... and having fun. I started a mage, but after reviewing a couple of the comments here, I put him aside and went back for a dwarven fighter. Spent some time rolling stats on him and started with 18/00 STR, 17DEX and 19CON. Other scores were... well... meaningless. Around 8-9.

Quite a bit easier than the mage, I have to say. And quite a bit better than the last time I started playing; when I killed the initial two assassins last time, their bodies just fell down. With Stumblebum, they seem to explode! Quite impressive, actually.

He's just completed the prologue and is wandering around the Friendly Arms Inn area. Nothing much else to say at the moment, although I'm sure I'll be back later with questions and thoughts.

I think the most easiest and most advantageous for BG1 and ToSC is FIGHTER classes to begin with in early LEVEL's but later on in BG2 when you are a high level, MAGES dominate!

You've chosen the very same class and race that I did on my first time through Vanilla Baldur's Gate, Bungleau! Good stuff, Dwarven fighters rock.
Dun and dun! :D

It is true that Mages are somewhat cumbersome in the early levels of BG, since they will spend more of their time fleeing and pelting darts from the rear of the party after their small arsenal of spells are spent. If I ever retry BG, I might try a Necromancer actually and combine it with the most unlikely and challenging party ever with some rare NPCs. (I've never used Yeslick, Tiax or Quayle extensively for instance...)

I get the impression that you're relatively new to the wonders of Faerun in the original Baldur's Gate or is my assumption simply the result of your naive sounding enjoyment? :D

Whatever the case, enjoy the game my friend!
Its very open ended and I'm sure Stumblebum will hackily gibber and frolick his way through many more gibberling and yipping dog-kangaroos (i.e Kobolds) yet! [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. My original mage for this go-round was a necromancer... it felt like it would be a better mix. I'll go back to him another time, I'm sure.

And while I've played BG before, I never got much past the first chapter. Combat was too much of a pain (largely because I didn't read about missile weapons). It's a whole lot more enjoyable this time... :D So while I've been here before, this is my first run at a serious stab at it.

It's been a couple of days out of town, and I've got to finish something up for a customer tonight, so I might not get to game until tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to it... :D

Oh, he he, when I first got into BG years back a friend and me sat up every night playing it in multiplayer mode, he he, many nights got very late and when I stumbled home in the early mornings I knew I wouldn't be able to get up 3-4 hours later for school, he he, my friend and me got lots of days away from school but it was worth it, so now I have no education and live like a hobo.... but I have my BG game and that is all I need

I don't do that any more... I usually stop gaming no later than two or three in the morning, so I get a little bit of sleep [img]smile.gif[/img] Typically I get the hours from ten to bedtime, which is somewhere before 1AM.

And life's been fun so far. We've made it into chapter two, down into the Nashkel mines, and we're popping kobolds like zits. Gotta find me a mage, though, who can cast identify and the like. Heck, discovering that Jaheira could cast cure light wounds was a welcome sight :D

Actually, I thought that initial battles in BG1 were fairly easy, at least comparing to some other CRPGs (like Wizardry 8, where your first trip under the open sky [i.e. when you get outta the starting dungeon] is quite a challenge). It is the late-game combats that trouble me, like fighting a pair of skeleton warriors near the endgame (truth to tell, the last time I fought them I got stuck and was forced to re-start the game to advance my main character to the top level, not to mention “feeding” her the tomes of Strength and Charisma).

Anyway, good luck to you, Bungleau, and as about the mage...

...There are a few ways to get a mage for identifying items (not to mention their value in combat later in the game):
1) Dual-class Imoen into a mage (assuming that she is still with you) and take Safana (she can be found at Lighthouse map, although she has a moderately challenging quest) as your party’s thief. Safana is the best person for picking locks and finding/removing traps in BG1!
2) Recruit Garrick (at Beregost map) into your party; his quest – killing Silke is a very easy one. Garrick is also a bard, so he will be able to identify more items without having to waste spells on them.
3) Accept Minsc’s offer and rescue Dynaheir – a very good mage, but you’ll have to tolerate her aptitude. Minsc himself is a strongest NPC in BG1 – Strength = 18/92!
4) Endure through the second chapter without a mage, and you will rescue Xan in the end of it; Xan is quite a pessimist, however, and due to his being an Enchanter he cannot cast many powerful offensive spells from Evocation school.

Personally, I prefer to have at least two wielders of Arcane magic (Mages or Bards) and at least one wielder of Divine magic (Clerics or Druids) in the party.

Well Bungleau, I'm sure you'll have fun. In my opinion BG1 is better than BG2, all it needs is the BG2 game set. After you're first time (or 2 or 3 :D ) through you should give bgtutu or bgt a try.

Dwarves are great fun, although I find that voice usually does get a bit grating after a while. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

My last run through BG->TotSC->BG2->ToB was with a solo barbarian, and it was great fun. You're going to love a couple of weapons you're dwarf will find I'll bet.

Happy adventuring.

If we were feeling particularly pedantic we could argue that point 3 is incorrect.

3) Accept Minsc’s offer and rescue Dynaheir – a very good mage, but you’ll have to tolerate her aptitude. Minsc himself is a strongest NPC in BG1 – Strength = 18/92!

But I'm not in a pedantic mood tonight ;)

If we were feeling truly pedantic, we'd stop spoiling the game for Bungleau, as he (she?) didn't ask for it.

(I think Six and Illumina have already facepalmed and gone about their business. >_<)