Baldur's Gate I & II - Gather your party before venturing forth

Just doing the Unseeing Eye quest. Looks like Beholders and up see right through invisibility now. Is that an EE change?

Really makes me wish I'd picked up the Shield of Cheese.

Just doing the Unseeing Eye quest. Looks like Beholders and up see right through invisibility now. Is that an EE change?

Really makes me wish I'd picked up the Shield of Cheese.

I've noticed that the game often gets more interesting when you screw up a bit:

So I'm basically just wandering around after hitting Firewine Bridge. (Dunno why people complain about that place; it's a great source of free fire arrows in the midgame.) PC fighter, Khalid, Jaheira, Neera, Imoen (still a thief) and Viconia, levels 5 or 4 depending on progression. Enter an area and spot a statue where. OK, so there are basilisks about. No problem; just have CHARNAME pop a potion of Mirrored Eyes and tank them, while the rest of the party engages with ranged fire. That part of the plan works great.

What doesn't work great is that this turns out to be Mutamin's Garden. (The nice thing about coming back to a game after so long is that you forget stuff.) Could've just run for it, but noooo.... I decide to try and put him down fast. Unfortunately, CHARNAME runs away while other panicked characters run towards the basilisks. Yes, Vicky blew both her MR roll and her save. Long story short, I end up with CHARNAME in the NW corner of the map surrounded by a bunch of gibberlings and a couple lesser basilisks, with at least one greater basilisk still off in the fog of war. He beats them to death, but there isn't much he can do about the GB without another potion. So it's back to High Hedge.

Couple of RE's later, and I'm there. Oops. Turns out Thalantyr doesn't have any Mirrored Eyes left. He's got Protection from Petrification scrolls, but they're the mage variety, not the all-classes variety. (Looks like you can only get the other kind from a merchant at the Nashkel Carnival.) OK, well, Branwen's sitting around in Beregost, and I never did recruit Garrick. He can use the scroll, right? So I go off with Branwen to do his recruitment mission.

Oops, again. Could've Silenced Silke, probably. Didn't try it, and she managed to go invisible and get off a Lightning Bolt. The bolt took out both Branwen and Garrick, and the rebound chunked Branwen. CHARNAME beat Silke to death, sure, but it's not exactly a win. So much for plan B.

So it's down to Nashkel to pick up Minsc and Dynaheir. Plan C finally works... except that Vicky is nowhere to be found. I have no idea what happened to her.

So, on the plus side, CHARNAME got a boatload of XP out of all this and levelled early. On the downside, I am running out of clerics. When I rotate Khalid and Jaheira out of the party, looks like Quayle or Yeslick will finally get a shot.

I've noticed that the game often gets more interesting when you screw up a bit:

So I'm basically just wandering around after hitting Firewine Bridge. (Dunno why people complain about that place; it's a great source of free fire arrows in the midgame.) PC fighter, Khalid, Jaheira, Neera, Imoen (still a thief) and Viconia, levels 5 or 4 depending on progression. Enter an area and spot a statue where. OK, so there are basilisks about. No problem; just have CHARNAME pop a potion of Mirrored Eyes and tank them, while the rest of the party engages with ranged fire. That part of the plan works great.

What doesn't work great is that this turns out to be Mutamin's Garden. (The nice thing about coming back to a game after so long is that you forget stuff.) Could've just run for it, but noooo.... I decide to try and put him down fast. Unfortunately, CHARNAME runs away while other panicked characters run towards the basilisks. Yes, Vicky blew both her MR roll and her save. Long story short, I end up with CHARNAME in the NW corner of the map surrounded by a bunch of gibberlings and a couple lesser basilisks, with at least one greater basilisk still off in the fog of war. He beats them to death, but there isn't much he can do about the GB without another potion. So it's back to High Hedge.

Couple of RE's later, and I'm there. Oops. Turns out Thalantyr doesn't have any Mirrored Eyes left. He's got Protection from Petrification scrolls, but they're the mage variety, not the all-classes variety. (Looks like you can only get the other kind from a merchant at the Nashkel Carnival.) OK, well, Branwen's sitting around in Beregost, and I never did recruit Garrick. He can use the scroll, right? So I go off with Branwen to do his recruitment mission.

Oops, again. Could've Silenced Silke, probably. Didn't try it, and she managed to go invisible and get off a Lightning Bolt. The bolt took out both Branwen and Garrick, and the rebound chunked Branwen. CHARNAME beat Silke to death, sure, but it's not exactly a win. So much for plan B.

So it's down to Nashkel to pick up Minsc and Dynaheir. Plan C finally works... except that Vicky is nowhere to be found. I have no idea what happened to her.

So, on the plus side, CHARNAME got a boatload of XP out of all this and levelled early. On the downside, I am running out of clerics. When I rotate Khalid and Jaheira out of the party, looks like Quayle or Yeslick will finally get a shot.

I find Jaheira's personality grates on me. Her personal quest is interesting, so I generally keep her around for that. But I tend to kick her to the curb afterwards.

Minsc I almost always keep with me.

When the game was first out, it was a common tactic to dual class Imoen into a mage. I guess Bioware just went along with it for BG2.

Just wish they gave us more rogue options in BG2 to go with it.

Dynaheir is an Evoker, so she was barred from both Enchantment and Conjuration spells. Not a problem if yo just Fireball everything, but that means no Monster SUmmoning, Sleep, Emotion, etc

I would say that pure rogues are pretty terrible in BG1+BG2, that's why I don't mind Imoen being a dual classed rogue to mage in BG2, and I always do so in BG1 when I bring her along. TBH you just need 100 in lock picking and 100 in disabling traps, and that's pretty much it, unless you also want to cheese lategame BG2 and ToB with spike traps. Then it would be Jan, or god forbid Hexxat. Monster summoning is also terrible IMO, just use a wand in BG1.