Game Daze #2: "Baldur's Gate" Day 2

by Joshua Packard, Fullness of Happy

Beregost from Baldur's Gate. Screenshot (c) Joshua Packard

Gamer's Log: Stardate who the hell knows...

I am into my second day of trying to get through the entire Baldur's Gate series.  I really don't know any easy way to gain lots of experience real quick.  I have found that the more member of my party there are, the more enemies attack me when I am ambushed or run into monsters.  I have basically been going to a nearby forest and resting over and over until I get ambushed by bandits.  When I had 2 members of my party, I would get ambushed by one bandit.  Then I ended up letting another character join my party, and I noticed I would get ambushed by 3 bandits.  Being asked by another character if they could join my party in order to gain revenge against bandits who killed one of his friends or something, I found that I would now be ambushed by exactly 5 bandits each time I rested.  Each bandit gives my party 65 experience points when I kill them.  They also drop arrows, some gold, and I can also take their scalps, which I have discovered I can sell at a nearby tavern and inn for 10 gold pieces each.  The bandits are easy to kill, but 65 xp is not very much.

Hunting bandits in Baldur's Gate. Screenshot (c) Joshua Packard

I think my strategy is just going to be grinding through as many battles with these relatively easy to kill bandits. That is, until I level up each of my characters to where they won't be killed by everyone else so easily.  I have tried going to other places where there are more powerful monsters, who give more XP for killing. But I find I die tot frequently for this to save me more time.  I need to level up enough that I can more easily survive and kill more powerful enemies. But right now, my characters are way too inexperienced to face more dangerous creatures.  My goal is to try to gain at least one level for all my characters every day I play.  And then I will get sick and tired of grinding out these levels, and wait until next day.

Feldepost's Inn from Baldur's Gate. Screenshot (c) Joshua Packard

Yesterday, I was almost going to quit playing, because leveling up is so tedious and repetitive.  I just want to be able to continue on in the game, which has a great plot and characters, without dying.  In order to continue on the quest, I will need to kill a magician in the entrance to the Friendly Arm Inn.  This one magician can kill my entire party easily.  I need characters with more hitpoints (hp meaning how much damage I can take before I die) and who can deal more damage to enemies.  Magic is also involved in this game, but I am horrible with magic.  Hopefully, I will be able to learn to use it effectively.

Every time I get attacked by bandits, they say "So I kicked him in the head until he was dead,  hahaha!"  I've heard that repeated over and over and over.  But again, my strategy is to basically just go in a forest area and rest, and hope to get ambushed by bandits so I can kill them. Then I take their gold and jewelry, as well as their arrows and also their scalps to sell for money.  Right now I am going to start playing again, my goal for the day to at least gain one more level up for each of my 4 characters.  My main character, named Ragnarok, is a level 4 fighter.  Imoen, a thief, is also level 4.  Garrick, a bard, and Kivan, a Ranger, are also level 4.  Pray for me that the randomly generated dice rolls treat me well.

If you're interested in purchasing this version of the game, the 4-in-1 DVD box set, you can purchase it here on Amazon.