Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[xan]

I have no privileges, yet I must brofist. Looks much better.

On Beamdog stuff, I should admit that I did use Dorn for most of my BG1 playthrough. He's very strong, claiming almost 50% of total kills across the game. He starts with a great two-hander, and of course there is spider bane. His strength gives him damage and THAC0 reduction, and his poison reliably interrupts spellcasters. He also has aura of fear, but I can't quite recall what it does. Oh, and he can act as the face of the party too.
Only downside is his lower constitution, but if you play scs that's less of an issue due to extra healing potions being available to buy.

So, if you like strong all rounder characters, I guess there's something worthwhile beamdog added.

 

[janior]

playing bg2 now and man I almost forgot how poopy the opening dungeon/sequence is, it's like that thing lilura talked about

 

[Vyadhis]

You could have at least tried to find a better portrait picture for CHARNAME.

I couldn't find a better picture. Its suppose to be the one serial killer guy from the first season of Thunderbolt Fantasy, some Japanese-Taiwan puppet show.

 

[janior]

also the game is hellbent on interrupting you constantly with cutscenes and unwanted dialogue, man maybe bg2 is shit after all

 

[Vyadhis]

I have no privileges, yet I must brofist. Looks much better.

On Beamdog stuff, I should admit that I did use Dorn for most of my BG1 playthrough. He's very strong, claiming almost 50% of total kills across the game. He starts with a great two-hander, and of course there is spider bane. His strength gives him damage and THAC0 reduction, and his poison reliably interrupts spellcasters. He also has aura of fear, but I can't quite recall what it does. Oh, and he can act as the face of the party too.
Only downside is his lower constitution, but if you play scs that's less of an issue due to extra healing potions being available to buy.

So, if you like strong all rounder characters, I guess there's something worthwhile beamdog added.

I actually kind of like Baeloth, I feel guilty for that. Dorn is really good if you patch in the fix that buffs poison again.

 

[Sentinel]

aspect ratio scaling on your GPU

it is a bit tricky to do for bg2 if you have amd gpu, had to do all sorts of trickery to make it work properly, bg1 runs like a charm though

What do you mean tricky? You just have to enable GPU scaling in global options and then go to bg2 options and enable "maintain aspect ratio" and then run the game at the res you want (720p or 640*480). Or am I missing something?

 

[janior]

aspect ratio scaling on your GPU

it is a bit tricky to do for bg2 if you have amd gpu, had to do all sorts of trickery to make it work properly, bg1 runs like a charm though

What do you mean tricky? You just have to enable GPU scaling in global options and then go to bg2 options and enable "maintain aspect ratio" and then run the game at the res you want (720p or 640*480). Or am I missing something?

yes it does not work like that, at least for me. I had to use some other wrapper, dgvoodoo and ToBex to make it actually scale properly, somehow bg2exe overrides the scaling mode and you can't do anything about that without workarounds.

 

[janior]

This is what i mean by saying 'scaled up properly btw'

without the workout i'd have much smaller UI and black bars also on top and at the bottom of the screen

 

[oldmanpaco]

On Beamdog stuff, I should admit that I did use Dorn for most of my BG1 playthrough. He's very strong, claiming almost 50% of total kills across the game. He starts with a great two-hander, and of course there is spider bane. His strength gives him damage and THAC0 reduction, and his poison reliably interrupts spellcasters. He also has aura of fear, but I can't quite recall what it does. Oh, and he can act as the face of the party too.
Only downside is his lower constitution, but if you play scs that's less of an issue due to extra healing potions being available to buy.

So, if you like strong all rounder characters, I guess there's something worthwhile beamdog added.

Did you let him top you?

 

[ga♥]

I play with the oldschool UI addon and nostalgia fix for classic paperdoll/sprites along with the usual old movies enabled.

Hey, what's that UI mod? Link?

 

[cretin]

aspect ratio scaling on your GPU

it is a bit tricky to do for bg2 if you have amd gpu, had to do all sorts of trickery to make it work properly, bg1 runs like a charm though

What do you mean tricky? You just have to enable GPU scaling in global options and then go to bg2 options and enable "maintain aspect ratio" and then run the game at the res you want (720p or 640*480). Or am I missing something?

yes it does not work like that, at least for me. I had to use some other wrapper, dgvoodoo and ToBex to make it actually scale properly, somehow bg2exe overrides the scaling mode and you can't do anything about that without workarounds.

AMD gay I guess. On Nvidia its just a simple control panel option to override the scaling mode chosen by games/apps

 

[Sentinel]

aspect ratio scaling on your GPU

it is a bit tricky to do for bg2 if you have amd gpu, had to do all sorts of trickery to make it work properly, bg1 runs like a charm though

What do you mean tricky? You just have to enable GPU scaling in global options and then go to bg2 options and enable "maintain aspect ratio" and then run the game at the res you want (720p or 640*480). Or am I missing something?

yes it does not work like that, at least for me. I had to use some other wrapper, dgvoodoo and ToBex to make it actually scale properly, somehow bg2exe overrides the scaling mode and you can't do anything about that without workarounds.

AMD gay I guess. On Nvidia its just a simple control panel option to override the scaling mode chosen by games/apps

It works for me but I have ToBex installed anyway cause of a UI mod.

 

[xan]

On Beamdog stuff, I should admit that I did use Dorn for most of my BG1 playthrough. He's very strong, claiming almost 50% of total kills across the game. He starts with a great two-hander, and of course there is spider bane. His strength gives him damage and THAC0 reduction, and his poison reliably interrupts spellcasters. He also has aura of fear, but I can't quite recall what it does. Oh, and he can act as the face of the party too.
Only downside is his lower constitution, but if you play scs that's less of an issue due to extra healing potions being available to buy.

So, if you like strong all rounder characters, I guess there's something worthwhile beamdog added.

Did you let him top you?

I politely declined. I'm trying to get Jaheira's ring of wizardy, but I think it's bugged.

I actually kind of like Baeloth, I feel guilty for that. Dorn is really good if you patch in the fix that buffs poison again.

Forgot about Baeloth. I didn't use him, does he have a quest?

This is what i mean by saying 'scaled up properly btw'

without the workout i'd have much smaller UI and black bars also on top and at the bottom of the screen

Yoshimo looks a bit rough

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

iirc, that was Yoshimo's original portrait. Baeloth does not have a personal quest, but he does have his own DLC.

 

[Vyadhis]

I play with the oldschool UI addon and nostalgia fix for classic paperdoll/sprites along with the usual old movies enabled.

Hey, what's that UI mod? Link?

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/83508/mod-classic-bg-ui-v1-6 Install the old movies and nostalgia pack afterwards if you haven't. Not a 1:1 fix but better. Also after you install the old movies go to the movie folder and rename the bioware or black isle movie to logo.wbm so it doesn't show beamdog anymore. Or you can simply delete logo.wbm. Use convenient EE npcs mod to remove the beamdog npcs or just the ones you don't like.


As for Baeloth, like Cat Headed Eagle says, he has no personal quest in BG. You must be at least level 5 and go to a part of the Larswood, roughly north of the stone tower. You know you're in the right place because a load of gibberlings will assault you. Keep exploring and an event will start where Baeloth teleports in. He comes with a free robe of the evil arch-magi and is roughly on par with Edwin, maybe a bit better because he's a drow with spell resist.


Also, despite my "work" on the EE you just cannot get it to look as crisp as the OG. I've also noticed the nostalgia pack likes to glitch out some if you dual wield or use certain bucklers/shields . I also find OG Insanity more challenging as a whole vs SCS Insanity and yes I enable every module for improved monsters/encounters. I think the individual fights vs mages are more challenging in SCS but OG insanity feels harder as a whole. Prime example being the Gnoll Fortress. It takes way longer for me to go through vs SCS. Might just be my playstyle because some posters here say original BG is too easy.

double edit - actually, with Nearest Neighbor enabled in graphics for EE+ the nostalgia fix pack I've compared and sprites are identical.

 

[octavius]

I think the only thing that was harder in original BG1 compared to SCS was the random encounter when you are waylaid by a large group of archers which you have now way of defeating with two lvl 1 characters.
And the endless respawns made things slightly more difficult and a lot more annoying.

 

[volklore]

Sword Coast Stratagems is a collection of mini-mods for Baldur's Gate series of games. It is compatible with the Enhanced Editions of Baldur's Gate I and II, the original edition of Baldur's Gate II with the Throne of Bhaal extension, with the "EasyTUTU" conversion of Baldur's Gate to the Baldur's Gate II engine, and with the 'Baldur's Gate Trilogy' and 'Enhanced Edition Trilogy' combinations of the two games. (It is not compatible with the original BG1, or with the original BG2 without Throne of Bhaal.)

Was thinking of maybe replaying BG1-2 with SCS (never did) and I ended up on this lmao. Why is there so many version/conversions of these games and what should I actually use?

 

[Ryzer]

I suffered from bugs in the original version of BG2 in which I don't receive the xp rewards, it is troublesome but the UI is properly scaled.
So I recommend original BG2 + bugfix mods.

 

[The Jester]

Baldur's Gate 2 portraits with StableDiffusion.
Original reddit post

Another AI portrait pack.
This one is more faithful to the original style.

Realistic NPC Portraits for BGEE​

Realistic NPC Portraits for BG2EE​

And now with ToB portraits.

 

[d1r]

Looks fine besides Sendai looking like a negro. lol

 

[NecroLord]

Looks fine besides Sendai looking like a negro. lol

Queen Laquanda Sendai of the Drow Hood.

 

[Sodafish]

Yaga-Shura also doesn't work without the "you gon' get raped" face.

 

[The Jester]

Looks fine besides Sendai looking like a negro. lol

Well she IS a "Dark" elf so...

 

[Sarathiour]

Dragon abazigal look like an happy retard, and bodhi look like she's high on something.

 

[Vyadhis]

I suffered from bugs in the original version of BG2 in which I don't receive the xp rewards, it is troublesome but the UI is properly scaled.
So I recommend original BG2 + bugfix mods.

Can you recommend/link specific bugfix mods? I have a hard time finding links to non EE stuff anymore.