Frustration

[StockyBaldy]

I'm having a little bit of trouble getting into the Baldur's Gate series, mostly because of how the game treats beginners. I'm currently in the Underdark and I've been having a hard time with it, and I've been taking a lot of breaks just to calm myself down. While I really enjoy the story and the characters so far, the fighting has been getting on my nerves a lot.

I'm still going to try and successfully complete it all, as I've been having some fun alongside the small bits of agony, but I was wondering if others have had similar experiences when they first played through the series? Is it normal to feel this frustrated and angry when you're a newcomer to the Baldur's Gate series? Any advice would also be welcomed, because it might just be that I'm not actually playing it right. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Qiox]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Bald Man:

Thanks for all the help. I currently have Minsc, Aerie, Jaheira, Jan, and Imoen in my party. I kind of rushed to get Imoen back because I heard she does not level with you when she's trapped at Spellhold, and I did not want her to be underleveled by the time the rest of my party got her back.

Aerie is currently level 11 as both a cleric and a mage. I tend to use either her or Jaheira as fighters on the front lines with my main char and Minsc.
Jan is a level 11 illusionist.
Imoen is a level 13 mage, although as I suspected she stayed as a level 7 thief while she was stuck at Spellhold. Dammit.

I've also heard you're supposed to have +3 weapons by this point in the game, but I only have three at the moment, and one of them is a drow sword, which will be destroyed once I finally exit the Underdark. Minsc uses the +3 Dragons Bane, while Jaheira uses her +3 Cleric Staff. I don't really know if that's a good amount though and I think I likely missed some or should've simply bought some along the way.

My main char is very proficient in longswords, but he can also wield a two-handed sword if need be. I made a mistake when I created him however, and I gave him 19 Charisma not realizing that Charisma isn't actually as useful as I thought it would be, which I think is one of the reasons I might be having some trouble. He is still a beast though, 18/00 strength with Hands of Takkok and a current armor class of -4. I equipped the Cloak of Mirroring on him, although a part of me thinks I should give it to someone else like Aerie. My main char is also the one who is using the Drow Long Sword, but he normally uses Varscona, and I'll probably have to go back to it once I get out of the Underdark.

I also heard how effective Chaotic Commands is, but I don't think I actually have it, which is a shame because there are a heck ton of Mind Flayers in the Underdark. They're annoying the living sh*t out of me, and I admit to having been pretty much forced to use Story Mode a few times, one of those times was a room full of five of them at once.

Hopefully that gives a better idea of my party.

How things go in the Underdark really is all about your level when you start. Thing is, if you push the main story and go as soon as possible, you can end up in there at level 9. And it will be challenging. Much more challenging than it needs to be.

There is a lot of content you can do and put off going to the Underdark until much later. Head in around level 12 or 13 and it is an entirely different experience.

[ÄmJii]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Qiox:

There is a lot of content you can do and put off going to the Underdark until much later. Head in around level 12 or 13 and it is an entirely different experience.

And for the record, you CAN go back to Underdark if you want to (Spellhold & Sahugain city are one-way trips though). You can leave Mind Flayer and Beholder lairs for later.

[red255]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Bald Man:

Thanks for all the good info. I guess I'll have to grind a little by killing the elementals, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I couldn't beat the lich that came out of that facet in the middle of the map, but I'll try again with some different strats. I'll try and get a good bunch of exp for the party to make up for being underleveled. I'll also see if I can beat the enemies that are summoned from the Demogorgon statue, I've heard they have some good gear.

How did you build Jan?

In Spellhold there was a mage with a wardstone carrying the book of many things, I generally turn the pages until (save first) I get true seeing/true sight or a I think spell turning.

EE adds in a number of gems of true seeing for the monk's quest so I go with spell turning often enough. Regardless if you have traps on Jan have him set traps before activating the node. might as well attempt to lay imoen and jan's traps can't hurt too bad.

you can throw down skull traps but they hurt the party so put up the traps, send in one guy hide the rest of your party elsewhere and pop the node. hopefully the traps deal with it, if they don't. summon up some meat, have the meat eat up the lich's spells once the lich is out of spells, and its buffs wear off he's just ...a mage with no spells.

alternatively, True seeing + Breach + Mace of disruption.


if you have a scroll of protection from undead that makes you undetectable by undead. such scrolls are limited, wouldn't recommend using for this fight but it exists.

usually though I just place traps, summon monsters and buff my party before summoning the lich. hopefully killing him before he gets any spells off.

[red255]

OK, so a little advice.

Your team is
FIGHTER (longswords)
Jahiera
Minsc
Imoen
Jan
Aerie.

Your level is low. You can just leave. so we want to talk gear and roles.

Fighter. didn't mention your stats, typically a fighter starts with 18 str/dex/con you've apparently given him CHA which if you were going to dual to druid makes some sense, elsewise theres a ring of human influence and a nyphm cloak to get you to 20 CHA from 3 which is plenty for any instance where you'd need CHA. so most people dump CHA. (If they are trying to munchkin a build at least, as I feel being a Bhaalspawn Bhaal took an active hand in designing your stats for murder. which is why I feel a munchkin is justified for the Player character)

Furthermore in BG1 you could have picked up +1 all stats (+3 WIS) from playing thru BG1 and its campaign. SoD Adds a few importable items to BG2.

Generally speaking I'd suggest a Dwarf Fighter/Cleric for a BG1-BG2 first time playthru. But thats neither here nor there.

you use longswords, fine, Starting BG2 you pick up a longsword from the table near the sewer golem, either +2 with +1 cold damage or the burning earth which I prefer because its useful for undead and trolls.

I head to the Graveyard district and pick up Namarra +2 which has 1d8+4 damage making it great for backstabbing, wander to the gate district and theres a inn, with a lich behind a secret door, run in, grab the daystar +2 from the chest, run out. eventually the lich runs out of spells if you want to kill it. great longsword.

But if you don't have those your options are the rod of lordly might turned into a longsword +1 with a HOLD effect. and a drow longsword +3 which is rather vanilla but +3 is generally important.

Alot of things require a certain level of enchantment to be able to 'be hit' +3 gets you thru all but the nastiest of protections.

Ideally you get grandmastery, then get 2 or 3 points in two weapon fighting. which can be gotten by level 9 as I recall. and start thinking about your offhand weapon. Belm, Kundane are choices, the equilizer is a choice.

Just starting out theres a short sword you pick up off enemies while wandering thru the city with immunity to hold on it. so I off hand it and later switch to kundane.

You've picked up the slayer form. which can be used to give yourself a huge stat boost and list of immunities for 2 REP, which can be recovered by paying a temple a moderate amount, usually two doses of 500 gold should cover it.

But yeah, fighter Drow Full Plate, Drow Long sword, Drow shield or second long sword. we should be fine ish. Moving on.

Jahiera. Jahiera is a fighter druid with harper's call which is sort of like raise dead but not as good. she's useful for raising Aerie when Aerie dies.

As a Druid she gets ironskins which is basically stone skins but alot slower to cast.

As a Fighter she eventually gets hardiness at 3,000,000 total XP. Combine with Armor of Faith, and she's got alot of damage resistance. which makes up for her otherwise low HP.

Probably should try to activate Shield of faith prior to every fight with her. she also gets some other useful buffs, like defensive harmony. she can summon stuff like fire elementals without doing the whole will check thing, but I usually just give her some heal spells.

But maybe you'd rather have fire elementals.

insect swarm is a popular spell choice for dealing with spellcasters.

I typically give her a club, and when she gets enough prof points for two weapon fighting, Belm. until then the shield you get from trademeet gives enough immunities to be useful.

she's not damage, she's support. but durable support.

--

Minsc. Minsc is a game answer to Bodhi, Guy is spec'd to dual wield maces. game gives you a mace of disruption +4 when getting to bodhi which you can upgrade to +5 making it grant immunity to level drain making it incredibly useful.

He's also got 2 points in two handed swords but no points in style. Not halbers.

you can give him points, but If I was giving him points in stuff it would probably be a one handed weapon for his second hand.

Minsc can cast Armor of Faith, so if you give him a flail in the off hand and cast armor of faith and hardiness. the flail purchased from Joluv in the copper coronet is +20% damage resistance to physcial damage, combine with the other two spells, and he's quite durable.

Simple man, simple use.

--
Imoen. Imoen is your mage, she *CAN* thief but Jan is going to be a better thief. so all her thief levels are getting her is going to be the ability to use short bows or other thief weapons to keep her out of harms way. also elven chain mail. put some drow chain on her. probably drow cross bow with koa-toa bolts assuming you gave her a point of crossbows by now.

Really Nalia you get earlier and fills the same roll. Imoen is good if you wanted to drop your thief.

She's a full mage with enough thief to get by with some equips. Mages have many uses. most vital is buffing magic. and countering enemy mage stuff.

--

Jan. Jan is a half mage, half thief. his mage half can be used to make his thief half a full thief.

Magic wise though he's a little disappointing due to lack of levels. he gets thief HLA though, allowing him to get Use any item, and epic spike trap. I've solved alot of problems with just Jan.

early on i'd play him as a thief using magic to augment his position.

later on he's basically a full thief with some magic to do with as you please. He's got spells. probably should cast STRENGTH on your party who are melee but don't have 18 strength, like Jahiera.

He's got enough mage to cast some haste or slow or whatever. He can't cast animate dead, so he's good to cast Breach as spell level 5.

--

Aerie.

So, I don't PLAY with aerie much. People have mentioned putting the robes of Venca on her make her good. two things.

1.) putting the robes of Venca on anyone make anyone good
2.) Venca is basically evil Hitler. Aerie would not wear the robes. if you want to roleplay.

She should wear elven chain or robes of the good arch magi. she is another half mage and half cleric. cleric gets to completion faster than mage. it takes her till nearly the end of ToB to get to level 9 mage spells. you can do things like sequencers which combine cleric and mage spells to make her a better cleric.

But I generally prefer a cleric who isn't as squishy. theres a belt you can buy to raise her CON to 18 for several hours. or potions that do the same thing. which helps. but she's still squishy.

which I do not care for in my clerics. luckily you have jahiera to get her back up when she falls.

[The Call of CTulio]

My advice maybe it is aready too late, but the rest and sleep function on baldurs gate 1 and 2 and the icewind dale games are more for roleplay, you can abuse it and rest after each fight.

Talking about roleplay, sometimes i ignore and pretend my party knew about the incoming encounter with enemies after i open some door, so i just open that door and throw in that room fire balls, cloudkill, web and entagle spells.

You can abuse pickpocketing too, by stealing from some shop keep and selling the same item back to him

[red255]

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Call of CTulio:

My advice maybe it is aready too late, but the rest and sleep function on baldurs gate 1 and 2 and the icewind dale games are more for roleplay, you can abuse it and rest after each fight.

judging from some factors like various party member personal quests trigger weeks after you acquire them (LIke Hexxat requires 1 week between each tombwalk, and etc.) the game actually expects you to rest more often.

Anyways I took Aerie to the cult of the eyeless at a similiar level to his party, legacy of Bhaal difficulty but no damage increase box checked (basically I just want increased monster spawns because core rules is too light for monster encounters)

she had 8 or nine casts of animate dead. and she basically made it thru there on her own,

summoned animate deads, buffed animate deads. let them deal with the beholders.

she didn't even need to nap that much. had more difficulty with the undead.

[red255]

bah.words.

So Few things I feel I should add due to the TC giving more information and checking what exactly is available in the underdark.

So his team. He has the Dragon's breath halberd which comes from dressing up as a drow and getting into the drow city.

As such he has access to equips

Fighter (Drow full plate, Drow long sword+3, Big shield with 5 AC sold in Drow City, Helmet of Balduran)
Jan could have pickpocket a ring of Regeneration off Ribald in the adventurer's mart and one in the spellhold for solving a set of riddles. Not going to worry about it, you got some clerics and plenty of naps.

He also has access to drow crossbows of speed and Koa-toa bolts. Dunno if he has any points in crossbows but access.

Minsc. Could have picked up a mace of disruption and possibly upgraded it before leaving for spellhold. But if you didn't the rod of lordly might can be converted into a +2 mace, and you get a decent mace for helping the gnomes with their pit demon problem +3, with +2 vs humanoids....meaning Drow. other things too, but in the underdark mainly drow, not mind flayers.
Drow full plate

Jahiera. Ideally you picked up the +2 +3 vs undead club in spellhold. you get for sticking the troll head on the altar at the end of the test. use that and a drow shield I guess. Drow full plate

Aerie. Theres a sling of Avoreen in the beholder caves +4, with +4 missile damage. Had plenty of +2 bullets since she doesn't use that many and I got 400 from the thieves guild quest for renal bloodscalp. the merchant had 400 +2 bullets, so I relieved him of them. she's primarily in the back with a sling, and shield, Drow elven chain.

Imoen. Purchase the throwing dagger in the drow city, or steal it. steal it really. Firetooth or something. its fine. Drow elven chain.

Jan. Drow crossbow of speed. probably switch him to drow elven chain for the underdark. Casting speed increase and all that.

I suppose you could give firetooth to Jahiera. Crossbows of speed all around. have a nice range party, pick up some animate dead spells and have a wall of animate dead moving forward and your party supporting with ranged attacks this will work reasonably well. the Beholders were a nuisance with their death spells, but they don't have that many death spells memorized. just summon some spider spawn or something and have the spiders eat the death spells and then your summons should be fine. doesn't take that many skeletons to wreck beholders and mindflayers.

Beholder and Mindflayer cities are optional. and can be ignored until we return later.

elven city is optional but I don't believe it can be returned to?

Only need to pull in the blood of a saugin prince which is near the exit to the underdark just ignore the other areas and come back later. but you CAN probably clear them running a screen of animate dead buffed, and/or backed up with ranged attacks depending on enemy type.

the undead might die, but just summon more.

5 fully healed animate deads, buffed with haste and Bless and defensive harmony will win thru nearly anything.

theres one group of Ultharids in the Mind Flayer city that would not die to this tactic. in that they only weakened them and I needed to send in more.

everything else that should work for.

you can get the animate dead scroll in many of the shops around the underdark.