Baldur's Gate I & II - Gather your party before venturing forth

Don't get me wrong here, I don't think BG is a bad game. It's just not as good as I remembered it to be.

Ya I know him. I mention Insanity + SCS just because of me following him to become better at the game and to understanding the ruleset, hopefully to transition more smoothly to 5e with BG3.

Well I can see where Bioware's trend of having big open worlds with way too much things to do that have nothing to do with the main story started: BG2.

I haven't even done a quarter of the available guests and by now I have basically forgotten about Imoen.

It started with BG1 which was even more open worlds than BG2 as all the areas connected directly to each others in a single big map.

Also, BG1 plot was even less directed then BG2. You were stuck outside of Candelkeep and told to find people at the Friendly Arm inn, but you don't have to meet them. Ever. You could just wander and do quests until you stumbled on things related to the main quest which opened new areas/quests until the final confrontation. Most of the game isn't tied to the main plot as well.

So Edwin is Edwina now and I told him he has a nice rack. Good times. I suspect hilarious conversations in the future. I got my stronghold and I've been doing the quests in Trademeet, next is the Umar Hills. I'll probably end up killing Valygar, though I kinda forgot to visit his house in Athkatla. Dunno if that matters.

Slightly bummed out Edwin's picture doesn't change to a woman when he's a she. That would've been great.

That's a long ass list of tweaks though. Can I choose which ones I use or is it an all in kinda thing?

So I just ordered the Baldurs gate enhanced bundle (1 and 2) never played them before.

Played Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance 1 & 2 which were great games but very different to the original Baldurs gate games (simplified gameplay).

I think the closest thing I have played to Baldurs gate 1 and 2 is Divinity Original sin which I never finished (liked the mechanics but the main story wasnt great).

Looking to insight into Baldurs gate 1 and 2, should I play the first 1 first? I mean does the 2and game rely on u having played the first? I ask because I hear the first is largely inferior to the 2and game so not sure when I finally get the game whether I should go straight to the 2nd or not?

I was initially looking at newer games of the same genre I.e. pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 but thought that I should try the original classics first. Hopefully the graphics wont be too off putting!

Thanks, unfortunately I'm a console scrub and ordered the games on Xbone so I dont think mods are possible.

I've entered Ust'Nata and am pleasantly surprised at the amount of stuff Viconia has to say about being Drow.

Now I wonder.. is the experience of the Drow city much different if Gorion's Ward is female?

IIRC playing female doesn't change much in the drow city, and that scene doesn't occur at all.

I finished SoA.

Overal, I was glad with the more talkative companions, but... the times at which they choose to talk can be absurd. During (!) the first battle with Irenicus Viconia started talking and I suddenly had to deal with not just Irenicus, but also an assassin and a demon. It didn't matter though, they all fell.

The game also reminded me just how much I love to cheese in games. For instance, all Lich battles were completely and utterly trivialized by Edwin turning into a jelly and just waiting until the Lich casts nothing but level 3 spells or lower, or even until it started manually attacking when I was at lower levels. Nizidramanii'yt was murdered before it ever got to speak. I just cast a couple of cloudkills, waited for it to take a decent amount of damage and then had both Imoen and Edwin cast Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting hoping to get lucky with it a kill. I did. (you can't just wait for the cloudkills to kill it, as it will cast heal on itself).

Also glad I didn't abandon this run for the full custom party I had in mind. I was going to because I missed an item for Crom Faeyr that I couldn't get anymore unless I used the console. But anyway, doing the hell section got my alignment changed to evil, and I did not want that. So I looked up how that happened and then I saw the massive stat bonuses one could get by following the evil path. So I will not have Gorion's Ward be a Cavalier in that run, that's for sure. I had a Cavalier in mind for that party, so I spared myself some wasted time

I'll probably end up playing a Half Orc Berserker in that game, and finish SoA with a mindblowing 22 base strength and con. And have that go up to 24 strength and 23 con in ToB. *drools a little*

Anyway, first I'll finish up ToB.

Wrapping up a BG run myself. Finished the TotSC content and running around BG again, trying to avoid hostile Flaming Fist guards and wrapping up Dynaheir's romance while gathering evidence on Srevok.