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Vanilla game only. Both classic and EE are valid. Bonus content (the Icewind Dale shop, and the other pre-order shop) is valid.

You must play solo (if you make anyone join for equipment, you must immediately release them after emptying their inventory).

Your character must have minimal stats. Just go to character creation in EE, and roll the stats to their minimum, then click ok. Likely works under classic too.

You should preferable do the whole trilogy.

You shall tell what you did and if anything interresting is involed how.

Any race is valid. The ultimate class/race combination is of course human monk. Possibly.

If you get stuck, given random encounters is a thing, you can add exp through console, but this should be last case scennario. (Remember your game's exp-limit.)

Also, to lessen the frustration of 3 STR and such, in BG1 you can have infinite gold after you leave Candlekeep, and in BG2 after you manage to leave the city. Because you can rolll an infinite amount of random encounters, where you finish off 1+ enemy, and pick up its random 1+ gold. The challenge is about fun, not grinding.

Here are class/race combinations I see giving the highest stats, thus highest chance:
- elf ranger (I'll start this, but feel free to do the same)
- halfling cleric
- gnome thief
- half-elf fighter/druid (this'd tick both fighter and druid for the challenge)
- halfling barbarian
- half elf bard
- human paladin
- human monk
- sorcerer/mage elf (likely some multiclass elf. Beware, that the intelligence barrier will cut off most of your casting options, I mean spell levels!)

I'm presonaly most interrested in a mage run. It'll likely hoard scrolls, possibly wands.

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Ranger has a pretty ok STR anyway, so we'll see. Did all of Candlekeep without any fuss. Of course the rewards were pretty low, given the pretty bad CHA, at least the elf rises it to 8, so it's not abysmal.
Too bad INT will need the Tome to buff it to 9 though, I wanned to experiment right away, but whatever.
As kits are heavily encouraged, I picked Archer, and will rely on bows exclusively. Very annoying though you can't start with more than 2 pip in any weapon.
Bought studded leather and longbow from the shop, as well as helmet. Short bow and leather would be available at Gorian's body, but as long as I can carry stuff, I'll go for the best.
Of course a directive will be to get the STR-gloves, lacking any other option for a STR-boost in BG1. Well, at least I don't know about any infinite stock of STR-potions, and at the moment there's neither spell to rely on.
Should have spent the rest of the money on potions, but that's not very big issue, obviously.
Using bow, the belt-ogre was delt with as soon as got into the area.
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the survivability against the first Assassin is pretty good. The guards take care most of it anyway, and there's stealth. Not to mention, you can walk back after the Fear spell expires (or you saved), and shoot an arrow, maybe two to him. Don't stand around longer though, he spares the magic missiles for ye.
Btw, this run is already interresting, as I can't just bash open everything. Not to mention, because of CON is not 18+, seems there'll be an everpresent need to sleep.
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Beregost is fine. OBviously send away the wild mage companion, as far as I see she has no item to gain from her quests. Unlike later with the monk, who Beamdog in their infinite wisdom totaly ruined. A good point would be to hire him asap, get the STR-belt, then temrinate the questline. But you can't get that item until entering BG, which is the same time you get the STR gloves. Sure, you can be marginaly better with the belt still, but c'mon!
For the assassination attempt, lure the guy out of the inn. In EE the enemy do not duplicate, what is a plus.
For Silke first back down a step and shoot her to prevent the Mirror Image, then aim for the Inn's door. You can step in preventing the lightning bolts (cann ot be interrupted in EE). You can save inside, what is good, because if your dmg turns low, she'll be able to cast he rmagic missiles, and those hurt.
The spiders are a headache of course, but that was expected. Do them after Silke, and don't forget to keep her staff. Hide, and go in to the sideroom. Position yourself so only 1 spider is visible. Start with 2 arrows, gulp the Potion of Defense, then whack with the staff. Repeat until needed. Don't forget to save between the spiders, they might get a lucky 20, and poison you. This pushed me to clvl 3.
Btw, I see there might be trouble with carrying ammo around...
EDIT: In Beregost almost everything is nailed down, and you can't have the STR to bash things open. Any other class has lower min. STR, so don't even try. There's also so little to loot from containers, you might as well not even try.
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High Hedge only has those slow gnolls, and fighting 1 skeleton for its head is ok. Though I see a potential problem relating to skeletons - their massive piercing resistance.
Note on weapon specialisation: 3 point seems to be the fine spot, no need to bother investing in anything more, given grandmastery is not possible.
The Basillus-area is not very problematic. Sure, fighting archers is a risk, but that's why there's save/reload. Basillus himself is not impervious to casting failure, so it's kinda easy.
I don't remember the hobgoblin from the Chill group from any playthrough before. I acted totaly hostile towards it, and got 200 exp for the effort. Either way, for Tanygan just force-attack the guy, the dialogue will kick in, then it's just luring him away and keeping the distance. The Boots of Speed would be nice to have asap.
NOTE: despite being 2 unrelated Boots of Stealth in the original game, Beamdog, in their infinite wisdom cut this. So Thurlong has to wait for his boots.
When moving to Nashkel, keep in mind, the Nashkel Shop sucks. Replace one of your arrow-packs with +1 arrows in Beregost.
Also: don't forget to buy TWO Potion of Strength in High Hedge, so you can save Samuel. Unless of course you want to stash this quest until you get Draw Upon Holy Might. Twice. Aka. after you are done with Candlekeep. At point you likely won't need this petty exp. Also: keep the Violet Potion, so you can grab the Tome of STR. I think skipping the Joseph's Ring quest is again the way (unless you can do it after the fast in EE).
Hah! could defeat Vitiare! Fortunately, don't have to wait him starting conversation. Bigger trouble was the fanatic mage, against whom the AI kept rolling very low, but with some reloads, it was delt with.
Before going out of Nashkel, buy the Shield Amulet. It is kinda essential against Borda, for example.
Given the weakness of the character, I chose to buy 100 exp for 55 gold from Neville.
When fighting the gibberlings for Laurel you must play the tank, else the horde will shred her. I'll have to re-think my proficiencies, and might have to re-desitribute the points, as melee at occasion seems to be a must. Darn.
Another difference now, that I always wait for enemies to speak their stuff. Here, I just don't care. Shoot them in the face, like for the Gauntlet-ogres. Unfortunately, even with the VHA Tome's vuff, there's no chance to get the protection scroll from Drienne. Arcane The Mad is impossible too.
Use the third Potion of Strength from High Hedge to bring out the Farmer's son's body. Don't fight the ankeghs: sneak in, than run out (enter stealth when you manage to get out of sight). To get Nester's Dagger though, you still have to fight an ankegh. Here is how it can be done: enter stealth, and move close (I use the electric hammer w/o proficiency for this). Leave shadows, and start whacking. You have 3-4 hits done by the ankegh until the AI realises you are in melee distance - that's when you should run around the priestess' house and hide again. If you notice the ankegh started doing melee sooner - RUN!
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For such character the Cloak of the Wolf can come in handy, as it'll allow you to spare on the STR-potions, giving you 18 STR while transformed For a short period of time only, but that's enough the carry the loot out of a map. Never used this item before, turns out it doesn't work on charges, you can swap back&forth infinite times. That's surprisingly strong. Also: entering the cave for it and the Tome of Con is kinda easy with stealth. The only problem is getting out, and if you go anti-clockwise, you'll have plenty of space to re-enter stealthing - the downside is, you'll get hurt aplenty by the traps (clockwise the traps have conditions, which'll make you dead if you don't throw your saves).
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I'm so convinced the Greywolf fight is rigged. At least when you use normal weapons, your throws will be abysmal, guaranteed.
I was dicking around, buying Claw of Kazgaroth + Cloak of Displacement, and realised at some point aquires a 19 STR potion, so bashed in to Joseph's Wife's house for her quest. Btw, I always kill poor Rufie, but not this time. There's plenty of exp in the game anyway, right? Happy halloween. Funny, that Sendai just tend to have the best armor available for this class.
Against Vax the Dart Thrower finaly the Called Shot ranger ability came in good use.
With EE I could not manage to kill independently/lure away the overseer of Captain Barge, as when she turned hostile, Barge went berserk too. But this still could be circumwented somewhat activating the hostility, which reuslted the guardian dead, sropping loot, No exp, but the money is still there.
S of Ulcaster is practicaly free exp with a ranged character: everyone is slow.
Did the Nashkel mine Exterior Assassination befpre entering the mine for convenience sake, and discovered how broken stealth is: you can shoot 2 arrows, and back away from sight while the second is flying towards the enemy, and the enemy will just stand there without reaction, and you can repeat the process.
Post edited November 03, 2022 by twillight
*Made a chart about the bows, and it turns out, there's not much difference between the categories for BG1 (best longbow (thac0/dmg/speed): 3/2/5, comp: 2/3/6, short: 2/2/4). The real deal is in BG2-ToB, where short bow doesn't just get a progression, but Gesen is just massively better than the other options simply for being +4 enchanted. Composite bows are simply neglected, while longbows gain some interresting but minor abilities (bonus walking speed, 20% magic dmg reduction), but are further hindered by the lack of +3 arrows in BG2. For BG1 not much chages, only that we have to invest into the +1 shortbow in Beregost instead of just finding a longbow.
It totaly worth to cast 2 fireball from necklace to get the Energy Ring.
Also did all the bandit-encounters before visiting their camp, in case they'd show up there too.
In the Camp I managed to pike off ALL the minions before doing either the Tent, or the Big Fighter Guy. Didn't even try the locked chests, but sacks and barrels were all open - not that there is anything interresting in them, just some gold, and 2 potion of fortitude.
The Big Guy can be eliminated w/o risk by hide-shoot-retreat before revealed method. With +1 arrows I had 50% chance hitting him.
The Tent is as always mostly rely on the Energy Ring. Dealing with the archer has less of an importance with my current gear, which gives -17 to missile AC, and the 2 minor healing spawn-ability (I think his arrows carry some minor poison).
In CW1 just shot down Aldeth (and realised I'm not that crappy in melee), and in CW2, I voted on skipping the spider Sword.
For CW mine it's mostly just running through invisible the whole thing. Though you might want to stop to dispose certain enemies for extra ammo. The enemies that can get in your way is the mage + horde of soldiers, and maybe, kinda-sorta the next level's entrance-room (that room has plenty of regular arrows if you run short on things to shoot).
On the sidenote: on lvl 2 or whatever use the side-passage to avoide the lightning-corridor. The door leading back is locked, but I could bash it open even w/o the Wolf Cloak.
For the final level the important thing is to defeat the mage, so stealth, run past the battle horrors, and start pummelling the mage. I think the horrors can see the invisible and follow you even during stealthing, at least if they saw you once... Who cares. Point is, you don't have to deal with them.
In case you are interrested, the chests in the treasure room contain 1,000 gold (north wall), some potential green scroll (might be cursed, east wall), and along the west wall you can only open it if you lure away or defeat the ooze - it has a diamond, like that'd be some big deal (it also requires STR over 18, and that means some kinda potion).
Btw, at this point money should no longer be an issue, so feel free to shop around, made your equipment identify, or whatever.
There's barely any equipment in the game that I'd want, or would worth the effort, so I'll mostly breeze through the rest aside gaining the tomes. Definitely won't visit the TotSC content, maybe if I'll feel like it, will try to go for the Mace +2 just to use the import option EE gives, or something.
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To get into the Oberan Estate you need to bash the door open (thief guild quest, I think it is mandatory, maybe not), so might as well bash open Nadine's home in the same area, and get that Necklace of M?issile for her. All this while you are working on the Umberlee/Tome of whatever/Lothander's Gease questline. And if you have the time, you might as well visit Sharr too, or whassisname the captain. Quinn's house (Nester's dagger) also needs bashing.
Skip the quest, and pick up the Helmet of Balduran. I won't care for the cloak. Yes, it's nice, but nah.
Ragefast's tower also needs to be bashed, and 18 STR is not enough, so watch out to make sure your potion lasts.
Ramazith's tower on the other hand will be open, at least was for me after this sequence: the random lady on the street mentioones Ragefast, Rmaazith hired me to get the nymph, killed Ragefast, went back to Ramazith.
On the Ogre Mage Slaying Arrow: there's only 1 in the game, and there are 8 ogre mages. The sewer-mage, and the Gullykin mage are easier, and against the 5-group asssassination (entirely optional) it'd be pretty meh. The thoughest ogre mage is the one near the Best Swordman, but again, he is optional, and doesn't provide any substantial item. So either shoot him in the face, or use it on the Sewer Mage for convenience.
Seems EE fixed the Ramazith quest, and you can no longer get the Nymph Lock of Hair if you deliver her to Ramazith. Not that I ever used that Nymph Cloak. And to get the Tome of INT - ok, not the tome itself, but his desk, but it has a Scroll of Prot. from Magic, so duh - you'll need 20 STR (Sorcerous Soundries sells such potions). Coming to potions: there are some not-locked potions in the thieves guild. Grab 'em.
If you do Lothander's Poison first you get a Potion of Freedom, which can be used to deal with the Sewer Ogre Mage and its crawlies. Then you won't need more such potions, as you will get the Ring of Free action from the Iron Throne. Deal with the Iron Throne's main forces by using a Necklace of Missiles (sneak mode, release charge, run out of sight/down the stairs, repeat). As there are 3 such necklaces in the game, if one gets consumed here after using it all over until now, that's fine.

Almost forgot. Time to get the STR-belt.
Hm, STR only gives melee thac0. So this might have been superfluos.

Candlekeep is really lackluster if you can just run through it invisible. Using the Violet Potion to get the two tomes here is really the perfect use of the consumable.

When revisiting the Iron Throne, the boss just gave up, and took away her goons too. Never happened before, but good to know.
Also, attacked Slythe without entering conversation (of course I did), and her husband never shown up? Weird. Either way, started with 2 piercing arrow, potion of heroism, potion of 23 STR, and only had to quaff 1 healing potion during the fight (though I confess it ended with a 50/50 strike). But also realised (a wee bit earlier, but whatever), that Basillus' hammer is importable to BG2:EE, so I'll definitely not deepdive in Durlagh's. Just ran in for the Tome of whatever, and out. Stealth is broken.

To save the dukes I quaffed a potion of haste on top of all the running potions, also a potion of genius, so I could use the Wand of Sleep (Sorcerous Soundries, if you didn't get earlier). For any reason ALL the doppelgangers decided to mob on me when used it at the start of the fight, so the only thing I had to do was run up-and-down, avoiding melee contact, which'd hurt. A lot.
I'd also be interrested what are the conditions for the Sharevok-encounter here to temrinate, becauzse it is annoying (timer, melee range, HP-loss?).
Anyway, since a long time, I saved BOTH dukes! Wee!
Now the Maze is of course a joke because of stealth, and the people outside the hideout can't touch me for the Boots of Speed + ranged combo. And inside we all know you just need a Potion of Lightning Immunity, and a whole lot of patience running up-and-down on the traps to finish off Sharevok. So this is practicaly in my pocket.
Istems to import:
- Helm of Balduran
- Protector of the Second (Studded Leather +2)
- Basillu's hammer (+1 hammer with electric extra dmg)
Ok, so the archers in that group outside Sharevok's palace ARE dangerous. Piercing Arrow to their face then.

FINAL STATS
Post edited November 08, 2022 by twillight
Ok, so GoG now doesn't allw me to attach pictures, so I solved it otherwise.

BG2EE started out a wee bit strange. I imported the game - and it offered me to change my racial enemy? Hah. Then I hit "back" just to see what would happen, AND IT ALLOWE DME TO REDO MY ENTIRE CHARACTER. Still imported from file. That's interrestng. On top of it i could NOT leave the character/game cration by hitting more "back"! (Alt+F4 still worked). Shall we count this as a bug?

Another good-to-know feature is, if you did not copy your portrait to the BG2 folder, don't worry. The link exists in the character-file, so when you quit, copy the file, when you relog, your protrait will be at place.

Somwhat important note: the Golden Pantaloon is locked away, and bashing it open requires more than 18 STR. This means finding a STR-potion will be a relief, and having the good spawn ability DUHM is needed on top of it to get the pantaloon.

At the start of Irenicus' Dungeon there are some melee fights, and darn, that hurts. Against the ogre mage cast DUHM to compensate the low stats.
The Otygh is a problem being immun to missle.
The Radiant Mephits are incredibly dangerous with their sleep attack, so aim to get that mephit portal down asap. And those pportals of course are immun to missiles.
You can NOT get the Lightning Wand Key w/o lockpicking, similar ability. this does not influence much, but still.
BGEE also took away any chance to gain exp from that vampire, so you might as well leave the room alone.

Getting out I bought a gem and a scroll bag, still left with 3900 gp. Though I did not sleep-heal in the dungeon, so that'll come down from this sum.

Forgot to tell, but I think fatigue is level-dependent (or max HP-dependent). And that Beamdog-.monk is bloody annoying. He talks too much, and has the stamina of a jelly.
Post edited November 09, 2022 by twillight
The lesson from this experiment can be summarized already:
- with EE, even in BG1 you can have access to a STR-boost item, which you can combine with a DEX-boost item. Sure, you won't reach 25 range, but it's still decent enough, probably.
- getting those items need surprisingly little, especialy in BG1. Might take forever, but you CAN accumlate the gold for certain items, and unless you are a Wizardslayer, can go and buy the Ring of Invisibility to bypass most fights.
The protagonist is also faster than most beings in BG, so ranged weapons are an option, and in BG1 you surprisingly lack the need for magical damage. Add to this that slings only demand 3 STR to equip, which means ALL classes shall be able to pass BG1 eventualy. It might take forever, but.
And where slinging can't pull you through, there is always potions. You need damage - potions. HP? Potions. Some statboost? It van be kinda limited, but still: potions. Sharevok? Potion.
The dukes ... as my example here proves, there is a chance all the doppelgangers will mob on you (Wand of Sleep might have caused this), so that IS a chance, and otherwise there sin't any major group-fight in BG1, neither a situation where you'd have to fight a ginormous enemy with plenty of resistances.

BG2 will mean a problem for a lot of classes with the Mephit Portals being in need of destroying, so if you need to test a minimal-stat character, start with BG2.
There if you can pull together enough gold, again, you'll be back to your stats with the STR-belts and so on.
Sure, the lack of INT will be a problem when facing illithids, but then again: potions. Stat-boosting potions last for hours, and in BG2+ they are in abundance.

This leaves the challange pretty much solved, or the very least uninterresting aside personal accomplishment.
What still would be interresting to investigate, how mage spells work.
Seems low INT restricts your max spell-level limit. this is hardly noticable in BG1, but would be annoying in BG2 to find a constant supply of INT-boosting potions.
And on the sidenote, The Discipliner ring, which sets INT to 3 at least in EE takes away agency from your character. I see no such effect by itself on the ring, so this must be INT-related, or something, though I never had this problem fighting illithids. Weird.
Either way, a minstat mage (single, multi, dual) would be an interresting experiment with minimal stats. And while elves have the most extra minstats, I'd consider gnome for its 6 STR. Being able to carry stuff around, even a little, before you can have an STR-belt sounds attractive.
Post edited November 12, 2022 by twillight
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twillight: BG2EE started out a wee bit strange. I imported the game - and it offered me to change my racial enemy?
This is normal. Classes with a racial enemy have the option to update it on import to Baldur's Gate 2, and this can be quite helpful if the racial enemy chosen for Baldur's Gate 1 makes few or no appearances in Baldur's Gate 2.
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twillight: Hah. Then I hit "back" just to see what would happen, AND IT ALLOWE DME TO REDO MY ENTIRE CHARACTER.
That is a bit odd, but since the game would also have allowed you to create a new character for Baldur's Gate 2, I do not see how this would be exploitable.
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twillight: On top of it i could NOT leave the character/game cration by hitting more "back"! (Alt+F4 still worked). Shall we count this as a bug?
In my opinion, yes. You should never be forced to use Alt+F4 to kill the program.
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twillight: Forgot to tell, but I think fatigue is level-dependent (or max HP-dependent).
On successful rest, your fatigue rating is reset based on your constitution. Every 4 game hours, your fatigue increases by one unit. When it exceeds a threshold, then you get the status effect Fatigue, the status icon, and the fatigue penalties. Higher constitution characters get a better base fatigue, so they can work for more in-game hours before fatigue rises across that threshold. See Constitution and Fatigue for details.
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twillight: - getting those items need surprisingly little, especialy in BG1. Might take forever, but you CAN accumlate the gold for certain items, and unless you are a Wizardslayer, can go and buy the Ring of Invisibility to bypass most fights.
The level 1 divine spell Sanctuary can serve a similar purpose, and might be an attractive alternative for clerics, since it will be available from first level and the player can memorize multiple copies of it. However, its duration is only 1 turn.
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twillight: Seems low INT restricts your max spell-level limit.
Yes. Per Intelligence, you must meet certain minimums to scribe spells. Higher level spells have a higher minimum intelligence to scribe. According to the Wiki, this only limits scribing, but not casting, so you could hoard up scrolls, drink intelligence boosting potions, then scribe everything. You could later memorize and subsequently cast those spells after your intelligence returns to baseline.
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twillight: And on the sidenote, The Discipliner ring, which sets INT to 3 at least in EE takes away agency from your character. I see no such effect by itself on the ring, so this must be INT-related
Per Discipliner, the ring causes the status effect Feeblemind. That status effect is what causes the loss of agency.
Post edited November 12, 2022 by advowson
The Fatifue was comaperd to Rasaad. might be the +1 from the Tome created a very obvious difference,

Thx for the Discipliner-ring's clarification.

Lastly: Ok, so figured it out. INT effects the level of spell you are able to scribe. You still get the slots and if you boosted your INT to learn them, you will be able. Meh. Let's go back and do another Solo Poverty run.

Or another option to modify this challange to something useful would be to cut direct statboosts. Saving throws, immunities, resistances would be ok, but no +stat items in use.
Post edited November 12, 2022 by twillight