Starting with BG2

cbarchuk

Just curious if people out there usually give their characters BG1 tome bonuses when starting from scratch with BG2?

Heindrich

I don't know what the 'norm' is, but you definitely don't need to start with a godly 19/19/19 character.

I started with a 15/17/15/18/10/12 Fighter/Mage in BG 1. I gave him all the Tomes in BG 1, but felt that he had too much hp, so actually reduced his Constitution twice for RP reasons in BG 2.

I kinda like having characters who are mortal. Powerful, but flawed, and about on par with your NPC companions, instead of slaughtering everything in sight by your godly self and dragging along what must feel like dead-weights in comparison, and perhaps a romance interest.

cbarchuk

I usually play BG2 more than often than I do BG1 and I typically give my characters the stat bonuses as if they had also gone through BG1. I'm just trying to figure out if that's a bad idea or not. I just feel like I'm somewhat cheating for some reason.

Lathlaer

I give all the bonuses and raise my XP to 161k. I don't like BG1 nearly as much as I do BG2 and it would be quite tedious for me to start a new saga from the very beginning.

nano

I think it's fine, if you don't want to play BG1. I actually like BG1 and in many ways I prefer it to BG2 so I play through it, not because I want the items and stats. I don't think the stats make a big difference anyways. Sometimes I'll toss the tomes to NPCs and I've never regretted it.

Lathlaer

It helps a bit if you have a party of six and realize that early in the game you're running short of things to distribute Things like Brawler's Gloves or Girdle of Giant Strength. If your main character has already 19 Str, you don't have to worry about one thing

It's also because I like the "Xykon's Idea" of power. For those who don't read Order of the Stick, he said something like 'Power equals power. If you can lose it by blowing a saving throw, you never had any power at all'. So, if my main character lost his effectivness by losing his belt, he really never was that powerful

I'm a child of Bhaal, all will be natural and innate!

nano

Hmm, I guess I subscribe to the... I dunno what to call it. Power is relative, so victory is power. Stats are just numbers and it doesn't matter if I have all 3s if I'm the only one still standing at the end.

You might guess a lot of my characters are assassins and thieves

kaffekoppen

I consider it fair, given that you "should" have these bonuses after completing BG1.

If you're worried that it makes your character too powerful, I can tell you that it won't. The stats do matter, but they don't matter that much. You need a certain minimum, which you can get anyway, and anything above that number is fluff. It's good but entirely unnecessary.

As an example, I recently tried a cheating playthrough where I made a kensai with all 25s just to run around and check out the new content before importing my legit character. Because I believed a had "godly" stats, I actually failed more than in the fully legit playthrough I'm doing now. All 25s don't make a kensai tanky. In fact, while you kill somewhat faster, the class has the exact same ups and downs, and you need the same tactics to survive.

While I only really do legit playthroughs (except for some short-lived fun), I think you might as well pick your stats yourself at the beginning of the game rather than rolling. Pick whatever you think is appropriate. Pick them for RP reasons, get end-of-BG1 level stats for a fair boost, or pick godly stats if you don't want to get honest with yourself (spot the reference to another excellent game!).

Skaffen

I never do it, especially since I often solo.

kaffekoppen

What does soloing have to do with it?

Heindrich

I disapprove of powergaming in BG, so naturally I would consider using EEkeeper to cheat in xp and Tome bonuses as 'cheating'.

However, I also realise different players enjoy the game in different ways, for different reasons. Baldur's Gate is primarily a singleplayer game, and how you play it does not affect my game, so I have no reason to object.

The objective with all games should be to enjoy yourself. So just do whatever you like that maximises your personal enjoyment of the game. It doesn't matter what others think.