About to start this

Well fuck, so it's just stuck around level 5-6at max for the entire thing?

Wizards are shit in BG1 because its low-level and in AD&D even a domestic cat can kill a low level wizard. The class only really shines by the mid/end of BG2.

Max is level 12, but it will take 40-50 hours of normal play to hit that. So yes, you'll be spending the majority of the game in a state where something simple like a kobold archer with poison arrows can just waltz up and kill you.

It's part of the game's appeal; just about any encounter can pose a real threat.

Sure, but that also means that two characters can be stuck in a loop of missing each other by a mile for 5 minutes, before somebody gets oneshotted.

Back in the day, we called that "tension."

Pretty sure there are no kobolds with poison arrows in BG1.

So how's a fighter/mage work?
Or a druid or cleric or something
I want to do more than just hit things

Cleric is pre-buff and hit non-stop. Multiclassing makes them a bit more interesting but that's for BG2.

You can solo the game as a sorceror, even with the increased difficulty mod installed (Sword Coast Stratagems) on the hardest, incredibly unfair difficulty (Legacy of Bhaal) but it will be very rough at the beginning. Casters are insanely powerful if you know what you are doing, especially as sorceror since you must pick exactly the right spells you need at the right level ups so you don't run into problems like having no spell breach effects for enemy mages.

Once you get fireball at level 5 you can start having fun, mate.

End game mage is basically god. If you know what your doing mage has an unfair bias in BG2 but in 1 it sucks.

You're playing the wrong game. Even as a high level character you're still going to "just hit things" due to how spells and prayers work in D&D. A fighter/mage multiclass is just a fighter without armor, but you get buffs that make you stronger in combat, and maybe some utility spells to help your party out. In the end, you're still going to "just hit things".

Yes I was a cleric too in NWN, did a few runs but ultimately it was more than just 'click attack and wait for the group to die'. Clerics buffed
same when druids did it

Fireball is fun, but it's very easy to erase chunks of you and your parties' health with it. Its usefulness is mostly restricted to preemptive attacks and dealing with archers. At least until the late game, when your front liners become tanky enough to just take the hit.

Stand in back. The AI isn't great and some spells at level 1 (sleep, colorspray) will single handly win a lot of encounters making your wizard not dead weight till you level up.

Find familiar will give you a big hp bump at level 1 if I recall. Put it in your backpack cause if it dies you lose con, permanently.

"just hitting things" is actually fun in BG2 and ToB. My last run was a pure wizard slayer and it was surprisingly fun with HLAs.

>Find familiar will give you a big hp bump at level 1 if I recall.
That's borderline cheating, though. Find Familiar didn't exist in the original BG1, and despite being a level 1 spell, it was never actually designed to be used by a level 1 mage.

Go and read a wiki summary then play BGII, the first game is boring and only boomers enjoy it.
Nobody can take serious a lv 8 Bhaalspawn.

Attached: Imoen_IMOEN_Portrait_BG1.png (720x900, 555.57K)

there are many ways to do it, but my favorite is cast protection from fire on a guy with a ring of fire resist and helm of defense, and use them to blob everything up, then cast web and begin dumping fireballs. they will be entirely immune to fire but there are other ways to get 100% immunity such as protection from fire + resist fire potion, two rings of fire resistance + helm of defense, level 8 dragon disciple gets innate 50% fire resistance so combine with a scroll or potion, etc.

>In NWN it was mostly about buffing/debuffing while a merc/companion killed everything which was nice
lolwat

first game is definitely worth beating if you have never played it, especially for the pantaloons you need for the Big Metal Unit but i agree that it is mostly boring, low level D&D fighting fucking kobolds and gnolls is not very engaging at all

Yeah, the port’s pretty good. Control scheme not as good as Wasteland 2 or PoE, but it’s alright.

With wizard
It got bored with fireballing all the time

Mages are great, but at the beginning of BG1 you're a squishy bitch who needs jocks around to do the killing for you. By the end of BG1 you're wiping encounters before they start, for the most part.

ignore this
BG1 is fantastic in it's own right. If you're not an ADHD zoomer crackbaby, you can appreciate it.