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Favorite BG1 NPCs for personality/banter

GlorfindelGlorfindel Member Posts: 65
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
What are your favorite BG1 NPCs based solely on their personality, interesting story, banter, or just general fondness?  Not based on power gaming or their stats.  Just good ol' fashioned role playing.

Comments

  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,584
    Shar-Teel, Kivan, Safana, and Dorn.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    With NPC Project Installed, the most charismatic and talkative characters are IMO:
    Kivan (very brooding, but you become friends and he has very noble banters) ,

    Dynaheir ( they made such a good work not turning her into lawful stupid s2 , she is quite the lawful good character you respect and love)

    Alora (I just find her very funny)

    Imoen (another example of a job well done, she charismatoc as ever)

    Coran (He has an overbearing personality,so sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't)

    Branwen (She's also well written and has a good romance)
  • dukdukgoosdukdukgoos Member Posts: 22
    BG1NPC Xzar is great at teasing other characters... he's a cuddly, lovable type of Evil.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    BG1 Npcs have little personality and no banter. Are you talking about BG1 modded?
  • GlorfindelGlorfindel Member Posts: 65
    Regular BG1, not modded.  Just who you like to bring along based on who they are as a character, not their stats.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    Xzar.

    It's a combination of his creepy-but-awesome portrait, Frank Welker's voice acting and his overall insanity. He's less manic than Tiax (who I like too because he rules) and slightly more functioning. He also has moments of lucidity, reflected in game by his high mental stats, but sadly the bare-bones dialogue of BG1 doesn't do him justice. I dislike the BG1 NPC Project for the most part but Xzar is one of the few characters with Dynaheir who I think are improved by the mod.

    I hate how BG2 turned him into "Generic Evil Wizard #83".
  • LammasLammas Member Posts: 228
    Depending on run

    Imoen, Shar-Teel, Coran, Kivan, Yeslick, Viconia, Eldoth. I used to like Kagain too but honestly these days he tends to make the cut in evil parties just because of his stats.

    There are also plenty of characters I never pick up because I don't like their personality:

    Xan, Quayle, Khalid, Alora, Ajantis, Minsc never end up in my parties besides maybe dragging Khalid with me for a while because early fighters are good to have. I used to like Quayle way back when the original came out but these days not so much.
  • rashkaerashkae Member Posts: 179
    edited February 2019
    I like Kivan in Unmodded BG1.. he's such a bad-donkey, is very practical (good at ranged as well as close up combat). He just can't stand Alora's cheerfulness. Sadly, contrary to the opinion of some other posters here, the NPC mod turns him from a Dirty Harry to an emo elf, and I find him intolerable.

    Coran is always fun.  He's great with Viconia.  Sometimes he remember she's drow and he's supposed to hate her, but he still can't help hitting on her.  NPC modded Saffana has no double wrapping him around her finger.


  • AmmarAmmar Member Posts: 1,297
    rashkae said:
    I like Kivan in Unmodded BG1.. he's such a bad-donkey, is very practical (good at ranged as well as close up combat). He just can't stand Alora's cheerfulness. Sadly, contrary to the opinion of some other posters here, the NPC mod turns him from a Dirty Harry to an emo elf, and I find him intolerable.

    Coran is always fun.  He's great with Viconia.  Sometimes he remember she's drow and he's supposed to hate her, but he still can't help hitting on her.  NPC modded Saffana has no double wrapping him around her finger.


    Same here on Kivan, but I feel the NPC mod is a mixed bag as well.

    I like it and always use it just to have some banter for the NPCs, but sometimes I feel that they take exaggerate the character of the NPCs to the point of caricature. Sure, Imoen is slightly childish in vanilla BG 1, but in the NPC mod that just dialed up way too high, also not really taking her Int 17 into account.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    rashkae said:
    Sadly, contrary to the opinion of some other posters here, the NPC mod turns him from a Dirty Harry to an emo elf, and I find him intolerable.
    He's definitely one of the worst offerings of the BG1 NPC Project. His BG2 version (by the same author) is arguably even more whiny. Not to mention all the Elvish speak... just ugh.
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,177
    I really enjoyed Kivan's representation in the NPC Project & the BG2 mod- though I've never played the romance. Perhaps that's because I've always played BG1 with the NPC Project, quite possibly the finest mod ever, rather than having a contrary initial impression of him.

    Very few of the BG1 NPCs seem to get a bad reaction- Faldorn often seems to be as unpopular as Cernd for BG2 though for different reasons. Druids eh?
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    Glorfindel wrote: »
    Regular BG1, not modded.  Just who you like to bring along based on who they are as a character, not their stats.

    well then thats hard as with out the npc project they don't really have banters or character.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    Ammar wrote: »
    rashkae said:
    I like Kivan in Unmodded BG1.. he's such a bad-donkey, is very practical (good at ranged as well as close up combat). He just can't stand Alora's cheerfulness. Sadly, contrary to the opinion of some other posters here, the NPC mod turns him from a Dirty Harry to an emo elf, and I find him intolerable.
    Coran is always fun.  He's great with Viconia.  Sometimes he remember she's drow and he's supposed to hate her, but he still can't help hitting on her.  NPC modded Saffana has no double wrapping him around her finger.




    Same here on Kivan, but I feel the NPC mod is a mixed bag as well.

    I like it and always use it just to have some banter for the NPCs, but sometimes I feel that they take exaggerate the character of the NPCs to the point of caricature. Sure, Imoen is slightly childish in vanilla BG 1, but in the NPC mod that just dialed up way too high, also not really taking her Int 17 into account.

    well you got to factor in that it has many diffrent writers working on it. with npcs that did not show up in bg 2 or pre bg 2 imoen they had to make something them selves as there was not really anything to spring off of.

    like i personally find Brawhen boring in both her npc project version and her bg 2 mod and i get alot of flak for that.
  • SteveRogers41SteveRogers41 Member Posts: 33
    The three characters who are ALWAYS on my team are Coran, Garrick, and Ajantis.
  • JLeeJLee Member Posts: 650
    My favorite characters in unmodded bg1 are Garrick, Yeslick, and Coran.

    Garrick is the only one that can still make me laugh. I understand many dislike him, but I find him to be quite humorous, both intentionally and otherwise. I love his cameo in BG2 as well.
  • SteveRogers41SteveRogers41 Member Posts: 33
    I remember when I was 12 or 13, playing BG2 for the first time, I was very disappointed when Garrick, who helped me kick Sarevok's butt, wouldn't rejoin the team. Not only that, but he barely recognized me!
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    edited February 2019
    BG2 treats non-joinable BG1 NPCs pretty badly when you think about it.
    • Xzar is a carbon copy of every random evil mage
    • Montaron is killed by Harpers off-screen
    • Garrick's intelligence took a nose dive and he's even more of a NTR game protagonist than before
    • Ajantis dies in total anonymity unless you have Keldorn in the party - and then it's just a throwaway line
    • Dynaheir is killed off-screen in Chateau Irenicus
    • Same with Khalid but to add insult to injury you get to romance his wife
    • Coran is still being used by Safana...
    • ...and said Safana is the most inept villain in the game

    Xan, Branwen, Kivan, Yeslick, Eldoth, Skie and Kagain don't appear at all. They're fairly lucky.

    Tiax is the true jackpot winner here because despite being locked in Spellhold he manages to go in style, fighting Irenicus.

    Tell me if I forgot someone.

    Edit: I forgot Quayle! He's essentially a different character though.
  • JLeeJLee Member Posts: 650
    edited February 2019
    Faldorn gets a pretty big role in BG2, leader of the Shadow Druids.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    Oh yeah you're right! I forgot her too.

    I think she's better off in BG2. She was fairly bland before but she makes quite an impression during the Druid Grove quest chain. The VA change also helped: in BG1 she was voiced by Heidi Shannon like Jaheira, but more soft-spoken. In BG2 they gave the role to B.J. Ward who decided to ham it up like mad (especially compared to her subdued performance as Bodhi).
  • SteveRogers41SteveRogers41 Member Posts: 33
    Kurona wrote: »
    Ajantis dies in total anonymity unless you have Keldorn in the party - and then it's just a throwaway line

    Well, you also find out if Anomen is there, which is how I knew.

    I wasn't satisfied with how Ajantis was handled in BG2 either. You don't even get a chance to express anger over his death, or acknowledge his death in any way.

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Kurona To be fair, Montaron doesn't really deserve any better.
  • Very_BigSwordVery_BigSword Member Posts: 222
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    @Kurona To be fair, Montaron doesn't really deserve any better.

    He'd likely have put a dagger in ye anyway.
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