In particular when I was playing during HS. I think I'd normally go with the stalker kit (eventually in 2) and longswords, but then I got frustrated with a game crash sometime in ToB. I don't think that ranger ever really finished the game.
I was reading a lot of Salvatore at the time as well, which prolly influenced my ranger pick even more.
Nowadays, I'm more of a Cavalier or Inquisitor paladin in most games.
I don't remember. I suffer from alt-itis, so I usually make lots of characters before I complete a game. The first character I completed the series with was an evil female human cleric who I turned into a cleric of Talos in BGII. It was an evil party run through WITHOUT Viconia because of my PC. My second run-through was a good party with my halfling halberd grandmaster fighter Muppo Mopkins, who went Wizard Slayer in BGII. My third run-through was an all neutral party with an elf mage->Wild Mage PC named Rideau Rizwyk.
For my first character I took my advice from Dave Milward's walkthrough from Sorceror's Place ( I used a walkthrough straight away as I was afraid the game would be too hard for me otherwise ). I even picked the name from the walkthrough: Gildor, an Elven Fighter-Mage. I went through the portrait options to find a fitting portrait, picking Xan's portrait without knowing Xan was an NPC I'd meet along the way. I don't know what happened to Xan, I think the game gave him a replacement portrait, but I can't really remember.
I was around 8 when I first started playing. My dad got me into DnD and he read all the books so while I hadn't read about Drizzt yet, I knew who he was and that he was a Ranger. This influenced my decision to play as a Ranger, though a human one that I played like a fighter(Full plate, Sword and shield, etc.).
I do have two distinct memories from my early playthroughs. 1) Having my entire party suddenly die from the poison given to you by Marek and Lothander. I couldn't figure out was happening and had to have my Dad help me. 2) New Year's Eve 1999-2000 trying to kill the group at the top on the Iron Throne building and dying over and over. Finally had to give up, but next morning getting them on my second attempt.
P.S. I did have one game I played before that I played with my older sister. I was in charge of the pause button lol
Thrudd of Corse.... Human : Barbarian: TN STR: 25 CON:25 DEX:17 INT:5 WIS:14 CHR:10 \ Giant 2H Axe Vorpal Blade ( on a Roll of a Natural 20 The Victim's Head is Decapitated * Special Ability * This Occurs on Any Type of Humanoid/Non Living Object)……
When I first played, I was 11 or 12. My character was "Zeke", a Lawful Good human ranger who fought with a flail and a shield. I used Garrick's portrait because I thought it looked just like me. Made him a dual-wielding ranger in BG2 and happily gave him the Flail of the Ages +2. Don't think I was able to find that third head, if I remember right.
My first character in BG1 was a female bard with red hair. I don't recall the name I gave her, but I used the portrait that the game normally uses for Jaheira, so for a really long time I thought Jaheira looked like Osprey. Then when I started over with a new character months later Jaheira looking like my previous bard character took some getting used to.
The first character I ever made was a human Paladin. I never finished the game with him as roleplaying a Paladin is boring.
The second one was a bit better: dwarf Berserker dual-wielding warhammers. He was pretty decent, had regeneration (after taking the Tome of Constitution), but again a tad boring. I did finish the first game in the series with him.
Learning to love arcane casters was a slow process. At first, I hated them because I felt the downtime between fights wasn't justified. Nowadays I have more fun playing arcane casters in general, and I'm currently soloing the series with a generalist mage. It's fun.
My first character in BG1 was a female bard with red hair. I don't recall the name I gave her, but I used the portrait that the game normally uses for Jaheira, so for a really long time I thought Jaheira looked like Osprey. Then when I started over with a new character months later Jaheira looking like my previous bard character took some getting used to.
Same thing happened to me in my first few playthroughs. Since I always use Garrick's portrait, when I put him on my team, he uses the portrait of the blond guy in armor. Even though Garrick was my favorite party member, I never found out what he really looked like until I read something about him online several years later.
I am pretty sure my first character ever was Lancelot who was a paladin. Never get far with him, though. The only detail I really remember is him being proficient both in long swords and short swords.
I was like 13 or 14 and a major NWN fan. Rolled an elven fighter with bows and large swords. Would probably have been a good first run build, but I died in a half ogre ambush the second I left the first map. Didn't play it again till I was 18.
After a brief introduction to BG2 in 2002, I got the chance to roll up my first character.
Having played Eye of the Beholder 1-3 and Ultima Underworld 1-2 in the 90’s, I was sure I was a AD&D master extraordinaire... and the masters choice: an unkitted cleric.
In EotB and UU apr had almost no relevance and healing was of critical importance. So the choice seemed obvious.
I struggled my way through the game with a walkthrough. Eventually made it into ToB. In hell I even got the str +2 and an alignment change - wis and cha + 1 just didnt seem relevant
Dont recall the name of the character, but a proper name would have been Dis Aster.
From then on it was fighter types only. I once did a dragon disicple, but just cant shed the unkitted cleric vibe when playing a charname with less than 100 hp and 2 apr at level 7.
For some reason, I always default to paladin-types in any game that has character classes. Baldur's Gate, the whole Elder Scrolls series, Diablo 2, whatever else.
My second run-through was as a neutral good Bard.
I've played through the whole game about eight or nine times now. Almost all of them were "good" aligned - I find it near impossible to bring myself to actually do any of the behaviour that would be "evil", and even keeping "useful but evil" people in my party is an annoyance - why don't they even REALISE the benefits of a good reputation, even if it's obtained by bribery and temple donations? Throughout the majority of my games I end up with a high Rep most of the time.
And yet, despite this, my Bard romanced Viconia in BG2 and she never left him despite the high reputation. In fact, in the end, she turned away from evil herself and became Neutral, but this happens in TOB, and she remained evil - and in my 20-rep party - all through SoA, without quitting due to the high rep.
I've also been a Wild Mage (played as a plain mage in BG1, used ShadowKeeper to convert him to a Wild Mage in BG2): a Monk (who initially didn't play BG1 at all, but played through it later under the "BGTuTu" mod engine starting from level 1 and lower stats): an evil half-orc Fighter-Thief: a Cleric of Lathander: a Fighter/Mage dual class: and more recently a Druid Avenger and a Ranger have completed BG1 but not BG2.
So far I've managed to "complete" Baldurs Gate 1 with varied parties that have included every single NPC except, somehow, Viconia... I even bothered to bring Eldoth and Skie to the fight with Sarevok once. Somehow they shared a party with Faldorn, Ajantis and Montaron after Xzar got killed early on and I couldn't bother raising him because I was a mage myself, and besides he was creepy. That was a somewhat eclectic party. (Xzar got his chance in an all-evil party with Kagain, Shar-Teel, Tiax and Edwin. I still got all the "good" Bhaal abilities.)
I can't remember his name (sorry 20 years ago), but it was a halfling pure thief.
Mainly played with a bow but also some long sword backstab from time to time.
I remember saving all my gold to buy the thief shadow armor in Beregost... So happy when I did ^^
I took him from bg1 to tob.
Most of the characters I played after had a thief component, multi, dual or bard.
I remember way back then my first ever character was a human fighter. I am pretty sure I just named him after myself and because I didn't understand how the stats worked I just gave him really even stats across the board lol I think It would of been something like 15,14,15,14,14,14. It was only after my first few attempts at playing the game and often only getting to the Nashkel Mines before I inevitably did a restart that I changed to playing the Ranger class due to liking it from a role play perspective and the rest is history
My first was an elven fighter named Glorfindel. In back time i was a big lotr fan and imagine a lotr style fighter who bring justice and good across sword coast. I won bg1 with him but never used in bg2.
In PnP I always loved Half-Elven Rangers (I blame Tanis), but I remember when first starting this game I didn't like the selection of Druid spells level 1-3 and really hated that there was no dual wield so I decided to go with a Half-Elven Fighter/mage.
I replayed as a human Fighter -> Mage when Tales of the Sword Coast was released.
For BG2 I also went with a fighter -> mage, this time dual wielding longswords. I played this character into ToB when it was first released, but I still have never finished it.
I've also never played the same character through the entire series, I always want to start each game with the lowest XP possible because I love the early challenge.
I started with BG2EE, in 2018. And when I switched to playing modded, I dumped my old saves in a separate folder. There's a flurry of characters who mostly didn't get very far from when I started, so it's not clear what the very first was. Lots of different classes, but pretty much all warriors of some description. The oldest save I can find belongs to a half-orc wizard slayer, going with long swords and shields.
The first characters I went far with were fighter-thief duals. First a kensai-thief, then a fighter-assassin. Even back then, I was tweaking things with EEKeeper. I'm still a fan of fighter/thief combinations.
The first character I ever made was a chaotic neutral human thief for PnP.
My first BG character was an elven ranger, CG. Rolled for like forever until I got STR 18/something, DEX 19, WIS 18 and nothing under 12-14, but didn't redistribute, lol...
I remember that in part 1 my favored enemy was ettercaps, no idea why.
Got to choose anew in part 2, took demons. Also finally could dual-wield.
I don't know how (was about 20 years ago), but I played with her through the whole series.
The very first (and still my personal favourite) character I made for BG was "Zoras El'Khadath", a LN/LG Mage. In fact, I still tend to recreate him as my first character in every single fantasy RPG I ever play. In many ways I suppose he's an idealized version of myself.
Mine was rolled in the 90s as well, though that computer is long since gone.
She was a half-elven mage named Jenna, and I did finish the game with her. I remember the final fight taking forever because my entire party kept getting wiped out, but on one attempt, my PC barely survived alone to finish it.
I lost the save before SoA came out, unfortunately.
The first character I ever made was a female half-elf CG Berserker (fighter in BG1 because there were no kits there yet). Jaheira's BG1 portrait. I took her all the way through BG, SoA and ToB with Ascension. She loved katanas, ended up dual-wielding Crom Faeyr and Celestial Fury (hated the look of a hammer with that nice sword, but chose power over style or realism). So, she believed herself good-aligned and helped people, but of course was powergamey.
I juggled with letters and syllables that sounded fantasy-like and came up with the name Shandyra. And no, no relations to a certain former forum user, pure coincidence.
And yeah all those CDs and loading times...
Comments
In particular when I was playing during HS. I think I'd normally go with the stalker kit (eventually in 2) and longswords, but then I got frustrated with a game crash sometime in ToB. I don't think that ranger ever really finished the game.
I was reading a lot of Salvatore at the time as well, which prolly influenced my ranger pick even more.
Nowadays, I'm more of a Cavalier or Inquisitor paladin in most games.
I do have two distinct memories from my early playthroughs. 1) Having my entire party suddenly die from the poison given to you by Marek and Lothander. I couldn't figure out was happening and had to have my Dad help me. 2) New Year's Eve 1999-2000 trying to kill the group at the top on the Iron Throne building and dying over and over. Finally had to give up, but next morning getting them on my second attempt.
P.S. I did have one game I played before that I played with my older sister. I was in charge of the pause button lol
I really enjoy the S&S ranger and wish there was a way to lean into it more in D&D.
Then again, I was someone who wanted to play a main character through IWD2 before as a Paladin/Ranger/Fighter so *shrugs*
The second one was a bit better: dwarf Berserker dual-wielding warhammers. He was pretty decent, had regeneration (after taking the Tome of Constitution), but again a tad boring. I did finish the first game in the series with him.
Learning to love arcane casters was a slow process. At first, I hated them because I felt the downtime between fights wasn't justified. Nowadays I have more fun playing arcane casters in general, and I'm currently soloing the series with a generalist mage. It's fun.
Same thing happened to me in my first few playthroughs. Since I always use Garrick's portrait, when I put him on my team, he uses the portrait of the blond guy in armor. Even though Garrick was my favorite party member, I never found out what he really looked like until I read something about him online several years later.
Having played Eye of the Beholder 1-3 and Ultima Underworld 1-2 in the 90’s, I was sure I was a AD&D master extraordinaire... and the masters choice: an unkitted cleric.
In EotB and UU apr had almost no relevance and healing was of critical importance. So the choice seemed obvious.
I struggled my way through the game with a walkthrough. Eventually made it into ToB. In hell I even got the str +2 and an alignment change - wis and cha + 1 just didnt seem relevant
Dont recall the name of the character, but a proper name would have been Dis Aster.
From then on it was fighter types only. I once did a dragon disicple, but just cant shed the unkitted cleric vibe when playing a charname with less than 100 hp and 2 apr at level 7.
Hi @Volatile They should. Those games where epic - played them in a dos box some ten years ago (they dont age well, but they where epic).
Actually there is a NWN mod called eye of the beholder. It has npc’s and stores - but otherwise an excellent “enhanced edition” NWN style.
My second run-through was as a neutral good Bard.
I've played through the whole game about eight or nine times now. Almost all of them were "good" aligned - I find it near impossible to bring myself to actually do any of the behaviour that would be "evil", and even keeping "useful but evil" people in my party is an annoyance - why don't they even REALISE the benefits of a good reputation, even if it's obtained by bribery and temple donations? Throughout the majority of my games I end up with a high Rep most of the time.
And yet, despite this, my Bard romanced Viconia in BG2 and she never left him despite the high reputation. In fact, in the end, she turned away from evil herself and became Neutral, but this happens in TOB, and she remained evil - and in my 20-rep party - all through SoA, without quitting due to the high rep.
I've also been a Wild Mage (played as a plain mage in BG1, used ShadowKeeper to convert him to a Wild Mage in BG2): a Monk (who initially didn't play BG1 at all, but played through it later under the "BGTuTu" mod engine starting from level 1 and lower stats): an evil half-orc Fighter-Thief: a Cleric of Lathander: a Fighter/Mage dual class: and more recently a Druid Avenger and a Ranger have completed BG1 but not BG2.
So far I've managed to "complete" Baldurs Gate 1 with varied parties that have included every single NPC except, somehow, Viconia... I even bothered to bring Eldoth and Skie to the fight with Sarevok once. Somehow they shared a party with Faldorn, Ajantis and Montaron after Xzar got killed early on and I couldn't bother raising him because I was a mage myself, and besides he was creepy. That was a somewhat eclectic party. (Xzar got his chance in an all-evil party with Kagain, Shar-Teel, Tiax and Edwin. I still got all the "good" Bhaal abilities.)
Mainly played with a bow but also some long sword backstab from time to time.
I remember saving all my gold to buy the thief shadow armor in Beregost... So happy when I did ^^
I took him from bg1 to tob.
Most of the characters I played after had a thief component, multi, dual or bard.
I replayed as a human Fighter -> Mage when Tales of the Sword Coast was released.
For BG2 I also went with a fighter -> mage, this time dual wielding longswords. I played this character into ToB when it was first released, but I still have never finished it.
I've also never played the same character through the entire series, I always want to start each game with the lowest XP possible because I love the early challenge.
The first characters I went far with were fighter-thief duals. First a kensai-thief, then a fighter-assassin. Even back then, I was tweaking things with EEKeeper. I'm still a fan of fighter/thief combinations.
My first BG character was an elven ranger, CG. Rolled for like forever until I got STR 18/something, DEX 19, WIS 18 and nothing under 12-14, but didn't redistribute, lol...
I remember that in part 1 my favored enemy was ettercaps, no idea why.
Got to choose anew in part 2, took demons. Also finally could dual-wield.
I don't know how (was about 20 years ago), but I played with her through the whole series.
She was a half-elven mage named Jenna, and I did finish the game with her. I remember the final fight taking forever because my entire party kept getting wiped out, but on one attempt, my PC barely survived alone to finish it.
I lost the save before SoA came out, unfortunately.
I juggled with letters and syllables that sounded fantasy-like and came up with the name Shandyra. And no, no relations to a certain former forum user, pure coincidence.
And yeah all those CDs and loading times...