Embrace your restartitis
GreenWarlock
Member Posts: 1,354
(minor spoilers identifying stages of the game)
Now I have finally created an account, I guess I am ready for another thread on restartitis!
While I was and always will be a chronic sufferer of restartitis, I have no take > 10 characters all the way through BG1, who are now queuing up ready to play BG2. What is the secret of my success? Embrace the restart!
The game is there for us to enjoy and play, and different parts of the game have different appeals. I will admit, one of my motivations is to create characters to play into BG2 (boosted by a full set of Tomes!) but I also love to try out and play vastly different character ideas.
The first part is rolling stats. Sometimes, there is something oddly satisfying about re-rolling for hours looking for that perfect character, typically to hit the re-roll button just before I realize THAT WAS THE ONE! Phase one of my restartitis will generate around 20 characters, all distinct with their own planned play through, and possibly play most of them through the intro and out of Candlekeep so that they are an easy game to pick up when I am ready.
Now, whenever I fancy starting a new game of BG1, there is probably a pre-rolled character of my own creation, raring to go. This is phase two, the eager playing of a new game, with a 'new' character fresh on the road. How this plays out varies greatly with the character, but enthusiasm wanes as I become bored with this concept, and want to play with something that scratches the itch this one cannot reach. Typically sometime between the bandit camp and finishing the Cloakwood Mines, it is time to scratch that itch, and restart!
This is the key, after hitting 'restart' a few times, I now have a bunch of characters around 4th/5th level, entering the mid-game. At some point, THEY will be the fun character to pick up, and my restart is to actually continue with a character I have not played for a while. Phase 3 will typically get bored somewhere in the middle of chapter 5, but that's cool - as we can now see we are building up a roster of late-game heroes as well, for even later restarts.
Eventually, I pick up these folks in Baldur's gate, and typically can make it all the way to the end now, although sometime run out of steam either just leaving candle keep for the last time, or just as we enter the thieves maze towards the end of the game. The end result is just into double-digits number of characters now waiting to take a run at Athkatla. Indeed, a number of them are just waiting for me to pick them up again, having exited Chateau Irenicus and are now spending some time contemplating their future...
Now I have finally created an account, I guess I am ready for another thread on restartitis!
While I was and always will be a chronic sufferer of restartitis, I have no take > 10 characters all the way through BG1, who are now queuing up ready to play BG2. What is the secret of my success? Embrace the restart!
The game is there for us to enjoy and play, and different parts of the game have different appeals. I will admit, one of my motivations is to create characters to play into BG2 (boosted by a full set of Tomes!) but I also love to try out and play vastly different character ideas.
The first part is rolling stats. Sometimes, there is something oddly satisfying about re-rolling for hours looking for that perfect character, typically to hit the re-roll button just before I realize THAT WAS THE ONE! Phase one of my restartitis will generate around 20 characters, all distinct with their own planned play through, and possibly play most of them through the intro and out of Candlekeep so that they are an easy game to pick up when I am ready.
Now, whenever I fancy starting a new game of BG1, there is probably a pre-rolled character of my own creation, raring to go. This is phase two, the eager playing of a new game, with a 'new' character fresh on the road. How this plays out varies greatly with the character, but enthusiasm wanes as I become bored with this concept, and want to play with something that scratches the itch this one cannot reach. Typically sometime between the bandit camp and finishing the Cloakwood Mines, it is time to scratch that itch, and restart!
This is the key, after hitting 'restart' a few times, I now have a bunch of characters around 4th/5th level, entering the mid-game. At some point, THEY will be the fun character to pick up, and my restart is to actually continue with a character I have not played for a while. Phase 3 will typically get bored somewhere in the middle of chapter 5, but that's cool - as we can now see we are building up a roster of late-game heroes as well, for even later restarts.
Eventually, I pick up these folks in Baldur's gate, and typically can make it all the way to the end now, although sometime run out of steam either just leaving candle keep for the last time, or just as we enter the thieves maze towards the end of the game. The end result is just into double-digits number of characters now waiting to take a run at Athkatla. Indeed, a number of them are just waiting for me to pick them up again, having exited Chateau Irenicus and are now spending some time contemplating their future...
3
Comments
By not worrying about my restarting habits, I slowly advance a host of characters through the game, but the end result is that eventually some set of them do make it. I currently have around 30 characters, 10 of which have transitioned to BG2, 10 of which are at various stages of the the journey through BG1, and another 10 that are still waiting to be picked up from Candlekeep.
While I doubt many will make it all the way to sit on the Throne of Bhaal, I suspect a great many more will than if I were wracked by indecision over restarting all the time.
Personnally, when i stop a character (usually either at the start of BG1 or early-middle of SOA), i NEVER play it again.
Therefore my list of characters looks like that (I also play no reload, so i do not include dead ones)
TOB
Level 31 sorc : TOB completed
SOA
level 30ish swashbuckler : got bored in the underdark
HLA level FMT : got bored in the underdark (again)
Got bored Early SOA (chapter 2) : another FMT (not the same one but actually exactly the same : same proficiencies, roughly same stats,...), ranger/cleric, assassin, blade
End of BG1 :
monk (not playable in BG2 due to AC bug. Please solve that bug)
Before bandit camp :
mage/thief
sorceror (same as the one that finished TOB)
cavalier
Currently active : RDD (transmutation spells only), currently before nashkel (will probably stop soon, shapeshifting will probably become quite boring after a while)