Do the new characters have a comparable amount of content to the old?

Arsene_Lupin

I haven't had the time to play the game much yet (I've only beaten the prologue) and won't really have the time to go far in it until after final exams next week. I'm trying to decide if I should try and gather up as many of the new party members as I can to see their content, or just stick with my regular favorites.

So, I'm curious--for those of you who have played a great deal of the game, or who have delved into the game files--do the new characters have a comparable amount of content to the old characters? I.E. are the romances as in-depth, the side-quests as developed, the inter-party banter and dialog comments as frequent as with the vanilla main party members (Minsc and Jaheira)?

Sceptenar

They do comment occasionally, but not as much banter as the others. Their personal quests are however MUCH larger than any of any other NPC in the game, you should definitely give all four of them a chance as their personal quests offer a ton of gameplay, new items and lots of experience through both SoA and ToB.

xzar_monty

@Sceptenar: Any other than Jaheira, that is.

I didn't want to take Dorn with me, but the other three have indeed provided me with a lot of good stuff.

Corvino

The gear I've seen on the new item list looks interesting but most of it's not game-changing. There's no new Carsomyr, Robe of Vecna or Flail of Ages.

There are quite a lot of class-specific items for monks, blackguards and wild mages during the appropriate quests though.

Eudaemonium

Speaking solely of SoA, I found Dorn's quests very Dorn-centric. As in, I didn't see much point in doing them unless you were planning to use him on at least a semi-permanent basis. They're also fairly unambiguously evil, which can be an issue for some Charnames. They have some good RP aspects, but they're mainly RP as relates to Dorn. Hexxat's quests were similar in that they were used to flesh her out, provided not especially high-quality loot, and were quite dull to play through. I found Hexxat herself interesting, but her quests were pretty boring outside the light they shed on her personally. By contrast, I found Rasaad and Neera's quests had a lot of variety in terms of both RP flavour and quest rewards.

If I had to rate the SoA content in terms of what a new player should see, purely quest-wise (as opposed to character-wise), it'd go:

1. Rasaad
2. Neera
3. Dorn
4. Hexxat

Unless I was planning on using Dorn or Hexxat (which I likely will a lot, since I play evil mostly, and they are awesomesauce), I would very likely skip their SoA content. Whereas I would do Rasaad's and Neera's even if I was not planning on including them in my main party at all.

trinit

uh. i'm repeating myself but MY answer is- NO.

quests are worth playing through and more elaborate than any of the previous npc's. they have soa and tob part.

they have around half the lovetalks of the original NPC's, or one third, depends on who are you comparing to. same goes to tob, expect around 3 talks.

interjections are almost non existent in TOB and seldom in SOA. banters seem to be less, but okay it seems.

and a note, they do not follow the usual patterns of the old npc's relationships, so

no bodhi abduction, no post wraith talk , for example

so, if quests compensate for this in your opinion, you should be just fine.

Maylander

Well, unlike the other NPCs, the new ones actually have some neat quests in TOB. That spiced it up a bit for me. In fact, some of the best armors in the game are obtained through such quests.

Arsene_Lupin

Hm... well, that's a bit what I'd expected. Guess I'll give them a try, but maybe not linger in the game quite so much as I usually do and maybe ditch a few of 'em after their quests are done. (Replace Rasaad with Viconia, as it should be, for example).

Of course, it figures that the same I finish up my final exams the WASTELAND 2 beta goes live... and then on Tuesday comes access to the ORIGINAL SIN alpha... so who knows if I'll even have much time for BG2EE, anyway.

Rajick

Hexxat hits on viconia constantly it's annoying she's mine b!$?( she does it again I'm gonna kill her

kaffekoppen

She only did it once in my game. Viconia said no.

I've finished Neera's, Hexxat's and Dorn's SoA quests by now. I liked them all overall, but Dorn's last quest seemed a bit buggy to me.

Since some of the original characters had huge quests that were part of the main story anyway (like the De'Arnise and Unseeing Eye quests), I don't think the new content can or should match those quests in size. I would have be happy if Dorn's last quest had just been bug-free. Well, it's not clear if it's buggy or if the last part is just extremely poorly explained.

You are given True Sight potions. They don't work. At all. The Wand of Glitterdust does work, however. I also wonder what you are meant to do with the druid inside the tree if you can't res him (once you realize you have to cast a spell on him in the first place). After re-picking my spells, I ran into another issue: you can't rest inside the tree. If you rest outside of it, ankhegs will spawn 95% of the time. I mean sure, you could use the acorn and go back, but it could be a little more user friendly. These are fairly minor issues, but put together the area just seems like it needs that last bit of polish.

Eudaemonium

Rajick said:

Hexxat hits on viconia constantly it's annoying she's mine b!$?( she does it again I'm gonna kill her

It happens about 4 times, I think, before the dialogue runs its course. It might play out a bit differently if you're in a committed romance (variable 2) with Viconia, but I am unsure.

kaffekoppen

That could explain it. I am romancing Viconia, and I've only seen Hexxat hit on her once.

Ayiekie

kaffekoppen said:

You are given True Sight potions. They don't work. At all. The Wand of Glitterdust does work, however. I also wonder what you are meant to do with the druid inside the tree if you can't res him (once you realize you have to cast a spell on him in the first place). After re-picking my spells, I ran into another issue: you can't rest inside the tree. If you rest outside of it, ankhegs will spawn 95% of the time. I mean sure, you could use the acorn and go back, but it could be a little more user friendly. These are fairly minor issues, but put together the area just seems like it needs that last bit of polish.

True sight potions should work if you're in the right place, since I found the demon just by having Hexxat use Detect Illusion. If you can't rez the druid, you either sacrifice a party member or summon some living creatures as handy create-a-sacrifices (and you get dialogue indicating both options when Dorn talks to you about it). I had no trouble resting outside; maybe you either had bad luck or were too close to the ankheg stomping grounds. I think you can rest in the cave, too.

kaffekoppen

Maybe the spell works, but the potions definitely do not. I tried them many times, and I tried them right on top of the demon (the text gives away his location). Glitterdust worked just fine though.

The problem with the druid was that I found him before the last stone. I wasn't really sure he had to be ressed (maybe I wasn't paying enough attention). He would say thing like "it would be good to watch your actions while in these woods" when you clicked him (which I recognized from BG1). Very weird. It totally makes sense now though.

As for the cave, I was unable to rest in there ("find an inn or rest outside"). Outside there were ankhegs no matter where I rested. I don't really mind it so much, but it does appear to be a bug. No other place in the game are you so consistently ambushed. I suppose it's good if you're starting an ankheg shell collection

That's not to say I didn't like the quest. Just some minor things that meant it didn't feel fully cooked yet. I had no problems whatsoever with any of the other new NPC quests though. Neera's was my favorite (apart from the part where you have to catch those cats... aah!).