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Close to Canon?

PK2748PK2748 Member Posts: 381
edited August 2016 in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
I really want to do a story that rings true from BG 1 to TOB. I really hate the canon party. Especially Jaheira. To make it make sense as much as possible as a narrative who do you minimally think I need in my party at which points if the story without just taking the canon party?

Comments

  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    well to me the only characters that really matter are: iomen, corwin [ if your playing sod] yoshimo, and sarevok.

    jaheria seems to be the canon love intrest but you don't really need her. your just gonna have her forced on you at the end of sod and the first dungeon of bg2.

  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    For the narrative to make any sense, you need at least one character other than Charname, else it makes no sense whatsoever to call the party a party and refer to it as to an assortment of people.
    Other than not going solo, there is really nothing so set in stone that it would mess with the story to any great extent. I mean, some NPCs do insist that they know you even if they don't but, hey, real people do that all the time as well.

    The most straightforward way to tackle this mess would be to treat characters as the mindless tools that they are. Hate Jaheira? Don't pick her up at all or, if you do, just feed her to the otyugh or something when she stops being useful and voilà, problem solved. It's important to note that expending characters also makes for a more dramatic story and creates room for some additional recruits, a few of whom are inaccessible early in the games.
  • FrancoisFrancois Member Posts: 452
    edited August 2016
    It doesn't really matter who you take in BG1. In SoD all the NPC are on your side in the army. Whether you take them or not in your party during BG1/SoD, they can still be considered to have travelled and fought with you.

    By the end of SoD, no matter how you played, Jaheira and Dynaheir will at least have a professional interest in you as a Child of Bhaal. This can explain why they decide to go with you between SoD and BG2, even if you never took them or are an evil character. It helps if you took them at least for a short while, but it's not absolutely necessary.
    Post edited by Francois on
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    edited August 2016
    @Francois: This is the BG1 forum, not the SoD forum!

    Could you please wrap your post into a spoiler?
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    I mostly play BG1 solo so I just ignore the cages and rationalize Imoen's presence by Irenicus having captured her separately, since he needs her for plot reasons. There are enough new characters in BG2 to still have a party even without the returning ones (I include the EE characters here, as they tend to assume you traveled with them in BG1, especially Dorn).

    SoD is rather tricky. Certain Charnames would never stay in Baldur's Gate after the Sarevok showdown, what's with all the responsibilities dumped on the new "hero". Chaotic characters are particularly likely to run off somewhere. My current playthrough involves a CN Mage/Thief so SoD is out, Charname just left in a hurry after attempting to loot the Ducal Palace's treasury.
  • FinnTheHumanFinnTheHuman Member Posts: 404
    I've been doing a playthrough, which I'm saving for my first SoD playthrough when it finally comes to ipad, that has very high NPC turnover. A lot of that comes from multiple deaths, but some is that the character is just a popular guy who picks and chooses his companions. I have to say it is a very enjoyable and different type of playthrough.

    It works well in a few ways. First, charname will be the most experienced, which works RP wise for me. Second, it adds a little difficulty by playing with a lower power party. Third, as God said, the drama of the dead party members. Finally, and what I might think works well for the OP, is that the cannon wasn't the protagonist's first choice, but just who he happened to be hanging out with at the time of BGII.

    This way you can eat your cake and have it too. The transition from BGI to BGII works seemlessly, all the dialogue matches up. You just do away with the erroneous assumption that the Bhaalspawn always keeps the same company.
  • randomhero890randomhero890 Member Posts: 86
    edited August 2016
    If you wanted to have a storyline group and roleplay "losing" a character during the story, I can think of 2 spots where it can happen in BG1 (there might be more)

    1.) There's a part on the far western map closest to the coast where a siren approaches and asks for a kiss. I've gone through every dialog option, and no matter what even if you try to say no she insists and the kiss kills whoever spoke with her. Pretty sure it will work regardless of gender but didn't try with female NPC

    2.) This one is harder, but if you get arrested by the Flaming Fist at your return to Baldur's Gate, their corrupt leader Angelo will begin interrogating you. If you insult him, he will pick one of your party randomly and have a guard cut that person down (they blow up). This one is random though so you'd have to keep reloading until it is the char you didn't like lol

    I'm sure there might be more "opportunities" like that in BG1 and BG2
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    Doesn't Shoal the Nereid resurrect that one NPC again, if you choose to aid her?
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    Thels said:

    Doesn't Shoal the Nereid resurrect that one NPC again, if you choose to aid her?

    Not only will she raise the character kissed, her resurrection spell will affect all dead party members. So a free raise dead, if you can beat an Ogre mage with a couple of your party members at 1 HP.
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