Hi :)

After not having played the BG1 games for some time, I've finally decided to do another run, this time using EasyTuTu, especially because the Beregost bug is now fixed, and I wanted to see the BG1NPC pack. I've installed this:

BG1 + EasyTuTu + DeGreenifier + RandomRespawn + BG1 GUI
One Pixel Productions BG1 Paperdolls + Item graphics
Unfinished Business + BG1NPC
expcap.2da XP Cap remover.

So it's basically a Vanilla BG1 in the BG2 engine, apart from the BG1 NPC pack.

Now I'm noticing one thing. It seems much easier than my last playthrough. This is my party, just at the point of killing Tazok), all memers level 5-ish:

Minsc (main tank, AC -6)
Kivan (Sniper, backup tank AC -2)
Branwen (Cleric, emergency tank / blocker AC -1)
Imoen (Thief / Archer)
Dynaheir (Specialist Mage)
Andros (Me, Sorcerer)

Up until now, I'm breezing through the game. I just don't die. Minsc rarely gets hit. Basilisk, Vampiric Wolves, Greater Basilisk, Sword Spiders, Golems.... it all doesn't matter. I have Minsc block them (bolstered by a potion or protection scroll if needed), have the cleric cast a buff or 2, and then I mow everything down. Some of the low-end enemies like bandits don't even require me to stop walking. I just select Kivan, click once, and they die.

I didn't do anything special, compared to my last run, which was *really* Vanilla BG1. Like, BG1 and Baldurdash, and that's it. Compared to the Vanilla version, I have a feeling that I'm rolling higher saves, higher hit rolls, and get more hitpoints on leveling up. Everything just feels easier. Because the characters walk more quickly (halfway between BG1 and Icewind Dale speel), Minsc and Kivan can close much faster with archers, which makes them much less effective. (The enemy rarely closes with me, and if they do, they'll stumble over Minsc and stay there.)

I wonder: is it really easier, or do I just have so much experience in playing this game that the faster pace (because of the walking speed) just makes it feel easier and faster? At some point now, it's just becoming a bit boring, slaying the next group of 8 Gnolls or 10 Tasloi or even a few Ogres to be able to contiue my stroll in the forest :P

There is no way the Minsc should be -6 AC. The best armour in the game you can't get until Durlag's Tower, and that is only AC 0 (Fallorain's Plate is only AC 2). Also, unmodded BG1 will NOT let you wear more than one magical protection item, including armour. It sounds to me like you have some tweaks installed. Having said that, TuTu/BGT are NOT BG1 clones. Some new items from BG2 are there for the taking/cheating/etc. So yeah, the game does play differently than vanilla, particularly with tweaks.

There was a bug in one of the old mods install list that made Minsc level 6 when you first get him.

Armour is; Full Plate Armour, Magic Shield, Ring of Protection (2) and the “Claw of Kazgaroth”... they all stack in normal bg1. You could also add the “Helm/ cloak of Balduran” and the “Gauntlets of Dexterity” without counting temporary buffs.

It's easy to get Minsc to -6 AC. I did this:

- Minsc has a natural +1 DEX bonus. AC: 9.
- Gloves of Dexterity (Gnoll Stronghold), adding another +3 bonus. AC 6.
- Add a full plate. You can buy one (eventually, if you save up some money), or get one by defeating Taugasz Koshnan in the Bandit Camp. And maybe in other places too. I've got two full plates now: one bought, one from TK. One of them is on Minsc, the other on Kivan, and the Nashkel Ankegh Armor is on Branwen. Result: AC -3
- Add a Shield +1. No need to buy one, you can find many. AC becomes -5.
- Add a Ring of Protection +1. You can get one by defeating some enemy (forgot who), and you can get one by doing a quest (Marianne, in Nashkel, IIRC). AC is now -6.

If I remember well, that there is also a Ring of Protection +2 somewhere, and probably a Shield +2 too. Swapping the ring and the shield would bring his AC to -8. I actually seem to remember that AC -9 is possible... wasn't the Shield of Balduran a +3 one? I don't now on the top of my head.

I don't actually have a two-handed sword for Minsc atm. I sold the one THS +1 I found / got already, as I know I'll be getting Spider's Bane along the way. Even then, if Minsc faces a really strong opponent, he'll be using a sword and shield. Now he has Varscona, Long Sword +2. Switching to Spider's Bane +3 will only be done if I require an extra bonus to THACO and more damage, but because Minsc then loses 2 or 3 points to his AC, I'll probably place Branwen directly behind him with a slew of healing spells.

In te same vein: I also don't have any money problems, which seems to be different from my previous run. I'm literally swimming in gold. I just returned from the Bandit Camp, where I did find 2K of gold. After selling off a lot of stuff (including Imoen's Studded Leather +2), I bought her a Shadow Armor (for 10K), stocked up on +1 arrows, and I still have way over 8K gold left.

Add to that that I already bought the Full Plate for Minsc a long time ago (for 5K), and I haven't even encountered Basillus (which would net me 5K too), and you can see that I have more money than I can spend. The only item that has been consistently out of reach is the Robe of the Good Archmage, at 20K. I would have needed to not buy some stuff such as the Shadow Armor and Full Plate if I wanted that.

I believe there are some minor tweaks in tutu. For example, I think Tarnesh at FAI was made slightly easier, and IIRC the respawn rates for monsters was adjusted slightly.

My guess though would be that you're simply a vet of the game. Did you give yourself exceptional stats? Are you meta-gaming? Are you farming? Things like these can certainly make any game easier. Even without, experience makes all games easier.

Personally I haven't played vanilla since the game came out, as I find it way too easy. I use quite a few mods, house rules and other things to keep the game challenging. To me, one of the essential mods for any vet of the game is the Hard Times mod, which decreases the loot available while greatly increasing the price of everything. It's almost guaranteed that any fantasy game is going to have a broken economy and it won't be long before you're swimming in wealth. Mods to fix that are essential IMO.

My stats are high, but not exceptional.

Andros: Sorcerer
STR: 14
DEX: 10
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 15
CHA: 13 (Including one tome.)

Total: 85 (+1), which is a high, but not exceptional roll.

If I find all the other tomes too, then my stats will all be raised by 1, except WIS, that will be raised by 3. Then my stats will be quite exceptional.

All other characters are exactly as they appear in EasyTuTu. I didn't even adjust their proficiencies. I'm not farming, and I don't know what meta-gaming is... LOL. Easy... I've just encountered Bassilus as a level 5/6 party. I forgot where he was. The fight took like.... 2-3 seconds. One skull trap took everything out except Bassilus himself, and he fell using an additional Magic Missile.

That will net me 5K, for 3 seconds of work. (Selling Bandit Scalps to Vai got me almost 3K; I had 58 scalps or so.)

Maybe I'll try a run with Hard Times one day.

I remember reviews saying that BG1 was "exceptionally hard, except when you know a lot about AD&D". While I don't know if I know "a lot", I know more than enough to get by in any 2nd Ed, 3rd Ed or 3,5 Ed. game...

Metagaming refers to using out of game knowledge in a playthrough. IOW, using things you the player know that your character wouldn't. Starting a new game and immediately grabbing hidden items or exploiting a feature that your character isn't supposed to know about until much later in the game is metagaming. It gives you an advantage you're not "supposed" to have.

Hard Times is essential IMO, as is a no-reload rule. Sword Coats Stratagems (SCS) ramps up the challenge from monsters, giving them better combat options and a better AI to use them. There's another mod that randomizes the location of pre-set items, so players can't metagame by quickly grabbing the item of awesomeness at L1 since you no longer know where it will be. There are tweaks and fixes to address various loopholes and exploits in the game.

A house rule of mine I use is to start with 63 in stats, since that's what you had in the early days of D&D.

That seems like it would be too low to make a decent character, even in 3rd/4th edition where you get stat bonuses starting at 12...

In a cRPG, yeah, 63 is pretty low, because there's no roleplay value to having low stats. To be honest, though, even back when we did AD&D 1e we always used either 4d6 drop1 (x6), or 3d6 (x7) drop1. It was generally only a 5-10 point increase at the most compared to 3d6x6, but it helped alleviate a lot of the stat-rolling issues.

Of course there's roleplay value, people aren't awesomely awesome. 63 is supposed to be average, it's realistic. If you excel in one area, you're going to suck in another. I played for years with that. Having flawed, imperfect PCs is fun to me. I've always considered the 4d6 to be a power method, and having 80+ stats is just munchkin to me.

Look. Do you think BG is too easy? Can you cruise through your games? Do you want a game more challenging than what you're used to? Try a play with only 63. If you need, use the mod that implements 3E stats for BG, so you get modifiers every even number. If you really need, give yourself +1 each level. But try a 63 playthrough.

I just never understand gamers who pump up their stats, rack up insane coin and magic, metagame, and then complain a game is too easy.

When did I complain about it being easy?


In any case, suffice to say that our (PnP) gaming group eventually got bored of playing pathetic farmers. Even so, the 4d6 method only gives you a low-70s average and the 3d6x7 method gives high 60s, so the overall difference tends to be marginal. On the other hand, one of my strongest ever characters was a Transmuter who was rolled with straight 3d6 allocation (none of that sissy rearranging stuff, your first stat is Strength whether you like it or not!) and ended up with a 90 or so. The fact that he qualified to be a mage, much less a specialist, was a miracle.

To each their own, but when my groups want to play regular joes, we use a different system. And most of this isn't even applicable to BG anyway, because the lack of a NWP system means that only the 15+ modifiers ever come in to play.

Hear hear.

Hm. OK. Yeah, in that case, I'm meta-gaming a bit, because I pick up the Ring of Wizardry at the FAI, and the Ankegh Plate in Nashkel. I also sold my just acquired 2H Sword +1 because I know that I'll acquire Spider's Bane somewhere in Cloackwood, which is my next target.

However, there are many things I've forgotten. Like, I know that there are 3 tomes of Wisdom, and 1 tome for every other stat, but I actually forgotten where they are. I might actually not acquire them. (Up until now, I've only found the one in the Gnoll Stronghold map.)

TBH, the only two items I actually *knew* where to find were the Ring of Wizardry, and that Ankegh Plate. What I did *not* forget was the strategy and tactics on how to play BG1, because it's the same or similar in almost every partybased RPG I've played. Or, I'm just playing all party-based RPG's in the way I've learned to play BG1 in so many years ago. I actually detest non-pause realtime RPG's. In such games, I'm always futilly mashing the space bar :D If I do another playthrough some day, I think I'm going to use Hard Times indeed. It might be a bit much to ALSO use Sword Coast Strategems... less items, less money, AND stronger monsters are hard times indeed.

In the BG games, most stats for your character actually don't matter. I'm quite sure I could actually finish the game easily using the canon party (Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, Dynaheir and Imoen), without having a character myself. Therefore, a wizard with an INT of 14 (which is required to cast 5th level spells, IIRC) and all other stats on 9, is sufficient to give that canon party a great boost already.

This is indeed the case: In BG, it does not matter if a stat is 9 or 14, as you neither lose or gain anything, except for Strength, which gives you more strength for carrying stuff.

So if your stat is not 14, you can just as well set it to 9.

Not true:

For a mage an INT stat of 9 gives 35% chance of learning a spell and can learn 6 spells per level. This scales up to your example of 14 INT giving 60% chance of learning a spell and can learn 9 spells per level.

A cleric with a WIS of 13 gets 1 extra level 1 spell, and at 14 gets 2 extra level 1 spells.

NPC reactions go up by +1 with 13 CHA and +2 with 14.

It is ONLY CON and DEX that don't matter between 9 and 14.