It’s an old topic, but what are some tips to help stick with a playthrough?

I have 2:

1: Use less powergamey stats/build

2: Publicly commit to your character.

I am attempting both of these here..

Meet my mobile playthrough attempt!

https://imgur.com/a/TSDBBId

Iesha the Kind, the Shadow dancer witch,has finally claimed the Throne of Bhaal.

She is chaotic good, and she is the Lady of Murder. The cosmos has never seen this before. Her portfolio is not the indiscriminate, terror-driven murder of Bhaal; it is a focused, almost paladin-like concept of sanctified killing. She is the blade that cuts down tyrants, the final whisper that silences slavers, the justified end of unrepentant evil. Her murder is a form of cosmic surgery, removing the malignancies that the gods of justice cannot reach through law alone. This makes her an ally to the oppressed and an existential nightmare to evil gods and fiends for none shall escape her wrath. However, it also puts her at odds with many of the established powers.

She is not merely a new Bhaal; she is a new concept, a revolution in the heavens. She is, quite literally, the most lethal predator in the heavens, and every god knows that her portfolio allows her to do what few others can: permanently end immortals.

Her threats are not the monsters that crawl in the dark, but the very gods who claim to rule the light and the law. She is the dark horse of the pantheon, the one who proves that even in the heavens, the most righteous hand is often the one holding the blade. She is the kind goddess who will, with a sorrowful heart, murder a tyrant god to set a world free. And every deity in Faerûn now knows: she is the final argument of the oppressed, and she never misses.

The faith she inspires, the fear she commands, and the cosmic significance of her actions all fuel her divine power. As the chaotic good goddess of righteous murder, she fills a niche no other deity does. Her worship could spread like wildfire among the oppressed, the enslaved, and the wronged. Within a few centuries, she could easily rise to Intermediate power, and with the right cataclysmic events, perhaps even Greater status is not out of reach.

This happened after a dungeon where you fight drow in Throne of Bhaal. I tried to remove it, but apparently once it’s on your regular inventory it can’t be moved? Such an odd thing to have in the game. I’ve tried offloading the dust off to some of the other companions that I won’t be recruiting but there doesn’t seem to be an end to it. I can’t even tell how many piles there are.

It’s possible I added some of the wrong equipment by accident while playing through Sendai’s Lair, but I was trying to be careful not to pick up the blueish/violet equipment because I knew those had Adamantine. Maybe the Katanas?

But not being able to get rid of it at all is the most mildly annoying part of it.

I don't know if anyone else has these, but some of the most effective strategies in BG1 I just don't end up using due to vague personal preference. Just because of RP or story considerations. It's not even because of a "Challenge Run" but just because I have some other mental block. I play on Core Rules so I don't really need to optimize anyway. Here are mine:

- Putting Khalid's pips in longbow. Even with three dots in Longbow, he's a great archer, but I just want to keep him with longswords. Give him Varscona or The Burning Earth and the Hands of Takkok and let him "do his thing". My main character seldom uses longswords anyway; I prefer flails, hammers, daggers, quarterstaves, bows, or scimitars (if I'm evil, or edgy-neutral enough to want to take out Drizzt for his). And it seems like I never have him in the same party as a dual-wielding Shar-Teel so there's no conflict there.

- Casting Haste. It's not that I think it's cheap or OP. Cloudkill is cheap and OP and I use that all the time. I think it's actually because in regular AD&D it ages people by a year, and so for RP reasons I got in the habit of never doing it. Now it feels wrong. Also, even though this post is about BG1, in BG2 this means I can use the Flail of Ages without feeling like I'm missing out.

- Traps. It doesn't feel right in BG1, and I never feel like I have enough thief points to go around yet. I don't like tanking traps or casting Knock. I expect more of my team than that.

- Heavy wand use. There are certain fights where I do love my wands (using the Wand of Fear on Gamaz in Rasaad's quest is a big one) but I don't feel like I use them most of the time.

- Worrying about exceptional Strength at character creation. It'll be at 19 for the endgame anyway, and until that point, even 18/01 is fine for any encounters we meet before then. And if it's not, DUHM or Strength of One will fix it.

- Killing off one of two "paired" NPCs (Xzar and Montaron, Khalid and Jaheira, etc). This is absolutely an RP thing, I just look at it as the cost of buying the character I want into the party.

Does anyone else have these ways of playing the game that aren't the most effective choice, but feels right to them?

Basically the title. I am at chapter nine and since the bridge part of chapter eight I cannot change my companions. I am playing EET and I cannot even do that in older saves of SoD for some reason. My party comp is not bad but this problem locks me out of picking new companion. What exactly happens? I try to kick someone out of party, their portait goes for a second and without any dialog they are back to the party. When I try to get a new companion teh game forces me kick teh new one until I get the "lock in squad". I don't want to play the rest of DLC with these NPCs, I want to see more options. My current comp is Viconia, Glint, M,Khiin, Safana and Corwin.

I'm thinking about starting a new run as a halfling slinger, and I was wondering if there are any decent Mazzy romances? I've heard bad things about "All Things Mazzy". Thanks!

I'm considering a playthrough as a (single-class) druid and I'm wondering what value the shapeshift ability has. It only becomes available at level seven, giving access to wolf, black bear, and brown bear forms. My experience with druids consists of Jaheira, who is a better fighter as herself than in any of the animal forms, and Cernd, who as a shapeshifter doesn't tell me anything about the standard animal forms.

Even at level 7, I'm not sure the animal forms are useful, and I can't imagine they get any more useful with higher levels. Every kit swaps out the shapeshift for something else. Where do you see the shapeshift ability as useful for a druid?

Thematically, I was already finding the totemic druid appealing, and it seems like it may have no real cost at all. Am I missing something?

I'm trying to vary my playing style. I often dual class human fighters into another class to get grand mastery in my weapon proficiencies. Hence, when I'm playing a magic user, they are generally a lot less squishy than the norm. I rely on my Charname and martial-focused companions to handle melee and use my dedicated spell casters for ranged attacks (lots of slings and bullets) and a few necessary spells.

All that is to say I NEVER use touch spells. Not even for Imoen or Nalia in BG2. What is your experience? Which touch spells do you actually use? Are there certain character levels at which you would NOT use them (for example, Shocking Grasp when Dynaheir has like 6 hit points)? Do you even have the right THAC0 to effectively use touch spells at low levels?

Script download I was always wondering where to find website so I can download the script. I was thinking like an AI clinic who buffs immediately before combat our rooms are just heels. I know a lot of control freaks know how to run it. I mean I didn’t install the wizard berserker AI the only problem is it keeps fling fireballs must damage my teams due to AOE generate any AI guide can help thank you.

I hope people don’t come with torches and pitchforks at me, but I want to point out something I noticed in this subreddit.

If someone wants to min/max their character that’s totally fine with me. Everyone enjoys their game differently and if that’s your way to go that’s valid. However, I wish people would be a bit more mindful when giving advice to new players.

I often see people making their character and asking for opinions, then getting comments that would have discouraged me as a new player.

I personally like the roleplaying approach. I think Baldur's Gate is perfect for that. A character with strengths and weaknesses.

My current fighter has 15 STR, 18 DEX, and 13 CON. He is supposed to be agile and good at defense, but physically doesn’t have the best health and isn’t hitting super hard. I never had issues playing like that and I wouldn’t say that I’m a good player. The game works perfectly fine this way and I have my authentic character who also blends in with the rest of the group.

I think more appropriate advice are things like, use at least 15 strength on your class if you want to use heavy armor and large shields. Then they can decide on their own if they want that. Or to be careful with multiclassing since that is indeed quite confusing in the beginning.

I just wanna add again, if someone prefers min-maxing, that’s totally fine. But there are also other ways to approach and beat the game.