Baldur's Gate 1

[Jaesun]

I would have never beaten Saravok if it wasn't for monster summoning.

Turn of auto-pause though...

I would save all of my wands of summoning for that final battle and unleash a massive horde of skeletons and gibberlings on Sarevok then trounce him while he was busy swatting them away.

 

heh this reminds me of my one most fond memory of Baldur's Gate (BEFORE Tales of the Sword Coast came out...). When fighting Saravok, I on a sheer stroke of luck summoned some Kobolds (who use normal arrows) and they ended up killing him. BEST damn memory of all time. Then BioWare fixed this (with later patches and Tales of the Sword Coast).

[Azure79]

I would have never beaten Saravok if it wasn't for monster summoning.

Turn of auto-pause though...

I would save all of my wands of summoning for that final battle and unleash a massive horde of skeletons and gibberlings on Sarevok then trounce him while he was busy swatting them away.

 

heh this reminds me of my one most fond memory of Baldur's Gate (BEFORE Tales of the Sword Coast came out...). When fighting Saravok, I on a sheer stroke of luck summoned some Kobolds (who use normal arrows) and they ended up killing him. BEST damn memory of all time. Then BioWare fixed this (with later patches and Tales of the Sword Coast).

 

I don't think I've enjoyed an ending battle as much as BG1. There were traps, a well balanced enemy party and a very menacing and deadly antagonist. I always tried to refrain from summoning monsters too much in that battle, just for the sheer enjoyment. It's even more brutal with the strategems mod. I love it.

[Ice9]

heh this reminds me of my one most fond memory of Baldur's Gate (BEFORE Tales of the Sword Coast came out...). When fighting Saravok, I on a sheer stroke of luck summoned some Kobolds (who use normal arrows) and they ended up killing him. BEST damn memory of all time. Then BioWare fixed this (with later patches and Tales of the Sword Coast).

 

My favorite BG memory occurred in the sequel. My monk walked up to the big red dragon, quivering palmed his shin and watched as he failed his saving throw and died.

[Junai]

Took down Drizzt with a lvl 2/3 fighter/thief.

Str 25 potion, potion of speed. Run, hide, backstab.

 

Didn't even take all that long. Just make sure you get out of his way after you stab him. =

 

 

J.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Heh this reminds me of my one most fond memory of Baldur's Gate (BEFORE Tales of the Sword Coast came out...). When fighting Saravok, I on a sheer stroke of luck summoned some Kobolds (who use normal arrows) and they ended up killing him. BEST damn memory of all time. Then BioWare fixed this (with later patches and Tales of the Sword Coast).

The whole idea of it just made me laugh. It would be like James Bond in a room with the big bad villain at the finale and instead of using his gadgets or guns for an epic showdown he brings out a bag of rats and lets them loose. While all the criminals are screaming and trying to stomp the rats he runs around the room judo chopping the bad guys.

[Raithe]

The whole idea of it just made me laugh. It would be like James Bond in a room with the big bad villain at the finale and instead of using his gadgets or guns for an epic showdown he brings out a bag of rats and lets them loose. While all the criminals are screaming and trying to stomp the rats he runs around the room judo chopping the bad guys.

 

Hey, don't laugh about that. If the DM knows what he's doing, Kobolds can be really dangerous, vicious little gits....

[Enoch]

The only way I ever found to win the BG1 final battle was to abuse the fog of war and pull Sarro's buddies out one-by-one, until you get rid of the archer with the crazy rate-of-fire and a sackful of arrows of detonation. And abusing the fog of war is an even sillier exploit than spamming wands of summoning.

[Nepenthe]

The only way I ever found to win the BG1 final battle was to abuse the fog of war and pull Sarro's buddies out one-by-one, until you get rid of the archer with the crazy rate-of-fire and a sackful of arrows of detonation. And abusing the fog of war is an even sillier exploit than spamming wands of summoning.

 

Actually, it's a lot easier to just activate Sarevok by abusing the fog of war - then you can just ignore everybody else. At least I'm pretty sure that Angelo is easily left outside the combat altogether that way, which is a pretty nice thing.

[Walsingham]

I failed hard with my dual classing of Imoen. Didn't realise that the primary career skills never get any better. So I put in a huge efffort to get her thief skills back only to have her still unable to defuse most of the traps in Durlag's tower.

 

My solution, which I won't have time to try for few days is to leave one pompous paladin in his pants in the basement of the tower and run off to get Safana. Not sure if this will work. But I've gone round and bought every potion of perception I can find.

 

So now it's:

 

Human paladin - player

Dwarf fighter-cleric

human cleric

human ranger

human thief-mage

human thief

 

 

Which is quite a change to combat. Where previously with only the thief mage being (slightly) vulnerable at AC1, I could more or less flail gleefully into most fights. Have to take a lot more care, I guess.

[Tigranes]

Keep in mind that you'll never find traps of that difficulty anywhere else other than Durlag.

 

I remember all the trap placements by now, of course, so I could probably do without a thief even :/

[Walsingham]

It's been long enough that I've forgotten where they were, and how many, and how dangerous.

 

ROFL'd when I went into a 'certain' room, got to the middle and thought "I vaguely remember this being full of traps", so I cast 'find traps' and the whole thing lit up redder than a schoolboy who's just met Kelly Brook. Was frozen to the spot, trying to think of some way to overcome my basic incompetence and get to the treasure. Like a schoolboy who's just met Kelly Brook.

[Volourn]

Wow. When I played BG1 way back around '99, I loved the game. A D&D game on computer that got me hooked. I rated it in the neighbourhood of 90%. despite some issues with it, In found it awesome.

 

Just recently I picked it up on GOG for ****s and giggles to try out 'online purchasing'. I have no issues with GOG service thus far - oyutide of the fact it's deisgned to ruin all good memories. I'm in the middle of doing the Nashkel Mines, and quite frankly, replaying BG 10+ years after it's release was a horri bad area. I cna't stomach it for more than 30 minutes at a time. It just doesn't stand the test of time. I think I'd have to rate it around 75-80% now, and that's being nostalgia generous. Tsk, tsk.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Wow. When I played BG1 way back around '99, I loved the game. A D&D game on computer that got me hooked. I rated it in the neighbourhood of 90%. despite some issues with it, In found it awesome.

 

Just recently I picked it up on GOG for ****s and giggles to try out 'online purchasing'. I have no issues with GOG service thus far - oyutide of the fact it's deisgned to ruin all good memories. I'm in the middle of doing the Nashkel Mines, and quite frankly, replaying BG 10+ years after it's release was a horri bad area. I cna't stomach it for more than 30 minutes at a time. It just doesn't stand the test of time. I think I'd have to rate it around 75-80% now, and that's being nostalgia generous. Tsk, tsk.

Thats why I play it with Tutu. The movement speed increase and some other additions from BG 2 really help.

[HoonDing]

There's no fix for the pathfinding, sadly.

 

I don't even visit that Gullykin dungeon that's swarming with the kobolds anymore because of this.

[Tigranes]

I've started a new BG1 playthrough. Most of the wear-and-tear it's suffered over the years is neatly mitigated with Widescreen Mod and Tutu (+ BG1 GUI / loading screens / music and some tweaks). I'm also trying a new mod called Spell Revisions that rebalances many spells - I don't know if it's kosher D&D but it should shake up the magic use a lot more - and of course SCS, which makes the game a huge challenge.

 

I've rolled a Fighter/Druid modded to use an Avenger kit (with Shapeshifting rebalancing mod), then plan to go semi-ironman - reload if whole party dies, but if a party member gets chunked go out and find another one. This will help me resist just taking my favourites again and again.

[Walsingham]

Don't listen to these bastards, oh gentle readers. Leave Tutu the **** alone.

 

I've now moved on to BG2, and it's fething awesome. Although for some reason I'm finding it a lot easier than the last time I played. I'm starting to think that the Paladin improved saves are far more useful than fighter special attacks. Although I'm definitely regretting not going for Undead Hunter as my kit. Everything except the occasional farmyard hen keeps lowering my level.

[Tale]

If you don't use tutu, then you can't play a Wild Mage in BG1. You might as well be playing Neverwinter Nights.

[Raithe]

I tried replaying BG a couple of months back.. well, probably closer to half a year back now. I kept doing it in short doses rather then being able to sit down and play large chunks... then I actually arrived in the City got interupted by real life so had to save and exit.. and just.. eh, I'm not sure. I just didn't have the excitement to get back to it.

[Monte Carlo]

BG1 without tutu can be a bit of a drag, but then again I can't be arsed to install tutu all over again.

 

I've got BG2/ToB with widescreen mod (actually lots of mods) on my laptop and its still good fun, I've got a barbarian dualled to thief on the go at the moment.

[Tigranes]

Having some great fun on Insane with SCS, customised NPC classes & a few other mods for AI/difficulty. A new component made kobolds deadlier, and the Nashkel Mines were insane with a level 1/2 party - the commando fire arrows were one-shotting Xzar and Kobold Guards were poisoning with every hit. Had to pull some kamikaze poisoned backstabbing with Imoen (Assassin), then Mulahey's mob pretty much dismantled my party - in the end only the PC Fighter/Druid was left fleeing some skellies back to a lower level, running into a ghast around the bend, running round some more, then finally winning out. Abandoned Montaron/Xzar corpses there for the sake of $.

 

Continued on recruiting Kagain (Berserker), Kivan (Archer) and Edwin (Conjurer), with some close shaves, but eventually Kagain got chunked by the ogrillions in the Firewine Bridge - with the mods there's an Ogre Mage, normal mage (with two lightning bolts memorised), 3 ogrillions and 2 kobold commandos, and the mages with contingency buffs. After that the party was so knackered they had to run away from that halfling that turns invisible upstairs in the home, lest he backstab and chunk Edwin. Grabbed Shar-Teel (Barbarian) to replace, but with her 9CON she only has 42hp at level 5(ish).

 

Just finished off the Bandit Camp, which is probably one of the hardest fights in the game with SCS - when you're sighted the bandits actually raise the alarm and the leading party inside the big hut comes out to see what's up. Cheesed it little by backstabbing Taugosz to start off with - the insanely hard to kill walking tank - with Imoen then gobbing an invis potion, making everyone nearby gather to that spot to see what's up, then as the enemy party comes out from the hut Imoen lobs an oil of fiery burning on them all then just makes it out alive. The incoming mobs are then covered with double web, every potion of explosion the High Hedge was selling, and every other kind of disabling spell while Kivan snipes them down. Made it only on about the 5th try - big thing was using Algernon's Cloak to charm Taugosz, who then became an armoured pincushion for all those bandits with their biting arrows.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Tutu is great. I couldn't go back to playing BG1 in its original state.

[Jaesun]

If that wrapper app can finally work fine with BGII, we could finally experience and play Baldur's Gate exactly the way it was within the enhanced Baldur's Gate II engine. And not have to deal with all the limitations of TUTU, which are held down by all the hard-coded limitations of the BGII engine.

[Nepenthe]

If that wrapper app can finally work fine with BGII, we could finally experience and play Baldur's Gate exactly the way it was within the enhanced Baldur's Gate II engine. And not have to deal with all the limitations of TUTU, which are held down by all the hard-coded limitations of the BGII engine.

Which wrapper app is that?

[Farks]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I have a party related question as well. I'm currently playing through the game for the first time and trying to figure out what party I should roll with. I currently have the "canon party" (Minsc, Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen and Dynaheir) and I'm playing as a fighter myself. Will this suffice or should I try to get another mage/cleric/etc into the party? I'm still very early in the game, just finished the Nashkeel Mines and I'm at lvl 2.

Edited April 13, 2013 by Farks

[Serrano]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I have a party related question as well. I'm currently playing through the game for the first time and trying to figure out what party I should roll with. I currently have the "canon party" (Minsc, Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen and Dynaheir) and I'm playing as a fighter myself. Will this suffice or should I try to get another mage/cleric/etc into the party? I'm still very early in the game, just finished the Nashkeel Mines and I'm at lvl 2.

 

The thing about Baldur's Gate 1 is that it's an rpg from before the time when Bioware started doing companions. Some of the party members will have personal quests like Minsc rescuing Dynaheir but that's really about the extent of your interacting with them or their impact on the story after they get recruited. They won't chip in with comments when you talk to people, they won't talk to each other except for pairs who may rarely say two lines to each other about this or that. They won't get an epilogue at the end either. So think of them less as personalities and more like expendable puppets. I'd almost suggest letting them perma death and recruiting new ones as you go, you'd get more quests and you'd get to hear more character quips, some of the least recruited characters are really entertaining and a few  have something unique about them like Xan and his moonblade.  If you decide to do that though remember that if you dismiss a party member they will still be the same character level when you recruit them again, and if you dismiss a dead party member then they're gone forever.

 

You should still be able to finish the game no matter of what combo of characters you use though, but having at least one mage, cleric, rogue and fighter will make things much easier. Also if you host a multiplayer game and play by yourself you can make all 6 characters, you wouldn't even have to restart, just load the session you're on at the moment.

Edited April 13, 2013 by Serrano