RP to the Nth Degree - Solve for N. Or, how much of a powergamer are you?
Rao
Member Posts: 141
As the title suggests, I am curious about the degree to which you all enjoy role playing your Bhaalspawn, or developing a “head canon” as you progress through the series. The more time I spend with the game, the less I find myself attracted to “powergaming” approaches and the more I find myself interested in fleshing out a character who acts for reasons that are coherent in the context of his or her own story and personality. If you want to see what might be the logical endpoint of this arc for me, I have been posting about it here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/78398/ausar-the-riven-fighter-mage#latest. It is the beginning of a deep dive into an elven Fighter/Mage Bhaalspawn. As you will see from the character sheet, though, at least some of my old powergaming instincts have not yet withered away 
How do you all like to play? Do you go through phases or moods in how much RPing you like to do? If you have a favorite Bhaalspawn you have played over the years, I would love to hear about him/her, and your underlying inspiration. If you are an inveterate, unapologetic powergamer, that’s fine too. There are no wrong answers here - just one poster’s curiosity. Cheers!
How do you all like to play? Do you go through phases or moods in how much RPing you like to do? If you have a favorite Bhaalspawn you have played over the years, I would love to hear about him/her, and your underlying inspiration. If you are an inveterate, unapologetic powergamer, that’s fine too. There are no wrong answers here - just one poster’s curiosity. Cheers!
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Comments
I almost invariably RP a magic user of some kind rather than a fighter, though my last two runs have been a bit more physical than in the past. I see CHARNAME as an academic forced from their lofty perch at Candlekeep, and thus, magic users seem to come more naturally.
Powergaming? Nope. It gets boring REAL fast when you just wipe everything out with no effort. The fun fights are the ones where you really don't know the outcome ahead of time.
- always playing charnames with stat rolls above 90... prefer them close to 100,
- always min-maxed, and always max hp on level up,
- always getting all the tomes and such - and always giving them to charname,
- always the best gear for charname
I enjoy playing with charname as the absolute center of things. Everything has to do with charname and therefore often playing solo - since the others (NPC’s), and just xp and loot stealers, and tend to be in the way.
When I use mods, I choose the mods that can give charname the most - and don’t do NPC mods that don’t give charname an edge - companions is not a priority; assets are.
But that’s just me, and what truly makes this game so enjoyable. You can play it in so many different ways.
to test the party i don't want super stats and i don't use maximum hp leveling up, i want to test what a synergy between different classes allows, not what super persons of those class can do.
so i often reload over and over the same battles trying every possible approach to the battle the particular party allows (given the player's limitations...
my preferred class is thief, imo not the most powerful but the one that i have more fun to play, l love to stab whole dungeons, to plan trap carpets then lure the enemies into them, to have my party thief appear at the edge of a mage's field of view then, as the mage start to target him, one step back, hide in shadows and the spell fizzles as there is no more target, i depleted so many mage speelbooks that way.
i also enjoy to play blades, but in the original version, and blades and bards are one of the reasons why i still use it side by side with the EE. but as i don't like what EE did to bards, mainly the fact that in EE is almost impossible to sing and attack in the same round, i seldom play EE bards.
and i also like very much the mages, sorcerers and wild mages, that i consider the most powerful classes, both as single class or where possible dual or 2-3 class multi.
i also like a lot clerics and combos where there is some cleric inside, i think that npcs like aerie or anomen are among the most powerful ones, but i like also to buff viconia and have her kick butts as a front liner, i appreciate the druids, but i think that overall clerics are better and the only thing that a druid has and a cleric lacks is the insect spells, but as usually i have plenty of mages in my parties (usually i have 2-4 people and among them 2-4 able to use arcane magic) i have other ways to deal with the enemy casters.
when i see my aerie or viconia go solo and mlee against strong end game physical damage dealers and bash them to the death with their flails and maces i feel it so satisfactory, i mean also korgan can do it, but to see the whiny aerie or the squishy viky do it is an other level of satisfaction for me.
then i think at those players that keep their clerics well behind, far from the front line, and call them healers, and i ask to myself:"will they ever learn how powerful clerics are when they dare to close the distance?". and is very seldom that my clerics have more then one healing spell memorized, plenty of potions, regeneration items and a marvellous wand for that.
i don't have much fun with point and click toons, i am a micro manager, still i appreciate how some people is able buffing their fighters using at the best items and potions to boost ac and st. i should learn from them as i had focused so much on learning the magic system, but neglected how to use the plain fighters.
so, when i have fought my battles in all the ways i can figure out, only magic, only mlee, only ranged, standing on one foot only and so on i start to care about RP, because i really Enjoy to rp and i think that is not in opposition to pg, at least as i intend pg.
rp for me is to have a party that fits well with my charname, that is always good oriented, even if sometimes can be neutral (for class limitations or familiar requirements) but any way more towards the good side.
and the choices the party make are depending on who is charname (his class and his character) and on the npcs that are in the party, playing a LG cleric charname with keldorn, misnc, nalia and mazzy in the party i don't follow the same route that i follow with a thief charname with haer dalis, viconia and imoen.
and pg for me is how i can use that party at his best in every battle, is more the power of the player then the power of his puppets.
rp is what i do, pg is how well and efficiently i do it. the 3rd factor, very important for me, is how much i enjoy to play a party as i have a lot of fun in playing some classes and combos and i find other boring and lacking of versatility, i don't let both rp and pg getting in the way of my fun, having to chose i always chose the option that gives me more fun, if the pg or rp aspects have to suffer i can live with it...
@gorgonzola, I think your reframing of the role playing / power gaming dichotomy is really interesting. What you call power gaming, I typically think of as something like "playing tactically," and I also enjoy it immensely. Being able to maintain a party of six really opens up a world of possibilities - identical situations can be handled in totally different (and equally effective!) ways.
Also, just to answer a part of my own question - I find well-composed portraits to be an amazing source of inspiration for RPing characters. Pictures are inherently open-ended, and I think artful portraits (both in-game and in real life) can provide a balance between clarity and ambiguity that really sets fire to the imagination.
kensage+ jan+aerie
FMT+haer dalis+jaheira+imoen
FM+keldorn+jan+anomen
custom party sorcerer+FMT+FMC
only few examples of how with 3 or 4 people parties you can have almost all the skills that a larger balanced party can have, real thieving, arcane and divine casting, with more people that can cast at the same time allowing complex magic based tactics (ie lowering very fast the MR of a dragon and then spamming GM, Doom and save or else spells on him), in parties where with the proper buffs at least the 66%, but potentially the 100% of the party can go mlee with every party member having a real function there, maybe because he is tensor transformed or his function is using his spell casting to act as a tank.
playing with small 2-4 people parties, for me 3 is the sweet spot, is possible to have the same "playing tactically" capability that you have in a full party, at the cost of some apr obviously, but with much less hassle if you want to micro manage, and there are ways to make those parties larger when needed.
ways that are called summons and clones. a simulacrum of a fighter or CM is a mlee toon more, that can use the best potions and all his hla as it last a single battle and his quick slots don't waste charges/scrolls.
so a simulacrum of a FMT can have BBoD, the wand that heals and a wand that breach for free and spam all his gww, or can use some potion if needed instead of a wand. for those that use not EE games the simulacrum of a mage is also a decent secondary mage that does not freeze the original one, i hope that EE will be fixed about it in his last patch.
and depending on the party you can have a deva or planetar, maybe an elemental prince if you have a high enough level druid, and some more summons like mordy swords to tank fighters and skellies to tank mages.
at the end of the story as the small party level up faster they can have sooner in the game almost the same apr and maybe even more capability and versatility of a larger one.
FMT+haer dalis+jaheira+imoen can become
FMT and his simulacrum+haer dalis+jaheira+elemental prince+imoen+ planetar+a couple of other summons so
6 able to go mlee, an arch mage with RoV and 3 secondary mages and 2 capable divine casters, with few lesser summons (also the druid's fire elemental is a good option in some battles.
all buffed by an enhanced bard's song if the blade uses a mislead, and with so many actors on the scene the enemies have no chance to reach the mislead clone if the party play smart, even having the clone not invisible and not far from the ones he has to enhance.
if aerie is used instead of the blade you loose the song buff, but what the party can do becomes even more crazy as the versatility and capability of a CM alone are crazy...
and if needed imoen can do her main mage work very fast trough a PI that uses improved alacrity, then her clone can shapeshift into a mind flyer or golem to help in the mlee department. even the tensor transformed werewolf is not bad at all if high enchantment weapons are not needed, improved hasted has tons of apr and a terrific regeneration of his x2 hp.
little parties don't lack at all of versatility in their tactics as don't lack at all in raw power.
following the same principles a whole party can be even more crazy powerful, let say FMT+haer dalis+jaheira+imoen+aerie+keldorn or mazzy (even korgan work well), and starting bg2 from the 500k xp of SoD and having the FMT charname, the perfect soloer, solo some quests until he reaches 2M xp only with kills, keeping the quest xp for later, that 6 people party can reach very high levels very fast, as you recruit the toons at high level and they get all the xp from the previous quests.
but to micro manage at that level a large party becomes a nightmare...