I've finally installed Baldur's Gate I and II on my laptop, and I am going to go through the game for the first time. Tips, mods you recommend, anything?
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The name is "tonberrian", even when it begins a sentence. It's magic, I ain't gotta 'splain why.
I've finally installed Baldur's Gate I and II on my laptop, and I am going to go through the game for the first time. Tips, mods you recommend, anything?
Are you starting from the 1st?
Remember in the first game
Spoiler
there is a Iron shortage, % chance every iron weapon becomes useless after so many uses. This is actually a magic cause.
Magic Weapons aren't affected happily.
Ranged weapons are really useful as you get a few shots before they get close.
Good Multi combos for low level:
Ranger/Cleric (good at high levels too actually)
Fighter/Mage
Mage/Thief
Cleric/Thief
A Thief has to really focus since start with few points.
Well, I decided what I'll be playing when the end of this month rolls around. A Wizard/Cleric!
I've *always* gone some sort of melee for my main every time I play Baldur's Gate. Often Kensage or the sort. One time I used a mod that made werewolves better and did that. I'll probably end up buffing myself and bashing things, but hey, doesn't get more castery than that.
Ranged weapons are really useful as you get a few shots before they get close.
In fact, I'd say that ranged weapons rule Baldur's Gate 1 until you get yourself a bunch of magic melee weapons and tank items. And even then they're extremely useful, even if it's just a Sling. There are many useful missiles you can find to dispatch foes, and you should stock up on arrows wherever you go. Kiting enemies in the early game is probably the only way you can take on a Wolf or on a Bear - the early levels are brutal and it's easy to die.
Other stuff it's helpful to know is:
Spoiler
On the character creation screen, when you're rolling for stats do this:
1: Roll stats
2: Lower them to their smallest possible values
3: "Save" the score in the top right
4: Roll again
5: Repeat point 2
6: Compare the scores, if the score is higher, refer back to 3, if not, to 4.
7: Repeat until you get a satisfying roll. It's just nice to play with Strength/Dexterity/Constitution 18 on a Fighter, or a 18 Intelligence Wizard.
Intelligence barely affects anything if you're not a Mage, so you can use it as a dump stat on brawlers (not recommended in BG2 though). Dexterity can be kept moderate.
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It gets better once your mages reach level 3 and can drop Web or Stinking Cloud on the field. Then you can pick off the immobilized enemies at your leisure.
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It gets better once your mages reach level 3 and can drop Web or Stinking Cloud on the field. Then you can pick off the immobilized enemies at your leisure.
Oh yeah, it's worth noting that at the early levels the crowd control skills rule. A Druid's Entangle is great, my personal favourite is Blind because of how gamebreaking it can be. (Seriously.) Magic Missile isn't really too good until you can cast more than one in a single spellcast. Fireball or Lightning Bolt are the first blasting spells that I like.
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So, Baldur's 2 Gate is one of my favorite games, as is Icewind Dale and such. I really want to actually finish them, but I just can't get into it with the old-style rules. Is there an updated version of either Baldur's Gate 2 or Icewind Dale that uses the 3.5 DnD ruleset?
So, Baldur's 2 Gate is one of my favorite games, as is Icewind Dale and such. I really want to actually finish them, but I just can't get into it with the old-style rules. Is there an updated version of either Baldur's Gate 2 or Icewind Dale that uses the 3.5 DnD ruleset?
No, there's Neverwinter Nights 2 if you want 3.5, but I think that's it. There's a lot of 3.0 games but they all suck.
I didn't think that Icewind Dale 2 was any worse than the first, and it uses the 3.0 ruleset. They're both fairly straightforward hack-and-slash dungeon crawls.
I think I once heard something about a mod that converted IWD and the BG titles to 3.0, but that may have just been a rumor. Or perhaps a fevered imagining. I get those sometimes.
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Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recaiden
This is Demon King Mangosta talking. Of course he's harsh.
There is such a mod. It's called Icewind Gate. It converts BG2 to the IWD2 engine, complete with its rendition of the 3.0 rules. I haven't tried it though.
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There was some huge mod released not long ago that transplanted the IWD campaign into I think NWN2. Or it might have been NWN1, I don't know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mangosta71
I didn't think that Icewind Dale 2 was any worse than the first, and it uses the 3.0 ruleset. They're both fairly straightforward hack-and-slash dungeon crawls.
I found IWD2 completely broke down around halfway through, gameplay- and mechanics-wise. Most battles just started to revolve around grinding down hordes of the same enemy type, and for some reason I can't remember the program stops giving you XP unless you trick it into doing so.
As for control vs. blasting magic, I think that depends on what your party looks like. You'll always want some control, but if you're running around with three wizards (or Edwin and a sorcerer, which is almost like having three wizards) you can AoE-spam things to death pretty conveniently. If you just have one arcane caster, you'll probably have too many slots devoted to utility like Dispel, Breach and Improved Haste to throw around many Fireballs, Cloudkills or Death Spells.
Basically, if you go for blasting, you want a lot of it.
But I agree that early on, damage-scaling means it's better to just disable enemies with Sleep or Web or whatever and shoot them full of arrows.
EDIT:
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonberrian
So.
I've finally installed Baldur's Gate I and II on my laptop, and I am going to go through the game for the first time. Tips, mods you recommend, anything?
Might be too late, but I would have recommended going straight for Tutu or BGT (both are engine ports) so you don't have to experience BG1's awkward resolution and interface, painfully slow walking speed, and sometimes kinda clunky sprites.
Apart from that, the only things I'd say you might want to look into would be some minor rules fixes/adjustments, but I think just going in mod-free would be my recommendation as well, apart from the engine port.
Last edited by Johnny Blade : 11-05-2012 at 08:41 PM.
There is such a mod. It's called Icewind Gate. It converts BG2 to the IWD2 engine, complete with its rendition of the 3.0 rules. I haven't tried it though.
Might be too late, but I would have recommended going straight for Tutu or BGT (both are engine ports) so you don't have to experience BG1's awkward resolution and interface, painfully slow walking speed, and sometimes kinda clunky sprites.
Apart from that, the only things I'd say you might want to look into would be some minor rules fixes/adjustments, but I think just going in mod-free would be my recommendation as well, apart from the engine port.
The only mod I ever installed for BG2 was Dungeon-Be-Gone, but I would never install it before playing the game the first time. (It removes the tutorial dungeon, automatically giving you all items and XP for it).
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Last night was the most wonderful night of my life. The things you showed me... the things we did... I could never have dreamt that it was possible. Who even knew that someone could manipulate their body in that manner while wearing Daedric armor boots? You are a true master of the Dibellan Arts, my love... a credit to your religion. Perhaps we'll meet again soon but next time, allow me to bring the trout.
Your Secret Lover"
The only mod I ever installed for BG2 was Dungeon-Be-Gone, but I would never install it before playing the game the first time. (It removes the tutorial dungeon, automatically giving you all items and XP for it).
That's a hell of a welcome mod. There's only so many times you can make yourself slog through that same areas just to get to the fun part of the game.
I'm not normally a big fan of mods, but I'll have to look it up next time I do a play-through. By chance, does it automatically do so, or give you the option of skipping it?
Last edited by Sinfonian : 11-06-2012 at 02:56 AM.
That's a hell of a welcome mod. There's only so many times you can make yourself slog through that same areas just to get to the fun part of the game.
I'm not normally a big fan of mods, but I'll have to look it up next time I do a play-through. By chance, does it automatically do so, or give you the option of skipping it?
You get the option. After escaping the cages, you run into one of Mystra's servants, who offer to teleport you to the end of the dungeon. You can say no.
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"Sweet Haelga,
Last night was the most wonderful night of my life. The things you showed me... the things we did... I could never have dreamt that it was possible. Who even knew that someone could manipulate their body in that manner while wearing Daedric armor boots? You are a true master of the Dibellan Arts, my love... a credit to your religion. Perhaps we'll meet again soon but next time, allow me to bring the trout.
Your Secret Lover"
Last edited by Avilan the Grey : 11-06-2012 at 03:04 AM.
The Irenicus dungeon actually is one of my favorite parts of the game, believe it or not.
Also, @ tonberrian again: I completely forgot to mention the Widescreen Mod earlier, which does what you'd expect it to do. In my experience, you can add it to existing installations without any problems.
The Irenicus dungeon actually is one of my favorite parts of the game, believe it or not.
Mine as well. From a narrative standpoint it's quite possibly the best opening sequence of any Bioware game to date.
Since this seems as good a place as any, I'm considering doing a Let's Play of the enhanced edition once it comes out (something which I'd wanted to do of the standard games for a while before it was announced, but that particular niche was looking a bit filled). With that in mind, assuming anyone would be interested in reading such a thing, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of things they'd like to see? (and if no one wants to see it, then just treat this as suggestions for a normal play-through).
Ideally, I'd like to include all three of the new NPCs in the party, alignment and/or reputation permitting, but that still leaves the rest of the party up for grabs. Imoen seems a likely inclusion but that's not set in stone (depending on how much I feel like bending the narrative a bit). The protagonist also has no set race or class idea yet, so again pretty much anything goes, although the fact that the new NPCs consist of a Monk, Wild Mage and Blackguard may shift the focus away from a standard warrior or mage a bit (and Kensai Duel-Classes need not apply). Alignment wise I'd usually be inclined to go neutral although that will depend on how easy it is to *ahem* influence the reputation system (given how it ties to heritage powers). If that proves too much of a hurdle, standard good's the normal fall-back (if a bit over-done) but I'm not averse to trying the evil path either if people are curious (it's not as if the Enhanced Edition's one can be worse than the normal game anyway).
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Re: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition
Incidently, speaking of IWD 2 - don't try playing Heart of Winter mode unless you've first created a party with it specifically in mind (e.g. caster-heavy). I tried it recently, for the first time in, well, since it was released, and thought I'd take my party I used in normal mode through. Pointless exercise; sadly, IWD 2 takes the worst "fighters-can't-have-nice-things" flaws of 3.x up another notch or two, and melee becomes basically impractical unless you've min-maxed from the very start with it in mind (and even them you're still better off with Animate Dead summoned tanks.) I boosted the stats up a bit (okay a fair bit) with Dale Keeper, DaleKeeper'd extra feats into the Fighters (to get in line with my own fighter hourse rules), and by basically switching the entire party to ranged weapons primarily, I made it through Act I.
But the trouble was, it got kinda boring, as fights were all samey - summon Animated Dead, buff party with Cat's Grace/Bull's Strength where appropriate, then Entangle/Spikes/etc etc enemy around summoned Greater Boneguards, bombard with ranged attacks and spells until dead, rinse and repeat (and rest every couple of fights). (Seriously, there were one or two occasions my 17th level wizard ran out of spells. Actually ran out of spells, down to the last Magic Missile...) I thought about it and realised there just wasn't any point going much further, as IWD2's plot and story is not exactly strong, and with nowhere to go level wise (other than "more-of-the-same-abilities") it seemed a bit pointless.
The Irenicus dungeon actually is one of my favorite parts of the game, believe it or not.
Well, I replayed that game 22 times. The dungeon gets boring after the 4th time. Tops.
__________________
"Sweet Haelga,
Last night was the most wonderful night of my life. The things you showed me... the things we did... I could never have dreamt that it was possible. Who even knew that someone could manipulate their body in that manner while wearing Daedric armor boots? You are a true master of the Dibellan Arts, my love... a credit to your religion. Perhaps we'll meet again soon but next time, allow me to bring the trout.
Your Secret Lover"
There's also Temple of Elemental Evil that uses 3.5 (sort of).
Circle of Eight, the mod community for ToEE just released a killer mod pack this summer. Pick up ToEE, then use Co8 to patch/mod it. Fantastic rendition ofthe 3.5 engine and a classic adventure.
Well, I replayed that game 22 times. The dungeon gets boring after the 4th time. Tops.
Depends. I've had the game for about 10 years, approximately. I think I've been through the starting dungeon at least eight times (that I can remember), I've probably been through it with try-them-out characters that I don't remember.
I enjoyed it the last time the most. It had been no more than a year since the last time through, and no more than four since the time before that. I know that when I played the game a lot in a relatively small time frame, it got a bit frustrating putting characters through it, but I think it just depends on your state of mind. If you are really into the character you're making, and you want to "do it right" and play the game for the story, I think it's much easier to enjoy that first dungeon.
On an unrelated note, I can't remember why the
Spoiler
shadow thieves are breaking into his dungeon in the first place...why were they?
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Think that magic is broken in 3.5? Might I suggest this?
(It's a PDF, give it a sec to load. Despite the title, it is not psionics; it's the magic system you know and love, changed to use spell points instead of slots. Also, every caster is a spontaneous caster, every spell has been rebalanced and many are meshed together.)
I found IWD2 completely broke down around halfway through, gameplay- and mechanics-wise. Most battles just started to revolve around grinding down hordes of the same enemy type, and for some reason I can't remember the program stops giving you XP unless you trick it into doing so.
There was one particular sequence where this occurred - the engine was figuring XP based on the average CL of your party and the CR of your opponents, and it didn't take into account the number of such enemies you fought, or any circumstantial advantages they had. So when you went through one map that had swarms of low-CR enemies ambushing your party every few steps, it was still awarding XP (or, more often, not) based on the CR of each individual Hook Horror rather than on the entirety of the encounter.
I don't recall the problem recurring after leaving that area, but that glitch was well-known and widely-discussed on the old Interplay forums.
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I remember not getting a lot of levels later in the game, though. But it's been years since I played it, so I can't really say much more about it and my memory might be a bit off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Silver
Since this seems as good a place as any, I'm considering doing a Let's Play of the enhanced edition once it comes out (something which I'd wanted to do of the standard games for a while before it was announced, but that particular niche was looking a bit filled). With that in mind, assuming anyone would be interested in reading such a thing, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of things they'd like to see? (and if no one wants to see it, then just treat this as suggestions for a normal play-through).
Mainly, I'd like to see that happen and finish (in less than 5 years), so I'd suggest you stick to a reasonably concise format if you decide to do it.
Quote:
Ideally, I'd like to include all three of the new NPCs in the party, alignment and/or reputation permitting, but that still leaves the rest of the party up for grabs. Imoen seems a likely inclusion but that's not set in stone (depending on how much I feel like bending the narrative a bit). The protagonist also has no set race or class idea yet, so again pretty much anything goes, although the fact that the new NPCs consist of a Monk, Wild Mage and Blackguard may shift the focus away from a standard warrior or mage a bit (and Kensai Duel-Classes need not apply).
Well, since the new guys and Imoen don't cover priest spells, I'll say that Druids are fun in BG1 since they gain spell levels so fast. Druids with the raised XP caps should be even more fun (Fire Elementals!). Couple that with a possible 21 Wisdom and optionally a few levels of Berserker or even just plain Fighter and you'd have a pretty good character.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey
Well, I replayed that game 22 times. The dungeon gets boring after the 4th time. Tops.
I've only finished the game I think 4 or 5 times, but I've completely lost count of how often I've been through that first dungeon. And I still like it.
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Re: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition
