BG:EE No Reloads is how it was MEANT to be played
Hello all, just wanted to stop here real quick and share some thoughts I'm having. I recently began playing a "no reloads" game of BG:EE after having read about how much fun they were. I've beaten the game several times but have yet to move on to BG2 so I decided to give this a shot. Holy cow it is SUPER FUN!!! Here are the rules I've chosen to abide by:
Game Difficulty: Hard (I didn't disable the increased damage so enemies hit like runaway trucks)
Stats: Nothing above 80, I did allow myself a couple re-rolls because my first roll was like an 85 and I thought I'd try something a bit more within "normal range". I ended up with a 77-point roll, I did allocate an 18 to Wisdom (being the sane person that I am, I rolled a Druid lolz) but everything else is mostly 10's or 11's with Charisma being the prerequisite 15.
The gameplay is beyond wonderful! I feel like I'm playing D&D again and not some stupidly OP min-maxed character that instantaneously wipes the floor with everything in front of him. Now, when I go on an adventure, I have to CAREFULLY consider my equipment, check if I have enough potions of healing (just made it to Nashkel so my party is still low level), make sure that I am carefully prepared before leaving town. Not having the right gear/equipment or proper preparations literally means life or death. Normally I could just steamroll whatever the game throws at me but not anymore, now I have to actually be a frail, mortal adventurer and not some grossly overpowered superhero.
Combat feels very dicey, because I know if my charname dies that's it, game-over, I won't be reloading him from death. On the quest to the Gnoll Stronghold to rescue Dynaheir (I decided to go with the "canon party" of Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen, and Charname), we got bushwhacked while traveling there ("You have been waylaid and must defend yourself!) and my party was attacked by a winter wolf. Damn thing ran right up to Imoen and hit her with its cold attack, killing her instantaneously. I sighed and trekked all the way back to civilization and rezzed her. After returning and making it past the bridge with the two giants we encountered one lone Gnoll that got a crit on Imoen and dealt 27 damage, slaying her again. I wasn't about to waste more time and decided to press onward. After penetrating the stronghold and making my way inside, my party took on a few Xvarts but one managed to crit Khalid and he died. Seriously?! A FREAKING LOWLY XVART KILLED ONE OF MY TEAMMATES?! Normally I would've instantly reloaded but I did not as I was dedicated to the challenge. Down to just my charname (a Druid), Minsc, and Jaheira, all of whom are level 2 and don't have a ton of HP. At that point I was seriously considering retreating but I knew Dynaheir was nearby. My supplies were dwindling and I was out of healing spells. Normally I would've just slept and reloaded/save scummed if rest was interrupted by monsters but once again, NO RELOADING so that option was gone. I made the decision to press forward knowing that there were still several more Gnolls to contend with. We got into a fight with the last trio of gnolls guarding Dynaheir, and wouldn't you know it MINSC'S SWORD BREAKS. I have him pick up a halberd from a slain gnoll and he rejoins the right. My heart is pounding, both Minsc and Jaheira are down to half their HP and I'm out of healing spells and potions. If they die, my Charname is sure to go down quickly (he's only wearing studded leather armor and plus he has a severe allergic reaction to being stabbed by sharp pointy things). Suddenly, both Minsc and Jaheira score crits one after another and the two remaining Gnolls die!! I just about cheered and jumped out of my chair! Victory!! We grabbed Dynaheir and high-tailed it back to town to rezz Imoen and Khalid.
Seriously guys, THIS is how the game is supposed to be played. It's not fun to be some OP character that can dismiss most of the game's challenges easily. I mean, roll up such characters if you wish, but seriously there's a ton of fun to be had in playing the way the designers intended. Use the save/reload feature ONLY TO RESUME PLAYING YOUR GAME. If your Charname dies, bid him/her a fond farewell and ROLL UP A NEW ONE. Seriously, you'll appreciate the game much more
Game Difficulty: Hard (I didn't disable the increased damage so enemies hit like runaway trucks)
Stats: Nothing above 80, I did allow myself a couple re-rolls because my first roll was like an 85 and I thought I'd try something a bit more within "normal range". I ended up with a 77-point roll, I did allocate an 18 to Wisdom (being the sane person that I am, I rolled a Druid lolz) but everything else is mostly 10's or 11's with Charisma being the prerequisite 15.
The gameplay is beyond wonderful! I feel like I'm playing D&D again and not some stupidly OP min-maxed character that instantaneously wipes the floor with everything in front of him. Now, when I go on an adventure, I have to CAREFULLY consider my equipment, check if I have enough potions of healing (just made it to Nashkel so my party is still low level), make sure that I am carefully prepared before leaving town. Not having the right gear/equipment or proper preparations literally means life or death. Normally I could just steamroll whatever the game throws at me but not anymore, now I have to actually be a frail, mortal adventurer and not some grossly overpowered superhero.
Combat feels very dicey, because I know if my charname dies that's it, game-over, I won't be reloading him from death. On the quest to the Gnoll Stronghold to rescue Dynaheir (I decided to go with the "canon party" of Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen, and Charname), we got bushwhacked while traveling there ("You have been waylaid and must defend yourself!) and my party was attacked by a winter wolf. Damn thing ran right up to Imoen and hit her with its cold attack, killing her instantaneously. I sighed and trekked all the way back to civilization and rezzed her. After returning and making it past the bridge with the two giants we encountered one lone Gnoll that got a crit on Imoen and dealt 27 damage, slaying her again. I wasn't about to waste more time and decided to press onward. After penetrating the stronghold and making my way inside, my party took on a few Xvarts but one managed to crit Khalid and he died. Seriously?! A FREAKING LOWLY XVART KILLED ONE OF MY TEAMMATES?! Normally I would've instantly reloaded but I did not as I was dedicated to the challenge. Down to just my charname (a Druid), Minsc, and Jaheira, all of whom are level 2 and don't have a ton of HP. At that point I was seriously considering retreating but I knew Dynaheir was nearby. My supplies were dwindling and I was out of healing spells. Normally I would've just slept and reloaded/save scummed if rest was interrupted by monsters but once again, NO RELOADING so that option was gone. I made the decision to press forward knowing that there were still several more Gnolls to contend with. We got into a fight with the last trio of gnolls guarding Dynaheir, and wouldn't you know it MINSC'S SWORD BREAKS. I have him pick up a halberd from a slain gnoll and he rejoins the right. My heart is pounding, both Minsc and Jaheira are down to half their HP and I'm out of healing spells and potions. If they die, my Charname is sure to go down quickly (he's only wearing studded leather armor and plus he has a severe allergic reaction to being stabbed by sharp pointy things). Suddenly, both Minsc and Jaheira score crits one after another and the two remaining Gnolls die!! I just about cheered and jumped out of my chair! Victory!! We grabbed Dynaheir and high-tailed it back to town to rezz Imoen and Khalid.
Seriously guys, THIS is how the game is supposed to be played. It's not fun to be some OP character that can dismiss most of the game's challenges easily. I mean, roll up such characters if you wish, but seriously there's a ton of fun to be had in playing the way the designers intended. Use the save/reload feature ONLY TO RESUME PLAYING YOUR GAME. If your Charname dies, bid him/her a fond farewell and ROLL UP A NEW ONE. Seriously, you'll appreciate the game much more
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Comments
For anyone who's thinking of starting a no-reload run, I'd recommend taking a look at the "Maybe this time" thread documenting many players' no-reload attempts (and a few scattered successes buried under all the failed runs!). We also have the Adventurer's Lounge for people looking for advice and support for no-reload runs.
I died!! xD lol. My druid, Xanaver is dead. We were assaulting the bandit camp in Pelvdale (where Tazok is located). I was clearing out the bandits surrounding Tazok's tent, unfortunately a particularly bold hobgoblin beat my druid into the ground as I was distracted trying to position Minsc, Khalid, and Jaheira into a better spot. Such is life! I faithfully did NOT reload and returned to the main menu. Now to plan my next charname. Seriously, No Reloads are awesome! I might do partial reloads/minimal reloads though because yeah I did get attached to my character.
It's math: no-reload means basically achieving a couple hundered successes (won battles) in a row. So if you want to complete at least one playthrough per lifetime, you need to stack each one of them heavily in your favour, by using any means necessary - potions, scrolls, traps, resting, cheese of various pugnancy. Not only it can be tedious and unlucky rolls seem more unfair, but most of encounters aren't really a challange after that. So I preferred to handicap myself otherwise (no scrolls and potions; no use of certain OP spells) and attempt to win a 'fair' fight tactically after second (or third) attempt rather than PnP - prepare and prey.
There can be tension in an even friendly football match, and there is tension in a match against blided and slowed opponnents under Great Malison, if the loser team is sacrificed to the gods Mayan-style.
I will reload a Charname death, because I think his companions would get him rezzed just like he does for them, and I don't buy into the "Bhaalspawn cannot be rezzed" business. That was just a game mechanic to stop you from trying to play without a main character, which would break several scripted events in the game.
I don't reload deaths of other party members. I carry what I can and trek back to town. That's enough of an inconvenience to make me try *really* hard to have no casualties in battle, and also provides just the right amount of suspense and excitement for me.
I also don't reload dialogue consequences or unfavorable random rolls. "Save scumming" to always get good results makes me roll my eyes. To each their own, but to me it ruins my immersion into the game world and my character to do a lot of reloading. I'll accept maybe three to five reloads over an entire trilogy run. Any more than that, and I lose interest pretty fast, thinking "This character is just not going to make it to the end of this story in any believable way. Time to make a new character."
it was the first time i solo'd bg1 with a barbarian ( a lot easier than i thought it was going to be )
the ONLY time i died during that entire run, was against the ogre who had the 2 belts south of the friendly arm inn,
other than that i never died once, never had to reload once, and this was even on insane difficulty, and as far as i remember i didn't use extreme cheese aka using missiles weapons and kiting enemies with my insane speed with the booties of speed/barbarian speed