I did it! I beat the game! Finally, after all these years! :D

That ending battle was pretty interesting. Interestingly my first four Dragon battles all happened differently. The first time I just wailed on it and quaffed full-heal potions in-between. The second I actually had three guys assisting me (Cipher, Rod & Biff), making the fight super easy. The third I just had Biff. The fourth I eschewed Biff and summoned a Stone Golem.

In my fifth fight I used the same strategy I did for the 4th...

In my 6th and final things got a bit more interesting. I tried summoning a Stone Golem but he demolished it in seconds. I summoned a second one (always test it twice~) and it, of course, died quickly. I then summoned a Demon and while I wailed on the foe I noticed I was being constantly struck by lightning and recalled it mentioning 'the claw', so I backed off and switched to my Orc Slayer (glad I kept that around!) and by the second Demon I summoned I quickly cut down the rest of its health.

For reference I played as a Paladin :D (who summons Demons, yay!)

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Alright! Onto my thoughts, comments and questions.

I think Gothic 2 (NotR, haven't played vanilla G2) made me feel weak a lot more than Gothic 1, but I neglected to activate G2 controls until way later so I couldn't jump back after attacking and as a result got hit a lot more.

It was interesting to me that 1H str weapons cap out so much sooner than 2H ones. I had the Orc Slayer since chapter 1 but by the time I could equip it the Claw of Beliar was so much better there was no reason to. I'm pretty sure had I gone 2H I would have found the higher tier 2H weapons a bit better than the Claw (I finished with about 195 Strength!). I really liked the twist on the Claw in the final fight, it made things much more interesting.

I respect how you REALLY have to focus to get high stats/skills, but the cost of str was a little ridiculous. There were a lot of things I never ended up putting points in because I was so focused on getting 124 str before doing the less important stuff. Not sure how that'll go in my Mage playthrough.

It's been a while since I've played G1 but I'm pretty sure I was a lot more powerful at the end of G1.

OH, also: the length of time before I got Paladin's Armor was frankly ridiculous! I didn't even get it through legit means! What do you have to do to get Paladin Armor normally!? I slew 4 dragons!

Questions:

I recall Lutero mentioning wanting a 'claw from a Snapper that has killed many men'? This wasn't noted in my journal and he doesn't talk about it further and I never found anything so I dunno if I misread it or what...

IF THIS QUESTION CAN BE FOUND OUT SIMPLY WITH A LITTLE THOROUGH GAMEPLAY I DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED FOR IT: I never did find those last 2 Blood Chalices! I have no idea where they could be... Maybe I need pickpocketing?

I brought my Stalwart Companion Biff along with me and I notice he left the ship to search for treasure (which I already looted all of...) and then I immediately set sail... did I just abandon my Stalwart Companion Biff on some island!? O_O

I plan to test this, more of a rhetorical question: In the post-credits cutscene I heard Gorn and who-I-think-is-Jack discussing tossing MY gold overboard >:[ ... so I wonder what happens if they aren't there?

I'll post more as I think of stuff.

Oh! How do I get behind that grate near where you first meet Xardas (in G2)?

Forgot an obvious one: Any way to get back at Canthar? (Aside from beating him senseless, taking all his stuff and obliviating him)

I can answer only to some questions. In the Valley of Mines, in the mine guarded by Fajeth, you must talk to Bilgot and this dialogue makes appear a snapper pack leader near the tower north-east of the mine entrance. Killing the leader, you can take its claws and bring them to Lutero. You must click on a stone of the fireplace in the next room. If i remember well, you need pickpocketing to take a key from one NPC, in the other cases you don't need this skill.

SPOILER ALERT!!
Here the locations of the Blood Chalices: house of Lehmar, house of Gerbrandt, house of Valentino, house of the Judge, town hall, house left of Salandril's house.

You should've learnt 2H then. The Claw can be either 1H/2H weapon. It's all about which proficiency do you have at better level. So if you have (for example) 1H on 60% and 2H on 50%, the Claw is 1H. But if you learn another 11% in the 2H (1H - 60%; 2H - 61%), go to the shrine of Beliar and choose to upgrade the Claw (you know that its level upgrades with yours, don't you?). It'll change into a 2H weapon.

The 1H (range 100) Claw at lvl20 - 110 DMG, 50% special attack chance. The 2H (range 120) Claw at lvl20 - 120 DMG and 50% chance. Check this thread. The only proper in-game way to get Paladin Armor is from the secret cache in Monastery. You can't get it from Hagen/anyone else. Well, theoretically probably yes. But who cares? :P It's Diego and Gorn, but you're right. If you don't have them (both) in your crew (and alive :P), it won't play. Well, nope. There are mods taking care of this, but not in the clean game.

Ohhh! Bilgot died in an orc attack! That explains this :D Thanks, definitely going to check that and wall-crawl more.

EDIT: Ohhh! It's unlabeled! No wonder I didn't notice before! First off, I do intend to take 2H rather than 1H when I make str chars from now on. But I disagree with the "I should have taken" part- this was a learning experience to me and I don't regret it one bit. Thanks, I don't think I'll be going out of my way to try to make a perfect character in this game of all things, but this is good to know. Right, this wasn't a serious question. I was just pointing out that with the amount of stuff I had done (especially compared to how useless the other knights/paladins were) that it's weird that they never even mention the quite superior Paladin Armor. Poor Biff! I shall remember my Stalwart Companion Biff and his constant reminders to pay him fondly!~ Huh! I'll have to pay more attention next time, I thought it was more an old man voice than Diego's funky new voice (I'll always remember Diego with his Gothic 1 voice). Ah, well. : | ... Wait a sec!

What happens to Sarah, the merchant he replaces!?

No, I meant it like this:
A: "I would've gone 2H if I found 2H weapon better than 1H Claw."
B: "Then you should've gone 2H, because there are 2H weapons better than 1H Claw.
;) You can't max them all like this, because (for example), the limited number of King's Sorrels. It's how to max an individual ability (or a couple of them - like, some proficiences and one attribute), but not all of them at the same time. Well... you still haven't won a war, or saved Rhobar's life, or something like that. And you're a paladin for... a week? :P In which exact case? In the mods? If you send Canthar to prison? If you don't care? ...

Personally, I never use two-handed weapons as they are too slow and thus one gets less critical hits. I take far more damage, more then the extra hit points give with two-handed weapons. Many will disagree with me, though.

I wondered about Sarah too - its not like she could go anywhere. She does literally disappear.

Other story thing that make me wonder: Lee won't agree to the paladin's deal for peace but yet leaves everyone behind anyway when he goes with you.

You think Diego's voice change was bad - wait to you see what happens with Laras' in III. He goes from tough rogue boss to total wimp.

I'm still giving two-handed weapons a try but so far I STRONGLY agree. Thus far they're amazing slow. I keep getting hit at times when I would be striking a second time or dodging away with a one-handed weapon. I don't remember liking two-handed weapons in G1 either, though it's been a while. I'll pay attention next time I play G3. I have a little experience with it previously but I don't remember a whole lot. Also seems I played without the community patch without which the game is apparently somewhat broken in terms of gameplay.

I don't remember what the community patch did but I think you are correct - that it fixed some imbalances with beasts and their combat. Arctic wolves are still overpowered, though.

AHHH! I forgot SUCH an obvious one!

There's this minecrawler cave hidden behind vines and down one route there's this HUGE chamber with two statues of big armored dudes and a locked chest... and I never found out what it was for!!!

Is it a Fire Mage only thing?

Yes. Part of the joining quest, the Test of Fire.

Yet another one:

Engraved Ring - "Overseas trader-guild Araxos"

^ Wut?

EDIT: Oh! Found out what it was for. Guess I missed it last time.

Ah, also there's one more I thought of... but I want to see if I can find the tallest tree in the game before I ask... ;D

EDIT2: Scratched Silver Bowl and Black Ore?

Scratched Silver Bowl... I don't know any use of that bowl, except to sell it

Black Ore.. eat it and you'll see what happens ; )

Huh, guess I'll just sell it then. Strange that they made a unique item like that.

I did that :D wasn't sure if there was some other use for it. Wonder why it's called ore if you just take a bite out of it?

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What does Hanna's Key go to?

What's with the chest at the Valley of Mines Castle that cannot ever be opened?

Nothing. There are some chests in the game that simply... can't be opened. They're just for decoration.

It opens a chest on the treasure island (opposite the harbor). Plus, if you'll go there, don't forget to use the torch in the first room.

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BTW, if you want to add a new question a week after the last reply, you definitely can write a new post. This would probably go overlooked for quite a while (just like it did :P).