I know, I know…but when it came out, I thought the name was horrid, and I had enough games to play. Now most of my old games don’t work right on my Win 7 computer, and I was browsing GOG (yeah, you guys were right) and the price was quite affordable.
So, tell me the worst mistakes I can make, and how to avoid them? I’d prefer not to read through four or five walkthroughs until I’ve played the game a few times. I like exploring new games (or games that are new to me, anyway) for a while before buckling down and trying to get everything done.
I know to save frequently. I’ve played a few Interplay/Black Isle games before. And I know to let the pointer hover over stuff to find out if it’s a container, or has info in it.
Honestly, just explore really carefully and take your time. It’s not a game I remember being easy to mess up. Are you playing as a fighter or a wizard?
So far, I’m a fighter. I’ve met a guy who’s offered to train me as a thief, but I figured I’d just smash things for a while until that gets boring. Wererats seem to be immune to this technique, though…or I don’t have the right weapons for them. Running works.
It’s probably fun to play however you want to one time through. But DigitalC is right, if you raise your INT, WIS, or CHR you can get more out of it since that opens up more dialogue.
There’s even
an ending that’s only available with a super-high stat – I think INT or WIS in which you’re smart enough to trick someone else.
If you do want to go for a particular class, it’s probably best to look up a guide; I recall
magic user
being one that was hard to find early on.
Once you get to the midgame, be well-prepared for any area you head into or person you talk to. It’s possible to get stuck in a poor spot if you weren’t ready for it and can’t go back.
(My spoilers are mild and do not provide any specifics of what happens in the game).
It’s a sweet, sweet game. But “smashing things up” is not really the objective. It’s like a novel in video game form, and actually raises some amazing ideas and questions and comments about life. It’s actually a game where you can, if you want, go through 90% of it without any fighting at all. I keep it on my desk and every couple of years, play it again.
OK, so next incarnation I give old Nameless higher Wisdom and Intelligence. Got it. It’s just that I have to get the “kill everything that moves” impulse out of my system, first.
As other posters suggested, the mental stats open up a lot of good dialogue and such. WIS is probably the best stat in the game as it opens up a lot of dialogue and also gives you an experience bonus, netting you higher levels and additional stat points down the line.
There are a few ways to get permanent stat bonuses, so you should probably avoid spending your level up points to max anything out until near the end when they won’t be wasted.
When you’re satisfied with your mental stats, CON is, in my opinion, by far the best physical stat. CON increases the rate at which the Nameless One regenerates HP and once you have a decent amount of it you can get through pretty much any encounter by just healing faster than the enemies can hurt you. Since the combat in the game kind of sucks anyways, that’s probably the most effective way to power through it to get to the good stuff.
Enjoy the game! In my opinion, it has the best videogame story I’ve ever encountered. It explores ideas in a way that actually takes advantage of the medium rather than just being a pale imitation of movies or books.
Oh, and be sure to recruit Nordom. I love that little guy.
I think the only real mistake you can make is to try to be a jack of all trades character. You’ll get along better as a dedicated MU or a dedicated fighter.
The numbers to shoot for to get the best dialogue choices are
Int - 18
Wis - 25
Cha - 16
With charms and such, even fighters can get this.
Remember it’s AD&D 2e - you want your Armor Class and your THAC0 number as low as possible.
Your alignment is crucial in determining your ending. Your alignment is based on your actions, including minor things, like teasing people or being kind, and big things, like performing quests and lying.
I’m debating type up a spoiler-ish sort of statement. Not anything direct, like the answer to Aanamika’s spoiler. But a general comment on alignment and the philosophy behind the game. But I guess I’ll wait and see if you have questions.
I wish I could play this game again for the first time.
My reasoning: WIS is the most important dialogue check. INT is important for some dialogue and important if you are a wizard (you will be…). CHA is not as important if you already have WIS, and most CHA checks can be skipped with WIS. DEX is interchangeable with CHA in position. Get it to IIRC 13 so that you can grab people. STR I never cared for because I was a wizard, and they are better and more interesting than fighters. Also my main incentive for STR is gone: in most games it affects your carrying capacity. A good point on CON is made above, but I don’t use it because, well you’re immortal. If you die, hop back up again and kill the enemies some more. If you’re a wizard, you shouldn’t even be in the front lines, make Morte taunt them.
So I always max wisdom at the beginning (18?), INT goes pretty high (16+?), CHA and DEX to 13, and STR stays 10, anything else can be CON.
Alignment: ideally, it is best to be Lawful Good. There are 2 +CON items that only a LG person can use, and a weapon that is LG only. However, you may wish to stay LG until you increase your CON, then switch to something else. Although I found it difficult in this game to NOT be Chaotic. It makes for a funnier experience.
Not a spoiler because it happens so early I think, but before you leave the first zone, make sure you find Deionarra and that she teaches you something very useful (may require minimum stat levels).
Also, if you don’t mind cheating a little, there is a patch that gives you the max HP bonus each level. I say a little bit of cheating because I imagine many people would alternatively save scum instead, and this just takes out the grunt work.
If you decide to use magic, Cloudkill is very useful.
Talk not only to everyone on the street but also to your party members occasionally.
You can buy tattoos (stat boosters) from a guy named “Fell” but I don’t think any were really worth the jink (money).
You can be trained as a thief but the only thief skills that were useful to me were trap detection, stealth (turning invisible) for x5 backstabs. Pickpocketing just meant reloading a lot because I tended to get caught a lot.
What about FFIII(a)/VI(j)? The opera scene always gets to me, as well as when Celes doesn’t complete a task (she might or might not be able to get this task done).
Sure you’re immortal for the most part, and in some encounters on the street, you actually get the most experience for dying. But if you gotten past the intro morgue part, you will see a cut scene where you see what’s hunting you. At a certain point of the game, these things begin to show up on the streets as random encounters and instantly attack you, though they’re easy enough in small numbers.
Now, the more you die, the more of them you have to fight in a fixed encounter.
So dying does have negative consequences, but they’re minor in the grand scheme. And there’s one point fairly early in the game (i.e. before you leave the hive) where dying is pretty much required to progress.
But the backstory in this is amazing. And as you find out the stories behind the people who follow you, you come to understand the world that much more and your place in it. Even Ignus’s relationship to you is interesting, though Ignus is annoying otherwise.
Incidentally, since you’re running Win7 - it’s worth patching the game to properly adjust resolution etc.
This guide
is the one I used installing, and I thought it was the best. Follow it and you’ll get the full-screen fixes as well as the unfinished business mod (which adds a lot of content that was cut due to time constraints back into the game).
I thank everyone who has participated, even if I haven’t responded to you specifically, I’ve carefully read your post at least a couple of times. I am enjoying the game immensely. My daughter just came home for a visit, so I’m restricting my gaming time, but that’s OK, I can game when she’s gone home.
Is there a time limit in this game? Or opportunities you miss if you take too many hours to get there? My companions often need rest.
Also: Crack open me like a pinata, Marta!
No time limit, no pressure. And don’t fret or stress about doing everything, getting everything or milking the maximum loot/XP out of every bit. *Planescape *is definitely a game you should experience from a storytelling point of view rather than a Diablo or completionist one :). In fact, in quite a few instances you get more from failing than from succeeding outright !
Also, do talk with your companions once in a while, particularly after major plot events happen. Like the KOTOR games, down that path plenty of bonuses lie, both for them and you.
My best hint is a bit spoilerish I’m afraid, but there’s one companion that’s really easy to miss and darned annoying to get. He also happens to be seven shades of awesome. Spoilered just in case, even though I’m being deliberately vague:If you wind up in possession of a curious action figure, fuck around with it a bit, why don’t you ? And if you do, remember that just because you killed the big boss, doesn’t mean you’ve done everything.
