Seeking guidance for first BG2 playthrough [minor spoilers]

Peldin

I kinda just started BG2 and I will say that after a few hours of playing, I feel totally lost in terms of where to go or what to do. I went through Irenicus' dungeon and explored everything I could in Waukene's Promenade, and now I'm getting quests and people wanting to join my party to do quests and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I went to the slums and the Copper Coronet and now I have a quest from Korgan and Nalia but only room in the party for one of them. I ended up dropping Korgan because I realized he's evil, but I don't know if I should continue my exploration of the rest of Athkatla (probably picking up and/or completing a ton more quests) or if I should just go and do Nalia's quest asap and then come back to do Korgan and hope his quest is still available.

BG1 just seemed so much simpler as I could choose my party members and didn't feel like I was missing out on a quest just because I didn't have them join my party. I prefer the 6 permanent members of my party but it seems in BG2 that the idea is to only go with like 4 or 5 members so that you can leave the 6th slot open for rotating in quest NPCs. Is that how I should approach this? What do I do if I run in to another good NPC who's quest I want to do but my party is already full because I'm still on a quest? Do I invite them and then immediately drop them? Will they still want to do their quest if I do that?

Currently my party consists of Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo, Aerie, and Nalia (my character is a gnome Fighter/Illusionist). However, I don't really care for the personalities of the last two. Aeries' conversations just seem too dramatic (and I really hate that background music that goes with those conversations) and I pretty much despise how Nalia talks about poor people.

On the flip side, I love having Aerie for the fact that she's a cleric/mage, so with myself and Minsc providing melee damage, Yoshimo providing all the thief abilities I need, and Jaheira providing some nice druid spells, it's great to have a cleric/mage who covers the priest spells that Jaheira doesn't have as well as offering backline mage spells to supplement my own. Maybe I can just be rude to Aerie next time she talks to me. Will that stop her romance/whining dialogue?

johntyl

Since this is your first playthrough, and boy are you lucky! My suggestion is to take it SLOW. Feel free to explore on your own time. There is no pressure to save Imoen immediately. BG2 is HUGE in terms of the free-wheeling aspect of it, as opposed to the spoonfeeding in BG1. There are TONS of topics/posts which have already covered how to go about playing BG2. Just google it or simply search in this forum.

For myself, I simply do whichever quest came to me first. I try to clear the inner cities one first before venturing out of BG. Slums and Copper Coronet's quests are quite manageable. You might wanna try Graveyard district to clear some undead for some loot and experiences. Bridge District is manageable too. And yes, Aerie will stop whining/romancing you once you diss her

brunardo

Great well rounded party for first playthrough and dialogue between npc's as they mesh well - Have fun and explore!

Peldin

So would you guys suggest that I keep my "permanent" party member number to 4 or 5, or should I have 6 and just drop whichever one I feel like to complete certain NPC quests?

I'm also afraid to talk to certain people. Like Anomen for example. He's just standing there and doesn't force a dialogue with you like Nalia or Aerie do. I want to do whatever NPC quest he has, but not necessarily right when he asks me. If I talk to someone like this, how do I go about declining them but still leave the option open to do their quest later? There's another NPC like this, an evil thief in the Copper Coronet. She wants me to go to the Graveyard District for treasure "NOW!" If I turn her down, will I be able to do the quest later or should I just avoid talking to her at all until I'm ready to drop a party member for her?

Also, I have Nalia in my party, if I want to drop her to pick someone else up though, she will go away and I have to meet her at where her quest takes place. But won't that mean that she'll miss out on all the xp I will get between now and then?

Durenas

Most of the party members' quests are pure fluff that take you around the world. Story wise they're fine to do, but they won't give you much xp or loot. A ton of the places you can go to in these quests are generally accessible anyway, so my advice is to pick a party you like, do their quests and go from there.

Nalia's quest is for the fighter stronghold, and is a bit of an exception. You don't need her in the party to do it, and there's no timer to do it, but... if you take too long while she's in your party, she'll get upset and go on ahead.

Papa_Lou

I totally get where you're coming from. My first playthrough of BGII happened a little less than a year ago, and I remember feeling so overwhelmed. Every new area I went to, I was met with like 2 or 3 new quests. Of course, this isn't a bad thing, as it gives you a ton of chances and different ways to save up your money for Imoen's rescue. This also isn't that different than BGI, but in BGI there was a significant amount of time before you travelled between areas, whereas in BGII, you can go to a ton of different areas right off the bat.

Now that I've completed the game twice, I feel much more comfortable with it, and that will come for you as well. It won't take long before you figure out which quests you want to do, and which ones you don't. From there, you can just tackle them one at a time.

As for NPCs, just take whoever you like the most. They're all extremely likeable characters, and you can't go wrong with any of them, really. Just a matter of preference.

Hope you enjoy your time with the game! It'll definitely get a bit frustrating at times, as it's way more difficult than BGI, but it's still an amazing game and absolutely deserves thee praise it gets from fans. Just take your time and enjoy it.

Durenas

There's only one major quest area that you will have to make a decision on whether to take the NPC or not: Valygar and The Planar sphere.

You can either take him in your party, or kill him and take his body with you, but only his blood will open the sphere.

OrlonKronsteen

Hi @Peldin, I would keep a base party of 4 or 5 characters so you'll have room for other characters without having to kick someone out. It's not just about quests, either. Saving room will let you try other characters who you might come to love, and who you might rather have around than characters who annoy you. But the beauty of the game is you can play it again. You don't have to worry about doing every single quest in this play-through. There's nothing wrong with sticking with the characters you have now and developing them. See where their stories go and how they end up.

And you can ignore a lot of the NPCs at their first meeting. If you politely decline Anomen's offer he'll simply stay in the tavern and you can approach him again at any time. Ditto for the thief: she'll wait. However, once NPCs do join your party, they often have urgency to do their quests, so you might not want to add new NPCs if you're currently juggling other time-sensitive quests. As @johntyl says, there's no hurry. Enjoy the game! That first play-through is pretty great, even though it can seem overwhelming at times. I can still remember my first run about 16 years ago, with my NE halfling assassin.

mashedtaters

Hi! Awesome about your first play through!!
My piece of advice is to resist the temptation to read any walkthroughs for your first time. I was pretty overwhelmed my first time, so I did that and totally regretted it.
There really is no wrong way to play, except for dying. There are lots of options. Some people like to do every single quest, but don't feel that you have to do that. You won't actually miss any of the main plot if you skip some side quests, just side stories, loot, and experience.
Some people like to swap out the fifth party member, and I try to do that at the beginning to get some of the quests I like out of the way, but I just get so attached to the idea of my party working together and developing relationships that I stop doing that a few hours in. I haven't yet completed all the quests in the game, and have only played through all of bg2 once, and haven't completed ToB yet, and (here's the embarrassing part) I have been playing for 5 years! My restartitus is really bad, but I love it.
As far as I know, you can talk to anyone in the game and deny their quests if you don't want to do it right then, and then talk to them later to pick it up. This is almost never necessary, though, because most non-companion NPCs don't have time limits to their quests. Talking to them and accepting the quest adds it to your journal for you to remember to do later if you want to.
Most companion NPCs do have quests with a time limit, but they will tell you when they're getting ancy to get the quest done. Other quests don't have a time limit, but if they do it will be made very clear what the time limit is. When they say something like, "you have to come help us now!" that usually means there is no time limit. When a they say, "you have 24 hours to do this," then you know there is a time limit of 24 in-game hours.
You companions will complain when they want their quest done, but I think most of them tell you two or three times before they leave you to do it on their own, and they generally tell you where they are going and you can meet up with them there. I usually try to get my chosen companion's quests done first, and then do other quests.
Edit: corrected for better clarity.

xzar_monty

@Peldin: Here's what I would suggest: Stay out of these forums. Don't read any walkthroughs. Don't even have a glimpse at them. Don't worry about being confused, it's not a big problem. Take it slow, you are in no hurry. When you have to choose between who's in and who's out, don't try to optimize (in terms of all the available information out there), just do what feels right for you and your main character. Actually, that previous piece of advice is valid for everything that happens in the game.

You have just started. That's good. Don't try to work your way through the game with the advice available on these forums. Forget about us. Forget about any of our suggestions, simply make your own choices. You will be much happier with solving the quests on your own, working out your own solutions and making your own small mistakes. Seriously.

Do you know why I'm saying this? Because it's your first playthrough, and you're only ever going to get one of them.

lunar

Avoid spoilers is the best advice you can have.

Then relax and enjoy the game. Do what you feel you want to do, there are few time limits in quests, and those are tied with npcs and they warn you quite a few times if you delay too long. Enjoy. The grandness of bg2 may overwhelm new comers but it is also why we keep coming back. You can do quests in any order you want, though obviously some may require higher levels and better equipments. But it is all good fun and it allows every playthrough to be different than any other.

If an area or quest comes as too tough to you, turn back and try other easier ones. Note that there are a few quests in which you can not turn back once you enter a spesific quest area, so save often and in different slots. God I love this game.

Also don't ditch npcs based on their alignments. Korgan is evil but is a very powerful and useful party member, generally evil npcs are superiour in this regard. Also them being evil does not automaticaly mean they WILL turn on you. Note that any npc can turn on you and desert/leave the party if they don't like you.
More often they will bicker among each other and that is fun too, until it becomes serious and someone loses a head. It happens rarely, though. God I really love this game.

Aerie's talks with you and the theme music is her romance. You can do what you will with it, you can be gentle to her and allow feelings to grow or just silence her. She is the only female npc that romances gnomes because she has spent so much time with Quayle. I don't remember if ee npcs romance gnomes, though they might.

Gallowglass

@Peldin - as others have said, try not to over-engineer a first playthrough, there's plenty of time for perfecting your style in later replays.

In general, however, I'd recommend having a pretty flexible party composition until you go to rescue Imoen, but from then onwards sticking (at least mostly) with a team of permanent companions to the end of the game. Of course that's not the only possible strategy, but I find it works well and fits the way the plot develops.

karnor00

I generally play with a party of 6 and do the quests for those people only. Most of the NPC quests are pretty short so you won't miss much.

Also the NPC quests typically only happen once the NPC has been in your party for a while. So even if you wanted to do them all it would be very difficult and time consuming to juggle.

The only major quest this doesn't quite apply to is connected to Valgyar. But you will get given this quest before you meet Valgyar so the choice relates to how to proceed with it (see the spoiler in a previous post if you want more details but the choice is obvious in game when you come to it).

Nimran

Meh, I never really worried about doing every companion quest in BG2. I really just stuck with the five that I liked, and if one had a quest I would do it. That's what multiple playthroughs are for.

There is no right way to play the game, though, so ignoring advice and doing it your way is preferable.

ThacoBell

I am jealous, I wish I could play BG2 for the first time again I definitely want to second the advice of avoiding spoilers. Take it easy and explore the game on your own terms.

Peldin

Thanks for all the responses. I've decided to really follow the "don't read walkthroughs or spoilers" mentality and from now on I'm just going to fly blindly. I'll catch you guys in a few weeks/months when I finish