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what were half of the factions in BG2s expansion even doing?

unavailableunavailable Member Posts: 268
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
BG2:ToB got off to a pretty good start in my opinion. A pre-recorded message from the gods, a bhaalspawn party fight, a city of refugees hardoring other bhaalspawn under siege by a giant bhaalspawn who you need to find a way to kill. Then it kind of falls off the rails a bit. You run into the local army who you can kill or reason with... if you kill them they do nothing about the remaining bhaalspawn, because they're dead. If you persuade them they still do nothing because...? Your next stop is a monk monastery town out in the desert. The monastary has been busy preparing an army of mercenaries to defend against an attack that never comes, mainly because sendai and abazigal were on vacation or something. We're told that sendai was given a tip that you were coming, and I can see why it might makes sense to keep a defensive position. Still not sure exactly why it had to us going to Sendai. And I have no idea what abazigal was doing, I don't think the game bothered trying to explain why he chose to to just hang around.

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  • PaulaMigratePaulaMigrate Member Posts: 1,201
    edited July 2017
    unavailable said:

    BG2:ToB got off to a pretty good start in my opinion. A pre-recorded message from the gods, a bhaalspawn party fight, a city of refugees hardoring other bhaalspawn under siege by a giant bhaalspawn who you need to find a way to kill. Then it kind of falls off the rails a bit. You run into the local army who you can kill or reason with... if you kill them they do nothing about the remaining bhaalspawn, because they're dead. If you persuade them they still do nothing because...? Your next stop is a monk monastery town out in the desert. The monastary has been busy preparing an army of mercenaries to defend against an attack that never comes, mainly because sendai and abazigal were on vacation or something. We're told that sendai was given a tip that you were coming, and I can see why it might makes sense to keep a defensive position. Still not sure exactly why it had to us going to Sendai. And I have no idea what abazigal was doing, I don't think the game bothered trying to explain why he chose to to just hang around.

    That's vanilla game.
    Install Ascension mod and Wheels of Prophesy, and the whole thing gets a different aspect. If you like even more take Longer Road and Iylos into your game.
  • UnderstandMouseMagicUnderstandMouseMagic Member Posts: 2,147
    I think "the five" had an agreement they were going to work together, bring back Bhaal, be appointed as his trusted next in command with all his power backing them so they'd rule Faerun. I presume Mellisan was the driver of that plan and they knew she was the high priestess.

    Then they fell out, decided to work for themselves as individuals which again I presume was instigated by Mellisan. So they destroyed each other leaving her to ascend.

    Lot of flaws in the plan TBH.


  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    ToB'x story has been so detested for so long by so many its almost a cliche. Its not on par in most people's eyes with BG1 (which is hardly gifted with a driving plot), let alone BG2. Most think its pretty damn anemic, but the action was good enough to cover for it.

    I think the 5 are supposed to be in a truce situation, ie none attacking eachother directly/openly, but the Tethyran army ought to have done something useful.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    Not sure why everybody says BG1's plot is bad? It's no Ps:T but NWN had it far worse. BG1 felt like a pretty standard tabletop D&D story, which is all right for a D&D game.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    AndreaColombo said:

    Not sure why everybody says BG1's plot is bad? It's no Ps:T but NWN had it far worse. BG1 felt like a pretty standard tabletop D&D story, which is all right for a D&D game.

    I wouldn't say its bad, just not very 'pushy', as in you really feel free to explore for quite awhile. I rather enjoy it actually. I suppose I could have stated things more clearly!
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,177
    Wheels of Prophecy does a fine job of turd polishing. Sad that Bioware only had 6 months to do ToB. High level play should involve far more than combat...
  • extremeragnarokextremeragnarok Member Posts: 23
    ToB should have been Baldur's Gate 3. They tried to cram an entire game's worth of story into an expansion.
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    extremeragnarok said:

    ToB should have been Baldur's Gate 3. They tried to cram an entire game's worth of story into an expansion.

    I think that was the idea, but a deadline was looming, then got moved up, so it feels crammed.
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,669
    I always assumed they knew only one would remain standing so they hunkered down in their own lairs and gathered power to avoid getting roflstomped by one of their opponents even as they agreed to an uneasy alliance.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Judging by how paranoid he was, I assume Gromnir was mostly doing blow.

    Abazigal iirc was on so much acid he thought he was a dragon though, so who's worse?!
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