I love Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s easily one of my favourite games ever. But I’ve never really played the first two games in the series. Without getting into any spoilers, would a ranger (or archer) elf be a good option for a first character? Any tips to enjoy the game more?
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gat
Baldurs gyatt
It uses an adapted version of the ADnD system, so I would say there’s no shame in using guides to sand out the harsh edges of the game. Sorcerers.net (look at that beautiful web design) and Game Banshee are pretty good.
AC (Armor Class) and THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0) are going to be super different from 5th edition rules - you want these both to be LOW.
You’ll want to buff your characters pretty regularly, especially in BG2.
Use pauses regularly.
There’s an Archer subclass for the Ranger. I’ve never personally played as a ranged-primary character (I don’t like dealing with micro-managing ammunition), but ranged weapons are pretty strong (especially in the first game). You’ll want a wizard in your party to cast stuff like Web to get enemies stuck. Paladins and Fighters are generally pretty beginner-friendly. Wizards and Sorcerers start incredibly weak in these games, but get ridiculous towards the end of BG2 and Throne of Bhaal.
If you get into these, I’d also recommend Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, and Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (particularly the expansions for both).
Brilliant, exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thank you!
Don’t be afraid to drop the game on an easier difficulty. It’s old and kinda hard and repetitive, but still a pretty cool game.
Oh, and if you are the kind of person that likes podcasts to follow along with your media, Mages and Murderdads is pretty good!
I was planning on doing low difficulty anyway; I’d much rather enjoy the game than get frustrated all the time because I’m dying 😁
I’ve played archer. It’s very strong in BG1 and not bad in BG2.
Know that whatever you play as, your attacks are gonna be missing a lot in the low levels. That’s just how the game is.
Going off by memory for the OG BG1 so not accounting for any potential changes in the enhanced edition:
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Ranged weapon is king. You can bait the enemy into chasing after one member while everyone else pelts them with arrows. The reverse is also true once you meet those bullshit thieves shooting ice arrows.
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There are these two OP wands that I forgot their names. But it’s essentially “the wand that I can shoot fireballs with” and “the wand that lets me summon monsters that I can use as cannon fodder to overwhelm the enemy especially if they’re mages who have fireball because they’re just cast fireball on the nearest enemy taking splash damage in the process like dumbasses.”
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One innkeeper has a cloak that allows you to charm people. For the OG version, it has unlimited use making it easily the most broken item in the game but I think the enhanced version fixed it smh. You can keep good alignment by charming people who have loot you want and getting them killed by hostiles.
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Lightning bolt is really fun to cast in enclosed spaces because it ricochets off of walls and columns. If you aim it right like casting it right next to a corner so that it bounces between the two walls that form the corner, anyone caught in its path will rapidly eat 6x times the damage they would normally take.
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Monsters that stun especially carrion crawlers are pretty nasty because they’ll just stunlock you.
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You can cheese mage fights by exiting/entering a room right as they finish casting a spell. So, if they cast magic missile or fireball, just enter another room in order to dodge the spell.
Thank you! I’ll add these to my notes.
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i wouldnt bother with rangers in bg1. you’re too low-level to get to any of the good stuff, so you just have a worse fighter.
just pick a fighter and give them a bow and enjoy grand mastery.
