Well, hello there. So I grew up playing these games (by "these" I mean all of the Inifinity Engine games and Neverwinter Nights), and even though my favorite is Icewind Dale (and believe Planescape is the best story ever told in any medium), I believe Baldur's Gate has the perfect "adventure ambience" kinda like the beginning of Lord of the Rings.

I never played Siege of Dragonspear, so since I already had the DLC decided to give it a go (and also try the Enhanced Edition of BG since I never played those and also have them all). What I didn't have was a save (it's been like 5 years since my last playthrough of ANY rpg) so I created a new character and my god, it's so satisfying. Say what you want about 2nd AD&D, but character creation is something I always loved in these games. Then I enter the game and have a full party provided to me... what the...

First problem: I don't have any motivation and don't actually care to check all of the equipment on my party. When you start from scratch you usually have nothing and then you go incrementing the items and stuff gradually so you end up knowing everything you have equipped and all of it. I was overwhelmed with all the stuff these guys had and I just couldn't give a f*** about checking everything (just checked weapons proficiencies and weapons provided... and AC levels). Granted, this isn't something that should pose a problem starting with a low-level party but I'm not gonna go through BG in it's entirety just to play these expansion (and read that after this first dungeon you actually do start from the beginning with no party and have to equip them all over again...). I hope I can sort of "restart from scratch" with all of this so I can actually plan my party and not having to start taking notes on stuff that just "happened to be here" in order to make-do with what I have.

Second problem: I was instantly in love with the exploration all over again, and even like the niftly new little animation when using the map, and the ambience, and sounds, and music... Until I got to the first battle... How did I play these back in the day? Yes, I always pause frenetically every few seconds to issue commands and stuff but is just too much for me now. I don't know if it's me getting old but I just couldn't keep track of everything going on. Maybe it was the fact that I had 6 characters, maybe there were too many enemies? I used to plan and play Icewind Dale with a full party and had no problems managing that (even with THREE casters). The thing is I actually let Safana explode by some invisible little a**ho** just to have one character less to worry about... and still, I was having a hard time keeping track of everything. Now, soloing these games is something I really don't want to do, specially since it seems that also keeping track of too many enemies is giving me troubles (problem solved by choking them in doors and stuff) and if I'm going to solo an rpg I might as well just play NWN. Maybe I can try with just two or three characters (MAYBE four), but then... Who do I take with me? I was thinking of Edwin or Neera for magic (my PC is a fighter/thief) and I know I will need a cleric. I just don't want: Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira since my last playthrough was with them and wanted to try something different and more "smart-ass" sort of speak. Basically a "rebel" party. What NPCs would you recommed to go with a fighter/mage, chaotic good, proficient in short swords, longswords and longbows? It's a half-elf with 16 strenght, 18 dex, 15 con, 16 int, and the rest around 10-12. Up to three NPCs. The more one character can do the better, trying to keep the party small).

If you made it to here, thanks for reading my rumblings!

PS: My god the graphics are still amazing (at least in Siege of Dragonspear). I wish someone would make a Pillars of Eternity "demake" into this engine haha, just so I can avoid those loading times and my CPU bursting to flames (laptop here).

I'm confused. Are you playing BG1? If so then you start there as a single character and then you pick up your companions along the way. And there is no initial dungeon... You simply start in Candelkeep outside an inn.

But yes, the fights always require you to pause frequently and issue commands to all party members, especially at the beginning when you party is at low levels, since any fight can be deadly. Later on, you can switch on party AI and just watch them obliterate most of the common enemies. Of course, there will be other big fights which you again have to get back to pausing and issuing commands all the time.

So in general, yes, these games are not really suitable for playing on a couch in a very leisure fashion unless you are a real veterans of them and already know how to deal with each encounter efficiently.

This is also the sort of issue that I've encountered with the battle system. Personally, I prefer to either have turn-based combat, or for the game to just go full action with a single character (and in the latter case, shouldn't be advertised as an RPG).

In particular, I have often said that the real time with pause combat provides the worst aspects of both turn-based and real-time while lacking both the rhythm of turn-based and the fluidity of real-time. It loses the rhythm because the pauses are irregular (instead of happening in between combat rounds, like in a game like the Wizardry series), and it loses the fluidity because you still need all the pauses for combat to be manageable.

With that said, I have found that, for whatever reason, both Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate 2 are actually more enjoyable when I turn off the AI and give everybody manual commands.

Of course, the game I've been playing lately, Lennus 2, is a turn-based JRPG with 4 party members, which is how I generally prefer my RPGs (though there are some aspects that are atypical, like having the best buyable equipment available for purchace around mid-game in a major city, perhaps the rough equivalent of Baldur's Gate or BG2's Athkatla).

I think you're just being overwhelmed by the amount of details - character stats, equipment, abilities, combat events. It could happen if you take a long break from something, especially in this case since the BG games have complicated mechanics and large amount of details combat-wise. The original BG may be not too bad, but you're playing the EE.

It's understandable if you don't feel too eager to re-familiarize yourself with everything all at once, especially if you're generally busy and don't have that "I've got plenty of time to spare" feeling. The thought of having to catch up to everything can be daunting - how all the spells work, how all the layers of spell protection interact with one another, what enemy mages can do, what the regular routine for battle preparation should be like, etc. etc. You no longer remember things such as certain enemies have to be taken care of in specific manners, and you have 5 seconds to do it.

While I haven't played SoD, from what I know of EE-only encounters, they can be significantly tougher than the typical vanilla ones. Which means you get overwhelmed even more easily if you've forgotten how things work.

I can't really advise much on party composition, as I haven't played SoD. I don't know who's available and what their stats and equipment are like. Since you're already a mage, if you don't want to get overwhelmed by too many (high-level) spells, you can probably grab two warriors (paladins, rangers, etc.), and a cleric. Personally though, I would grab Edwin since he's very strong (unless SoD changes that).

You can also lower the difficulty as a means of slowing things down a bit, so you have more room to breathe and get used to things.

It's a little confusing, you say your PC is a fighter/thief and you ask for recommendations for fighter/mage companions.
With a fighter/mage you could add Xzar, Montaron and Viconia, they are available early on and cover the basic needs.

To Lebesgue, I'm playing Siege of Dragonspear without replaying BG. You start with a full party.

dtgreen: I know, I actually turned off the AI because they were wasting good spells like Mirror Image at the sight of ONE skeleton. I used to love rtwp and now I just found it too overwhelming.

amazingchestahead:being overwhelmed by the details and such is exactly what happened with all the equipment I had from start. That's why I didn't bother with checking everything, but my problem lies in the combat. I'm playing with core rules, since I always liked the friendly fire aspect of it, and I do remember creatures, spells and the like. I guess my problem is actually a low "mental dexterity" at this time of my life to keep track of everything during combat. Outside of combat everything is more than fine.

kmonster: I'm a fighter/thief, not mage (that's why I'm thinking of grabbing Edwin or Neera). Xzar, Montaron and Viconia are all evil, aren't they? I'm looking for good/neutral party members.

Thanks everyone for replying :) I hope I managed to clarify some things since It seems I just blurted a bunch of words and left everyone confused xD

Yes, The initial SOD dungeon can be overwhelming. I remember going step by step there and saving often. However, the rest of SOD is pretty straightforward. It is even more linear than Icewind dale and I didn't think it was possible. I think I finished SOD in less than 6 hours, I need to find my old review.

About companions, I remember a cute little Cleric that turned into a demi-god near the end. Very useful. I'll edit or repost again if I can find my save games.

Turn on all the auto-pause options, and you can select your characters by clicking on their portraits.

I didn't find the auto-pause options, that could be useful.

Also I can't find the option to change the color circles beneath the characters.

Just finished the first dungeon and now I'm getting impatient trying to sell stuff to properly start the game but I keep getting interrupted by assasination attempts, burglars at the store... Geez, I want to sell stuff, recruit NPCs and equip my party xD

This is the sort of thing that led to me quitting Baldur's Gate 2; too many interruptions when you're just trying to manage things. The game's dislike of sleeping in towh (despite letting the player sleep in the wilderness and dungeons) doesn't help. (Although in BG2's case, the interruptions are mainly due to quests being triggered outside of player control, like when you have to do a quest after an NPC has been in your party for a certain amount of time.)

Siege of Dragonspear was intended to be a bridge between BG1 and BG2; that is, as soon as you finish BG1, it whisks you straight into the start of Siege of Dragonspear. For somebody who'd been building up their party from start to finish in BG1, the transition to SoD would probably be painless, but as somebody returning to the franchise after years away, I can understand why it would feel overwhelming. :)

SoD has a big love of large-scale battles involving tens, if not dozens, of combatants. I actually considered this a plus, because it really lets spellcasters (I almost always play Mages) shine, and it shows what a beauty the Infinity Engine is and what it could have been capable of had it not been held back by technological limitations of the day. On the downside, I do agree that SoD is a very linear game and it's quite unlike the more open-ended exploration/adventuring offered by BG1 and BG2. The maps are beautiful, but they always felt a little "cramped" to me... Like, if you think back to BG1, most maps you went to tended to be fairly open, with maybe 3-4 random encounters, and 2-3 special "placed" encounters. In SoD maps, it sort of feels like there's twice as many encounters all crammed into maps of similar size, resulting in placements and encounters that feel "off". Like, as an example, "why would the crusaders be OK with a camp of ogre bandits that are literally living just a stone's throw away?? And why is the surrounding forest filled with gangs of Displacer Beast Pack Lords that could make mincemeat out of either crusaders OR ogres?"

Well, slowly but surely I'm moving along. Right now I'm trying to see what NPCs I can find. I know Neera was supposed to be in a jail or something but I couldn't find her. I did find Tiax though... and slowly but surely walked away from him haha

I find these games overwhelming as well. I did, however, have a blast playing the enhanced edition of Icewind Dale using the default full party. I finally began to appreciate the group dynamic. The most useful things I found we're to turn on lots of the autopause options and to select the area-of-effect indicator for spells (which has to be toggled in the .ini files of the enhanced editions).