This is my first time playing BG as well and doing quite a lot of google searches for beginner builds only left me more confused. I'd say just pick a class that you really want to play. Then google that class to see what stats would be usefull. I picked an elven archer with strength,constitution and dexterity maxed and a descent amount of wisdom and intelligence. There's a huge amount of beginner guides and rulebooks and quite a few links to them in this thread so i recommend you look into those.
I think you should just 'start' and go from there. When i played Baldurs Gate in the 90's and with this new version i simply chose a fighter and started, i could have messed about for ages trying to get the best stats etc but i think that ruins the experience slightly. Its like playing a proper game of Dungeons and Dragons, rolling the dice, not happy with the results so you do it again and again until you get a good number ! You can upgrade all the points later cant you after completing missions etc ? I would advise you to just get 'stuck in' and play the game, its a great experience.
Best advise, psj! Just pick something and go with it. If things get too tough, you can always lower the difficulty. I agree that optimising characters can take away alot of the fun. Personally I always leave that for subsequent playthroughs, if it is really needed (e.g. to beat "that one boss"). The big advantage in BG(EE) is that your starting character is only one of six partymembers, and you can decide who of the huge NPC selection joins your party. Normally you cannot raise your stats in (A)D&D ruleset games, like other RPGs do with statraises per level for example. But there are means to raise them temporarily (spells) or permanently (items) .
Ranger/Cleric and Fighter/Cleric are robust, but interesting and very useful characters to play. Go for 18 Str, 18 wisdom, at least 16 in Con and Dex. Int and Cha are not important, but personally I don't like to have them so low that there are penalties. You might have to re-roll a few times to get enough points for this set-up. Elven fighter/thief with 20 dex is great too, but more fragile. You won't be able to improve attributes by more than 1 and that only if you find the respective side-quests and solve them a certain way! So take your time creating the character. Fighter is robust, but dull. Nothing to do but point them at an enemy. At least go for the Berserker kit if you pick one, so you'll have one extra tactical option. Or make them human with an eye to dualling them into some other class later. You'll have to put at least 17 into the primary attribute of that other class to be able to dual, though. No matter what class they are, give you character at least 2 pips in a ranged weapon and use concentrated ranged fire with your whole party whenever possible. It will make starting up much easier.
Wisdom is semi important on all characters since it affects your WILL saving throws. It's arguably more important than Charisma and Intelligence because of this...it sucks to have a super strong tough guy who runs away from a single horror spell, or easily turns to a charm and starts beating up your player character.
True, if I remember my old AD&D rules correctly, at 20 Wisdom you had actual resistances and even immunity to certain spells. Each Ability Score is f merit and has a purpose and usefulness, it is just a matter of how one plans to play the game. Most pour stats into the first three Ability Scores since they are the more overt (STR, DEX, CON), but the other three are just as important if you plan to play in a less direct approach. Edit: I may have to load up my PDF version of the AD&D rules on my iPad now just to refresh myself. I always keep a digi-copy of 3.5 and 4th edition on it just in case, but it is rare to find folks that still play good ole AD&D!
True. But on the plus side you get a sturdy tank that can dish out a good amount of damage. Also, you have one less character to worry about, as you don't need to control a fighter much during a fight. For my Halforc Fighter Dualwield & Longswords - and no ranged capability - works quite well; but then I am not far into the main game, and most of my experience is from the (tough) fighting in the Black Pits. I tested around a bit with the melee/ranged combinations: When you have a weapon in your offhand, you cannot use any ranged weapon, not even 1handed ones. Meaning that combining dualwield with a ranged weapon requires to manually change the weapons as needed, which is a huge pain in my book. However, with a shield in your offhand, using 1H ranged is fine. With shield or weapon in your offhand, you cannot use 2H ranged. So the best combination for longbow/crossbow seems to be either 2H weapon and corresponding style, or 1H weapon with one-weapon style. As pure Mages cannot use shields, and only slings/darts for ranged, combining those with one-weapon style looks good to me. They aren't supposed to go into melee anyways. For a Cleric, I would go with sword&shield style, and specialise him in flails (those seem to be the best of the crushing type weapons).
You should be a fighter - plain no kit. This is because you will find cool weapons, etc. through the game and the fighter can use the majority of them. With the basic fighter build you get to try out almost all the weapons, armor, etc. so you get to play around with the stuff it the game much more. For example, if you play a monk it is fun but you can't wear armor or use any weapons (well you can but it is limited and you would want to use your fists for the multiple attack bonuses anyway) so all that cool gear you find feels wasted. So pick a basic fighter then get strength, constitution to 18 the rest of the stats you can get as high as you want but they are not key. Pick the kind of weapon specialization you want and go for it!
It was even more of a pain in the original PC Baldur's Gate, where for some reason the game had this rule where going to your inventory automatically unpaused things.
It was to represent the D&D ruleset plain and simple... Enemies don't stop and wait while you rummage through your backpack to look for the right tool for the job in the middle of a fight (an admittedly spoiled privilege we take advantage of in most other video games). Everything took an action, even switching weapons you had at the ready cost you time, which is represented in the game as well, though many wont notice the extra second it takes. Baldur's Gate didn't try to be a video game, it tried to be a video game representation of the D&D rules in action and execution. Everything takes time and everything has an action cost, from casting spells, to readying weapons, to dropping weapins, to everything I between. Most is handled out of sight under the hood, but in PnP D&D (any edition) this is no different!
Update: Made it through the Black Pit Golem fight Update: Made it through the Black Pit Golem fight. Crushing weapons did the trick, and I only needed one of them. My Monk did not do damage earlier, because apparently the weapons need to be at least +1 to have an effect. With advancement to level9, her fists became +1, and here we go. In addition I bought one Flail+2 for my Fighter, who did not have specialisation in it, but still did okay damage. My Mage loaded up with Melf's Meteors, and contributed some extra damage. In addition, I used Monster Summoning to present more distraction targets. As the summoned monsters' weapons were not magical, they did not do any damage, though. Everybody else was just disposable, even the Cleric once he ran out of healing spells. Most of my characters died, but in the end I outlasted the Golems. The next fight against Ice Salamanders is a breeze, I can win it now in less than a minute on autopilot (scripts) with noone dying. Currently stuck at the one after that, trying to figure out how to beat the Fire Elementals and the Giant that accompanies them. I seriously consider exporting the party and restarting, to change a few of the characters; for example, turn the Cleric into a multiclass Cleric/Mage to get more damage spells. Or did anyone figure out if you can replace characters in an ongoing Black Pits game?
If it works, it works. Personally, I prefer to play on higher difficulties and have my party sleep as little as possible, so I may be biased towards ranged weapons in BG1. Avoid damage, death and chunking whenever possible, says I! I have only played the original on PC back in the mid 2000-ies, so I don't know how the Pits are structured. Still waiting for iOS 5.1.1. version. Size of the arenas and fight set-ups may affect this as well. IIRC, the only style worth investing into is dual-wielding and that only in BG2, where levels are higher. Apart from that, I only ever invest in the weapon types themselves. I don't know if they have changed it for the overhaul, but in the original games, you'd want to be good at 2-3 weapons at least, since there were only a few best magical weapons per type and some enemies had immunities against certain weapon types, etc. Melf's meteors count as ranged weapons, IIRC, the higher your mage's Dex the more of them will hit. Oh, and you absolutely need proficiency in some blunt weapon for your fighter - normally not an issue until BG2, but clearly they have amped the things for the new content. Re: Cleric, you need to look into the buffing spells and not just use him for healing. Ditto mage - don't just use damage spells, de-buff and disable spells are often more useful for victory and survival. Um, even a fighter should only use weapons they are proficient in, because penalties otherwise are terrible and it isn't worth it. And since it is a good idea to have 2-3 pips in any one weapon type, well, your fighter would only use 2-3 weapon types anyway.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition did not have Will saves. IIRC, only class really affects saving throws (until, like Bool mentioned, you have ability scores in the deity range). Wisdom is mostly useful to Priest characters for bonus spells and Experience bonuses.
I'm new to Baldur's Gate and have some questions. 1. If I remove a party member will they always stay where I leave them? 2. Are there any party members who have to stay in the party to advance the main quest? 3. Do side quests disappear if I advance to the next chapter or will they always be available? 4. Is there a safe place to stash loot? Great game so far. The interface has some flaws, but nothing that kills my enjoyment.
1. Yes 2. No, not that I remember, and you will never see everything in one playthroughs anyway. Different party members have different quests themselves, and even different interactions with other party members depending on who you have in you party. 3. No, you can always go back to the quests iirc. 4. If you pick a place to stash stuff like a cleared out map r location, you could. I'm trying to remember if you get somewhere to stash stuff later in the game or if I am thinking of BG2... It's been a while. In any case you can dump them in any chest IIRC...
I think that they sometimes go back to where you first found them. Also, if you refuse them on first meeting (if you don't talk to them, nothing will happen though) or they leave because your reputation is too high/low for them, they vanish forever. But there are lots and lots of potential NPCs in BG1, so it is not such a huge deal. No. Some people have irrational attachment to Imoen, but she doesn't actually say/do anything interesting in BG1, IIRC. Never understood why so many fans insist that you just have to include her in the party. Some few original characters have side-quests, but they are mostly not extensive. A few do, IIRC, those that are in regions that you can't access later. A couple are also on a timer (in-game days), I think. IIRC, no. If you leave a map you are on, all loot you left on it will vanish. You need to be selective in what you pick up and sell off what you don't need. Generally, only enchanted stuff and supplies are worth hanging on to.
Arena is big enough to give you space to run around, but - with the exception of enemy mages - everybody, their mother and their dog come rushing straight at you, which makes maneuvering a bit harder. I will post some big chunk of feedback once I wrote it all up (finished the last Pit battle yesterday). As far as I know the levelcap in BG is even lower than in the Black Pits, so I wonder where you get all the points for specialising in more than one weapon from. Yes, they count as missiles, with a tohit bonus and extra fire damage. What the spell description does not say is which type of damage they deal; but as they are missiles, I would assume piercing. True for the Pits, you need blunt/crushing for at least one battle. Also true, in the later Pit fights the Cleric's healing was too slow to be reliable, so I used him and the Mage mainly to shell out buffs.
pretty sure the Marek/Lothander quest automatically confers exp after talking to Marek after completing Lothander's quest... it doesn't seem to trigger the cure flag for me though @@ The 2 antidotes just sit in my inventory.
