General Play And Dealing With NPCs

Note: NPC - non-player character. Refers to characters who can join your party. The term NPC does NOT apply to characters who do not join your party.

Talk to everyone you see, including townsfolk - as they will lots of information on what is happening and hint at quests you can do.

Unless you are playing the game in ways that will reduce your reputation, (i.e. going around killing townsfolk, etc) then you do not need to donate money to increase your reputation.  It is quite easy to get a reputation of 20 early without donating any money at all.

If playing a good character, try and get your reputation high quickly by searching the areas around Nashkel and completing quests for people who have little or no means of payment for you.  Your higher reputation will help you at the counter: cheaper prices for those expensive but powerful magical items.

Try and steal as much as possible when you are in towns - but if someone owns the particular container you are breaking into(or are renting it), then guards will probably be called.

When guards are summoned, it is possible to bribe all guards except the Flaming Fist - who will attack you if they are summoned regardless of what you say.

Don't get too far on the wrong side of the law early on in the game, because many tough characters will come to attack you.

Try and complete all the quests in the game - good rewards are usually given at the end of most quests.  This is especially true of the quests in Baldur's Gate - nearly ALL of these quests have very good rewards.

Keep track of your journal; it will remind you of any quests you have forgotten about.

Early on in the game collect everything you can.  Armor & helmets are not usually worth the trouble it is to carry them.  Weapons, gems, rings, amulets, and anything magical are worth keeping.

Magical items ALWAYS look different to a standard item of the same type. But all magical items of the same type will look the same. (e.g. a short sword looks different to a short sword +1, but all short swords +1 look the same.)

Collect all the bandit scalps you can right from the start, they can stack in groups of 10 and are a good way of earning money.

Save before you trying to copy a spell to a spell book or gaining a level. If you fail to write down the spell or get lousy hit points, then reload and try it again.

If an NPC asks you to help them complete a task, try and do it reasonably quickly.  You can afford to stuff around for a while before completing it, but if they start getting impatient (talk angrily about how you haven't yet done what they asked you to, then it's time to get a move on: NPCs who get fed up with waiting and leave the party will be gone forever.

If you go Ankheg killing, try and carry the Ankheg shells to the Smithy in Beregost.  If you drop all but one and then give the shell to him for money, you can sell the shells one by one - earning 2000gp(I think) for each one. But as soon as you get him to make Ankheg armour for you, you can't sell them to him any more.
 
 
 
 

Exploring And Combat

If you sleep in an area where monsters are likely to attack, put yourself in the corner of a map, or sleep in an area that cuts down the number of sides you can be attacked from.

If you are desperate for some sleep, save before you sleep, then load up if you get interrupted. Keep loading until you get to completely rest.

Have at least two characters in your party with ranged weapons. You can have a fighter with bow(using the low bong of marksmanship/composite longbow +1), another fighter using missile weapons(the light crossbow of speed), and a thief using a bow(using the short bow +1 that Taerom Fuirium has, then the eagle bow when you get that).  Even clerics can use slings, and mages can use slings & darts.

Keep mages out of combat! The only exception is when a higher level mage is trying to use vampiric touch on an enemy.  If when trying to use vampiric touch, your mage gets hit(or killed) frequently, try casting protective spells such as blur or mirror image.

If you have a thief/ranger with high stealth, send them ahead to scout the land ahead and when you find an enemy, plan your attack.

Try and attack you enemy from multiple sides, and get any thieves in your party backstabbing an enemy - even Imoen can kill an enemy in one shot with a backstab.

If you are having great trouble with a group of enemies, have your thief stealthed and standing in view of the group. Slowly move the rest of your party forward until one of the group can see your party.  Repeat the process, drawing out one enemy at a time until they are all dead.

When fighting groups of human enemies, always look for their spell casters. Enemy spellcasters should be targeted by everyone until they are eliminated - keep hitting them and them won't be able to get a spell off.

Mages(easily identifiable because they wear robes) should be targeted first in a fight - a horror or confusion spell can really screw up a party.  They have low HP in comparison to other people, have at least one archer target them and send a fighter(or two or three) in to hack them to the ground.

Clerics or Fighter/Clerics are also very dangerous opponents.  They can summon skeletons or cast hold person - both of which can be very dangerous. Skeletons stop you from getting to any mages/cleric/archers in their party, and hold person makes it very easy for enemy fighters to cut a character to pieces.

Always be on the lookout for special arrows or bolts.  There are plenty of magical arrows in the game - some of them very powerful.  Also look for bolts with a green line on them: they are a bolt of polymorphing, which can turn an enemy into a squirrel.

If you get intercepted by monsters when travelling between areas and you have low hit points (or are otherwise not capable of dealing with the encounter) you can generally escape off one of the edges of the map taking very little damage(if any at all).