Playing BG with a custom party

Dev6

I'm thinking of doing my first BG trilogy run with a complete custom party, instead of just creating Charname, but I have a couple questions for you guys, since you've been playing this for a lot longer than I have.

Do you think the game is more or less fun with a custom party? Will I probably get bored half-way since I'll be missing the NPC dialogues?
Should I make a 5 character party and leave an empty spot to rotate certain NPCs (if the need arises)?
Anything I should know about making a full trilogy run like this? Like, does the transition from BG -> SoD -> BG2 work as I've come to expect, or will I have to make some kind of export-import-mumbo-jumbo?

Thanks in advance.

Elendar

For the first playthrough I would definitely say make just charname and use the NPCs. While the NPCs in BG1 are pretty silent, they are quite chatty in BG2 with some good lines and some humorous characters that you need to experience at least once.

BG1 to SoD happens immediately after you defeat the final boss in BG without any need to do anything special. SoD to BG2 is simple enough to do.. You just start up BG2, click new game ,then click Import Game and select the save file for the game you want to continue.

Dev6

Ah, I didn't explain myself properly. I have finished BG, SoD and BG2 before with NPCs. I'm just thinking of playing with a full party this time around and asking if it's still fun or not.

Enuhal

I enjoy it quite a bit - you get to test out unique builds and kit combinations you otherwise can't experience. And at this point, I have seen the NPC dialogues many, many times, so I often would just skip through them anyway.

As for the the transitions: BG1 to SoD works perfectly well, but getting from SoD to BG2 requires importing the characters via multiplayer. Still, it's not too much work - and if you want to avoid it entirely, I think using the EET mod will help (though I'm not sure, I haven't tested it yet).

malachi151

I've done it a few times, but never finished a game that way. I've tried playing a few different ways, and come to the conclusion that the mot fun way for me is just the normal way of a single PC and then building a team of 2 to 5 more NPC companions.

I don't like soloing. I don't like creating my own party, but it was useful. After I had beaten the game a couple I time I tried a few groups with different char types basically to try out the different kits, etc. Instead of trying one kit at at time I made a party of 4 or 5 and tried them all at once. It's useful for that, but it's not as fun to play. You can of course easily stomp everything because you have totally optimized parties.

I think the fun thing for me is not just planning my char, but also the whole party and how all of their abilities can complement each other, etc. Like if I use a PC Bard, what's the best party for them. If my PC is a Sorcerer, what's the best party? If my PC is a Dwarven Defender what's the best party, etc., etc.

OrlonKronsteen

Enuhal said:

As for the the transitions: BG1 to SoD works perfectly well, but getting from SoD to BG2 requires importing the characters via multiplayer.

You don't need to start a multiplayer game, but you'll have to import the characters individually from your saved SOD game in the BG2 create party option.

@Dev6 - as to whether it's fun depends on the player. Some people hate playing without NPCs because they miss the banters. Others are so sick of the banters they hate playing with NPCs. There's also the difficulty issue. As @malachi151 mentioned, by creating an optimal party (or by rolling munchkin stats for your team) you can make the game too easy. Back to the other side of the coin: rolling your own team is often the only way to create certain party compositions. And some classes are just absent in the NPCs, or you don't like the NPCs who do represent that class. In which case, you may only want to roll one or two extra characters. For example, in my case I often like to play evil fighters for my charname and I want an all-evil party. However, I also like to have more than one mage in my party. So to achieve this in BG2, I have to roll my own companion mage to work in tandem with Edwin. And if I don't feel like using Hexxat, I'll need to roll another thief, etc..

The only way to know for sure is to try it.

jsaving

The main issue with a custom party is that you'll be *vastly* stronger and hence will have a much easier time completing the game. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing, but if you would see it as a bad thing, you might consider upping the difficulty level when you try the series with a custom party.

Missing the dialogues from joinable NPCs isn't a big deal if you've already heard them all before, in my view at least.

Elendar

OrlonKronsteen said:

Enuhal said:

As for the the transitions: BG1 to SoD works perfectly well, but getting from SoD to BG2 requires importing the characters via multiplayer.

You don't need to start a multiplayer game, but you'll have to import the characters individually from your saved SOD game in the BG2 create party option.

@Dev6 - as to whether it's fun depends on the player. Some people hate playing without NPCs because they miss the banters. Others are so sick of the banters they hate playing with NPCs. There's also the difficulty issue. As @malachi151 mentioned, by creating an optimal party (or by rolling munchkin stats for your team) you can make the game too easy. Back to the other side of the coin: rolling your own team is often the only way to create certain party compositions. And some classes are just absent in the NPCs, or you don't like the NPCs who do represent that class. In which case, you may only want to roll one or two extra characters. For example, in my case I often like to play evil fighters for my charname and I want an all-evil party. However, I also like to have more than one mage in my party. So to achieve this in BG2, I have to roll my own companion mage to work in tandem with Edwin. And if I don't feel like using Hexxat, I'll need to roll another thief, etc..

The only way to know for sure is to try it.

Don't like Baeloth?

Dev6

Thanks for all the comments guys. I'll try it out and see for myself.

jsaving said:

The main issue with a custom party is that you'll be *vastly* stronger and hence will have a much easier time completing the game.

Let's not overestimate my party-building prowess! I'm no power gamer. :P

OrlonKronsteen

Elendar said:

Don't like Baeloth?

I was using BG2 as an example there because it was the first to come to mind. BG1 definitely has more NPCs and you can fill an evil party. But if I'm planning a run through the whole series I often create a companion mage at the start of BG1 so they'll be there for the whole story. And if I'm playing good, a lot of the good NPCs get on my nerves so I'll often create characters to fill their roles.

As for Baeloth, I enjoyed a few runs with him for sure. I'm also a big Xzar (and Monty) fan.

You make a good point about party building: you can actually build a weaker group, too, if you're not optimizing.

Dev6

I, hmm... I might've gone a little over the top with my stat rolls.

I'm sure I'll have fun anyway. I tried to pick classes I hadn't used before. Say hello to the team.

Charname:


And the rest:







A little question. If I want to replace someone for a new character, will I be able to import a new character mid-game? If so, how?

AndreaColombo

Tangential question—where are those portraits from? They look good.

Dev6

AndreaColombo said:

Tangential question—where are those portraits from? They look good.

I have around 500 portraits for BG. Some I got from this forum, others are drawings that I found on DeviantArt/tumblr and recut myself.
Hell, I think I might've spent more time hunting down portraits than actually playing the game. It's fun.

Here, knock yourself out.

EDIT: Images removed until I can find the source.

OrlonKronsteen

Dev6 said:

A little question. If I want to replace someone for a new character, will I be able to import a new character mid-game? If so, how?

You will need to remove the character you want to replace during the game. They may be lost permanently if you do this. At some point during the game's update history if you kicked out created characters you couldn't re recruit them like regular NPCs. I don't know if this has been changed/fixed. You can try running a test, saving first, obviously. In any case I recommend exporting the character you wish to replace right before kicking them out so you'll have an up-to-date version of them saved in a file, in case you want them back.

Now: as to adding new characters mid-game. AFAIK, you'll have to do this in multiplayer. Move your save file into the multiplayer save folder and start a multiplayer game. Choose 'load' and you'll see your team in a list, plus a blank spot from the character you kicked out. Simply create the new character in that slot, start the game, and save right away. Then you just have to move the save file back to the single player save folder and you can carry on. However, your character, having been created from scratch, will be at level 1, which doesn't mesh with your party. If there's a way to boost levels in the multiplayer party set-up screen I don't know about it, so you may want to use EE Keeper to boost his/her experience levels.

If you decide later you want the character you initially removed back, repeat the process, only import the original saved character during creation in multiplayer.

I hope this helps. If anyone else knows an easier way to do all this, please chime in!

JuliusBorisov

What @OrlonKronsteen says is mostly true, but in BG:EE if you kick out custom characters they stay there where you leave them. The bug is still present in BG2:EE, though, although @Tresset has created a mod to fix it here.

@Dev6 The portraits look indeed cool, but you have to credit artists properly, or your post with the portraits will violate the Site rules. Thank you!

Dev6

@JuliusBorisov I forgot about that, sorry. I can't seem to find the artists right now so I'll edit my post and remove the portraits. If I end up finding the info I'll post them on the custom portraits thread.

@OrlonKronsteen thank you!