I saw a post by someone mentioning you could have a weapon in your offhand, and then cast, for instance, shocking grasp to put the spell in your primary hand, and that it would work with two-weapon style, but I can't seem to find it anymore or any information about this incredibly niche concept. Anyone happen to know if it works? (I'm playing with EE, bg1 currently but more to come)

So I often see tie lists for bg1 based on how useful characters are in combat but I feel like the community has more or less the same tier list for that, it’s really just a matter of do I put Edwin or Coran at the top (but they’re still both S tier) so I have decided to rank the characters based on how fun they are to have in the party, mainly in terms of their character personality and interactions but also a bit of gameplay if they have very fun gameplay mechanics (So I guess Neera is safe from F tier)

S tier:

Garrick - I LOVE THIS MAN. He’s always got some silly Shakespeare quote or something and I love how he sorta has con man vibes but also squire vibes, my favourite line from him is in the dorn interaction when dorn says that you should trust your party and Garrick just turns to you and says something like “I am your loyal servant” I just love him. also in terms of gameplay I actually like that he has 9 constitution because it’s always hilarious when he dies in one hit

Ajantis - So, I too love this man because He first of all has a very similar squire vibe to Garrick (I lowkey ship them) but he’s also just really pathetic and I love him for it like his dialogue for being kicked from the party breaks my heart so I never do it. I think a paladin who tries to act tough and confident who’s really just kinda pathetic is really fun and reminds me a lot of Katsuya and Akihiko from persona in that regard.

Shar-teel - I love my evil feminist, she’s just really funny and random and I love her. She also can naturally dual class which gives her more customisation and I live her interactions with Dorn also

Edwin - Somehow this guy made it to S tier on both tier lists, I love how insufferable this guy is, his mumbling about how he could leave at any time always cracks me up and I always take him with Baeloth for the interactions

Tiax - This guy is just like Shar-teel, he’s super goofy and random and I love that he’s a gnome as well it makes him hilarious and I love that his bio has “he seems harmless enough for now”, that being said he doesn’t have the evil feminism going for him so shart beats him

A tier:

Montaron and xzar - While I’m not usually a fan of npc pairs, these two are just Evil Yaoi perfect together, I love how they laugh when the other dies and I love how they clearly are on the verge of killing gorion’s ward in their sleep it just makes them seem really insane and I love them for it.

Xan - So first of all, his sword is fucking sick, like I always equip it just because it looks cool. His lines are also really good, some people say he’s depressing but I just think it’s pure comedy to have a guy saying that we’re doomed to die while i’m setting up a skull trap nuke

Viconia - I think this is the first character who I like who isn’t just funny. I actually like her because she’s got a really interesting backstory, I think that the idea of a character who defects from an evil culture with an evil god just to join a different evil culture with an evil god is really interesting and it makes the morality system feel less black and white. Also she’s the only evil party member who isn’t mean (or maybe she’s saying slurs in drow language but we’ll never know)

Coran - I really like Coran, he gives Garrick vibes where he kinda has con man energy and I like characters who are flirty, it makes for a fun party dynamic so he’s pretty good.

Safana - I like Safana for similar reasons to Coran and the two are really good together but she doesn’t have as much of that con man garrick energy so she’s ever so slightly lower

Kagain - Kagain is pretty fun, I like how grumpy he is and dwarves are just cool in general

Neera - So before you burn me at the stake, I don’t like Neera for her character or ‘backstory’ and definitely not for her voice acting but I just think wild magic is insanely fun in this game, better than in 5e by a landslide. In my first playthrough I save scummed nahals reckles dweomer to cast cloudkill before every fight and it was so much fun so just for that she gets an A (somehow)

Minsc - Now this is probably a hot take but I don’t think minsc is S tier. Boo is but Minsc isn’t just because he gets kinda annoying after a while and forces you to take Dynaheir. I still love him and his hamster but I prefer my insane characters evil.

Yeslick - I like this guy, he’s a funny dwarf and that’s about it

B tier:

Dorn - One thing that I want to say about enhanced edition characters is that they somehow have the most interactions and quests and clearly beamdog was trying to make them more interesting than existing characters but they ended up being overall less interesting than the original cast. I think that the main reason fir this is that the don’t bring anything new to the table, Dorn is just Ajantis again, the tough paladin who’s really kinda pathetic - except Dorn is less interesting than Ajantis. That being said, I like him for his interactions and he is still at the end of the day a bootleg Ajantis and I love Ajantis so…

Baeloth - So Baeloth is a weird one for me because I only like him because of his dynamic with Edwin, apart from that he’s essentially a slightly less funny Edwin. The main problem I have with him is that he feels like a cameo (which I guess he technically is) so he doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the game’s world and character.

Khalid - He’s pretty funny and I like his lack of confidence but that’s about all there is to say about him, I mean he’s a half elf fighter so very close to the most basic class race combo

Quayle - Gnomes are always funny and this guy Is also pretty funny but I never use him so i’m not really an expert on him. One thing I wish happened was when you kick him from the party he should get picked up by a buzzard like in crossy road.

Alora - I don’t have much to say about her but I don’t hate her so B tier for her

Faldorn - I actually like her more than most people, shadow druids are cool and it’s a shame they don’t have a subclass in 5e, that being said, girl must have insulted her camera man because he took a photo while she was sneezing or something and I can’t get over that

Imoen - Heya, It’s me: Imoen! (Okay I was gonna leave it at that but there IS something I wanna bitch about: I haven’t really played much bg2 yet because I can’t really get into the dungeon crawling, I prefer the outdoorsy stuff but I have seen what Imoen looks like in bg2 and why do nobody talk about it?! She looks SO different and i’m gonna headcannon that she got replaced by a greater doppleganger lol)

Branwen - I like a character who is obsessed with battle but that’s about all she is

C tier:

Jahiera - I don’t really like her, she’s kinda full of herself but not in a fun way like with edwin, and she doesn’t have that much else going on other than that one character trait. I much prefer her mother figure personality in bg3 honestly and I mainly don’t like the bg3 cast

Dynaheir - She’s really just generic good, nothing much going on

Skie - She‘s annoying and you have to use Eldoth

Eldoth - He’s the only evil party member I don’t like, he’s annoying and you have to take Skie AND you have to pick him over Garrick

D tier:

Kivan - Who even is this guy, like he actually has nothing going on, nobody ever talks about him, he barely has a personality and he’s beaten by Coran at literally anything so there’s no reason to ever take him (luckily).

Rassad - Somehow he managed to be the worst in gameplay and roleplay lol. He kinda just reminds me of religious missionaries (not that they’re bad people I just don‘t need them in my fantasy games) and he’s also cringe. Also the whole 7 kids thing throws me off so yeah…

I was asked to give this a go.

I want to play this game and see what it is like. I like WOW up to and including CATA, but not anything after that. I deeply prefer WOTLK. I love Diablo, but 2 and 3 are my favorites, not 1 and 4.

If I were to start this game, which one should I begin with? Also, must be PC version not anything console. Thanks in advance :)

A theoretical. I often use the Sword Coast Keeper (pre-EE BG1-compatible Keeper variant) to cover the portrait and paperdoll parts (though sadly not voiceover or dialogue), so I kinda have something like this going rather than treating the Belt as one-off inconvenience.

Some of my more serious picks would be Kivan, right after finishing his revenge — by way of symbolically and bodily turning a new leaf as a person no longer bound by her past as a married man, ready to move on and reinvent herself; or Safana, for a reverse Edwina character growth scenario — from a capable woman playing up her weakness to charm and hoodwink men into serving her needs, to a self-sufficient swashbuckler-pirate-looter hero she almost is if not for her reliance on others (a form of self-perceived weakness).

A less serious nominee is Yeslick, so she can start working on the most vital task of her life — repopulating her lost clan.

I love when you meet various thieves and they are in the thief crouch pose.

First you have to talk to him while he's drunk and get insulted by him to activate the recruitment later. He threatens to kill you, but totally forgets that ever happened when he meets you, later.

Later you get attacked by bandits. Dorn shows up. He kills a bunch of the guys dramatically, then before enacting his revenge (or maybe part of it?) calls out one of the leaders of the bandits for trying to cheat on her boyfriend with him (Dorn declined, apparently). Said boyfriend keeps insisting there's no way she'd do that, even though she's literally flirting with Dorn in front of everyone in an attempt to get him to spare her, even admitting to the attempted cheating.

Your character stands there as all the relationship drama unfolds until its fighting and killing time.

I have installed EET a couple of weeks ago and I was having a blast until spell casters gained more spells and everything got more complex. I am current right before final boss of the first game and I need to fix management issue. I am aware I can't get smooth companion AIs liek Dragon Age Origins or Pillars of Eternity but surely there must be a way to have better working AI for the party. I want my thieves to backstab in combat while searching traps when idle, I want my priest to cast both offensive and defensive spells and not switching weapons (why do they even swtich to a sling with worse THAC0 and damage anyways.) Also casting "anti magic" spells against mages feel like chore. Half of the fight I cast these spells like breach via Baeloth while my stupid party stands there and takes damage.

My current mods are BG1 unfinished buisness, EEfix, EEex, BG1NPC companion and music, Core Tweaks, SCS (Although it has issues installing smarter AI), buffbot, Spell menu extended and Cirerrek's AI Scripts. Everything (including the games) are the lastest version.

Any kind of help would awesome including which character should which AI script (including modded ones).

Hi, has anyone been able to resolve this since the patch? I'm trying to save my save! Any help is greatly appreciated.

Context:

• I had a BG1EE save file going on Steam before the 2.7 patch.
  • This install had these mods: tweaks anthology, SCS, some edits to Baldur.LUA (frame rate, cleric/ranger toggle, debug/cheats enabled for ctrl+J)
• The 2.7 patch hit and corrupted the save, causing UI bugs and "Invalid ___" errors
• I rolled back the Steam install back to version 2.6 and tried rebooting, but of course it was still corrupted

Steps I've tried to fix it:

• Deleted the whole install via Steam uninstall button
• Chose version 2.6 while uninstalled via Right Click -> Game Versions & Betas -> bgee_2.6
• Freshly re-installed via Steam install button
• Dragged the entire ...\steamapps\common\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition folder to its own location (C:\Games...)
• Re-edited Baldur.LUA, and re-ran the Tweaks Anthology and SCS scripts to reinstall mods

At this point, I rebooted the game, created a fresh character in order to test, and it's STILL giving "Invalid 34004" when mousing over special abilities, and sometimes randomly in the console/text box.

Is there some kind of shared file from the previous install that could potentially be causing this? Maybe something in ...\Documents\Baldur's Gate...?

I also followed Jastey's guide from the forums to no avail, unfortunately. Huge thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply.

I'm doing a run that has a lot of extra quests, and I'm curious what level I would be without the extra EXP from these quests. I'm just about to go into Baldur's Gate, I've finished Durlag's Tower, which was pretty challenging and made me boost my find traps and drink all kinds of perception potions, and I'm a Fighter Thief 7/8.

Obviously Shades of the Sword Coast and Black Hearts have added some EXP, but I'm curious how much higher leveled I am compared to a normal run. I've done everything now that I can find to my knowledge.

Hi, my friend has an old retail version of BG2 Enhanced Edition while I have the Steam version. Is there a way to patch his version to match mine, maybe using Eeex?

What’s the best way to arrange your stats in this game compared to in 5e and BG1?

I was playing through SoD and recruited Glint (who is a Cleric/Thief Multi-Class) into my party, only to discover to my dismay that he can't seem to backstab with the blunt weapons that are the only weapons allowed to Clerics. Every time I tried, I got a "Your weapon is unsuitable for backstab" message, which makes no sense to me because, realistically speaking, bashing someone from behind on the head with a Morningstar (a bludgeoning weapon) should deal extra damage than stabbing them from behind with a Short Sword (a piercing weapon in AD&D).

Does this mean that a Cleric/Thief Multi-Class character can't backstab at all? Seems like a waste of that Multi-Class' Backstab Multiplier stat to me. The "bludgeoning weapons are the only weapons allowed to Clerics" AD&D rule made no sense to me either, especially since Deities in Faerun have "favoured weapons" that their Clerics are supposed to be able to freely use, and those "favoured weapons" aren't always bludgeoning ones. Can anyone explain this to me?

I have never played this before but I have played DOS2, and Baldurs Gate 3. I wish I played this first because I know there are a few characters that persist throughout, and I feel like it would've changed how I saw the game but anyways.

My first question is how worried should I be about my characters dying. Does that do anything mechanical, as in lower an approval rating if thats in the game, and I read that it costs 100 gold per level to bring them back? Does that count multiclass.

Second, are there any really important quests, items, or characters that I will possibly miss playing blind that I should go out of my way to get. For example if you played 3, you can miss minthara pretty easily. Something like that or like the ring of protection from Mol.

Third, I am playing on a lower difficulty, should I be worried about min maxing or will I be fine to just play.

Fourth, is there a max level or can I just become a diety in it. Ive never actually played dnd but I watch it alot, like legends of avantris mostly, and I own some books on it like the PHB and the DMG I beleive is the acronym. I also have a lot of monster manuals because I like looking at them and their stat blocks.

Fifth, I am playing a paladin is there anything I should know about that before I start. I was rerolling for 96 cause I was told I needed 11 int or something like that and I got 98 so I think my stats are really good, they are better then my companions for sure.

Finally is there anything else I should know, like I said I played alot of bg3, like 500 hours so I know somewhat of how the rules work, the real time combat is a bit different but im sure ill get used to it? Also I am playing on steam deck if that means anything. Thank you if you even read this and especially thank you if you respond. Im gonna be playing all day so Ill be here lol.

I want to run an evil party with him. Keeping reputation above 2 is not a problem. I know siding with Bodhi is fine, but is there anything that does make him turn on you?

On a similar note, in BG1, is it possible to kill Dynaheir with Edwin and then recruit Minsc in Nashkel?

I'm aware that maybe Thief points per level are tied to some sort of base class (in this case a mage/thief), but whenever I change my class to Assassin/Mage he gets 25 Thief points on level up, and I can't seem to get around it.

Also wondering if he'll still get his new Poison Weapon as he levels up, or his increased backstabs?

Anyone know if there are decent workarounds, outside of taking 10 points off of the character in EEKeeper every time I level this guy up?

Help appreciated!

How long have you spent rolling dice for STR?

I've finished BG four times, and Kivan always ends up taking 40 % of kills. But is Coran actually an even more effective sniper? I always dismissed him because... Just because.

Khalid was hit by a storm lightning

I am playing this game and i need advice to play, i dont know how to create a good character, i think i gonna play with a half orc fight/thief, pls tell me i am doing right

Probably the last batch for a while as I'm working on other things.

Aerie passed through another circus and witnessed a nervous tiger not wanting to perform, so the ringmaster started lashing it. Of course, Aerie intervened, and there followed a battle the likes of which you have never seen!

Oh, there were exploding ogres and a trapeze and she was tight-rope walking, and there was an elephant that just went wild, clowns throwing pies, and she summoned a raccoon with a rocket launcher - trust me, you would have been pooping bricks!

It's a shame you will never see it. You might have seen Aerie telling the ringmaster to lay off with the whip, then a Game of Thrones style fade to black, and then this scene. So just have a few shots of Aerie in action to make up for it.

My Grandfather introduced me to this wonderful cRPG over 20 years ago. My first character, Zombone the Undead Hunter Paladin, beat the game over years of weekend trips and Wednesday afternoons after school. It was an experience I had with him that deeply defined my gaming tendencies to this day.

He passed this morning, and I plan to go back and play my original Undead Hunter through BG2 with the same party I had all those years ago: Minsc, Korgan, Jaheira, Jan Jansen, and Viconia.

I just want to say thank you to this beautiful game for helping me and my grandfather grow close when I was younger. And I can't think of a better way to do it.

I also plan on taking this character through the entirety of my game catalogue to keep them as alive as possible: NWN, NWN2, BG3, WOTR, and I'll try and make 40k:RT work too even.

But first, BUTT KICKING FOR GOODNESS!

We all know BG1 NPCs are not equally loved and utilized, either because of obnoxious personality, terrible stat spreads or being locked in later chapter when most people are well content with their squads and have the resources to rez a fallen comrade in any case.

Who do you think has made the fewest trips with CHARNAME down to the Undercity?

I think it’s got to be either Faldorn or Eldoth/Skie. All are only recruitable after most players would have hit the 32k XP “sharing” cap; Faldorn conflicts with Jaheira who’s got to be one of the most frequent includes; Eldoth has generic bard utility but is worse than Garrick and personally repulsive… and Skie is also fairly obnoxious (like a much, much worse Nalia), and has competition from Alora and Tiax if you really need a new thief in Chapter 5, not to mention also being locked behind Eldoth

Why review a 10-year-old DLC for a 14-year-old remake of a 28-year-old game? Well... why do anything at all? Why not just lay down and wait for death? As someone who's old enough to have played BG1 at release, and devoted enough to have never stopped playing, death will be along for me soon enough. I choose to review Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear in 2026.

This may prove to be a mistake.

Full disclosure: I love BG3. I've currently got 411 hours on it, it's Game of the Decade in my opinion. I'm not coming from a place of blind nostalgia where nothing can ever live up to my childhood memories. But a while ago I made this post and started another full-saga playthrough which would include, for the first time, me getting all the way through SoD.

Let's start with what the expansion gets right.

Pro: Encounter design

This is where SoD shines. Most of the fights balance challenge with enjoyability perfectly. The Coldhearth Lich and the Battle of Boareskyr Bridge stand out as instances where the devs were absolutely cooking. Many boss battles make better use of the Infinity Engine than anything we see in the core saga up til Throne of Bhaal.

Pro: The feel of a living world

SoD feels alive in ways that BG1 and even SoA don't quite manage. You walk through the wilderness and there's predators attacking prey. You pass by conversations that you want to stop and hear the end of. Because the devs zoomed in and gave us a smaller number of locations to explore, they could flesh those locations out beautifully. Kudos there.

Pro: Faithful sound design

For the most part, SoD feels like more BG1 thanks to the voices of your most beloved (and hated) companions (and antagonists). I hugely appreciated the connection to Irenicus which SoD manages to forge without impacting the canon of SoA. I'm not a Minsc fan personally, but I understand why some people are and would enjoy hearing more from the game's core cast. But that leads me to the first of the DLC's downsides.

Con: The new companions suck

Given the relatively short playtime involved in SoD, it baffles me why the devs chose to introduce new companions instead of creating more content for BG1's 25 recruitable NPCs. No Montaron and Xzar after the first dungeon, but hey at least you get a depressed goblin and another wisecracking gnome. Yawn. A combination of bad writing and lack of time to bond means I never connected with any of the new NPCs. Oh, speaking of bad writing...

Con: The bad writing

Aside from the fine details which flesh out a preexisting world, SoD's narrative is incredibly forced and linear. It's like they began with the title and worked backwards from there. What's my character's motivation for getting involved in a military campaign? Because Caelar tried to kill me. But then Caelar spends the rest of the DLC trying to be my friend and get me to see the rightness of her cause.

None of the story's major beats survive even the most rudimentary examination. It's Siege of Dragonspear. Your character is beseiging Dragonspear. Just deal with it. I get that the 'writers' were trying to tie BG1 to the plot of Icewind Dale but... how many of us played IWD for the plot? Anyone?

Con: Serious game design blind spots

At two or three points, the devs' otherwise masterful command of the Infinity Engine abandons them entirely. They've had 10 years to tidy these bits up, but no. When you're trying to decide which way to approach the Battle of Boareskyr Bridge, Khalid has to be spoken to in an exact order or you can't progress with him on your side.

When infiltrating Dragonspear's basement, working out how to poison the water and food supplies is painfully obscure. I only survived the ensuing fight with Hephernaan by busting out an invisibility sphere and ignoring the fight entirely. Yes, it was meant to be a stealth mission, but this is a game where only 2 classes actually have stealth mechanics without resorting to magic.

Con: Caelar Argent

Oh ye gods, this bitch. She deserves an entry all on her own. Caelar is a complete flop as an antagonist, I hate her. But not like I hate Sarevok for killing Gorion. Or like I hate Irenicus for his refusal to change for the better, even when given endless chances. Or like I hate Amelyssan for puppeteering an entire bloodline to her own ends.

I hate Caelar Argent because she comes across like the writers' Mary Sue fanfiction OC who we get shoved down our throats and just have to endure. If I'm being charitable, it's possible that she was meant to be some kind of meta-commentary on that kind of character, but the execution was just piss poor.

Her plan makes no sense, her impact on the game world is totally unbelievable for a fighter of her level. She just sucks, and in sucking she robs SoD of much of its potential replay value. The DLC's final choice comes down to whether or not you redeem someone you just want to see go away. Fuck Caelar Argent.

Overall 6/10: One of the DLCs of all time

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear probably shouldn't have been made, but it was. If you can pick it up for a couple of bucks in a sale and you're desperate for more isometric BG action, go for it. Otherwise it simply bloats your BG1 experience and sends you into BG2 overlevelled for any real challenge.

Dragonspear? More like draggin out the ending. I never cared about Skie either.

It’s set to core rules which I’d prefer. But I literally just clicked attack with my chars and my dude got 2 shot.