Should I bother with BG1? Spoilers probably.

[Murk]

Thanks for all the help. After reading that guide on AD&D 2.0 and all this I've decided my character definitely sucks and I should start over. Should I just go and recruit the NPC's you guys mentioned first thing after the Inn and then go from there?

Honestly I'd be careful about taking too much power gamey advice as you'd basically ruin part of the game.

I'd say to make a decent starting character and just trudge it out on your own - and definitely Keep Imoen. Best thief in the game, and is a perfect candidate for some pseudo-pedophilia lolicon fanfic shit.

 

[cardtrick]

You don't need a crazy powerful character, and you also don't need to waste time leveling in the wilderness.

You do need (well, not need, but want) for the beginning of the game:

1) Missile weapons for every character for the first level or two (that means buy some extras in the first shop). Most fights will consist of you having one party member act as a decoy and run around while the others shoot at the creature chasing the decoy.

2) Focused attacks -- all characters attacking the same creature at the same time.

3) Xzar and Montaron, at least until you reach the Friendly Arm

With these things, you have two routes to go with the mage. The first is the standard -- have everyone shoot him with missile weapons. There's a good chance that you will be able to interrupt his first spell or two, and then he's toast.

The second, and more fun (but also more metagamey) is to have Montaron, who is a fighter/thief, hide and sneak up alone on the mage, who will be unlikely to spot him. Get him behind the mage. As soon as your other characters come into view and combat starts, Montaron can backstab the mage, killing him in one hit before he can get a spell off.

Once you pick up Jaheira and Khalid at the Friendly Arm, things get much easier.

 

[Jasede]

Sample party that will own:

You - fighter with two handed word and composite longbow
Minsc - two handed swords (he might as well have a composite longbow to back up)
---or Kagain if you prefer a more focused Tank with battle axe and shield.
Kivan - composite long bow
imoen - short bow
Corgan - composite long bow
Cleric (Branwen, Viconia, or even Jaheira) - sling and a melee weapon and shield

Must be the worst sample party I've ever seen. (Hyperbole, it's actually really good.)

Yeah, I know how bows are really overpowered in BG 1, but come ON. Using magic is so much more fun! Kick out Imoen because she's useless and take Edwin instead. Or kick out Corgan for Edwin, but he's better than Imoen. And don't ever take Minsc. He's terrible and annoying. Replace him with Shar-Teel.

Edit: Imoen, best thief? She doesn't even have 19 Dex. She sucks terribly when you could have a Fighter/Thief with 20 (or was it 19?) Dex instead. And she's stupid and annoying, and worst of all, female. The only females I can tolerate in my party are Jaheira and Viconia; I think they did a fine job characterizing them in BG 2.

Don't take Imoen. She's so bad. And she's pink.

 

[ghostdog]

It doesn't really matter what party you'll have, reroll for a good sum and make a fighter with 18 str 12 dex 18 con a 10 for int and wiz and everything else should go into charisma. Then it will be like a stroll in the park. Also Be sure to play BG1 with easyTUTU.

 

[Jasede]

You don't need TUTU, it screws up the game balance because the spells are the BG 2 variants and the game wasn't designed for that. But you can if you like, I mean, whatever is fun for you!

I have to second the recommendation to min-max your character, unless you're playing iron-man. This game encourages, no, expects it.

 

[Elwro]

But ghostdog, why would charisma be important for a fighter? Or do you mean that this attribute can be very low since you can use other characters in shops and find CHA-boosting items?

 

[Ladonna]

I don't know why some of you are making these parties up for. Half of the characters mentioned will leave if the reputation drops too low or rises too high. Decide whether you will have a goody party or and evil party, and then see what characters you want. Someone like Shar Teel or Xzar are useless if the player wants to be Mr Sword coast protector.

 

[caliban]

Decide whether you will have a goody party or and evil party, and then see what characters you want.

QFT - trying to maintain neutrality is annoying, and certain characters will eventually try to kill each other anyway.

My favourite party (depending on whether you want to play 'goodie two shoes' or a bastard):

-Main character: Summoner
-Tank: Ajantis/Minsc or Kagain/Shar-Teel
-Secondary fighter/healer: Jaheira
-'Pure' cleric: Viconia or Branwen
-Secondary wizard: Edwin/Xzar or Dynaheir
-Imoen

If you're feeling lucky you can even throw out the tank entirely and replace him with an archer: Coran or Kivan. I don't feel a tank character is really that necessary, but it does help to have one, especially in tight places, where you can't fight with the entire party.

The tactic is simple: hold the enemy in place with spells and turn them into pincushions. 4 characters here can cast immobilizing spells (Sleep, Web, Stink Cloud for mages and Entangle/Hold for clerics) and then switch to shooting, while two other characters are shooting from the start. Later on you can use summons to swarm the enemy and direct damage spells to kill them more efficiently, but the principle remains the same: immobilize and kill.

Works perfectly, and lets you win at minimal risk, if you're careful

 

[ghostdog]

But ghostdog, why would charisma be important for a fighter?

Mostly for much better prices so that you can get some of the best equipment earlier, and also for better reactions and a little more fun gameplay. As for dex you get the gauntlets of dex fairly early in the game so no need to put more points there and int,wiz are useless for a fighter. After that you'll be something like:

SRT: 18
DEX: 18
CON:18
INT: 10
WIZ: 10
CHA: 16-18

Now you can even solo the game.

 

[Elwro]

I understand the prices bit, but I think I found some CHA-boosting items for my warrior-playthrough quite early on. But I'm wondering about better reactions... are they really significantly helpful? On the other hand, putting these points in INT or WIS is clearly a waste.

 

[Jasede]

When I play I try to roll something rather epic, at least 16 on every ability, even if it takes me ages. But I can just 'sperg my way there.

Why do I do this? This is simple. BG 1 awards you with more XP/Items if you have 16+ CHA, and you need, for example, a CHA of 19 for a quest in BG 2 to get the most XP. High INT/WIS scores can equally benefit, but much, much more rarely and, if I remember right, only in BG 2.

 

[Fez]

You may as well just use a character editor and set it exactly as you want it if you are going to do that. It would save you the trouble of rolling a million times to get the one you want.

 

[Elwro]

BG 1 awards you with more XP/Items if you have 16+ CHA.

Whoa, I didn't know this. But still, I'm playing a Bard with Algernon's cloak now, so I have 20 CHA. When you set the game to run twice as fast as normally it siginifcantly reduces the boredom!

 

[Jasede]

How did you do that? Set max frames per second to 120? I know there's some setting but I forgot where. I need to reinstall BG + TotSC + BG 2 + ToB + Ascension + Redemptions. Never played ToB (well, never finished) so I want to relieve the horror of BG. (Actually, I like the game. A dungeon crawler with crappy combat. But at least the dungeons look great; hand-drawn with love, and Durlag's Tower is easily one of the, if not the best dungeon ever made.)

And there's plenty of quests in BG 1 that give you more with 16, 18 CHA. Some even give you a little more with 16 and a lot more with 18. Those differences are still minor of course, but I find it worthy of note.

 

[Elwro]

I set "AI refreshments per second" to 60 instead of 30 In the configuration tool.

 

[afewhours]

Edit: Imoen, best thief? She doesn't even have 19 Dex. She sucks terribly when you could have a Fighter/Thief with 20 (or was it 19?) Dex instead.

Oi! Leave Immy alone, you git!

Edwin is t3h uber leet caster, yes. But he *is* evil, which will be annoying for a good aligned party - and once he runs out of spells, he can't do anything but sling away with his pathetic DEX score.

Immy's the second best caster after Edwin. She potentially has the same casting ability as Dynaheir/Xzar/Xan etc. due to her 17 INT. But you get a bit more than spells with Immy. The XP cap clocks your mages at Lv. 9. Now if you Dual Class Immy at Lv.6, you get yourself a Lv. 9 caster with Lv. 6 thief skills on the side - which is substantially better than a pure Lv. 9 caster. She has high CON and high DEX so she's not very squishy - she gets a decent AC and the same HP as Coran. Once she runs out of spells, she can crack out the shortbow and be pretty useful with it.

Let's make things nice and simple, and assume your character is a fighter with max STR, DEX, and CON. If you wanna go evil, I'd suggest.

Front Line: Shar-Teel, Kagain.
Back Line: PC (Specced to Bow) Montaron, Vicky, Edwin.

If you wanna go good, I'd suggest making the PC a pally (Maxing CHA becomes very easy) and take:

Front Line: PC, Yeslick.
Back Line: Khalid (Respec him to Bow), Kivan, Coran, Imoen. (Dual-classed to mage)

Voila. No alignment conflicts in either party and all bases covered. This setup maybe a bit boring and straightforward, especially if you don't want the PC to be a fighter, but you'll blaze through the game and finish with some better ideas for your next playthrough.

 

[Jasede]

The only trouble is, most NPCs blow in BG 1. And in 2 all the very best NPCs are evil. (It's true! Edwin is the best caster ever, and in BG 2 he gets so many spells he will never run out and he'll always be better than a PC caster; Korgan is the best fighter in that game, Viconia the best cleric by far...)

And I don't find having evil PCs in a good party annoying. If anything, it's nice to seem those guys fight to the death every once in a while.

Bottom line: do whatever you like and watch the consequences of it. And there are some in BG 1, especially when you have guys that can't steand each other at all.

(Khalid is THE worst fighter in the history of AD&D)

 

[Andhaira]

@OP: it owuld help if you told us what class your pc is, and if you have any npcs with you (Xzar, imoes, montaron, jaheira, and Khalid being the ones you could have at this pt)

 

[afewhours]

Khalid is THE worst fighter in the history of AD&D

Meh. If you can ignore his stupid voice, he's as good as Kivan. Khalid gets mastery, Kivan does not, and Khalid gets the second highest HP total in the game. Only Kagain can take a more thorough beating than Khalid, and his AC isn't as good.

And I don't find having evil PCs in a good party annoying. If anything, it's nice to seem those guys fight to the death every once in a while.

I suppose yer choosing between a smoother playthrough and a funnier playthrough. I got annoyed with managing rep in BG, which was a pity, because I like to have Vicky about.

And in 2 all the very best NPCs are evil.

Oh yes! The one exception to this is Keldorn (Which will no doubt please our resident LARPer) because the Inquisitor is the most broken class in the entire game. w00t! I can cast dispel magic as an innate ability with the proficiency of a caster twice my fucking level! What was that, Irenicus? *bing!* Not so hard now, are you?

Bottom line: do whatever you like and watch the consequences of it. And there are some in BG 1, especially when you have guys that can't steand each other at all.

QFT. After all, relentless punishment is the most fun way to learn anything! :wink:

 

[Andhaira]

Actually IMO undead hunter is more broken, due to the HUGE number of negative leveling undead in the game.

Also, tob gives you wild mage, which can make your pc superior to edwin...or MUCH worse depedning on what the 5% chance does to your spells :D

 

[afewhours]

Actually IMO undead hunter is more broken, due to the HUGE number of negative leveling undead in the game.

Undead Hunter does rock, yes, but Protection From Negative Energy can be cast by any shmuck in the game. On the other hand, Lv. 41+ dispel magic can't be cast by even the most powerful casters. A Level 40 mage could cast whatever Lv. 9 protections and buffs he wants, A level 21 Keldorn can eliminate all of those with a snap of his fingers because he's casting Dispel Magic with the power of a Lv. 42 mage.

This renders all enemy mages completely helpless. Of course, Keldorn's no slouch in melee either. :D

 

[another dumbfuck]

I like BG well enough and play damn near every AD&D cRPG thta comes out, it's not that I don't enjoy the games -- it's that the system they use kind of sucks and detracts a lot from what would otherwise be a steadier stream of fun.

Gothic's character system, while barely a notch above "bare bones" was very well used for that game.

Games which include a system tailored to it are, in my opinion, generally a better idea.

Though the execution of such a task, as always, is very possibly at great risk of failure.

Gothic's character system and combat are designed by morons and they are fucking abysmal and retarded beyond belief. It's maybe a quarter step above Oblivion.

D&D 2.0 is the best balanced D&D edition out there by far. Aside from a few games like wasteland and jagged alliance, it is the best system that's ever been in a computer game. BG, on the other hand, uses it in a completely retarded realtime fashion which mostly ruins it.

It's a good thing you're around to tell people how to survive the amazing perils of BG. I guess some people might be too stupid to figure out how kiting works.

 

[Andhaira]

Actually IMO undead hunter is more broken, due to the HUGE number of negative leveling undead in the game.

Undead Hunter does rock, yes, but Protection From Negative Energy can be cast by any shmuck in the game. On the other hand, Lv. 41+ dispel magic can't be cast by even the most powerful casters. A Level 40 mage could cast whatever Lv. 9 protections and buffs he wants, A level 21 Keldorn can eliminate all of those with a snap of his fingers because he's casting Dispel Magic with the power of a Lv. 42 mage.

This renders all enemy mages completely helpless. Of course, Keldorn's no slouch in melee either. :D

true; though Keldron vs a similar level mage fight will still go badly for him due to the power of magic in bg2. (maze, gate, disintegrate, powerwords,etc).

Honestly, I bet thats why Bioware used the strange level diviosn between both games, when say a levels 1-10 bg1 and a levels 11-20 bg2 would have made more sense.

The way it currently is you go from having the weakest chracter in bg1 (mages) to becoming the baddest motherfuckers in bg2. (hah, imagine a dnd newb playing a mage in bg1, getting frustated by always getting killed and playing a straight fighter in bg2!!)

 

[Murk]

Sample party that will own:

You - fighter with two handed word and composite longbow
Minsc - two handed swords (he might as well have a composite longbow to back up)
---or Kagain if you prefer a more focused Tank with battle axe and shield.
Kivan - composite long bow
imoen - short bow
Corgan - composite long bow
Cleric (Branwen, Viconia, or even Jaheira) - sling and a melee weapon and shield

Must be the worst sample party I've ever seen. (Hyperbole, it's actually really good.)

Yeah, I know how bows are really overpowered in BG 1, but come ON. Using magic is so much more fun! Kick out Imoen because she's useless and take Edwin instead. Or kick out Corgan for Edwin, but he's better than Imoen. And don't ever take Minsc. He's terrible and annoying. Replace him with Shar-Teel.

Edit: Imoen, best thief? She doesn't even have 19 Dex. She sucks terribly when you could have a Fighter/Thief with 20 (or was it 19?) Dex instead. And she's stupid and annoying, and worst of all, female. The only females I can tolerate in my party are Jaheira and Viconia; I think they did a fine job characterizing them in BG 2.

Don't take Imoen. She's so bad. And she's pink.

ehhh

Main character doesn't count when comparing to premade NPCs as the main char autowins no matter what because you make the bastard and so your bastard is twice as awesome as anyone else's bastard.

Imoen's the best thief in BG1 with possible exception to Coran, except he sucks as a theif 'cause you get him so late his theiving skills are shittily divided, also, he's going to be too busy raping people with a bow to bother looking for traps. Also, Minsc has the highest STR score outside the main PC, and that difference of 18/92 vs a lower one is huuggeee, and I like to fuck around with his berserk ability.

I didn't give him what I think is a FUN party but one that's likely to win damn near every battle that isn't a boss fight without worrying about player skill.

Seriously, my last play through I played a fucking rogue who couldn't go past level 11 until I got to baldur's gate to dual him to a mage.

 

[Murk]

Gothic's character system and combat are designed by morons and they are fucking abysmal and retarded beyond belief. It's maybe a quarter step above Oblivion.

D&D 2.0 is the best balanced D&D edition out there by far. Aside from a few games like wasteland and jagged alliance, it is the best system that's ever been in a computer game. BG, on the other hand, uses it in a completely retarded realtime fashion which mostly ruins it.

It's a good thing you're around to tell people how to survive the amazing perils of BG. I guess some people might be too stupid to figure out how kiting works.

Thank you for your balanced and objective opinion kind sir, I will make note of it so as to refer to it in my future endeavors.