Baldur's Gate 1 questions

[Severian Silk]

I changed Imoen into a mage at level 5, but now her thief skills no longer work. Did I make a mistake somewhere?

 

[octavius]

Yes, you didn't RTFM carefully enough.
But don't worry; she will get back her thieving skills once she reaches level 6 as a mage.
In the meantime, use Montaron (excellent backstabber), Safana (gives excellent blowjobs) or Coran (excellent archer) for your thiefly needs.

 

[Severian Silk]

I thought the highest level possible in this game was 10.

 

[Abelian]

I thought the highest level possible in this game was 10.

You're right, but the levels do not have a linear relationship with xp.
BG1 has an experience cap of 89,000, raised to 161,000 in TOSC. You can still reach mage level 7 (60,000 xp) which is max level anyway (level 8 is 90,000 xp, so unreachable).
With the expansion, the xp cap is raised to 161,000, so the max mage level will be 9 at 135,000 xp. Level 10 is 250,000 xp, so it's over the limit.
Basically, those 5 thief levels only require 10,000 xp, which is not enough to prevent you from maximizing her mage level.
Here are the XP tables.

 

[Jaesun]

Baldur's Gate II Imoen is what... 7th level thief?

 

[Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Baldur's Gate II Imoen is what... 7th level thief?

Mage 8/Thief 7

 

[Jaesun]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

 

[Abelian]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

I could see playing the canonical party once, then importing the PC into BG2, but to me, part of the fun is trying out different party builds. Here's some interesting BG1 parties.

 

[Jacqueline]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

you replay baldurs gate 1? isn't that very boring considering the big empty maps not to mention youmust have a lot of time on your hands. how long does each replay take you?

 

[octavius]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

you replay baldurs gate 1? isn't that very boring considering the big empty maps not to mention youmust have a lot of time on your hands. how long does each replay take you?

'sup, DraQ?

 

[Delterius]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

Does BGT take the stats from every character in the game or does it just make use of those you bring with you through the transition? Maybe you could not take Imoen with you to the final battle/transition (like, 'pretend that you care for the little shit and leave her behind for her safety' if you need a justification for it). That way you can get a 7/8 Imoen that was caught by Irenicus on the side.

 

[Jaesun]

you replay baldurs gate 1? isn't that very boring considering the big empty maps not to mention youmust have a lot of time on your hands. how long does each replay take you?

I only replay it like every couple of years or so. I still like the Original Baldurs Gate (and in the original engine, I can't stand the retarded spawns in TuTU and BGT. I wish they could finally fucking figure out the original encounter tables, of which no one yeat has figured out). And I like to do everything, so I think a game lasts me for probably around 80+ hours or so.

 

[Jaesun]

Does BGT take the stats from every character in the game or does it just make use of those you bring with you through the transition? Maybe you could not take Imoen with you to the final battle/transition (like, 'pretend that you care for the little shit and leave her behind for her safety' if you need a justification for it). That way you can get a 7/8 Imoen that was caught by Irenicus on the side.

Yes. BGT will take your characters exactly as they are from BG to BGII, all stats (like raising Imoens INT by 1 with that book you can find).The last time I play BG/BGII was in the BGT engine. I just cannot fucking stand those retarded spawns they have for Baldurs Gate. I really really liked that transition they do from BG to BGII. I thought it was done well, and made sense.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

That's what I thought. When ever I replay Baldur's Gate, I always play a cannon party. Switching her to mage at 7th level thief is very very painful....

you replay baldurs gate 1? isn't that very boring considering the big empty maps not to mention youmust have a lot of time on your hands. how long does each replay take you?

'sup, DraQ?

Jacqueline is Andahaira.

 

[Severian Silk]

Wow, bows are really overpowered in this game! I have 3 sometimes 4 archers and they nearly one-shot a lot of enemies. My tanks on the other hand can't seem to hit anything.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Wow, bows are really overpowered in this game! I have 3 sometimes 4 archers and they nearly one-shot a lot of enemies. My tanks on the other hand can't seem to hit anything.

It's not about bows having a better to hit chance (if you have 18 DEX and 18/** STR it should be around the same all other things being equal), it's about them adding one extra attack per round (which makes a huge difference, especially in BG) which gave you that illusion.

You see, BG has "fake" attack animations for melee weapons (until you get to around 3 attacks per round IIRC, at which point animation starts corresponding with what is actually happening). For example if your char has 1 attack per round with a melee weapon, you'll still see him swing the weapon say 2-3 times per round but only one of them will represent an actual attempt (be it a hit or miss) and/or when you char has 2 attacks per round with a melee weapon every other weapon swing will represent an actual attack.

To avoid confusion, I suggest you go to gameplay->feedback and then toggle "to hit rolls" so you know when your char is actually attacking.

 

[Severian Silk]

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

[Abelian]

Wow, bows are really overpowered in this game! I have 3 sometimes 4 archers and they nearly one-shot a lot of enemies. My tanks on the other hand can't seem to hit anything.

BG1 had a slower walk speed*, so bows had a chance to hit more times before enemies got into melee range. Also, everything had much fewer HP in BG1, so you can one-shot many enemies if lucky.

*This only applies if you're not playing BG Trilogy or Tutu.

 

[aleph]

I only replay it like every couple of years or so. I still like the Original Baldurs Gate (and in the original engine, I can't stand the retarded spawns in TuTU and BGT. I wish they could finally fucking figure out the original encounter tables, of which no one yeat has figured out). And I like to do everything, so I think a game lasts me for probably around 80+ hours or so.

I never figured out what's supposed to be so bad about the spawns in BGT.

 

[Severian Silk]

Is BGT balanced well? It seems popular, but some people say that people should play BG1 in its original form as intended.

 

[Sensuki]

Rangers also get an extra attack to simulate two weapon fighting in Vanilla BG1/TotSC.

 

[dukeofwhales]

Is BGT balanced well? It seems popular, but some people say that people should play BG1 in its original form as intended.

Overall I think the pros outweigh the cons for any BG1-in-BG2-engine conversion. I actually think BGEE is the best of them, even though the small amount of Beamdog content I experienced in the game in my playthrough was well below par, both from a game design and writing standpoint.

 

[octavius]

I can't imagine playing BG1 without TuTu or BGT, as that would mean no BG1 NPC Project or Sword Coast Stratagems, the main mods that elevate BG1 to greatness.

 

[Abelian]

According to the elf race description in the BG1 and BG2 manuals, "they are very skilled in the use of the bow and long sword." I think I read somewhere that this means elves get +1 proficiency when using a long sword or a long bow, but I'm not sure if it was ever implemented. Can anybody confirm or deny this?

Edit: according to this, the elf long sword and bow and halfling slingshot bonuses were never implemented in BG2, but still left in the manual. The link also features some Taluntain posts from 13 years ago. I'm still unsure about BG1.

 

[Xor]

According to the elf race description in the BG1 and BG2 manuals, "they are very skilled in the use of the bow and long sword." I think I read somewhere that this means elves get +1 proficiency when using a long sword or a long bow, but I'm not sure if it was ever implemented. Can anybody confirm or deny this?

In AD&D I'm pretty sure they were just automatically proficient with those weapons, but that wasn't implemented in the IE games.

Is BGT balanced well? It seems popular, but some people say that people should play BG1 in its original form as intended.

Baldur's Gate 2 is a superior game to BG1 in pretty much every way, and the engine improvements make BG1 a much more tolerable experience. I wholeheartedly recommend BGT (and the BG2 fixpack) even if you don't want to use any other mods.