[Davlar Wolfbeard]

Originally posted by Hayashi: I highly, strongly recommend BG2. If you can, get it, and the expansion Throne of Bhaal (ToB) as well. You create only one player character (the protagonist) but you can recruit up to 5 others during the course of the game. There are more than 5 NPCs of course, and part of the fun is getting the 'right' NPCs to suit your playing style and the party. Certain characters do not get along and may even come to blows (eventually). Did I say you can start a romance with some of the NPCs? Depends on you PC's race and gender of course. Story-wise, I dare say BG2 is better than IWD in the sense that the story that begun in BG continues in BG2, with a new 'bad guy'. And ToB gives a sense of closure and concludes the epic. Game wise I can't compare as I've not played BG. But while combat is a major element in the game, not everything boils down to hack n' slash. The characters can advance to really high levels - my PC in BG2 is a level 34 kensai! Great puzzles and side quests abound. High level monsters too - dragons, liches, a demi-lich or two, high level mages, trolls, umber hulks, plenty of drow, to name a few. In a sense IWD will take quite some getting used to. It'll take quite a bit of adjustment when you're accustomed to swatting away goblins with no effort, and here I am in IWD when goblins are a major threat!

If you want to play with a party entirly created by you, starrt a multi-player game, create 6 characters and export them under the pre-generate screen. Assign control of all characters to yourself and then begin the game. After you save just move the saved game file from the multisave file folder to the saved file folder and restart the game as a single player game. I haven't gotten as far as you seem to have but I can't see a difference between either of my single player games. Although I don't have to listen to Jaheira and Aeire squable all the time in the second game.