How to revive a dead character? (Normal/Novice)

Franpa

On the difficulty setting it says that for Normal and lower difficulty death is not permanent. So, if a character dies, how do I go about resurrecting them?

Franpa

Nevermind, figured it out. It doesn't explain it in the PDF manual or here http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/1992/basic-game-tips-for-new-players but all you have to do is go to a Shrine/Temple, select the dead characters portrait and you can then perform a Raise Dead ritual (I assume the cost is determined by the level of the character?).

Heindrich

Yeah that's another one of those rather important things that's not explained by some sorta ingame instruction. I assumed I needed some sort of high level resurrection spell, so carried some dead comrade's portraits with me for quite some time in my first playthrough before I found out about the temple raising business!

Anyway yes the cost goes up as you level up. And I wasn't entirely wrong, there ARE indeed Priest spells that can raise the dead, but they are pretty high level, and I don't think you get to use them until BG 2.

Madhax

Doing this each time a companion dies can become very costly, especially for a new player who doesn't know the tricks to getting rich. There's no shame in reloading to recover a party member, many of us do it frequently.

RazaDelrom

Well, you can use a resurrect spell (obviously not a lvl 1 spell) or later, in BG2, a resurrect wand.

Corvino

Raise dead is a level 5 spell that Clerics can get that brings party NPCs back to life (or non-Bhaalspawn multiplayer characters). Druids do not get access to it, but Jaheira does gain a spell called Harper's Call that does the same thing.

But for BG:EE you'll be stuck using temples, as you can't get to level 9 as a Cleric under the XP cap.

Time4Tiddy

Franpa said:

On the difficulty setting it says that for Normal and lower difficulty death is not permanent. So, if a character dies, how do I go about resurrecting them?

You may also be wondering about "permanent" death. Even at higher difficulty levels, you can still raise dead party members, but if a party member is taken to -10 hp or lower in a single hit, they will be destroyed completely. Basically the body is pulverized or disintegrated, and no resurrection is possible.

You'll know it happened because A) the body explodes into chunks and the portrait is gone from your UI.

This can happen if you have, for example, 4 hp and get hit by an ogre for 15 damage, hence why mages should run away!

Franpa

It's a little annoying that there is no Core Rules difficulty that also has the No Permanent Deaths setting enabled. I mean it'd be interesting to play through with health per level up not always rolling the max value and what ever other changes occur while retaining minimum risk of permanent loss.

I mean having both Novice and Normal difficulties as is, seems kinda pointless. If Normal followed the Core Rules while retaining no perma death and 2/3's damage then it'd be genuinely interesting. It would be a unique choice situated between Novice and Core Rules that encapsulates both Core Rules and Novice difficulties rather well I'd think and would perform a better job at easing the player in to Core Rules and higher difficulties.

Heindrich

Franpa said:

It's a little annoying that there is no Core Rules difficulty that also has the No Permanent Deaths setting enabled. I mean it'd be interesting to play through with health per level up not always rolling the max value and what ever other changes occur while retaining minimum risk of permanent loss.

I mean having both Novice and Normal difficulties as is, seems kinda pointless. If Normal followed the Core Rules while retaining no perma death and 2/3's damage then it'd be genuinely interesting. It would be a unique choice situated between Novice and Core Rules that encapsulates both Core Rules and Novice difficulties rather well I'd think and would perform a better job at easing the player in to Core Rules and higher difficulties.

Yeah, I agree with this... perma death is a major problem in BG 1, when ur characters are so fragile. Normal is already pretty easy, so I don't see the need for an easier difficulty.

Actually, if I remember correctly, I think 'Normal' in BG 1 Vanilla is Core Rules... cos I played BG 1 Vanilla in default settings, and certainly remember random hp rolls and perma-death events.

Time4Tiddy

BG1 Vanilla difficulty settings only changed how hard the monsters hit, you didn't get max hp rolls on any difficulty setting, and you could be perma-killed even on Easy, if you had very low hit points and faced a very hard hitting monster. You also couldn't automatically memorize spells. All those "enhancements" were added in BG2, and then when people used Tutu or other mods to retro-fit BG1 with the BG2 engine, they just started thinking that BG1 always had those.

Franpa

I must then assume Enhanced Addition included those numerous additions? I'm not using any mods... there is definitely Novice, Normal, Core Rules and then various harder difficulties.

Normal specifically says no perma deaths, maximum hp rolls per level up, 2/3's damage from enemies and Novice says its just like Normal but enemies deal 1/2 damage.

Core Rules just says something like "Uses the Core Baldur's Gate Rules" and excludes mentions of the changes mentioned in Normal difficulties description. So I'm assuming Core Rules difficulty has variable health gain per level up, perma deaths and 1/1 damage taken.

Corvino

Normal and Core have both always been there, Core is the default setting though IIRC.

Time4Tiddy

Core is the default, or Normal, difficulty setting from BG1 vanilla. In BG1 vanilla, there was also an Easy setting that made the monsters do 1/2 damage, but everything else was the same as Core (spell memorization failure, random hp rolls, chance of permanent death). The higher difficulty settings made the monsters do more damage. No matter where you set the difficulty, permanent death for NPCs was always a threat, and you grew to love saving and reloading dozens of times when leveling up to avoid those 1 point hp gains.

BG2 vanilla added the "Normal" setting with all those new features like max hp rolls and no perma-death. BG:EE uses the settings from BG2 vanilla.

RazaDelrom

I forgot to add: You can use a raise dead scroll even at level 1, but they are rare (have to check if there is a temple which an unlimited supply).
I use core rules. If something permanent happens, I will restart from the inn (as punishment).

Franpa

Hmmm, it'd be interesting to see a mod that removes perma-death from all difficulties while retaining max HP rolls, as well as a version of the mod that excludes the Max HP Rolls mechanic.

It would allow me to play on harder difficulties without excessive Save Scumming, and can enjoy the other changes as well. I'm currently waiting on BG:EE v1.3 before I attempt to play the game again.

Belanos

Franpa said:

It's a little annoying that there is no Core Rules difficulty that also has the No Permanent Deaths setting enabled.

If you're playing on a PC, the Sword Coast Stratagems mod has an option that will reduce the chances of a permanent death. It won't prevent it entirely but it will greatly reduce the chances.

Corvino said:

Normal and Core have both always been there, Core is the default setting though IIRC.

No, Normal is the default. That's why it's called Normal. Core rules are one step above that. They're supposed to be the same rules that are used in PnP D&D, with some adjustments for any changes to the rules that the games make.

abacus

Corvino said:

Raise dead is a level 5 spell that Clerics can get that brings party NPCs back to life (or non-Bhaalspawn multiplayer characters). Druids do not get access to it, but Jaheira does gain a spell called Harper's Call that does the same thing.

But for BG:EE you'll be stuck using temples, as you can't get to level 9 as a Cleric under the XP cap.

Is Harper's Call working now? It was buggy as heck the last time I tried it.

JuliusBorisov

@abacus‌ No patch has been released for BG2:EE yet, so it's still buggy. But you can use this http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/399172/#Comment_399172 or this fix by @CrevsDaak‌ : http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/459317/#Comment_459317 .