Baldur's Gate: Starting with a cleric
by Wuphon's Reach
To start off, Baldur's Gate is hard - really hard at first. The AD&D 2nd edition ruleset is very strict and Baldur's Gate follows it rather closely. Combine that with a character who starts at level 1 and there are going to be a lot of fights where running away is the best choice. The UI is old and dated, and as such the feedback about what actions are about to be performed can be subtle to nonexistent. You will want to save after every major battle, save before resting, and save before entering a new area. While you can use the Quick-Save feature to accomplish this, you should also create multiple permanent saves just in case the quick-save was in a bad location or you need to back-step farther.
On the flip side, the voice acting is good, the characters and storyline are well written, and it will take you a few weeks or longer to progress through the storyline. A few dozen hours if you do only the main quest chain up to thrice that if you do a lot of side quests and exploration. Give it at least 2 hours and don't leave Candlekeep until you've got a basic grasp on group combat, how to position your characters, and have the options for pausing set to sane non-default values.
Specifically, you'll want to go into game options and the "Auto Pause" options. Turn on the options for "Enemy Sighted", "Character's Target Destroyed", "Weapon Unusable", and possibly "End of Round". This will slow things down enough that you get frequent pauses during the action and can take corrective action and issue new orders.
Rolling up a cleric
A lot of the guides recommend a human fighter so that you can dual-class later on into a cleric or other secondary specialization. Since I'm not interested in playing a human or a fighter or in multi-classing, I'm rolling up a pure dwarven cleric instead. This will give me a high constitution, a good bit of wisdom, and the charisma of a love-sick ox. Since some of the other NPCs will have a good CHA score (such as the first NPC that joins your party), this is really only a problem during the prologue inside of Candlekeep.
That being said, there are ranges within which you'll want your ability scores (attributes) to fall. Refer to the end of the manual (pages 134-137) to see the table of attributes and how they impact some side issues.
STR (Strength) - If you bash your opponents over the head with heavy weapons, this stat is important. Fighters value this above all else, and it's somewhat important for cleric. It also governs the amount of weight that you can carry. No matter what, try to stay above 8 points to avoid some negative modifiers and preferably above 16 for a melee focused character.
DEX (Dexterity) - Only of modest importance for a cleric, you can shave points here if you need. You'll want something in the 7+ range for a cleric, but you don't have to go much past 10 points here.
CON (Constitution) - As a dwarf, I consider this to be a key stat. Remember that AD&D clerics can wear plate armor and get into the thick of battle. This also controls how many hit points you gain when you level up. You'll want a minimum of 15 points, but there's not a lot of benefit past 16 points for a cleric.
INT (Intelligence) - Key stat for a mage, not so important for a cleric. Still, stay above 10 points and preferably closer to an average score of 12 points.
WIS (Wisdom) - Key stat for a cleric. Go for at least 16 points here as it governs many cleric abilities. The closer to 18 or 19 you can get the better. While there is a book of wisdom that can boost your score by 1 point later, you may wish to go with maximum WIS out of the gate.
CHA (Charisma) - Not terribly important for a cleric, but you'll want to stay above X-Y in order to avoid some negatives. You can go as low as 8 without negative adjustments in reaction by other NPCs, but 10 points might be a more comfortable middle ground for a dwarf.
For the weapon proficiencies, I recommend taking a melee weapon for one point and a ranged weapon for the other point. For clerics, this means putting a point into missile weapons (slings and bullets/stones) and a point into either spiked or blunt weapons. It's a bit of a toss-up for spiked vs blunt, but I'd recommend blunt at the start.
On the initial spell pick, make sure you choose Cure Light Wounds at the start. The other spells won't matter much. As a cleric, you won't have to go rummaging for spells in the dark corners of the kingdom because your deity will teach them to you automatically. If you want to memorize a different set of spells, open up your prayer book (P) and left-click on the left side to clear spells and then pick from the right side to choose spells. You'll then have to rest for 8 hours in order to memorize the new spell selection. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have 3 spell slots, you can memorize any combination of up to 3 spells, including simply learning Cure Light Wounds three times. After casting a spell slot, that spell is spent until the next time that you rest for 8 hours.
For the character portrait, any BMP (Windows Bitmap) file that is properly sized will work. These go in a "Portraits" folder created in the same location as the BGMain2.exe file (this folder does not exist by default). The filenames should probably match except for the last letter which should either be "S" (small) or "L" (large). The large portraits are 110x170 (24 bit) BMP files and the small portraits are 38x60 (8 bit). Large portraits are used in the character screen while the small portraits appear along the right side of the main user interface.
Equipping a cleric
At the start, you're going to have ~70gp to spend and you can easily earn / find another 50 or so before leaving Candlekeep. Your primary equipment list is approximately:
- 2 melee weapons (in case one breaks)
- 1 or 2 ranged weapons (a sling for a cleric)
- 3 stacks of ammo (bullets for your sling)
- a medium shield
- regular or studded leather
- a helmet
Once you have purchased these, you should equip everything to get it out of your bags and to free up inventory slots (which are very limited). You can put 3 stacks of ammo in your quiver and you can carry both the ranged and melee weapon at the same time in the quick weapon slots. I tend to drop the 2H staff on the floor outside the inn rather then continue to carry it around.
Note: If you want to give an item to another member in the party, simply drag and drop it onto their portrait along the right side of the window. It will then appear in their main inventory bag and can be equipped / used from there.
If you're thinking ahead, I suggest also picking up (1) short sword, (1) stack of arrows, (1) stack of bolts and (1) regular or studded leather for later.
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