First Time Player to BG

[Qulom]

I have completed NWN 1 and all its expansions but now I want to play through BG1 all the way through BGII and its expansion. What class should I start with..i enjoy wizard like classes but will they be to hard for a newbie?

What should my stats me to start..what should I roll for?

How long should it take to play through all the Baldurs Gate Series..I do all the quests and explore everything....

Thanks for all your advice

[fable]

Qulom, welcome to the forums. First thing to do: use our search function. A lot of the kinds of things you're asking about have been asked in the past, and answered at great length but many people. The site owner doesn't allow duplicative threads, so everybody's answers tend to be gathered. At a thought, try searching on these:

classes
recommendation
profession
spells
stats
attributes

I am not going to close your thread, though. Because everybody starting a new game has their way of looking at these matters, and their followup questions about party construction.

Then, get yourself a nice meal and a good, tall drink, because you're going to have quite a time reading dozens or more well thought-out posts.

As to how long BG1 should take...? Easy question: as long as you require. There isn't a deadline on enjoyment. And in case you weren't aware, in the BG series, unlike NWN, you can run multiple mods at the same time, all within the basic game. There are a number of fine ones for BG1 that add quests, create new party NPCs, enhance the dialog of existing party NPCs, and add in the BG2 engine (which means several enhancements, including map notes and highlighted objects on the ground). BG2 has many, many more, several dozen, in fact. It's best to start a separate thread for mod recommendations, but I would urge you to look here, at the Pocket Plane Group, for some idea of what's available in the way of mods.

For myself, I would first suggest that before rolling, you install the official patch from Bioware for BG1. Then consider adding something called EasyTutu. A number of BG1 mods require this, and it enhances the game. You can see what it adds from that page I linked to. One excellent mod to use after installing EasyTutu is The BG1 NPC Project, which adds a lot more depth to the party NPCs you find, there.

After that, although you can use multiplayer to build an entire party yourself, I strongly recommend starting one character and picking up five more as they show up through the game. This really enhances the roleplaying aspects of BG1, and there are considerably more than 5 to grab. As for classes.

As for classes, my suggestion is to use a cleric or fighter. That's because magic, while important, is much less powerful in the game than in BG2, and in the early stages of gameplay, having an effective character with decent hit points is probably best. Just my take. In BG2, there's an excellent mod that gives clerics a lot more roleplaying flexibility, so that's something to look forward to if you plan to port your character across between the two titles.

As for stats, you do have the manual, don't you? That should explain what each stat basically does. Fighters obviously benefit from high strength and constitution, and dexterity lets you avoid incoming missles easier. Charisma helps get lower prices from merchants. Wisdom is of primary interest to clerics and druids, while intelligence helps mages and bards. Although bards and druids are fun to play from a roleplaying perspective, their classes are (in my opinion) severely hobbled in the BG series.

[kmonster]

Don't forget that BG2 uses totally different rules than NWN, a character with 14 in all stats is great in NWN but horrible for BG2 for example since there's usually no difference between 14 or 7 in a stat in the 2e rules, look at the stat tables.

Unlike in NWN your PC is only one of up to 6 party members who you can control as well as him/her, so you can play any class once you recruit other party members. So it doesn't matter too much what class you play.

Mages are pretty weak in BG1 since you are low level and don't get many or very powerful spells and the few HP a level 1 mage gets won't last long.
If you start as a mage I strongly recommend starting as specialist so can cast a few spells per day, illusionist class (can be gnome or human) has the least important forbidden spells, if you don't mind not having the identify spell you can start as conjurer.
If you play a specialist mage start with at least 10 str (for some carrying capacity, exactly 18 dex,16 con, 18 (19 if gnome) int. Wisdom is useless and can be dumped (take 10 if you want some lore but other party members can have some lore too), 18 cha helps a lot for quest rewards but you can even dump it to 3 since there are other party members with 16-17 cha you can put at position 1.
If you are a very patient reroller you can get a sum high enough for both 18 str and cha (dumped wis) or 10 str,10 wis and 18 cha. If you are not very patient you can play with lower stats, but remember: 14s don't help, 18s make the difference.
With the +4 AC and +2 ranged attack bonus from 18 dex (most important stat for all classes) and the +2 HP/level for 16 con your mage isn't that vulnerable anymore although you will still need a few reloads at low levels. Take sling proficiency at the start.

Since mages won't get very powerful before the start of BG2 and you get the first levels of a class very cheap an often used tactic is playing BG1 as a human fighter and dualclassing to mage at level9 early in BG2 for a very powerful character. For this I recommend starting with 18 str,dex,con, at least 17 int, dumped wis and putting the remaining points into cha.
Put proficiency points only into bows and large swords.
You could also dualclass to specialist wizard at level 3 if you want to cast mage spells in BG1, you'll still get many HP and weapon specialization.

Another option is playing a cleric since he gets more spells, HP and armor than a mage. You can also start as a human cleric in BG1 and dualclass to mage early in BG2 at level 9 to get the best of both worlds. In this case I recommend starting with 18 dex, 15-16 con, at least 15 (better 17) wis, 17 int, at least 12 str, use sling and hammer.

Half-elf F/M/T and gnome F/Ill are also very powerful characters throughout the whole sage. In BG1 you usually quite bad HP rolls for multiclasses, but you can reload your level ups and or use a mod to get always the maximum if you like.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by fable

Then consider adding something called EasyTutu. A number of BG1 mods require this, and it enhances the game. You can see what it adds from that page I linked to. One excellent mod to use after installing EasyTutu is The BG1 NPC Project, which adds a lot more depth to the party NPCs you find, there.

I'd second this recommendation. I've found that EasyTutu (assuming you already own BG2) and the NPC project greatly enhance the BG1 experience. I'd recommend them even to first-time players.

[Crenshinibon]

I'd recommend simply patching your game and playing it without any mods, at least for the first time. Then, if you feel like it, you can install the mods. So yeah, in my opinion you should play the game in its unaltered state, the way the developers intended.

As for a starting class, I'd suggest a fighter type: either a fighter, a ranger or a paladin. Perhaps a cleric as Fable suggested. Playing a wizard, you'll be weak in combat and during your first playthrough, you wouldn't know where to look for certain items and scrolls. You'll learn to use the other classes anyway through controlling the NPCs that join you.

[Qulom]

Thanks for the advice...

Are there any advantages to running through BG without mods first. Do the mods add alot to it?

I will play the game as a fighter or paladin first and dual class to a mage.

Can I dual to a mage in BG1 or do I have to wait till BG2?

I will be coming back here for much advice throughout my long run through both games.

[Crenshinibon]

There is no advantage to playing without mods other than experiencing the game in its pure state. This TuTu that was spoken about simply converts BG1 to the interface of BG2, also adding the new kits and classes as well as changing a few rules.

Remember, not all classes can dual. A paladin for example may not. To dual, you need to be human and you need to have a high primary stat for the class that you started with (strength for fighter) and a high stat for the class you'll be (intelligence for mages).

[kmonster]

If you play a human fighter with high enough str and int you can dualclass to (specialist) mage at any time after reaching level2. Waiting until level 3 will grant more HP and allow you to put a 3rd proficiency point into bows for better ranged damage.
If you dualclass at fighter level 2-5 you can still reach the highest mage level allowed in BG1 within the XPCap. If you dualclass at level 6-8 you'll only have a crippled mage during BG1 so in this case I recommend to wait until you reach level 9 in BG2.

[Qulom]

Well, I formed my first BG1 character. I took into account what everyone said. I really want to dual class a fighter/mage and carry this character through the entire BG series to the end. Here is my creation:

St : 18/74
Dex: 13
Cons: 13
Int: 17
Wis: 3
Char: 15

Bastard Sword: ++
Long Bow: ++

So will this work for a dual class Fighter/Mage?

Will this be a good strong character to play?

Thanks

[Crenshinibon]

When you roll stats, you can subtract from them and add to others. Just want to make sure you know that. The low dexterity and constitution will kind of hurt, especially when you just dual classed to a Mage. I think you should reroll for better stats. Also, store items will be pretty expensive for you.

[kmonster]

Your character is quite weak. Neither in dex nor con is 13 better then 7, a character with 18 dex and 7 con would be far superior.
Your stats sum only up to 79, I recommend rerolling until you've at least 82, so you can put str,dex,int and cha to 18 without having to put con lower than 7.
But with a little patience even far higher rolls are possible.

Magical bastard swords aren't common in BG, I recommend putting points into another weapon type (like 2-handed swords) instead.

[fable]

St : 18/74
Dex: 13
Cons: 13
Int: 17
Wis: 3
Char: 15

You can certainly play the game with that character, and win. I don't see any problem with it. However, it really does help to have a stronger constitution score. Dexterity is rather less important for a hand to hand fighter, but it does cut down on the success rate of ranged attacks on you.

So whether you choose to keep this, or reroll, is your choice. For myself, I would suggest that given your class preferences, a very low score in wisdom and an average to above average score in charisma is acceptable. I would want above average in dexterity, and high scores in intelligence, strength, and constitution.

[Qulom]

Ok...I re-rolled for about an hour and I got this:

St 18/95
dex 18
con 12
int 18
Wis 3
Ch 18
++ Crossbow
++ Two handed sword


Really good?

[fable]

Your charisma is 18, but your constitution, which is arguably far more important, is only 12. Remember, even if you don't have much charisma, you can place a party NPC at the front of your group for purchases who has more.

[Sanguin]

Originally Posted by Faust

I'd second this recommendation. I've found that EasyTutu (assuming you already own BG2) and the NPC project greatly enhance the BG1 experience. I'd recommend them even to first-time players.

Me too. Actually, I think BG1 is extremely boring without EasyTutu, although the content is exactly the same. It's just so damn tiring to drag the map all time if you want to see the next square inch of the area... Believe me, the improved resolution adds a LOT to the enjoyment.

Plus, you can play all the kits from BG2 with EasyTutu, so if you want to play say a Kensai all the way to ToB than this is the tool for it. Besides, the BG2 journal is a great relief, it's much easier to keep track of what's happening if you have that. Oh and you can use Tab to highlight doors and containers... a conveniece which you'll only appreciate fully if you don't have it!

As for the BG1 NPC project, I love it very much, adds a great content to the game imho in the form of lots of new conversations and banters, which are really very funny sometimes. I think all the additional remarks are very much in-character for the guys, it's really a well-written content so it does not ruin the original feel of the game, imo (like some NPC mods may). You'll have to follow the installation order carefully to avoid problems. It's a great mod, improves the adventuring experience significantly.

I don't like mods at all, but for me BG1 without EasyTutu is dead. I could never play the original version, it's just way too cumbersome.
So before you get bored of this great game because of the 20-yrs old game style, give it a chance by installing EasyTutu, you won't regret it, I can personally guarantee that

To sum it up, I'd say EasyTutu is a "must", don't start without it (it does not alter the content in any way, except for the class kits), and you can definitely enjoy the game without any other addon, although the BG1 NPC project is great fun.