How the frick are there like 5 threads on this board about BG3 and none on BG1 or 2?!?!
Recently picked up BG1 and 2 because of the hype around BG3 and I'm having a blast. Realized I was playing something special when not 30 minutes after recruiting Jaheira and Khalid, Khalid goads Montaron and Xzar into a fight by commenting on Montaron's mental state. Playing chaotic good I had to sit for a few minute and muster up the strength to kill 2 party members instead of reloading.
Also Minsc fricking slaps. Handicapped? Check. Heart of gold? Check. Genuine quirkiness from said handicap instead of reddit tier te r4nd0mz? Check.
Neera fricking sucks ass though, her voice is beyond grating and genuinely sounds like those npc TikTok videos. Would straight up mute my headset anytime she spoke. Glady traded one social moron for a mental moron with a hamster. Best trade I ever made.
Anyone else going through the classics right now? Share builds and shit on THAC0
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>How the frick are there like 5 threads on this board about BG3 and none on BG1 or 2?!?!
because one just came out and other two are 25 years old? moron
Take a look at those threads and notice how they are bursting at the seams with people who are shitting all over the game and worshipping the originals. For that much naysaying I'd expect at least a token thread paying respects to the originals, considering how "passionate" most of the people in those threads are.
I mean, there's a NWN thread and no BG1 thread. Quite sad, frankly
>there's a NWN thread and no BG1 thread. Quite sad, frankly
why? does there have to be a thread up about every classic at all times? where's the dark sun shattered lands thread, then? where's the wizardry 7 thread? make a thread when you have something to say, not for the sake of having one.
>where's the dark sun shattered lands thread
Anon over here asking the real question.
>I mean, there's a NWN thread and no BG1 thread
because there's not much to discuss about bg1. game has barely any quests, companions have one quest each and 2-3 lines of dialogue, locations are empty and fights are mostly boring etc. the only people who would want to talk about bg1 more than about bg2, NWN, or planescape is muh low level adventure contrarians.
Anon. You're overthinking everything.
>new game = popular
>popular = shit
>anon = naysayer
Do you think they actually liked or even played the old games? Frick no lol. It's just a talking point to shit on the new one.
Neera is Beamdog fanfiction added by the enhanced edition. You should use the mod that removes all the shit Beamdog added, it’s all cringe and awful. You should also skip Siege of Dragonspear also, it’s more Beamdog fan fiction.
BG1 is great, I just replayed the trilogy a few months ago. It has a whole different feel that’s comfy. It’s like a DnD campaign with all this shit to explore at your leisure. BG2 is great too but it began a lot of the modern rpg tropes. Less freedom, more set pieces and epic bloat. DnD as a system always works best at low to mid levels.
You won’t really be able to mix good and evil NPCs in the same party, aside from direct personal antagonisms (there’s a few who will kill each other), each is only happy at opposite extremes of your reputation level, and at very high or very low reputation, they will permanently leave. The “canon” party is Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, minsc, dynaheir. Personally I always swapped Khalid and Jaheira for Ajantis and Branwen.
Let us know if you have any questions or want advice. Game good.
NTA but what's a good mod to remove all of the Enhanced Edition content?
If you want to remove all of it, then the best method is to play the version of the game before EE existed.
This is how Baldur's Gate is supposed to look. I miss the old sprites. They were missing some animations compared to the Baldur's Gate 2 ones, and the attacks are simpler, but the armor and shields look much better.
I especially hate how Heart of Winter changed Icewind Dale to BG2 sprites. Those sprites worked for BG2's setting but they don't fit Icewind Dale at all, and all the 'complete' and 'enhanced' versions use the crappy ones.
Sorry for the sour grapes, and thanks for posting the nice webm.
The 1pp mod aims to fix paperdolls and everything related to it, and lets you choose which ones to use depending on the Infinity Engine game you're modding, among other things like spell effects and icons.
https://github.com/SpellholdStudios/1pp
You killed your own skeletons, you bastard.
Always loved this particular fight. Hilarious banter with the hammer guy to start it off and then a challenging encounter vs a balanced group. I'd often charm their mage and use his superior spellbook against his own party.
The human adventurers/sellswords groups vs your party battles in BG are in general good as frick.
>The human adventurers/sellswords groups vs your party battles in BG are in general good as frick.
I like that otherwise unimportant tavern fight where the rarely-used epic battle theme plays.
That's very helpful anon, thank you! In my hyperfocused loathing of BG2 shields and armor I forgot the changes they made to 'flaming' swords.
Not as helpful, and somewhat dismissive, but I'll try that anyway if the mod doesn't work.
Is there something like this for the BG2EE? Always hated it how they replaced all the icon, item and doll art with bg1 stuff.
Install the game off your discs then.
Absolutely true.
I have never played the EEs of BG. There is a mod to do it though. Think it’s called de-Beamdog-ifier or something.
I don’t think anywhere still sells the original versions. There used to be the originals on GOG before the EEs.
I thought if you bought the EE on GOG you also got the original with it as a bonus?
Yeh they locked the original behind the EE purchase, which is somewhat scummy. One can always try to hunt down original discs (good luck) or sail the high seas of the internet though.
this works for 1&2 Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs
https://github.com/Argent77/A7-NoEENPCs/releases/tag/v4.3
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Convenient_Enhanced_Edition_NPCs
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate/mods/26
This adds back original character models.
Man I knew my memory was not shitting me, they looked much better.
>Female Human Fighter
>Female Human Cleric
>Female Elf Cleric
FRICKING WOULD
BG2 models are such a downgrade
aye aye captain
>Personally I always swapped Khalid and Jaheira for Ajantis and Branwen.
Why does nobody ever mention my boy Kivan. In my playthrough(s) where I've had him he's responsible for something like 50% of the kills in a party of 6. He's a goddamn archery machine. Sure his Clint Eastwood character is dull, but there are many others you can keep for le epic quips.
Kivan was always my favorite.
I don't talk about him because I don't usually post in bg threads on /vrpg/. This board has so many morons I can't really handle it for more than day or two every 6-12 months.
Because you have to go out of your way to recruit him, same with most of the other untalked joinable NPCs. The ones that are met on your main quest journey, especially those almost forced into your party, are going to naturally be more popular and talked about.
Kivan is at High Hedge where you go pretty early in the game, being right next to Beregost, where you'll meet some halfling in the Beregost inn (forgot the name) and he will send you to High Hedge on a mission. This is pretty much right after the Friendly Arms Inn.
On the other hand you will have finished more than half the game before you can recruit reddit's favorite archer Coran. This availability early is what separates great characters from the others.
Anon, Kivan's in an optional area. Most people don't even go in his direction when playing.
>optional area
>literally one of the two possible areas you can go to after the mandatory starting area
You're technically correct that high hedge is "optional", but boy is that misleading. It has the best shop (beregost smithy is good too, but only for armor&weapons + they won't buy everything like high hedge does) before baldur's gate, especially for spells/magical stuff and it's the only place to reliably farm for throwing daggers which will become very expensive if you keep only buying them from shops (throwing daggers are the best non-enchanted missile weapons for characters with good str). It's also the only place to get the good archmage robe and kazgaroth claw, which on certain characters is the best protective item in the game.
It also has kivan, who's a better archer than anyone you can get early game as he can use the comp bow + high dex + elf bonus. Later on kivan drops off because rangers are shitty and you get better options, but he's still good because bows are absolutely op in bg1.
>Kivan's in an optional area
80% of the game is "optional" areas. High Hedge is not exactly random wilderness.
>Most people don't even go in his direction when playing.
What would compel anyone to state something so completely untrue? Incredible. Also he's standing extremely close to where you enter the area, you don't even have to look for him. Fricking hell.
Watched people play and playing myself often walked nowhere near where he's standing even when in the area he's suppose to be in. On top of that most people have a 6-man party by this point (either from the 6 they pick up walking to the Inn, or LE Dwarf+Bard from the town below.)
Why must you turn this thread into a house of lies?
Neera is better, more interesting and better written than the vast majority of actual companions in BG1 and BG2.
Daily reminder that if you seethe about Neera when le ebin hamster reddit man is in the game, you are just buying into moronic decade old culture warrior nonsense. You cannot name a single way in which the Beamdog companions are worse than the OG ones without going
>b-but muh fanfiction, muh beamdog! the added a troony NPC with 3 sentences of dialogue!
I've been playing through BG1EE as a Wild Mage recently. I also have a somewhat aborted BG2EE playthrough going as a bard that I'll probably never finish in favour of continuing my mage once he finishes BG1.
NRD goes in all slots.
Here's my Bard
>dex 14
>con 18
>Bard
at least nobody can accuse you of powergaming
I always roll random with one allowed store+reroll. it's more fun having to work with limitations.
Meh.
You WILL roll 3D6
You WILL roll them in order
And you WON'T get a re-roll.
Wild Mage is one of the few good things Beamdog added, even though it's insanely overpowered.
Very fun class.
They were in original BG2, weren't they? All Beamdog did was backport it with the rest of the kits.
Was it added in Throne of Bhaal? No clue.
Yes.
I take it back then, Beamdog is a blight I remember when they nerfed assassin's poison just because their shitty new blackguard class was too overpowered.
Shaman is also fricking garbage as well.
Trying out that Shadow Magic mod from Artisan. Not very far in but seems pretty cool so far, a little gimmicky.
You can also pick Edwin for maximum banter. He's the best wizard in the game, but clashes with Minsc and Dynaheir. I can't speak for EE, but there was a trick of having both him and Minsc in the party for the whole game. Him and Dynaheir was never possible, as they would eventually fight. The trick was not recruiting him while Dynaheir was still captured. So you'd just ignore him while doing Minsc's timed Dynaheir quest, complete that, then recruit him.
I love this game like you wouldn't believe.
Baldur's Gate is pure soulkino because it's the quintessential adventure.
You start your adventure with your childhood friend just after a tragedy, and embark on a hero's journey exploring the wilderness and towns of the Sword Coast... there is mistery and a buildup... all towards the big city of Baldur's Gate, which is the pinnacle of the game.
You have journeyed so far and are rewarded with a bustling metropolis!
Is there any other game that does this so well? POE1 tries something similar, but the sense of adventure isn't the same...
>towards the big city of Baldur's Gate, which is the pinnacle of the game.
>You have journeyed so far and are rewarded with a bustling metropolis!
What's the best about it, is that BG city is packed with content to the brink. Here you are, apparently at the end of your adventure, and this whole, massive city opens before you, full with wander and adventure. You can wander into a small nondescript house, and be greeted with a quest. You have manors with nobles, mad wizards in their towers, thieves praying on the museum, temples and a whole ton of taverns, all completely optional. I honestly don't know of one game that did that.
That’s a pretty cool image. I didn’t realize some of the maps tile that way. Some of it is throwing me off like the Cloakwood mines being shoved in north of the FAI like that
It looks like they went with unified map at first, then just changed theme of some maps.
Currently doing a dragon disciple (sorcerer) run from bg1. The technical stuff (zooming etc.) and "metacontent" (classes, kits etc.) beamdog added is actually mostly okay and easy to ignore if you wish to do so. The actual ingame content (characters, quests, dialogue, voices etc.) they added is mostly shit though. I fricking hate how Neera and Dorn are pushed in your face if you don't mod them out. Their voice acting is fan-mod tier too.
Playing bg1ee with the tweakpack and most scs content on the middle scs-difficulty (Tactician I think). Being a low-level arcane caster is fricking brutal, I got oneshotted by the first assasin by a magic missile. He made his saving throw on my last blindness spell and was protected by mirror images (scs prebuff).
On my next try I realized that (his) shield spell does block my magic missile (scroll) as normal, but the single missile from the missile wand goes through shield. Managed to interrupt him murdering me again with the wand and actually landed the blindness this time, then finished him with throwing daggers while he bumbled around blind.
After getting through the first couple of levels, especially with a caster, bg1 and scs especially really opens up, apart from some xp-fodder trash encounters (which scs drastically reduces) and all fights become these pretty intense tactical puzzles. A lot of the spells and abilities that are not needed that much in vanilla gameplay become very important in scs. And no hp-bloat! Having to actually down a potion of absorption to avoid being electrocuted by silke was new. With a couple of levels under his belt my dragon disciple is really starting to come around. The breath weapon nicely balances the lost spells-per-day and the extra hp (d6) makes him a lot less squishy.
5/5 enjoyment, best experiences of the year so far with JA3 (which still needs patches), haven't tried bg3 as my policy is to wait for a month or more for big releases to get properly patched (really paid off with CP2077).
Bg2 classes and certain kits really aren't balanced for bg1. You really don't get much from continuing a character from bg1 into bg2 as opposed of just starting a new one. Only interesting case are Dritzt scimitars that cause him to auto attack you once he sees you again in bg2. Only other instance is pantaloon armour, that can only be completed in Throne of Bhal, but its broken nonsense, not worth the bother.
1. Continuity of the plot, your character, and your roleplaying choices (more a player thing than the game)
2. More xp if you’re playing with the cap removed as God intended
3. Tomes of stat boost if you gave any to your character
4. Maybe more of your loot and gold, if you’re feeling cheaty
The last 3 things you can cheat in with CLUA or Shadowkeeper, so you won't "miss out" on stuff like the stat tomes.
That’s true. I just personally really like the continuity of playing a series that’s a direct continuation back to back. See also: why I’ve never been able to play deadfire more than once because I just can’t frickin get through PoE1 after a million half-finished runs
>Neera
Stop playing the Beampozzed versions and download the originals unmodded.
>Also Minsc fricking slaps. Handicapped? Check. Heart of gold? Check. Genuine quirkiness from said handicap instead of reddit tier te r4nd0mz?
Not check.
>The Good Baldur's Gates
the only good one is dark alliance
Cringe hot take
go suck your bear dick gay sex enjoyer
i love this little turnipper like you wouldn't believe
We know, r*ddit, we know. He's just like Rick except lovable goof instead of arrogant butthole.
rent free
>jan always reminded you south ukranian israelite stereotype from soviet era/90s
>epic Ganker intellectual immediately thinks about reddit, rick and morty and starts projecting
Why does anyone come here anymore? It's shit.
>south ukranian israelite stereotype from soviet era/90s
That sounds very specific, why would soviets made regional distictions between rootless cosmopolitans when those are by very definition not bound to particular region?
idk, but there was a lot of soviet comedian monologues and anecdotes (jokes) about odessa israelites
The Tsars did the worst thing imaginable to the israelites, they tried making them into honest farmers, and they’re still seething against Russia to this day. They even tried giving them prime farmland in Crimea and free cows and horses and tools, and they immediately sold what they were given and went back to moneylending and pushing vodka on the peasants. Many tended to stay in southern Ukraine due to the climate and fertility of the soil (they didn’t farm but they did farm those who did farm) at least until the ~~*Bolshevik*~~ coup where they tended to concentrate in Moscow and St. Petersburg to get cushy and lucrative government jobs. In Imperial Russia they were banned from crossing the Pale of Settlement, intended to keep them concentrated in Poland where they came from.
>t. Read Solzhenitsyns 200 years together and you should too because it’s super interesting
> in Poland where they came from.
That's funny because European israelites are from Khazaria in the first place.
Solzhenitsyn addresses the Khazar theory at the beginning of the book. I’ve personally gone back and forth on whether I believe it or not. Either way, by the 1700s, the introduction of large numbers of israelites to the Russian Empire was when Poland was carved up and split with Prussia and Austria.
>muh 6 trillion imaginary oppressions
The Tsars should have killed all the israelites in Russia.
yep
but instead the israelites killed all the tsars
you hate to see it, folks
Fascinating. I should really read up on it.
Any other books you'd recommend?
One of Bioware's founders was a migrant from the region or raised by migrants from the regions.
Shameful idiot.
Righteous truthteller.
His voice is kind of lame in ENG version.
Polish Jan is so good you wouldn't believe.
Neera isnt a real Bg NPC. She was added by the involvement dev who remastered the game. There are mods to remove the Beamgay NPCs, which I recommend using. Beamgay's writers are some of the worst in the world.
>Involvement
I meant Incompetent. Ironic typo.
BG1+2 are nice. I use the BGT mod to run everything in the BG2 engine and then the widescreen patch to make the resolution better. I started running DSotSC too. Pretty nice mod.
How do you fix the UI being too tiny?
Baldur's Gate 1 is a forgettable, bland, game.
The only reason people remember the series is because of 2
the only reason 2 exists is because the first did well.
BG2 being a sequel to BG1 also confers other advantages. BG2 starts you off with 89,000 experience (level 7/8). You start with a standard backstory that can be made central to the main conflict with little fuss (Irenicus wants your Bhaalspawn soul). The quest-hub and straight to dungeon model fits a higher level campaign. The free roam wilderness exploration design works well at lower levels.
In some games (older-style MMORPGs, for example), the early game begins with very open-ended free roam design, and as you gain levels you unlock fast travel options until eventually you're zipping around the world to the dungeons, mostly ignoring everything in-between.
People fixating on BG2 while ignoring BG1 tend to miss this important dynamic. Or, they are just idiots who think that there's no wiggle room to improve the pace of BG1 without sacrificing the free roam design.
BG2 did so well that it reduced BG1 to a mod of BG2. Seriously, nobody plays BG1, everyone plays BG2 running the campaign of BG1. And at least half of those playthroughs are people not wanting to miss out on the stat boosting books from 1 before going into what they actually want to play, BG2.
Because if you know what you are doing, BG1 can be knocked put very quickly.
>Seriously, nobody plays BG1
just not true
Finish the sentence, speedreader.
>before going into what they actually want to play, BG2.
I did, disingenuous homosexual.
People play BG1 because they like BG1. People use the BG2 engine because that's the most easily accessible now and many don't know any better.
>the most easily accessible now
Don't lie. Tutu was the most popular BG2 mod for a reason. People went out of their way to use the BG2 engine, because it is that much better. BG1 would be barely played without BG2.
>BG1 would be barely played without BG2.
I'm inclined to agree with most of what you're saying, despite the unnecessarily inflammatory and strangely butthurt tone, but that is just not true. Bg2 didn't come out of nothing, bg1 was such a hit for crpg nerds it was awaited like the second coming of christ. Just because bg2 was great and had a (techically) better engine which people prefer doesn't mean bg1 wasn't great on its own right. One could say some of the mechanics (moral for example, that's why inns served drinks so you could get some liquid courage in Khalid before fighting ogres) were actually deeper in bg1 while overall the bg2 was considered a big improvement techically; the monster size was limited by the older engine for example.
Learn your history better zoomer, before spouting uninformed takes. The biggest reason for using bgTuTu was to get a uniform saga experience with the different classes, spells and abilities. Couldn't play as a barbarian in original bg1 for example.
Also: nta, I didn't reply to you before
>Tutu was the most popular BG2 mod for a reason.
>mods
Mods are for people already fans of the game who want to spice it up. And of course when you're modding you'll use the more advanced and flexible engine with all the BG2 content available if you want it. (Although there's still some sacrifices. The paperdolls are undeniably better in the original game)
nobody uses mods.
Out of millions of sold copies of BG2, the most popular mods have shy of 10k downloads, and that's with people redownloading them on other computers and on reinstalls.
Even in popular mod games like skyrim mod users are <5% of players.
Something like a thousand times more people played BG1 than played this mod thing you're talking about.
NTA but tutu/bgt was wildly popular before the EEs came out. Every time I replayed bg1 in the last 20+ years it was in the bg2 engine and same with all the nerds I know and have talked with on forums. I think the amount of grognard purists who say “bg1 in the bg1 engine and nothing else” are a tiny amount. And whatever stats you’re citing are unreliable, the infinity engine modding scene was usually spread around different sites and forums and not one centralized download hub that tracks download counts like nowadays
He don't play with the imoen romance mode
and yet bg2 owes everything to bg1
>everybody is a homosexual
you too
You could not be more incorrect.
Baldur's Gate 1 is a fantastic and memorable game on its own and some people even prefer it over 2.
I enjoyed BG up until I had to return to Baldur's Gate and the guards all tried to kill me, I was a LG character so I just cheat killed them.
I beat the game and immediately booted up BG2 and quit before leaving the starting dungeon since the UI was annoying.
That part is kinda a puzzle trap, which sucks. I usually play it as a LG paladin, either flee from the flaming fist or take the sewers to dodge them and just go to the flaming fist compound and surrender, as I recall.
It's pretty neat how you can charm enemies and get unique dialogue and outcomes. I keep forgetting to try it.
>and quit before leaving the starting dungeon since the UI was annoying.
Huh? The UI is the same across both games.
>charm enemies and get unique dialogue and outcomes
I remember being sorely disappointed when I discovered that it's no longer a case in BG2. It allowed really clever relosution of some quests
Yep, one of extremely endearing features of BG1, I was impressed when I found that out. ANd it's crazy how often the game is prepared for you trying it.
Has anyone here done a wizard slayer solo through ToB?I finished BG1 and SoA a long time ago but I never went into ToB.
It‘s still possible for some enemies.
no, it isn't, they just have 'no dialogue' when charmed
Wizard Slayer run is possible, I remember guy doing it with no reload. But it would me major pain in the ass and micromanaging consumables.
Anon I said some enemies.Do you now know what "some" means?Glaicus in the De'Arnise Keep can be charmed to make him friendly.
Wizard Slayer is not that bad, essentially just a slightly gimped fighter. My main problem with them is how their flavor doesn't gel with game mechanics, as the old saying goes "a mage that can be hit is a dead mage"; on higher difficulties (and especially mods like scs) the enemy mages you'd really want to hit have protections on and they usually get killed in seconds after you strip their protections, making the WS ability weak against them. You can still occasionally get some use of it, but if we compare what WS gets to other warrior classes they kinda come up short, especially with their penalties. An inquisitor does the WS's job better than the WS. They're still better than rangers for example (besides archer maybe).
I learned on my WS solo run that you don't need to actually damage a mage to put your miscast magic debuff on them, so you can immediately start wailing on the most dangerous mage in each encounter without having to worry about immediately stripping their buffs.
That's not even the worst of the Final Seal battles. That floor filters me at the best of times. There are videos on Youtube of people doing all three of the key fights at the same time and it blows my mind.
>on my WS solo run
you actually did this?
Yeah. Admittedly I didn't make it far into Throne of Bhaal before deciding "frick this".
I'm surprised you got as far as Throne of Bhaal. Aren't you incapable of harming non-magical weapon immune enemies? I solo'd the entire first game as an Assassin, but I would never try playing a WS.
>Aren't you incapable of harming non-magical weapon immune enemies?
Wizard Slayer can use magical weapons. I spent most of the game using the sword that heals you on hit and the Mace of Disruption before switching to mainly Silver Sword for the high level stuff. Greater Deathblow works on a lot of enemies in base BG2 and Silver Sword works on everything else, except Slayer Irenicus which was the hardest fight in the game.
yeah, that looks fricking painful
Hell, I got kinda bored of my solo DD and decided to do it again.
>you don't need to actually damage a mage to put your miscast magic debuff on them
This might be more of an scs thing or apply on on very high level casters in the base game, but don't immunities (liches) and stuff like protection from magic weapons prevent the debuff?
if memory serves you can dodge them. Just perma haste your party and run past them.
>How the frick are there like 5 threads on this board about BG3 and none on BG1 or 2?!?!
Because BG3 came out a few days ago and BG1 & 2 game out in 1998 and 2000. Not that hard to understand.
I've played it too much, at this point. Last run was lifeless, I know the game by heart. Probably won't ever touch it again.
Nowadays though, I do miss some of its elements when I give a shot to modern rpgs.
Mostly, I miss the companions. I know this board loves to dump on bg2 for starting the evil trend of companions with a personality, but in my book bg2 did it the correct way. Convincing and endearing bunch all around, with only a few hit or miss in there, which is acceptable considering how many options you're given. Also miss how the writing back then was, at most, flirting with quirky, but didn't fully give into it (Jan being the exception, maybe). Bioware knew how to walk that fine line; there was coherence in the tone of the game from beginning to end, which, as simple as it sounds, seems to be a hard feat to accomplish if you take a look at the competition.
I own BG:EE and BG2:EE on GOG but want to play the originals. Web searches say owning the games on GoG automatically gets me the originals, but that's not true; I don't see a way to download them nor redeem with a key on GOG. What am I doing wrong here?
Maybe poke around in the “extras” area, or look at the section for manually downloading installers of the games? I’ve heard that as well but can’t confirm, I only have the original versions on gog
I only see the Manual, Wallpapers, Avatars, and the EE installer.
>If you have the EE versions on GOG, you will also have a redeemable key for the original Bioware versions. Through your browser (not galaxy) select BGEE > Downloads then More then Serial Keys. (see pic) It will say Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, but that is actually the key to add the original version to your library.
https://www.gog.com/forum/baldurs_gate_series/regarding_the_removal_of_the_original_ie_games_from_sale_on_gog/post154
Uh....
>It will say Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, but that is actually the key to add the original version to your library.
I've never done it, but so far that seems right.
That worked. Thanks.
I used to solo this game regularly as a Dragon Disciple
*squint*
Which one's my character?
crap game with 0/10 combat and bdsm lgbt plot, anyone enjoying this is coprophile
>dude the game i haven't played is le bad
What an original opinion, shit for brains. You've strayed from the hive.
after all the bg3 hype i tried to play icewind dale which i had in my steam account from an old humble bundle or something and it was just too slow. like i have to go to the store and buy armor and weapons for six dudes before i can go to a dungeon? BORING. not to mention i had to go through like a six dialog trees just for the stupid vendor to let me browse his gear. i only like action rpgs now. they say icewind dale is a "hack 'n slash" rpg so i thought it would be bearable. nope.
Icewindales are 99% combat. Little to no dialogue, barebones story, playermade characters with no personality.
There's litterally just fighting. But in rtwp. So it's not a hacknslash, obviously, don't know where you even read that. You could call it a dungeon crawler, kind of, but it's not really that either. Action rpg, maybe.
ok cool maybe i will continue with it but when i got to the shop and had to buy generic non-magical entry level dnd gear for six ppl i was like man this is a drag. how do the premade autogenerated characters not come with basic gear? on the other hand, a bg style game but with no dumb ass story does sound good.
I mean, I don't rate these games very high personally but if you're looking for a fights focused game and like rtwp combat done the bg way then Icewind dale 1/2 are a safe bet.
i don't really like rtwp but i don't like turn based where you have 12 movement points and the dude u wanna attack is 7 movement points away and then you get to him but now to attack costs 6 movements points so you have to just end the turn and stand there while he wails on you either. i only like turned based like wizardry or jrpg where you don't have to move. the people in the back row have limited ability to attack maybe only magic and spells but there isn't the tedious action points shit you you have to walk over to the dude.
>guy on internet forum doesnt know why people want to talk about new games
RTwP is unforgivably shit
Literally why?
p2r2v
>"Recently picked up BG1 and 2 because of the hype around BG3"
>Uses Zoomer phrases like "Minsc fricking slaps!"
>Uses plebbit exclamations: "?!?!"
You are a bandwaggoning zoomer homosexual. You will never be a real RPG fan.
Yes, Minsc slaps evil with his sword. What are you complaining about?
BG3 got me hankering to play the first two. What mods should I use for beamdog steam version?
All you need is whatever mod removes the Beamdog fan fiction added NPCs. De-beamdogifier or Beamdog be gone or something like that
I also started playing recently and didn't know the EE had altered npcs. Can you remove them after you already started the game? What's bad about them?
Beamdog's EE version added new NPCs that did not exist in the original games. These NPCs are completely detached from the original devs, the original development cycle, and the original writing team. They are fanfiction tier. One of the companions has 20 STR 20 DEX, with a total of 98 on the ability score (all stats added up). YOU, the main character, will have a smaller ability score, and you're the super awesome protagonist. Unless you cheat and give yourself max stats, you'll probably end up around 85-95 with one stat being the dump stat.
And that's not even getting into her immunites.
The quality in general is poor. I don't know if you can install it after, but if you encounter them, and they WILL forcefully talk to you, tell them to frick off. That's another thing, they FORCE themselves upon you, because Beamdog really, really, really wants you to use their crappy new companions.
Oh boy. Gotta love donut steel characters
>tell them to frick off
That's what I'll do. I looked them up and know their names now and already ran into one of them.
The mods are the same across all versions; except some of the original BG1 engine specific mods, which is quite remarkable when you really think about it.
it just werks.
But you don't need anything. Fixpack and 1pp are incorporated into the EE versions by default, and those are the only ones I would consider essential.
Also, what
said.
You guys like RTWP?
If not, then what do you like? I'm a Game Dev building a cRPG, so I'm trying to gauge some opinion.
I enjoy RTWP, it keeps combat flowing. Sometimes turn based battles drag out too long.
If you're going to do real-time then do real-time, not this stupid 6 seconds is a turn shit. Go RT like an RTS.
I prefer rtwp
In bg it felt fluid and natural. I can't remember another game that managed to land it though. Some of it is obviously linked to how fighter types in BG can play on autopilot while, in today's games, the norm is for fighters to have 500 combat maneuvers options and need micromanage, meaning it'll get unreadable in rtwp.
>in today's games, the norm is for fighters to have 500 combat maneuvers options and need micromanage
This is a rare instance where I'll admit my dislike might boil down to simply not liking change, but I never understood the need to give fighters a host of special techniques, especially in games where you control a whole party. It feels too MMO-like. They don't need to be fancy or complex, just give 'em good stats, good gear, and something to hit.
I liked how the KOTOR games did it at low levels
>basic attack with no special traits that gets used automatically
>power attack with added flat damage and extra crit multiplier, but lower accuracy
>critical strike with extra critical threat and chance to stun, but a defence penalty for a couple of rounds afterward
>flurry for an extra attack per round with a steep accuracy penalty
As the game progresses their downsides become meaningless, but it provides enough choice for fighters to make decisions without bloating them with a wizard-tier attack list.
I feel like turn-based makes positioning more convinient and possibly gives more to do for non-magic characters.
Only in 2nd edition d&d. 3rd and onwards rtwp is a massive shitstorm and it only gets worse the more you level up and fight increasingly complex enemies.
BG took half a hard drive and if one of your characters got hit twice you had to restart. I don't know why anyone would like it.
>mfw can't get Icewind Dale 2 to work right in widescreen and can't fix the stuttering screen scroll
I am slightly annoyed. The mods should "technically" work across all IE games, but what the frick do I know. I was looking through ancient texts from years past about modding the games and saw that some jackasses are making a fake enhanced edition for IWD2 but they were removing shit like the great bridge fight and casual filter and adding OC romance companions.
Tech support would be appreciated.
IWD2 GUI Fix_1.04c
http://havredest.eklablog.fr/interfaces-pour-widescreen-a42876917
Scroll down for English instructions.
Remember to disable run as administrator and high DPI scalings. Remember to set
to the correct resolution (typos will frick it up). I believe there's a GUI scaler also but can't remember.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/for-those-who-have-problems-running-icewind-dale-2-graphics.139937/
That worked, thanks.
I can't find the post saying it again and I'm too lazy to go searching through the cancer that beamdog's forums are, but probably because it's too hard for newbs. They are adding a drider romance NPC, though.
Lmao what "noobs" even play IWD2 in this day and age? And the bridge, while not the easiest, is most certainly not the hardest encounter of the game. Should have removed the puzzles instead
They are.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/79872/icewind-dale-2-enhanced-edition-is-here-and-the-red-chimera-group-is-looking-for-playtesters#latest
>Icewind Dale II: Enhanced Edition changes over 300 spells and over 1,000 items, introduces more than 30 completely new spells and 120 new items, and adds several unique recruitable NPCs, from Veira the ghost maiden to Vrek Vileclaw the river troll to Xhaan the white abishai to Zack Boosenburry and his spider mount, Aocha. This mod also fixes the major issues many players had with the original Icewind Dale 2: you no longer have to solve tedious, cryptic puzzles to complete certain areas, enemies in Heart of Fury Mode are empowered in interesting ways rather than just having lots of HP, and you can revise the experience system so you won't get zero experience for killing enemies late in the game. IWD2:EE is fully customizable and the player can tweak their install to taste.
Dunno about the goblin fight but I remember hearing about that ages ago.
>removing shit like the great bridge fight
you wut? That's the best sequence of the game hands down. Why the frick would they even consider deleting it?
Last time i played, only way i could get it running smoothly was to use windowed mode. I tried very fix and hack i could found.
I will keep it short because i figured it out yesterday after experiencing horrible graphical glitches, so here it is:
1. Get IWD 2, preferably from GOG.
2. Download widescreen mod - https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/tools/widescreen/
unpack it in game folder and run, select native resolution of your monitor (i used 1280x1024, other looks as dog shit on my 5:4 monitor)
3. Download GUI FIX http://havredest.eklablog.fr/interfaces-pour-widescreen-a42876917
unpack it in game folder and run "IWD2_GUI Fix 104b" and during install use same resolution as for widescreen mod.
4. Download http://bitpatch.com/downloads/ddwrapper.zip and unzip it into game folder, then open aqrit.cfg and replace everything with:
;;; www.bitpatch.com ;;;
RealDDrawPath = AUTO
BltMirror = 0
BltNoTearing = 0
ColorFix = 1
DisableHighDpiScaling = 1
FakeVsync = 0
FakeVsyncInterval = 0
ForceBltNoTearing = 0
ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 2
NoVideoMemory = 1
SingleProcAffinity = 0
ShowFPS = 0
5. Optionaly download and use bigger fonts : https://rpgcodex.net/forums/attachments/iwd2-bigger-fonts-zip.10894/ (All credit does to ghostdog)
This is only for english version.
Game runs with no glitches and steady 30 fps with nice scrolling.
Those instructions should get it working in full screen and as smooth as it can be (30fps). I'm unsure if I did something else that has forced it to run full screen, but I'm not sure what it could be. I did add bigger fonts. It runs great besides the fps and looks a frickload better than the EE editions. I still have no idea how they managed to frick that up. I haven't tried IWD1 or BG.
You could pirate Lossless Scaling if you can find it, but I didn't bother.
It'll take a bit to get the games running in an acceptable manner on modern spyware, but it's worth it. All the Infinity Engine games are great, the only game I would say is ok to play as an "enhanced edition" is Planescape Torment because I think they tried a little bit harder to make everything look good and they couldn't add anything since the game itself is so tight. It's worth it to get them running and the quality of life additions of the enhanced editions aren't really all that good and are a net detriment when you factor in the cutscene downgrades and balance changes.
Because the first two came out before you were born and one came out last week. Hope that helps you braindead "pick me" zoomzoom
cant wait for a IWD3 in BG3 engine
soooooo comfy, hope they get some banger tracks in there, hope jeremy soule makes a big comeback
>Dungeon crawler
>2023
Lol. Can't remember the last time a western studio made one. They're dead even in Japan (SMT).
This guy is kicking my ass. He's spamming hold person and eventually I get overrun by skeles. My main character(fighter) just hit level 2 right before reaching this guy. Should I come back later? I only have 3 charges left on that wand of magic missile and only a few scrolls with any direct damage effects.
I don't know shit about D&D so feel free to throw painfully obvious advice at me.
If you dogpile him you should be able to interrupt his spells, especially with some well timed magic missiles and you park your tankiest party member (probably Khalid) in the chokepoint with some good armour and a shield and you hit the skeletons with a CC spell like horror, web or entangle you should be able to stall them out pretty effectively.
Ideally you want to wander a bit and have the whole party on level 2 or 3 before clearing the mines though.
Thanks for the advice. I blocked the entrance and had khalid pop an invis potion once he got too low which kept them nice and blocked for the duration of the fight. Used the last charges on my wand to try and interrupt his casts which seemed to work out.
Found an AOE scroll and was quite happy with how it turned out vs the horde.
I think I'm going to leave Montaron and Xzar for now and try out Xan and Branwen as I explore around.
Proud of you, anon. Just in case you don't already know, scrolls are also how your mages learn spells. Casting from scroll just lets them cast it once without using any spell slots or having it in their spellbook. If you want to actually learn it you need to scribe the spell.
As the other anon mentioned, you can interrupt spellcasters by doing damage while they're casting. It's not guaranteed but if you hit them a few times there's a pretty decent chance. Wands and fast-casting spells like Magic Missile are good for that.
>Xzar with 4hp
Kino. Modern rpgs wouldn't dare give you a party member this squishy
I wonder how will BG3 stack to originals in terms of mod added content. DOS2 was was 'ok' in this term but nothing amazing. Meanwhile original BGs have a lot of new quests, kits, items and companions that add to replayability.
I already learned there's micropenis mods.
High graphical fidelity and bloated resource consumption really killed the old school mods from 20 years ago. Games like bg3 aren’t the kind of thing one nerd working on his own can produce, anymore, and anything with noticeably lower production values is gonna stick out badly. I’d expect mods to be tweaks and rule changes and things that can be implemented in code rather than shit like new quests.
I like BG3 gameplay, but holy crap, the main story is... so fricking bad. Fricking space ship in hell for a level 1 adventure called Baldur's Gate. Super special tadpoles with powers. Netheril nuke up your bum, if you play Gayle.
Frick you Belgium.
Show some self-restraint.
Man, remember when fantasy had "ye olde" feel to it? Or there was some normal fricking humans without horns in it?
Those were the comfy times...
It's genuinely surprising to me that this sentiment is not more common.
Every game has to be more epic and super special than the last.
sometimes i just want some old-fashioned "my hotel's as clean as an elven arse" type adventure. I probably play through BG1 once a year - not always til the end. it has a feel to it that I can't seem to find elsewhere
Absolutely this. I love the Forgotten Realms. So comfy and cozy.
If you want to be an edgy grimdark post-nuclear no magic steam-punk lad, that's fine. Just leave my Faerun alone.
I also play bg1-2-tob every 1-2 years but it always go bit boring after underdark (i always do everything possible before underdark) and a chore after suldanesselar. Second half of ToB is even worse but i still always endure to the end. Though this time i've been stuck in WK for a year...? BG1 to underdark is just a different and better.
Frick epic adventures. First +1 sword at the end of kobold dungeon is so much more fun than +6 sword of diarrhea looted from le epic dragon.
>Frick epic adventures.
I like epic adventures but I think crpgs sometimes do a poor job pacing them and balancing the competing goals of narrative and PC agency. Simply getting to the end of Shadows of Amn starting from Candlekeep is likely to take 150 hours. Although I've heard ToB is kind of a slog, the truth is I've never given it a fair shot because I'm always burnt out with the game and ready to move on by the time I beat Irenicus (assuming I even make it that far).
playing them as one thing is the worst way, it's two games. you aren't missing anything with tob though.
ToB sucks. It’s halfway decent the first time you play it and a boring slog on replays. It feels a lot better with a solo char than with a party.
I think i really should try soloing or at least 2-3 man party someday to get a fresh experience after all these years just to get over of that post-underdark hangover t. Maybe i could also really learn how to play after these 20+ years.
Should i just make solo f/m/t with xp cap removed? Or maybe just f/m/t charname and my waifu, jaheira ;___;
I don't know how my autism could make it without doing companion quests, if i just recruit them to do quests and then kick them, it does start to feel like a chore really fast, again.
Soloing is a lot of fun. Do the whole trilogy with the xp cap removed, enjoy being grossly overleveled. Don’t restrict yourself to only f/m/t cheese though (it’s the kind of thing you think is fun when you’re a teenager), pick whatever you think would be fun and interesting. I really enjoyed doing a cavalier.
A custom party of 3-4 is fun too. Start a multiplayer game, give yourself control of a few chars, then move that save file to the single player save directory. My last run through the series was a paladin / cleric-fighter / swashbuckler-fighter with a bow / wizard. More variety and not as overleveled. But it got boring by ToB. ToB more fun solo, but also ToB sucks.
I’d also just skip and ignore all the companions if you do this
I had at least 2 playthroughs with 2 pc's, another was always mc thief/something, can't remember the reasoning anymore but i think it was because lack of "pure" thieves in bg2.
It’s annoying to not have a thief for traps and locks alone. Soloing with a martial you end up bashing everything and eating a lot of traps to the face.
Removing the cap defeats the entire point of soloing.The game becomes far too easy.
That’s a bit subjective, it depends. And depends on how much cheese you’re exploiting. If you’re a one man party like F/M/T whose only real weakness is the xp being split thin, then sure, kinda broken. It’s a more interesting situation if you’re soloing something like a martial who’s strong in one area but weak in others. You have less action economy and little to no magical ability and are relatively more vulnerable to CC and debuffs. Think of it this way, which challenging fights are more interesting, a single big bad above your level, or against a well-balanced mixed party of enemy adventurers that can use a variety of tactics against you? It’s like that in reverse.
I’ve always hated the xp caps and took them off though, regardless of party size.
I like that comparison. Soloing without the level cap means your character is the big bad boss and the enemy are the adventurer party. You can still lose. After all, the boss loses.
Yeah, I think it’s fun. Solo cavalier was probably my favorite playthrough of the trilogy. Really depends how much cheese you use, though. The games not that hard if you’re familiar with it, and you have to use some self restraint to avoid the most broken stuff and exploits to keep it fun. Everyone’s different though
If someone enjoys keeping the xp caps for more challenge, more power to them. I’d consider that a subset of an additional restraint added to make it harder.
>Removing the cap defeats the entire point of soloing.
PFKM gives me that feel kinda, just a nice comfy forest adventure
wolves, bandits, kobolds, etc.
wotr goes too far into the powerfantasy for that feeling to stick
kinda wish KM would get the WOTR treatment for all the QOL and new classes and stuff they added tho
>PFKM
>wotr
>KM
>QOL
Pathfinder Kingmaker
Wrath of the Righteous
Kingmaker
quality of life
Now go to bed gramps.
I like the first half of Kingmaker A LOT.
But you can feel a huge drop in quality after Lichclops guy.
It really should have been two, more polished, games. Just a bit too ambitious for a new studio.
has anyone backported the new WotR classes and pet stuff into Kingmaker
The nautiloid ship in Hell turned me off from BG3 as well. Also the artstyle for the armor is just way too high fantasy for me - looks like dogshit. I can stomach Kingmaker and WoTR's armor design, that's about at my upper limit.
Thinking about the core group the devs wanted you to pick (Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, and Dynaheir), it would be relatively safe to say that you should play like a good character, right? But which class would best adapt to this configuration? There is a druid, a cleric, a thief, a fighter and a wizard. Should the Bhaalspawn be a paladin or a generic fighter? I know you can play as anything and you can pick whatever group you want, but my question is, what kind of character did the original developers think an average Joe would pick?
Hard to say for bg1. For bg2 I'd say paladin because of the class exclusive powerhouse weapon you get at the end of a certain quest.
That's exactly why I thought they wanted the main character to be a paladin. There's just another paladin companion (not counting the Beamdog one) that can hold the weapon.
It's a bit redundant to give him the weapon
I always thought the weapon and the companion did the same thing so that way you could always pick one or the other
>core group
>what kind of character did the original developers think an average Joe would pick?
this is not how rpgs work and developers familiar with rpgs, which bioware was, wouldn't think about it this way, they just randomly threw companions at you with "builds" that fit the characters they wanted to write.
But then at BG2 you're threw with Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc and Yoshimo from the get go. It's a thief/mage, druid, cleric and thief, with the mage leaving your party after the first dungeon. So the next option is grabbing Aerie since it's the closests to the dungeon exit.
yes, those were characters that were popular, except yoshi, with players of the first game. so, the players of the first game determined that initial party, not bioware, and you can dump them at any time.
They're popular and the main quest tends to lead you to Jaheira and Khalid in the first game, so it's only natural that you'll stick with them for a large portion of the game. So, either you've already played the game and go after the characters you want in your party, or you stick with those two for most of the game, switching them only if one of them is killed.
why is khalid dead then?
nope, you do what the bg games did right, add shitloads of characters and scatter them everywhere. don't try to predict or enforce a playstyle for the PC. this is what modern crpgs get so wrong.
Because they wanted to put the stupid romance plot
Yes, because Khalid wasn't popular but Jaheira was, and she was especially popular with the guy who wrote her romance. See, it's just not as "constructed" as you'd think, they were p. much winging it.
Nah, they stopped pairing NPCs with one another in BG2 when they cut down on the number of recruitable NPCs. This pairing was really unpopular anyway. Most people let one of the NPCs die and threw the corpse out of the party.
Jaheira was simply one of the most popular party members and as a F/D offers a diverse and forgiving skillset to players. They did have to accommodate all possible player builds with the party members available in Chateu Irenicus. It makes sense to include her in the starting roster.
The player is supposed to be a human fighter called abdel adrian.
this isn't true.
I was literally in the room when this was decided, but okay homosexual you know better, uh huh.
And my dad works for nintendo
>abdel adrian
Cringe. Wasn’t this from some novelization? Who is the target audience for books based on video games? I like both of those things separately but that’s just embarrassing.
>Gorion’s Ward
Still cringe but at least open ended and ambiguous
>$CHARNAME
Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. Based.
Same shit as BG3, frick off with “Tav”. Why are developers so stupid now
It's literally just a placeholder name. The game was at one point called Project Gustav (Tav), the name of Vincke's dog, like many games do before announcement. It's not some canonization attempt, cool your autism.
Thanks for explaining the origin of “Tav”, I was unaware. I’d wondered why the data files were called Gustav
Here's your charname
>>$CHARNAME
mega-cringe it's "the PC"
this is going to go over the heads of most autists, but see, if you are writing characters and are like: here's the mage, there's the cleric, put a thief here? your party is going to be wholly uninteresting.
It has to be done that way because of the nature of the game.
I'm looking for balance in a party or you want 5 thieves and 1 fighter?
>your party is going to be wholly uninteresting.
Maybe not. It depends on many factors you didn't mention.
>Thinking about the core group the devs wanted you to pick
>they just randomly threw companions at you with "builds" that fit the characters they wanted to write.
I don't think either of you have it right. The most prominent companions and their relationships aren't random. There's a balanced array of builds represented and many come in balanced pairs.
Going sequentially based on the likely story route:
1. Imoen
2. Xzar and Montaron
3. Khalid and Jaheira
4. Garrick
5. Kagain
6. Minsc
7. Edwin
8. Branwen
9. Xan
Warriors(3): Khalid, Kagain, Minsc
Hybrids(2): Montaron, Jaheira
Thieves(2): Imoen, Montaron
Healers(2): Jaheira, Branwen
Mages(3): Xzar, Edwin, Xan
Bards(1): Garrick
The specific builds for each character are different but you can see a very even spread of archetypes, including fairly balanced options for good and evil.
>But then at BG2
BG2 was starting at higher level and wanted to kick off with a balanced party for Chateu Irenicus. Imoen, Khalid and Jaheira were the initial companions with connections to Gorion and Candlekeep. Minsc was extraordinarily popular. Khalid was underrated and less popular so he was killed off.
>Khalid was underrated and less popular so he was killed off.
Th-th-th-th-th-that’s all, f-folks!
Shame on you, anon. As a stutterer, I am deeply offended. We fought so long and so hard for representation and then our one character in one game ever was just killed off and you horrible non-stutterers just laugh. Have you no soul, you monster?
s-s-s-sucks to b-b-be y-you.
How dare you. That's it, I'm going to go out and protest for stutter's rights. We'll need a chant, like other groups have.
I know you’re just kidding but if you’re unfamiliar, I was quoting Khalid. In bg1 he had abnormally low morale and was prone to panic and fleeing and would say that line.
>SQUAD BROKEN
the stat distribution of any particular character alone shows they were far more concerned with characterization rather than "builds".
Devs of BG1 and BG2 were actual roleplayers who understood what roleplaying means. It's not a matter of minmaxing. BG3 is just moron zoomerism.
bg3 isn't the only one getting it wrong. most do. wizards of the coast was a mistake.
Most of the NPCs that joined you in BG1 were the developers old characters from various tabletop campaigns
And that's a good thing! Shows passion.
99.9% of Larian staff has never played a single tabletop campaign in their lives and their first RPG was Skyrim.
Where exactly do you roleplay in BG1?
Quests don't have any branches or alternate resolutions, even the fricking dialogue is literally
>NPC shits out a paragraph of poorly written text
>you say you will go kill the MMO fetch quest tier enemies and gather 10 bear asses, or don't and get nothing
>there are no other options
Where's the roleplaying? Your character is treated the same regardless of if they are a Paladin or a Wizard. Nobody reacts to anything you do. You have no options in how you do anything. There are no skill checks or creative solutions.
>inb4 "the roleplaying is all in your head" cope
bg1 was never really known or praised for choice&consequence, but to pretend it doesn't exist is silly
It plays a minor part in the game, but there are still multiple ways to complete quests, your rep might give you or lock you out of some quests (even some only low rep quests), people react and treat you differently based on their reaction (roll+cha+rep) etc.
There's even some specific interactions where a character might react to how you've treated their friends or relatives (or killed them).
Bg1 is definitely not huge on c&c, but it exists.
>Quests don't have any branches or alternate resolutions,
Branching story is the moron definition of roleplaying.
Most of the roleplaying an an RPG is making decisions about combat and adventuring.
>There are no skill checks or creative solutions.
There are skill checks in BG1. But skill checks are stupid and almost never yield actual creative gameplay anyway. Stupid people (the kind who think RPG means different quest outcomes) are often easily fooled by puzzles with multiple hard-coded solutions for different skill checks, but this is not creativity.
Creative problem-solving is almost entirely incompatible with the "branching dialog trees and skill checks" concept of an RPG.
What's really sad is that in the 25 years since Baldur's Gate 1, RPGs have largely failed to advance on the creative problem solving aspect, choosing instead to focus on ever more elaborate cutscenes, graphics, dialog trees, dating sims and unsatisfying rote skill-check scenarios. Spending a lot of effort on irrelevant interactions to impress those like you with very low standards, while not actually doing anything to improve the fundamentals in a way that would yield more real creativity and roleplaying.
You're not supposed to disrupt the nostalgia trip, anon. Don't point out how some of the companions have illegal stats either.
>Khalid was underrated and less popular so he was killed off
Naeh.
Jaheira was killed off way more than Khalid, Khalid being a pure fighter with longbows made him so strong.
I'm starting BG2 for the first time on my steam deck so what do I need to know? I played through BG1 as a ranger/archer, and I'm rolling as a Paladin right now.
Don't open it.
Paladin is a good choice. You will find a very thematic greatsword in your travels, so I would specialize in that. Both the cavalier and inquisitor kits are excellent. You can recruit an inquisitor companion if you're playing with party members, and if you're going to recruit him, I'd lean towards cavalier.
Compared to BG1, ranged combat is less important. It's nice to have the option in some situations, but you get a lot of nice magical melee weapons, so have your front-liners focus on those. Can give non-spoilery suggestions if you want to know what types of weapons have good support and what don't. I would advise giving all your melee types some type of blunt damage option.
BG2 has a lot of high level mages that you'll fight, so you'll want to learn what the arcane protection spells do, and how to dispel and counteract them, to avoid some frustration. You'll certainly want at least one if not two arcane casters, and at least one if not two divine casters. Inquisitor paladins have an extremely powerful dispel magic that will wreck their shit, as well.
Dual wielding can be quite nice for certain combinations of one-handed weapons, but remember that off-hand weapons only attack once per round, and so are primarily there for "stat sticks" that give nice magical bonuses for being equipped. There's a scimitar offhand that gives an extra attack per round to your main weapon, and there's a flail that gives a great damage reduction bonus. One of the best weapons in the game is a flail, as well, so it's nice to have someone spec'd for them.
In BG1 ranged combat and AC tanking were king, now in BG2 melee combat and magic are king. AC is still important but it'll become harder and harder to become unhittable. Eventually, by late BG2 and ToB (its expansion and finale of the saga), high level enemies have such a good to-hit bonus that they hit every swing no matter what your AC is, and so at that point you rely on damage reduction to tank damage, and it's all either dual-wielding or 2h weapons.
The two-handed fighting style is good, the dual wield fighting style is good (if you want to dual wield, you need 3 pips in it, or don't bother dual wielding at all), and the sword and shield fighting style is a trap, ignore it.
>if you want to dual wield, you need 3 pips in it, or don't bother dual wielding at all
I do not agree with this nor do many no-reload insane SCS nerds. Two pips is enough to eliminate main-hand malus and the off-hand is, as you said, mostly a stat stick. Even the extra attack from some "off-handers" like Belm actually goes to your main hand, somewhat counterintuitively. Say you have a high level fighter with grand mastery in his main-hand weapon and an extra apr weapon in the off-hand. Popping improved haste on him will make him attack 9 times with his main-hand and once with the off-hand. The potential stat bonuses you can get from swapping the right stat stick to your offhand greatly offset both if you have only two pips in twf and if you're not even proficient with the off-hand weapon.
Obviously it does no harm to have three pips, but it's hardly mandatory. Having another main-hander at 5 pips instead of 4 would be preferable to having that pip being the third in twf.
But this is just numbers autism. Base bg2 on normal or core is not that difficult if you have a handle on the main game mechanics and spells. I'd recommend going with options that feel good to you as a player as long as you have some idea of what you're doing.
and this is specificially with bg2 and especially tob in mind, in bg1 getting twf to three pips might be worth more due to the lack of good single-handed stat sticks but even there two pips would probably be enough
Fair points. It’s been so long since I did dual wielding that I don’t even remember what each pip does, just that three = gud and shield style = not gud. I’m a fan of two handers and greater whirlwind personally
>I’m a fan of two handers and greater whirlwind personally
And there's even a semi-decent two-handed alternative to FoA in Dragon Blade (+3 2h sword that can be imported from SoD or added via modding), it slows on crit with no save and has a higher crit chance if the wielder's enraged.
>SoD
Not an RPG
I personally never played it, just read items description, thought I liked some of them then discovered there's a mod to add them to bg2.
It's also funny how beamd*g tries to bribe you into playing with their quirky fun free spirit characters by showering you with xp and loot during their personal quests.
>the sword and shield fighting style is a trap, ignore it.
This is something I never liked about BG2, how shields were almost completely useless. The AC boost is not even close to being worth it vs. the bonuses from double wielding or two handed. And there's just one single shield that's somewhat useful with immunities to confusion etc. The rest are pretty much awful. Someone needs to make a shield mod. Make Shields Great Again.
Shields are still decent in the early-to-mid game. I think they’re reasonable choices for certain character types. They only really become totally worthless in ToB. Baldurans Shield is great to keep in the bag of holding too, totally trivializes beholders if you’re so inclined. Gets called the “shield of cheese”
Paladin/Cavalier in BG2 here
I've got 2 proficiency points in two-handed weapons, 2h sword, and axes. Where should my next point go? Another two-handed weapon?
>in two-handed weapons, 2h sword
You’re basically set. You’ll get a fantastic 2h sword that will carry you through the rest of the series.
Axes is an ok choice, there’s an interesting throwing axe that has a chance to instantly destroy any undead, even big bad spooky foozles.
It can be nice to have a blunt option as certain enemies can only be damaged by magical blunt weapons. What’s the rest of your party composition / weapon usage goes? If I were playing the original games I’d just use quarterstaff to make it easy to swap back and forth weapon slots with a 2h sword, but maybe if you’re doing EEs that doesn’t matter. There’s a great flail and a good mace that’s intended to destroy undead, but those two things you might want to save for other party members like clerics.
This is totally optional but you may, emphasis may want to consider speccing into bastard swords and dual wielding, as in the ToB expansion you can find two nice bastard swords intended for paladins. Though honestly I think the greatsword you’ll get outclasses them, so it’s more of an alternative sidegrade. In ToB you can also upgrade the greatsword to become even stronger, so it’s a perfectly viable option to keep using.
So far my party is:
Minsc w/ dual maces
Jaheira w/ club & shield
Yoshimo w/ katana or bow
Jan w/ crossbow or shortsword
Keldorn w/ his 2H sword
I guess I can push Keldorn to something else than 2HS if it matters. Yoshimo kinda sucks but I like his interactions. I'm open for suggestions on party balance in general since I'm still early in and finding NPCs.
Currently I'm at the Umar hills.
Not him, but I remember when I did Berserker 9 -> Cleric and I felt a little silly that my best weapon was a staff, but whatever.
Also, I'll never do Fighter 9 again. Took way too long.
>paly
>2 handed
You literally get the best weapon in the game.
That weapons mediocre. The magic resistance is nice and the dispel is good. But there are way better weapons.
Apart from flail of ages + belm combo there isn't anything else that's better.
Ravager+6
any other solo chads in the thread?
Few years ago I solo'd as a cavalier through the whole trilogy, with the xp cap off. In BG2 I came out of the Underdark at level ~43 and I went and popped Kangaxx with turn undead. I hit the hard cap of level 50 in ToB
ayy
It basically feels like Alexander having to turn back.
>Solo chad
>without cap
Lol
>How the frick are there like 5 threads on this board about BG3 and none on BG1 or 2?!?!
Most of this website's userbase isn't into CRPGs (which have been out of fashion for a decade and a half), whereas most Gankerners are into Japanese entertainment. If an anon has played a WRPG it's probably Dragon Age Origins or Mass Effect.
They're all good. You're just a butthurt culture warrior/ hipster
Anyone running BGT and NEJ? I am midway through chapter 3 on BG1 with BGT installed and just found out about NEJ. Installed VC 2.1 + NEJ 3.71 on top and everything seems to be ok...no wacky stats on chars/items or crashes. I should really start over from the beginning but I don't want to do it all again. Is there anything I can check to know that it all installed correctly? I did an entire copy of my BGT folder so can always revert back if it dies further down the line.
how do i avoid discovery by the drow that i am faking my disguise in bg2
i get past the guard by bribing or convincing them they're about to be attacked but then EVERY FRICKING TIME I get into the city my disguise instantly fails and i am attacked. I can't do another huge area where there is a fight every 5 seconds. Help me...
Are you using mods that are fricking with anything? Did the dragon disguise you? Do your character sprites/paper doll look like a drow? What is happening mechanically, are you getting into conversations and then saying non-drow shit that's blowing your cover or is this like a bug where it happens the second you zone into the city?
I'm using the wild magic mod and the portrait mod, that's it. The dragon disguised me but I didnt get the specific dialogue about how I am so-and-so that the dragon told me to use. When talking to the gate guard all I can do is bribe them or pretend they're about to be attacked. All my characters look like drow except the main guy cause it's custom I guess. It instantly breaks the quest as soon as I enter the city for the first time.
oh turns out i was skipping the city entirely and just leaving through the western tunnels, that wasnt the drow city. lmao
I don't like real time. Is there a way to play this turn based?
to simulate the extreme depth and engaging gameplay of a turn based system, every time someone hits another character, pause and right click on the enemy again
No. You're supposed to pause though, issue commands, let them resolve, pause again, etc.. It's nowhere near actual realtime.
You can do a very rough approximation of simultaneous turn based by turning on the auto pause options to pause the game every round. That’s about it. It’s running 6 seconds = 1 round. Early on your chars are only attacking once a round and you see them swinging multiple fake swings to look more engaging.
>you see them swinging multiple fake swings
Turning off cosmetic attacks from options has been the recommended setting for ever. Literally just press a button to make it go away.
I have never seen this option. You are a liar.
NTA but there is an option in the tweakpack to remove cosmetic swings. I’m not sure if that anon meant an actual in-game option, or the tweakpack option. You can also change the weapon animations to match weapon type e.g. not stabbing with a blunt weapon
It's under Options -> Gameplay -> Feedback -> Visual Feedback, comes with the base game, no mods needed
>I have never seen this option. You are a liar.
Double digit iq might a handicap for crpgs, pic attached is from a fresh install of bg2ee, for some moronic reason it's off by default. I also have the same setting on in my bgee which I'm doing a playthrough to import into bg2.
>base game
>no mods needed
>posts screenshot of Beamdogs modded rerelease
They incorporated elements from the tweakpack that’s been floating around for many many years, as I referenced.
>non-ee puritanism
I don't like beamhomosexuals either, but whatever, the point is still that unless one is a drooling moron incapable of doing a google search turning off cosmetic attacks is effortless. Claiming that you can't turn them off is an extra degree of moronicness however.
I’m not the anon who called him a liar, all I said was the option to do so exists in the tweakpack. Beamdog incorporated elements of the tweakpack into the EEs.
In the reply-chain I replied to there was no distinction being made if we're talking about the originals or the ee:s (unles I missed something) while the OP mentions Neera, implying he's playing ee. Suddenly going non-ee puritan is uncalled for and I actually even have sympathy for that. Mostly playing EE for mod support, convience and class options myself.
And still: turning of cosmetic attacks is recommended and it is very easy to do, no matter what version you're playing.
Have a good day.
*turning off
>NTA but there is an option in the tweakpack to remove cosmetic swings. I’m not sure if that anon meant an actual in-game option, or the tweakpack option.
By this I meant “maybe they included this option in the EE, which I am unfamiliar with”. Now that we have all gained three autism points, I, too, wish you good day
>Now that we have all gained three autism points
just another day on /vrpg/
I remember the setting from the original version too.
I’ll take a peek tonight and report back. I don’t think so but I could be wrong
BG1 (not my party, TotSC save)
That's why the mod was created. The more sensible animations for weapon types is a good component too (actually mostly thrusting with spears instead of whacking with them 33% of the time etc.) while not as impactful as removing the cosmetic attacks. Definately one of the "always install" mods if playing the original versions.
Solid gold plating on solid stone slabs with sounds to match.
Cheap ass particle board and soulless plastic shit, with sounds of urethral penetration to match. Pic related is what I see when I look at SoA UI.
Last time I played the trilogy, I played Tutu with bg1 imported into bg2, but with the interface and paper dolls and maybe even the sprites modded to look like the bg1 interface, and in 16:9 aspect ratio. Was pretty sweet.
Those screenshots were from fresh reinstalls, I hadn’t seen bg1 at native 640x480 since the 90s, it was almost hilariously bad looking. I’d definitely never recommend that low of a res for a new player.
BG2
beamdogs version added neera and thus is at a huge disadvantage but the qol changes without having to deal with mods make it a worthwhile experience imo
also neera comes with a container but if you just grab that and instantly kill her then its fine
Hey moron, you said:
>for ever
Which implies far more than Enhanced Edition. Learn the value of words before spouting off about low IQ.
bgee came out over a decade ago and the mod for the originals has been out since the dawn of time
You can't blame others for lacking the mental capacities to do a single google search
Whining about ee just being packaged mods while being too dumb to install said universally known mods is on you friendo
I don’t think anyone has said “I can’t figure out how to turn off cosmetic attacks”. This whole derail started out when I told an anon, in the context of RTWP vs simultaneous turn based, that the game has cosmetic attacks and they can be modded out with the tweakpack (I was referring to originals, as I haven’t played the EEs). Another anon responded that this was now an option built in to the menus (referring to the EEs). A third anon called him a liar and said there was no such option (likely referring to the originals). I responded to the third anon and said that it was ambiguous if the second anon was referring to the tweakpack for originals, or a hypothetical in-game option on the EEs. Second anon responded indignantly to being called a liar with a screenshot of the EE menu option, and I responded to him by pointing out that I’d already said the tweakpack existed (for originals) and that Beamdog had simply integrated the mod into the EEs. Then other anon(s) suggested I was being an originals-vs-EE purist, and another anon said he thought the originals had the cosmetic attack menu option as well, and so I reinstalled and took some screenshots.
And we’ve all gained two more autism points. Getting close to leveling up. This is why I don’t give my kids any vaccines
Go and find the option in Tweaks Anthology, then post it here. I'll wait.
It wasn't even an obvious option in EE until 2.0.
>You can turn off cosmetic attacks from options menu (if v2.0 or higher) or from baldur.ini (if lower version).
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62746/not-sure-if-im-bad-or-bugged
NTA, but, this is really fricking with me. I went and pulled up the readme for the tweaks anthology and can't find it anywhere. I'm certain I've modded out the cosmetic attacks before, and I've never played the EEs, only the originals. What the frick is going on?
A lot of the older versions of tweaks/mods are just not available anymore since many only care about ee-support and the most recent versions. I don't know how to feel about this since:
1) the originals were/are completely playable without mods
2) many non-ee mods were made for tutu/not pure bg1
3) if you want the original purist experience why are you fricking around with mods then?
For the record, I don't know where the cosmetic attack option originally came from
Why would a purist complain about cosmetic attacks in the first place? Like, man, there are options if that's among your top complaints.
I suppose I’d say I’m a moderate purist. I’ve only played the originals, though in the bg2 engine with tutu (last time I played vanilla bg1 was probably in 1998 or whatever). I do like a light amount of modding to get a 16:9 aspect ratio and to change specific rules that I think make the game more fun (e.g. removing xp cap, increasing item stacking, adding containers to reduce inventory chores). I don’t like adding any fan-made content because cringe.
I’ve never played the EEs and I dislike them because I don’t think Beamdog had any respect for the source material and added a bunch of moronic shit like their NPCs and new magical items. And I think the EEs actually look worse somehow.
At the same time, for a new player who’s never played the original games, I can see the utility of the EEs as an easier to get into starting point. I’d simply recommend modding out the extra shit that Beamdog added, to get a closer-to-vanilla experience. I wouldn’t shit on a new player solely for playing the EEs.
How do I make BG1 fun for BG1->BG2 imports?
Just don't make a dual build that's mid-dualing before the xp cap in bg1. That's it. Also monks are overall the worst class, but especially bad in bg1. Even these can be played for fun if you know what you're doing though.
When are they going to add a modding kit for BD3? Going to reimplement BD1,2 into BD3, but with only african american VA to support their cause.
OK, should I play EE or original?
Are they the same experience, or did EE frick it up?
Not the same experience.
EE changed the ui (for the worse as far as im concerned, their new one looks like garbage, but it's whatever), and they introduced bg2's class kits and stuff that bg1 just wasn't made to deal with (ie game is not balanced in the way it was originally meant to be).
Aside from that, there's the horrific beamdog companions, but those can (and should) just be ignored.
Rest of the stuff is qol and a welcome addition (even if it was already all available through existing mods).
So, enhanced editions are shit, yeah. Honestly a disgrace of a cashgrab, but tbh if you didn't play the game back when it came out in 98 then you won't notice the difference; stil a great game to its core either way. Up to you.
EE changes engine to BG2 engine. It does have effects on the gameplay and visuals.
No idea how the original runs on windows above 7. I would assume there are fan patches you have to install to deal with glitches. Ugly fog of war glitch was the common one back in the day.
The GOG versions run fine with a little tweaking on windows 10. Not sure about the original CD versions.
I have an old pirates copy from WAY back, runs without issues of my W10. Only had to change the filepath for the game in order to have it run.
Also, if you decide to play EE...
turn off the pause color change and black outlines...
Holy crap, why they even added it.
BG1/2 are god-tier RPG games, there's nothing to discuss. I actually like BG3 but it's waaaaay worse than the original. I recommend playing all of them though.
Interesting builds: All wizard party. They all cast Magic Missile. Very soon it's 12d4+1. That's 24 dmg MINIMUM. That means most of the thing DIE. And those that don't meet a horde of summons.
Could such character as Jan be written today without considering him 'cringe and/or 'reddit'?
Nah that's based and Ganker, I wanted his speech to end with "and he was a good friend"
He's funny.
>I made it up.
BALDUR'S GATE ORIGINAL VERSION ONLY are the /vrpg/ version of KING JAMES VERSION ONLY bible thumpers.
what are some good starter classes for a newbie who wants to play something with a little more depth than just a standard fighter?
i've heard fighter/mage is good but i don't know how to build it
which game?
BG1 EE
It helps if you think of a roleplaying concept for your character first and then decide what class you want, rather than picking a class first. By “a little more in depth than a fighter” do you mean you still want a martial melee character but a bit more complex than just hitting things more gooder? You can look at ranger (nature flavor, good for dual wielding, good at archery, some spellcasting) and paladin (holy righteous flavor, gets some spellcasting and abilities like turn undead, like a cleric-lite). I never used fighter/mages but they’re pretty strong. Keep in mind you can’t cast spells in armor. In bg1 you’ll be wearing robes, in bg2 I think there’s chainmail that allows arcane casting. Fighter/mage play style is mostly casting buffs and then wading into melee. It’ll probably be rough in bg1 since you won’t have high level spells available. Also keep in mind your xp will be split in half between your two classes so you’ll lag behind, you may want to run with a party smaller than 6.
But stat wise it’s the same as a fighter you just want high int instead of dumping it. Str, dex, con, int.
Also, if you’re unaware: multiclassing is for non-human races. You pick a certain split of classes and you level up both of them simultaneously. Dual classing is human only and a bit more complicated. You start as your first class, get to your desired level, and then dual class, where you lose your first class’s abilities entirely, temporarily. You start over as level 1 in your second class, and from then on you level only in the second class. Once you reach your first class’s level, you regain all of your first class’s abilities, and then continue to level as your second class. It’s a bit more advanced and cheeseable strategy, but also difficult because of that big period of weakness when you lose your abilities. You’ll see lots of power gaming broken builds, a common split is to dual class from fighter level 7 or 9 or so, and then into some flavor of mage. The fighter levels are chosen specifically for certain break points where you unlock additional attacks per round, or weapon proficiency points. I never did any of that shit so someone else can tell you more about that. As a new player I’d probably just do a fighter mage multiclass, if that’s what you want.
i like the concept of ranger, probably as human/elf/half-elf
can i start with archery and then transition to dual-wield later on? i heard longbows are really good in 1 but then fall off in 2
Yeah an elven ranger is a solid choice. Elves also get racial bonuses for using longbows and long swords, and there’s an excellent long sword in bg1.
Archery is great all through bg1, and still
Okay In bg2, but melee really takes over there. Put two points in longbows and two points in longsword and you’re good to go, you can play as a skirmisher who opens with bows and can also melee if needed. You can put your later weapon points into dual wielding and start doing that in bg2. I wouldn’t dual wield until you have at least two points in dual wielding, before that just rock a single longsword.
Archer ranger is absolutely insane in bg1 and the game was never balanced for that (added in bg2, comes included in bgee). In bg2+tob they slightly drop off, but are still very good
For bg1 longbows are king (Composite +1, can be bought from beregost for 18str warriors (barb, fighter, ranger, paladin) while in bg2 crossbow(s) is better. Actually even shortbows are better than longbows in bg2+tob. A perectly reasonable option would be to pick crossbows for the whole saga (again, you can find a +1 fast crossbow from beregost) and then buy your bg2+tob engame weapon at the start from watcher's keep. I don't think there's any class easier to itemize in the saga than the archer, you literally get your endgame weapons at the start of the games and who gives a shit about your armor when you'll be zooming around in boots of speed and plinking at the enemies.
Youre giving strong advice, but crossbows just feel wrong for a ranger, particularly an archer ranger, particularly an elven archer ranger. That just screams longbow. I’d put crossbows on a paladin or fighter or something. Shame though, I agree once we are talking the second half of bg2 and onwards, crossbows and short bows are better mechanically than longbows.
might be a good idea to look into item mods like item upgrades so you can use longbows the whole saga
Carsomyr is all I need, personally. Spin2win
Yeah but we were talking about archers
Speaking of item mods, anyone got good ones to beef up bg2 weapon variety?
I wanna play again but all I can think about is debating which weapon I'll specialize in that I can get early from WK or the map (hmmm will I use Daystar or foebane or celestial fury or stonefire or flail of ages?) and I'd like something that fills in the weaker categories for some variety
I know rogue rebalancing and item upgrades add a bit but just wondering what other content people have cooking
Made in Heaven: Item Pack and Forgotten Armanent.
maybe im just a moron but where do you download rogue rebalancing?
shsforums seems to be down
http://america.iegmc.net/
you know you could take a longbow archer for bg1 and make a new different character for bg2. you could very well be in the mood for a different playstyle by then so don't sweat it.
if you're an elf ranger (archer kit) and focus on longbows you will absolutely melt faces
Fighter/cleric multiclass is also quite strong, and they can cast in full armor. Divine magic rather than arcane, though. Depends what you want
I downloaded the original BG1 but I can't find the original BG2, only the EE. Does that matter for savegame continuity? Or will I have problems when I get to play BG2EE?
https://archive.org/details/BaldursGate2_Game
My framerate.
sage
I'd forgotten how neat the old fireball effect looked.
BG2 is okay, but BG1 is absolutely the most tedious mess of a CRPG I've played (barring D:OS2 which to me is literally unplayable trash).
Combat? Unending actual trash filler mobs that require meta knowledge or tedious scouting unless you want to watch your wizard get one shot. Party AI? Nonexistent, formations don't even function due to the pathfinding causing characters to bump into each other constantly. Story? May as well not exist, for 99% of the game you're just a murderhobo wandering mostly aimlessly with a main villian who has 2 minutes of screen time.
Writing? This, for me, is the worst. This kills the game for me. I can stand a lot, but when dialogue is actually schizo, varying from ye olde english to modern speak from one character to another (and even within a single dialogue occasionally) with most characters existing to be joke characters, I can't do it. Larian gets so much shit for le reddit humor but BG1 is far worse in that aspect.
You're very brave to post such heresies around these parts. I agree.
I installed EasyTutu but if I try to play BG1 using it the screen flickers and you can see the desktop behind it, the game lags when opening certain menus and the cursor is invisible when on the main gameplay screen. This doesn't happen in windowed mode, but the game also seems either fast or slow depending on what I set the framerate to when playing in windowed mode.
Anybody know what's going on and how it could be fixed? I know I could play EE but I'd rather avoid the beamdog fanfiction and any other changes they made.
No idea. Hope someone can solve your problem.
Use https://argent77.github.io/A7-NoEENPCs/index.html to mod out all the beamdog stuff
For the fast or slow thing, I bet it's this option. Turn this off.
As for the other stuff, I've never had that happen so I don't know. Is the water green?
The water isn't green, and that setting's already off so that can't be it. Thanks anyway though.
You can get rid of all the beamdog stuff with this? Besides bugfixes and the BG2 mechanics in BG1, I mean. If that's the case then I could just use the EE with this mod.
Then again maybe I should just play vanilla. I thought BG1 would look horribly blurred/pixelated on a modern display without at least some kind of high res patch, like Fallout, but actually it looks pretty decent, probably better than it would really zoomed out. If there are no critical bugs or important missing features in vanilla BG1 I might just go with that. I know there are a bunch of mods that only work if it's running in the BG2 engine, but they don't seem essential.
How do I beat this piece of shit?
>No Yoshimo/Bounty Hunter MC
I see the problem.
I don't think that's his screenshot, anon. The quality is extremely poor, but I am intrigued that the left sidebar is hidden. Was that always possible?
Yes, the right sidebar too. Think there’s a button at the bottom to hide
Assuming this is your picture, you're playing with soa xp cap removed and already have lvl 9 spells on your spellcasters so it really should be a breeze. Triple abidalzim his ass with chain contingency, timestop, etc... This worm wasn't made taking into account a party having access to epic spells.
If not your picture, well, follow the picture's instructions: have invocs around him to tank the initials hits and let your fighter land a few without retaliation, strip him of his magical defenses, blast him with all youve got (including ,as in the picture, with insect plague since it's gg if it lands). He's strong but at this point in the game so are you.
>Jaheira
Nature's Beauty for easy permanent blind, then hit him until he dies
All Dragons pretty much fight the same way. They cast a bunch of defensive spells, you dispel them a few times until they run out, then you kill them. It's always a battle of attrition and whether or not you can survive long enough to dispel their defenses.
>Welcome to Athkatla
>lewd pagans
Aw yeah, they sure are.
WTF does pagan even mean in the context of D&D?
in the context of the picrel conversation, it means worshipping a non-human pantheon of gods (in this case the elven one)
Bring Viconia, but save first. 🙂
Pic unrelated, but more Jan.
Can't believe BG2 is so woke.
could be EE addition
>could be EE addition
No.
People hating elves is a long lasting joke, so I don't know why you're trying to pin this on EE.
I shall share with you some ancient lore: It goes back to the old Bioware forums. This was after BG1 was released, but about a year before BG2.
Me and some mates used to shitpost there about how Elves are snotty, elitist, and basically israeli, and those threads always got tons of replies. It was great.
A lot of BG2 NPC names, like Lanfear, Gromnir, and Cespenar, come from those forums. Lanfear was a schizo psychopath -- supposedly a Germoid female, but I doubt it -- with a Coran obsession.
I honestly didn't think someone would be such an ignorant moron as to not only agree with my shitty joke/bait but try to claim it's an EE thing.
Why this person is being racist towards me? Only I can be racist towards dark elves!
20 years ago, this scene made me switch to playing as an elf. Early gateway drug.
>not provoking him as CHARNAME
you fail as an elf pride completionist, anon.
Is there a specific level I should be for Firkraag? I somehow managed a win against Thaxll'syphilis or whatever it's called earlier, but I'm noticing Firkraag is strong as hell. My party's all around level 9 or 10, so should I just frick off and hold off on fighting him for a bit?
Dragons are never really comfortable fights without cheese imo. Their power level is more in line for a party that returns after saving Imoen though.
Remove magic protections (breach etc.) ->Lower (magic) resistance (stack?) -> malison, doom and other save lowering debuffs = ded worm
At least I recall it working kinda like this, don't remember ever cheesing the dragons as it felt wrong for me. Anything that goes through MR and dragon immunities is good too, but wont win you the fight alone.
Also you might need to repeat the process a couple of times like the other anon said
It's a bit on the low side tbh but it's doable I guess. Kinda troll from the devs to bait you so early with this quest. Personally I usually go there after having cleared a few other big side quests, at lvl 12+ and with some more adequate equipment to face the red worm. The black dragon is indeed weaker, his only annoying gimmick being the lvl drain.
>Kinda troll from the devs to bait you so early with this quest
Now that I think about it, it’s pretty in character for Firkraag to troll you by baiting you at low level with this quest
does bg1 and bg2 have good waifus
BG1, not really. BG2, Aerie I guess.
Bros, never played BG1 and 2, I wanna start today. Should I mod some qol shit or just play vanilla Enhanced Edition from GOG? Should I expect to be overwhelmed at the start with shit?
For a new player I’d say just play the EEs but get the mod that removes the awful fan fiction Beamdog NPCs they added. I prefer the original versions but the EEs have more QoL stuff and they’re more accessible to new players.
Skip siege of Dragonspear it’s also awful Beamdog fan fiction.
Ranged combat is king in BG1, give everyone a ranged option. Do you know DnD rules at all? This is 2nd edition so older by modern standards. What kinda character you want to play? Can give weapon and party composition advice. THAC0 is to hit armor class 0, dice roll you need to hit ac 0. Lower AC is better, -3 is better than 5, etc. early bg1 there’s an iron crisis, maybe keep a backup weapon because they can be brittle and break if you’re unlucky.
Vanilla EE is serviceable, just take a mental note which joinable characters are EE-slop and avoid them after their extremely hamfisted and forced intrudictions (you might as well take and sell their stuff too). Recommendation for a first playthrough would be to mod them out though if you can manage that.
For game mechanics: read the skill and ability descriptions and check the wiki (which is actually pretty good) or google for any terms you don't understand. This is especially important for spells, but some seem to have trouble understanding things like thieving skills too. The wiki is your friend.
Also THAC0 (to-hit roll) and AC (armor class) are better the *lower* they are and go into the negatives. Saving throws are also better the lower they are.
The biggest hurdle for new players is usually figuring out spell and ability interactions (spell protections especially), enemy immunities, status effects and dealing with certain enemies (basiliks for example). The difference between stealth and invisibility causes confusion too sometimes and how different detection spells and abilities interact with them.
Bg1 is pretty forgiving in this as you'll rarely fight mages, but in bg2 you'll need to understand the mage battles better. Not super complicated, but not entirely intuitive either.
Oh and the usual: in bg round = 6 seconds, turn = 60 seconds, 1 game hour = 5 minutes in real time
So a ring giving a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws will actually lower your ac and saving throws by one, which is good.
I am replayong BG2 with the Imoen romance mod
What am i in for?
Incest fan fiction? What else were you expecting
Is it really incest though? I mean, I don't think they share any DNA. Or do they? Did Bhaal literally frick their mothers? Or did he infuse them or their offspring with some (un)holy spirit/soul?
>Did Bhaal literally frick their mothers?
Replaying BG1, and from what Gorion said in his letter, I don't think there's any wiggle room for what Bhaal did.
>forced himself upon them
I have a feeling people discussing the lore of BG1 back when it was new felt "icky" and tried to talk their way out of Bhaal going around raping women and Charname being a rape baby.
This letter is in Candlekeep, in Goron's room.
>oh by the way, I fricked you're mom.
Bit odd.
Doesn't TOB mention that charnames mother was a priestess of Bhaal and was ok with sacrificing them?
I don't remember, and it'll be a while before I get to ToB, but whenever I do I'll try and look out for that information.
Oh, wait. Wasn't it that Charname and Sarevok and some others were being sacrificed and Gorion could only carry one child out with him, and you were the one? I feel like you learned this in the Pocket Plane.
I think Gorion tells you who your mother was at the end of BG1, when he tells you who your father is. I could be mistaken though, been a while. What you’re describing you learn in ToB, yes
Never mind, looks like I was wrong, gorions letter was posted up the thread
What you learn in ToB is that your mother was a priestess of Bhaal who was in the middle of a ritual to sacrifice you when she was interrupted with a mace to the head by the Harpers or something.
Gorion is just a lying fricking weirdo. "Your sweet mother was a good friend of mine. Uh, also, I fricked her! I'm not an incel I swear!!!"
it was retconned by shitty ToB, still Gorion's letter makes more sense
Maybe he fricked her before he knew that she was a crazy cultist?Most worshipers of evil gods keep it a secret.
Depends which one you got.
>neera
die beamdog cuck
install the originals or get off this board you subhuman
I just completed my first BG2:SoA run as a FoA/Belm Berserker and the Irenicus fight was easy.
Should I move on to Planescape Torment or should I just finish ToB? I've been meaning to take a break from BG & have always heard Planescape was incredible.
Planescape if you want interesting environments and a lot of dialogue, IWD if you want more BG2-type combat except there's actually room to move around and bard songs are useful. The story is actually okay, but there's no meaningful RP choices at all.
Dude this fricking Demon Wraith just canceled all of my fun for the night.
>Wing Buffet
>Wing Buffet
>Contingency
>Wing Buffet
>Remove Magic
>Wing Buffet
I forgot how fun it is to fight SCS dragons.
>Wing Buffet
The games are terrible because your control over your party is terrible due to nonexistant pathfinding. There's many things I can take in a game, but having to wait 30~ seconds for my party to stop having a seizure in a doorway and actually pass through it is not one of them. It's made even worse by formation commands being nonfunctional, literally 1~ second after moving anywhere your party will immediately lose its formation and become some awful blob.
This is also the one thing that nostalgiaboomers can't refute or deny about the game so they like to ignore it whenever its brought up and pretend it isn't as massive a game breaking issue as it is.
>just play solo bro
D&D is a party based game.
That's one of the major differences between BG1 and BG2. BG2 (and IWD, incidentally) layouts are much less cramped. The staggered formation should work well for most environments and for individual scenarios it should be easy to use hotkeys to select individuals or groups to issue orders in sequence.
>pretend it isn't as massive a game breaking issue as it is
Not a boomer, played both BG1 and BG2 for the first time like not even 10 years ago and had almost 0 problems with the pathfinding issues outside of non-combat situations which just makes them annoying at best. I feel like that is indeed one of the biggest issues and they're not ignored at all by the people who actually played through the games, CRPGs have been buggy and will always be buggy, that's just part of their usual development jank, I don't think those issues render the entire game to be terrible, that's just unfair.
>that Mazzy
So cute bros. Shame her character isn't.
Literally entry-level micro 10-year olds can manage. Basic tips:
-rotate formation by holding right-click
-the tighter staggered formation is better than the default sixdie because a)it's tighter b) you can more easily put your "tank(s)" on the tip of the formation
-it's recommended to put your tougher guys going forward slightly earlier when moving (use single selection or the partial party selection keys)
-scouting makes planning and positioning much easier even if you know the maps, especially because of random enemy spawns
>move party 5 feet
>4 members immediately shift out of formation and run into each other
>the other 2 members pathfinding breaks due to hallways and they get stuck on each other until individually clicked away
Didn't even bother to read your walls of text, stop coping, the pathfinding has been considered one of the worst in the entire gaming industry ever since the first game came out. Your holy cow is not so holy that it is immune to justified, blatantly obvious critique,
These same kind people will be posting in another thread how "I'm actually good at micro that's not my problem" etc.
Literally, purely a skill issue. And not some huge competetive game skill wall you need to climb, but the most basic easy micro little children intuitively learn. It's like having problems with crouch-jumping in an fps game.
Maybe these games are just not for you.
>Game's pathfinding being so dogshit that you need to constantly reissue orders or manually direct units in an already small control group just so they don't trip over each other while exploring is 'purely a skill issue'
Do you even hear yourself talk, homie?
The pathfinding in IE is not the greatest but he's still right you guys seem to suck at this genre and as a result are incapable of making good arguments.
I didn't participate in the discussion at all before that. Saying the pathfinding is fine in the same breath you say you can just spam orders to get them to figure out where they're going is a complete cope.
nobody really cares what you think is cope
The only people I've seen on this site cope harder than IE fanboys have been ziggers, and that is maybe the most insulting possible comparison I could make. Same energy as that one guy who appears in ever NWN thread and posts walls of cope about how NWN2 actually has good camera controls.
I can play the IE games with zero issue. Pathfinding is not even something I remotely think about. I just tell my characters what to do and they do it. There's no trouble or bemoaning, just playing the game.
Your position is ridiculous. Nobody can take you seriously. You're telling a bunch of people who can play the game just fine that the pathfinding is terrible and you're trying to make fun of us and the game because you can't do it and then you're telling us that we're the ones coping. Right. I'm just gonna go ahead and continue enjoying my game.
>I got stockholm syndrome'd so hard I can't remember people complaining about it even at the time, so it must be a you problem
RTWP sucks ass and so does BG1 and BG2
>takes any critique of literally any single aspect of his nostalgiabait childhood game as a mortal insult to be defended even to the point of insanity
bro, you're not helping yourself at this point, you're just making the few people like you look batshit
At this point, the only people who seem to be reading his posts at all are disingenuous homosexuals who only want to shitpost about a 25 year old game anyway so maybe you dipshits should go get a room.
You literally agreed that the game has issues where units will get caught on each other or outright stuck and you have to spam orders or break apart a small group to get them to go where you want. I think it's silly to claim the game is unplayable because of it but it's also ridiculous to keep insisting it's not a genuine flaw.
>spam
click twice if you have your party bunched up together. Near combat/danger you're expected to micro
Anon I apologize. It was wrong of me to assume people would be generally capable of the same heroic feats of skill elementary school children are with no prior experience.
I've seen a lot of criticism toward the ie games over time, a good number of it warranted, but "it's too micro intensive" (which is the essence of your argument) is just absurd. I don't want to insult you or shit on you, but I have a strong feeling these games are just not for you. That's quite okay.
Factually incorrect. What you are facing is called a skill issue.
The pathfinding quirks in IE games are easy to understand. Ordering all of your units, which are clumped together, to one spot across the map will generally cause one or two things. Your units will step over one another sometimes and sometimes one or two of them will mistake your other unit's path as an obstacle and break-off to take the long way around. Just clicking multiple times in the same spot until your units even out and set the proper course will solve the issue. Breaking your units up before you tell them to go someplace will prevent the issue from happening in the first place.
Ordering all of your units, which are clumped together in a narrow corridor, to someplace nearby will cause the seizing you mentioned. Especially if you are sending them to an area transition. Breaking them up or waiting for the two second seizure to stop will solve the issue.
Setting up hotkeys is recommended. You can set up a hotkey for each character slot as well as two character slots at a time (1&2, 3&4, 5&6). This is a great way to easily break your team up or approach engagements a little more tactically. You can set up hotkeys for basically any function for that matter. I play almost entirely with hotkeys now and it really smooths things out.
Like
says, it's a good idea to scout ahead. Scouting is actually OP in these games because you can achieve true, permanent & free invisibility through stealth. I like to send runners out with my scouts to take care of the trash before moving my main group into position. I like to have 1-2 stealth-capable warriors that can accompany my thief during the scouting phase. This is where rangers shine.
This post isn't really for you, anon. It's for anyone who actually wants to learn how to appreciate the game a little bit more. You have a terrible attitude and wouldn't know a gem from a turd if it hit you in the face.
>play rpg like starcraft bw
Goddamn i fricking hate moronic bg grognards and i played both bg on their release date. Infinity engine is absolute dogshit and rtwp is moronic concept for anything but specifically build systems and gameplay utilizing them from the ground up.
Guys I am in disbelief that one of the floors on the 3rd level of Watcher's Keep disables all of your spells and buffs, so you can't go into one of the following rooms to fight the boss with any buffs applied. I thought I could be cheesy and apply the buffs before entering that floor but then my buffs were just immediately dispelled.
This is kind of fricked up, man.
Potions should work
Everyone forgets about potions
y'know I remember getting a cd with a 'rolling demo' of Baldur's Gate when I was about 10.. Here I am today many years later playing BGT in a wonderful comfy trilogy. Life is good bros.
Lads, I wanna start a new game from BG to BG2. Start with a fighter and then dual into a druid at level maybe 9 in BG2. When I hit level 10 druid (druids level very quickly) will I still be restricted by the druid weapon restrictions? Or can I use longswords or bows or whatever I put in proficiency while I was a fighter?
Pretty sure you'll still be restricted. Jaheira's restricted, so I doubt a Druid > Fighter dual would be different. You could always double-check on the BG Wiki.
>Druid > Fighter
It's a fighter > druid. But because Jaheira can use armor normally not allowed for druids, (plate mail etc.) but I guess weapons are different.
Yeah, you're probably right. Damn, there just aren't any good spears, clubs, or scimitars (no I'm not doing the Drizzt cheese). Daggers are probably better than that trash.
Dagger of Venom is pretty good and the extra speed factor is always nice. I don't know how it ranks among the rest of the weapons, but I know it's the best dagger and it's got oddles of damage coming off of that poison proc. Quarterstaff is always a solid choice, too. Druids are just a little different.
Dagger of Venom is among the very best weapons in the game, dropping off only on enemies that don't mind the poison (rare).
Anomen has points in spears but can't use them because he's dualled to cleric. I expect the same will be true for dualclassed druids.
the restrictions come back
>When I hit level 10 druid (druids level very quickly) will I still be restricted by the druid weapon restrictions? Or can I use longswords or bows or whatever I put in proficiency while I was a fighter?
Still restricted in terms of weapons.
Not in terms of armor.
At least in terms of iwd+bg1 rules.
I don't think bg2 and ee differs on this.
I did a Fighter>Druid dual class when I played Icewind Dale.
I think I also did it at level 9, for grandmaster.
I don't remember what the proficiency was called, since in iwd and bg1 there were fewer proficiencies that covered bigger groups, but I went 5 pips into the one for Scimitars, I think it was called "Long Swords" or "Large Swords", since Druids can use Scimitars.
If you're doing EE or bg1tutu, I'd consider going with the Berserker kit class.
Newest solo run is going smoothly after remembering my strats.
Should I be a selfish prick and use the THRONE million EXP only on my protagonist or should I split it up with my party members?
If your charname needs it / is near a breakpoint / scales better than most companions, then maybe
they asked me why I uninstalled, I told them because of no rtwp combat.
Gave them a piece of my mind, ya betcha.
What level should my group be for Tahazzar? I can't pre-buff before going into this room so I just get destroyed. This is harder than some of the dragons. How do I beat my DnD game without buffing? I don't get it.
Honestly last time I played that part I just hit him with the holy avenger a bunch and killed him. What's your party makeup like? Where are you at in the story? I never did watcher's keep in BG2, I always saved it for ToB.
I've been doing side quests in Chapter 2 of SoA and I wanted to stubbornly fight my way through Watcher's Keep.
Berserker (me) Lv. 15
Minsc Lv. 14
Jaheira Lv. 11/13
Aerie Lv. 12/12
Haer'Dalis Lv. 17
Jan Lv. 12/14
I actually just beat it. My strategy was to run in, kill the succubus, and then fricking leave through the portal immediately, come back through the other side, quick save again, and then go in and kill the rest of the enemies and Tahazzar. I was basically just betting on good RNG there. He kept landing a vorpal hit on somebody and it was driving me crazy.
>noticed the halforc OC companion in the bloody EE
(sadly only have it, no original discs anymore, and bought from steam for extra frick you)
>homosexual is cheeky on first convo, but will not join to be cooler or something
>appears during an area transition somewhere with his own lenghty cutscene where he gets to be a Poochie some more
>check out what his class is: anti-paladin
>is slaughtering some bandist first
>Immediately charge in to kill him while he's occupied, because bandits are the lesser evil here
>kills them with muh scripted powers
>I dice more than 120 damage into him before the scripted encounter ends, shitter does not die
>wants to join the party, the only other option is to let him go frick off
>no option to attack immediately
>try to get him join to see what his stats are
>mary sue's HP: 10/10
Yes Bumdogs you frickers deserve all the trashtalk you receive. I regret giving you several eurocents through humble bundle.
>the game does not let Shar-Teel kill him once a fight breaks between them
Frick this shit.
Is there a way to kill this bastard so that it counts for the story?
Dunno, I just mod him out with https://argent77.github.io/A7-NoEENPCs/index.html
In the EE version there is a way to enable enhanced pathfinding
You can edit the .lua file for the option or use this mod
https://github.com/Argent77/A7-HiddenGameplayOptions
To show it
You can also change the pathfinding nodes, might help out
No need to get upset over a 20 year old game when there are such convenient mods today!
Anon, they're obviously not looking for tips or solutions, they just want to b***h because of ?reasons?
>Dunno, I just mod him out with https://argent77.github.io/A7-NoEENPCs/index.html
>his bandits encounter even happens if you force-attack and kill him in Friendly Arm Inn (where you don't get dialogue option to, because no you will like your OC)
Neera is even worse as she has fewer HP, yet can survive 2 soldiers attacking her. You have to beat them before you can kill her and steal her stuff, unless you kill her before her moronic cutscene starts.
I'm having a weirdly good time playing this again.
What's weird about it?
I thought I'd be spoiled by WotR and Pathfinder's mechanics, but I'm not. I miss this, really. Still don't like companions but it's nice.
Dude after fighting and beating Tahazzar I thought that had to be the hardest fight but when then I met this Aurumach motherfricker. Wow this is an exhausting fight.
Oh, you're in Watcher's Keep
have fun with that
I've never beat any of those 3 spawned groups in fair fight. In fact i've never even tried. It's like they are made for spike trap cheese.
Actually my latest playthrough is in that level now...
>play two mages because why not
>2xchain contingency with triple abi-dalzim's horrid wilting stored
>2xtime stop + dragon breaths/comets when enemies spawn
This pretty much wins every fight in unmodded ToB.
Quite sure i never used time stop or chain contingencies in actual battles.
Time stop is pretty much the strongest spell in the game. You cast it then get to cast a few other spells in its duration while enemies can't move; it's essentially action economy cheating, you just do more than your enemies in the same window of time. Chain contingency, just as well, cheats action economy by allowing to insta cast, for example as I said, 3x abil dalzim's horrid wiltings, which will btw one shot a good deal of enemies (you pick the option "cast when enemy in sight" or something to ensure the insta cast). If you have two mages you double this and crap on the opposition even harder.
I know what they do, i just cba. I kind of despise mage wankery in games. I don't know why, really. Maybe it's because they remind me things i never liked in games like min-maxing and all that shit. They are almost always "do exactly this every time or ur moron lolol" I've never used mages in their full potential and i don't care.
no
Fair enough. You're playing ToB though, meaning very high lvl d&d. Spellcasters rule high lvl d&d. Kinda self-sabotaging to not utilize them, and if there's one game that at least gives you a vast number of viable ways to make use of them, it's BG because you have so many spells at your disposal. Even the two spells I mentioned, time stop and chain contingency, can be used in an infinite variety of ways since you can use them to cast any other combination of spells.
Alacrity (or any "aura cleansing" like wild mages can do) is the real "frick you non-mages" as at least some enemies are immune to timestop. But bg is fun how it's not bothered by balance autism (unless you mod it) and you can just go full demigod lategame and break the game. When you're literally grasping at godhood being worried about "balance" would've been such a dumb thing to do.
Yeah that one too. But man even if you avoid the really busted spells mages are just so fun, the sheer amount of options and possible combinations are just too good. Really don't get why this other guy would think mages in BG are a borefest limited to spamming the same shit over and over again.
dude what the frick are you doing my Black person
time stop abuse is one of the most fun things about high level dnd
BG3 is good but not even in the same league as BG1/2, which are god-tier RPG games.
I forgot how fricking powerful the simple Blind spell was.
well
i grew exponentially in power
I'm thinking of creating a Barbarian and recruiting Jaheira, Khalid, Imoen and I need two more in my party. Should I get the archer guy and the paladin?
Xan and Shar-Teel dualed to thief.
>Polymorph Self
>Didn't change back
>Spell buff ended, stuck as a spider, couldn't cast spells, and neither death nor CLUA Console could fix it
I'm pretty mad. Good thing I had ONE save before the mess started. Durlag's is a cursed place every time I enter.
But now I have to clear an entire floor again.
I'm curious if someone with BG1 EE is here and could try doing Polymorpth Self, change, then rest, and see if you also get stuck? I'm curious. That's a pretty big bug in the original BG1.
weird ass party
I'm a Fighter/Thief. Imoen was dualed to Conjurer immediately, so 2 Thief -> Conjurer.
I'm going to fire up original BG2 later and see if it's bugged there as well.
Why?
It's already installed, so, why not?
This is with fixpack and stuff.
i meant why did you dual imoen so early
Because I hate waiting to get spells. I wasn't taking Edwin because he's evil, and Dynaheir I just didn't want. So, Imoen would essentially be a mage minus 1250xp or whateever it is.
She's level 7 right now, same as Xan.
Edwin is the best though
Yeah, I know, I use him all the time. I wanted to try not having him in the party for once, despite making Imoen an Edwin-lite.
Eh, 1250xp is nothing, you did good.
I rest while polymorphed a lot in BG2:EE and haven't gotten stuck. There are a lot of original BG1-only bugs that even got fixed for the original BG2.
I forgot which one was most useful in the first game. Doesn't Polymorph Self give you immunity to magic and slashing damage?
Mustard Jelly is the one.
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Mustard_Jelly#Shapeshift_Mustard_Jelly
Frick, I already picked Spirit Armor (I have 18 DEX and DD gives bonus AC). IIRC, you can't cast while transformed, so it's only a mage killer if all other methods fail.
Spirit armor is great tbh
Polymorph is situational
Stoneskin should be 1st choice
I got it for my second.
I've crossed the threshold
In all heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one.
How is your AC that good? Buffed beyond belief?
Ring of Princes = - 1
Dragon Disciple Level 8 = -2
Dex 18 = -4
Spirit Armor = Base AC 1
Blur = -3
for a total of -9 AC
Prepared casters always lose to spontaneous chads.
I forgot. Where casters start to shine and Fighters become the most broken fricking thing in the game, thieves get fricked hard by the increase in HP. Single weapon style for the increased crit range is extremely necessary to make your opening back stab twice as deadly. It will one-shot anything if it crits, but you are fricked if it doesn't.
tabletop doesn't have hp inflation. that's generally a problem because of the pc format
the pc format took away a bunch of other thief skills too. like poison, climb, etc.
Potion of Fire Breath is surprisingly useful.
Well, yeah. PC format. And I mostly mean the boss enemies.
yeah, well that's also part of the reason they gave bosses backstab immunity, is because it can actually be pretty powerful.
fun fact, in tabletop all swords get upgraded a damage die for every size class above medium an enemy is. so you could be backstabbing a dragon with 2d8s.
that said I agree it's underpowered generally.. we will never know because gygax is dead but I am pretty sure the thief class was generally conceived of purely as something to dual or multiclass to add options to other classes, whilst slightly downgrading their power.
That's also why I dual to fighter in BG2 if I go thief.
>what are thief traps
If you wanna be the dickass thief, embrace being the dickass thief. It's also the easiest way to cheese drizzt.
How do you think I got my scimitar?
also, assassins only get 15 skill points a level
Nothing like a gallon of potions & an overdose of buffs.
durlags was fun.
you can already see bioware moving away from traditional dungeon design in bg2. do you think they were casualizing it, or did people just not think it was fun?
They did make WK. Which is essentially a turbo version of Do-rag Hoodkiller's Crib.
Even PoE and PF have their "megadungeons". A good big dungeon is a lot of work.
>FEAR THE POWER OF M- AAAAAAAAAAAAGH
kek
>52
Geez.
I likes it when they turn into gibs.
I am simply beyond your puny prepared caster minds.
Jokes on you. I assassinate assassins.
>boot up icewind dale
>cool I get to create my own party
>realize I need to spend 20 minutes per character clicking reroll for a playable amount of attribute points
>quit game
how did they miss updating that for the enhanced edition jesus christ
Dump stats or just eekeeper whatever you think is reasonable.
Reroll? What's that?
https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/appendices/clua/iwd.htm
>While the console is enabled, the following cheat is also enabled.
>At the stat distribution screen, pressing CTRL+8 will yield maximum stat value.
Then lower some stats so you're not super cheating.
>Genuine quirkiness from said handicap instead of reddit tier te r4nd0mz? Check.
Man, you're going to hate what they did to him in BG2.
>Neera
Shitty fanfic character by grifting modders. If you're playing with her, you're not actually playing the classics.
>Recently picked up BG1 and 2 because of the hype around BG3
zoomer scum
Every high level mage in this game casts time stop and it's terrible gameplay.
Really it's ToB
In SoA you see it once or twice? From the hidden superbosses
Also it's just 3 free spells cause they don't have improved alacrity, and most mages follow a script of symbol stun/fear whatever that my buffed guys ignored
I think I saw only 2 different spell sequences in a time stop
If you're talking SCS I'm not familiar with it
>Welcome to Icewind Dale, motherfricker.
Just got BG1EE on Steam, how do I get the classic experience? Or mods that makes it classic?
I tried to link my account on GoG to get it there too, but I cant have it in Classic.
The only way to experience BG1 as it was originally remains playing it from the original, EE basically ported it into the BG2 engine and all the additions that added, there are many things in there not intended for BG! and I'm not sure you can mod that shit away.
D'oh well, guess its only GoG then...
Glad I didnt payed more than some cents on steam...
Try using https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate/mods/26
adds back original character models and graphics, although doesn't restore original rules and proficiencies.
how is icewind dale's enhanced edition? I was going to pirate it but noticed I already have it on steam
I'm at my fricking wit's end with status effects. I can have fear covered, I can have charm covered, I can have slows and roots covered, I can make sure I have something for hold or stuns or whatever the frick. But then I don't have anything to heal confusion.
It feels like you go into a fight, realize what status effect a boss uses, and then reload and have your cleric equip the thing that helps with that. It's fricking slow and it sucks.
It is beyond annoying. Why the frick do I have to individually apply chaotic commands to everybody before entering a room? Anyways I'm almost at the end of ToB, so at least this crowd control hell will be over soon.
I can't hit Draconis and I don't know which of the 9 different debuffs I should be using on him.
Spellstrike
or breach
Okay I used a wand of spell striking on him but then he turned into a dragon and glued all of my party members to him. Is that a hidden debuff or something? Maybe a bug? Was pretty weird.
So wait
WHY is enhanced edition bad again?
Everything I see online says its an improvement?
>tons of issues on release
>a bunch of woke shit added
>shitty new companions
>basically stole a bunch of mods
>released the shittiest fricking intersequel ever
I see, thanks. But isn't it worth it for the updated UI and stuff?
personally, yeah
hmm
you can ignore almost all of the added shit, they weren't allowed to edit dialogue that was original to the game so if you kill the Beamshit companions, almost everything is as it was on original release.
that's kinda based
They didn't choose to do that it was contractual, if they had had their way, i'm sure they would have wokeified the entire game
just use https://argent77.github.io/A7-NoEENPCs/index.html to mod out the beamdog npcs
Sometimes I wonder about the intended methods of playing this game, and I can never quite figure it out.
I've never been a Fighter/Thief, but I've come to realise running away. hiding in shadows, then backstabbing is quite effective.
I hesitate rolling a warrior in general because you can start as a thief than dual to fighter with your maximum backstab, putting you waaaaaaay beyond a normal fighter's ability to damage shit.
Yeah, I've been thinking that because Thief levels so fast it might make more sense to Dual rather than Multi, but I'd have to wait so damn long if I wanted a x4 backstab in SoA. x3 would be easy, though. I honestly cannot imagine dualing at level 13, you would be waiting forever unless you're solo. I suppose I've never done a solo run so I really couldn't say much about it.
I say all that because I have done Berserker 9 -> Cleric, and that final level to unlock my Berserker abilities was so agonizingly slow.
Also, I've noticed that in original BG1, Detect Traps doesn't also dispel illusions, which is really quite annoying. I was going to count on that, but instead I've had to make do with other means.
>I've never done a solo run
Honestly, probably the best way to play BG1.
I don't even know what class I would try for a solo run. I feel like you'd still want Thief abilities if you're solo.
Eh, not really. If you have a mage or sorerer, just learn knock. Traps are nothing.
huh....I guess I never knew phase spiders had an animation since I only played EE
starting to think I should do a tutu setup, no clue if I own the original versions though
What do they do in EE? No spell animation at all?
for me they literally just instantly reappear at another location
I always though that seemed kinda funky but now it makes way more sense that EE just breaks them
I think that's intended
Phase spiders shouldn't cast spells, they literally phase in and out
I think the dimension door thing was a limitation of the old engine
>page 10
good bey ;_;
Going to start my first ever BG1 classic, only played a single session of D&D back in highschool and it wasnt even finished.
Iirc I played a Ranger like early Aragorn, since it was LotR and it was popular.
When I play with my friends now I tend to choose to be a Cryomancer Ninja like Sub-Zero these days, is it possible to do that and play unarmed or ice based weaponery?
If not, I see no issue playing a tank melee guy, like I used to do when first playing a RPG.
I dont know what to expect, Im more of a Fallout, Arcanum and (early) TES kind of guy.
Are there mods to keep that I should be aware like that can prevent me from crashing?
Do I need to read the manual and know the ruleset of DnD before playing?
>When I play with my friends now I tend to choose to be a Cryomancer Ninja like Sub-Zero these days, is it possible to do that and play unarmed or ice based weaponery?
Monk requires EE edition (Honestly the "balance changes" some schizos talk about between bg1 and bg1ee is the inclusion of additional kits and classes, EE is perfectly fine, just use tweaks anthology https://www.gibberlings3.net/subpages/tweaks/rules/ to give bg1ee bg-style proficiencies for the only major difference rule wise between bg1 and bg1ee)
Ice based weaponry...uhhh there is a few weapons that do cold damage but nothing that comes to mind out of the endgame options except morningstar and the scimitar (and that's real lategame, without the ones before it having cold damage)
>If not, I see no issue playing a tank melee guy, like I used to do when first playing a RPG.
yeah that's fine, anything in the game works, in bg2 and later arcane based characters become the best tanks (bards and such)
Dwarven Defender is an example of a very tanky melee character
I don't know about monk but whatever, mages and clerics buffing is a big part of the game
>I dont know what to expect...
Don't overthink it, it seems complex but it's not really that complex?
>Are there mods to keep that I should be aware like that can prevent me from crashing?
Not that I know of, crashes happen, save often
>Do I need to read the manual and know the ruleset of DnD before playing?
Uhhhhhh yeah probably, you need to understand
-THACO (lower number = better)
-Armor Class (AC) (lower number = better) (unless it says +1 bonus, that means it lowers your AC by 1, which is good)
-Attacks per Round and how you get more
-Saves
-Spells
I think there are shortened manuals nowadays? Or you can wiki warrior various things when the issue comes up
You're going to spend probably 60 hours in each game so generally you'll learn a lot just from playing the game and looking stuff up
I intend to play the Classic way, its how I do when I play games before modding them to my liking.
Anyway, Im on the reroll screen for my "Not Conan" character Lawful Neutral fighter
18/75 STR
18 DEX
18 CON
13 INT
10 WIS
10 CHA
It seems alright, I guess there are ways to boost them up with gear and all.
I also have
18/85 STR
18 DEX
18 CON
12 INT
10 WIS
3 CHA
Both seems great... Idk what to choose tbh
Elf FMT Neutral Good
>18/86
>19
>17
>18
>8
>18
I guess I am way too much of a reroll scum (this took quite some time on autoroller tho).
>not F/M/C
It was tempting too, but you don't get the +1 elf thac0 bonus (gotta be half-elf for FMC, and you can't use swords), and non-sword weapons look lame.
I went FMT as an excuse to finally use traps and go high-level (or slightly high-ish level in ToB) thief. Mainly for Use Any Item.
oh please
blades don't pierce plate armor
do you switch weapons based on armor class adjustment of opponents? Consider that tripple-class multi doesn't have heap os pips to put into profs and you want three in two-weapon.
two-weapon is a meme
>t. anon that would pick a half-orc as race and fought with things like fauchards while being a pajama tank
It is a shame Beamdog decided to make expansion for BG instead of IWD. Their style of encounters it much better suited for IWD style adventure. One thing i liked are the new areas Beamdog created, i thing all of them look good and have a nice feeling to them.
do I need any mods IWD:EE?
Nope.
Maybe tweaks if you want things like bigger missile/gem stacks or whatever, but iirc EE's already doubled those.
I forget, are Imoen and Nalia able to use 9th level mage spells due to "only" having 17 INT?