Baldurs gate - how should I start. - Page 9

Marid Audran · December 17, 2003, 16:30

Exploring Firewine Bridge's dungeons is an experience of ennui, despair, and acute hair loss from the navigational frustration that I won't soon forget. I only ever entered those warrens afterward through the Gullykin secret entrance. Fairly simple: Partake in the "boss" battle (an Ogre Mage, a high-level human mage, and a bunch of goons), grab the loot, then haul tail back out the way you came. After I sent a scout ahead under the influence of a Potion of Absorbtion and let the mage fry himself with his own lightning bolt, I could breathe a lot easier during the fight.

Gullykin is rather dull, but it's a shire; a lot of hearth and home type dwellings and not much excitement. They're halflings; you can't expect Waterdeep.

Those bounty hunters are a bit tougher than the soloist upstarts who have tried to fell you in the past, because they're a party of four. I always found fighting rival adventurers, bounty hunters, and the like to be the most interesting battles in the game because they hit close to home.

One trick to try to accelerate the pace of your resident wizard's experience point count is to kick everyone out of your party, sans your PC (and the wizard, naturally), then take on XP-high-octane baddies like Sirines, Basilisks, and Ankhegs. This requires more than a little finesse and experience, however, due to the danger involved. Strength in numbers, you know.

When I replay BG there are some areas I simply never bother with. In particular I'm thinking of that goddam annoying Xvart village and the Gnoll Fortress. Both cases; too much hassle for too little payback (and as a requisite Minsc/Dynaheir hater, an easy decision to make). I also include most of Durlag's Tower in this category, due to its unfun, sadistic, and trappy design. There are enough dungeon-crawls in BG without needing to cavort in that one.

Jamski · December 17, 2003, 18:30

Xvart village has some good loot though. There's a +1 longsword in the cave, and Ursula is worth a good few hundred EXP. Gnoll fortress has a tome that you should really get.

-Jam

centrifuge · December 17, 2003, 18:50

The durlag's tower final fight is a must do IMHO, but not until you are good and strong

Traianvs · December 17, 2003, 18:57

Durlag's tower is frikking sweet. I mean it's an uberdeadly dungeon, with hard puzzles and challenging fights, and it's a lot bigger than your average BG1 dungeon!

But well you just know you'll suffer when you enter the tower

that's what makes it so fun

Marid Audran · December 17, 2003, 21:52

Quote:

Originally posted by centrifuge
The durlag's tower final fight is a must do IMHO, but not until you are good and strong

Yeah, I recall. And the little jaunt back to Ulgoth's Beard where you need to deal with the mojo of a bunch of apoctolyptic deathwish cultists (are there really any other kind?).

In the future, I let some bored 15th-level adventurers handle the Demonknight and Aec'Letec. That's what they're there for, after all. And they're more popular and widespread than ever, at least in Amn (if BGII is to be believed).

Agathon · December 17, 2003, 22:57

Man, I haven't played this for ages.

Basically for all these games (Icewind Dale, et. al) I make my main character an extremely strong and hardy paladin and then make sure that he gets all the best magic items (+attribute increases). I have it so that that one character has an extremely low AC and THACO. To supplement him I have another fighter who gets the next stuff. Everyone else except the mage has some sort of missile weapon.

The benefit of having a paladin is that you basically get perma protection from evil (as long as you remember to cast it every day) this has the benefit of lowering your AC even more.

If you use the right formation all the enemies will go for the front guy and waste themselves flailing at him. They might score a couple of hits, but hey, who cares. A character like that can smash most enemies in a couple of rounds. The others engage from the rear with missiles.

Another good tactic is to save up potions of mirrored eyes and take the travel route with the basilisk encounter a few times. Smack a few of those about and you'll fly up the levels.

centrifuge · December 18, 2003, 01:29

I played some more bg again tonight, and for the first time I met Larry, Darryl, and Darryl

This will be my third or fourthish time through BG, and I continue to encounter things that I haven't seen before

It's truly hard to find games these days that will continue to offer surprises.

Jamski · December 18, 2003, 04:11

Did you get their autogramme?

-Jam

centrifuge · December 18, 2003, 11:28

No, but I got their autograph

Is it worth anything?

Jamski · December 18, 2003, 12:01

Yes. Its worth lots of cash. But only to one buyer. No spoiler, sorry.

(I thought autogramme looked wrong)

-Jam

Traianvs · December 18, 2003, 12:13

Not that money is a big problem in BG1...

If you start messing around a bit in BG city you'll get some leet stuff anyway... what can I do with 100000 GP if I already have some kickass equipment

lord of the mark · December 18, 2003, 12:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
When I replay BG there are some areas I simply never bother with. In particular I'm thinking of that goddam annoying Xvart village and the Gnoll Fortress. Both cases; too much hassle for too little payback (and as a requisite Minsc/Dynaheir hater, an easy decision to make). I also include most of Durlag's Tower in this category, due to its unfun, sadistic, and trappy design. There are enough dungeon-crawls in BG without needing to cavort in that one.

My PC is a ranger, and i made gnoll his enemy race to get gnoll. Im thinking it would be better to go with Kivan(?) and Bronwen instead of Minsc/dynaheir and skip gnoll fortress. And then give my ranger a different enemy race. But im too far along in current game to want try that soon.

Drogue · December 19, 2003, 00:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Marid Audran
the Gnoll Fortress. Both cases; too much hassle for too little payback (and as a requisite Minsc/Dynaheir hater, an easy decision to make).

This is simple. Give a character 4 potions of invisibility, 1 to get to tomb chest (very worthwile, can sell for thousands if you wish), 1 to get to Dynaheir, 1 to get to get back and 1 to give Dynaheir to get back. Then walk back without killing a thing. Very simple, and all you lose is the xp for killing knolls and xvarts. Don't even need that many potions (2) if you use a theif.

Dis · December 19, 2003, 03:47

I hate those xvarts. and any respawning monster for that matter. grrr. That's why I like Bg2 better.

and that bear in that zvart village is pretty tough. It took a few tries before I could kill him without dying myself.

Jamski · December 19, 2003, 04:29

Kill HER, she's flagged as animal, female. And she's called Ursula.

Why would anyone want to avoid killing gnolls? They go down pretty fast and they give a few EXP, coins and all the halberds a man could want.

-Jam

lord of the mark · December 19, 2003, 10:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
Kill HER, she's flagged as animal, female. And she's called Ursula.

Why would anyone want to avoid killing gnolls? They go down pretty fast and they give a few EXP, coins and all the halberds a man could want.

-Jam

Uh maybe cause the constant killing of monsters to get few coins and Xp, and some heavy stuff you need to carry back to Beregost where its a glut on the market, is tiresome?

And i guess BG is considered MORE story oriented than lot of other RPG's.

WE may need a thread on this at some time. Im still too deep in BG for that, though.

Jamski · December 19, 2003, 10:26

I always like to kill stuff

-Jam

lord of the mark · December 24, 2003, 11:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Jamski
I always like to kill stuff

-Jam

well ive fought through Larswood, and fought off some black talon elites in Pevdale(?) and the way is now open to the bandit camp, but i lost Minsc against the Black talon (did the fire protection thing too late) and had to spend most gold to revive him back at FAI.

So Im now short of gold. I may go back to Larswood and do the quest someone gave me there (something to do with the ettercaps?) maybe that will give me some gold, which i need more than XP's now.

Drogue · December 24, 2003, 16:54

If you need money, do the quest from Belgost's Temple of Lathander

However I don't really know money quests, since I've never been short of it that late in the game.

Jamski · December 27, 2003, 10:39

I prefer to reload rather than pay the HUGE price to have a dead character raised. Also anyone that dies misses the XP for that fight

-Jam

DarkCloud · December 27, 2003, 13:53

Quote:

Durlag's tower is frikking sweet. I mean it's an uberdeadly dungeon, with hard puzzles and challenging fights, and it's a lot bigger than your average BG1 dungeon!

But well you just know you'll suffer when you enter the tower
that's what makes it so fun

The top of the tower is amazingly fun and amazingly easy... but the dungeon half is *****ing hard! I took hours to slog though it (now of course, I'm horrible at computer games)

although, I will agree that most of it was fun except that one level where I was doing fetch and carry for about 5 hours

perhaps more... (it took me many days to get through that dungeon

) I more prefered the ice wizard's island... and stealing all the dead wizard's stuff

DarkCloud · December 27, 2003, 13:56

The problem with BG1 is that it is altogether too slow and you can't camp outdoors without getting ambushed- therefore you can never rest and recover your spells... except on EASIEST difficulty and with all the easy things turned on... and even then I have to replay every **** quest about 10 times

Traianvs · December 27, 2003, 17:39

you can camp outside, just choose the right places...

the golden rule is: camp on a map that has all creatures on it killed, secondly don't camp near a place where you've just fought a battle... there usually are specific places such as woodcutters houses or similar places...

just camp in a place that looks safe, sometimes you simply have to try again if you get ambushed; it's a matter of luck usually

Jamski · December 28, 2003, 09:18

Save before camping. Save after a successful rest. Drink those potions for god's sake, and don't rely on spells in every fight. Remember all the places where its good to rest and remember where you can farm XP by resting.

-Jam

DarkCloud · December 28, 2003, 14:29

Okay, I'll try that next time I play Baldur's gate!

Shadowstrike · December 28, 2003, 16:21

There's always the ankheg shell quest for gold. Its been a while since I"ve played BG, but it gave a lot of gold per ankheg (make sure to grab several ankheg shells every time). Just make sure you never select the choice to make the ankheg armor until your gold troubles are over.

Traianvs · December 28, 2003, 18:44

just remember that ankheg shells are incredibly heavy... only your strong fighters can carry it; with the other equipment they'll only be able to carry 1 at a time

DarkCloud · December 28, 2003, 19:34

Quote:

Just make sure you never select the choice to make the ankheg armor until your gold troubles are over.

You mean we can't get gold for the shells after we make the armor?

Drogue · December 28, 2003, 23:40

How can you sell Ankhegs each? Surely you just give the Smithy the lot and he makes the armour? How long does that take btw? I've never managed to get Ankheg armour in BGI.

Jamski · December 29, 2003, 09:16

You can either get him to make the armour, or you can sell the Ankheg plates to him for a decent sum. Go there with an Ankheg plate and save before you talk to him, then experiment to see which dialog choices give the required results.

-Jam