Should I bother with BG1? Spoilers probably.

[Saxon1974]

An annoyance I just had with this game (BG1) is the available pc portraits. Now, I really like them, but the portrait pool is shared with the recruitable npcs. Now what happens is that out of the available there are only a pair that I actually want to use, but those belong to npcs. Since I have played it some before, I have grown somewhat attached to how they look, and with me occupying the portrait, they will change the npc to a "second pick" alternative, and that just becomes to jarring to me. For example they change Xan to some halfling, and Kivan get this cheery and gay look. I ended up using custom portrait from NWN, since it has a somewhat similar style and doesn`t seem to out of place.

I know it is a purely cosmetic issue, but I`m one of those that could never name a character "Jack Bauer" and play through a game, so this is serious business!

Yes there are not very many portraits to choose from and hard to find a good one for certain classes that is not re-used. There are different mod sites you can download portaits from, i listed one of them earlier in this post.

I had trouble finding a good ranger pic because I didnt want to use the same one I used in BGII, but I use one that looks sort of like a fighter\ranger.

 

[RK47]

Just google some images
example:
this is a fighter he probably has 18 CON, 18 STR, 18 DEX wielding 1D12 TwoHandSword while wearing a helmet to prevent crit and AC 0 Cod Piece

 

[Murk]

Yeah just make your own dude

I go for Abbath in all my playthroughs. He has a special place in my heart (penis)

 

[Andhaira]

Just google some images
example:
this is a fighter he probably has 18 CON, 18 STR, 18 DEX wielding 1D12 TwoHandSword while wearing a helmet to prevent crit and AC 0 Cod Piece

So thbe mayor of california is actually a bhaalspawn?

Wow.Totally didn't see that coming.

 

[RK47]

No he is a Brave Diplomat

 

[Andhaira]

Yes, he really really is. You do need balls if you are going to be calling fags girly men in fron of international teevee.

 

[avatarrr]

Regarding BG1, whad do you guys think of such a solo build?

Mage dual-classed to Thief at lvl 1. Thanks to that thief can use all wands and neklaces and scimitars as well.

Combine ring of fire resistance (40%) with stolen frostbrand+3 (50% fire res) and robe of fire reistance (20%) and you have 110% resistance total. The way BG1 handles 100+ resistance means that while being harmed by fire you are actually healed.

If you max charisma with algernon's cloak, tome of leadership, friends spell etc., you can recharge neklace of missiles at very low cost. Having 24 fireballs at disposal with quick casting rate that heal you at the same time is pretty nifty. For creatures that are immune to fire you can use wand of stun.

Beginning of such a build (up to thief lvl 3) will be quite difficult I suppose, but later it should totally own the game. Or maybe I'm missing something with that idea?

 

[afewhours]

<snip>

Yeah, that sounds viable. Just make sure you learn haste and/or get the boots of speed pronto. You'll have to spend a lot of time kiting, and I recommend protection from normal missiles to keep the archers at bay. Get yourself the Eagle Short Bow and a backpack of magic arrows for backup, and it may work.

Yer only problem may come with creatures that are uber-resistant to magic. You'll need your summons and bow for them. I assume you're gonna max out your DEX/INT/CHA and set your CON at 16 right?

 

[Murk]

I think you're building too specified of a role and losing out on a lot of potential power by changing to thief at level 1. It's gonna be pretty hard to rely entirely on magical items for a lot of the heavier fights and you're going to resort to a lot of "trick the game mechanics" type of tactics.

But doooo itttt

 

[jiujitsu]

Well so far my experience with this game has given me around three mini-strokes. Either there's something I'm missing here, or the game (at least at first) is about everything having a hit rate of literally 10% (MAYBE that high) and getting killed in one hit because my characters suck cock. The dude who jumps you at the stairs of the Friendly Arm Inn kills characters in one shot, meaning if he hits my main it's game over. I managed to kill him by dragging him over to guards and running my main away and reloading 16 times and various retarded things like that (which was strange cause last time I tried the game the guy was a joke). Now I'm trying to take on an ogre mage that, again, kills shit in one hit. What the fuck is going on here? I don't know whether I'm an idiot or the developers of this game were. Shall I ditch BG1 or am I a moron who doesn't get it?

You have to use tactics in BG a lot. The ogre mage is very easy if you are smart about the fight. Let him aggro your main character and have imoen shoot her bow and the wand of magic missle at him. If he aggros her then have your main attack with ranged until it's dead. All the while running away from the ogre with the character that has his attention.

The mage at Friendly Arm Inn is a bastard. You just have to close the gap quick and/or get some lucky shots in with ranged to take him down. He should die quick. The trick is killing him fast enough so he can't kill you.

It's a great game. Don't worry, after a while you start getting uber powerful, but you need to keep in mind that tough battles can be made a lot easier if you change your tactics.

 

[avatarrr]

I think you're building too specified of a role and losing out on a lot of potential power by changing to thief at level 1. It's gonna be pretty hard to rely entirely on magical items for a lot of the heavier fights and you're going to resort to a lot of "trick the game mechanics" type of tactics.

But doooo itttt

Yeah, for such situations I'm going to use wand of monster summoning. It is easy to recharge those items with maxed charisma and reputation in a solo game since you have all the cash from loot for yourself.

 

[Andhaira]

Sarevok still kills you in one hit no matter your power. Seriously, what level is that sob and what kind of erquip does he have?

I wish you could import in your Bg2 character (at level 17 or so) and proceed to utterly RAPE sarevok and his entire band of hippies in one go.

Yay for level based rpg's.

 

[RK47]

yeah i kinda got tired of the insta kill traps too. lol good reason to lower difficulty to easy. I mean, Ajantis got raped by Sarevok in 2 hits.

 

[Andhaira]

Yeah if you are a mele'r forget going toe to toe with sarevok. If you are a magic user also forget it, since his spell resistance will screw you over.

This is where bioware fucked up, since its satifying to go one on one against bad guys. Rapid reloadinbg to win thegame sucks.

but easytutu can give satisfaction though. Fire it up, start bg1, select berserker, kensai or barabrian,level him up to 18 (via CLUAconsole) get to sarevok, proceed to RAPE him.

 

[afewhours]

This is where bioware fucked up, since its satifying to go one on one against bad guys.

Well, drama aside, wouldn't it suck if the uber-final-godlike-boss was balanced to get whacked in one-on-one combat by a level 8 fighter? The final fight was balanced to be the most difficult fight in the game for a six person party - which is how it should be. In fact, at the time ToSC was released, Bioware thought Sarevok was too easy and tweaked him a bit in the expansion.

Sarevok is easy. He has only got about 150hp, no magic, and no insta-kills. Stack up on magic arrows, haste everyone and he drops as quickly as anyone else. He's a bitch in melee, but you're not forced to engage him in melee, becuase he only moves at normal speed. Just haste everyone and kite him to death. Meh, you can haste one person and kite him to death, that works as well.

yeah i kinda got tired of the insta kill traps too. lol good reason to lower difficulty to easy. I mean, Ajantis got raped by Sarevok in 2 hits.

Yer all pansies. BG is not a hard game, but it punishes you for being daft. Durlag's Tower was great fun - where would the joy be if it was easy? The level cap was a good idea. I prefer games that force you to make tactical choices that don't just involve grinding more.

 

[Andhaira]

yeah i kinda got tired of the insta kill traps too. lol good reason to lower difficulty to easy. I mean, Ajantis got raped by Sarevok in 2 hits.

Yer all pansies. BG is not a hard game, but it punishes you for being daft. Durlag's Tower was great fun - where would the joy be if it was easy? The level cap was a good idea. I prefer games that force you to make tactical choices that don't just involve grinding more.[/quote]

I never said wahts in that quote, that was someone else.

Anyhow, I still think if your main pc specialises in melee (i.e. a figter) he should, by the ned of the game be able to take on the BBEG. Kind of like KOTOR, which had a very satisfying ending.

 

[afewhours]

I never said wahts in that quote, that was someone else.

Oh, for fuck's sake. What is wrong with me? FIXED