Baldurs gate - how should I start.

[Dis]

I heard good things about Dreamcatcher. Penultima and Penultima rerolled is fairly good. I still haven't played dreamcatcher, I'll get to it.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Jamski
Just don't judge NWN on the campaign that comes with it. The real strenth of NWN is the way you can be a DM so easily and make your own modules (if you can script a small bit) Many people said "NWN sucks compared to BG!" based on the rather average quest that comes with the game.

-Jam

You may be right there, but you have to play the main quest in order to know how the game plays, and for me the game feels uneasy, not quite my kind of game actually... I gave up playing it when I got out of that Castle/Cathedral or whatever it was...

Unless someone thinks im gonna need ALL the XP and loot possible when i move north, Im not gonna do that. Im getting a fair amount just in making my way the locations for the main subquests (IE the half ogres, Bassileus, and this chicken man ive heard about) I might then go ahead and use the save from petrification scroll on the basilisks, and after that i'm heading towards the bandits again (ive already gone into larswood - BTW i forgot to pick up any scroll when i killed the local bandit leader, does that mean i wont be able to find the bandit camp?)

If you don't do as much quests as you can, then why play the game... You have more fun if you do everything. I would be too curious to just leave those areas untouched!

[Jamski]

If you don't do as much quests as you can, then why play the game... You have more fun if you do everything. I would be too curious to just leave those areas untouched!

And its not just the XP you miss out on, but there's also some good items lying around... you just need to know where to look.

-Jam

[lord of the mark]

i guess i thought the main reason to have all those different sidequests, extra areas to explore, etc was replayability - something to make the game interesting once ive gone through the story. And try out a different strategy - one time focus on the Sirens, say, another time on Firewine bridge, etc. Not to do EVERYTHING in one game! I mean i try to do that, i wont have finished this game when Civ V comes out

[Jamski]

And that's a good thing, right?

Actually the first time through I just played the game, and then I read a walkthrough and tryed to see everything there was to see when I played it a second time. Then I played through with a solo character...

-Jam

[Drogue]

Solo character is fun. It's relatively easy as a mage, until the last fight. It's also not to bad as a theif. The first bit is quite easy, but get's hard in places. However being solo, and in less need of experience, you can just hide, run and steal a lot.

I've played it through many times. As good characters, bad characters, solo, a pair (was a lot of fun actually), but my favourite time was was roleplaying as myself. I started as a neutral good cleric (I wanted to be true neutral, as balance would be my most important feature, but I always get my rep high, due to doing the good quests, and can't bear killing innocent people, so neutral good it is. I can still steal, since it is for the good of the land that I be given the money to fight ). Finished BGI, doing most of the quests (if not all), and hit the XP cap pretty early, almost as soon as I got to Baldur's Gate. Started going through BGII with it, but stopped playing for a while, so haven't even gone to Spellhold yet. Did kill Kangaxx though

Roleplaying as myself made choices a lot easier. I didn't think what was good for my character, just what i would do. Would be nice to try a new game like that, but would be quite hard.

[Jamski]

Heh, over on the Interplay forums we had a "nerfed" solo challenge, to get to the end of BG2 with a character who had MINIMUM stats for their class (in no case was higher than 52 points total allowed), and was allowed NO ITEMS that boosted stats permanantly (i.e. Girdles of X Giant Str) That added a bit of replay...

-JAm

[Dis]

too masochistic for me

[Jamski]

You REALLY have to think, when your character is too weak to CARRY the meteors created by the 3rd level spell Melf Minute Meteors. You can't move until you fire them ALL... and you can't drop them either.

-Jam

[Drogue]

That seems evil. Anybody manage it?

[Jamski]

I managed it with a sorceror. Some people had success with thiefs and wizards. Most fighter classes had real problems, drinking potions of strength before every fight etc... With a spell-caster it was nessessary to buff like a mad thing and then cast like crazy It was quite good fun actually, especially the thread that went with it, full of people whining about thier crappy characters. Once my sorc reached level 19-20 ish then it became actually really easy though. Time stop, improved aleracity, horrid wilting x 3...

-Jam

[lord of the mark]

Back to BG1


1. Going to firewine bridge with an essentially level 4 party didnt work out so well.

2. Going there underground from Gullykin without a thief (Imoen still a level 3 illusionist) was particularly poor planning.

3. Going to firewine a better idea if you have more than one bowman in the party.

4. Gullykin itself is boring, or am i missing something?

5. I am at rep 19 and Jaheira is complaining - i know she wont leave, but id rather lower my rep - im roleplaying neutral good, and prefer making J happy to having near perfect rep. I tried stealing some stuff, but my rep doesnt go down. Dont want to kill innocents (both for RP and cause i dont want rep to go down THAT much) what are the circumstances were stealing will lower rep?

6. Ended up losing J and Dynaheir at Firewine, went bask to Beregost to revive them - net loss of gp. and didnt end up with many fire arrows. Did help on XP. Now making up for loss of Gold by more thoroughly cleaning areas south and southwest of Ber. and gradually working west toward Sirenes (?)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yep, Firewine's a real pain, and I've never found it to be worth the effort.

There's not much to do in Gullykin except the Firewine quest that one halfling gives you. But there's a good fight on the map, outside the village itself, and one of the fighters has some very nice chainmail (which is great if you have a bard, but even if you don't it's well worth selling).

Getting caught while stealing will lower your reputation by one point, which will shiut Jahiera up. Easiest way to do it is to go into a house in Beregost, open a locked trunk or drawer in front of whoever lives there, and wait for the flaminf fist to show up and call you a thief. Then, run like hell (don't fight the Fist; winning will bring down your rep in a major way).

[Traianvs]

You can cast 'hold' or sleep on the flaming fist, or charm them so they are not killed and thus don't lose the the 6 rep points or something

you can also knock them unconscious with your bare fists, but the flaming fist aren't pussies but that's not easy

[Jamski]

Jaheira will complain, but will never actually leave. Evil characters will, but she's neutral. Don't worry about her and your reputation.

-Jam