Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[smaug]

The weird thing is, last week even connecting to my internet could allow me to download Megabyte files but not it can’t downlod kilobyte files or barely load a webpage. Everything else in my house seems normal except my laptop.

It’s not my phone is my computer.

mobile ISPs will monitor traffic and throttle it when they detect tethering, only real way to get around it is a VPN

It’s not my phone it’s my laptop. For some reason the internet connection slowed down though I didn’t download anything different from usual.

 

[cruel]

Interesting. Somebody on reddit combined a list of possible party banter scenarios depending on party combination:

https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/c18sje/list_of_possible_parties_sorted_by_most_banter/

The only downside is that some of them will result in party members killing each other.

 

[MajorMace]

Keldorn + Anomen + Minsc + Aerie is a very solid banter setup for a good party. Whatever path you choose for Anomen.
Minsc is only here for the comic relief, if you don't like these you can skip it (although he does have an interesting series of banters with Aerie and Keldorn).

Saying that because the lists report on quantity, which is cool, but it shouldn't trick you into considerng it's better by default.

 

[Storyfag]

Interesting. Somebody on reddit combined a list of possible party banter scenarios depending on party combination:

https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/c18sje/list_of_possible_parties_sorted_by_most_banter/

The only downside is that some of them will result in party members killing each other.

This is not a downside. This is good C&C. Stick the necromancer and the druid into one party? They will come to blows

 

[rusty_shackleford]

iirc the two with some of the(? Maybe the most?) banter in bg1 are two you'd never think of pairing together — Edwin and Alora.
It shows a side of Edwin's character you'd otherwise miss, so I'd recommend it

 

[Chippy]

Don't know about the latest EE patch, but whne I recenty played BGT there was more banter and restored party sounds than when I played the EE edition. Xzar in particular was great.

 

[smaug]

Okay, I have pinpointed a location in my backyard (in the middle of the forest) where my LTE is very strong and 1 gigabyte files take about 10 mins. So, now I can actually download games.

 

[smaug]

I’m out of the starting dungeon and I was wondering if I should duel class Yoshimo into a fighter immediately or wait?

 

[octavius]

Wait until after Spellhold.

 

[smaug]

So, is my party going to murder itself? I have Korgan and Jaheira in the same party plus the mage/theif who is chaotic good. I’m so fucked.

 

[Dzupakazul]

So, is my party going to murder itself? I have Korgan and Jaheira in the same party plus the mage/theif who is chaotic good. I’m so fucked.

Korgan and Jaheira don't come to blows, and he will insult Nalia but I don't believe it's to the point of her leaving the party (I believe it's Aerie who takes criminal offense to that, but she only sets an ultimatum that goes "either him or myself").

 

[smaug]

I just had a dream where I was at candle keep floating above space, and I started a slave rebellion. What the fuck is even going on in this game? And now I’m in a circus tent and it leads to an alternate dimension with werewolves and a genie?

Am I drunk, or is this game that bizzare?

 

[Cael]

I just had a dream where I was at candle keep floating above space, and I started a slave rebellion. What the fuck is even going on in this game? And now I’m in a circus tent and it leads to an alternate dimension with werewolves and a genie?

Am I drunk, or is this game that bizzare?

Hope you didn't go all gung-ho in that place :D

 

[Grimlorn]

I'm looking at this BGT mod. Is there any reason not to play BG1 with this mod? Any disadvantages?

 

[smaug]

I'm looking at this BGT mod. Is there any reason not to play BG1 with this mod? Any disadvantages?

You can give your characters BG2 kits and it can be unbalanced, but you don’t have to select the kits if you don’t want to.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I’m out of the starting dungeon and I was wondering if I should duel class Yoshimo into a fighter immediately or wait?

Keep him as a thief, he's good at it.
There's only one other thief companion that gains thief levels in the entire game(turnip salesman). They went overboard with thiefs in BG1 then skimped on them in 2.

 

[Cael]

I'm looking at this BGT mod. Is there any reason not to play BG1 with this mod? Any disadvantages?

You can give your characters BG2 kits and it can be unbalanced, but you don’t have to select the kits if you don’t want to.

Most of the kits isn't that unbalanced. In fact, some are pretty much worse than the base class. The Druid ones, for example, are pretty bad. The Ranger ones (other than the Archer) are questionable. Rogues are also questionable.

 

[Dzupakazul]

The Druid ones, for example, are pretty bad.

Horrendously wrong. Totemic Druid in default BGT/EasyTuTu didn't have a proper level 1 version coded in of their pet, so you absolutely trivialized the entire game by tossing in a tanky summon with immunity to normal weapons. Avenger has three very interesting forms with good application and nullifies the Druidic problem of having a virtually dead 2nd spell level by simply spamming Web and being immune to being held in your own web in the Spider form. Even the much-maligned Shapeshifter gets to at least utilize the werewolf form for a non-trivial boost to a few stats in the early game. All the Druid kits are insane in BG1 and Totemic/Avenger bring in a ton of power into early SoA at virtually no downside. Even in the more modern installations where the scaling of these abilities has been fixed, Totemic is still bonkers in BG1. You're still likely better off being some form of Fighter>Druid, but you're better off being a dual for half the builds in the game anyway, so that point is moot.

The Ranger ones (other than the Archer) are questionable.

Beastmasters aren't a particularly hot kit, but in BG1 having a guy with a bow who spawns their own summons and can abuse the perks of Find Familiar is actually very strong. There's also nothing wrong at all with Stalkers; the "no metal armor" tradeoff is not that big of a deal, and it does encourage the player to actually use stealth, which is an underrated mechanic for non-Rogue classes.

Rogues are also questionable.

Assassins can apply Poison Weapon to any ranged weapons (most notably Darts because at 3 APR you have the most attempts to poison someone in a round) for instant trivialization of fights with casters (which can still be troublesome in BG1), and it passes through Stoneskin which SCS mages are fond of, for example. Bounty Hunters' Special Snares are a good source of crowd control and they're thrown from a distance, and their overall package scales well into BG2. There's also nothing wrong with Swashbucklers, although they're better off in BG2.

The only two kits that are plain worse than the base class are Beastmaster and Wizard Slayer, with the former only really sucking in BG2 and the latter at least has some entertaining cheeses like applying Miscast Magic to the projectiles conjured by Fire Seeds (including their AoE) or Melf's Minute Meteors, facilitating some interesting duals. Shapeshifter is somewhat of a grey area because their malus is miniscule (Druids don't really care about armor that much anyway) and popular mods throw them a bone. A few of the Mage specializations (technically not kits) possibly count, but I'd honestly figure that the only truly debilitating specializations that offer no real bonus while carrying hefty tradeoffs are Diviner, Transmuter and Abjurer.

There are many more kits that are a straight upgrade to their base class (at least one per class, actually) than there are utterly bad kits, and I'd wager there are comparatively few kits that achieve a healthy balance of numerous tradeoffs.

 

[Grimlorn]

Well I was really only thinking of playing as a Barbarian but if it screws up the balance of the game, maybe I'll just play the old BG1 version instead of the mod.

 

[Dzupakazul]

Well I was really only thinking of playing as a Barbarian but if it screws up the balance of the game, maybe I'll just play the old BG1 version instead of the mod.

If you are among the unlucky few percent that can't run vanilla BG1 (I personally can, but I never ran a Win10 system, so I don't know what that's like) and are still concerned about this, just play a vanilla Fighter throughout BG1 and maybe refrain from dual-wielding; you can edit your class in BG2 and edit whatever other variables you find necessary. Otherwise, I think quite a few of us who play BG1-in-BG2 compensate for it with mods that add challenge, from SCS to DSotSC to whatever else. Of course, this likely does not apply to you if this is gonna be your first time.

 

[Lacrymas]

Barbarians and Berserkers are very strong in BG1, much more than a pure Fighter. I usually prefer Berserkers because they can dual-class, Barbarians can't.

 

[smaug]

Baldur’s Gate runs fine on Windows 10. I never had any problems, Baldur’s Gate 2 on the other hand... Not so much.

 

[Cael]

The Druid ones, for example, are pretty bad.

Horrendously wrong. Totemic Druid in default BGT/EasyTuTu didn't have a proper level 1 version coded in of their pet, so you absolutely trivialized the entire game by tossing in a tanky summon with immunity to normal weapons. Avenger has three very interesting forms with good application and nullifies the Druidic problem of having a virtually dead 2nd spell level by simply spamming Web and being immune to being held in your own web in the Spider form. Even the much-maligned Shapeshifter gets to at least utilize the werewolf form for a non-trivial boost to a few stats in the early game. All the Druid kits are insane in BG1 and Totemic/Avenger bring in a ton of power into early SoA at virtually no downside. Even in the more modern installations where the scaling of these abilities has been fixed, Totemic is still bonkers in BG1. You're still likely better off being some form of Fighter>Druid, but you're better off being a dual for half the builds in the game anyway, so that point is moot.

The Ranger ones (other than the Archer) are questionable.

Beastmasters aren't a particularly hot kit, but in BG1 having a guy with a bow who spawns their own summons and can abuse the perks of Find Familiar is actually very strong. There's also nothing wrong at all with Stalkers; the "no metal armor" tradeoff is not that big of a deal, and it does encourage the player to actually use stealth, which is an underrated mechanic for non-Rogue classes.

Rogues are also questionable.

Assassins can apply Poison Weapon to any ranged weapons (most notably Darts because at 3 APR you have the most attempts to poison someone in a round) for instant trivialization of fights with casters (which can still be troublesome in BG1), and it passes through Stoneskin which SCS mages are fond of, for example. Bounty Hunters' Special Snares are a good source of crowd control and they're thrown from a distance, and their overall package scales well into BG2. There's also nothing wrong with Swashbucklers, although they're better off in BG2.

The only two kits that are plain worse than the base class are Beastmaster and Wizard Slayer, with the former only really sucking in BG2 and the latter at least has some entertaining cheeses like applying Miscast Magic to the projectiles conjured by Fire Seeds (including their AoE) or Melf's Minute Meteors, facilitating some interesting duals. Shapeshifter is somewhat of a grey area because their malus is miniscule (Druids don't really care about armor that much anyway) and popular mods throw them a bone. A few of the Mage specializations (technically not kits) possibly count, but I'd honestly figure that the only truly debilitating specializations that offer no real bonus while carrying hefty tradeoffs are Diviner, Transmuter and Abjurer.

There are many more kits that are a straight upgrade to their base class (at least one per class, actually) than there are utterly bad kits, and I'd wager there are comparatively few kits that achieve a healthy balance of numerous tradeoffs.

"Fixed by mods" is not an excuse.

 

[Dzupakazul]

"Fixed by mods" is not an excuse.

You quoted my entire post to only respond to the Shapeshifter issue, even though it's written in that very post that Shapeshifter bonuses are actually good in BG1 without the rebalance mod?
The other Druid kits remain exceptional, whether BGT/EasyTuTu or EE. Only Shapeshifter is meaningfully changed by any mods, and the other Druid kits are actually very good, being straight upgrades on the base class and enabling strats that make the BG1 portion easier.
It's all spelled out in the post; only one (1) of those kits was "fixed by mods" and that's not even an issue when tackling the question of whether BG2 kits in BG1 impact balance.

Most kits are much, much better than their base class and you've chosen mostly fairly poor examples of classes with bad kits.

 

[Cael]

"Fixed by mods" is not an excuse.

You quoted my entire post to only respond to the Shapeshifter issue, even though it's written in that very post that Shapeshifter bonuses are actually good in BG1 without the rebalance mod?
The other Druid kits remain exceptional, whether BGT/EasyTuTu or EE. Only Shapeshifter is meaningfully changed by any mods, and the other Druid kits are actually very good, being straight upgrades on the base class and enabling strats that make the BG1 portion easier.
It's all spelled out in the post; only one (1) of those kits was "fixed by mods" and that's not even an issue when tackling the question of whether BG2 kits in BG1 impact balance.

Most kits are much, much better than their base class and you've chosen mostly fairly poor examples of classes with bad kits.

There are actually others there, but it is obvious that you are trying to cover and obfuscate to "win" the argument. Suffice to say that I use Fighter kits (Kensai/Berserker) and Wizard "kits" (Wild Mage/Specialisation), but have never bothered with any of the other classes because I don't believe their advantages outweigh their drawbacks in a vanilla game. Especially the Assassin. When I put a Rogue in my party, I want him to be doing Rogue stuff, not using exploits to win combats. He is there to find traps, disable them, open locks, detect illusions and pickpocket. Winning combats is what the other 5 guys are there to do. What is even more hilarious is that the Assassin's extra backstab multiplier doesn't even come into play until around BG2, what with the level cap and all, and we are talking BG1.