If you could change one thing about the Baldurs Gate games....

RVNS

If you could change any one thing, what would it be?

Mine would be the addition of a better alignment/reputation system.

scriver

I would make it a first person shooter set in WW2 after the American landfall in France.

profanitywarning

I'd have them published EET-style and add lots and lots of small expansions/sequels periodically, some mod-like, others taking place right after TOB. There's just so much room for more stories in that world and so many opportunities to tie them into what's already there.

Kurona

More stealth and social resolution alongside the existing combat ones. Also stat checks for dialogue options: in BG you get pretty much the same dialogue whether you play a 3 INT 3 CHA Barbarian or a 19 CHA Bard.

Kamigoroshi

The world map location.
And it should be as far away from the Sword Coast as possible.

lroumen

Thief / druid multi and dual class.

DrakeICN

I honestly would not change one thing. I actually never finished the Witcher, despite the fact tjat I loved it, because it was to long and to many options and to many things do to and... look Hairbrained have released Shadowrun Hong Kong and whats this Grim Dawn thing and...

I may sound like a total boot licker right now, but the game has endured for a reason. Modders cam fix the extra stuff...

lroumen said:

Thief / druid multi and dual class.

YES!.. but as a mod.

elminster

I would make it so that getting smuggled into the city during Chapter 7 in BG1 could actually useful (at least for parties that lacked a means of becoming invisible), by having actual flaming fist patrols that walk around the city (that would also confront you if you walked across the bridge). Similar (but not as extreme) to what I made in my Rough World mod.

Having said that this is my own personal thought and there are no plans to introduce this.

semiticgoddess

For BG1? Cut out or fill in the vast, vast expanses of uninhabited wilderness that don't even have an interesting-looking rock or tree to break the monotony.

For Siege of Dragonspear?

Make the cause of your endgame exile more due to politics and the rumor mill instead of Skie's death.

The soultaker dagger thing makes it look like you were framed (no one ever wonders what your motive could possibly have been), and it's much more plausible that Crusader propaganda or fear of Bhaalspawn would turn the public against you, than a single murder on its own.

Your decisions regarding Caelar could also turn the tide against you. Whether you kill her or work with her against Belhifet, you'll still earn enemies that could justify your having to leave Baldur's Gate.

For Shadows of Amn? Add in more nonviolent solutions, like in SoD.

For Throne of Bhaal? More side quests.

kanisatha

An interesting question, even if a very easy answer for me: 3.5e rather than 2e. It's very hard for me to come up with civil and polite words for expressing how much I hate 2e.

But I also agree with some of the things others have already mentioned: more reactivity; better alignment system; more use of skill/stat checks.

dunbar

Doors.

Portals are OK because "it's magic".

But those bloody doors that are somehow too small to let one person through but will quite happily (in fact, insist upon) accommodate your entire party.

ThacoBell

Make every class multiclassable. Any combination of up to 3 allowed.

Balrog99

lroumen said:

Thief / druid multi and dual class.

Druid/Mage dual and multi, ditto Ranger/Thief...

UnderstandMouseMagic

Introduce wilderness wandering into BG2.
Instead of "go here, do this quest for me, I'll mark it on the map" and then you "teleport" there, transitional areas.

Though I am in a minority and think BG is a far better RPG than BG2.
I love the wilderness maps and I think the random encounters on those maps make the game far more immersive.

Mantis37

Some good suggestions here on alignment, non-violence, & stat-checks. I would like some procedurally generated content, which would vary from game to game. For example traps could be in different locations, magic items would be somewhat randomised (and not so scattered around. Imagine having to use a -1 sword against undead because it's your only available magic weapon!), and monsters would spawn slightly differently from game to game. Not every quest would be available in every game, there might be a 10% chance that Sir Sarles isn't in town for example.

AndreaColombo

I’m torn between making BG1 sprites able to dual-wield and applying adherence to P&P rules wherever sensible and applicable.

Dev6

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

Introduce wilderness wandering into BG2.
Instead of "go here, do this quest for me, I'll mark it on the map" and then you "teleport" there, transitional areas.

Though I am in a minority and think BG is a far better RPG than BG2.
I love the wilderness maps and I think the random encounters on those maps make the game far more immersive.

I'm glad to see someone else thinking the same way I do. I loved the wilderness in BG so much. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with the game in the first place. It actually feels like a living breathing world.

So, what would I change? More wilderness in BG2.

Permidion_Stark

I'd change the plot of BG2 so that Imoen could stay with your party throughout. For me Baldur's Gate without Imoen isn't Baldur's Gate at all.

Permidion_Stark

AndreaColombo said:

I’m torn between making BG1 sprites able to dual-wield and applying adherence to P&P rules wherever sensible and applicable.

I'm convinced that in twenty years time, when BG:EE:EE is launched, dual-wielding BG1 sprites will be the first fix they do.

AndreaColombo

I should perhaps have specified to make them able to *visually* dual-wield. Mechanically they already can in the EEs (not so in vanilla.)

scriver

While the wilderness meandering is one of my favourite parts of BG1 as well (No other game has captured the feeling of aimless adventuring and just stumbling upon fun quite like BG did, I'm mt opinion), I really don't think it would make sense in BG2. You're just too high level, adventurers at that point don't deal with the random wolves and gibberling infestations any longer. And having the kind of beings that does challenge a level 10-20 character hang around every bend of the road just doesn't make sense, it strains the suspension of disbelief and diminish the enemies. You'd either end up with things like Mindflayers and Beholders becoming the Xvarts and Kobolds of BG2, or in the Elder Scrolls situation of having simple bandits run around in So much Glass or Daedric equipment that you can't help wondering why they don't just sell the gear and live like kings for the rest of their lives (like in ToB where every dumbarse and his goat has magical swords and armour). And either one would strain my suspension of disbelief.

It's one of the reasons I prefer low level play, to be honest.

JoenSo

More evil options that don't include gory carnage. Or being rude.

dunbar

Whilst I agree with @scriver to a certain extent, wilderness meandering doesn't have to be about random "you have been waylaid by bandits" type encounters. There are plenty of interesting scripted encounters in BG1 (Rufie for example) and not all of them have to involve combat.

I just love the way that exploration allows the world to expand in front of you as you travel.

In contrast I really, really don't like the SoA instant gratification approach and in my head I refer to the City Gates as the Teleport Room.

bob_veng

soft time limits (world changes as months pass by, generally for the worse - mainly bosses become more powerful and some quests become unavailable, or some positive resolutions become unattainable, and with a lack of story progress your followers lose morale...)

10Bazza11

Making some of the non combat spells more useful. Come on who has ever used infravision. I am just playing a solo mage in IWD EE and even though I have used a bigger variety of spells then I normally would some are just plain useless.

Grond0

AndreaColombo said:

I should perhaps have specified to make them able to *visually* dual-wield. Mechanically they already can in the EEs (not so in vanilla.)

@AndreaColombo I'm not sure what this means - it looks to me like the sprites in the EE already dual-wield. I play on a PC though - is this a difference across platforms?

@10Bazza11 one of the nice things about SoD is that it does make use of infravision in some situations - I agree with your general point though that more could be done to promote the usefulness of some spells.

It would be nice to have the ability to make time pass in the game integrated into standard commands.

AndreaColombo

@Grond0 I was referring specifically to BG1 sprites; by default the sprites in the EEs are BG2’s.

tbone1

One of two things for BG1: don’t show every melee fighter as left-handed, or allow us to assign kits.

Kivan should be an archer. Faldorn should be an avenger. Coran should be a swashbuckler not a fighter/thief. And so on.

bob_veng

i agree about kivan and faldorn, but why should coran be a swashbuckler?

but actually it's more important to give branwen the priest of tempus kit, now that it exists (will be brought over from iwd in the future) ... because she's a priest of tempus by all accounts ("If Tempus wills it." etc.)

BelgarathMTH

Permidion_Stark said:

I'd change the plot of BG2 so that Imoen could stay with your party throughout. For me Baldur's Gate without Imoen isn't Baldur's Gate at all.

And keep Imoen a thief! She would dual class to mage only if the player built her that way, and it would have nothing to do with the plot.

ThacoBell

The wilderness wandering is GREAT the first time through in BG1. But after you know where all the interesting encounters are, and where nothing interesting is, BG1 loses a lot of its magic because of that. It goes from exploring the unknown, to actively wanting to skip parts of the game because nothing happens there. That's really the biggest reason BG1 lags behind BG2 for me.