Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[rojay]

(I'm still grating at being called an oldfag recently, so I suppose that makes you a newfag)

As long as you keep posting about games and actually know what you're talking about you can call yourself whatever variety of fag you like, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Spike]

I started BG 1 and I just arrived at Nashkel because these evil assholes in my party INSIST on it. Loving this kino obviously (except the BROKEN AI-pathing) but I don't have to worry too much about this time limit, right? I picked up a bunch of quests and Xzar already complained twice, I figure three time's the charm and he will dip if I don't get there before he complains again. So I have enough time for all my other quests from Chapter 1 while I take care of this needy duo correct? (Chapter 2 starts as soon as you enter Nashkel)

EDIT: To be clear, I want to do their quest (Xzar and Morion) basically ASAP so they stop bitching, and then go back to finish the other ones I picked up from Chapter 1. I still have a good deal to explore in the Chapter 1 areas. I am sure this is really taking some of you back!

Most codexers play BG regularly, so not really taking most people back. You just need to talk to hte mayor with Xzar/Montaron or Khalid & Jaheira. If you've got all of them in your party, I believe he only acknowleges Jaheira but it will still 'meet the requirements' with Xzar and Montaron.

It's Kivan you have to manage properly. But I never had him in my party so memory is a bit hazy. I think you have to do what he wants asap though. So find the thing (spoiler) ASAP.

Ha, that's a good point, forgot where I'm at for a second. But I meant moreso asking a question like that, it's like if someone asked me about the new londo ruins in dark souls or something. Appreciate the tip about Kivan! I will certainly be on the lookout for that.

No probs. If you're a newfag (I'm still grating at being called an oldfag recently, so I suppose that makes you a newfag) then you might want to pick up Kagain in Beregost. He also has a easy quest to fulfill, and I'll leave it to you to find out why he's a fantastic fighter.

Do not let that grate on you, wear it like a badge of honor. Just don't get carried away! And awesome, will do. Melee is always the best so I certainly will pick up Kagain after I drop these evil-aligned clowns off.

 

[Storyfag]

I certainly will pick up Kagain after I drop these evil-aligned clowns off.

Funny you should phrase it like that...

 

[razvedchiki]

will a dualed fighter at 13 have thaco problems hitting mobs/bosses in TOB? from my calculations unbuffed a lvl 13 beserker will have a thaco of -6 with
- grand mastery
- +3 weapon
- balduran helmet/ gloves of the master
- str of 21-22
- +2 from rage.

 

[Average Manatee]

That's enough for vanilla. There's some bosses/enemies with AC around -10 to -15 but you'll still hit plenty. Including buffs you'll hit almost all the time. Critical Strike is also a guaranteed 20 which means a guaranteed hit (if not prevented by something else). If you play Ascension/SCS AC gets a little higher but natural AC caps at -20.

 

[razvedchiki]

yea with scs/ascension ( also added some tactics remix encounters). i wont have access to fighter HLAs (if thats what you meant with critical strike) since dual.

 

[Average Manatee]

i wont have access to fighter HLAs (if thats what you meant with critical strike) since dual.

Oh right, duh.

yea with scs/ascension ( also added some tactics remix encounters).

Should still be fine. Anything unhittable in SCS is because its not dispelled properly and you wouldn't hit it with a THAC0 of -100.

And the majority of Ascension enemies are like -5 AC at best, including some bosses. It's a rare few enemies that have -20. IIRC Balthazar (because infinite monk levels) and Abazigal (ditto with Kensai levels) are the only two with AC so high.

 

[razvedchiki]

is kensai worth it generally compared to the bezerker? if im not mistaken kai increases the base dmg of a weapon ignoring other dmg increases.

 

[Nano]

is kensai worth it generally compared to the bezerker?

Do you remember how many liches there are in BG2?

 

[Average Manatee]

They are pretty comparable for general usage with Berserker just not having the critical vulnerability before dualling and fixing their AC, along with the immunities.

There are a few "tricks" with kai though, it works well with backstabs or with very large damage range weapons (e.g. shapeshifting into a golem).

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

razvedchiki Berserker is much better than Kensai They are great out of the gate. Their rage ability is damn near magic immunity. With how common thrown weapons are, Berserker has almost no downside. Kensai is a menace with thrown weapons, but they just bloom too late. By the time their bonuses aggregate enough to matter, HLA become available and steal Kai's thunder.

As average Manatee mentions, Kensai is best for a mage or theif dual class where their downsides are mitigated and their Kai ability gets more purposeful use (backstab). It can also be useful to dual into Druid like shapeshifter.

 

[Nikanuur]

...Most codexers play BG regularly,...

A-ha!

 

[Naraya]

I'm playing through IWD2 at the moment but all this combat is getting tedious and only makes me want to replay BG. My question is: in 2024 should I play EE, or should I stick to the original (I found this: https://archive.org/details/BaldursGateTheOriginalSagaWorld)?

I played EE not long after it was released and it was... OK I guess. But I'd like to relive the original experience from when I was a teen, and I modded out content added in EE anyway because I'm not interested. Will I have bad time? Are there any mods that are a must and work ONLY with EE?

Please advise.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

To have the same experience you had as a teen, you need a time machine, not mods. EE content is avoidable even if you don't mod it out. You can tell companions to just f off and they will, just like before. At the end of the day you can just play as you did back then with a lot of more convenient things.

 

[Average Manatee]

There's not really any must have mods for BG1, but SCS is probably the closest and is only for EE I think.

inb4 someone points out that mods to remove EE characters are a must and work only with EE.

 

[Melcar]

EE changes a few things, like item locations and shit like that. Probably a few minor quests but I don't remember that well.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

To have the same experience you had as a teen, you need a time machine,

I dunno, I am replaying BG1 (EE) now, after 25 years, and having the same experience. It was my first crpg and a great game. Next year I was running to buy Planescape: Torment. Man, that was a disappointment. I was expecting BG2 but I got a visual novel instead. Do not get me wrong, Torment was a good reading, but a different game.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

To have the same experience you had as a teen, you need a time machine,

I dunno, I am replaying BG1 (EE) now, after 25 years, and having the same experience. It was my first crpg and a great game. Next year I was running to buy Planescape: Torment. Man, that was a disappointment. I was expecting BG2 but I got a visual novel instead. Do not get me wrong, Torment was a good reading, but a different game.

Back in the day people have the same complains so don't feel bad. It was too short, linear and dialogue heavy, and thus seen as less replayable than BG1.

 

[adddeed]

It looked soo much better though.

 

[KainenMorden]

I'm playing through IWD2 at the moment but all this combat is getting tedious and only makes me want to replay BG. My question is: in 2024 should I play EE, or should I stick to the original (I found this: https://archive.org/details/BaldursGateTheOriginalSagaWorld)?

I played EE not long after it was released and it was... OK I guess. But I'd like to relive the original experience from when I was a teen, and I modded out content added in EE anyway because I'm not interested. Will I have bad time? Are there any mods that are a must and work ONLY with EE?

Please advise.

The only reason to play EE IMHO is to do an SCS run, otherwise, why bother with the things they added? So besides the companions that I personally can't stand, the game wasn't meant to be played with sorcerers, monks, wild mages, barbarians, kits, half orcs, dual wielding, some spell modifications like Sleep, xp cap and probably other things im forgetting.

The mod id like to play for the original BG1 some day is Dark Side of the Sword Coast, it is recommended by veteran players for its encounter design.

I never got into all the modding possible for extra content, companions, etc for the BG games because in general, I'm a bit of a "purist" and I've disagreed with many modders/players on issues of game balance many times.

I'm saying that with all the respect in the world for those modders but for example, David W the creator of SCS recommended IWDification, adding iwd spells to the BG games. It is too much of an advantage to the player to have those spells, especially the Cleric spells, for a number of reasons but besides the AI not using them optimally or reacting to them well, you barely fight any Clerics and Clerics are strong enough already. To be fair to SCS, I haven't played for a year and there has been an update since then where supposedly the AI has been improved in regards to using/reacting to Cleric spells but I still don't think they belong.

Oh and I suppose if you can't get BG1 to run on a newer gaming PC, maybe EE is the answer.

 

[Vic]

play the EE, boomers gonna hate

the game wasn't meant to be played with

it is now

 

[AfterVirtue]

play the EE, boomers gonna hate

Of course. Boom.

 

[Average Manatee]

I'm saying that with all the respect in the world for those modders but for example, David W the creator of SCS recommended IWDification, adding iwd spells to the BG games. It is too much of an advantage to the player to have those spells, especially the Cleric spells, for a number of reasons but besides the AI not using them optimally or reacting to them well, you barely fight any Clerics and Clerics are strong enough already. To be fair to SCS, I haven't played for a year and there has been an update since then where supposedly the AI has been improved in regards to using/reacting to Cleric spells but I still don't think they belong.

Exactly which spells from IWDification do you think give such a huge advantage to players? There's a few buffs that are good to have, but enemies in general are stronger in SCS so getting +2 THAC0 basically just balances out an enemy with 2 more AC. The non-buff spells are on average kinda mediocre imo.

SCS also nerfs a lot of abusable BG2 spells so on the whole I think spell balance is far better.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I typically use Spell Revisions. To my recollection, SCS assumes the player is using Spell Revisions. I don't go past version 3. Version 4 makes too many serious departures from original BG2. Version 3 takes a few more liberties than I'd like, but overall it's a bit better balanced than version 2. The Icewind Dale spellbook was always inferior to BG. It has some fun things in it, but overall I don't consider it power creep at all to add it into the BG saga. The best thing about Icewind Dale spells were some of the animations. Chiefly the web spell.

 

[Melcar]

Cleric and Druid spells are somewhat superior in IWD, specifically Druid spells.