Baldur's Gate Trilogy Thread

[Anonymous No.5255962]

>favorite class
>favorite companion
>favorite party

Gonna start a BGT playthrough with SCS and Ascension,in BG1 i will be a berserker and in BG2 i will dual-class to thief.
Hope i don't get my ass kicked.

[Anonymous No.5255967]

Beamdog is a guilty of a number of different crimes. Here are the major ones.

1. The Enhanced Editions are essentially a collection of free mods that had existed for nearly twenty years. Beamdog gathered them all up, slapped "Enhanced Edition" on it and resold it as a new product. There's very very little in the Enhanced Editions that wasn't already out there, and most of it is stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines).

2. The games didn't sell so well and the originals were still far outselling them, even twenty years after their release, so Beamdog had EVERY digital distributor stop selling the originals and ONLY sell the Enhanced Edition. If you want to buy a digital copy of the originals now, they're "bundled" into the Enhanced Edition. Now these scumbags can claim sales from people just wanting to buy the originals as their own.

3. The infamous 600+ bugs on launch. The game is still riddled with bugs (as even a perfunctory glance over their forums show) but the fact that it took nearly two years for them to get a game that had been working fine for 20 years to reach playability after launch is telling of their wild incompetence.

4. This is where we get to the ones that really piss people off. Beamdog couldn't just remaster the game, they had to fuck with the content too. New dialogue for existing NPCs like Jaheira, Viconia, Safana, Kivan, et cetera was written in to make the characters more progressive and leftist friendly. Beamdog shills will argue that "adding content isn't changing content XDDD" but it is when the new content changes the core personalities of the existing characters. This is in addition to adding a slew of their own LGBT (hitherto there were none in Baldur's Gate) NPCs, all flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite their cancer.

5. Siege of motherfucking Dragonspear.

[Anonymous No.5256017]

>>5255962
>>5255962
>BG1
>Berserker

KYS

[Anonymous No.5256018]

>>5255967
baste and bogpilled

that said, there's already a BG thread
>>5255347

[Anonymous No.5256027]

>>5255962

Cleric is objectively the best class in unmodded BG1 - can wear any armour, good HP to tank, cast heals, self buff to 19 STR (if you had 18 to begin with), hold person is crazy good, dispel magic and summons make the game a lot easier.

Second best choice, if you want to be munchy, is archer (fighter specializing in bows), because of how good bows are in this game.

[Anonymous No.5257541]

I played chaotic neutral bard in the original and it was pretty fun. Favorite companion? Maybe Imoen, or Edwin because he was an edgy fag.

[Anonymous No.5257578]

>>5256017
>hurr I am a purist, you can't make entire trilogy runs with these kits because they are not in the original rules hurr
no u kys
>>5256027
Archer is less and less useful throughout BG2, and even the bow of Gesen (if you even went shortbows) can't make it competitive with melee fighters after BG2 starts

[Anonymous No.5257664]

Where do you get the original non-"Enhanced" version?

[Anonymous No.5257719]

>>5257578
>Archer is less and less useful throughout BG2, and even the bow of Gesen (if you even went shortbows) can't make it competitive with melee fighters after BG2 starts
This is untrue. Archer scales extremely well all the way throughout SoA and his damage dealing capability only starts falling off somewhere in ToB, and even there he is merely "very competent" rather than "king of martials".
There's actually very, very few enemies immune to weaponry with a +4 enhancement, which is what Gesen and Firetooth crossbow fire naturally.
Yes, this means the Archer can readily fight Kangaxx.
On top of that, Archer actually tends to outdo melee martials in many forms of combat simply because he fires instantly without wasting some of his time on closing the gap, and his DPR isn't hindered in any way by crowd control effects present on the floor or simply getting stuck between other NPCs. He sees something and he snipes it.
For everything else that has no or meager immunities, you can equip the Tuigan which is available almost instantly and grants you +1 APR. APR is the best way to increase damage dealing ability in the game.
>if you even went shortbows
You had better, because Long Bows are about on par with Slings in BG2, and Slings are primarily associated with plate wearers using a shield (stronger defense), and some receive the Strength bonus (depends on EE or not, without EE only a few choice ones like Everard's or Seeking).
The Archer doesn't need the stronger damage die or a composite long bow throughout BG1 (if you're playing TuTu/BGT) to wreck faces due to his constant scaling, so there's hardly a reason to make the relatively short-term investment into Long Bows.
What is also often overlooked is that Archers actually can go melee by the time they are asked to (late SoA/ToB), because they still get Ranger THAC0 progression, free points into dual-wielding, and can still achieve proficiency in any weapon.

[Anonymous No.5257770]

>>5257719
Don't really agree, improved haste on fighters is available in early-mid SoA and neither Gesen nor Firetooth can compete in terms of damage output with the 10APR offered by a dual wielding combo with belm/kundane and whatever other main hand weapon (on that note, daystar will tear Kangaxx a new asshole in half a round once the mages have done their work). Two handed weapons are probably even igger damage dealer, be it halberds (which become good a bit later, probably in the underdark) or two handed swords.
As for the time "wasted" on closing a gap, boots of speed and improved haste make the point somewhat moot since the movement is fast enough to barely waste any APR.

Not saying that bows are useless, at all, it's just a different playstyle that's equally viable, but I can hardly see any configuration under which an archer would deal more or even as much damage than a melee fighter with the same buffs.
They are of course competitive with melee fighters with the right micro anyway, simply not in terms of raw damage output per round.

[Anonymous No.5257773]

>>5257770
except in early and mid BG1 of course*

[Anonymous No.5257784]

>>5255967
>Dumb 'Beamdog is a guilty ..' poster
Jesusfuckingcrist can you maybe stop it please?
does every fucking BG thread need this pasta?

[Anonymous No.5257791]

>>5257784
yes
>>5257664
if you don't want to give beamdog any money, either buy it on ebay or pirate it (you can find the now removed GOG version on freegogpcgames)
if you don't mind giving beamdog its shekels, then the originals are included when you buy the EE

[Anonymous No.5257802]

>>5257770
>Don't really agree, improved haste on fighters is available in early-mid SoA and neither Gesen nor Firetooth can compete in terms of damage output with the 10APR
In my opinion you're really underrating the bonus 1d8 lightning damage from Gesen's in what basically consitutes a constant on-hit proc.
For sheer APR, you can reach 10 APR by level 13 with Tuigan and Improved Haste; as mentioned, you don't need the high Gesen enchantment at all times, and the Tuigan setup (along with occasional magic arrows from stores and loot) can and will keep you well throughout ToB. On top of that, however many APR you stack on an Archer will also keep on stacking the debuffs from Aimed Shot, and you should still have no troubles punching down Stoneskins.
You also have Tansheron, which is available really early, fires +3, and is therefore a fantastic choice for taking down, say, Iron Golems until Cromwell.

I do know melees will generally outpace ranged characters in most situations and that you are provided many outside benefits from dual-wielding, be it vorpal effects or passive defensive / offensive boosts in your off-hand.
However, I don't think any party would regret picking up an Archer - you still dish out damage on demand, with relatively little micro or prep necessary. I could never complain about an Archer in SoA at all. Their killing speed doesn't get entirely eclipsed by melee until way, way later in the game (by which time I find my Archers to have paid off very handsomely, and they still don't stop contributing), and Archers are still solid for removing some enemies that are just inconvenient to engage in melee, like SCS beholders or Mariliths (very low AC, poisoning attacks, PfMW+Stoneskin).
Greater Deathblow on a Tuigan archer can also be a surprisingly fast screen clear, because a lot of powerful creatures actually have low levels.
Also, Archers are worth having all the way in ToB simply because of stacking Called Shot.

[Anonymous No.5257815]

>>5257770
>>5257802
But all things considered, I think we agree that a melee dual-wielder is gonna outpace a ranged character in sheer damage most of the time, barring the few cases I wrote about earlier.
What I'm merely trying to convey is that a lot of people think the Archer starts falling off really early into SoA, but I think that it takes them until end-game to really slow down, and they still remain insane in ToB as debuffers and snipers, a nice damage + utility mix.
Tuigan (fed with enough magical ammo) or Gesen Archer doesn't waste any time opening on a mage and near-instantly ridding him of Mirror Image / Stoneskin, after all, especially if dispelling ammo is in play.

[Anonymous No.5257858]

>>5255967
I love this pasta. I don't understand why there is always some faggot who gets so triggered by it

[Anonymous No.5258790]

>>5255967
Don't forget the great intro replaced by shitty flash animation.

[Anonymous No.5260617]

>>5257858
that's why it's good pasta.