Starting My 2nd Game
CoryNewb
Member Posts: 1,330
So I've beat the game, excluding my venture to Durlag's tower I am starting tonight.
My first play through I played on the straight and narrow... Lawful good, Dwarf Fighter. Had Imoen, Mince, Dynaheir, Khalid, and Jahira.
I want to go fairly evil next time around, and I might even try a Caster PlayerChar. Not sure who to round out my team if I am a caster though, that will stick with me through my....more evil endeavors.
I started an evil party, but it was going really poor and stopped by day 10 or 12 already, so any advice would be greatly appreciated because I am not a BG1 expert.
I know on the first screen outside candle keep I can grab Montaron and Xzar or whatever their names are. Are they worth it for me to grab? I also want to Try Dorn out for sure (maybe Neera too?)
edited in correct names of dudez
My first play through I played on the straight and narrow... Lawful good, Dwarf Fighter. Had Imoen, Mince, Dynaheir, Khalid, and Jahira.
I want to go fairly evil next time around, and I might even try a Caster PlayerChar. Not sure who to round out my team if I am a caster though, that will stick with me through my....more evil endeavors.
I started an evil party, but it was going really poor and stopped by day 10 or 12 already, so any advice would be greatly appreciated because I am not a BG1 expert.
I know on the first screen outside candle keep I can grab Montaron and Xzar or whatever their names are. Are they worth it for me to grab? I also want to Try Dorn out for sure (maybe Neera too?)
edited in correct names of dudez
Post edited by CoryNewb on
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Comments
*twitch* *twitch*
yikes buddy
You should definitely get Dorn. He's might be the most powerful NPC in BG1. His ridiculous strength, powerful starting weapon, and useful ability set combine to make him an offensive powerhouse. His constitution isn't high so he doesn't work well as a tank, but his swings are ridiculously powerful. You'll have chunks of enemy littering the screen if you take him along. Plus, his added content is quite good, in my opinion.
Neera... eh. I'd like to have her around in BG2 for more Wild Mage shenanigans, but at low levels I couldn't get wild magic to work in my favor. Her level is too low for Nahal's Dweomer to be a good spell, and since there's nothing past level 5 magic available, Nahal's wouldn't let you cast ridiculous spells like it could in BG2. Her wild surges were almost universally bad for me, and her added content didn't impress. If I had to do it again, I would have taken Edwin over her.
Don't forget Kagain. I never figured out where he was in BG1, but the added map markers in BGEE helped me grab him in Beregost. He's a fantastic tank.
If you kill off Xzar, an evil party along the lines of Edwin, Dorn, Montaron, Kagain, and Viconia might work well. Add in a PC fighter-mage with specialization in bows, and you've got a great group.
Personally i hate both montaron and xzar and as a good guy i will kill them because i know they're evil.
As an evil character i will kill them because they question my authority (monty) and annoy the crap out of me (xzar).
My evil party includes me (chaotic neutral assassin), viconia, edwin, neera (will change when i get dorn), imoen, and kagain.
I definitely recommend getting kagain. I don't know how good dorn is because i'm finishing up my neutral playthrough
I've got some work to do! Thanks for the tips.
Playing an evil fighter/thief, the only reason I saw not to take Monty and Xzar was that they were redundant in my planned party. Otherwise, I would have viewed them as like-minded and easily manipulated. Being Evil doesn't necessarily mean being a psychotic murderer intent on obliterating everything with a blue circle in the world.
Being Evil doesn't necessarily mean being a psychotic murderer ...
but it helps a lot. this is a computer game. u don+t harm anyone by killing colored pixels. guns harm people - not mouseclicks.
I also highly recommend Kagain in beregost.. Best tank in the game
As for BG2 goes, that's not something to discard - obviously they started working on it per-release so they could hint a bit everywhere. It's certainly something that makes you wonder how many hints they hid in their games... well, recently, the only hints I see is how BioWare's name is chainging to bEAWare but oh well XD
CHARNAME - Lisbeth (neutral evil female elf fighter/mage, currently dual-wielding Varscona (+2/+1) and the Harrower (+1/+3 vs. undead), but also sometimes just uses Varscona and a +1 shield. Currently has 2 pips in long swords, 3 pips in dual wield, none in bows, but with the elf +1 THAC0 bow (and sword...) bonus and a decent long bow she still seems to hit okay ranged. Last proficiency pip will go into scimitars (maybe Katanas), probably, to prepare for BG2EE. Currently wearing the elven chain (I CLUA-ed it in after the encounter where it's meant to drop), though swaps to plate in-between encounters when the spells run out, and gauntlets of weapon expertise (so those 2 swords hit well!). So far I've given her the Con tome, and she'll probably get given most of the others, apart from some of the Wis ones. Her familiar is the Dust Mephit, which can cast Glitterdust once a day, and has Glass Dust as an innate ability that can be used twice a day, though I didn't use my familiar until mage level 3, to try to avoid early level cheese.
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Dorn (Blackguard) - great damage dealer, but much more fragile than Kagain due to much lower Con. Lisbeth will try to romance him. Has 2 pips in 2-H swords (currently wields the +1/+2 Rancor sword he starts with), 2 pips in 2-H fighting style, 1 pip in crossbow (for crossbow of accuracy later). Currently wearing Ankheg plate. I gave him the Charisma tome, so he has 19 Charisma with Algernon's cloak on, to help with store prices (which you need with low rep!). Will probably give him the Claw of Kazgorath when I can afford it, as it won't affect the HP bonus he gets from Con. (currently none, anway) To be honest, Kagain makes a better "tank", but Dorn is more fun (both personality wise and because of the Blackguard abilities) and romance-able.
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Montaron (Fighter/Thief) - I have him in the Shadow Armour (my first really big expenditure) and Stealth boots and most of his thieving skills have so far gone into move silently/hide in shadows, I use him as my scout and back-stabber (curently with the +2 short sword, uses a +1 sling for ranged), and also sling user. Has 2 pips in short swords, 2 pips in slings, 1 pip (and the next pip at level 6) in quarter staves (some of the later staffs do vicious backstab damage). Also uses the +1 buckler that gives +1 Con. Don't forget halflings get +1 THAC0 with slings and Con-based bonuses to saving throws, which really helps.
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Viconia (Cleric) - Great party buffer (has the ring of holiness for extra spells), also lethal with a sling (especially if you give her the ogre gloves, as slings are the only ranged weapon in BGEE that has the strength damage bonus applied, though I don't have these yet). Has pips in slings, maces and hammers (usually uses the +2/1 electric hammer in melee, +1 sling for ranged), currently wearing +2 chain mail and +1 small shield. Her 50% magic resistance is very nice :-)
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Edwin (Conjurer) - insane amount of spells (especially with ring of wizardry)! I did have Xzar initially, but made him do the Bassilisk walk and he's currently a nice statue in Mutamin's Garden, so I do have the option of reviving him if I get sick of Edwin. I found Xzar's banters more entertaining than Edwin, and he has decent Dex, but he has lower Con, less spells and can't cast illusion spells, so off he went... Xzar can be dualed to a Cleric (or even a Thief) if you give him a tome BTW.
Edwin is currently wearing the Traveller's robe and sense of the cat boots so has decent protection against missiles. Also wearing the Dex gloves for decent AC. Has a pip in staves, which isn't very useful, currently have him throwing darts when not spell casting, though probably needs a 20 to roll a critical hit to actually hit anything, will give him darts as a proficiency later, though (already have enough slingers!)
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Imoen (Thief) - the only good character in my party - she whines a bit about my party being "riff raff", but I don't think will leave unless my rep drops to 2 or less. Thief skill focus is on Find Traps and Open Locks, then will focus on Set Traps - I'm not going to dual her for once, can't be bothered with the disruption to my party set-up and I'd like to see how a high-ish level thief who can set traps plays out. His pips in shortswords, shortbows and crossbows (for light cross bow of speed), Final proficiency point will go into daggers (for dagger of venom, for occasional backstabs from invisibility spell). Currently wearing +2 studded leather. Uses the gauntlets of accuracy to help with ranged attacks.
I did consider taking Safana for my utility thief (who is Chaotic Neutral and has Charm Person as an innate ability), who stat-wise is not far off Imoen, but when I tried to pick her up, she was already 4th level and I didn't like the proficiencies (darts, scimitars and single weapon fighting - I would've given her crossbows for the light crossbow of speed, if I'd picked her up earlier) and the way her theif skills had been allocated
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The key thing when playing evil is to keep an eye on your reputation, I'm trying to maintain it between 6-8. When you go much lower you get hassled by the flaming fist and shopping gets v.expensive. Much higher and you lose too much rep for killing innocents. You lose 2 rep for recruiting Viconia and also the same for Dorn. BTW if your reputation is less than 10, you get given "evil" abilities (most of which I prefer) in the dream sequences instead of the good ones.
Hope this helps! :-)
Your party composition looks good, what race is your Sorcerer?
Me - Elf Assassin (pure backstab), Dorn, Montaron for lockpicking and trap finding as well as back up tank to Dorn, Viconia who is just the best cleric in my opinion, Edwin teamed with Xzar for that extra magic. Seems to be working really well and in Baldur's Gate at the moment causes havoc and have been playing all the way through with a rep of 1-3!
Personally, I'd say any powergaming playthrough can be filed as evil.
You make your decisions based on rewards - you don't really do good out of kindness, but because you know it's worth more doing so, you have no issue with doing the good choice for the reward then immediately killing the quest giver for the loot and/or xp (there are plenty of cases where you can get away with this without a hit to reputation), etc.
You keep your rep high for the prices (just because you're evil doesn't mean you're stupid), but go kill some peasant or exploit Viconia so it doesn't go above 18.
Both BG games can be played that way just fine.
Also, Edwin
True. And I definitely found it hard to keep my reputation low without resorting to stupid-evil actions. But that doesn't mean I'm slaughtering whole towns on a whim.