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Persistent BG habits

Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
in Archive (General Discussion)
(just to have something to talk about while waiting for the release): I've been wanting to start this topic for a while and seeing other topics drift off to silliness for what I see as a sign of mixed boredom and nervousness for us beign close to the releasedate without new trailers, screenshots or info to talk about, I offer this to discuss:

Are there things in BG you always do, no matter what party you pick or character you choose?

It could be obsessive compulsive behaviour or well-founded choices (though part of my diagnose is not OCD nor do I believe in free will, but your mileage my vary),

share what's your persistent habits!

I got these:

- I always keep all of the quest items, even after the quests are completed. Once my inventory gets too full of books, letters, special items that only have a one-time function, I stash them all in one place, the same for every walkthrough I do: in BG I store them all in the wizard Zhurlong's tent, in BG II in the container just outside the left entrance of the copper coronet (after the Sphere has arrived so the map won't change anymore).

- I am very compulsive in always going for the best result in a fight. I suffer from chronic reloading. If a fight turns out bad, I reload for a better result. What I especially don't like, is one of my characters falling in battle. I know I can resurrect them, but sorting out the inventories of the remaining characters to create place for the dropped items, carrying it to a temple and then re-equipping the fallen character I find more of a hassle than reloading the fight.
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Comments

  • VaryahenVaryahen Member Posts: 224
    I usually kill some special npcs just after ending my conversation with them and just before they dissapear fron the game...if this dont affect to my party reputation. More xp, and sometimes...nice items. One of them, for example...is a healer man who heals your party in one of the coast areas. The Surgeon, I think its his name.
  • ARKdeEREHARKdeEREH Member Posts: 531
    edited November 2012
    I almost always play with a half-elf multi-class Fighter/Mage and I always have Viconia in my party. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever not had Viconia in my party, with the exceptions of soloing and in my very first playthrough when I didn't know she existed.

    I very rarely play with thieves or bards in my party.

    I usually play an evil party and my reputation is rarely higher than 6. If anyone rubs my characters the wrong way they usually die. Especially if they're trying to do something unpleasant to Viconia. For example, I routinely send a fireball into the crowd who want to burn her at the stake in BG2 and also kill the barmaid in Waukeen's Promenade who refuses to serve Viconia.

    I stockpile very large numbers of healing potions and go most of the game without using them and then end up using all or most of them in a few really epic battles.

    I usually confront my opponents directly and out in the open and don't use stealth. It seems more 'honorable' that way.

    I load everytime I get level-drained.
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    Varyahen said:

    I usually kill some special npcs just after ending my conversation with them and just before they dissapear fron the game...if this dont affect to my party reputation. More xp, and sometimes...nice items. One of them, for example...is a healer man who heals your party in one of the coast areas. The Surgeon, I think its his name.

    With evil parties I now do this with Joi in the Friendly Arm Inn area after completing her quest, you get the ring back and a decent amount of gold and 900exp! Also Bjorn(?) after you comeplete his Ogre quest you *do* lose Rep (though probably only -2 if Reputation is already 8 or less, but gain his +1 Medium Shield :-)
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    edited November 2012
    I never use items which can be depleted including potions, arrows, wands, bullets, scrolls etc. Normal non-magical arrows and bullets are exceptions. Healing potions can also be exceptions but only on extremely rare occasions. (Last time I used 3 of them for the whole BG2+ToB) Another exception is the potion of mirrored eyes for Aec'Letec. I never let a character die. I always reroll for max HP. I wait with Jaheira for double levelup to not lose that 1/2 HP. I do all the quests everytime. I also collect the quest items in a container, and sell all the magical weapons/armors(rings, amulets etc.) at the same place. If I've got more than one item of the same type I sell them together not to lose money.
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    ankheg said:

    I wait with Jaheira for double levelup to not lose that 1/2

    Do *all* multiclasses benefit from extra HP in this way? i.e. is there a tangible benefit of waiting until both classes need to be levelled-up before doing so?
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    I read in an old topic on the Bioware boards, the 1/2 hit points are distributed in such a way, you get it as a full hp every other level and no extra hp the other other levels. So that hp is not lost and there's no need to wait with your level-up.
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    edited November 2012
    No not at all. The problem with Jaheira that she is fighter druid with 17 constitution. She gets 6.5 for the fighter and 5.5 for the druid levels if I remember correctly. Fighter is (d10)/2+3/2 druid is (d8)/2+3/2. The real pain in the ass is the double levelup of course the chances are 80:1 because of the double rolls. And the game wont remember the half HPs. So this way the greatest HP you can get for her in BG1 is 89. Of course this isn't a problem after level 9.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    I never sell any item that has a name. It doesn't matter to me how useless it is or that i could use the gold in that point of the game.
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    edited November 2012
    Son_of_Imoen said:

    I read in an old topic on the Bioware boards, the 1/2 hit points are distributed in such a way, you get it as a full hp every other level and no extra hp the other other levels. So that hp is not lost and there's no need to wait with your level-up.

    I don't know... I remember that I tested it some years before but I could be wrong. You may be right because the con bonus is retroactive except for saving throws for dwarves, halflings and gnomes.

  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    Another thing that was said in that topic, was the CON bonus isn't halved and distributed per class at the time of rolling, rather it's added to the total after the calculations have been done: total number of levels/2 (or 3, for triple-class) times CON-bonus is added to the total of rolled levels. Missing halves being made good when the total number of levels/2 equals a whole number. Again, nothing is lost.

    Alas, the new Bioware-boards don't have as good a search function as the old Bioware boards, making me not wanting to go into the hassle of looking for it. It might have even been on the old Bioware boards I've read it, in which case it's completely lost: http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=367788&forum=17 is in my bookmarks under the name of 'BioWare Forums: Hitpoints at level up'.

    Out of sadness, despair, nostalgia and vain hope I never deleted those old bookmarks, even though they point nowhere but a general Bioware page that's totally devoid of links to Baldur's Gate. Oh sadness, oh despair, oh longing for times lost...
  • ankhegankheg Member Posts: 546
    Son_of_Imoen said:

    Another thing that was said in that topic, was the CON bonus isn't halved and distributed per class at the time of rolling, rather it's added to the total after the calculations have been done: total number of levels/2 (or 3, for triple-class) times CON-bonus is added to the total of rolled levels. Missing halves being made good when the total number of levels/2 equals a whole number. Again, nothing is lost.

    Alas, the new Bioware-boards don't have as good a search function as the old Bioware boards, making me not wanting to go into the hassle of looking for it. It might have even been on the old Bioware boards I've read it, in which case it's completely lost: http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=367788&forum=17 is in my bookmarks under the name of 'BioWare Forums: Hitpoints at level up'.

    Out of sadness, despair, nostalgia and vain hope I never deleted those old bookmarks, even though they point nowhere but a general Bioware page that's totally devoid of links to Baldur's Gate. Oh sadness, oh despair, oh longing for times lost...

    Wow you earned my respect not too many people can tell me new things about this game.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited November 2012
    @Oxford_Guy, you do know that Bjorn was going to give you that +1 medium shield anyway as the reward for completing his quest, don't you? You didn't have to kill him. Evil people are mean. (kidding)
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    I always try to do something different during each play through, like choose a difference response, take a different NPC or complete areas/quests in a different order. I try to make every game a different experience.
  • Eldoth_KronEldoth_Kron Member Posts: 18
    edited November 2012
    Jalily said:

    I always clear away as much of the black fog as possible by walking around, even when I know there's nothing there.

    This is called adventuring or exploring. There might be some random enemies in that small patch of black fog, especially if it's in the middle of the map. But yes, it could also fall under OCD. Or being perfectionist.

    Another thing that I do is that even if the quiver is even one arrow short of being full, I have to fill it to maximum from the lower inventory bars.

  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    @Jalily: Clearing the fog-of-war even if you know there's nothing there - I do that too.
  • MarricMarric Member Posts: 53
    I always have Imoen in my party.
    I try to complete the game in as few "in game days" as possible, so minimal rest, try to figure out the most efficient travel, etc.
  • DelvarianDelvarian Member Posts: 1,232
    Jalily said:

    I always clear away as much of the black fog as possible by walking around, even when I know there's nothing there.

    I do this as well, and I find myself getting upset about the bits of fog I can't reach, as if I'm missing something. :-/
  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    Delvarian said:

    Jalily said:

    I always clear away as much of the black fog as possible by walking around, even when I know there's nothing there.

    I do this as well, and I find myself getting upset about the bits of fog I can't reach, as if I'm missing something. :-/
    The spell Clairvoyance is your friend then if you don't want to cheat to remove the fog.

  • MERLANCEMERLANCE Member Posts: 421
    Son_of_Imoen said:

    Another thing that was said in that topic, was the CON bonus isn't halved and distributed per class at the time of rolling, rather it's added to the total after the calculations have been done: total number of levels/2 (or 3, for triple-class) times CON-bonus is added to the total of rolled levels. Missing halves being made good when the total number of levels/2 equals a whole number. Again, nothing is lost.

    Alas, the new Bioware-boards don't have as good a search function as the old Bioware boards, making me not wanting to go into the hassle of looking for it. It might have even been on the old Bioware boards I've read it, in which case it's completely lost: http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=367788&forum=17 is in my bookmarks under the name of 'BioWare Forums: Hitpoints at level up'.

    Out of sadness, despair, nostalgia and vain hope I never deleted those old bookmarks, even though they point nowhere but a general Bioware page that's totally devoid of links to Baldur's Gate. Oh sadness, oh despair, oh longing for times lost...

    http://web.archive.org/web/20080209185659/http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=367788&forum=17

    That seems to have what you were looking for.

    I always sell stuff to the some person (usually chapter 6 Ribald's special shop. I always store my loot in the same spot (top floor of Watchers keep, room next to the door with a bunch of containers. I often spawn a copy of Ribald and the shadow thief merchant there to save time selling things.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    Let's see...

    I usually take Khalid and Jaheira through the Nashkel mines, then typically drop them.

    I always use the Borland's house in Beregost as home base in BG1. (I'll store quest items there, as if I were really there I'd figure one never knows what future value they might have.)

    It's been a long time now since I played, but I think I got in the habit of clearing fog of war with a cheat key...
  • ForseForse Member Posts: 106
    I can see myself in all the aforementioned behaviours. Kinda funny how similar humans are in so many respects. Having OCD myself, I can say that many of these behaviours may be OCD, and may not. It depends on how you handle the impulses. :)
  • MERLANCEMERLANCE Member Posts: 421
    Another thing I always do... I never buy the license to use magic. I always kill all the waves of cowled wizards, you get some really good stuff to sell.
  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    edited November 2012
    decado said:

    image

    Must...check...all...barrels...
    Post edited by Jalily on
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    MERLANCE said:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20080209185659/http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=367788&forum=17

    That seems to have what you were looking for.

    Hey thanks! I tried the Wayback machine some time ago to retrieve something from the boards, but didn't manage too. Or maybe what went wrong was trying to do a search on the wayback Bioware page, I can't really remember, I only remember I didn't find what I was looking for. But seeing that page back is marvelous! I will try that on the other topics I bookmarked!



  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,580
    belgarathmth said:

    @Oxford_Guy, you do know that Bjorn was going to give you that +1 medium shield anyway as the reward for completing his quest, don't you? You didn't have to kill him. Evil people are mean. (kidding)

    But you also get a magic spear too, if you kill him.

    With BG1's engine, I could charm Bjornin and lure him to a secluded portion of the bar, then kill him without anyone else noticing.

    I don't know if I'll be able to do that with the BG:EE engine (I think all chars in the room will turn hostile, even if not in your line of sight).
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