New all purpose Baldurs Gate thread

[Jamski]

I think even if you just visit the map, the game loads all the inventories of the people and shops into the cache.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I now have a quandary.
I've done Nashkel, and am off to visit the Gnolls at home. I've taken Branwen along with me, but want Dynaheir (I refused to take Edwin because I'm trying to play good ), and don't know which character to drop when I reach Dynaheir. Having 3 rangers at the moment, I'll probably drop Kivan, because I can't drop Minsk without Dynaheir, and can't drop myself. I don't really need 3 rangers, but I've come to like Kivan. It'll be a shame to see him go.
What level do rangers start to get spells?
Was there any way that I could have saved the wizard in that tent where the two of them are fighting? The bad guy just cast one spell and toasted her. I got to keep all her stuff though. Are the 2 wizard robes worth keeping, or only the one I took from the good wizard? My party got pretty badly wounded in that scrap (at the carnival, in case you don't know what I'm on about), but no-one died.

[Jamski]

Ah, this thread lives still

You should drop a character BEFORE you get to the fortress, because anyone you drop on that map is gone for ever. I would get Minsc killed by sending him into battle unarmed and then you can take Dynaheir on her own. Sure its a bit "unpleasant" but there you go. Otherwise its goodbye Kivan, which is a shame.

Rangers don't get spells in BG1 - they can't get to a high enough level (8 IIRC)

As for the wizard robes - all wizard robes in BG1 are magical and worth (semi)decent cash. The robes of fire/cold/electricity rotection are probably best to be sold, as you don't have time to put one on just before you get fireballed etc... and enemy mages are very infrequent. Get robes with hard physical protection.

-Jam

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Jamski
I would get Minsc killed by sending him into battle unarmed ...

I can't imagine playing without Minsc. Charging into battle wouldn't be the same if I didn't hear "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes! Yarrrrrgghhh!"

I'm facing the same quandry in my game; I just ran into Mazzy and want to keep her with me for the current quest... but I need to ditch someone. My group consists of:

PC Cavalier
Minsc
Aerie
Anomen
Yoshimo
Valygar

The first three I consider untouchable (obvious in the case of the PC, Aerie is my only magic user and Minsc is a must for flavor).

Anomen - has second best AC in the group and is wielding a weapone with a big plus vs. undead.

Yoshimo - pretty much have to keep him as he's my only thief right now.

Valygar - I just picked up recently. Really good with a bow (which is good since I had a +3 elven bow that no one was using).

I think I'm leaning toward kicking Anomen out, but I don't feel particularly attached to Valygar. I know Mazzy is a fighter, but can she really handle being in the front row like Anomen? If not, then ditching Valygar becomes a whole lot easier.

[Jamski]

Mazzy is the best bow user in the game. And she's MUCH nicer than that loser Valygar. I always kill Valygar, get the reward for doing so and then keep his body

Don't kick out Anomen! He's probably the best fighter in the game, and he's a cleric too!

-Jam

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Jamski
Mazzy is the best bow user in the game.

Thanks once again.

That alone convinces me that Valygar is getting ditched. I like three front line fighters (PC, Minsc, Anomen) and three ranged NPCs (Aerie, Yoshimo, and soon to be Mazzy). Helps if one of the ranged NPCs has some fighting ability so they can be a rear guard as well, so Mazzy sounds perfect.

Good-bye, Valygar.

[duke o' york]

Poor old Valygar.... (duke has no idea who or what Valygar is ).

On balance, is Kivan or Minsc better?

[Jamski]

They both have a good STR, Minsc more so. Kivan suffers from his CON and Minsc suffers on his DEX. Its 6 or half-a-dozen really. Minsc at low levels starts without any bow proficencies though.

Stuie - Mazzy normally comes with FIVE stars in short bow. Give her the Tugian bow (+1 attack per round) and some acid/fire/ice arrows and watch her do about 8d6 damage per round.

-Jam

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Jamski


Stuie - Mazzy normally comes with FIVE stars in short bow. Give her the Tugian bow (+1 attack per round) and some acid/fire/ice arrows and watch her do about 8d6 damage per round.

She STARTS with five!? Time to go find where I sold that bow.... oops. That will certainly eat up the arrows though.

[Jamski]

There are TONS of magic arrows in BG2. I always end up with 1,000s of them in my pack (ease-of-use of course. so I can stack them up to 9999 in one slot)

-Jam

[Jamski]

There are TONS of magic arrows in BG2. I always end up with 1,000s of them in my pack (ease-of-use of course. so I can stack them up to 9999 in one slot)

-Jam

[Jamski]

There are TONS of magic arrows in BG2. I always end up with 1,000s of them in my pack (ease-of-use of course. so I can stack them up to 9999 in one slot)

-Jam

[Traianvs]

we get the point

[Jamski]

I'd edit them away, but that takes sooooo long today...

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I had a quick go last night, and slaughtered a whole town of little farts. I wasn't sure how well this went with my supposedly good alignment, but they started it, and wouldn't stop until I made them. The bear they had to help them was next to useless too, but I used tonnes of arrers against them. I need to buy some more before I go to visit the Knolls. (Hopefully where I can get millions in my quivers - I'm still not sure that this pack works correctly )

[Jamski]

I think Xvarts are naturally evil. You did a great thing.

Did you check out the cave in the hill behind thier little smurf village?

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Not yet, but I suddenly have an urge to pop in and kill whatever may be in there. Probably another stoopid bear. I'll need more arrows.

[Jamski]

You need a hacked bow that never runs out of arrows

-Jam

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jamski
You need a hacked bow that never runs out of arrows

-Jam

ISTR that arrows are easy to comeby in BG1. You buy them at first, but theyre cheap. Then you start picking up arrows from dead enemies, and you have more non-magic arrows than you have room for. after a certain point i never bought an arrow unless it was magical.

[Jamski]

Yeah, Kobolds have arrows, Bandits, Hobgoblins, Goblins, all kinds of common enemies. Soliders too.

-Jam

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Jamski
You need a hacked bow that never runs out of arrows

-Jam

Hey, I just got a legitimate one of those from a merchant in Trademeet. So Mazzy is using that, with the Tuirgan as back-up if I need acid/flame arrows.

Nice.

So I finished Umar Hills, Trademeet, etc. and I'm back in the city now. I'm running out of quests, so it may be time to go get Imoen. Plus Yashimo is getting on my nerves - only non-good aligned person left in my party.

[Jamski]

You realise that the bow in question can fire other arrows at the same time, adding the damage together. Its VERY VERY TASTY.

-Jam

[Drogue]

Jamski: Seriously? I have that bow, but use Tuigan's, since 3 shots with Tuigan's does more damage than 2 with Tansheron's. But if Tansheron's fire's twice every time, then

[Jamski]

Its a matter of if you want to be a cheese master or not.

Really you shouldn't exploit Tasherons like that.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I'm a master of both Camembert and Brie, with two stars in Rocquefort and one in both Port Salut and Feta.

I didn't get the chance to play last night, but am getting annoyed with the 20-arrow quivers. I'll have to go and visit the armoury somewhere and just give all of my bow-wielding characters 60. It's a bit dumb having to buy shot for Jaheira's sling though. Have they never read the story of David and Goliath?

[Jamski]

There's a mod for BG 2 that gives all slings endless ammo for that reason. Sorry, but this is just one of the engine things you have to live with.

-Jam

[Traianvs]

sling shots are usually made of lead
So it would be amazig if you had an endless supply of them carrying around! Of course, if you have the bag of holding..

This reminds me of Roman sling shots found with inscriptions such as 'Take this' (in Latin of course)...
The Romans had a sense of humor I have to say

[duke o' york]

Someone else has never read David and Goliath then.

I played a little more last night. Killed the bear in the cave to the north of the fart village and stole the goodies from his treasure chest. I like the bracers, but sold the +1 flail to the armourer when I went to get more arrows. I splashed out to get Jaheira's Helmet of Infravision identified, and now have loads of spells awaiting a wizard to use them. Can wizards only use certain kinds of spells? It would make sense, but maybe because I didn't read the manual properly then I don't know what kind of wizard can use which spells. Still, once I've rescued Dynaheir and dual-classed Imoen, then I'll just sell all of the rest to the bloke at High Hedge. I've now arrowed up, and have just entered the area above the fortress (save called The Road to Gnollwhere - sorry ), but then decided to rest in the hope that my girlfriend would learn some spells, and I'd recover some HP.

[Jamski]

(BTW, Jaheria has infravision anyway, she's a half-elf )

Yeah, different spells for different mages. Only an general "wizard" can use them all. Imoen WILL be able to use them all, no wait forget that, you CAN dual to a specialist mage in BG1...

Best to read the manual properly, and compare the overlap between Dynahier and Imoen (if you make her a specialist)

BG2, players, the new version of "Tactics" is INSANE. You can't reclose the doors anymore... Demons and Devas in the first dungeon... and now nowhere to hide.

I'm running a report on Eventis, if people need to be scared.

-Jam

[Traianvs]

You can't close doors! Demons in Irenicus' dungeon?
It's mathematically not possible to beat them, right

where is eventis?