Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[KörangarTheMighty]

MMO/NWN design, where you're picking up +1 and +2 items until they feel like garbage, ruins so many settings.

The Goldbox games did this long before NWN or MMOs. +2 weapons/armor drop after just about every fight past the first dungeon in Curse of the Azure Bonds. There are so many, I gave up even bothering to check the loot after every fight, let alone pick any of it up. Having played all of the modern D&D titles from 1998-2007 and now diving into the earlier stuff, it seems BG1/IWD designs were the outliers for how they dealt with dispensing loot. NwN is the norm.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Adventure module B1 In Search of the Unknown, by Mike Carr, has a treasure list of 34 entries (of which about 20 should be selected by the Dungeon Master) with a mace +1, spear +2 (!), shield +1, chain mail +1, and ring of protection +1; there is also a possibility of randomly acquiring a dagger +1 or ring of protection +1 from treasure found in a drawer (1/12 probability for each).

Adventure module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, by Gary Gygax, has many +1 (or even +2) magical weapons/armor among the inhabitants of the keep itself, though these generally wouldn't be acquired by the PCs, as well as a shield +1, dagger +1, ring of protection +1, another shield +1, hand-axe +1, 6 arrows +1, another dagger +1, another hand-axe +1, a third shield +1, spear +1 (wielded by the minotaur), plate mail +1 (part of the minotaur's treasure), a fourth shield +1 and second plate mail +1 (both equipped by the evil priest), and finally a sword +2 (requires defeat of a wight).

 

[Storyfag]

Zed, this is completely useless if you don't provide further context about those locations.

 

[Krivol]

I think itemization in BG1 is great - if you are metagaming, you will flow with the best gear, but if you play it for the first time every magical item will be a big deal.

Damn, if you do not abuse money tricks (buy only when your rep is 20, sell and steal the best gear etc) even +1 items are nice to find as they sell for A LOT more gold than regular items.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I generally have more gold than I can spend in BG1 even without engaging in thievery. Outside of Thunderhammer Smithy's couple of items in Beregost and the TotSC merchant in Ulgoth's Beard, I can't say I really buy items. It mostly comes down to scrolls at Sorcerous Sundries, though I have learned to indulge and buy all of the awesomely powerful Arrows of Dispelling and Explosion. Maybe a few priest scrolls or major potions (Gaze Reflection, Insulation, Magic Blocking, etc). I will say that doing a no-reload challenge make money far more useful in this regard. Instead of getting hoarded, powerful consumables get used and even purchased. It also encourages buying that decent item at the shop, even if you know it will be replaced.

 

[Vic]

You don't need items, just spam fireball off screen.

 

[Hydro]

You don't need items, just spam fireball off screen.

Yeah, skull trap is awesome too kek
Cheese of cheeses indeed

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Zed, this is completely useless if you don't provide further context about those locations.

I referenced the first two adventure modules in the B series for 'basic' non-advanced Dungeons & Dragons; these were the only two ever written for Holmes 'blue book' basic D&D, being released in 1979 and 1980, and they were both revised slightly the following year for Moldvay/Cook B/X Dungeons & Dragons. Both modules are extremely well known, particularly Gygax's The Keep on the Borderlands, and they're both written for characters of levels 1 to 3 (module B2 suggests in the interior text that it is specifically designed for first-level PCs), with B1 written for a smaller party of 3 to 6 characters and B2 written for a larger party of 6 to 9 characters.

For another example, adventure module B5 The Horror on the Hill, was published in 1983 for Mentzer BECMI Dungeons & Dragons, similarly intended for 5 to 10 characters of levels 1 to 3. Treasure includes a dagger +2, shield +1, one arrow +1, a second shield +1, a battleaxe +1, a shortsword +1, a ring of protection +1, a spear +1, leather armor +1, a shortsword +2, a sword +1, plate mail +1, a shield +2, a shortsword +2, five arrows +2, a second suit of plate mail +1, a sword +1 (+3 versus dragons), and a second ring of protection +1 (not counting a ring of protection +3 worn by an NPC who the party wouldn't be expected to kill).

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

You don't need items, just spam fireball off screen.

Not if you're using SCS, ToB, or the EEs. This is also amateur. Project Image then have that illusion cast Wizard Eye. You can take on the whole map for the cost of a spell.

 

[Storyfag]

You don't need items, just spam fireball off screen.

Yeah, skull trap is awesome too kek
Cheese of cheeses indeed

With 3 wizards at once: CHARNAME, Xzar, and Edwin

 

[Naraya]

Can someone please explain why this information is duplicated and mismatched? What am I missing? Is it before and after some modifiers or what?

 

[d1r]

Current:
Starting Value:

 

[Nano]

Can someone please explain why this information is duplicated and mismatched? What am I missing? Is it before and after some modifiers or what?

Have you considered reading the manual or looking at the wiki?

 

[Naraya]

Can someone please explain why this information is duplicated and mismatched? What am I missing? Is it before and after some modifiers or what?

Have you considered reading the manual or looking at the wiki?

I actually skimmed the manual, must've missed that.

 

[Melcar]

It's your base armor class. You have a -4 modifier due to Dexterity bonuses, it's why your current AC is 6.

 

[Naraya]

It's your base armor class. You have a -4 modifier due to Dexterity bonuses, it's why your current AC is 6.

Thank you. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus - why would I ever need to know my initial (innate) Armor Class?
Also I don't understand why it's not called simply:

Current AC:
Base AC:

to avoid confusion.

 

[Melcar]

It's your base armor class. You have a -4 modifier due to Dexterity bonuses, it's why your current AC is 6.

Thank you. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus - why would I ever need to know my initial (innate) Armor Class?
Also I don't understand why it's not called simply:

Current AC:
Base AC:

to avoid confusion.

I guess they could have better done the details so as to make it clear. It just adds clutter to be honest, but I guess it's there for the benefit of new players. Most of that info is in the manual, but newfag current year gamers don't usually bother with manuals.

 

[Hydro]

I’d like to replay the first one at some point, but I did it many times already and while I’ll never cease to adore its story and atmosphere, combat mechanics has become stale.

Is there any good mod that revamps this side of the game? Not just slapping another edition on top of it like EE did, but making a total conversion with tailored encounters and stuff.

I was also thinking about a mod that makes it turn based. Too much to ask I guess?

 

[jackofshadows]

I was also thinking about a mod that makes it turn based. Too much to ask I guess?

BG3. pick entirely another game ffs

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I wanted Crusader No Remorse/No Regret mod in Fallout.

 

[AwesomeButton]

It's your base armor class. You have a -4 modifier due to Dexterity bonuses, it's why your current AC is 6.

Thank you. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus - why would I ever need to know my initial (innate) Armor Class?
Also I don't understand why it's not called simply:

Current AC:
Base AC:

to avoid confusion.

You are completely right. The person who coded this UI was likely under the effects of intoxication coming from the fumes of xir blue hair spray.

 

[Brancaleone]

It's your base armor class. You have a -4 modifier due to Dexterity bonuses, it's why your current AC is 6.

Thank you. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus - why would I ever need to know my initial (innate) Armor Class?

Possibly in order to know what is your AC against backstabs etc.? It is very clumsy nevertheless.

 

[Nas92]

I’d like to replay the first one at some point, but I did it many times already and while I’ll never cease to adore its story and atmosphere, combat mechanics has become stale.

Is there any good mod that revamps this side of the game? Not just slapping another edition on top of it like EE did, but making a total conversion with tailored encounters and stuff.

I was also thinking about a mod that makes it turn based. Too much to ask I guess?

For BG1 there's Sword Coast Stratagems though it doesn't necessarily change the core of combat mechanics.
Turn-based can only be hardcoded into the game afaik, you'd need to talk to Beamdog about it, though since they can barely script the simplest of quests I highly doubt they could manage a change of this magnitude. It'd be awesome if we could get something like Owlcat's Pathfinder games with the toggleable turn-based mode for the old Infinity Engine games. Honestly I don't think I could play the pure IE RTwP games anymore, toggling turn-based whenever you want is just too convenient.

 

[Butter]

Playing the IE games turn-based would really highlight the utter lack of encounter design. A horde of kobolds is barely interesting when it takes 10 seconds to kill them; spending 5 minutes instead wouldn't be much of an improvement.

 

[Hydro]

Sword Coast Stratagems

Looks interesting, although there’s no support for the original game as far as I can see. Only the EEs abominations and the questionable TUTU.
Is there any mod scene for the original game at all?