Any tips for a noob?
okini55
Member Posts: 64
Hello
I played Baldur's gate untill I reached the big city itself and a little further but then my computer broke down and I started again on a new computer.
My question is, do you have any tips on how to level up fast to about lvl 5 or something early before doing the Nashkel mines quest.
I die very easily even though I play as a warrior human with maxed out strength and this resistance thing (I don't remember what it's called in english, I play on different language).
Are there any good locations to farm XP or easy quests to do early on?
I find mages especially hard to face in battle since they put these paralyzing spells and such on my charachters.
Would be very happy for any tips you could help me with!
Thanks in advance!
I played Baldur's gate untill I reached the big city itself and a little further but then my computer broke down and I started again on a new computer.
My question is, do you have any tips on how to level up fast to about lvl 5 or something early before doing the Nashkel mines quest.
I die very easily even though I play as a warrior human with maxed out strength and this resistance thing (I don't remember what it's called in english, I play on different language).
Are there any good locations to farm XP or easy quests to do early on?
I find mages especially hard to face in battle since they put these paralyzing spells and such on my charachters.
Would be very happy for any tips you could help me with!
Thanks in advance!
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2) Descend to the area south of High Hedge and find Melicamp chicken. Bring him to Thalantyr for reincarnation procedure (2000 XP in the case of success)
3) Buy 3 Potions of Mirrored Eyes and go to the Mutamin's Garden (the 2nd area at the east from Beregost)
4) Speak with a ghoul, accepting his help, drink the Potion and go fight basilisks (lesser basilisk - 1400 XP, greater basilisk - 7000 XP). 🦎⚔️
Thank you for your answer!
I did this first thing you wrote but I dont understand how that helps though because he only sells potions and such (?).
oh wait I understand what you mean now sorry! I will do what you wrote I thought you meant 4 different things. Did not see it was all one and the same quest.
In combat, ranged attacks are great. And much safer. If you built a protagonist without any ranged proficiencies ... well, you can always pick up a bow and shoot things even without that proficiency. Most early enemies are melee attackers only, and that makes them easy prey for an archer.
Humanoids like hobgoblins and xvarts are often easier to pick on than animals are. They follow the same weapon rules players do, while the animals get attacks that are often surprisingly quick with long reach. Wolves sneaking in an attack before the player can react have been the death of many archers.
There are some early quests with good rewards and low risk.
- In Beregost, Firebead Elvenhair is in one of the houses. He'll ask you to fetch a book for him (available for purchase in the nearby inn, very cheap), and in return give you 300 XP and a scroll case.
- In that inn, there's an angry drunk Marl. You can talk him down for 900 XP. Or, if you can't talk him down, you can kill him for 650.
- There are a few things you can find in the road areas between Beregost and Nashkel. Return them to the right people in Beregost (which may entail entering random houses) for rewards.
- Up north near the city, there's a group of fishermen who give you a quest. Multiple ways to resolve it, but you can get up to 2500 XP without needing to kill anything. It takes some walking back and forth; I recommend hugging the coastline to avoid the ankhegs.
- Even farther north, past a narrow passage with an ankheg in it, you can reach Ulgoth's Beard and a farm area. Ulgoth's Beard is the gateway to what was once the expansion content, so the quests there are something you should leave alone until you have some levels. But the shopping is good. The farm is another easy quest; kill 20 zombies - which are slow and only have melee attacks - for 800 XP. Plus the 1300 XP for killing the zombies.
Once you get to Nashkel, talking to Minsc (or Edwin, if you're feeling evil) opens up a quest that's worth doing before the mines. Head west to the gnoll fortress to rescue (or kill) Dynaheir. There are no ranged attackers in that fortress, so archery can clear it out very safely. And at least some of the paths to that fortress also lack enemy archers.
And now, I'll mention that basilisk area. Basilisks are extremely dangerous enemies, that can instantly kill characters with their petrifying gazes. You might make the save and survive once or twice, but there's no way to reliably make the save. But there is a way to fight them; immunity to petrification or gaze attacks, either through the mage "Protection from Petrification" spell (50 rounds), a green "Protection from Petrification" scroll (300 rounds), or a Potion of Mirrored Eyes (10 rounds) renders them nearly helpless. And they're worth a lot of XP. Those basilisks alone can catapult a solo warrior with the right preparation all the way from level 1 to level 5 ... just watch out for the crazy mage near one group of them.
thank you very much for your answer! I will do the things you wrote!
but there is as mentioned a crazy mage at the north / middle of the map you have to watch out for - and a group of 4 to watch out for in the center of the map (safe the group of 4 for later).
You can scout out for these and where the basilisk are in story mode to get their locations and get the hang of the map.
The best protection is a green scroll of protection against petrification. They last 6 hours iirc, and there is one for sale at the Nashkell Carnival… I think.
The potions and the mage spells are great but dont last long enough imo.
Cool. 😎 Farming on basilisks is also mentioned by @jmerry and @StummvonBordwehr . 😉
First off those spells are way too OP and second, the enemy mages never seem to run out of those stupid spells. Is there any easy way to counter this other than finding some rare ring that protects from this or W/E it was I read in another thread?.
if it is fear, then some kits are immune to it, casters have remove fear to be immune to it (for a while) and dispel it, and bardsong cancels it altogether.
if it is confusion, the only barbarian and berserker rage protects against it, outside of spells and potions.
if it is charm, then some paladin kits are immune and Half-elf and elves get resistance to it.
dependent on class, you have a different save table and dependent on race, you can have a bonus to the saves. I think the best way around it is to buff your saving throws any which way you can, and read the spell effects to see what helps the most.
I think i'm having problem with confusion. It's the one when characters wander around and are uncontrollable after they get hit by it, right?
Seems like every single mage in the game have that annoying spell unfortunately.
And yes, those spells (Horror at mage level 2, Confusion at mage level 4, Chaos at mage level 5) are popular, for good reason. You can use them too.
Simple rule with Mages early in the game (especially if you have a fighter and/or non-spellcaster based party) is hit them hard, fast and often. Damage disrupts spell casting. Anytime you see opponents with spell casters they should be a priority target. At low levels your best approach is your best missile people (lowest THAC0) focus solely on the casters to keep inflicting damage each round to disrupt casting. Meanwhile you best melee fighter rushes them to get into hand to hand...
If you have a Mage cast Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Blindness or Larlochs Minor Drain at them - these are all very fast to cast and do guaranteed damage. If you can disrupt their first spell they often won't get a second off before you can kill them.
Wand of Magic Missiles is also great for this, anyone can use it and you find one early on. Just have your weakest party member stand at the back and fire one each round at the enemy spell caster / guaranteed 2-5 damage each round will nearly always disrupt their spell casting.
Don't forget Sleep will also work against a early game enemy party!
And if you have a Cleric make sure you have Remove Fear (Level 1) and pre-Buff before combat (i.e. cast it on the party) - despite the name it also prevents it as well as removing it. The Mage spell Resist Fear is similar but you probably want your party Mage memorising Sleep and similar ahead of that...
Blindness doesn't deal damage - don't know what you were thinking there. Of the level 1 damage-dealing spells, Larloch's Minor Drain is the fastest; the others have projectiles that need to travel to the enemy, but LMD just does its damage instantly.
No but it disables spell casters. I was just listing my opinion on the fastest best spells when low level to 'disrupt' an enemy spell caster on first contact (i.e. on the first round of combat). Sorry if it wasn't clear - I was not implying blindness does damage, just that the other 3 do and that it instead usually disables a caster (due to poor saves at low level) - which, as an aside, is often better than relying on damage to disrupt when low level...
But LMD, MM and CO are my usual go to options because of the guaranteed damage. Blindness I tend to use on tougher enemy melee fighters to degrade their THAC0 (and obviously their AC to make them easier to hit)...
I always prioritize the mages in combat as you said but sometimes I can not kill them quickly enough and as soon as they cast these confusion or fear spells the game is pretty much over but it does work sooner or later because at some point after reloading my last save 100 times I get a critical hit and manage to pretty much kill the mages with one hit and thats about how I do.
But on my previous playthrough I was stuck at this tall building in Baldur's Gate where on the top floor there are a lot of enemies and like 3 mages I believe if I remember correctly.
Even though I play better this playthrough and manage to easily kill enemies that I had a very hard time defeating my previous play I do believe I will again get stuck at the same area.
Thank you for your tips!
I will look around to see if I can find a character at this point in the game that can detect traps.
After all, you've seen how effective that is against you. Why not use the same methods?
At the end of the first area of the Cloakwood, you meet Coran. He's an elf fighter/thief, who can certainly fill that role for you. Though you'll have to invest some levels into the skill, because Coran put his points into lockpicking and stealth for the first three levels. In combat, he's an exceptional archer, with mastery in longbows and 20 DEX.
That's awesome to hear! I will look for him. Thanks alot!
I realise that Baldur's Gate can be quite unforgiving at first but, honestly, with a little knowledge of the mechanics it becomes an easy game. That may be a fairly blunt thing for me to say but, in my experience, if a person believes something is unfair, overpowered, or too difficult, when it really isn't any of those things, they often end up spoiling something they might otherwise enjoy.
If the only significant problem you have with the game is that you feel that fighting Mages is too difficult, then you'll probably benefit from putting that thought out of your head and carrying on with the game. Whether from following tips, or from trying things out for yourself, you'll soon find that Mages aren't that difficult at all.
Yes, the Iron Throne building. There are six high level named enemies on the top floor, including a Fighter/Cleric, a Cleric/Thief, a Fighter/Mage, and a Mage/Thief. There's no shame in finding that difficult; it's arguably the most difficult encounter in the game.
There are two things worth bearing in mind about the Iron Throne building. First, if you want to avoid a fight, you can do what you're there for without any fighting at all. Second, once you return to Duke Eltan, Chapter 5 ends and the plot continues outside of the city. I’m being vague so as not to spoil things, but be aware that it's a good idea to complete all of the content you want to complete in the city during Chapter 5, before you take on the Iron Throne. The good thing about that is that you'll have more equipment and more levels under your belt when you finally do take them on.
You appear to have missed Mycenius' point. The point was not just that by focusing on Mages you might kill them before they finish casting a spell; the point was that dealing damage to spellcasters while they are in the middle of casting a spell can cause the spell to fail (when this happens, the text box will display "Spell Failed: Casting Failure").
Disrupting spellcasting is a great tactic. Say your party is facing an enemy group with two or more spellcasters. If you focus your attacks on one Mage, you can often kill it before it casts an offensive spell, but that leaves the other spellcasters free to cast Horror or Confusion or the like. A better strategy is to split your fire between the two Mages: neither Mage will die as quickly, so they have the chance to attempt to cast more spells between them, but persistent damage can prevent both Mages from successfully casting any offensive spells before they die.
Good timing can help a lot. If you think you don't have the firepower to kill a spellcaster outright, it can be better to delay attacking them until they begin casting, as that gives you more opportunity to disrupt their spell that round. On the subject of timing, Mycenius mentioned that spells which are quick to cast are better at disrupting spells, and I want to reinforce that by pointing out that casting times are usually longer for higher levels. This means players can often use low level spells to disrupt the casting of higher level spells, which is clearly a beneficial trade of resources.
AoE spells can obviously affect multiple spellcasters at the same time, and against spellcasters I mostly prefer using AoE damage spells rather than AoE disablers. This is because disablers (such as Horror) do nothing if the enemy makes their saving throw, whereas damaging spells (such as Fireball) still deal half damage and force a check against spell failure. One exception is Silence, the level 2 Cleric spell which prevents silenced spellcasters from casting spells. It's a great AoE disabler against spellcasters because targets save against it with a -5 penalty, which is enormous.
As far as single target spells are concerned, Magic Missile becomes particularly good from level 5 onwards because it creates three or more missiles, which means two things: (1) multiple chances of causing spell failure; and (2) multiple Mirror Images removed at the same time, which clears the way for more damaging attacks from other party members. As noted by jmerry, high projectile speed is also helpful for disrupting spells.
Certain types of ammo are also better than others at disrupting spellcasters, with poisoned ammo – such as Arrows of Biting and Darts of Wounding – arguably best of all. Targets are allowed a save to avoid being poisoned, but it's a save vs death, and Mages (but not Clerics and Druids) have relatively bad saves vs death. If the save is failed, the poisoned creature takes multiple small amounts of damage per round, which is perfect for disrupting spellcasting.
Arrows of Ice and Acid Arrows are also decent at spell disruption because they deal two lots of damage with one hit – and the elemental damage ignores Stoneskins (Arrows of Fire are less good, as they allow a save vs spell to negate the fire damage, and Mages have good saves vs spell). Darts of all kind generally shine against spellcasters, as their high number of attacks per round strip away Mirror Images and Stoneskins then create multiple chances of spell failure.
Lastly, there’s one type of melee attack that’s very good against spellcasters, namely a backstab from a Thief or Stalker. Good backstabs often kill Mages outright, but if you wait until they begin casting, you get a bonus to your hit and damage rolls and a chance to disrupt their spell.
In unmodded Baldur's Gate, a simple focus on forcing spell failure is generally all you need to deal with Mages (even without using specialist ammo). But it isn't the only tactic out there by any means.
Virtually all enemy mages in BGEE cast Mirror Image to protect themselves. That has a chance to absorb a hit in its entirety in exchange for one image, which obviously prevents the damage from getting through and disrupting them. What can you do against a mage that has that protection?
- Some divination spells can take down illusion defenses such as Mirror Image. The lowest-level spell you have access to that does this is the mage spell "Detect Illusion" at spell level 3. And as of patch 2.6, it actually works the way it's supposed to (In patch 2.5, you could only cast the spell at point-blank range). Unfortunately, there's only one scroll of Detect Illusion in the entire campaign; it looks like it's a BG2 spell that was added into BGEE, but only barely. That one scroll is carried by Halacan, an enemy mage that's part of a party in Gullykin.
- The thief's "Detect Illusion" ability can take down illusion defenses. As long as they're in detect mode, that triggers once per round, with an X% chance to remove illusions from nearby enemies where X is the skill value. Note that issuing an attack command or having the character automatically acquire an attack target ends detect mode; it takes some micromanagement to use this effectively.
- The rare "Dispelling Arrows", purchasable at Sorcerous Sundries once you reach chapter 5, do exactly what they say. No more Mirror Image. No more Stoneskin. No more ... Confusion? Be careful with the targeting, so you don't dispel effects you want to stay up. But this is the most reliable way to take down a mage's defenses in later BG1. Micromanagement recommended to avoid wasting the arrows on everything you fight, as they are quite expensive and rare.
- Area-effect spells such as Fireball ignore Mirror Image completely. If it's hitting everything in the area, the mage can't just sacrifice an image to it.
- Large numbers of attacks can batter mirror images down; they'll run out eventually.
Huh? The only bonus to attack and damage rolls I'm aware of is against targets that don't have a melee weapon equipped. Which doesn't have anything to do with whether they're casting a spell. Some mages carry darts or throwing daggers and are vulnerable because of that, while others carry melee daggers or staves and won't ever give you that bonus to hit and damage. (Weirdly, there are no silng-wielding enemies in the entire campaign.)
Backstabs are, of course, very useful against mages. Especially when you can catch them before they get any defenses up. For one spectacular example, consider Nimbul, the assassin who meets you in Nashkel after the mines. And suppose you have Imoen in the party, at level 5, equipped with a +1 shortbow and nonmagical arrows for ranged attacks and a +2 shortsword for melee attacks - all very reasonable for that stage of the game.
Attacking Nimbul at range, she has a 90% chance of missing completely. And the remaining 10% is likely to just catch an image, and can't kill him in one hit even if she rolls a lucky critical.
Backstabbing him before he even sees you, Imoen has a 90% chance of not only hitting, but killing him outright.
The strange thing is that I don't seem to disrupt the mages when I attack them. They are still able to cast their annoying spells on me. But this might be because my characters miss most of the attacks they do. I can have six characters hitting an opponent but it takes a while before they actually hit him and by that time the enemy already has cast a spell on my party. Maybe this is because my weapons might have too high THAC0 isn't it?
As far as I understand you wan't to have a low THAC0 because that means you will actually strike an oppenent more often??
Your Thaco will go down as you go up levels or when you equip a higher plus weapon. Or when you increase your strength, especially with any sort of Giant Strength potion or device. Also for warriors, they will get more pluses to hit with more proficiencies in a weapon.
And yes, that does mean you will strike opponents more often. Although realize many more powerful opponents will have a better armor class too. But generally your improved accuracy will exceed their improved defenses in time. Some players feel armor class doesn’t even matter by Throne of Bhaal, because everyone hits all the time anyway. I don’t quite agree, but admittedly there will be a lot more hitting than missing.
I'm fairly sure that Horror is the spell that's frequently causing you problems, not Confusion. Horror is often used by enemy mages, starting with the first hostile Mage that you're likely to encounter (namely Tarnesh, at the Friendly Arm Inn). In contrast, with the possible exception of the Tales of the Sword Coast areas – Durlag's Tower and areas linked to Ulgoth's Beard – I believe you literally meet only one hostile Mage who casts Confusion before you enter the Cloakwood Forest.
As jmerry pointed out, both Horror and Confusion make your characters uncontrollable and can make them wander around. In addition to having different portrait icons, sounds, and overhead symbols (the symbol for Confusion looks sort of like little birds circling the head of a dazed cartoon character), note that Horror gives characters yellow foot circles and has them do nothing but wander around, whereas Confusion doesn’t change the foot circle colour, and it makes characters do a mix of wandering around, standing still, attacking their allies, and attacking their enemies.
It's important to tell these spells apart because it's very easy to negate Horror. Iroumen and/or Mycenius have already mentioned Remove Fear (level 1 Cleric spell), Resist Fear (level 2 Wizard spell), and the Bard song, all of which both remove the fear status from affected party members within a wide area and prevent them from becoming affected in the first place. Remove Fear and Resist Fear are both low level spells that last for 1 in-game hour, while the Bard song allows for unlimited use, so the investment required for fear immunity is utterly trivial.
Yes, that’s correct. THAC0 is included in the calculation of whether or not an attack hits its target, and a lower THAC0 increases your chances of hitting (yeah, it is a bit weird that the lower number is more beneficial, but early editions of D&D were a bit weird).
You roll a lot of d20s in D&D, and any game in which you’re rolling d20s will be one in which a certain amount of randomness is to be expected. But if it’s normal for your six-character party to find it very difficult to even hit Mages then there’s something very wrong indeed. Are you finding it very difficult to hit any other enemies, or is it just Mages? If you’re finding it difficult to hit most enemies, then the only genuine problem I can think of is that you aren’t resting when you become Fatigued. Failure to rest leads to Fatigue, which leads to a negative Luck score that increases over time, imposing penalties that cap at -94 to hit.
Finally, as a point of fact, the enemy technically doesn’t cast any spells on your party; they cast spells targetted at a single opposing creature, and some of those spells, such as Horror, have an area of effect. There are two reasons I corrected you on that point, and neither are because I want to be pedantic about precise use of language (especially with a non-native English speaker). If you can figure out what those reasons are, you might find one or even two gameplay tips there at the same time...
Actually, I'm pretty sure that penalty caps at -10. While luck can go to extreme values, its effects on individual rolls are capped; d20 attack rolls can only get up to a 10-point bonus or penalty.
Still, -10 to attack, minimum die rolls on your weapon damage, and maximum damage taken from enemy spells is crippling. Even -1 luck is painful. When you see those fatigue icons on your party's portraits and they start complaining, it's usually time to rest. Even if you're not in a safe area. You might get a random encounter you have to fight when you try to rest, but that's better than pushing on and fighting with even more fatigue. The BG1 wilderness is just too big to go back to town every time you need to rest; you have to rest out there in the wilderness sometimes.
(Well, OK, I have beaten the campaign without ever resting after the tutorial. But that was a speedrun, relying on some weird exploits based on my deep knowledge of how the game works. If you're actually playing normally, exploring the map and clearing things out instead of sticking to the critical path and running past almost everything, rest is essential.)
Further to the comments above and the advice from @The_Baffled_King & @jmerry if the mage(s) have defences like Mirror Image up and you are lower levels (so high THAC0), fatigued and/or fighting at a disadvantage* you will very much struggle to score hits.
* by this I mean low level character, especially that is not a fighter type using a weapon you aren't proficient in - as @jmerry has said elsewhere it's not the end of the world in many situations (and not once you have a few levels), but that extra disadvantage in the specific scenario above could be contributing too...
All right, let me talk a bit about stealth mechanics and basic tactics for using them.
When you activate stealth mode - either by hitting the button or automatically doing it by script - you immediately roll your stealth skill. The chance of successfully hiding is the average of your "Hide in Shadows" and "Move Silently" skills. This is reduced if you're under an indoor light source or direct sunlight; I think it's halved in the case of sunlight. So you have a better chance of hiding successfully if you're in actual darkness and shadow. Stealth rolls also automatically fail when you're in sight of an enemy, unless the character is a Shadowdancer with their "Hide in Plain Sight" kit ability.
If you successfully hide, you become invisible. And remain invisible for about two rounds, unless you do something that forces visibility. While you remain in stealth mode, you'll keep rolling stealth once per round; a successful roll leaves you hidden, while a failed roll ends stealth mode. And once you end stealth mode for any reason (a failed roll, an attack order, switching to detect mode, etc.), there's a cooldown of a round before you can activate stealth mode again. Leaving stealth mode does not necessarily force you to become visible; only certain actions like picking a lock or swinging a weapon do so.
So, what does this mean for scouting? When you're running around not attacking anything, if you fail a stealth roll - easily visible in both the log (Hide in Shadows Failed) and the action bar (stealth icon is now grayed out) - you have a grace period of about a round before you actually become visible. This time is best used to retreat to a safe place. Then you hide again, and continue scouting once you succeed.
With these mechanics, you don't need great stealth skills to be an effective scout. A level 1 elf ranger with 19 DEX has 45/45 stealth, and that's already enough for wilderness scouting if you're willing to wait on occasion when you fail rolls.
Stealth is also the primary means of setting up backstabs; you hide successfully and move in behind your target, then attack with a melee weapon to multiply your damage. Note that only weapons usable by single-class thieves get the backstab bonus; if you try with something like a bastard sword (on a fighter/thief), you get the message "Weapon unsuitable for backstab" instead.
What are the top priorities to look for in a backstabber's gear? 1. Weapon damage. The harder you hit, the more likely you are to just kill the target. And big numbers are just fun. 2. Movement speed. When you don't kill your target, you want to be able to get away before they can retaliate.
Backstabbers require a lot of attention and micromanagement to play well. You just can't automate them to any significant degree; the game's AI isn't smart enough to figure out "get behind that enemy", or to understand when to retreat.
Now, what are the drawbacks? For one, a character can't use detection mode and stealth mode in the same time. So if you're in an area where there are floor traps, like a dungeon or a spider-infested forest, scouting gets a lot riskier. Getting caught by those traps can be very bad for a scout. Also, while early enemies can't do anything about an invisible character, that changes as the series go on. You start seeing some enemies (e.g. SoD's Bonebats) that can see through invisibility outright. Spellcasters start learning anti-invisibility spells, and casting them when you come near - they know you're out there somewhere.
I think this is also the case if in line of sight of a neutral character (e.g. a civilian) as well?
But it is not required to even have protection versus petrification. The ghoul can eliminate all 10 basilisks on the map you can just sit back and watch although good to fire some arrows as well. The ghoul dies against the nefarious mage but is exhausted from his spells and you can finish him off easily (with a wand of magic missile)