class clerics like Viconia though... I don't think pure clerics get this benefit so if you insist on it, I guess you could change Viconia into a multiclass or even dual class cleric through EE keeper or NPC EE which is a mod that lets you make changes to companions in-game.

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•2 Increase ammo stack:

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The maximum ammo stack can go to 120 with this tweak which I really consider to be great. It's not game breaking by any means. Even with this large quantity, I've noticed how my ammo stacks of arrows, bolts and bullets run out pretty quickly.

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•3 Companion reactions to reputation:

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The second option of this component means that your companions, weather good or evil can nag and complain about your reputation no matter how high or low it gets but never actually leave like they normally would. This is nice since not ONCE have I moved with a pure good or pure evil party. My party has always been mixed, Even if I'm playing a good character, I don't mind having evil dudes and gals like Edwin and Viconia joining my party if I want them with me.

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•4 Every class has 4 weapon slots:

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Single class or multiclass characters now can have 4 slots for their weapons just like how a pure fighter would. This WILL make your inventory management a bit easier, trust me. It's basically a quality of life improvement.

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•5 Start new games with party AI turned off:

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It's nothing crucial or awesome in any way, but I personally don't like how party AI is automatically on when you start a new game. So I prefer it to be disabled when I'm about to start a new adventure in Baldur's Gate and venture fourth. :)

So I had this role-play idea in my mind that I would play the game by sneaking pretty much all the time and using melee weapons or even unarmed attacks only. So my playthrough is going to be strictly dependent on melee weapons and unarmed attacks only.

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It's kinda like I'm role playing as a Ninja with my courier which means that I will get perks like "Ninja" and "Slayer". No guns or energy weapons or explosives! Although I don't mind keeping them in my inventory just so that I can sell them for caps.

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The top 5 skills I'm prioritizing are these:

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•1 Sneak: Pretty much my primary skill...

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•2 Lockpick: Because why not huh? I mean, a ninja does infiltrate into places and picks locks to steal stuff so it's nice as a secondary skill.

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•3 Melee weapons: Primary method of fighting enemies head on or assassinating them from behind.

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•4 Unarmed: There's no shame in putting your martial prowess to good use and it doesn't hurt to be good with your fists if you have no melee weapons.

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•5 Survival: Yes, survival will be my 5th skill since I'm not using chems (stims included) so foods and drinks and healing powder are pretty much my only source of healing.

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Now for the conclusion which is about chems...

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Yup, that's right. I am NOT doing chems in this playthrough and I'm also not even picking them up just to keep them for selling like a dirty drug dealing great khan. Because I'm role playing with this mindset that my courier believes that a true ninja needs to be in good shape and never resort to such filth under any circumstances no matter how tempting their benefits may be. This means no stims, no chems like med x, rad x, psycho or buff-out or even alcoholic drinks since alcohol is scripted as a chem apparently.

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I am curious however... do radaways count as chems too? Cuz if they do then that means that my only choice of cleaning away my radiation will be doctors. But how do doctors remove your rads anyway? Don't they also just use radaway on your body?

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I think stealth boys are also chems in a way which I'm fine with not using; even if they weren't really chems. My own pure sneaking skills should be more than enough considering that sneak will be the first skill that I maximize.