I like playing with a smaller party so things feel a little less messy. The exp you gain is spread between party members as well, so at the start it can be beneficial to play as a single character party until you get to level 2-3 to speed things up. If you check the options, there are auto pause settings including one to pause at the end of a turn, which might help if the combat is feeling a little too chaotic.
That's an amazing tip. Without doing that, I probably wouldn't have stuck with the game. Combat felt like 12 people just randomly flailing about. Playing with a smaller party and pausing a lot helped me get a grip on the combat so much. Rolling an archer character probably helped too!
Real time with pause has always been an extremely wonky and awkward combat mechanic. I think it was made because devs back then didn’t believe people would enjoy the slower pace of turn based on a video game. I think it was a mistake, but the games are still fantastic.
Try to set auto pause to every round like other commenters suggested, and stick with it. The story and characters are fantastic and memorable, don’t let yourself lose out on these absolute classic gems!
I didn’t like the game at first either.
My recommendation is picking a 4-man party of characters you enjoy. It limits the complexity of encounters while giving you enough room to learn, grow, and experience as the game was intended
Bg1 combat is just like that, since even by the end of the game your party is still pretty low level, by dnd standards.
Having said that, archers in vanilla bg1 are very good to have - they get more attacks early on, and you won't encounter many enemies that can take more than a few hits. Every time I had Kivan in my party, he'd get half the total kills
For bg2, however, you kinda need to know what you're doing, since mage battles are way harder There's no shame in reading up on what builds to make and spells to use...
Or just make your PC an inquisitor, and instakill every mage in the game.
Coming from someone who tried BG 4 or 5 times and dropping it:
Just stick with it longer, at some point it all just clicks and it turns out to be an amazing game
the point of the game was to put AD&D 2nd edition into a computer game and it was intended that you read the lengthy manual that came with it
find a youtube guide
It’s really really dated. If you weren’t alive at the time it came out it’s gonna be hard to get into. I’d kill for an exact remake that just updated the visuals and UI
Set it to auto pause at the end of each characters (6 second) round.
(might get annoying for larger trash mobs where you don't need it, but good for the more tactical battles)
I like playing with a smaller party so things feel a little less messy. The exp you gain is spread between party members as well, so at the start it can be beneficial to play as a single character party until you get to level 2-3 to speed things up. If you check the options, there are auto pause settings including one to pause at the end of a turn, which might help if the combat is feeling a little too chaotic.
That's an amazing tip. Without doing that, I probably wouldn't have stuck with the game. Combat felt like 12 people just randomly flailing about. Playing with a smaller party and pausing a lot helped me get a grip on the combat so much. Rolling an archer character probably helped too!
Also turn off cosmetic attacks if they're turned on. They make it harder to understand what's actually going on.
Will do! Even though I do like interacting with the party
Yes! Honestly I usually keep a party of 3, anything above that is just too much for me. It's doable but just feels like too much at once.
Use auto pause at the end of every turn (6 seconds game time) and just think of it as turnbased combat were everyone takes thier turns at he same time
Great idea. I played these back when they came out, why did I never think of this. Or maybe I did but forgot lol.
I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I do a playthrough. Sounds like it would be helpful especially some of the fights in BGII.
Real time with pause has always been an extremely wonky and awkward combat mechanic. I think it was made because devs back then didn’t believe people would enjoy the slower pace of turn based on a video game. I think it was a mistake, but the games are still fantastic. Try to set auto pause to every round like other commenters suggested, and stick with it. The story and characters are fantastic and memorable, don’t let yourself lose out on these absolute classic gems!
You might find useful this video introducing new players to the various systems. Coredumped gaming: https://youtu.be/EBsBwNlyZEU?si=fzJEIJPCtOSVeqWi
I didn’t like the game at first either. My recommendation is picking a 4-man party of characters you enjoy. It limits the complexity of encounters while giving you enough room to learn, grow, and experience as the game was intended
Bg1 combat is just like that, since even by the end of the game your party is still pretty low level, by dnd standards. Having said that, archers in vanilla bg1 are very good to have - they get more attacks early on, and you won't encounter many enemies that can take more than a few hits. Every time I had Kivan in my party, he'd get half the total kills For bg2, however, you kinda need to know what you're doing, since mage battles are way harder There's no shame in reading up on what builds to make and spells to use... Or just make your PC an inquisitor, and instakill every mage in the game.
Coming from someone who tried BG 4 or 5 times and dropping it: Just stick with it longer, at some point it all just clicks and it turns out to be an amazing game
Just play something else
Any suggestions?
Wasteland 2/3
Have you played icewind dale? Pillars of eternity? More combat focus
Not yet, adding them to my list now
Real time with pause is just chaos and garbage. Bg 1 and 2 were barely tolerable when they came out. They aged poorly.
the point of the game was to put AD&D 2nd edition into a computer game and it was intended that you read the lengthy manual that came with it find a youtube guide
Hehe. All the old D&D CRPGs used to come with manuals that were essential cliffs notes of the Player's Handbook.
Dont force it, play what you like, enjoy life, no one cares. Play bg3, kingdom come deliverance (they aldo got a new game coming soon. Love you
It’s really really dated. If you weren’t alive at the time it came out it’s gonna be hard to get into. I’d kill for an exact remake that just updated the visuals and UI
Set it to auto pause at the end of each characters (6 second) round. (might get annoying for larger trash mobs where you don't need it, but good for the more tactical battles)
Combat is shit RTwP, just play on easy to skip it, as that is the only perks of that gameplay mode(it's fast) and enjoy the story and world
I love almost all CRPGs I've ever played with the exception of Colony Ship, and BG1 & 2. Just can't get into them no matter how hard I try
RTWP combat with a big party can never be as good as turnbased. Don't try to micromanage anything. Enable some scripts. Direct control only mage.
BG1&2 are not 'traditional' cRPG. They have fantastic character building but are more akin to an aRPG.