New all purpose Baldurs Gate thread

[Drogue]

It does mean that

And you're killing the mage at High Hedge? I always kept him so I could buy things of him (Thalatyr (sp?) isn't it?)

My BGII party now rocks, having got much decent weaponry and armour. Keldorn has a -7 AC. Jaheira -9, thanks to Balduran's Armour. Korgan -8, thanks to Red Dragon Plate, however he'll start dual-wielding soon, when he gets 2* in it. Best of all, my main character has Tenser's Transformation. An AC of -14, 272 HP, 4 attacks, a main thac0 of -4 and an off hand of -1. Oh, and Keldorn has Carsomyr

There is nothing more to buy, so it's just do the Umar Hills, Planar Sphere and Trademeet quests for experience, and then Chapter 3.

[duke o' york]

Doesn't sound too challenging any more, but then I don't know how tough the bad guys are going to be.

I'm not trying to kill Thalantyr - I'm only trying to have a cosy chat! It's the flesh golem that's trying to kill me, and I keep foolishly turning round to fight it. If I was trying to kill Thalantyr then I'd have back-stabbed him first. And then filled him full of arrows in the hope that the flesh golem would evaporate once he was dead!

[duke o' york]

New question! Is there any chance of getting something decent from any of the early books you pick up? I may well just sell them all (have already sold some - there are loads!), or maybe find somewhere I can store them all in the hope that having a complete set nets you something decent. But I'm sure that reading certain books will boost my characters somehow, but how will I know which ones? Are they down as books without titles? And will reading them work on my character straightaway, and be permanent, or for only as long as the book is carried?

[Jamski]

The magic books need to be IDed. That's the big clue.

Apart from that, there's only two books you need for a crappy side quest, (Coin of fate?) and a "precious book" that you get given later.

-Jam

[Jamski]

Oh, reading them works on whatever character reads them, and they are permanant. You need to put them in a quick-slot to read them.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I'm going to pick some dumb shopkeeper and sell him a library. I guess that these books will not be valuable enough to allow me back into Candlekeep so I'll just sell the lot of them.
Apart from the evil dwarf, who I am not planning on keeping much longer, few of my characters seem able to hold much in their backpacks. Is there anyone I can leave stuff with and pick it up later, or am I better off just selling it?

[Jamski]

Sell everything you don't actually need. Sell all non-magical jewellry and gems. Sell all non-magical weapons. Hell, I sell most of the maical ones as well - a character can only use one at a time. Never even pick up non-magical weapons and armour unless you are DESPERATELY short of cash. Its VERY heavy, and has a LOW re-sale value (less than 10% I think)

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Well I have been short of cash, but once I track down this Basillus character (and hopefully kill him) then I'll be loaded.
I like to take and keep arrows, darts and throwing knives, but do not normally have much time for longswords or equipment that is worse than I have already. Obviously if I find better things then I'll chuck what I have. I took the +1 staff from Silke, and left the bog standard one on her body.

[Jamski]

Ah - if your packs are full of arrows, then I would DEFINITELY install the Ease of Use mod. If you feel some of the components are "unfair" then you can choose not to install then, but having all the arrows only taking up one slot is lovely.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Can I install mods mid-game?

It sounds nice, and I'm tempted to have a look at some of the others too. I'd love a mod that gave you different races to play, but suppose I'll have to wait until I can justify buying BG2 (to my girlfriend).

[Stuie]

The only mod I've used is BG1tutu. This lets you plat BG1 using the BG2 engine - very sweet and highly recommended. Of course, you need BG2 in order to use it. It's nice for a variety of reasons:

- You can play at higher resolutions (I'm using 1024x768 even though it's not "supported).
- You can use the character classes and "kits" included in BG2 for your BG1 character. I'm playing with a Cavalier.
- The BG1 experience cap is gone.

The only thing is that you have to start a new game. Also the random encounters are always generated assuming a party of six, so the trip out from Candlekeep can be kind of rough until you get more NPCs.

[Stuie]

Forgot to provide a link:

http://japh.fwstudios.net/bg1tutu/

[Jamski]

You need BG2 of course, to use Tutu. Don't forget to mention that

DoY, you can install EoU at any time, without starting a new game. All the shops you havn't vistited yet will now sell arrows by the 100. All arrows/potions/gems etc will now stack to 9999. Apart from that none of the other BG1 mods are really worth worrying about.

-Jam

[bipolarbear]

What in the poop is so great about Baldur's gate. I've never really played it, but all of my homies down at d-station iz alwayz tizzalkin aboot this baldur's gizzate! Personally, I love the first person shooters, and Morrowwind! Convince me to buy Baldur's gate.

[duke o' york]

Read the first BG thread, and then this one. If your curiosity is not piqued by either of them then you'd be wasting your time buying it. I have only just bought it and am relying heavily on the advice of Jamski, Drogue and others here. I only bought it after reading the first thread (should be on the 3rd or so page here) and it sounded like fun so I put my money where Jamski's mouth was and bought it.
I've got a walk-through, but I doubt I'll use it until I play it at least another couple of times and get the completist urge. I'm already getting that way a bit by trying to do as many quests as I can, but I'm not going to go and search behind trees to find hidden magic items quite yet. That'd spoil the fun on the first time through.
When you say "I've never really played it", do you really mean that you've never played it, or that you've played a little with your homies? If it didn't grab you then, it probably won't in the future. Can you not play it with them first before deciding to buy it yourself? That would seem to be the most sensible solution, and save you money.