7th June 2008, 3:29 PM
Quote:This is an impossible statement, Baldur's Gate I couldn't be any more fun than it is.
Quote:Level 1: Yes, you are weak at level 1 in D&D. Mages are particularly weak, with just one or two spells until they're useless until you rest again, and an average of four hit points... and yes, in Baldur's Gate I you level up very, very slowly, more slowly than about any other single player D&D RPG I know of. It's a 75+ hour game and at the end you're only level 7 or 8, depending on class. Don't expect to level fast. You won't.
The challenge is added to by the fact that you don't get resurrect in this game, I'm pretty sure. If you do, it's quite late in the game. Lose a character and you've got to pick up all their gear and begin a tedious trek back to the last temple... I prefer to simply reload my last save if anyone dies in combat. It's easier that way.
Saving: There's a quicksave button for a reason. Use it often. Make regular hard saves too, into multiple files. And remember the autosaves it creates when you zone, those can also be helpful.
Healing items: In D&D, you really shouldn't use healing items much... healing should generally be done through magic and resting. Once you're out of healing spells and are low on health, it's time to rest... just get away from any enemies and quicksave before you hit the rest button, so that if you get ambushed and lose someone you can load the file.
Remember to always cast all of your healing spells before you rest, because unlike BG2, BG1 doesn't have an automatic "cast all healing spells on rest" option. And always check your spellbooks when your characters level up and fill in those new spell slots!
"Newbie dungeon" -- which? The Nashkel Mines? There are some hard encounters in there, I agree... some traps, too, and a challenging boss. You've got to be careful and use strategy, for sure...
Oh, and be careful in exploring the many wilderness zones. The game lets you go into any wilderness zone you want, but a great many of them are much, much too difficult for a low-level party. For instance, get out of the zone you end up in after you finish the Nashkel mines as soon as possible, going straight left! If you accidentally go up a bit (not far at all), you'll run in to a party of enemies that are impossibly hard for your level at the time.
After the Nashkell Mines, getting Minsc and heading for the Gnoll Fortress is a common next (side) quest. It's either that or trying to find the enemy camp for the next chapter, where the bad iron is coming from... and there's always exploring the towns, of course. There's a lot to do in Beregost and Nashkell and their surroundings.
As for your last point, well, you have a bounty on your head! What do you expect, to be ignored by all the people trying to collect it just because you're in town? I've been attacked too, and a few times it has caused me to lose someone and have to load from my last save, but it's not unfair. For one thing, each of those encounters only happens once. Once you've fought one of the bounty hunters, there won't be another fight the next time you go to that location. So they aren't that common, really. And thanks to the autosave, it's unlikely that it'll cause you to lose much progress. It just adds realism and interest to the plot.
You have a very different view of fun than I do, I think.
I'm seriously considering going back to BG2. Or Fallout 2. Or Icewind Dale, maybe. BG1 just feels like I have no idea what to do and no idea where to go to find something else to, it's like I'm wandering aimlessly through zones where things constantly kill me with absolutely no hope of ever getting to the point where I don't have to save and reload all the time. At least in BG2 there were a lot of sidequests close at hand to play around with.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.