New players, don't make the mistake I did

LundmaN

First, the TL;DR version:

- Read the manuals and make sure you understand the basics of D&D, and also the basics and controls of the game(like the TAB key and how magic works for example)
- Reading about the world and lore will help, but not necessary I guess
- Don't play the sequel first
- Resting a lot is okay
- Icewind Dale was awesome

Yeah that's about it, so here goes:

So, I bought BG2 about a year ago, but never finished it. And frankly, never really got into it either unfortunately. I made the mistake, as a newcomer to Dungeons and Dragons and the Infinity Engine games, to not read the manuals before jumping into the game. Hence, I didn't quite realize what I was heading into which lead to a lot of confusion and not a very pleasant experience(I think I restarted the game with a new character like 3-4 times just trying to understand it...*sigh*).

BG2 just felt too time consuming(because of the open world and the steep learning curve)for my taste at the time. And I also made the mistake of buying the sequel first. I'd heard that it was more polished and you didn't need to play the first game in order to understand the second one, but I wouldn't say it's a wise choice to skip the first one in a series, because I think that added to the confusion(I don't really know what I was thinking, I felt my time was limited I guess).
Two things that confused me the most about the combat was the magic and the resting. It took me quite some time to understand how magic works, because I haven't seen that system in any other game. And the resting was a huge immersion breaker for me, I always thought "it doesn't make sense to sleep this much...", but I eventually realized I had to look at it as part of the combat, and not part of the roleplaying and immersion.

However, I have now(just a few minutes ago)finished the Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale, and it was great. I heard it was supposed to be more focused on the combat with a more straight-forward story whilst still providing that story and immersive experience, and it was exactly what I wanted. And this time I read both the "Mastering Melee & Magic"(not all 300-something pages but the essential parts) and "Survival guide to the north" manuals, and also read a little bit about the lore of the world, and it contributed a lot to a more immersive and pleasant experience. So in the end, it all turned out fine and I might give Baldur's Gate another go.

kcwise

Good advice! Thanks for sharing your insights.

Silverstar

How you learn is very individual but it's a firm belief of mine that most people (not all, but most) learn better by doing than simply reading. BG(II)'s manuals can seem pretty overwhelming and it's easy to end up as a living question mark if you don't play what you read. So I'd rather recommend reading the manual and playing the game, as well as doing the tutorialy thingies. Pick up the basics by playing, grasp the details through reading, achieve mastery through trial and error and quickload.

As for starting with the first game, then the second, that's pretty good advise for most every series where you keep playing the same protagonist. Both for mechanical and story-telling reasons. It's definitely recommended for the Baldur's Gates though, yes. While the EEs are new and shiny, the original games are actually old now and old games tend to be brutally unforgiving.

JuliusBorisov

It's always so good to read a post like yours. Thumbs up for it and for the desire to actually understand Dungeons and Dragons and the Infinity Engine games!

As for Baldur's Gate, I advice to start with BG1 (there're also manuals here: http://baldursgate.com/manuals.en.html). After you go through, you'll understand BG2 much better (not only because of rules and spells, but also because of the story).

LundmaN

Silverstar said:

How you learn is very individual but it's a firm belief of mine that most people (not all, but most) learn better by doing than simply reading. BG(II)'s manuals can seem pretty overwhelming and it's easy to end up as a living question mark if you don't play what you read. So I'd rather recommend reading the manual and playing the game, as well as doing the tutorialy thingies. Pick up the basics by playing, grasp the details through reading, achieve mastery through trial and error and quickload.

That's a good point. I forgot to mention that I obviously learnt a lot of my mistakes and confusion in BG2 that contributed to a better experience in Icewind Dale.
But I wanted to emphasize that if I'd read more about the basics and world before jumping into it I would have had a better experience. For me, as a newcomer to the Infinity Games and D&D in general, doing wasn't enough. After I'd read the manuals before jumping into Icewind Dale it was much easier to do the doing and experimenting.

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LundmaN

@subtledoctor Well, I take it that you're more familiar with these games than I am. I don't like limiting myself because the game doesn't do it for me(as you said about going through a dungeon without resting inside), especially as newcomer in a state where I'm already confused enough.

However, your view on that Raistlin wizard you mentioned(I haven't read the Dragonlance books, thanks for the tip btw!)was interesting, and if you view the resting in these games the same, then I see it becomes more immersive for you. I will actually keep that in mind if I decide to play Baldur's Gate

Belanos

subtledoctor said:

tl;dr having mages stand around and do nothing during a fight because I'm worried about resting actually increases immersion, imho.

If your mages are standing around doing nothing during a fight then you aren't managing your characters very well. All my casters are equipped with slings and some sort of melee weapon, so there's no reason for them to be simply twiddling their thumbs if they've run out of spells. They might not be as effective with those weapons as others, but they can still make themselves useful while using them.

wubble

A mage with a ranged weapon helps keep the pressure on the enemy and can be especially helpful in interrupting enemy casters.

TommyKnox777

Man, you wanna talk about confusing...I recently started playing DDO (dungeons and dragons online).

The classes and builds are so complicated I'm utterly lost, 2nd addition rules seem so much more simple compared to that.

I wish there was a 2nd ed mmo.