Bought Game Please Help
fireside0244
Member Posts: 6
Hello everyone. I apologize for bothering the forums in advance. I installed the game and I read the manual. When I did not receive the answers I wanted I looked in Google and found nothing.
The thing I can't figure out is how do you repair weapons? 3 of my weapons broke in Candlekeep
When I was looking at the weapon stats I saw that one weapon had 1D8 the other 2D6 what is better? I understand the game works on a roll system but, I don't get why there is a 1D and 2D.
Paladins and Clerics both get Priest spells. I take it Clerics have the strongest heal because they learn priest spells right away. Am I correct?
When it comes to learning Priest spells. Is the chance to succeed in learning it based on Wisdom or Intelligence? Or both?
In the character creation screen when you click Paladin it shows Cavalier and some others. Does the Cavalier get everything the Paladin does just the bonuses or how does this work?
Is shields worth it towards the end of the game? Or should I build for Two Handed?
Is there a list of companions you get and their classes?
Thank you if you reply and help
The thing I can't figure out is how do you repair weapons? 3 of my weapons broke in Candlekeep
When I was looking at the weapon stats I saw that one weapon had 1D8 the other 2D6 what is better? I understand the game works on a roll system but, I don't get why there is a 1D and 2D.
Paladins and Clerics both get Priest spells. I take it Clerics have the strongest heal because they learn priest spells right away. Am I correct?
When it comes to learning Priest spells. Is the chance to succeed in learning it based on Wisdom or Intelligence? Or both?
In the character creation screen when you click Paladin it shows Cavalier and some others. Does the Cavalier get everything the Paladin does just the bonuses or how does this work?
Is shields worth it towards the end of the game? Or should I build for Two Handed?
Is there a list of companions you get and their classes?
Thank you if you reply and help
2
Comments
1D8 means 1-8 and 2D6 means 2 times 1-6 (1D6) = 2-12. So the latter is better.
Clerics get a lot stronger spells in BG:EE.
Priests learn all their spells automatically.
Cavalier is a paladin class kit. All the pros and cons should be described in the character creation screen.
For a fighter class (like cavalier) dual wielding is the most powerful option. Shield helps alot with NPCs that have weak AC.
Here is a list of companions http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_NPC_Rundown
2. A d6 is a six-sided die, a d8 is an 8-sided die. So, 1d8 damage is one roll of 1-8 damage, while 2d6 is two rolls of 1-6, or 2-12 damage. So, 2d6 is much better than 1d8.
3. Clerics and Druids are the "priest" classes, and will be your main sources of healing. Paladins and Rangers are each a fighting-oriented class that gradually receive priest spells, but neither should be relied upon as a primary healer. Paladins and Rangers don't start getting priest spells until the end of BG1 or beginning of BG2, and never achieve the same casting power.
4. Priests learn all potential spells of every spell level as soon as they achieve that spell level, so they never learn new spells from scrolls. Mages and Bards learn spells from scrolls, and their chance to learn the spell is based on Intelligence.
5. Class kits like Cavalier are assumed to have all of the base class's traits, and the additional traits that are written in the kit description are simply added to the base class. A Cavalier is an example of a kit that is very similar to the base class (and is incidentally a great starting character choice), while an Inquisitor paladin loses many paladin abilities in favor of a variety of new skills.
6. Depends on the character. Generally, you want at least one heavily-armored tank to occupy enemy melee combatants, and you'll probably want to give them a shield. Assuming you're playing a paladin, you could build him in several different ways. If he's the front line of defense for your party, I'd recommend a longsword and shield. But if you've got, say, a tough-as-nails dwarf fighter holding the line for you, your paladin could instead specialize in 2-handed swords and 2-handed fighting style to maximize his damage output. The choice is yours, there's no clear victor.
7. There is, but since you're a new player, I'd recommend exploring a ways before looking up who you can recruit where. BG1 practically throws a full party at you almost immediately if you follow the basic plot, so have no fear about filling your party's ranks. From there, you can run into new party members and decide for yourself if you want to take them.
http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/bgguide.htm
A guy on a forum I used to post on wrote it, and it's a fantastic guide to the Baldur's Gate saga that manages to be entirely spoiler-free.
A cleric or druid will be your primary healers..or rather your buffers. Until you get the spell Heal (restores all HP to the target), your lesser healing spells just take too long or don't heal enough to be worth casting in combat, for the first few levels you'll definitely want to memorize heals due to low HP levels, but once your front liners get 3-4 levels under their belt, using disabling spells against the enemy will help them more then healing them will.
Paladin are better off memorizing buff spells to make them better in direct combat. (Armor of Faith and Draw Upon Holy Might are particularly useful). That said, unless you're playing the Black Pits Arena game or use a mod to remove the xp cap, a paladin will not be able to cast spells in BG1 (their max level is 8, requires level 9 to cast spells).
You don't learn divine spells. You simply get all of them of a particular spell level once you reach the appropriate level. Only Mages and Bards have to hunt down and learn spells with a failure chance (unless you're playing normal difficulty or below, which gives a 100% scribe success rate). (Sorcerers can't learn spells, at particular levels they get to add new ones to their spell book...but they can't unlearn them, so choose wisely).
The extra options that pop up are kits (Or in the case of Mages, specializations). They usually give extra abilities, but have some downside (Except for Berserkers, Cavaliers, Arguably Totemic Druids, and Cleric kits).
All Mage specialization add an extra spell per cast per spell level per day, but either lose total access to 1 school of magic (Other specialists), or have a chance for random crap happening on every spell cast (Wild Mages)
Non-magical metal (anything except Bows, X-bows, Darts, slings, Clubs, and Quarterstaves) weapons (except for Katana, which are ridiculously expensive and extremely rare, never use this weapon type in BG1...just don't..it's not worth it. Wait till the sequel if you absolutely must use Katana) have a chance to break on hit. Just throw them away once they break, they're useless.
xDX D = Dice x = Number of dice rolled X = Number of faces the dice has.
This applies to all references in that style. Between 1d8 and 2d4 the 2d4 is better, as it's minimum roll is 1 then 1d8 as higher.
Shields aren't worth much. You're basically adding a small amount of armor class, at the cost of an extra attack, Offensive is always the best option. They're ok to use early on, when HP totals are low and hitting the enemy is hard to do, but after about level 4, ditch the shields and go on the offensive.
Ranged weapons, especially bows and darts are king in BG1. Bows have 2 base attacks and deal 1d6 damage, while Darts have 3 base attacks and deal 1d3 damage. Mages are probably the only class to really use Darts, as bows are much more user friendly, and potentially higher damaging (also in the late game there's some AWESOME bow ammo, while magical darts are really rare).
Dual-wielding adds a single extra attack, but unless you have ** in two weapon style, it penalizes both your main and off hands. *** reduces the penalty to off-hand further..but..is kind of wasted, up to you to go that far. Even * is pretty decent at higher levels. Just never attempt dual-wielding without any points in Two Weapon, the penalty is really rough.
Only Warrior-types (Paladins, Fighters, Rangers, and their kits) get natural bonus attacks from weapon specialization or high levels. Specializing (**) in a weapon gives an extra 1/2 attack. Fighters or Archers can place up to (*****) in a weapon for Grand Mastery, which adds another 1/2 attack. Level 7 and level 13 in any warrior class also add a 1/2 attack each. So a 13 fighter with Grand Mastery, dual-wielding his specialized weapon will have 4 base attacks (assuming the weapon has a natural base of 1 attack, Bows would have 5, and Darts...would have 5 (technically 6, but without haste spells the game caps attacks at 5)
At very high levels (the expansion pack for the sequel), 2 handers can be alright. A warrior-type can get a special ability (GWW) to set their number of attacks to 10 for 1 round. So the lack of the off-hand attack doesn't hurt as much.
On the other hand, a dual-wielder with certain equipment can achieve 10 attacks under Improved haste, will can be attained very early in the sequel, long before GWW becomes available.
Shields are outdated and largely useless by about half-way through BG:EE, you HP totals and armor are just so high by that point, it's just more efficient to focus on killing the enemy quicker.
The only reason to use a shield are for the immunities or abilities it has, and they tend to be very situational at best.
I disagree on the Shield evaluation. While they aren't exactly game-breakingly powerful, an enchanted shield still provides 2 AC that can't be replicated by any other effect. A pure priest has nothing better to do with their off-hand, and particularly for a beginner having at least the main tank of the party wielding a shield will go a long way towards preserving their life.
Shields are largely wasted on BG2 priests, since they become a massive offensive force and can simply ignore most damage and effects rather then blocking them with AC.
Yes, for some NPCs, shields are a good option, since the number of items available to cover stat weaknesses (aside from str) are very limited, but on the other hand...most mook enemies simply don't have good to hit scores. Even in ToB, the majority of mooks can have most of their attacks filtered out just by wearing armor with a ~1-ish AC. But for a player, unless you just have really low stats, and don't hog all the stat items for yourself, you'll never need a shield. The only time it can even compete is using the FoA+5 under GWW...that's it. All the other weapons that even come close to that damage are 2 handers.
AC is largely wasted against large groups, since the likelihood for them criting and ignoring the AC, is higher the more enemies there are, and killing them faster reduces that chance.
Psh, cure light wounds...they have access to Armor of Faith, at the same power level as a priest of that level. A real paladin prevents his allies from taking damage in the first place by stopping the threats himself and taking the hits if need be.
The primary strength of warriors isn't their thac0 progression, it's their ability to gain natural extra attacks (and starting with a nice higher str, but this becomes obsolete in the sequel, one way or another). This is seen most obviously by a plain Bard, with * Two weapon, dual-wielding speed weapons at level 11...he tears through enemies just as fast as a warrior does.
GWW skews the results some what since you can't exceed 10 attacks whether you're using GWW or dual-wielding under IH but in most cases, except the FoA+5/Shield combo, using a 2hder will result in higher damage under GWW.
I get what you're saying, but at the same time, it also doesn't matter as much. A paladin is more self-support while a cleric/druid is more group support. While Clerics can easily become melee forces by combining several difference levels of spells, paladins have a lot of those advantages built-in and just need a handful (Pretty much just AoF and DUHM) to achieve the same personal results, they're like a F/C in a single class, with a few passive immunities thrown in to replace some missing higher level stuff.
Regarding your shield stuff: Fair 'nuff. Though if we're talking BG2 and ToB, some of the shields available are quite excellent. You make good points, though, and I'll agree that by that point I'm mostly going 2-hander or dual-wield with most characters.
Regarding paladin casting: Most definitely. I didn't say that paladins don't get good spells, I said that they don't get good heals. You don't bring a paladin along as the party healer... but that hardly means that you don't cast with one.
I agree with the part of dropping the enemy fast. I recognized that problem a few zones in. When I got the Friendly Arm Inn I noticed the 2 helpers you get there are both one handed users. One of them has a lot of HP so adding a shield works. Problem is when you get to the next town you run into a dwarf who is about the same. It feels like too many tanks.
It would be nice to know if there is a Cleric for the group later on. I didn't see one in any of the links.
I don't know how many weapon proficiencies you get either (or a list of the weapons in the game). The problem I ran into on that end is the starting iron weapons break as you all said up there. I realized that the Halberd, Long Sword, Short Sword and so on are the most common. You can't even buy a claymore later on.
Correct me if I am wrong but, it sounds better to go a Fighter class/Kit for Dual Wield to maximize it? Paladins should be using 2 handed and defense/support based spells rather then heals? Is there a build guide somewhere so I can see what we are talking about?
Edit: If someone knows a guide that would be nice. That way I can know the max level cap, weapon proficiencies, where all these side quests are, where to find the good items and so on
BG2 is the sequel to BG1, and the EE version of it should be released later this year. BG2EE will include the original game (Shadows of Amn), its official expansion (Throne of Bhaal) and some new material.
There are available clerics; Jaheira, one of the helpers available at the Friendly Arm Inn is a fighter/druid, which can function as a cleric. There is also Branwen at the Neshkell Fair and Viconia in one of the wilderness areas to the east, in between Bereghost and Neshkell. The best good-aligned cleric, Yeslik is not available for a while, but he's an excellent cleric and you can't miss him when you get to him.
How many weapon proficiencies you get is a function of class, but the maximum would be six for a warrior. Considering you will want to specialize (at least two pips in a weapon) and take the style you use (two pips probably) you don't have much room to change your mind. Long Swords are the best and most common, but a variety of magical weapons of different types are available, you can make do with any choice. Especially if you have different characters using different types so you can spread around the different magic weapons you will find.
A dual wielding fighter is a common and effective choice. But there are advantages to both weapon and shield (better armor class!) and two handed weapons (especially two-handed sword, of which Claymore is a type, but that term will not be used in BG).
A paladin will not get spells in this game, but will get them pretty early in BG2. I always use a mix of defensive and healing spells for them, you will eventually have enough spells to use your paladin as a back-up cleric (in BG2, not this game!)
Longswords have probably the most variety of any weapon type across the whole saga and are a safe weapon choice, if you don't have a specific weapon in mind.
Blunt weapons are a mixed bag...it's an extremely good and safe damage type to use, since most armors are less effective vs it, and nothing is specifically immune or resistant to it (though some things do have general resistance to physical damage). On the other hand...none of the weapon types that use it (Morningstar, Mace, Club, Flail, Quarterstaff), have very much in the way of variety, quarterstaves have probably the best overall list of things to use. The others have at least 1 really good weapon, and as long as you spread the types out, you could outfit a party with them if you wanted, but they're not nearly as ubiquitous as Longswords, or even short swords.
Some enemies like Ogres can deal a LOT melee damage quickly and are a legitimate threat in melee range even at the level cap.
XP cap is 161,000
By referencing those charts you will know all the possible multi class / dual class combinations and what their max level will be.
The #1 thing that I remember about playing Baldur's Gate 15 years ago was that it was all about just playing. I never looked up a guide, I used the manual as a quick reference so I could know the controls and interface etc., but I really enjoyed just playing. It even took me a while to figure out the + meant time for a level up. Why? Because the game is not about the stats and levels and proficiencies, it's about an awesome story and great game play and discovering companions, quests, areas and learning about who CHARNAME really is and why the events in the Sword Coast matter for him/her.
Pick a class and race that sound fun to you and something you want to play, then just play it, have fun learning and discovering things on your own. Then when you replay the game again and again, you may want to start looking into uniquely challenging yourself, or setting up that perfect party or "build", but you will never get that innocence of your first time back... no need to spoil it all right away!
I realize that may not be the way you want to play, but just the humble recommendation of someone who's whole outlook on computer gaming changed in 1998 because of a game called Baldur's Gate.
http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate
Its by all means not complete, but it sure is helpful if you need some newbie and pro info.