You know what's always bothered me about Baldur's Gate?

Elrandir

Inspired by a similarly named and styled thread https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/30774/you-know-youre-playing-too-much-baldurs-gate-when I decided to make this thread for us to gripe about our minor issues with the Baldur's Gate games (and Icewind Dale too, I suppose). This minor quirk has always seriously irked me.

So, to start it all off...

You know what's always bothered me about Baldur's Gate?

1. How every character is ambidextrous. Everyone's right handed until you give them a bow. Then suddenly they're perfectly ambidextrous.

Gotural

2. That some spellcasters just blatantly cheat and continue their casting without interruption when they take damage.
Sometimes I really want to use Ctrl-Y to teach them a thing or two about cheating.

Gallowglass

3. Crappy inventory management! Where's my ctrl-click multiple selection in inventory and containers, where's my select-all button, where's my two-dimensional grid instead of a linear list, etc? If Beamdog could update inventory management, that'd be a major Enhancement of the Edition!

Abi_Dalzim

4. Morale for enemies. They almost never give up, even when they're comically outmatched, and even if they do suffer morale failure, it's always temporary. Yeah, that near-death kobold is totally gonna get right back into it and take another crack at the TOB-level paladin who's immune to his non-magical shortsword. Right.

Gallowglass

Abi_Dalzim said:

4. Morale for enemies. They almost never give up ...

Yeah, but sometimes it's hilarious when they do fail a morale check. I remember one time in BG2ee when I was astonished to see Kangaxx the Demi-Lich turn yellow and run - priceless!

JuliusBorisov

5. How I cannot forget this game completely, as if I have never played it, so that all could be repeated.

SionIV

6. That a certain someone had to go and die.

Grum

7. That they scrapped Imoen turning into a rabid slayer when you get to her in Spellhold. That would have been so damned painful, and would have made Charname's transformation all the more anxiety provoking. Plus it'd make the player hate Irenicus even more. Finally...Minsc lost his witch, Jaheira her husband, and Charname would have lost a sister. For the three starting members that would have united them in vengeance.

deltago

Gallowglass said:

Abi_Dalzim said:

4. Morale for enemies. They almost never give up ...

Yeah, but sometimes it's hilarious when they do fail a morale check. I remember one time in BG2ee when I was astonished to see Kangaxx the Demi-Lich turn yellow and run - priceless!

8. Kangaxx always runs from me and it annoys the hell out of me. It's like get back here you regenerating freak of nature and die (again?) before my buffs run out and you return hostile.

Tresset

Gotural said:

2. That some spellcasters just blatantly cheat and continue their casting without interruption when they take damage.

I am starting to wonder if this is a bug... I am convinced it only happens if a caster is facing certain directions. I wonder if it could be fixed...

dunbar

9. That so many of the character portraits "available" for charname are already allocated to npcs or otherwise race/class specific.

Dee

10. Infravision is just about completely useless.

Yelocessej

11. There's no "climbing" mechanics (this is something thieves excel at in P&P)

Yelocessej

12. Everyone can cast teleport spells except you and your party

JuliusBorisov

Dee said:

10. Infravision is just about completely useless.

This is why it will be useful in SoD, isn't it?

13 (along the same line). The druid's spells of the second level are underpowered.

Neverused

14: That there are random enemies in the game far more terrifying than the bosses with absolutely no warning that they're going to be THAT powerful. (I'm looking at you, Khark the Ogre Mage that's just... chilling at level 12+ under the Firewine Bridge. In BG1. With an AC of -11. And about as powerful as Sarevok in melee.)

Yelocessej

15. You can't resurrect Gorion

Yelocessej

16. You can't get back into Candlekeep, yet Shank and Carbos had no problem getting in, and Imoen's perky little butt had no problem getting out.

Nimran

17. A well-developed character like Noober doesn't have a romance.

Empyrial

18. Druids don't feel nature-y enough in BG. There's just so much overlap with Clerics that they feel like Clerics with a few spells tweaking their difference. IWD did a lot better of a job with this though through a variety of other nature effects, like stone and water manipulation.

Archaos

Grum said:

7. That they scrapped Imoen turning into a rabid slayer when you get to her in Spellhold.

And being left with either annoying useless Nalia for a thief or the very useful but very annoying Jan for the other?
You already lost two party members. Khalid and Dynaheir and the charming awesome thief Yoshimo.
(I don't count Hexxat as she was added with the EEs).


19. Back then, we got the Barbarbian, Monk and Sorcerer as classes. Wild Mage with Throne of Bhaal.
Why wasn't any of them used for NPCs? And such a perfect chance to turn Nalia into a Sorceress and make her truly stand out.

sluckers

20. That with any weapon granting extra spell slots, even switching momentarily to a ranged attack will erase the extra memorized spells.

And yet, special abilities from weapons can be used from the 'backpack' button, whether or not they are currently in use.

DragonKing

21. How the story just glosses over things that should be more vocalized.

DragonKing

22. That I can't sleep with every drow (coughfemalecough) in the underdark, including sendai

joluv

DragonKing

joluv said:

my charname would her into a matron mother >.>

Abi_Dalzim

Yelocessej said:

15. You can't resurrect Gorion

23. You can't resurrect anybody that isn't in the party.

Archaos

Yelocessej said:

15. You can't resurrect Gorion

To elaborate a bit on this. At least for 3E, not sure about 2E but it's probably the same:
You cannot resurrect people that don't want to come back. The soul must be willing to return.

Gorion was old. He lived a good life and raised Charname as best as he could (probably?).
Why would he want to return? So he can hold Charname back and make both of them targets again?
Besides, there are better people out there who can guide him (Elminster).

As for Khalid, he was always a coward. Why would he want to return? So Jaheira can babysit him some more?
The adventuring life wasn't for him and he probably knew it and showed it.
Let's not forget, that him being Neutral Good, he most likely ended in a NG plane like Elysium, where he found peace and he can relax, perhaps reuniting with loved ones.

Same with Gorion. Returning to his old and tired body in hostile times or enjoy eternity in Celestia (Lawful Good)?

SharGuidesMyHand

Gotural said:

2. That some spellcasters just blatantly cheat and continue their casting without interruption when they take damage.
Sometimes I really want to use Ctrl-Y to teach them a thing or two about cheating.

Tresset said:

Gotural said:

2. That some spellcasters just blatantly cheat and continue their casting without interruption when they take damage.

I am starting to wonder if this is a bug... I am convinced it only happens if a caster is facing certain directions. I wonder if it could be fixed...

It's not a bug - the devs have confirmed that certain enemies, like Mulahey, are scripted to cast spells, rather than casting them from a spellbook, which is why they continue casting even when being hit.

I also remember someone on here saying that casting directly from a scroll is also uninterruptable, but I never confirmed that myself.

Abi_Dalzim

That explains Seniyad...hate that guy's Call Lightning, forces me to use a Potion of Absorption every time.

Gotural

Yes casting from a scroll is uninterruptable. Sequencers also are uninterruptable.

It's still cheating as Bassilus and Mulahey have none and still are impossible to stop from casting Hold Person most of the time.

I'm okay with let's say Irenicus or Melissan being uninterruptable because they are final boss, but when every random casters in the game is, it's really frustrating.