Skip to content

Playing IWD as BG characters

Back when IWD was initially released more than a decade ago, I basically treated the game as a "spiritual sequel" to BG, and I used to "recreate" characters from the BG series to be in my IWD party. For example, I once did a playthrough with Safana as the party leader, imagining that she recruited a bunch of "strong men" and continued her swashbuckling adventures after the events in BG1. I also did a playthrough using Kirian's party that you meet in the basilisk area. I felt that doing this gave greater meaning to characters and events in BG1, and consequently, also gave greater meaning to my own BG character's actions.

Then one day I checked the dates in my respective journals, and realized that the events in IWD take place about 100 years before the events in BG. And that ended that. :-(

But now, with the upcoming release of IWD:EE, I've been thinking of other possible ways to tie the two games together. For example, I've been thinking of playing IWD with Tamah as a party member - she's the fighter-looking character that you meet in the basilisk area and release from petrification. She's apparently been petrified for quite some time (the submerged and derelict house that you come across south of Beregost is hers), so I imagine that perhaps she actually lived during the IWD era, and has spent the subsequent decades "frozen" in petrified form after having encountered some basilisks on the way home from IWD. I'm also thinking of using Ariabel as a party member - she's the paladin referred to in the Harrower's description, who eventually died heroically while saving the realms from a vampire queen named Zerafex.

Anyone else have any similar ideas and/or intentions?
elminsterLordRumfishBlackravenButtercheeseJuliusBorisovRavenslightGrammarsaladIsewein

Comments

  • LordRumfishLordRumfish Member Posts: 937
    Well, you can bet some of the concepts from my rerollitis in BG:EE will be put to use as characters in IWD:EE, although that's more like an alternate universe than any sort of timeline continuity. I applaud you for finding some corner cases that could be possible for inclusion in the canon sense. Perhaps a wild mage could jump 100 years into the past... mayhap CHARNAME or Neera could leap away from the BG timeline to visit IWD. If you aren't afraid of looking into monstrous characters using mods... what about the succubus who was trapped in Durlag's Tower? How long was she there for? Some elves might have been around back then, but immortal entities make for compelling possibilities.
    SharGuidesMyHandJuliusBorisov
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    Well, it is canon that Xan was already around for IWD and I bet a bunch of the other elves could have been there, too. Heck, you could play a pre-Greycloak and pre-moonblade Xan, a young man going on his first adventure, trying to find his missing cousin. Hey can't you find a moonblade in the game? Or was that IWD2? You could make that one Xan's moonblade :D Oh boy, I smell *great* fanfiction material ~

    I personally connected my main IWD playthrough to my main Neverwinter Nights 2 playthrough, making my main character from the first one the grandmother of my main character of the second one.

    So, I don't know, you could maybe headcanon some ancestors of characeters from BG?
    And, if you wait for Legends of Baldur's Gate and we see how exactly Minsc is still the same age as back in BG even though he should be dead when the story takes place, you might be able to bring him in as well, if he indeed became a time traveler.
    SharGuidesMyHandJuliusBorisovbooinyoureyesIsewein
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579
    edited September 2014

    Well, you can bet some of the concepts from my rerollitis in BG:EE will be put to use as characters in IWD:EE, although that's more like an alternate universe than any sort of timeline continuity.

    The same is true for me - I'm looking forward to making use of all those unused portraits and aborted character creations that I had originally intended for BG:EE.

    Perhaps a wild mage could jump 100 years into the past... mayhap CHARNAME or Neera could leap away from the BG timeline to visit IWD.

    image

    If you aren't afraid of looking into monstrous characters using mods...

    I'm definitely interested in doing that too (regardless of whether it ties into BG), but I'm basically technologically illiterate and merely glancing over the directions on how to create a modded character makes my eyes bleed.
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    You could play as an elf- xan was already mentioned, firebead elven hair comes to mind, or maybe Thalantyr(I love that guy) One of the old guys back in their adventuring days.


    Yes... That could work very nicely, actually. Hehehe... I might do that.
    ButtercheeseJairyannaBelgarathMTH
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579

    Well, it is canon that Xan was already around for IWD and I bet a bunch of the other elves could have been there, too.

    So Xan has a century's-worth of adventures under his belt, and yet he still only starts at level 2 when you meet him. :-)
    ButtercheeseThe_New_Romance
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    image
    LordRumfishAlexisisinneedelminsterbooinyoureyes
  • NimranNimran Member Posts: 4,875
    @Buttercheese‌ I think the moonblade was in IWD2, when the party saves the village from the orcs at Shaengarne River. As long as you weren't evil, she would give it to you after you find it.
    Buttercheese
  • KingGhidorahKingGhidorah Member Posts: 201
    Actually, what I did in Icewind dale 2 (which is set about 55 / 60 isn years before BG) is solo it with a sorcerer named Gorion. It was quite literally a blast and the timeline seems to justify a 20-25 year old Gorion embarking on his first adventure.
    ronaldoElrandir
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    Or it could be like Neverending Journey Mod... which I forget how it went, but somehow you start BG2 going to Icewind Dale.
    Grammarsalad
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    edited September 2014
    Right now I'm so excited that I've found out I cannot think seriously... Even about the question you asked, @SharGuidesMyHand‌

    I'm just HAPPY! Maybe I need a few days in order to start thinking constructively again ;)
    RavenslightjackjackGotural
  • ElrandirElrandir Member Posts: 1,664
    edited September 2014
    Like Meagloth said, you could take ol' Firebead Elvenhair or Thalantyr. Those two were my first thought. @booinyoureyes‌, you love Firebead, now you can PLAY him! =D
    booinyoureyesJuliusBorisov
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    edited September 2014
    Here, have the timeline:

    Icewind Dale - 1281DR
    Icewind Dale 2 - 1310DR
    Baldur’s Gate series - 1368/ 1369 DR
    Neverwinter Nights series - 1372 to 1374 DR

    Hrrrm, I am actually tempted to bring Ammon Jerro from NWN2 into my IWD:EE playthrough now ~ Or Daeghun and his wife, maybe.
    Hey @Dee‌, can we get warlocks as an additional class, please? :3
    JuliusBorisovchrstnmonksLordRumfish
  • WebShamanWebShaman Member Posts: 490
    A young Jahira should also be possible (half-elf) - and so too the dwarves from BG.
    JuliusBorisov
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    Lord Jierdan Firkraag *is* a dragon.
    If he was here right now, he would roast you where you stand for this insolence :P
    Kamigoroshijackjack
  • NimranNimran Member Posts: 4,875
    Nimran said:

    @Buttercheese‌ I think the moonblade was in IWD2, when the party saves the village from the orcs at Shaengarne River. As long as you weren't evil, she would give it to you after you find it.

    By 'she' I mean the quest giver.
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    Ha! this is great. This is like the reverse of my Black Pits ideas http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/25664/black-pit-1-party-of-younger-npcs-from-the-black-isle-fr-games
    Elrandir said:

    Like Meagloth said, you could take ol' Firebead Elvenhair or Thalantyr. Those two were my first thought. @booinyoureyes‌, you love Firebead, now you can PLAY him! =D

    @Elrandir‌ excellent idea, and will certainly do so!
    jackjackElrandirJuliusBorisovlolien
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    @booinyoureyes‌:
    Timeline wise, that doesn't even make remotely sense x'D
    booinyoureyes
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    Fun?! OUTRAGEOUS!
    ElrandirbooinyoureyesJuliusBorisovjackjack
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579
    WebShaman said:

    A young Jahira should also be possible (half-elf) - and so too the dwarves from BG.

    Mencar Pebblecrusher, here I come!!!
    Arduljackjack
Sign In or Register to comment.