Playing Iron Man BG1 with my friend

magic_marius

Hello everyone! Came here from the baldur's gate reddit. Since that platform is currently in meltdown, but we could definitely use some advice from true veterans, I'm reposting here what I submitted there.

So I used to replay this game often when I was younger. It was my first CRPG. Eventually I went blind and couldn't play it anymore. BG really is not accessible, and I see no way of making it so. It's just not designed that way.

However, with BG3 coming out, and since my friend Marco shares my nostalgia, I got him to play BG1 with me.

We play iron man, so no reloads. It's terrifying, and we're having a blast.

I thought you guys might like to watch/listen to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECN9C87Cs98

We could also use some advice for iron man runs. We don't really know what we're doing.

Cheers!

jmerry

Welcome to the community here!

The most important thing about no-reload runs is preparation; surprises are what kills you. So the way you're doing this makes sense - when you die, you start again with more knowledge, and can prepare for what killed you last time.
There's a very large thread in the General Discussion subforum, called "Maybe this time", which compiles reports of no-reload runs from many different community members. And also "The Adventurer's Lounge" for discussion of strategies in no-reload runs.

Watching the video now. Some notes as I go ...
- The portrait you're using (in run #1) is the one that normally belongs to Xzar, a chaotic evil necromancer that you can recruit into the party if you wish.
- The way stat-rolling works in these games: the game rolls 3d6, applies race or class modifiers, and rerolls the stat until it meets race/class minimums. It also discards the whole thing and rerolls everything if the total isn't at least 75. This process means that you tend to get higher rolls when playing classes with high stat requirements - you don't see all the times rolls got silently discarded.
- Wisdom doesn't affect your saving throws in this version of D&D. The only global benefit is to your "lore" stat, the ability to identify items without spending a spell. It tends to be a good dump stat for just about anyone that isn't a cleric or druid.
- What all those drinks do: if you have a drink, you might hear a rumor of something going on in the area. If you have too many drinks, you become intoxicated and take penalties to various rolls for a while.