Shadows of Amn has a Holy Avenger. You spend your entire career as a Paladin hoping to obtain one of those . It also has a sentient weapon and a Vorpal Sword. And you don't buy any of them, obviously.



Which is like saying that the original Final Fantasy for the NES rewards you for killing monsters, it doesn't change the fact that said exploration is an exercise is grinding.



You're really not going to get the money to buy anything at the shops unless you're completing these quests and looting the random bandits and bounty hunters hiding out in the wilderness though. As for the useful items that can't be found elsewhere, every stat tome and the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise are some of the unmissables found in the wilderness. But there's a ton more than that, things that you might eventually replace, like Rings of Protection or +1 weapons and armour, and even unique stuff like the +2 Shortsword or +1 Two-handed sword.



I get the opposite reaction. The fact that you should expect to encounter quests and loot while randomly trekking through the wilderness makes it feel unrealistic, and the need to methodically cover the whole map to do so makes it irritating.



What is it with you people and slaying dragons? I say that it's ridiculous that you have to waste your time walking over unexplored area in a square pattern fighting random encounters for your experience and loot, and you reply with it making sense not to be asked to slay dragons. Are those the other two possibilities?



Yeah, but the higher levels are in the sequel .



I think that's actually the munchkin-approved build . Fighter to as high level as you can without risking experience capping yourself, then dual class to mage.

Incidentally, I've now been reminded of how ridiculous second edition multiclassing was .



So? That doesn't mean you should be forced to waste your time walking in concentric squares to find experience and loot in the wilderness. Baldur's Gate has multiple quests that make more sense, or have more purpose to them, so obviously it can be done.



Man, I haven't had the opportunity to discuss Baldur's Gate in years. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned it pretty clearly goes Shadows of Amn > Baldur's Gate > Throne of Bhaal. Throne of Bhaal was a disappointment, really. Railroaded plot, no exploration, the lamest and most obvious villain in the series...

Baldur's Gate was awesome, except for the monotonous grinding. Tales of the Sword Coast was actually interesting, but since it didn't actually fit in with the main plot, I wasn't sure where to place it.