Baldur's Gate

[Mighty Midget]

Hi, fellow travellers: If you play or have played BG, or the second installement for that matter, and want to share your experience, character, views or gold, I thought this would be the place to do it.

I'm currently playing a fighter (I believe that is the best choise for a main character, since there are bus-loads of mages, clerics, thieves and all, around for you to have in your party). Currently he's a level 5 (chaotic good), with nice attributes, and I mean game attributes, mastering sword and long bow. I ditched Jaheira and Khalid in Nashgel to make room for Minsk and Dynaheir. Reason: Minsk has better carrying capacity and is a better fighter, and Dynaheir is a better mage. Now I also have Garrick, Imoen and Branwen. Garrick has turned out to be a rather useful mage as well as bard (his song saved the party some pretty brutal beatings), Imoen is a very good scout and trap disarmer, and Branwen is the party's doc, mainly. I think this party will be allowed to keep going for quite some time.

A side note: In the wizzard's tower west of Beregost, there is a claw for sale. It's a rather annoying artifact in many ways, but does anyone know what benefits there are that outweights the draw-backs?

[Tulac]

I just have to say that BG series is the best RPG series ever (ok Fallout comes close). That is all for now.

[catchaserguns]

One thing good about Baldurs Gate is its one of the few Windows 95 games that is compatible with Xp.

[_r.u.s.s.]

good choise is also paladin or cleric as main char, who are good fighters with some spells and blessings. i personaly played for paladin-cavalier as main char in both BG1 and BG2

[Mighty Midget]

The problem I have with dual classes, is that they can't level up as far as a single class, due to the XP "ceiling". Having a main character with lots of HPs is essential, and with only say, 6 level-ups, the character won't get that many HPs, even with a constitution at 18.

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mighty Midget @ Dec 1 2006, 04:52 PM) 269683</div>
The problem I have with dual classes, is that they can't level up as far as a single class, due to the XP "ceiling". Having a main character with lots of HPs is essential, and with only say, 6 level-ups, the character won't get that many HPs, even with a constitution at 18.
[/b]

Agreed. That's especially true for spellcasters in BG1. With a low experience cap and little exp to gain at any one time, melee and ranged are emphasized more in the game than spells, usually. It takes a lot of effort to work a spellcaster up to the point where they can really help.

BG2 with ToB is another matter. A multiclassing spellcaster like Aerie (mage/cleric) rises slowly, but receives so much experience, so quickly, that they turn into a powerhouse. Just think of all those contingencies she can make using not just mage, but clerical spells, as well!

[Mighty Midget]

Ranged weapons in BG1 were way too effective as I see it. As soon as you got some of them magic/poisonous/whatever arrows, and a longbow or better, you rarely needed to go into close combat. Add a scout to spot s single enemy at a time, and you could take out pretty much anything with bow and arrows. Also, because the spell casting would fail if the caster was hit, facing mages was too easy. Of course, you can choose not to use ranged weapons, but still...

[Xikarita]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mighty Midget @ Dec 4 2006, 03:03 PM) 270232</div>
Ranged weapons in BG1 were way too effective as I see it. As soon as you got some of them magic/poisonous/whatever arrows, and a longbow or better, you rarely needed to go into close combat. Add a scout to spot s single enemy at a time, and you could take out pretty much anything with bow and arrows. Also, because the spell casting would fail if the caster was hit, facing mages was too easy. Of course, you can choose not to use ranged weapons, but still...
[/b]


I agree. Second time I finished the game, I hardly had to break a sweat over it. The main character was a halfling fighter/thief weilding a short bow and an assortment of poisonous/explosive projectiles.

[Razor2]

You don't even need your main char to be skilled with missile weapons. In BG1 take Coran equip him with some nice magic longbow and some bracer with bonus for missile weapons (bracers of archery, if I remember right) and you've got a sniper killing machine. Give Imoen some magic short bow and use her as mage/thief archer and get another power mage like Xan to complement it and the game can be won like a cakewalk.

In BG2 its a tad different, because I haven't found so many good suitable chars for the job, maybe Yoshimo in the first part and Vaygar later, but the later has some really nice sword, which only he can use, it would be a pity not to use it. But with 2 Mages (Imoen and Aerie) you can still cause havoc on great distance with some nice destructive spells. Also there is a problem in the game with the huge ACs and low THAC0s of some enemies, you won't hit some of them with missiles, because I don't think there are better than +3 arrows in the game, and even they are incredibly rare. Swords come on the other hand as good as +5 and are much more common, that you find some really cool melee weapons.

[Sartoris]

Does anyone have any news about BG3 or is it officially dead?

[silz]

Atari, the licensee and publisher of D&D games did announce the on-going works of BG 3 along with NWN2 in 2004. At the time it was announced, we also have no idea who's the developer for NWN2 gonna be. We probably won't hear anything about BG3 until 2008. It will probably come with an entirely new graphics engine and I'm pretty sure Bioware will have no part in it other than some comments or suggestions.

[Borodin]

I'm actually starting up a new game of BG1, using BG1 Tutu so I can apply the BG2 engine to it. Also grabbed a bunch of mods from the Pocket Plane Group and Gibberings Three, to add quests and a few new kits. Not sure whether I'll play a fighter, or a cleric, because there are quite a few fighters in the game (Minsc, Ajantis, etc), but the clerics come along later. I don't think multiclassiing is the answer, since the game doesn't allow party characters to gain too many levels.

[Tito]

What is that Tutu thing you talk about? I've never heard of it, and it would be interesting if it enhances the performance of Baldur's Gate I. How does it work?

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tito @ Feb 19 2007, 07:43 PM) 280013</div>
What is that Tutu thing you talk about? I've never heard of it, and it would be interesting if it enhances the performance of Baldur's Gate I. How does it work?
[/b]

Tutu gives you the functionality of the BG2 engine inside BG1, including a host of neat features. Some of these include higher resolution, new races, classes and kits, and dual-wielding, though I'm very partial to the labeling of buildings on town maps. You might start here (http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=98), if you're interested. Note that if you're strong in English, consider EasyTutu, instead. It's English-only, but makes installation of Tutu much easier.

[dolphan]

Playing as a mage in BG1 is pretty hairy at the start, since at level 1 you have about 3 hit points.

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dolphan @ Feb 20 2007, 04:24 PM) 280205</div>
Playing as a mage in BG1 is pretty hairy at the start, since at level 1 you have about 3 hit points.
[/b]

Key to survival is to turn down the difficulty all the way, then take off and let the guards deal with your opponent. :D

Mages aren't all that powerful in BG1, in any case. There's a large NPC group of them out there waiting to be used, so for my latest run through I finally chose a cleric. Use the Divine Remix mod, and took one of the kits that arranged spells according to circles of influence, along with a few useful powers you get spread over 15 levels or so.

[Scatty]

Mages are strong in Baldur's Gate II though, especially with Throne of Bhaal expansion, that's where they become very powerful. In Baldur's Gate (with Tutu) Fighters & Clerics mixed with a Bard for support might be funny.
Reminds me to play Baldur's Gate 1 through, bought the entire Baldur's Gate saga with packages, manuals & everything but didn't find the time to play it yet... :tomato:

[Tito]

What about the Baldur's Gate mods? Are they worth enough to download them? Because I'm planning on playing the whole saga again (I recently bougth a pack with both games and it's expansions). Any recomendations? Do you know if there are problems with translations? As I bougth them in Spanish.

[Tulac]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Borodin @ Feb 20 2007, 03:00 PM) 280168</div>
Tutu gives you the functionality of the BG2 engine inside BG1, including a host of neat features. Some of these include higher resolution, new races, classes and kits, and dual-wielding, though I'm very partial to the labeling of buildings on town maps. You might start here (http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=98), if you're interested. Note that if you're strong in English, consider EasyTutu, instead. It's English-only, but makes installation of Tutu much easier.
[/b]
Is the XP cap the same as in BG2 too?

[The Bard]

I just bought the Forgotten Realms Deluxe Edition, even though i have almost all of those games, and am now playing the BG 1 again, fully compatible with XP...

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tito @ Feb 21 2007, 10:40 AM) 280315</div>
What about the Baldur's Gate mods? Are they worth enough to download them? Because I'm planning on playing the whole saga again (I recently bougth a pack with both games and it's expansions). Any recomendations? Do you know if there are problems with translations? As I bougth them in Spanish.
[/b]

I have no idea about the Spanish versions, but I've found BG1 Tutu with Tutu-compliant mods work well together. They also fix innumerable small problems in the original title, and help you customize a huge range of features. These include how many health points party members get when leveling, the class of each party NPC you encounter, allowing party members you kick out to meet you in specific inns, adding potions to adversaries' inventories which they can use, making battles tougher, etc. My favorite, though, is one that adds a large amount of dialog and interjections from all party members, much in character.

Is the XP cap the same as in BG2 too?[/b]

There's a Tutu-compliant mod, BG2 Tweaks (which is something of a misnomer; it also works on Tutu) that lets you set the cap to 20 levels, 30 levels, or remove the cap completely.

[carpetsmoker]

What about the Baldur's Gate mods? Are they worth enough to download them? Because I'm planning on playing the whole saga again (I recently bougth a pack with both games and it's expansions). Any recomendations? Do you know if there are problems with translations? As I bougth them in Spanish.[/b]

If you copy dialog.tlk from an english version of the game then your game is english to.
If you want it then PM me and i'll upload it for you.

As for mods, check this out:
Mega-WeiDU Install Instruction using BG2 Fixpack, G3FixPack/BGT/BPFamily/WorldMapv6:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showtopic=22224

The biggest running Mega-WeiDU Install of all:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showtopic=24471
http://www.kerzenburg.nightisforum.de/showthread.php?t=34717

[JJXB]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(carpetsmoker @ Feb 22 2007, 05:33 AM) 280403</div>The biggest running Mega-WeiDU Install of all:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showtopic=24471
http://www.kerzenburg.nightisforum.de/showthread.php?t=34717[/b]
wow. big install. i would try installing Mega-WeiDU but i can't afford to use the space at the moment. i have BG1+2 and the relevant expansions but haven't had much chance to get into it at the moment.

[silz]

I previously used teambg.net to remove the exp cap. Another side theforgettenwars.com also offers some pretty good addin mod.

[Tito]

I'll have to try those resources as soon as I end my current games (Call of Cthulhu and Outcast). Removing the experience cap will be my first step, as I hated that.

Thanks for the info, guys!

[Scatty]

In Baldur's Gate II all you need to do to remove the XP cap is to open the file bgmain.exe with a hexeditor, search for the string xpcap and to replace the x with another letter.
Could work for Baldur's Gate maybe too, then you could save yourself installing a mod for that.

[silz]

Any suggestions for a good hex editor? I had trouble finding a good hex editor the second time around when I was replaying Planescape:Torment to modify the stats. Took me a good 30 mins to find one and now I've no memory on how I get it as it was deleted. It was a trial shareware.

[Scatty]

I'm using this (http://www.download.com/HexEditor/3000-2352_4-10073009.html) one, it has a slightly better touch than all the others hex editors found through Google and integrates itself into Windows Explorer to quick-open files with a right click for editing.
It's a shareware version though, but seems to do everything you need.

[carpetsmoker]

In Baldur's Gate II all you need to do to remove the XP cap is to open the file bgmain.exe with a hexeditor, search for the string xpcap and to replace the x with another letter.
Could work for Baldur's Gate maybe too, then you could save yourself installing a mod for that.[/b]

Replacing xpcap.2da is much cleaner and better way.
I think sorcerers.net has such a xcap remover

Any suggestions for a good hex editor? I had trouble finding a good hex editor the second time around when I was replaying Planescape:Torment to modify the stats. Took me a good 30 mins to find one and now I've no memory on how I get it as it was deleted. It was a trial shareware.[/b]
You can download a torment savegame editor from:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/Torment/index_editors.php

[silz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Scatty @ Feb 23 2007, 11:54 PM) 280733</div>
I'm using this (http://www.download.com/HexEditor/3000-2352_4-10073009.html) one, it has a slightly better touch than all the others hex editors found through Google and integrates itself into Windows Explorer to quick-open files with a right click for editing.
It's a shareware version though, but seems to do everything you need.
[/b]

Thanks, thats certainly better than the one I have found. The numbers are so small its hardly viewable.