Turn Baldurs Gate and its sequel into the single best CRPG experience you'll likely ever encounter

Playing through these again too:)

I've just finished BG1 and TOTSC and have started BG2 with a level 9 fighter with 19 STR, DEX and CON. Think I might be a bit over-powered compare to a vanilla BG2 starting char :)

Really enjoying playing these again after so many years. It really hammers home how weak most modern RPGs have become.
 
Cat_In_Pyjamas said:
Pretty much this. By level 5 she should be good to go. On a side note, didn't realise the mod that I used still kept the 161k exp cap on bg 1 :( I have now finished Durlags Tower and about to hit werewolf island (then go to Candlekeep and carry on with the story, but am already capped with my entire group...damnations!
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So 75 for Pickpocket, Find Traps and Lock Picking and I'm good to go?
 
Jokester said:
So 75 for Pickpocket, Find Traps and Lock Picking and I'm good to go?
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I actually have 75 in find traps + pick pocket and 50 in open lock and she can handle most stuff just fine. When in doubt just chug an extra pot. Towards the end of the game when the pots are needed you'll be swimming in gold even after you buy all the shinies so you can stock up on the pots (plenty to find in Durlag's Tower as well). Lastly, when in doubt, just memorize the find traps (cleric/druid) and knock (wizard) spells.
 
I never use pick pocket, I read that it doesnt max out at 100 points, some NPCs need several hundred pick pocket points to successfully pick.

As for picking locks, The knock spell works on all pickable locks in BG2 so open locks isnt too important. Also in BG2, you get two rings that give +25 to open locks and disarm traps.

Trap skill is the only important one to get to 100, open locks can be left at around 75, and I usually dump the rest into set traps and stealth.

With a dual Thief / Wizzie, you will have enough space in your party for a second wizard. In a custom or modified party, the best caster backline for BG2 would be a level 10 Swashbuckler / Mage, a Level 9 Berserker / Druid, and a Cleric / Mage multiclass. Your other 3 slots can then be filled with tanky characters, and even another thief if you want to get Thief HLAs. A 9 Kensai / Thief would be best as they get huge melee bonuses with Kensai which will apply to their backstabs, and can then overcome their no armor or gauntlets restriction with the Thief's Use Any Item HLA, and then two slots left for a pair of heavy armor melees, such as a pure Berzerker and an Inquisitor for more powerful than normal dispel magics and true seeing would be awesome.

Swashbuckler / Mages also get nifty elven chainmail later into the game giving them an even bigger AC boost on top of their swashbuckler bonuses while still being able to cast spells.

Pure wizards and thiefs on the other hand are weak sauce except for Edwin.
 
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bhavv said:
I never use pick pocket, I read that it doesnt max out at 100 points, some NPCs need several hundred pick pocket points to successfully pick.
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Eh? Which npc's would those be? In BG 1 all the loot you may want to steal is quite easy to obtain - roguish characters may be bit harder to rob, but that's about it. In BG2 I don't recall ever having problems with looting the gear I wanted (two rings of ram to wtfpwn kangaxx before he realizes what hit him? yes please!).

As for picking locks, The knock spell works on all pickable locks in BG2 so open locks isnt too important.
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Agreed - the downside is, when you have more chests than Knocks prepared you are forced to rest which may not be ideal in BG2 (messing the Jaheira romance or turning into the destroyer and wtfpwning your team :P). And you lose a hefty amount of XP.

With a dual Thief / Wizzie, you will have enough space in your party for a second wizard. In a custom or modified party
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I never play BG 2 with a custom team - takes a lot of the fun out of the game as inter NPC dialogues are simply brilliant. With that said, after completing BG1 in the 'canon' team (jaheira/khalid, minsc/dynaheir, imoen as rogue/wizard and me as hunter archer) I plan to go something along the lines of:
Keldorn (would have taken Minsc, but Keldorn's dispel + holy avenger just overpower Minsc in every single way), Jaheira + myself for romance, Yoshi -> Imoen, Aerie, Jan in BG 2. My fear is that that group is multiclass heavy so will be quite slow to gain enough firepower to handle meanies like Kangaxx or the lich and co (Forgotten Rune or whatever they are called) in the docks district.
 
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This thread has inspired me to dig out my old copy of Baldur's Gate (virgin white label edition), which I never really got into at the time and probably gave up with the first time I got Killed on the road outside Candlekeep. I didn't realise it would work in Vista, and lo-and-behold it does.

Let's have another go.
 
Cat_In_Pyjamas said:
Agreed - the downside is, when you have more chests than Knocks prepared you are forced to rest which may not be ideal in BG2 (messing the Jaheira romance or turning into the destroyer and wtfpwning your team :P). And you lose a hefty amount of XP.
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Thats not a problem by the time you get to that point you should have the +25% open locks ring, bringing a base open locks score of 75 up to 100 which opens all locks in the game.

Erm, and Jaheira Romance???? Like .... EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! :p

Romance Aerie or Viccy!!!
 
bhavv said:
Erm, and Jaheira Romance???? Like .... EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! :p

Romance Aerie or Viccy!!!
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Done both, now am about halfway through the Jaheira romance :> On a side note: Kangaxx dead in Act 2 with party level 10-12/13 (I think Joshi may be 13 but not certain). Aerie's spell arsenal makes her ideal for killing the bugger...that and 2 rings of ram that is :P
 
BUMP!!

I am in the process of downloading the mods now. Had a bit of a wobble with the BG SOA folder which i believe is not in the GOG version?

Also, some of the mods it searches for are not found, will this make much difference, or stop it working?

I will probably ask for help whilst trying to get it to work;)
 
Basically you have to install the GOG BG1 into

C:\BG\Baldur's Gate

Then GOG BG2 into

C:\BG\BGII - SoA

In other words no GOG and no program files, custom install them through the gog installer to those directories, also they don't need to be patched (GOG).

If you use some wild folder or even gogs own folder it can cause issues.. I haven't got BG1 or BG2 installed anymore as my guide was from when i installed it, i'm sure other people can help you more though :D
 
Cheers Neil,

mmm, i have them installed without the GOG folder, but not on the C drive as i thought that the key point was that they are just not in GOG, i hope it will be ok.
 
It really is lucky you linked to this thread in taht other one. I played the BG games when they first came out, but haven't touched them since. I started BG2 a few days ago on my laptop, luckily i am only about 2 hours in, so i don't mind restarting
 
Funny this should come up again, just re-installing it (again) and going to make an effort of playing it right through right to the end this time.
 
I played them the first time in a very lazy way over a very long period and never really "got into them" as you might say. Now i'm going to play them whilst at work doing night shifts where i get a fair bit of the night to myself.
I ususally look for old games to play whilst at work and playing these again would be perfect, so i picked them both up from GOG, bargain
 
Turn Baldurs gate into the greatest CRPG experience ever? Reminds me of the old D&D spell, Transmute Rock to Stone.
 
That was quite a painless install actually, installing the minimum pack with a few additions.

It didn't take that long at all and all indications are that it has done it properly:)
 
Hmmm, mine is stuck in an endless loop of requesting me to point it to the right directory but not actually giving me the option to point it.
 
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