No gold, no companion gear makes for poor intro. to SoD.

[Teasel]

Only my PC survived the fight with Sarevok, so upon loading up SoD from final save, my 3 companions were alive, but they didn't have their gear.

So I go through the first dungeon and get some gear for my party, but after the dungeon is finished, my companions leave, with their gear!! No Branwen, no Imoen, no Dorn!

Onwards, and there's a quest where I've lost all my gold. So no buying decent companion gear, and no gold to buy new spells for Edwin.

And I'm supposed to fight a lich at level 7, with crappy gear and sub-par weapons? WTF is going on?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

1. It is a questionable decision to not warn the player that some NPC compansion leave forever and take their equipment with them. Branwen in your case. Obviously, once you know that happens, you can fetch the items before they leave.

2. Imoen's equipment is found in a second chest on the upper level of Ducal Palace. Not the same chest that travels with you.

3. Dorn will be available later. And his gear is supposed to be available in another chest near his location, but that's broken in my case. Beamdog is aware of that, but whether they are interested in fixing it, dunno.

4. You will get enough gold throughout Siege of Dragonspear. You will also find many new items, but you will lose almost all items at the beginning of BG2EE anyway.

5. You don't need to fight that Lich. It is completely optional. You can help the Lich or use the powerful item you're given to fight the Lich. And you don't need to be only level 7 at the beginning of Siege of Dragonspear. The XP cap of BGEE is 161,000 XP and would make it possible to reach one or two more levels with most of your party, provided that you complete the other expansions included in BGEE.

[Teasel]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

1. It is a questionable decision to not warn the player that some NPC compansion leave forever and take their equipment with them. Branwen in your case. Obviously, once you know that happens, you can fetch the items before they leave.

2. Imoen's equipment is found in a second chest on the upper level of Ducal Palace. Not the same chest that travels with you.

3. Dorn will be available later. And his gear is supposed to be available in another chest near his location, but that's broken in my case. Beamdog is aware of that, but whether they are interested in fixing it, dunno.

4. You will get enough gold throughout Siege of Dragonspear. You will also find many new items, but you will lose almost all items at the beginning of BG2EE anyway.

5. You don't need to fight that Lich. It is completely optional. You can help the Lich or use the powerful item you're given to fight the Lich. And you don't need to be only level 7 at the beginning of Siege of Dragonspear. The XP cap of BGEE is 161,000 XP and would make it possible to reach one or two more levels with most of your party, provided that you complete the other expansions included in BGEE.

It's getting tedious. Can't afford good ammo, scrolls, potions, gear for Jheira blah blah blah.
Another annoying thing is can't play core rules because party is so nerfed, and can't play a 4 man party. Sigh, I suppose I'll just carry on... but not really enjoying these problems.

[Harkmagic]

I didn't have the problem of my companions loseing thier gear in the intro dungeon, but I also generally take efforts to sidestep this kind of problem. Before completeing Baldur's Gate I would load any essential companion equipment into my main character's inventory. The gold issue would bother me more if I didn't already have some of the best equipment available for my party. Were I to try and bypass the gold issue I would load gem bags up with as many super expensive gems as I could get my hands on before moving on to fight Sarevok. That way when I move on to SoD I could just sell the gems to make up for my gold deficiencies. That or just cheat to get my gold back.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by subterranean:

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

1. It is a questionable decision to not warn the player that some NPC compansion leave forever and take their equipment with them. Branwen in your case. Obviously, once you know that happens, you can fetch the items before they leave.

2. Imoen's equipment is found in a second chest on the upper level of Ducal Palace. Not the same chest that travels with you.

3. Dorn will be available later. And his gear is supposed to be available in another chest near his location, but that's broken in my case. Beamdog is aware of that, but whether they are interested in fixing it, dunno.

4. You will get enough gold throughout Siege of Dragonspear. You will also find many new items, but you will lose almost all items at the beginning of BG2EE anyway.

5. You don't need to fight that Lich. It is completely optional. You can help the Lich or use the powerful item you're given to fight the Lich. And you don't need to be only level 7 at the beginning of Siege of Dragonspear. The XP cap of BGEE is 161,000 XP and would make it possible to reach one or two more levels with most of your party, provided that you complete the other expansions included in BGEE.

It's getting tedious. Can't afford good ammo, scrolls, potions, gear for Jheira blah blah blah.
Another annoying thing is can't play core rules because party is so nerfed, and can't play a 4 man party. Sigh, I suppose I'll just carry on... but not really enjoying these problems.

Then dont play with story characters and use a full custom party instead if you dont like it, problem solved.

Get a bag of holding and put all your companions gear in it before starting it.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by subterranean:

It's getting tedious. Can't afford good ammo, scrolls, potions, gear for Jheira blah blah blah.
Another annoying thing is can't play core rules because party is so nerfed, and can't play a 4 man party. Sigh, I suppose I'll just carry on... but not really enjoying these problems.

Sarevok almost managed to wipe your entire party, and that's when your problems have started. Why not reload and do the fight once more with less casualties? Why do you insist on playing with just 4 and at core difficulty? There are enough XP in BGEE to reach the level cap with a full party and then continue into SOD.