Complete Beginner

ashyblackblizzards

I'm completely new to BG:EE and D&D and all that, so I've been kind of overwhelmed with all the options in customizing my characters. For one, I have no idea what classes and races are good for complete beginners like me. Can you guys help me in choosing a beginner-friendly class and help me with building my character (stats, weapons, etc.)? What is a good party to complement said beginner-friendly class? Also, I still don't really understand multi-class/dual-class after googling around a bit. Any help would be appreciated. thaanks

CaptRory

The best thing to do is just to jump in. If you're playing on the normal or easier difficulties the game is pretty forgiving and we're always here to give you more specific advice. The game is big and complicated and seeing it with fresh eyes is something you only get to do once.

That said the easiest to learn classes tend to be the fighter-types. Of them all, in my opinion, the Paladin Class with the Cavalier Kit is probably the most beginner friendly. It has a number of immunities and resistances that are very helpful in the first game. And as a paladin you should focus on two handed swords (you'll only need one rank of two-handed weapon style). The cavalier's downside of not being able to use ranged weapons does not include throwing axes and throwing daggers, so grabbing one or two ranks of Axes will help offset that.

For stats, your emphasis should be on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Wisdom is unimportant. Maxing out Charisma can get you better buying prices and as a paladin your minimum is already very high. Intelligence you should aim to be around 10 if you can swing it. Its not really necessary but it has some selective benefits.

As for parties, you'll want a nice balanced party:

You (Paladin) As the main tank.
Thief for opening locks and most importantly finding and disarming traps.
Arcane Magic (Wizard or Bard) for casting helpful magics, using scrolls and wands, etc.
Divine Magic (Druid or Cleric) more helpful magic (healing is often the least useful thing they can do, but its important they prepare a little of it).

You have six character slots (Your character and five others) so you have a lot of leeway in how you fill those roles.

If you take Imoen, Khalid, and Jaheira you'll have two tanks (you and Khalid), a thief (Imoen) and a backup divine caster/backup tank (Jaheira).
If Jaheira is tanking she isn't casting spells and vice versa, so I like to use her to fill whatever hole crops up while I'm playing. Like if I'm getting overrun she tanks and if I'm preparing for a battle she casts. If she's your primary divine spellcaster you don't really want her in a position where she can't cast spells because she's getting knocked around.
Imoen can be dual classed into a Mage (that makes her sort of a backup spellcaster for most of the game and she loses her thief abilities until her mage level surpasses her thief level. If you dual class her at level 7 to make sure she has around 100 in open locks and find traps she'd need to hit level 8 in mage to get her thief abilities back. This will take most of the game, so if you go this route dual class her early and just get a new thief, as a new player dual classing can be hard and annoying if you try to get clever with it.)

I'm trying to avoid getting too technical and I'm not doing a very good job of it.

All the characters you need are available around the start of the game if you know where to go.


Dual Class: Human characters can start as one class even with a kit, and then one they hit level two or any point thereafter may switch classes. They temporarily lose their powers, skills, and proficiencies from their first class until their second class catches up with and surpasses the level of their first class. The combination must be a valid multiclass combination and there's a stat requirement.

Multiclass: The non-human character is leveling two or three classes simultaneously.

Edwin

Fairly good advice from CaptRory. A straight up fighter is even easier to manage. But, you will need to familiarize yourself with many classes unless you intend to have a party comprised of just fighters.

It is so passe to read manuals nowadays it seems, but a thorough reading of the manual is perhaps the best way for a complete beginner to spend their time before playing....great information and a few valuable hints abound.

zur312

for begginers something like fighters rangers paladins barbarians are very good high hit points high armor high dmg from weapons
even clerics are kind of good because they have high armor pretty high hp and damage + few good spells at early levels

stats are str dex con for fighters higher stats better (18/91 is very good str and only better is 18/00 because it is 18/100 or 19 str for half-orc)
plus wisdom for clerics

weapons everything is very good long swords hammers short swords scimitars quarterstaff halaberds 2handed swords

styles are pretty good too 2 handed style improves critical
dual wielding weapons style improves chance to hit

team you should have 1 or half thief 1 or half cleric and 1 or half mage but i suggest pure mage and rest are fighters like fighters rangers paladins barbarians

at least 60% in finding traps with thief for first BIG QUEST

ZanathKariashi

I tend to go the other way, getting Open lock to 70+ ASAP is my usual goal, since you can get a bunch of really awesome stuff early on by opening locked containers or homes and pilfering around. You really only need about 30 find trap for the mines. I mean sure...if you plan to explore Durlag's early, sure, you want a LOT of find trap (90+), since that place is a literal death trap...but outside of that...50 is about all you really need.

ashyblackblizzards

I decided to go for the Paladin class and Cavalier kit. My stats are

str:18/74
dex:18
con:18
int:12
wis:13
cha:18

I put 2 points in two-handed sword, 1 in two-handed sword style, and 1 in axe. Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

CaptRory

Looks good! You're very welcome! You got a really good roll too! =3 Ninety-seven is really good!

zur312

another tips is ranged weapons are really good for 2handed swords users because you can easily shoot before they come close and switch to sword

in close combat fight with sword coz ranged has penalties

CaptRory

You have Quick Weapon Slots. How many depends on your class, but they let you equip multiple weapons at once and switch between them with a click of the mouse.

There are restrictions though. If you use your shield slot either with a shield or a second weapon, you can't equip a two handed weapon which includes most ranged weapons.

This means that you need to unequip whatever is in your offhand,, grab the two handed weapon, and drop that in the weapon slot which leads to a lot of extra clicking. You're probably not going to switch weapons around too much so its not really an issue.

elminster

ashyblackblizzards said:

I decided to go for the Paladin class and Cavalier kit. My stats are

str:18/74
dex:18
con:18
int:12
wis:13
cha:18

I put 2 points in two-handed sword, 1 in two-handed sword style, and 1 in axe. Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

That is both a very good roll and a good use of points

CaptRory

Another bit of advice: Hold onto your starting quarterstaff in case all your metal weapons break. And stock up on any metal weapons your team is using until you find magic versions.

ashyblackblizzards

Some other questions. Should I wait until Unfinished Business and the NPC Project are compatible with BG:EE before really getting started, or should I just play the game vanilla for the first time? Or would it be okay to install the two mods when I'm in the middle of the game? I know that I should probably start the game vanilla, but these two mods really seem like they'd make the game a much better experience.

atcDave

Play the game vanilla first. No mod is "required" in any sense. You need to play it through clean once, then decide if you want to start with mods.

CaptRory

You might need to put in those fixes for Tethoril and Laurel the paladin. Does someone have a link on hand?

JLee

CaptRory said:

You might need to put in those fixes for Tethoril and Laurel the paladin. Does someone have a link on hand?

link

CaptRory

Thank you much @JLee !

ashyblackblizzards

Thanks for the link. Random question but are you the same @JLee from the QN5 forums?

JLee

@ashyblackblizzards No, that must be another with good taste in monikers

ashyblackblizzards

Would Neera make for a good mage? I'd rather not keep Xzar of Montaron.

ZanathKariashi

She's alright.......her spells just have a small chance (5%) of crazy %^$& happening...or 100% when casting Naehl's reckless dweomer. Other then that, she's a specialist with no opposed school and the ability to break the 1 spell per round limit via NRD. And her caster level fluctuates up or down by up to 5 levels every time she casts, so her spells could be MUCh stronger, or a bit weaker then other spell-casters.

zur312

neera is v. good

Wisp

Wild Mages are excellent mages if you can play one. If you don't take advantage, a Wild Mage is just a specialist who semi-frequently surges instead of having an opposite school. That's not the best of trades. If you do take advantage, Wild Mages are very serious contenders for the best class/kit in the game.

zur312

well wild mages are mages so this is as good class as it can be in baldur's gate

CaptRory

Wild Mages, at the base level, are specialist mages with no opposed school. So even if you aren't taking advantage of everything they have to offer, its still a pretty good bargain. Once they level up you can use Reckless and really take advantage.

Heindrich

I've never played Wild Mage, but intuitively, aren't they much better in BG 1 than BG 2? Their main downside seems to be the chance to cast spells at lower levels than themselves, but in BG 1, they will be low level most of the time, so they can only really benefit from the +5 or -5 variation?

CaptRory

The real meat and potatos is the Wild Surges table. Casting the shield spells first lets you add your caster level to your roll on the table. And anything over 100 is counted as 100. Ultimately it lets you use first level spell slots to cast whatever you want with a fair amount of reliability.

ZanathKariashi

The shield spells just add a flat amount to the roll. Adding your caster level to the roll is part of Naehl's effect (Caster level doesn't apply to the 5% chance surges, they're completely raw unless you happen to have a chaos shield up when it occurs).


A wild mage is equally likely to be higher or lower level. And their caster level can never drop below 1.


One of their big advantages is the ability to attempt to cast any spell in their book, even if they can't cast spells of that level...it's a guaranteed wild surge, and given the low levels, not a very good chance of it working...but SOMETHING is going to happen...you can be sure of that...

(It's even better in BG2, when you have easy access to 7th and 8th level scrolls, even Wish, if you hit up Watcher's Keep early. And can cast them immediately after leaving the prelude....sure...probably not going to work...but...you're at least high enough level by then to knock most of the REALLY bad stuff off the table...just never attempt to cast buffs via Naehl's....

zur312

i think it was 66% to cast positive with shields if you are lvl31 wild mage(max)

ashyblackblizzards

Man you guys are confusing me with all this talk of caster levels and rolls, but still, I think I've decided on Neera.

zur312

don't worry about it

Edwin

There are some fantastic consequences in Watchers keep via the wild-magic-imps.