New all purpose Baldurs Gate thread - Page 8

duke o' york · February 18, 2004, 12:25

I hope not!
Thanks for coming back to visit us in this dark corner of the net Jamski.
I now have two characters with bows and one with a crossbow, so I'll probably set out and kill some stuff.

Jamski · February 18, 2004, 12:37

You have a party of 5-6 level 1-2 characters and only 3 bows/crossbows/slings

Doomed

/me continues his obsession with never getting anyone in the party hit ever *

-Jam

duke o' york · February 18, 2004, 12:39

What can I say? I'm a complete slut and end up stringing poor adventurers along in my party, until they either die in the stead of a character I want to keep more, or I just tire of them, strip them of all their wordly possessions, and turf them out into the street.

Jamski · February 18, 2004, 16:28

Yep. But that's roleplaying

-Jam

Dis · February 19, 2004, 03:59

you can use melee chars in BG1. I did. I find using bows and arrows a pain in the ass

. But you will probably need to heal more. Having a cleric or Jaheira is a necessity. I eventually dropped jaheira in favour of Branwen (though her fighting abilities suck the big one)

I had Minsc use a 2 hander iirc. And I had the paladin as well (adjantis I think is his name). I think he had some sort of 2 handed weapons as well. Imoen used a short bow. Dyanheir used a sling I believe. Branwen used a mace I believe. And myself (I was a bard), I used a bow or a melee weapons sometimes.

Jamski · February 19, 2004, 04:25

Bows and arrows stop being a pain if you have the "Ease of use" pack installed. You buy the arrows in stacks of 100, and they stack up to 999 in one slot. At the beginning of the game fill up on arrows and then forget about them for the rest of the game. Sweet.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 19, 2004, 05:06

Well I don't have any packs installed. The arrows thing sounds great though. I guess that they cost 10g for 100, rather than 1g.

I'm tempted to get some +1 arrows in, but I reckon that more money will be required. I can go and do the mission with the rich bloke that I've heard about, but I can't remember what it was now, and will have to go and have another look at my journal.
I have Imoen with a short bow, the rubbishy bard with a crossbow, my character has a composite bow and a bastard sword, the dwarf has his axe, Jaheira has a +1 staff and the necromancer has a dagger, but never gets to use it.

That ought to be enough firepower for the time being I'd have thought.

Especially if I take the wand of magic missiles from Imoen and give it to Jaheira. In order to fill the baddies full of arrows before they even get a chance to attack me, how should I have the character scripts set up? I've got a feeling that Stumpy will just charge into the enemies waving his axe, and would prefer if he waited until they were full of arrows before doing anything stupid like that.

Jamski · February 19, 2004, 10:47

Give "Stumpy" a bow as well, and switch to axe only when the enemy gets near.

Jaheira (IIRC) can't use the wand. Give her a sling. I tend to have her using a Sling+1 and Shield+1, with the Poisoned Dagger +2 as her melee option in the other slot. The staff uses both hands, so it can't be equipped with a sheild

Have the characters AI off. Just pause when you see an enemy and make the whole group shoot. Or use the default script and they will use the weapons in hand on any enemies they see.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 19, 2004, 11:17

Rubbishy not-using-wand-characters!

How come Stumpy can use a bow? That's a little out of the ordinary, and not something I'd do if I was roleplaying him. Hell, I'm doing it anyway.

I may well have a little play around with the AI attitude settings this weekend, and hopefully learn more about the game.

Or I could just spend the entire weekend fruitlessly trying to kill them damned spiders!!!!

Jamski · February 19, 2004, 19:57

I just assume he's holding it horizontally. Dwarfs tend to crossbows though in my mind. I can't imagine a dwarf NOT using a crossbow actually.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 06:49

This had slipped off the front page!

[mutter]I bet that's because there's a thriving BG thread at Eventis[/mutter]

Well I didn't make loads of progress this weekend, but I killed the spiders at last, got hold of the letter for the girl who lives in Beregost (haven't taken it back yet), and got Kivan in my party instead of the usless bard. (Guess which party member of reduced stature benefited from the bard's accidentally losing a crossbow when he was kicked out?

). I also took the stuff from the spiders' house back to the woman at the Friendly Arms, but because the character I used to talk to her wasn't holding all three items, I've still got a spider's body and the old bottle of wine, and didn't get all the XP for the quest. This is very rubbish, I'm afraid, and I should have had the whole lot for even having the items in my possession.

Similarly, when I went to kill the spiders, I foolishly bought the antidotes in bulk, and was then unable to share them out among my party members, so a couple nearly died of poison because I had to transfer the whole lot between characters before the one that needed it could use it. This is a very irritating feature, but I'm going to buy things separately in future. Currently, I'm saved outside the High Hedge, having just polished off a party of 4 skeletons, but every time I go in, the Flesh Golem kills most of my characters before I can do anything to it. Is there a good way to kill it, or should I just keep firing a few arrows and then running out the door to the outside so I win by attrition?

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 09:57

You can double click on stacked items to split them, silly

With the High Hedge, talk to the wizard QUICKLY (in the central room) before the golem attacks. It will then stay friendly. Be REALLY nice to the wizard to keep him friendly. The Golem can only be hurt by magical weapons, and is dead tough too.

With the woman at the FAI, just talk to her again, and then talk again, till she takes all the items. You need to start each conversation seperately. Silly thing really.

Oh, and why not start a BG thread in the Tea-room

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 10:04

Well the manual is on the disk and I can't check these things that easily. Having said that though, I went through the relevant areas when I had this problem and couldn't find anything to split them up.

How odd - thanks for your help though.
I'll have to run through to the wizard and hope that I can talk to him before anyone gets into a fight. Would it be worth using just Imoen and sneaking into the wizard's chamber before talking to him, so that the other characters don't automatically start fighting the golem? Can you tell I couldn't be bothered to look at the different AI settings?

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 10:16

Heh, just move the whole party straight into the wizards room, and talk to him. You'll have enough time.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 10:29

OK.
I was just hoping that I could get something good from Imoen's pink 18 charisma (does this mean "as a result of magic" cape?). She's now my shopaholic.

Drogue · February 23, 2004, 11:07

It does mean that

And you're killing the mage at High Hedge? I always kept him so I could buy things of him (Thalatyr (sp?) isn't it?)

My BGII party now rocks, having got much decent weaponry and armour. Keldorn has a -7 AC. Jaheira -9, thanks to Balduran's Armour. Korgan -8, thanks to Red Dragon Plate, however he'll start dual-wielding soon, when he gets 2* in it. Best of all, my main character has Tenser's Transformation. An AC of -14, 272 HP, 4 attacks, a main thac0 of -4 and an off hand of -1. Oh, and Keldorn has Carsomyr

There is nothing more to buy, so it's just do the Umar Hills, Planar Sphere and Trademeet quests for experience, and then Chapter 3.

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 11:19

Doesn't sound too challenging any more, but then I don't know how tough the bad guys are going to be.

I'm not trying to kill Thalantyr - I'm only trying to have a cosy chat! It's the flesh golem that's trying to kill me, and I keep foolishly turning round to fight it. If I was trying to kill Thalantyr then I'd have back-stabbed him first.

And then filled him full of arrows in the hope that the flesh golem would evaporate once he was dead!

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 11:24

New question! Is there any chance of getting something decent from any of the early books you pick up? I may well just sell them all (have already sold some - there are loads!), or maybe find somewhere I can store them all in the hope that having a complete set nets you something decent. But I'm sure that reading certain books will boost my characters somehow, but how will I know which ones? Are they down as books without titles? And will reading them work on my character straightaway, and be permanent, or for only as long as the book is carried?

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 11:31

The magic books need to be IDed. That's the big clue.

Apart from that, there's only two books you need for a crappy side quest, (Coin of fate?) and a "precious book" that you get given later.

-Jam

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 11:32

Oh, reading them works on whatever character reads them, and they are permanant. You need to put them in a quick-slot to read them.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 11:41

I'm going to pick some dumb shopkeeper and sell him a library. I guess that these books will not be valuable enough to allow me back into Candlekeep so I'll just sell the lot of them.
Apart from the evil dwarf, who I am not planning on keeping much longer, few of my characters seem able to hold much in their backpacks. Is there anyone I can leave stuff with and pick it up later, or am I better off just selling it?

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 11:55

Sell everything you don't actually need. Sell all non-magical jewellry and gems. Sell all non-magical weapons. Hell, I sell most of the maical ones as well - a character can only use one at a time. Never even pick up non-magical weapons and armour unless you are DESPERATELY short of cash. Its VERY heavy, and has a LOW re-sale value (less than 10% I think)

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 12:03

Well I have been short of cash, but once I track down this Basillus character (and hopefully kill him) then I'll be loaded.

I like to take and keep arrows, darts and throwing knives, but do not normally have much time for longswords or equipment that is worse than I have already. Obviously if I find better things then I'll chuck what I have. I took the +1 staff from Silke, and left the bog standard one on her body.

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 12:25

Ah - if your packs are full of arrows, then I would DEFINITELY install the Ease of Use mod. If you feel some of the components are "unfair" then you can choose not to install then, but having all the arrows only taking up one slot is lovely.

-Jam

duke o' york · February 23, 2004, 12:31

Can I install mods mid-game?

It sounds nice, and I'm tempted to have a look at some of the others too. I'd love a mod that gave you different races to play, but suppose I'll have to wait until I can justify buying BG2 (to my girlfriend).

Stuie · February 23, 2004, 12:47

The only mod I've used is BG1tutu. This lets you plat BG1 using the BG2 engine - very sweet and highly recommended. Of course, you need BG2 in order to use it. It's nice for a variety of reasons:

- You can play at higher resolutions (I'm using 1024x768 even though it's not "supported).
- You can use the character classes and "kits" included in BG2 for your BG1 character. I'm playing with a Cavalier.
- The BG1 experience cap is gone.

The only thing is that you have to start a new game. Also the random encounters are always generated assuming a party of six, so the trip out from Candlekeep can be kind of rough until you get more NPCs.

Stuie · February 23, 2004, 12:48

Forgot to provide a link:

http://japh.fwstudios.net/bg1tutu/

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 13:14

You need BG2 of course, to use Tutu. Don't forget to mention that

DoY, you can install EoU at any time, without starting a new game. All the shops you havn't vistited yet will now sell arrows by the 100. All arrows/potions/gems etc will now stack to 9999. Apart from that none of the other BG1 mods are really worth worrying about.

-Jam

bipolarbear · February 23, 2004, 22:49

What in the poop is so great about Baldur's gate. I've never really played it, but all of my homies down at d-station iz alwayz tizzalkin aboot this baldur's gizzate! Personally, I love the first person shooters, and Morrowwind! Convince me to buy Baldur's gate.

duke o' york · February 24, 2004, 05:20

Read the first BG thread, and then this one. If your curiosity is not piqued by either of them then you'd be wasting your time buying it. I have only just bought it and am relying heavily on the advice of Jamski, Drogue and others here. I only bought it after reading the first thread (should be on the 3rd or so page here) and it sounded like fun so I put my money where Jamski's mouth was and bought it.

I've got a walk-through, but I doubt I'll use it until I play it at least another couple of times and get the completist urge. I'm already getting that way a bit by trying to do as many quests as I can, but I'm not going to go and search behind trees to find hidden magic items quite yet. That'd spoil the fun on the first time through.

When you say "I've never really played it", do you really mean that you've never played it, or that you've played a little with your homies? If it didn't grab you then, it probably won't in the future. Can you not play it with them first before deciding to buy it yourself? That would seem to be the most sensible solution, and save you money.