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[Foolsfolly]

A massive storm knocked out the power for over fifty hours here. And during that tedious and terrible time I looked around at the collection of old games and found, unbelievably, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

My first thought was basically, "Holy crap! When did we ever get this?" Followed quickly by, "Is Shadows of Amn the main game or an expansion?"

Further searching did not reveal the old game manual, much to my displeasure, but I did have a game I'd never played before but apparently had for 11 years. And more to the point, this was Baldur's Gate 2! The game every Dragon Age fan worships on these boards.

I'll finally understand what these fans are talking about! Sure, it's old and no doubt will look like garbage but I retro-game at times. I can take any graphics this game tosses at me!

And once the power finally came back I installed the game. It took a while to get it running well but it wasn't exactly difficult. In about 30-40 minutes I had Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn installed and running perfectly.

This thread is about my on-going adventure through this game. From a person who's never played either game let alone a D&D game before. Will I beat the game? Will I abandon it? Will I proclaim it one of BioWare's best or worst games? Who knows! This is my experience so far:

I made a Paladin character, named him Jason. I got roughly 20 minutes into it before I died. Reloaded. Got a little further when the half-elf druid died during battle. I was shocked to find out she was truly dead and wasn't coming back once the fight was over.

So, I reloaded.

And continued to get my ass handed to me by the game.

After multiple loads I finally decided it was time to use the tutorial. For this I created a female elf Cleric named Tester. I played through the tutorial and learned quite a bit about the game's mechanics. The single greatest things being: how to lockpick, learn the frankly baffling magic system, and that there's a pause button.

All these things are likely easily explained in the manual I cannot find.

Fresh off of my Tester I went back to Jason and thought to myself, "I don't like this character anymore. I should do an easier build for the first character."

I then created Aedan the Proud! A Barbarian, duel-wielding longsword swinging human. I thought this would be the easiest of characters to play while still learning the game. I'm probably wrong. For all I know I just set myself up for a big hurt. But whatever.

Also due to the sheer amount of deaths suffered earlier in the day I decided to set the game down to Novice, also known as the 'I'm an Idiot' difficulty.

Since reducing the difficulty to imbecile level and learning the invaluable pause button (which I cannot believe I ever won any fight without) I've started progressing.

So far, after a handful of hours at the game I've just gotten the next Rogue character after the first load zone. His name is (goes to Wikipedia) Yoshimo. That's when I called it quits, for now.

Personally, I still have no opinion on the game. I've had frustrations with it, but that's to be expected on a game like this without a manual to read beforehand. I also have all this D&D stuff to learn as quickly as possible, which shouldn't be that hard since most RPGs seem to borrow heavily from this anyway.

The interface is a beast. It's clunky and terribly outdated but I already expected it would be. And despite this fact, I'm becoming better with it. I imagine after a few more days I'll be decent at it, I just found out right-clicking on an item brings up its stats (something I knew had to be presented somewhere).

Shift-clicks during pause also chains orders, thankfully. I had no hope that it would and was completely surprised that BG2 has this. So backstabbing with the rogue girl is easy to pull off (and I guess Yoshi now....or for now...someone has to be a redshirt in a BioWare game and I currently have two rogues....).

I honestly believe I can enjoy this game. If I keep at it and learn. It's a trial by fire right now. There for a while I didn't think I'd even level a character up, but I feel more confident and I'm getting used to the UI.

So, that's my first day with the game. I didn't get that far, but it IS my third character (since Test went directly the first dungeon). I have no idea what's going on in the game, I don't have any opinion on any character, and I haven't even reached the first town yet. But it's been a well enough of a start to the game.

I still have questions. Number one is "Is there a downside to Resting?" Because I've used that as a crutch since the first character. I don't heal any other way (unless its in combat). I noticed the game keeps track of in-game days which makes me wonder, am I timed? Is there some big event that happens on Day X and I'm already ruining my game?

Well, that's it for now. Any feedback or tips would be appreciated.

Modifié par Foolsfolly, 28 avril 2011 - 09:17 .

[keiranpl]

Well, that's really interesting. I never thought, there are people, who haven't played this game. My last playthrough was about 6 or 7 years ago, but I'll try to help.
First: have you ever played BG1?
Second: as for days I can't remember it to be significant in any way, so rest as much as you need.

[Foolsfolly]

Nope. I had thought the earliest BioWare game I'd bought was KOTOR. But apparently I bought BG2 and never played it....I may have gotten it because of the Interplay logo on the box. I honestly do not remember getting this game.

But no. I haven't played BG1.

[Spjuv3rn]

 You should consider downloading and reading the manual which can be found here to better understand the fighting mechanics, the bonuses you get from attributes, an overview of the available npc etc.

If you haven't already i would also recommend installing the latest official patch from here this will fix a myriad of glitches and unpleasantries.

As for resting the only real downside is that you can get ambushed in certain areas, take note however that you can't rest inside buildings, and if you try resting in the middle of the street guards will in most cases show up and tell you to find an inn and rest there instead.

And finally, there are some quests that are timed but in most of these cases the game makes it clear to you that if you don't hurry up bad things will happen (though this is mostly in middle portion of the game).

[morbidest2]

A barb fighter is an excellent choice for learning the game. You can have a party of 6 characters and in general it's a good idea to balance "tanks", clerics, mages and a thief, since magic becomes more important as the game goes on. BG2/SoA is a full fledged game, not an expansion (it's expansion is Throne of Bhaal) and there's nothing wrong with playing it before BG1. In terms of picking up on using the magic, try memorizing multiple copies of different spells each time you rest and learn what works best for you. Obviously healing spells are useful for clerics and magic missile is a good primary spell for young mages.
Expect to be killed frequently on your first "run", so save frequently; the "Q" button is your best friend!

Modifié par morbidest2, 28 avril 2011 - 12:29 .

[Foolsfolly]

Alright, totally grabbing the manual and patch. Thanks, dude.

Today I'm fully aware I could have gone farther and played longer....had I not answered the call of Fallout: New Vegas. (Third play-through this time as well spoken, science nerd with only moderate energy weapon proficiency. So far it's been a blast role-playing.)

But I did play BG2 today. And this is my progress report.

Fresh from attaining Yoshi I ventured forth into the constantly spawning room and emerged victorious once again.

I went around the level, exploring every nook and cranny and even went back to the last load zone to try to open the door that needs a statue to open. Eventually, I gave up on finding whatever statue is needed and went on to the exit.

Which is where I met the man who'd held me prisoner again. As you know, some wizard people showed up, got generally slaughtered, and then the villain turned himself in, no doubt as part of a Xanatos Gambit.

They also took the one character I had generally gotten to like this early in the game. Which is a good point to BioWare. I barely know these characters but they made me care about Imoen enough to actually be worried about her future in this mad man's game.

I then spent roughly 20-30 minutes walking around the first load zone of this first city. I went into all the locations, talked to most named NPCs, and wished Dragon Age had some of the cool flying and submersible fantasy machines that this game has just sitting there (although I'm willing to bet at least one of them is used for something later, the balloon one's my bet, since a whole team can fit in it).

I then went to the Slums because the game is screaming at me to go there. I met the guy, go to his place, and hesitantly accept his deal. I'm not entirely sure what this guy or mysterious group has to do with the plot, but I'm certain it's not in my best interests. Right now the best case I can think of is that I'm paying the Shadow Thieves to break out my friend (and find the mad mage) and that way we both get what we want.

But I'm also left wondering if I'm not hiring the mad mage's own group to bust him out and deliver me back to his grasp. Either way, I'm actually looking forward very much to collecting the money and finding out what happens.

I make my way to big tavern, get into a fight and kill some lout (he wouldn't shut up and his dialogue seemed to loop constantly) and then I met a man with the epic name: Krogan Bloodaxe.

First off, I love Mass Effect. So to meet the character who has to the be the inspiration for the name of the entire krogan race...well. I was all smiles. Second off he's a dwarf, which I always love. Third off, his last name is Bloodaxe. It makes my "the Proud" name not feel so out of place. Now that I know that's an acceptable name I imagine my next character will have a better name.

I then collected some nobleling's child who wants to collect her family's estate again. She seems nice enough, perhaps a bit naive but most of these characters feel like this (besides Minsc who's mentally addled by something).

I then talk to the next named NPC I meet, he wants me to kill ogres and trolls for him for 10,000 dollars. Which is amazing and too good to be true, each and every companion I have then chimes in on this (some more than once) and most of them are saying what I already suspected, this is too good to be true. So something's wrong here and I don't know what. But I doubt I'll get the full pay, or if I do I'd have to do something horrible for it.

Having vowed myself to three quests and now with a full roaster I decided I should do a few standing quests now and get them out of the way before I feel boggled down by too many unfinished quests. Edited to add: I also accepted some sort of Circus mission. But didn't act on it because I felt too undermanned at the time.

I set out to.....wait a minute, how the crap do I get out of this city?

Well, I decide the best way would be to go to the Town Gate, makes sense, yes? I head out of the tavern, get into yet another fight (all of these fights are going to have bad consequences but short of Companion death during battle I don't like reloading games after making a choice).

Then I hit the exit and click on the Town Gate....and get randomly attacked by someone. During the short fight I totally mismanage the new Nobleling girl...and she dies rather easily. I never stopped and checked to see what class she or Krogan were (although, come on, Bloodaxe and a Dwarf? He's a warrior of some type. Likely a two-hander). So....stupid me.

Thankfully the auto-save had me right at the exit of the Slums. I saved the game and got off, it was as good of a place as any to stop. I still haven't checked to see what the nobleling's class is but I know she's fragile and uses some magic. I'm guessing Cleric or some other support character.

So far, I'm liking this game. I didn't have an opinion on it yesterday but today. I'm liking it. It's UI isn't so baffling anymore, it's rather simplistic and easy to pick up despite its first impression. The story has picked up momentum. I've properly met the villain (although I do not remember his name) and there's already stakes on my mission (I don't want Imoen to die, or whatever this guy wants her for).

This is a good goal. And brilliantly it's fine for a more evil-bent character too since you can have your character wanting revenge on the villain. It's actually simplistically beautiful how BioWare pulled that off. The same goal but two very different purposes. Well done.

Where I stand now, I need someone who can Identify items. I refuse to pay to identify. I feel like there has to be a camp/mansion/Ebon Hawke/Normandy place for me to gather and rest and everything. I probably should find that soon. Otherwise, I guess I pay inns for the same purpose? That's not as fun as owning a cool ship, camp, or mansion.

But this early in the game, with little contact with my companions (a few conversations with Yoshi and the half-elf, but otherwise I can't just click and talk at will), and with little but a setting of a goal in terms of storyline....and I like it.

I like this game, already. Not love. It's got problems and it is a clunky bit of video game but it's enjoyable enough. I'm interested in the story at any rate. And in one character, although I hope I like Krogan (and may replace Minsc with him since I'm getting tired of Minsc's dialogue and overacting).

Modifié par Foolsfolly, 29 avril 2011 - 07:03 .

[Shaewaros]

First off all, congratulations on picking up one of the best RPGs of all time. I'm sure you will continue to enjoy playing it even more as the story progresses.

I don't want to spoil anything about the game but maybe I could still give a couple of advices about the game mechanisms and  such. So there will be no spoilers in this post.

The best way to identify items is either to get a wizard in your party and buy an identify spell for him/her. After that you can just stip by an inn, memorize as many identify spells as your mage can memorize, go to sleep, identify as many items as you can and sleep again if necessary. Only mages (single- or multi-class), sorcerers and bards can learn the identify spell. Also it's good to keep in mind that sorcerers can't learn spells from scrolls.

Another way of identifying items is through lore. Each of your characters have a lore value that you can see from their characteristics. This value depends on their intelligence and wisdom scores + they gain a little bit more each new level. Bards have by far the best lore values since they gain 10 points of lore each new level while for instance wizards get only 3. So if you decide to take a bard along you will never have to worry about unidentified items again. For more detailed info, check the manual.

Both clerics and druids get spells that will bring your fallen companions back to life - the lowest level resurrection spells are 5th level for both clerics and druids.

In all infinite engine games (such as BG2) it is extremelly important to be aware of your allies strengths and weaknesses - some of them have to always stay away from melee combat, others (dwarfs, gnomes) are more resistant to magic than others (better saving throws) etc. BG2 was for me one of the first games where I really studied the game manual over an over again to be able to understand all the complex rules that effect the gameplay. I highly recommend reading through the entire manual whenever you have time for that. It's for instance important to understand how wisdom effects the amount of spells your cleric can memorize or how your warriors strength score defines the amount of damage they do in battle.

But still, you will learn all this as you get more experienced with the game. The most important thing is of course to enjoy the game the way you want to.

Also, there is a possibility to own estates in BG2.

Have fun playing the game!

Ps: The dwarf's name is Korgan.

[morbidest2]

The quickest way of finding what your NPCs can do is to click on the NPC on the rightside panel, and then click on the 'head" symbol on the leftside panel. For instant you'll find that Nalia is both a mage and a thief. If you click on the book on the leftside panel, you can then see her spellbook and see what magic she can perform - and note that there is an Identify object spell that you could use to save your 70 to 100gps. BUT you've gotta read the manual!

[Cowboy_christo]

As shaewaros said , you can own a location and use it sorta like base camp, ship or w/e. Seemed to be a negative point for you to not have such thing in bg but dont desperate it will come.

Also, one of the most important tips. If something is too hard, you can run and come back later. Not everything is meant to be done early even if you can do it early.

And yeah reading the manual books help out a lot, also parts about the different monster as some of them have some really nasty abilities.

Also another personal tips, there are a lot of dangerous traps in dungeons, house, etc. Some can instantly kill a character and as such its suggested to not let your character lead the party since if he die its automatically game over(unless you reload haha), searching trap with rogue is essentiel imo if you dont have the metagaming experience(i swear i can recognize everywhere there is a trap)

Modifié par Cowboy_christo, 29 avril 2011 - 03:28 .

[Foolsfolly]

First off, thanks all for the tips.

@ Shaewaros:

Thanks, dude! Also, and here I thought I actually remembered a name correctly. Oh well, plenty of time to learn their names.

I need a res spell now. I have no problem with saving and loading all the time but I'd rather at least have the option to return a companion from the dead and finish a fight at the same time. I guess I'm going back to that spell merchant and see if it's available yet, a spell like that pays for itself.

@ Morbidest2:

I know how to check what they are...I totally forgot to do it. Which is different from when I forgot how to memorize a spell and had to replay the tutorial again.

@Cowboy:

Seemed to be a negative point for you to not have such thing in bg but dont desperate it will come.

Not a negative point, exactly....it just felt weird to not have a homebase in a BioWare game. Even Jade Empire had the place outside town/where the flier landed to gather. It kinda felt like I missed something and I was searching for a base.

Also, one of the most important tips. If something is too hard, you can run and come back later. Not everything is meant to be done early even if you can do it early.

I will remember this. There's obviously a Chapter division in this game, are quests Chapter dependent or can I return at any time?

[Zeevico]

Chapter 2? Yes. You can do Chapter 2 Quests in any of Chapters 2, 3, and 6. It's a long time between Chapters 3 to 6 though.

Modifié par Zeevico, 30 avril 2011 - 02:26 .

[Cowboy_christo]

Foolsfolly wrote...

I will remember this. There's obviously a Chapter division in this game, are quests Chapter dependent or can I return at any time?

Not to spoil anything but some chapters lock you out from certain parts and thus preventing you from doing other quests( fear not you will have your hands full in those chapters ) but before the end you will be able to do pretty much everything.

[Foolsfolly]

If I had to sum up today's playing...it'd be called "Waylayed by Jackassery."

I set out to do Nalia's quest to retake her family's estate. Because this was a simple mission, and a classic old school fantasy story (similar to the old chestnut 'Restore the Rightful King'). It would be familiar and I'd get to know more about my latest companion.

It was not to be.

To make a long story short, I ended up starting multiple quests and completely unable to finish any of them.

I met something fighting Shadow Thieves. It works for the Mistress. I brought a poisoned man to some other men. I agreed to work for Xar or something similar to break into a place and rescue a spy. I then agreed to take Yoshi to the head of the Shadow Thieves. Who sent me to another man, who wants me to steal from a priestess. I fought dozens of thugs, ogres, and the like just walking around the city to talk to NPCs.

I had to stop and sell to a merchant twice.

Then, I was so hurt that I had to actually stop and rest, which meant going to an inn. I paid the single gold and was met with a dream. I'm glad Imoen's fighting Irenicus's digging....but am horrified that Imoen said I will be too late.

And then I left the inn, which is when Korgan tells me I have to hurry and finish his mission or he'll leave.

Crap.

So it's time to run to the graveyard....and on my way someone approaches me. Screaming for help. One of those things that serves the Mistress is after him. You know what I'm talking about. I decide to be a good guy here and intervene.

Mistake.

I.

Am.

Undone.

The creatures tear through my party. More than half of the party's weapons are ineffective against them, the others are hit by attribute stealing/lowering attacks. In no time at all Korgan's dead. Then Yoshi. And then finally myself.

Holy crap.

Well....that did it for me. I called it a day. I feel like I really didn't accomplish anything. The game's pulling me in a dozen directions and it's quiet apparent if I'm going to go up against creatures this strong then I'll need better weapons. And I need them quickly before Korgan ups and leaves.

Modifié par Foolsfolly, 30 avril 2011 - 09:12 .

[Zeevico]

Advice? Focus on one quest at a time for now.
The game can really throw you with scripted events that open up potential quests. They're all over Athkatla and if you wander around the city you'll be inundated with quests.

Modifié par Zeevico, 30 avril 2011 - 06:03 .

[Zeevico]

Btw, while the game is awesome as is, I've just discovered a fixpack that should get rid of many minor issues that, frankly, I never even noticed while playing.
http://www.gibberlin...k/docs_core.php

Edit: Actually, it's quite hard to install mods if you have windows 7 and are running an admin/user config or have user account control activated. Keep that in mind.

Modifié par Zeevico, 30 avril 2011 - 07:43 .

[Shaewaros]

Foolsfolly wrote...

And then I left the inn, which is when Korgan tells me I have to hurry and finish his mission or he'll leave.

Crap.

So it's time to run to the graveyard....and on my way someone approaches me. Screaming for help. One of those things that serves the Mistress is after him. You know what I'm talking about. I decide to be a good guy here and intervene.

Mistake.

I.

Am.

Undone.

The creatures tear through my party. More than half of the party's weapons are ineffective against them, the others are hit by attribute stealing/lowering attacks. In no time at all Korgan's dead. Then Yoshi. And then finally myself.

Holy crap.

LOL, brings back memories. Thanks man, this made my day!

Also, you write really well. Are you by any means a journalist or something?

Modifié par Shaewaros, 30 avril 2011 - 05:33 .

[Foolsfolly]

I wrote freelance for a magazine that wanted a gaming section on the website for a bit over a year. That's all.

Edit: Actually, it's quite hard to install mods if you have windows 7 and are running an admin/user config or have user account control activated. Keep that in mind.

Screw it then. Unless I get hit by a really bad bug that irks me enough to put the effort into the modding.

[Shaewaros]

Foolsfolly wrote...

I wrote freelance for a magazine that wanted a gaming section on the website for a bit over a year. That's all.

I knew it!

[Matuse]

Just a word of advice...stay out of the graveyard at night. It's a bad place.

Second word: When you're fighting against vampires, wraiths, spectres, and other monsters that drain levels, click up Korgan's berserker mode. It makes him immune to that (and a lot of other stuff).

[nihilreich]

Wow, now this bring some memories...

Personally, I've always found the interface very intuitive and all, up to the point that DA's seems very primitive now. Good thing is that once you understand it, the tactical possibilities in this game will be really massive, as some of the battles can be VERY complicated.

What you need to realize (and probably have already) is that this game awards you freedom to do much more things than modern RPGs, including completely messing yourself up and that it WILL be unforgiving at times.

To survive out there for the first time, first thing that you should probably do is to collect a team. Most encounters will REQUIRE you to use Pause a lot and micromanage each and every member of your team to use their abilities to the full extent. This is also the reason why a good team requires a balanced skillset.

It's a good idea for your party to have:

• At least one Mage
• At least one Rogue
• At least one Cleric or Druid
• At least two Warriors (and similar classes)
• This makes five. Number 6 can be anyone, be it additional mage, cleric, warrior, rogue or a bard (jack of all trades class). Of course your own character can take this place, as well as any of the above positions.

As far as the team goes remember that NPCs have their own alignments and can leave the party based on Reputation (for example evil characters can randomly leave if the Reputation reaches 19-20) and certain NPCs have very clashing points of view and can randomly end up fighting each other. You can either pick your team so that everyone's more or less on the same page, or just reload if something bad happens (it's a rare event).

Also, learn to use your Mages' abilities. I cannot stress how important proper usage of spells, especially area spells like Web and Fireball (beware of friendly fire) is.

Now, for the quest. You're correct in the assumption that you're spreading yourself too thin, and some quests are definitely too much to handle for you right now. The game gives you freedom, which means that you can walk into a quest that seems easy at first but then proves to be a death trap, so let me give you a few directions, hopefully without spoiling anything.

Good quests to start with:

• The circus quest - right after you exit the first dungeon and end up on the promenade there's a circus
• The Bridge District Murder Case
• Shadows Thieves' quest in the Docks
• The Xar & Harpers quest you encountered already
• Find Valygar, Save Viconia, Jan's troubles - all can be found somewhere in Government District
• There's also a number of easy ways to get XP just walking around the districts talking to people and vitsiting taverns and inns for very short quests or encounters.
• Advice for graveyard district - don't go there at night (yet). Also if you visit with Korgan or Edwin in your party at  you'll be forced to go down in the catacombs sooner or later and it's a bit nasty down there.

Quests that you should undertake only once you're confident in your abilities:

• Umar Hills main quest
• Planar Sphere quest
• Windspear Hills - the quest you already got from Lord Firkraag in Copper Coronet
• Unseeying Eye quest

Apart from that there are some pretty high-level encounters in some inconspicuous buildings throughout the maps. Exploring unknown buildings can be profitable, just remember to make a quick save before you enter.
[/list]Also, it's good to do the majority of Alkathla quests BEFORE you pay and ally yourself with Shadow Thieves or Bodhi because completing that quest line takes you out of the city for a really long time.

I hope this little essay of mine helps a little. Also forgive any linguistic mistakes as English is not my native language. If you have any further questions then just ask.

Modifié par nihilreich, 02 mai 2011 - 09:07 .

[Shaewaros]

There were certainly a lot of good advices there, nihilreich, however I'd rather see Foolsfolly experience the game the way he wants to. You mentioned many thing in your post that could be interpreted to be spoilers. It's good that you want to help, however there's a fine line between helping and spoiling the game experience.

[nihilreich]

Shaewaros wrote...

You mentioned many thing in your post that could be interpreted to be spoilers. It's good that you want to help, however there's a fine line between helping and spoiling the game experience.

The only thing from my post that I'd consider an actual spoiler is the part about leaving Athkathla for a long time.

It seems to me like he doesn't particularly like the fact that he goes somewhere only to be killed by foes way out of his reach so saying 'don't do the Unseeying Eye quest or you'll die' seems like the decent thing to do.

EDIT: I removed the overly specific mentions from my original post above. I still think that a fair warning against some quests and a subtle nudge in the direction of ones designed for the inexperienced party can save the OP a LOT of frustration so I left that part intact.

Modifié par nihilreich, 02 mai 2011 - 08:50 .

[Shaewaros]

nihilreich wrote...

Shaewaros wrote...

You mentioned many thing in your post that could be interpreted to be spoilers. It's good that you want to help, however there's a fine line between helping and spoiling the game experience.

The only thing from my post that I'd consider an actual spoiler is the part about leaving Athkathla for a long time.

It seems to me like he doesn't particularly like the fact that he goes somewhere only to be killed by foes way out of his reach so saying 'don't do the Unseeying Eye quest or you'll die' seems like the decent thing to do.

Just my interpretation, of course. I would just like him to experience the game in an authentic way, without anyone telling him which quests to do at which point or where not to go. Other people here have given tips concerning the games ruling, necessary patches & and other basic elements that are required to know to be able to survive in the game - they have not posted any specific tips concerning specific quests. I'm sure Foolsfolly can find online walkthroughs easily if he wishes to know more about the quests before experiencing them himself. But at least my impression of this topic was that it's about his fresh first time experience with the game - in my opinion it ain't fresh anymore if we post here any detailed information about quests, character interaction and such.

Again, I understand that you only wanted to help and that's completely fine and a very nice thing to do.

EDIT: I removed the overly specific mentions from my original post above.

Thanks for doing that.

Modifié par Shaewaros, 02 mai 2011 - 10:03 .

[Danfalc85]

Nihilreich gave some great tips. BG2 can be truly frustrating at first. It has so much depth that is often hard to discover except for trial and error.

But a few things which might help you, you can buy healing and potions from a temple. Your always better to have a cleric to perform healing and loot potions, but it's worth keeping In mind.

Also get to know your parties capabilities, if you go into their character information and stats. You should be able too see a list of weapons they are proficient with, marked by stars by the weapon name. Most classes also have unique abilities, which are quite unique and some be quite hard to find like some are acceptable in that star shape near the end of that characters hotbar . It's really worth getting to know these as they can often mean the difference between utter death and scraping a win.

Also there are a lot of magic spells, and I know the system is quite confusing if your not use to it. But try and get to grips with it, and learn the information that you get on specific spells. Mages make very weak fighters In hand to hand, but they are very powerful when you start using magic to your advantage. It's tempting to go for spells which just do damage, but for me at least, the tactical flexibility spells can offer was far more useful than direct damage.

If I remember correctly, you can set very basic behaviour for your party members, It's obviously better to control them but, setting these behaviours up can make them a lot more effective. I'm pretty sure for instance you can set them to be aggressive, or if it's a thief to hide as soon as they see enemies and much more.

There are a lot of quests, I can understand getting frustrated with there being so many. But take your time, apart from some of the companion quests and few key plot quests, most can be done at your leisure. And are quite enjoyable.

Loot everything you can, though make sure you don't get caught stealing. There is some really epic and unique items In the game, these can really give you an edge and help you balance out characters weaknesses.

Save frequently and In different slots, Bg2 is still a hard game when you get the basics down. Some boss fights are stupidly hard, and some encounters are out of your league till you are a bit more seasoned. But with the right tactics you can beat most you come across initially/ Sometimes it's about taking out the biggest threat to your party first, sometimes it's about shutting down the enemy mage with your own mage. Experiment and have fun, it's hard but deeply satisfying when you beat something and learn "oh this tactic works well with this and that" For instance the haste spell has great synergy with warriors.

I would tell you more but I think you will get to grips with the game quickly after a while and will enjoy experiencing stuff yourself. I love how you write your posts by the way, made me chuckle a lot. You have a great writing style. And if it makes you feel any better the manual for this game might leave you more confused! But if you feel lost there are some good tactics out there on the net! Hope my ramblings maybe help.

[Kidd]

In D&D, magical items are often named by "plus bonuses", for instance Long Sword +1, Club +2 etc. The value added shows the item is magical and mechanic-wise gives you a damage bonus equal to the number - and more importantly, an attack bonus. Meaning a Mace +1 will not only make you deal 1 more damage (which ain't all that, really), but it will give you a +1 on your chances to hit. Considering you're rolling a twenty sided die to see if you hit or not, +1 is a noticeable difference, and +2 considerably so!

But even more importantly than the pure statistical value is the fact these weapons are magical. Surely you've heard tales of magical beasts that are immune to harm in folk tales? D&D functions just like this. So picking up magical weapons is very important. A certain creature may be immune to non-magical weapons, or they may be immune to weapons weaker than +2, etc. Having your fighters capable of hurting an enemy instead of simply yelling "My weapon had no effect!" will make a lot of encounters a *lot* easier, for obvious reasons

Similarly, it may at times be worth it to use weapons that you aren't very proficient in. It's incredibly difficult to hit animated skeletons with daggers or arrows for instance, while a basic and simple club reams to them to pieces quickly. Some creatures die easily to the cut of a blade while they're resistant to blunt damage, while others still cannot stand the piercing strikes of arrows and daggers.

These two damage resistance types can be cumulative. For instance, you may meet a creature that can be hurt by any piercing damage, will resist all swords that are weaker than +2, while it will resist all blunt damage, period. So keep trying and seeing what works fine in different situations when you're having trouble! I sincerely advice you to turn on attack and damage rolls so you can try to make sense of what's happening maths wise, and when you're just having bad luck with your rolls.

If anyone have objections about me giving these tips, I'll gladly edit them away. But seeing the problems he's mentioned, this might be very useful info ^^; Didn't give out any plot-line or quest-related information after all.