Greetings, all,
Well, I finally got myself to fire up BG again. When I "took a break" a while back, I thought it would only be for a couple of months, not a couple of years!
At first I was going to pick up where I had left off with my fartherest-along team (maybe 1/4 through the game?), but then I had second thoughts and decided to start over, with a new character.
1) I picked up ToSC a few months ago, and installed it right away. Then, after reading about how they had beefed up several of the main battles (to offset the increased XP cap), I started wondering if playing the BG/ToSC combo without having played through BG once was really a good idea. Any opinions? Would it be a good idea to finish vanilla BG at least once before adding the ToSC expansion, or is it an issue not worth worrying about?
2) When multi-class chars level-up, are their hit point increases limited by their most restrictive class, or does each class-level-up use their own innate hit dice? In other words, when a mage-cleric levels up as a cleric, is their hit point increase based on the normal cleric value (1d8), or is it restricted to that of a mage (1d4)?
My new half-elf mage-cleric leveled up to a level 2 cleric. With a constitution of 16, she has a +2 hit point level-up bonus. So, is an increase from 8 hit points (what she started with) to 13 hit points, a pretty good level-up, or is it only mediocre?
According to my understanding & calculations, if she is limited by the mage die, the maximum possible increase would be 6 hit points, so 5 is pretty good. But, if she can use the cleric hit point die, the maximum possible should be 10, so a +5 increase is only a so-so roll. I did redo the fight that triggered the level-up a few times, out of curiosity, and got an increase to 10 twice, and to 12 twice, so I suspect that all of her level-ups will be limited to a mage die, and that an increase of 5, to 13 hit points, is pretty good. I decided to live with the 13 roll, and have gone on with the game, but would like some clarification on this before future level-ups.
3) How effective (or ineffective) are two-handed swords?
In most games I've played with one-handed and two-handed swords, I usually have preferred one-handed swords. The added damage of 2-handers didn't seem to offset the slow swing rate, heavy weight, etc. Is the situation the same in BG? I notice that the 2-hand sword has a speed factor of 10, the slowest in the game (even slower than a halberd!). So, I am disinclined to use one at all. However, it did occur to me that if you wanted to use a 2-hander, you could keep a bow in a quick weapon slot, and not have to give up using a shield, like you would have to if you wanted to pair 1-handed sword use with a bow.
4) Multiple guides I've downloaded have mentioned that Imoen starts the game with a wand of magic missiles. I've never seen that with any of the characters I've taken out of Candlekeep. Was this possibly changed in a patch, or something, or have I been overlooking the obvious again? If one is available in the first sector outside of Candlekeep, where is it?
5) I had the impression that in BG, once you removed an NPC from your team, they disappeared from the game, and couldn't be re-recruited. One guide I read said you could remove Minsc if he started getting impatient, rescue Dynaheir later, at your convenience, and then re-add Minsc to your team. Is that true? If so, does it only apply to these two, or other pairs, too, or even single NPC's?
6) Alright, now for the most complex question - what to do about the roster of my new team.
With the prior team I referred to, I had Hesperia (a half-elf mage-cleric), Imoen, Montaron, Xzar, Jaheira, and Khalid, until Nashkell. There, after Montaron and Xzar left (or were booted out, I don't remember which) I added Minsc and Branwen, and was more or less content. Unfortunately, I didn't move fast enough for Minsc's taste, and he kept going postal. After about the tenth time he attacked the others, I gave up and killed him, out of frustration. Ummm, yeah I maybe could have handled that better...
However, later I added Ajantis, and that wasn't a bad team either. Anyway, I was still clearing sectors around Nashkell when I decided I needed to do something different for a while (Jaheira had reached level 4 as both fighter and druid, I remember).
This time I decided to do things a little differently. Iolanthe is a half-elf mage-cleric (but with better stats than Hesperia has; 25 minutes of "rolling dice" rather than 5 minutes). After adding Montaron and Xzar (along with Imoen, of course), she went north of the FA Inn, and recruited Ajantis. Shortly thereafter, poor Xzar died tragically in a skirmish with bandits, valiantly attempting to help his friend Montaron by attacking a bandit with his dagger. RIP.
Then Iolanthe added Khalid and Jaheira, and started clearing the sections along the way to Nashkell. However, in Beregost, I suddenly decided to have her dump Montaron and add Kagain (hadn't tried him at all before - he's better than Montaron, though quite a grump). I decided that, before going to the Nashkel mines, I would clear at least part of the sector west of Nashkell (mainly the Xvart village). Well, after finishing the village, I decided to just quickly clear out the rest of that sector, and ended up running into Borda (the con artist selling bogus potions). Since I had just recently saved, for the hell of it I provoked him, to see how I would do. He was much tougher than I expected, but I only lost Jaheira (though three others were severely injured). Later I looked him up in a table and discovered he was a level 9 mage... egads, what was I thinking!
At first I was going to just reload, but then I got to thinking...
The thought had already crossed my mind a couple of times that I might not keep Khalid and Jaheira through the game, anyway, maybe replacing them with Minsc and Dynaheir (whom I've had no experience with, but read that some people like her on their team). So, I decided to stick to that unplanned turn of events and not resurrect Jaheira. Instead, I removed her, went to the carnival, and replaced her with Branwen. Oh, and Imoen got a Short Sword +1, from the late, un-lamented Borda.
However, I'm not sure what to do next. Up to this point, I've ignored Minsc, wanting to level-up the team more before I approach him, so I can go after Dynaheir sooner once he's on the team. Kagain isn't a bad team member, but I will probably have to dump him before too much longer anyway. The team rep is 13, and he already occasionally grumbles (being Evil). According to the manual, at rep 16 he quits being "Unhappy" and becomes "Angry" - "Breaking" at rep 18. So maybe I should just let him go now, add Minsc, and tackle the Nashkell Mine sector, heading for Dynaheir soon after.
But if I do that, what do I do after rescuing Dynaheir? If I remove Branwen, to add Dynaheir, I will then only have two spell casters on the team (I don't think I want to dual-class Imoen to a mage, which apparently is a move favored by some). However, if I remove Khalid to make room for Dynaheir, then I will only have two real fighter-types (with my previous team, I occasionally used Branwen in the front line, and I could do that again, but that's not an ideal situation). BTW, I prefer to have Khalid using a bow most of the time, but at least he's halfway capable of taking on a melee role when necessary. Still, could Ajanatis and Minsc (with occasional help from, probably, Branwen) be enough of a front-line complement to get through the game?
On the other hand, if I let Minsc go after rescuing Dynaheir, then I would only have Ajantis and Khalid for melee. Don't like that idea, so who could I add? There really aren't many other non-evil fighters in the game. The only ones who appeal are Coran and Kivan (both of whom I've heard some people like). So, is it practical to go with a 5-person team for a while, or is it feasible to go from the Gnoll Stronghold directly to where I could recruit one of those two, or is there someone else along the way I could add temporarily (Edwin in Nashkell doesn't seem to fit)? Or are there options I've overlooked or misevaluated?
Well, any feedback from those who've had more experience with the game would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance. Guess we'll see if this forum still has some life in it, eh?
Dako-ta