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I did something naughty: gnome fighter/illusionist/thief ...

June 15, 2016, 12:42 pm
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(by using a Tweak Pack option to unlock all multi-class combinations) ... and he's a beast! I'm currently running around beneath a certain place full of books, and my guy has just achieved 19 Strength - you know how. He achieved the last EXP he needed to turn fighter 5/illusionist 5/Thief 6 at the same time. Up to this point he's been an archer/thief and supporting spellcaster/wand-wielder (suppporting Edwin, Baeloth, and Branwen), but now it's time for the front line with a big sword. I imagine he'll be a bloody-handed god of the battle field by the time I reach Throne of Bhaal.

This guy rocks, and it's only a little bit against the rules.

Just wanted to say that.
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Where can I find out more about the feud between the illithid and githyanki?

June 15, 2016, 1:50 am
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I just completed the Hidden quest in BG2 and Haer'Dalis mentioned something about the ancient war between the illithid and githyanki. Sounds interesting. Anywhere I can read more on this? Thanks!
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Status effects

February 18, 2016, 6:22 am
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@NIV5T suggested, that we can make a table containing the various negative status effects and their counter effects. A nice idea, it's confusing sometimes what will shield against from various stun/hold effects for example. Here i start to make the table, feel free to give advices/corrections in the comments below, i edit the OP accordingly.

MR: Magic Resistance, SI: Spell Immunity, R: Resurrection, SoPfM: Scroll of Protection from Magic

BG1

Icon Effect Triggering effect Prevention Curing
image Acid Melf's Acid Arrow[1] MR[1], SI(Conjuration)[1], Acid resistance[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Potion of Magic Blocking[1]?, SoPfM[1]
image Berserk Cursed Sword of Berserking[1] - Remove curse[1]
image Blinded Blind Spell[1], Holy Smite[2] MR[1,2], SI(Illusion)[1], SI(Necromancy)[2], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2], SoPfM[1,2] Dispel[1,2], Remove magic[1,2], Cure Disease[1,2], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1,2]
image Charmed Charm person[1], Sirens[2] MR[1,2,3], Chaotic Command[1,2], Potion of Clarity[1,2], SI(Enchantment)[1,2], Berserker rage[1,2], Barbarian rage[1,2], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2], SoPfM[1,2] Dispel[1,2], Remove magic[1,2], SoPfM[1,2]
image Confused Confusion[1], Cursed Potion of Speed[2], Rigid Thinking[3] MR[1,2,3], SI(Enchantment)[1,3], Chaotic Command[1,2,3], Potion of Clarity[1,2,3] Berserker rage[1,2,3], Barbarian rage[1,2,3], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2,3], SoPfM[1,2,3] Greater Restoration[1,2,3], SoPfM[1,2,3]
image Deaf Deafness Spell[1] MR[1], SI(Illusion)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Cure Disease[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Diseased Infected by Ghouls/Ghasts[1] - Cure Disease[1]
image Dominated Domination[1] MR[1], Chaotic Command[1], Potion of Clarity[1], SI(Enchantment)[1], Berserker rage[1], Barbarian rage[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Dispel[1], Remove magic[1], SoPfM[1]
image Doomed Doom[1] MR[1], SI(Alteration)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Potion of Magic Blocking[1]?, SoPfM[1]
image Dying Aec'letec gaze[1], Nabassu from wild magic[2] MR[1,2], Potion of Mirrored Eyes[1,2], SoPfM[1] Dispel[1,2], Remove magic[1,2], SoPfM[1]
image Energy Drain Kirinhale[1] Negative Plane Protection?, Berserker rage[1]?, Barbarian rage[1]? Lesser Restoration?, Greater Restoration?
image Enfeebled Feeblemind[1] MR[1], Chaotic Command[1], SI(Enchantment)[1], Potion of Clarity[1], Berserker rage[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Cure Disease[1], Dispel[1], Heal[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Entangled Entangle Spell[1] MR[1], Free action[1], Potion of Freedom[1], SI(Alteration)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Dispel[1], Remove magic[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Fatigue Been awake too long[1], After Haste[2] - Rest[1,2]
image Grease Grease Spell[1] MR[1], SI(Conjuration)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Dispel[1], Remove magic[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Greater Malison Greater Malison[1] SI(Enchantment)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Held Hold Person[1], Hold Animal[2], Chromatic Orb[3], Creatures special ability[4], Hold Monster[5] MR[1,2,3,4,5], Arbane's Sword[1,2,3,4,5], Chaotic Command[1,2,3,4,5], Potion of Freedom[1,2,3,4,5], Free Action[1,2,3,4,5], Ring of Free Action[1,2,3,4,5] SI(Enchantment)[1,2,3,4,5], Berserker rage[1,2,3,4,5], Barbarian rage[1,2,3,4,5], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2,3,4,5], SoPfM[1,2,3,4,5] Dispel[1,2,3,4,5], Remove magic[1,2,3,4,5], Remove Paralyzis[1,2,3,4,5], SoPfM[1,2,3,4,5]
image Held Hold Undead[1], Otiluke's Resilient Sphere[2] Barbarian rage[2] -
image Intoxicated Too much drinking at inns[1] - Rest[1]
image Level Drain Wraith[1] Negative Plane Protection[1],Berserker rage[1], Barbarian rage[1] Lesser Restoration[1], Greater Restoration[1]
image Miscast Magic Miscast Magic[2] SI(Enchantment)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Potion of Magic Blocking[1]?, SoPfM[1]
image Nausiated Infected by Ghouls/Ghasts[1] - Cure Disease[1]
image Panic Horror[1], Spook[2], Wand of Fear[3] MR[1,2,3], Remove Fear[1,2,3] SI(Necromancy)[1], SI(Illusion)[2], Emotion: Hopelessness[1,2,3], Potion of Clarity[1,2,3] Berserker rage[1,2,3], Barbarian rage[1,2,3], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2,3], SoPfM[1,2,3] Remove Fear[1,2,3], Dispel[1,2,3], Remove magic[1,2,3], SoPfM[1,2,3]
image Petrified Basilisks' gaze[1] MR[1],Potion of Mirrored Eyes[1], SoPfM[1] Stone to Flesh[1]
image Poisoned Creatures special attack[1], Various weapons[2], Class special abylity[3], Poison spell[4] Protection from Magical Weapons[1,2], SI(Necromancy)[4], SoPfM[4] Slow Poison[1,2,3,4], Neutralize Poison[1,2,3,4], Antidote[1,2,3,4], Elixir of Health[1,2,3,4]
image Polymorphed Polymorph Other[1], Wand of Polymorphing[2] MR[1,2], SI(Alteration)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2], SoPfM[1,2] Dispel[1,2], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2]?, SoPfM[1,2]
image Silenced Silence 15' Radius[1] MR[1], Vocalize[1], SI(Alteration)[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Vocalize[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Slowed Slow Spell[1] MR[1], SI(Alteration)[1], Free Action[1], Ring of Free Action[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1] Dispel[1], Remove magic[1], Haste[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]
image Stunned Various weapons[1], Chromatic Orb[2] MR[1,2], Chaotic Command[1,2], SI(Evocation)[1], Berserker rage[1,2], Barbarian rage[1,2], Potion of Magic Blocking[2], SoPfM[1,2] Remove Paralysis[1,2], SoPfM[1,2]
image Unconscious Sleep[1], Command[2], Stinking Cloud[3] MR[1,2,3], SI(Enchantment)[1,2], SI(Evocation)[3], Potion of Magic Blocking[1,2,3], SoPfM[1,2,3] Dispel[3], Remove magic[3], SoPfM[1,2,3]
image Webbed Web[1] MR[1], Free action[1],
Ring of Free Action[1] SI(Evocation)[1], Berserker rage[1], Barbarian
rage[1], Potion of Magic Blocking[1], SoPfM[1]		 Dispel[1], Remove
magic[1], SoPfM[1]
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I hate the NPCs

June 16, 2016, 1:54 pm
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So, I've never actually finished BG2 because I find the team members either incredibly tedious personality wise or awful in terms of build. I'm curious about community recommendations. Which would be the better experience: do the Baldur's Gate series with a full custom team, play the Black Pits or play Icewind Dale?
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Black Pits II revisited

June 16, 2016, 8:08 am
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Hello, fellow sell-swords or should it be fellow inmates as we are all stuck in the Black Pits version II about to battle for our lives for the amusement of others once again.

Now I was skeptical about the Black Pits once I bought BGEE as I never really liked gladiator fights but nevertheless gave it a try and Black Pits I with Baeloth was rather disappointing although Baeloth was amusing and so with Black Pits 2, I wasn't even going to attempt it but I was rather bored so I decided to give it a try as in the main game I reached the point where we had to battle Bodhi with allies and so basically almost the end of the game. So here we were at the screen to the black pits version 2 and because I was playing an older version the first thing I noticed was I had no shaman class as I wanted to see how a higher level (meaning level 8+) shaman would play. To make a long story short I played the Black Pits II for a tier or two which was rather entertaining much better implemented than the first version, when I decided to just bite the bullet and patch my game in order to get the shaman class.

And so I applied the newest patch to my game (which means I downloaded the game again with the latest patches already installed from gog) and some interesting things were changed in the Black Pits II.

In the earlier version when in the tavern during the ambush you were naked - no equipment and no spells, so when you were ambushed it basically was a futile one sided fight. With the latest patch not only do you have spells memorized but you are armed and equipped. And I am not talking regular equipment or cheap +1 stuff but powerful equipment that any level 10 party (actually any party at any level except those in ToB and maybe even them if they were equipped with lesser gear at the start of ToB) would envy in the main game.

Here is just some of the gear that my party had before the ambush:

Staff of Rynn+4

Bracers of blinding strike
Bracers of extraordinary specialization

potions of giant strength and healing

boots of speed and some other magical boots

2 martial staffs +3

firetooth dagger +3
bone dagger +4

Helm of Balduran

2 belts of giant strength

And the greatest thing of all - count it - one, two, three... three Hammer of Thunderbolts +3 -- I thought that the hammer was supposed to be a unique item but I got three of them. Maybe an error on the part of the developers who tossed us some gear.

And our armor was all +4 (and not generic +4 armor but things like the viper +4 among other armor)

With all this gear you'd imagine it would give us a fighting chance when we were ambushed - sadly it doesn't - I think the developers were giving us some hope to only cruelly dash it all away on the unfeeling rocks below - "here is some amazing gear, now go and save yourself" but sadly you are facing enemies that must be at least 12 levels higher than yourself so its not even a fight even with all this amazing gear and your spells.

I'm actually jealous as this party in the Black Pits II is initially better equipped than my team in the main game (at the same level actually for a good portion of chapter 2 my party is not even as well equipped as this party here).

And so as we are once again shanghaied and sold into slavery - we actually get to buy back some of our gear during the game. Imagine the nerve of them to sell us our own gear back to us.
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Baldur's Gate Bedtime Stories

October 8, 2015, 10:09 pm
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877. You've been telling your six and five year old boys the story of Baldur's Gate as a bedtime story and when you get home from work, the six year old shows you this:

image
image

from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/3nw8ic/ive_been_telling_my_six_and_five_year_old_boys/

P.S. kambalder - kobold, gnaler - gnoll (swedish)

This inspired me to do the same with my kids. I've decided to share with you all how it is going.

My son is 5 years old, my daughter is 3 years old. I started off by having my boy design Charname. Here is what he came up with.

Name: Gorgia
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Equipment: Sword and "lightning shield"

So I started off with candlekeep and Gorion, letting my boy design the character. I described it as a castle filled with books where Gorgia and his father lived. Then one day, his father...well, you know that part of the story. So they run away and come across "a big man, covered in armor. Seven feet tall! The big man has two ogres with him." I then recite the dialogue from memory, because all of us can.

As I do this my boy has his eyes wide and is listening intently. I don't dwell on the part where Gorion dies, instead just saying that the armored man won and Gorgia ran away. I then bring in Imoen, Gorgia's sister. My girl bubbles with excitement at this, and likes that she has a bow. Well, or just likes that there is a sister involved. She is sitting on my lap, but has to get off to talk excitedly about...something. Her pronunciation isn't too good.

So I tell them what Gorion's letter says, about how there are friends in the Friendly Arm Inn, another castle. I ask my boy what Gorgia does. He tells me that Gorgia goes to the Friendly Arm Inn to meet his friends.

So Gorgia meets Khalid and Jaheria, hereafter called 'his friends.' So his friends tell Gorgia that because he is so strong and has practiced with swords (good timing, given that I just bought my boy a toy sword and shield) that he should use it to go help people. My boy informs me that Gorgia indeed does want to go help people. So 'his friends' tell Gorgia about the problems in the Nashkel mines.

I stop here to ask my boy if he knows what a mine is. I end up explaining it to him, and getting him to the point where he understands why making the metal break is bad. He tells me that Gorgia will go help.

I say that is enough for this night and my boyo insists that I keep telling the story. So...we go on.

Gorgia gets to the mine and I tell him that the owner of the mine says: "So you want to take a look at me mine, do ya? Well, I'll give you one day. But I warn you! People who go into that mine, they don't come out. And I don't know why. It is really dark down there. Are you sure that you want to go in"

My boyo tells me that Gorgia runs away.



I tell the boyo that Gorgia has a sword and lightning shield and that his sister has a bow, and that they should help people. So Gorgia gathers his courage and goes down.

They get ambushed by kobolds. As the arrows come in, hitting Gorgia's shield I hit the bed, making it shake. I describe how his sister uses her bow to shoot he kobolds. My girl is quite happy at this.

Now, I ask my boy who he thinks is behind this. His response? "A green piggy." (He is an Angry Bird fanatic)



Ok, I can work with this. So Mulhay is green. That makes everyone happy. I go through the dialogue and Gorgia decides to trust Mulhay and to read the letters. My boy is quite surprised when Mulhay betrays him. It is a good thing that Gorgia has this 'lightning shield', which he uses to beat Mulhay down and take his letters.

So...score one for the good guys.

I try to stop the story there and to get them to bed, but my girl is excited and the boyo refuses to let me go, asking me to keep telling him the story.

So Gorgia tracks down the green man's friend, a wizard, to find out why Mulhay was poisoning the metal (yes, I know it should be ore, but there is already enough info here for a 5 year old). The wizard threatens Mulhay. And what comes of this?

Gorgia hits the wizard and knocks out his eye.
His sister shoots the wizard and knocks off his leg.

Good thing that combat was described for me! Saves me the effort, I suppose. So the wizard tells Gorgia that someone was paying him and the green man to poison the metal and that there were other people stealing all of the other metal, so no one could have it.

I then had to explain to the boy the economics of stealing all of the metal so you can sell your own for a higher price. I ended up explaining it using pizza as an example. It was easier.

When this was done, the boy said that the wizard is now Gorgia's friend. As such, the wizard has his eye and leg back. I ask the boy why the wizard is Gorgia's friend. There was a small pause. Apparently Gorgia gave the wizard a new wand, so now they are friends. Ok, I'll go with it.

I tell the boyo that we are ending it there. He refuses again and demands that I keep going. I am firm this time. I give him and his sister a kiss and a hug and say that we'll go on tomorrow night.

(For anyone who is wondering why the boyo gets more attention here, it is because my girly is only 3. So just mentioning the sister is enough for her. I gave her choices, but it always meant her going off on a tangent which doesn't fit into any of the above. As such, the boyo gets to be Charname).



And that, thus far, is what happens when a 5 year old gets to be Charname in Baldur's Gate.
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What do you do when a character gets killed/chunked?

June 17, 2016, 1:45 pm
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Just curious about what others do when their chars get killed or chunked.

Personally, I revive if it's reasonably convenient to do so. I don't mind paying the money; what gets me is the the prospect of undergoing the entire process of picking up all of the late char's equipment and carried stuff, distributing it among others taking into account space and weight, walking out of the dungeon, walking to the edge of the map, walking into the temple, reviving, putting all the equipment on, walking into the tavern, resting, walking to the edge of the town, walking back into the dungeon, and walking back to where I died in the dungeon. Play the sloth scene from Zootopia and simultaneously scratch the insides of your eye sockets if you don't share this view and want to get a better feel for how it seems to me. The annoyance is just too much to bear.

As for chunking, it almost always equals reload. No, I'm not finishing ToB without my game-long romance and only cleric in the party because Find Traps didn't tick or my stupid planetar got all silly and confused and cut her to little cubes with the Globe of Blades buff he's apparently too retarded to be trusted with.

So what about you guys, what do you do with killed/chunked characters when playing "normally"?
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Baldur’s Gate I & II Enhanced Edition Soundtrack - Where is it?

April 14, 2015, 4:38 pm
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Does anyone know where this music can be purchased or downloaded? I love the music for the BGEE games and I found the composer's other works on iTunes. The only album that I didn't see is the one for the games here. I looked all over and couldn't find any info.
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A Thousand ways to get chunked

June 18, 2016, 1:59 pm
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Hi fellow sell-swords and adventurers

Yes a little morbid as a thread but sometimes the many different ways to get chunked is surprising and astonishing - that we go "huh how did that happen... or scream or OMG or %$&$#" so lets hear some of your favorite chunk stories.

Remembering getting chunked means getting blown to bits and not just dying, the portrait has to disappear if its an NPC although I wonder if the PC gets chunked will the portrait also disappear before you get the reload screen.

These stories about getting chunked can be about you the PC or about your NPCs as they adventured with you along the Sword Coast.

Lets start:

BG1: location Western Sword Coast area in a western shore (the map with Safana and the treasure in the cave)

This happened along the coast where the sirens appear. I had decided to get the treasure with Safana when we bumped into a bunch of hostile sirens who decided that they didn't like us around we fought got partially dominated and did a quick retreat but this is where the story starts.

Having Misnc in the party he activated his rage and I thought it would save him from their domination spell and it worked for a time. One siren fell and then another, when I noticed that although he didn't get charmed he was taking quite a bit of damage from the arrows. The party was a good distant away but we rushed to the rescue and with no other choice our mage threw a sleep spell and prayed that it hit.

Yes the sirens fell for a moment and we rushed over to give Misnc some healing but as we ran over one of the sirens got up and noticing Misnc getting fired her arrows. We rushed over and attacked her and chopped her down thinking we had saved Misnc when suddenly we heard a scream of anguish and Misnc's portrait disappeared from our party. One moment his portrait was here hurt and then a second later it disappeared. I looked around at where he should have been and he was chunked - I was astonished and shocked this has never happened before. I've had NPCs die to the sirens before but never get chunked by them.

The play by play as I scrolled back up to see what had happened said he got hit with an arrow (arrow of biting) and died but not only did he die he got chunked by the poison.

RIP in Misnc as there wasn't really a lot left to bury much less resurrect.

So a long story made shorter, I learned that poison from arrows of biting can chunk you.

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BG2: Unseeing Eye Quest - temple of the forgotten god at their door step before crossing into their area.

I am not sure what happened here, Hexxat was scanning for traps and perhaps I moved her too fast (it couldn't have been more than 2 steps in the game) when she hit a trap. You know the sound effect when a someone hits a trap - and I though damn hope it won't hurt only to realize that Hexxat's portrait had disappeared from the screen. One moment there and another moment gone forever.

"OMG" she's a vampire and is supposed to be mostly immortal or so I had thought. The trap not only petrified her it blew her statue into a million pieces.

"Bloody %$^," I thought I didn't know that Hexxat could die like that.
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leveling hp question

June 18, 2016, 5:13 pm
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I'm a kensai with 19 const

I'm level 10 with 138 hp

I was level 9 with 135 hp

Shouldn't I have when level 10 the following amount of hp: 135 + 8 (5 - due to constitution + 3 due to the level)?
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Overused classes?

June 18, 2016, 7:26 am
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Hey dudes.
I've always wanted to get into the whole Youtube let's play business, and I finally got it all figured out now that I have most of the right programs and equipment. I'm a bit of a noob to the BG series, having only played through it entirely once, so I thought it'd be fun to play through the series on Youtube, since it seems like everyone else who does so knows every nook and cranny of the game (not that there's anything wrong with that, just thought having a fresh face playing through the series could be interesting).

So, I was wondering if there are any classes that people would be interested in seeing played? I know a lot of people who do BG videos often go with a Paladin class. I wanted to do it with one that not many people see. Any suggestions?
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new baldurs gate..

June 19, 2016, 8:34 am
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If there were to be another bg game this is how I would imagine it to be.. Fast characters with more smooth moving. Abilities to jump into fights, monsters that get hurt and blood that sprays, agile hunters that can run stand on rocks and things to fire, the animations are very important. I would keep the 3.person wiev but with much better graphics. Mounts should be implemented in the game. Real deserts and underworld dungeouns that goes deeper and deeper..you know things like that
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Collection of user-friendly Walkthroughs and FAQs

October 1, 2015, 5:41 am
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So...

Some time ago, I took an interest in learning how to properly play this game, rather than just cheating my way through it; all joking aside, pressing ctrl-y to kill all your enemies gets old really quickly after the 100th time doing it. To begin my education, I figured I'd drop by GameFAQs and see if anyone had made a Walkthrough for either game's Enhanced Edition. Until a while ago there was only one for each - both written by a user called "Haeravon". You can find them at these addresses:
BGEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663933-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/faqs/66126
BGIIEE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663934-baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition/faqs/68513

After much reading and ctrl + f searching, I think my reaction can safely be surmised in the picture below.

image

While this was originally going to be a rant-thread, I have decided to do otherwise. Since the guides linked are so user-unfriendly, how about we instead track down guides, walkthroughs and FAQs for the series, EE and otherwise, and link to them in this thread? I know people could just search for decent walkthroughs if they really wanted to find them, but Google searching is a double-edged sword and I think a list of references makes a good place to start.
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Accumulated Wisdom for BG2 Solo No Reload Games

March 4, 2016, 8:07 am
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It seems to me from reading the threads on these forums that solo no-reload play (aka hardcore) is an increasingly popular occupation for many players. There are many threads where people ask for advice on some aspect or another, as well as many stories (including the no-reload thread) chronicling people’s attempts to succeed.

I thought it might be worthwhile to start a thread for people to chip in with their tips, tricks and strategies for this style of play, so we can accumulate our collective wisdom in one place and help each other as well as people who are thinking of trying this for the first time.

I’ll kick off with a few (primarily focused on SCS games).

1) Defence >>>> Offence. Throughout the game you face hundreds, if not thousands, of opponents that you have to kill. And they are all trying to kill you. The one constant in that? You. You have to stay alive throughout all those fights, so the most important thing you have to focus on is your defence, i.e. making sure your character does not die. Therefore making sure your defence is up to scratch is way more important than maximising how much damage you do.

Consider this: let’s say you cast a Finger of Death at an opponent (let’s say it is a yuan-ti mage). How important is it that the Finger of Death succeeds? I would say “Not very.” Sure, it would be nice if it did and you could move on to the next fight, but even if it doesn’t, the yuan-ti mage represents one out of hundreds of enemies you have to kill, and you probably have numerous other ways of killing him even if this spell does not succeed.

Now let’s switch it around and say the yuan-ti mage casts the Finger of Death at you. Now how important is it whether the spell succeeds? Pretty flipping crucial.

2) Saving throws are vital. No matter how much you prep, it is a cast iron certainty that you will have to make crucial saving throws along the way. So if and when you do, make sure you have done everything you can to boost your saves as much as possible.

The most important save is vs spells (most common), followed by vs death (also common). The other saving throws are tested only occasionally.

There are broadly speaking 3 types of saving throws:

i) Save or die (unsurprisingly you have to make these)
ii) Save or nasty effect (operate on the assumption that you almost certainly have to make these as well)
iii) Save or suffer extra damage (while it is still better to make these rather than fail them, and over the course of the game they add up to a lot of saved damage, in isolation these are not that important and you can get away with failing some of these)

3) Certain races and classes are more suited to solo no reload play than others. I won’t go through them all but here are a few pointers.

Races

i) Human: Unless you a) plan to dual class or b) want to play a class that is human only, you should never choose human (zero advantages).
ii) Dwarf and Elf: these are the top races. Dwarves have superb saving throw bonuses and are your go-to choice for any fighter, thief or cleric type builds that don’t involve dual classing. Elves have 90% resistance to charm and are the top dog for mage builds or for triple multiclasses.
iii) Half Orc and Half Elf: bad choices as Dwarf and Elf respectively are superior in the vast majority of cases.
iv) Gnome: only if you want a Fighter/Illusionist or Thief/Illusionist. Save bonuses vs wand and spell but not vs death.
v) Halfling: Dwarf is nearly always superior since -1 STR is very hard to stomach.

Classes

i) Kensai are usually a bad choice. You might have grand visions of a Kensai (13)/ Mage but the reality of achieving that is something else because of the sheer lack of survivability of a low to mid level Kensai (no armour, no helmets is asking for serious trouble in the early game). Try taking your level 8 Kensai with AC 4 through the duergar in Irenicus’ Dungeon and you’ll quickly get a feel for what you’re up against when those lowly level 5 fighters cut you into ribbons.
ii) Berserkers are conversely very good (the rage is the best single defensive resource in the game).
iii) Pure warriors (with no thief or spellcasting capability) will have a very hard time in the mid to end game.
iv) Spellcasters will ultimately have more power at their disposal (particularly arcane casters) but survivability can be an issue – if something goes wrong and your defences fail, low HPs do not provide much of a buffer to rectify things before it is too late.
v) Some form of fighter/mage is probably the best overall combination to maximise survival chances.

4) The following spells are notorious solo-killers. Make sure you are protected against these whenever facing an opponent capable of casting them.

i) Charm Person / Dire Charm / Domination: these are all save-or-die spells for solo play and SCS mages love casting these at you (sometimes in sequencers!) if you’re not protected against them.
ii) Power Word Stun: this is a death sentence and there is no saving throw. Keep your HPs above 90 or have free action in place.
iii) Maze: another death sentence and this one is pretty hard to defend against. There is no saving throw, the only defences are magic resistance, SI Conjuration (? Can’t remember if this is a Conjuration or Enchantment spell), Spell Deflection/Spell Turning/Spell Trap (note the minor versions won’t help you), Chaotic Commands or Enrage.

That’s enough for now, I will add more later :).
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Did you *actually* know?

April 1, 2015, 6:26 am
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I started posting random trivia about Baldur's Gate and Co. on the activity page, but it have become so many that I decided to start a new topic. If you yourself know an interesting piece of trivia, feel free to share.

Either way, here we go:

Did you know?

Alora isn't a halfling, she actually is a really short and petite gnome.

Bhaal and Cyric used to be lovers but Bhaal cheated on him with his sister which is why Cyric killed him.

Dynaheir sings "These boots are made for walking" by Nancy Sinatra because Dynaheir used to be Nancy Sinatra's old D'n'D player character.

CHARNAME isn't actually a Bhaalspawn, they were accidentally switched as a newborn with the temple's janitor's child. Alaundo's prophecy is just a fraud.

There is a squirrel with a powerful magic ring somewhere in the original Baldur's Gate.

Icewind Dale was named after Dale Ace Windy, a famous Canadian popstar from the 80s.

If you shoot a Magic Missile at Gorion in the very beginning of the original Baldur's Gate in Candlekeep, he will give you some very useful potions in return.

Adventure Y was originally supposed to be called Adventure Z but the devs reconsidered to avoid a potential legal suite from Bandai because of the similarity to Dragonball Z.

Kivan never had a wife, he just made the story up as part of his wrestling persona.

Sarevok was voiced by Jaleel White, who is most famous for his role as Steve Urkel in the 90s sitcom "Family Matters".

Nothing can stop the Smooze.

Edwin is actually a virgin, he is just overcompensating all the time.

When your familiar dies you may lose one constitution point, but if you keep it's corpse, Cromwell will forge a Katana +4, +2 bleeding damage/ round for 10 rounds from it.

There are actually no spambots on these forums, the mods just ban random people because the motherbrain tells them to do so.

If you wish to save Clara you need to choose the following dialogue options after meeting her: 2, 4, 1, 1, 3

There is a glitch that let's you one-hit Beholders, if you cast barkskin *and* stoneskin on yourself and then attack them with a Quarterstaff +1.

Gorion and Jaheira used to be a couple back in the day.
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XP Adjustment for NPC's you have met before in the game feels like Cheating.

June 20, 2016, 11:02 am
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Hi there

I just realised that if you had , for instance, a level 2 NPC in your party and then dropped him for another npc , it turns out that if you come back for the first one his XP level adjusts to yours. To me it feels like cheating, or metagaming.

The npc in question was Garrick, I was level 2 with approximately 4000 xp when I left him for branwen and went to nashkel mines. When I came back and picked Garrick once again, at level 3 and about 8000 xp , garrick turns out to have reached the same by standing in the tavern!

I know that "ToB-like" npc leveling is cool, but this adjustment for npc's you had met before in the game (the game itself, not expansions) feels very artificial.
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What's your cheapest/cheesiest tactic?

April 5, 2016, 6:32 pm
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Having played BG through again and wiping the chessboard in Durlag's Tower out with a few well placed fireballs, it made me wonder what cheesy tactics I don't know about.

Also those horrible Greater Wyverns are susceptible to trying to chase the first character they see through a closed door and will ignore other characters pelting them with ranged weapons...
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Throne of Bhaal and Fallen Paladins

June 20, 2016, 2:21 pm
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Just curious if anyone knows/remembers a way to fix your fallen status in Throne of Bhaal. I'm not particularly worried, considering that extra +2 str, con and AC was well worth the switch, and she's really just a whirlwind of death with a Silver Sword and an abundant amount of Greater Whirlwinds/Improved Haste, but it would still be nice to use that +6 Holy Avenger.
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Best, non-cheesy(?) and foolproof way to kill a SCS lich [Spoiler]

June 20, 2016, 3:04 am
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First you need these 2 essentials to guarantee a high chance of success: a Mace of Disruption +2 (the better if its upgraded) and an Azuredge +3.

If you have Anomen (I think he's the best character for this tactic since he's a cleric and he's quite good with maces), have him wield the Mace of Disruption. Let any character with a good proficiency in axes wield Azuredge (Korgan if you have him). Get these 2 characters' THACO as low as possible (with potions of power or heroism) and any buffs and have your spellcaster cast haste (or improved haste if your level is high enough).

Next, surround the spot where you know the lich will spawn after the sarcophagus is opened. And once it turns hostile, WHACK! My Anomen did the killing blow the first time. And just to make sure this method wasn't a fluke, I tried it 2 more times and my main CHAR was the one who dealt the finishing blow the next 2 times.

I think this is quite a legit way to kill a lich since it is an undead. Though admittedly, I killed him before the SCS pre-casting and his chain contingency were effected but I did wait for him to turn hostile first. You can't blame my characters for reacting faster :wink: (Though one of the lich's spell did go through before the lich went down -> 2nd screenshoot) But I'm curious to find out what you guys think: do you consider this method to be cheesy since a lich in SCS should be quite a big thing?

P.S. I also had Keldorn wield Carsomyr+5 with a potion of magic resistance to boost his MR to 100% (as a backup plan) should my almost foolproof plan fail. I had the usual de-buff spells to bring down the lich's defences and have my melee characters keep whacking him to proc their weapons' destroy-undead ability.







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Honest discussion about Legacy of Bhaal

April 27, 2016, 3:22 pm
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Hello my fellow forumites

The patch v2.0 (and v2.1) has been out for a few weeks now and a few threads about the LoB mode were already created, containing a lot of speculations and many advices to defeat it. We even have a thread dedicated to powergaming in LoB mode.

But today I would like to open a discussion about what does this difficulty setting truly does and the gaming experience it creates.

First, a reminder of what LoB does:

enemies' HP * 3 + 80
-5 to saves (?)
-5 to THAC0 (?)
+12 levels for some checks
+ 1 APR (?)
Summons' HP * 2 + 20

So as you can see, these changes are mirroring the Heart of Fury mode from Icewind Dale (except for summons) but so far most players including myself don't exactly know what it does. I searched on the internet on many sites and asked in different threads in the Road to v2.0 back then and I was not able to find a strict, precise definition of the Legacy of Bhaal mode. This is I think a minor problem in itself but let's continue forward.

Here I'm quoting the official Siege of Dragonspear website :

"Legacy of Bhaal Mode : A difficulty setting offering tactical challenges only the most skilled of players can hope to defeat"

This appears on the website since the extension's announcement.

But is it true?

In my opinion, the Legacy of Bhaal mode doesn't offer any "tactical" challenges, it just increases the HP of your enemies by a enormous amount and that's it mostly.
It slows the game down and doesn't change the gameplay experience in a good way to my mind.

Though I agree that it offers some challenges. Of course a Dragon with 530 HP instead of 150 HP is stronger and thus the game is harder, depending on your party setup it can be a lot more difficult or it can simply be longer.

But is this kind of difficulty setting fun? Do you really enjoy fighting 83HP rats in Candlekeep?

Put in another way, do you think the Legacy of Bhaal mode is an interesting and fun difficulty setting?

Because I think it isn't, and to be honest, when I look back at the quote I posted above, I think the developers were actually thinking of something completely different when they first thought of the Legacy of Bhaal.
Maybe they were thinking about a "super-SCS" mode, which could explain the "tactical" challenges that only the most "skilled" players could hope to defeat, but because of time restrictions, they gave up and instead replicated the Heart of Fury difficulty in Baldur's Gate.

Another reason I think the LoB mode was originally designed as an improved SCS is because of the Insane difficulty changes in SoD. As you may know, moving the difficulty slider in SoD actually change the number of enemies spawning during battles, including new foes (like a caster in a group of fighters) which does offer new tactical challenges!

I think this is really good and a lot better than simply buffing enemies' stats to the point they don't make any sense whatsoever in a D&D setting.

So I would also like to ask Beamdog another question: is the Legacy of Bhaal mode final? Will it receive others updates or will it stay like this?

Because if it is going to get some more love, then it's excellent and I'm eager to see what you have in store for us.

But if that's not the case, no big deal. But I would like to know about the community's opinion about it and what do you think is an interesting difficulty setting.

Have a nice day!

PS: I apologize for my English, especially as I wrote all of this on my phone.
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