Feeling very stuck
I've heard a lot of great things about Baldur's Gate and decided to get it from the App Store. I'm on a Mac OS 10.10 and I'm very new to the series. I'm ashamed to admit I'm trying to find a God mod or something similar because I can't get anywhere without dying at least 3 times. Can I have some advice on how to really get playing effectively? I've just set up a new character, a human but haven't done anything. I understand about quests and stuff and ran through the tutorial but I'm still rather above my head
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As a new player, the fighter class is probably the easiest class to play at low levels.
There is also the option to enable the console, which allows cheats if that is the way for you. Here is a link describing what needs to be done http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/16320/mac-faq/p1
For the easiest intro, I'd probably pick either a Half-Orc or Dwarf Fighter/ Berserker/ Dwarven Defender.
Get your top three stats (Strength, Dexterity and Constitution) as high as possible: S19,D18,C19 for the Orc - S18/80+,D17,C19 for the Dwarf (these are lower, but the Dwarf gets a nice bonus to saves).
Get your other three stats as close to 10 as possible, but don't worry too much about them.
When selecting weapons, put as many stars as possible into one of the classic weapons (longsword/ axe/ mace/ warhammer/ flail), and any remainders into a missile weapon (longbows are excellent in BG1).
Buy the best armour you can (If you r-click on the armour in the menu, it'll give you the armour's stats. The bit you're interested in is "AC", and that needs to be as low as possible.):
Full Plate > Plate Mail > Scale Mail > Chainmail > Leathers
Buy a helmet!! This will protect you from critical hits (which do double damage).
Buy a shield. This will make your AC even lower (which is good).
General gameplay tips:
- SAVE OFTEN. And use multiple save files so you have an oh-shit option if you stumble on something too nasty too soon. Pressing "Q" will create a Quicksave, which can be instantly reloaded by pressing "L".
- Keep close to the road until you have a full 6-person party and are fully equipped... there are some serious gribblies waiting to ambush you if you stray at low levels.
- Talk to everyone you meet... some will give nice easy quests with good XP rewards to help you level up.
- SAVE OFTEN
- Check inside every container (boxes, barrels, chest, etc)... there's some excellent loot available that can really help. (Pressing Tab will highlight any containers in blue... use this often as there are a handful of crackers in unexpected places.)
- Missile weapons are great. Every character should get one asap. There's a technique known as "kiting" where you effectively troll the AI by getting a baddy to chase one of your guys while he runs around and stays out of reach... meanwhile, his buddies shoot the crap out of said baddy.
- SAVE OFTEN
- Don't be afraid to leg it if the water gets too hot... your character is still effectively a babe-in-arms... not prepared to go toe-to-toe with a grizzly bear, so don't! There's enough XP available through fetch-and-carry quests to get you an early level or two without scrapping
- Oh, and SAVE OFTEN
The manual contains some good stuff to know, and is available at:
http://www.beamdog.com/files/bg2ee/bg2eemanual2.pdf
Another site I use is:
http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate
Which is all about how to power-play.
There are various walkthroughs out there, but I don't really know any.
It's a very complex game, which was put together for a different era... the best way is probably just trial and (a lot of) error.
The 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset can be very counterintuitive for someone not used to it (such as Armour Class (AC): lower is beter, To Hit Armour Class 0 (Thac0): lower is better, Saving Throws: again, lower is better, while with the To Hit roll and Saving Throw roll (the computer rolls the dice for you), you hope to role as high as possible). Dan Simpson gives a thorough explanation of the basics.
As for your question on level-up: only with the thief class there are skills that need points to be distributed. Most benefits of level-up happen automatically, such as better Thac0 and access to new spell slots if you're a spellcaster. More info: http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php/Baldur's_Gate:_Progression_Charts
One final advice: read as much as you can handle about the rules of the game, but avoid walkthroughs that spoil the story for you. You can only experience the wonder and surprise of you first playthrough once! Any old-time BG player will give you gold just to experience the game in a first-hand way without meta-gaming knowledge.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1skil_G19ymIplOdfU8y6NWLTLkHUBwZsTihb3oFk5bU/
Yeah, time was one of the things I felt most needed clarification. It's just not evident what the game means all the time, and that's a pretty big deal when you're dealing with things like spell durations.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183524786
Creating your character (first one): I would go with fighter/cleric multiclass. In the beginning, just focus on adding healing spells and try to weave additional buffing spells into your gameplay slowly as you advance. This way you will learn to slowly make buffing an essential part of your tactics. Fighters can breeze through most of the game, but if you add in some simple spells you will will learn much. Race doesn't
Creating your character (second one): After you've tried, and maybe failed with the first char, create a new one and use the experience from the first few hours of gaming to make the second char stronger.
Positioning: Put your stronger characters in the front, your weaker in the back. Sounds simplistic and you prolly already know this, but it makes everything easier when/if your low-HP chars aren't attacked all the time.
Potions and wands: Don't be afraid to use them! There's plenty of potions around; "Drink'em if you got'em". Also, wands can be used and replenished (sell and re-buy). There's plenty of wands around as well.
I can vouche for Elminster's NPC guides. They are very good, although they include some spoilers of course.
Make sure that under the auto pause menu you have "Enemy Sighted" and "Trap Spotted" checked.
Get used to the space bar.. it pauses the game.. it's your friend.
Easy starting tactic: Give everyone missile weapons. Shoot from a distance and when an enemy get's close to one of your characters, run away while the rest of your group keeps attacking. Running around in circles might seem rather lame but if you watch any solo run/speed run video you'll see that it's one of the most used ploy's.
Saving has been brought up before but I'll just reiterate .. Save! Save! Save!
Quicksave.. Reassign this key to something really easy to hit.. like Q. Before a fight: Q. After a fight Q.
Make permanent saves at the start of each new area in case you really feel you blew it.
Completely explore each area you enter. You find lots of goodies and will level up faster. You might come across an enemy that's too tough.. but you can run away and come back later. Trying to speed through the maps to get where quests are might seem the way to go but you'll soon find yourself facing overly tough enemies.
Rest a lot. Resting is good. (sometimes you might get attacked when resting outside.. Just reload and try resting again.)
The game is filled with Thieves and Mages.. but what you really want are healers.. They buff up your party up and keep you safe. Branwen is probably the first Cleric you'll come across.. Grab a stone to flesh scroll from a temple and carry it around with you until you meet her.
Party composition is important to a degree. If you're playing a thief you don't really need to worry about picking up other thieving characters.
Once you find a party you like.. stick with it. These games throw tons of companion characters at you.. While they can be fun it can also be kind of a nuisance.