Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[MicoSelva]

You should play BG1 first. I actually prefer it to BG2, due to less derpy writing, but both games are very good IMO. BG1 will allow You to learn the game gradually, plus You get to kill Drizzt.*

But if You don't want that, the class-specific skills are described under "kit description" on character screen.

* usually it's the other way around, and yes, I know you can kill him in BG2 too

 

[MicoSelva]

I also liked a semi sandbox approach BG1 had

open world =/= sandbox

Sorry for double post.

 

[Lilura]

Good to see people in this thread espousing the virtues BG1 in contrast to the other thread where I felt like the only one amidst a mob of newbies (who it was clear started with BG2 and maybe didn't even play BG1 for long because it was like a slap in the face to them) and trolls.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned about BG1 is the variety and scope of the NPC pool (25 from memory), which for me means I don't reload when one dies, I just kick out the corpse and grab the next one I stumble upon, which mixes things up a bit, keeps the game fresh and engaging and gives a reason to venture into wilderness areas you might otherwise ignore on subsequent runs.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Sweet mercyful crap, this thread took off. Okay, to start with, I'm not starting with BG1 because I have BG2 sitting here, right now. In fact, that shit is open at the moment and I took a break to come here.
I inherited BG2 from my stepfather, whereas to get BG1 I'd need to go on to amazon and wait a few days for it to come in the mail. Fuck that. Also, BG1's plot twist was spoiled for me already because I stumbled up it reading about Forgotten Realms, there were no spoiler tags or nuthin. fucked up. That's some Darth Vader shit right there, or Darth Revan if you will. Anyhow, BG2 is right at the threshold of my brain's graphical limitation, so yeah, no BG1, not now at least.

Oh, so, this:

Cure light wounds, slow poison, draw upon Holy might, Detect Evil, Protection from Evil, Dispel Magic, and True Sight

Apparently I can do (or cast?) these things. There is no ingame explanation of what they do. They are not in my cleric spellbook (I don't even think I have a cleric spellbook because that's one of the kit disadvantages). Cure light wounds I have experimented with and it indeed cures light wounds. The rest of that shit means fuck-all to me and the internet is turning up empty, though I will keep looking.

Also, how often can I do these things? The fucking Paladin explanation doesn't even list these things as benefits, let alone explain how often they can be done. The Inquisitor abilities are said to be able to be done once a day, so I ASSUME the other abilities I have been given can also be done once a day.

Seriously, complex is one thing, but complex while telling me to go fuck my mother is a totally different story.

 

[Stokowski]

ITT: Codexers remind me of those swarming fish that eat the dead skin off your feet.

Dispel Magic
Detect Evil
True Sight
Slow Poison
Protection from Evil
Draw Upon Holy Might

 

[Sunsetspawn]

ITT: Codexers remind me of those swarming fish that eat the dead skin off your feet.

Dispel Magic
Detect Evil
True Sight
Slow Poison
Protection from Evil
Draw Upon Holy Might

You're my new favorite person. Google wasn't helping. How do I brofist? Am I allowed to brofist yet?

 

[Murk]

You might want to check out the manual for spell descriptions as well: http://replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.314

 

[Vault Dweller]

Install BGT. Start with BG1 and play through it all. BG2 is surperior but BG1 is great as well.

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

Combat? Story? Quests? Setting?

Good to see people in this thread espousing the virtues BG1...

The what now?

 

[Murk]

Slightly less annoying NPCs.

Durlag's Tower.

Has the potential for some decent low-mid level adventuring (but so does IWD 1 and 2, tee hee).

Hrmmmm and there are a few neat encounters. I like the whole Mellekamp/high hedge situation, dealing with random bandits and seeing through their ruse, and a few other minor things.

I would not say that alone makes it worth while -- but it may be a decent idea to load up the expansion save point and dick around a bit.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

For me,starting from level one.

 

[octavius]

Install BGT. Start with BG1 and play through it all. BG2 is surperior but BG1 is great as well.

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

Combat? Story? Quests? Setting?

Vanilla BG1 is rather mediocre, but it does have excellent encounter design. Yes, there are some trash mobs, but all the trash mobs in the wilderness are optional.

 

[Jaesun]

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

I am pretty sure what it is you are getting at, but for the most part it was a fun and greatly enjoyable beginning level D&D romp through Faerun (for those of us that love/like the D&D setting) that finally moved out of the 256 color DOS game environment. The only game that has done this competently was the Gold Box Game's previously. Which I feel got the combat down correctly. BioWare dumbed this down with Mass Accessible™ RTwP because that sells.

There are stat checks (like joining the Bandits) of which you can see a different side of things and meet Tazok. Does it mean or change anything? Fuck no, but I as a player can choose that (if I pass the stat check).

Encounter design was done fairly well and enjoyable.

If Baldur's Gate had ToEE's combat, it would be an almost perfect D&D cRPG game.

(Drunken post)

 

[Azrael the cat]

The only thing you need to know about BG1 before playing BG2 is that the player is 'the chosen one' and 'son of Bhaal' (although one of many in both cases), and that the 'big bad' is those of the other children of bhaal (some are heroes, some villains trying to become the next incarnation of Bhaal - Bhaal has his own plans about that, and some are just lying low hoping to avoid being slaughtered by the first two groups). It sounds better than it is - for all BG's scope, it basically becomes a story about you vs another Bhaalspawn Sarevok, without all the multiple meetings and multiple battles between hero and villain that occur between you and Irenicus in BG2.

Basically, at the start of BG2, you're the chosen one (or one of) and Bhaal is the 'big bad'. It doesn't stay that way, and the idea of a 3rd party jacking the usual 'chosen one v big bad' alone makes it better than BG1. The gameplay and mechanics are also better than BG1 in every way.

Just don't pick Aerie as a companion. She's the most irritating character ever written. There's an excellent drow cleric in Viconia (though if you take both her and the paladin, he'll end up killing her), and a mage in Edwin (like Viconia he's from the 1st game, but unlike Viconia he takes a fair bit of questing before he'll join you - even though he's evil, it's more lol-pantovillain evil, and there's no party restrictions on taking him) who is actually better as a mage than any player character can be (he gets bonus spells for lvls 1-3 and he has near perfect stats for a mage) - arguably his bonuses even outweigh your early bhaalspawn abilities, although that will change bigtime later.


Edit: BG2 also rewards using seemingly random/useless high level spells in odd locations. I'll half-spoil one, because even with this it's difficult to find. If you see what looks like the remains of a battle in the Underdark, casting 'freedom' (or whatever the anti-imprisonment spell is called) can net surprising results.

Edit 2: BG2 is also, to my knowledge, the only Bioware game that lets you double/triple-cross groups rather than choosing a path. Remember that when you get to the underdark - it's possible to screw over 4 separate groups if you play it right.

 

[Grunker]

Install BGT. Start with BG1 and play through it all. BG2 is surperior but BG1 is great as well.

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

Combat, Spell diversity, encounter diversity (better in BG2, but still good here), story, investegative plot, oldschool feeling of loot rarity and the joy of finding loot, aestaethics, controls, interface, exploration (oh dear God, the exploration!), open world-feel with a structured plot, the best handling of "trash" (God I hate that word, so not applicable) mobs. A combat system that handled quick fights and tough, tactical, drawn out fights with equal grace.

Could probably name many more. I am a huge Baldur's Gate-fanboy. Thought you knew? I even like ToB, though obviously much less than the other two. Baldur's Gate 2, for me, is the prime example of how to build a sequel; don't fix what ain't broken, just add, add, add to the formular.

If I were to make a Top5 list, the Baldur's Gate series would find them selves in number 1 or 2.

EDIT: Not to mention documentation.

 

[bloodlover]

You needed detailed explanation for dispel and slow poison?

 

[Vault Dweller]

I am pretty sure what it is you are getting at, but for the most part it was a fun and greatly enjoyable beginning level D&D romp through Faerun (for those of us that love/like the D&D setting) that finally moved out of the 256 color DOS game environment.

I did say it was pretty and back in the day it was a huge factor. The backgrounds are beautiful even today and in the early post-DOS days this alone was the reason to play it and marvel at the art. The game itself though...

If Baldur's Gate had ToEE's combat, it would be an almost perfect D&D cRPG game.

Big if, aint it?

Sure, if it had feature X or feature Y, it would be so much better and almost perfect, but the problem is, it didn't.

 

[Aeschylus]

Sweet mercyful crap, this thread took off. Okay, to start with, I'm not starting with BG1 because I have BG2 sitting here, right now. In fact, that shit is open at the moment and I took a break to come here.
I inherited BG2 from my stepfather, whereas to get BG1 I'd need to go on to amazon and wait a few days for it to come in the mail. Fuck that. Also, BG1's plot twist was spoiled for me already because I stumbled up it reading about Forgotten Realms, there were no spoiler tags or nuthin. fucked up. That's some Darth Vader shit right there, or Darth Revan if you will. Anyhow, BG2 is right at the threshold of my brain's graphical limitation, so yeah, no BG1, not now at least.

You know about gog.com right? It would take you all of a minute to get BG1 if you wanted it. Also you can use BGT to play BG1 in BG2's engine, so the graphics are the same, if that matters to you.

 

[Stonewolf]

Apparently I can do (or cast?) these things. There is no ingame explanation of what they do. They are not in my cleric spellbook (I don't even think I have a cleric spellbook because that's one of the kit disadvantages). Cure light wounds I have experimented with and it indeed cures light wounds. The rest of that shit means fuck-all to me and the internet is turning up empty, though I will keep looking.

Yup, completely empty.

Besides, it's all in your manual iirc.

Edit: BG2 also rewards using seemingly random/useless high level spells in odd locations. I'll half-spoil one, because even with this it's difficult to find. If you see what looks like the remains of a battle in the Underdark, casting 'freedom' (or whatever the anti-imprisonment spell is called) can net surprising results.

You're specifically told about this one by the Duergar merchants just a bit south of the scene. What others are there?

 

[Lilura]

Cure light wounds, slow poison, draw upon Holy might, Detect Evil, Protection from Evil, Dispel Magic, and True Sight

Cure Light Wounds, Slow Poison and Draw Upon Holy Might are your Bhaalspawn abilities, abilities given to you based on your alignment (in BG1 they're given to you based on your current reputation, after a dream sequence). Any protagonist of LG or NG alignment receives these, they have nothing to do with being a Pally. DUHM's ability score buff gets better as you level.

Detect Evil and PfE are basic Pally perks, you receive a ridiculous amount of these and they're all but useless so don't concern yourself with them.

Dispel Magic and True Sight are your Inquisitor special abilities, usable once per day for every 4lvls. These innate spells are your bread and butter, lol2xDispel is one of the most powerful nukes in the game, please read my third-last post for what it does.
True Sight is the most powerful scrying spell to reveal hidden thieves and invisible mages, and to pierce other illusionist tricks.

 

[octavius]

Dispel Magic and True Sight are your Inquisitor special abilities, usable once per day for every 4lvls. These innate spells are your bread and butter, lol2xDispel is one of the most powerful nukes in the game, please read my third-last post for what it does.
True Sight is the most powerful scrying spell to reveal hidden thieves and invisible mages, and to pierce other illusionist tricks.

I must admit I kept Keldorn in my Evil party due his True Sight.

 

[Murk]

Protection from Evil's a decent buff to have one. Gives +1AC if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Dorateen]

Use the multi-player option to run with a custom party...

OK, that's probably too advanced.

 

[Modron]

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

Baldur's Gate did exploration pretty well, I always liked how you could pretty much go anywhere at any time and I did enjoy traipsing all over the countryside finding novel locations/encounters/hidden caches. That is the one thing I felt Baldur's Gate 2 took a giant leap backwards in, I found the whole talk to x person to be able to go to y a bit droll as the world was less open and full of far more bottlenecks. I know that was probably an attempt at maintaining some semblance of level parity between players and location but I enjoyed running into challenging areas and not always be able to overcome them.

 

[Excidium]

I had more fun with BG1. Probably because I prefer low-to-mid levels and the overall structure of BG1's storyline is better than "muh soul". I know the beginning sucks but it's a common CRPG tendency to introduce the ULTIMATE VILLAIN right away and show how powerful and unbeatable he is to get people hooked. I fucking hate that.

Or maybe because I played them back to back and was already bored of the formula midway through BG2.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Name one fucking thing that's great about BG1 other than pretty backgrounds.

Baldur's Gate did exploration pretty well, I always liked how you could pretty much go anywhere at any time and I did enjoy traipsing all over the countryside finding novel locations/encounters/hidden caches. That is the one thing I felt Baldur's Gate 2 took a giant leap backwards in, I found the whole talk to x person to be able to go to y a bit droll as the world was less open and full of far more bottlenecks. I know that was probably an attempt at maintaining some semblance of level parity between players and location but I enjoyed running into challenging areas and not always be able to overcome them.

There are plenty of things in BG2 that you can do but are also very hard or nigh unbeatable once you leave the basement. Beholders, dragons, liches, shit like that. There are plenty of choices of what to do and where to go. If you feel it's too easy, install SCS2 as it removes a lot of cheese like scrolls of protect vs. undead to laugh at liches.

BG1 had a nice exploratory feel, tho. Both great games, especially with SCS.