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

I'm through with the fights at the Bandit Camp, and I've found the documents giving me the next major story beat, which officially brings me to Chapter 4. My first quest: loot every container in the bandit camp.

The way in and through the camp was interesting:

Spoiler:

I found some bandits that I could talk with in one of the nearby forest areas, and told them I wanted to join up. They immediately brought me to the bandit camp, and Tazok came out to speak with me -- but as soon as he saw Tazok, Kivan started in on this "at last I'll have my vengeance" speech, and we got into battle. But just against Tazok, alone. Every other nearby bandit stood around and watched, which felt strange. After I wounded Tazok a bit, he left and then the other bandits turned on me.

The camp wasn't too bad. For the most part, my characters were able to handle the enemies throughout by taking them a few at a time, but I ran into some bad luck in the middle of the camp with some archers and one of the named enemies. Both Ajantis and Branwen, but as I had won the fight, I decided to trek back to the Friendly Arm Inn and revive them. I had to drop 1,200 GP to revive them both! But then the main battle in the tent was not too difficult, as I was able to silence both wizards. And, I quickly made all that money back, and then some, looting the chests inside.

I also noticed another cool thing about Silence: affected characters don't speak when given orders. I also thought that the spell might have killed the battle music, as it seemed awfully quiet in that tent.

one flaw i've found of being considerably higher level than I should be at my current point in BG2 (with only three characters in tow, the XP bonuses have been exponentially higher per character) is that my random encounters usually consist of ACTUAL LICHES that use Timestop and are a right bastard to kill.

I have also discovered the wonders of the "Death" spell combined with my ridiculously high spellcasting speed (Thanks, Vecna!) for clearing away boring low level mobs of underlings. It's speeding up my game considerably!

I made some decent progress through Siege of Dragonspear over the weekend. About half my party has made level 9 now. Rolling with Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, Corwin, and Glint and am having a grand old time of it. Managed to break the siege at Boareskyr Bridge on the first go (Cloud Kill ftw) and now need to clear the way toward Dragonspear Castle. The deeper I get into this, the more I like what Beamdog did to give a new adventure that both shook up the usual formulae and fit nicely between the main two games. Come BG2, I'm gonna miss some of this loot I've been able to kit out with!

one thing it definitely has going for it is that it gives some nice, extensive foreshadowing for the villain for BG2.

pyxistyx wrote:

one flaw i've found of being considerably higher level than I should be at my current point in BG2 (with only three characters in tow, the XP bonuses have been exponentially higher per character) is that my random encounters usually consist of ACTUAL LICHES that use Timestop and are a right bastard to kill.

I like the idea that because your character is super-powerful, all these existential threats have risen to meet her. It reminds me of the escalation problem from the end of Batman Begins:

a conveyor belt of the rarest and most powerful of undead monstrosities is a bit much though

Li’l bit, yeah. What kind of hellscape was the Forgotten Realms, to randomly run into Liches as you travel?

After my loot everything quest, and selling a cartloads of bandit scalps to Vai, I’m rich! Net worth of around 7,000, though I don’t yet know what I’ll do with the money.

For now, I think I’m going to lead out the southwest corner of the map before I make my way to the Cloakwood and continue the story.

I finally started this in earnest tonight. Rolled an elf ranger who likes longbows and short swords. I only played enough to get out of Candlekeep, but I'm looking forward to doing more.

Finished Durlag’s Tower last night. Found the 3rd floor a lot harder than the 4th. I went back to the village and got my backside handed to me. Might have to think a little harder about it before I return.

As much as I’ve been enjoying the experience I’m ready to push through the rest of the game now. Everyone is more or less level 8 now and mostly - mostly - everything isn’t too difficult

Working my way through Ust Natha, original City of the Drow. I'm in disguise, which basically just means yelling at dudes and being generally angry all the time. It's my kind of city!

Right after leaving the Nashkel mines I ran into a group of assassins that I could not beat no matter how many times I tried. So I guess I’m playing the right game then. I don’t recall all the finer details but I remember getting beaten a lot.

Redherring wrote:

Right after leaving the Nashkel mines I ran into a group of assassins that I could not beat no matter how many times I tried. So I guess I’m playing the right game then. I don’t recall all the finer details but I remember getting beaten a lot.

I'm glad I'm not alone in having these sorts of things happen.

yeah, this was waaaaaaaaay before level scaling was "a thing"

So, a productive evening. I've finished all the Tales of the Sword Coast content (even the bit at the end when you go back to the village) and then pressed on with the main plot. I'd left it just before returning to Candlekeep.

I've now left Candlekeep and headed back into Baldurs Gate directly. I'm just pushing through now, I actually have fairly solid memories of this stage for some reason I won't mess about (too much) and just get on with it. Ready to play something new now I think.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Redherring wrote:

Right after leaving the Nashkel mines I ran into a group of assassins that I could not beat no matter how many times I tried. So I guess I’m playing the right game then. I don’t recall all the finer details but I remember getting beaten a lot.

I'm glad I'm not alone in having these sorts of things happen. :)

Those folks were rough. I think I posted about them earlier in the thread. I happened to dodge them initially, when I left the mine, ran into them when I came back to finish exploring the map, and had to reload my file several times after they wiped the floor with me. Branwen’s silence as what finally allowed me to win.

It’s interesting to think that my decision to turn one way resulted in me missing a battle that feels very “story encounter.” I don’t think that would happen in a newer game. (And yeah, pyxi’s totally right.)

I’m glad they are skippable at least - left the area but maybe I’ll go back and crush them when I’ve leveled up enough. Now I’m just worried about reaching a mandatory fight that I can’t win.

The side areas are all filled with little high level pockets where your supposed to level up and come back later, tbh.

Funny, even 20 years later I had so much fun in the forests... loved the mines, bandit camp. But after entering BG I bounced pretty hard - as I did 20 years earlier. I somehow loose intrest in the story, find all the buildings tiresome. And that while I am only halfway or at a third of this gem of a game. I think I will leave it here again. BG II I never got out of the jail... I just didn't care.

Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Funny, even 20 years later I had so much fun in the forests... loved the mines, bandit camp. But after entering BG I bounced pretty hard - as I did 20 years earlier. I somehow loose intrest in the story, find all the buildings tiresome. And that while I am only halfway or at a third of this gem of a game. I think I will leave it here again. BG II I never got out of the jail... I just didn't care.

There’s a definite slump isn’t there. After doing the initial stages in BG (you can get through it in a couple of hours if you know where to go) but before heading off to Candlekeep again, doing the Tales of the Sword Coast content helped me a lot. ToSC has some great content in it and is a lot of fun, although it is hard.

It levels you up too so you don’t need to faff about so much when you get to candlekeep and return to the city. You can just get on with it.

If I swap out characters from my party, do they go somewhere specific, or do I just go back where I left them if I want to get them back again?

Is there a use for gems beyond selling them?

Playing on story mode means everything just explodes, and I don't think I've lost a single health point yet. I'm getting ready to head down to Nashkel Mines once I finish uncovering the map in Beregost.

depends on the character. some stay where they are, others go back to somewhere specific (e.g. Friendly Arm Inn). Usually they'll tell you when they quit if that's the case. If they leave angry (e.g Viconia gets annoyed that you're being too heroic or Minsc runs out of patience waiting for you to rescue Dynaheir) then I suspect they are gone for good.

Gems can be mostly sold. There is maybe one or two quests that use high end gems but nothing worth writing home about.

beanman101283 wrote:

If I swap out characters from my party, do they go somewhere specific, or do I just go back where I left them if I want to get them back again?

Is there a use for gems beyond selling them?

So far I've found that the Enhanced Edition characters go back to the Friendly Arm Inn, and the others stay where you left them. Which is weird. You'd think Jaheira and Khalid would go back to the Inn, as I met them there, but they seem content to stand by the side of the highway. And why did Xan stay at the bottom of the mine? Why didn't Kagain go back to his shop? I wouldn't have minded if the Enhanced Edition tweaked this behavior a bit.

I haven't come across any gems that I've needed to keep, yet, except for a specific set of stones that are definitely, easily identifiable as quest-related. I think Imoen has a gem pouch and I usually stuff all of them in there, between market runs, so character inventory doesn't get cluttered.

Neera has the gem pouch, which I immediately used to lighten the inventory load. It's wild how quickly the inventory fills up if you're uncovering all of each map and picking up junk as you go. At least it means I'm pretty ruthless about getting rid of stuff I don't need.

Try playing with ONE character with that inventory space! At least it helps you prioritise what to keep and what to sell. I had over 70,000 gold by the time I finished BG1

Oh right. I forgot that I took it from Neera before I left her behind!

LastSurprise wrote:

Oh right. I forgot that I took it from Neera before I left her behind!

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PessimisticAgitatedAustrianpinscher.webp)

and i'm clear of the underdark! Surprisingly close to wrapping up BG2, if I were to go back to the city and push on with the main quest (at least, going by memory) so that means it's time to go wandering off and doing more side stuff.

Also....got a couple of dragons to deal with...

imbiginjapan wrote:
LastSurprise wrote:

Oh right. I forgot that I took it from Neera before I left her behind!

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PessimisticAgitatedAustrianpinscher.webp)

You're right. She might set the building on fire.