I have no fucking clue what I'm doing in this game so I'm going to start again. I need some starting tips pls.
What build should I go for? In my first game I tried a Druid Avenger because turning into a salamander sounded funny. But I'm not even sure how I should be using the character because any damaging spells are only onces a day so they're basically useless. Also I have no idea what level I get to shapeshift or what weapon I should have chosen.
Anyway, how the hell do you play this game and what character build should I roll?
EDIT: Thank you for the well-thought-out and in-depth answers. I appreciate it!
BG1 has some real early-game hell going on if you're not a martial class (Fighter/Paladin/Ranger) because spells are scare and enemies will come thick and fast.
If being a fighter doesn't appeal, that's fine, it just means you should avoid fights as much as possible until you pick up some frontline companions. The advice Gorion gives you to go to the Friendly Arm Inn is extremely good because the companions you meet there are a Fighter and Fighter/Druid who can easily fill the frontline.
The problem is, until then, all you have is a rogue, another Rogue, and da joker babee.
If you're planning on going through BG1 and 2, I do recommend a simpler class (ie. Martial) for your first time through. You'll already be micromanaging 6 party members and sometimes it can be easier to make sure that your character is the one you can rely on to always be useful.
It's not cum it's spider webs.
SO. FUCKING. GODAMN. MANY. SPIDERWEBS.
So many goddamn web traps in that goddamn spider forest
Don't be afraid to crank the difficulty down. It's a game, and it should be a fun experience!
This spoiler free tips guide should help explain some of the weird ADnD concepts that aren't explained too well in game.
As far as spells go - in the early game you're not going to have many casts per day. I tend to focus on using spells that disable or otherwise hinder enemies and leave the damage up to the rest of the crew. If you use something like Grease (or Web later), then you can switch the rest of your party to ranged weapons to plink away at the enemies who can't do much in response.
Sleep is so dope in the early game. Make a whole squad of kobolds take a nap!
BG1 is pretty rough until you figure out what you're doing. I'm pretty stoned and not super knowledgeable, but I'll give it a shot!
Really long so I collapsed it
Low level 2nd edition dnd is rough, the first few levels are going to be huge, just because of the increased HP. You won't be getting one shot near as much at lvl 2 or 3. Keep in mind end game is like level 7 or 9 or something for most classes, so each level is really meaningful. There's a setting to max out HP increase on level up, I recommend using that.
EXP gets split between party members, so a smaller party will level up faster. I roll with a party of 4 for that reason, but a party of 6 will get plenty of exp by the end too.
Ranged weapons are OP for low level. Every character except your beefy tank should have a ranged weapon in BG1, and expect your tank to get spanked, lol. Bows if your class allows, and slings if you can't use a bow with proficiency. +1 ranged weapons are pretty cheap and have good chance to hit and damage.
Speaking of that, a Ranger/Cleric is my recommended BG1 build. It was the first build that I was able to get through the whole game with, BG1 and 2. Ranger is good because ranged weapons are just so good in BG1 even if they do fall off in BG2, and the Cleric multi-class will give you spells to play with. Cleric is legitimately super useful itself.
Healing spells are pretty useless during combat, but they're good out of combat. Save your potions for combat, they're quicker to use than casting a spell. When you rest if you have healing spells memorized they'll increase the amount of health you heal, so it's worth having 1 or 2 depending on your party makeup.
Mage spells are a complex system that I don't fully understand. For me, if hitting someone doesn't work I cast various dispels and magic missile on them until hitting them starts working. You may want to look up more info on that system, but that got me through BG1 and 2 pretty much. Enemy mages are going to be some of the toughest enemies, but there's ways to cheese their protections, or if you prepare properly they're a complete joke. If you don't prepare and don't cheese they are going to be incredibly difficult
Thaco is a weird system I'm too stoned to explain properly, but basically the more lower the number the more better and the more negative the number the even more better.
There's a button on the menu, or tab I think on PC, that highlights intractable objects. BG1 and 2 like to hide items in the environment, and the highlight effect is the only way I can find that stuff. On the way from candlekeep to the Friendly Arm Inn there's a tree stump with a useful ring in it. The game really encourages exploration so I don't wanna spoil anymore of them.
I believe magic missile always hits if the enemy doesn't have magic resist. It's been a looooong time but MM is usually the "In case of emergency cast level 1 spells and pray". I don't think it allows any kind of save. I used to use it against dragons and other high level monsters with ridiculous high saves. It might not do much damage but it does damage.
Strongly recommend alpha-striking enemies mages and clerics if you can. Drop as much hate on them as possible in round one to knock them out of the fight.
THACO means "To hit armor class 0". It's the worst system in D&D history, but iirc the way it works is your THACO score is the number that you need to roll to hit AC0. So if your THACO is 16 you'd need to roll 16 or higher to hit armor class 0. Something like that. I believe lower THACO is better.
Buffs are really important, which means clerics are pretty important since they're the main buffers. Take some time to figure out which buffs stack and which don't. This is way before there were sensible and intuitive classes of buffs so it's kinda hard to predict.
CC spells are really, really, really powerful. Sleep will get you through a lot of fights. Web and Entangle are also very good. Charm spells can take an enemy out of the fight temporarily or turn them to your side.
Getting a thief that can sneak good can be really helpful. Sending them out to scout enemy groups can give you time to prepare and plan an attack. I think some spells even have longer range than the characters can see, so you can have your thief act as a spotter for your wizard so you can open up with a fireball before the enemies know you're there.
It was definitely the worst system but it was the first and a big part of d&d for years. They didn't replace it until 3rd edition. It was so unnecessarily complex and counter intuitive.
"Putting on my chain mail +1 to make my AC go from 5 to 4. This rules."
I believe magic missile always hits if the enemy doesn't have magic resist. It's been a looooong time but MM is usually the "In case of emergency cast level 1 spells and pray". I don't think it allows any kind of save. I used to use it against dragons and other high level monsters with ridiculous high saves. It might not do much damage but it does damage.
That's my understanding as well. I use it for easy damage and it's incredibly useful for dispelling enemy mages Mirror Images. Lmao, MM is how I took out my first dragon because none of my weapons could actually damage it.
THACO means "To hit armor class 0". It's the worst system in D&D history, but iirc the way it works is your THACO score is the number that you need to roll to hit AC0. So if your THACO is 16 you'd need to roll 16 or higher to hit armor class 0. Something like that. I believe lower THACO is better.
That's it! And I was majorly conflating THACO with AC. I don't think THACO goes negative, but AC certainly does. Either way, for both the lower the better.
Getting a thief that can sneak good can be really helpful. Sending them out to scout enemy groups can give you time to prepare and plan an attack. I think some spells even have longer range than the characters can see, so you can have your thief act as a spotter for your wizard so you can open up with a fireball before the enemies know you're there.
This reminds me that traps are everywhere and will decimate your party. I think it's almost mandatory to have a thief in the party that can detect traps. There's a setting in each companions AI, for the party thief you want to have them "Detect Traps" when they're not actively doing something else. When you're in a dungeon scout ahead carefully too, or do what I do and quicksave, run in to find the traps, then quickload and disarm them.
Some other things I've remembered this morning:
Combat is broken into rounds and turns and it's not that intuitive, at least to me. One round equals 6 real seconds, and one turn equals 10 rounds or 1 real minute. Spells have different amounts of time they last, for instance Mirror Image is one of the most useful defensive magic spells and it only lasts 3 rounds + 1 round/level, so at Level 2 the spell lasts 30 seconds. You'll want to cast that during combat, compared to a spell like Armor that has a duration of 9 hours. Spells (mostly buffs) like that you want to cast in between combat. Looking at the casting time will give you a good idea, Mirror Image is 2 and Armor is 9 I think, but it feels like an eternity. Some spells like Melf's Minute Meteors (favorite spell) are two parters. For MMM the first cast sets up the spell by generating the "meteors" and that effect is permanent until it's either dispelled or you use them all, then throwing them is instantaneous, no cast time there.
There's a field of basilisks, they'll destroy your party unless you find/buy a Protection From Petrification scroll. That encounter feels a little BS to me so I like to warn people about it, just buy or find one of those scrolls and keep it handy. Or if you have a Cleric they can memorize the spell, but that will waste a spell slot since it generally isn't useful otherwise.
This is for BG1 only and not for BG2:
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If you're getting owned by mages, you can cheese the game by purposely entering in a door right when the mage casts their spell. The spell will completely whiff. You can keep on cheesing until they run out of spells, which is when you can just bash their face in.
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Lightning bolt is OP. Lightning bolt also bounces, so if you can bait the enemy into a corner and shoot the lighting bolt at an angle where it would bounce between the two sides of the corner, the enemy would get hit by the same lightning bolt 7+ times.
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I don't know if the enhanced edition changed anything, but in the OG BG1 that came with 6 CDs, it was very easy to bait the enemy into futilely chasing someone with boots of speed while the rest of your party lights up the enemy with arrows.
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There's these two OP wands, one that shoots fireballs and one that summons monsters. The shooting fireball one is self-explanatory. The summoning monsters one allows you to cheese by summoning a shitton of cannon fodder while you light up the enemy with arrows.
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Some of the random encounters, especially the ones where you get ambushed by those fucking thieves with ice arrows, are complete bullshit. Just reload.
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Joke answer because the tips I see all say more than I could:
Let Boo go for the eyes.
(Also you can cheat in an "arrow of slaying" or whatever they are called - sorry it's been 20 years - but it's a nice "get out of jail free" card if the game is really giving you a hard time. It's okay to just say "fuck this" and not have to deal with an encounter so you can get back to having fun.)
