Ok... you're wondering what my deal is. It's pretty wierd, but i'll try to explain it.

I'm a perfectionist... It's really a sick sick problem to have. My problem with video games is that I can no longer continue to play them, unless I feel like i'm doing everything right.

For example... when I first bought BG2... I made a female elf mage. I was happy playing the game... until I started to read up on forums and spoilers (totally ruin experience for me).

Cause when I started reading about things... I came to realize that I was doing quests wrong... like I killed the bastard who was cheating on Keldorn... and I was TOTALLY mixing evil and good characters. Plus... I realized that having this female mage as my main character may not have been so wise since there are so many NPC mages in the game. I also ended up in ch3 and left so many other quests behind.

It frustrates me more than you think... So I said "f*ck it" i'm starting over and i'm doing it right.

But then when you start over, and you go through the dungeon, you realize how boring it's gonna be doing it all over again. But I sucked it up and did it, until i realized that my new choice for main character sucked, cause now since Viconia is evil, I can't use her cause my party is good... and I want to have a powerful cleric and not geeky anomen.


so i start over with the cleric this time... and i'm playing and playing... (bored as hell doing it over), until i realize how much time i am wasting with BG2 playing sh*t over and over again. SO i delete the game.

Then I month later, i'm bored... i install it again. I make a good barbarian and say to myself "i will do it, no backing out, i will beat the game". I get so far.... I complete almost EVERY quest in chapter 2, I even beat up the gangs that chill in the hotels and talk sh*t. But then when i stopped playing for a week and a half and came back,i was getting mad at my barbarian, he just wasn't cool enough for me. He didn't fit in =).

start over again...
I decided, i'm gonna go ALL evil this time. I make an evil fighter, grab all the evil characters, but it breaks my heart telling on the slave and then going to have to kill him. i just CAN'T be evil. =) But i LOVVVE the evil characters... viconia, edwin, and keldorn.

Now i guess you're wondering what i'm getting at.

I need to get interest back in this game... and devise some strategy for a well-rounded party that I will be happy with. I want to be able to go in and play it... and not feeel like i made the wrong choice in a couple days. hehe cope with me.

What NPCs should i choose to be happy? what main character should i use =P

help... lol

Hehehe i almost had same as you
Restarted Irenicuses dungeon hundred times (at least!) and im bored to death of it but still started new game again (SoA). Now im berserker and i already played with Assassin, Ranger, Paladin etc. About the quests i know, same here sometimes. Restarting game a lot. Just wanted to say this happens to me also. Not now though. I tried to play evil guy cos, yeah evil guys are so damn goood but when i started i couldnt continue. I felt bad saying and doing this i didnt like.
My usuall party was:
ME
Minsc (always)
Anomen or Keldorn (or both)
Yoshimo
Jaheira (always)
Nalia (almost always)

<font color="red"><h2>WELCOME TO IW, BOTH OF YOU! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] </h2></font>

<font color="gold">Yeah, I have the same problem as you. I always want to have the most perfect party, so I start over and over again.
Now, there are MANY very good characters to choose between, this is just one of them.
I suggest you start as some paladin, are go through the game as good. Now this may be a good party:

You (paladin)
Keldorn
Minsc
Aerie
Nalia
Yoshi/Imoen

But I suggest that you switch NPC's often, to get all quests, and to explore all their abilities.</font>


see ya!

[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: Sir Exxon ]</p>

I always play a neutral character and do quests however i feel like (good or evil) and have a mixed party. I used to have me (theif), vicconia, jaheira, edwin, imoen, minsc and boo!

Well, err... You scare me [img]smile.gif[/img]

Though, I have had a similiar experience myself...

First I bought the game and kinda got tired at De'Arnise Keep(before the fun kicks in).

Then I got the game again, for the second time and played all summer. To be noted; Ive been told Im slow at these games, but I have fun so to hell with it ;)
After summer was over I couldnt play as much as before and it ended with me stopping. I did, however, save my savegames, since the dread of going through (especially) Irenicus' Dungeon and the start of the game, just for the second time almost gave me nightmares [img]smile.gif[/img]

However, my PC went down and I had kinda forgotten about BG2, so I didnt think about it any further.

...Then! I got the game again and thats around where I am now, close anyways. I had fun playing it, although not as much as that summer and all was great(yea right, life sucks [img]tongue.gif[/img] )
.....Then! Throne of Bhaal and... the Wild Mage!

So thats four times... I am ready for Hell now [img]smile.gif[/img]

i had kind of the same problem where i just didnt think the npc's clicked as a party so i made up a bunch of new characers and made my own party...just pick up one or two of the regular npc's at a time for their quests and you can still have your perfect party

Andy the assassin wrote:
I always play a neutral character and do quests however i feel like (good or evil) and have a mixed party. I used to have me (theif), vicconia, jaheira, edwin, imoen, minsc and boo!

How can you have Minsc and Edwin in your party? Minsc will beat the crap out of Edwins kneecaps (or the other way around). They are rival enemies mate.

Yes, sad you cant have both Minsc and Edwin, but then again, it balances things out [img]smile.gif[/img]

And sure... Minsc sucks, but... Boo, the mighty space hamster! Beware!

And nah... Minsc doesnt sucks, just Boo that adds the cool appeal... ;)
... I go now

<font color="gold">There is a way you can have both Minsc and Edwin in your party.
Go to Baldurdash, and you will find a patch which will do that you can have all NPC's in your party.
I have forgotten the name of it, though.</font>


see ya!

Ok, we'll this is what I figure...

You guys tell me what to do...

i DEFINITELY wants viconia and edwin. So I have 3 choices left...
I also want Korgan cause he's a badass. 2 left

Now i heard that minsc and edwin can't be together, so forget about minsc.

So now I have 2 NPC choices...
I guess maybe towards the end, i'll definitely get Imoen cause she's a main char and all.... but who should I use in her replacement for the meantime? I HATE nalia, please don't say that. She pisses me off... just like anomen.

I think I would go for Mazzy.... ok.. so I have mazzy.

One more choice left (this is when it get's critical).

I guess maybe yoshimo... cause yoshimo will be a temp thief until i get imoen back.

THERE! I did it!. (i've done this many many times just to see it fail again).

Ok... so i got
Korgan, Mazzy, Edwin, Viconia, Yoshimo/Imoen... and i'm set?

No not yet... what should my main char be??
i'm not lacking any mage power... so scratch that. I got 2 good fighters.... a good cleric.... yoshimo/imoen have thief covered....

what do you think??? (explain why you pick so that i can feel good about it =) ).

Thanks for the assistance guys.

and btw... if I use this group of people... i am going to have gameplay problems? I know if i got over 18 rep the evils will leave. So i won't do that... but will these characters split up for others reasons (good and evil)? Is there a non-cheating way to stop that? Or do i only have to worry about minsc and edwin?

Thanks again.

<font color="gold">Hmm, Mazzy is lawful good, Edwin is Chaotic Evil. This may be a problem.
Lets see, you have cleric, mage, thief and fighters. But only two of the fighters!
It would be better to have 3 tankers. So I suggest you use a kensai, and then maybe dual it later to some spellcaster. The kensai/mage is very powerful!</font>


see ya!

Then how come when people offer suggestions... they mix the evil and good characters all the time.

How will I know if 2 characters are a bad mix... are mazzy and edwin destined to cause each other to leave the party?? that would suck.

What should i do.

<font color="gold">Hmm, I dont know if anyone will be forced to leave the party, I just thought that since you have 3 evil characters it might be a problem.
Not sure, though.
So if you want to follow the sure path, I would suggest that you replace Mazzy with maybe Jaheira or Anomen.
Well, not sure about Anomen. He proclaims to be good, but his alignment is lawful neutral.</font>


see ya!

ok, so instead of maz, i'll get jaheria. i'll have a decent fighter plus another cleric. perfect.

So i guess that means that my main character better be bulked up.

What do you think? I hate multiclassing... or dualclassing. I want something pure... what do you think?? i'm thinking maybe an archer.

Archers are good, from what I've heard, Ralph. FWIW, my experience with BG2 was much the same as yours...I've started and restarted the freaking game so many times you wouldn't believe it. I'm currently playing a CG Berserker dualled to a Thief and will finish the game with this character.

It's best to be a neutral character if you want both good and evil NPC's in your party. If you want Edwin, drop Minsc and pick up Valygar; he'll go with ANYONE. So will Haer'Dalis, Jaheira, Anomen, and Jan; all being neutrals. I don't know about Mazzy, but she probably will, too. Aerie will NOT go with either Viconia or Korgan (she leaves on Korgan, from what I've heard), Minsc will not go with Edwin, but the rest I think will stay...as long as your rep doesn't get too high or too low. The "too high" is probably more to be concerned about, in this game, as it's very highly biased towards "good" rather than "evil". I'm playing an "all good" party so it's no real problem for me, but the evil guys WILL leave if rep gets up to 19 or more. There are ways of lowering it, though...

For me, the game seemed to be a mishmash of clues that went nowhere, people hinting at stuff and then not delivering the "goods", etc., etc., and a bunch of running around on random quests that made no sense...in other words, I didn't understand any storyline until I got past Chapter 3. After Chapter 3, it starts taking off like a roller coaster.

Hang in there! It *IS* worth it, although it takes forty freaking forevers to get to it.

Back to the subject: if you're looking for a "tank" character, try Kensai or Berserker...I personally like Berserker because of the "Enrage" function that virtually makes you immune to any sort of mental or domination attack, or as a Paladin, either Cavalier or Undead Slayer. If you go with a Thief, the Swashbuckler kit is great, except you can't backstab (Swashbuckler is more of a enhanced fighter thief; more like a thief-ranger than anything else.)

-Sazerac

[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: Sazerac ]</p>

Your evil!
Now I feel all like playing BG2 over again [img]smile.gif[/img]

But thats nothing a trip through Irenicus' Dungeon wont fix...

Ermm... Just WHY did they make the beginning so incredibly annoying?

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Arduin:
Your evil!
Now I feel all like playing BG2 over again [img]smile.gif[/img]

But thats nothing a trip through Irenicus' Dungeon wont fix...

Ermm... Just WHY did they make the beginning so incredibly annoying?<hr></blockquote>

I've asked myself that 100 times, Arduin. Trust me, all will be revealed in good time...but you have to get past Chapter 3! :D

Cheers,
-Sazerac

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ralph:
Then how come when people offer suggestions... they mix the evil and good characters all the time.

How will I know if 2 characters are a bad mix... are mazzy and edwin destined to cause each other to leave the party?? that would suck.

What should i do.<hr></blockquote>

Stop worrying. ;) I've run good/neutral, evil/neutral, and mixed parties through SoA and ToB, and never ran into the conflicts others have. Either I was extremely lucky, or I succeeded because I kept my rep from getting very low or very low with a mixed group. I figured that if anybody complained but stayed, they'd be more likely to get stressed when the party included somebody of the opposite alignment--almost as though that disliked party NPC was somehow responsible for the party's rep predicament.

I'm not saying it was easy, but it worked out, and a group that included Aerie, Minsc, Edwin, Korgan, Jan and my PC lived happily...well, they lived, in any case. :D

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: fable ]</p>

I agree, just WHY did they make the beginning so annoying? Couldn't they have added a little prologue BEFORE you get caught by Irenicus? BG1 was much better in that respect, you could walk around, try out your characters, before getting into the action. I've tried very very many characters, but am sticking with the one I made first (an elven archer). Archer is COOL, I agree [img]smile.gif[/img] . What the game lacks is a single-class thief who stays for the whole game, or a single-class non-evil mage (not a problem since you have Edwin). I generally play with an all-good party (rep 20 [img]smile.gif[/img] ), my current party setup is me (Archer), Jaheira, Minsc, Boo ;) , Imoen and Aerie, I'm thinking of picking up Mazzy for a tank.

Usually my party is:
Me
Anomen (or Keldorn if my character is not a Paladin)
Aerie
Minsc
Jan (or Imoen)
Jaheira
It is your choice!

No no.
I liked the intro(Irenicus' Dungeon) the FIRST TIME.
But that part just sucks to play through more than once!

A way to have some fun in the beginning dungeon: Play an elven archer with 18/00 strength and 19 dexterity... grandmastery in long bow and profeciency with axes. After you pick up one of the goblins' composite longbows call yourself Rambo and go goblin hunting. Bwahahahaha!!!