Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Sarathiour]

Due to the nature or the rule of 2nd edition, it's going to be pretty hard to find an actual faq. But for me it's clearly an oversight, in the optional rule for mastery you're also only supposed to get them after a long quest and training with a master (similar to arcanum in a sort), and not just by simply hitting level 9.
Also, multi does get an alternative version called expertise instead of specialization.

Pretty hard to get the logic behind forbidding to ranger/paladin, while simultaneously saying that dual are perfectly fine. Anyway, I'm not the fun police, but I can't help to see the modification that no serve as baseline as decline.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Due to the nature or the rule of 2nd edition, it's going to be pretty hard to find an actual faq. But for me it's clearly an oversight, in the optional rule for mastery you're also only supposed to get them after a long quest and training with a master (similar to arcanum in a sort), and not just by simply hitting level 9.
Also, multi does get an alternative version called expertise instead of specialization.

Pretty hard to get the logic behind forbidding to ranger/paladin, while simultaneously saying that dual are perfectly fine. Anyway, I'm not the fun police, but I can't help to see the modification that no serve as baseline as decline.

Yeah, like I say, I'd probably disallow it on the grounds of: there's no way it's in character to devote your entire existence to one weapon and then suddenly oh, actually, I've been a closeted wizard this entire time! But RAW, it's technically not disallowed. This is the sort of thing that caused many butthurt arguments at at least some 2E tables.

 

[Nano]

I'm not sure why this is even up for argument. The rules literally say that characters remember all of the knowledge and skills they accumulated with their previous class.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm not sure why this is even up for argument. The rules literally say that characters remember all of the knowledge and skills they accumulated with their previous class.

Reading comprehension failure, I guess. RAW means rules as written. Just fyi.

EDIT: Touchy, eh?

 

[Stella Brando]

Didn't the creators say to follow common sense (and fun) over a lawyer's reading of the rules?

 

[Average Manatee]

By the way, I'm pretty sure that I talked about it at some point on this thread, but grand mastery on dual is indeed not legit, and only possible because bioware was too lazy to bother with it.

They implemented it correctly in the BG1 engine.

There's a number of things that were implemented right in BG1 then messed up in BG2. Enemies waking up from sleep when you hit them, for instance. Completely rapes BG1's difficulty when played in the BG2/BGEE engine and sleep is basically a death spell for 2/3rds of the game.

It's also noteworthy that BG2 nerfed Grandmastery a lot.

 

[Tweed]

Didn't the creators say to follow common sense (and fun) over a lawyer's reading of the rules?

Who listens to those racist white guys anymore.

 

[CodexTotalWar]

No, he's definitely got a ton of items that are not vanilla at all. He mentions Abashi hide practically every 5s and I can't find it on the wiki. I also noticed he's got a ring that doubles 1st level spell slots which is 100% broken for wild mages (the ring is available in BG1 but NOT BG2). It's kind of hard to overstate how broken it is when a level 5 wild mage can cast 10 level 9 spells, more than a max level Edwin.

On top of Tweaks, SCS and Ascension, Davaeorn has the Rogue Rebalancing Mod installed - in particularly the components that add the Chosen of Cyric combat encounter (a pretty tough fight in a no-reload run, but drops tons of powerful loot).

The items he mentioned are from that mod. The Abishai Hide is definitely very powerful because it adds physical resistance (which is incredibly powerful in TOB + Insane damage). This encounter also drops a ring (Geminius) that doubles level 1 and 2 spells. There's also a very powerful +3 luck ioun stone and a strong short sword. So yeah, those can definitely be meta-changing.

He also has the SCS IWD spells enabled, which adds a bunch of mage-style defense spells for Divine casters (dispel protection, short-term total immunity, etc), which can be pretty meta-changing. SCS also changes how the Druid Elemental form HLAs work (which is why he rates Jaheira so highly as a tank). So yeah, if you're not running with these mods/components there are some aspects of the guide that won't translate.

 

[octavius]

the Chosen of Cyric combat encounter (a pretty tough fight in a no-reload run,

I'd say it's by far the hardest combat in the entire trilogy. I never felt I even had a chance, while the Twisted Rune and final ToB battle are just uncommonly brutal. Oh well, probably my own fault for not running some OP munchkin CHARNAME.

 

[Sarathiour]

It's also noteworthy that BG2 nerfed Grandmastery a lot.

At least TLDR me if you can't bother reading my shit.

So to repeat myself:

I'm okay with nerfed grand mastery, it sill give an edge to dual an mono while not giving them something incredibly OP, aka extra apr.
Give 10 apr to the already most op class.
Whirlwind is now dogshit.
How could this happened ?

 

[Chippy]

Playing Vanilla BG1.
Anyone know why I'm getting arrows facing south west with an Nvidia GT 1030 card?. Obviously it doesn't matter where my character is and where the enemy is around him (say, 120 degrees) the arrows face SW with the pointy end in that direction.

I tried DGVoodoo and all that, but it just causes framerate issues.* BG runs great just on my normal PC except for this issue. And I'm too autistic to put up with it.

*Edit: Fixes the problem. But causes framerate issues.

 

[razvedchiki]

is it possible to ac tank with a modded (using the stuff from rogue rebalance) swasbuckler in TOB?

 

[Sarathiour]

without SCS ? Without ascension ? Sort of, but real danger rarely come from basic attack themselves, but more if they are coupled to a stun, timestop or some other kind of bullshit.

With SCS lot of things are going to use critical strike which are going to make AC irrelevant against them.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah critical strike spamming enemies is part of SCS's misguided "enemies have to have the same stuff as you", completely ignoring that HLAs aren't supposed to exist in D&D. Kits are another thing, some enemies will be archers or kensais which means say hello to a THAC0 of -20. Ascension bosses are all going to have a THAC0 of like -15 to -30 which is untankable. The only way to deal with it is summons or mage protections.

Aside from that and for non-SCS/ascension Swashbuckler can have enough AC to tank close to everything once they get use any item. That said Swashbuckler absolutely sucks pre-UAI, their AC bonus doesn't make up for the fact that they are wearing worse armor and shields for BG1/2. Their THAC0 also lags fighters and they don't get APR improvements like fighters do (which greatly reduces their damage output even taking into account their bonus damage per 5 levels). It looks like Rogue Rebalancing fixes them to use fighter THAC0 but it also removes their damage bonus, I'm not sure if that's actually an improvement. Generally speaking I would not consider swashbuckler a good class, it's sort of deceptively weak when you read a bunch of bonuses then have to take into account what not being a fighter loses you.

 

[Sarathiour]

I mean you can still modulate the difficulty so that only a few ennemy use HLA and not every fucking fire giant.

Anyway the game was never balanced, and thing can move a lot in term of power depending on which tweak and version of the game you're playing, but swashbuckler is often not a very good class when dual and multi are a thing.

 

[Average Manatee]

I mean you can still modulate the difficulty so that only a few ennemy use HLA and not every fucking fire giant.

True but I don't think you can stop enemies from getting kits.

Anyway the game was never balanced, and thing can move a lot in term of power depending on which tweak and version of the game you're playing, but swashbuckler is often not a very good class when dual and multi are a thing.

Definitely, Fighter/Thief is basically just swashbuckler but good.

 

[Parabalus]

I mean you can still modulate the difficulty so that only a few ennemy use HLA and not every fucking fire giant.

True but I don't think you can stop enemies from getting kits.

Anyway the game was never balanced, and thing can move a lot in term of power depending on which tweak and version of the game you're playing, but swashbuckler is often not a very good class when dual and multi are a thing.

Definitely, Fighter/Thief is basically just swashbuckler but good.

They are more interesting in kitted multi/duals, though even there you lose backstab.

 

[Chippy]

Are the original games still available on GOG? For some reason I never bought them, but I thought they were available as a seperate backup download with Beamshit's edition.

The GOG page doesn't seem to mention that. I don't really need a gog version as I can make backup version from my CDs, but thought I'd do it for convenience.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Are the original games still available on GOG? For some reason I never bought them, but I thought they were available as a seperate backup download with Beamshit's edition.

The GOG page doesn't seem to mention that. I don't really need a gog version as I can make backup version from my CDs, but thought I'd do it for convenience.

The original games are bundled with the enhanced editions. You could get them without the enhanced editions some time ago but no more. The pages mention it,

From the BG1 EE page,

Description

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition includes the classic Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga.

and from the BG2 EE page,

Description

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition includes the classic Baldur's Gate 2 Complete.

The original game should get its own entry in the library and can be installed without touching the EE once the corresponding EE is bought. It should look like this if you own em,

 

[BruceVC]

I have finally started on BG1 EE with a good selection of mods but I decided not to use Sword Coast Stratagems or Tweaks because those mods really enhance the ruleset for hardcore fans and Im not going to play this game multiple times, like all games, so the standard EE ruleset is fine.

I have just left Candlekeep and Im on my way to the Friendly Arm Inn with my 3 x companions that include Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Imoen is already annoying me with her naïve banter but she is cute and means well. I am looking forwarding to meeting up with Viconia and hearing some adult views of the world

I must say its different knowing a single wolf can kill you, being 1st level makes the early journey exciting and risky but worth it

 

[Chippy]

I have finally started on BG1 EE with a good selection of mods but I decided not to use Sword Coast Stratagems or Tweaks because those mods really enhance the ruleset for hardcore fans and Im not going to play this game multiple times, like all games, so the standard EE ruleset is fine.

I have just left Candlekeep and Im on my way to the Friendly Arm Inn with my 3 x companions that include Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Imoen is already annoying me with her naïve banter but she is cute and means well. I am looking forwarding to meeting up with Viconia and hearing some adult views of the world

I must say its different knowing a single wolf can kill you, being 1st level makes the early journey exciting and risky but worth it

You must have installed the NPC banter pack? I think it was called that. It was pretty well written, but the original game didn't have all of those interjections.

Strange world we live in.

First time I played the game was after I spent an afternoon reading the manual. It really set the tone, gave me background on the world, set the notable characters up and wove this tapestry of what I was getting into that I expanded on with my imagination a bit as I played the game. As I've said before, it always felt like I was creating an alter ego in the forgotten realms.

I suppose that sort of thing doesn't happen at all these days.

 

[BruceVC]

I have finally started on BG1 EE with a good selection of mods but I decided not to use Sword Coast Stratagems or Tweaks because those mods really enhance the ruleset for hardcore fans and Im not going to play this game multiple times, like all games, so the standard EE ruleset is fine.

I have just left Candlekeep and Im on my way to the Friendly Arm Inn with my 3 x companions that include Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Imoen is already annoying me with her naïve banter but she is cute and means well. I am looking forwarding to meeting up with Viconia and hearing some adult views of the world

I must say its different knowing a single wolf can kill you, being 1st level makes the early journey exciting and risky but worth it

You must have installed the NPC banter pack? I think it was called that. It was pretty well written, but the original game didn't have all of those interjections.

Strange world we live in.

First time I played the game was after I spent an afternoon reading the manual. It really set the tone, gave me background on the world, set the notable characters up and wove this tapestry of what I was getting into that I expanded on with my imagination a bit as I played the game. As I've said before, it always felt like I was creating an alter ego in the forgotten realms.

I suppose that sort of thing doesn't happen at all these days.

I did. BG1 NPC Project, BG1 extra quests and additional Romance arcs and then some extra NPCs

Its going to be a great journey

 

[BruceVC]

My BG1 EE adventures are progressing nicely and the game is great fun and reminds me why D&D party based RPG are overall my favorite type of RPG. I have reached Nashkel and Im still on level 1 which is fine. I have disabled Party AI because that option is for the weak and I want to manage my own battles. I have 6 people in my party that include the following (just for the record I choose party members first on there combat role and effectiveness and then on there companion quests, dialogue and Romance arcs ). The BG1 NPC mod adds some hilarious and detailed new dialogues

• Imoen :Shes cute but annoying at the same time, she is like a glowie on steroids. I thought I was bad
• Khalid : Hes fine as a tank but what a spineless obsequious toady to Jaheira. I am seriously considering letting him die just so I can try Romance her, she is hot
• Jaheira : She is my healer at the moment and effective in combat
• Vienxay : She is a mod NPC and a NE Elven Shadowmage and she is very arrogant and supercilious but useful in combat so she stays for the time being
• Kagain : He doesnt say much but he plays a good fighter role

Further updates to follow

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So what's everyone's favorite BG3 companion so far?

 

[d1r]

So what's everyone's favorite BG3 companion so far?

Gale, for sure.