GameBanshee Forums

How many people play BG with it's sequel in mind. Do you gather all the tomes and give them to your player character so he is more adept for BG2...or do you share them around and give them to the NPC who needs the boost.

Is it being a cheat to make your character specifically for the sequel, does having an importable character also diminsh the roleplaying/story aspect of BG.

Opinions?

I think it's certainly not a cheat to play through the series with one character. The series has the intention to be playable all the way from your humble start to the Throne of Baal in one line. Of course, there is a breakpoint when changing to SoA with all the added rules and the redesigned NPCs. When I played BG1 the first it was already announced that BG2 would be released and would allow the import of BG1 characters. I went for a dc fighter/mage and dualed in BG2. This did neither diminish fun nor roleplaying for me.

Concerning the tomes, the first time I distributed some of them along the group. I also gave away INT and STR from Lum's machine last time. This time I will use all BG1 tomes on my main char, because the NPCs I have in my party are either not available or redesigned in SoA. Nevertheless I would give the points from Lum's machine to NPCs if they can make better use of them than my PC can.

Also concerning the tomes, doing BG1 several times with the same character and then importing into BG2 may diminish the fun or could be considered cheating. Altough I don't like the term "cheating" when talking about BG, because it's not a competitive multiplayer game, so the negative aspect of that term doesn't apply very well. Hacked characters may occur, but most people hack for fun and/or experimental reasons, therefore I don't see anything negative about it. Play the game as you like it best, that's what you've paid for.

I actually played BG (with ToSC installed) several times with a fighter and a fighter/mage, then went through to BGII SoA with my fighter, which I finished, and started on BGII ToB. By then, I thought of creating my own NPC party (MP option) and started playing BGI again with a thief, which I dualled to cleric at level 7. Together with my fighter and my fighter/mage (also dualclassed) I've got a party that can fight toe-to-toe, use mage spells, priest spells, turn undead, open locks and detect traps. I also have a back-up character with all the tomes, who I will use to raise my party's prime abilities (i.e. Strength/Constitution for my fighter - Strength/Intelligence for my fighter/mage - Dexterity/Wisdom for my thief/cleric). This way, I enjoy the BG series even more (more freedom in deciding which other NPC's can join your party)!

I've always spread them around. Then again, I though you were able to import your whole party into BG2. Man, what a disappointment it was to find out otherwise! Should I go through the game again, I would seriously consider to keep them all for myself. But of course, I'm no powerplayer so...

Perhaps i was wrong to use the word cheat, what i mean to say was does it disrupt the role playing experience if you know you are continuing on to become the Uber machine of ToB.

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
Perhaps i was wrong to use the word cheat, what i mean to say was does it disrupt the role playing experience if you know you are continuing on to become the Uber machine of ToB.

Because of computer crashes, I've yet to get past chapter 3 of BG2, but I read alot, so know a lot of what will happen. However, I do not think that has disrupted the role playing experience at all for me. But then, I'm one who can read spoilers for a movie or book without it affecting my reading/watching of the book/movie.

I believe playing one character all the way to the end of BG saga and up to 8 000 000XP earning every bits of XP on the way is a very exciting and fun thing to do (last time i've tried it my undead hunter only reached 32lvl somewhere to 7mil +XP) and it is not at all a cheat nor effects the roleplay on the game if you play it right.
Knowing that there is a sequel have other good things as well, one thing is to be able to plan your proficient skills better acourding to the weapons you what to use later on.

Also, for some it's a boost to the roleplaying experience to have a 21 dex elven archer. Sure, it's "cheating", yet it makes him special and that little superiority might just be the thing that makes the story that was created for him make the player play the game through and not stop midways because of boredom.
We all know that the computer enemies cheat, so I don't think the "superior" god-child is something to be frowned upon. Yet of course, you can always go overboard and spoil the fun of the game...

Also, about the soloing and becoming "too powerful too quickly"..well, I don't think a creature like Sarevok had a party with him all the time - he probably handled most things by himself. And for those encounters that might endanger him needlessly, he would have lakeys (like the ogres against Gorion).

Actually, I find it more fitting that the protagonist wanders solo or with only a romance (as Tamoka and Sarevok), because he's somewhat of a freak and might not always control himself at all times, not wishing to endanger his comrades to a seemingly lost cause..(if he's goodaligned) .. or thinking he can take on all who oppose him if he's evil..

I've played a Paladin once and after 3 partymembers had died, he went completely solo, as he didn't want to be the cause of needless waste of good lifes - so just before Spellhold he went wandering alone.

-Syl.