The BG Series Beaten Path...

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I thought it might be interesting to speculate about how the BG Series would have been played most frequently.

Of course, one of the interesting things about the medium of CRPG games is that, unlike say a novel, multiple narratives are packed within the world of the game.

One could perhaps think of every game begun by everyone who was played the BG Series as a parallel world. Millions of Charnames have been created; while some have made it to the end of ToB, the majority most likely have not, victims to player frustration. Of those Charnames that completed ToB, even fewer would have completed all three games sequentially.

So, my question here is: Out of the, say, tens of thousands of Charnames that have completed any or all of the BG Series games, what is the "beaten path?" That is, is there something we can say about the most frequently played Charname and path through the BG Series? This would could as perhaps the archetypical experience of the BG Series...

My opinion on the most played Charname:

Charname is a Neutral Good Male Human Fighter. Charname uses the young blond fighter portrait in any of the three games. Charname might use the prerolled fighter character that comes with the game, but more likely figures out that he can get better stats by rolling a couple times. Charname does not dual class or choose a kit in BG2. Charname's best stats are in Strength and Constitution; his worst are in Intelligence and Wisdom.

NG because of a bias toward Good for heroes among players, and a slight bias toward Law, but perhaps not enough to be LG. A male because most BG players are male, and because the game offers more options for a male Charname than for a female. A Human because that's the neutral choice, and most BG players are indeed humans. A fighter because that's a) the standard choice for a hero character; and b) the choice recommended by the game for novice players.

In BG1, Charname picks up Imoen outside of Candlekeep, and then meets Montaron and Xzar on the way to the Friendly Arm. Charname then picks up Khalid and Jaheira. Charname might or might not pick up Garrick, but soon dumps him if he does. Somewhere before the Nashkell Mines, Charname dumps Montaron and Xzar. Charname picks up Minsc and rescues Dynahier. Charname runs into other NPCs, but decides he has invested too much XP into his current team, and finishes the game with Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc and Dynahier.

In SoA, Charname exits Chateau Irenicus with
Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, and Yoshimo. His does the Circus quest before leaving for the Slums, and picks up Aerie. Four of his five NPC slots will thereafter be Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo/Imoen, and Aerie, with the fifth slot more likely to be unresolved. After meeting Gaelan Bayle and visiting the Copper Coronet for the first time, he will be assaulted by Nalia, and will go do D'Arnise Hold, though he might do at least part of the slaver quest first. Sadly, if he dumps Nalia, he most likely does so for Anomen, and then possibly Keldorn. Aside from the stronghold quests, which he might or might not complete, he does a couple of others before moving on to Chapter 3, most likely the Thieves Guild (after Yoshimo asks him to), parts of the Harpers quests, and perhaps visits Trademeet or talks to Firkraag. He finds Aerie a little whiny, but ends up pursuing her romance over Jaheira's, who seems a bit bossy, and besides, Khalid just kicked it. He sides with the Thieves Guild against Bodhi. Yoshimo betrays him in Spellhold, and he picks up Imoen. He trusts Saemon and sinks into Sahuagin City, where he supports the prince against the king. He makes all the noble choices in Bhaals realm, and retains his alignment (perhaps after a reload). At some point, he has looked up solutions on line. He finishes SoA with, say, Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, and Anomen, along with a high reputation.

He imports his party directly to ToB. He doesn't trust Sarevok, and finishes ToB with the same party as SoA. He turns down his divine birthright.

This seem right to you?

 

Almost a mimic of my first time through the game except I was a Paladin -> Cavalier and I took Nalia in SoA and dumped her in ToB for Sarevok.

Every time I play ToB I have Sarevok in my party, I guess it's because he's the character I respect the most (not because he is evil but because he's a strong, smart bugger).

 

Actually, I finished BG 1st time around with a CG Elven Ranger (not the blond portrait). Because I was a ranger, wis could not be low, but int and cha were iirc i chose elves bec. i already was a human and playing that character may have seemed redundant

i did NOT pick up xzar and montaron but stayed with Khalid and Jaheira the whole game. I never bothered with Garrick, and end up finishing the game with Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, Xan and Yeslick.

In BG2, it's practically what you said, except that I only attacked Firkraag a bit later in the game and I ended up dumping either Aerie or Jaheira, not too sure

hah! I guess this means I'm part of the 1% non-conventional gamers for BG1 hehe

 

I've never played a fighter. The current game I'm playing is the first with a paladin too I think. Or second, can't be sure.

I've been human about as many times as I've played a paladin or a monk, meaning 3-4. The other ~30 (substantially less if you count finished games only) have been mostly elves, then a few dwarves and a half-orc... i guess there are a few half-elves in there as well.

I absolutely hated Jaheira and Khalid in BG1. Mainly because in order to get Jaheira, I'd have to get Khalid too... and that was one useless annoying lout there. Imoen was an ugly, annoying lass in BG1 too. Though she became one of the most important characters for me in BG2.

At any rate, while most of that could fit the average gamer ok, I don't agree with the ending. The average gamer would most definitely choose divinity.

 

That was me down to a T on my first run through. Except I had a Good Neutral Fighter, and I didn't have to dump Xzar and Montaron because Khalid and Jaheria finished them off just outside the FAI.

 

You've nailed down my first run through BG1 exactly right. Except that, as with Jaguar, Xzar and Montaron never made it to Nashkell: Khalid and Jaheira killed them just before we got there (the screen just north of it).

For SOA and TOB however, I *really* didn't play it conventionally it seems. I did the circus tent very late in the game, and as such never took Aerie in my party. The first quest I did was Maevar's, getting Edwin in my party. Shortly afterwards I rescued Viconia. Did the De Arnise quest, then the Umar Hills quest (and killed the Shadow Dragon. Now that was a challenge, this early in the game). Went on to complete most chapter 2 quests (again, the Copper Coronet quest was completed much later in the game). At Spellhold Imoen was again in my party, so I finished SOA with her, Jaheira, Viconia, Edwin and Minsc. In TOB I picked Sarevok instead of Minsc, so we could be one big happy family At the end, I chose mortality so I could stay with my beloved Jaheira.

Not very conventional I guess... Later on I realized I did most of the quests completely out of order.

 

I also pretty much did the thing I described on my first run through, except I used a Paladin instead of a fighter. Also, I did start another game with a Ranger/Cleric before I finished with the original Paladin, and finished that game first.

I kinda figured Khalid and Jaheira would be responsible for most people dumping Xzar and Montaron (and it's hard to side with a guy who tells you "Sleep lightly, taskmaster" 12 times a day).

And I'd expect people on these boards to have played very non-standard games as well; the idea for the typical playthrough was to speculate about what more casual or novice players would have done, especially with a (relative) lack of consulting discussion boards and faqs as they played.

Another note: I doubt the casual player outlined above would have successfully finished the Aerie romance, especially with the tricky bit in the underdark...

 

Hmm... I actually did the game with a NG fighter but half-elven (they're so cool!) n had yeslick/Xan over Minsc/Dynaheir.

 

Pretty close to my first run - with the following exceptions:

BG1: I was playing a ranger with the cool archer picture, and the party was Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Xan and Ajantis. Minsc kind of frightened me in BG1...

SoA: Dead-on, except that I had Valygar instead of Anomen; he's a hell of a lot less annoying. Also, the first time through, I had Nalia instead of Yoshimo for Spellhold and had to leave her there to get Imoen (since she won't go home to Athkatla after you save her from Isaea). Kind of threw me, getting back to the Copper Coronet and seeing Yoshimo just drop dead. That, and I only picked Aerie over Jaheira because I was trying to be conciliatory (and ended up blowing the Jaheira romance).

ToB: 100% right.

[ September 13, 2004, 09:02: Message edited by: NonSequitur ]

 

@NonSequitur

damn, i had the same char with the same protrait and the same party (except i had yeslick instead of ajantis)

ah well, if that saying about great minds thinking alike has any truth to it, consider yourself blessed hehe

 

For some reason I've always played a Paladin, they just seem a better bet than fighter/ranger, will generally higher rolls and always good Charisma.

BG1 - Always take Imoen at start, never bother with Montaron and Xzar other than to take their kit and send them unarmed against wolves/gibberlings.
Collected Jaheira & Khalid the first time only but dumped them after getting Minsc, Dynahier, Branwen and Kivan. Had exactly the same feelings as Foradasthar about them - Khalid the weak, snivelling little worm. Also always drop Imoen for Coran later in the game.

SOA - Only played it through once so far, basically just after it came out in Blighty. Paladin became an undead hunter I think. Having disliked Jaheira originally I dumped her as soon as getting out of Chateau Irenicus. Think I did Nalia's quest first, followed by Aerie & the circus. If I remember correctly, I also had Anomen along. I left Yoshimo in a pub and switched to multi-player with a gnome illusionist as I wanted a decent mage along. Then did virtually all the possible quests about before going off to spellhold. (Illusionist was specifically to help with Firkraag I think, as I wanted the holy avenger, then I just kept him about) Never did understand (until joining here) why Yoshimo exploded when I got back from spellhold having dumped the illusionist for Imoen. Aerie would have been the only possible romance, but as I didn't realise there was such a thing it didn't happen. (I was always very nice to her though). Yes, did take Thieves over Bodhi, think I killed all the sahuagin in the end, was very annoyed to become a fallen paladin when I sacrificed a party member rather than lose a stat (that's what re-incarnation is for isn't it?) so had to reload.

TOB - Party was Paladin, Minsc, Imoen, Nalia, Aerie and Saverok, just because Saverok was an absolute tank and I thought there may be some side quest associated. I think I gave up some of my soul to him. Never finished the game, but quit just before taking out the fire giant chappie.

 

by replies looks like author of this post is right

i never pick blond hair portrait, usually some brute or shadowy looking one (bald man in bg2, can't recall bg1)
always had ranger Kivan, he's awesome with bow
also had minsc, dynaheir, viconia and imoen

tried most others, but didn't took long to figure what's better for me

main char usually fighter true neutral, just cos you always need a very good fighter on the front line and all others in bg1 are average
but finished bg1 4-5 times, once with gnome thief/illiusionist and once with half-elf ranger
also replayed all game with ToSC expansion later

bg2 1st game with evil berserker (with korgan, viconia, minsc, yoshimo and jaheira)
as learned in bg1 always fully exploring every possible area and doing all possible quests

also played about 3 times and once more with ToB

now playing again with all those big unofficial mods, but have some probs with crashing when entering "bridge district"