Help with Baulder's Gate

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KinoGami
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Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby KinoGami » 06 Mar 2015, 18:17

So one steam sale I foolishly decided to buy Baulder's Gate Enhanced Edition because of all the praise the game has gotten for being an amazing RPG.

Unfortunately I have no understanding of it's systems and and completely at a loss playing it. I tried playing the tutorial and am pretty sure I got fupped up.

So I turn to you fine folks. Does anyone know of a good place to learn the basics to start the game? vid tutorials? Tips? I want to play this thing but it feels really intimidating.
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Timelady » 06 Mar 2015, 18:57

Well, if Baldur's Gate enhanced is anything like the original, it basically uses--iirc--a pared down version of the Dungeons and Dragons 2.0 ruleset. Where's it tripping you up?
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Master Gunner » 06 Mar 2015, 19:04

From what I remember, lower Armour Class is better.

...That's about all I remember.

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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby KinoGami » 06 Mar 2015, 19:55

I know nothing of 2nd edition. Most of my D&D experience is with 4th.
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Jostain » 07 Mar 2015, 08:04

The only stats you really need to look at is armor (low as possible) and the dice of the attack (like any rpg). There are a bunch of other stats like tac0(or a variation of that spelling) but that is as good as possible as long as the character has the weapon with the most stars. The system itself is more or less press space to pause game. give orders to all your people and unpause and they will execute the orders. If the battle situation changes you can pause again. There are rounds that determines the speed people move but everything happens simultaneously. You will experience that the mage is completely useless at level one and they are but they get exponentially more kickass as the game progresses.
Oh yeah. Unless they nerfed it the haste spell is OP and magic missle should be cast at anything that even looks like a spellcaster because it cast almost instantly and always hits and any damage during spellcasting cancels the spell (in this case the obnoxious protection spell mages always cast as soon as the battle begins.)
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Valkyrie-Lemons » 09 Mar 2015, 17:26

If it's the Enchanted Edition, try the "Into the Pits" (Or whatever it's called) Side-DLC, accessible from the Main Menu. You can mess around with different characters and classes there and you can also import through characters with higher levels and the items they get (which in some cases can be pretty OPed).

Of course, if you want to play the game 'as it was meant to be played', I'd suggest playing your first time through with 'simpler' classes (i.e. Warriors and Paladins) as they game was designed more for an action build then a role playing build. Meaning that things like Bards are a lot weaker because their attack stats are normally lower then other classes. Even classes such as thieves are hard to play because they're physically weaker.

Also, if you find some enemies a little too hard, most of them don't need to be beaten to progress forward, so you can pretty much just go "NOPE! NOPE! NOPE!" and run past them.
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby MetricFurlong » 09 Mar 2015, 18:28

A few tips:

On the stat rolls, higher is better but how much better varies. Generally, most stats won't do much at all until they hit 16, and if you need that stat for your class you'll want higher than that. The exception here is Constitution which, unless you're character is of a 'warrior' class (i.e. Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Barbarian, or any multiclass involving one of them) going higher than 16 gives no additional benefit. Warriors also get additional benefits for getting an 18 in strength.
Intelligence and Wisdom are spellcasting stats, and aren't particularly useful if you aren't a Wizard, Sorcerer, Bard, Cleric, or Druid. Strength isn't much use on character who aren't going to be in melee much. Dexterity is good for everyone because it improves Armour Class and attacks with ranged weapons.

Note that you can re-roll stats as much as you want and reassign them as you like depending on race and class upper and lower limits.

When it comes to Armour Class, THAC0 (the attack bonus), Speed Factor of weapons etc. low numbers = member. It is possible to get numbers into the negatives.


Gameplay tips
Save often, and ideally in more than one slot. Take advantage of the quicksave command. This is a 90s RPG: it's going to blindside you at some point and the RNG will sometimes just decide it hates you.

Ranged weapons are very effective, and you'll want at least half of your party equipped with them. Especially spellcasters (where it's generally decent practice to equip them with a sling or similar even if they aren't proficient) as there is a very tight limit on how many spells they can use. Thieves and warrior classes can be downright lethal if armed with bows.

On the subject of spells, early game 'crowd control' options tend to be more effective than direct damage (aside from Magic Missile for anti-spellcaster purposes). Entangle, sleep, horror, and especially web are going to be useful, although note that friendly fire is very much a thing, and the game will not give you an indication of target area. Summoning spells, once you get access to them, are amazing. Note that you can get a lot of good spells in wand form. Do not cast 'lightning bolt' in tight quarters.

The other thing to note is that if a character gets hit while they're casting a spell, said spell will almost inevitably fail to go off. This applies to both you and all your opponents. Hence why 'hit the mage and hit them fast' is necessary tactic.


When it comes to tactics, expect to be doing a lot of micromanagement and using the pause system if you want to succeed (the game's auto-pause settings can be helpful for this; very useful triggers for it are 'enemy sighted', 'spell cast' and 'target dead'). Letting the AI handle your party members will not go well. I really cannot stress that point enough.

Do not be afraid to run away.

Do not be afraid to kite (that is, lead an melee enemy around chasing one character while everyone else shoots at them).

Search for traps.

Some unidentified items will be cursed. This includes spell scrolls. If you come across a potion that says with a common name (e.g. Potion of healing) that does not look like other potions of healing.
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby KinoGami » 09 Mar 2015, 22:29

Do the slings need any form of ammunition ?
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Valkyrie-Lemons » 09 Mar 2015, 22:57

Yes, If I recall correctly. I believe they need stones (which you can buy for something like 1 gold).
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby MetricFurlong » 10 Mar 2015, 03:33

KinoGami wrote:Do the slings need any form of ammunition ?

Yes, all ranged weapons do (it's what the quiver slots in the inventory are for*). In the case of slings the ammunition are stones, called bullets, which you can buy for the same cost as crossbow bolts and arrows (1 gold for 40 of them, iirc).




*the exception being thrown weapons, which have to be in your main weapon slots.
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Re: Help with Baulder's Gate

Postby Smeghead » 10 Mar 2015, 05:43

Slings use Bullets, Crossbows uses Bolts.

The problem with the mages in the 2e system that BG uses is that it limits them to just using slings (and given that they can only get 1 proficiency in them; they kind of sucks), this is where a multi/duel class mage is a good choice. In BG2 there are 2 duel-classeds thief/mages who can use short bows and get up to 2 proficiency in them; making them far more useful when not casting spells (there is also 1 multi-class thief/illusionist who use crossbows).
A multi-class fighter/mage can use longbows or crossbows but despite being part fighter; are still limited to only 2 proficiency in any weapon type.

A duel-class fighter/mage on the other hand can go up to 5 proficiency, but it takes more work and can cripple your character for a while. But the end-result can create one of the most powerful characters in the game.
A human who starts out as a fighter; gets a few levels in and get 4-5 proficiency in a weapon type and then duel-classes; will be really weak for a few levels afterwards as until their mage-level surpasses their fighter level; they cannot use their fighter related skills.
But when they get their fighter skills back they become monsters. while not being able to wear armor might seem like a problem at first, but by then the character should have defensive spells (mirror image ftw!) to make up for that. So now you have a mage who also wields weapons just as good as a fighter.
I created a fighter/mage this way; focusing on longbows, making the character a monster at long range.

When it comes to other class combinations I prefer fighter/druid and fighter/clerics over regular ones, as druids kind of suck in close combat for a large part of the game and are limited in what armors they can wear. Both clerics and druids are also limited when it comes to weapons and proficiencies, which is why making them multi-class fighters can be a good thing. Sure they might gain their spells a bit slower and perhaps lose some kit abilities, but they become much more useful when not using them anyway. A ranger/cleric can also be good as it doesn't really change much in the way of proficiencies and melee combat when compared to a fighter/cleric for the character, but also give the benefits of being able to cast some druid spells.

Oh and a tip; avoid playing a monk in BG1. The thing about monks is that while later; they become really powerful, but you never reach that far in BG1 because of it's level-cap. You hit the cap right before your hands count as magic weapons; meaning that you'll go into end-game with non-magical weapons (sure you could use actual weapons, but monks aren't made for that).
Also, avoid spending proficiencies in Katanas, as they are too few and far between them to be useful in BG1 (BG2 on the other hand...).

Be careful with reputation; having a low reputation score will piss off your good aligned characters (they can leave your party or attack you I think), and the same goes the other way; being too good will piss off evil characters in your party.

Wild magic is awesome and terrifying at the same time! Oh you wanted to cast armor on yourself? well too bad! It just became a fireball!.

In early game; kiting is gold and can sometimes be the only way to survive as early game can be brutal (2 level one characters running into a random ogre). This game does not pull it's punches, it will kick your in the face, take your lunch money and then proceed to kick your some more while you are down.

If a character dies; remember to pick up their stuff. It will disappear after a while if you don't.

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