I have done it, I finished Baldur's Gate (the game).
The game was really starting to run long. I dipped into the Tales of Sword Coast expansion in chapter 7 and went to
The Tower. Finished the first basement floor and decided that was enough, and rushed to the Undercity. Bested my dude Koveras with some archery cheese and got sucked into Siege of Dragonspear. No thank you, I have had enough.
Don't get me wrong, there's something about this absolutely busted 2nd Edition DnD ruleset that I really kinda dig. Like, it's those arbitrary attribute bonuses -- they make almost zero sense, but it's kinda fun to cheese them.
For instance, you have absolutely no business playing a fighter (or really, any melee combat class) unless you have at least an 18 in strength. Check this out:
| Strength | THAC0 | DMG |
| 15 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | 0 | +1 |
| 17 | 0 | +1 |
| 18 | -1 | +2 |
| 18/50 | -1 | +3 |
| 18/75 | -2 | +3 |
| 18/90 | -2 | +4 |
| 18/99 | -2 | +5 |
| 18/100 | -3 | +6 |
| 19 | -3 | +7 |
| 20 | -3 | +8 |
DnD 2nd considers 18 strength to be
pretty good. If you are of a
warrior class, meaning you are a class that trains in the martial sphere (Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Barbarians), having 18 strength is also "exceptional." Exceptional strength means that you roll a D100 at character generation. That's
bonus strength and, between two characters, could mean the difference of -2 to hit (you want more minuses) and +3 damage (you want more plusses) simply on the basis of a roll you did during character creation.
THAC0 stands for "to hit armor class 0". A fully-equipped medieval knight, with shield, would have an armor class of 0. At level 1, most classes have a
base THAC0 of 20, meaning that a totally average anyone swinging any given weapon would need to roll a natural 20 (basically, a 5% chance) to get through the armor of a knight. If a 1st Level fighter with exceptionally-exceptional strength (18/100) swung a club at a knight, he would have a -3 bonus to his THAC0 -- 20 - 3 = 17. So, he'd have a 20% chance to get through (hitting on 4 rolls of 20 possibilities: 17, 18, 19, 20). That fighter would do 1D6 + 6 damage (6-12). That's enough to kill a perfectly average 1st-level knight with one hit without question.
Of course, practically speaking, perfectly average people don't become knights.
Also, DnD 2nd didn't have point buy as a standard ability score generation method. You rolled 3D6 or had a number of alternate methods (like 4D6 drop-lowest). Ability scores were expected to land somewhere between 9 and 12, which means they basically got
zero bonuses. If you got a score 15 or higher, those characters were special, to be cherished.
In Baldur's Gate you can reroll dice all day long. In fact, because certain classes have minimum scores and because you selected your class before your ability scores, the generator always gave you your minimums so that you would always qualify for your class. It was pretty common that you'd roll 80+ (96's weren't all that rare either) total scores (max 108), and you can arbitrarily move points around.
The point of the matter is that it's actually pretty easy to get really big numbers because they cluster around scores of 18 and 19. The tables for Constitution and Dexterity have similar breakpoints. Once you factor in racial bonuses, it becomes pretty easy to tip over from an 18 to a 19, and then things get a little wild from there.
Let's say that you want optimize for THAC0 at an early level.
Roll an elf fighter.
Elf
+1 Dexterity
-1 Constitution
+1 to attack rolls with all bows (except crossbows), short swords, and long swords.
Let's say that you've got a long sword on your 18/00 bulkmaxxing elf. Your effective THAC0 is 20 - 3 - 1 = 16. You're killing perfectly average knights (PAK's) 25% of the time. You're also killing perfectly average thieves (PAR's with leather armor and a dagger, no shield = AC 8) on an 8 -- a 65% hit.
Not bad at first level.
If your gigaflexxing elf also dancemaxxes and rolls 19 dex, then you're popping zits at range with the same odds.
My
Archer Kit ultralad Elf had a THAC0 of 3 at level 6.
15 Base THAC0 from Class
-2 from Archer Feature
-3 from Proficiency
-3 from 20 DEX
-1 from Racial Bonus
-3 from Equipment bonuses (+2 bow, +1 THAC0 gauntlets)
It got lower. Now, sure, there are a hellova lot more immune-to-normal-missile enemies in the game than I'd like, but that's what +2 Arrows of Fire (which grow on Kobold Commandos) are for.
Meanwhile, Minsc was at a THAC0 of 12 with his two-handed sword.
You get what I'm trying to say? I kinda wanna do
something with this.
