[Ironbear]

Hey there,
so I just started with G2 + NotR like a day ago, first time playing, I'm currently in CH2, lvl 9, ~50str, 30 dex, 31 2H, learned alchemy, lockpick and skinning. I'm using Rod's two-hander, going to join the Paladins.

I realize that this game is supposed to be hard but I'll give you some excerpts from potential after-action reports I could write from the last couple of hours of playing.

* Arms dealer in Khorinis quest. Objective: destroy couple of bandit camps here and there to find out who's guilty and gather evidence. How it went: first 5 tries was me two-shot by a bandit bowman before I could even get into melee with anyone. Next few tries was me realizing there's no way in the world I last more than a second even I get into melee because there's 4 or 5 guys there, each of them can kill me in two swings on his own no problem if I don't parry properly. Solution: climbed on top of the tent, stupid AI is unable to follow me here. Pulled out the bow, shot everyone except the one that went inside the tent, him I killed with the sword one on one without that much problem. Mission completed.
Another bandit camp, no tents around: had to aggro the band, manage not to die from the volley of arrows and run back to the nearest farm so the farmers deal with the bandits. Looted the bodies afterwards and gathered weapons, Fernando quest completed.
* Trying to get to the hidden stash after Thieves Guild had been dealt with by the militia: lizards everywhere on that island. One on one I *maybe* would be able to kill one of them, it would take rougly two minutes and perfect swing timing so he doesn't get any bites in, but whenever I get one down to low hp he calls for backup, I die instantly when second one arrives. Solution: found a rock where lizards can't climb up, aggroed them, pulled out the bow, shot them. Repeat 5 times, all lizards dead, off to the bounty we go.

See what I mean? Now is this how it's supposed to be or am I missing some crucial elements here, like my character being ten levels below the required level to complete these quests normal way, without essential exploitation of AI stupidity and glitchiness? Or perhaps I'm not supposed to be doing these Missing people quests and just do main storyline with dragons etc. first to level up?

By no means I'm complaining about the difficulty, I can manage (like you can see :P) it, but I'm just curious if everyone else is playing/struggling like this?

[SkullX]

Well people who played the game before can easy go about these things. It's because its your first time.

Look, Gothic 2 is AWESOME! It has that awesome mechanic with BLOCK and DODGE, you can dodge and backstep and do all kinds of things so animals will miss you and you strike back and block and strike and all kinds of combinations, you need to just adapt to using all this. For exemple you can beat a troll at level 1, if youre a pro, NO cheating at all.

About groups and the bandit related quests: There are scrolls in the game, a ton which can aid you, not necessary powerful ones like Fire Rain, but you can throw a small fire storm at groups and all kinds, and then adapt to dodge+block techiques.

Enjoy the game! it's youre first time, so it's an awesome experience for you! adapt, think, and have fun, you'll have a great time.

[glumetzul]

By no means I'm complaining about the difficulty, I can manage (like you can see :P) it, but I'm just curious if everyone else is playing/struggling like this?

That's exactly the way I'd do it when I first play one of the first Gothic games. And it's gonna get you to the end so nothing to worry about.

After so many playthroughs (I can't really remember how many times I've finished NotR but it's got to be something around 10) you tend to know the game pretty well. And I can tell you that there is an order that you can take the main / secondary quests so that you are almost never overpowered.

I don't want to spoil your game so all I'm gonna say is that I find it pretty easy to get to accepted as a Paladin and wear Knight Armour and then focus on quests that require fighting skills. The bad thing about this strategy is that I also have to advance 2 chapters into the main plot so by this time the game world will also be filled with some nasty monsters/enemies.

[guru666]

I say don't rush, explore as much as you can ,kill everything you can (animals not humans), if you can't kill something come back later, do every little quest do get as much xp as you can.

[KGS]

stock up on spell scrolls, 2/3 fireballs mean one bandit less

donate to daron the fire magician to get bonus hp
collect all the magic tablets you can find and learn the language of the builders

and learn only the skills you absolutely need, every lp is precious
you need alchemy only for the str/dex potions when the cost of a point of str/dex is too high for example, every other potion you can buy {i am not fan of hp potions, you could consider mana when you are a mage}
you could have managed without skinning
also if I were you i'd concentrate on a single combat skill, and drop the dex and bow/crosbow since you already have some strength and 2 handed weapons skills

[Ironbear]

Hey there again,
thanks for all the replies, read all carefully and will apply your advices to my play.
I'm already stockpiling all Dragonroots and Goblinberries for later, I also have tons of tablets from exploration and from my understanding my character will learn that language later to use them.

Here's little question though: I've about 5k gold and probably next to infinite possibilites to generate more with blacksmithing. There's a statue of Innos in the grove next to the Tavern. At this point I've made about 10 trips back and forth, tavern to sleep, Innos, pray, stat boost, back to tavern to sleep, Innos... etc. Is this so by design, will this stop working at some point or am I just abusing the system here?

[MikeLitoris]

Well after about 10-20 times you'll only get +3 HP or nothing. And yes, its smart to save dragonroots/goblinberries/tablets for later. As you noticed, the more strength you have the more LP it costs to train it. IMO you should start taking strength potions made out of dragonroots and all other stuff that raise strength after you have 120 strength because after 120 it costs 5 LP for 1 strength. From 30-60 its 2 points, from 60-90 its 3, from 90-120 its 4. One more thing, its smart to go to f.e. 59 strength and then take 5 str and get to 64. That way you get 4 points cheaper than you usually would. Same for 89 and 119.

I wouldn't really recommend going strength and dexterity at same time because at one point in game you may find it that you aren't really good at either. Its better to decide and just put points in one of them. There are swords you can use that require dexterity and there are crossbows which require strength. As KGS said, you already have 50 strength and 2 handed skill so you should concentrate on increasing 2h skill and strength and not waste LP on dexterity/bow. First time I played I did a similar mistake to yours, except I failed much harder. I wanted to play as a mage and I leveled up strength, 2 hander and mana. In the end I was bad at both, melee fighting and spell casting so I quit that playthrough.

In NotR there are harder quests and easier quests and you usually have to do many easier quests to lvl up and be able to do harder ones. Also killing monsters/animals is very important. But as level 9 you shouldn't even try to do quests like killing 3 bandits at lighthouse, they're MUCH stronger than casual bandits. All in its own time, have patience and do what quests you can.

Spell scrolls are really useful. F.e. vs fire lizards its always good to use ice/lightning spells, ice block is good vs any strong enemy 1v1, not to mention massive AoE spells like Fire Rain and Wave of Ice. Summons are also very useful, a summoned demon can take care of a dragon alone. And transform into shadowbeast/dragon snapper is always good if you want to gain some quick levels but beware, you won't get HP from leveling as shadowbeast/dragon snapper.

[Ironbear]

I'm not putting any points in DEX from my LP, it's all from either praying at statues or items. ATM 62 STR and I'm wondering about the ways to boost it to 75 so I can use a better two-hander I've hanging in my inventory.

Well, that statue system is a bit silly then, so with enough patience one can get absurd amounts of hp.

About lighthouse: yeah, I realized that my "clever" tactics won't work this time and I get onehit in melee while doing absolutely no damage. So I'll just get back to that one later. It wouldn't hurt though if there was some sort of indication for what level a quest is meant, like green/yellow/red system in some MMO games so you don't waste time trying and then realize it's just impossible for your character at that point.

[MikeLitoris]

Why waste gold(and time) on so much unnecessary hp? It won't make you invincible anyway, just a bit more durable. And well you need 10k gold for 300 hp. That is 100x praying at a shrine. I say if somebody really is persistent and patient enough to pay and pray that much they deserve 300 hp extra.

What kind of marker do you need? The fact that you did no damage to them while they one shot you isn't enough of an indicator?

Best way is to simply level up by killing monsters. Also, you can wear a ring/belt of strength.

[MrGookles]

If you need to fight big hordes of bastards, and have civilization close by... lure the bastards to the spot and let the civilized folk kill them. The bandits for an example can be easily lured to the farm and let the peasants massacre them. Use cunning ways!

[MikeLitoris]

That's not a good idea IMO. If farmers lasthit them, you lose xp. And every xp point matters. Its better to just find a way or be patient and do something else.

[KGS]

Daron, the fire mage in the city will accept your donations and give you a nicer hp bonus without having to wait
i think you should give him as little gold as possible each time since the bonuses were the same /but i am not sure.. the minimum was either 20 or 50 gold/

[warstrike]

To be honest ,i`ve never played with two-handed swords because i find one-handed swords much better (lower damage but faster swing) .
First of all you should use the belts that offer you protection .Using specific belts with the right set gives you more defense .

Second, get your two-handed swords skill as high as possible and since you`re a blacksmith ,try forging a good weapon.


Don`t rush with the quests and when fighting ,try to lure enemies 1 by 1 ,either npcs or animals .

[MikeLitoris]

Daron, the fire mage in the city will accept your donations and give you a nicer hp bonus without having to wait
i think you should give him as little gold as possible each time since the bonuses were the same /but i am not sure.. the minimum was either 20 or 50 gold/

It was 50g and you can give him 1000g total. You get +5 hp mostly but I think you also get 2 LP and 2 mana. He should definitely do it. And yes, he doesn't have to wait he can just speak to him again right after donating.

[Ironbear]

Another question, I have piles of gold. I can't find a proper money sink that would boost my character somehow, 1k gold will go to the fire mage but there's a lot more. Should I be doing something with all this gold?

What kind of marker do you need? The fact that you did no damage to them while they one shot you isn't enough of an indicator?

Well, an apriori marker would be useful. I bet I've done quite a lot of quests which were meant for higher level too by abusing tents/roofs/farmers like I mentioned, here I just hit a brickwall.

It was 50g and you can give him 1000g total. You get +5 hp mostly but I think you also get 2 LP and 2 mana. He should definitely do it. And yes, he doesn't have to wait he can just speak to him again right after donating.

Sure, I'll do it.

To be honest ,i`ve never played with two-handed swords because i find one-handed swords much better (lower damage but faster swing)

I tried one-handers before but I didn't like it, range was too short. I guess I'm just a two-handed person, in Mount&Blade (my sort of "main game") pretty much always I also use a two-hander.

First of all you should use the belts that offer you protection .Using specific belts with the right set gives you more defense .

I already have one of those in my inventory, the one that has a synergy with militia outfit I'm wearing. Though first I need to get my STR high enough so I can stop using belt that gives +STR, I'm dead-fixed on becoming able to use that better two handed weapon i have.

Why waste gold(and time) on so much unnecessary hp? It won't make you invincible anyway, just a bit more durable. And well you need 10k gold for 300 hp. That is 100x praying at a shrine.

It's just that's a bit weird design to allow player to grind indefinite amounts of a stat. But it's a minor thing, so whatevs.

[MikeLitoris]

Using belts/rings/amulets for protection is generally better BUT if you really need that 5/10 strength to be able to wear some awesome weapon then feel free to trade some protection to wear the weapon you want. After all, the game is meant to be played for fun.


Well a paladin mostly has it easy when it comes to money. The only thing you'll REALLY need money for is consecrating sword which is relatively costly.

ATM you can buy a book on 2handed fighting from Lutero for 5000g(or is it in ch2, not sure). It'll give you +5% twohanded skill. Also, you'll be able to get heavy militia armor in chapter 2(the one Wulfgar wears) and it'll cost a couple of thousands too.

Check merchants for fancy artifacts or permanent potions. AFAIK Erol should have a HP potion for 1500g after you completed his quest and he went home. In later chapters some other merchants should get permanent potions too. Also, go to Abuyin(I spelled his name wrong, didn't I) and pay for a prophecy cause it'll give you xp.


Regarding statues, the bonuses aren't indefinite because the gold in game isn't infinite and because its only possible to do that in theory. Its practically impossible to spend all the gold in game on praying. If you think I'm wrong then prove me otherwise

[glumetzul]

Not that it would matter to your strength based hero now but in my opinion the easiest playthrough is by dexterity. That's because you get to use better and better bows that you can use even as melee weapons. There are some dexterity based swords that also increase the one handed skill so it's a win - win. And best of all, having high dexterity means lots of pickpocketing which means looooots of experience (and also lots of save/load because you can't know for sure who will attack you and who won't).

[MikeLitoris]

Actually you can know. There is usually an indicator on how hard it is to pickpocket a person. So if it says f.e. its easy or child's play it is directly related to how much dexterity you must have to pickpocked a person. Obviously its very little if it says easy or child's play, but if it says nearly impossible its very much(120 IIRC). I think it goes something like this:

Child's play 0 - 15 dex needed
Easy 15 - 30
Simple 30 - 45
Risky 45 - 60
Difficult 60 - 75

etc but I'm not sure. Also not all people from the same group require the same amount of dex. F.e. if you have 38 dex and you try to rob 2 people for which it says its "simple", you may succeed at robbing one person who needs 35 dex but fail at robbing another who needs 40.

IMO strength character is balanced well throughout the whole game while dexterity-based char is a little weaker than strength based until he starts taking all potions and dex buffs and gets dragon bow(160 dex needed), then dex char is the strongest. Everything, even the dragons just... DIES

[asddsa]

Hey there again,
thanks for all the replies, read all carefully and will apply your advices to my play.
I'm already stockpiling all Dragonroots and Goblinberries for later, I also have tons of tablets from exploration and from my understanding my character will learn that language later to use them.

Here's little question though: I've about 5k gold and probably next to infinite possibilites to generate more with blacksmithing. There's a statue of Innos in the grove next to the Tavern. At this point I've made about 10 trips back and forth, tavern to sleep, Innos, pray, stat boost, back to tavern to sleep, Innos... etc. Is this so by design, will this stop working at some point or am I just abusing the system here?

There's a cook on the farm, Tesla or something was her name - she can give you a stew that boosts your STR permanently. Once or twice, I think, if you're a king's man, and several times - a total of three or four through-out all the chapters - if you're with the mercenaries.

You also get STR from eating apples and... uh, mushrooms? But maybe those were for mana, can't really remember.

I am quite sure there is a max cap to shrines of Innos defined by the total number you pray at them - they can randomly give you a boost to HP, mana, STR or DEX, but the rates are different for the three classes, so it would be smartest to save your game before praying and wait to get what you want. Also, it's not one prayer a day, but one prayer at a single shrine a day, so you could run back and forth a little bit between several statues if you would like to save up a day or two (not that you'll benefit from that at all, though).

Don't buy any armour, it's a waste of money. Just go on with your NotR quests until you get accepted to the Circle, and they'll give you their own outfit for free that'll help you a lot. And once you enter the new land, you'll be able to easily obtain the next two armours, last one of whom is your third last best armour in the game. And if you're patient enough, you can also find the third free armour from Jharkendar.

Another question, I have piles of gold. I can't find a proper money sink that would boost my character somehow, 1k gold will go to the fire mage but there's a lot more. Should I be doing something with all this gold?

If you're good enough at exploring, you'll always find a good weapon before you could buy it from the merchants - and usually long before you could start using it, too - so if that's your case, I would suggest investing in scrolls to help you kill all them assholes.

And if you're really willing to level up easily at little to no cost other than belittling the challenge, which is completely understandable in this game, go to the Valley of Mines with a bow or a crossbow. There's a battle ram stuck in the collapsed tower you walk on to get inside the castle. Simply stand on it after having lured some orcs and wargs and make them look like hedgehogs. Repeat until you're satisfied and/or you've massacred every living creature in the Valley.

[Ironbear]

Alright, managed to burn down some of those riches laying around by getting an all-inclusive Daros, bought two-handed fighting manual (and will keep it for later I guess), that upgraded militia armor didn't seem to be that great honestly, or at least not for that price.

Some other fun stuff that happened:
- killed first orc on my own, though it took about 3 minutes. Death by a a million paper cuts.
- while doing some red-riding-hooding through the woods at night with a torch managed to stumble on a (sleeping, apparently) dragon snapper. Fun.
- change of scenery by going into the Valley is nice, also I will be closing on hundredth lurker notch after some hunting in the basin