#skip BG1

[salamanders-please]

If Beamdog was able to make their new BG1 EE companions use the friendly arm inn as a hub, why didn't they make the og companions do it too? It's really frustrating that swapping companions means leaving them behind where you dumped them. Because a) you need to remember where they are and b) sometimes that place is the middle of a dungeon??? Hello???

I don't actually have any complaints about the EE companions, just that it feels a bit jarring that they and their quests are fully voiced when no one else's is. Neera seems neat, though.

Iirc BG2 sends companions back to specific locations when dismissed. So that will be a welcome improvement.

[outeremissary]

Most cursed ass thing about BG3 is the way it makes me think "I should replay BG1." Literally the voice of the devil

[devotedlystrangewizard]

shoutout to my dad for complaining his baldurs gate 3 download took 45 minutes. i cant even play it but go OFF

[sovonight]

Who’s your go-to party in BG1? I love everyone! Wish I could take them all with me 😭😭

i stick with imoen, jaheira, khalid, xan, and viconia! i'm very boring haha

i recruited montaron & xzar briefly out of necessity of course, and branwen just to fill up the 6th slot after nashkel, and i remember trying out dynaheir, minsc, ajantis, & kivan before--though i always find timed companion quests a chore, especially in the beginning of the game when i'm actually recruitment-minded but still super low level. and i don't think i've ever actually recruited edwin, even though ppl seem to like him, just because i never notice him standing there in nashkel loL

ngl i do feel kind of locked in by insisting for story reasons that i have to keep imoen and jaheira/khalid in the party at all times... when u get down to it, on a player level, the only one i actually need to keep is xan. but the mod gives imoen such a sweet moment with the birthday celebration and the necklace, and jaheira/khalid are part of gorion's last instructions for charname, so it's difficult to trade them out for total strangers. bg2 is definitely a whole different environment in that way, like now that the original reasons are gone and imoen is gone and it's just jaheira and xan left, it's a lot easier to swap out companions at will. it's still a pain to do the whole equipment transfer though T_T

[get-more-bald]

daggerfall is so hard and for what

[svampira]

finally made a gay little durge

gorgeous gorgeous girls who finally own a computer

[glitter-stained]

More Lantern!Bats shenanigans

Blue Lantern Duke: *jumps off a building to dodge an attack*

Blue Lantern Duke: *creates a grapple construct made of pure hope*

Villain of the week: "such a fickle and fragile thing, Imma cut his line with my evil sword of power..."

Villain, after shattering his sword and all the bones in his wrist on the line: what the fuck

*****

Bludhaven Goon #1 (BG1): Dude, run! Nightwing's powered have tripled over night!

Bludhaven Goon #2 (BG2): Oh no, what happened? Did something happen in Gotham? Someone gone after Robin?

BG1: I don't know, but we need to- wait what is he doing

BG1: he's straight up glowing I-

BG2: he's lighting up the nightsky-

BG2: ohmygod we're gonna die

Meanwhile Red Lantern! Dick, ranting to Wally on the comms: yeah so Cass took all the hot water while showering then told me to 'deal with it', someone kept hiding pig whoopee cushions that go "oink" in my seats and I can't figure out who, Jasont told everybody my most embarrassing Nightwing debut stories with photographed evidence, Damian tried to kidnap Bitewing thrice and Tim skipped out to go to a party using a stratagem so needlessly elaborate it looked like Jason had designed it, and we all thought someone had kidnapped him! But no, yeah, the visit went well, manor's fine. You know how it is, siblings...

*****

Rose: Hey Jason, how the fuck did you bag Kyle Rayner?

Star Sapphire Jason, whisper-shouting: I don't know what the fuck is going on, he popped in with yellow roses and offered to teach me how to make constructs, don't talk so loud I'm afraid that'll make him realise.

Referrencing these posts:

[slowheart81]

Wait...so you're telling me that Varric Tethras, a man who went through several life and world changing events with a close friend and never fails to mention them even two years after they might have died, probably isn't going to have ANYTHING to say about Hawke? Rook, who Varric seems to have adopted as a replacement for Hawke, isn't going to be able to ask him any meaningful about his past adventures?

I get that ten years is a long time and Varric has been busy (please let Varric retire already, Bioware, I'm begging you) and there's a lot going on, but Varric's whole character was written around Hawke when they created him for Dragon Age 2. Why can't the resident storyteller have anything to say about all the world changing events he witnessed? I would have loved to hear Varric wax nostalgic about the events of Inquisition and DA2 and reflect about how he feels responsible for the events of both Inquisition and Veilguard, but now he'll have as much to say about his previous adventures as Jahiera had to say about BG1 and 2 in BG3 which doesn't fit his character.

Just...why did the developers not use an even bigger time skip if they wanted a clean slate? Why keep dragging out an old fan favorite character who's already been a companion in two games while still trying to be newcomer friendly? I wasn't even happy to see Varric again because I felt like there wasn't anything else left to do with the character, but I at least liked the idea of having him to bridge the gap between the Veilguard and the other games.

The lack of choices also makes me wonder how they're going to handle the Inquisitor. There wasn't much room to role play the Inquisitor compared to the Warden and Hawke, but I still have multiple Inquisitors that felt distinct. How is Veilguard going to differentiate between my Trevelyan who was friends with Solas but still vowed to stop him, and my Cadash who also vowed to stop him but was on bad enough terms with him that she got the option to punch him, for example? I hoped they'd learned their lesson with the way they handled Hawke's appearance in Inquisition, but they said that we won't control the Inquisitor, which I assume means that we won't be able to choose their dialogue.

I understand that writing and programming for all the different permutations is a lot of extra work and most of the choices in the Keep were superfluous, but part of the fun of the series was seeing all the little ways your characters were able to influence the world.

I'm still cautiously optimistic about Veilguard, but the news about the lack of carry over was a reminder that I need to accept it for what it is instead of what I've been hoping for all these years.

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Do you have any advice for someone much more used to modern games who is having a hard time getting used to bg1? im playing on the lowest difficulty and cleared out the nashkel mines but real time with pause just feels really clunky & unintuitive still

I know the feeling! After years of bouncing off fallout 1 and 2, I finally completeted them this year so with that in mind here's a few tips.

1.) Use a walkthrough. It might feel a bit cheaty but honestly this is what saved me with Fallout 1 and 2 because I just didn't know where to go or what to expect in combat. There will be spoiler free ones avaliable given the age of BG so don't be afraid to just look something up if you don't know where to go next.

2.) In BG1 specifically ranged weapons are king, equip ranged weapons on everyone as some enemies can easily be defeated before they reach you or can be kited around the map until they are dead. Just watch out for the bandits as this won't necessarily work on them if they also have a ranged weapon.

3.) if you find it a pain in the ass to give instructions to everyone then try assigning some AI to your characters so they start attacking automatically although make sure you read through what the AI does because some will switch to melee automatically. You can toggle the AI on and off if you want to take control directly for particularly hard fights.

4.) Check out the auto pause functions in the settings. What I tend to find useful is autopause for when a character reaches low health, when someone spots a trap and immunity to weapons.

5.) Pick up the tweak pack at Gibberlings3 https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/tweaks/tweaks/ Now I usually say for first time players don't install mods but the tweak pack contains a lot of quality of life changes that do make your life easier in the long run and as a veteran player I always pick it up. Make sure you read the read me file though for an explanation of each feature, you can skip sections I.e. Content changes or rule changes if you don't want to have to go through them all.

6.) Skip BG1 altogether. While I love BG1, it's also a bit lighter on story and NPC content to the point that if you are really struggling with it then go straight to BG2, which is considered the best of the series. It's also much tighter in terms of locations e.g. Much less random wilderness areas without a whole lot in them. It does a fairly good job at the start of catching you up to speed right in the opening too.

I'm sure my followers can chip in with a few more.

[starlightcleric]

...Or perhaps I will not be doing that as saves don't appear to be cross-platform between Windows and Mac.

Baldur's Gate/Forgotten Realms ramblings:

So I finished Act 2 of BG3 yesterday, but I've been holding off really getting into Act 3 because I'm traveling this weekend and my laptop isn't up to spec for it.

That being said, I have been debating about revisiting the Siege of Dragonspear dlc with my original Charname, Sigrdrifa, because I haven't played it, and me not playing it is what's been preventing me from importing her into BG2.

Which is all fine and good, those games can run on my laptop.

But then I realized: Sigrdrifa is a Paladin (Cavalier specifically), but I don't know who she's a Paladin of because the game doesn't make you pick that and I actually really know fuck all about Faerun.

Is the Forgotten Realms pantheon a rabbit hole I really want to fall down?

[lordharmony]

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024 COMPLETED✨🌈

I ended up skipping the last day. I hope making all of these art pieces Halloween-esque makes up for it! So, for my first ever monthly art challenge, I did 30/31 prompts over the course of a month and a half. They're all of varying quality, but overall, thank you for going on this journey with me!

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 28: MASCOT HORROR

Love this big ugly mascot version of Chucky. I think I could make an argument Chucky is a mascot horror character.

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 29: EXPERIMENTAL MAKEUP

Respect to people in the makeup game. Molly is one of my VTMB OCs that I translated over into my own OC-verse. She did turn human when she moved, but I still wanted to keep her iconic Nosferatu look. She's covered with tattoos as well but I did tactfully hide them all for this haha.

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 30: SUPERNATURAL / MONSTER

My BG3 Dark Urge, Braum, and BG1/BG2 Bhaalspawn Janek! I actually haven't finished BG2 yet but I've enjoyed playing through the old games a lot. Braum is a reanimated corpse of a man, and Janek is a werewolf boy.

[outeremissary]

Tagged by @arendaes on this fairy doll maker. I've skipped the last few of these doll makers because I just do not tend to have the kind of really high femme character in play that works on them without feeling really uncanny to me, but I figured I'd give this one an attempt and see how well I could recreate my BG1/2 character's old 2018 design (doodled on scrap paper at work here with a sad attempt at shitty wizard dart).

Not too far off...?

Not tagging folks on this one- forgive me, I'm just not sure who's best for something so specific ^^;; If you want to do it etc.

[blackjackkent]

Accepting Baldur's Gate Fic Requests! (Again XD)

Might start putting this out there semi-regularly just bc I find it fun. c: I'm on the hunt for more one-shot ideas/prompts/requests for things you'd like to see me write, for any scenario in the Baldur's Gate fandom! Send me an ask or reply here if you've got something in mind. :)

(Examples of my writing: AO3, and scattered through #bjk plays baldur’s gate 3 and #bjk plays BG3 Durge)

I’m comfortable writing pretty much every major character in a Tav playthrough except Minthara (cos I haven’t done a playthrough with her yet) and I'm familiar with early Act 1 Durge. (Also BG1/BG2 stuff. :) ) Pretty much up for trying any romantic or platonic pairing/scenario, SFW or NSFW (though obviously I reserve the right to skip anything I'm uncomfy with). :)

Hit me with your best shot!

[sovonight]

hey! been an enjoyer of your art for a while now (been offline Tumblr for a sec) and noticed you do BG art!

I low-key wanna get into BG but I don't know where to start or even what to expect. Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to get into the og BG games? (I don't wanna play BG3 rn I wanna start with the OG games)

sure! i wrote up a quick rundown here of the series + dlc + the enhanced editions. as for tips:

play the tutorial! don't skip this, bg's gameplay is not as self-explanatory as it is for modern games. xan also shows up here to teach you how to cast spells, so it's just nice to bother him

play on pc, not on an app (if for whatever reason you were considering the app version). not only is it really annoying playing on the app with a touchscreen, but you can't install any significant mods either, and it's a pain to even access the files in the first place

holding tab highlights all the interactable objects on the screen, like loot on the ground & chests you can open. there's also a magnifying glass button that does the same thing (in the ee version only, i believe)

in the main gameplay screen, hovering over icons brings up a quick tooltip that tells you what the icon is, but for full info on item/spell descriptions you'll have to click into the character's inventory/spellbook/etc and right click on them there

i regularly look things up on the wiki, because one of the things you'll probably be wondering once you enter combat is "how do i get rid of this negative status effect?!" status effects show up as tiny icons on the character portraits, and you'll have to click into the character page to see the actual name of the status effect, at which point you can drop it into the wiki search bar and find out how to get rid of it

another reason to keep the wiki open is to find out your enemies' weaknesses, so that when your companions are like "my weapon/spell has no effect!" you can change tactics

keep an eye on the log (that text box at the bottom of the screen)! i know, it fills up with a lot of information during combat, but you should keep an eye on how much damage you're doing, especially if you find out you're doing no damage at all

i regularly play with a walkthrough (bg1, bg1, bg2) because i hate backtracking and never want to miss a thing (you don't have to use the walkthroughs i linked, they're just what i have on hand). they are filled with spoilers, so i'd recommend trying your first playthrough without a walkthrough, but if you get stuck they're helpful for telling you what you need to do to get back on track with the main quest. bg doesn't have quest markers or individual quest trackers or anything, just one journal that every single quest update gets piled into (wow, just like real life!) so it's definitely possible to lose track of where you are if you're too deep in side quests or if you stop playing for a week

[sorcerous-caress]

was bg3 your first foray into dnd? it was for me!! and these days even at work im researching stuff on how to build properly lol :')

Not dnd as a whole, i was aware of some aspects of it. I've even watched a couple campaigns of people on youtube.

But Bg3 was my first ever intro to dnd fighting mechanics. I was also so blind at the start in early access and got very frustrated because every encounter was exhausting and i didn't know what anything does.

Back at early access times, we didn't have ANY tutorials. There weren't any helpful videos or guides or breakdowns of classes. It was through pure chance that I picked sorcerer. I didn't even know sorcerer was a class in dnd or what it does.

The subreddit wasn't active much either. The game itself doesn't teach you or guide your hand, it expects you to learn it on your own. Which was something i hated at the time but i also liked dark souls so i couldn't stop playing.

I replayed early acess a lot until i got the hang of it really, i don't even remember when it just clicked but now i can breeze through encounters while watching a youtube documentary like it's nothing. I know what most spells do and how to counter them, I can easily stack so many cc and buffs to make every boss look like a joke.

In the final boss fight i was skipping turns and messing around.

I do have a lot of experience in turn based games from before, so that might have helped, i knew what to read and what stats to look out for. Darkest dungeon, slay the spire, Frostpunk, Iratus.

Then i tried divinity original sin 2 and found it its combat is even more complicated than bg3. If you love something enough you'll have to be willing to learn for it.

Finally I gave bg1 a chance and the combat is even more bizarre, I'm still learning about thacco and armour and stuff.

I still have dragon age to try, then maybe pathfinder.

[salamanders-please]

The Durlag's tower fail may be a blessing in disguise. It's....tough, and then there's an aftermath battle in Ulgoth's Beard that is just....BLEH. I find the BG2 side dungeon, Watcher's Keep, much more palatable. And with notable exceptions I prefer BG1 to 2.

I actually switched to story/god mode in like ch3-ish of bg1. Which is how i breezed thru it so fast. I didnt need to get the strong gear from the sidequests. A couple were amusing or w/e but i dont feel like i missed out on great lore or writing by skipping most of them. I read descriptions of them in the guide i was following and just did the ones that interested me based on that. i also saw the guide recommendations and describing upcoming fights and just omg. What a nightmare. Even on normal i was struggling before switching. And even tho i couldnt die and killed everything super fast, i could still see how certain ambushes or fights are nigh impossible without dying to them at least once beforehand.

I don't feel like bg2 has improved on the bs fights or trap detection. They are still there, though hopefully fewer in number to someone playing on normal+. The writing is way better tho imo. Minsc has grown on me a bit and i recruited Jan. He's great. I am enjoying exploring Athkatla and sidequesting about.

Current party is Jaheira, Aerie, Minsc, Nalia, Jan. I haven't met everyone yet but i think i have for everyone in the city. Only ones I'm really married to are Jaheira and Jan. I dont feel like this would be a balanced party on normal tho lol