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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   2706 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 7, 2022

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I'll recommend the OG Boomer's Gate. What many people enjoy about it is the companion characters you recruit and experiencing their stories while balancing their personalities to keep them happy. I'll admit I've never experienced that; I always make 6 custom characters and play the game with them. For me the enjoyment is purely in the well-written story and the amazing combat system.

It runs off of 2nd Edition AD&D, which is a really cool system and will have some interesting differences for players of modern D&D/CRPGs. Most of the differences are in how spellcasters work. For example, spellcasters use Vancian magic, which means they prepare spells in advance and can only use each spell as many times per day as they prepared that spell. For example, if your wizard knows 5 1st-level spells and 4 2nd-level spells but can only prepare 4 slots of 1st level spells and 2 slots of 2nd level spells, you must allocate a spell to each specific slot. Want to cast sleep more than once per day? Better prepare it multiple times. This is really cool and will satisfy that Batman fantasy. It's a lot for a new RPG player to learn, but an experienced player will really enjoy the system.

The other big difference is how casters scale. They're incredibly weak and fragile early. Most of the time they're slinging terrible darts terribly since they can only cast 2 spells at 1st level. They scale incredibly though - if you play the same wizard from Baldur's Gate 1 to the end of Throne of Bhaal in BG2 you'll watch them go from a weakling who will die to a stiff breeze to a reality-warping demigod. Newer editions try to balance casters to martials at all stages of the game, so playing a game where this is very much not the case is a nice change.

I'd recommend playing Baldur's Gate 1 then importing/remaking your squad in Baldur's Gate 2. Throne of Bhaal is an excellent finale to the series. Play Icewind Dale if you really love the combat system of Baldur's Gate, because there's very little story in that game, just lots of encounters. Ironically I liked the encounters in BG much better, but it's still good content.

I'm strongly recommending against using all custom characters - the pre-written ones are amazing and interact in many ways, so far IMO unsurpassed and are really not that bad stat wise for you munchkins, with some like e.g. Edwin actively cheating - he has a unremovable amulet that gives him extra spells per level.

but an experienced player will really enjoy the system

It's really noteworthy how much more complex the casting system is compared to later games. There's something like a hundred spells, with majority being useful.

It runs off of 2nd Edition AD&D, which is a really cool system and will have some interesting differences for players of modern D&D/CRPGs. Most of the differences are in how spellcasters work. For example, spellcasters use Vancian magic, which means they prepare spells in advance and can only use each spell as many times per day as they prepared that spell. For example, if your wizard knows 5 1st-level spells and 4 2nd-level spells but can only prepare 4 slots of 1st level spells and 2 slots of 2nd level spells, you must allocate a spell to each specific slot. Want to cast sleep more than once per day? Better prepare it multiple times. This is really cool and will satisfy that Batman fantasy. It's a lot for a new RPG player to learn, but an experienced player will really enjoy the system.

I want to second this. I adore the unique power scaling of different classes in AD&D. I'm horribly annoyed that every other class had mage envy, and tabletop designers gave in and basically turned every class into a mage. With feats or talents or dailies or whatever the fuck they call the special abilities that warp reality every fucking character has now.

Also, that unique feeling of seeing your magic users balls finally drop when they learn fireball. It's so cute watching them grow up, learn to walk, talk... mass murder...

I think that Wizards had the right of it. In a video game, it's fun to have the mage member of your party get so strong that the other party members are an afterthought. In a pen and paper game, not so much. Also, early levels as a mage in 3e (my earliest pen and paper D&D experience) are pretty much the worst gaming experience I've ever had. It's a complete buzzkill to have one or two spells per day, and after that you're useless.

Imho if you had that problem you were playing wrong. I was in a pnp ad&d 2e game a few years ago. Played a fighter with very middling stats. But those extra weapon proficiencies really let me take advantage of more of the equipment the rng gods bestowed on us. I also made ample use of my loot to purchase potions, especially fire breathing potions, to keep up.

There are plenty of extra curricular ways to punch above the confines of your class. I think this is hardest for munchkins and crpg addicts to grok.

They're incredibly weak and fragile early.

Let's be real, here. The Baldur's Gate experience involves a lot of saving and loading early on, no matter what you are. Whoops, basilisk. Whoops, random encounter, six bandit archers killed you in round one. Whoops, bear. Whoops..

Game's atrocious until you have a few levels' worth of HP gains.

You have to play it safe. Have to stay on the road, run away from scary things. You're not the Lord of Murder at level 1. Unlike a lot of other games, there is no handholding here.

Eh, it's really not that hard starting out.

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