Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[Lacrymas]

There's another patch in the works atm, they are claiming to have fixed over 500 bugs. In a 20 year-old game. Which have mostly been already fixed before they reintroduced them.

 

[Sacred82]

k

so you grogs would still go with original + mods?

kind of a balancefag here (within D&D limits)

 

[Lacrymas]

You should use mods in both cases. What to go for is another matter. If you are planning on using Tutu, then I'd just wait a bit for their patch, I don't really see the benefit going through all the trouble to set up a Tutu installation when that is already done by them. The game is stable enough and you can mod the Beamdog NPCs out and UI if you want. Some people will put me to the torch for saying this, but I just don't see any benefits for going original BG1 if you are going to use the BG2 engine anyway, you are just going to have to waste more time doing it. If someone can provide any substantial arguments for not using the EE in this context, I'm all ears. It's also not about giving Beamdog money, as you can easily pirate the EE. I guess the blurry graphics is a thing, but some people report the blurriness gone if you use the Alternate Renderer, but YMMV. I also suggest trying SoD once, it's an okay-ish D&D romp with the good ol' IE combat.

 

[ga♥]

I think you forgot that you posted some hours ago an argument for not using the EE; the graphics.

 

[Lacrymas]

That wasn't an argument against using the EE. Well, it was a bit, but I wasn't condemning the whole thing with it and I'm not sure whether BG1 has the blurriness. They might also fix the blurriness with their next patch, who knows. If that bothers you tremendously, then yeah, go through the trouble of setting up Tutu.

 

[ga♥]

Do thieves have traps in the original Bg1 I honestly don't remember?

 

[Sacred82]

You should use mods in both cases. What to go for is another matter. If you are planning on using Tutu, then I'd just wait a bit for their patch, I don't really see the benefit going through all the trouble to set up a Tutu installation when that is already done by them. The game is stable enough and you can mod the Beamdog NPCs out and UI if you want. Some people will put me to the torch for saying this, but I just don't see any benefits for going original BG1 if you are going to use the BG2 engine anyway, you are just going to have to waste more time doing it. If someone can provide any substantial arguments for not using the EE in this context, I'm all ears. It's also not about giving Beamdog money, as you can easily pirate the EE. I guess the blurry graphics is a thing, but some people report the blurriness gone if you use the Alternate Renderer, but YMMV. I also suggest trying SoD once, it's an okay-ish D&D romp with the good ol' IE combat.

I actually already own the originals and the EE. Well for BG I would probably go original as I don't really want BG2 stuff in there (much like I don't want the additional classes in IWD EE). So it's mostly BG2 + fixpacks vs. BG2 EE.

One appeal of fixpacks is of course that I can choose to not include tweaks and subjective alterations I don't agree with. But making i.e. abilities, skills and spells work like they are supposed to work is a huge thing for me.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

That wasn't an argument against using the EE. Well, it was a bit, but I wasn't condemning the whole thing with it and I'm not sure whether BG1 has the blurriness. They might also fix the blurriness with their next patch, who knows. If that bothers you tremendously, then yeah, go through the trouble of setting up Tutu.

Well, it's not like Tutu is terribly difficult to set up, really.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's not difficult, but it's time consuming. At least that's what I remember, I've only played the original or EE BG1 lately and haven't set up Tutu in a while. For BG2, I don't see a reason to go for EE tbh, unless you want Beamdog's NPCs and additional kits.

 

[octavius]

TuTu is obsolete.
BGT is a better option. And use the Big World Setup if using many mods.

 

[ga♥]

Do thieves have traps in the original Bg1 I honestly don't remember?

Could someone answer? If the answer is NO, then that alone would be a good reason to not use the EE.

 

[Parabalus]

You should use mods in both cases. What to go for is another matter. If you are planning on using Tutu, then I'd just wait a bit for their patch, I don't really see the benefit going through all the trouble to set up a Tutu installation when that is already done by them. The game is stable enough and you can mod the Beamdog NPCs out and UI if you want. Some people will put me to the torch for saying this, but I just don't see any benefits for going original BG1 if you are going to use the BG2 engine anyway, you are just going to have to waste more time doing it. If someone can provide any substantial arguments for not using the EE in this context, I'm all ears. It's also not about giving Beamdog money, as you can easily pirate the EE. I guess the blurry graphics is a thing, but some people report the blurriness gone if you use the Alternate Renderer, but YMMV. I also suggest trying SoD once, it's an okay-ish D&D romp with the good ol' IE combat.

I actually already own the originals and the EE. Well for BG I would probably go original as I don't really want BG2 stuff in there (much like I don't want the additional classes in IWD EE). So it's mostly BG2 + fixpacks vs. BG2 EE.

One appeal of fixpacks is of course that I can choose to not include tweaks and subjective alterations I don't agree with. But making i.e. abilities, skills and spells work like they are supposed to work is a huge thing for me.

The additions in Bg2 EE aren't horrible like in Bg1:EE, the area loot feature and no loading screens are enough of a reason to prefer the EE for me. You can use Big World Setup for both, EE might have a few more recent mod version.

Do thieves have traps in the original Bg1 I honestly don't remember?

Could someone answer? If the answer is NO, then that alone would be a good reason to not use the EE.

No, they come with Bg2 engine.

 

[Lacrymas]

If you don't want to use anything from BG2 in 1, you won't go for the EE, obviously. I guess there's the benefit of area loot, improved pathfinding and no loading screens for BG2 EE.

 

[ga♥]

Well, ignoring kits is easy (just don't select them at char creation) but ignoring an ability (traps) seems harder.
And it's pretty breaking tbqh, more than kits.

Insta win vs sarevok, drizzt, or any battle.

 

[Parabalus]

Well, ignoring kits is easy (just don't select them at char creation) but ignoring an ability (traps) seems harder.
And it's pretty breaking tbqh, more than kits.

Insta win vs sarevok, drizzt, or any battle.

Just don't click the button .

It's not quite as silly as you'd think tho, since at low levels you have 1 use/day with <30% chance, and you kinda want FT/OL points on the first levels. The damage also scales with levels, SCS stuff I think.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's only insta-win if you stack the traps on top of each other by rest spamming.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

rest spamming

there really should be a mod to add a supply requirement to prevent rest spamming.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Do thieves have traps in the original Bg1 I honestly don't remember?

By now in EE, I won't be surprised if some of the thieves are traps.

 

[Theldaran]

Well, offscreen invincible summons > traps.

Tfw Sarevok is vanquished by a band of kobolds and hobgoblins.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

By now in EE, I won't be surprised if some of the thieves are traps.

EE has that ridiculously OP "shadow dancer".

Because stopping time is somehow a thief power?

 

[Theldaran]

By now in EE, I won't be surprised if some of the thieves are traps.

Because stopping time is somehow a thief power?

It's an Amber Scott power

 

[Parabalus]

By now in EE, I won't be surprised if some of the thieves are traps.

EE has that ridiculously OP "shadow dancer".

Because stopping time is somehow a thief power?

The kit is garbage (worse than base) tho.

It's not a "time stop" since you can't interact with anything, just the same graphics. The EE also have the "time stop effect" when you pause with spacebar.

 

[Piotrovitz]

The kit is garbage (worse than base) tho.

This.

Shadow dancer kit is utter shit, since you can't do anything during his time stop ability

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

lol, I loaded it up once and thought it was OP, so I never played with it. but I guess it sucks for completely different reasons.

 

[Pizzashoes]

You're telling me the *teleports behind you* class wasn't well designed?

Spoiler

Shadowdancers can harness the power of magic to increase their stealth abilities. Enigmatic and dangerous, these uniquely skilled Thieves are able to blend seamlessly into the shadows in ways that a normal Thief cannot, striking without warning - sometimes with supernatural speed.

Advantages:

• +10 bonus to Hide In Shadows and Move Silently
• Hide In Plain Sight: A Shadowdancer may hide in shadows even while being observed
• May cast Shadowstep once per day. Gains one use at level 5 and an additional use every 5 levels thereafter. Step into the Shadow Plane and move for 7 seconds while others are frozen in time. The Shadowdancer cannot attack, cast spells, or use items while in the Shadow Plane and cannot use thief skills except Find Traps/Detect Illusion, Hide In Shadows. Items stolen from chests while shadowstepping will not raise any alarms.
• Slippery Mind: -1 bonus to Saving Throws
• Shadow Form (High Level Ability): Temporarily transposes some of the user's tissue with shadow-material, making the subject partially incorporeal. For the next 5 rounds, all physical attacks directed against the Shadowdancer only deal 50% of their normal damage. During this time, the Shadowdancer is also under the effects of Improved Invisibility and cannot be directly targeted by spells
• Shadow Maze (High Level Ability): Opens a temporary gateway to a small pocket within the Plane of Shadow. All enemies within 10 feet of the Shadowdancer must make a Save vs. Spell at a +4 penalty or become trapped inside a shadowy labyrinth as per the Maze spell
• Shadow Twin (High Level Ability): Creates an almost exact duplicate of the Shadowdancer for 2 turns. The duplicate is created at 60% of the level at which the Shadowdancer is currently on. It has all the abilities that the Shadowdancer would have at that level. It also has 60% of the Hit Points of the Shadowdancer. The duplicate is fully under the control of the Shadowdancer

Disadvantages:

• Alignment restricted to any non-lawful
• Backstab multiplier is one less than an unkitted Thief, cannot backstab until level 5
• May only distribute 20 skill points per level (30 at level 1) among thieving skills
• May not use Set Snare ability, may not use Set Spike Trap, Set Exploding Trap, Set Time Trap HLAs
• Has three Prime Requisites For Dual-Classing: Strength, Dexterity (already has a min. requirement of 15) and Charisma

This had to have been written by a child.