Need some help starting out.

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Hi folks,
right now I have this horrible lower back pain killing me and I'll probably stay home for a month or so. So I figured I could play a nice game to make time pass faster
I love RPGs but I've played console ones mostly and missed so many CRPGs So only ones I played are NWN+expansions, KOTOR 1&2 and Gothic II.

So here by my side is BG2+expansion ToA
I installed both and will download patches later on (official + baldurdash if I did my research well) but thing that bugs me is how well will I make it first time. If I understand correctly there is no "recommend" buttond and I'm afraid of making wrong choices with stats/weapon prof. and such stuff making game harder and causing me to quit (oh that happened quite a few time).
I would like to be a Paladin But if Pally is hard to play on first run or something I'm open for suggestions...
Also I would ask for a nice build (stats and stuff) if anyone have time to write me some nr:s to follow. No worries I can roll for hours
Also how long do you think it will take me to complete the game with expansion installed? Roughly (first timer and not at all good with whole D&D stuff [still don't get all AC and THAC0 stuff])
Thank you for your time!

P.S. I've checked for BG1 and IWD 1/2 also but I can't have anyone buy me them before next week so it'll have to wait and IIRC you can play BG 2 without the first right?

 

Sure go for the paladin. You pick up heroes for your party with their own strenghts and storylines to aid you and fascinate you as you progress in the game. So any "flaws" your paladin might have will be covered by their merits. Don't worry too much about stats.

Since the replayability of this game is tremendous you shouldn't worry about the difficulty settings. You can always adjust that in-game. You'll play this game over and over again anyway and can always get advice here if something should prove too tricky.

And yes you can easily play Bg2 without playing BG1 first. The game's cinematic intro is more than enough to keep you glued to the screen

I'll wager you have 100+ game hours ahead. So no rush. Just enjoy.

PS; Welcome to the boards.

AC: Is Armor Class, the better AC the harder you are to hit. You can either achieve this by beeing nimble (high dex) or Through a big chink of metal and a shield. The lower your AC number is, the better

THAC0 is To Hit ArmorClass Zero. This is a measure of how well you hit. The number here shows what you must roll on a 20 sided die to hit someone with armorclass Zero. If your Thaco is 12 then you need to roll 12 or above on the 20 sided die to hit someone with armorclass 0. and you'll only need to roll 2 or above to hit someone with AC 10. You'll get the hang of this quickly. Especially if you choose to view "to hit roll" in the options menu of your feedback.

A roleplaying rule of thumb. Better looking weapons and more shiny armor are good.

[ April 06, 2005, 01:01: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

 

OK, here goes:

1) You can play BG II without having played BG I. Any story references are explained in BGII
2) I recommend installing the official patch straight away because it fixes some annoying bugs
3) It took me about six months to complete this game the first time, playing for about an hour a day on average.
4) If you want to play a Paladin, go for it. The Paladin class is well catered for in this game so you shouldn't find it any more difficult than any other class. In this game you get to recruit various NPCs into your party so any weaknesses in your Paladin can be countered by the strengths of your NPCs.

 

This should get me rolling Thanks a lot guys! I'll go get some sleep now and start first thing in the morning!

 

OK. Some good comments already. here's my two cents. As stated, you can definitely play BGII without having played BGI. I played BGII before 1, and it was great!
Your first time through the game, it is, in my opinion, best to play a fighter-type character. This means Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger... or Paladin. So a good choice there.
One thing to keep in mind about playing a Paladin tho. Be very careful not to do anything un-Paladin-like, or else you'll become Fallen. This makes you lose your Paladin abilities and turns your character into essentially a wimpy fighter. This SUX! Just play your character as the goody-two-shoes that Paladins are known for being, and make sure not to accidentally kill any innocents, and you'll be fine.
If you want to play a Kit, I would agree that an Undead Hunter is a nice choice. As said, there is a perfectly servicable (tho I think servicable is an understatement here) paladin you can pick up in game.
When it comes to stats, here's some thoughts. Obviously the higher the stats the better. However, you still need to pick your priorities. STR is very important for any Melee based character, however, there are items all over the game that can help you get your STR way up, so it moderate STR to start won't really hurt you much. CON is definitely a must. Extra hit points can make a huge difference in a tough fight. DEX is another big one, since it helps your AC. However, it is definitely not necessary to max it out. If you have the ability points to do it tho, then do it. WIS doesn't need to be higher than the class min, which I believe is 13. CHA is one that is always good to get high, and I THINK a Paladin has a min of 17 (which is good and bad. Good cuz you'll never ROLL lower than that, but bad because you can't take points away from a good roll to put elsewhere if you want). Leaving it at the min of 17 is fine, but again, if you can afford it, go for 18. INT isn't really important to a Paladin, so if you truly want to powergame, you can knock that way down. However, unless you are a pure powergamer, don't let it get below 7 or 8, otherwise you're creating an unrealistic character.
So, here's some easily attainable numbers. Adjust at your leisure:
STR 14, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 8, WIS 13, CHA 17
That's an 88 total roll. EASILY achieved, specially rolling with a Paladin. If you want to push for a 90+ roll, then you've got some points to play with.
Game time really depends on how meticulous you are about completing quests and stuff. You could have a rack of game hours ahead of you.
Others have tried to explain THACO and AC. Here's the easiest way to look at it. THACO is what a character needs to roll on a D20 to hit, but the THACO is modified by subtracting the targets AC. So a THACO 10 against AC 4 needs a 6 on a D20 (10 - 4 = 6). A THACO 12 against an AC -5 needs a 17 to hit (12 - -5 = 17).
If you have anymore questions, ask. You have a great time ahead of you. Enjoy!

 

OK, I do not want to spoil this for you but ....

When you have to choose the three doors: the red or the green or the yellow. CHOSE THE RED ONE!!!!!


MUWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

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PS:

There are no three doors: I'm just in a smatass mood

 

Hehehe @ Chas
Well I had to see a doctor this morning so I didn't have a chance to start playing until now
Thanks again for all the info it really means a lot !
Don't wory I'll be back with more questions soon

So this game has great replay value? You mean with another character (like mage) or is there some kind of open ended gameplay?

 

No, there is no openended game ending. The replay is mainly for different character types.

Some of the replayability:
1. Each character type, mage, thief, etc gets class specific quests. But these are really minor.
2. A chance to play as 'good' or 'evil', meaning a different selection of the NPC's you meet and different dialogs for almost all the encounters. ie a good Paladin will say 'of course I will help you' while an evil character will say 'I will only help if you can pay enough'
3. Each NPC has there own specific subquests. You cannot really get them all in just one game.
4. A chance to solo the game with just your character, or using a mini-group of just a couple characters.
5. mods up the wazoo that add new quests/areas/players/difficulty etc to the game.
6. Romances with/between the NPC's. wink wink

I am on my third go-through now. With a bunch of starts - go about 1/4 the game then start again with a 'better' idea for a character/group. I played just SOA to the end once, then SOA/TOB once and am now near the end of SOA/TOB again. I will probably try a new game next but I am sure I will do BG2 again someday. Gotta do an evil party one time.

 

Okiii now this is weird (I think)
I just installed patches and was about to start when I did remember that I choose to play just SoA... (just trying to see how settings would work [can't seem to get "BGConfig" to pass no matter what I do it flickers like crazy])
So I restarted and choose ToA this time... Thing is I get to start from another place! It says chapter8 and I find myself in some kind of a wood... Is that how it's supposed to be?

I'll look into this flickering problem some more first (try different drivers [have GF 6800])

 

Try to turn off 3d acceleration in BGconfig or tripple buffering in OpenGL through your video drivers to stop the flickering.
Don't start Throne of Bhaal just yet! It's the sequel to Shadows of Amn.

 

So I just start Shadows of Amn first right? Before the new game ( I should start at the prison right )
I thought ToA just adds some dungeon(s) to the game...

 

Correct -- go into Shadows of Amn then start a new game. You will start in a prison of sorts. Throne of Bhaal adds additional conquests and ultimate resolution to your characters fate. A really big dungeon is added which you can get to in SoA (it's really tough, so wait a while before doing it). This add on dungeon, Watcher's Keep, has some fantastic magic items.

I agree with the other posters, the game seems to be made for Paladins and Lawful Good play -- doing good deeds and other Dudley Dooright type of stuff.

Choosing Undead Hunter makes the battles with vampires a little easier (and there are a lot of them). I prefer Cavalier -- they have good resistances and cast all the spells available for a Paladin (I really like Lay on Hands).

Two-handed swords and two handed weapon style are a must (there is a unique two handed sword that only Paladins can use in the game -- it's basically the best weapon in the game). I tend to want a missile weapon and axes go well with that. There are plenty of good throwing axes available (the best very early in the game). There is another Paladin in the game that can join you -- he's very powerful and can also use the two-handed sword (although I never keep him for very long).

Two weapon fighting has a lot of fans. If you choose to two-weapon fighting katana, long sword, flail, axe and mace are all good to start with. Add bastard sword late in the game.

 

So what is ToB for? If choosing SoA will get me to the expansions stuff what will ToB do? Just let me do the dungeon or?

Also I can't seem to find any OpenGL settings in nvidia drivers and I wouldn't like to turn off 3d acceleration I'll see if I can get around it somehow :/
Man it's been a 24 hours and I haven't started playing yet

 

ToB does a few things for you. It fixes some SoA bugs, so you don't need the SoA patch, just the ToB one. Added to the SoA storyline is the Watcher's Keep dungeon, as mentined above. Also, when you finish SoA, you will automatically be brought to the beginning of ToB and you can play through it almost as it's own game. Watcher's Keep is the only real in-game thing that you have in both SoA & ToB. Think of ToB almost as an abbreviated BGIII, rather than an expansion.

 

Its kind goofy how they made the start screen. Showing an SOA and a TOB button. The game should know where you are.

The origional game was just SOA. Then the TOB expansion pack was sold later. Installing TOB at the very start is not needed but it does have some bug fixes and a couple handy features (like Tab). So it is OK to install it before you finish SOA. The two parts: SOA and TOB, have a continuing storyline between them but they are really two 'different' games. The game areas are totally seperate with the one exception that the area 'Watchers Keep' can be played from either game. Once your character has finished SOA, your game ends. Then to continue where you left off, you have to select TOB from the start menu. And every time you play after that, you select TOB instead of SOA. But like I said, the game should know this already.

 

But the ToB button is there in case you want to start a game from ToB without going through SoA first.

 

Ok, on reflection I can see some logic to it. You may have an old saved character that you want to import and you want to start with TOB right away. But starting TOB with a brand new character makes no sense to me. You could not even survive the first battle. I stiil think it is goofy to have the menu on the first screen. It could be handled better. Like, if you do want to skip SOA then go to the gameplay menu and select 'start with TOB' or something like that. Otherwise, the game should remember where you are.

 

@Chas: Two things. First off, when you finish SoA, the game doesn't end and force you to select ToB to continue. It will automatically load you into ToB with your current party and away you go. Second, it is entirely possible to start a new game directly from ToB with a new character. Your newly created character isn't a level 7 or 8 char like at the beginning of SoA. He starts out with something like 2,500,000 XP, making the first fight VERY doable.

 

The first time I played ToB I started with a new character. (My saved games for SoA where on my old comp which died a nasty death.) I have since gone back and played through SoA/ToB. It is more fun. You can do Watcher's Keep a level or two at a time. That's what I do. Usually play the first few levels in SoA and then the last couple of levels in ToB.