Odds and Ends

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Some wisdom I gained while playing BG1:

1)The XP cap:

I played a game without it, using six party members. The average XP per member was 225,000. That means only one extra level for multi/dual players and some single class players. I had the cap in my first game but Jaheira would have made druid level 9 and gotten one level 5 spell. In my last game my PC was able to get his 9th mage level after dualing from a fighter. Coran was able to get a extra thief level to 9 and Yeslick an extra cleric level to 8. Branwen was barely able to get to level 9.

Only four level five Cleric spells are in the game btw:

Animal Summoning 2
Cure Critical Wounds
Flame Strike
Raise Dead

Fighters (Rangers/Paladins too) were not able to get to level 9. Some people think taking the XP cap off creates an imbalance but as long as you don't cheat and kill everything just once I don't think the 60,000 extra XP per character ruins the game at all. If you were taking less than the full six characters I imagine it creates a mega powered character(s). If you were interested in cheating however Dulag's Tower is the best place. On the first lower level there seems no end to the re spawning of those spiders that give you 1400 XP per kill.

2)Lets hear it for the Grease spell!

I use to think that the only level one spells worth knowing were:

ID item
Magic Missile
Charm
Sleep
Friends (if your mage/bard is your best shopper with the highest charisma)
And maybe Chromatic Orb.

My first two games had strong multi-tanks with 18+ strength so I could just rush in and slaughter the bad guys. In my current evil game my party is much physically weaker and I have to use strategy a lot more. Xzar, Edwin, and Vicona don't help much with their weak sling attacks.
I was forced to experiment with different spells. I found out that grease was fantastic. It's like an area attack slow spell! It definitely takes Chromatic Orb off the list for me. I don't have much luck with the Orb anyway as the better enemies I try to use it against make the saving throw most of the time.

3) Being evil may be fun but it's not easy.
Doing the game along an evil path has it's major pitfalls, the worst of which is as soon as your rep goes to 4 (or less) every guard attacks you immediately. You can't even bribe them! And at 6 or less some characters (like paladins) just start whipping on you for no apparent reason. "Look! There's an unpopular person! Let's kill'em!" It felt real weird sneaking around behind the buildings in Nashkell to avoid the Anmish solders and trying to get into Temple of Helm to raise my rep a point.

4) Don't forget to cast Bless on your party before leveling up. I believe it adds one to the die roll even for that. Chant and Luck may be accumulative with Bless. I have more testing to do now that my characters in my current game have all the level 2 spells.

 

Dont forget the level 1 wizard spell "Blindness", have an illusionist on team with that spell, it makes wonders. save vs spell (wich all fighters suck at, and thus also most monsters) and they are blind. if you just move out of closecombat range your level 1 wizard with thaco 20 can whipp that sling around for ages before the ogre even tries to fight back (spell duration end)

 

Bless just adds bonus hitpoints to your total health, now if you level up under the effects of bless you do gain a bonus to your level up HD roll but it will vanish as soon as bless wears off.

 

I learned that...

Driz'zt cheats.

If you're alone with Imoen believe the guy who says he's going to 'squish your head to goo.'

Laroch's Minor Drain is really fast. It disrupts enemy mages faster than arrows, and faster than magic missile.

'Bufflehead' is a term of endearment.

'Dolt' is not.

Elves are not 90% resistant to charm.

Charm lasts a very long time.

Friends don't run away when you're charmed, they don't try to subdue you either -- they just kill you.

You don't really have friends in the Sword Coast. They won't even take your body to a temple -- at least Dupre and Shamino would do THAT for you.

Most important I learned that I could function for days at a time with only a couple hours sleep each night.

 

Bless adds one to your die roll.
After futher experimenting I've conculded that chant and luck (and anything else I fooled with) do nothing for your die rolls when leveling up.

Xzar was easiest to see this in.
He gets a 1d4 with no bonuses.
Without bless my level up tests were almost even:

20 rolls:
4 1's
8 2's
5 3's
3 4's

With Bless:
1 1's ????
5 2's
8 3's
6 4's

I don't know how I still got a one once with Xzar Blessed, but the rolls on all my characters were better with a Bless spell active. I never got "extra hp" as bless doesn't add to constitution, but I got the better rolls more often.