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Baldur's Gate seriesBG1 EE: Some questions regarding fighter/mage and party setup.(21 posts)(21 posts)
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Posted June 05, 2017
Hi there

Im going to start a new BG1 EE Game. I already played BG1 back in 1998 and BG2 in 2008.
I have some questions regarding my party before i start a new game, i want a smooth run with a good working party.

- My PC is an fighter/illusionist gnome with 2 points in long swords and dual wilding.
What must have spells/items/skills should i get to make him as powerful as possible?

- Could this party setup work? i heared bows/ranged weapons are realy good in BG1.
PC Fighter/Illusionist gnome: melee damage and later on tank (with the right spells)
Yeslick or Branwen: tank / healer
Imoen: archer, going to dual class her to mage after geting full lock picking skill ( level 4/5?)
Coran: using him mainly as an archer, maybe for lock picking/traps.
Garrick: bard skills and archer
Neera: main nuke-caster , using slings
Most of them are available early on in game when im right.

- Is Imoen still able to use bows after dual classing to thief/mage? Should i dual class her right after she got 2 skill points in bows if i got Coran for lock picking and traps?

If there are other hints/tips and tricks please just feel free to post them :)
Posted June 05, 2017
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Enter1ch: Hi there

Im going to start a new BG1 EE Game. I already played BG1 back in 1998 and BG2 in 2008.
I have some questions regarding my party before i start a new game, i want a smooth run with a good working party.

- My PC is an fighter/illusionist gnome with 2 points in long swords and dual wilding.
What must have spells/items/skills should i get to make him as powerful as possible?

- Could this party setup work? i heared bows/ranged weapons are realy good in BG1.
PC Fighter/Illusionist gnome: melee damage and later on tank (with the right spells)
Yeslick or Branwen: tank / healer
Imoen: archer, going to dual class her to mage after geting full lock picking skill ( level 4/5?)
Coran: using him mainly as an archer, maybe for lock picking/traps.
Garrick: bard skills and archer
Neera: main nuke-caster , using slings
Most of them are available early on in game when im right.

- Is Imoen still able to use bows after dual classing to thief/mage? Should i dual class her right after she got 2 skill points in bows if i got Coran for lock picking and traps?

If there are other hints/tips and tricks please just feel free to post them :)
If you want to play as a melee fighter/mage, the spell loadout is pretty simple since you can't cast spells in armour. Just take summoning spells and the longer-lasting defensive spells (like mirror image, blur, shield, protection from missiles, etc...), cast them before fights, then equip your armor and go melee.

BG isn't that hard so pretty much any party setup can work. And yes, archery is pretty strong in BG 1, especially at the beginning. Personally, I wouldn't dual-class Imoen unless you want to for RP reasons, she's the best thief in the game, and Neera and your PC should be able to cover any spellcasting needs. Mages aren't that strong in BG 1 anyway.
The way dual-classing works, after dualling her to mage, she'd become a lvl 1 mage and lose all her thief abilities. She'd only recover them when her level in mage became higher than her thief level, and then she'd be able to use bows and do anything else she could as a thief. She can only get 1 skill point in bows though, only warrior classes (paladins, fighters, etc...) and a few kits can get more than 1 skill point in any weapon.
Posted June 05, 2017
You have 4 arcane casters, looks boring. It might be more fun if you let Imoen stay a thief.
Posted June 06, 2017
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kmonster: You have 4 arcane casters, looks boring. It might be more fun if you let Imoen stay a thief.
I dunno. I think he should swap Coran and Branwen for Dynaheir and Minsc, get Minsc killed, then recruit Xan. Maybe bring Xzar instead of Xan, leaving Montaron in a ditch somewhere. I'd say just use Edwin instead of Xan or Xzar, but Neera might have some HP troubles.

"Now Enter1ch leads! Fireballs for everyone!"
Posted June 06, 2017
One question is "Are there enough scrolls for x mages?"
I remember waiting forever to get my first fireball scroll and a second scroll of many good spells only appeared inside the city of Balrur's Gate.
Posted June 06, 2017
I've never played EE. In vanilla BG1, most consider missile weapons to be the most powerful. You can attack from afar and let the enemies come to you, thinning out their ranks and even eliminating them before they reach you. This is especially important with early-level characters, whom have not a lot of Hit Points, not a lot of spells, and are still developing their Armor Class.

So, you might consider having your gnome start with two points in a sword proficiency, and two points in a ranged weapon proficiency. You'll get another proficiency point every three Fighter levels, so you can still max your dual-wielding proficiency by level 6, by which time you'll be ready to "tank".
Post edited June 06, 2017 by CFM
Posted June 06, 2017
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greeklover: One question is "Are there enough scrolls for x mages?"
This is a good question. But I think it'd be fine. I had Imoen dualled to Mage with Dynaheir, and I had a ton of extra scrolls for most of the spells. Some spells you might have to buy an additional copy (from High Hedge for the first half of the game, and Sorcerous Sundries for the second half), but I think this'll be the rare as opposed to the norm.

Four arcane spell-casters would be an issue in Icewind Dale, but I'm thinking not nearly as much for BG1.

Remember, the gnome illusionist gets first dibs on the Illusion and Enchantment spells!

And maybe the Wild Mage is a bit gun-shy with certain other spells. Role-play it up a little.
Post edited June 06, 2017 by CFM
Posted June 06, 2017
In vanilla BG1, most consider arcane spell-casters to be the least powerful. At lower levels, they definitely don't get many spells per day, compared to the arrows and bolts that the other classes can expend.

But four arcane spell-casters, means four arcane wand-users. In my play-through of BG1, I found a whole lot of wands. An arcane-heavy party can have a lot of combat options by mid-game with all the wands that can be found.

But this can mean some wand management.

When fully-charged, wands will have 20 charges (someone correct me if I am wrong).

But some (most?) wands found during your travels will not be fully-charged.

The selling price of a wand to a merchant will depend on the number of charges that particular wand currently contains. Expend a charge, and the selling price of that wand with that same merchant will drop.

If you sell a wand to a merchant, and then buy it back, the wand will be re-charged back to 20 charges!

A little bit of wand management and gold expenditures (as if anybody was ever poor playing a CRPG).... but four arcane wand-users can turn a combat zone into quite a fireworks display, to be sure.
Post edited June 06, 2017 by CFM
Posted June 06, 2017
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CFM: When fully-charged, wands will have 20 charges (someone correct me if I am wrong).
In BG1 (vanilla) all wands have 100 charges when full, except for the Wand of Fire which has only 50. But shops and stores are limited to their pre-set for selling, which is often only 20 charges, probably because of cost (the more charges the dearer the wand).
Posted June 07, 2017
Make sure to max out str, dex and con. I'd start with the sleep spell since it is very powerful in the first half of the game. Friends is also a nice spell to start with so you can get items cheaper and better rewards. Keep the identify scroll from the prologue for yourself and memorize it.
Posted June 07, 2017
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CFM: When fully-charged, wands will have 20 charges (someone correct me if I am wrong).
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Hickory: In BG1 (vanilla) all wands have 100 charges when full, except for the Wand of Fire which has only 50. But shops and stores are limited to their pre-set for selling, which is often only 20 charges, probably because of cost (the more charges the dearer the wand).
That interesting, I did not know that. Good to know too, as selling a wand too early and buying it back might end up yielding less charges. (I wonder if I ever did that during my game.)

Thanks again for the intel Hickory!
Posted June 07, 2017
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CFM: as selling a wand too early and buying it back might end up yielding less charges.
No, either I wasn't clear (probable) or you misunderstood. The wands that stores already have in-stock are the limited charge wands. If/when you sell a wand to a store it automatically becomes fully charged: your 'empty' wand is replaced by a newly spawned, full version. That is why selling and buying back "recharges" them. Sorry for any confusion.
Post edited June 07, 2017 by Hickory
Posted June 07, 2017
so i should get another mage instead of neera and not dualing imoen?

What else mage could be fine?
Why are arcane mages so bad, only because of they have one less spell per level?
Post edited June 07, 2017 by Enter1ch
Posted June 07, 2017
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CFM: as selling a wand too early and buying it back might end up yielding less charges.
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Hickory: No, either I wasn't clear (probable) or you misunderstood. The wands that stores already have in-stock are the limited charge wands. If/when you sell a wand to a store it automatically becomes fully charged: your 'empty' wand is replaced by a newly spawned, full version. That is why selling and buying back "recharges" them. Sorry for any confusion.
Ah yes got it, yeah I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing that up.
Posted June 07, 2017
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Enter1ch: so i should get another mage instead of neera and not dualing imoen?

What else mage could be fine?
Why are arcane mages so bad, only because of they have one less spell per level?
I'm not familiar with Neera because I am not familiar with BG EE, but a Wild Mage does sounds interesting.

But alas, I'm too old school. I'd prefer Edwin or Xzar or Dynaheir... or any of the original crew. Especially since they are Specialist Mages, which means they can memorize an extra spell per spell level, per day.

And I vote for you to dual Imoen! It'll match how she is in BG2, for continuity.

And it's not that Mages are bad. They just don't have much to offer at level 1. At level 1, a Mage can memorize a single Level 1 spell per day (two Level 1 spells if a Specialist Mage), and hasn't yet found many scrolls to copy into their spellbook... so their initial options for contributing to the party are limited early on.

But this is offset by their immense power at later levels. Stick with thy fledgling casters of magicks, and thou shalt be rewarded.

(And remember, wands can give your fledgling casters more options at early levels.)
Post edited June 08, 2017 by CFM
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Baldur's Gate seriesBG1 EE: Some questions regarding fighter/mage and party setup.(21 posts)(21 posts)
(21 posts)