Worst Character to Complete Baldur's Gate

BlackDog

Anyone complete the game (through BG2, maybe not BG1) with a non-uber powerful character? Specifically, no skills above 15, and/or a cruddy class (e.g. Jester, or heck a Mage with a 3 Con and 3 Dex). Anyone?

sandmanCCL

I've honestly debated rolling through the game with a plain human as a wizard slayer and I'd hack all his stats to just be 10, and I would limit myself to 4 party members.

Probably never going to happen, though. I love my munchkin characters too much.

Lemernis

One of the game concepts I always wanted to try was a Jester who behaves like the character Navin from the Jerk. He'd choose all the silliest answers ("We're a horde of rampaging Tarrasques! Krie! Krie!") and pretty much do the stupidest things. Naturally, he'd recruit the least effective party.

Now that said, one has to draw the line somewhere. I wouldn't go as far as having him buff with Infravision, constantly Web his own party, and cast Friends on Aec'Letec. Tactically, I would still have to play to win.

Anyway, I never got around to playing that game.

I did briefly try a PC once that had normal stats in the 10-12 range just to see, and quite honestly did not enjoy it at all. I aborted it pretty quick.

raywind

I soloed bg2 with sorcerer with all stats minimized but sorcerer is easy class to play so this might not qualify for this thread. But somewhere online i saw a guy doing bg1 with bard and all stats at minimum and he finished the game solo.

Excalibur_2102

Skills aside, the worst EVER character to complete Baldurs Gate was Abdel Adrian.

Corto81

Excalibur_2102 said:

Skills aside, the worst EVER character to complete Baldurs Gate was Abdel Adrian.

Hihihihiih.

So true.

Permidion_Stark

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself. He would have had pretty low stats. He would also have run screaming in terror the first time he saw a Gibberling.

In the end I decided against it. Now I always keep hitting re-roll until I've created an alter-ego who is much smarter, more dextrous, far stronger, more insightful, a lot healthier and way more charismatic than I am. Then I am ready to go adventuring.

beerflavour

Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric/Mage 12/11/13/14/10/7

But TBH the starting stats are irrelevant. You can probably go even much lower. You'll come along so much magic equipment and tomes to remedy for it. You can get your strength, dexterity or charisma up. BG2 has this constitution belt. There are items to increase the available spell slots for arcane and divine casters alike. Clerics will have some interesting self buffs (draw upon holy might, etc.) which will stack with equipment or other buffs.

That means if you started a character with a 3 con you'd be able to get it to 20 or higher in case it's a cleric. But only temporary. The difference between the minimum HP (unbuffed) and the maximum attainable HP (buffed) would be around 50-70+ points for a level 10 character.

But then I do not solo. I always carry a group along. So it matters even less.

reedmilfam

Permidion_Stark said:

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself. He would have had pretty low stats. He would also have run screaming in terror the first time he saw a Gibberling.

In the end I decided against it. Now I always keep hitting re-roll until I've created an alter-ego who is much smarter, more dextrous, far stronger, more insightful, a lot healthier and way more charismatic than I am. Then I am ready to go adventuring.

But you're cooler

Sceptenar

Nah, my character is the child of a god and people are going to know it!

Atlantic

Once had a Halfling fighter with 15 str and very low Dex and Con (Deleted the save). He was for my 'worst NPC party' game which was pretty fun (It included Garrick, Eldoth and Quayle).

Knettgummi

I wonder what level I could stop progressing at and still beat the game... That would be an interesting challenge.

Permidion_Stark

reedmilfam said:

Permidion_Stark said:

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself. He would have had pretty low stats. He would also have run screaming in terror the first time he saw a Gibberling.

In the end I decided against it. Now I always keep hitting re-roll until I've created an alter-ego who is much smarter, more dextrous, far stronger, more insightful, a lot healthier and way more charismatic than I am. Then I am ready to go adventuring.

But you're cooler


Dude!

Hertz

Roll a triple-classed character and recruit all of the double-classed NPCs, I reckon.

BelgarathMTH

Jester is a strong class because of the unlimted ability to cast what amounts to a permanent Confusion spell. A mage with 3 dex and 3 con isn't going to make much difference to the end result. If you know what you're doing as a mage, you are going to stay the hell away from melee, and have an arsenal of defensive spells active at all times. The only problem with your hypothetical 2 hp per level mage might be surviving until Invisibility becomes available at third level. And that would be solvable with just a little bit of tactical effort - leave Charname the fragile mage behind at a safe distance, have the rest of your party move ahead and take all the archer aggro.

By the time you get to SoA, hit points for a mage, and even a fighter, are pretty much irrelevant, because it all comes down to how skilled you are at not getting hit. Even a fighter with super high Con and hp is going to go down like a child it he/she has lousy AC. And for the mage, neither the AC nor the hit point matter one bit since you're going to be blurred, mirror imaged, invisible, and stoneskinned.

Atlantic

Jester is very underrated, but I imagine its hard to RP: Some loony dancing around the battle making jokes probably would confuse most enemies

AHF

Atlantic said:

Jester is very underrated, but I imagine its hard to RP: Some loony dancing around the battle making jokes probably would confuse most enemies

Just probably confuse them in a WTF way and not a "maybe I should kill Boo" kind of way. I see Shar-Teel slicing the loony in half and making a comment about how all men are idiots.

sandmanCCL

Hertz said:

Roll a triple-classed character and recruit all of the double-classed NPCs, I reckon.

Erm, why would this be difficult again?

Multi-classing is a great way to make a super powerful character. Triple classed guys once they finally get over that first hump of gaining a level in all 3 classes are seriously stupid powerful.

Jaxsbudgie

Permidion_Stark said:

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself.

Ah I once tried to do the same! But I just couldn't roll enough 18's.

Jaxsbudgie

Hertz said:

Roll a triple-classed character and recruit all of the double-classed NPCs, I reckon.

Haha.
Reach chapter 5 - effective party level of 3.

Jaxsbudgie

belgarathmth said:

go down like a child

Like to pick on small children do we?

Hertz

Sure, Sandman ... by the end of the trilogy. But that wasn't the question.

Quartz

sandmanCCL said:

Hertz said:

Roll a triple-classed character and recruit all of the double-classed NPCs, I reckon.

Erm, why would this be difficult again?

Multi-classing is a great way to make a super powerful character. Triple classed guys once they finally get over that first hump of gaining a level in all 3 classes are seriously stupid powerful.

As @Jaxsbudgie already said, the rate of EXP is absolutely painful with that many multi-classes.

Frankly, I'm impatient (and despise grinding) enough that the most I can have in a game is 7 classes in a given party without going insane.

Hell, it gave me so much trouble when I was a little kid playing the game, that I didn't beat the game until I returned to it when I was 15. I was like, "you know, experience was always an issue with me. Maybe I should just have 4 hilariously overpowered characters? Cleric, Fighter, Mage, Thief ... that's all you need." And that is what I did. Went at it from a very tactical standpoint and tried to make the best of the best of each. I was like "okay, there's a beast fighter, beast mage, beast thief. Clerics are meh." So, made "Cures Light Wounds" the Half-Elf Cleric, recruited Kagain, Edwin, and Imoen. Good times, finally beat the game.

Sorry I went on a tangent ahaha.

Jaxsbudgie

Quartz said:

I was like "okay, there's a beast fighter, beast mage, beast thief. Clerics are meh." So, made "Cures Light Wounds" the Half-Elf Cleric, recruited Kagain, Edwin, and Imoen. Good times, finally beat the game.

Sorry I went on a tangent ahaha.

Sounds like a solid party!
But I would have personally gone with Faldorn, Garrick and a late-game Alora, lead by a "Beast(ly) of all trades, Master of none" Human club smasher!

Jaxsbudgie

[derrrppp can't delete herrrrp]

BelgarathMTH

Jaxsbudgie said:

Permidion_Stark said:

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself.

Ah I once tried to do the same! But I just couldn't roll enough 18's.

I always play every game I play with my avatar based on myself. According to the various tests out there, I am very high in both wisdom and intelligence, and pitiful in dexterity and strength, while average in constitution and charisma. My real-life dexterity gets boosted to average by my ability to play musical instruments and to speed-type.

Bards, clerics, and mages for me.

18's in anything are overrated and completely unnecessary, unless you want to blow off your potential friends and solo the game, which I would never do.

Jaxsbudgie

belgarathmth said:

Jaxsbudgie said:

Permidion_Stark said:

I once contemplated playing the game with a character based on myself.

Ah I once tried to do the same! But I just couldn't roll enough 18's.

I always play every game I play with my avatar based on myself. According to the various tests out there, I am very high in both wisdom and intelligence, and pitiful in dexterity and strength, while average in constitution and charisma. My real-life dexterity gets boosted to average by my ability to play musical instruments and to speed-type.

Bards, clerics, and mages for me.

18's in anything are overrated and completely unnecessary, unless you want to blow off your potential friends and solo the game, which I would never do.

I was very tempted the other day to start a 'you as an NPC! yaaay!' thread but resisted the urge. I think there was something very similar on the BioWorn/BioWere/BileWare forums. The crushing reality that no one really likes to admit / comprehend / even know of, is that the majority of us would be in the 8-12 bracket since that's considered average, and after all, we are all average sad-sacks.

Edit:
Most people would answer along the lines of ... "If I were in Baldur's Gate I'd probably be a level 17 Mage/Bard/Druid since I like to read (and got a B in English I might add), can sing in the shower (my mum says I'm pretty talented, actually) and have a garden (I potted a plant once), I've no shred of a doubt my stats would be in the high teens and I'd probably be Neutral Evil because I like to bitch about people on the internet"
No, sir chumpalot this would be you:
"If I were in Baldur's Gate I'd be commoner number 398! I'd be a stay at home mum! With stats of 7,10,11,8,9 and 10! I'd be True Neutral because I have no fucking idea what's going on and probably die in my early 30's!"

sandmanCCL

Hertz said:

Sure, Sandman ... by the end of the trilogy. But that wasn't the question.

I still don't see it.

First things I do upon every playthrough are take my guy and Imoen through the Basilisk area. Koraxx the Ghoul tanks the Basilisks and I'll bring a few potions of mirroring with me for when he finally drops. By the time I'm done with the zone, even tri-classed everything will be at least 2 and Imoen is already at level 4ish.

The way BG1 works, everyone else from there on out will join at around level 4 themselves, multi-classed or not.

If you know what you're doing, gaining your first few levels is easy peasy. Once you hit level 3+ so the chance of instant death from an errant critical hit is gone, the rest of the game is fairly easy.

So, no. If you think tri- and multi-class guys are only good by the end of the trilogy, you are simply mistaken. Even if you have a plethora of them.

I guess my point being there are no useless builds by way of class. Now, you can have a bad character by way of really awful stats. People are not saying that, though. They are saying silly things like Jesters are cruddy characters or multi- and tri-classed characters aren't good.

Quartz

@sandmanCCL K now try doing that with a tri-class PC, Jaheira, Tiax, Quayle, Coran, and Montaron and let me know if they even get up to level 2. :P

The_New_Romance

@Jaxsbudgie Yeah, probably. Then again, I think some of us here on the forum would make for respectable Mages, maybe even Bards (minus the singing, but it's not only singing they're doing). Thing is, nobody wants to be a 7-9-8-16-12-3 character.

sandmanCCL

Quartz said:

@sandmanCCL K now try doing that with a tri-class PC, Jaheira, Tiax, Quayle, Coran, and Montaron and let me know if they even get up to level 2. :P

The game will be half over by the time Coran, Quayle and Tiax are even available so I don't see how it applies.

Montaron and Jaheira don't join alone, either.