Baldur's Gate...EE or mods?

[Bix96]

So I have never played a Baldur's Gate game ( crazy huh?) even after being told countless times I'd been missing out it worried me that the games had aged poorly and not having the nostalgia shield that many do would ruin the experience for me. However, with both enhanced editions being released I really have no reason to put it off any longer except for one tiny thing... it seems many agree that just buying the original games and using various mods has the same or even better results than the enhanced editions.

I trust the opinions of my fellow escapists so I ask what should I do to get the best possible experience with these games I'm nearly fifteen years late to?

 

[Clowndoe]

I have original with mods, and it's got everything you could want. It also has the advantage of being modular (not sure if that counts as a pun but none intended anyway), while if there are "enhancements" you don't like from the EE you're stuck with them. It's also cheaper to get the original.

Speaking of cheaper, I highly recommend this bundle. You get original BG + expansions, as well as Planescape: Torment, which, in case you don't know, is regarded by many (including me) as being the greatest narrative ever in a video game. Icewind Dale 1 & 2 are pretty good too. It's the same price as BG2 enhanced on Steam, and the same price as BG 1 & 2 on GOG, so even if you never play the other games you get your money's worth.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-DBAMC/dungeons-and-dragons-anthology-the-master-collection

The downside is that if you're not already with Gamer's Gate then that's just one more library and account to keep track of.

 

[The Madman]

Depends on how much effort you want to put into the game. With the exception of the new characters added by Beamdog and some neat features, mods can do everything the Enhanced Edition can do and more. However it also takes time, research, and a bit of effort to get everything working with mods as opposed to the simplicity of the Enhanced Edition which is just install and play.

If you do end up buying the original version and want suggestions for which mods to install and where to get them I'd be happy to help as well. I daresay Baldur's Gate 2 is possibly my favourite game out there so I'm always happy to introduce it and the rest of the BG series to a new generation of gamers.

Keep in mind however that if you've never played another game like it the BG series isn't like most rpg are today. The closest comparison being Dragon Age: Origins, and even that was a much simplified take on the BG series formula. Whether it's something you'll like or not depends heavily on how much patience you're willing to put into learning the game and immersing yourself in the setting and characters.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Personally, I'd opt for the Enhanced Edition largely based on the fact that there aren't all that many great mods for the game floating around. Couple that with the fact that many of the best mods for Baldur's Gate either work with or are included in the enhanced edition along with vastly improved compatibility and the only argument for the original requires a consideration of cost.

That said, the added content is relatively rudimentary and would only really appeal to a veteran player. The Wild Mage kit, for example, is a class who's entire governing mechanic requires you have a really good understanding of how a Mage is best employed in the game. As a free tip on that front, Enchantment spells in the first game are some of the best spells you get in the game and yet most first time players overlook them because their application is rarely obvious.

baldurs gate 2 is however a better game than the first one and takes the series to epic heights.pretty much any character class is viable. heck i finished the game with a bard.. the jack of all trades, master of freaking nothing

I never liked the bard entirely because you couldn't cast while wearing armor of any sort which required a bunch of annoying micromanagement. In Neverwinter Nights I adore the bard class and the whole jack of all trades actually becomes far more useful. Probably better than a Rogue in your average fight, great party support in any context, and enough skill points to ensure you don't ever need a specialist for picking locks and disarming traps. That so many enemies in the campaign are crit (and thus backstab) immune really makes the Rogue seem like the worst possible choice.

But, more on the matter at hand, personally I had a reeeeeeeally hard time picking a class. When I first played it a million years ago, I played a paladin. This time around, I played 4 - 6 hours of a half dozen different builds before I settled on one I actually liked: the Mage Thief. THAT's a class with some cheese. Nothing like setting a half dozen thief traps only to back it with three or four Skull Traps for making a hard fight trivial. As far as I can tell, it was the true jack of all trades choice and in the end all I gave up was a few trivial levels of mage (2 I think) in exchange for insane things like Use any item and an absurd backstab bonus (which, admittedly, was hard to make work without lots of buffing and debuffing before giving it a try).

 

[AuronFtw]

You definitely want to go with mods; many of which are incompatible with EE (particularly the bigger packs). Following a fairly easy guide [http://www.gog.com/news/enhance_the_gameplay_in_your_edition_of_baldurs_gate_from_gogcom] will let you play through both BG1 and BG2 on the BG2 engine, seamlessly bridging between games, giving you much better combat and class choice than BG1 originally offered. The other benefit for mods is personal choice; many of them have settings you can tweak on install, so if you see something you like (or hate) you can turn it on or off. EE is very limited on many of these fronts.

Either way, the games are no doubt dated. Some of the best video game RPGs in history, but you have to be in the right mindset for them. The spells often have pages-long descriptions, you have to be (or quickly get) familiar with the spell learning, armor class and to-hit systems from AD&D, and there aren't any quest arrows pointing out precisely where to go. It's definitely a change after more than a decade of relatively hand-holdy RPGs, but still an excellent experience.

 

[The_Lost_King]

armor class

Oh if only it were armor class, armor class makes sense, I still don't understand THAC0.

I say modded original.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

armor class

Oh if only it were armor class, armor class makes sense, I still don't understand THAC0.

I say modded original.

To Hit At Armor Class 0 (THAC0) is fairly easily actually. It is the number you have to roll above on a twenty-sided die in order to hit something with an Armor Class of 0 (that is, no bonus or penalty to hit). So if your THAC0 is 10, you'll hit an enemy with a non-negative armor class on all rolls of 10 or higher.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well base game plus mods can work better, but it will take work to get there and possibly some OS specific stuff to work out.
EE is already set up for that so it's the easier way into it, you also get some extra content but it's far from being comparable to the rest.