Baeloth is a bit overkill

drawnacrol

I'm a level 5 party and justed booted Neera to get Baeloth. He's a little overpowered though. I've never played as a Sorcerer and to my knowledge there are no other NPC ones in the game.

Can all Sorcerers cast so many spells at such a low level?

FrozenCells

IIRC he has the same number of spells per day but has more spells in his spellbook than a normal Sorcerer would, so he has more choice. This wouldn't matter all that much in BG2 where lower level spells by and large aren't of much use anymore but he is a bit of a powerhouse in BG1...on the other hand, I think Edwin is more so. I don't think Baeloth at the moment is really considered a canon NPC, more of an easter egg.

scriver

Ayup. Baeloth is an easter egg. I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be overpowered.

JuliusBorisov

He won't be available as an NPC in BG2:EE, so his powers in the next part of the game are irrelevant.

In BG:EE, though, he's a powerhouse really. For example usually at the time I can have him noone in my party is able to cast lvl 3 spells but Baeloth comes with a bunch of fireballs. Several of them can easily annihilate bandits in the tent and later kill everyone you come across in Cloakwood. For this particular reason he's cooler than Edwin. It's just like enemies can't do anything to stop a drow tandem from winning.

And you get the Robe free of charge.

So, yeah, he's an overkill but I like the option to acquire such a badass NPC.

Schneidend

This is part of why I intend to kill him and give his sweet robes to Xzar or Edwin.

Bercon

IIRC he gets +1 spells cast per day at level 6 for some reason, like Edwin does from his amulet. He also knows +3 spells more on spell levels 1, 2 and 3 than normal sorcerer does. And of course he has high magic resistance.

So yeah, he is massively overpowered easter egg char.

Wanderon

I suspect the reason he knows more spells is to accomodate different players styles - sorcerors normally have very limited spellbooks so if he had the normal number of spells known the forums would soon be overwhelmed with threads about why didn't they give him X spell insead of that useless Y spell or I can't believe they chose Q and R spells it totally blows his second level choices and everyone knows K or T or even G are better choices - what were they thinking?

Oxford_Guy

I think he's a bit excessive, I did have him in one of my parties for one game, but it felt a little cheesy, I would have preferred him a little less over the top.

BTW interestingly you can't sell his (cursed) potions nor his Robe of Evil Archmagi in normal stores, as they say they won't buy stolen goods! Interesting, though for the robe, at least, I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't buy an "evil" item. I haven't tried yet, but it's possible this place may still buy the robe:

Black Lilly, in Baldur's Gate, as she will buy (most) stolen goods

Aasimar069

drawnacrol said:

I'm a level 5 party and justed booted Neera to get Baeloth. He's a little overpowered though. I've never played as a Sorcerer and to my knowledge there are no other NPC ones in the game.

Can all Sorcerers cast so many spells at such a low level?

Is there REALLY no one else you can bother ? ^_^

That's what he would be answering :-)

drawnacrol

I might ditch him for Edwin since the game is way to easy now.

SapphireIce101

I think he actually says that he needs your protection, so then he can stay one of the top five spellcasters in all of Faerun. At least, thats why I believe hes kind of overpowered. However, I still find Baeloth more amusing than Edwin. I just like drows that use alliteration.

KidCarnival

Oxford_Guy said:

I think he's a bit excessive, I did have him in one of my parties for one game, but it felt a little cheesy, I would have preferred him a little less over the top.

BTW interestingly you can't sell his (cursed) potions nor his Robe of Evil Archmagi in normal stores, as they say they won't buy stolen goods! Interesting, though for the robe, at least, I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't buy an "evil" item. I haven't tried yet, but it's possible this place may still buy the robe:

Black Lilly, in Baldur's Gate, as she will buy (most) stolen goods

I don't know about the robe, but you can sell the Quarterstaff +1 there.

Gallowglass

@Oxford_Guy, @KidCarnival: yes, you can sell Baeloth's robe where you suggest. So far as I've discovered as yet, that's the only place.

Gallowglass

I very much agree with the general thrust of this discussion. Baeloth is way-overpowered.

He's quite an interesting character to take though the game once, and indeed I'll recommend that people should do so ... but only once. I can't imagine ever taking him again because he makes it all far too easy. (When there's no challenge, there's no replayability!)

In my current and future runs, the only use I have for Baeloth is to confiscate his robe (it's worth a lot of gold!) then dismiss him.

lunar

I plan to take him for a SCS run. He seems powerful, but SCS is painfully hard (I even raised the levels of all enemy spellcasters by 3) so it will be okay, I hope. Especially his magic resistance would be very useful. For a regular game though, I agree he might be a bit too much, but who does not enjoy beating every enemy with ease and flair from time to time? :-)

RedWizard

I wish he would return for BG2 as a party member, he's got the best personality of all new npcs even without a quest to me. Besides, it's not like Edwin isn't already a Cheese Lord in BG2 so I don't see why not.

bigdogchris

Even though I dislike the ability to reroll ability scores for hours to get the best stats, I can say that if you were to define the only character in the party that should be overpowered, it would be CHARNAME.

Gallowglass

RedWizard said:

Besides, it's not like Edwin isn't already a Cheese Lord in BG2 so I don't see why not.

Edwin is powerful, but I think not quite to the point of wrecking the game (although some would argue that even Edwin is too strong and shouldn't have been allowed to continue into BG2 ... but what's done is done). I agree that Baeloth is an interesting personality, but he's even stronger than Edwin, a definite game-wrecker, so I applaud Overhaul's wise decision not to continue him as a joinable character.

Note, however, that the way Overhaul announced this decision rather conspicuously left open the possibility that Baeloth will return in some other capacity, so I reckon we'll be seeing him again in BG2ee, but probably as an opponent. That could be a lot of fun!

Wanderon

Shrug:

I think the use of the term OP is OP myself - especially when it relates to a character that you are not only free to choose or not choose but one that you can also choose exactly how to play if you do choose to use him.

AHF

You can shadowkeeper away some of his spells or just not use some of them as well so he doesn't use more spells than a Charname could. I am doing the latter on my current play through.

His stats definitely are amazing for BG but Sorcerers don't really use anything other than Dex and Con so that probably matters less for him than it would for most other characters.

Mostly he is really good because sorcerers are really good.

O_Bruce

He's an easter egg and fanservice at the same time. What did you expect?

SapphireIce101

Personally, I still think hes 'overpowered' due to the fact that he says that hes one of the top five spellcasters in Faerun. I mean, it would be pure nonsense for him to say something like that and have a mediocre stats and spells.

Also, another thing that he says, like right when he first pops up is that hes dangeriously deteriorated. So, he could have been more powerful than what he is right now.

HaHaCharade

What's overpowered? The game was already ridiculously easy before EE... Now with all the kits, extra magic items, etc., its even easier. So who really cares at this point? LOL.

Awong124

Does anybody know what are the requirements to getting him, if there even are any? People keep mentioning he's an easter egg, I would expect that you'd have to actually do something specific to find an easter egg. For me, he just suddenly appeared.

I love him btw. Good job Beamdog!

SpaceInvader

@Awong124
[Spoiler]You just have to be level 5+ and visit the tower in Larswood [/spoiler]

Awong124

@SpaceInvader Thanks!

emjay

Well I'm playing through SCS at the moment, and I need all the overpoweredness I can get. Especially at the bandit camp wow, even with edwin baeloth and my PC (fighter/illusionist) we ran out of area effect spells and had to use 5-6 wand of fire charges.

Kennis

To beamdog: please add baeloth as DLC so if you want him, you can buy him. Everyone's happy (BTW, please take my money).

Gallowglass

@Kennis: I reckon they'll bring him back in BG2ee as an opponent. If so, then obviously there's no way they can also make him available as a party member! And I like the idea of Baeloth as a tough new opponent, so no, not everyone would be happy if he were DLC instead.

smeagolheart

I think old Baley is going to lead the kidnapping of charname that bridges the 2 games

Wanderon

My Witch Hunter party just encountered him and decided the area didn't need another evil sorcerer - imagine their surprise when they discovered -

His robes are considered stolen merchandise!