One day we'll get there too! Let's all play Baldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate is a pretty memorable game from my childhood; It came in this big pack that had five discs, my dad played it all the time and there was a cheat to create evil exploding chickens. Unfortunately, by the time I decided to actually look up how to play the game, our only computer able to play it melted. However, recently an enhanced edition has been released on Steam, coming with all the dlc and a few extra party members as well.

The plan

So, normally in Baldur's Gate, you create one character, then go out into the world and meet with other characters who will join up with you and form a party. However, it's possible to generate your entire party from the start. Which is where you all will come in! The maximum party size is 6, so if we can agree on characters for these slots we'll be set for the game.

What you need

A character needs a few things to get going,

-Race
-Gender
-Class
-Alignment
-Abilities
-Skills
-Appearance
-Name
-Charcter portrait

Gender, appearance, name and portrait are all cosmetic; but the rest are all handled this handy guide, which goes over all the racial and class bonuses. The game has some generic character portraits already, but if you would like to have a custom portrait then they will need to be set up as such:
The dimensions and naming format required for player portraits are:

XXXXXXXS.bmp (54x84, 200 dpi)

XXXXXXXM.bmp (169x266, 200 dpi)

XXXXXXXL.bmp (210x330, 200 dpi)

The only thing you won't be able to do is Abilities, which are your ability scores(Str, Dex, etc) which are rolled out at character creation as such:



which is a very realistic display of what rolling out stats is like, only with the occasional swear when i re-roll a 92.

After all of that is set, then we'll be ready to adventure the Sword Coast, fight Evil and die to ankhegs. It'll be Fun!

If I might offer up a suggestion on where to find character artwork and concepts...

In particular, I would love to see this Ranger, this Rogue, or maybe good ol' Melf.

Aren't paladins the secret best Baldur's Gate class?

That said, you need to be a fighter/thief/mage. You'll be able to do everything if you ever hit level 2.

One of the new recruitable characters from this edition is a Blackguard, does that count? There's also a Sun Monk and a Wild Mage.

I'm comfortable enough with playing the game from a single character start, but I did think it'd be fun to generate a full party from the start. Also, I think it's funny that the guidebook and the game itself list perks all the way to level 20, when in the game itself you'll never reach more than level 8, even with the expansions. Even if you cheat your way up further, the bonuses listed aren't even scripted into the game!

Ah, I'm out of my depth if you're playing the new edition! I never even touched the expansion.

My Baldur's Gate experience ends at this one fight close-ish to the end of the game where three high-level dudes assault you inside a building in the city. I've started up the game a few times, but I've never gotten further than that fight. (I don't suppose you have any idea which one that would be? I know the description is a little vague.)

I'm putting this here for accountability and also so Rebel doesn't forget.

Way back when I played (A)D&D my group had a fondness for Wild Mages. Which made sense because we tended to revel in chaos (which made being DM kind of a pain in the ass).

I think wild mages are pretty fun; I played through some multiplayer with a friend and a few notable things that happened from the same encounter against a bear were a)change the bears gender and b) killing said friend with the Cow! effect.

I'll go ahead and roll out characters tonight, I'll be going with a thief, paladin, jester, wild mage; if nobody else comes up with suggestions I'll also roll out a cleric and maybe a druid.

Alright, so the final lineup:

Googleshng the Thief:



Mogri the Paladin:



Solitayre the Jester:



Torzelbaum the Wild Mage:



Rebel the Cleric:



Chair the Fighter:



Genders were randomly rolled. Should be able to start soon, now that everyone's generated.

I am simultaneously horrified and amused at how well that sprite matches up with my suggested portrait art.

Also go go 50/50 gender splits.

And will be randomly re-rolled as the RNG dictates.

We'll have to see how long that lasts and what the final split winds up as.

It seems the task of recording all this has come to me. I would have thought the more lore-minded among us would have taken this up, but since he'd rather practice his tricks and diversions... but that's not important. What is important is getting all this down while it's fresh on the mind. We'll start from where it all began: Candlekeep.





Gorion seemed rather impatient when he told Googleshng to gather her supplies for travel, so we hurried to the inn as fast as we could. Seemed like good old Winthrop could feel the mood amongst us and tried to lighten it,



We bought what we could, but it quickly became clear that we didn't have quite enough to cover all the costs of equipping ourselves. Rather than attempt to go out ill-equipped, we began to ask about the town to see if anyone needed anything done. Firebeard Elvenhair, by the fireplace there, had a task for us:

It'd take a bit to find Tethoril, so while we looked for him, we went about the grounds, asking for any more work:



This wasn't the first time we've had to find a book for Phlydia, though with the recent turn of events it seemed it would be the last. Adding it to the list of things to keep a lookout for, we continued on. We stopped by the priests quarters, too see if our friend Parda had any work for us when we met a strange person:


(click for video)

After exclaiming his threat, he went at Mogri with a knife, which she responded with-



I swear, it was like she was cutting right through parchment; the poor fool never saw it coming. We departed the grisly scene, only for our friend Parda to alert us that someone was asking about Googleshng. Before we could warn him, he went straight into the quarters. He didn't come back out, and before we could go to check on us, Dreppin caugh our attention.



Ah yes... in the hay. I don't think we ever found out why it was left tucked away in the hay bales there, but as long as we've found it we may as well return it.

Small it was, but any contribution was welcome right now. Thanking her(well, the rest of us thanked her; you should have seen Googleshng with that gem; Polishing it, holding it so it would catch the light differently.. Said she had an eye for these kind of things), we headed back to Dreppin to see what he needed.

Well, we certainly couldn't let Nessa suffer, so we agreed to fetch the antidote for him. He said that Hull was put at the entrance today, so we'd just need to follow the path south and...



As soon as he finishes, Erik jumps out of hiding and the two of them attack us. It was clear that this nothing more than sparring, not like with that man who attacked us earlier. A few blows in and,

Gorion must be really serious about this journey if he's setting up mock fights for us. Before we have a chance to think too seriously on it, Reevor notices we're up and about, and certainly capable,



Drat, and we had hoped the cats would get to them. I should have known, I've never seen those cats do anything but laze around. It takes a quick moment to clear out the rats (which the cats were pointedly ignoring), after which we reported back to Reevor:

thanks, reevor

Hull was just ahead, and even he had work for us this morning:



Though, two birds with one stone is a pretty good deal. Heading around to the barracks, we make another stopover in another of the living quarters:


(click for video)

He pulls a knife and.... Mogri completely destroys him. Whoever hired these men clearly thought little of us, or they'd have sent more competent assassins. Realizing that hull would really get on us if we didn't hurry back with his sword, we left the scene and headed to the barracks.



Grabbing the sword and antidote, and adding the bolts to the shopping list we headed back up to Winthrop, grabbed the bolts(1gp! we didn't spend them all in one place! Take that, Reevos!) and began to sweep back around to deliver the items we'd picked up:

Well, at least Dreppin was appreciative, right?

Googleshng wanted to speak with Gorion before we tracked down Tethoril, hopefully to get some answers, but we were waylaid by Imoen first:



Going through Gorion's personal effects...? Surely she was smart enough not to invade someone's privacy like that, but... Perhaps it was for the best that we came when we did. Gorion was waiting for us at the top of the stairs, though he seemed no less eager for us to leave than this morning:



That was definitely not as helpful as it could have been, though he was certainly right about the gold. We went to quickly find Tethoril so that we could be on our way.



And, fortunately, the inn was right there, so it was but a moment before we reached Firebead.

He proceeded to cast Protection from Evil on her, something I should have thought to do myself... If, you know, I had thought to prepare it... Ah, but enough about that! We had scrounged up just enough from our work to afford something for everyone, and it was time to meet with Gorion.


(click for video)

She gave the word that we were ready to go, and he lead us to the front gate.



And that was it. We left Candlekeep, the one home we'd ever known. It wasn't long before night had fallen, and Gorion was leading us through a forest,



At this, two ogres, two bandits and two armored figures (though one more armored than the other) marched out of the darkness. The heavily armored one addressed Gorion,



It seemed that was the signal to attack, and the immediately let loose on Gorion. We all ran off, and for a moment, I lost sight of Googleshng. When she reappeared, she had a few arrow wounds that I quickly tended to, but she was distraught over more than that. The armored figure had slain Gorion.



This tragedy would be the start of our long journey.

MVP

"They pull a knife, you pull a broadsword. He sends one of yours to the cleric, you send one of his to the necromancer. That's the Candlekeep way!"

Do I get the assist?

Miini-update! should have a full update later on today, but for now:

The Sounds of Candlekeep

So last time I recorded, I had some terrible background noise, and as a result I wasn't able to post anything with sound in the first update. Which is a shame because this game has some pretty great voice acting and music. So, Abdel the fighter is going to help us out here for a bit.

First off, the prologue intro:



Next up, Chanter and The Voices:



and finally, our trip with Gorion:

on hiatus

abandoned