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Having some difficulties for next playthrough (SoA + ToB)

I would like to start a new game for BG2 Soa + ToB, but I'm having some difficulties:

1) Are you able to play Soa and ToB without playing BG1 first? In the past I was very much able to, but I feel like the fact that I roleplay a character even in BG1 makes it extremely difficult to start straight in BG2.
2) Are there any suggestions you can give me to actually decide which character should I make ?
3) Should I just straight out avoid playing paladin, given that their ethos would actually forbid me to do many things and make the roleplaying totally unidimensional? See this:
4) How do you decide what to play in next playthroughs?
gorgonzola

Comments

  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    1) Yes, you can start a fresh character in BG2, or you can import one from a BG1 'final save', or you can copy & paste a character's .cha and .bio files from your BG1 'characters' folder to the BG2 one.
    2) That's really personal preference - all classes can be made to work well.
    3) Again, personal preference. I don't play Paladins or B/guards for the reason you mentioned.
    4) Depends either on which npcs I want to travel with or which part of the game I stuffed up gave me a less than optimal outcome on my previous playthrough.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    I once played an undead hunter paladin and it was probably my most favourite character to play. Unless you are really into it I wouldn't really too much about the ethos stuff.
    gorgonzola
  • lefreutlefreut Member Posts: 1,462
    1) No, I need to play the whole saga (and with restartitis this is troublesome as I almost never get the chance to play BG2 :p ).
    2) If you can't decide, you can randomize it!
  • ArviaArvia Member Posts: 2,101
    @Arthas , I have played SoA and ToB many times without importing from BG1. For me it felt okay from a roleplaying perspective, because the story arcs are mostly unrelated (apart from Charname's heritage, of course)

    You have been asking several questions concerning gaming ethics as a lawful good character. In the end, you must set your own rules and try to stick to them. I, personally, think that one should not choose the paladin class because of the cool bonuses and then ignore the ethical restrictions. But many people who prefer powergaming to roleplaying do that.
    It's your choice.

    But it's true, if you really roleplay a paladin, or any lawful good character, it limits your access to some quests and items. If you have played the game many times, you won't mind that challenge, or if you identify so much with your character that you wouldn't take other choices anyway.

    If you want to discover the whole game, maybe you could pick a more flexible class and alignment, and leave the lawful good ones for another time.

    Have you played before? Which class and alignment did you prefer until now?
    JuliusBorisovThacoBellgorgonzola
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    1. yes, i actually almost always start from soa as i like much more to play at higher levels. RP wise the games have different plots and starting from soa or even in tob is perfectly sound.
    2. what matters are the "habits" of the player, for someone used to start every time from bg it can seem that without it something important is lost, but the same is true with some npcs, the first times that i did play without minsc or jaheira, that was always with me in the first play troughs, i felt that the game lacked of something, but it is not true.
    bg2 is a great game even without bg and without some canon npcs, all you have to do is break an habit.


    2. no super stats, pick a class that you are not good at playing. we tend to focus more on charname so many times we are happy of a less then optimal use of npcs (clerics used mainly as healers, thieves that are mainly door openers and trap disablers). having charname with very average or maybe less then average stats and in a class we have not yet mastered is a very good way to improve. RP is important, but this is a so complex game that there is much more then RP to enjoy.


    3. every player has his way to RP. i like to do it, but i hate when it becomes a too small cage in which i put myself. i like to have some freedom in RP, paladins are LG, but for me this does not mean that every pally i play must be lawful or good in the same way.
    a certain pally can be lawful because he try to adhere the best he can to the society laws or his deity ethos, one other can be lawful to what he perceives his mission and to his way to fight for goodness.
    about goodness itself how the result is tied to the means? even in RL the opinion about it can vary and 2 people can have completely different opinions. so a certain pally can avoid an evil way as he thinks that evil ways can only lead to evil results, but an other pally can accept a certain level of evilness ( like to hire an evil mercenary like korgan, use a certain rare metal to upgrade weapons instead of use it to create statues) as means to a good result. the really LG pally probably would never beat the game in most cases as to collaborate with thieves guilds or vampires to break not legally in a CW prison is surely not the legal way to solve the arrested imoen problem... but there are so many other classes to play and no special item is really needed to beat the game.


    4. in most of the play troughs i try different party compositions, sometimes with vanilla npcs, other times with them eekeepered into something other and/or with custom helpers, and see how they can work together as party synergy, use of the best items, versatility in tactics and global power. with them i often reload the main battles and fight them in completely different ways (with summons as meat shield or buffed tanks, mainly ranged, mlee or using magic, using magic mainly to buff the party or to damage the enemy or to defeat it in other ways with save or else spells, and on and over).
    other times i pick a class that i am not good at playing and enjoy to learn more on it, other times i like to play npcs that i seldom play or that don't have a good synergy just to do something different.


    5. and most important. you have your own way to like the game and to play it, probably is more useful to investigate what you prefer, what you have not yet tried but you want to try then to copy what the others do in the game, as their way is what gives more fun to them, but is not sure that it will do the same for you...
    to ask here what the others can do can only widen your horizons, but in the end what really matters is what you really like and what is becoming boring and repetitive in your own game playing, stick to the former and try something else for the latter.
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