Things we got wrong

pixie359

I remember for my first couple of playthroughs I assumed clerics couldn't wear armour as they cast spells like mages. I also assumed that you couldn't carry a shield while using a sling, like bows and crossbows.

Boy was my cleric terrible in those runs.

Where have you messed up royally?

Basillicum

Me and a couple of friends of mine used to play BG2 together when we were quite young, but we could never seem to get out of Irenicus' dungeon (I think it took us about 6-10 months). We made a lot of different mistakes, but I remember that we thought that our best character ever was a half-orc barbarian with 19 STR and 2-5 in everything else.

He also dual-wielded weapons he wasn't proficient with without any points in Two-Weapon Style.

Lord_Tansheron

When I first started playing IE games, it was with IWD; I did not know you could pause the game, at all, until I was about halfway through. It was very difficult! I also didn't know you could detect or disarm traps, and got destroyed pretty hard in some places.

artificial_sunlight

I attacked one of the tutors... reloaded/restarted a few times and came back when I understanded English

Recently: Picked Skald as PC... Support roles are not my thing

Tetraploid

When I first played IWD2, I didn't realise that instead of casting magic being outright impossible in armour, there was just a chance to fail. So I put armor on all my mages cos hey, they can cast in it now! I then spent ages wondering why so many of my spells failed...

lunar

I first played IWD2, I had no idea how to scribe scrolls. And I had a drow illusionist and a human necromancer (so they could cast each other's banned schools, I thought I was smart!) My cleric Silverstar of Selune kept getting new spell levels, but my mages never got new spells, I was casting spells from scrolls I found, and wondering how/when they will get new spell levels. :facepalm: I was playing on easy, ofcourse, so I still managed to get to the end of the goblin stronghold with two nearly useless mages in my party. It was there I discovered 'write magic' option when I right clicked a scroll with a mage. I was like, 'D'Oh!'

In BG2 I played an elven cleric that used darts. Yeah in pre patch SoA normal darts were bugged and were usable by clerics, although they could not get proficiency in it. I found them cool as I had three attacks with them, I thought they were super useful! I then killed off Fİrkraag for the first time with a very lucky Holy Smite spell, which I thought was the best spell ever in the game then...heh. Good times. ^^

Delvarian

My biggest problem was getting two-handed weapon confused with two-weapon fighting style.

enqenq

I figured my cavalier would work just fine with 3 int, which he did until he had a blind date with an illithid.

Sliceofhell

Using excessive amount of buffs. Just in case.
Using excessive amount of dispels. Just in case.

Kilivitz

Not exactly a mistake as much as poor optimization, but my first playthrough of the original BG1 was with a Paladin who used a Long Sword and a Bow. Since the proficiency for Long and Two-Handed Swords was the same, I'd probably be better off with a Two-Handed Sword.

Boring, I know. Next!

pixie359

I didn't realise for ages that you could scroll down the thief skills when leveling up, so my top for skills all had 200 plus, while the rest had none.

magpie

I didn't understand what turn undead did at all. I thought it would turn the user into some kind of undead, giving protective bonusses, maybe? I took to clicking the turn undead button on moments that my cleric would get hit by an attack or a spell. I clearly remember the click in my mind when a skeleton started running away after I did that

Kilivitz

enqenq said:

I figured my cavalier would work just fine with 3 int, which he did until he had a blind date with an illithid.

And that, kids, is why you don't min-max!

nano

I thought the Guard ability made you raise your shield and block so I clicked it whenever I saw one of my fighters being attacked.

Eudaemonium

What *does* the guard option do?

elminster

I routinely skipped Xzar and Montaron when I first played BG1. I suppose Xzar's health made him unappealing compared to someone like Edwin.

redline

I knew you could detect traps, but had no idea how to disarm them. Detecting a trap meant sending someone expendable in first.

Kilivitz

Eudaemonium said:

What *does* the guard option do?

You select a character, you click the guard button, you either click on a character or click-and-drag to select an area, and any hostile NPC who attacks that character or enters that area will be attacked back by the character who's doing the guarding.

It's probably the least used functionality in these games. At least I don't see anyone talking about it, much less mentioning it when discussing their strategies.

zur312

i was playing bg2 for the first time

solo f/m/t with long sword +2 AND SHIELD 90% of SOA
no pfmw - why? it is such a bad spell works for only 3 rounds!!!! stone skin ftw! 16 hours or so! mirror image too

how to kill a lich? wait till his buffs are gone and than attack!

ajwz

For ages, I didn't realise you could kill Noober.

[Deleted User]

Kilivitz said:

enqenq said:

I figured my cavalier would work just fine with 3 int, which he did until he had a blind date with an illithid.

And that, kids, is why you don't min-max!

Or rather, why you don't simply "max." The "min" part is all about covering glaring weaknesses like a 3 int.

I think one of the most glaring mistakes I've made is trying to play multiplayer with a friend who liked running off and exploring on his own (and then bringing back whatever horde of enemies he stumbled into).

nano

@ajwz Funny, it took me a while to realize there was a reward for *not* killing Noober (or running away, I guess, but my bow finger is twitchy). I've still never obtained it, but I do know it's there!

SirK8

My very first play through I did not realize the + sign meant level up, I played a while at level 1 and wondered why the game was so difficult. It was a long time before I realized Jaheira could wear heavy armor. I rarely changed NPCs out of the gear they had originally until I started getting magical gear.

Basillicum

ajwz said:

For ages, I didn't realise you could kill Noober.

You kill him?! But he gives such a great experience reward for ignoring him..

SionIV

That minsc was a god and no other fighter or NPC was even close to him in power, and then trying to convince my brother and all my friends of this little fact. It got even harder to do when you got to BG2 and had to tell them why he is so much better than Korgan.

Now i kind of think he is low tier at best.

Basillicum

Somehow Minsc still gets the biggest kill count in any party I put together, both in BG1 and BG2. It doesn't seem to matter at all if his THAC0 is 3-4 values worse than anyone else's, he's still MVP all along.

ajwz

Basillicum said:

ajwz said:

For ages, I didn't realise you could kill Noober.

You kill him?! But he gives such a great experience reward for ignoring him..

You ignore him?! But he gives such a great endorphin reward for killing him..

atcDave

First time opening the game I was frustrated beyond words with group combat, until I figured out auto-pause. I was probably minutes away from just chucking the whole thing.

BelgarathMTH

On my first playthrough, I put Imoen in leather armor and had her melee with a short sword. I wondered why she kept dying. I heard "Oh, I'm so...cold..." so many times, I thought that was her main line.

I kept everybody in leather and chain because I thought the plate looked ugly. "How much difference can one or two armor classes possibly make, anyway?" Famous last words.

Nobody wore helmets, because I wanted to see their pretty hair styles. "Helmets don't give any armor anyway, so why wear the ugly things? Protects against critical hits? What's a critical hit? Doesn't sound like that would happen very often, so I doubt it makes that much difference." More famous last words.

Tetraploid

pixie359 said:

I didn't realise for ages that you could scroll down the thief skills when leveling up, so my top for skills all had 200 plus, while the rest had none.

What?!

There are more than four skills? :O

I genuinely did not know this. I need to go check this for myself RIGHT NOW.

Drugar

Having only played Fallout before in the RPG category, I thought levelling was automatic and the game was just ridiculously hard. Bandit Camp before I got it.