Hi folks!

I am doing an ironman/no-reload run of BG2, modded with Tactics and SCS. Current party is I'll get the job done (sorcerer), Minsc, Keldorn, Korgan, Nalia, Anomen. We are doing well so far and just cleared the guarded compound. We have done most quests in and around Athkatla. Trying to decide wether to go for Firkraag and that sweet Carsomyr or hit Spellhold. This is my third real attempt. The first (Shorty, a gnome fighter/Illusionist) was petrified in a Sphere of Chaos spell. The second (Grumpy, a dwarven barbarian) fell to a Drow war party in the eastern tunnels in the underdark where he got stuck between four glabrezus.

Any survival tips you may have for the rest of the run would be welcome.
I will upload parts of my progress on youtube if anyone is interested, though I read you need 6 reps to be allowed posting links so maybe later.

I would have been interested in vanilla (modded *maybe*), but I'm most certainly *not* interested in piece-meal parts. If I'm to watch a Let's Play I want to see it all, inventory management included. There's nothing worse than an LP in bits and drabs.

When scouting/searching for traps, have your thief use non-detection (cloak or spell), and use the invisibility spell. When fighting Firkraag, have his target move as if you won't get hit. You actually will take some damage, but it won't be as much as if your characters are just standing there fighting him. When he changes target adjust accordingly. Remember to use lower resist on this fight (I usually use 2).

The gate spell is kind of sucky - regardless if you use protection from evil or not. The pit fiend you get is watered down, and you'll still face friendly fire with him dropping fireballs. His fear aura will also affect your party. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm kind of the opposite. I prefer small things like that to be kept off screen.

I also prefer to see the entire gameplay, preferably *without* audio commentary. This way, I can just skip over the parts that are boring.

On the other hand, I actually do like to see what Hickory calls "power gaming". I could mention that I have never seen that term used with the JRPGs that I grew up with, and hence see playing using the best options available (except in cases where they make the game less fun) to be the normal way of playing the game.

Besides, it is sometimes soothing to watch videos like the following (from an ancient segmented Dragon Warrior 1 NES speedrun):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-QYcJ-vXyE

(If you don't want to watch the whole video, just skip to a random spot in the middle and watch a few minutes; that should give you an idea of what's going on.)

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention: I actually don't like Ironman style playthroughs; it's much more fun when the player is allowed to fail, and when those failures are caught on video. I actually find it annoying when people cut out failed attempts from videos, and (for action games) I prefer videos where the player takes damage to those where the player does not.

I think most people would want failures to be cut out of the video. There is a Youtuber who does that and he gets a lot of flak for it. One play through of anything and you see him losing over and over again. He has hundreds of videos of him just falling into pits. It's actually pretty annoying.

Honestly, if the player is losing over and over again, it likely means one of these things:
1. The player isn't good at the game. In this case, the player should not be filming playthroughs, and should be practicing again. (Or, of course, the player should choose a game of a different genre, one the player *is* good at, to record.)
2. The game is genuinely difficult, or is the sort of game that will kill you unexpectedly. In this case, the failures are likely to be interesting (this is especially true in games like roguelikes and unfair platformers), and therefore should be included in the video.
3. The game contains a difficult out-of-genre section. In this case, the developers of the game need to get a stern talking to. This happens more often than it should, and is the sort of thing that can ruin games for many players. (Stealth sections in Zelda games are one example, action sequences in otherwise turn-based games are another.)

I consider Baldur's Gate 2 videos to fall closest to #2, especially if the player decides to play a Wild Mage (not recommended for Iron Man, but otherwise a fun class to play for an audience).

1. Sort of. He can improve with feedback and just taking a moment to try to think what he did wrong. He has personality issues, and one of them is thinking he is right all of the time. If you offer any kind of criticism he will take that as a personal attack.

2. Sometimes. Depends on the game - and he's done multiple playthroughs with a variety of them. When he loses (which is a lot), he starts raging at the game. He constantly shouts "I was pressing A/B/X/Y/whatever!!!!". If he does pick up a title with a little more complexity, like Baldur's Gate, I think he might go postal.

3. Usually not the case.

Genuine role players would absolutely not. The answer to that is very simple: find another youtuber.

Thanks for the replies!

To answer some of the comments:

The reason for doing no-reload is that it makes the game A LOT more exiting for me to play and adds to the roleplay feeling.

I will not upload all of the playthrough but may include a full quest, such as "Captured by Mindflayers" or the Beholder dungeon.

Some amount of powergaming will be required, though I will only use vanilla items and npcs.

At this point I have defeated Firkraag and reached the Underdark.

Still cannot post a link (maybe you never can here in fact). Search youtube for "Grumpy Thunderburp Baldurs Gate 2" and you should find the channel. That is probably a good strategy, never tried it. I was a bit worried about not having someone tank him, I expected that would trigger remove magic, lower fire resist and other nasty stuff. You definitely can't stand melee against Firkraag for long. And yes, lower res is very good here, think I got off three.

Have you watched RPGDeLarge? He has a nice BG series playthrough.

Don't like him; hate non-voiced LPs as much as I hate badly voiced LPs. I also don't like his power play style. The best BG LP'er, and one of the earliest -- sadly long since gone from the scene -- is Tord, or 'mynameisnotlilly'.

Posting a link on the gog forums is a function of rep. I'm not clear on the actual break point, but I've heard 10 as a minimum.

Is your Ironman/No Reload with respect to only your main? In other words, if an NPC party member falls, do you start over or either resurrect/raise that character or leave them for dead and find a replacement?

Got ya covered: link to the Firkraag section Here

I actually prefer non-voiced LPs to well voiced LPs by far, and I actually find it annoying when the only videos of a game have someone talking over it.

It's also worth noting that I actually prefer it when video games do *not* have voice acting, but then again, I grew up at a time when there just wasn't the technology to include voice acting in games.