actually, I think in PnP, Druids use scythes, not scimitars, but since scythes aren't a weapon class in game, they went for scimitars instead. I could be wrong, it's been a long time since i even looked at 2ed rules
Not quite, it's sickles which makes much more sense (cutting herbs and stuff). And scimitars are allowed in PnP as well. To quote from the 2nd edition players handbook:
---- Weapons Allowed Unlike the cleric, the druid is allowed to use only "natural" armors -- padded, hide, or leather armor and wooden shields, including those with magical enhancements. All other armors are forbidden to him. His weapons are limited to club, sickle, dart, spear, dagger, scimitar, sling, and staff.
1) Must scout every part of the map. I can´t bear any dark patch on the map. 2) Must have Imoen in group. 2) Don´t "rescue" Lilarcor in BG2 when playing good/neutral character (I think that this is unusual, maybe I´m wrong.) 3) Don´t fight with "stupid" morons when it is possible to avoid fight, especially in BG1 (Sendai, the guy in Firewine Bridge, the party in location with Basilisks (even sometimes when playing evil - my evil charname want to control and rule the world, not to waste time by killing some imbecils) 4) Let the sympathetic deamon with the Deck of many things go with the Deck. I don´t like when I have to kill him. His behaviour towards me is quite pleasant and there is no reason to kill him.
I have this thing about Jaheira, being a fighter/druid multiclass not being able to wear metal armor, because it kind of goes against the whole druid thing imo. The only metal I allow her to use are small shields and scimitars. So it's strictly leather armor/clubs/staves/scimitars/slings for her
I've always wondered about Jaheira, surely by being a druid she can't wear any of the armour. Iron/Steel etc is mined from the ground which she's probably against (though the Harpers do protect the balance, therefore she may JUST be okay with it). But leather, well, it's obvious where that comes from and she wears it?
I never use potions in combat - the idea of someone carrying around dozens of bottles and getting the time in the middle of a fight to select one of them, open it up and drink it seems way too gamey, a lot like health pack drops in many other games.
You should be able to attach a few to your helm with tubes coming down to a mouthpiece like those silly beer/soda hats... :-)
I have a lot of rules when i play, halfings may only use short weapons, and small shields, gnomes may use any weapon as long as it aint two-handed and medium shields, dwarves may use any weapon but long swords, two-handed swords, staffs, halberds, and long bows.
Rangers will always be in leather or armors which let them stealth
I always change the colors of returning npc in bg2 to their bg 1 colors.
i also change the avatars to those most fitting the npc portrait.
I also like the specialist mages memorize as many spells from their school as possible, and use them in battle.
Druids may not wear metal armor, except armor made from nature like the ankheg armor.
Most of mine have been mentioned by others. But I'll add, I only play good, I can't stand being a selfish jerk. And I very rarely use summons, it seems horribly evil to me to summon some creature to die for you. Character death almost always means reload to me, I really dislike the nuisance of raise dead. I soften on that a little when I have the Rod of Resurrection, that just makes it too easy...
I prefer adventuring with a full party, even if I don't actually "need" all those characters. It just seems stupid to me to turn away a willing, capable and trustworthy companion.
@atcDave I accept NPC deaths, but only because I interpret it as 'critically wounded'.
I will also never play evil, so I've not bothered staying away from Hexxat spoilers since I'll never use her anyway, same goes for Dorn.
One thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned... and I hope I don't get bashed too much for this... is that I like to keep my girls protected in backline roles.
I know that with the proper equipment, Aerie and Jaheira can be effective tanks, but I just didn't 'picture' them in that role RP-wise. I am a bit of a traditional guy, so although I know that women can be just as strong as men, I prefer that they had more gracefully 'feminine' and safer roles in the party.
That said, I never had Shar-teel in my party, and I readily threw Mazzy into battle, since she is clearly a 'proper warrior'. Also as I got more familiar with Jaheira's personality in BG 2, I've become less bothered about 'protecting' her, since she can clearly handle herself in a scrap, RP-wise. Now that Jaheira has White Dragon Scale and Staff of the Ram +6 in ToB, she's been clubbing giants and drow for fun along with Charname, Minsc and Anomen in the frontlines.
Of course, I still wrap up Aerie in cotton wool... especially now with her... 'condition'.
I will only allow people to join my party if my CHARNAME believes they are capable in a fight and, if good, trustworthy or, if evil, killable by my PC. For instance when playing good I never take Nalia and rarely Aerie because they are far to inexperenced to fight a powerhouse mage like Irenicus. Also it would seem I'm a minority because Imoen annoys the crap out of me and I rarely include her in my party, even when good. When evil I often chunk her just for the fun of it in Spellhold, especially with the addition of Hexxat. My good CHARNAME will get her out of Spellhold then drop her in the CC and swap for Jan usually. And if party members die I usually leave them dead, unless I have the rod. I'll write an epitath in my journal then move on.
Imoen seems like a very divisive character. Some people like me love her and feel she is an integral part of the story while others think "Heya, it's me Imoen!" are famous last words.
Imoen seems like a very divisive character. Some people like me love her and feel she is an integral part of the story while others think "Heya, it's me Imoen!" are famous last words.
Yep right then and there, as soon as I heard the "Heya, it's me Imoen!" I wanted to chunk her.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks about these sorts of things.
1) I already did that thread talking about how I've been trying to reduce my use of unrealistic "hammerspace", especially on the fighters. Now that I have a toon in the Underdark with a blue bag of holding, I'm pretending that he knows a spell to send and summon items to and from that blue bag by magic, sort of like one of the witches on "Bewitched" might do, but not during combat - I'm trying to scout and anticipate, and have everybody already holding and wearing what they need, as though I still can't pause the game on the inventory screen, and I'm having a lot of fun with that.
2) I'll have to think about that potions thing. Now that @Shin mentions it, it *has* always bugged my sense of realistic immersion to drink potions while in the middle of combat, even if they are imagined to be in very small containers that can be unstoppered with the thumb and consumed one-handed.
I can see it maybe being done if the potions are being held in pouches in the belt, no more than what can be put in the quick slots, but not if both hands are occupied. So, you wouldn't be able to drink if you are performing archery, or using sword and shield, or a two-handed weapon. Having badly wounded party members retreat from combat to drink may be a solution, here, as someone suggested.
My worry about taking the realism that far is that drinking health potions is so often a matter of survival in these games. It's usually a case of "drink or die". And, of course, action rpg games are built and balanced around health potion use - imagine playing Diablo or its clones without drinking any health potions, especially early in the character build.
3) I've seen quite a few things in almost every post here that I do myself. I don't reload if a character dies, but I won't leave them like that - if an npc dies, my priority becomes to drop whatever I'm doing and get to a temple.
I'll have to think about restricting Jaheira's armor use. That would make her unable to be a front-line fighter, and she'd be relegated to being a pure caster. In fact, the Divine Remix mod forces Jaheira into leather if you install the druid component.
Since Jaheira is so awesome as a front-liner, and given her personality, I usually just figure that she uses metal armor out of sheer practicality. She probably thinks that the good she can do by kicking butt for Nature balances out the bad that was done by mining and smelting the metal. We discussed these issues in some depth in that other thread.
6) Reloading itself is something I avoid, because it feels phony, and makes my eventual winning feel hollow. I mostly only reload if Charname dies, and that's because I don't buy into the "Bhaalspawn can't be raised" thing, and I like to imagine that the other party members get him raised.
Every once in a while, on the rare occasion that I suffer a TPK, I will reload if I was really, really into that run, and too far into it to want to start all over. In those cases, I usually just imagine that the first time was a vision or dream sent to Charname as a warning to do something different. I know that's really corny, but, oh well. Playing realistically is only fun as long as it's fun.
Imoen seems like a very divisive character. Some people like me love her and feel she is an integral part of the story while others think "Heya, it's me Imoen!" are famous last words.
Yep right then and there, as soon as I heard the "Heya, it's me Imoen!" I wanted to chunk her.
I never use potions in combat - the idea of someone carrying around dozens of bottles and getting the time in the middle of a fight to select one of them, open it up and drink it seems way too gamey, a lot like health pack drops in many other games.
As @belgarathmth said, this can be difficult to strictly adhere to cos the game is clearly designed with drinking potions in mind. I have a similar problem with 'realistic rest', especially when playing blind. I have just completed Sendai's Enclave for the first time, and it felt really immersion breaking to rest half way into it, but I didn't know how much further I had to go, and I just knew Sendai would be a tough battle, and I didn't wanna face it without most of my best spells.
On the issue of potions however, I justify it by imagining that the potions come in small convenient vials that only take a moment to consume. Since drinking potion does take up some time, and u can't drink continuously (I guess it's something like one pot a round) to keep a character alive if he's taking a lot of punishment, then I feel this is quite reasonable. If somebody is seriously injured and fighting a combat monster, I normally have to retreat anyway to have time to drink potions.
I imagine them to be something like Senzu Beans in the Dragonball saga, not sure if u're familiar.
Not to help without a reward if I am playing evil. To make Khalid get drunk so his morale increases :P. To kill ALL the idiots in BG1, ALL of them, more XP and more magic stuff, plus, THEY WERE IDITOZ! So.... To slay Good party members who critical miss if I am playing evil (GREAT FUN!!). To get that person to run away if he/she gets under 25% Hit Points in a fight (including fighters) to heal he/she. To roleplay evil much more than good, it is much funnier .
1) Whenever I play paladin I tend to choose the snarky or sarcastic dialogue options. I justify it by saying that it's the taint of Bhaal influencing Charname. 2) Always have Imoen and Sarevok 3) I cant bring myself to kill myconids, I always use invisibility 10' radius to sneak past them
@atcDave I will also never play evil, so I've not bothered staying away from Hexxat spoilers since I'll never use her anyway, same goes for Dorn.
One thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned... and I hope I don't get bashed too much for this... is that I like to keep my girls protected in backline roles.
I know that with the proper equipment, Aerie and Jaheira can be effective tanks, but I just didn't 'picture' them in that role RP-wise. I am a bit of a traditional guy, so although I know that women can be just as strong as men, I prefer that they had more gracefully 'feminine' and safer roles in the party.
That said, I never had Shar-teel in my party, and I readily threw Mazzy into battle, since she is clearly a 'proper warrior'. Also as I got more familiar with Jaheira's personality in BG 2, I've become less bothered about 'protecting' her, since she can clearly handle herself in a scrap, RP-wise. Now that Jaheira has White Dragon Scale and Staff of the Ram +6 in ToB, she's been clubbing giants and drow for fun along with Charname, Minsc and Anomen in the frontlines.
Of course, I still wrap up Aerie in cotton wool... especially now with her... 'condition'.
I've also read up on those characters, and verified for myself that I'll never use them!
Funny though about the women, I just love the kick-butt front line woman warrior sort of character. My current BG2 is with a woman Cavalier PC, I just love such characters. I do agree with carefully shielding certain soft targets; like Aerie, Imoen, Neera. But I'm fine with Jaheira busting heads. I guess I look more at class and scores than gender. Funny since I am pretty traditional, but I love a good heroine.
@Heindrich1988 I agree with much of what you said, except that I have no qualms putting women in the front-lines if the character calls for it. I can't see anyone telling Jaheira to stay back and heal. Mazzy is also a total G. Plus if you EVER say that to Shar-Teel!
@atcDave@booinyoureyes Yeah as I said, it's not a misogynist attitude or anything, more of a 'traditional gentlemanly' desire to see women protected from the brutality of frontline combat.
It depends on the girl of course. As I said, I keep 'dear sweet Aerie' and 'lil' sis Immy' as well protected as possible (though Imoen sometimes gets into trouble cos she's the party scout/trap finder), but that says nothing about what I think of their abilities. I actually love how in ToB Aerie rebels against exactly my attitude of being overly protective of her! lol
On the flip side, for Mazzy, I never hesitated to throw her into the frontline, and now that I know Jaheira well, I think I'll probably 'scimitar and shield' her to be a tank for my next playthrough, cos my Kensai can't really tank in BG 1.
My preferences on how I see women in fantasy games might be influenced by imagery in fantasy games in general, where men are walking suits of impossibly heavy armour, and women wear 'bikini plate' at best, which naturally leave women in support/ranged roles, and men in close combat ones.
Edit: ps: I may sound like I am a grumpy old geezer who talks about the 'good ol' days' and 'the war' all the time. But I am actually 25.
@Heindrich1988 I never took it as a misogynistic thing (I hope I didn't sound accusatory or anything). To be honest, if we look at human physical abilities in a realistic way, men are simply more likely to be front-liners than women.
However, there are women who would fit there perfectly, and a character like that in *my game* should be a front-liner. 'Rare' does not mean 'never'. Jaheira, Mazzy, Branwen and Shar-Teel all fit this category. I was also a big Xena/Lucy Flawless fan growing up, and later on a huge Buffy fan, so that helps! Xena fit the front lines physically, due to the actress, but Buffy was definitely fantasy
There is an NPC mod out there (newer one) with a female paladin called Isra that I am excited to try. I think it was written by Liam Esler, so its bound to be of decent quality at least. I thought the heavy plated female badass was always missing in the series outside of Jaheira (Branwen kinds fit the first game, but like Jaheira she was not a straight warrior class). Mazzy kinda fit that role, but as a halfling she always seemed like an over-achiever who got by on bravery, skill and mental/emotional toughness rather than physical fortitude.
On the topic of potions. Despite how they are depicted in most fantasy games, I don't think glass bottles are particularly practical for an adventuring party. All that rough and tumble could easily result in costly breaks and spillages!
This is how I imagine my potion containers... I just remembered seeing a good example from a Chinese Wuxia TV series.
Small sturdy vial made of wood/bamboo or some other natural material. It's magical liquid, so you shouldn't need to down a pint of it for its purpose to take effect!
For those that don't speak Chinese, a little background...
The boy was being bullied at the Daoist Temple where those priests come from. During a fight he badly wounded a fellow student with a forbidden 'dark' technique that causes poisoning, and ran away to the caves of the nearby Tomb Sect. The old woman is a member of the Tomb Sect, who took pity on the boy and decided to look after him.
They've just come out of the caves to confront the priests. She brings a small vial of antidote that would cure the wounded student, but the priests suspect the vial may contain poison. Outraged at her honour and integrity being questioned by the Daoists, the old woman makes the boy drink the antidote to prove that it's not poison, and then declares that she has no more, and the Daoists can go bugger off to find their own way to save their poisoned disciple....
I never use potions in combat - the idea of someone carrying around dozens of bottles and getting the time in the middle of a fight to select one of them, open it up and drink it seems way too gamey, a lot like health pack drops in many other games.
You should be able to attach a few to your helm with tubes coming down to a mouthpiece like those silly beer/soda hats... :-)
I never use potions in combat - the idea of someone carrying around dozens of bottles and getting the time in the middle of a fight to select one of them, open it up and drink it seems way too gamey, a lot like health pack drops in many other games.
As @belgarathmth said, this can be difficult to strictly adhere to cos the game is clearly designed with drinking potions in mind. I have a similar problem with 'realistic rest', especially when playing blind. I have just completed Sendai's Enclave for the first time, and it felt really immersion breaking to rest half way into it, but I didn't know how much further I had to go, and I just knew Sendai would be a tough battle, and I didn't wanna face it without most of my best spells.
Right, I can see how very strict adherence to such a rule could easily cause difficulty problems, especially to newer players. In a Pirates of the Caribbean-like fashion, I probably view it more as a guideline - if my main character is about to die, I would use one, after retreating from conbat - but if I see I have to use potions several times throughout a fight to stay alive I will take it as a sign that my tactics are messed up and usually resort to reloading the encounter and trying a different approach. Like @Tresset mentioned on the last page, I too want my battles to play out a certain way in regards to both RP and general "flow". I certainly don't want to "win by potion" against an otherwise superior enemy, an approach I loathe in games like Diablo etc that are reliant on constant quaffing.
Anyway, I also find that being very restrictive with potions makes me rely on clerics as almost straight-out healers, with rather limited buffing and offensive casting. Many are the times I've sent Viconia into the fray to heal a hard-pressed tank. Later on the mass heal spell in particular is useful as it lets you heal your entire party at once from a distance. The idea of relying on party members helping each other out and fulfilling their particular roles rather than everyone using potions to make up for it also appeals to me.
I never romance Viconia. She goes from a strong self-assured woman to a whiny, needy asshole.
I have never seen the evil dream sequences in Baldur's Gate as I keep my char's reputation high. I usually try to play smart evil and being loved pays more than being feared.
Jaheria is always a front line fighter on my party. She can kick ass, she doesn't need constant reassurance and unlike almost every romancable NPC I've come across you can actually disagree with her without it ending the relationship.
I like that the woman in BG/BG2 are generally what I would consider capable gals, and I have no problem sending them to the front lines. Aerie, Imoen, Skie, Nalia, and Alora are the only ones I would consider in need of any protection, and by the time ToB comes around, Nalia would certainly kill you for it. Imoen, I don't think would take well to over-protectiveness either. Try to keep Jaheria, Branwen, Viconia, and especially Shar-Teel from the front lines, and I think you'd end up with them showing you very well that they can perfectly take care of themselves, thank you very much. I mean, Branwen's whole backstory was about her leaving her home to escape the sexism of those who thought she couldn't be a viable priestess.
Considering that save for in very specific areas of the realm (Calimshan, mainly) men and woman are basically completely equal in status and strengths, I have no problem making my female characters- including my Bhaalspawn- take to the front. Sure, the mages stay back, but I make Xan and Edwin hide behind the front lines as much as I would Aerie.
(I liked to imagine my female elven ranger Bhaalspawn as being all violently overprotective girlfriend over Xan. "No, no, dear, forget the moonblade. You can have a sling, yes? Slings are nice. Just sit back here with your sling and cast charm person, not that it ever works. Now excuse me, I'm going to run screaming wielding duel-long swords in to the fray. Give me a kiss after I've gibbed everyone!")
As for more on topic...
I keep Imoen and Sarevok around. I'm not even Imoen's biggest fan- I do find her towards the end of the annoying spectrum, and I've played this game so many times that I have her every line memorized- but I can't imagine a good character not taking her along. It's especially sad if you refuse her in the Spellhold... she's all like "Where do I go?" and being basically all "IDK, just not with me" to her makes me feel bad. And Sarevok? Sarevok is just awesome. Fits well for good or evil.
I don't allow Keldorn near Viconia, because him going after her just feels so out of character. There are many reasons for him to attack Viconia- her being a priestess of a religion of evil that demands the sacrifice of innocents would be a major one. Instead, he goes after he because she's a drow. Uncool, Keldorn. I never take them together.
I generally make themed parties. All elves, all nature warriors, all shorties, all spellcasters, all lawful good, all whatever. Imoen and Sarevok are sometimes allowed to ignore these restrictions, though. >.>
I always dismiss a character wielding what they're wielding rather then stripping them naked before removal. I'll take the spare stuff out of their inventory, sure, but they get to keep their weapons and armor and jewelry and the like. That means sometimes I lose out on possible upgrades from the Item Upgrades mod, but them the breaks.
I also don't let my characters drink potions in battle. Before, definitely, but not during.
...I always take Tiax along if I'm doing evil, because Tiax is hilarious to me. I'm quite fond of the crazy, crazy, *crazy* little gnome.
I think the oddest thing that I do is try to match my party as closely to their portraits as possible. Be it weapons, armor, helmets or shields. If the character has it in the portrait he/she has it in my game. What's more they get the armor that's color best matches their portrait, even if that armor isn't the best they can get.
actually, I think in PnP, Druids use scythes, not scimitars, but since scythes aren't a weapon class in game, they went for scimitars instead. I could be wrong, it's been a long time since i even looked at 2ed rules
Not quite, it's sickles which makes much more sense (cutting herbs and stuff). And scimitars are allowed in PnP as well. To quote from the 2nd edition players handbook:
---- Weapons Allowed Unlike the cleric, the druid is allowed to use only "natural" armors -- padded, hide, or leather armor and wooden shields, including those with magical enhancements. All other armors are forbidden to him. His weapons are limited to club, sickle, dart, spear, dagger, scimitar, sling, and staff.
sickle is actually what I meant lol, but guess I was wrong about the scimitar thing. Like I said, very long time since I've looked at that stuff
I always do an evil run through after a good one and make sure I'm overall playing 50/50 male/female characters. Can't bring myself to play a Paladin all the way through or a single classed fighter.
I have this thing about Jaheira, being a fighter/druid multiclass not being able to wear metal armor, because it kind of goes against the whole druid thing imo. The only metal I allow her to use are small shields and scimitars. So it's strictly leather armor/clubs/staves/scimitars/slings for her
I've always wondered about Jaheira, surely by being a druid she can't wear any of the armour. Iron/Steel etc is mined from the ground which she's probably against (though the Harpers do protect the balance, therefore she may JUST be okay with it). But leather, well, it's obvious where that comes from and she wears it?
Well, true, but I can't let her wander into battle butt naked, that would be wrong lol
I think the oddest thing that I do is try to match my party as closely to their portraits as possible. Be it weapons, armor, helmets or shields. If the character has it in the portrait he/she has it in my game. What's more they get the armor that's color best matches their portrait, even if that armor isn't the best they can get.
Khalid can NOT be shieldless thats for sure. In BG1 Jaheira MUST use a staff or spear (even spear is pushing it) Kivan is EEKeepered(or modded)-->Archer 18/xx strength be damned Ajantis uses a great sword or a single bastard sword that he wields 2 handed. he is also ALWAYS made into an Inquisitor since he is the squire of none other than the legendary Sir Keldorn Firecam I was really feeling guilty the first time I had Minsc use a weapon other than a greatsword, but I get over it. I just make him use "fierce unwieldy" weapons like the Flail of Ages, axes or the occasional mace. When characters come with their own equipment, they USE it throughout SoA (in TOB I'll upgrade). I'll occasionally make an exception for Carsomyr and Anomen's Shield (cuz as I said, shields are for pansies!) but usually I stick with that rule. When Mazzy eventually dual-wields, its Kundane in the off-hand and sword of Arvoreen in her main hand.
Also I always have one of the mods that turn helmet animations off. They are so ugly, especially when delicate little Aerie is wearing some elegant robe and then a big spiked viking helmet on top. It just looks so bizarre. It's as if someone made Kate Beckinsale wear a fitted baseball hat backwards... just no
Though I love dual-wield for the style, no weird dual weapon combos. Gotta stick with either small weapon offhand, or mirror-mage (blade with blade). I have two exceptions: I'm okay with a flail main hand and a bastard/longsword offhand (stab, pin and then beat evil to a bloody pulp) and also an sword + offhand axe for Valygar or other rangers (I see axe as the ultimate ranger woodsman weapon for some reason). No hammer and dagger (lolwut?) no mace and katana, and especially no dagger and shield (if there is a shield spot available)!
Bows and trowing weapons (and occasionally darts) are all superior to lame crossbows and slings. I use slings but I don't like them on anything other than shorties. Crossbows just don't look fun on anyone not named Jan Jansen.
I will say this: the sexiest look is a dual wielding human female mage paper-doll. I give Nalia offhand weapons just because it makes her look like River Tam!
Comments
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Weapons Allowed
Unlike the cleric, the druid is allowed to use only "natural" armors -- padded, hide, or leather armor and wooden shields, including those with magical enhancements. All other armors are forbidden to him. His weapons are limited to club, sickle, dart, spear, dagger, scimitar, sling, and staff.
2) Must have Imoen in group.
2) Don´t "rescue" Lilarcor in BG2 when playing good/neutral character (I think that this is unusual, maybe I´m wrong.)
3) Don´t fight with "stupid" morons when it is possible to avoid fight, especially in BG1 (Sendai, the guy in Firewine Bridge, the party in location with Basilisks (even sometimes when playing evil - my evil charname want to control and rule the world, not to waste time by killing some imbecils)
4) Let the sympathetic deamon with the Deck of many things go with the Deck. I don´t like when I have to kill him. His behaviour towards me is quite pleasant and there is no reason to kill him.
Rangers will always be in leather or armors which let them stealth
I always change the colors of returning npc in bg2 to their bg 1 colors.
i also change the avatars to those most fitting the npc portrait.
I also like the specialist mages memorize as many spells from their school as possible, and use them in battle.
Druids may not wear metal armor, except armor made from nature like the ankheg armor.
Imoen will always dual-class at level 7 .
those are the one i use mostly.
But I'll add, I only play good, I can't stand being a selfish jerk. And I very rarely use summons, it seems horribly evil to me to summon some creature to die for you.
Character death almost always means reload to me, I really dislike the nuisance of raise dead. I soften on that a little when I have the Rod of Resurrection, that just makes it too easy...
I prefer adventuring with a full party, even if I don't actually "need" all those characters. It just seems stupid to me to turn away a willing, capable and trustworthy companion.
I accept NPC deaths, but only because I interpret it as 'critically wounded'.
I will also never play evil, so I've not bothered staying away from Hexxat spoilers since I'll never use her anyway, same goes for Dorn.
One thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned... and I hope I don't get bashed too much for this... is that I like to keep my girls protected in backline roles.
I know that with the proper equipment, Aerie and Jaheira can be effective tanks, but I just didn't 'picture' them in that role RP-wise. I am a bit of a traditional guy, so although I know that women can be just as strong as men, I prefer that they had more gracefully 'feminine' and safer roles in the party.
That said, I never had Shar-teel in my party, and I readily threw Mazzy into battle, since she is clearly a 'proper warrior'. Also as I got more familiar with Jaheira's personality in BG 2, I've become less bothered about 'protecting' her, since she can clearly handle herself in a scrap, RP-wise. Now that Jaheira has White Dragon Scale and Staff of the Ram +6 in ToB, she's been clubbing giants and drow for fun along with Charname, Minsc and Anomen in the frontlines.
Of course, I still wrap up Aerie in cotton wool... especially now with her... 'condition'.
Also it would seem I'm a minority because Imoen annoys the crap out of me and I rarely include her in my party, even when good. When evil I often chunk her just for the fun of it in Spellhold, especially with the addition of Hexxat. My good CHARNAME will get her out of Spellhold then drop her in the CC and swap for Jan usually.
And if party members die I usually leave them dead, unless I have the rod. I'll write an epitath in my journal then move on.
1) I already did that thread talking about how I've been trying to reduce my use of unrealistic "hammerspace", especially on the fighters. Now that I have a toon in the Underdark with a blue bag of holding, I'm pretending that he knows a spell to send and summon items to and from that blue bag by magic, sort of like one of the witches on "Bewitched" might do, but not during combat - I'm trying to scout and anticipate, and have everybody already holding and wearing what they need, as though I still can't pause the game on the inventory screen, and I'm having a lot of fun with that.
2) I'll have to think about that potions thing. Now that @Shin mentions it, it *has* always bugged my sense of realistic immersion to drink potions while in the middle of combat, even if they are imagined to be in very small containers that can be unstoppered with the thumb and consumed one-handed.
I can see it maybe being done if the potions are being held in pouches in the belt, no more than what can be put in the quick slots, but not if both hands are occupied. So, you wouldn't be able to drink if you are performing archery, or using sword and shield, or a two-handed weapon. Having badly wounded party members retreat from combat to drink may be a solution, here, as someone suggested.
My worry about taking the realism that far is that drinking health potions is so often a matter of survival in these games. It's usually a case of "drink or die". And, of course, action rpg games are built and balanced around health potion use - imagine playing Diablo or its clones without drinking any health potions, especially early in the character build.
3) I've seen quite a few things in almost every post here that I do myself. I don't reload if a character dies, but I won't leave them like that - if an npc dies, my priority becomes to drop whatever I'm doing and get to a temple.
4) I never play evil, because I can't stand it.
5) @Shandyr made a thread once about druids and armor/weapons use.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/20539/so-do-druids-have-to-be-fruitarians/p1
I'll have to think about restricting Jaheira's armor use. That would make her unable to be a front-line fighter, and she'd be relegated to being a pure caster. In fact, the Divine Remix mod forces Jaheira into leather if you install the druid component.
Since Jaheira is so awesome as a front-liner, and given her personality, I usually just figure that she uses metal armor out of sheer practicality. She probably thinks that the good she can do by kicking butt for Nature balances out the bad that was done by mining and smelting the metal. We discussed these issues in some depth in that other thread.
6) Reloading itself is something I avoid, because it feels phony, and makes my eventual winning feel hollow. I mostly only reload if Charname dies, and that's because I don't buy into the "Bhaalspawn can't be raised" thing, and I like to imagine that the other party members get him raised.
Every once in a while, on the rare occasion that I suffer a TPK, I will reload if I was really, really into that run, and too far into it to want to start all over. In those cases, I usually just imagine that the first time was a vision or dream sent to Charname as a warning to do something different. I know that's really corny, but, oh well. Playing realistically is only fun as long as it's fun.
As @belgarathmth said, this can be difficult to strictly adhere to cos the game is clearly designed with drinking potions in mind. I have a similar problem with 'realistic rest', especially when playing blind. I have just completed Sendai's Enclave for the first time, and it felt really immersion breaking to rest half way into it, but I didn't know how much further I had to go, and I just knew Sendai would be a tough battle, and I didn't wanna face it without most of my best spells.
On the issue of potions however, I justify it by imagining that the potions come in small convenient vials that only take a moment to consume. Since drinking potion does take up some time, and u can't drink continuously (I guess it's something like one pot a round) to keep a character alive if he's taking a lot of punishment, then I feel this is quite reasonable. If somebody is seriously injured and fighting a combat monster, I normally have to retreat anyway to have time to drink potions.
I imagine them to be something like Senzu Beans in the Dragonball saga, not sure if u're familiar.
To make Khalid get drunk so his morale increases :P.
To kill ALL the idiots in BG1, ALL of them, more XP and more magic stuff, plus, THEY WERE IDITOZ! So....
To slay Good party members who critical miss if I am playing evil (GREAT FUN!!).
To get that person to run away if he/she gets under 25% Hit Points in a fight (including fighters) to heal he/she.
To roleplay evil much more than good, it is much funnier
2) Always have Imoen and Sarevok
3) I cant bring myself to kill myconids, I always use invisibility 10' radius to sneak past them
Funny though about the women, I just love the kick-butt front line woman warrior sort of character. My current BG2 is with a woman Cavalier PC, I just love such characters. I do agree with carefully shielding certain soft targets; like Aerie, Imoen, Neera. But I'm fine with Jaheira busting heads. I guess I look more at class and scores than gender. Funny since I am pretty traditional, but I love a good heroine.
Plus if you EVER say that to Shar-Teel!
Yeah as I said, it's not a misogynist attitude or anything, more of a 'traditional gentlemanly' desire to see women protected from the brutality of frontline combat.
It depends on the girl of course. As I said, I keep 'dear sweet Aerie' and 'lil' sis Immy' as well protected as possible (though Imoen sometimes gets into trouble cos she's the party scout/trap finder), but that says nothing about what I think of their abilities. I actually love how in ToB Aerie rebels against exactly my attitude of being overly protective of her! lol
On the flip side, for Mazzy, I never hesitated to throw her into the frontline, and now that I know Jaheira well, I think I'll probably 'scimitar and shield' her to be a tank for my next playthrough, cos my Kensai can't really tank in BG 1.
My preferences on how I see women in fantasy games might be influenced by imagery in fantasy games in general, where men are walking suits of impossibly heavy armour, and women wear 'bikini plate' at best, which naturally leave women in support/ranged roles, and men in close combat ones.
Edit:
ps: I may sound like I am a grumpy old geezer who talks about the 'good ol' days' and 'the war' all the time. But I am actually 25.
However, there are women who would fit there perfectly, and a character like that in *my game* should be a front-liner. 'Rare' does not mean 'never'. Jaheira, Mazzy, Branwen and Shar-Teel all fit this category. I was also a big Xena/Lucy Flawless fan growing up, and later on a huge Buffy fan, so that helps! Xena fit the front lines physically, due to the actress, but Buffy was definitely fantasy
There is an NPC mod out there (newer one) with a female paladin called Isra that I am excited to try. I think it was written by Liam Esler, so its bound to be of decent quality at least. I thought the heavy plated female badass was always missing in the series outside of Jaheira (Branwen kinds fit the first game, but like Jaheira she was not a straight warrior class). Mazzy kinda fit that role, but as a halfling she always seemed like an over-achiever who got by on bravery, skill and mental/emotional toughness rather than physical fortitude.
This is how I imagine my potion containers... I just remembered seeing a good example from a Chinese Wuxia TV series.
Small sturdy vial made of wood/bamboo or some other natural material. It's magical liquid, so you shouldn't need to down a pint of it for its purpose to take effect!
If you fast forward to 23:50 ...
For those that don't speak Chinese, a little background...
The boy was being bullied at the Daoist Temple where those priests come from. During a fight he badly wounded a fellow student with a forbidden 'dark' technique that causes poisoning, and ran away to the caves of the nearby Tomb Sect. The old woman is a member of the Tomb Sect, who took pity on the boy and decided to look after him.
They've just come out of the caves to confront the priests. She brings a small vial of antidote that would cure the wounded student, but the priests suspect the vial may contain poison. Outraged at her honour and integrity being questioned by the Daoists, the old woman makes the boy drink the antidote to prove that it's not poison, and then declares that she has no more, and the Daoists can go bugger off to find their own way to save their poisoned disciple....
Anyway, I also find that being very restrictive with potions makes me rely on clerics as almost straight-out healers, with rather limited buffing and offensive casting. Many are the times I've sent Viconia into the fray to heal a hard-pressed tank. Later on the mass heal spell in particular is useful as it lets you heal your entire party at once from a distance. The idea of relying on party members helping each other out and fulfilling their particular roles rather than everyone using potions to make up for it also appeals to me.
I have never seen the evil dream sequences in Baldur's Gate as I keep my char's reputation high. I usually try to play smart evil and being loved pays more than being feared.
Jaheria is always a front line fighter on my party. She can kick ass, she doesn't need constant reassurance and unlike almost every romancable NPC I've come across you can actually disagree with her without it ending the relationship.
I like that the woman in BG/BG2 are generally what I would consider capable gals, and I have no problem sending them to the front lines. Aerie, Imoen, Skie, Nalia, and Alora are the only ones I would consider in need of any protection, and by the time ToB comes around, Nalia would certainly kill you for it. Imoen, I don't think would take well to over-protectiveness either. Try to keep Jaheria, Branwen, Viconia, and especially Shar-Teel from the front lines, and I think you'd end up with them showing you very well that they can perfectly take care of themselves, thank you very much. I mean, Branwen's whole backstory was about her leaving her home to escape the sexism of those who thought she couldn't be a viable priestess.
Considering that save for in very specific areas of the realm (Calimshan, mainly) men and woman are basically completely equal in status and strengths, I have no problem making my female characters- including my Bhaalspawn- take to the front. Sure, the mages stay back, but I make Xan and Edwin hide behind the front lines as much as I would Aerie.
(I liked to imagine my female elven ranger Bhaalspawn as being all violently overprotective girlfriend over Xan. "No, no, dear, forget the moonblade. You can have a sling, yes? Slings are nice. Just sit back here with your sling and cast charm person, not that it ever works. Now excuse me, I'm going to run screaming wielding duel-long swords in to the fray. Give me a kiss after I've gibbed everyone!")
As for more on topic...
I keep Imoen and Sarevok around. I'm not even Imoen's biggest fan- I do find her towards the end of the annoying spectrum, and I've played this game so many times that I have her every line memorized- but I can't imagine a good character not taking her along. It's especially sad if you refuse her in the Spellhold... she's all like "Where do I go?" and being basically all "IDK, just not with me" to her makes me feel bad. And Sarevok? Sarevok is just awesome. Fits well for good or evil.
I don't allow Keldorn near Viconia, because him going after her just feels so out of character. There are many reasons for him to attack Viconia- her being a priestess of a religion of evil that demands the sacrifice of innocents would be a major one. Instead, he goes after he because she's a drow. Uncool, Keldorn. I never take them together.
I generally make themed parties. All elves, all nature warriors, all shorties, all spellcasters, all lawful good, all whatever. Imoen and Sarevok are sometimes allowed to ignore these restrictions, though. >.>
I always dismiss a character wielding what they're wielding rather then stripping them naked before removal. I'll take the spare stuff out of their inventory, sure, but they get to keep their weapons and armor and jewelry and the like. That means sometimes I lose out on possible upgrades from the Item Upgrades mod, but them the breaks.
I also don't let my characters drink potions in battle. Before, definitely, but not during.
...I always take Tiax along if I'm doing evil, because Tiax is hilarious to me. I'm quite fond of the crazy, crazy, *crazy* little gnome.
Khalid can NOT be shieldless thats for sure.
In BG1 Jaheira MUST use a staff or spear (even spear is pushing it)
Kivan is EEKeepered(or modded)-->Archer 18/xx strength be damned
Ajantis uses a great sword or a single bastard sword that he wields 2 handed. he is also ALWAYS made into an Inquisitor since he is the squire of none other than the legendary Sir Keldorn Firecam
I was really feeling guilty the first time I had Minsc use a weapon other than a greatsword, but I get over it. I just make him use "fierce unwieldy" weapons like the Flail of Ages, axes or the occasional mace.
When characters come with their own equipment, they USE it throughout SoA (in TOB I'll upgrade). I'll occasionally make an exception for Carsomyr and Anomen's Shield (cuz as I said, shields are for pansies!) but usually I stick with that rule.
When Mazzy eventually dual-wields, its Kundane in the off-hand and sword of Arvoreen in her main hand.
Also I always have one of the mods that turn helmet animations off. They are so ugly, especially when delicate little Aerie is wearing some elegant robe and then a big spiked viking helmet on top. It just looks so bizarre. It's as if someone made Kate Beckinsale wear a fitted baseball hat backwards... just no
Though I love dual-wield for the style, no weird dual weapon combos. Gotta stick with either small weapon offhand, or mirror-mage (blade with blade). I have two exceptions: I'm okay with a flail main hand and a bastard/longsword offhand (stab, pin and then beat evil to a bloody pulp) and also an sword + offhand axe for Valygar or other rangers (I see axe as the ultimate ranger woodsman weapon for some reason). No hammer and dagger (lolwut?) no mace and katana, and especially no dagger and shield (if there is a shield spot available)!
Bows and trowing weapons (and occasionally darts) are all superior to lame crossbows and slings. I use slings but I don't like them on anything other than shorties. Crossbows just don't look fun on anyone not named Jan Jansen.
I will say this: the sexiest look is a dual wielding human female mage paper-doll. I give Nalia offhand weapons just because it makes her look like River Tam!