The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 7: Baldur's Gate (In Progress)

Semi-relatedly, I am enjoying Siege of Dragonspear quite a bit. The story starts a little too ham-fisted IMO but goes in some interesting directions. The side content is pretty interesting and fun. I have two new companions in my party that are nice to have around - well, Safana is new to me! - Schael Corwin is an interesting character that has some nice dialogue.

I do like that the maps are smaller in scope and more directed so far.

Overall, happy to be playing this despite my initial trepidation.

tboon wrote:

Semi-relatedly, I am enjoying Siege of Dragonspear quite a bit. The story starts a little too ham-fisted IMO but goes in some interesting directions. The side content is pretty interesting and fun. I have two new companions in my party that are nice to have around - well, Safana is new to me! - Schael Corwin is an interesting character that has some nice dialogue.

I do like that the maps are smaller in scope and more directed so far.

Overall, happy to be playing this despite my initial trepidation.

I was just popping in to say much the same. I've gone through the initial phases and "hit the road" as it were, and I'm enjoying the flavor of this. I dig the getting-the-band-together vibe and party interactions. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Spoiler:

I cleared out the cave-mine areas with the lich last night. Thought it was well set up, had a good twist, and just enough thinking required of the player to suss out what to do without making it stupid/frustrating hard.

It may not be quite vintage Bioware, but it's close enough, and it feels pretty great to have a new adventure with these characters!

Yeah, I just keep being pleasantly surprised by it. So far most of the quests have been of similar quality to your example.

pyxistyx wrote:

slowly chipping away at BG2. Just cleared out a dungeon full of shadows...

Spoiler:

will be coming back for the dragon later. Y'er on my list, pal!

...and rescued Mazzy. Not sure if she'll be a permanent addition, a halfling pally is kinda cramping my cool, grimdark trio of ambiguously aligned rebels, but she can stay for the moment.

Next up...probably the rogue druids. I want to clear out all the wilderness stuff before progressing into the next act. Plus I still have Neera's new side area to do as well at some point.

I've been telling myself that I would wait on starting BG2 until it (inevitably?) wins a club nod, but your stories from it are making me want to jump right in once I finish Siege. Keep 'em coming!

pyxistyx wrote:

slowly chipping away at BG2. Just cleared out a dungeon full of shadows...

Spoiler:

will be coming back for the dragon later. Y'er on my list, pal!

Spoiler:

I managed to take down Firkraag last weekend, thanks to a few tips I read online. Firstly, since at the outset he removes magic it's a good idea to send in a solo person that's not too critical for the battle. Secondly, I found the Breach spell to be indispensable for bringing down his defenses.

Progress on Tales of the Sword coast - I have cleared both Islands and about to head off to Durlag's Tower. I've got Dynahair at level 8 now, everyone else is about level 7. The second island

Spoiler:

werewolves

was a lot of fun with a really hard fight at the end of it. It took me a couple of goes to figure it out. I've never played any of this content and it's been a real blast so far.

I have to say even though I'm not finished this has been my favourite game of the club so far. I'd guess that's not to be unexpected but I thought I'd find of the older interface more than a little irritating. I can't work out if my perseverance with Arcanum helped (I think it might have) or whether Beamdog deserve more credit for the EE than I've given them. Of course it might just be that in the end, Baldur's Gate has aged remarkably well.

I'm really looking forward to playing BG2 when it gets voted for seeing as that's the one I never finished. Really need to play something completely different when I've finished this one though and take a bit of a break.

I played for another hour or so tonight. I'm starting to think I'm not very good at this yet. I have Kivan in my party and most everyone is Level 3, so I figured I'd be able to do his Bandit Camp quest so he stays in the party.

But...

Spoiler:

I made it to the bandit camp. I can take care of the archers outside as long as we pick them off in pairs, etc. But I'm getting wrecked in the battle inside the main tent. My main character has broken his two-handed sword (again), so I'm short a solid weapon for him, and we get mauled before I can get any traction. I feel like I should be able to handle this with party members at Level 3. Two are even Level 4. Am I just underleveled, or it this a matter of "get good"?

EDIT: All set. I figured out a way.

Spoiler:

I jumped into the tent with one character and pulled the first two enemies outside where our entire party could slaughter them. Then we all went back in and had little trouble with the two remaining enemies. The wizard was giving me problems when I went in the first time. I probably could have tried "Silence" as well and made things work that way.

In any case, I'm into Chapter 4 now, but want to go back and clean up a lot of the quests from Chapters 2 and 3 that I haven't finished yet.

After a couple weeks off, I picked up Baldur's Gate again last night, too!

I made my way to the Carnival, and dumped Dynaheir (and Minsc) in favor of Branwen. I'm sure I'll want another wizard, but I'm thinking of picking up Xan -- his +3 Moonblade is very tempting, and I think it will give him an easier time surviving than Dynaheir.

I definitely don't regret picking up Branwen. She's great! She came in at level 3, and after I gave her the Ring of Sune, she had a whopping 5 level 1 spell slots and 4 level 2 spell slots, plus three castings of Spiritual Hammer under her special abilities, as well as two special Tempus Cleric abilities that I haven't tried yet. I think I'll be keeping her for the long haul.

GodzillaBlitz, I haven't been to the bandit camp yet, but I have seen Silence work wonders when the enemy doesn't save. There was a wizard that I fought at the Carnival, who was trying to kill a witch, and Silence immediately reduced him to a very bad fighter. Of course, it had a blast radius and silenced my party too, but my folks were all a bit better at hitting things. My favorite part of Silence: after I killed the wizard, I couldn't talk to the witch until the spell wore off. That little wrinkle made me very happy.

LastSurprise wrote:

I made my way to the Carnival, and dumped Dynaheir (and Minsc) in favor of Branwen. I'm sure I'll want another wizard, but I'm thinking of picking up Xan -- his +3 Moonblade is very tempting, and I think it will give him an easier time surviving than Dynaheir.

Isn't Xan an evil character, and won't he get all bent of our shape if you main character is good? I've been happy enough with Neera now that she's hit Level 3. She has that ring that doubles Level 1 spells, and that's made her even more useful in these early levels. She's saved our party in a few fights already.

LastSurprise wrote:

I definitely don't regret picking up Branwen. She's great! She came in at level 3, and after I gave her the Ring of Sune, she had a whopping 5 level 1 spell slots and 4 level 2 spell slots, plus three castings of Spiritual Hammer under her special abilities, as well as two special Tempus Cleric abilities that I haven't tried yet. I think I'll be keeping her for the long haul.

Wait, special abilities? What? I think I have something to check out the next time I play.

LastSurprise wrote:

GodzillaBlitz, I haven't been to the bandit camp yet, but I have seen Silence work wonders when the enemy doesn't save. There was a wizard that I fought at the Carnival, who was trying to kill a witch, and Silence immediately reduced him to a very bad fighter. Of course, it had a blast radius and silenced my party too, but my folks were all a bit better at hitting things. My favorite part of Silence: after I killed the wizard, I couldn't talk to the witch until the spell wore off. That little wrinkle made me very happy.

Good to know, thanks! I've pretty much been playing straight ahead attack style so far. That's not working so well lately, as is probably expected. I want to get more creative and explore more of the spells and whatnot going forward.

nah Xan is LN. You might be thinking of xzar (and Monteron), who are both Zhent' spies.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Wait, special abilities? What? I think I have something to check out the next time I play. :)

You have some too! One per dream sequence. Actual ability depending on whether you skew good or evil at each dream stage, I think.

pyxistyx wrote:

nah Xan is LN. You might be thinking of xzar (and Monteron), who are both Zhent' spies.

Yep, you're correct. I was thinking of Xzar!

pyxistyx wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Wait, special abilities? What? I think I have something to check out the next time I play. :)

You have some too! One per dream sequence. Actual ability depending on whether you skew good or evil at each dream stage, I think.

Sweet! And these are skills I can access in the middle of a fight, like spells or something?

How did I miss this?

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
pyxistyx wrote:

nah Xan is LN. You might be thinking of xzar (and Monteron), who are both Zhent' spies.

Yep, you're correct. I was thinking of Xzar!

I'm sure you met Xan, he's the guy being held captive at the bottom of the mines in Chapter 2. In one of the nearby treasure chests, his captors were keeping a +3 sword which can only be used by him. He's a wizard, so he's never going to be great with it, but still!

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
pyxistyx wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Wait, special abilities? What? I think I have something to check out the next time I play. :)

You have some too! One per dream sequence. Actual ability depending on whether you skew good or evil at each dream stage, I think.

Sweet! And these are skills I can access in the middle of a fight, like spells or something?

How did I miss this?

You can access them in the middle of a fight, just like spells. They're also super easy to miss: they sit on the far right side of the quick bar, under an icon that looks like a diamond. I'm not sure why the game put them there, rather than under spells, but I would guess it has something to do with them not getting de-activated in the same way (i.e., if you're a fighter-mage and wear armor, you can't cast spells but can still use special abilities).

I think all of the class specific and kit-specific stuff goes here. So, for instance, as a cleric of Tempus, Branwen gets a few unique abilities that appear there, rather than as spells. Minsc's berserker rage goes there too. And for a paladin like your character, I would assume that the lay on hands ability is nested there.

If your main character is good, like mine, then you've probably picked up at last two castings per rest of Cure Light Wounds, which were acquired after those dream sequences. These actually have a much shorter casting time than the equivalent Cleric spell, so can be great emergency measures in battle.

Also, other consumables that are not equipped in the quick slots are available via the pack icon. So that nifty necklace of missiles can be used from there, for instance. I always forget that in a fight.

Also also if you have multiple missile types equipped, you can right click the missile attack button and swap missile types. I just learned that, a lot easier than opening inventory to switch in the middle of a fight. I think this is just in the EE version but maybe I have missed this for all these years.

Thank you for the info! I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about the special abilities, but glad to learn about them now. I'll give them a look tonight for sure.

tboon wrote:

Also, other consumables that are not equipped in the quick slots are available via the pack icon. So that nifty necklace of missiles can be used from there, for instance. I always forget that in a fight.

Also also if you have multiple missile types equipped, you can right click the missile attack button and swap missile types. I just learned that, a lot easier than opening inventory to switch in the middle of a fight. I think this is just in the EE version but maybe I have missed this for all these years.

I seem to remember being able to switch arrow types, but you definitely could not swap between a two handed weapon and a one handed + shield as you would be prevented from placing the shield in your off-hand slot if you carried a two handed weapon.

Speaking of the UI and its comparison to the utter mess of Arcanum... this author has an interesting premise regarding the importance of culture and experience when considering the 'greatness' of games & other creations but chose the worst possible game to serve as a launching point outside of maybe DOOM or Mario Bros. , hence the point doesn't really land at all.

https://killscreen.com/articles/why-...

imbiginjapan wrote:

I seem to remember being able to switch arrow types, but you definitely could not swap between a two handed weapon and a one handed + shield as you would be prevented from placing the shield in your off-hand slot if you carried a two handed weapon.

Right, for that you have to go into inventory and move stuff around.

I seem to remember that BG used to not pause when you went into inventory in a fight? I am glad that changed if it was a thing.

imbiginjapan wrote:

Speaking of the UI and its comparison to the utter mess of Arcanum... this author has an interesting premise regarding the importance of culture and experience when considering the 'greatness' of games & other creations but chose the worst possible game to serve as a launching point outside of maybe DOOM or Mario Bros. , hence the point doesn't really land at all.
https://killscreen.com/articles/why-...

I don't think the guy even comes out and states why he quit BG2. Seems to me that he jumped way too quickly to the general "why don't some games stay enjoyable" instead of actually thinking about why he didn't like BG2.

Yeah, I agree. The headline, and his opening but about BG2, don’t really seem to match what he wanted to write about.

Back up to a party of 6 after recruiting Xan. I don’t think I used him, way back when, and didn’t realize what a pessimist he is. Getting him was a pain, though. Apparently, you can’t go back in through the mine’s exit, so I had to wind my way all around, through the entrance and all 4 levels, to find him.

But near the mine’s exit, I killed a few assassins who I managed to avoid the first time around. Silence, and consumables (a wand of frost, in particular) really made the difference here. And one of the enemies was carrying a sweet new enchanted long sword, too. So now my MC is dual-wielding magic weapons. I feel pretty good about that!

LastSurprise wrote:

Yeah, I agree. The headline, and his opening but about BG2, don’t really seem to match what he wanted to write about.

Back up to a party of 6 after recruiting Xan. I don’t think I used him, way back when, and didn’t realize what a pessimist he is. Getting him was a pain, though. Apparently, you can’t go back in through the mine’s exit, so I had to wind my way all around, through the entrance and all 4 levels, to find him.

The way I deal with that is to enable cheats & Ctrl+J my way around the level. I'm a busy person, I don't have time for backtracking!

And one of the enemies was carrying a sweet new enchanted long sword, too. So now my MC is dual-wielding magic weapons. I feel pretty good about that!

Dual-Wielding Minsc is fab. That means he can't really maximize the Spider's Bane sword, sadly.

tboon wrote:

I seem to remember that BG used to not pause when you went into inventory in a fight? I am glad that changed if it was a thing.

I recall that... that was true in original BG1.
BG2 changed it, and if one played BG1 Tutu it adopted the BG2 pause on inventory.

imbiginjapan wrote:
tboon wrote:

I seem to remember that BG used to not pause when you went into inventory in a fight? I am glad that changed if it was a thing.

I recall that... that was true in original BG1.
BG2 changed it, and if one played BG1 Tutu it adopted the BG2 pause on inventory.

OK, so I'm not crazy then. At least about that. Thanks!

Sarevok is dead, and I’ve started the expansion.

So, Durlag's Tower.

Don't go in there until they've had the opportunity to scrap the blood of my party that currently coats the walls.

Spoiler:

I've cleared the upper tower and eventually (after resorting to a video walkthrough because I couldn't see where i was meant to be forging mallets and pressing grapes etc etc to get past the warders on the first level) reached the second level. Where I was so badly hurt I had to back out and go and get healed & rested somewhere safe. Called it quits there and will try a little more tomorrow night hopefully

current BG2 progress: still working through the big "side quests" you're supposed to do to raise funds. Currently trying to push through the Trademeet section, which has always been the weakest part of the game for me because i just bounce off druid-ey stuff in these games for some reason.

after that, i'll probably look at clearing up some NPC side quests so i can ditch them and get back to my main trio of gals before pressing on into the next act.

Spoiler:

I'm eager to get to the (surprisingly optional) underdark/sahaguin) bit, because it's the part i remember the least about and i'm keen to give it a revisit.

Made a little bit more progress yesterday and this morning before work, and I am in Chapter 3, about to hit the Larswood & Peldvale. So, I should be able to confront the bandits soon, and hit Chapter 4.

I swapped out Khalid and Jahiera for Ajantis and Kivan, so now my party is my MC (Fighter / Mage), Ajantis, Branwen, Kivan, Imoen, and Xan. After clearing out a vampire wolf and its cronies, just east of the temple at Nashkel, I hit Level 3 for my MC's Mage class; L4 for Ajantis, Kivan, and Xan, and L5 for Imoen. So, I'm hoping I'll be in good shape to clear the bandits.

Imoen just reached level 5, so now might be a good time to make her a mage, but I'm concerned about having no rogue in the next segment of the game. And, to try to figure out when I might dual-class Imoen, I also looked up when I might be able to get some other rogues in my party. It seems that there's a very good Fighter / Rogue available near the beginning of Chapter 4, who also makes a very good ranged attacker, so I'll probably ditch Kivan at that point, and dual Imoen when she reaches level 6. It'll take a long time for her abilities to come back, but as long as I have another rogue I won't need them.

Branwen continues to be a rock star, and her Spiritual Hammer ability lasts for a long time.

I also put Ajantis at the head of my party to take advantage of his Charisma. Didn't really use him way back when, and I've discovered he's a bro! I am kind of loving his enthusiastic "Yeah!" when I give the group commands.

Starting to get back into this after a few distractions pulled me away. I’ve assembled the traditional canon party - at this point it just seems how the game “should” be - who are all these other people that keep trying to join up?

After rescuing Dynaheir I wandered the wilderness a bit to build some experience, got everyone at or near level 2, then headed to the mines. Looks like I’m nearly done there, can’t remember what comes next...

BG2 - Finally started on chapter 3. Needed 15,00gp. Had 65,000 *shrugs* welp.

- ditched Mazzy through necessity (apparently a paladin doesn't mix well with a vampire in the party. who knew!) so i'm back to my original trio, Me, Viconia and Hexxat.

- Took a quick detour to Watchers Keep (The Durlag's Tower of BG2) aaaaand quickly noped out of there again after being decimated by some vampiric mists. Don't think i'm quite ready for that place JUST yet

- Splashed out on a couple more magical trinkets for my main character (Lv14 fighter/mage), so she's now got AC -4, 19 Strength and 25% magic resistance. So that's nice

I've got another side quest tomb robbery to do for Hexxat and then I think it'll be on to rescue you-know-who and get things moving forward plot-wise!

yep. big chunk of progress today. Cleared Spellhold, now on my way back

Spoiler:

via the Sahaguin city / Underdark

pretty much everything past this point is stuff i've played maybe once (twice tops) so it's almost like coming at it fresh!

Still working through Durlags tower although I'm on the last level now. This has been really hard for sure but also a lot of fun.

If I'd had to have done it without being able to use a walk-through though, i would have walked away. how on earth did we tolerate such willful non-explanation back in the day?!