Completing BG1EE before Starting BG2EE

rathe101

Besides the obvious story related reasons, I was wondering what everyone's opinion was about completing BG1EE before taking that character into BG2EE. I have about 6 different characters all at various stages of progression in BG1EE, and I was wondering if there is really any reason besides story to complete BG1EE before importing them into BG2EE.

Is the starting experience different on an imported character, vs a brand new character? I know you can't really import items, aside from the golden pantaloons, and BG2EE already adds a lot of nifty new things, like the different NPCs and such, so I'm wondering, what you do guys think? Just import straight over to BG2EE and start the real adventure, or finish up BG1EE, milking it for all the XP it is worth, and then importing after killing Saverok?

Shin

The only good reason to play BG1 first imo is to enjoy it because it's a great game. That aside, there's essentially no difference. If you'd rather not play BG1, everything you gain from it can be edited into BG2 in less than a minute.

rathe101

Ok, I enjoy BG1EE enough as it, and 1.2 added a lot of nifty things to it, just pondering if aside from story, is there any real reason to complete it before importing to BG2EE. I know I could technically edit my starting XP to match whatever amount I want, but I kinda like earning my way.

Heindrich

I'm gonna copy-paste from an earlier thread today...

---

If you imported ur BG EE character into BG 2 EE, you would have the benefit of:

1) A few particularly items you might have picked up in BG EE. The Helm of Balduran is the only one that I kept using for long in BG 2, so it's not too important. You lose everything else anyway... Gold and equipment.

2) You gain the benefit of any Ability Tomes you got from BG EE. Say your Elven Archer started with 19 Dex, got a Tome to boost it to 20 Dex. You cannot create a new BG 2 EE Elven Archer with 20 Dex. This is only important if you are a powergamer. You certainly don't need superhuman characters to do well in the game.

3) If your Charname is a mage, he/she gets to keep her spell book, so will have some extra spells compared to a fresh BG 2 EE character.

4) If you completed TotSC quests in BG EE, u will probably have hit the level cap, and will start BG 2 EE with about 70K extra xp. However, because u get so much xp in BG 2, this becomes irrelevant very quickly.

---

But of course, you can do all that and more with Editor. But I prefer to avoid EEkeeper except to correct bugs or to achieve something very specific.

rathe101

Isn't the helm of balduran a default item that gets put in regards if you import or not? I always remember it being on one of the shelves in Chateau Irenicus even on characters I didn't import.

StoneSwords

Well, from what I understand, with an upcoming patch, an imported save game will keep your romance markers and stats intact at the beginning of BG2. Not sure what other flags, if any, will be included in the import, but for right now, if you've already played BG1, and remember the story, you might as well just skip to BG2 as none of that gets saved. Unless you're like me, and just love BG1 lol

SharGuidesMyHand

rathe101 said:

Isn't the helm of balduran a default item that gets put in regards if you import or not? I always remember it being on one of the shelves in Chateau Irenicus even on characters I didn't import.

There's a select group of items that can potentially be imported into BG2 if they're in your inventory at the end of BG1. The Helm of Balduran is basically the default item if you don't have any of the other items in your inventory.

See the "Baldur's Gate II" section of this page for more detailed info: http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/miscellany.htm

Also note that the Golden Pantaloons can be imported into BG2 and (without spoiling too much) lead to a noteworthy Easter egg toward the end of the game.

Illydth

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/24028/skip-bg1-ee-and-just-play-bg2-ee-please-help

There's already a poll on this, you may be helped by reading some of the responses to it.

tenkakahn

To start the game just like the black pits when you first start your character is automatically stripped but after the opening scene of you modify characters ( multiplayer mode ) and re load the same character file your gear will re appear it really helped me at the start of BG2 I couldn't kill firkraag or whatever his name was first time around but it makes the game feel a lot smoother coming in with your party that you been playing with the whole time.

This does however make it so you can't add in other NPC characters and do stuff like that but if you just wanted to do ONE character it's really simple how to transfer all items over!