Collection of user-friendly Walkthroughs and FAQs
HalfOrcBeastmaster
Member Posts: 301
So...
Some time ago, I took an interest in learning how to properly play this game, rather than just cheating my way through it; all joking aside, pressing ctrl-y to kill all your enemies gets old really quickly after the 100th time doing it. To begin my education, I figured I'd drop by GameFAQs and see if anyone had made a Walkthrough for either game's Enhanced Edition. Until a while ago there was only one for each - both written by a user called "Haeravon". You can find them at these addresses:
BGEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663933-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/faqs/66126
BGIIEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663934-baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition/faqs/68513
After much reading and ctrl + f searching, I think my reaction can safely be surmised in the picture below.
While this was originally going to be a rant-thread, I have decided to do otherwise. Since the guides linked are so user-unfriendly, how about we instead track down guides, walkthroughs and FAQs for the series, EE and otherwise, and link to them in this thread? I know people could just search for decent walkthroughs if they really wanted to find them, but Google searching is a double-edged sword and I think a list of references makes a good place to start.
Some time ago, I took an interest in learning how to properly play this game, rather than just cheating my way through it; all joking aside, pressing ctrl-y to kill all your enemies gets old really quickly after the 100th time doing it. To begin my education, I figured I'd drop by GameFAQs and see if anyone had made a Walkthrough for either game's Enhanced Edition. Until a while ago there was only one for each - both written by a user called "Haeravon". You can find them at these addresses:
BGEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663933-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/faqs/66126
BGIIEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663934-baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition/faqs/68513
After much reading and ctrl + f searching, I think my reaction can safely be surmised in the picture below.
While this was originally going to be a rant-thread, I have decided to do otherwise. Since the guides linked are so user-unfriendly, how about we instead track down guides, walkthroughs and FAQs for the series, EE and otherwise, and link to them in this thread? I know people could just search for decent walkthroughs if they really wanted to find them, but Google searching is a double-edged sword and I think a list of references makes a good place to start.
1
Comments
http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/
I used Haeravon's IWDEE walkthrough as a checklist and one of the things I liked about it was that it was written for his bizarre playing style. That way, even if I accidentally read ahead, his advice was mostly useless and I still had to figure it out for myself. Though I have to admit, I did enjoy "invisosmite" once I was high enough level.
The new content is a small fraction and mostly not that difficult.
If I do write one it will be from a solo perspective and probably only tactics for some of the tougher fights. Even then classes play so differently that it's tough to cover the bases. And then do I cover vanilla fights or SCS versions? So many considerations...
A Let's Play guide would be more fun to do cos there are still so few good ones. Tord's (mynameisnotlilly) by far the best out there from a roleplaying perspective. Think I would do it from a gameplay perspective rather than roleplay.
It wasn't really his style of writing - I wouldn't go as far as calling him an obnoxious asshole. It's just that he tends to advocate his way of playing as the "right" way, which gets old really fast.
The dealbreaker, for me, was his IWD:EE guide. At the character creation guide he will tell you right off the bat that the best possible way to beat the game is by having 5 Fighter/Mage/Thieves and 1 Fighter/Mage/Cleric. Then he goes over every class and kit in a condescending tone, as in "I suppose you could try that out but that makes you stupid because 5 F/M/Ts and 1 F/M/C is clearly the way Jesus wants you to play this game."
I was amused to hear that his strategy for Heart of Fury mode was to play through the entire game 6 times until your entire party is maxed out at level 30/30/30 and everyone has all the best gear. Apparently all you have to do to beat HoF mode is to make yourself vastly more powerful than everything else in the game. He actually claimed that to be a necessity for beating HoF.
Sort of defeats the purpose of increasing the difficulty. And it's a ridiculous amount of work to put into a single run of the game.
1. Obnoxious: Pretty much what you guys said. He keeps saying kits are stupid, except for a small number which get something resembling a recommendation except that he keeps saying "Multiclass! Duel-class!" and so on. Oh, and there's his treatment of druids. How exactly does it benefit anyone to have him telling us over and over again that they "suck"? There are ways to make them work, or no one at all would give them the time of day. Besides, if he has enough time on his hands to raise six triple-class characters to max level via repeating IWD:EE six times, I'm pretty sure there's room in his schedule to find such a way.
2. Unfunny: That would be the religion jokes. The ones to the tune of, "You can raise your reputation by giving money to the temples of imaginary deities? And people will overlook it if you do bad things if you do? Hey, it's just like in real life!" Ha, ha, ha, wise guy. I bet he was born hoping someone would make a game with BG's rep system so he could make that joke.
3. Arsehole: These were the deal-breakers. I would have had nicer words for himt, if it weren't for these parts. Said he of the Thief's Bounty Hunter Kit: "Someone, somewhere, is laughing at if you if you pick this kit." How's that supposed to make us feel? How are we supposed to feel about him recommending Jan Jansen for "Stupid people"? That's why I said the walkthrough is user-unfriendly - in some places it drops all pretence of objectivity and starts mocking you for daring to pick certain classes or companions.
...I guess I just ranted, didn't I? Still, I didn't say those words idly or for shock-value; that's what awaits you among their pages. Use 'em for stronghold quests and maybe finding some hard-to-find items but otherwise? I suggest using one of the other walkthroughs listed here.
BGEE NPC Guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183524786
BG2EE NPC Guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=195278341
IWDEE Party Creation Guide (incomplete)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406868818
I also have a few spell and abilities guides on steam that give my take on the various activatable spells and abilities in the BG series.
BGEE
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=205238783
BG2EE (incomplete)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=237917858
You can slaughter 100 innocent peasants, and everything will be OK if you donate enough gold to a Temple.
If those temples are just using it to build illithium statues (which does sometimes happen, sometimes), then it's certainly a corruption. But if even a fraction of the money goes to the victims, then murder and high-priced penance could actually be a net lifesaver in the Forgotten Realms.
Actually, raising your reputation seems to have a scaling cost, at least when I do it. The initial cost seems to depend on how low your initial starting rep is. I can get from 5 to 6 for around 700 gold.
Do they use the cash to provide raise dead services for those who could not ordinarily afford it? I suppose it's a possibility, but we have no evidence for that. Cynical me thinks that most of it goes to offset operating costs ... or pay for the high priest's concubines. I'd be happier with a system where the Temple's specific deity had a set of tasks which someone looking to atone for bad deeds had to accomplish.
But there were better ways to make fun of the system than drag religion into it. That's the part I don't like.
I'm a bit of a power-gamer, and I write to my own tastes. I didn't go into those guides trying to role-play or find the fleck of gold (often buried under a mountain of mediocrity) that might be found for each class or kit. There are objective power differences between classes, kits, spells HLAs and weapon loadouts, and it was my desire to point those out. It was also my desire to provide as much information as possible for readers, including suggested protagonists based on what characters could be recruited, what tactics worked best, and what equipment was out there. If you disagree with the assertions in the guide, you can feel free to e-mail me (there are version numbers on those guides specifically because errors were corrected and content was added later).
You don't need a Fighter/Mage protagonist to get through the game, but it's a great template for somebody to follow, enabling the player to invest in a character who can handle many different challenges and serve as the tactical hub of the party. If you wanted to break the mold and go your own way, however, ample detail was provided for the spells, HLAs, weapons, classes and allies so that you needn't feel bound by the guide. It's kind of a fine line to walk, trying to give people a template to follow step-by-step, and also to provide enough detail for everybody to ignore said template, if they wanted.
On that note, there are some definite problems with the guide that I just haven't had time to fix (Fallout 4 and its DLC have been consuming my time these days), namely:
+ The Blade kit isn't done justice in the guide. I have since been convinced of its merit.
+ More accurate information regarding the Unseeing Eye quest and subsequent Cleric quests will be added.
+ Some spells and HLAs need to be given more credit.
+ New class added by Dragonspear needs to go in both guides.
+ Need to clarify in the guide(s) that a Fighter gets an extra attack at 13th level, and therefore that's a fine dual-class goal.
+ Ranger/Cleric has been nerfed.
+ Going to finally write up a full comparison of the Kensai/Mage (dual), Fighter/Mage (multi) and Blade. Considering all three fit more or less the same role in the Good Party, it'd be nice to crunch all the stats and see how they compare. What I actually say in the guide (aside from taking a jab at prosperity gospel) is the idea that giving money to an evil deity will IMPROVE your reputation. C'mon, we can agree that's silly, right? If I give money to Talos, and Talos says I'm a great guy, are you going to believe him? You know, Talos? The god who likes to destroy stuff? I'll freely admit to being an atheist, taking jabs at people in my guides, and in general being an irreverent jerk at times, but you could have just quoted what I said to give a more accurate, in-context example.
The Icewind Dale guide is... rather peculiar. It was my first guide and has undergone MASSIVE changes over the years. I've seen many ways of going about HoF mode, but neither starting out with few characters and relying on summons, or starting in HoW and scumming the easy quest XP really appealed to me, and I wanted a guide that could be used for a normal playthrough and a HoF playthrough, which I'm not quite sure it managed to do. It also just kind of seemed a shame (my damn power-gamey instincts again) to NOT make triple-classers, since the max level in the Enhanced Edition is level 30, no matter how many classes you have. Kind of agree, but the only fight I remember being more difficult because of triple-class progression was against Presio, as her Cloudkill was actually strong enough to insta-kill my characters at that point. The party is fairly vulnerable if they're not buffed... but c'mon, they're all spell-casters. If you buff everything is cake, if not, you're ignoring 2/3rds of your abilities. The power-gameyness got a bit out of hand, and if any guide could stand to have a "normal" party and a "power-gamey" party split, that's the one. Still... hard to argue that a F/M/C with two Morning Stars +4: Defender, Stoneskin, Improved Haste and all those juicy Cleric buffs can be out-powered, especially since enemies in that game are allergic to Dispel Magic.