Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Lagole Gon]

Don't know if it's good or not, but even though I'm usually happy to see a multi-hour video on vidya, 3,5 hours on lvl 4 spells alone seems excessive.

Huh. There is some spell I've never heard about because it was removed in TotSC and quite rare to begin with.

 

[Don Peste]

I didn't know it was going to be ported to Dreamcast. Running even better than on a PC!

mandatory

 

[Johannes]

it's not official material

Got an answer.

Support Agent (D&D)

Oct 19, 2020, 4:53 PM PDT

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Support. If you are speaking of Heroes of Baldur's Gate as found here, the adventure is unofficial fan content published through the DM's Guild online adventure marketplace.

Are you happy, rusty_shackleford ? Siege of Dragonspear remains safely canon.

That's not the book the video is talking about.

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/365114
Published by WoTC, it says for that one. Its canon af

 

[rusty_shackleford]

it's not official material

Got an answer.

Support Agent (D&D)

Oct 19, 2020, 4:53 PM PDT

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Support. If you are speaking of Heroes of Baldur's Gate as found here, the adventure is unofficial fan content published through the DM's Guild online adventure marketplace.

Are you happy, rusty_shackleford ? Siege of Dragonspear remains safely canon.

That's not the book the video is talking about.

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/365114
Published by WoTC, it says for that one. Its canon af

DM's guild = non-canon

Just like Heroes of Baldur's Gate, it's another non-canon James Ohlen book.
It's published on the same site with the same markings, btw: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e

As for why they let him write non-canon Baldur's Gate material? Idk, I guess because it's James Ohlen?

 

[Johannes]

it's not official material

Got an answer.

Support Agent (D&D)

Oct 19, 2020, 4:53 PM PDT

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Support. If you are speaking of Heroes of Baldur's Gate as found here, the adventure is unofficial fan content published through the DM's Guild online adventure marketplace.

Are you happy, rusty_shackleford ? Siege of Dragonspear remains safely canon.

That's not the book the video is talking about.

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/365114
Published by WoTC, it says for that one. Its canon af

DM's guild = non-canon

Just like Heroes of Baldur's Gate, it's another non-canon James Ohlen book.
It's published on the same site with the same markings, btw: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e

As for why they let him write non-canon Baldur's Gate material? Idk, I guess because it's James Ohlen?

Only the newer one has WoTC marked as its publisher

 

[rusty_shackleford]

it's not official material

Got an answer.

Support Agent (D&D)

Oct 19, 2020, 4:53 PM PDT

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Support. If you are speaking of Heroes of Baldur's Gate as found here, the adventure is unofficial fan content published through the DM's Guild online adventure marketplace.

Are you happy, rusty_shackleford ? Siege of Dragonspear remains safely canon.

That's not the book the video is talking about.

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/365114
Published by WoTC, it says for that one. Its canon af

DM's guild = non-canon

Just like Heroes of Baldur's Gate, it's another non-canon James Ohlen book.
It's published on the same site with the same markings, btw: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e

As for why they let him write non-canon Baldur's Gate material? Idk, I guess because it's James Ohlen?

Only the newer one has WoTC marked as its publisher

Because it was for a charity, all the Extra Life books are published by WotC. It's a non-canon book.
Canon 5E products are found on the official website, not dms guild, e.g., https://dnd.wizards.com/products/journeys-through-radiant-citadel & https://www.dndbeyond.com/marketplace/adventures/journeys-through-the-radiant-citadel

you can find other (newer and older) Extra Life material on there too also published by WotC: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/371449/Domains-of-Delight-5e?src=hottest_filtered

 

[Johannes]

It's still real to me dammit

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Are any 5E products really canon?

 

[Brimruk]

Beat the OG Baldur's Gate 1 finally (played a Kensai/Mage through the Tutu trilogy years ago and was constantly dropping the difficulty to Easy for the tough fights so I'm not counting it):

• Party was F/I CHARNAME, Kivan, Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen, Branwen. Dropped Jaheira/Khalid ASAP because his simping and her nagging was just too much (also 15 STR for a fighter?? Get the fuck outta here)
  • Struggled at the beginning with CHARNAME playing as just a fighter; once I remembered I can cast some damn defensive spells things got *way* easier and more fun (her and Minsc absolutely cleaned up all fights basically just by the two of them)
• It's amazing to me how well the game holds up in all aspects technically; it's beautiful (sprites over 3D models gang), great soundtrack and solid writing (not too purple in the prose). Only three complaints, two of which were easily resolved
  • Walk speed is so damn slow by default; changing the AI updates from 30 to 40/50 (don't remember) resolved this handily
  • Pathfinding is occasionally a pain in the ass, especially trying to move between areas with a Commoner stuck in the exit. Issues in areas like Ice Island and Firewine were resolved just by changing the party formation into a straight line (rather than trying to cram the triangular one through)
  • Really missing the *rest until healed* option. It definitely taught me that it's okay for everyone to not be topped off all the time, but it was mostly just a pain in the ass to watch a bunch of fucking spell animations between rests
• Didn't mod things too heavily - Widescreen mod didn't work, not sad about it, Unfinished Business and the Tweaks Anthology (the latter for only a few things like arrow stacking)
• Trash fights were mostly confined to the beginning/early middle of the game; late game everything definitely felt more impactful. I'm far from a master of the underlying systems and difficulty felt just right all around; didn't struggle anywhere unduly, provided I remembered about using my full damn inventory/spellbooks
  • I'm planning on finishing this trilogy with the F/I at some point and also playing through the EEs with another character so I can get SCS all-around. My read is it's good for someone like me, wanting to be challenged but still fairly new to high(er) difficulty, with Tactics/Ascension/IA seeming way the fuck above me (for SCS, the Tactical setting sounds good but we'll see if it'll actually just destroy me)
• Last fight wasn't as bad as I was expecting; Sarevok hit like a truck but a few rounds with a fully buffed party he goes down quick. Semaj was a bit of a pain, Tazok and Angelo did not appear; I may have cheesed things a bit just dragging Sarevok down to the entrance with a hasted CHARNAME but fuck it (I thought about reloading to deal with all three but I don't think that would've upped the challenge much because again, Sarevok was chunked so damn quick)
  • Toughest fight of the game, and I think the one that finally taught me to use buffs/items, was honestly the first mage battle on Ice Island. The other 'biggies' like Demonknight, Aec'Letec, Iron Throne party, etc. were challenging but provided I was appropriately buffed and micro-managed archers/others targets I got through without too much frustration.
• Loved the itemization, so damn satisfying finding that +2/+3 item unexpectedly (I didn't know about Ashideena going into the fight and shit my pants when I saw what I got). The item backstories are great as well (see point above on good writing)
• I know for a fact I missed a ton of quests, especially in Baldur's Gate. After Durlag's Tower, <3, I realized I just wanted more fun fights and didn't care about the story/dialogue as much. I think my next IE game will be Icewind Dale, as the prospect of a fully customizable party and not too much non-combat is fucking awesome
  • I think Tweaks Anthology has something to turn off romances in BG2? That sounds awesome honestly, I just could not care less about companions and their bullshit

Overall: Highly doubt anyone reading this thread, or forum, beyond one or two is similarly placed to me with their experience with golden age RPGs (played a few when I was younger, now going back to the rest when I have the time) but goddamn if you haven't played this game yet definitely check it out. If you can't do without graphic fucking and dramatic sighs I guess it's not a good choice, but the journey is satisfying as fuck in all other aspects

 

[Sarathiour]

Highly doubt anyone reading this thread

They are DOZENS of us !

How dare you.

Also when you come back to it , SCS is highly customisable. Given your feedback, you probably don't want to push the option all the way to autismo maximus, but leaves them on average.

 

[Brimruk]

Highly doubt anyone reading this thread

They are DOZENS of us !

How dare you.

Also when you come back to it , SCS is highly customisable. Given your feedback, you probably don't want to push the option all the way to autismo maximus, but leaves them on average.

Yep, definitely sticking at Tactical or Improved. The names of the higher difficulties is alone to scare me away, much less the descriptions

1. BASIC: Enemies choose their targets and use their spells fairly unintelligently. They refrain from using some of their more dangerous special abilities and spells. (This is roughly the level of the unmodified game's 'Core' difficulty.)
2. IMPROVED: Intelligent enemies attack and use their powers fairly sensibly, though most will not use class abilities, and some of their most dangerous special abilities are still avoided.
3. TACTICAL: Enemies continue to use intelligence in their targetting, and now use most of their powers and often call for help from nearby allies. Spellcasters begin casting some spells in advance of combat, especially if they arrive in the area in sight of the party. Some supernatural creatures gain the ability to use their abilities instantly and uninterruptably.
4. HARDCORE: Enemies now use all of their powers as effectively as they can; a small number receive a boost to hit points. Some enemy numbers are increased. Spellcasters more aggressively cast spells in advance. In the later game, some of the most powerful spellcasters begin to use High-Level Abilities.
5. INSANE: Several enemies receive further boosts to their abilities and their numbers; spellcasters aggressively cast spells before combat; use of High-Level Abilities now occurs (for the most powerful spellcasters) throughout the game.

 

[Chippy]

Heh, I wont keep going on about this shit, but in "Minsc and Boo's Guide to Stuff and Things" Edwin takes over Ramizith's tower in BG. But he's still such an arrogant asshole that he keeps his simulcrum around and only uses it for company 'cause he still thinks everyone else is a moron..

What a missed opportunity. I think it would have been hilarious if the simulcrum came out as Edwina. Imagine writing a passage where players pass the tower and all you can hear from the window is the bed hitting the wall and him shouting "That is still the most amazing rack I have ever seen!". And other quips that come to mind.

Probably against some librul custom or other these days though. And we have to all agree that the ogre sex scene in BG3 is the height of artistic 2022 humor.

 

[Average Manatee]

Tactics is absolutely absurd difficulty that no one should play. It goes way, way past good difficulty and just starts throwing mages with HLAs and full spellbooks at you when you're like level 7 or 8 in Irenicus's dungeon. Beating it requires absurd amounts of abuse and exploits. It's like the equivalent of standing on a rock in an Elder Scrolls game at maximum difficulty and pumping 100 arrows into every enemy to kill them.

SCS ramps up fairly smoothly and is reasonably fair even at insane difficulty (assuming no x2 damage increase). There are a few parts that I think are a bit uneven and disrupt game flow (kobolds in BG1 being overpowered unless you spam sleep), or enemies that are a little bullshit to fight (Illithids/Beholders), but for the most part it stays pretty fair even when its boosting enemy stats. Hardcore isn't that insane, for example

Give HLAs to mages and priests
ToB mages: Yaga-Shura's lieutenant; Sendai and her statues; the Skeleton Mage; the fire giant mages; Karun the Black; the Hell Trial form of Irenicus; Semaj; Draconis; Illasera (non-Ascension version); Iycanth the Mad; all named liches.
ToB priests: Yaga-Shura's lieutenant; Sendai and her statues; the Skeleton Priest; Nyalee; Berenn; Ameralis Zauviir.
SoA mages: Alchra Diagott; Suneer; Irenicus (all forms); Shangalar; the Shade Lich; the Elemental Lich; Layene; Kangaxx the Lich; Lagole Gon.
SoA priests: Matron Mother Ardulace, Stalman, Hindra Jae'llat

Hardcore only activates this for ToB mages and priests. Insane unlocks it for the SoA ones. And there's a further "Legacy of Bhaal" difficulty option available if you customize this specific component which gives every mage and cleric capable of casting their highest level spells HLAs in their spell list. Never tried playing with that. Still nowhere near fighting Planetars and having meteor swarm thrown at you in Irenicus's dungeon. Basically, the only enemies that are going to be truly tough to kill in SCS are mages/clerics with a lot of protections. If you can take those down a standard fighter with 5-10 APR can kill anything in a few rounds, there's no bullshit enemies with 95% resistance or 1k HP.

Ascension IS bullshit. You have to deal with crap like Abazigal being a level 30 kensai / level 30 mage (which gives him a THAC0 of like -30), and the immunity to timestop that Mellisan and Balthazar have basically turns the best spell in the game into something that kills your party if you cast it, but it also IS the culmination of the trilogy and it massively improves the ending narratively so I recommend it.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Average Manatee Ascension must have changed since I played it a decade ago. I remember Amelyssan and Bathazar being immune to Time Stop, but I don't recall her being Kensai. I thought she was a Cleric/Mage.

 

[Average Manatee]

Abazigal, not Amelyssan.

Stats:
Abazigal: Level 30 Kensai/Mage, HP 354 THAC0 -33 APR 5 AC -18
Yaga-Shura: Level 25 Berserker, HP 406 THAC0 -18/15 (two weapon fighting), APR 5 AC -9, also has large to huge resistances to almost everything that decay over time.
Illasera: Level 18 Ranger, HP 266 THAC0 -26 APR 4.5 AC -9. In my game she has upto level 6 spells but that might be because I have expanded spell progression mods and I think SCS reorganizes spells for enemies taking it into account.
Balthazar: Level 30 Monk, HP 338 THAC0 -17 APR 8 (perm improved haste) AC -14
Sendai: Level 26 Cleric/Mage (Cleric/Conjurer in my game, that might be due to SCS randomly giving mage specializations though), HP 217 THAC0 4 APR 2 AC -4

Melissan: Level 30 Cleric/Mage, 1018 HP THAC0 -15 APR 5 AC -14, also has high resistances to most things. Stats go down the more of the others you've killed.

The absurdly good THAC0 (considering your base AC caps at -20) on Abazigal and to a lesser extent Illasera and immunity to timestop is all that really bugs me. Inflated HP and the resistances can get annoying, but for the most part if you are safe defensively your fighter will be able to output like 200 damage per round. Even if that's cut in half an unprotected Melissan goes down fast when 3 people are wailing on her.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Abazigal, not Amelyssan.

Stats:
Abazigal: Level 30 Kensai/Mage, HP 354 THAC0 -33 APR 5 AC -18
Yaga-Shura: Level 25 Berserker, HP 406 THAC0 -18/15 (two weapon fighting), APR 5 AC -9, also has large to huge resistances to almost everything that decay over time.
Illasera: Level 18 Ranger, HP 266 THAC0 -26 APR 4.5 AC -9. In my game she has upto level 6 spells but that might be because I have expanded spell progression mods and I think SCS reorganizes spells for enemies taking it into account.
Balthazar: Level 30 Monk, HP 338 THAC0 -17 APR 8 (perm improved haste) AC -14
Sendai: Level 26 Cleric/Mage (Cleric/Conjurer in my game, that might be due to SCS randomly giving mage specializations though), HP 217 THAC0 4 APR 2 AC -4

Melissan: Level 30 Cleric/Mage, 1018 HP THAC0 -15 APR 5 AC -14, also has high resistances to most things. Stats go down the more of the others you've killed.

The absurdly good THAC0 (considering your base AC caps at -20) on Abazigal and to a lesser extent Illasera and immunity to timestop is all that really bugs me. Inflated HP and the resistances can get annoying, but for the most part if you are safe defensively your fighter will be able to output like 200 damage per round. Even if that's cut in half an unprotected Melissan goes down fast when 3 people are wailing on her.

I don't see what the problem is. Abazigal can only hit you on a -13 or higher at -20 AC.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Might have been changed since I played but some of the bg1 fights with scs are ridiculous if you don't know what's coming. Much worse than anything in bg2+scs.

 

[Average Manatee]

Might have been changed since I played but some of the bg1 fights with scs are ridiculous if you don't know what's coming. Much worse than anything in bg2+scs.

What exactly? And on what difficulty of SCS?

I think for everything above the lowest difficulty of SCS it should be assumed the player has played the game before and knows roughly what's coming.

I don't see what the problem is. Abazigal can only hit you on a -13 or higher at -20 AC.

To be fair, as the player there is some of our own bullshit we can do:

According to wiki, base AC can be -20 but that then gets modified by up to 25 Dex (-6) and vs. slashing modifiers (-4 from full plate and -3 from Golden Girdle), for a final AC of -33.

then we can do

-12 luck (wish for him to be intoxicated), lowers his attack roll by -12 to a minimum of 1 so about as good as -12 THAC0
-2 THAC0 Curse
-1 THAC0 Doom
-1 THAC0 Chant
-1 THAC0 Prayer
-2 THAC0 Recitation
-4 THAC0 Blindness
-2 THAC0 Prot from Evil

To give him a THAC0 of ONLY -8. Of course, magic resistance negates a lot of these penalties, so we need to spam lower resist, and then half these are single target buffs, most also last a relatively short amount of time, and we have to worry about everything else in the fight and can't use timestop to gain extra time. Also the wish for intoxication is pretty cheesy (not that I won't do it). Also you need to actually reach that -20 AC which is pretty damn hard to begin with and probably requires a lot of buffs. Also dispels will be flying in that fight. But sure, he's technically tankable. Could just have a fighter/mage who uses stoneskin though.

 

[Brimruk]

Might have been changed since I played but some of the bg1 fights with scs are ridiculous if you don't know what's coming. Much worse than anything in bg2+scs.

Only one I've (accidentally) spoiled for myself is Aec'Letec - the guards surrounding the pentagram actually do things in the SCS version (instead of standing around waiting to be gibbed). I imagine with an SCS install all of the fights I described as 'eh not bad' will probably turn into some major fuckery!

On a semi-related note, I started up BG2 last night just to test out the CHARNAME import while waiting for IWD1 to install (ended up spending about 2 hours on it as I hit a good stride of 'sip bourbon, fuck around in another fight'). I realize I'm a broken record about this but Jesus Christ is Imoen horrifyingly obnoxious; the companion from the first game that faced down Sarevok, Durlag's Tower and a motherfucking Tanar'ri can't stop complaining about how bad her brain hurts from some light enhanced interrogation techniques We get it Bioware, the dungeon is filled with horrific sights and descriptions we don't need Imoen piping up every other room talking about the good old days!

 

[Sarathiour]

She's not going to complain for long

Iron Throne fight with SCS is especially hard, because you're probably going to lack a few tool and they indeed pull out quite a bit of fuckery. Sarevok also is, but at this point you're going all out, so probably not as hard.

 

[Sarathiour]

Might have been changed since I played but some of the bg1 fights with scs are ridiculous if you don't know what's coming. Much worse than anything in bg2+scs.

Any early fight (before level 3, basically ) against a mage in SCS unprepared is going to send you to the grave, and they are quite a few of them. That's why starting BG with SCS is probably not a good idea.

 

[Ryzer]

I don't know about you but when I played Baldur gate 1, it was a huge slog, full of trash encounters even worse than in Origins, huge ass maps with nothing in it, bland quests, terrible encounter design...
Meh.

 

[Average Manatee]

Might have been changed since I played but some of the bg1 fights with scs are ridiculous if you don't know what's coming. Much worse than anything in bg2+scs.

Any early fight (before level 3, basically ) against a mage in SCS unprepared is going to send you to the grave, and they are quite a few of them. That's why starting BG with SCS is probably not a good idea.

I find it to be the other way around. Early game mages are still low level and don't have access to sequencers and stuff to get immediate defenses, so they are glass cannons that can be interrupted and mowed down with some ranged focus fire and magic missiles. Mid to late game mages are where it gets tough. Only exception I can think of is that one of the kobold mages in the mines knows lightning bolt

 

[Brimruk]

I don't know about you but when I played Baldur gate 1, it was a huge slog, full of trash encounters even worse than in Origins, huge ass maps with nothing in it, bland quests, terrible encounter design...
Meh.

First level or two definitely have some of that, depending on how much wanderlust you indulge versus hitting up the cities/settlements; after that things start opening up, in terms of tactics/decisions but I can see those first few hours not leaving the best impression. Great feeling though, finding those first few +1 weapons and feeling so much sturdier against the bandits that used to one-shot you with impunity!

Start of the second game breaks my damn heart...all those wonderful items I worked so hard to collect, all gone! Couldn't you at least have felt me the Staff Mace Jon?!

 

[mediocrepoet]

Start of the second game breaks my damn heart...all those wonderful items I worked so hard to collect, all gone! Couldn't you at least have felt me the Staff Mace Jon?!

They needed to give you a reason to really hate Irenicus. Fucker took all the loot that you accumulated over like 60+ hours! He's going to DIIIIIEEEE!!