Edwin or Baeloth?
derfasciti
Member Posts: 3
Hey all!
Been playing some 50 hours now on BGEE. I'm playing a purely evil party and my main Blackguard is lvl 6 along with Dorn, Kagain, Shar Teel, Viconia, and Edwin (lvl 5). However, after I found out I never explored Larswood I took a break from sewer-exploring in Baldur's Gate city in order to explore it. 'Lo and behold I meet a silly Dark Elf named Baeloth. As it happens, I've looked into as much as I could about him. It seems that he is in general even more powerful than Edwin. However, I heard that he cannot be carried into the expansion - Baldur's Gate 2 I imagine. If this is the case, if I were to want all of my former characters from BG1 in BG2 would it be a waste to drop Edwin instead of Baeloth? Are there any interesting banter/dialogue options with Baeloth (like Dorn)? Are there any combat OR story advantages or disadvantages to dropping Edwin to be replaced by Baeloth or should I just kill Baeloth and go on my merry way?
Thanks!
Been playing some 50 hours now on BGEE. I'm playing a purely evil party and my main Blackguard is lvl 6 along with Dorn, Kagain, Shar Teel, Viconia, and Edwin (lvl 5). However, after I found out I never explored Larswood I took a break from sewer-exploring in Baldur's Gate city in order to explore it. 'Lo and behold I meet a silly Dark Elf named Baeloth. As it happens, I've looked into as much as I could about him. It seems that he is in general even more powerful than Edwin. However, I heard that he cannot be carried into the expansion - Baldur's Gate 2 I imagine. If this is the case, if I were to want all of my former characters from BG1 in BG2 would it be a waste to drop Edwin instead of Baeloth? Are there any interesting banter/dialogue options with Baeloth (like Dorn)? Are there any combat OR story advantages or disadvantages to dropping Edwin to be replaced by Baeloth or should I just kill Baeloth and go on my merry way?
Thanks!
Post edited by derfasciti on
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I'm afraid I have bad news for u... Whilst you can bring your Player Character from BG 1 to BG 2, as I intend to do in my game, bringing your companions into BG 2 does not work like that.
Although you can complete BG 1 with any companions you come across ingame, there is actually a 'canon' party for BG 1, consisting of Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir and Imoen. At the start of BG 2, for the sake of the plot, the game assumes that those are the companions you travelled with, and everyone else is gone.
It is worth also mentioning also that you also do not keep any gear or experience points for your NPC companions, even if you used the canon party. For example, I am playing the canon party in my game, and by the time I finish the BG 1 EE, Minsc should have 161,000 xp (the xp cap for BG 1), and I might have given him a book that improved his Constitution by 1 to 16. However, at the start of BG 2, he will only have around 70k xp and his stats will be reset to default, so his Constitution will be 15 again.
So... unless you wait for the indefinitely delayed BG 2 EE to be released, I don't think you can transfer a Blackguard from BG 1 EE to BG 2.
As for your original question, which I forgot to answer. If you just want to complete the game, Edwin is already very powerful, so you certainly don't need Baeloth for anything. He is an Easter Egg character. In fact, Dorn, Neera and Rassad are all new additions for EE, with no connection to the main plot.
Finally... this thread should be moved to 'Help for New Players (NO SPOILERS!)'. You'd get much faster responses there.
And to add to what Heindrich1988 said, BG2 assumes you had khalid, jaheira, minsc, dynaheir, and imoen with you at the time you were taken. However when you run across old NPC's from BG1 you get to decide how you ended the terms with them just by what you say. For example: you run across branwen (you don't actually find her in BG2). You'd get options like: #1 Hail, traveler that I've never met before. #2 Branwen, you don't remember me? It's CHARNAME." #3 Uhhh, how are you alive? I killed you."
(And thus the advantage to being evil in BG ... the evil companions are tough as nails)
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Baeloth DOES get more spells than Edwin, but not by much.
When you unlock a new level of spells:
Generalist Mage: 1 spell/day
Specialist Mage: 2 spells/day
Sorceror: 3 spells/day
Edwin: 3 spells/day
Sooo it's funny. To over-simplify things, at Level 9 (the cap) Edwin sits at 6-5-5-4-3. Whereas Baeloth will be at 6-6-6-4. Hmm. Except, doesn't Baeloth have a ring that grants him a couple bonus spells?
1. THAC0, damage and APR
[Edwin]
He can be taught to use slings. I've managed him to have 11 THAC0 at the end of the game. Damage for +3 sling and +2 bullets combination: 3 + (2 ÷ 5) + 2 = (7 ÷ 10). APR of one.
[Baeloth]
He goes with darts and CANNOT acquire new weapon star in scope of 161000 exp cap. Thus, his THAC0 is limited with roughly 15. Dart damage is poor as well: (1 ÷ 3) for darts of poison/stunning, (2 ÷ 4) for darts +1. APR of three.
So, if Baeloth aims all three times with 15 THAC0 he'll make (3 ÷ 12) dmg against Edwin's (7 ÷ 10) dmg made with 11 THAC0 which is more likely.
2. Attack range
There is one decisive disadvantage of darts (knifes as well) - lowered attack range. When your party have already make a volley, Baeloth, the dart user, just starts moving from the rear towards an enemy and after all finds himself ahead of you front-liners like Dorn, Kagian etc. Then a close combat phase follows. Dorn and Kagian put aside their xbows and, trying to reach an enemy, are forced to walk around Baeloth! The mess begins. Enemy front-liners start hunting your brave dart user. Predictably, you begin to move Baeloth back to the formation rear. And one more thing - Baeloth becomes a target for a ranged enemy forces since he reaches a front line.
The only way to avoid this mess and use Baeloth efficently is to turn off his AI script and manage his attacks manualy. Personally I cannot afford such manner of play and thereby I prefer to avoid darts and throwing knifes in my party due to their unsynchronized with the rest of ranged weapons attack range.
That's why my choise is often 2 xbows (front-liners), 2 bows (thief, bard), 2 slings (cleric, pure mage).
Against anyone who is even remotely a threat, spellcasters should be using their spells -and Baeloth has plenty of them.
There's one important thing you've missed: during the round a character can perform two actions - cast/use wand/use item/innate ability/drink potion & attack. For instance, "Wand of Magic Missiles" is so handy because it can increase overall amount of damage your fighters do during the round.
Spell casting is definitely the main power of a mage/sorceror. But wasting a shot when it can be performed for free looks like inefficient approach.
Cast, cast, cast will take the same time as cast-shoot, cast-shoot, cast-shoot.
And @Quartz, a wild mage CHARNAME with min/maxed stats would probably be a better arcane caster than either of the two evil spellslingers. Customization is OP.
Safana used both Shortbow and Darts, and Drizzt's Scimitar.
Also I feel I need to correct Heindrich1988 on one thing: if you have an import from tales of the sword coast(the Baldur's Gate expansion), with the player character capped at 161,000 XP, the party members will all have higher XP totals. It won't be at the cap, but it will be a fair amount higher than 70k. I don't have BG2 installed so I can't give you exact numbers. Also, companions in BG2 got some stats stepped up compared to BG1. Jaheira, for example, has higher wisdom, which gives her a few more spells.
In general it's best to use tomes on the main character, as those stat increases will carry over to BG2. Companions will lose any tomes you give them.
There are a limited number of inventory items that carry over to BG2. I could give you the list if you want... it's not hard to google it though. In general there are 3 locations where items selected from your player character's inventory(and only the PC's inventory, not companions) will be found. It's a very short list, and you will only find one item per location. The default items are Mail of The Dead, Helm of Balduran, and the mysterious underwear of awesome(not its real name)
All your gold and other items are stripped from your character upon importing.