Some beginner's questions
Lotti
Member Posts: 66
I began with this game last week and am blundering around a bit.
Started out as a lawful good cleric, and didn't understand that Montaron and Xzar were available as companions, so the assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn was quite challenging. Jaheira and Khalid did join, but the adventures on the way to Beregost proved to be hard as well, and I needed quite a few resurrections and/or reloads. There I met Neela, and winning that fight was hard work as well.
Then I read up a bit and tried a rerun so far with a strong fighter, picking up Montaro and Xzar this time. That was much easier. Because both Montaro and Xzar as well as Jaheira and Khalid had pressing business in Nashkel, I decided to travel there before meeting Neela, but arriving there, I discovered I had entered Chapter 2 already, with much unfinished quests in chapter 1.
So what is a recommended style of playing: doing the side quests as they come and then only slowly moving from chapter to chapter? Will the companions become impatient? Jaheira or Khalid already started complaining? Should I walk all the way back with the spider from the house for some reward for instance, while encounters on the way may cost me valuable magical resources? Or is a return trip normally uneventful after cleaning up on the first trip.
After some nasty surprises I tend to rest after each fight, to reload the spells and heal everybody and preserve the healing potions, but this also takes quite a lot of (game) time, is this normal?
And is there a penalty for travelling long distances without rest?
Is it common to go back a bit and change party composition back and forth with the available NPC's, or will they get annoyed by such behaviour?
Started out as a lawful good cleric, and didn't understand that Montaron and Xzar were available as companions, so the assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn was quite challenging. Jaheira and Khalid did join, but the adventures on the way to Beregost proved to be hard as well, and I needed quite a few resurrections and/or reloads. There I met Neela, and winning that fight was hard work as well.
Then I read up a bit and tried a rerun so far with a strong fighter, picking up Montaro and Xzar this time. That was much easier. Because both Montaro and Xzar as well as Jaheira and Khalid had pressing business in Nashkel, I decided to travel there before meeting Neela, but arriving there, I discovered I had entered Chapter 2 already, with much unfinished quests in chapter 1.
So what is a recommended style of playing: doing the side quests as they come and then only slowly moving from chapter to chapter? Will the companions become impatient? Jaheira or Khalid already started complaining? Should I walk all the way back with the spider from the house for some reward for instance, while encounters on the way may cost me valuable magical resources? Or is a return trip normally uneventful after cleaning up on the first trip.
After some nasty surprises I tend to rest after each fight, to reload the spells and heal everybody and preserve the healing potions, but this also takes quite a lot of (game) time, is this normal?
And is there a penalty for travelling long distances without rest?
Is it common to go back a bit and change party composition back and forth with the available NPC's, or will they get annoyed by such behaviour?
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Comments
Companions will become impatient if you take too long to get where they want to go though, so attempt to make good time when travelling with npcs with a starting quest attached.
There are no timers for the main quests, so you can rest as much as you like, but as mentioned above, some NPCs will leave if you take too long.
Resting once per ma, or as soon as fatigue sets in, is ideal for newer players. The longer your party goes without rest, they incur penalties in combat. Travelling far distances or jumping maps can be done, just keep your eye o he time traveled. Anything over a full day requires your party to rest soon to prevent fatigue.
NPCs will be dissatisfied if you drop them from the party but will most likely stay where you dropped them off. Keep in mind however that they will not cumulate xp when they are not in the party, so they maybe severely under leveled should you return to them.
Use command to defeat the assassin. And beat him down. Do quests around the friendly arm inn. The do some in beregost. Will get you to level 2 or 3.
The usual time an NPC will "wait" before you accomplish their goal is 10 days. You can check how long they've been in your party somewhere in the Record screen.
Khalid, Jaheira, Xzar and Montaron's goal is to go to Nashkel and simply talk to the mayor. After that they won't leave if you screw around a bit before doing the Mine.
when you did that, go to the basilic's map (i just remember it's on the very right) find korax the ghul, and accept its offer. Kill all basilic using korax as a undestructible meatball.
Congratulation, your whole party is lvl 3/5 (depending on size) now
The beauty of the bg and bg2 games (not so much their expansions, which are more linear), is the freedom a player has to determine what to do.
In the chapters you're playing now, you can visit villages, do some side quests, and eventually choose to enter the Nashkel mines (level 2 or 3 party should be fine).
It may be nice to know that the easier quests are located in the maps directly along the road from the Friendly Arms Inn, going over Beregost to Nashkell. The further you go to the east or west along this 'road', the harder the quests and creatures will become. When you play through the first few times, my advice would be to first explore the areas between Friendly Arms Inn and Beregost, Beregost, the area west of Beregost, areas between Beregost and Nashkell, and then head for the Carnival and the mines. From there the real exploring can start. If you meet too though an opposition, you can leave a certain area alone and return later.
Also nice to know is that some encounters have fixed opponents, but most random encounters scale based on the level your party. As such, the 'fixed' encounters can be tackled when you feel ready for them.
Good luck and have fun!
Enjoy wandering and adventuring through out the BG world without any real time constraints for quests almost. You can accumulate some xp before doing any of the major quests for the story - you could be level 3 before entering Nashkel mines with only moderate exploring as you head south.
Certain NPCs if you pick them up will eventually complain if you don't do their quest in a timely manner but they will warn you of it before hand several times - so you are safe in that regard. I think only 2 or 3 NPCs will actually leave to never appear again if you don't do their quest on time (Misnc, Coran or could it be Kivan?)
Hint: if you have a mage - sleep spell works wonders for most of the game; spook is also good although only for 1 monster; grease depends on if you can fire it in time - has a wide radius and the monsters move pretty fast - but it can slow them down so you can pick them off with missiles (it will affect your team mates as well so don't go into it if you use it). Offensive spells (magic missile, chromatic orb etc) get better as you level up - if you make it to level 3 - then your mage becomes more useful.
Explore the spells that both mage and cleric have to understand what they do. For example, magic missile is a great spell but really only when you get to level 3+ so you can fire multiples of them - if you can only fire one MM you might as well use a wand and save the spell slot for a more useful spell.
Defensive spells (shield, armor, blur, mirror image [most useful] - although some you won't find a scroll for a bit) for mages or somewhat useful - if the battle is longer make sure you have some kind of defensive spell at least or keep away from melee but sometimes that is always possible.
Cleric/druid spells are good buffs - holy power (to engage in melee for the cleric), command (works wonders at times to slightly even the odds - takes down one monster); entangle to stop a group (use missile weapons on them from a distance), cure light wounds (for healing), bless and chant for buffing (improving the saving throws and AC of your team - cast before a fight).
Use a bit of strategy when engaging the enemy - don't just run up and melee them - BG is not really a hack and smash type of game.
Missile weapons - are really great here in bg1 - equip everyone with some kind of missile weapon (bows, sling, throwing knives, throw axes what ever they are proficient in or can use with minimal penalties) - firing from a distance as the monsters come toward you will end a fight quickly sometimes and if not it will soften them up so melee is easier. Always keep your mages and thieves back away to help with missile support while your melee fighters engage if possible.
Gold you will have in abundance eventually - so no real worries - but in the early parts it is harder to come by - sell things like bows and armor and anything you can carry back with you to the merchants that you don't need. Don't worry about not having magical weapons you will be able to find some (meaning defeating the monster to get theirs).
Potions - if you have them use them - don't hoard them - but use them strategically - not every engagement will require weaker team members that need the boost to always need the potion help, for example strength potion or agility potions are useful to have.
Poison - if you are poisoned and it happens in the game use the green bottle of anti-poison - poison is deadly at low levels - even waiting a round might prove fatal for some. Always have some on hand distributed among members.
Wands - useful to get and use - look at the charges you have - if you are down to one - then sell and recharge it - but be warned it will be expensive.
Don't be stingy with equipment and items - spread them to your team - as it will mostly be a team effort for the game + it is more entertaining with them along.
NPCs - add and remove depending on how you interact and feel about them. Try out a few different ones to see which ones fit best with your style of playing and with your alignment and role playing. For example if you are playing a lawful good Paladin would you really accept Edwin or Baeloth as part of your team - even if you felt sorry for Baeloth and accepted him - Edwin's quest is not something a Paladin would really do.
HINT: bring along a thief - it will save you some pain in some areas meaning dungeons.
CHA (charisma) is a stat - it is used for dialogue and may be useful for rewards and discounts at stores - if you have a low (anything under 10) or neutral CHA (around 10-15) and your charname is in the lead - it really doesn't matter if a NPC with a higher CHA does the dialogue as the computer will use the first player spot to determine CHA adjustment - so have someone in the lead with a moderately okay CHA - to bargain in stores (16+ is best for discounts). Of course there are magical items and spells that can help with this as well.
Retreat aka run away to fight another day - some areas are really dangerous for low level parties - run if you can and come back when you have leveled up a bit more. There are ways to defeat the harder monsters in the game that give good xp - but it might be more fun for you to discover them on your own as you adventure.
The AI - look at the script each NPC gets - it will be slightly different for each - yes it saves on micro-management - so look and customize for your style of playing - spells you might want to control by yourself. Remember you can toggle the AI on and off.
Remember to save the game at least once you enter a new area or level of a dungeon - just in case.
Enjoy playing Baldur's Gate EE and have fun adventuring.
But you can select imoen alone (cause no reason to get rid of her) and speak with her.
When I changed the order and put Imoen in the first spot the prices went down.
For store prices (and possibly party morale? haven't seen any hard evidence of this), the party leader's charisma is used
For dialogues, the charisma of the character actually engaging conversation is used.
But that's a good thing and the level of complexity is the reason this game is still being played 20 years later.
I suggest the OP finds the thread where people descibe their first encounter with the game way back when. They will find that everybody without fail found the game hard, quite a few played for years (fair enough they were children at the time) without managing all sorts of areas/quests.
So don't be disheartened, blundering around and getting killed......a lot, is normal for BG. Just quick save constantly. And it is far more realistic from a RP pov that you don't know where/how/what you are doing.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/29119/how-was-your-first-experience-with-baldurs-gate/p1
Thank you kindly good sir.
Yes, thank you for the link. My bad for mentioning a thread without a link. (embarrassed)
I find a lot of the posts in that thread very moving, this game means a hell of a lot to all of us. I hope the OP will have the same enjoyment over the years.