Well, the character could have a strong sort of vigilante bent, let's say. Maybe reminiscent of the movies Death Wish and Taxi Driver. Then I think you could play him something akin to a paladin. His own personal code of ethics could involve taking it into his own hands to rid the wilderness of evil creatures. In a frontier wilderness such as the Sword Coast there is no law of the land (at least per canon for this period), so he could appoint himself judge, jury, and executioner. When he gets to a city he would have to strictly obey the laws, though.
It's sort of interesting to guess as what "the law" would be like in Beregost. The "governor" Kelddath would basically act like a self-appointed judge, I imagine. Being a Lathanderite his outlook should be humanistic, versus a hanging judge. In canon, Beregost has a city guard and is a vital trade hub along the Coast Way. There's a bit of a Wild West quality, but I think it would tend toward social order.
This should be a fun character concept to roleplay intensively, because you'd have the tension between what he grows accustomed to doing in the wilderness having to be put on a leash when in civilization. His slaughtering of evil creatures at will in the wilderness would potentiate his emerging Bhaal essence, one should think. So he's got to grapple with that a bit. A Fighter/Diviner like this should be intriguing to play. Anyway, cool idea to have the character regularly cast Know Alignment and take out evil characters, if that's the route you're taking.
See directly above! This character could be the type who decides that the hoard of evil creatures that are plaguing the Sword Coast need to be KOS. The Sword Coast is teaming with monsters and brigands that menace Good and Neutral travelers, caravans, and the few souls brave enough to attempt to settle there. There's no organized law out in the wilds, so the character becomes the law. But, as mentioned, since LN values civilized social order above all else, when in a city he would appreciate and follow the laws there--which may or may not tolerate KOS behavior of evil types, actually. In BG city it's conceivable that the Flaming Fist might tolerate it for a while; but then the PC is doing their job which makes them look bad, etc. And citizens would soon begin to complain that the character is a loose canon, etc.
But anyway, I think that would provide the justification for such a character to kill Xzar and Montaron after discerning that they are evil. (For all he knows those two could have been involved in the ambush the previous night. It was dark, confusing, etc.) He should however be consistent in KOSing all evil creatures that he identifies in the wilderness.
I suppose he would probably make an exception for evil characters who belong to caravans. Because they are at least supporting civilized order through their commerce.
Great concept. LN is a lot of fun to roleplay imo. The idea of you character dispensing vigilante justice as proposed by @Lemernis is how I would approach the character. I would use Detect Evil and Know Alignment a lot. Maybe you could allow your character to "find" the Ring of Wizardy and dedicate half your level 1 spells to Detect Evil.
One thing I'd add as an alternative to Lemernis' concept: your LN character could also adhere to a strict personal code without having much regard for the laws of the land. I played my Wizad Slayer in a similar way.
Grynne has little respect for the laws of the land, since those laws lack an in her eyes essential element for validity: the express assent by those subject to them. The laws of the land are not agreed upon by all, but imposed by a governing elite. Therefore any laws that go beyond the most fundamental principles of co-existence (such as to abstain from murder, rape, etc.), are subject to Grynne's careful scrutiny. She'll only respect any laws that she considers to be just and necessary. To give an example she won't act against the adherents of a banished belief system solely because there is a law banishing the religion; obviously the adherents won't have consented to that particular law.
This would mean that in the wilderness charname would kill at will and without having to think much. In urban areas, he/she would continue to carry out his/her agenda, but in a much more covert way in those cases where his/her ways might meet resistance from the autorhorities. For example entering places at night when there are no witnesses or creating bad publicity around a specific target so that no one will care about the target's death in 'suspicious cirumstances'.
@Blackraven, Detect Evil is a priest spell, and he's soloing a Fighter/Diviner. But Know Alignment is almost better, really. Red = evil, blue = neutral, and green = good. And what a great use of that rarely used spell for this game!
Thinking more on it, though, if such a character spoke with Xzar and Montaron then they state a plan to investigate the troubles at the Nashkel mines. The game doesn't elaborate, but if you're filling in the gaps with imagination Xzar would explain that miners are being killed there, so the investigation to solve that problem is something the PC would wholeheartedly support. I think he should not kill Xzar and Montaron if he does speak with them. At least according to the vigilante model I proposed.
But KOS without speaking to them (after discerning their alignment)? According to this concept I think you could swing it... But the more cool and calculating the character is, then the more discriminating he will be... He's not Chaotic (i.e., impulsive), remember... For a KOS mentality perhaps Wisdom should be around 9 for a character concept of this type?
@Lemernis, I see we were both mistaken: Detect Evil is a level 2 Mage spell (not a level 1 spell as I thought). So the idea of using the Ring of Wizardry for it won't work, I agree that Know Alignment is better, especially since they're both level 2 spells, although in unmodded versuons of the game Detect Evil is AoE and Know Alignment single target.
@Blackraven, According to both the BGEE and original manuals Detect Evil is not an arcane spell but rather a (level 2) priest spell. Do you have a mod installed that might have altered that?
Know Alignment is level 2. So no help from the RoW, unfortunately.
Hmm! Again, according to the manual it's not supposed to be a wizard spell.
I guess Detect Evil gives the chartacter the most bang for his buck, but RP-wise there's something kind of satisfying too about Know Alignment.
By the time the character makes it to BG city he can get the Amulet of Metaspell Influence which adds an additional spell slot at level 2. So that will help a little.
With SCS installed in BGEE there is no scroll of Detect Evil available at High Hedge. But sure enough, it is available at Sorcerous Sundries as a wizard spell. I honestly can't recall if this is a change that SCS makes or whether it is a feature of the vanilla game to begin with, that just got left out of the manual, or was later patched at some point by Bioware, etc.
@Scary, soloing a Transmuter (opposition school is Abjuration) would be almost insanely tough, I would think. Especially a no-reload game and with SCS installed--Good lord. That would increase difficulty beyond fun for me.
I'm going to take my own Fighter 3/Transmuter into BG2EE eventually, with SCS installed; but I'll have a full party with other arcane casters and it won't be no-reload.
But anyway, @Sion is running with a Fighter/Diviner, and I look forward to hearing how he does!
With SCS installed in BGEE there is no scroll of Detect Evil available at High Hedge. But sure enough, it is available at Sorcerous Sundries as a wizard spell. I honestly can't recall if this is a change that SCS makes or whether it is a feature of the vanilla game to begin with, that just got left out of the manual, or was later patched at some point by Bioware, etc.
In unmodded BGEE the spell is available at the SS.
Any that makes me forego Abjuration. I like the "dispelling" spells far too much to give them up!
Interesting, I don't really like these spells that much, I just feel I need them all the time in BG. The more I think about it the more I feel like trying a Transmuter (probably a Thief multi though). I know that Alesia from the Bioware forums once completed a solo Transmuter run, but my knowledge of the game pales compared to hers.
It's going rather well for my Fighter/Diviner. I went solo to start with but then ended up picking up Alora and Branwen to try them out in BGEE and see how they are. Alora is incredible powerful and by far the best 'thief' in the game, she's really surprised me and is doing amazing. Branwen on the other side is just plain mediocre, she isn't good at anything but she isn't horrible either. I actually find her very boring.
I'm level 3/3 right now and trying to gather up money for the items i'll need. With SCS i'm really scraping the barrel for every gold coin as most of the 'normal' fights are quite difficult now. While i was clearing out the half-ogres for my medium shield +1 Alora sneaked away and stole both of Drizzt Scimitars. After lecturing her we went back to try finding Drizzt to return his Scimitars, he was nowhere to be found and then Alora tried to salvage our relationship by saying we should SELL them so he won't know it was us... Branwen wasn't too keen on that logic but we ended up selling the Scimitars as quickly as possible.
Alora had 155 pickpocket (105 + potion of genius + master thievery) so got all 4 pickpockets successful. So far this no-reload SCS is moving forward the speed of a snail, but it's fun and i'm really going for every single coin/fetch quest.
Re: Branwen, f you have the patience for it, once you get to BG city and get the Dex tome you can dual her to Thief; and then she is extremely versatile and fun to use.
Re: Branwen, f you have the patience for it, once you get to BG city and get the Dex tome you can dual her to Thief; and then she is extremely versatile and fun to use.
By the way, what happened with Xzar and Montaron?
CHARNAME ended up ignoring them while Alora robbed them blind.
Even dual classing Branwen i can't see any saving feature with her. She's a much more boring and worse character than both Viconia and Yeslick.
For BG2, i made a gnome fighter/illusionist as i thought having an additional spell was cool... then i realized they can't use necromancy spells, including the great abi-dalzim horrid wilting which i abuse SO much, i rerolled instantly
She's not a strong character, it's true. As a pure class cleric Branwen's not a strong meleer. Her Spiritual Hammer special ability is pretty worthless. And her effusive personality can actually wear a little thin at times.
I rather like Branwen. Her banters can be quite amusing (IMO, YMMV), she's a decent divine caster, and (perhaps contrary to @Lemernis) I find she's capable of being useful in melee. To get value out of her in melee, don't expect her to deal a huge amount of damage (although even so, she'll rack up some kills), but give her heavy armour (and rings, and buffs, etc.) and let her run into melee to attract the enemy attacks, then kill the enemies from range while they're struggling to get past Branwen's AC. Used this way, she works very well in partnership with Coran (whom you might want to keep in light armour to use his Thief skills ... or for that matter, Kivan or Minsc, if you want them in light armour to use their Stealth).
@Lemernis - Detect Evil has been available as an arcane spell all along (i.e. since original BG1) and has always been available as a divine spell as well. In original BG1, however, the arcane version of Detect Evil was accidentally omitted from the manual, and then had an on-screen description error which said it was level 1 arcane when actually it's level 2 arcane (although it's level 1 divine). BG1ee hasn't actually changed the spell, it has simply corrected the erroneous documentation and description.
@Gallowglass Yeah, it's not so much Branwen herself as the limitations for a pure class cleric. They get one attack per round and their thac0 progression is underwhelming, which pales in comparison with the warrior classes. And BG1/EE Cleric spells are perhaps the weakest from among the spellcasting classes (at least for my taste; although Druid spells are about as unimpressive at low level). The cleric specializations at least offer a little something by way of special abilities.
By comparison with other clerics in the game, Yeslick is Fighter/Cleric so he has higher APR, he can deal more damage (better thac0), gets more HP, plus his Con is great (he also gets a free Dispel). Viconia has insanely high Dex which makes her nearly untouchable on the front line in ankheg armor, so she can tank and cast Hold Person, Doom, etc. usually without being interrupted by a hit; plus she has high MR as a drow. And the multi-class clerics are actually great: Tiax and Quayle both bring a lot of unique talents and spells.
I'm not saying that Branwen can't be used to provide adequate service to the party, but rather compared with other NPCs they're typically offering more.
She's not a strong character, it's true. As a pure class cleric Branwen's not a strong meleer. Her Spiritual Hammer special ability is pretty worthless. And her effusive personality can actually wear a little thin at times.
A few interesting, if totally pointless facts about her Spiritual Hammer are that regardless of her level it lasts for 10 turns (600 seconds). It also becomes a +2 weapon at level 6 (instead of the usual level 7) and is instant casting.
Branwen takes time to get better, but the same could be said for Viconia. Her main advantages over yeslick is her ability to use wands and scrolls (Yeslick only has 7 intelligence) and obviously the fact that you don't have to wait until cloakwood to pick her up. Wand of Sleep/Wand of the Heavens being probably the two best wands for her.
Her main advantage over Viconia is that she gets access to Holy Smite (which is basically like the cleric version of Glitterdust). Plus she has more health.
I have tried a few specialist mages in bg2 no reload games. All of them met a horrible end some time or another, but here are my observations:
Necromancer:surprisingly good. Losing mirror image is bad but it is survivable. Invisibility potions are plenty for emergency purposes. I don't use mislead/project image/simulacrum because I find them too cheesy. So I only missed mirror image, which was OK for me.
Diviner:Cool concept but losing familiar was hard. So diviners lack the hit point bonuses and utility the familiar provides. Other than that, losing summons is no big deal, you can still animate dead and create mordy swords, which are the better summons anyway. Never was a fan of powerwords either.
Conjurer:Losing diviniation is no big deal, there are glasses of identication, Keldorn's true sight, Jan's detect illusion ability etc. You really don't lose much unless you solo.
Transmuter:Horrible. Dreadful. Alteration spells are great and all but abjuration is vital in BG2. Losing abjuration makes you unable to deal with enemy mages effectively unless you use polymorph self:mustard jelly all the time which is boring and cheesy IMHO.
Invoker:Losing enchantment won't hurt much, I thought. There are no spells higher than lvl 5 anyway, I thought. But in the early to mid BG2, enchantment spells are awesome sauce. Confusion and especially chaos are game winner spells. Sure, a sunfire can do a lot of damage but it won't win the battle for you. Also, you risk killing your own party and placing your mage to the middle of enemies for the most effective sunfire blast is very dangerous. A single chaos spell thrown from safety WILL win the battle when you are ambushed by Slavers and the like. Or greater malison+emotion combo will knock out most humanoid enemies.
I really really missed enchantment spells while I played invoker and wished I hadn't chosen this speciality. Enchantment spells are serious business, if the enemy fails the save, you win big time. I think that's why enchantment school does not have higher lvl spells than 5. Heck, even lvl 5 feeblemind spell is a dragon killer, as effective as a finger of death in its effect. (that's a lvl 7 spell from necromancy, a much more power ambitious school, too!) The more I played an invoker, the more I fell in love with the enchantment school.
Mayhaps I should play an enchanter next time, losing direct damage spells are bad but a mage can still be effective without direct damage spells. And the game's best damage spells are not evocation, (flame arrow, skull trap, horrid wilting. and HLAs like Dragons breath) anyway.
I never went for abjurer, because of the coolest spell ever:time stop. I don't, I DON'T want to lose time stop!
She's not a strong character, it's true. As a pure class cleric Branwen's not a strong meleer. Her Spiritual Hammer special ability is pretty worthless. And her effusive personality can actually wear a little thin at times.
... about her Spiritual Hammer... regardless of her level it lasts for 10 turns (600 seconds). It also becomes a +2 weapon at level 6 (instead of the usual level 7) and is instant casting.
Thanks, actually that's really good to know if another party member is using Ashideena (unlikely, but it might happen); or if I'm roleplaying intensively, avoiding meta-gaming, minimal-reloading, and the party opts not to seek the bounty for Bassilus. If Branwen doesn't have Ashideena I would definitely have her use her Spiritual Hammer special ability.
Here is an example of a Diviner but while i love the whole idea of the Diviner, i don't feel that losing out on Conjuration would be that big of a deal.
It wouldn't, as long as you don't plan on using Black Blade of Disaster (I don't. It's not as good as it seems).
Fighter/Diviner didn't make it? (Looks like from another thread that you're gearing up for another run.) SCS no-reload is so unforgiving. Especially with the improved boss encounters.
I have actually uninstalled most of those for my Fighter 3/Transmuter and three less-than-uber NPCs. When it becomes a matter of outlasting enemy spell buffs that I'm unable to counter it actually becomes un-fun for me. But then again I've never particularly excelled at powergaming strategies to begin with.
He died in BG2, sadly. I went to do the Astral Prison early and ended up paying for it. SCS doesn't make that much of a difference with BG1 (in my opinion), but once it comes to BG2 it's a completely different game.
Comments
It's sort of interesting to guess as what "the law" would be like in Beregost. The "governor" Kelddath would basically act like a self-appointed judge, I imagine. Being a Lathanderite his outlook should be humanistic, versus a hanging judge. In canon, Beregost has a city guard and is a vital trade hub along the Coast Way. There's a bit of a Wild West quality, but I think it would tend toward social order.
This should be a fun character concept to roleplay intensively, because you'd have the tension between what he grows accustomed to doing in the wilderness having to be put on a leash when in civilization. His slaughtering of evil creatures at will in the wilderness would potentiate his emerging Bhaal essence, one should think. So he's got to grapple with that a bit. A Fighter/Diviner like this should be intriguing to play. Anyway, cool idea to have the character regularly cast Know Alignment and take out evil characters, if that's the route you're taking.
But anyway, I think that would provide the justification for such a character to kill Xzar and Montaron after discerning that they are evil. (For all he knows those two could have been involved in the ambush the previous night. It was dark, confusing, etc.) He should however be consistent in KOSing all evil creatures that he identifies in the wilderness.
I suppose he would probably make an exception for evil characters who belong to caravans. Because they are at least supporting civilized order through their commerce.
One thing I'd add as an alternative to Lemernis' concept: your LN character could also adhere to a strict personal code without having much regard for the laws of the land. I played my Wizad Slayer in a similar way.
Grynne has little respect for the laws of the land, since those laws lack an in her eyes essential element for validity: the express assent by those subject to them. The laws of the land are not agreed upon by all, but imposed by a governing elite. Therefore any laws that go beyond the most fundamental principles of co-existence (such as to abstain from murder, rape, etc.), are subject to Grynne's careful scrutiny. She'll only respect any laws that she considers to be just and necessary. To give an example she won't act against the adherents of a banished belief system solely because there is a law banishing the religion; obviously the adherents won't have consented to that particular law.
This would mean that in the wilderness charname would kill at will and without having to think much. In urban areas, he/she would continue to carry out his/her agenda, but in a much more covert way in those cases where his/her ways might meet resistance from the autorhorities. For example entering places at night when there are no witnesses or creating bad publicity around a specific target so that no one will care about the target's death in 'suspicious cirumstances'.
Thinking more on it, though, if such a character spoke with Xzar and Montaron then they state a plan to investigate the troubles at the Nashkel mines. The game doesn't elaborate, but if you're filling in the gaps with imagination Xzar would explain that miners are being killed there, so the investigation to solve that problem is something the PC would wholeheartedly support. I think he should not kill Xzar and Montaron if he does speak with them. At least according to the vigilante model I proposed.
But KOS without speaking to them (after discerning their alignment)? According to this concept I think you could swing it... But the more cool and calculating the character is, then the more discriminating he will be... He's not Chaotic (i.e., impulsive), remember... For a KOS mentality perhaps Wisdom should be around 9 for a character concept of this type?
Know Alignment is level 2. So no help from the RoW, unfortunately.
The 4th spell (top right) is Detect Evil. You can buy it at the Sorcerous Sundries and probably the High Hedge.
I guess Detect Evil gives the chartacter the most bang for his buck, but RP-wise there's something kind of satisfying too about Know Alignment.
By the time the character makes it to BG city he can get the Amulet of Metaspell Influence which adds an additional spell slot at level 2. So that will help a little.
I'm going to take my own Fighter 3/Transmuter into BG2EE eventually, with SCS installed; but I'll have a full party with other arcane casters and it won't be no-reload.
But anyway, @Sion is running with a Fighter/Diviner, and I look forward to hearing how he does!
The more I think about it the more I feel like trying a Transmuter (probably a Thief multi though). I know that Alesia from the Bioware forums once completed a solo Transmuter run, but my knowledge of the game pales compared to hers.
I'm level 3/3 right now and trying to gather up money for the items i'll need. With SCS i'm really scraping the barrel for every gold coin as most of the 'normal' fights are quite difficult now. While i was clearing out the half-ogres for my medium shield +1 Alora sneaked away and stole both of Drizzt Scimitars. After lecturing her we went back to try finding Drizzt to return his Scimitars, he was nowhere to be found and then Alora tried to salvage our relationship by saying we should SELL them so he won't know it was us... Branwen wasn't too keen on that logic but we ended up selling the Scimitars as quickly as possible.
Alora had 155 pickpocket (105 + potion of genius + master thievery) so got all 4 pickpockets successful. So far this no-reload SCS is moving forward the speed of a snail, but it's fun and i'm really going for every single coin/fetch quest.
Re: Branwen, f you have the patience for it, once you get to BG city and get the Dex tome you can dual her to Thief; and then she is extremely versatile and fun to use.
By the way, what happened with Xzar and Montaron?
Even dual classing Branwen i can't see any saving feature with her. She's a much more boring and worse character than both Viconia and Yeslick.
@Lemernis - Detect Evil has been available as an arcane spell all along (i.e. since original BG1) and has always been available as a divine spell as well. In original BG1, however, the arcane version of Detect Evil was accidentally omitted from the manual, and then had an on-screen description error which said it was level 1 arcane when actually it's level 2 arcane (although it's level 1 divine). BG1ee hasn't actually changed the spell, it has simply corrected the erroneous documentation and description.
By comparison with other clerics in the game, Yeslick is Fighter/Cleric so he has higher APR, he can deal more damage (better thac0), gets more HP, plus his Con is great (he also gets a free Dispel). Viconia has insanely high Dex which makes her nearly untouchable on the front line in ankheg armor, so she can tank and cast Hold Person, Doom, etc. usually without being interrupted by a hit; plus she has high MR as a drow. And the multi-class clerics are actually great: Tiax and Quayle both bring a lot of unique talents and spells.
I'm not saying that Branwen can't be used to provide adequate service to the party, but rather compared with other NPCs they're typically offering more.
Branwen takes time to get better, but the same could be said for Viconia. Her main advantages over yeslick is her ability to use wands and scrolls (Yeslick only has 7 intelligence) and obviously the fact that you don't have to wait until cloakwood to pick her up. Wand of Sleep/Wand of the Heavens being probably the two best wands for her.
Her main advantage over Viconia is that she gets access to Holy Smite (which is basically like the cleric version of Glitterdust). Plus she has more health.
Necromancer:surprisingly good. Losing mirror image is bad but it is survivable. Invisibility potions are plenty for emergency purposes. I don't use mislead/project image/simulacrum because I find them too cheesy. So I only missed mirror image, which was OK for me.
Diviner:Cool concept but losing familiar was hard. So diviners lack the hit point bonuses and utility the familiar provides. Other than that, losing summons is no big deal, you can still animate dead and create mordy swords, which are the better summons anyway. Never was a fan of powerwords either.
Conjurer:Losing diviniation is no big deal, there are glasses of identication, Keldorn's true sight, Jan's detect illusion ability etc. You really don't lose much unless you solo.
Transmuter:Horrible. Dreadful. Alteration spells are great and all but abjuration is vital in BG2. Losing abjuration makes you unable to deal with enemy mages effectively unless you use polymorph self:mustard jelly all the time which is boring and cheesy IMHO.
Invoker:Losing enchantment won't hurt much, I thought. There are no spells higher than lvl 5 anyway, I thought. But in the early to mid BG2, enchantment spells are awesome sauce. Confusion and especially chaos are game winner spells. Sure, a sunfire can do a lot of damage but it won't win the battle for you. Also, you risk killing your own party and placing your mage to the middle of enemies for the most effective sunfire blast is very dangerous. A single chaos spell thrown from safety WILL win the battle when you are ambushed by Slavers and the like. Or greater malison+emotion combo will knock out most humanoid enemies.
I really really missed enchantment spells while I played invoker and wished I hadn't chosen this speciality. Enchantment spells are serious business, if the enemy fails the save, you win big time. I think that's why enchantment school does not have higher lvl spells than 5. Heck, even lvl 5 feeblemind spell is a dragon killer, as effective as a finger of death in its effect. (that's a lvl 7 spell from necromancy, a much more power ambitious school, too!) The more I played an invoker, the more I fell in love with the enchantment school.
Mayhaps I should play an enchanter next time, losing direct damage spells are bad but a mage can still be effective without direct damage spells. And the game's best damage spells are not evocation, (flame arrow, skull trap, horrid wilting. and HLAs like Dragons breath) anyway.
I never went for abjurer, because of the coolest spell ever:time stop. I don't, I DON'T want to lose time stop!
Here is an example of a Diviner but while i love the whole idea of the Diviner, i don't feel that losing out on Conjuration would be that big of a deal.
It wouldn't, as long as you don't plan on using Black Blade of Disaster (I don't. It's not as good as it seems).
I have actually uninstalled most of those for my Fighter 3/Transmuter and three less-than-uber NPCs. When it becomes a matter of outlasting enemy spell buffs that I'm unable to counter it actually becomes un-fun for me. But then again I've never particularly excelled at powergaming strategies to begin with.