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Baldur's Gate seriesBaldur's Gate 1 questions and tips?(178 posts)(178 posts)
(178 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 30, 2013
OK I just want to get out of the way first is that I am still trying to beat Fallout 2 and after that I am jumping to Baldur's Gate 1 so I want to make this thread in advance. Anyway I am looking for tips that I should know since I have never played the D&D RPGs seriously:

1.How does the character alignment affects me in this game, the reason I say this because all alignments has consequences even one that I would normally pick, Lawful Good, I worry I would get big consequences for being the ultimate good guy, and I think its not like KOTOR or Mass Effect where I just miss bad guy quest as a consequence for being a good guy, I have been thinking of leening on True Neutral character because of the fears of consequence.

2. I am thinking of playing a Human Male Fighter character, yes I know its generic, but thats me I am a traditionalist old schooler when it comes to protaginists, so tips on how to make a good fighter, since I am a fighter I don't have to increase intellegence and wisdom? also does completely lowering my Intellegence makes my character stupid like in Fallout?

3. Classes to make a balance party, in dragon age origins I mostly use A Tank Fighter, A damage dealing Archer/Rogue, Healer, and damage dealing mage, so same tactics apply here?
Post edited June 30, 2013 by Elmofongo
Posted June 30, 2013
The only thing I've really seen alignment affect is the reputation system unfortunately. For instance, if your reputation is too high compared to a party member's alignment they will either start complaining or just leave. Some party members will not work together at all as they hate each other and will start fighting. I almost have to recommend playing with a good only party for a first run through if you want for an easier experience.

You don't have to make a dumb fighter depending on how long you want to spend rerolling your stats. My fighter was human also and it really only took a few minutes to get stats I was comfortable with. Also 18/00 is great starting out but I wouldn't waste a whole lot of time trying to get it. Anything over 18/50 is fine and you can easily get stats like this:
Str: 18/50+, Dex: 18, Con: 18, Int: 10+, Wis: 10+, Cha: 10+

In regards to party build, a balanced party is defintely optimal but not mandatory for success. It really helps if you understand the game's systems for less conventional parties. It's possible to solo both BG1 and 2 with the right character. I don't recommend this as party interaction is part of the charm, even more so with BG2 since each character has a quest line.
Post edited June 30, 2013 by hyazgaz
Posted July 01, 2013
Actually, your character's alignment in the Baldur's Gate games doesn't really have much consequences; the only significant thing I can think of is that if you're playing a Paladin or a Ranger and your reputation drops below a certain level your character will become "fallen" and loses all his class specific abilities, but that's more related to class than alignment. Smaller consequences are: there are some alignment restrictions on some magical items, your starting bonus abilities will be slightly different depending on alignment, and clerics also get slightly different spells based on their alignment. You can still make a lawful good character and do all the "evil quests" and the game won't react to that other than lowering your reputation, but that will happen even if you're evil or neutral aligned. Personally, I never felt like BG restricted me in any way because of my character's alignment, (it is up to you whether you choose to roleplay your character's alignment or not) so I don't think you should worry about that, your in-game actions only affect your reputation. At really low rep guards will attack you in towns and at high rep you get a discount at shops.

The alignment of NPCs determines what sort of party reputation they prefer: good NPCs will leave the party if rep is too low, evil ones leave if rep is too high, neutral characters leave at very low rep, and if you kick them out with a high party rep they won't rejoin you.

As for tactics and character creation, I think you should take a look at the "Bg1 - Starting tips for newbies" thread, as BG1 can be really hard in the beginning for players unfamiliar with AD&D.
Post edited July 01, 2013 by szablev
Posted July 01, 2013
Your Bhaal abilities are also dependent on your alignment, but it's not a biggie.
Lawful good fighter is as easy as any for a first play through.
Give your fighter a bow at the start though, your "tank" won't be able to go toe to toe with a wolf in the beginning, so ranged weapons & running away is good.
Posted July 01, 2013
1.Character alignment only affects starting reputation and reputation affects npc reaction and shop prices (the higher the better). Lawful good yields the best starting reputation.

2. 18 dex, 18 con and 18/.. strength are most important and 18 cha does make a big difference. 18/00 strength is best but hard to roll, 91-99 as second number is still very good, 76-90 or even 51-75 are acceptable if the roll is high. Int and wis are useless and can be dumped to 3 (if you plan importing your character into BG2 you might want to start with 8-10 int).
Put your proficiency points all into bows (most damaging) and large swords (most common and best melee weapon).

3. Unless you're playing solo multiplayer to create more than one character you have no choice but accepting the NPCs you meet during your travels. It helps if you have someone who can cast healing spells (druid or even better cleric or both), someone to handle thieving stuff and a mage or bard to cast arcane spells.
If you don't like some NPCs you can afford dismissing them, pick up whom you like.
Post edited July 01, 2013 by kmonster
Posted July 01, 2013
Just remember that Intelligence does not matter at all to a fighter in BG1, but if you transfer your fighter to BG2 it does matter: without giving too much away, there are enemies that will kill you with their mind spells that damage INT, and a low intelligence will get you a quick exit out. Luckily they tend to be localised. Best never to let your INT go below 8, and preferably 12.
Posted July 01, 2013
Yeah, alignment can be neglected almost entirely. Some classes require a certain kind of alignment (Paladins must be Lawful Good, and I think Druids have to be Neutral Something or Something Neutral, and so on), some items only work for characters of certain alignment (I wouldn't worry too much about this, none of the items are exactly crucial), and some characters (mainly party members) react to you slightly differently.

The Fighter is a fine class, although I would advice you to use the TuTu mod. Basically, this allows you to play Baldur's Gate 1 with the improved engine of Baldur's Gate 2. This means some additional character classes, certain changes in spells and some other tweaks. I don't think it unbalances Baldur's Gate 1 much, and it will be easier to pick up the sequel afterwards.

As for a balanced party, I wouldn't bother too much. Just use whichever companions you like. If you don't feel like diving into the game not knowing what kinds of companions will be available, you can start a multiplayer session, roll yourself the entire party, save as soon as the game starts, move the save file to the singleplayer save folder and play the game that way. I wouldn't actually recommend this on your first playthrough, though, because you'll miss out on some decently-written characters and a hefty bit of banter.

Last bit of advice: Baldur's Gate is NOT an easy game to pick up if you have no idea about the rules of D&D. I eventually learnt them as I went along, but it's a tough path. I suggest that you check out what the basics (AC, saving throw, attack bonus etc.) mean before or soon after you kick off. Also, the first levels of any D&D game are absolutely fucking brutal; almost anything can one-hit-kill a fragile character (which the Fighter isn't, but even they will probably struggle at first). Take it slow at first, it gets easier when you hit level 3 or something.
Posted July 01, 2013
I think Druids must always be of True Neutral alignment ? It's a while since I've played. And yes, paladins must always be Lawful Good as the previous poster said. There are various restrictions depending on race and / or class. It's worth reading up on this stuff in advance. The relationship between alignment and reputation is basically this :

1. Reputation is the reputation of your WHOLE PARTY. Each individual party member does NOT have his or her own reputation score.

2. Reputation is represented by a number between 1 and 20, where 20 is the "best" reputation and 1 is the "worst". Evil characters prefer your party to have a bad reputation and therefore a low reputation score, whereas the opposite is the case for Good characters. If your party has a reputation ~ 20 then expect your Evil characters to start grumbling and eventually leave. The reverse is true if your reputation is ~ 1 : expect your Good characters to start making morally offended noises and eventually part ways with you. Neutral characters, predictably enough, prefer a reputation score which is somewhere in the middle. A "medium" reputation score is 7-13, if I remember rightly. At this reputation score your party should be in no danger of breaking up, regardless of the mix of characters you have in your party.

3. A good reputation gets you better prices in stores.

4. At various low reputation scores certain negative consequences become possible, for instance guards attacking you on sight. I can't remember the exact numbers but this stuff is all in the manual.

So alignment is one thing, reputation another. Each individual party member has his / her own alignment, but reputation is always the reputation of the whole party. Actions in the gameworld affect your reputation. If you murder a commoner or get caught stealing expect your reputation score to fall. Your party's reputation, in turn, affects the attitude of each one of your individual party members towards staying with the party or leaving. There are also other consequences, as an earlier poster mentioned (I'm posting on an iPad so unfortunately I can't see who it was) : if your party's reputation falls below a certain number a paladin will become a fallen paladin - an irreversible state of disgrace for a holy warrior !

In general it isn't worth worrying too much if you have a party composed of differently aligned characters as long as you keep your reputation score somewhere in the middle range (7-13). Sometimes you can even deliberately lower your reputation by doing something "bad", in order to reduce your reputation to 7-13 (middle range), at which reputation good, evil and neutral alike will be "content" (rather than happy) and will not want to split.

This is all part of AD & D rules (I believe - I'm no expert). It definitely pays to read the manual before you start playing, though BG is nowhere near as hard to learn how to play as, e.g. something like a Paradox grand strategy game or Alpha Centauri or something like that.

* The descriptions "Lawful", "Chaotic" and "Neutral" which qualify alignments are not as significant as "Good", "Evil" and "Neutral" but serve to further define the personality of a character. This is also all explained in the manual.
Post edited July 01, 2013 by Theoclymenus
Posted July 01, 2013
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Elmofongo: 1.How does the character alignment affects me in this game...
Alignment affects starting reputation primarily, and its reputation you have to watch. Too high and evil party members will leave, too low and good ones will leave, and neutrals will complain either way.
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Elmofongo: 2. I am thinking of playing a Human Male Fighter character...
Good enough for a first timer. Just be sure to have a 16+ for strength, dex and con. And as others have stated put two proficiency points in bow and sword. You'll want ranged attacks during the early part of the game (and bows don't break).
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Elmofongo: 3. Classes to make a balance party, in dragon age origins I mostly use A Tank Fighter, A damage dealing Archer/Rogue, Healer, and damage dealing mage, so same tactics apply here?
Minsc (tank), Dynaheir (mage), Imoen (traps and locks), Viconia or Branwen (healing), and Garrick (support mage, pickpocket, item identification though they gave him pretty poor stats for the last) is how I usually go. Consider the first four slots almost mandatory for abilitythe the NPC can be different, use the last to fill out your play style (or even leave it open).
Posted July 07, 2013
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Elmofongo: OK I just want to get out of the way first is that I am still trying to beat Fallout 2 and after that I am jumping to Baldur's Gate 1 so I want to make this thread in advance. Anyway I am looking for tips that I should know since I have never played the D&D RPGs seriously:

1.How does the character alignment affects me in this game, the reason I say this because all alignments has consequences even one that I would normally pick, Lawful Good, I worry I would get big consequences for being the ultimate good guy, and I think its not like KOTOR or Mass Effect where I just miss bad guy quest as a consequence for being a good guy, I have been thinking of leening on True Neutral character because of the fears of consequence.
Lawful Good is a fine choice. It gets you the max starting Rep [later high Rep will decrease stor prices]. There are really no negative consequences to being LG compared to LE or TN, really. It's your party Rep that will affect party members much more than your Alignment. Good NPCs don't like low Rep [and some will leave if it gets low enough] while Evil NPCs don't like high Rep [again, some will leave the party if the Rep is too high.]

BG is designed as "Heroic High Fantasy" and the game hammers home the point, in many ways, that there is nothing "heroic" about being Evil. You gain no advantages from having an Evil alignment and you get no advantages and some significant *disadvantages* from having a low Rep. Many people who play so-called "Evil" parties still try to maintain a high Rep for the benefits it get's you - which to my mind sort of defeats the purpose of calling one's self "Evil" and choosing that Alignment in the first place. To each their own, of course.

For a newcomer, play nice, be Heroic [as is your expected nature in the game] and get all of the benefits of being Good. Later you can experiment and see what playing Evil get's you [nothing worthwhile] and make your own conclusions about party mix of NPCs, who's "better" and whether or not saving the Sword Coast is a job for an Evil or Good character. ;)
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Elmofongo: 2. I am thinking of playing a Human Male Fighter character, yes I know its generic, but thats me I am a traditionalist old schooler when it comes to protaginists, so tips on how to make a good fighter, since I am a fighter I don't have to increase intellegence and wisdom? also does completely lowering my Intellegence makes my character stupid like in Fallout?
If you are attracted to LG then try a Paladin. They are *the* LG Warrior-type. You gain a number of small abilities and advantages, while giving up only a single significant advantage [Advanced Weapon Specialization] by not being a "straight' Fighter. Due to the way the engine rolls stats, you have a better chance of rolling higher starting stats compared to a Fighter class. The [very] high Charisma will also help with getting lower prices in stores and, normally, the best possible rewards for completing quests. In battle, a higher Charisma also aids party morale.

If you play a Warrior type, then yes, Int, Wis and Ch are all "dump stats". Especially if you have someone else act as party leader during interactions [use a high Charisma NPC to do the talking].

However, getting a stat total of 80+ is not difficult at all, given a few minutes spent re-rolling stats, and even "only" a total of 84 gives you 18s in Str, Dex and Con, with 10's in Int, Wis and Chr. Considering that nearly all of your companions [the in-game NPCs] are in the mid to high 80's range of stats, re-rolling a few times to get similar stats seems fair enough - to my way of thinking anyway. :) Especially since your character is the star of the show! :)
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Elmofongo: 3. Classes to make a balance party, in dragon age origins I mostly use A Tank Fighter, A damage dealing Archer/Rogue, Healer, and damage dealing mage, so same tactics apply here?
Pretty much standard, yes. At least one to stand in front, at least one to do the skullduggery, one to cast Mage spells and one to cast Cleric/Druid spells. There are multiple choices for NPCs to fill these rolls. As ranged weapons are so important in BG 1 [for party survival!] having at least one better than average Archer-type is worthwhile as well. [A Warrior-type ranged weapons specialist is significantly more effective than any Thief ranged weapons NPC.]

For someone new to the game, I'd certainly recommend running a 5 person party. More people means more options for the party and a better mix of people to do the specialist jobs. A 6 person party is fine too, but running with 5 means you can always take in a newly discovered NPC just to check them out, without having to drop anyone from the party, just to note the stats and class/abilities of the new NPC.

In any event, given the sheer number of NPCs with different alignments and classes/abilities, the main character [You!] :) can pretty much be anything that you want them to be, since you can find people to do the class-specific tasks you can't do because of your choice of class. That's one of the great attractions in the game, for me. You have pretty much unlimited choice with regards to the class of your main character, and the sorts of NPCs you want to help you on your adventure. It's pretty easy [and straight forward] to get a Tank, a Mage, a Cleric or Druid and a Thief very quickly and without too much trouble. One of the appealing things about the game is that you can find different NPCs to fill these slots, no matter which slots need to be filled. As time goes by, you can replace old NPCs with new ones and even adventure down different paths, in re-playing the game, to get different NPCs faster, to make up your desired party. Endless fun! :)
Post edited July 07, 2013 by Lasivern
Posted July 07, 2013
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Elmofongo: OK I just want to get out of the way first is that I am still trying to beat Fallout 2 and after that I am jumping to Baldur's Gate 1 so I want to make this thread in advance. Anyway I am looking for tips that I should know since I have never played the D&D RPGs seriously:

1.How does the character alignment affects me in this game, the reason I say this because all alignments has consequences even one that I would normally pick, Lawful Good, I worry I would get big consequences for being the ultimate good guy, and I think its not like KOTOR or Mass Effect where I just miss bad guy quest as a consequence for being a good guy, I have been thinking of leening on True Neutral character because of the fears of consequence.
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Lasivern: Lawful Good is a fine choice. It gets you the max starting Rep [later high Rep will decrease stor prices]. There are really no negative consequences to being LG compared to LE or TN, really. It's your party Rep that will affect party members much more than your Alignment. Good NPCs don't like low Rep [and some will leave if it gets low enough] while Evil NPCs don't like high Rep [again, some will leave the party if the Rep is too high.]

BG is designed as "Heroic High Fantasy" and the game hammers home the point, in many ways, that there is nothing "heroic" about being Evil. You gain no advantages from having an Evil alignment and you get no advantages and some significant *disadvantages* from having a low Rep. Many people who play so-called "Evil" parties still try to maintain a high Rep for the benefits it get's you - which to my mind sort of defeats the purpose of calling one's self "Evil" and choosing that Alignment in the first place. To each their own, of course.

For a newcomer, play nice, be Heroic [as is your expected nature in the game] and get all of the benefits of being Good. Later you can experiment and see what playing Evil get's you [nothing worthwhile] and make your own conclusions about party mix of NPCs, who's "better" and whether or not saving the Sword Coast is a job for an Evil or Good character. ;)
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Elmofongo: 2. I am thinking of playing a Human Male Fighter character, yes I know its generic, but thats me I am a traditionalist old schooler when it comes to protaginists, so tips on how to make a good fighter, since I am a fighter I don't have to increase intellegence and wisdom? also does completely lowering my Intellegence makes my character stupid like in Fallout?
avatar
Lasivern: If you are attracted to LG then try a Paladin. They are *the* LG Warrior-type. You gain a number of small abilities and advantages, while giving up only a single significant advantage [Advanced Weapon Specialization] by not being a "straight' Fighter. Due to the way the engine rolls stats, you have a better chance of rolling higher starting stats compared to a Fighter class. The [very] high Charisma will also help with getting lower prices in stores and, normally, the best possible rewards for completing quests. In battle, a higher Charisma also aids party morale.

If you play a Warrior type, then yes, Int, Wis and Ch are all "dump stats". Especially if you have someone else act as party leader during interactions [use a high Charisma NPC to do the talking].

However, getting a stat total of 80+ is not difficult at all, given a few minutes spent re-rolling stats, and even "only" a total of 84 gives you 18s in Str, Dex and Con, with 10's in Int, Wis and Chr. Considering that nearly all of your companions [the in-game NPCs] are in the mid to high 80's range of stats, re-rolling a few times to get similar stats seems fair enough - to my way of thinking anyway. :) Especially since your character is the star of the show! :)
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Elmofongo: 3. Classes to make a balance party, in dragon age origins I mostly use A Tank Fighter, A damage dealing Archer/Rogue, Healer, and damage dealing mage, so same tactics apply here?
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Lasivern: Pretty much standard, yes. At least one to stand in front, at least one to do the skullduggery, one to cast Mage spells and one to cast Cleric/Druid spells. There are multiple choices for NPCs to fill these rolls. As ranged weapons are so important in BG 1 [for party survival!] having at least one better than average Archer-type is worthwhile as well. [A Warrior-type ranged weapons specialist is significantly more effective than any Thief ranged weapons NPC.]

For someone new to the game, I'd certainly recommend running a 5 person party. More people means more options for the party and a better mix of people to do the specialist jobs. A 6 person party is fine too, but running with 5 means you can always take in a newly discovered NPC just to check them out, without having to drop anyone from the party, just to note the stats and class/abilities of the new NPC.

In any event, given the sheer number of NPCs with different alignments and classes/abilities, the main character [You!] :) can pretty much be anything that you want them to be, since you can find people to do the class-specific tasks you can't do because of your choice of class. That's one of the great attractions in the game, for me. You have pretty much unlimited choice with regards to the class of your main character, and the sorts of NPCs you want to help you on your adventure. It's pretty easy [and straight forward] to get a Tank, a Mage, a Cleric or Druid and a Thief very quickly and without too much trouble. One of the appealing things about the game is that you can find different NPCs to fill these slots, no matter which slots need to be filled. As time goes by, you can replace old NPCs with new ones and even adventure down different paths, in re-playing the game, to get different NPCs faster, to make up your desired party. Endless fun! :)
What's LG mean?
Posted July 07, 2013
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Elmofongo: What's LG mean?
Lawful Good
Posted July 07, 2013
Alignment;
Alignment does slightly effect what rewards you get but they don’t normally stop you from doing the quests… I find evil has an easier time in watcher keep because you can negotiate with the inmates for instance.
Alignment restricts what classes you can dual into (Humans only)… a fighter has the following options;
1. Druid [neutral].
2. Mage [any].
3. Thief [non-lawful].
4. Cleric [any]

Stats;
You will need Wisdom if you decide to go Druid or Cleric, Intel for Mage and Dexterity for Thief.

Intel 9 will let you use the protection scrolls in bg1 and a high Charisma will affect prices however it is less important when playing in a group because only the charisma of the party leader is looked at so put say Imoen in the lead before you go shopping and everything will work out.
Posted July 12, 2013
If you want to start some shit, get Eldoth and Shar-teel in the same party and see how 2 evil characters behave. Because eldoth is a misogynist and has low regard for women, 1 banter from shar-teel has them killing each other usually with Shar-teel as the victor, lol. Shar-teel cant stand men and therefore a man that is low in regards to women is a big no no.

Edwin and Minsc/Dynaheir only ends in death (usually Edwin unless higher in lvl)

The best party brawl however is Montaron and Xzar vs. Jaheirra and Khalid. Montaron disses Khalid's voice constantly and Xzar aids in that too. Eventually Jaheira attacks both of them with Khalid following her every move. I love this one as you never know who will be left standing. Khalid and Xzar usually die regardless, lol.
Posted July 12, 2013
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Elmofongo: What's LG mean?
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olnorton: Lawful Good
Also are crossbow a part of the Bow skill or missle weapons skill?
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Baldur's Gate seriesBaldur's Gate 1 questions and tips?(178 posts)(178 posts)
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