Baldur's Gate: The Beginning

In chapter III now, things have been going pretty good.

I'm playing differently now than i ever have, w/ my party consisting of:
Paladin main char
Khalid
Jahiera
Branwen
Imoen
Safana

Ive never rolled w/ two thieves before, that last slot almost exclusively reserved for some sort of caster, but I'm liking it here due to the steady ranged damage output of the two thieves. Not that I dont need magic, but my spell needs are pretty much being taken care of by Jaheira and Branwen dealing out such goodies as Hold Person, Call Lightning, Charm, etx. Branwen being able to bust out a mess of skeletons is pretty kickass too.

One encounter was particularly funny last night. After entering Nashkel, some assassin approaches us, and proceeds w/ the usual threats and so forth, then casts mirror image and starts doing his thing. Immediately, Branwen freezes him w/ Hold Person, Jaheira nails him w/ Call Lightning. A couple other quick hits must have gotten in before that, because all that was left was his boots sitting there once the lightning flash was over. After all the boastful threats this guy made, I was laughing pretty good looking at his boots sitting there!

So now I'm pretty much in the 'dungeon' parts of the game, which can be humbling for the impatient. Have to take it kinda slow, for one trap tripped can really ruin my day!

Yeah, and Lightning Flash doesn't work underground!

My biggest gripe with BG2 was that Branwen was not an available character. I loved her in BG1.

I liked her as well. Spellhold Studios replicated a lot of the BG1 characters that were missing into BG2 via mods, but I don't remember meeting up with her in any of them.

I'm glad to see others giving her some respect, I never really see much love for Branwen.



"Tempus, give us victory!!"

The Perils of Branwen!


Portraits

Interesting, but this guy seems a bit.....obsessed with the nice cleric!

My fav characters for a good party have always been Minsc and jaheira. Minsc because he makes a great front-line fighter or a decent sniper. Either way he can be a great aid to any party. Plus his dialog is the funniest in the series! Go for the eyes Boo, GO FOR THE EYES!! RrraaaAAGHGHH!!!!
Jaheira, because the druid-fighter class is a great combination. I'd choose her over any mage or cleric. I really dig her personality too... She is a Realist, not one of those world hugging elf hippies, and dont you just love her temper..

I think my favorite NPC in BG1 might have been Coran, give him the Bracers of Archery and a Composite Long Bow and he deals out some major hurt.


Canonically, BG1 is finished with Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Dynaheir, and Minsc in your party.

Edwin is my fav. char in the BG series as a whole, but unfortunately he's evil, so I rarely bring him along (I very rarely play evil). I also like Viconia a lot, but she's also evil.

JDR13 said:

I think my favorite NPC in BG1 might have been Coran, give him the Bracers of Archery and a Composite Long Bow and he deals out some major hurt.

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I just absolutely hated his portrait. Dumb reason I guess, but I could never bring him along!

Canonically, BG1 is finished with Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Dynaheir, and Minsc in your party.

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That was actually the part I chose my last time through. Normally, I'd keep Imoen, Jaheria (kill off Khalid), Mincs (kill off Dynaheir) then add one of the mages and Viconia. Even playing a good character, I found it enjoyable to have Viconia around in both games.

I never had either Dynaheir or Minsc in any of my parties. Couldn't stand Kalid or Jaheira either. Branwen and Viconia were much more to my liking!!

The problem with Viconia and Edwin is that they leave at 20 reputation, which is very easy to obtain, whether you want to or not, hehe. At least they do in BG2, I seem to recall it being that way in BG1 too.

In BG2, you can 'turn' Viconia!!

I didn't have that happen in either game. I remember Viconia complaining a lot, but she stuck with my goody-goody Paladin from the moment I met her until I decided immortality was for chumps.

Corwin said:

In BG2, you can 'turn' Viconia!!

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Yeah, but it's a pain in the ass, and it's still hard to keep your reputation down long enough to reach that point if you're playing a good party.

I didn't say it was easy, but romancing her helps!!

It's possible but not easy. I think there's guide out there at sorcerers place. I'm actually having trouble turning sarevok into good alignment. Never suceeded.

Same, but I have succeeded in turning Viconia once. I can't recall where, when or how, but I believe it was in the ToB and not BG2 vanilla.

Also, for some reason, the alignement of my main character often changes when entering ToB, but I have no idea why.

Maylander said:

Same, but I have succeeded in turning Viconia once. I can't recall where, when or how, but I believe it was in the ToB and not BG2 vanilla.

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She can only change alignment in ToB if you have successfully finished the SoA part of the romance (the romance never continues into the ToB romance until you have slain Irenicus).

Maylander said:

Also, for some reason, the alignement of my main character often changes when entering ToB, but I have no idea why.

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The trials in hell. If you choose an evil option when you're good or neutral, your alignment is changed to evil and lose 1 point of reputation.

That would be it then - even my good characters always hang on to Blackrazor.