Baldur's Gate Thread

How many times am I supposed to hit the reroll button?

Baldur's Gate Thread

Until your autism is satisfied.

It depends on your class.

I've never played this game before, but knowing the strong reliance on D&D after playing 5e with friends for a few months and enjoying it, I figured I'd give it a go.

I'm trying out a Dwarven Defender, sounds fun to get into character with

until high 80 roll or super high strength

not that it matters desu the game isnt hard

What difficulty would you recommend? I was thinking just core since I'm new to it

Google Bauldurs Gate EEAutoroller

core is not made for new players. Try normal.

Oh shit, first time playing?
Hopefully the 2e system doesn't turn you off, it's kind of fucking weird. The first Baldur's Gate is okay, Baldur's Gate II is fucking great.

You keep rolling until you get all 18s. At least you only have one character.

i would honestly try the hardest difficulty because otherwise there is absolutely no reason to use spells other than healing
warriors are all op, but the magic system is pretty interesting so i felt like it was a shame that i never used any spells
i think my main character was a ranger and i figured pretty quickly if i just equip dual wield i could solo the whole game

Roll a sorcerer, and don't give a shit about any stats for the most part since the BG Sorcerer doesn't depend on any stat at all. Only can do if old BG2, or EE BG1/2

I'm starting with 2 because that's what I've heard more about and I'm figuring they're probably somewhat disconnected.

I rolled a 90 and I stuck with that

I'm feeling conflicted now, but I'm going to start at core and change it after if I'm finding it too hard or easy.

I keep anything above 80. You can move the points around however you wish with the +/- buttons, so the total is all that matters.

I'd recommend Normal. You have experience with D&D, but this game uses weird AD&D rules. AC works backwards and THAC0 is a bit more complex. There's also weird stuff that applies and doesn't apply for balance since it's a video game and you can pause combat. Ignore the guy telling you to play on harder difficulties. The beginning of the game is really fucking hard if you don't know where the good items are, how to do quests, and have any build that's less than optimal. Only gets harder if you're still learning the mechanics.

>I'm figuring they're probably somewhat disconnected
2 is a direct sequel to 1. You're even intended to import your character.

The story is "connected", but not entirely important to play through. You get everything important needed to know of the story at the start of BG2.
It DOES make something in the BG2 expansion way fucking cooler if you played the first one, though.

This is my character set and done.

Well, I finished my character so I'll give this a run. If I like the mechanics but I don't end up liking the character which is pretty likely, I might restart in the first game.

I'll stick to normal then.

start with 1, the beginning of 2 is absolute dog shit for real. everything else in 2 is great but the start is just terrible depression core
really, stop right now and go with 1
you will get bored before you leave the start area of 2

fucking quit right now you will not have fun

Alright that was grim. I'm stopping and download BG1, you got me user.

>Until your autism is satisfied.
Essentially this

it took me about 3 years and 5 attempts to start 2 properly, i just cant stand that fucking start dungeon

Mate Irenicus's dungeon last like 2 hours. I know it's boring when you play for the 10th time, but it's not bad for the first time.
Of course, OP should definitely play BG1 first anyway.

How did you even finish BG1 with that attention span? It's like 2 zones and you're done.

Yeah the true suffering is repeat playthroughs

1 is a good game in its own right. If you stick to the main story and do whatever side quests you stumble across that sound good, you'll have a good time. Don't worry if you feel like you're leveling slowly at first, and don't be afraid to pick up party members even though you have to share experience. If you're getting stomped by the same fight over and over, just leave and find some other area to do stuff or revisit earlier areas.

Not him, and I absolutely loved the Baldur's Gate games, and BG2 was originally a little more overwhelming since you started at a higher level, and I was still getting used to how spells worked with this system.
BG2 is a far better game, but BG1 is a better way to get yourself familiar with how the system plays. I had to get through BG1 before I could handle BG2 long time back.

I played BG2 first as a kid and did fine. There were a few references I didn't get, but they were minor. I'd still recommend playing BG1, however, since it's one of the best representations of a low power campaign in CRPG history.

The start of 2 was pretty good the first time.

Yeah it gets shitty when your on the 4th run

You probably already know this, but just in case:
AC: lower is better (negative even better)
THAC0: lower is better

They didn't make the numbers for hitting and Armor Class straightforward until 3e.

it feels like eons of imeon being a bitch and druid women also being a bitch
and a random trip to a space ship and unlocking about 10000 traps and those fucking dust mephits respawning countless times
and then imeon going on and on still
then if you are like me you feel obliged to do that circus tent before anything else which is kind of interesting but not really

meanwhile in bg1 you can walk around a cosy castle and then make it out into a big forest to start

na mate imeon just ruins it completely
seriously a buzz kill
i really think that was some of the worst writing ive ever experienced,
fuck imoen

Now that I'm rerolling anyway, what are the thoughts on Wizards or Sorcerers?

It's been a while since I've thought about AD&D theorycrafting, but IIRC wizards start out extremely weak (a level 1 wizard can be killed by a housecat) but become obscenely powerful once they get some high level spells. Sorcerers have more early game utility but don't become as powerful as mages.

Sorcerers suck unless you're playing EE AND that shitty side campaign where you're a slave in some pit
Wizards are arguably the best class in the game

you can cast a few spells a day, when they've done that they throw stones
and a lot of spells hurt friendly targets too

but there's quite a lot of spells to look at
identify is very important

The circus is like one riddle dialogue and two battles, man.

how come Icewind Dale 2 never gets any love?

They are good as long as you rest a lot while adventuring. Sorcerers are really only better from a roleplay perspective since normal mages can have an amazingly diverse spellbook and there's nothing stopping you from spamming rest to swap out spells as needed. With sorcerers, you're stuck with the handful of spells you first pick. Melee combatants (particularly fighters) are MUCH easier to play if you're learning since you just gear up and left-click to victory, but wizards are just as good or better when you get to level 3ish.

Sorcerers in BG are not stat dependent at all, and they're nice if you just want to mostly blast stuff.
You'll be able to get more out of a wizard in the long run (in BG2), though.
They're fun, but you'll be individually weak for a long time. Got to depend on your front liners a lot. Give them slings and bullets for when you're not throwing spells.

just because the bad bits are short doesnt make them good

Neverwinter Nights came out June 18, 2002. IWD2 came out August 27.

Okay taking all of this into consideration... I'm sticking with a fighting class. Based on what everyone is saying though, I definitely see giving this more than one run anyway so when I have a better handle on the system I'll give wizard a shot.

Seems like there's a lot of sub classes, are there any that should outright be avoided?

you will pick up followers anyway which are literally just different classes to play alongside your main guy
so you will be able to play everything pretty much
the first member you get is a thief

It's not too big a deal. You'll likely end up with a wizard ally in your party anyway, so you'll get to mess around with the class some.

Zero.
You fucking don't press the reroll button, fag.

Just don't play wizard slayer.
Paladins are also very close to Fighters. Basically they give up weapon specialization (a bit of extra to hit and damage) for paladin abilities. They still hit hard and can wear full plate and almost any weapon in the game.
Inquisitors and cavaliers are both great.

I've done Irenicus' dungeon something like 50-60 times in my life. I used to play BG2 like teens play DOTA or something nowdays. It's not THAT bad.

Spellcasters in BG1 start off rather weak. Low HP means you can get one-shotted easily. Crowd control spells like sleep or horror are better than direct damage at first.

Lots of them
Archer is really good but falls off endgame in BG2 due to no +5 ammunition

If you make a Paladin, go Cavalier. You'll have other people hitting distance anyway.

Munchkins, munchkins everywhere. Don't try to play 'optimally', it removes most of the fun factors. Plus you look autistic.

Alright, time to give this an go. Thanks everyone for the input

Looks good, user. Have fun.

To be honest, Baldurs Gate is kind of a munchkinish game. If your stats are way too low you're going to really have a difficult time for a first play run.

Use low difficulty levels and\or micromanage your party members. (At least that always worked for me in other D&D RPGs.)