A few tips for a total newbie
soulburner
Member Posts: 12
Wow, this is going to be a bit lenghty, so if you don't want to read, just skip to the numbered questions 
First of all - hello!
I am a fan of first person perspective games. Until recently, I pretty much played only first person shooters. I liked Fallout 3 a lot - it was my first RPG game ever. Fallout New Vegas was awesome, TESV: Skyrim was nice but got boring quickly. I was hungry for more Fallout so I tried playing Fallout 1. It was very hard to do it, but I managed it and finished both FO1 and FO2 and loved them so much I wanted to play more of this kind of titles. Also I thought to myself "now I can play all RPGs in the world!". I remember a friend played this ages ago, and she said BG is an easy game...
I've played BG1 for quite a few hours now, but there are a few things that made me kind of lost and I had to give in and ask for help. I don't know what I'm doing
I read as much as I could to understand Armor Class, THAC0 and other things, but I still need more general help. My party consists of my protagonist character (a fighter, kind of similar to the preset Abdel dude), Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Dorn (a good fighter, but he will soon leave me I suspect).
1. Is there any way to improve the journal? Many quests lack enough description and I forgot where exactly to do something and for who... it's annoying to alt+tab all the time to check game guides
2. Which spells should my wizard character learn to make the battles easier? Where to find or buy the right scrolls to make groups of enemies sleep, turn to stone or something, to make them easier to defeat for my wimpy characters? Also, which parameter decides how many times I can use a single spell before the character needs to rest?
3. My main protagonist can't use a bow. But I would like him to do so. Is it possible to learn it?
4. Which party characters can use the crossbow and is it better than a short/long bow?
5. How to suppress magic attacks? I often get turned into stone or start wandering around the map aimlessly, forcing me to reload a save game and try again. But it often happens again and again - and becomes annoying, so I leave and try other areas/quests, but I think I'm running out of options
6. Should I get a cleric to my party or am I fine without one?
7. I thought I finished the 'investigating the nashkel mines' quest, but I noticed it's still in my journal as an active one. Is it a bug? I received a reward for clearing out the mines from the mayor of Nashkel but I'm still at Chapter Three and I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to be.
8. Where to find the best possible armor, sword and arrows (spells covered in question 2)? :P
9. One of my characters (Dorn) used a cursed sword, he is now in constant berseker mode and keeps attacking my party. How can I cure him?
10. Who can I replace Dorn with if he leaves my party? Is it wise to change party members this far in the game?
Thanks in advance for all the tips. Don't be afraid to give me directions that could make the game too easy for me - I played Fallout 1 constantly alt-tabbing with guides online for the first few hours of gameplay, but didn't do that for Fallout 2 at all. Enjoyed both games immensely, so I thought I'd do that too with Baldur's Gate 1 and perhaps play BG2 with less or no external help at all. Unfortunately, there are simply too many guides, walkthroughs, wikis, etc online and I don't know even what to look for sometimes, let alone where
Additional question: I kind of made it a mission for myself to play all the Infinity Engine RPG games and similar... perhaps there is some other RPG game that I should start with instead of BG to familiarize myself with the rules, gameplay style and then make my Baldur's Gate gameplay more relaxed and easier?
Thanks again in advance for any help.
First of all - hello!
I am a fan of first person perspective games. Until recently, I pretty much played only first person shooters. I liked Fallout 3 a lot - it was my first RPG game ever. Fallout New Vegas was awesome, TESV: Skyrim was nice but got boring quickly. I was hungry for more Fallout so I tried playing Fallout 1. It was very hard to do it, but I managed it and finished both FO1 and FO2 and loved them so much I wanted to play more of this kind of titles. Also I thought to myself "now I can play all RPGs in the world!". I remember a friend played this ages ago, and she said BG is an easy game...
I've played BG1 for quite a few hours now, but there are a few things that made me kind of lost and I had to give in and ask for help. I don't know what I'm doing
I read as much as I could to understand Armor Class, THAC0 and other things, but I still need more general help. My party consists of my protagonist character (a fighter, kind of similar to the preset Abdel dude), Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Dorn (a good fighter, but he will soon leave me I suspect).1. Is there any way to improve the journal? Many quests lack enough description and I forgot where exactly to do something and for who... it's annoying to alt+tab all the time to check game guides
2. Which spells should my wizard character learn to make the battles easier? Where to find or buy the right scrolls to make groups of enemies sleep, turn to stone or something, to make them easier to defeat for my wimpy characters? Also, which parameter decides how many times I can use a single spell before the character needs to rest?
3. My main protagonist can't use a bow. But I would like him to do so. Is it possible to learn it?
4. Which party characters can use the crossbow and is it better than a short/long bow?
5. How to suppress magic attacks? I often get turned into stone or start wandering around the map aimlessly, forcing me to reload a save game and try again. But it often happens again and again - and becomes annoying, so I leave and try other areas/quests, but I think I'm running out of options
6. Should I get a cleric to my party or am I fine without one?
7. I thought I finished the 'investigating the nashkel mines' quest, but I noticed it's still in my journal as an active one. Is it a bug? I received a reward for clearing out the mines from the mayor of Nashkel but I'm still at Chapter Three and I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to be.
8. Where to find the best possible armor, sword and arrows (spells covered in question 2)? :P
9. One of my characters (Dorn) used a cursed sword, he is now in constant berseker mode and keeps attacking my party. How can I cure him?
10. Who can I replace Dorn with if he leaves my party? Is it wise to change party members this far in the game?
Thanks in advance for all the tips. Don't be afraid to give me directions that could make the game too easy for me - I played Fallout 1 constantly alt-tabbing with guides online for the first few hours of gameplay, but didn't do that for Fallout 2 at all. Enjoyed both games immensely, so I thought I'd do that too with Baldur's Gate 1 and perhaps play BG2 with less or no external help at all. Unfortunately, there are simply too many guides, walkthroughs, wikis, etc online and I don't know even what to look for sometimes, let alone where
Additional question: I kind of made it a mission for myself to play all the Infinity Engine RPG games and similar... perhaps there is some other RPG game that I should start with instead of BG to familiarize myself with the rules, gameplay style and then make my Baldur's Gate gameplay more relaxed and easier?
Thanks again in advance for any help.
0
Comments
Some of your questions are related; like the journal and chapters. I'd say first, I never really use the journal, I know there's an option for adding your own notes, but I've never done it. Still in chapter three is wrong, did you go to Beregohst and confront the Mage at Feldpost's? You need to do that to update your map and go after the bandits.
With such a good aligned party, Dorn won't stick around. But no loss, I never use him. It looks like you lost Jaheira, that's too bad. You need a cleric. I would say Branwen is your best choice, she's the petrified lady at the Neshkel Fair. Get a stone to flesh scroll (at the temple in Neshkel, or pay way too much to the shyster standing right next to Branwen), and she'll join up .
Most scrolls you need at lower levels you'll find in various fights. There are scrolls for sale at High Hedge, the inn at Ulgoth's Beard, and Sorcerous Sundries in Baldur's Gate.
The key spells early on would be Identify, Magic Missile, and some sort of crowd control like Sleep or Horror.
Protection from various magical effects is always key. You will want a cleric to help your party "buff" before any fight against a spell caster. The easiest buff spell is Bless, it gives your whole party a +1 against all spells and poisons. Another huge one is Protection From Fear, this will make your whole party immune to horror spells and similar effects. Basilisks are tough opponents, that suddenly get very easy when you know the trick. There is a first level Mage spell, Protection from Petrification, OR a potion, Mirror Eyes, that will make ONE character immune to the petrification gaze, for a reasonably long time. I usually use one of the effects on my strongest warrior, then have that character run off alone and clear the map of all Basilisks.
Don't worry about the bow. Imoen is fine as your only archer. Each warrior type character should really focus on just doing one thing well. It's far better to be great at one thing than mediocre at several.
Crossbow is not a great weapon, unless you have multiple archers, then it might be better to be using different types of ammo. But really, I never bother with a crossbow.
The best items will vary a lot based on exact details about your character. There are walk throughs around the Internet with lots of specific information, but this is the sort of thing that's more fun to play with yourself!
I hope this helped some. If it wasn't clear, or more questions come up, don't hesitate to ask! We all love chatting about this stuff.
Regarding the mage at Feldepost Inn - I can't recall if I confronted anyone there, but I do have a 'bandit camp' marked on the map and some notes about a guy named
ps - I enjoy the game a lot and I can't believe I didn't play Fallout and BG (and other game of this genre) back in the day they were fresh and new. Have a lot catching up to do
plus regarding #8 if you want some good armor, full platemail is the best, taerom thunder hammer in beregost has a suit ( 9000 gp if you have 10 rep and 10 cha)
One more question - what determines the number of spells that can be memorized and used on each level of the mage or priest? Right now, Branwen can use 5 spells on levels 1 and 2, but only one at level 3. It will most likely increase while leveling up, but I wonder if there's anything I should look out for.
edit - another thing, Dynaheir has the identify spell memorized, but I can't identify any item. The options are disabled. Why?
edit 2 - while googling, I only found one reference to being unable to use the identify spell. Is it a known bug or am I doing something wrong?
edit 3 - oh, damn, I'm enjoying this game so much I didn't go out anywhere today. Time to smell the fresh air of the real world
Clerics have the same system, but they also get more spells by having high wisdom.
Try out http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Races_and_Stats. You can see what every stat and attribute does. It will show you how many spells you get extra for every point in wisdom, and how much you can carry for every point of strength. It has everything there.
If you have an identify spell memorized, you should be able to click on the item and identify. There are two options one is for scrolls the other is for spell. Also remember to sleep after you memorized a spell. The only reason it would be gray that i can think of would be 1.) You got armor on you (She can't have anything else than robes and they don't stop you from casting) 2.) You have memorized an identify spell but haven't rested yet.
Also for some games.
Arcanum (It's more like Fallout than Baldur's gate is. It's probably the closest game to fallout out there)
Planescape Torment (Amazing game, same people who made baldur's gate but it's much more story driven)
Some items (and high wisdom for clerics) will give you extra spells, but generally gaining levels is the only way to get more.
The most obvious similar game is Icewind Dale. Tons of fun, but it's more of a pure combat/tactical exercise while BG is more about story and plot. It does use the same game engine, so it will play very similar. But it's not easier! Combat is harder, more exhausting. While the story and problem solving are much simpler.
Oh and just forget about your real life. It's forfeit for the next couple months.
I prefer more story-based RPG games, so if Icewind Dale is more combat oriented, then I will leave it for later, I guess. What about Neverwinter Nights? Are these games more story driven or more hack & slash kind of thing? Temple of Elemental Evil looks interesting, too. Arcanum is definitely on my list of must play
I tried Planescape earlier, but after applying the widescreen mod the game crashes indoors almost all the time, which is a total showstopper. I tried removing all other fixes and stuff recommended on GOG and just leaving the widescreen patch - still crashes. I like the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate and I think it would be cool if something similar was done for Planescape.
Neverwiner Nights has an alright story. I would like to say that it's expansions has a much greater story than the original. The one thing NwN had when it was released, was a huge world to explore. It's very big and you'll be walking up to dragons, fighting undead in the slum and helping dryads in the woods. It isn't as story driven as Baldur's gate, it's more of an open world RPG. I have played through this game many many times, but it's getting hard to get through it nowadays as it's graphic hasn't aged that well. The 2D graphic of Baldur's gate does age very well, the early 3D of NwN doesn't have that pleasure.
Arcanum is fantastic. It has it's small bugs and quirks but it's on some points even better than Fallout. The introduction to 'Beauty' as a stat, and very important focus on Charisma makes it a dream for the people loving to make diplomatic characters. The combat isn't the best in the game, but looking back at fallout you didn't play Fallout 1 or 2 for the combat. Arcanum has the same wide open world that Fallout had. And also the option to rush the main story, or ignore it. The way the world has magic and guns is fantastic. None of the two are more powerful than the other, and it's hard to get bullets for your guns (atleast early game). I can't praise Arcanum enough. If it had been finished (Bugs etc) it would have been right there up with Fallout, now it's only a little bit worse IMO.
Planescape Torment is the best RPG i have ever played. I have spent the last 17 years of my life playing different RPG's and Torment is without doubt the most enjoyable experience i have had in gaming. It's so deep and filosofic. There are so many questions and different answers, if you take your time to read the dialogues and learn to know the different Factions, you're in for an amazing story. Every single stat you have is important in that game. You can talk your way through almost every single battle, or intimidate the people around you with a high strength stat. If you do end up playing it i would advice you to have a high Wisdom. Story wise it blows Baldur's gate out of the water, it's only flaw was gameplay (or lack of it).
I dislike Temple of Elemental Evil. Some of my friends love it and praise it highly, but unless you have played PnP in real life and sat around the table with your friends throwing dice, you'll probably want to ignore this title. It's not a very polished game, and was quite unfinished when released. It's redeeming quality is the gameplay which is the closest you get to tabletop PnP in gaming.
Give Planescape another try. If you're after story you won't get dissapointed.
[Edited] :
I would also like to give Lionheart an honorable mention. It's one of those games that earn a 9/10 for it's start and middle, but get's a 6/10 for it's end game. It uses the exact same system that Fallout does, with perks and skills and such. It's placed in the Renaissance and you'll meet and quest for people like Da'vinci and Galileo. You will also have the option to join factions like the Temple Knights or the Inqusition. It has an almost perfect blend between fantasy and real life events. It's very interesting if you have read up on some of the characters or factions, as it's quite close to the real deal (Atleast in my opinion). If you have the option to try out this game for a decent price, i would advice you to pick it up. As you have played Fallout 1 and 2 you'll be able to jump directly into the game and enjoy it, as it's 110% the same system used.
Main reason everyone uses bows? All enemies do, and thus you've got lots of ammo!
It's hard as %^$& though, and doesn't pull any punches (Raise dead costs a minimum of 5000g, when YOU cast it...+ ~800g more if you get an NPC to do it, (as per PnP). Very rewarding once you get the hang of it though.
No...they use bows because ALL bows have 2 or more base attacks, and darts have tiny stacks making them more annoying manage despite their greater attack volume, while only 1 crossbow does and costs ~8000g. Enemy usage is roughly split between bows and crossbows, with a few odd knife or dart throwers for good measures. And once you get to BG, you can load up on Arrows of Detonation, and laugh at every counter after...while X=bows just don't get anything really worth note...their bolts of lightning can hit pretty hard, but only 1 target and you have to suffer through most of the game to get that point.
Thanks for the Lionheart suggestion. I don't think I ever heard about this game and I really like what I see so far. Temple Knights? Inquisition? Da Vinci? Only recently I read some books about them, so it all sounds veeery interesting.
edit: argh, no widescreen patch!
Arcanum - do you recommend combat in real-time or turn-based in that game?
As for Planescape, I do intend to play it, I want to play it, but I can't play it, because it crashes
I will skip ToEE, it sounds much too complex and too much pen and paper based. I had nothing to do with PnP and probably never will (although a friend of a friend was recently looking for a partner for such a game... hmm...), so I'll stay away from it... for now
Arcanum is not 100% turn based, it's kind of a hybrid. But in my opinion it's unplayable in real-time so go for the turn-based.
http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.dk/2009/01/planescape-torment-fully-modded.html . Should solve all your problems with planescape torment and introduce some new mods for it aswell.
Unfortunately, I still cannot use the identify spell in BG
It's not so much complex as just MUCH harder. It's actually a much more flexible system then BG uses, and even creation gives you several different choices...you can roll stats like BG, you can point buy like NWN, or you can use the Standard array just for quickly getting a character made. And you can move lower level spells into higher level slots, if you don't have anything really useful for that level (and if you get Heighten spell it actually buffs their saves the save as if they were a spell of that level).
And it has touches of Torment as your skill ranks DO matter in regard to certain quests and conversation responses.
And touches of IWD as you create most of your own team, but can also recruit NPCs...though they're handled a bit strange since you can't specifically see their stats and just have to trust them on what they tell you they can do...they also take their share of gold loot immediately for themselves when gold is collected.
Basically...if it wasn't based on such an old module, it would be pretty much what I wanted BG to be. A near perfect blend of BG/Torment/IWD, with a TON more options from PnP available, which just makes the game more interesting.....you can play it like BG....you'll probably die a lot....well..more then usual....but it's do-able...but if you find yourself bored, you can always experiment....just don't experiment on trolls....trolls are ALWAYS serious business.
For Arcanum.....you'd just have to experiment. I usually play it like BG, and just pause liberally, though if you're playing a back-stabber, you definitely want to play using the AP system since it give you more finely tuned control over where your attacks are aimed.