Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[NecroLord]

I wish Elminster would just go away...

Killing him gets you 26,000XP--every time you do it. There are 4 opportunities to do it, but I can only recall 3 at the moment. In vanilla you have to rely on skeletons or a lucky wand of paralyzation, but with mods (BGW, Tutu, EE) you can kill him pretty easily with the Imp familiar shapeshifted into a sword spider.

That's good to know.
Personally, I hate him because he is such a blatant Mary Sue self-insert of Greenwood. A degenerate self-righteous prick.

 

[Melcar]

I was remembering him as one of those rare unkillable NPCs. At least in original BG1.

 

[Average Manatee]

Killing him gets you 26,000XP--every time you do it. There are 4 opportunities to do it, but I can only recall 3 at the moment. In vanilla you have to rely on skeletons or a lucky wand of paralyzation, but with mods (BGW, Tutu, EE) you can kill him pretty easily with the Imp familiar shapeshifted into a sword spider.

How can a sword spider kill him? He's got -9 AC, he's basically untouchable to anything but a buffed max level fighter in BG1 and will disappear within a round or two if you attack him. Also shapeshift shouldn't let you shift into a sword spider, just a regular spider according to the wiki. And an imp definitely should not be able to shift into something that powerful, that's some mod brokenness (Or EE brokenness but of course the EE is broken).

The easy way to kill him is by stacking thief traps. It's a bit random whether they'll do enough damage but level 1 Imoen can take him down in the area before the friendly arm inn. Just spend several in-game months trying to set traps.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Killing him gets you 26,000XP--every time you do it. There are 4 opportunities to do it, but I can only recall 3 at the moment. In vanilla you have to rely on skeletons or a lucky wand of paralyzation, but with mods (BGW, Tutu, EE) you can kill him pretty easily with the Imp familiar shapeshifted into a sword spider.

How can a sword spider kill him? He's got -9 AC, he's basically untouchable to anything but a buffed max level fighter in BG1 and will disappear within a round or two if you attack him. Also shapeshift shouldn't let you shift into a sword spider, just a regular spider according to the wiki. And an imp definitely should not be able to shift into something that powerful, that's some mod brokenness (Or EE brokenness but of course the EE is broken).

The easy way to kill him is by stacking thief traps. It's a bit random whether they'll do enough damage but level 1 Imoen can take him down in the area before the friendly arm inn. Just spend several in-game months trying to set traps.

Yes. Stacking theif traps is the best way, but it's difficult to do that early. The imp, when polymorphed into a spider can poison and gets a bugged (ha!) number of attacks. I think as many as 4. This is in vanilla, not the EE. It has such volume that it will roll 20 enough to hit and the poison does its work. Since you share vision with the familiar, but the familiar doesn't provoke Elminster to talk or go hostile, he just takes it. Otherwise you have to surround him with skeletons and then reveal your PC so that he tries to walk to it, but cannot. Then you use the wand of paralyze.

 

[axx]

Back when BG1 was released and I was in high school I used to infest the map with chickens then attack Drizzt and have a chicken shield between me and him. I know I never killed the guy and I don't know what was going through my head to devise such retarded strategies, but I certainly had all the time in the world.

 

[Melcar]

Back when BG1 was released and I was in high school I used to infest the map with chickens then attack Drizzt and have a chicken shield between me and him. I know I never killed the guy and I don't know what was going through my head to devise such retarded strategies, but I certainly had all the time in the world.

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins. Then watch with amazement and horror as Drizzt cuts down everything and chunks your entire party.

 

[Nano]

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins.

BG1 was the only game in the series that got close to letting the lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP. The EE ruined a lot of that.

 

[Average Manatee]

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins.

BG1 was the only game in the series that got close to letting the lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP. The EE ruined a lot of that.

I'm pretty sure that you'd get shanked with a pencil in PnP if you tried to get your DM to run a combat encounter with 80 goblins on your side.

 

[Melcar]

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins.

BG1 was the only game in the series that got close to letting the lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP. The EE ruined a lot of that.

The decline/nerf happened in BG2.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

BG2 seriously took away a lot of the fun of BG combat, but at the same time I think that's also due to the transition from low level to high level shenanigans.

 

[roshan]

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins.

BG1 was the only game in the series that got close to letting the lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP. The EE ruined a lot of that.

The decline/nerf happened in BG2.

Actually TOTSC already did lots of nerfing.

 

[laclongquan]

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins.

BG1 was the only game in the series that got close to letting the lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP. The EE ruined a lot of that.

" lower level spells be as OP as they were in PnP."
Do not, ever, ask why computer gamers not interested in your PnP. Just dont.

 

[octavius]

Back when BG1 was released and I was in high school I used to infest the map with chickens then attack Drizzt and have a chicken shield between me and him. I know I never killed the guy and I don't know what was going through my head to devise such retarded strategies, but I certainly had all the time in the world.

That no summon limit in the original game really was fun. Just stack a few wands of summoning and make a small army of kobolds, gnolls and hobgoblins. Then watch with amazement and horror as Drizzt cuts down everything and chunks your entire party.

You should have summoned that guy who can take Drizzt with both hands tied behind his back.

 

[NecroLord]

but at the same time I think that's also due to the transition from low level to high level shenanigans.

That's pretty much high level D&D.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Most of the fun in BG1 combat is from the fact that it's low level, and in 2e, low level = higher risk gameplay.

That said, BG2 combat added a lot of complexity, especially to spellcasters that BG1 just doesn't have.

I also think that people forget how easy and full of cheese BG1 combat was.

First, most battles could be won by window selecting the party and using your mob of murder hobos to club the enemy to death like a pack of baby seals (same with bg2 really), whether or not you used any cheese items.

Second, there were cheese items like the wand of monster summoning, wand of magic missiles, potion of invisibility, exploding arrows, boots of speed, scroll of immunity to magic, ring of acuity and Algernon's cloak.

BG1 was easily solo-able with a paladin or a fighter. The combat was higher risk if it was your first time, but hardly much more challenging than BG2, unless you count the first two or three levels, where you could literally die fighting a housecat.

 

[Gromoer]

First, most battles could be won by window selecting the party and using your mob of murder hobos to club the enemy to death like a pack of baby seals (same with bg2 really), whether or not you used any cheese items.

That’s even easier when all your hobos have ranged weapon. I was surprised how helpless casters were against a barrage of incoming projectiles. AFAIR it was only Davaeorn who had hardwired missile protection on him, who was somehow pain in ass.

 

[Storyfag]

I was remembering him as one of those rare unkillable NPCs. At least in original BG1.

Yep, he would even go as far as casting Greater Screen Freeze if attacked.

 

[KainenMorden]

I wish Elminster would just go away...

Killing him gets you 26,000XP--every time you do it. There are 4 opportunities to do it, but I can only recall 3 at the moment. In vanilla you have to rely on skeletons or a lucky wand of paralyzation, but with mods (BGW, Tutu, EE) you can kill him pretty easily with the Imp familiar shapeshifted into a sword spider.

That's good to know.
Personally, I hate him because he is such a blatant Mary Sue self-insert of Greenwood. A degenerate self-righteous prick.

I mean, he's definitely a degenerate but I've listened to sever interviews he's done, he seems like a nice guy.

What did he do to be considered a self righteous prick? Honestly asking

 

[aloeh]

What is it like play evil in BD?

BD 1 I played with canon party followed neutral/good companions in BD2.

Recently I have been thinking in play with evil party and make a blackguard. I never had Edwin or Viconia in my party but I heard they are amazing.

 

[Average Manatee]

Edwin is absolutely broken as a mage with far more spell slots than anyone else including player mages thanks to his amulet (+1 all spells in BG1, +2 in BG2, ontop of his +1 for specialist mage of which he has the best kit). Only sorcerers or very high level Wild Mages can really potentially beat him in capability.

Viconia is only OK really. She has high wisdom which gives her a few extra spell slots but they are kind of inconsequential, especially in BG2 where all pure clerics have an assload of spells and taking Anomen instead would get you vastly better ability in melee. Her 'perk' is her free MR but its inconsistent protection and generally if enemy mages are casting dangerous spells its probably something AoE that is going to fuck your whole party anyway.

As for what it's like to play evil, you generally get less/worse rewards for quests for evil options or characters will give you less due to lower rep and/or low charisma. The Hell trials at the end of BG2 tend to give you better rewards though since they are "tempting" you to fall in alignment.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

You have to force your way to be evil. Bioware has historically punished evil aligned players. Maybe that's why the evil companions in bg1+2 are all better, but you kinda shoot yourself in the foot if you go that route.

 

[KainenMorden]

You have to force your way to be evil. Bioware has historically punished evil aligned players. Maybe that's why the evil companions in bg1+2 are all better, but you kinda shoot yourself in the foot if you go that route.

Why do you say that? Because the guard attacks you all the time?

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

You have to force your way to be evil. Bioware has historically punished evil aligned players. Maybe that's why the evil companions in bg1+2 are all better, but you kinda shoot yourself in the foot if you go that route.

Why do you say that? Because the guard attacks you all the time?

Because all canon Bioware routes are the lawful good ones and in the grand scheme of things there are no true rewards for Evil players.

 

[Peachcurl]

You have to force your way to be evil. Bioware has historically punished evil aligned players. Maybe that's why the evil companions in bg1+2 are all better, but you kinda shoot yourself in the foot if you go that route.

Why do you say that? Because the guard attacks you all the time?

That's the good part, at least you get their shit to sell. To compensate for several quest rewards you lose.

 

[octavius]

For good "evil" content, in BG1 use the BG1 NPC Project and recruit Monty&Xzar, and in BG2 recruit Korgan and Anomen, and then turn Anomen to the dark side.
Aside from that, there's not much fun for evildoers.