Share your BG memories!

Winthal

I thought it'd be fun to have a thread where everyone can post/share their BG memories, specifically: times when something really strange happened, or something unintentionally funny happened, or a particularly moving roleplaying moment just snuck up on ya, or perhaps you survived a fight against all odds, etc.

I already mentioned one of mine in the Nimbul thread (the Amnish soldiers patrolling the streets all rolled critical hits and instantly killed Nimbul before he had a chance to cast a single spell, which is more than a little ironic since he's wearing those boots of avoidance and is generally a pain to kill with ranged weapons.)

Another fun thing that happened during a play through near the Cloakwood mine entrance; I entered the small outhouse building alone with Shar-Teel, a bandit comes at her confidently stating: "I can take Drizzt with both my arms tied behind my back!" and clicking attack Shar immediately responds "Reeallly?" and rolls a critical hit, painting the walls with the poor (and overconfident) fella.

And also: "We're a horde of rampaging Tarrasques! Krie! Krie!"

AvengingExile

My favorite BG memory is the very first time I loaded the game. I didn't play a lot of computer games as a kid (we had a Mac) nor did I own any game console, but for some reason, my aunt had a copy of Baldur's Gate. One time I was staying at her house, I thought the game looked like fun so I installed it and tried it out. The opening movie just blew me away. "I will be the last and you will go first." Swords. Murder. Mystery. I was in a heaven that I'm pretty sure my parents would not have approved of.
My parents are actually far more understanding than I give them credit for, thankfully, and when we finally bought our first PC, I went out immediately and bought two games: Morrowind and Baldur's Gate. I still play both of them to death, but nothing has ever compared to that first feeling of "HOLY S**T, what is this I want it!!!"

kamuizin

Well here goes one, useless and awersome at the same time.

When you're inside the Baldur's Gate castle for the Sarevok rise as grand duke, before rush to the room to trigger the banters and start the fight with him and the dopplegangers, hide in shadows with one of your characters and enter on the exit in the north of the room (northeast if i'm not wrong). You will be on the castle tesaure chamber, with a king ramsom there (it's literally a pile of gold and magical items on the ground similar to the one on the Durlag's tower).

i believe you find there 10.000 gold, lots of emeralds, diamonds, 2 or 3 laeral's necklaces, spell scrolls and a bunch of magical items (the hoard vary, it's not a fix amount but i don't know if the variant is estimated on game creation or on the time you click on the hoard).


Ps: you can go there after the fight if you don't let the grand duke teleport you to the thieve maze.

Why useless? When you get this tesaure the game is a one step of the end, so what can i do with the jewels and the gold? Besides, the magical items there are mediums ones and in this point of the game every character on the party already is full equiped.

Why awersome? Well, it give a last breath to your pocket to buy for example all the arrows of dispel and exploding arrows on the baldur's gate sorcerous sundries.

DougPiranha

Here's a not so fond memory:

Winthal

@DougPiranha haha... aww I wish I still had most of my original BG screenshots.. alas, I don't. Obligatory Question: did you use the oil of burning, for teh luls? :-P

DougPiranha

I think I had arrows of detonation and used those. Most of the time I forget that I have potions, and rarely use them, even when they are in quick item slot

Winthal

Actually, all of your Firewine-kobolds here remind me of another fond memory. When I was but a wet behind the ears whelp in terms of baldurs gate experience, I made the mistake of entering the Naskhel mines at level 1 (with people wearing vanilla leather armors and crappy dex), and kept getting one shotted by kobold commandos with fire arrows. It was so friggin hardcore! Sometimes I miss being sucky at games.. that learning curve is almost the most fun

Drugar

Yeah, that's what I did the first time too. Pick up Khalid and Jaheira, Garrick and Minsc and just beeline straight into the Nashkel Mines.
Trap! *Imoen dies*
Trap! *Minsc almost dies*
Elite Kobold! *Minsc dies, then Garrick dies*

Fun times!

Zakeros

I once found on some Polish forum awesome story - in PL language version Minsc, when tired, is saying something like "We have to get some rest soon, the armor gave me some nasty abrasions". So, what he did was changing his plate armor to leather, so poor guy could get a little bit more comfy

As I said, not mine, just sharing ^^

Winthal

@Zakeros That's just... awesome, talk about immersion

DougPiranha

I played BGII first, so not many newbie stories from BGI. But I remember when I first encountered this reload->respawn feature responsible for the above screenshot. It was Gnoll Stronghold, I had a couple of reloads, and when I reached the top there were dozens of gnolls, if it weren't for that choke point I would have never won, and would probably given up on the game. Later I found out what was the cause, and had a fear of reloading for years to come.

Winthal

Wow, I actually found the screenshot of Nimbuls death:



"For the glory of Amn!"

Zakeros

@Winthal wow man, just wow, I'd surely want to recruit this Soldier to my party

Seldar

Must be the Sheriff lol

Zakeros

Maybe he used to be an adventurer like CHARNAME, but then took an arrow in the knee, hence three critical rolls in a row.

scriver

When I first played BG1, I was very young and only knew a few words of English. It was probably the first non-kid's or football (soccer kind) game I player for computer, I remember my brother borrowed it from a friend, and that my brother helped me to create my first character. I never left Candlekeep. In fact, I was so scared of what was beyond the fog-of-war blackness that I only spent time in the Inn, playing pretend. It was awesome. I'm still filled warmth just by thinking of it. The kind of nostalgic feelings only BG and Morrowind evoke.

After my brother returned the game, I didn't play it again until after I'd played BG2 (which practically taught me English, funnily enough). The fog-of-war did not frighten me then

Winthal

wow man, just wow, I'd surely want to recruit this Soldier to my party

It's actually 3 different Amnish soldiers, all in the same patrol, critting simultaneously

sarevok57

man those amnish, they're bosses, although i try and make it so they never partake in that fight, i like my 650 xp no matter how small that amount is

sarevok57

I think one of my most favourite memories was when i was fighting Drizzt and having hold person work on him, ah that saved a lot of time, instead of waiting for all my arrows and bullets to get 20s, ah good times

Winthal

wow, I've never had any spell work on Drizzt except flame arrow, he never seemed to save against those.

I remember when I met Drizzt the first time, I had never played D&D before and didn't know a thing about the universe or any of the major characters, I simply saw a blue warrior sprinting by, and thought "hey, he might have some cool stuff on him, let's try killing him". I think my party was about level 3-4 at this time... needless to say, he slaughtered me in seconds I didn't attempt killing him again until I was maxed out, and even then it took me several frustrating tries... so much fun!

smeagolheart

I remember the early days of networking playing Baldur's Gate for hours and hours with a buddy late at night in dorms with LAN cables running through our shared bathroom in Aviano Italy. It was a great fun multiplayer experience if you could get your buddies together and physically connect your computers to a network hub. It might have been BNC T connectors or an early ethernet hub

sarevok57

@Winthal, i always kill drizzt the cheap way, killing him at max level isnt to terribly hard if ye have the right spells/potions/ equipment for the job, im usually level 5 or so when i kill drizzt off, those 3 items are just so usefull plus that 12000 xp is just so huge in bg 1

Winthal

yeah I getcha, when I was a noob tho I didn't know any of the cheap tricks, later I developed a few on my own ofc :P Example: summon mass skeletons and body block Drizzt while he isn't hostile, then simply start attacking with the skeletons and leave the room, come back 20 minutes later after they have rolled a few critical hits and its done. Of course, I prefer doing it the "correct" way, he really is one of the most challenging opponents in the game, along with the Ac'Letac

sarevok57

ah yes, i've done that skeleton tactic once, i usually just load everyone on missile weapons, chill on the little island on the lake with everyone except for my monster/skeleton summoner, and take that person go make drizzt hostile, lure him to the edge of the lake, and it just stands there like a big smuck, getting hit until he dies, ah good times ( of coarse this only works if path search noding is on 4000, any higher and he goes around the lake to turn yer team into chop suey )

Winthal

You can also simply backstab him to death. I recruited a level 5 Coran once, gave him potion of heroism, potion of power, potion of storm giant strength and an oil of speed + boots of speed + shortsword of backstabbing. Then simply run up and attempt a backstab, I think 17-20 were hits, then just run back and hide in shadows, and repeat until drizzt dies. Shouldn't take more than 3-4 successful backstabs.

sarevok57

well drizzt has -16 AC against piercing and missle, -14 AC against crushing ,and -18 AC against slashing, and i believe he has 102 HP and 30 % damage resistance against all 4 damage types, never thought of the backstab idea though,

Winthal

hehe he is one tough sunofab**ch! thats for sure. Though I think the Ac'Letac is still tougher because of the auto-death zombie spell, that really sucks... especially since its a perma-death thing.

sarevok57

psssst............ 5 or 6 protection from evil 10' radius' and he is easy as pie ( or potion of magic shielding/ invulnerability help as well )

Winthal

does that stop the auto death thingy tho? I used to kill him using the "wand + invisibility trick", go down with Xan, cast invisibility, then stand in a corner and lob fireballs from a wand until all the cultists were dead (invisibility doesn't end when you use a wand, might have been fixed in a patch since then tho), and then use monster summons to block the Ac'Letac while archers with magic arrows finished him at range

sarevok57

as long as your save vs death saving throw is 1 or lower you are immune to his death gaze thingy ( it might be save vs spell, dont remember which one, i never fight him anymore because im always at 161 000 xp before i get to him) but regardless 6 protection from evil 10' radius' give a +12 bonus to everyone's saves for 1 turn/level so it lasts quite a while, i would just hammer as many protection from evil 10' radius on my guys, drink a couple of potions if need be, haste and then go down there, and summon swarms of skeletons and monsters from wands then haste suey the cultist and then smack down on demon homes, and boom goes down with ease

Winthal

neat, altho you'd need to play with a lot of clerics in your party to have that many prot 10' radiuses' tho