So I just bought this 'classic' and, to be frank, its beyond frustrating.

First, whenever I try ANY of the resolutions in the resolution mod, everything is shoved up into a corner, but when I go to start, it crashes with an unsupported resolution error.

Second, I get D&D (Or, Ive played other games that use it. ;) ) However, I have a party consisting of Imoen, Jaheira, Kalied, and the two evil dudes you meet early on. (Necromancer and fighter-thief.) Im a ranger.

SO WHY IS COMBAT SO TOUGH?

I mean REALLY? None of my guys can hit JACK. Ive checked weapon proficencies, and there is NO excuse for this. [spoiler] The dude who attacks you on the Friendly Arm Inn stairs DECIMATED my entire party until I reloaded and just attacked before he could. Now, the dude who attacks in the Red Sheaf inn, in Burgsomething, litterally slaughtered my guy, and killed both the evil dudes, while knocking Imoen out for good measure.[/spoiler]

Is the game supposed to be this difficult? There is no strategy, when my party cant hit the side of a freaking barn.

*EDIT* Not much of a spoiler, but REALLY!? This forum doesn't have spoiler tags? Sheesh.

It does. You wrote them :D

Anyway, the game IS quite unforgiving at times, but it's far from impossible. Beginnings will always be hard, but that's just the 'oldschool way' - really, have you played original Fallouts? :D

That's... Just unlucky, then :-/ I have actually found beginnings in BG1 pretty easy.

Hmm. Well, thanks for the replies. :)

I can sympathise with your plight, OneoftheLost.

I found that my early game survival depended on the early mage you start with (the mad one), being able to cast sleep (I think that is a lvl 1 spell) which he should have to start with. You can then hack away at the incapacitated enemies in any way you choose

Alternatively the druid you have, will have the spell entangle which should suit a ranger character, as you can have the druid cast the spell, then you can unleash a barrage of arrows from a safe distance.

Hope that helps, I got owned plenty times before I settled on this strategy.

On reviewing the mad mage's spellbook, I didn't find any sort of sleep spell, he has access to a drain spell, and some sort of confusion thing I think.

Your tip for entangle was spot on! I also learned that rangers probably arn't the best for lvl1 melee combat. :P Luckily, with my composite bow, and Kalied's sword arm, I made short work of the combatant with a little help from my druid lady's entangle spell. Just have to be a bit more resourceful I guess.

Thanks again!

As someone who just played through this entire game for the first time, no mods all vanilla, I feel I can offer you some advice. I have died many, many, many times throughout the course of Baldur's Gate. The guy at the FAI and the lady in Nashkel are difficult. I died there many time myself.

As a first time player your going to die a lot, until you learn the basics of combat. It's random with strategy, so, use (Shift+Q = Quick save) but make sure to save at intervals and don't save over them. When you enter a new town or dungeon save your game and during the dungeon make new save slots. Select a good or neutral aligned party to start with.

Remember you can pause the game and select commands for your party to carry out. You are not able to view your inventory (right click player profiles on the right hand side of the screen) while the game is paused, if you do the game will automatically unpause. I died several time before this became apparent.

Staying at inns in the early game is the best way to heal. Potions are expensive compared to resting at an inn. (150gp versus 8gp I think)

Make sure to make use of your mages abilities. They can turn the tide of a battle in a heartbeat. Magic Missile is the sh*t, use it.

If you are using a guide/walkthrough the L key will display your location and X/Y coordinates. It will make things easier to find.

You don't need a thief to pick locks. Your fighter can open locks. Select the sword/attack icon at the bottom left of the screen and then select on the chest/drawer/whatever and click. He/she should pry the lock. The higher level the fighter the easier it is to open the lock. If the lock does not open. Try and again and keep trying until you get it or give up.

If I can think of some more tips, I will edit this post.

There are a few things that separate the d and d games and other games of the roleplaying genre. The one thing is the ability to change the outcome of every battle by just using different tactics. This can be simply from casting bless on all your party, to healing up a little bit more, to making all your fighters get in the front. Either way, everything you do is affected by this. Rolls, damage, criticals, spells, you name it.

The other thing that differentiates any of the d and d games is the really brutal beginnings (especially baldurs gate 1 and icewind dale 1). I remember getting my whole party slaughtered by just a few measly goblins in the beginning of icewind dale 1. First rule is to expect to learn a large amount of patience from playing this game. In my opinion bg1 is the hardest of them all for obvious reasons (some of which you will eventually discover)

The final thing is that unlike in other games, you have to pick a good party to survive in bg. The standard party is 2 fighters (fighter, paladin, maybe ranger if he has high ac, or barbarian if you have tutu), 1 Thief and 1 mage. That is the almost BARE MINIMUM but a cleric can be helpful too. I would say with 5 characters like that you should be able to conquer all of the enemies in game. You use the thief to disarm traps and lockpick and shoot arrows and maybe backstab (if you know what you are doing) when he can. The 2 fighters soak up damage and dish it out while protecting the mage. The cleric is healing the party and casting blessings and maybe fighting a bit too. And the mage is picking off people and laying destruction before the enemy is engaged.
------SPoilers Ahead-------
The thing that is more important than everything in this game is getting a good 2 tanks. I am not criticizing but khalid is not the best of tanks in the game. Montaron is prally better than him who you have already. Imoen can eventually become a mage and jahiera is ok. Your going to want to look for another tank that can supplement jahiera and khalid. The only other thing i will mention is that personalities conflict and some party members dont get along. The best thing is to choose a side (Good, Neutral, Evil) and stick with it by choosing like-minded party members.

Aside from that, a ranger is a good first class in bg1. You will prally be mopping up the floor with enemies later on.

Thanks for the continued replies, I'll try to keep everything said in mind. I thought I had a handle on the D&D system, but apparently not. :P Just gonna have to keep refining my strategy, and keep said tips in mind.

Thanks for all the advice!

do you like your party? do you wanna play good or evil? totally good? semi good? bad? there are a lotta party configurations you can use. For the time being if i were you..

warning.. some spoliers.. of a few quests to do, and some tips.. Nothing extreme though..



Id drop imeon off at the jovial juggler and then goto the general store, (i forget exactly where it is.. I think in the top left corner, in that building block, but it maybe the one bellow it.. there is a dwarven fighter named kagain.. get him. Go south and follow the road and taunt that flamming fist guy into attacking you and take his armor, and put it on kagain.. give kagain an axe and sheild.

talk to the paladin in the jovial juggler, he will send ya after some half orcs, 2 maps south, one west.. I think in the NE corner of that map.. just go slow.. use ranged, and entagle on them,.. this quest will net you a +1 sheild..

kagian, should be your tank.. id also put jarheia in some sorta chainmail, and she is tank 2, kalid and you swap from bows to swords depending.. Monty is your sneek, disarm, stealth around, traps guy... just manuver him to behind while stealthed and backstab.. get kagian a sling so he can always keep his sheild on, one handed axe, maybe throwing axes when you find them, and a hammer for skeletons..

Xzar needs more spells.. goto the high hedge.. (talk to the halfling inside the red dragon tavern for his quest first.. A dog? A gnoll! whats it worth to a runty little guy like you.... earn some XP on the way.. gnolls are just bellow the hedge,,, stay close,, go slow.. watch for skeletons.. Use maces on them.. ranged and swords on the gnolls.. Get a few extra health potions from the temple to the east of beregost.. give jaheira 2 heal, 2 entagles.. Dont bother with entangle on skeletons.. also get him a sling and stons.. get one for jaheia too.

for xzar, I dunno if he can use sleep or not.. i sorta forget.. Drains, flaming hands, magic missle, horror, vampire drain, chromatic orb.. Pretty sure he can use all them, if he can use sleep get that too.. Maybe save first before you buy it.. Ohh in the hedge.. run in with one guy and talk to the mage quick.. he is in the middle, or you might get killed by his golems..

aftter you buy all the spells, get a potion of inteligence, not sure if he sells it, but i know the temple does.. have zxar drink that.. then save.. then try learning the spells. Might wanna save after everyone being new,, you need all the help ya can get.. (if you wanna save money, you can skip the potion, and just save and reload if you fail..)

go slow.. work your way down through the 2 maps bellow beregost on the way to naskal,, go hit that side map, eastern boarder.. when ya get there.. go back to beregost, rest up, sell loot.. get the sheild.. and take the road back to naskal..

before you head to naskel after you finish questing on those 3 maps.. rest at the in and l, swap jaheirs spells to 2 heal, 1 entangle, 1 remove fear.. (if you ever see a mage start casting any spell.. always toss up remove fear first thing she does.. trust me, mages are alll over the game)

Id give xzar a couple drains, chromatic orb and flaming hands to start with.. but try the other spells, maybe just one at a time..

the drain and magic missle are great for disrupting spells from enemy mages..



this should help ya get started anyway... Dont leave imeon to long if you ever wanna use her agian.. come back by lvl 3 or soo and get her.. by that time you will have lots of party choices....

If you get really stuck, there is a very easy way to cheese the game. It's called the "Algernon's Cloak" and it has an unlimited use charm special ability that is hard to resist.

Look for the wandering "portly" fellow upstairs in Feldpost's inn. Either pickpocket or kill him to loot the cloak.

Again, this cloak completely breaks the game, when used correctly. So avoid it if you want to feel good about you skills.

In your situation, I suggest you give yourself and Minsc bows since they simply decimate things early on. Ranger is actually the easiest class to start as, because early on Archery just kills in every sense of the world.

Secondly, you're gonna need to adopt 2 things into your mentality

The first of which, and the most important one is that sometimes if you can't beat someone, run away or load a save from before the fight, level up, get some loot and than come back.

Second of all, there's no shame in lowering the difficulty.

Honestly, Baldur's Gate 1 isn't that hard. It's really not. Just need to use friggin' bows which are awesome.

Or maybe I'm just special in the way that Baldur's Gate got harder and harder for me, as opposed to easier and easier?

Well, you really don't need to fight all the enemies. BTW these two bounty hunters are truly annoying. But if you are not solo-ing, at least you can try casting magic missiles on Tarnesh. For the second guy (The axe-wielding dwarf, I assume), try Charm/Sleep. BTW you can always lead him running around with one character and shoot him with the other ones.

I have to admit the game's vicious difficulty at the start is what makes me, well... cheat. I usually import my main sorcerer from cumulative runs through the game, usually fully decked out with equipment from Throne of Bhaal.