New to BG1
Wrathofrecca
Member Posts: 98
Hi, BG2 veteran but new to BG1 so I'm seeking some advice for my initial start. My current evil run has berserk9-mage, Dorn, Korgan, Jan, Jaheira and Edwin. My last good run was Cavalier, Kheldorn, Valygar, Anomen, Nalia, Mazzy to give you an idea of my typical setup. I'm taking advice on what my first char's class should be for starting a fresh BG1 play throught, I might not do BG2 with it, just testing the waters. I'm looking for something that will demolish/breeze the game with minimal effort so I can get a feel for BG1. All advice appreciated!
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Comments
BG is very open, lots of space for kiting once you get past Candlekeep. And all sorts of different arrows that are plentiful. And as the game progresses and you collect a lot of gold you will easily be able to afford them.
Korn, Jaheira and Edwin are all available and strong NPC to take along. Though I suppose you ought to see what Khalid is like considering he's always been a ghost for you up till now.
Good luck and I wish I was in the same position as you with BG in front of me as a new game.
Good luck. I am also jealous that this will be your first time. You are about to have such fun!
I recommend using the BG1 NPC Project mod, because of the dialogues between NPCs (it's much less likely to happen in BG1 and as a BG2 veteran I think you'll miss it).
If you wanna laugh a little bring Tiax and Xzar/Montaron along.
Oh! That's another thing you need to know: in BG1 some NPCs come in pairs. Minsc/Dynaheir, Khalid/Jaheira, Xzar/Montaron and Eldoth/Skie.
Good luck!
1. Viconia-pretty much the only evil cleric. She also has 65 magic resistance, which helps.
2. Kagain-Con 20 and slap on the Gauntlets of Dexterity that you get near the Gnoll Stronghold and he is nigh unto unstoppable.
3. Edwin-I'm sure you already know that Edwin is essentially a synonym for power gaming
4. Baeloth-Powerful Evil Sorceror and great dialogue (Can be found in Larswood at Level 5, so I'd keep Edwin or Xzar around until then)
5. Xzar/Montaron- Great Combo, Great Dialogue
6. Safana-Seems like she would work well with Evil partys.
7. Dorn-Best Evil Damage Output. Has a bit of trouble taking damage at early levels though.
I also recommend the NPC Project Mod, it won't add dialogue for Dorn, Neera, Rasaad, Baeloth or any SOD Dialogue, but it's great for extra dialogue in BG1.
That's another difference: in BG1 (and SoD), Enchantment spells are a beast. Sleep, Emotion: Hopelessness, Confusion, Chaos, Domination, Charm Person, Dire Charm, Fleebemind, Hold Person, Hold Monster...
That's why Xan is, by far, the best wizard in the game (too bad you can't bring him into SoD).
No but there is a mod for Xan in BG2
But I'm not sure I'd recommend him for a first-time playthrough, just because of his quest timer. Or at least, I'd *definitely* not recommend him for a blind, spoiler-free playthrough, because odds are high he's going to get impatient with you and bail at an inopportune time.
You can always take him and not give him anything too nice gear-wise. As a superb archer, he'll make your life a ton easier while he's around, and if at some point he bails, then he bails. Easy come, easy go, and there are plenty of other NPCs to experience.
If archery isn't the most OP force in the universe, then wands are. Make sure your party uses plenty of wands. Especially Wands of Sleep, Fire, and Monster Summoning. Even Wand of Frost, which was garbage in BG2, is amazing in BG1, (it operates differently).
If archery and wands aren't the most OP force in the universe, then SoE (save or else) spells are. Enemy saving throws are soooooooo garbage, stuff you'd probably not cast in BG2 like Silence 15', Blindness, Charm Person, Hold Person, and Web will pretty much end fights immediately. (Web, in particular, is crazy-- enemies must save every round at a -2 penalty. They're going to fail that all the time, leaving enemies trapped in a web and primed for... you guessed it... archery.)
If you ever meet a talking ghoul named Korax, agree to be his friend and then make sure you let him walk in front of you.
The longbow advantage when you are truly dreadful/pathetic/useless at the start of BG outweighs the advantage of having all pips in shortbow for when you are much more competant in BG2 IMO.
Strength stat comes in here, getting that extra damage from a composite longbow is lifesaving early BG.
Also, what will make the beginning of bg1 the easiest? I played about 4 hours years ago and gave up. I was use to toe-to-toe fighting of bg2 and this was years before wow so I didn't know what kiting was or how to abuse it.
And 18 in dexterity of course, for defense.
You are looking for a trouble free run, well the obvious answer to get you started is to keep the difficulty slider down, no higher than core.
There's nothing to stop you putting it up later if you feel it's a bit too easy.
Just indulge yourself, it's not an exam.
And the game is worth getting into. It's a much better RPG than BG2. BG gives you the freedom to really feel the adventure charname is having.
Bows for archers is one of the few places I'll differ. Archery is so OP in BG1 that you'll do just fine even with a "suboptimal" bow. Sure, a composite longbow adds +1 damage, but there are so many magical arrows with damage boosts that that bonus isn't all that important.
Archery is much more finicky in BG2, where having an ideal bow becomes much more important. Getting GM and Tuigan right at the beginning of BG2 offsets any relative disadvantage of being stuck with short bows +1 and the Eagle Bow in BG1, IMO.
Another thing worth noting is there are several NPCs already built for longbows, (Kivan, Coran, and Khalid come with pips pre-placed, and Shar-Teel is capable of getting to three points if you dual-class her right), but there are no NPCs already built for shortbows and Shar-Teel is the only one who is able to reach 3 pips there.
This means unless you're building a shortbow user yourself, (or bringing Shar-Teel specifically for the purpose), the Eagle Bow is going to go unused or underused, which is a shame because it's the third-best launcher in the game. If you're already bringing one of Coran/Kivan/Khalid, short bows become more attractive. If you're planning on bringing two of them, a shortbow archer is downright superior to a long bow one.
(If you're really concerned about the early game, there's nothing to prevent you from putting two of your starter pips into shortbows *AND* two into long bows and using a composite until you hit level 3. You don't really need a melee switch when you have companions, though it'll be potentially annoying against the skeletons around High Hedge.)
The only real consideration the OP needs to make regarding weaponry in BG1 is that katanas are super rare and there's only one magical one. Pro-tip: Don't place pips in katanas on your first playthrough.
Long Bows are great in BG1, and fine in BGII. Yeah, in BGII they're not as awesome as Short Bows, but they're just fine. I've never felt gimped by using them.
All OP really needs is a good class and an understanding that archery is very powerful in BG1, which I think we've provided.
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Although I think it's good you advise some caution when using him, I find your point about Kivan kind of weird. In all my years of playing this game, I have never once lost Kivan to the dreaded timer. And I played this game when I was five and didn't really read half of the dialogues. I rarely breezed through the game either.
Just don't rest every two seconds and you're good. Cheesy as hell anyway.
For ranged in BG1, you can get by with any option, be it dart, axe, any bow, sling, any crossbows, or dagger, but by leaps and bounds you have an easier start with composite. The most suboptimal ranged weapon in bg1 is the throwing axe, but that shares proficiency with axe and can deal impressive damage evrn with poor strength (you'll need a mule to carry your ammo!). Shortbows early in bg1 feel gimpy if you aren't specialized for the record.
If you aren't for sure going to bg2, just take longbow and have a blast. If you do export to bg2, as noted longbows aren't bad, just don't neglect your strength and you'll again do fine with comp longbows.
That said, if you're sure you aren't going to import to BG2, you might as well use longbows on an archer.
By the time BG2 rolls around, though, ranged attackers need to start hunting for every edge they can get. Short bow archers will deal maybe 20% more damage than longbow archers, and especially by later in SoA, that difference is definitely going to be noticeable.
A longbow archer will play just fine in BG2, still. But you'll feel the power loss a lot more than you would feel the power loss in BG1. Just in my opinion and experience playing archers.
If you're an Archer its more one sided I suppose.
How should I allocate thief points? What's enough points for move silently, find traps, etc.
Also, who's a solid early healer that isn't Jaheira, cause I don't want her.
The main non-Jaheira early healers are Branwen and Viconia. Of the two, Viconia is definitely stronger, but they're both single-classes clerics, so whatever. A striking amount of the game's healers are only available later, so those are pretty much your options in the beginning.
Gesen damage per unloaded shot is 2 + 1-8 electrical + 5 + 5 = 13-20 or 16.5 on average.
APR of base 2 + 1 for level 13 + 1 for GM = 4
DPR = 66 (if all shots hit)
{with acid arrows equipped does 1-6+1 + 1-3 acid + 2 + 1-8 electrical + 5 + 5 = 16-30 or 23 on average}
Firetooth +5 damage per shot is 2 fire + 1-8+5 + 5 + 5 = 18-25 or 21.5 on average.
APR of base 1 + 1 for level 13 + 1 for GM = 3
DPR = 64.5
{with bolts of lightning equipped does 2 fire + 1-8+5 + 1-8 + 2d4 electrical (assuming save made) + 5 + 5 = 21-41 or 31 on average}
Everard sling +5 damage per shot is 1-4+2 + 5 + 2 + 10 = 20-23 or 21.5 on average.
APR of base 1 + 1 for level 13 + 0.5 for specialisation = 2.5
DPR = 53.75
{with +4 bullets equipped does 1-4+2 + 1-4+5 + 5 + 2 + 10 = 26-32 or 29 on average}
Whether ammunition is equipped or not Firetooth and Gesen are pretty similar in output for an archer at mid levels, though Everard lags behind. The APR advantage of Gesen does mean though it can benefit more from the use of buffs such as improved haste, called shot and chant. The analysis above though assumes that every shot will hit. In reality that's not the case which makes the other weapons more attractive. That's partly because critical misses reduce the APR advantage of Gesen directly. In addition the bonus to THAC0 is only +4 for Gesen, but +6 for Firetooth and +5 for Everard (the THAC0 adjustment from ammunition will also tend to benefit slings more), which will make a big difference when fighting tougher enemies.
In terms of game timing both Firetooth and Everard are available far earlier (in the unmodded game) than Gesen (though Tuigan is a good substitute for shortbow users). Once HLAs are available GWWs mean that both Firetooth and Everard will comfortably out-perform Gesen even for an archer, thus there's actually a relatively small part of the game where Gesen would be the best weapon even for an archer that's regularly fully buffed.
For non-archers the other weapons will generally be as good or better than Gesen throughout the game, but the main point is that even for archers there's no need to go for Gesen every time (daggers and axes are also viable alternatives for archers as well as the long bows discussed above and even darts can become competitive if lots of buffs are regularly used).
It could be seen as a feature that longbows are so good early, and so bad later; forces you to chose if you want it easy early, or easier later.
btw, I don't think an Archer can get GM in slings, can they? aren't they restricted to specialization?
Thief skills, prioritise pick locks and find traps and then lay traps for easy kills a bit later.
If you are going for the Nashkel mines early, find traps is important, if you are planning on visiting Durlags Tower later, evenmoreso.
And open locks, it's a great way to get a feel of the game to be able to run around and open all the doors and chests.
Healers, I love Vic but I rather like Branwen as well. So as you know Vic from BG2, why not give Branwen a try? An advantage is she is stronger and in BG you don't get any strength enhancing items till much later. Or take both, I do.