Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[ferratilis]

I can't get BG2 classic to fullscreen without black bars no matter what I try (widescreen mod). Its always a tiny poxy little box in the center of the screen.

strange thing is, I have IWD2 running in fullscreen stretched with its respective widescreen mods. Classic Planescape also fullscreen stretches even without the widescreen mods. Found at least two other people who had the same problem and no solution other than very hacky ones I CBA using. Shame, I'll have to use EE instead

I remember having this problem, looking it up online for hours, trying everything, and nothing worked. In the end, it was just a matter of deleting one of the files in the installation folder, but for the life of me, I can't remember which one lol. Maybe it was a ddraw file, try that and see if it works. It was something simple, but my memory is shit, so it's hard to remember what exactly.

So I reinstalled the game just to check this thing. You don't have to delete any files, you just have to disable 3d acceleration in the config file, then run vid test, and it will work properly. You're probably using an AMD GPU, like me, and they're known to do fullscreen scaling in their own weird way. Hopefully it helps.

 

[bloodlover]

Regarding weapons and without spoiling things, how wise would it be to go flail and maybe warhammer/idk what in BG1 on a berserker? Flail of Ages is very tempting to use especially vs those pesky golems.

 

[Jvegi]

Without item mods most specializations will feel under-accommodated, since the items are placed with the original, broader specializations in mind. Get used to a bunch of your party members being stuck with plain +2 weapons by the end of the game. I don't remember how well flails and war hammers are represented in bg1, but it doesn't really matter. You don't need to min-max with items in bg1.

 

[Average Manatee]

+2 items are fine in BG1, Beamdog scattered the new weapon proficiencies around fairly well except for Katanas which are still intentionally rare. Certain proficiencies might find their +2 variant available a bit earlier than other but its not a big deal.

The only weapon proficiencies that I'd say stand out in BG1EE are the ones that allow throwing and Scimitars, which have very strong versions available if you kill Drizzt. But take Flail anyway if you want because flail of ages + Defender of Easthaven in BG2 is a really awesome and overpowered combo. Unless you want Anomen or someone to use them (he doesn't start with proficiency tho).

 

[Jvegi]

Beamdog scattered the new weapon proficiencies around fairly well

They did? I remember half of my party not getting nice items because their proficiencies were too specific. They might have patched it, or perhaps I'm not remembering things well.

 

[Cael]

Regarding weapons and without spoiling things, how wise would it be to go flail and maybe warhammer/idk what in BG1 on a berserker? Flail of Ages is very tempting to use especially vs those pesky golems.

You mainly get +2 weapons only in BG1, so it really doesn't matter. A hammer+2 is not that different from a longsword +2. The only ones that stand out require certain cheese to get. Flails, IIRC, are pretty under represented in BG1, though, it must be said. I only recall +1 Flails, so you'd definitely want a backup weapon.

 

[Average Manatee]

Beamdog scattered the new weapon proficiencies around fairly well

They did? I remember half of my party not getting nice items because their proficiencies were too specific. They might have patched it, or perhaps I'm not remembering things well.

Might be an issue with not exploring? They aren't all in stores, if you aren't 100%ing every area you might miss a few.

I'm pretty sure most weapons have a +2. The weapon categories in vanilla BG1 are way, way more condensed, Beamdog added at least a few +2s to cover the rest.

For example flails have:

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/The_Thresher

 

[NecroLord]

Warhammers are another category of weapons which are quite underrepresented in Baldur's Gate.
There's the Warhammer of Thunderbolts +3 (which can be upgraded into Crom Faeyr) and there's the Runehammer (but it's a Throne of Bhaal only weapon).
Longswords are a great weapon category to go for. Axes are also really good. There are also some really powerful Two Handed swords, including the artifact Carsomyr, the Paladin's best friend.

 

[Grunker]

I want to start a BG 1 - SoA - ToB run since I only played SoA many years ago (and loved it) and I am thinking of doing it all with the same character. My SoA run was with a sorc if I remember but it does not matter very much. What would be a fun character to roll, given that BG1 is quite low level and many classes (like monk) don't get going until later levels? I am inclined to do a wild mage or bard run but I am not sure about wild mages in low levels and bards in high levels .

Also, very important question: EE or classic?

Thank you.

You go EE but ignore EE-related content. The reason you do this is to get EET, which is the most up to date mod that rolls together all the games you can play them back-to-back in the same engine. This also ensures you can use any other mods you might like. I enjoy BG1 NPC project, for example, while other Codexers hate it like the plague. YMMV.

If you enjoy difficulty and mechanical gameplay at all, install SCS. Hell even if you don't probably install it and just set it to easy or something.

Bards can be very fun to play. While they're essentially a less powerful Kensai/Mage, they have access to a lot of unique gear and fun shit like that, so I tend to enjoy playing them more than their overpowered cousins.

One of my favourite classes is Archer/Cleric - take Archer to 7, 9 or 13 then Cleric (7 gives you 1.5APR, 9 gives you +1 to hit and damage and a weapon profiency point, 13 is very late but gives you 2APR). Not only is it fun to play, it has multiple cool things going on:

1) You have another physical character on lower levels where casting be a shackle
2) You get some druid spells thrown into your cleric spell list due to the overlap of Ranger.
3) Once you're fully unlocked, you got someone to plop all the best archer gear on that doesn't waste a physical slot (which at this point you want in the frontline)
4) All cleric's self-buffs scale just as well or better with Archer as with Fighter

Fighter/Cleric is probably still better in some ways, but I never leave home without an Archer/Cleric. You might have to install EE Tweaks to unlock it, I can't recall.

 

[Cael]

I want to start a BG 1 - SoA - ToB run since I only played SoA many years ago (and loved it) and I am thinking of doing it all with the same character. My SoA run was with a sorc if I remember but it does not matter very much. What would be a fun character to roll, given that BG1 is quite low level and many classes (like monk) don't get going until later levels? I am inclined to do a wild mage or bard run but I am not sure about wild mages in low levels and bards in high levels .

Also, very important question: EE or classic?

Thank you.

You go EE but ignore EE-related content. The reason you do this is to get EET, which is the most up to date mod that rolls together all the games you can play them back-to-back in the same engine. This also ensures you can use any other mods you might like. I enjoy BG1 NPC project, for example, while other Codexers hate it like the plague. YMMV.

If you enjoy difficulty and mechanical gameplay at all, install SCS. Hell even if you don't probably install it and just set it to easy or something.

Bards can be very fun to play. While they're essentially a less powerful Kensai/Mage, they have access to a lot of unique gear and fun shit like that, so I tend to enjoy playing them more than their overpowered cousins.

One of my favourite classes is Archer/Cleric - take Archer to 7, 9 or 13 then Cleric (7 gives you 1.5APR, 9 gives you +1 to hit and damage and a weapon profiency point, 13 is very late but gives you 2APR). Not only is it fun to play, it has multiple cool things going on:

1) You have another physical character on lower levels where casting be a shackle
2) You get some druid spells thrown into your cleric spell list due to the overlap of Ranger.
3) Once you're fully unlocked, you got someone to plop all the best archer gear on that doesn't waste a physical slot (which at this point you want in the frontline)
4) All cleric's self-buffs scale just as well or better with Archer as with Fighter

Fighter/Cleric is probably still better in some ways, but I never leave home without an Archer/Cleric. You might have to install EE Tweaks to unlock it, I can't recall.

Bard use the thief XP table. When you are level 20, they are probably around level 30.

Archer/Cleric? Are you serious?

 

[NecroLord]

Archer/Cleric

Clerics are restricted to using only blunt weapons.
You lose all proficiency points you put as an Archer (for example, grandmastery in Longbows or specialization in Longswords) if you decide to switch to Cleric.

 

[Grunker]

Archer/Cleric

Clerics are restricted to using only blunt weapons.
You lose all proficiency points you put as an Archer (for example, grandmastery in Longbows or specialization in Longswords) if you decide to switch to Cleric.

Archer cannot dual into Cleric, not in vanilla game ( and that include vanilla EE), only in some mods.

Like I said, EE Tweaks

 

[PrK]

Also, very important question: EE or classic?

Thank you.

Since you haven't played BG1 before, the only question is whether you are willing to play without SCS. If you are, then the only choice is to play the original (without BGT/TuTu) since anything else is literally a different game (UI, sprites, summoning cap, grandmastery, waylays are just a few of the steep declines, not to mention the abominable Beamdog content).

 

[octavius]

Archer/Cleric? Are you serious?

Maybe he's a fan of Rackhir the Red Archer.

 

[agris]

Archer/Cleric? Are you serious?

There's two types of people that replay the BG games. 1) story fags, and 2) combat/mechanics fags.

If you fall into the second camp, replaying the game with novel class combinations is where all the fun is at. It's these people that like lvl1npc as well, because it turns party members into a sandbox from which you can try even more strange builds with.

 

[NecroLord]

Kensai/Thief anyone?

 

[Average Manatee]

Wiki says Archers can dual into Cleric. Problem is that you're limited to slings, which archers can't even grandmaster in. You're gonna be worse off than just a fighter->cleric who grandmasters slings, but I guess its fine if you want druid casting on a purely ranged class? Use the EE setting that restores full druid casting for ranger/clerics.

In general ranger/clerics are fine, though it's better off as a multiclass rather than a dual. Dualling is either because you are starting as a fighter and want grandmastery or you are ending as a wizard and want level 9 spells (and HLA spells) at 3M XP rather than 6M XP. Multi gets you fighter HLAs, better eventual THAC0, and doesn't really impact divine spell progression nearly as much as it would arcane. The only real reason to choose Fighter/Cleric over Ranger/Cleric is if you want to be a dwarf for the save bonus.

If you fall into the second camp, replaying the game with novel class combinations is where all the fun is at. It's these people that like lvl1npc as well, because it turns party members into a sandbox from which you can try even more strange builds with.

I do like alternate NPC classes for replays, SCS has the best system I've found which allows changing NPC classes/kits/duals and multis on the fly whenever you meet a new one. Really like 2/3rds of the kits in the game are something you wouldn't want on your main character so that's the only way I'll use them.

 

[Grunker]

Wiki says Archers can dual into Cleric. Problem is that you're limited to slings

EE Tweaks can tweak most of those restrictions as is your want, including removing the weapon restriction.

 

[Cael]

Wiki says Archers can dual into Cleric. Problem is that you're limited to slings

EE Tweaks can tweak most of those restrictions as is your want, including removing the weapon restriction.

But can it give you the Paladin/Mage or Ranger/Mage dual a la Gold Box games?

 

[Grunker]

Wiki says Archers can dual into Cleric. Problem is that you're limited to slings

EE Tweaks can tweak most of those restrictions as is your want, including removing the weapon restriction.

But can it give you the Paladin/Mage or Ranger/Mage dual a la Gold Box games?

I doubt it. Most class-stuff in the Infinity Engine is hard-coded. The only reason you can enable some things - like Barbarian/Druid for instance (also a very enjoyable and lore fitting combo), is because the basics are in place, in these cases ranger/cleric and fighter/druid.

 

[Humbaba]

Siege of Dragonspear which as far as I understand bridges the two games a bit

Good Gods, no! BG1 and BG2 follow each other perfectly. Do you need a bridge between your bedroom and your toilet?

You can think about Siege of Transsexuality what you want, but the transition (heh) between BG1 and BG2 is the exact opposite of smooth.

 

[NecroLord]

Siege of Mizhena, hero of Faerun...

 

[Grunker]

Mizhena is a marginal character at best and speaking to her is optional. Even if you're staunch "oh noes, the wokes!", the problem with Siege is that besides a few good dungeons, it offers very little. The "big fights" are cool as a concept but wear out their charm pretty quickly. The story is mostly ass. Those dungeons are pretty OK though. If they were a mod to BG2, I'd probably always have them installed.

It's sadly wasted potential, really. The cutscene tech can be pretty impressive compared to even BG2.

EDIT: It's also kind of hilarious that despite an 5-6 hour game, it doesn't really bridge BG1 and BG2. Rather, it takes you on an irrelevant detour and in the end the cut from Siege to BG2 and you getting captured is almost entirely as glaring as in BG1->BG2. So they kind of failed the most basic task. You had one job, like.

 

[Average Manatee]

But can it give you the Paladin/Mage or Ranger/Mage dual a la Gold Box games?

It can allow normally illegal dual classing like Wild Mage/x, and set any character to any base class regardless of stats or racial restrictions. Tweakpack can enable humans to multi and/or non-humans to dual. An editor can allow you to take any single kit (so you could be a fighter dualled to assassin or cleric dualled to wild mage, or a kensai/mage multi). I think that's about the extent of what you can do though without heavy custom modding.

For example a Berserker->Mage dual is set as a Fighter/Mage multi with a specific flag to denote that it was a dual class and the Berserker kit applied. You can fiddle around with those, but the problem is that there's no Paladin/Mage multi class option available to use as a base. Things like Barbarian->Mage or Barbarian/Mage is only possible through modding because Barbarian was never its own class, it was just a kit of fighter that Bioware pretended was a separate class. And two kits isn't possible because there's only one kit field. Well, maybe you could cludge it together by leveling one kit, then dualling and changing the kit before leveling the new class, maybe you'd keep the old abilities just fine, dunno.

Mizhena is a marginal character at best and speaking to her is optional. Even if you're staunch "oh noes, the wokes!", the problem with Siege is that besides a few good dungeons, it offers very little. The "big fights" are cool as a concept but wear out their charm pretty quickly. The story is mostly ass.

It's sadly wasted potential, really. The cutscene tech can be pretty impressive compared to even BG2.

EDIT: It's also kind of hilarious that despite an 5-6 hour game, it doesn't really bridge BG1 and BG2. Rather, it takes you on an irrelevant detour and in the end the cut from Siege to BG2 and you getting captured is almost entirely as glaring as in BG1->BG2. So they kind of failed the most basic task. You had one job, like.

As I said before, it's sort of an interesting mid-level IWD adventure plastered with awful BG tie-in dialog and characters.

 

[Grunker]

In general, Shadowkeeper can go further than modding in many cases, though even it can't multiclass Paladins.