This is the old shit; Let's Play Baldur's Gate (Completed)

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Yeah...Bioware's first RPG..Baldur's Gate. Before collar-grabbing, before the fear in the orc's eye, before alien lesbian sex, and before the new shit. It's been attempted before, but nobody had he fortitude to go through. I, however, actually kinda like this game. So there's a good chance this will work out.

One thing before starting...this LP is going to have serious technical difficulties. Before I got an external screenshot program, I was using the internal one. It couldn't capture dialogue though, so I'm going to have to fill in the blanks for the first part myself.

Also, the external capture program...well...I'm still getting the hang of it. For one, sometimes it has strange glitches where it omits parts of the game from screenshots, whether it be portraits, spell effects, or even character/creature sprites. This is kind of irritating.

Worst thing that happened so far was that in a large block of playing, none of the screenshots captured due to what I can only assume was a Windows Vista fuckup. Joy of joys. It was mostly sidequests though, so I'll just give everyone a text update, because I don't feel like replaying it all over again, and I don't have nearly enough saves.

Without further bullshit...here goes.

Birth of a Jackass

Welcome to character creation. I grabbed a few screenshots here, but surprise, surprise, they fucked up in a couple places.



First up is a gender choice, which has little to no effect at all besides cosmetics, a few dialogue options, and which characters in the sequel will awkwardly hit on you. Then you pick a portrait. I use a custom one.



Next up is race choice. Race determines a lot of things, like what class you can be, ability bonuses/penalties, and special abilities. In case you've never played a 2nd Edition Infinity Engine game, here's a quick primer.

Humans have no bonuses or penalties but can be any class and are able to dual-class.

Half Elves are like humans, except they can't be paladins, can't dual-class, but are able to multi-class and have infravision (which is useless).

Elves have a bonus to dexterity and a penalty to constitution. They also have sleep and charm immunities in addition to getting a bonus to attacks with bows and swords. They can't be paladins either, presumably because they are hippies, and hippies can't be paladins.

Dwarves are angry short men. They get a penalty to charisma, but can have a very high constitution and a lot of saving throw bonuses. They can't be a lot of classes, including mages, bards, and thieves. But it doesn't matter. As far as beastly fighters go, they are number one. Potentially a dwarven fighter could get over130 HP by the end of the game, having more HP than just about anything in the game.

Halflings are kinda like shitty elves. They get a dexterity bonus, but they suffer a strength penalty, which hurts a lot more than constitution. They are supposed to be great thieves, but I prefer a strong elven fighter/thief anyday (yeah that sounded really gay).

Gnomes...I've never liked. They get an intelligence bonus, which is pretty much useless. 19 intelligence isn't much better than 18, until BG2, where it does help mass-scribing scrolls for experience. Except you can always just buy a potion to raise your intelligence for that event. Plus, gnomes are very restricted in classes. However, they are the only race that can be a multi-classed specialist mage, but only illusionists. I like animate dead and skull trap too much though, so that won't fly.

I choose to make my character a human.



Here's class selection. I'll break it down again.

First up are the warrior classes.

Fighters hit stuff, hard. As a fighter you get the warrior hit points (1-10 a level), the warrior "exceptional strength bonus" (you can have the 18:XX strength), the warrior constitution bonus (constitution hit point bonuses past a score of 16 actually apply), the warrior ability to use any class of weapon armor, and the ability to have the higher levels of weapon specialization. That last thing is the only thing that Fighters can do that no other warriors can, and in BG1, it pays off. Mastery, High Mastery, and Grand Mastery of a weapon class will grant great to-hit and damage bonuses, and will eventually double your attack rate and speed. Every other warrior class can only go to 2 ranks (specialized) in a weapon, and this is what makes fighters the supreme damage-dealers.

Rangers are a mix. They have all the "warrior" specific abilities of the fighter, but add in the ability to use stealth when wearing non-metal armor, and the ability to cast a limited amount of druid spells later on. THey can also choose a racial enemy to get huge bonuses against. The downside is they don't get any higher than weapon specialization, they have to be good-aligned, and they require a lot more stats, so you can't say...dump Wisdom into strength, dexterity, and constitution.

The Paladin is another warrior mix. They have the Warrior abilities, and can't go any higher than specialization, but have a boatload of special abilities. They can Lay-On Hands to heal themselves or others, cast Detect Evil a lot, Protection From Evil a lot, get cleric spells later on, and get a big bonus to saving throws just by being the holy warrior they are. The downside is, paladins need a heapload of stats. The only stat they can effectively "dump" is intelligence. They require high wisdom, and mandate at least 17 charisma (that's a lot). This might seriously cut into one's combat stats. Also, they have to be Lawful Good humans, and any time they drop below 10 reputation, they become fallen paladins and lose all of their paladin abilities permanently. Choices and consequences bitches.

Next up are the Priest Classes. They cast spells and have the second highest hp (1-8 per level).

Clerics are kind of the healers/support spellcasters. Most of their magic heals friendlies, buffs up friendlies, protects friendlies, or takes away nasty effects on friendlies. They do get a scant few offensive spells, a few summoning spells, and some enemy disabling spells, but not as many as the druid or mage. They can wear all classes or armor, but can 't use any edged or piercing weapons and (like all non-warrior classes) can only get one rank in weapon skills.

Druids are like more offensively minded Clerics. Their spells are less focused on healing and more on offense and disabling. I personally find a lot of their spells far better than anything in the cleric arsenal. To make up for this, they can't wear any metal armor, and have the cleric's weapon restrictions as well. Later on, however, they can shapeshift into powerful animals to beat face effectively.

Next up are the wizards.

Mages are basically your artillery. They have battle-shifting spells, can dish out massive damage, and can really shift the entire battle in your favor in seconds...provided you use them right. To make up for this, they can't wear any armor besides robes, they have the most restrictive weapon selection, and have the least HP (1-4 a level).

The other classes are specialist mages. These mages get extra spells per rest, but by doing so sacrifice the ability to cast from a school or subsection of magic. This can be either a non-issues like in the case of the Conjurer (who loses out on divination, which is no big loss) or a serious loss (like the Invoker, who loses both conjuration and enchantment/charm or the Enchanter who loses the critical school of Evocation).

Then there are the rogues.

First up is the Thief. They are the utility character. They can use a decent array of weapons. They can stealth and use it to deliver brutal backstabs. And they provide the only "real" way to get past locks and traps, making them a valuable part of every party. Their downsides are that they can't wear any metal armor and their 1-6 HP a level don't really cut it for front-line support.

Then there is the Bard, the jack of all trades. Bards...well...suck. At least in BG1, some of the BG2 bard kits are pretty amazing. The thing is, their abilities aren't too great. They're like Thieves, except they can't use stealth, and only have access to pick pocketing skills (which are rather poor and it isn't a useful skill to have very high either). They can actually wear up to chainmail armor, but they are still awful frontliners. Their bard song is rather poor, only giving all allies in range a +1 bonus to all rolls, but taking up all of the bard's actions. The only good thing is that they get mage spells, but at a stunted level and they can't wear armor and cast. If you really wantt a mage with some thief skills and thief weapon skills, you'd be better off dual-classing Imoen to a mage.

Finally there are multi-classes. If you are non-human, you can be two or three classes at once and split your experience between them while enjoying the benefits and drawbacks of both at once.



Next up is picking alignment. Besides being restricted by class and affecting starting reputation, there really aren't many effects of alignment. Your reputation determines most things. I pick Chaotic Good, because that sounds quite...Shepardian.



The final parts of character creation differ. First you roll/adjust your stats, which differs based on race/class. As anyone experienced will notice, I waited awhile for a good roll. The stats are as follows, with 3 being the minimum and 18 being the maximum in each stat (excluding racial bonuses penalties which shift things higher or lower).

Strength--Determines to hit and to damage bonuses for melee as well as carrying capacity. The numbers after the 18 are the exceptional strength modifier for warriors which go from 18:01 to 18:00 (essentially 18:100).

Dexterity--Determines if you get an armor class bonus, gives a bonus to thief skills (if applicable), and gives a to-hit bonus to ranged weapons (this is often overlooked and why the Teenage Atheist Elf Ninjas were so lethal, all packing 19 dexterity).

Constitution--Determines HP bonuses/penalties per level up to +2 at 16 for all classes except warriors, who can get +3, +4, +5, and even +6 for dwarves who start with 19 constitution and grab the bobble...manual of bodily health. Also to note, in BG, once you get 20+ constitution, you can regenerate like the Nameless One in Torment. Pretty cool.

Intelligence--Determines your chance to successfully scribe mages scrolls to your spellbook. Is supposed to also determine the highest level of spell you can cast, but it was never implemented, not even in BG2. Also helps against mind flayers. That's it.

Wisdom--Determines bonus Priest spells per level. Clerics and Druids with high wisdom can cast more spells per day. Also can help at very high levels with saves against mental effects and helps out if a mage casts a wish spell.

Charisma--Traditionally the dump stat, but actually very useful in BG. Most people won't notice it, but low to middling charisma will seriously hamper a lot of quest rewards, keep you out of a few quests, and make certain party members unrecruitable. It also reduces prices in stores at a high level, but does the opposite at a low level. Much worse as a dump stat than intelligence or wisdom.

After stat selection, you pick out skills. Everyone picks out weapon skills, though warriors get more points than anyone else. Then thieves pick out thief skills, priests pick out which spells to start with memorized, mages choose which spells to start with in their spellbook, and bards get dicked over.

Afterwards you pickout your colors. Skin color, hair color, and clothes colors. I make a black man with grey hair, to match the custom portrait of Samuel L. And I then select a voice-set. The ones in BG1, at least for the player character, suck a huge dick, so instead I use a custom one of Samuel L. Jackson quotes.

Finally, I christen him Motherfucker Shepard. Time to grab some collars, Sword Coast style motherfuckers! Updates to come.

Awesome , MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR

BG1 sucks, but link this and I might play it anyway.

IRONMAN THAT SHIT

Which is why dual classed fighters are so fucking amazing. Even if all you do is advance to the fourth level as a fighter and then switch, you'll still have three spec points in your weapon of choice as well as two points in your secondary. May not be as much of an advantage as obtaining all five spec points, but it's a hell of a lot better than the single spec point most classes restrict you to. Also, you lose all of your spec points until the level of your new class surpasses that of your fighter class, so you'll be sitting on a weaker character for a much longer time if you wait. Other bonuses include the warrior str bonus and ten or so more hp.

The only real downside is that you need to have 15 in all the base stats required by your first class (trivial) and 17 in your new class (A bitch if you're planning to dual class to druid...hurray for requiring 17 wis + cha).

And if you were waiting on a better roll, that 18/40 str is only one step above (+1dam, 20 more weight) 18...Should've waited for 91-99 as numbers in that range have +1 to hit, +3 dam, and 120 more weight compared to the base 18. If you really want 18/00...you're better off just downloading a character editor...Have fun with those 1 in 100 odds just to get the 18/00, let alone enough stat points ;p

(Just started an Icewind Dale game on my end, so this stuff is all fresh in my head.)

Hell yes. One of my favorite RPG's. Good times.

And before

It's about time someone did a LP of this. Keep it going.

hell YEAAA go see elminster, i always like the encounter with him.

Niiice. I tried to replay BG1 twice and got bored of it after some hours. So this this LP will have to suffice.

Chaotic good? I was hoping for an evil playthrough... Oh well , collar grabbing is beyond good and evil.

Edward, there is no need to explain D&D 2ed mechanics when most of the forum knows and understands it.

By the way, can you beat Lumpy's BG1 LP? It was hilarious.

Looks good. Try to use Algernon's cloak excessively and kill Elminster.

This game was repulsively bland. I never got around finishing it, I always stopped after Nashkel out of sheer boredom.

So it happened with Baldur's Gate II somewhere in Amn, though I did finish that one (on my 4th attempt) if only out of curiosity to all the hype the game was getting.

I don't really understand how people can feel that way about the BG's. I found them both immensily enjoyable, especially the second one which I have played more than I'd like to admit. What exactly was so boring about them, 1eyedking?

Bad combat, bad dialogue, bad characters. It's just not fun to play.

Game seriously sucks all kinds of suckable things but Ed's lps have never failed to entertain. Let's see how far you'll go.

I still have good memories of the game and have been planning a replay many times, but always stopped during planning. What mods should I use if I do it? BG1TuTu seems like a must since I like the engine improvements of BG2. What else?

I quit BG1 somewhere after Nashkel - there were circular holes appearing out of nowhere in my head, so I guessed that I was getting bored and quit.

I will, however read this LP.

Great, your LP's are always good fun, and this is actually a good game.

Well, it was nice to know that my assassin doesn't get anything from CON 19.

Strike down the old crook with great vengeance and furious anger and he will know your name is the Lord.

BG1 also had a boring world with the huge amount of filler maps.

Locations in BG2 were much better though, I think because they decided to drop that "free roaming" bullshit and concentrate on something for once.

It also works in Bg1. I had a dwarf with 20 CON and he regenerated hp.

Fail on so may levels.


The areas aren't filler at all. I would take BG areas over the "highlighted" areas of BG2 anytime. BG has a sense of adventure that is lacking from BG2. It relies in story/atmosphere to create this sense, instead of the abundant "epicness" or the ridiculously disproportioned loot of BG2.

Traversing the wildereness adds the sense of transience and is what "makes" the story by adding credibility and making it more believable. Combined with not knowing at the same time what or who you're up against, the way the story gradually unfolds without spoiling much, but giving you enough to keep going is part of the game's glory. BG2 and subsequent Bio games are much more constricting and put the player in a predetermined path. BG captures the gameworld and the feel of D&D campaigns more than any other game ever did.