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Everyone should go through the first Baldur's Gate experience of leaving Candlekeep, setting out into the wilderness, and then getting ganked by that loving wolf.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 20:51 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 13:21 |
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Bonus points if you're a mage who only memorized magic missile because it sounded cool.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 20:53 |
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Baldur's Gate 2 is that game I always come back to whenever I can't think of anything else to play. In my opinion, the game is just as easy or in some cases easier too play solo than it is with the full 6 man party. The beginning and certain fights can be frustrating when you're still lower leveled, but you gain exp ridiculously fast. If you complete all the quests you come across its not impossible to be at least level 15 by the end of chapter 2. Obviously some classes are easier to solo than others, but I think pretty much of of them could be used to finish the game(however a lot of them would be horribly tedious). If you're looking for good times solo, I would recommend any of the following: Berserker(Fighter kit): dual wield flails and hammers so that eventually you can rock the Crom Faeyr and the +5 flail of ages. with those alone you're a walking god, and you're berserker ability makes some of the most difficult fights in the game a total joke. Inquisitor(Paladin kit): The only real choice is a hefty 2 handed sword, but that's alright, because Paladins alone get access to the best 2 hander in the game. Inquisitor are immune to a few very annoying effects(Hold and Charm). Their best ability is their own personal version of despell magic that works at twice the level of the character. What this means is you'll pretty much never have any real trouble with annoying mages and their pesky little protection spells. Good times.(The despelling get truly ridiculous when you get the Holy Avenger) Monk: My personal favorite. You start of really quite weak, and can die in a moments notice, but stick it out. As you gain levels, you're unarmed attacks become more and more damaging, eventually becoming 1d20 at higher levels. Not only that, but you receive a number of special abilities, including a stunning attack, aswell as an instant kill punch(Take that Firkraag!). Monks also move at a naturally faster speed, and receive a natural magic enchantment weapon bonus to their unarmed attacks, aswell as a few interesting immunities and resistances. Best of all, once you reach a certain level, the Monk retroactively gains 3% magical resistance for each level. This is insanely overpowered, and if I recall correctly it caps out at 86%. That doesn't matter, because even with 40-50% you can walk right up to mages, liches, even Irenicus and just punch them in the face without much fear of anything. Ridiculously overpowered/easy classes to solo with: Kensai/mage, sorceror, probably some others. Enjoy. Compactuss fucked around with this message at May 13, 2009 around 21:39 |
| # ? May 13, 2009 20:55 |
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BG1 is an excellent game. I would heartily recommend playing BG, and playing it before BG2. The Baldurs Gate series is one of very few in which each game is a continuation of a single story. It is true though, you will pick up any important plot quite early into BG2.The main plot is not that incredibly important though. The single epic adventure of the series as a whole though all three games is where it truly shines. BG1 is a lot harder, You are very weak at the beginning and everything is dangerous. Just take your time, play smart and enjoy the adventure.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 20:56 |
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Compactuss posted:Inquisitor(Paladin kit): Inquisitor are immune to a few very annoying effects, including level drain. Inquisitors are immune to Hold and Charm, NOT level drain. I couldn't stand BG1 when I played it without Tutu, having already played BG2 to death, it was just such a step backwards. However, with Tutu it turned into a great game, if not quite on par with BG2. Though the writing was certainly often funnier.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:05 |
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What's the verdict on Darkest Days and is it stable? All those new kits look sorta of tempting.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:09 |
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LightWarden posted:Everyone should go through the first Baldur's Gate experience of leaving Candlekeep, setting out into the wilderness, and then getting ganked by that loving wolf. I did this, AND I only had magic missile like the guy underneath you said, gibberlings are quite happy to wreck your poo poo as well. Currently on chapter 4 (I think, bandit hunting?) of BG1 via tutu, and having great fun on my very first playthrough, I only picked up this game because of this thread's predecessor but its great fun, and goddamn a timesink. Party is currently PC mage, Jahiera, Khalid, Minsc, Minsc's witch (dynaheir?), and Branwen. My one question is, by not having a thief (Imoen's voice irritated me about 2 minutes in) am I going to miss much/die horribly and unavoidably at a later date?
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:11 |
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Are you planning on doing Durlag's Tower?
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:13 |
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Sanctum posted:100 pages of baldur's gate 2 in the last thread and I don't remember a single person ever saying BG1 was more than decent, which is why I never bothered. Where do you people come from? BG1 didn't age well... BGTutu on the other hand is completely fantastic.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:17 |
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sisonpyh posted:What's the verdict on Darkest Days and is it stable? All those new kits look sorta of tempting. The problem is that basically all of the kits suck poo poo from a gameplay perspective. The bonuses are too small and the penalties too steep.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:18 |
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LightWarden posted:Everyone should go through the first Baldur's Gate experience of leaving Candlekeep, setting out into the wilderness, and then getting ganked by that loving wolf. I thought the big landmark was that lonely ogre outside of Candlekeep.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:29 |
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Shugojin posted:Are you planning on doing Durlag's Tower? I was just planning on running through the main plot then hopping over to BG2, by the way you said it I'm guessing its some kind of optional area, probably of extreme difficulty, if so, no I probably wouldn't bother unless anyone here really advises it.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:34 |
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Ashenai posted:You heard correctly. Playing BG1 is an excellent way to get burnt out on the whole Infinity Engine and end up never playing BG2. 
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:42 |
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Durlag's tower was a fun side area. I wouldnt pass it up. Its difficult but definately enjoyable
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| # ? May 13, 2009 21:43 |
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physeter posted:Except BG1 has awesome NPC classes to choose from, and in BG2 you're always stuck taking Yoshimo, having only 5 people or leaving someone stuck in Spellhold. It's Yoshimo is awesome! 
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:10 |
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I'm a good ways into BG1 now. There was a lot of reloading saved games in the first couple hours because I'd get one shotted by a wolf or gibberling but now that I've gone through a couple chapters and leveled up it's much better. There are tough fights, but I don't have to worry about saving after every fight out in the woods.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:12 |
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Ashenai posted:Yoshimo is awesome! And doing his character quest earns you the single largest experience point reward in the game, and requires literally zero effort.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:14 |
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Ashenai posted:Start with BG2. If you just can't get enough of Baldur's Gate after you're done, and you're thinking to yourself: "hey what if there was a game just like BG2, only with my characters incapable of doing anything interesting, and the lead designer had a debilitating stroke?"... well then BG1 will be right up your alley! Only if you also really love dying randomly to wolves, though. Because that's what the majority of your BG1 experience will consist of. I guess you were the mage who scribed Magic Missile as his only spell.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:19 |
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Decrepus posted:I guess you were the mage who scribed Magic Missile as his only spell. I actually played BG1 several times, and even finished it once. It was a groundbreaking game, for the time. It's kind of poo poo by today's standards, though. BG2, on the other hand, did a lot of things so well that it has never been surpassed since, and is absolutely worth playing, even today.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:22 |
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Once you fix the more glaring interface flaws by installing Tutu, BG1 is perfectly good. The only thing that's really lacking is the quality of the voice acting for the chapter breaks. It is a slightly different style of RPG but that only really makes it poo poo by today's standards if your definition of today's standards is "a really short attention span". There's a bit more wandering around than most people would probably find healthy but exploration is something that's really lacking in modern day stuff like Mass Effect. Just find the maps off Gamebanshee if it's that much of an issue for you to miss minor sidequests.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 22:36 |
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So I had started playing Temple of Elemental Evil, but since I never finished BG II, I really need to play through Throne of Bhaal since I've had it for years yet never played it. E: Nothing to see here. 
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:06 |
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Decrepus posted:"You can't play a Kensai/Mage in BG1, skip it." tranceMD posted:The OP's reasoning of "no need to play because you can't be a level 32 f/m/t in this game!!1" is dumb. Dumb. It's just a largely different experience. It's not nice to make baseless assumptions, especially when you're so dead wrong. I've been nothing if not an advocate of not obsessing over stats or power gaming to new players in previous threads. Quite simply, level 1 AD&D (2nd ed.) is bullshit. I don't think I've played a single pen & paper game of it where there wasn't some sort of house rule starting everyone at level 3 or 4, and this was with DMs who were merciless toward players trying to game the system or otherwise disrupt their campaigns by abusing game mechanics. Why do you think you start at level 4 in Planescape: Torment? You can't even die in that game and they won't even start you at level 1. I know how everyone says it's not so bad once you level a few times, but that's kind of my point. There's a lot of people I know who will never play BG2 because of that stupid wolf or the mage assassin on the way to the friendly arm inn. He casts horror for crying out loud, right after he instantly casts mirror image (remember BG1 mirror image? You *have* to go through each one of them before you can land a hit) You're guaranteed to fail that save and, unless your PC is a cleric, you have no way to prevent it from loving you over other than sheer luck. That's the problem with the game in a nutshell: do you feel lucky? Because even if you do everything perfectly thanks to foreknowledge you'll still get hosed over by that kobold who respawned (boy does BG1 love aggressively respawning gnolls and kobolds and poo poo) behind your party and landed a 12 damage critical arrow on your mage. There's also a lot of nasty debilitating effects enemies love to use to which the game provides no means of prevention, and for many of them, no means of curing other than waiting the duration out. Remember BG1 charm? It lasts loving forever. The best thing you can do to a new player is to recommend he plays BG1 after he's done with BG2 and to see it as some sort of prequel.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:08 |
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I'm starting up a play through now after not touching the game for a long time. I went through all of BG2 and ToB once, and had a few tries at BG2 after that which sputtered out. I think it's been long enough now since I last tried that I won't lose interest partway through this time though. I'm trying a Kensai/thief dual this time through and planning to do a middle ground approach between a full party and soloing by using two NPCs I've never used before and Keldorn because I remember him being extremely good previously. Besides Keldorn, I'm planning on grabbing Aerie and Haer'Dalis. I'm assuming that since going solo is doable, and knowing I did fine with a full party previously, that going with four should just be a happy medium that gets me a bit higher level and won't screw me over? I figure that crew should have pretty good offensive power, a good range of equipment options without spreading things too thin, and enough heals and defenses to work with.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:09 |
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Suspicious posted:I know how everyone says it's not so bad once you level a few times, but that's kind of my point. There's a lot of people I know who will never play BG2 because of that stupid wolf or the mage assassin on the way to the friendly arm inn. He casts horror for crying out loud, right after he instantly casts mirror image (remember BG1 mirror image? You *have* to go through each one of them before you can land a hit) You're guaranteed to fail that save and, unless your PC is a cleric, you have no way to prevent it from loving you over other than sheer luck. That guy can cast Horror? I've never had him do anything but cast Magic Missile with enough missiles to wipe out any level 1 character. That is hardly an improvement, though.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:10 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:There's a bit more wandering around than most people would probably find healthy but exploration is something that's really lacking in modern day stuff like Mass Effect. Just find the maps off Gamebanshee if it's that much of an issue for you to miss minor sidequests. It's true, if you don't like to explore, you might not enjoy Baldur's Gate 1, what with getting killed by wolves and gibberlings. If you do like to explore, you get to be killed by an Ogre right away, which is really a huge step up. It's genius design decisions like that one (putting an Ogre right next to a path where your pitiful little level 1 crew would be walking) that make BG1 the very special game it is.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:16 |
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Shugojin posted:That guy can cast Horror? My Fighter/Thief had remarkably little difficulty with him, given the amount of frustration he seems to have engendered
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:21 |
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So, I've been wanting to play this game forever now, and I'm starting to see it surface more and more. Good to know there's a group dedicated to keeping it playable. TutuBG sounds nice, since I'll probably start with that never having played anything more than Dark Alliance  The big question is, about how many hours would it take to complete? I don't do retarded obscure sidequests or opt for 100% completion, I just like to enjoy the good stuff while it lasts. If we're looking at something that's not too bad, I might start sooner. Since my job gives me glorious summer breaks away from terror children (guess what job I have) I use that time to play Big rear end Role Playing Games. Last summer was Dragon Quest VIII. This summer who knows!
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:30 |
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KGBAgent185 posted:So I had started playing Temple of Elemental Evil, but since I never finished BG II, I really need to play through Throne of Bhaal since I've had it for years yet never played it. Did you extract it to the BG2 folder? If the setup executable isn't in the BG2 root directory, it will throw that error at you.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:45 |
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He's not "right next to the path", and BG1 is nowhere near as hard as some of you are making it out to be. The charm spell your referring to is Dire Charm, and it's cast only by Sirens.MrL_JaKiri posted:It is a slightly different style of RPG but that only really makes it poo poo by today's standards if your definition of today's standards is "a really short attention span". I think that sums up my feelings pretty well. There seems to be a certain personality type that absolutely hates low-level play in RPGs. They hate being weak and penniless in a cruel world. Some of us love that kind of stuff. It makes the higher level play that much better. My Guide to Baldur's Gate 1:
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:49 |
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BG2 is loving awesome, but it's heresy to say BG1 sucked. That game was loving awesome when it first came out, and yes it is frustrating but holy poo poo is it rewarding once you finally smoke Saverok.
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| # ? May 13, 2009 23:56 |
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vacation in kabul posted:BG2 is loving awesome, but it's heresy to say BG1 sucked. That game was loving awesome when it first came out, and yes it is frustrating but holy poo poo is it rewarding once you finally smoke Saverok. Even better is when he shows up in Throne of Bhaal and offers to join your party. How loving cool is having the final boss of the previous game as a new party member, especially when he isn't nerfed at all in order to do so? That part isn't as cool if you haven't played through 1.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 00:23 |
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Mylan posted:Even better is when he shows up in Throne of Bhaal and offers to join your party. How loving cool is having the final boss of the previous game as a new party member, especially when he isn't nerfed at all in order to do so? That part isn't as cool if you haven't played through 1. (ToB spoiler] I especially loved how I could actually turn him good and it didn't feel cheesy either.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 00:33 |
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I don't know if I'm just a masochist, but I love games that start you out so weak that you can be killed by a single wolf. It really makes the sense of achievement that much greater when later on you are taking on hordes of demons and dragons. Question about running BG1TuTu - is there an option to include all the BG2 spells as well as classes? I would like to have the expanded spell selection available in BG1 as well, particularly since I will be playing a sorcerer and I don't want to have to edit my spell selection when I transfer him into BG2. Also, will TuTu allow you to go above 4th (5th?) level spells in BG1? Assuming of course that you remove the experience cap and are playing with few enough characters to reach the appropriate level. Basically I want to run a solo Sorc through all of BG1, 2 and ToB, getting to as ridiculously high level as I can in the process. The level cap with ToB is 50, right?
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:02 |
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I thought Baldur's Gate I was awesome for all the reasons mentioned above. It definitely simulated an uncertain and very dangerous world very well. Also, a high intelligence is also useful for non mages if you are going up against mind flayers!
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:07 |
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Here is a Kensai/Magest pic I took: my Kensai/Mage soloing Saladrex the Greater Red Dragon:
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:07 |
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Suspicious posted:The best thing you can do to a new player is to recommend he plays BG1 after he's done with BG2 and to see it as some sort of prequel. This is good advice. I'd also like to point out a little known fact about the much-maligned Wizard Slayer kit. That "cumulative magic failure penalty" that's applied when you hit someone? Yeah, it works even if you don't do any damage. All you have to do is roll a hit. Dual-classed to a thief for Use Any Item, you can actually squeeze a pretty good character out of that kit. If you're fighting multiple spellcasters, it's nice not to have to dispel the protections on all of them.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:14 |
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I'm thinking about reinstalling all four of them. Can someone tell me how much hard-drive space I need to free up?
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:19 |
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Vulpes posted:Sorcerers? Tutu simply runs BG1 with BG2's superior interface and resources. Yes to your first question, and "probably yes" to your second one. Considering how popular Sorcerers are, I would assume it's a yes.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:21 |
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LightWarden posted:I'm thinking about reinstalling all four of them. Can someone tell me how much hard-drive space I need to free up? I assume you mean BG1 + TotSC and BG2 + ToB. I have all of that installed and my Black Isle folder is currently 5.34 gigs, so there you go.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:22 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 13:21 |
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If you use Tutu, does it give BG1 the BG2 style quest log? With the "Completed" and "Active" quests being seperate and whatnot? Cause the old quest log is fucknig horrible. Also, is there any simmilar engines for playing IceWind Dale with new mods or anything like that? I havn't played it in a while, but I remember the IwD2 engine being a big step down from Baldur's Gate 2, removing 3d acceleration.
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| # ? May 14, 2009 01:23 |
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