Finally finished BG series
Veristek
Member Posts: 114
I did it. Beat the final battle in ToB, and finished the whole BG series. Took me about 2 RL months to do. Whew. But well worth it, I really enjoyed the characters and dialogue, plus the lore and background. I don't think I've played such an engaging RPG in a long while.
The final battle was both hard and silly easy. The hard part was dealing with the Big Bad and her summoned minions swarming my party. Then I realized I could plop Spike Traps on her spawn point. Boom, final "final" battle done instantly after her speech. Don't think I remember any Final Boss / Big Bad being defeated instantly or no effort like that. Closest would be Cloud instant-Omnislash on Sephiroth in the ending battle in Final Fantasy 7, or Yu Yevon in Final Fantasy 10, or Luther (final boss) and the bonus bosses in Star Ocean 3 if geared properly, they'd do 0 damage to you with all forms of attack.
It even makes RP sense to pull the Spike Traps on the Big Bad. She spawns in the exact same spot 4 times. A thief would go "Hmm, she pops there again after the 2nd or 3rd time. Lets plop traps right there, just in case!"
I'd have liked a bit more closure to ToB though. Perhaps a short epilogue chapter where you meet and chat up with people in the Mortal-ending, or see your new Godly home in the God-ending.
A couple plot holes, though. Seems like the Big Bad and the Solar forgot that there's still other Bhaalspawn out there. Imoen and that "scared then explode-teleport away" one. And I'm not sure about Bhaal himself. Does one Bhaalspawn have to live with all others dead for Bhaal to resurrect, or do all the Bhaalspawn have to die for Bhaal to resurrect?
And what if cast Imprison on a Bhaalspawn with no other witnesses? Then that Bhaalspawn would be hidden away forever, Meaning Bhaal wouldn't be resurrected either way?
Will share more thoughts later.
The final battle was both hard and silly easy. The hard part was dealing with the Big Bad and her summoned minions swarming my party. Then I realized I could plop Spike Traps on her spawn point. Boom, final "final" battle done instantly after her speech. Don't think I remember any Final Boss / Big Bad being defeated instantly or no effort like that. Closest would be Cloud instant-Omnislash on Sephiroth in the ending battle in Final Fantasy 7, or Yu Yevon in Final Fantasy 10, or Luther (final boss) and the bonus bosses in Star Ocean 3 if geared properly, they'd do 0 damage to you with all forms of attack.
It even makes RP sense to pull the Spike Traps on the Big Bad. She spawns in the exact same spot 4 times. A thief would go "Hmm, she pops there again after the 2nd or 3rd time. Lets plop traps right there, just in case!"
I'd have liked a bit more closure to ToB though. Perhaps a short epilogue chapter where you meet and chat up with people in the Mortal-ending, or see your new Godly home in the God-ending.
A couple plot holes, though. Seems like the Big Bad and the Solar forgot that there's still other Bhaalspawn out there. Imoen and that "scared then explode-teleport away" one. And I'm not sure about Bhaal himself. Does one Bhaalspawn have to live with all others dead for Bhaal to resurrect, or do all the Bhaalspawn have to die for Bhaal to resurrect?
And what if cast Imprison on a Bhaalspawn with no other witnesses? Then that Bhaalspawn would be hidden away forever, Meaning Bhaal wouldn't be resurrected either way?
Will share more thoughts later.
11
Comments
As for Viekang (the teleporter):
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Abdel_Adrian
I congratulate you on finishing the series. I personally do not like the Throne of Bhaal and its mindless series of battles very much. But if you do not play through it, you are left hanging in the middle of your character's story.
Imoen willingly surrenders her Bhaal-essence at the end of the battle.
When in Saradush, Lazarus Librarus from Arcana Archives tells you that the thief who stole his spellbook to teleport out of the city is an idiot, since the city is magically warded and trying to teleport out would kill you (if I remember correctly). Viekang teleported out and could very well have been destroyed by the wards when doing so.
Using spike traps during the final game makes sense because it's by far the easiest way to kill Boss. But that's the same for the entire game. Even Demogorgon can be killed this way. Spike traps are immensely powerful and have never been nerfed as far as I know. I don't really mind because I never use them against bosses (makes everything too easy). The final ToB battle could be easily fixed by letting Boss teleport to a random location each time.
@Veristek, congratulations!
I'm not sure I would consider that bit to be canon, as it makes very specific assumptions about the PC. Also, Viekang should be dead no matter what - either killed in the siege of Saradush or blasted into bits by the city wards. If anything, the PC should feel bad for giving him the courage to pancake himself while attempting to teleport - he would have had a better chance trapped in the tavern. I suppose it is possible that Viekang's teleportation method bypasses that problem, as the PC's party does by using a separate plane, but his ability is described as being more like wild magic, not planar travel.
Imoen is a bit more interesting, however, as she is potentially in your party at the end. I'm not sure how the game handles it if she isn't, but presumably if she isn't, she is assumed to have been killed. It does present a bit of a plot hole, though. It's also a bit of a lost opportunity, as her refusal to give up her portion would potentially put her in direct opposition to the PC. The game never mentions that possibility, unfortunately.
Baldur's Gate is part of the DnD canon, therefore wherever Baldur's Gate and DnD literature disagree, DnD canon takes precedence. The canon Baldur's Gate protagonist is Abdel, not your character.
This is not very important within the game. Your character need not be considered insane because he thinks he is really a beautiful elf sorceress. It is fine to play the game however you want. But your playthrough will never be canon.
The Black Pits also have a teleportation block installed to stop the prisoners from escaping. That does not seem to be of interest to anyone during Neera's quest. In Baldur's Gate 1 you get caught on an island that traps teleporters - and you escape by teleportation anyway.
I agree that it is somewhat reckless of Charname to decide to risk it without studying the ability (or the blockade) first. But it is definitely not a plot hole.
Debateable. Regualr teleportation is blocked, but teleportation from a divine heritage seems to get through just fine. Like when Charname does it. Viekang's teleportation is clearly not a normal form, so I don't see any reason to view it as a plot hole.
It seems that when Lord Ao decided to remake the foundations of the FR cosmos he also decided to cherry pick which details from alternate universes would fit the new canon. As far as the new canon is concerned, the protagonist Bhaalspawn is now an enigmatic, mysterious, pretty much faceless figure. He/she/it does ultimately end up fighting Viekang, however, and their mutual deaths result in Bhaal's resurrection.
The details are intentionally left vague I guess, so that people are free to fill in the blanks.
Sadly, among other things, this potentially means that your PC's own universe is now one Minsc and Boo short.
As for Viekang, for all we know his brand of "teleportation" may actually involve planestraveling or even outright jumping to an alternate universe. It is a power inherited from a god, these kinds of things tend to trump regular rules.
Also debateable. Charname teleports to a plane parallel to the Prime Material and might not 'bump' against the wards around Saradush. Viekang teleports inside the Prime Material from inside the city to outside.
All of these products were WotC-approved so it's hard to say which one(s) should be considered official canon. However my guess is that most players consider their own personal BG1/BG2 run-throughs to be canon and aren't especially interested in what these other products claim "really" happened (though obviously a shared literary universe can't take as canon each of our individual run-throughs).
Debateable, we don't know how Viekang's teleport works. It very well could be plane traversal just like charname's.
True enough. I don't think we'll ever have clarity on this matter, but all theories seem to have merit.
Well, the idea that viekang died when trying to teleport out DOESN'T have merit. When you see the thief try to port out, he explodes immiediately. This doesn't happen to VIekang, pretty clearly indicating that he made it out. As for what happened to him after that? Yeah, no idea.
That's after the events of the BG saga.
Though of course, as I mentioned, each character you make is basically an alternate universe version of the Bhaalspawn. The Viekang in your world could have lived a full, old life having happily raised a family in some random small farming village in Sembia, if you wanted.
The ending? Eh,, it wasn't terrible but I was expecting something more grand. Part of the problem was, I wasn't really attached to this character. I regret taking Sarevok instead of Keldorn. I found his Redemption story rather dull, and liked the setup I had with my LG Cavalier, Keldorn, Anomen, Imoen, Aerie and Jaheira. Honestly I wanted to drop Jaheira too and take Mazzy to have a full good party, but I read on forums that Jaheira had a lot of good insights in ToB, but I didn't see anything that interesting tbh.
I guess the lesson I learned is its better to just play the game and enjoy it instead of following online advice and trying to get the perfect game. I made that mistake with trying to complete every sidequest in Ch. 2, which just made me feel overpowered, and screwed up the pacing of the whole story.
Well, anyways, it is still a great game, and now, after a bit of break, I will reroll as an evil character!