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Introduction
The following guide covers almost every aspect of the game. I have tried to include all magical items (at least all of them I am aware of!) and where to find them. Also sometimes I include tactics to fight some difficult encounters. Some quests can be solved in multiple ways depending on the way you choose to finish them and how much you will stick to the AD&D alignments (Good, Neutral, Evil). On such quests I usually include alternative ways of completing them.
Before starting, I want to mention I was greatly inspired by a walkthrough published in a bi-monthly magazine, PC Games, by Compupress. What I liked most in this walkthrough as compared to other walkthroughs on the Internet and other magazines is the very nice route it follows. Also I would like to thank Nassos Bellos who wrote the guide in Greek.
Races, Classes & Abilities
The essential characters for the team are: a Mage (preferably a Specialist), a Thief, one or (even better) two Fighters and a Cleric/Druid. Fighting from a distance is an important part, so equip all of your characters with the best bow or sling available (if of course their class allows it). The NPCs that you will meet cover all of the classes (I mean the basic ones, not a Fighter/Thief/Mage :-)
Bear in mind however that every NPC you meet will have about the same XP points as the average character in your team.
Alignment
Alignment is not as important as in real RPGs. You may hear various comments, like "Why did we just do that?" (I think Khalid says this one but I am not so sure..), but there is nothing more. Only in extreme cases, with a 18+ in reputation, will an evil NPC leave the group. Also if you have already high reputation and an evil NPC joins, he will not leave until the reputation changes (for example a quest that gives +1 rep).
I personally choose a Chaotic Good character, meaning that he is Good, but pays little attention to rules. If he must do something good he will do it, even if this is opposed to the law. For more information on Alignments see at Pg. 89 of the manual.
Character Creation
An important thing when creating your character is patience at the dice rolls. If you manage to get a score of around 90 or so, you will have a very good character. This will not only allow you to set the basic ability at maximum (ie. a cleric should have high Wisdom), but also other main abilities (such as DEX and STR). For more information on character creation see the appropriate section.
My character and my team
I started playing through the game and when I reached Chapter 3 I formatted the hard disk and lost all of my saves. Bad luck? No. When I restarted the game I had already met some NPCs appearing at the first chapters and knew what team I was going to make. I decided to be a fighter, mainly because none of the NPCs, apart from Minsc, are very good at fighting. So my character is a chaotic good with STR 18/00, DEX 19 (he is an elf), CON 17, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 9. If you add up the rolls the total is 83. It was not the best available (I had one around 97!), but he had a 18/00 at STR and so I decided to keep him. I kept Imoen as a leader with the purpose of dual-classing her to a specialist mage (she has INT 17) when she reached level 3 as a thief. By the way, the leader should always be the one with the highest CHA, because he will buy things cheaper and have reaction bonuses from all the NPCs in the game. Also dual-classed characters can have skils of both classes (initial and final) if the final class is at higher level from the previous one. In my case she would become a thief/mage when she reached the fourth level (as a mage). Keep in mind that only human race can dual-class characters.
So, we now have a fighter and a mage/thief. We wilI need another fighter and a Cleric/Druid. I decided not to take Khalid and Jaheira, mainly bacause Jaheira is a multiclass character and she is slow at level progressing after a while. Instead I took Minsc, a Chaotic Good Ranger at Nashkel and Branwen, a True Neutral Cleric at Nashkel's Carnival (the 'stoned princess' as Zeke says).
Because I wanted to have the ability to cast all spells (Conjurers as Imoen can't cast any spells like Idenify) I took a Bard, Garrick, found at Beregost. I personally believe that a Bard is needed in your party because, as the manual says, he is a Jack-of-all-trades. He is a fighter, a spellcaster, a thief and most importantly he has a high Lore ability (this means he can Identify items, like the 1st level mage spell). If you play through the game you will find out that a Bard, after he reaches 4th or 5th level can Identify almost every item. The only ones he cannot Identify are cursed ones (usually) or something more advanced (rarely).
Basic Intructions
In Baldur's Gate everything works with dice rolls, ranging from the dmage you deal an the hit points per level you get to what creature will a random encounter be. So, become used to exploiting the Save/Load spell. The most useful button is Q (Quicksave). This way you will know what monster is around the corner, you will be able to get the maximum hit points per level and be able to rest without the fear of wolves. Baldur's Gate is just a computer game, not a real RPG. Use it.
Also another commonly used option is pausing the game. It may seem at start that it is only a minor function of the game, but as your team grows bigger it becomes much more difficult to control them. After a while you will see that the whole game is based at a turn-based system, only with the difference that the round is per character (every character and monster has his own round).
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