An oldtimer's questions

Acererak

Hi all,
I have played D&D in one form or another, since the days of Chainmail, all the way up until 3rd edition. Played & enjoyed the original BG & BG2. Am just now re-discovering the Enhanced versions, but have a few questions, mostly down to my failing middle-to-late middle-aged memory (I think) :

#1 I've rolled a fighter that I am attempting to have wield dual weapons, but am noticing that with two pips at long sword, one pip at dagger, and two pips at two-weapon style, I still seem to have THAC0s of 20/25 at 1st level. Expected ?

#2 I've installed the Steam version of BG Enhanced, but cannot seem to find the location of all of the character portraits and voices. There is a data directory beneath the ..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition\ folder, but alas it is empty for some reason. ???

If anybody could shed some light on these questions, I would indeed appreciate it.

Thank you.

Travis

Acererak

Note to question #2, my data directory seems to now show up with files in them, but they are all with a *.BIF extension.

Zalson

For question 1: you may have miscounted your weapon proficiencies at first level. You should only have 4 as a first-level fighter.

Do you have a strength of 17 or higher? If you have a strength of 16 or less and you're specialized, your THAC0 at first level should be 19 (longsword specialization)/24 (-4 for 2 pips in two weapon fighting, no bonus/minus for having one point in dagger).

elminster

"#1 I've rolled a fighter that I am attempting to have wield dual weapons, but am noticing that with two pips at long sword, one pip at dagger, and two pips at two-weapon style, I still seem to have THAC0s of 20/25 at 1st level. Expected ?"

Given that you can't get five proficiency points at first level I suspect that you have ** long sword * dagger * two weapon style as well as 17 to 18/50 strength.

With a starting base thac0 of 20 your longsword arm would get -1 thac0 from your strength bonus, - 1 from proficiency, and +2 as a penalty for dual wielding. Which would leave it at 20 at creation.

Your dagger would be getting a -1 thac0 bonus from your strength and a +6 penalty for dual wielding. Leaving it at 25.

Belanos

Acererak said:

#2 I've installed the Steam version of BG Enhanced, but cannot seem to find the location of all of the character portraits and voices. There is a data directory beneath the ..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition\ folder, but alas it is empty for some reason. ???

If you're referring to the default characters that come with the game, those aren't kept in the Character folders. I'm not exactly sure where they are found though, they may even be hard coded. That folder is only used for characters you create yourself.

Blucher

Well since you are an old-timer, I should point out (just in case) that you can dual-wield two weapons of the same size w/o any extra penalty. While in 1st edition, yes you would want to dual-wield with a dagger in the off-hand.

Acererak

Blucher said:

Well since you are an old-timer, I should point out (just in case) that you can dual-wield two weapons of the same size w/o any extra penalty. While in 1st edition, yes you would want to dual-wield with a dagger in the off-hand.

To be honest, I don't even remember any of my PCs doing anything as "fancy" as dual-wielding during my 1st edition years. I'm going off memory here...

Acererak

After hours of messing about with portrait files, and discovering Isandir's portrait files, I have finally got custom portraits working, in-game. Huzzah !

Skatan

I think it's great to see old timers return to the game and to the community.

Fiendish_Warrior

SIAP and this seemed an appropriate thread rather than starting a new topic, but is there no more Biff the Understudy? I killed Ulraunt on the top of Candlekeep after sneaking by Gatewarden. He had a ridiculous amount of HP (had to have been close to 1000 as I had some Storm Giant Potion and was cracking him for 40-50 a pop). After I turned myself in to Gatewarden, who visited me in my cell? Headscratchingly, Ulraunt. I was really hoping to see Biff. I guess I could chalk it up as Doppelganger shenanigans, but I must confess, I am a tad disappointed.

Gallowglass

@Fiendish_Warrior - I see your point, but remember that resurrection of the dead is feasible in the Forgotten Realms. Perhaps you're supposed to assume that someone simply resurrected Ulraunt ... and I guess one of his minions probably would.