New to Baldur's Gate. How good is this roll?
Ringking39
Member Posts: 8
So since Baldur's gate 3 has bern getting high praises, I thought I'd try the originals, before I play it. This is my roll for Elf archer. I'm planning on playing through the trilogy. Any tips would be appreciated.
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One consideration with bows - for the purposes of what enemies you can hit, the enchantment level that matters is what's on the arrow. If there's a "+N" in that arrow's name, that's the enchantment level. Magical arrows without a "+N" number like arrows of ice and arrows of biting are +0, which is effectively the same as +1 for determining what you can hit. In the main BG1 campaign, the only distinction is between enemies you can hit with anything and enemies that require magical weapons to hit. Siege of Dragonspear introduces a few enemies that require +2 to hit, and the final boss requires +3 to hit on higher difficulties. Then BG2 has more enemies that require +2 or +3 to hit, plus a few bosses that require +4. But you can't buy +3 arrows until the epic-level Throne of Bhaal campaign, and +4 arrows don't exist at all. What can you do when +2 isn't enough? That's what the auto-ammo weapons are for - the Tansheron and Gesen bows, and the Firetooth crossbow. Those have both "launcher" abilities that use the ammo you're carrying, and "ranged" abilities that don't and just fire a +3 or +4 arrow/bolt. And if you use the "launcher" ability, the damage from the "ranged" ability adds with the physical arrow/bolt - because of that, these weapons just do more damage than any other options.
There are also some enemies out there, such as Battle Horrors (immune) and skeletons (90% resistant), that are highly resistant or immune to missile damage. That's not a matter of needing better arrows. You just need to switch to melee to deal decent damage to them. Watch the log to figure this out - if you see "Weapon Ineffective", you need a magical/higher enchantment weapon. If you see "<enemy> was immune to my damage", then you need a different type of damage.
As a matter of tactics, you should always carry a melee weapon you can switch to, when enemies close on you. It's worth it even if you're not proficient in that melee weapon, and even if you don't attack with it and just focus on making some distance. Point-blank attacks with ranged weapons get a massive penalty to hit (-8), and melee attacks against a character with a ranged weapon equipped get massive bonuses (+4 to hit, +4 damage). If you don't switch like that, even basic monsters like wolves can be very scary.
Archery, on the whole, is extremely strong in BG1 - in a typical BG1 party, I'll have more ranged attackers than melee. And you get that extra safety margin when your protagonist is an archer, as the people up front are more likely to be targeted and die. After all, a companion dying just means that you have to go to a temple and pay for a Raise Dead spell (or have a party member cast that, once you have enough levels in later campaigns), while the protagonist dying is Game Over.
As a ranger, you're naturally good at stealth. And your kit doesn't let you wear heavy armor, so that'll always be an option. Go ahead and use that - scouting ahead of the party under stealth lets you spot enemies and plan the encounter before they see you. The mechanics of stealth:
- When you hit the button, you roll stealth; (Hide in Shadows + Move Silently)/2, as a percentage chance out of 100. If you make the roll, you become invisible. If you fail the roll, you don't and stealth mode ends.
- Light sources such as the sun or torches penalize your stealth roll; I think it's halved in direct sunlight. You'll always have a better chance when you're actually in the shadows.
- As long as stealth mode is active, you roll stealth once per round. This either renews your invisibility, or doesn't and stealth mode ends. Invisibility lasts about two rounds after the most recent successful roll.
- Whenever you end stealth mode for any reason - either failing a stealth roll or just doing something beyond walking around - stealth mode becomes unavailable for a round.
- Some actions, like actually attacking, force you to become visible.
The upshot is that, after failing a stealth roll when scouting, you have about a round to safely retreat before you become visible. You don't have to worry about suddenly becoming visible where enemies can attack you, as long as you're careful.
Also - yeah, that's an exceptionally good roll. Elf rangers have the best odds of very high rolls of any race/class combination because of how things work, but it's still way up there.
The big deal comes at the second dot, which gets you +1 to hit, +2 damage, and most importantly +1/2 attacks per round. Then the third dot gets you another +1 damage and +2 to hit. The fourth isn't great at a mere +1 damage, but then the fifth is +1 damage and another +1/2 attacks per round.
So ... how often are you actually going to swing that melee weapon compared to loosing arrows with your bow? That proficiency point could go into a bow proficiency, and boost your damage.
You'll eventually reach grand mastery in your chosen missile weapon, and at that point you'll have spare points that you might as well dump into melee proficiencies. But it doesn't feel all that valuable for a dedicated archer at this early stage.
Should your melee weapon of choice be a longsword? Sure, why not. Good longswords are widely available at all stages of the series. There might be better weapons in some other categories at various stages, but longswords will never feel bad. Unless ... you have too many party members focusing on the same weapon choices. Most of the best weapons in the game are unique. There's only one copy - you can only give one party member the "Varscona" long sword, best in its category in BG1. So the rest have to settle for weaker options like plain +1 long swords, and that's not ideal. Keeping your weapon selection reasonably diverse, especially among the party warriors, is strongly recommended.
And specifically regarding longswords, two companions that a good party is likely to use start with longsword specialization; Khalid (fighter, available in chapter 1) and Coran (fighter/thief, available in chapter 4).
A little bit too much emphasis on Wisdom, you could probably make it 13INT 13 Wisdom rather. Not a big issue since you are ranged anyways so you can keep it as is on the picture.
My recommendation about the weapons would be to go + 2 pips in shortbows and + 2 pips in xbows right from the beginning. Then keep assigning more points to xbows until reach max at + 5. Then start maxing shortbows in BG2. Reason is that xbows have excellent 2 apr bow in BG1 obtainable very early from purchase in Beregost but moreover BG2 has at the very start after first dungeon the most mighty of xbows for the whole game + 5 Firetooth. Then you basically play game with shortbows and xbows, per situation. When need high apr draw bow, when need overcome "weapon ineffective" draw Firetooth. Enjoy ammo from both worlds, you are epic archer after all.
I wouldn't choose any weapon until I max bows and xbows. 99% of game you shoot from distance. When there is missile resistant enemies your party fighters will take care of them, while you can use some items like fireballs rings etc. Yet can still equip some bludgeon weapon even if not proficient. Again your party will take care - fighters mages what not. Not to worry too much.
Finally good choice to play BG1 and BG2 before BG3. You will probably like BG1/2 much more than 3. BG3 has some serious flaws, being turn based and being too easy a game severely lacking tactical depth.
Although archer won't do much damage to them, this is when archer's ability Called Shot comes. In 10 seconds, or rather in 30 seconds because you would have several Called Shot usually, every single arrow adds + 1 save penalty. When your archer is under improved haste he can fire + 10 save penalty to the demilich PER ROUND (6 seconds).
What this boils down to is the demilich becomes highly vulnerable to nasty spells from your mage. In other words even against highly resistant liches you are still better off not to equip melee weapon but just activate Called Shot. Game over for lich. Hey even if you not have Called Shot for some reason just firing at the lich and disrupting his spells is job well done, because nobody else has as high THACO as archer (Archers receive a 1 point increase to hit and damage with any missile weapon for every 3 experience levels)
Called Shot has other nasty cumulative penalties also, not only + 1 penalty to save vs spell
Called Shot actually very underrated ability. Because archer class is so powerful by itself that players often forget to activate their Called Shot ability. Don't forget
Called Shot
Gains one use at level 4 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter. All successful ranged attacks made by the Archer within the next 10 seconds acquire the following effects besides normal damage:
Effect available from the start: +1 penalty to target's THAC0 for 20 seconds
Effect unlocked at level 8: +1 penalty to target's save vs Spell for 15 seconds
Effect unlocked at level 12: -1 penalty to target's Strength for 10 seconds
Effect unlocked at level 16: +2 Piercing damage
There is no save against these effects and they ignore magic resistance. They are also cumulative, i. e., hitting an enemy several times while this ability is active applies its effects multiple times.
So the above 4 effects of Called Shot, they don't substitute the previous. They are cumulative on top of it. One arrow at high level Called Shot does all of the above. And you have multiple activations, lasting rounds after rounds. Often you kill enemy just dropping his STR to 0 insta death along with his save vs spell practically non-existant.
One warning on killing enemy with Called Shot by reducing his STR to 0. You don't get the XP for the kill.
Demiliches are 90% resistant to all physical damage. Which means ... well, switching to melee wouldn't really help, unless that was to a weapon such as Daystar that deals significant damage of another type (magic). But demiliches are also immune to all weapons of enchantment 3 or less, so there's only one way to hit them at all with a bow - the auto-arrows from the Gesen bow. And they spam Imprisonment, which is basically an instant-kill effect that doesn't allow a save or magic resistance (but there are ways to block it). And they're immune to all spells of level 1-9, so you're not going to be able to exploit lowered saves anyway. Fortunately, there are only two of those monsters and they're entirely optional - you only go after them if you want the XP and loot.
Enemies that attack physically tend to have high strength - dragons, for example, typically have strength 25. You're not going to get off 25 arrows in ten seconds (less than two rounds) and drain them to death. What you will be able to do, at high levels, is lower their strength to the point that they're not getting big bonuses to hit and damage on their melee attacks. Coupled with that THAC0 penalty, Called Shot does a very good job of temporarily neutralizing a physical attacker that you pour a bunch of arrows into. If those arrows don't kill it outright with the damage, that is.
For other situations once you lower enemy saves vs spell, you can follow with Ray of Enfeeblement that sets STR to 5 and finish him off with Called Shot.
In fact Called Shot works very well with Greater Malison - 4. Followed by second Greater Mallison - 8. This lich is game over in combination with improved haste archer.
I really like one archer - two mages - two fighters - one cleric combo. Deadly
So be it if Greater Malison doesn't stack. Well what stacks is hasted Tuigan for + 16 penalty in 10 seconds. So you need a single Greater Malison to make that penalty + 20
How about this combo - second mage casts ray of enfeeblemind, guess what archer now has remaining 20 to 30 seconds called shots for STR minus 11
Negative minus 11. Ray of enfeeblement 5 set minus 16
Negative 11 is only theoretical because the engine will stop subtracting once it crosses 0
There are some enemies out there - mostly bosses - that have scripting around their "deaths" so that something like a conversation can happen before they go down. Those enemies get immortality effects preventing them from being killed, including by stat drain. And the only way to engage their death scripting is to bring their hit points down to a minimum - no shortcuts.
Of course, this is all high-level stuff. At low levels - where this player is at the moment - archery is mostly just a way of dealing a lot of damage while staying out of range from retaliation.
Similar issue happens in Diablo 3. In that game there are DoT effects. For example if I cast heal DoT and the game pauses for lengthy dialogie, non of the healing is applied. After renewal my character dies becuase boss casts new DoT wasting my HP DoT. Bunch of nonsense and broken engine
I cast my HP regen and my skill gets on a timer cooldown, the very next second initiates the dialogue. After the dialogue the boss casts refreshed DoT while my HP is still on a cooldown. Wow what a cheese. Why is boss DoT renewed while mine is on the cooldown after this lengthy dialogue
Having STR 18/00 for archer is not big deal really. You can start with STR 18/01 for that matter because you really will not be in melee at all.
I have to mention also that in SoD you will recruit Corwin. Another archer class. With two archers you will decimate the whole SoD with Called Shots. Two archers aiming at one mage is obsene
I have to agree on this one.
When you start playing you often end up focusing on what could have been better. I should have picked this over that is a common thought for most I’d reckon. But sometimes its better to finish what you started, and learn to get the best out of the situation.
Longbows are strong, and will shine in SoD and BG1. Yes, there are awesome shortbows in BG2, but longbows are still viable.
ps. the roll is awesome
The longbow proficiency will carry you in BG1 just fine but the + 2 Longbow that you find in Bandit Camp can be given instead to at least three excellent shooters - Minsc, Khalid, Coran, or Kivan. ANd you can instead use the mighty xbow in Beregost. So you will not lose by any means this nice longbow, rather will give it to your second shooter while at the same time you are reaching grand mastery in xbows which will play enormous role later.
I'm assuming that last sentence means stacking the damage from arrows with the damage from unlimited ammo weapons? If that's the case I thought that was removed in enhanced editions and only a thing in the originals?
Though there's also a display bug that disguises it; if both halves have dice in the physical damage, only one of those dice will show up in the inventory screen's damage listing. For example, suppose we have Neera (no strength bonus, no specialization) using the Sling of Seeking (1d4+2 damage) with +1 bullets (1d4+2 damage). That will display as 5-8 damage, rather than the correct 6-12. You only see the right damage numbers in the combat log.
With the exception of Siege of Dragonspear. In that campaign, higher difficulties increase the number of enemies you face in many encounters, and make some individual enemies stronger. For example, the hidden "Shadow Aspect" boss monster uses more powerful spells at higher difficulties.