Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Sigourn]

Am I crazy or does the voice acting in this game sound like shit? Technically speaking, that is: it doesn't sound crisp and clear, it's very muddy. See Jaheira at the beginning of BG2, while she's still in the cage.

 

[octavius]

I've never noticed anything bad about the technical quality. Maypahs you are playing the "enchanced" edition?

Some of the voice acting in the BG games is brilliant, like Cespenar. It always makes me smile when he goes "ooohhhh!".

 

[Sigourn]

I've never noticed anything bad about the technical quality. Maypahs you are playing the "enchanced" edition?

Some of the voice acting in the BG games is brilliant, like Cespenar. It always makes me smile when he goes "ooohhhh!".

Nope, the vanilla game. Maybe it's just me.

 

[mister_matt]

Speaking of classes/features that are useless, has anyone run with a purely ranged bow/dart/dagger/whatever the hell character before? I always find myself wanting to roll a ranger and only let them mess with bows, but that seems like a monumental waste of time.

I have it on good authority that dex is for cucks, also.

 

[Cael]

In BG, bows are nasty business. This is because when you get hit, you jerk back and that animation takes time. You have a party of 6 machinegunning a single target, you are likely to drop him before he gets to you if you space out your shots evenly and you hit consistently and you actually do damage to the guy.

Archer is a top tier kit because of this.

However, it has several drawbacks. First, it is good vs single targets. Get a swarm and you are in deep doo-doo. Second, hp bloat will render this character moot. This tends to happen in BG2. Third, the good bows in BG are longbows. The good bows in BG2 are shortbows. Fourth, good luck with enemies requiring +3 or better weapons to damage.

 

[mister_matt]

Fourth, good luck with enemies requiring +3 or better weapons to damage.

Are there really that many of these though?

 

[octavius]

One advantage of missile weapons with ammunition is that they all have a weapon speed of 0, since for some reason the weapon speed for ammuntion is the one used. So good for interrupting spell casting at lower levels. At higher level you may even be able to Stun Fire Giants with Kuo-Tua Bolts before they Rage, if you're lucky.
I wonder if this bug was fixed in the "enhanced" edition?

 

[Background Character]

Now Cespenar returns to his duties. Oh yes!

 

[Cael]

Fourth, good luck with enemies requiring +3 or better weapons to damage.

Are there really that many of these though?

BG, not so much. ToB? Either that or non-magical weapons only.

 

[hell bovine]

Fourth, good luck with enemies requiring +3 or better weapons to damage.

Gesen bow or Firetooth crossbow. For everything else there is the Sling of Everard (though the archer can put only two * in slings, afaik).

A slinger character is an interesting alternative to archer, e.g. a fighter/cleric could buff himself with duhm and righteus magic, and then start throwing rocks.

 

[octavius]

A slinger character is an interesting alternative to archer, e.g. a fighter/cleric could buff himself with duhm and righteus magic, and then start throwing rocks.

"Oh my!"

 

[Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Look up the item code of "Rune Killer" in Infinity Explorer

Then make a .bat file like this:

mkdir change-log
WeiDU.exe --log nul --change-log ITEMCODE.CRE >change-log/change-log.txt --out change-log
pause

Place it in the main BG2 folder and run the file.
Look up the output file in the change-log folder. It should list the mod(s) that introduce/modify "Rune Killer".

I'll try it in free time, but not sure if it'll help because this is something I've encountered in some other playthrough.

Are they rune "killers" or rune "assassins"? If the second, apparently there is a bugged infinite spawning encounter in D0questpack.

Yes, this is it.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Playing BG2.

Really enjoying it so far, played for about 30 hours and only completed 3 quests, lol. I remember now, this is the thing that made me burn out the first time:

Get a quest, set-off.
Get waylaid by a random encounter, giving me an urgent quest in another district.
On arrival in the new district my companion gives me another urgent quest.
Arrive at quest location, complete quest.
On way back to tell the quest giver, get waylaid by another random urgent quest-giver.
Companion starts nagging about their quest.
Another companion mentions their quest.
Random encounter occurs between districts.
Arrive back at the quest-giver to find out they have another quest.

It was so nice to force myself out the city and do the Keep quest, just one nice big dungeon with no questing NPCs for miles. All completed apart from the Iron Golem. Not that I minded, dudes should have quicker defenders if they really want to keep their loot... as it is it can just stand there holding its iron dick for eternity.

Biggest annoyance so far:

A bug. *sigh*

"The person appears busy at the moment".

save. Reload.

"Hello, how can I help you"

*sigh*

This is getting really fucking irritating. I had to do this about 5 times just to clear the Jack the Ripper quest alone. It'll be hundreds by the end of the game, let alone instances where the NPC is actually busy by intentional design.

 

[Krivol]

A bug. *sigh*

"The person appears busy at the moment".

save. Reload.

"Hello, how can I help you"

*sigh*

This is getting really fucking irritating. I had to do this about 5 times just to clear the Jack the Ripper quest alone. It'll be hundreds by the end of the game, let alone instances where the NPC is actually busy by intentional design.

It's fixable by patch, even official one IIRC. And yes, it was annoying as fuck.

EDIT:

http://www.sorcerers.net/community/threads/npc-appears-busy-problem.56551/

 

[Deflowerer]

Playing BG1.

If someone gets blown to fucking smithereens, there's no way to revive them, right? Just had someone get fucked by a Flesh Golem by blowing to pieces, and the character disappeared from my party (unlike normal death where the person gets greyed out). So is that guy lost forever?

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Yes. Unless you reload the last save you made 1 minute ago and replay the scene, which is how you play these kind of games unless you're an experienced Ironman player.

 

[Deflowerer]

No, I'm playing it for the first time and only reload when my main character dies. And I only save at inns.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

No, I'm playing it for the first time and only reload when my main character dies.

Have fun.

 

[Krivol]

No, I'm playing it for the first time and only reload when my main character dies.

That's the way to play IMO - there are gazilions of NPCs that you would not touch with a long pole anyway.

 

[Deflowerer]

I've lost 4 companions already, 1 blew up and 3 other were just being shitheads who I disposed of myself (the two evil dudes from the beginning areas and Minsc, who started bitching and turned on us at some point).

Otherwise not too bad, I make good use of Imoen's stealth ability to recon areas out before I storm in with my main party. And as someone who hasn't had the chance to ever play tabletop D&D, I consult the 2nd edition monster manual when something like Ghoul pops up for the first time so I have at least some idea what he's capable of and what spells don't work.

 

[Mark Richard]

Playing BG1.

If someone gets blown to fucking smithereens, there's no way to revive them, right? Just had someone get fucked by a Flesh Golem by blowing to pieces, and the character disappeared from my party (unlike normal death where the person gets greyed out). So is that guy lost forever?

Baldur's Gate has its own take on the 2nd Edition Death From Massive Damage rule (Core rules or higher only, Easy and Normal mode do not have permanent death), but the specifics are unclear. Generally it's agreed upon that a high damage attack will turn the target into chunky salsa if their loss of hitpoints dips below a certain threshold, in which case revival will be impossible. The Ogrillon is probably the first level-appropriate enemy that can reliably chunk a party member.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

No, I'm playing it for the first time and only reload when my main character dies.

That's the way to play IMO - there are gazilions of NPCs that you would not touch with a long pole anyway.

Just seems like a really weird perspective to me. You're ok with reloading, but not ok with reloading. A self-imposed self-contradictory rule that doesn't add anything?

One of your team-mates dies, you fight on... but in that same fight you die, so you reload. Your companion is alive again, yay. One of your companions dies, but you hang on by the threads, no reload, a companion dies, oh woe. I dunno, it's just not something I can get my head round really.

 

[Pizzashoes]

Has anyone toyed with using kits as pseudo-prestige classes? Using some kits in Tutu BG1 can just be stupid broken. Even a half-orc with 19 strength is just so much more capable than most other PCs. But if you delay the kit until BG2 where enemies throw the kitchen sink at you, I think it fits.

For my current playthrough, I'm having my PC be a regular fighter in BG1 and then "upgrading" him in BG2 to a kitted fighter with fancy abilities. I think it's a good way of balancing the game without destroying the sense of progression in the first one.

 

[octavius]

Yes, I've thought along the same lines, that you need to reach a certain level in the basic class before switching to a prestige class or kit.
Or maybe having to choose between a dual class (only base classes) or a kit, not getting both.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Playing BG1.

If someone gets blown to fucking smithereens, there's no way to revive them, right? Just had someone get fucked by a Flesh Golem by blowing to pieces, and the character disappeared from my party (unlike normal death where the person gets greyed out). So is that guy lost forever?

Baldur's Gate has its own take on the 2nd Edition Death From Massive Damage rule (Core rules or higher only, Easy and Normal mode do not have permanent death), but the specifics are unclear. Generally it's agreed upon that a high damage attack will turn the target into chunky salsa if their loss of hitpoints dips below a certain threshold, in which case revival will be impossible. The Ogrillon is probably the first level-appropriate enemy that can reliably chunk a party member.

I think the trigger is a hit taking you below -10 HP. And frost spells that kill you also perma-death you.