Current Events > Gonna play through Baldur's Gate trilogy. What race/class should I roll?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Never beat I or II, so I'm gonna go through them all on one character. No clue what parties I'll choose or if I'll do Good/Evil.

Will be playing the Enhanced Editions, so I got all those options available

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They're old games with old mechanics. Sure you wanna do this?

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Ilishe posted...

They're old games with old mechanics. Sure you wanna do this?

THAC0 for life boyz. But really once you get past the bad 2nd edition dnd mechanics the core of the game play is still good.

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If you want the romances, then will want human or half elf I believe, the short races don't get them but do get very nice bonuses for high con.

I probably wouldn't recommend a caster class if your first time, or first time in awhile, as they got a larger learning curve and a game over if the protagonist dies. Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger or some melee class is a decent first choice to go through things, as get mages, thieves and clerics in party members easily enough. Most of the kits for them are fine choices, but would recommend not taking Beast Master if you go ranger, all the rest are perfectly fine though.

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I last played as a gnome fighter/illusionist

That little guy rocked

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the editions of D&D that the BG games are based on all work very differently, so different things will be effective in different versions.

tiefling warlock and halfling rogue are classics though

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Pitlord_Special posted...

I last played as a gnome fighter/illusionist

That little guy rocked

I think that's what I used in my one and only (partial) playthrough.

Fighter/mage is pretty fantastic. Buff yourself up, then go smack some bitches while having a load of protections. I did mage/thief once and loved that as well.

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Funkydog posted...

If you want the romances, then will want human or half elf I believe, the short races don't get them but do get very nice bonuses for high con.

I probably wouldn't recommend a caster class if your first time, or first time in awhile, as they got a larger learning curve and a game over if the protagonist dies. Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger or some melee class is a decent first choice to go through things, as get mages, thieves and clerics in party members easily enough. Most of the kits for them are fine choices, but would recommend not taking Beast Master if you go ranger, all the rest are perfectly fine though.

This.

A dwarf and or gnome are usually good picks because of nice shorty bonuses.. the weird thing about the games is that despite the EE version of BG1 working with BG2 additions, the game itself (BG1) was built in not having factored the implementation of new sub-kits and such

IE, bows melt enemies in BG1 and not so much in BG2.. you also get a wide array of spells and HLAs in BG2 so sometimes its worth checking out builds that will happily transition better

Generally if you can make the best of each character you dont have to worry as much or youll learn a decent amount that youll even wanna replay the game again just to roll a better character

heres some tips:

• the lower AC the better (negative is better)
• THAC0 works the same
• Some enemies can only be hit by enchanted weapons, you will know if you have one if it has +1 or +3 next to the name
• Web (in BG1 anyways), Magic Missile, and Chromatic Orb (especially at high levels) rule
• Paladins will generally turn down rewards for quests, do not have them speak for the party unless you wanna turn down some schweet stuff
• Enemy wizards may duplicate themselves or buff themselves up, use Dispel to shred those defenses.. just make sure your buffed dudes arent close or theyll get Dispelled too
• use TAB to highlight stuff like chests in an area
• Use Q to quick save, this game will make you absolutely paranoid about getting rektd due to random dice rolls and youll probably regret not saving lol
• Mages destroy everything come BG2
• Try to have a wide array of buffs and protections spells to cover yourself from being charmed or poisoned
• Summons are great to lure some enemies or get some free hits in if you send them first

Are going to use the trilogy mod or just play modless?

Do you want to play a Good or Evil character?

Do you want to be a caster or a warrior?

Personally, I'm fond of the Cavalier and Inquisitor Paladin classes.

Cavalier has some very useful immunities to Fear, Charm, and Poison and can cast Remove Fear on your allies. These are especially powerful in BG1, where poison and fear are surprisingly common. They also get 20% resistance to Acid and Fire, two very common damage types.

Later, in BG2, they will get a bonus to hit and damage against dragons and demons, some of the tougher enemy types you'll find and they will also eventually be able to cast some Cleric spells.

Their only weakness is they can't use missile weapons, like bows and slings, however this weakness is nullified by the use of throwing axes.

Inquisitors can cast dispel magic at double their level and instantly, so they are extremely good at stripping away enemy buffs. The only concern is aiming the dispel to try to minimize dispelling your own buffs, but that isnt too hard. They can also cast True Sight, which let's them see through illusions and invisibility.

They are also immune to Hold Person and Charm spells, which is great.

They do give up the ability to cast Lay On Hands, cleric spells, and Turn Undead, which sucks, but you'll probably have a Cleric in your party to do the healing and Turning anyway.

The main reason I wouldn't recommend Inquisitor over Cavalier is you can recruit an Inquisitor party member very early on in BG2.

My personal build on my last trilogy run was a Cavalier that specialized in bastard swords, axes, and flails. And I recruited Keldorn, so I had both.

^what @Esrac said totally, you can totally go with that and have such a great and fun experience from start to finish

Ilishe posted...

They're old games with old mechanics. Sure you wanna do this?

I'm down for it, easy for me to adapt.

Esrac posted...

Are going to use the trilogy mod or just play modless?

Do you want to play a Good or Evil character?

Do you want to be a caster or a warrior?

Personally, I'm fond of the Cavalier and Inquisitor Paladin classes.

Cavalier has some very useful immunities to Fear, Charm, and Poison and can cast Remove Fear on your allies. These are especially powerful in BG1, where poison and fear are surprisingly common. They also get 20% resistance to Acid and Fire, two very common damage types.

Later, in BG2, they will get a bonus to hit and damage against dragons and demons, some of the tougher enemy types you'll find and they will also eventually be able to cast some Cleric spells.

Their only weakness is they can't use missile weapons, like bows and slings, however this weakness is nullified by the use of throwing axes.

Inquisitors can cast dispel magic at double their level and instantly, so they are extremely good at stripping away enemy buffs. The only concern is aiming the dispel to try to minimize dispelling your own buffs, but that isnt too hard. They can also cast True Sight, which let's them see through illusions and invisibility.

They are also immune to Hold Person and Charm spells, which is great.

They do give up the ability to cast Lay On Hands, cleric spells, and Turn Undead, which sucks, but you'll probably have a Cleric in your party to do the healing and Turning anyway.

The main reason I wouldn't recommend Inquisitor over Cavalier is you can recruit an Inquisitor party member very early on in BG2.

My personal build on my last trilogy run was a Cavalier that specialized in bastard swords, axes, and flails. And I recruited Keldorn, so I had both.

Running modless because it's easier on me. Not sure if I'm gonna be Good or Evil, prolly go Chaotic Neutral and see where that leads me. Seems casters are discouraged which is fine with me, but I do like more hybrid-style classes. Don't really want to play Paladin though =/ fun but not what I'm going for (no humans allowed)

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Ilishe posted...

They're old games with old mechanics. Sure you wanna do this?

When I beat Divinity Original Sin 2, I decided to try Baldurs gate (the first one). I just cannot get into it.

RedJackson posted...

^what @Esrac said totally, you can totally go with that and have such a great and fun experience from start to finish

Yeah. I think I eventually had my Paladin using Foebane + Defender of Easthaven, with Azuredge as his ranged weapon, to destroy those pesky undead. Between the upgraded Foebane draining enemy health on each hit, the damage resistance from DoEH, Armor of Faith, and Hardiness, he was very resilient.

I also had an Axe of the Unyielding upgraded for that Vorpal instant kill chance. Had Keldorn with Silver Sword when he wasn't using Carsomyr and Mr. ToB had Ravager. So, we had three melee with a chance to instant kill trash enemies each hit.

Blue_Dream87 posted...

I'm down for it, easy for me to adapt.

Running modless because it's easier on me. Not sure if I'm gonna be Good or Evil, prolly go Chaotic Neutral and see where that leads me. Seems casters are discouraged which is fine with me, but I do like more hybrid-style classes. Don't really want to play Paladin though =/ fun but not what I'm going for (no humans allowed)

Fair enough. Not everyone wants to play a human paladin.

I wouldn't say casters are discouraged. Mages and Sorcerors are probably the most powerful classes in the game, especially Sorceror. They just require more familiarity with the game to really take full advantage of their potential.

Warrior classes like paladin, barbarian, and fighter are a little friendly to beginners, because they're simple but effective.

If you want to be a non-human with a class that doesn't overlap too much with party members, I'd recommend a Fighter/Mage multiclass.

Funkydog posted...

If you want the romances, then will want human or half elf I believe, the short races don't get them but do get very nice bonuses for high con.

Depends on who he is romancing. The original romances require human mostly and sometimes elf or half elf i think

But the new romances added in enhanced edition can be romanced by any race I think

Can you dual class in this game? I picked Warlock initially but I wanna try making him more of a fighter as well.

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SwayM posted...

Can you dual class in this game? I picked Warlock initially but I wanna try making him more of a fighter as well.

Dual classing is a human thing, if you have enough of the classes stat you want to cross in to (17 I think?) all the other races get to multiclass instead. Warlock ain't a thing in 1 and 2.

Zikten posted...

But the new romances added in enhanced edition can be romanced by any race I think

Oh. Probably, never did those.

And yeah, mage is perfectly fine to do. Just got to be careful at the start is all really, but they quickly get very good and the crowd control with sleep/web combined with ranged weapons makes most encounters a breeze.

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The only reason I would caution a full Mage PC is the beginning of BG1 will probably be very frustrating. You're squishy enough as a warrior, but as a mage you'll more likely than not find yourself dying in one hit, using a sling until you get more than one or two casts per day, etc. But if you stick with it, it'll pay off later, because Mages get very powerful.

In Baldur's gate you should play as human fighter. Roll until you have enough points to get 18 in Strength, Dexterity and Constitution. Strength works oddly for fighters in that you then get a percentage after the 18. So it will look like this 18/56 or something similar. Make sure that the percentage is at least 85 or higher. There are books that will raise all your skills by one. One for each characteristic except for wisdom where you can find 3 .

You will wreck everyone. Just take longswords and darts. Put two points in darts and everything else in longswords.

You will also need to make sure your intelligence is at least 17 so you'll be rerolling for a while to find the perfect character. When you have those stats you can dual class your fighter to mage. Do so at level 9. You'll still be in BG 1 but you will have beaten the game and be playing siege of Dragonspear. If you don't have that expansion then you can do it very early in BG 2.

As a mage you will proceed to wreck everyone with spells. Unless you decide to wade in and chop with your longsword.

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Rolled me a gnome Fighter/Illusionist, after always avoiding the F/M multiclass. Went ahead and took proficiencies in shortbows and quarterstaves. Feel it'd be hilarious to use basic weapons and fuck peoples days up. Got to Beregost and my party be Me, Imoen, Viconia, and Kagain.

My God it's gonna take forever to level, glad I didn't go F/M/T

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