Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname  (Read 3372 times)

ed boy

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« on: August 31, 2017, 04:51:38 pm »

Hi bay12ers,

I've decided to do a challenge run of Baldur's Gate, and I figured I might as well make it into a LP. Since a lot of cheesy BG tactics are based around abusing the AI, I've decided to level the playing field for this run with the challenge:

During every combat encounter, I will not give the party any input.

Instead, I will rely on the character scripts that come with the game to guide the party through combat. These scripts are pretty crude, but since the enemies we're facing are going to be using similarly crude AI, it should balance out.

A combat encounter will be defined as the duration of time that a hostile character is visible on the screen. When the auto-pause triggers, I will enable party AI and not do anything (other than periodically pause the game so I can get screenshots) until there are no hostile characters remaining.

I will try to influence the performance of the party through script selection, equipment choices, and pre-buffing. Fighter style classes will be easier to set up, and I expect the primary purpose of mages and clerics will be in the buffing role.

I will be running this on the enhanced edition of baldur's gate, with no major mods - only some ease of use ones.



In preparation for the first update, we need to decide on how we build out protagonist:

  • What build will CHARNAME be? options here
  • What race will CHARNAME be?
  • What spells/proficiencies will CHARNAME have?
  • Do we want to dual/multi-class CHARNAME?
  • What name/portrait will CHARNAME have? oprtions here
Logged

A Thing

  • Bay Watcher
  • I'm here for ya, kid.
    • View Profile
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2017, 07:42:46 pm »

  • What build will CHARNAME be? options here
  • What race will CHARNAME be?
  • What spells/proficiencies will CHARNAME have?
  • Do we want to dual/multi-class CHARNAME?
  • What name/portrait will CHARNAME have? oprtions here

Dark Moon Monk
Hooman (sadly)
Fist fist fist
Fist fist fist
Lotus Skullcrag. BG:EE Female #5 (the red one) It's weird they didn't add any decent monk portraits in the EE.

Logged
Wasteland 1 & 2
"Power Couple: Markus Athing & Cyborg 45"

Makes me curious, can cyborgs have future babies too?
On the offchance they can, I know who I want my daddy to be
(finished)Age of Decadence

ATHATH

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2017, 09:40:26 am »

Build: Avenger Druid (there are more ways to increase WIS in this game than any other stat, IIRC)
Race: Half-Elf
Proficiencies: Slings, I don't really care what else
Spells: Chromatic Orb, Chaos, Call Woodland Beings, Ironskins... Y'know, the good stuff.
Dual-Class or Multiclass?: Neither
Portrait: I dunno. Maybe use Cernd's?

  • What build will CHARNAME be? options here
  • What race will CHARNAME be?
  • What spells/proficiencies will CHARNAME have?
  • Do we want to dual/multi-class CHARNAME?
  • What name/portrait will CHARNAME have? oprtions here

Dark Moon Monk
Hooman (sadly)
Fist fist fist
Fist fist fist
Lotus Skullcrag. BG:EE Female #5 (the red one) It's weird they didn't add any decent monk portraits in the EE.
-1, Monks are pretty bad to meh in BG 1, and Rasaad's available if we still want to punch things.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2017, 09:48:28 am by ATHATH »
Logged
Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

ATHATH

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2017, 09:42:48 am »

Actually, wait a second...

Will a Jester Bard switch out of using his Jester song once he's in battle? If so, can we set him to have no AI in battle in order to change that?

If the answer to either of the above questions is "yes", then I'll change my vote to Jester Bard.

Class: Jester Bard
Race: Half-Elf
Proficiencies: Some ranger weapon, I guess, although we won't be using it much
Spells: Just utility spells (like Stoneskin) and summon spells, since all we'll be doing in combat is singing
Dual-Class or Multiclass: Neither
Portrait: I dunno. Pick something nice.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2017, 09:47:49 am by ATHATH »
Logged
Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

ATHATH

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2017, 10:07:13 am »

Some pro-tips for ya:
Regardless of whether or not you want to keep her in your party, save Neera, add her to your party, take her gem bag, then either drop her or keep her, as you please (she is a good companion, though).
Potions of Master Thievery stack, IIRC.
If you need to quickly lower your reputation to keep your Evil party members from leaving (they'll leave after you hit 18+ (or was it 19+?) reputation, IIRC), murdering someone in a secluded area. If your reputation is high enough before committing the crime and no one else saw you, no one should aggro on you.
Dorn (and his 19 STR) is cool, keep him around. Also, he can he kill some things that are supposed to be invincible (like those ghosts in that one ruin that drop end-game loot) with the Poison Weapon+Explosive Arrow wombo-combo. In BGII:EE, his companion quest gives you the Acorn of Yarrow, which can teleport you from any location in the game (including Hell and Spellhold, IIRC) to a specific tree, where it can then be used again in order to teleport back to a specific location in the overworld. This can let you do some events (like the boat trip to Spellhold) over again.
Bring Viconia with you for your initial meeting with Saraad and on Saraad's companion quest to get some special dialogue options.
Don't forget to click that button with the magnifying glass on it, as it highlights things that you can loot and indicates (most) things that you can interact with. Why it isn't on by default is unknown to me.
There's a Ring of Wizardry in a tree at the south end of the Friendly Arm Inn map.
Don't forget to pickpocket Algernon's Cloak off of Algernon.
Some companions give you special dialogue if they are charmed (by you, I think) and then manually spoken to. For example, Xvar tells you a secret, Kagain wonders why he suddenly has friends, and Dorn threatens to leave the party if you don't stop pulling these kinds of antics on him.
Edwin=win. Don't bring him along to save Neera, though, as he has a special interaction that will resolve the conflict without bloodshed but also make him and Neera mutually exclusive to have in the same party together.
Summon things before difficult fights to make them easier, since your rules will still let you control your characters outside of combat.
Animate Dead scales well in BG:EE, unlike in Icewind Dale:EE.
Don't leave anyone behind in the place that you flood (you know the one). On my first playthrough of the game, Edwin decided to leave my party due to my high reputation inside of there and drowned.
Don't romance Rasaad in the second game/ToB, as the epilogue that you get after doing so is... less than satisfying (unless your headcanon is that you faked the events of it, in which case it becomes cool).
Dorn's companion quest will eventually give you a suit of elven chainmail, IIRC.
You can kill or pickpocket Drizzt when you encounter him in order to take his scimitars (and his suit of +5 mythral chainmail if you killed him). He'll remember that you did so when you encounter him in the second game, though, but you can avoid fighting him (and still get him to help you) if you apologize (and have a good enough reputation, IIRC).
Being an elf named Drizzt with a low reputation score will cause Drizzt to challenge you to the right to his name when you encounter him (I don't remember if this is in the second game, the first game, or both, though).
Nahal's Reckless Dweomer (a spell that only Wild Mages can learn/know) can be used to cast any Mage spell that you know. Yes, even Wish.
There's a config option to reenable the old Ranger/Cleric getting access to the entirety of both the Druid and Cleric spell lists (except for the alignment-restricted spells, of course) bug.
Neera and Viconia both have special dialogue that they give when you first meet Baeloth, IIRC.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2017, 10:28:13 am by ATHATH »
Logged
Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

FakerFangirl

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
    • Youtube
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2017, 02:06:52 pm »

I've decided to do a challenge run of Baldur's Gate, and I figured I might as well make it into a LP.
Thanks!

Name: Daisy
Class: Paladin (Inquisitor)
Race: Human
Spells/Proficiencies: Two-handed weapon (2), Speed (2)
Dual-class: no
Portrait: Female
Logged
"Should we call a beak dog a gobbo doggo?" - Relevant_-_-Username

ATHATH

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2017, 02:52:01 am »

Bump.
Logged
Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

JamesCorella

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
    • Youtube Account Lets Plays
Re: Let's play Baldur's Gate AI: Choosing a Charname
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2017, 02:38:49 am »

Mage! magic missile ftw!
Logged