Lawful Good Paladin or Wizard Slayer - No Chaos/No Criminal Playthru
So I wanted to try a new full playthrough (BG:EE -> BG2:EE) with a good character, but I already have my chaotic good illusionist/thief, and was wondering how to make it really different. So I decided why not make a lawful good Paladin (any kit but BG) or possible LG Wizard Slayer and adhere to not picking up ANY party members with a Chaotic or Evil disposition, or ones with a propensity for criminal activity (no thieves). I'm definitely not confident enough in my skills to do it no-reload but I think this playthrough would open quite a few challenges, specifically in how limited your party choices are, first game you could only have:
Branwen, Dynaheir, Minsc, Faldorn, Jaheira, Khalid, Ajantis, Xan, Rasaad, and Yeslick
Unless you picked Wizard Slayer and RPed it with no mages you cut out Dynaheir (& Minsc), and Xan leaving only 7 possible options for party members.
In BG2, your options are:
Jaheira, Minsc, Aerie (unless Wizard Slayer), Cernd, Keldorn, Anomen, Mazzy, and Rasaad
This playthru would preclude any kind of criminal activity save those unavoidable (Firkraag's Illusion in Windspear). Basically this playthrough would favor Lawfulness over alignment in most cases.
Curious what others think of this idea and what potential challenges this might incur? Obviously the lack of a thief makes trap finding a more perilous danger, if you play as Wizard Slayer then you also exclude mages which means no trap detection at all.
I'm leaning more towards the Wizard Slayer as BG1 and BG2 both have perfectly good Paladins already, Aerie being the only thing really stopping me from wanting to do that (though if I play female, I won't need her as a romantic lead having Rasaad and Anomen to pick from)
Branwen, Dynaheir, Minsc, Faldorn, Jaheira, Khalid, Ajantis, Xan, Rasaad, and Yeslick
Unless you picked Wizard Slayer and RPed it with no mages you cut out Dynaheir (& Minsc), and Xan leaving only 7 possible options for party members.
In BG2, your options are:
Jaheira, Minsc, Aerie (unless Wizard Slayer), Cernd, Keldorn, Anomen, Mazzy, and Rasaad
This playthru would preclude any kind of criminal activity save those unavoidable (Firkraag's Illusion in Windspear). Basically this playthrough would favor Lawfulness over alignment in most cases.
Curious what others think of this idea and what potential challenges this might incur? Obviously the lack of a thief makes trap finding a more perilous danger, if you play as Wizard Slayer then you also exclude mages which means no trap detection at all.
I'm leaning more towards the Wizard Slayer as BG1 and BG2 both have perfectly good Paladins already, Aerie being the only thing really stopping me from wanting to do that (though if I play female, I won't need her as a romantic lead having Rasaad and Anomen to pick from)
0
Comments
Right out the gate I had to leave Imoen behind since she was a thief character, so I booked it to Friendly Arm and picked up Khalid and Jaheira, a scroll of stone-to-flesh from the temple (for Branwen later) and all the quests there I could. I took a short detour north to grab Ajantis, then headed south towards Nashkel. I rounded out my party with Rasaad and Branwen creating an all melee group (I may replace Branwen down the road with Yeslick). I had already at this point had 2 flails break fairly quickly after acquiring them, so I decided I'd best get Nashkel Mines cleared. I finished picking up quests in Nashkel as well as some Ankheg Armor ^_^, killed the annoying lady in the inn, and headed south. I didn't waste much time at all in the mines, I didn't bother exploring the whole of it, instead opting to speed through it just killing whatever was in my way. I only had a bit of a trouble spot on the third floor against several veteran archers who were making mincemeat out of Rasaad, but after them I continued on down and managed to defeat Mulahey with little effort.
Aside from setting off a few traps I've yet to really feel the sting of lacking mages or thieves, though no ranged characters is something I may need to fix by reoutfitting some of my party. No mages means no spells to identify items, however it also means I get to sell every spell scroll which more than makes up the difference to pay for store identification (I haven't bothered identifying ammo yet due to the profit loss).
When I left the mines I attempted a few futile tries to beat the party to the north of the rear exit, but came to the conclusion I was underleveled/undergeared so I fled back to the mines map, took care of the Greywolf Bounty Hunter and collected Prism's Emeralds then headed back to Nashkel to get my rewards. Nimbul actually turned out to be a fairly easy fight due to the Inquisitor's Dispel Magic ability, and 6 melee fighters beating him down on all sides. Afterwards I returned to Beregost, made VERY short work of Tranzig and decided it's time to do sidequests, my first stop was to hunt down Bassilus for the very pretty reward on his head, he too proved no match for my party as my Dispel Magic allowed me to save my party from Hold Person.
That's where I am so far, early parts of the game are certainly pretty easy, though I can see caster groups and traps still being a huge problem in the later portions, and BG2 may be quite the nightmare. I'll update this further as I continue my quest.
Have you considered Kivan? You did not mention him, but he is a great ranged character, and properly equipped also pretty good in melee. To give him more flavor I usually give him the archer kit.
In BG2 Valygar might also add something different to your game, and his personality might complement your theme.
If I may ask, why are you barring mages completely when playing a Wizard Slayer? From a roleplaying perspective it is definitely plausible for the PC to guard against magic himself, but IMHO it should be obvious to him/her that magic can be very useful to the cause of good (having been raised by a mage).
This obviously means that he never stole anything, never broke into a house without reason, never even looted stuff from 'friendly areas'. For example in Suldanesselar, the party picked up equipment and supplies (to use in the 'war effort'), but not any gold or jewellery from the ransacked elven city. The first time I went to Kiser's home in Saradush, without proof of his guilt, I opened (picked lock) all the containers in his home in search for clues or evidence, but did not take anything at all, even though Imoen would not have been detected. Of course after his guilt was proven, and the subsequent battle, the party took everything useful.
I did have Imoen in my party though, for both BG 1 and BG 2. She is kinda central to the plot, and u can justify her presence pretty easily. She might have had a 'naughty habit' in the past, but she's a Good thief, so presumably she has never stolen from the poor, and in any case has reformed and promised Charname that she'd never steal again. Her skills in spotting and disarming traps, as well as breaking into locked places bad guys don't want u to go, is invaluable to Charname, not to mention (if he's Good) he/she probably cares a great deal for her, and can forgive her for her occasional slip-ups.
I love arcane casters, so I could never do a no-mage playthrough, lol.
I barred Kivan and Valygar because they are both chaotic good. A rather arbitrary reason I know but playing a character who upholds law above all else I decided to avoid characters who thought outside the law even if their morales were in the right place.
Plus no-thief/no-mage makes for a very challenging playthrough. While I love arcane casters too I realize how much I relied upon them heavily in every playthrough, so my idea was based partly around a concept of going through the game without using them as a crutch and see how effective I could get.
With SCS installed the game becomes much more difficult - you pretty much need a friendly arcane caster to get through the enemy defenses.