Things we got wrong

Edwin

Upon purchasing SOA when it first came out, my friend Bill and I embarked on epic multiplayer LAN sessions side by side in my computer room.

We lit candles for ambiance but fell asleep in our chairs after one particularly long session, in the process, knocking over some candles and setting the curtains on fire.

That was perhaps the biggest thing I got wrong.

Montresor_SP

Fireball is a two-edged sword to noobers:

- Fireballing enemies a point-blank range (aka. Instantaneous Darwin Award).
- Casting Fireball in crowded streets ("Why did all the good-aligned NPCs leave, and why are the Flaming Fist chasing me?").
- Summoning creatures to help me, then fireballing the enemies *and* my own summons, then having to fight the enemies + the suddenly hostile summons (let me tell you this, DON'T harm your own Devas/Planetars. It is counter-productive!).

I've also managed to shoot myself in the foot repeatedly with other AOE spells... *facepalm*

Southpaw

Everyone did a lot of mistakes when learning the game... like using almost solely Magic Missiles up to lvl 7 of Wizard, choosing a lvl1 Monk in BGtutu, trying to fight the Basilisks without protection from petrification and dying, using no armor on Jaheira, because I thought that casters can't use armor...

But my 2 biggest mistakes were
a) showing my older brother the BG games
b) showing my older brother the GateKeeper/Shadowkeeper (he literally spend more time in the Keepers than in the games)

ajwz

I still to this day cannot spell Suldanesselar.

artificial_sunlight

I can't spell or pronounce half of the game. I'm just glad I understand almost everything the say.

Cherudek

My first character so many years ago was a sword&shield fighter/mage who only ever used damage spells. Very squishy, not very effective....

He also romanced Aerie.

Tsyrith

I thought there was some great unseen evil afoot in Cloakwood Forest. There I was happily chunking spiders and suddenly my party started Saving vs Death, though, I did seem to be the luckiest person alive as no-one died at all. It didn't stop me regarding that area with great trepidation, like there was an invisible lich trotting about casting death spells all over the place.

marceror

XerxesV said:

I lost Mullahey's letters and spent one real-life month wondering where the story wanted me to go. I stumbled on Tranzig in Beregost and was surprised to find the bandit camp showing up on my map afterwards.

Note: save your scrolls, and check your journal once in a while

In my first run through I really skimmed on the reading. I mean, I didn't have to read in Diablo so how important could it be here. I wandered the game aimlessly for ages not knowing that I needed to find Tranzig. I visited every location. Frustrated, I checked online weeks later (a novel concept at the time) and figured out what I was supposed to do. Not sure if Tranzig eventually is scripted to leave Beregost, but he wasn't there!

I had to restart my game, but you better believe I took time to read all notes and dialogue after that!!

recklessheart

Cherudek said:

He also romanced Aerie.

Ow. Ouch. That was hard to read. My sincere condolences that you had to go through that.

marceror

Another thing I did wrong was that I was very "unaware" when I played the game. What I mean is, I didn't really count the cost of my actions. If Jaheira was starting to sweet talk my protagonist, I had no problem telling her to stuff it, if that seemed to be the most interesting response. It never occurred to me that I might be cutting off game content or missing out of future experiences in the game. I just bumbled around at my whim.

On the other hand, now I sometimes probably go too far in the other direction, where I'm reticent to make a choice at all because I might mess something up later.

Montresor_SP

So, I remembered something I got a wee bit wrong. It was one of the times I was running with a mostly evil party consisting of my own evil self, Korgan, Edwin and my then-girlfriend Viconia plus a couple others (probably Jan Jansen and Anomen the Fallen Paladin). Anyways, the party had somehow managed, in spite of its better judgment, to work up a rather good reputation among the people of Athkatla (somewhere around 17 or 18 on a scale from 1 to 20), resulting in frequent complaints from Korgy, Viccy and Eddy.

So, we were about to enter Athkatla's Graveyard district to retrieve a certain Lanthorn which the Elves of Suldanessellar had somehow mislaid. I remembered in time to transfer any important equipment from Viccy to other party members, knowing from past experience how Bodhi liked to abduct my romantic interests at this point in the game. However, I did forget that when she removed Viconia from my party, the party's reputation would rise because we were no longer traveling with a Drow elf.

So the party suddenly found itself without its primary Cleric. It also found itself with a reputation of 19 or 20, causing Korgan and Edwin to curse my (char)name before walking out on me - leaving me with a three-person party.

*facepalm*

*Power Word: Reload*

Erinne

I didn't know you could skip the death cinematic. I was so terrified of it that I hid under the table every time it appeared. And I died a lot.

AnotherLife

First time I played the game after Imoen freed me at the start, I just went and equipped some weapons and continued on just with her, I didn't even notice Minsc and Jaheira at their cages, so I went on but soon later gave up on the game cause my mage and Imoen were getting killed and couldn't hit anything.