Import character from BG1 or starting over?

wavingbug

Hello,

I completed BG1EE yesterday and imported my character to BG2EE. In BG1EE I hit level cap and had a level 8 Inquisitor. On creation she had the following stats: 18/20, 17, 17, 11, 13, 17 (in the usual order) and with tomes I ended up with 19, 18, 18, 12, 14, 18 at the end of the campaign. I noticed that my character got pretty strong towards the end. Perhaps I had luck with the rolls of my group but I think the Sarevok fight took like 15 seconds. I just spawned some creatures to keep his adds busy, tanked him with my Inquisitor and shot him down from the distance.

After starting a new BG2EE game I noticed that my character was very powerful compared to the other companions you get in the dungeon where you wake up. I think I had 117 HP and the rest were between 60 and 70. All my other stats were way higher too and the dungeon has been very easy to clear just with my Inquisitor alone. My question now is, will the other companions and foes be able to catch up? Or should I reroll a new character in order to even it out? My stats seem to be really high compared to those of my companions my level is also higher.


Thanks for your help

Khyron

Being bumped up a couple of hundred thousand xp gives you an easier start to BG2, but once you progress the story and start meeting harder enemies it'll even itself out pretty well.

It's kind of like with those who do ALL sidequests and those who do bare minimum to get 15k Gold.. those who do every single quest and squeeze out max xp, will of course have an easier time than those who don't.. but either option is viable.

You're a 19str warrior class with 18 dex and con, that's nothing spectacular and you're a lvl or two higher than you would normally be, so the difference to starting fresh really is quite minimal.. I wouldn't worry about it.

Arvia

Inquisitor is a very powerful class especially against anything magical. So that in itself makes it a bit easier. But don't worry, it will get more challenging. In BG2 you will meet a much wider variety of enemies with high magic or resistances or specials, so I don't think you'll be bored just because you have high stats. Besides, you could always turn up the difficulty setting if you find it too easy.

wavingbug

Thanks for your input. Then I will just continue like that. I also just noticed that XP gain is not linear. So the XP I am ahead now will matter less and less as the game progresses.

jmerry

Why are you ahead of the party in HP? Well, two reasons. One, you have better stats. You have 18 Con, and your companions don't; the warriors there (Minsc and Jaheira) have 16 and 17. Two, you maximized your HP rolls and the companions didn't. Jaheira rolled particularly badly for HP.

And since it's a game over if the protagonist dies, but not anyone else, having that edge can be a good thing.

VanDerBerg

Starting dungeon is quite easy, especially for a fighter-type character as there are no powerful mages there. It will become much harder later on.

wavingbug

I am now further advanced into the game and you guys were right. Magic users, especially liches are nasty, even as Inquisitor. PS: I hate level drain!

LelandGaunt

Yep, everybody hates level drain.
Well, except for vampires, they love that stuff.
Oh, and undead hunters, they're immune^^

jmerry

And then there's Team Evil. Make a party with Dorn (blackguard, immune to level drain), Hexxat (vampire, immune to level drain), and Korgan (berserker, immune to level drain while raging). Keep Blackrazor in Hell, and make the level drain work for you instead.

wavingbug

jmerry wrote: »

And then there's Team Evil. Make a party with Dorn (blackguard, immune to level drain), Hexxat (vampire, immune to level drain), and Korgan (berserker, immune to level drain while raging). Keep Blackrazor in Hell, and make the level drain work for you instead.

I always had issues playing an evil party. The decisions offered in many RPGs are just not really well done. For a good aligned party some decisions are natural, because most of us would help each other out if it is within their possibilities. But the decisions for an evil aligned group often boil down to "I don't like your face, I think I will just kill you". It's like there is no difference made between having an evil aligned character and being a complete psychopath. Some of the decisions you can make just feel childish and ridiculous

I wonder whether there are any consequences for mostly making decisions that would fit a good aligned party with characters that are mostly evil. Does popularity and alignment clash? I know that popularity/reacion is important for at least the Paladin and that good aligned characters might leave your party if that drops too low. Is the opposite true as well?

How does one act evil but reasonable?

LelandGaunt

Yeah I gotta admit that most of the evil content in BG1 isn't very fleshed-out. They got a little bit better in BG2 imo and much better in for example the KotoR games where at least some of the dark side stuff was done rather well. In BG1 it's mostly just the greedy "pay me more" instead of "no ma'm, keep your reward, you need it more than we do" and a little bit wanton slaughter here and there...
Your own alignment mostly just matters if you play a Paladin or Ranger. If your reputation drops too low with those (I believe 6) they "fall" and lose their special class abilities. At least in BG2 I know there are a few dialogue options that depend on your alignment too, like getting a special evil quest option only if your character is evil aligned, not sure if there's something like that in BG1 too? And yes, companions who are evil will leave you if your reputation gets too high (above 18).
Imo the biggest upside for playing evil is mostly the companions. Not only are some of them stronger than a lot of the good/neutral characters (Kagain/Korgan, Edwin, maybe Dorn and Viconia), but I also often found them a bit more interesting. Xzar's "I am become death, destroyer of worlds!" is just way more fun than Khalid's "G-g-gorion would be p-p-proud of your actions"
Edit: whoops, only now I see that this is indeed the BG2 subforum instead of BG1^^ well then a few addendums: the companion quests of the evil guys are mostly relatively neutral and don't really feel too "evil" per se, apart from Dorn's, that guy is messed up! And occasionaly there are even some evil-only items, that's a nice touch, though again, for at least one of those you gotta do some rather messed up stuff^^

Dharius

I never have enough spare time for a massive BG/SOD/BG2 trilogy so doing them independently of each other is more convenient and I actually prefer it that way.

Sometimes I’ll just do ToB by itself if I know I’m going to be very busy.