GameBanshee Forums

Hello, good sirs, you may have heard of me, if you haven't, that's okay too.

I have a few questions for you BG vets. Some of the questions require an indepth knowledge of the game's workings, and mods, so I understand if I get very few responses to the post. I also apologize for the size of the post, but that's just how the dice roll.

I would like to ask the following:

1. Is there a limit to the number of hits per round one can make?(5?)

2. Are there any mods that are not listed below which you might believe are compatible with my current setup??

3. Are there any mods listed below which will make my game NOT work in some areas?

4. Any good mods that just make the game harder in general?

5. What are the best mods for removing xp caps as need be?

6. Do you like my party concept?

7. Do you like my classes concept, and would it corrupt the game to have NPCs change their class makeup?

8. Can I acquire a HLA ability twice, and use it twice a day?

9. Is it 'okay' to have certain classes have 3 int and 3 charisma(Minsc for example)

10. Any advice on the following plan?

I intend to start a new game of Baldur's Gate 1: TotSC with BG1Tutu and other mods, and proceed to import those characters in the successing game, Baldur's Gate 2: ToD. I do NOT intend to use BG Trilogy.
I intend to go through Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, with the two expansions.

In my journeys I am not against cheating to get what I want. Either by passing a part that is corrupted by modding/otherwise, cosmetic changes(portraits), editing character stats because I don't want Minsc to be a ranger, etc. I do not, however, want to make the game easy, in fact, I would rather it be more difficult than ordinary.

For Baldur's Gate 1: TotSC| I intend to use the following mods(in no particular order):

1. Baldurdash's Fix packs.
2. Baldurdash Language text update.
3. Dudley's fixes.
4. Dudley's tweaks.
5. Some form of xp cap remover.
6. BG Tutu conversion.
7. Tutu tweaks from g3.
8. The Grey Clan addon.
9. Harder BG1 Patch.
10. Firewalker addon.
11. heart of fury.
12. ease of use.
13. dragon mod.
14. vault mod.
15. Child of Mystra forge mod.
16. NPC addon that adds banter...

I'm hoping that I will be able to play every aspect in the game succesfully with these mods here, but due to the nature of the modding process, I realize the difficulty in this. If anyone has encounters of conflicts, please, let me know.

For Baldur's gate 2: ToB| I intend to use the following mods(in order of display):

1. Baldurdash's Fix pack.
2. Big Picture Mod, which includes the following:
Tortured Soul,
Shadows of Soubar,
The Darkest Day,
Ascension.
3. Never Ending Journey.
4. Freedom Reign,
5. Reign of Virtue.
6. Redemption.
7. Weidu Item upgrade(Cromwell/Cespnar upgrades more items)
8. Kelsey
9. Banter Packs V4.
10. Ajoc's Minimod.
11. Munchmod.
12. Kensai Ryu's Brown Dragon.

I'm hoping that I will be able to play every aspect in the game succesfully with these mods here, but due to the nature of the modding process, I realize the difficulty in this. If anyone has encounters of conflicts, please, let me know.

My party

Me.
Imoen. For lockpicking/trap disarming
Minsc. For boo.
Keysel(From mod/addon) I would like to use him for the novelty of using an add-on NPC. Does he really have more content than other NPCs that come with the game? Until I get him in BG2, I'll use Viconia, although she has a much darker personality than my other players, I don't care if they don't!!!
Dynaheir For a mage.
Ajantis For a paladin.

The reason I chose this party was for usability(fighter/fighter/fighter/thief/cleric/mage), as well as dialogue storyline. I do not know, but I think this would represent a good amount of excellent dialogue. If you have any suggestions as to another party combination(I intend to keep this party throughout the entire game, filling in the holes as needed(collecting party, people dissapearing, etc))

One thing that I wish to do is use an editor to custom make each character's abilities. I do not want them to change balance wise, but I would like to alter their classes and what not.

My class, Kensai Thief.

1. Should I specialize in Katanas?
2. Is it 'okay'
3. How hard will it be to hit the limit with this template?(including every kind of spell assistence IE: haste items/spells/etc. Will I hit the speed limit(if any)?

I believe I read that there is a total of 90 points that you can get by rolling dice, if I can't get that much, then I will shave off points in this order -> intelligence/charisma, but still attempt to retain 18's in str/dex/con/wis.

(90 points total)
18 strength
18 Dexterity
18 constitution
9 Intelligence
18 wisdom For Resists
9 charisma

I intend to start off as a Kensai, I would like to specialize in Katana's.

At some point in time I would like to dual class to a thief, so that I gain the backstabbing ability, as well as the 'Use All Item' HLA, among other things.

With an XP cap removed, I would like to gain the best effectiveness of my classes as possible, this means waiting until the best time to dual class them, without having to worry about running out of XP for the second class to get some of their abilities. The obvious limit, of course, is the amount of xp that can be gained in one run through the games. Taking that into account, I'm not entirely sure when I would want to dual class my kensai to a thief. I want him to be mostly fighter, to be a frontline warrior doing the most damage. I do not intend on using him to open locks/ set traps/disarm traps, etc. But I would like him to be able to use the USe All Item HLA from the thief.

If I'm not mistaken, I will aquire whirlwind at level 14, and greater whirlwind at level 15. Is it possible to say, level to 16, and get greater whirlwind again, therefore being able to use it TWICE a day?

Imoen's class, Thief dual classed Mage or cleric.

1. Is a thief neccesary in BG1 or BG2, to break open locks and detect traps and such???

Her original path was pretty good, and I need a thief for stuff. I intend to use her for only thief like things(open locks etc)..
I'll probably end up dual classing her as a mage, or maybe a cleric.

Minsc's class, Berserker or monk.

Minsc was somewhat of a dilemna to me, he was a ranger, yet his 'lore' was to use a two handed sword. To fill in the need for a 'tank', I think I might just make Minsc a berserker.

One dilemna I'm running into is how am I able to best transform Minsc into a tank. My options appear to be:

Berserker
Barbarian
Monk...

Since I know very little about monks, they're somewhat of a question for me. With the nature of leveling, will minsc become a very good tank later on if he becomes a monk?

Can I dual class Minsc(as a monk) with a thief later in the game, and also get the use all item ability?


Dynaheir's class, mage.

I have absolutely no good idea of what to do with her.

It would be fun to make a wild mage, if I were to make a specialist mage, I would probably go conjurer, or maybe invoker. I would probably use imoen for my 'utility' spells.

Ajantis is somewhat of a wild card. I was thinking about getting the archer, Kivan, instead, so I'm not sure what to do with him...

Any suggestions?





I thank anyone who can, for their help. I don't want to mess up later, which is why I'm spending so much time on the beginning of my BG life.

Firstly I want to ask you a question. Have you played either BG or BG II before?

Now, let's take this one step at a time. As to mods all I can tell you for certain is that any mods that're in WeiDU format should be compatible. While others require certain orders in which they're to be installed and such. I'd consult the modders themselves about that.

Now to talk about your party, with minor spoilers to follow. Adjantis and Dynahier ain't in BG II. I'd advise making Minsc a Berserker or a Barbarian, probably the latter because of where he's from. Kelsey isn't in BG I, but he's probably my favorite NPC because Sorcerors are my favorite spellcasters because they're so damn powerful providing you plan out your spell selections carefully, I'll give you some of my personal picks later on, but since you're not above cheating(with ShadowKeeper I asume) if you feel you don't like a spell just change it. And he's also got some good interactions with Jan, one of my other personal favorite characters as he's the only thief you can have through the entire game that's still leveling up as a thief(imoen and nalia are dualclassed, and yoshimo disappears later on in the game). But there are a few downloadable thief NPC's out there like SilverStar(just downloaded her myself and she's quite interesting). Now to talk about your PC why would a Kensai want to dishonour himself and stoop so low as to resort to thievery when you can have some nutjob like Jan or SilverStar do the thieving on their own. I really don't even know where to go from here, but i'll just keep going for lack of anything better to do.

As to party make-up, necessities include a way to heal yourself, whether it be with oo many potions and trips to the temple or with a Cleric/Druid is up to you; a way to deal with traps and locks, you could have a thief, a real burly dude who can take lots of trap damage and bust open chests, or a cleric/druid to cast Find Traps and a mage to cast Knock; and of course a way to kill the bad guys. How you choose to approach those obstacles is up to you, but what I recommend is for BG a Thief; a Cleric, Druid or both, a Tank (melee fighter), a bow user (either Kivan or Coran), and a Mage. You can condense this down to a Cleric/Fighter and a Mage/Thief if you really wanted to but for starters which I asume you are, take one of each of those and if you don't end up going with a Cleric and a Druid pick up a bard so you don't have to spend all your money identifying things.

Now for BGII basically the same criteria stands but there are aabout 10 less NPC's to choose from, but there are also a few decent NPC mods out there, like Kelsey. Regarding Sorcerors, Monks, and Barbarians, they are NOT dual classable so don't even think about it. And also very few NPC's transfer to BG II: Imoen(but she's gone for most of the game), Jaheira, Minsc, Viconia, and Edwin. So if you wanna keep a constant party through both games that's the one to go with since there's 5 NPC's plus you. And I'd suggest an Archer.

Basically what I suggest doing is, if you're so worried that your BG experience will suck, to look at the Gamebanshee mainpage at the BG and BG II sections. Take a close look at all of the NPC's and plan your parties that way. And a suggestion that I know I'm not alone on, is to play the vanilla game with no mods the first time around and get a feel for what you'd like to change/add-on. But NPC mods are ok because the NPC choices in BG II are pretty meager.

I think that's about it. I'm sure you'll have questions.

Firstly I want to ask you a question. Have you played either BG or BG II before?

Yes sir, I've played through some of BG1 about five years ago(maybe halfway through?), and I played BG2 about 3 years ago(all the way through). I have not played either expansion

Now to talk about your party, with minor spoilers to follow. Adjantis and Dynahier ain't in BG II.

opps!

I'd advise making Minsc a Berserker or a Barbarian, probably the latter because of where he's from.

So this means that a berserker/barbarian would make a better meatshield than a monk? Aww, I did so want to make him a monk, he's so peaceful.


Kelsey isn't in BG I, but he's probably my favorite NPC because Sorcerors are my favorite spellcasters because they're so damn powerful providing you plan out your spell selections carefully[/quote]

Heh... here I was thinking Kelsey was a cleric... I guess Dynahier not being in BG2 makes things somewhat convienent. I can replace her with Kelsey.

I'll give you some of my personal picks later on, but since you're not above cheating(with ShadowKeeper I asume) if you feel you don't like a spell just change it. And he's also got some good interactions with Jan, one of my other personal favorite characters as he's the only thief you can have through the entire game that's still leveling up as a thief(imoen and nalia are dualclassed, and yoshimo disappears later on in the game).
But there are a few downloadable thief NPC's out there like SilverStar(just downloaded her myself and she's quite interesting).

To be honest, if there were no locks(that needed to be picked), or traps in the game, I would not have a thief. They can be good if you use stealth/backstab etc, but I think the way I'm going to use a thief is by, instead, a weak fighter that picks locks.

In that sense, I don't really care about the dual classing issue, as, to an extent, I would prefer them dual classed to something useful.

Now to talk about your PC why would a Kensai want to dishonour himself and stoop so low as to resort to thievery when you can have some nutjob like Jan or SilverStar do the thieving on their own.

It does seem somewhat odd, but I've been told that if I dual class to a thief I can gain the advantages of backstabbing, as well as the HLA of "Use Any Item". To me, this is fairly cool.

As to party make-up, necessities include a way to heal yourself(Since apparently Kelsey isn't a cleric anymore =), whether it be with oo many potions and trips to the temple or with a Cleric/Druid is up to you;

I'll be taking the cleric/druid route, I like self sufficiency.

a way to deal with traps and locks, you could have a thief, a real burly dude who can take lots of trap damage and bust open chests, or a cleric/druid to cast Find Traps and a mage to cast Knock

My question to that, would be: How prevelent are locks that a big burly dude can't beat down, for example, if I can get Minsc to 23 str, or whatever, with bonuses, will he find lots of locks that are just too tough?

but what I recommend is for BG a
Thief;
Cleric, Druid or both,
Tank (melee fighter),
bow user (either Kivan or Coran)
Mage.

You can condense this down to a Cleric/Fighter and a Mage/Thief if you really wanted to but for starters which I asume you are, take one of each of those and if you don't end up going with a Cleric and a Druid pick up a bard so you don't have to spend all your money identifying things.

This seems like a good idea, for BG I will probably end up taking:

Imoen: Thief
Cleric: Viconia
Tank: Minsc
Bow user: Kivan
Mage: Dynahier.

Now for BGII basically the same criteria stands but there are aabout 10 less NPC's to choose from, but there are also a few decent NPC mods out there, like Kelsey. Regarding Sorcerors, Monks, and Barbarians, they are NOT dual classable so don't even think about it. And also very few NPC's transfer to BG II:

Imoen(but she's gone for most of the game),
Jaheira,
Minsc,
Viconia,
Edwin.

So if you wanna keep a constant party through both games that's the one to go with since there's 5 NPC's plus you. And I'd suggest an Archer.

I desire neither Jaheira nor Edwin... In the timeline of things, how long is it between Yoshimo betraying me, and Imoen coming back to me?

I suppose for fun I should alter my party scheme from BG1, I would keep Minsc, replace Dynaheir with Kelsey, keep Viconia... I suppose that leaves me with the options of a thief...

What NPCs could do what I require for thieving? Bards maybe? Would be cool to have a bard, I suppose.

Cleric: Viconia
Tank : Minsc
Mage : Kelsey

This leaves room for two others... I have absolutely no idea of where to go. heh

Basically what I suggest doing is, if you're so worried that your BG experience will suck, to look at the Gamebanshee mainpage at the BG and BG II sections. Take a close look at all of the NPC's and plan your parties that way. And a suggestion that I know I'm not alone on, is to play the vanilla game with no mods the first time around and get a feel for what you'd like to change/add-on. But NPC mods are ok because the NPC choices in BG II are pretty meager.
I think that's about it. I'm sure you'll have questions.

Thankyou very much for your help.

OK, so now that I know what you're looking to do, I'll suggest this route. For BG I go with Imoen(thief), Minsc(tank), Dynaheir(mage), Viconia(cleric, but watch your reputation as she's evil and will leave once you hit 18, but she's got 50% magic resistence), Kivan(bows), and that leaves room for you to be whatever you want.

Now for BGII: Viconia(same as above), Minsc(make him a barbarian and you'll be thuroughly enjoyed), Kelsey(pure spellcasting pleasure provided you know how to use a sorceror(explained later)), Imoen(enough thieving skills to be useful, but now she's a spell slinger) then Yoshimo until you get Imoen back(they did this for a reason), that leaves room for a PC and one other. I would suggest Jan unless you're attached to Imoen since you already have Kelsey and Imoen has limited thieving abilities. And for an extra I'd suggest Keldorn(paladin: inquisitor) since you had Ajantis as a pick for BG I, or Haer'Dalis if you wanna try a Bard.

So your BG I party is:
PC
Viconia
Minsc
Imoen
Dynaheir
Kivan

and BG II:
PC
Minsc
Viconia
Kelsey
Imoen/Yoshimo or Jan
and one extra if you even wanna fill the slot

Now how to use a Sorceror. For killing things!!! The other mage is for protecting your party and doing other such menial tasks, like hasting everyone when necessary and such. Here are some spell picks to get you started:
level 1
Magic Missile
Chromatic Orb
Protection from Evil
Armour/Shield
Spook
level 2
Melf's Acid Arrow
Mirror Image
Vocalize(every mage should have this)
Web
Glitterdust/Stinking cloud
level 3
Dispel Magic/Remove Magic
Fireball/Skull Trap
Flame Arrow/Melf's Minute Meteors
Slow/Haste
Hold Person/Dire Charm
level 4
Fireshield: Red
Greater Malison
Improved Invisibility
Stoneskin
Spider Spawn
level 5
Animate Dead
Breach
Cloudkill

I think you get the idea, it's not about helping out your party, it's about protecting your sorceror and killing things in the most efficient way possible. Those picks should get you started. They're not necessarily in the order in which I'd select them but you can decide that for yourself. And if I remember correctly Kelsey's picks aren't so bad at all.

There that should get you rolling.

Thanks, I'll follow that plan.

One further question, do you think it would be more fun to make a wild mage, or to make a sorcerer for kelsey? Right now I'm leaning towards sorcerer, but wild mage is still sounding fun(or at least funny, if not a little frusturating)

Sorceror is more Powerful I think, but Wildmage can be interesting. Personally I'd choose Sorceror.

Sorceror!

Originally posted by TucoRamirez
Thanks, I'll follow that plan.

One further question, do you think it would be more fun to make a wild mage, or to make a sorcerer for kelsey? Right now I'm leaning towards sorcerer, but wild mage is still sounding fun(or at least funny, if not a little frusturating)

Once you've played a sorceror, it's very frustrating to play other mages. TWO sorcerors is even better. You just need to pick your spells very carefully when selecting them for a sorceror.

Minsc is a cool hack - I made him an Undead Hunter last time.

Very true. Just about every time I play I use either Kelsey or a PC Sorceror. No need to worry about memorizing spells, you just pick 'em and they're there. And yes it is somewhat frustrating to play with other mages after using a Sorceror.

New questions:

1. Are there any item editors for BG2? (Upon finding out about the Sentient
Sword(Lilarcor), I decided I 'needed' it. However, to make things proper, I
'needed' it on my main character. However, since my main character needs
katanas, I've decided to change the Lilarcor into a katana).

2. If I do exactly what the Big Picture mod suggests, and do not install any
other mods, can it be expected that my game will run as flawlessly as a
vanilla install of BG2?(or better with Baldurdash)

3. A Kensai, I believe, gets a 1 extra THAC0 and damage bonus per three
levels he gains. Does this end at 20, or continue on?(and then where does
it end?)

4. I have a few questions about the HP levels one gets when dual/multi classing. Now, I read about the AD&D rules, that for the first 10 levels, fighters get 10hp per level, and thieves get 8. I also read that multi classed characters will have their hp cut in half. This means that a multi classed fighter and thief will have 80hp at level 10! Where as a simple fighter would have an hp of 100 at level 10! Is this true? IT also may mean that if I were to dual class a fighter to thief at level 10, then level the thief up to level 10, he would have 160 hp!! How can this be right? How does it work if not this?

Amendments:

1. Decided to go the multiclass pathway, and use SK(shadowkeeper) to edit my
avatar to make him Kensai/thief multiclass. This also allows me to play an
orc, though that does make the multiclass thing even more of a cheat. Makes
more 'roleplay' sense to me though, since Tuco is usually a barbarian/orc
type character in games.

2. Decided to use Minsc as a berserker in BG1, but in BG2, make him a
Monk(with SK)

3. Decided to specialize in scimitars or maybe longswords in BG1, then use
SK to change it to Katanas in BG2.

4. Decided to tone down a few of the mods, to prevent spending 80 hours on
BG2 to only find an unaccomplishable thing due to mod conflicts. They are
still a gamble to me, I, of course, want the most content in my gameplay
experience, but a game-breaking error in the latter stages of the game could
cause me to simply quit, it's not as easy to fix as Morrowind.

5. Decided to use the following as my party in BG1:

Me
Imoen
Minsc
Dynahier(changing her to 'wild mage' for fun)
Viconia
Kivan (Making him an archer)

6. Decided to use the following as my party in BG2:

Me
Imoen/Yoshimo
Minsc
Viconia
Kelsey
Kalgyar(sp, I'm making him an elven archer)

7. In ToB I intend on kicking out Kalgyar and inserting Saverok instead.
If by ToB my unlock/trap detect skills are good enough, and I don't need
imoen, I may opt to kick her out instead, we'll see how good archers are
compared to imoen.

I assume you're referring to Valygar, the stalker? I think he has a party conflict with Viconia. It's reported in Gamebanshee's BG2 NPC section, and according to that report happens in the government district.

1) Yes, Infinity Engine editors are available. I think teambg.net provides these editors for purposes of mods. According to item descriptions a magical katana is infused with the spirit of an honourable but dying warrior. I shudder to think what kind of spirit infused 'Lilarcor-katana'.

2) Nope. Sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't. I'm honestly not sure what causes the problems. For example, in ToB my game crashed at a certain point, but everybody else had no problems, except for another guy who commented in my thread (in the teambg forums).

3) The lowest base thac0 that can be achieved is 0. Kensai thac0 bonuses are counted as bonuses, and thus do not count towards the base. Therefore a level 20 kensai would have a thac0 of -7, carrying an ordinary weapon that he's proficient in.

4) That particular hp gain only occurs for the first ten levels. Furthermore, as fighter levels need more xp than thief levels, the multiclassed character will be a higher classed thief at combined level 10. For hp progression, multiclassed characters will get half the normal hp of the two classes added together, hence the 80 hp. A dual classed fighter thief, dualled at level 7 will have 70 hp from the fighter levels and 18 hp from the thief levels for a total of 88 hp. However any further levels will add only 2 hp, because the character is levelling as a thief. (Also, the char will not regain fighter abilities like thac0 or weapon profs until the thief level reaches 11).

As for a monk, take note that a monk isn't a very good meatshield. A monk may have naturally low AC and excellent damage / thac0 with fists, but the low AC will NOT be as low as a pure fighter with equipment, and the fists aren't as powerful as the heavy weapons that a fighter can carry. Also, a monk's hp progression is lesser (of course, if you're going to change minsc from a berserker to a monk, then that's a moot point.) What a monk has is natural speed and magic resistance, and exceedingly high missile AC. Therefore monks are best used as 'special ops', to take out enemy archers, mages, and clerics, and other supporting enemies. Also the monk is useful as a get-in-and-get-out attacker who stuns enemies so that the party can work on less enemies at once.

Therefore, if you're going to change Minsc to a monk, take note that you're going to have to change tactics, and also take note that your party has no natural meatshield. The kensai/thief may have super backstab, but that only works on one enemy, unless your character carries potions of invisibility, which then ends up focussing the enemies' attention on your other party members. The kensai thief also has an AC worse than a monk's, until the thief gets UAI, which won't appear until the thief is level 23-24. Again, the kensai/thief has a role similar to a monk, except that a monk is has more defence, but the KT has more offence.

Therefore, it means that the only character in your party who will wear heavy armour is Viconia (before UAI), and since Viconia is a horrible fighter, all the heavy armour in the game is going to be wasted.

Hmm..

Araknid's right, you really do want a tank, and unless Kalygar is actually Korgan, you don't have one. Valygar is a damage dealer, not a tank, same with monk & kensai. At higher levels, you can have summons do a fair bit of the tanking, but it's really iffy untill you at least have Skel warriors and M-swords.

NB - you won't need to use SK to change proficiency stars between BG1 and 2 - they come available for reassignment, because the weapon skill list is different (significantly more detailed) - in BG1, the sword type choices are large sword (longsword to two handers, there are no katanas) and small sword (dagger & shortsword)