Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[d1r]

Is there any mod exclusive to EE not ported to the original?

Mostly NPC's, and some quest mods.

There's still a lot of new content for BG...

...

EE.

 

[Lujo]

IDK, to me BG was always "Baldur's Fireballs: Tales of the Fireball Coast". Dunno if BG2 is "Fireballs Gate 2: Fireballs of Amn", because I didn't even like it enough to ever get very far in it. It wasn't like that because I played that way, I didn't, but I knew a ton of people who played it IRL and most of them didn't even know english well enough to be able to follow the plot. Not that there was much plot to be followed. They loved it. BD forums has people who don't seem to understand that BG was actually a hit in it's own right, that it has an actual fanbase (or at least a huge number of people who have it as a very fond childhood memory), that BG was really huge with the crowd who wants to play evil parties (credit where credit is due - I really don't like BG but I have to say it's the most comfortable evil playthrough of anything I ever had and it feels more natural and just plain better than a good playthrough) AND that it would be really easy to fix a lot of backlash they're getting. They don't seem to understand that BG 1 was why BG 2 sold as well as it did, not the other way around. Stupidly enough BG 1 Edwin sold more copies of BG 2 than anything in BG 2.

The "I don't even" quotient is very high.

 

[Lacrymas]

Have you played BG 1 and 2 with SCS? You can't really fireball spam your way to victory there. I played BG for the first time 2 or 3 years ago, so I'm not blinded by nostalgia, I think it's worthy of its pedigree and I think you don't "get it". You are expecting things from it you shouldn't or you can't get into its mindset. This is not an indictment at all, just an observation and advice for you to change your own outlook if you want to enjoy it. And at the end of the day, if you simply can't find anything interesting or enjoyable in it, it's fine, not everything can be for everybody, but you have to realize that the problem lies in you, not the game. For example, I hate Wagner's operas, but I fully admit that my personal preferences are where the problem is, not his opuses.

 

[Lujo]

I didn't go fireballing my way around BG, but tons of folks I knew did. That was considered the default way to do it, give everyone a bow for when fireballs don't work, too. I'm not blinded by nostalgia due to not having any - I don't remember the game fondly, I remember it and the phenomenon of it's popularity clearly.

 

[Cael]

If you were brought up on the Gold Box games, you are likely to fireball your way through everything. Nothing beats the Delayed Blast Fireball in Gold Box. This is made worse in Dark Queen of Krynn, where you are at an absurd level and not even Red Dragons are immune to DBF. You clear entire screens of dragons and other creatures with DBF.

 

[octavius]

I never fireballed my way through everything in Baldur's Gate. Partly because half of the game you're too low level to cast Fireball anyway.

And in Dark Queen of Krynn many of the most common high level enemies were immune to it. It was more useful in Pools of Darkness.

 

[hell bovine]

You can "cast" fireball at level one in BG1, provided you get the wand. And it is easy to stumble into one; that area is not far from the start. Another one you can get very early is lightning.

 

[Cael]

I never fireballed my way through everything in Baldur's Gate. Partly because half of the game you're too low level to cast Fireball anyway.

And in Dark Queen of Krynn many of the most common high level enemies were immune to it. It was more useful in Pools of Darkness.

There was a only four notable creatures in DQK that was immune to DBF. Two of them are the Enchanted Bozak and Rogue Wizard. The only reason they are immune is because the game cheats and they come with Fireshield:Cold precast.

The other two are the Beholder and the Iron Golem, which are immune to all magic.

The other ones like Fire Giants, Salamanders, Fire Elementals and a host of other fire based creatures are more speedbumps than high level enemies.

The thing is, you get attacked by 21 dragons from all directions and 5 DBF would reduce that to none or maybe 2. And that is the final fight of the game...

 

[Jimmious]

I never fireballed my way through everything in Baldur's Gate. Partly because half of the game you're too low level to cast Fireball anyway.

Having just finished BG(1) I can tell you that the game FLOODS YOU with Fireball wands to the point that you can easily spam fireballs without any care.

 

[Theldaran]

You can "cast" fireball at level one in BG1, provided you get the wand. And it is easy to stumble into one; that area is not far from the start. Another one you can get very early is lightning.

Of course, when you know just everything about the game it's easy to cheese out. Like that suit of Ankheg Plate sitting in Nashkel. Before the EEs, it was hard to click on it. Those were supposed to be SECRETS that you had to unravel, back in an era with near to no Internet. Now that everyone has played the game dozens of times, you have to come up with better challenges, like Ironman mode.

 

[octavius]

I use Hard Times and SCS for the better challenge, and hardly see any Wands.
Use Salk's Cursed Items if you feel really masochistic.

 

[Theldaran]

To be honest, when you were playing the game back at the turn of the millennium, and you found a Wand of Fire, you felt really special.

Because back then, most of us cleared the ankheg lair the hard way, i. e. tanking the things (I didn't even use Scrolls of Protection from Poison, gosh). It only makes sense to earn a big reward like an enemy-party-destroying wand.

 

[hell bovine]

You can "cast" fireball at level one in BG1, provided you get the wand. And it is easy to stumble into one; that area is not far from the start. Another one you can get very early is lightning.

Of course, when you know just everything about the game it's easy to cheese out. Like that suit of Ankheg Plate sitting in Nashkel. Before the EEs, it was hard to click on it. Those were supposed to be SECRETS that you had to unravel, back in an era with near to no Internet. Now that everyone has played the game dozens of times, you have to come up with better challenges, like Ironman mode.

I have played BG1 back in ye olde days of limited internet. It was easy to find wands provided you didn't stick to the plot and just went exploring, which is what the game was about anyway.

 

[Lujo]

Having just finished BG(1) I can tell you that the game FLOODS YOU with Fireball wands to the point that you can easily spam fireballs without any care.

This was the silliest thing about rampant Edwin fandom. The guy could cast one more fireball!!!1!!11!1 In a game where anyone could spam them via wands.

I have played BG1 back in ye olde days of limited internet. It was easy to find wands provided you didn't stick to the plot and just went exploring, which is what the game was about anyway.

I played BG in ye olde days before the internet in a country where a lot of the other players were highschool kids who weren't necessarily the best with english. Or reading. From my point of view the average BG player had no idea there ever WAS a plot. For them it really was "Baldurs Fireballs: Tales of the Fireball Coast".

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

For some reason, I prefer BG1 over BG2. I like the wilderness wandering, I like that the game is mostly grounded in its plot, I like that there aren't many 'holy shit holy shit' monsters and that you begin at a low level.

Back in the day I preferred BG2, especially since it felt like it started you off in a much more exciting way and you're out of the gate facing monsters that are intimidating and has an explosive opening. But I like the humility that BG1 begins with and you see that ascension in power that makes you appreciate it all the more.

Even though they were pretty one note, I will say that I love a lot of the companions in BG1. Within two minutes of the first chapter you meet a mage and his companion who offer you good tidings, a free healing potion and behave like nice guys until you let them join you and the mage turns out to be a raving lunatic and his friend is a cutthroat cunt. I think with some exceptions I can recall a lot more memorable introduction to party members in BG1 than those in BG2.

And BG1 has Lifeforce's theme for battle music. That has to mean something to someone other than myself.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I probably used a few fireballs here and there in BG1, but I don't have any memory of spamming them particularly.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I've just started Chapter 4 of BG2 and, boy, was Chapter 3 a complete game in and of itself. It just never ended! And I almost managed to complete it all. Its funny, but when I first met the dragons, around character levels 10-12, I found the shadow dragon to be possible, but too many reloads required to bother waiting for that perfect kill and moved on while the red dragon just seemed like too much entirely, but when I went back to them at character levels 12-14 I found them both to be a cakewalk, without even using any specific cheese tactics, the shadow dragon didn't even get a single hit-point off me, while the red dragon only managed to beat-up on one of my characters to any degree.

I used a walkthrough for the liches after this. Not to find out how to defeat them, I was pretty efficient at my own system for doing that that rolled on from defeating the dragons, but to find them all as I had no desire to re-tread every inch of the game looking for them, lol. I got particularly confused by the Rogue-stone Lich not dropping the Torso... ohhhh, that lich was next door... lol. I then beat the Kangax lich really easily, but got my ass handed to me by the demi-lich, who seemed to be immune to all my debuffing spells that claim to have no saving throws and none of the undead killing spells or items seemed to effect it. I guess that's all stuff that requires some special later-game spell. Maybe I could have got him somehow, but I got bored of having to re-beat the first lich in order to experiment and decided to leave him as the only real loose-end of the chapter.

Frustratingly, even doing all those dragons and liches and getting all their many thousand XPs still didn't change any of my teams levels before entering chapter 4, which was a bit annoying, but then the end-of-chapter xp of an unknown amount chucked a few over the threshold, so that was ok.

I dunno if I have an unusual posse or not, but I've decided the ones I like as a team are:

Valygar (the party talker with all the Charisma gear & a sword'n'board & advance scouting if needed)
Jaheira (the one with all the AC gear, swaps between sword'n'board and choice of quaterstaffs depending on the circumstance, has the boots of speed to prevent surprise agro on squishies as I go forward)
Myself (pure gnome illusionist)
Jan (for thieving and back-up magery, decided to ditch his unique bow as that shit all weighs him down too much & Vally has a stun weapon now anyway)
Aerie (ideal for ensuring the team has enough cleric buffs to go around while also providing more mage back-up)
Mazzy (on the bows and back-up sword)

 

[sullynathan]

one question, where the fuck are the half-ogres?

 

[pomenitul]

South of the area with Bassilus.

 

[sullynathan]

So far in BG1 there's a lot of trash mobs, the Bassilus quest was nice and the chicken wizard was also nice. I think there was randomization with the chicken quest, the first time I gave the skull the chicken guy became human then I reloaded the save and he blew up instead.
I'm also finding far less nonviolent ways to convince people than I expected. Nearly every solution to talking with someone almost always ends up in a fight.

 

[Melcar]

So far in BG1 there's a lot of trash mobs, the Bassilus quest was nice and the chicken wizard was also nice. I think there was randomization with the chicken quest, the first time I gave the skull the chicken guy became human then I reloaded the save and he blew up instead.
I'm also finding far less nonviolent ways to convince people than I expected. Nearly every solution to talking with someone almost always ends up in a fight.

I think the chicken quest involves a stat check. Can't remember.

Sent from my Redmi 4A using Tapatalk

 

[Lacrymas]

No, the chicken quest is random.

 

[CptMace]

I'm also finding far less nonviolent ways to convince people than I expected. Nearly every solution to talking with someone almost always ends up in a fight.

BG has a weird design. You won't find charisma checks or things alike. However you will stumble upon 15 different generic gentlemen who all have their unique way to tell the peasant pc to fuck off.
Now, I suggest that you keep paying attention to dialogs though, there are a lot of them with specific outcomes. The thing is, it doesn't revolves around checks or obvious choices as with your typical game, but prefers the whacky way. For those dialogs, the best way to know the correct answer is to randomly select it.
So, yeah, weird design. Imagine that you're playing a standard DnD adventure with a rather goofy DM, basically.

 

[Lacrymas]

There ARE some Charisma checks. The first one being Hull, who will give you 10 or 20 gold depending on your CHA and will change his dialogue.

 

[CptMace]

I meant to say that there's no dialog system based on charisma checks or things alike.
Something used more or less regularly, with pretty much the same logic behind it. Like stats checks in PST.
But I actually didn't even know there were charisma checks in dialogs. Blends pretty well with the other dialogs, I guess.