NPC conversations

revan299s

How often do the NPC's in your party talk to you? So far only Neera has wanted to talk to me.

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Corvino

Neera, Rasaad and Dorn all have a number of dialogues with the player. As @Shandyr says, the original BG1 NPCs are not that talkative, which does change in BG2.

BG2 is sort of a watershed in Bioware development, where the party-based system took on a new approach and added further layers of personality, interaction and questlines to most joinable NPCs. This continued in Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and has become a signature part of their games.

revan299s

Okay, thanks.

Corvino

Seriously, in BG2 you cannot shut them up. Take Jan Jansen along with your party and you'll get nonstop stories about turnips, griffons and miscelaneous relatives. He will also mock some party members relentlessly. I love the little nutter.

revan299s

lol nice, sounds like I'll love BG2 much more than 1 lol. I noticed all the new characters are fully voiced, wish they would of done that to the old ones but that prob would of been alot for the devs plus a huge budget increase lol so its understandable.

doggy

In BG 2 you should try to mix parties to experience different banters. There are some great ones that will make you LOL so hard when you mix the good with the evil

CaptRory

You shouldn't stow stone thrones in grass houses.

Corvino

I've played BG2 through a lot of times, but often don't mix good and evil in the same parties. There are some I've seen mentioned but not experienced such as the Korgan/Mazzy interactions which I am looking forward to seeing during BG2:EE playthroughs.

revan299s

I don't know If I will be mixing parties like that in my first playthrough. I'd hate to lose a character I liked lol

Time4Tiddy

Mostly they will only talk to you if you are not pursuing the quest they asked you for help with. I can say with certainty that Minsc, Edwin, Safana, Coran, and Khalid/Jaheira/Xzar/Montaron will all complain to you if you delay their quests, I think Eldoth does as well. A few of the NPCs will chat with you during key story moments, if you have them along, mainly those who have a connection to the main storyline.

The other element is party banter, you get this only with certain combos, and mostly only when they hate each other. Minsc/Edwin, Kagain/Yeslick, Quayle/Tiax, Faldorn/Jaheira, etc. There are a few love triangles and flirts between certain party members, unfortunately often they are really bad party combos, like having Garrick/Eldoth/Skie in the same group (who would do that?). Xan/Kivan/Viconia is fun and still gives you a strong party.

Finally, there are some unique sound files that play only if certain party members are together, such as Branwen complimenting any warrior, Coran hitting on most females, or Viconia treating elven males like slaves.

I know a lot of people have mentioned that there isn't much "interaction" in BG1, but honestly it's just about having the right party make-up, if you go with the "canon" party almost no one talks to anyone, partly because Imoen was never fully voiced and partly because they all get along.

revan299s

Time4Tiddy said:

Mostly they will only talk to you if you are not pursuing the quest they asked you for help with. I can say with certainty that Minsc, Edwin, Safana, Coran, and Khalid/Jaheira/Xzar/Montaron will all complain to you if you delay their quests, I think Eldoth does as well. A few of the NPCs will chat with you during key story moments, if you have them along, mainly those who have a connection to the main storyline.

The other element is party banter, you get this only with certain combos, and mostly only when they hate each other. Minsc/Edwin, Kagain/Yeslick, Quayle/Tiax, Faldorn/Jaheira, etc. There are a few love triangles and flirts between certain party members, unfortunately often they are really bad party combos, like having Garrick/Eldoth/Skie in the same group (who would do that?). Xan/Kivan/Viconia is fun and still gives you a strong party.

Finally, there are some unique sound files that play only if certain party members are together, such as Branwen complimenting any warrior, Coran hitting on most females, or Viconia treating elven males like slaves.

I know a lot of people have mentioned that there isn't much "interaction" in BG1, but honestly it's just about having the right party make-up, if you go with the "canon" party almost no one talks to anyone, partly because Imoen was never fully voiced and partly because they all get along.

As interesting as this is, doesn't this end up with party members leaving or result in having to kill certain members? (IE: Mont/Xzar hate it if your good. Minsc/Ajantis hate it if you are evil.)

Time4Tiddy

revan299s said:

As interesting as this is, doesn't this end up with party members leaving or result in having to kill certain members? (IE: Mont/Xzar hate it if your good. Minsc/Ajantis hate it if you are evil.)

Well, some of it depends on whether you intend to keep those characters for your whole playthrough or just for a while, you won't get an evil break until you hit 19 rep, and it's very hard to get low enough rep to lose the good NPCs unless you are blatantly murdering innocents. Not to mention rep that low makes the game really irritating when you are fighting Flaming Fist nonstop. It's fairly easy to play through almost all of the game around 15-16 rep and keep your desired party. For someone who really wants to experience all the dialogue and party banters, part of the fun is balancing the party rep long enough to trigger the dialogue. I played through with Minsc, Edwin, Kivan, Xan and Viconia (I was the thief) and it was a lot of fun to have them constantly bickering. Kept the rep at 16 so accidental bumps wouldn't push me to 19.

Some party combos will fight and attack each other, yes. Several of the combinations I suggested above will not. Several of the combinations also don't have morality conflict, just personal conflict. Faldorn/Jaheira hate each other but both are Neutral. Coran and Safana have several unique flirts and you can be rep 20 with no issues.

revan299s

You can keep both Minsc and Edwin? lol didn't thing that would work.

Time4Tiddy

revan299s said:

You can keep both Minsc and Edwin? lol didn't thing that would work.

If you have resolved the Dynaheir quest with one or the other before you recruit the second, yes you can have them both. Edwin/Minsc/Dynaheir has even more conflict than just Edwin/Minsc.

Corvino

I did the Eldoth/Garrick/Skie group recently. I will not be doing it again. They're all pretty useless in combat, Skie's thieving skills are spread so evenly she's not good at anything specific, and all of them are fairly annoying. The dialogue's nowhere near worth it.

Avoid.

element

Alora and Edwin is a good combination I believe if your looking for a mix of alignments

Durenas

I like it when Jahiera would say something abrasive, then Khalid would say 'jahiera, must you be so... so...' to which Jahiera would reply either 'insufferable?' and Khalid would say 'Y-yes, that's definitely it!' or 'Beautiful?' whereupon Khalid would say 'Y-NO! No, s-stay beautiful.'