Just started playing BG and can't figure out how to bash open the locked chests.

Welcome to the board...
no question is stupid, man! don't be down on yourself.

you have to highlight either a weapon or fist slot on the guy who is doing the bashing, and then click on the chest with the "attack" cursor.

Always try to do this with the character who has the most Strength (you will notice that there is a substat that depends of STR that reads Open Doors). Well that is the probability of opening a certain locked door/chest.

It is always best if you try and open doors/chests by picklocking them rather than bashing them open. Firstly, because they yield XP. Secondly, because it is much harder to do it by brute force. If you dont have a thief and you desperately want to open a door/chest and you cant, you can always use a Giant Strenght potion, or a Spell (the mage has a second level one, I think).

You have to have a thief in your party preferably. Check your party and see if anyone has the eyemask icon at the bottom of the screen that is not greyed out (where your spells and other abilities of your characters are shown on the screen), that is the button that "unlocks" things. Again though, you need a character that has thieving abilities first.

Click on the weapon twice and it will be highlighted in both green and orange. Then "attack" the chest.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Firstly, because they yield XP.<hr></blockquote>
I thought this was only true for BGII. I do not think its true for Baldurs Gate.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Seraph:

I thought this was only true for BGII. I do not think its true for Baldurs Gate.<hr></blockquote>

Yep, there is no picklocking exp. for chests in BG1 (at least was not last time I played :D )

mage spell knock will open all conventional locks

<font color="cyan">Yeah, there is no EXP in BG1.

And a question is only stupid, if you already know the answer</font>