Baldur's Gate (again)

[duke o' york]

How many real-life battles can be paused while you go through your luggage looking for the magic boots that will improve your AC? This is a cool feature, not a bad one!

(That sentence started off well, then quickly got more ridiculous, but you get the point)

[Stuie]

@Axxaer - I already played through the whole series once. This is my second time through, and BG1 is definitely a let down after having played BG2.

Anyway, Icewind Dale arrived and I'm messing around with that right now, because that is ALL new to me.

[Jamski]

The IWD games are very much more strategic in my opinion. Choosing a good party set-up, the right spells, and the correct approach to each fight are very important.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Jamski
The IWD games are very much more strategic in my opinion. Choosing a good party set-up, the right spells, and the correct approach to each fight are very important.

Never seen you say that before - I thought you regarded BG2 as the pinnacle of (at least old style) RPG strategy.

[Dis]

IWD doesn't have Boo

[Jamski]

Originally posted by DrSpike


Never seen you say that before - I thought you regarded BG2 as the pinnacle of (at least old style) RPG strategy.

In terms of building your team from scratch the IWD games offer the chance to really try some unusual and powerful combinations. The challenge of BG is that you have to work with the NPCs that the game already offers.

[Dis]

but you can do that in BG as well. Just create a multiplayer game (and you can just move the mp save to the sp save folder)

[Jamski]

Teh weaselry!

[Grumbold]

Yes I confess I never finished BG2 with the standard characters. I got so tired of Minsc & co in BG1 that I couldn't stand any more of it after the first couple of chapters of BG2. It was a shame to miss out on some tailored content for the NPCs but having a full party with less tedious dialogue and the skills and spells I wanted was so much better.

I never realised you could drop the save in the SP folder. That'll be convenient when I finish TotSC this time.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Jamski
In terms of building your team from scratch the IWD games offer the chance to really try some unusual and powerful combinations.

Yeah - half the fun (while waiting for IWD to arrive) was coming up with ideas for my party. I ended up building the following:

Paladin
Fighter 6/Cleric x
Fighter 9/Druid x
Mage generalist
Bard
Fighter/Thief

Still debating the dual class timings. I know I need a Cleric soon, but I think it's best to hold off until level 6. In the meantime, we are resting for days at a time to heal up. Oh, well - there's no time limit, right.

The Druid on the other hand I can wait a little longer for.

The cool thing is, I based the party on PnP characters I've used in the past, so I feel that much more connected to them.

Now I'll wait for Jamski to weigh in on my party choice.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Jamski
Teh weaselry!

You mean you didn't know that? Noob.

[Jamski]

Originally posted by Stuie


Yeah - half the fun (while waiting for IWD to arrive) was coming up with ideas for my party. I ended up building the following:

Paladin
Fighter 6/Cleric x
Fighter 9/Druid x
Mage generalist
Bard
Fighter/Thief

Still debating the dual class timings. I know I need a Cleric soon, but I think it's best to hold off until level 6. In the meantime, we are resting for days at a time to heal up. Oh, well - there's no time limit, right.

The Druid on the other hand I can wait a little longer for.

The cool thing is, I based the party on PnP characters I've used in the past, so I feel that much more connected to them.

Now I'll wait for Jamski to weigh in on my party choice.

Looks fairly sound to me... a small concern about the lack of healing available to the party, personally I'd dual-class to cleric after 3 levels of fighter - its not just about when the first cleric levels come, but about faster access to the higher level spells. Going fighter-->cleric is a smart move - makes a sucky melee caster into an adequate melee caster with only a few levels of fighter.

As for your mage generalist, because of the way IWD gives out scrolls he'll normally be able to cast spells of a level that he hasn't actually learnt any spells of yet. Personal preference here for me is to take 3 or 4 levels of thief first, specialising only in locks, which will be sufficient for all the locks in the game. Thief levels also require the lowest xp, and then the mage will be casting at the same level as the available scrolls. Oh, and your mage will be able to use a bow when not slinging spells, which is kinda handy.

[Axxaer]

Originally posted by Dis
but you can do that in BG as well. Just create a multiplayer game (and you can just move the mp save to the sp save folder)

Exactly what I did second time 'round to try out a bunch of different kits that I wasn't too sure I wanted as a protag. I ended up with a weird bunch which started at BG2 and finished all of TOB. I had a Kensai (absolutely terrible) an Assassin (rather awesome) an Archer (incredibly awesome) a Sorceror (reasonably good) some sort of Paladin (average) and a Shapeshifter (mediocre). It was really fun just to see all the strengths and weaknesses of various classes I'd never tried before. Assassin x7 backstab + poison was quite handy.

[Juggler]

last summer i finally finished BG+Tosc with BGtutu (converts BG1 to BGII engine). View the readme file on the site for more info & check out the screens on the bottom of the page. It improves graphics, gameplay and fixes some bugs but it seems there hasn't been much development on the mod lately.

also be sure to check out this great site

[Dis]

I think I'll install BG2 monday. I still have never played my characters from BG1 all the way through BG2.

I still have yet to complete the pantaloons set. Yeah I could cheat and do it, but what fun is that? I have yet to cheat in these games (though I have used mods).

I'm thinking about playing a gimp party. Though I refuse to use Cernd. He really sucks. I'll probably use Mazzy. Yeah some people say she's strong. But I hate all the points in shortbow. I like my fighters to use melee weapons. I need to try to get her early so I can mold her profiencies. But that can be a hard dungeon if done too early.

What other weak NPC's should I use? I figure I'll use Aerie. Not sure who else to use. I could use the bard, but my character will probably be a bard (I finished BG1 with a bard, and also another time with a fighter).

The point is to use NPC's I hardly ever use. There's a lot of conversations I have never heard/read because I tend to use the same NPC's over and over (Minsc, Korgan, Edwin, Viconia, Anomen etc.)