Legit one of the biggest things I like about the Enhanced Editions of BG over the originals is that you get to see the total point value for your stat rolls at the bottom of your stat spread. So much easier than having to do the mental math of "okay do I have enough points now... nope, reroll."
Of course it's all better than in unmodded Wizardry 6 where it took me literal hours just to roll enough stats for a character to start in the class I wanted, never mind actually have good stats on top of it.
The red diamond is pretty sweet too.
Does anyone have an opinion on the IWDification mod? I want to start running a bard and having the IWD songs seems like it would help out the base bard a bunch. I'm curious if I should also add the spells and 2-handed axes.
Biggest problem with Viconia I've run into is that by the time the party runs into her (usually) we wind up having a high enough reputation to cause her to either complain incessantly, or outright start up a timer before she leaves. The Helm of Opposite alignment from Durlag's can stop that, but Durlag's Tower becomes kind of a non starter when you take into account the whole SOA equipment THING.
Even if Durlag's does play heavily into Dragonspear, I'm seriously not looking forward to when I get dragged there this time around.
>:(
I'm still bitter my fighter lost out on his glowing armor. Even if I did by sheer random chance wind up bringing over the Golden Pantaloons.
MagicalGoats on
There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life, that cannot be improved with pizza.
she's still got 8 con and those gloves don't come until the city proper and are in extremely high demand over some cleric that can't fight worth crap anyway. there's like 7 fighters with non exceptional strength who all want them. your options for clerics in BG1 are brawnen and... yeslick I guess but that's halfway through the game. I don't think I've ever played without brawnen, she's pretty much the only cleric worth a damn.
I'm trying to remember vanilla now... did they make some of the NPC party member's stats more sensible in BG2? I know when I played the EEs last year (2 years ago?), I had some of the tweak mods installed that fixed a bunch of rules and had options to fix some of the NPCs' stats. I think by setting the BG1 NPC stats to what they were in BG2?
I've always liked Viconia. In BG1:EE I think I had her using that broken as hell stun mace most of the game. In BG2, she was a pretty respectable front liner in my evil party with the right equipment anyway. I think she had either the gauntlets of ogre power or one of the giant strength girdles for the most of the game, along with... probably the mace of disruption? My evil party had a hell of a lot of frontliners though. My main character was a half-orc Fighter/Thief, I believe I had Korgan, Dorn, Viconia and Edwin. I can't remember having anyone else... I might've just been running 5 characters through BG2 until Throne of Bhaal when I added 'spoiler' to the party.
One of the mods I was using for overhauling all of the Rogue mechanics and kits added a really cool, and hard, fight near the end of BG2 proper. I believe I posted about some weirdness I had with it sometimes bugging out on me, something to do with the scripting. It worked the rest of the time though. Good times.
I'm trying to remember vanilla now... did they make some of the NPC party member's stats more sensible in BG2? I know when I played the EEs last year (2 years ago?), I had some of the tweak mods installed that fixed a bunch of rules and had options to fix some of the NPCs' stats. I think by setting the BG1 NPC stats to what they were in BG2?
I've always liked Viconia. In BG1:EE I think I had her using that broken as hell stun mace most of the game. In BG2, she was a pretty respectable front liner in my evil party with the right equipment anyway. I think she had either the gauntlets of ogre power or one of the giant strength girdles for the most of the game, along with... probably the mace of disruption? My evil party had a hell of a lot of frontliners though. My main character was a half-orc Fighter/Thief, I believe I had Korgan, Dorn, Viconia and Edwin. I can't remember having anyone else... I might've just been running 5 characters through BG2 until Throne of Bhaal when I added 'spoiler' to the party.
One of the mods I was using for overhauling all of the Rogue mechanics and kits added a really cool, and hard, fight near the end of BG2 proper. I believe I posted about some weirdness I had with it sometimes bugging out on me, something to do with the scripting. It worked the rest of the time though. Good times.
Edwin went from 9 STR/WIS to 10 STR/WIS. Jaheira went from 14 DEX to 17 DEX. Minsc went from 15 DEX/CON to 16 DEX/CON. Viconia went from 15 WIS and 50% MR to 18 WIS and 65% MR.
Viconia's STR remains absolute shit in BG2, but there are now a plethora of STR-boosting items: I think 4 belts and a pair of gloves, at least. Some of them might even be in the game more than once, or maybe that's just the mods I play with, but the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, specifically, can be bought in Athkatla which helps a lot. Her CON remains in the tank and unalterable, but the additional levels makes her low HP not hurt as bad.
you can use the girdle of fortitude to give her a pseduo 18 con but it's annoying. she's definitely better, though still not as good as anomen and his fighter levels+undead vaporizing turn undead
I think I might've had her with that belt for a while just to help her Con... and she probably had the Gauntlets of Ogre Power until I needed them to make Crom Faeyr? I think I had Korgan wielding that anyway, as I do rather remember making it... and the only other time I went through BG2 in EE was with my solo Thief/Mage/Cleric... and he definitely didn't use it.
By that point she was high enough level that she didn't need the extra HP as much, so I think I switched her to one of the lower strength girdles at that point. My half-orc Fighter/Thief was strong enough on her own by that point, so I think Dorn and Korgan probably got the better girdles.
I feel like the Cloakwoods are the first area of the game where they really do expect you to have some idea of what you are doing with the game, or to have gotten a few levels under your belt getting sidequests done.
Going from the Nashkel mines to the Bandit Camp, you are allowed to bluff your way through the outer camp itself and only have to face one minor challenge inside Tazok's tent. That's a minor challenge with Mulahey followed by the little group of 4 who with a decent amount of luck can be murdered with a well placed sleep spell and a decent front row as a just in case. Then, the Cloakwoods. Good ol' spiders everywhere, including sword spiders and wraith spiders regardless of your current level and party selection, Cloakwoods. Home of the all you can eat poison buffet where you have your pick of spiders spiders more spiders, and wyverns! Just in case you still have arrows, or slow poison spells still memorized. Then you reach the Cloakwood Mines and run face first into Duras and his happy go lucky group of mages and his boots of speed, which hey if you can get them from him they're great!
The difference in strategy required for this section of the game, and the previous parts is wonderful in all seriousness. It's the first part of the game that you cannot brute force your way through without sidequesting or rest spamming. The way our team finally got through Duras's group with an average level of 4, and 1/4 health was finally breaking down, stripping the bard of armor and using the only level 2 spell I had, web. Because I had forgotten that Dorn was frickin' immune to its effects with Spider's Bane. So, that's a point against me for lack of situational awareness. The guy with boots of speed got Doomed followed by Command, which was basically a free lunch for everybody that wasn't dealing with peppering mages with arrows or Dorn.
Still the massive difference in individual abilities for the enemies is a welcome thing, and that's one of the things I missed in this game during my first several playthroughs. When by the time you reach Cloakwood everyone is pushing EXP cap and fully decked out with available equipment, Sword Spiders are really underwhelming. With low level characters it becomes a much more intricate process dealing with enemy types, poisons, and idiot monks who can't stop running ahead of the group despite warnings triggering traps and giant spiders.
Still nobody in the group that can even think of casting a level 3 spell, so sadly Neera still does not qualify as a mage by thread standards and the Mines themselves should be interesting and deadly. Would any of you say that there are any other noticeable bumps in game difficulty at Baldur's Gate, the Catacombs, or anything else? Obviously Durlag's tower could be viewed as tricky, but a lot of it comes down to understanding the traps. Werewolf Island is just horrible. But I think Sarevok himself is the only other real part of the game I can remember where strategy comes into play as far as dismantling a group of enemies (once you've finished off the mines)
There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life, that cannot be improved with pizza.
I'm in Baldur's Gate now, honestly I had very little trouble with the Mines. I have two really strong archers (myself and Coran), a magic bow with +2 to hit and the bracers of archery for another +2. Most of my opponents get wrecked from our rarely missing arrows.
I've also got Dorn and Ajantis (with dex gloves) who are very strong melee combatants and have ACs of -5. Then, between my sleep/horror spells and Branwen's (later replaced by Yeslick) hold person I tend to take groups out of action pretty quickly. Most of my guys hit level 5 by the time I reached the bottom though, I did extensively explore all of the areas south of Beregost and did almost all of the sidequests there.
mmm that sweet sleep though
As far as basic, level 1 spells go sleep really demonstrates how ridiculously powerful mages are in the [old, at least] D&D setting. And exactly why they're so frail and awful at landing weapon hits and take much longer to level.
Going Fighter/Mage so you can actually be a really strong ranged weapon user as well just feel likes cheating.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
With her dex Vic is probably better as a slinger than a frontline fighter
With Ankheg Plate, a Ring of Protection, and a magic shield she's packing -6 AC before buffs. Toss her the gauntlets of Ogre Strength and she's pretty great to have in melee, almost every enemy needs 18+ to hit her successfully.
She does have low HP so caution is required but she's pretty solid.
Bought the Switch BG1/BG2 bundle and decided to make a dart warrior and play through BG1.
Had a team of Xan, Imoen, I, and Branwen. Outside of the final fight nothing really stood up to the barrage of crowd control and darts this team could unleash.
Time to roll into Siege as I haven’t played that yet.
I only ever gave them to wizards until i got good slings.
At level 7 I have with darts +1
4 attacks per round
Damage 8-10
THACO of 5
I doubt the character will scale well into BG2 as I don’t think you can get +3 or +4 darts. But for BG1 a dart based fighter kills spellcasters easily.
+1
Options
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
Honestly, the real difficulty with dart-based fighters is all the puns you have to use during battle.
I also got the Switch version and have been playing it for the first time, but also slowly, and doing everything I can possibly do. I completed BG1 and Tales of the Sword Coast and now I'm into Dragonspear. I've been reading the wiki and also contributing to it because it needs a lot of work in some areas, especially Dragonspear.
I played Planescape Torment all the way through on PC ages ago so I am familiar with the engine and rules and all of that. Even as broken as they are I also just generally love the D&D rulesets, I don't know why.
I'm dual class 7 fighter/the rest mage. I know it's nothing fancy and widely considered a cookie cutter type choice (well, kensai/mage would be the quintessential one), but I've been enjoying it. I did the goofy thing you can do where you hold off from leveling at mage 5, and then jump directly to 8 so you can spend your proficiency point as a fully dualed fighter/mage on something actually useful... :P
In BG1 I was hanging out with Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Coran, and Branwen. I was sad to learn that Branwen doesn't make it into Dragonspear proper so I swapped her out and trained up Viconia, I really miss her Priest of Tempus Chaos of Battle though. Viconia's got the Big Fisted Belt that was added by the EE which is cursed but gives her the str she needs to fight with everyone else (and she doesn't need the int).
Also in Dragonspear since I can't have Coran I've been using Corwin...and my main character is named Corrin...go figure.
Playing on the console version and I like it a lot, but I don't know how someone who grew up with the PC version would like it. There are probably a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Direct joystick control is awesome and I think everyone would enjoy it. Something about the way it works feels like it's skipping the game's normal movement engine and doing its own thing, it feels like it's...higher FPS? Very smooth. Characters will run faster to catch up if they're behind, there are absolutely no pathfinding issues with this control method.
Going with the above if your lead character has Paws of the Cheetah, EVERYONE will move fast enough to keep up. This is probably the single greatest thing in the console release.
With the direct joystick control method the cursor snaps to whatever the nearest clickable thing is, whether that's talking to someone or opening a chest. This works great in general. It also completely spoils formerly well-hidden pixel hunt secret items in tree knotholes.
You can toggle between control methods as much as you like, but in combat (whenever a red-circled target is visible) you are forced into classic click mode. I'm ok with this, it's probably a necessity.
Turning on object highlighting highlights more than on PC, it shows you every interactable object even just for flavor text (some of them are shaped weird and were never meant to be seen, i.e. one in Nashkel) and every exit. I was surprised when I jumped into the PC version of Icewind Dale briefly and I noticed exits weren't highlighted, on console it's really convenient by comparison.
There is no console on console, so no cheating or faux-modding or granting yourself items you need or missed.
There are limited save files on console which kind of sucks. On Switch there are 5 save slots plus autosave and chapter save, but this is also on a per-game basis, Siege has 5 slots, BG2 has 5, ToB, Black Pits 1, Black Pits 2. And as far as I know, as much space as you would ever need for exported characters too. I think I read that there are 10 save slots on other consoles like PS4? Not sure.
Some aspects of the controls need work, like when you're accessing the bottom bar and scrolling over spells and usable items with the d-pad, it doesn't wrap around from left to right, so every time you want to access special abilities you press X and then to the right about 10 times, instead of just left twice. I can't imagine playing a thief main with all the micromanaging you need to do for Backstab. Since the console release is fairly new I would hope this gets patched sometime.
So it's not perfect but it's still pretty great anyway.
[*] Going with the above if your lead character has Paws of the Cheetah, EVERYONE will move fast enough to keep up. This is probably the single greatest thing in the console release.
You can toggle between control methods as much as you like, but in combat (whenever a red-circled target is visible) you are forced into classic click mode. I'm ok with this, it's probably a necessity.
How is this toggled. I never figured out how to explicitly toggle between the two modes, and would just have it magically happen.
You can toggle between control methods as much as you like, but in combat (whenever a red-circled target is visible) you are forced into classic click mode. I'm ok with this, it's probably a necessity.
How is this toggled. I never figured out how to explicitly toggle between the two modes, and would just have it magically happen.
Right on the d-pad while just walking around. Again you can't do it during combat.
Left on the d-pad toggles between all nearby automatic cursor targets too (choose a different person to talk to or whatever).
Dart based fighter has defeated Siege of Dragonspear.
Hardest fight was the “crash to desktop” random zone transition encounters. Seriously BG1 never crashed on the Switch, and SoD would crash about every hour, which was a real pain given how some of the later fights just drag on and on.
The plot was fine, the dialogue had to much “for the lolz” options.
I'll probably end up installing it on my pc for the millionth time and start over . I really need to start backing up my saves. I actually got a decent amount into it last time
I would recommend it more strongly on Switch due to the portability aspect. If you're tethered to a TV then you might as well be tethered to a PC, and have all the mods and infinite save space and all that.
But that joystick control is pretty nice. They did controller controls as best as they could...I hope they eventually patch it for even more ease of use.
I'm finally going to install/boot up my copy of Baulder's Gate:EE.
How difficult is normal? I'm debating between that, easy and story mode. I just want to enjoy the plot/rpg element without really worrying about party micromanagement. Is easy that sweet spot between not being boring but also not having to pour over stats of weapons?
Story mode is also a toggle in the options. It makes it so your characters literally cannot die and gives them a number of buffs. So you could play on normal and just turn it on whenever a fight is giving you a hassle.
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The red diamond is pretty sweet too.
Does anyone have an opinion on the IWDification mod? I want to start running a bard and having the IWD songs seems like it would help out the base bard a bunch. I'm curious if I should also add the spells and 2-handed axes.
Quickloot feature in the EEs.
She's real good with Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. Her 19 dex and Ankheg Plate go a long way.
Even if Durlag's does play heavily into Dragonspear, I'm seriously not looking forward to when I get dragged there this time around.
>:(
I'm still bitter my fighter lost out on his glowing armor. Even if I did by sheer random chance wind up bringing over the Golden Pantaloons.
I've always liked Viconia. In BG1:EE I think I had her using that broken as hell stun mace most of the game. In BG2, she was a pretty respectable front liner in my evil party with the right equipment anyway. I think she had either the gauntlets of ogre power or one of the giant strength girdles for the most of the game, along with... probably the mace of disruption? My evil party had a hell of a lot of frontliners though. My main character was a half-orc Fighter/Thief, I believe I had Korgan, Dorn, Viconia and Edwin. I can't remember having anyone else... I might've just been running 5 characters through BG2 until Throne of Bhaal when I added 'spoiler' to the party.
One of the mods I was using for overhauling all of the Rogue mechanics and kits added a really cool, and hard, fight near the end of BG2 proper. I believe I posted about some weirdness I had with it sometimes bugging out on me, something to do with the scripting. It worked the rest of the time though. Good times.
Edwin went from 9 STR/WIS to 10 STR/WIS. Jaheira went from 14 DEX to 17 DEX. Minsc went from 15 DEX/CON to 16 DEX/CON. Viconia went from 15 WIS and 50% MR to 18 WIS and 65% MR.
(http://camagna.net/g3mirror/readme-cdtweaks.html)
Viconia's STR remains absolute shit in BG2, but there are now a plethora of STR-boosting items: I think 4 belts and a pair of gloves, at least. Some of them might even be in the game more than once, or maybe that's just the mods I play with, but the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, specifically, can be bought in Athkatla which helps a lot. Her CON remains in the tank and unalterable, but the additional levels makes her low HP not hurt as bad.
By that point she was high enough level that she didn't need the extra HP as much, so I think I switched her to one of the lower strength girdles at that point. My half-orc Fighter/Thief was strong enough on her own by that point, so I think Dorn and Korgan probably got the better girdles.
Going from the Nashkel mines to the Bandit Camp, you are allowed to bluff your way through the outer camp itself and only have to face one minor challenge inside Tazok's tent. That's a minor challenge with Mulahey followed by the little group of 4 who with a decent amount of luck can be murdered with a well placed sleep spell and a decent front row as a just in case. Then, the Cloakwoods. Good ol' spiders everywhere, including sword spiders and wraith spiders regardless of your current level and party selection, Cloakwoods. Home of the all you can eat poison buffet where you have your pick of spiders spiders more spiders, and wyverns! Just in case you still have arrows, or slow poison spells still memorized. Then you reach the Cloakwood Mines and run face first into Duras and his happy go lucky group of mages and his boots of speed, which hey if you can get them from him they're great!
The difference in strategy required for this section of the game, and the previous parts is wonderful in all seriousness. It's the first part of the game that you cannot brute force your way through without sidequesting or rest spamming. The way our team finally got through Duras's group with an average level of 4, and 1/4 health was finally breaking down, stripping the bard of armor and using the only level 2 spell I had, web. Because I had forgotten that Dorn was frickin' immune to its effects with Spider's Bane. So, that's a point against me for lack of situational awareness. The guy with boots of speed got Doomed followed by Command, which was basically a free lunch for everybody that wasn't dealing with peppering mages with arrows or Dorn.
Still the massive difference in individual abilities for the enemies is a welcome thing, and that's one of the things I missed in this game during my first several playthroughs. When by the time you reach Cloakwood everyone is pushing EXP cap and fully decked out with available equipment, Sword Spiders are really underwhelming. With low level characters it becomes a much more intricate process dealing with enemy types, poisons, and idiot monks who can't stop running ahead of the group despite warnings triggering traps and giant spiders.
Still nobody in the group that can even think of casting a level 3 spell, so sadly Neera still does not qualify as a mage by thread standards and the Mines themselves should be interesting and deadly. Would any of you say that there are any other noticeable bumps in game difficulty at Baldur's Gate, the Catacombs, or anything else? Obviously Durlag's tower could be viewed as tricky, but a lot of it comes down to understanding the traps. Werewolf Island is just horrible. But I think Sarevok himself is the only other real part of the game I can remember where strategy comes into play as far as dismantling a group of enemies (once you've finished off the mines)
I've also got Dorn and Ajantis (with dex gloves) who are very strong melee combatants and have ACs of -5. Then, between my sleep/horror spells and Branwen's (later replaced by Yeslick) hold person I tend to take groups out of action pretty quickly. Most of my guys hit level 5 by the time I reached the bottom though, I did extensively explore all of the areas south of Beregost and did almost all of the sidequests there.
mmm that sweet sleep though
As far as basic, level 1 spells go sleep really demonstrates how ridiculously powerful mages are in the [old, at least] D&D setting. And exactly why they're so frail and awful at landing weapon hits and take much longer to level.
Going Fighter/Mage so you can actually be a really strong ranged weapon user as well just feel likes cheating.
With Ankheg Plate, a Ring of Protection, and a magic shield she's packing -6 AC before buffs. Toss her the gauntlets of Ogre Strength and she's pretty great to have in melee, almost every enemy needs 18+ to hit her successfully.
She does have low HP so caution is required but she's pretty solid.
Had a team of Xan, Imoen, I, and Branwen. Outside of the final fight nothing really stood up to the barrage of crowd control and darts this team could unleash.
Time to roll into Siege as I haven’t played that yet.
I only ever gave them to wizards until i got good slings.
I had a table top warrior with high Dex and specialized with darts one campaign. It was frighteningly effective.
At level 7 I have with darts +1
4 attacks per round
Damage 8-10
THACO of 5
I doubt the character will scale well into BG2 as I don’t think you can get +3 or +4 darts. But for BG1 a dart based fighter kills spellcasters easily.
What, you don't have a stinging wit?
I also got the Switch version and have been playing it for the first time, but also slowly, and doing everything I can possibly do. I completed BG1 and Tales of the Sword Coast and now I'm into Dragonspear. I've been reading the wiki and also contributing to it because it needs a lot of work in some areas, especially Dragonspear.
I played Planescape Torment all the way through on PC ages ago so I am familiar with the engine and rules and all of that. Even as broken as they are I also just generally love the D&D rulesets, I don't know why.
I'm dual class 7 fighter/the rest mage. I know it's nothing fancy and widely considered a cookie cutter type choice (well, kensai/mage would be the quintessential one), but I've been enjoying it. I did the goofy thing you can do where you hold off from leveling at mage 5, and then jump directly to 8 so you can spend your proficiency point as a fully dualed fighter/mage on something actually useful... :P
In BG1 I was hanging out with Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Coran, and Branwen. I was sad to learn that Branwen doesn't make it into Dragonspear proper so I swapped her out and trained up Viconia, I really miss her Priest of Tempus Chaos of Battle though. Viconia's got the Big Fisted Belt that was added by the EE which is cursed but gives her the str she needs to fight with everyone else (and she doesn't need the int).
Also in Dragonspear since I can't have Coran I've been using Corwin...and my main character is named Corrin...go figure.
Playing on the console version and I like it a lot, but I don't know how someone who grew up with the PC version would like it. There are probably a number of advantages and disadvantages.
So it's not perfect but it's still pretty great anyway.
100% this was the best QOL improvement
How is this toggled. I never figured out how to explicitly toggle between the two modes, and would just have it magically happen.
Right on the d-pad while just walking around. Again you can't do it during combat.
Left on the d-pad toggles between all nearby automatic cursor targets too (choose a different person to talk to or whatever).
Hardest fight was the “crash to desktop” random zone transition encounters. Seriously BG1 never crashed on the Switch, and SoD would crash about every hour, which was a real pain given how some of the later fights just drag on and on.
The plot was fine, the dialogue had to much “for the lolz” options.
But that joystick control is pretty nice. They did controller controls as best as they could...I hope they eventually patch it for even more ease of use.
I'm finally going to install/boot up my copy of Baulder's Gate:EE.
How difficult is normal? I'm debating between that, easy and story mode. I just want to enjoy the plot/rpg element without really worrying about party micromanagement. Is easy that sweet spot between not being boring but also not having to pour over stats of weapons?
Looks nice.
*Pic in the tweet is from the old teaser video in case someone asks about spoilers.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Super excited to see them actually talk about the battle system in about an hour.
That turn based tag has me HYPE.
Timewise the game must take place around more than a 100 years after BG2. Post-Spellplague I think.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
It's 5e rules so yeah.