my roleplay

jesterdesu

I've played this game with so many characters but always seem to come back to the same one, pure class ranger.

Imo the ranger should definitely have a bit more than they get, including find and set/ disable traps and level 4 spells, but that's another topic.

I always play as a woodsman, so longbows axes, spears and dagger and I never wear heavier than chain (eleven chain is my favourite) and before eleven chain I'll stick to leather/ studded leather.

I pick healing spells such as cure minor wounds, slow poison and cure disease as I imagine I'd want these to hand if I found and injured animal in the wild.

I explore everywhere in stealth and I never harm an animal.... If one spots me and attacks I charm it and send it somewhere safe... I'd not use it as a tank like some do.

I put a stop to anyone harming animals or innocents of any kind, even to the point of killing them... The guy in bg1 who asks you to kill a polar bear by a bridge as an example is an unfortunate but necessary loss of reputation.

I know I'm not playing the strongest class but I feel I'm playing as me I guess.

Would love to read others examples.

Zaghoul

@jesterdesu The one time I played as a ranger it was the Beastmaster (I liked the old Movie with Marc Singer).
Play was just as you mentioned and the restrictions I did not miss one bit as he is better at hiding and summoning PLUS a familiar, which is just a nice touch as a traveling companion. It also really fit with Wilson as an NPC in BG2 (to me, basically Ben from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams).
Its all about getting into the character and background which sounds like you do as well. I rarely care bout power arguments or restrictions, they just give more fuel to the fire in my imagination TBH.

I actually mistakenly became a Fallen Ranger in that run,early in BG. I played him all the way into BG2 for the ranger quest to reverse that in his quest. It actually was more satisfying in a way than just getting the stronghold without that touch. That moon dog figurine is just plain awesome.

EDIT: If you have not tried @ulb animal companion's mod, or @Ravenslight Critter parts mod, I highly recommend them for a ranger run.

Cabusha

I definitely have a hard time playing a character now unless I'm in his head space. For instance, I recently did a NG Dwarf Fighter/Cleric, and had a great time "role playing" him. Here's this battle cleric, dual wielding hammers and maces. He wants to do good, but after a life in Candlekeep, he has little care for or against the law. As long as he's doing "good", he's there!

That even changed the pace of play. No real exploring until after Nashkell, as it didn't really fit. "Yeah, yeah, that iron crisis and dead miners? Can it wait a few weeks? I hear rumors of a haunted bridge!". That's not him.

Similarly, with BG2 I'm playing a Neutral Fighter/Thief, Dwarf, and he's slowly succoming to the dark side of his nature. He's surrounded by evil (Korgan, Viconia, Edwin) and they chear him on with each dark act. He's a sneaky stabber, so most of a his kills are from behind with no remorse. Slitting the throats of unwary mages and clerics feeds the hunger in his body and slowly his Bhall taint is slipping free. Can't wait for the final fall in Hell!

Zaghoul

@Cabusha I'm hearing you on FM there. Yep, really role playing a characters alignment, deity influence, race and class really makes the game 'click' for me, esp, after so many plays. Always new ideas and inspirations this game provides.

Aerakar

Interesting @Cabusha , I am now deciding on which mage to add to my 4-person neutral trending evil dwarven thief party and of course Edwin is leading the pack it seems. I already have your same party and envision the same slow moral slippage dark side embrace you describe. What fun

Papa_Lou

I've always been more of a roleplayer than anything else when it comes to the BG series. One character I left behind on an old computer, before buying a new one, was a fighter/thief halfling.

He was a shy little fellow, and often found it hard to say no, especially in the face of someone who looked dangerous or threatening. Thus, he usually found himself in groups with the likes of Edwin, Dorn, and Viconia. He certainly wasn't evil like them, just much too cowardly to do anything but exactly as they say.

To really help myself get into character, I would write a journal entry, in-character, every time I visited an inn or rested (which ultimately helped out a ton when trying to avoid rest-spamming) about how the day went, what his plans were, and how he was feeling about everything. It was one of my favourite characters I've ever rolled, and I'm really thinking about re-rolling him on my new computer when I get the time.

dustbubsy

I generally roleplay "lite." I don't like the idea of leaving quests undone and gear uncollected, so that limits the realism of the roleplay I do.

That said, what I like best is not to adhere rigidly to a character, but sort of have the character evolve as I play. My last BG playthrough was with a CN Barbarian, sort of a second version of the one I posted in the playthrough section, more intelligent and not an alcoholic. I knew I wanted my party to be Xzar, Montaron, Garrick, Eldoth and Skie, so I asked why my character would travel with such an odd bunch - two bards? Then it struck me: this character's primary motivation is fame. He travels with bards because he wants them to spread stories about him, like the great barbarian heroes of old. Knowing that changed the way I approached many quests.

Another thing I sometimes do is go by my own mood. If I'm having a bad day, my character is more likely to be uncaring, even violent. If it's a good day, he'll take his time to help people even when it's inconvenient. Playing a CN Charname helps a lot in this regard. Although, maybe the character went into CE territory, that is to say, he murdered a lot of people in cold blood (Chase, Lord Binky, a lot of other nobles who insulted him.) But then he helped a lot of people as well, asking for no reward (other than they would spread his name.)

jesterdesu

@dustbubsy you might enjoy the Gotrek and Felix books if you've not tried them... Basically Dwarven berserker type saves the life of a young, educated human and said human then follows him to record his"doom", the problem being the dwarf is so tough nothing seems to be able to grant his doom...

dustbubsy

@jesterdesu Yes, Gotrek and Felix were the companions of my childhood reading...at least until William King stopped writing them. I read the later Nathan Long books a few years ago, they're good also!

Looking into it, there seems to have been five additional books published since 2013 by two different writers. Might give them a try at some point.