Baldur's Gate Done Quick

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I just grabbed a video of a game of Baldur's Gate finished in an astonishing 1h 11mn 08s realtime. The author of this prowess, a german guy called Julien Lager relies on a soloing Elven Fighter/thief. He uses every tactics in the book to accelerate the run trough the game. The most notable ones are stealth , Algernon's Cloak, arrows of detonation. After watching it one can't help wondering that this can be improved by a lot. Some of his shortcuts are discutable as the long way around. He apparently played the game in default difficulty setting. And seeing the speed at which his character walks around he left the speed of the game (AI Updates/Second) at it's default 30.

What does the hord of BG freaks here think should be the rules for BG Done Quick?
I propose AI at 60 updates/second but the difficulty should be at maximum. Why maximum because the guys at Quake Done Quick usually do it in Nightmare difficulty and they manage it in 12mn 27s.
Note that he never dies so he never reloads. Should reloading be allowed for death or whatever reason?
Also is Fighter/Thief the best class for such a challenge?
Has anyone here tried such a run and how did they fare.

 

Elven F/T would probably be best.

I tried it once with a Bard, and got my a$$ kicked in the final battle, but only because I was avoiding every fight that I could. It resulted in a level 4 solo Bard who never had much of a chance. I was surprised when I beat Davaeorn (as a first level bard using a lot of scrolls and potions), and I couldn't believe I made it to the final battle. I may try it again sometime in the distant future, but not any time soon.

 

@Felinoid

Why didn't you buy two wands of monster summoning and a hundred arrows of piercing. That should do the trick. At least without Tutu (summoning cap)

 

@Apeman:
Maybe if I had the cash for it. I didn't do any quests.

 

What makes an Elven F/T superior to a Dwarf F/T? The Dwarf would have a much better chance at saving against any magic or poison attacks, and would have more HP.

 

Dwarves are good for staying power, but when you're trying to go quickly, every +1 to bows and swords helps (in BG1, at least).

 

I guess it's to each his own. I think the regeneration would really help a dwarf.

 

But would you go out of your way for that CON tome? Without it, no regeneration and to get it, takes what 5 minutes minimum? And would this regeneration end up saving you 5 minutes somewhere else (I guess you may be able to avoid a rest or 2). Elf is good to go from the start in terms of advantages.

In a normal solo (non-speed) I do prefer the dwarven F/T for the regen. Just maybe not in this special case.

 

Hmmm... I hadn't considered the time it takes to actually aquire that Tome. Great point UCLAParadox!

 

Yes, going to get that Tome is not only a waste of precious time but also taking unneeded risks for a low level character. The irony is that a Fighter/Thief won't even be able to peruse it right away because he has no means to identify it. To be able to beat the game in an hour or less you must stick to the main plot and never deviate from it unless as UCLAParadox cleverly stated it gives you a sensible gain.

I've been experimenting for the last week and I came to the conclusion that anything that won't accelerate your run should be skipped without remorse. Before developping on that idea let me remind you what needs to be done in each section of the game to unlock the next.

SPOILER WARNING though if you haven't finished BG numerous times the following might ruin your pleasure badly.

- Prologue: Talk to Gorion.
- Chapter 1: Enter Nashkel or Carnival Area. (Although you can access the Nashkel Mines Area before, you can't get inside if you haven't visited any of those areas first)
- Chapter 2: Kill Mulahey and grab the letter mentioning Tranzig.
- Chapter 3: Kill Tranzig to unlock the Bandit Camp. Get there and grab the letter mentioning the Iron Throne in Tazok's tent.
- Chapter 4 : Kill Davaeorn. (no need to flood the mines)
- Chapter 5: Enter and Exit the Iron Throne. Talk to Duke Eltan and accept to spy for him. Talk to him again and tell him that you'd rather go back to Candlekeep. He'll give you the valuable book and teleport you there.
- Chapter 6: Give the book to the Keeper of the Portal to get inside Candlekeep. Talk to Koveras or get Rieltar hostile. Talk to any guard to get arrested. Escape through the catacombs. (Edit: don't miss the trigger mentioned by Felinoid).
- Chapter 7: Get Sarevok's Diary from Cythandria on the Iron Throne's top floor (careful all the mercenaries that you skipped in Chapter 5 are still there waiting for you). Get the Invitation from Slythe in the Undercellar. With those 2 items in your possession you are ready to get inside the Ducal Palace. During Sarevok's Doppleganger Coronation prevent at least one Duke from being killed. When all the Doppelgangers are dead, give Sarevok's Diary to a Duke. Fight Sarevok until he flees. Talk to a Duke who'll teleport you inside the Thieves Guild. There, through the Maze get to the Temple of Bhaal. Assasinate Sarevok. (Edit: You can freely replace Sarevok's Diary with The Letter From Sarevok carried by Slythe).

Those conditions are with ToSC and the latest patch installed. They may change for older versions.

Now to get back to the acceleration part. The primary objective is to get from one necessary point to the other as fast as possible. Oil of Speed is your best friend. Before Baldur's Gate there are 3 easily reachable, that I know of. Imoen and Montaron have one each. The third one is in Tazok's inventory, if you manage to kill him. The next best thing are scrolls of Haste. Unfortunately there are not many to be found. Charming somebody who has Haste memorised is also a good idea. Of course you must cleverly choose the best spot to drink or cast your hasting items. Let's not forget the Boots of Speed the best item for any speed-runner. You can combine it with Oil of Speed to go even faster.

This is how Julien Lager goes through the Nashkel Area. He enters Nashkel. Gets to watch the Nashkel Movie. Talks to the Mayor. Talks to Oublek to get a +1 REP. Goes to the Mines Area, drinks an Oil of Speed and reaches stealthily and rapidly Mulahey's Lair. There he messes badly. He starts with 2 Backstabbing that don't really dent Mulahey's HP (I didn't know you could backstab twice, he pulls the trick by pausing, going back to stealth before he becomes hostile and attacking again). Then he charms him with Algernon's Cloak and empties the poor bugger's spells. Than he hides in the shadows again and finally manages to kill him.
He gets out of the mines through the secret exit and goes back to Nashkel. There he talks to the mayor again to get his reward. Goes to the temple to get his loot identidied. Goes to the shop to sell them. Then he goes to Carnival to buy the Necklace of Missiles. From there he goes to High Hedge to buy some Potion of Freedom and Elixir of Health. Then at last he goes to Beregost to perform the hit on Tranzig with the Necklace of Missiles. After that he goes shopping for the Shadow Armor. Then he walks half the sword coast to attack the Bandit Camp.

Now the way I do it. I enter Carnival Area. I appear on the North of the Map. I immediately exit the way I came and go to Nashkel. Here I appear on the East of the map (Strangely and luckily the Nashkel Movie is not played if you arrive this way. Probably because the chapter change has already occured in the Carnival). Again I immediately exit the way I came because the Mines Area is now accessible. As soon as I appear in there I drink an Oil of Speed. Then I grab the Wand of Frost which is not too far off. After speaking with the Mine Master and Amnish Soldiers, I drink a Potion of Invisibility. I can't count on my stealth yet because I dumped all my initial thief points in Pickpocket and I didn't bother to get the Boots of Stealth. Reaching Mulahey while invible is easy. To get him I can choose bettween 2 shots of Wand of Frost or a single well aimed rebounding but risky shot of Wand of Lightning. To identify any of those wands I used an Identify scroll that I pickpocketed from Tethtoril back in Candlekeep. From there I exit like he does through the secret exit.
Once outside I pray to succeed in charming Maneira (She is one of the four assassin girls waiting just north of the exit). In order to charm her I have one Charm Person memorised from the beginning and a scroll from Mulahey's chest. Once she is charmed we run together towards the exit of the map. Her freind Telka starts pounding her with Arrows of Fire. If done correctly Maneira falls near the exit. I loot her body and leave the area right away because if I stayed it would be immediate death for me. The loot I got from her contains a Potion of Magic Blocking that I will be needing to get through traps in the Spider Area of the Cloakwood Forest.
From that Area I go to the High Hedge Area not to go shopping but because transiting there makes you arrive in Beregost from the West quiet close to the Feldepost Inn. After killing Tranzig and pickpocketing Algernon's Cloak, I leave immediately for Larswood (an Area I already made available earlier during my first visit to Beregost while wasting time getting the Potion of Invisibility and the Wand of Lightning) to become a bandit, not wasting any time buying the Shadow Armor that I could have used.

You have probably guessed it by now that I choose to become a Neutral Evil Fighter/Mage/Thief. The disadvantages of having only one weapon slot and slow progression is easily offset by all the advantages: stealth, pickpocket, backstabbing, disabling traps, magic, fighters THACO. The single weapon slot is fine because I do all my fighting with backstabbing, wands or scrolls so I don't realy need to change weapons, the only exception is Davaeorn that I sometime kill with the help of Darts of Wounding. Why bothering with pickpocket do you say? Because you get access to things you need without having to waste time killing. A good example is Slythe in chapter 7. Instead of killing him you can quickly charm him and pickpocket the needed Invitation from him. As an added bonus you get to steal the Cloak of Balduran from Quenash who is nearby. In fact this character should be more close to chaotic neutral as he kills so little but I wanted to equip the Robe of the Evil Archmagi.

On my initial runs I used to go see Drizzt and pickpocket one of his scimitars but I gave up on that I idea now, it is too far off and there is the risk of failing and facing his wrath. A +1 weapon with a Potion of Storm Giant Strength is deadly enough. Also I don't visit any shops till the Sorcerous Sundries. I manage to get around 20000 GP from all the loot I accumulated so far. I already shop in prepation for the fights with Sarevok because I will not be coming back. The problem is that as I am more and more streamlining my run I have less and less money to buy anything. I also never sleep. To get Sarevok, 4 or 5 backstabb with a Short Sword +1 is usually enough (first one on stealth the rest in invisibility). Once just after giving Sarevok the final blow Angelo managed to kill me, the game still ended as usual but I was not there anymore to reach the clutches of Irenicus, but this is another story.

Well I hope I haven't annoyed anyone with this lengthy post. Felinoid might consider it an interesting read as he seems to be knowledgeable in this matter and should try speed-running sometimes.

[ October 01, 2005, 11:10: Message edited by: Phase Demon ]

 

You don't need to kill Mulahey.

 

I tried this and had no luck.

The best character for this is a Fighter/Thief.

Here are the stats you want.

Str 18/00
Dex 19
Con 17
Int 3+
Wis 3+
Cha 18

 

@Phase Demon:
You don't need to get Sarevok's Diary; the other scroll Slythe's carrying works just as well.

@kuemper:
Yes you do; I've tested it.

 

Kuemper: here is the script for Mulahey's Area which should settle this once far all.

IF

PartyHasItem("SCRL2V")
Global("CHAPTER","GLOBAL",2)
Dead("Mulahey")

THEN

RESPONSE #100
IncrementChapter("Chptxt3")
AddJournalEntry(15837)

END

Which means to get to Chapter 3 you need to be in Chapter 2, Mulahey must be dead and the scroll mentioning Tranzig in your inventory. This implies that if you have cheated your way into the mines while still in the Prologue or Chapter 1 you can't get to Chapter 3. This also implies that if you have grabbed that scroll and dropped it before killing Mulahey you won't get to Chapter 3 either.

----

Thanks Felinoid, that's an excellent tip that will be very handy. It will avoid me a nasty spot.

 

Excuse me. I thought you didn't need to kill Mulahey to continue the plot. I was mistaken and later corrected. I never argued one way or t'other. Geesh.