New to BG1EE, Could use some advice
Thargan
Member Posts: 6
Hello guys, as title says im new to BGEE but i have played some D&D games before. Mostly NWN2 and Pathfinder Kingmaker. Always wanted to play BG1 and BG2 series but never had time for them either social stuff took my time or there was some other games that i wanted to play more. But now i really really want to finish BG series. I made my custom dwarf portrait did some research about if i could put my roleplay into game with multiclasses etc. I have many questions. Found some answers here and there but for some i couldnt thats why i am here. I hope some of you could answer them for me.
First of all i do wanna play Dwarf, short and stout thats for sure. (I'll probably run half-elf bow ranger later as always..)
- But as far as i know when i create my char i cant select deity if i go Cleric/Fighter. Can i choose my deity later?
- If so is Moradin available? Beacuse i couldnt see anything but human pantheons when i tried solo cleric class. (I think this is a dumb question if it was available it would be from the start but w/e)
- Same question for Cleric/Fighter kit, can i choose Dwarwen Defender later on?
- Or if i start DD can i choose Cleric in next levels?
- As far as i dig, i can reach F7/C8 with multiclass but couldnt find what levels i could reach if i go dual class?
- Would be better to go DD/Cleric dual class or F/C multi, both gonna be S&B fighter.
Another question about stat rerolling. I managed to get 87+ 18/00 STR roll stored and exported that character. Also i heard there are some skill books that could be use to increase stats so that 18/XX becomes unimportant in midgame. But i wonder how far?
- Shall i go maximum total score or try to snipe 88+ total with 18/XX. I would try to get 18/13/19/10/18/10 for Fighter/Cleric or 85+18/16/19/12/10/10 for DD. Are those enough?
- Is it posible to use different voice for player character? I liked Reevor's "By Moradin's Hammer" speech but i guess that would be bad to use beacuse i think thats his only voice lol.
Thanks for reading.
First of all i do wanna play Dwarf, short and stout thats for sure. (I'll probably run half-elf bow ranger later as always..)
- But as far as i know when i create my char i cant select deity if i go Cleric/Fighter. Can i choose my deity later?
- If so is Moradin available? Beacuse i couldnt see anything but human pantheons when i tried solo cleric class. (I think this is a dumb question if it was available it would be from the start but w/e)
- Same question for Cleric/Fighter kit, can i choose Dwarwen Defender later on?
- Or if i start DD can i choose Cleric in next levels?
- As far as i dig, i can reach F7/C8 with multiclass but couldnt find what levels i could reach if i go dual class?
- Would be better to go DD/Cleric dual class or F/C multi, both gonna be S&B fighter.
Another question about stat rerolling. I managed to get 87+ 18/00 STR roll stored and exported that character. Also i heard there are some skill books that could be use to increase stats so that 18/XX becomes unimportant in midgame. But i wonder how far?
- Shall i go maximum total score or try to snipe 88+ total with 18/XX. I would try to get 18/13/19/10/18/10 for Fighter/Cleric or 85+18/16/19/12/10/10 for DD. Are those enough?
- Is it posible to use different voice for player character? I liked Reevor's "By Moradin's Hammer" speech but i guess that would be bad to use beacuse i think thats his only voice lol.
Thanks for reading.
2
Comments
in the bg series you do not select "deities" like you do in NWN, when you saw those "human" options those were class kits, but if you are going to be a dwarf fighter/cleric then you will not have a class kit, you could always role play to yourself that you follow any deity you wish
2
if you choose fighter/cleric now for your dwarf you will be stuck with that forever, unlike NWN which uses 3rd edition rules, you cannot add classes like that in the BG series since it uses 2nd edition rules, the only race that can "add" a class to it is human, and for that to even happen there is a bunch of steps you need to follow and its still not the same as 3rd edition
long story short, what class you choose at the beginning of the game is the one you are going to be forever
3
just like above, if you start off as dwarven defender you will not be able to add or switch any other classes, you will be stuck as dwarven defender forever
4
dual class works much different that multi classing does;
first in BG 1 ( without SoD ) the XP cap is 161 000, so that means if you are a multi class ( 2 classes ) each class can hit the 80 500 XP mark ( hence the reason why fighter/cleric will hit 7/7, which by the way IS NOT the same as a level 14 character like NWN )
for dual classing you have to be a human, and then you MUST have a 15 in the ability score that is a prime requisite for the class that you start off as aka; if you start as a fighter you need to have a least 15 STR to be able to dual class,
next, you need a 17 in the prime requisite in the ability score of the class you want to dual into ( so using the example above, if you were a fighter and wanted to dual over into a cleric you would need 15 STR for being a fighter and 17 WIS for dualling over into a cleric )
AND then depending on alignment and ability scores there are only so many options that you can dual into aka ( monks, barbarian,bards, paladins can never dual class for example )
so lets say you want to be a human start off as fighter than dual over to cleric, you already know what ability scores you need, so lets say you grow to level 3 as a fighter ( 4000 XP ) and the dual over to a cleric, now what happens is you are a level 1 cleric with the HP of a level 3 fighter, and your fighter abilities will be locked until your cleric hits one level pass your fighter ( so when you cleric hits level 4 your fighter abilities will be unlocked ) and from that point on, you will forever be growing up as a cleric and will never be able to gain fighter levels again
also note: if you dual over to a cleric or druid you can only use cleric or druid weapons, so if you wasted a bunch of weapon proficiency points on weapons that clerics or druids cant use then they are gone forever
now when it comes to XP for dual class characters, it takes the amount that your fist class has ( so in the above example 4000 ) and then whatever you have left over
so that means if you were to do the fighter 3 to cleric dual class, in BG 1 ( without SoD ) your cleric side would only be able to get 157 000 XP ( because 4000 of it is used by your fighter levels ) also to note when you dual class, lets say you were at 4031 XP and then dualled over to fighter; you XP will be switched to 4000 in the first class, so no XP will get wasted in the first class
4
since you cant do a dwarven defender cleric dual period, i would definitely go with a dwarf fighter/cleric, very solid class and race choice and both go together like peanut butter and jelly
5
to be honest ability score wise in the grand scheme of things wont make or break your play experience, if you can hit 88 go for it, if not, not a big deal breaker, one thing that is nice about a fighter/cleric is draw upon holy might, which gives you +1 STR/CON/DEX for every 3 levels of caster you have, and its only a level 2 spell so you will get it pretty quick, so perhaps something like this;
18+ STR
15+ DEX
19 CON
6+ INT
16+ WIS
9+ CHA
even if you start off with 18/01 STR the time you get draw upon holy might ( which as i said will be relatively quick ) that will bump it up to 19, so you really don't have to worry about what /xx you get
for tomes that raise ability scores there are 1 for each ability score except there are 3 for wisdom ( which means if you start off with 18 WIS in bg1 and bump it up to 21, you will actually get a bonus level 5 spell in SoD/bg2 if you plan to import )
earliest time to get tomes;
str - chapter 6
dex - chapter 5
con - chapter 1
int - chapter 5
wis - chapter 1
chapter 5
chapter 6
cha - chapter 1
6
in terms of using NPC voices in theory you could, but long story short you need to use a program like NI to export the wave files rename them to the appropriate letters and whatnot and then put them into your custom sound folder to be able to use them
7
all in all, since this is your first play through, i wouldnt worry to much about being outrageously optimized, this game is not like pathfinder kingmaker where if you arent optimized to the 9s you will get slaughtered
the great thing about the BG series is that there is a million different ways to win any battle with any team combo, regardless of how strong or weak they are
the is one of the best things about the BG series; the discovery of how you like to play the game, trying different tactics, using different items, trying out different spells and so on
there is no " perfect " way or party to play with in this game, so you don't need to worry about things like that
As for stats i'll try my limits of patience and get high total score as much as i can & wouldnt bother with 18/XX outcome. That +1 stat spell will do before i get STR tome i guess. Just dont wanna lose those dice rolls since i'm going to keep 1h&shield since day 1 to very end of the game.
One last question about Weapon Specs pips and feats. There arent any feats in BG1EE right?
And i would get 6pips in total with F/C character at the end of the game i assume i get to F7/C7, is this correct?
EDIT: RNG god blessed me after hours of rerolling and got really lucky on new character i just created with
No feats in BGEE. Just class/kit abilities and weapon proficiencies. You'll get 6 total pips in weapon proficiencies, and can't go beyond specialization in anything. Obviously, that's 2 dots in hammer, presumably 2 dots in shield style - probably the weakest of the weapon styles, but it's your character concept - and 2 dots in whatever else you want to fill things out. Slings for a ranged option? Flails or maces for a melee alternative, especially once you get to BG2EE? Whatever you want, go for it.
On boosting your stats before the tome - don't neglect the various giant strength potions you'll find. They have two hour durations and set your strength to anything from 19 to 24. The potions can be dispelled, but there aren't very many enemies in BGEE that try that, and they're not guaranteed to succeed. Other warriors will likely be a bigger priority - boosting Jaheira from strength 15 to 19 will make a much bigger impact than boosting your protagonist from 18/94 to 19 - but it's something to keep in mind especially once you build up a collection.
Incidentally, on using NPC voice lines - no need to export anything. You just find the appropriate string reference by looking at that NPC in NI, and assign it to one of your character's slots in the save file. That "By Moradin's hammer" line Reevor has, for example, is string # 4934, labeled [DWARF 1].
BG2EE scrambles those lines, and any character you import there will be prompted to choose a new voice set anyway. Any tweaks would have to be redone in that game.
Of course, with your character also wanting to focus heavily on one weapon type, the style is a better investment. You'll be using it all the time unless you want to switch to a sling, after all.
I don't mind sword and shield style, however most of the shields despite being good at what they are do are pretty boring. I rarely go sword and shield style because there's so much interesting weapons to use and pair up with one another.
In ToB there's +4 and +5 weapons left and right and it's so hard to just pick one weapon when there's so much great weapons to use!
The problem with Sword and Shield in ToB is that the enemies’ to hit is so good that a shield doesn’t help that much. Which is why folks switch over to Defender of Easthaven as an off hand weapon.
Make that two people in the universe.
Three! Ah ah ah!
ı am the one who asked for dd - f/c build so that makes us threee
what AC do you hit for your front line int ToB? I usually hit around -15 for my 3 front liners, double that up with full plate and 2 points in sword and shield and ToB ranged enemies don't hit unless they crit
I managed to get NWN2 voiceset pack and using Khelgar Ironfists voicepack which is great but i couldnt find that string #4934 anywhere in my game folders. Can you point me how to get that file? so i can replace one charge/attack sounds in my Khelgar's folder and get over it? That "By Moradin's Hammer" is real flavour for my F/C dwarf.
Technical save-editing tutorial follows:
Go to the Edit tab, and drop to the last line, where it says "CRE Resource". Open up that (double click on my system):
Once you're done, move away from that .GAM file. You will be prompted to save. Do so.
Load the save, and ... uh, that's awkward. He didn't want to say it fighting Shank and Carbos. All right, I'll use another sound to demonstrate. Now it's his action sounds as well.
All right, plan B - what happens if I also remove the "Voice Set" entry in that party member file?
So, the full process:
- Save a game with your character in it.
- Navigate to the BALDUR.GAM file of that save in NI.
- Open up the *HARBASE party member file.
- Scroll down to the bottom (in the edit tab) and delete the "Voice Set" entry; it's next to last.
- Open up the .CRE entry; it's last in that party member file.
- Scroll down to the "Sound:" entries. Replace whatever entries you want with NPC lines by changing the string references.
- Close those subwindows, navigate away, save changes.
- Open up the save and play with your new sounds.
On how to find those NPC sounds - when you hear one you like, open that character's .CRE file up in NI and take a look. It'll be somewhere in their sounds. Or, if it was in dialogue, it'll be somewhere in their dialogue file. For the sound we've been using as an example, Reevor (REEVOR.CRE) has it as his "initial meeting" sound.
Edit: I never managed to run that NI thing even tho i follewed a guide how to run it with java installed etc. But thank you anyway i hope someone else could make use of your reply.
Ranged enemies? There are no tough ranged enemies in ToB. Fire Giants, the Bhaalspawn, Demogorgon, high tier demons, ravager...compare to 20% physical resistance, the attack from the flail at base, the one from the flail plus one on the main hand from improved haste...Barbarians hit 85% with Hardiness, Dwarven Defenders 90% with their stance, Fighter|Clerics 90% from hardiness + armor of faith...
its not the fact that there are tough ranged enemies, its the fact that there are lots of them, usually in big groups, and if i don't play groups with dwarven defenders, barbarians or fighter/clerics using defender of easthaven all that resistance is for naught
So it's not a dealbreaker, it would happen at 7.65m xp, so late endgame TOB. And you can also make the RP case that you have a secondary deity...or just that another deity offered you their Holy Symbol, and you can accept it or reject accordingly. Buuuuut just a slight issue to bring up looking at it from a saga-long RP persepctive.
And as for weapon and fighting style, I've always been a fan of just go with what your vision of the character is. Sure if you're not grandmastered in XYZ weapon, you may not wield the most power weapons in the game...but there are still a lot of nice items and the game is definitely fun, beatable, and playable with them. The uberweapons you can always give to companions or just save for the next playthrough. So go with Sword and Shield if that's your inclination!!
You can RP your way out of it the same ways as above....OR, since you're a Fighter/Cleric multi, you will also have the Fighter stronghold quests open to you, which will close out the Cleric strongholds and make the whole thing moot.