BG1 in BG2-Engine
Blave
Member Posts: 39
I know there are multiple mods that allow you to play BG1 in the BG2 engine (Tutu, BGT and so on). However, I never tried any of those since I prefer BG2. But needless to say that I'll get and play BG:EE anyway. 
However, I do wonder how the low-level gameplay of BG1 works with the rules of BG2 - which the BG:EE will be basically.
Just a few axamples:
How will a low level fighter ever be able to use more than one weapon if you must pick each one individiually instead of having BG1's weapon groups? How can a rogue low-level have enough skill points to get hide in shadows AND move silently instead of simply raising stealth? And it's even worse for Assassins or Bounty Hunters. Won't some of the class abilites be outright too strong for the first two levels? I could think of a Kensai one-shotting anything with his Kai-Ability. And at least 80% of the enemies in BG1 should be unable to even hit the animal spirits of the totemic druid (those require +2 weapons to hit, if memory serves).
Are these things adressed at all or will we just get everything as it was in BG2?
However, I do wonder how the low-level gameplay of BG1 works with the rules of BG2 - which the BG:EE will be basically.
Just a few axamples:
How will a low level fighter ever be able to use more than one weapon if you must pick each one individiually instead of having BG1's weapon groups? How can a rogue low-level have enough skill points to get hide in shadows AND move silently instead of simply raising stealth? And it's even worse for Assassins or Bounty Hunters. Won't some of the class abilites be outright too strong for the first two levels? I could think of a Kensai one-shotting anything with his Kai-Ability. And at least 80% of the enemies in BG1 should be unable to even hit the animal spirits of the totemic druid (those require +2 weapons to hit, if memory serves).
Are these things adressed at all or will we just get everything as it was in BG2?
3
Comments
While @Awong124 was right about receiving more thief skills at creation/per level the difference isn't that sifnificant. In BG2 you get 40 points at level 1 and 25 points per level after whereas in BG1 you get 30 points and creation 20 points per level after (I got the BG1 values from the game manual so you never know if they're actually accurate). Meaning that even at the EXP cap (level 10 thief) you'll have only gotten and extra 60 points, not enough to make up for having to split between hide in shadows/move silently rather than just stealth (nevermind detect illusion/set traps). Not really sure how to go about changing this, maybe just combine the stealth skills back into one?
For weapon proficiencies, you'll be forced to spread them pretty thin, possibly even discouraging fighters from taking more than 1 or 2 stars, unless you already know which weapon you want and where to find it. I play with BGTutu which allows you to choose the proficiency categories and the option I always choose is to have the same weapon categories as BG1 vanilla but with the weapon styles added, which worked seems to work pretty well.
Theoretically, kits and proficiencies could be "overpowered" on regular difficulty levels. But in actual practice, none of the proficiency and kit stuff makes much difference for the first few levels. When you have less than 30 hitpoints, a good stuff wind or a random lightning strike can take you out instantly. It's a feature of the game - makes it much more challenging.
Stealth is a difficult issue in the beginning, sure. In BG1, it pays to have 1 thief exclusively for traps and locks, and possibly another one if you also want stealth and backstabs.
On the other hand, if you exclude stealth from your thief's schedule, they'll be faster than before at maxing out their skills.
Yes, kit abilities are oftentimes very unbalanced in BG1, but you just went and chose the one kit that is severely disadvantaged in BG1. A level 2 kensai won't one-hit anything. Au contraire, he himself is living on borrowed time. In BG1, where a single hit may kill you, then kensai is forced to run around without armor. Furthermore, while everybody is using ranged weapons, the kensai is forced to go into melee (unless using throwing weapons which are still forcing him closer to the enemy).
The barbarian or berserker are much more powerful in BG1.
There are a number of other issues, like XP for traps and locks, but with a modern install, most of them should no longer be an issue.
Weapon proficiencies aren't a big deal. You only lose out on "versaility" if you don't know what you're looking for. Obviously some weapon choices are a lot better than others this way (Warhammers being just about the only Blunt weapon worth leveling up, for example) but it's really not that big a deal because outside of a handful of weapons, you're lucky to find something beyond simply a +1 or +2.
Some kits are absolute garbage because by the time you start gaining bonuses for the kit, you've already beaten 9/10ths of the game. Best example I can think of this is Beast Master. I went through BGtutu with one to dual-class into Cleric mid-way through BG2. He's absolutely god-mode now but dammit BG1 with him was such a slog. No good weapon choices, no good armor choices, and the benefit of the kit is all in spell selection, something Rangers don't even get access to until literally BG1's xp cap.
Kensai are not that great in BG1 simply because the gimped armor class is seriously difficult to overcome. It's not as big a deal in BG2 because you have a larger health pool due to levels and your backup support in Clerics/Druids/Wizards can actually help you survive in battle. You can't even wear helmets with kensai so all it takes is for a Kobold and their racial passive to roll f***ing critical hits every f***ing attack to make you dead real quick.
The only kits I can think of that is just totally imbalanced and actually helps you rather than hinders you is any Bard kit (base bards are awful), any Cleric kit (because there are no disadvantages), Totemic Druid (most OP kit in the entire series), and Bounty Hunter (throwing traps outside of vision = busted.)