My thoughts on Siege of Dragonspear

[Xzarloxara]

After putting it off for years (mainly do to restartitis), I just recently finished my first complete run of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition's Siege of Dragonspear campaign. I am usually not very good at writing reviews, but I felt I had to in this case.

First, some info about the setup of my game. I started SoD as a continuation of a completed run of BG. My party setup for the majority of SoD was as follows: My main character was a female Inquisitor paladin, and I had Rasaad, Glint, Voghiln, M'khiin, and Neera as party members. I played on insane difficulty, but without an increase in damage.

I had a ton of fun playing SoD, and I was often completely glued to my screen and fully immersed in the game. I thought the story and characters quite well written, and the combat was challenging, but fun. The world and areas were fun to explore. The various quests were fun to solve as well. Overall I had a blast playing SoD and felt it was a worthy part addition to the BG series.

I am well aware of the controversy around this campaign. Having actually played the game, I find that most of the controversy is a lot of hot air. The main focus of the game was not on sjw or anything like that, and I found that the game developers were extra careful to try to make SoD fit well with the rest of the series. They went to great lengths for this, trying to match the writing and even using the original voice actors for almost all the characters from the rest of the series.

(to be continued...)

 

[Alesia_BH]

Intersting!

I still haven't tried Siege of Dragonspear. My main concern is that it will unbalance SoA, due to the extra experience and importable items. Can you comment on that?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there's an obvious way around this problem. You can play SoD, but still import your post Sarevok save into SoA. You could RP the XP loss by imagining that Irenicus's experiments took their toll on you. I can't believe it took me so long figure that out, lol

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

My main concern is that it will unbalance SoA, due to the extra experience and importable items.

There’s also a huge RP problem: you’ve participated in this massive campaign, which never get’s mentioned again (in BG2). IMHO, the whole thing doesn’t work.

But glad to hear you’re enjoying it, Xzarloxara!

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Intersting!

I still haven't tried Siege of Dragonspear. My main concern is that it will unbalance SoA, due to the extra experience and importable items. Can you comment on that?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there's an obvious way around this problem. You can play SoD, but still import your post Sarevok save into SoA. You could RP the XP loss by imagining that Irenicus's experiments took their toll on you. I can't believe it took me so long figure that out, lol

There are some items that can be imported from Siege of Dragonspear into BG2:EE, but IIRC only if your main character is carrying them in their inventory, nothing inside a Bag of Holding, and you will find them in certain locations across the game, not in Chateau Irenicus, but for example carried by Tazok in Firkraag's dungeon, in the Planar Prison, the Underdark... there's a list somewhere.

As for XP and level, sure, it might make the beginning of BG2 a bit easier, but all of that depends much more on playstyle, grinding and party size anyway so it evens out quickly. Respecting or not respecting the 3million XP threshold and not bringing HLAs into mid-BG2 is the true question there, which can be achieved with or without Siege of Dragonspear. Most things that can break the balance are up to personal choice and self-imposed restrictions anyway, in my opinion.

 

[Alesia_BH]

As for XP and level, sure, it might make the beginning of BG2 a bit easier, but all of that depends much more on playstyle, grinding and party size anyway so it evens out quickly. Respecting or not respecting the 3million XP threshold and not bringing HLAs into mid-BG2 is the true question there, which can be achieved with or without Siege of Dragonspear. Most things that can break the balance are up to personal choice and self-imposed restrictions anyway, in my opinion.

Makes sense. There are a multitude of factors that influence balancing. Starting XP is one of many considerations.

Fortunately the additional starting XP can be evaded, to the extent that it is a concern.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

@Xzarloxara How did you like your companions?
I found Voghlin a bit bland and one-dimensional tbh, but also didn't have him in my party for long, Rasaad and Neera are known of course, but I liked Glint and M'Khiin very much.
I know Glint falls into the stereotype that gnomes are always quirky, but I just liked him, he was fun, and his to some people annoying cheerfulness always made me smile. I also found cleric/thief an interesting combination.

And M'Khiin is cool, I find shaman a useful class and she has this totally pragmatic, down-to-earth attitude with it, not some super esoteric mysticism.
Someone once compared her to Granny Weatherwax (from Terry Pratchett books) and I think the description fits.

I see you didn't use Baeloth, l probably because inquisitors don't get along with chaotic evil drow, even if they have a high entertainment value. My playthrough was with an undead hunter, so yeah, same. I have had a fighter/thief stuck in Baldur's Gate since 2021, maybe he'll get his chance some day.

I'm looking forward to your opinions, curious about your impressions of the quests, story, people, new monsters, items etc!

 

[shmity72]

All of this talk of Baulder's gate made me install bg ii extended. I noticed Ray Muyzika? one of the originals was credited having helped write the beamdog version. Going to give it a whirl.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Intersting!

I still haven't tried Siege of Dragonspear. My main concern is that it will unbalance SoA, due to the extra experience and importable items. Can you comment on that?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there's an obvious way around this problem. You can play SoD, but still import your post Sarevok save into SoA. You could RP the XP loss by imagining that Irenicus's experiments took their toll on you. I can't believe it took me so long figure that out, lol

I dont think it makes too much of a difference really. You do start a little more powerful, sure, but random spawns tend to be stronger as well. The extra items, on the other hand, don't make much of a difference at all IHMO; in fact, I think they are kind of nice.

@Xzarloxara How did you like your companions?
I found Voghlin a bit bland and one-dimensional tbh, but also didn't have him in my party for long, Rasaad and Neera are known of course, but I liked Glint and M'Khiin very much.
I know Glint falls into the stereotype that gnomes are always quirky, but I just liked him, he was fun, and his to some people annoying cheerfulness always made me smile. I also found cleric/thief an interesting combination.

And M'Khiin is cool, I find shaman a useful class and she has this totally pragmatic, down-to-earth attitude with it, not some super esoteric mysticism.
Someone once compared her to Granny Weatherwax (from Terry Pratchett books) and I think the description fits.

I see you didn't use Baeloth, l probably because inquisitors don't get along with chaotic evil drow, even if they have a high entertainment value. My playthrough was with an undead hunter, so yeah, same. I have had a fighter/thief stuck in Baldur's Gate since 2021, maybe he'll get his chance some day.

I'm looking forward to your opinions, curious about your impressions of the quests, story, people, new monsters, items etc!

As far as personalities go, I liked Glint and M'Khiin a lot. Voghiln, not so much, but he was definitely more likable than, say, Dorn. Their classes were all very nice, too. My biggest complaint was that I had to press an extra button to pick locks and disarm traps with Glint. I am used to just pressing F5 as a hotkey for thieving. Not much of a complaint really, but that just shows how happy I was with them.

 

[Zaxares]

My party in SoD was myself (Mage), Corwin (I just loooove Archers in the Infinity Engine games), Viconia, M'Khiin, and the final two slots I swapped around a fair bit depending on whose personal quests I wanted to do at the time, but I ultimately went with Safana and Rasaad. Like Urdnot_Wrex, I found Voghiln to be a bit bland and one-dimensional, and Glint was interesting but I couldn't pass up bringing my sexy drow friend. ;P (Plus, in a broader narrative arc, bringing her along so I can continue to work on her ultimate redemption makes more sense.) Baeloth is always a hoot if you bring him, and Edwin is his usual overpowered arcane self, but my Mage doesn't like arcane rivals. Dorn is probably the single most potent front-line bruiser in SoD, but his unrepentant Blackguard ways make it hard for my LG Mage to stomach bringing along for long.

I thought that Corwin herself was a fairly interesting character (you so rarely see single parents in RPGs, let alone one as a potential party member!), but I disagree with the game marking her as Lawful Good. She strikes me as being much more of a Lawful Neutral, especially with how she behaves towards Gorion's Ward in the final chapter.

M'Khiin is by far THE most interesting and fascinating new companion, in my opinion. A real fish out of water, both with your party, and among her own people. Her story about how 15 goblins died trying to get a chicken out of a well is probably the best laugh I got out of the entire expansion. XD I REAAAAALLY wish she could have come to BG2 and met Jan Jansen.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Hmmm... IIRC, my party was comprised of my blackguard, Corwin, Viciona, Safana and Edwin. One thing I did really enjoy was the NPC banters. To that end, I regret not having tried some of the other companions. M'Khiin does sound pretty interesting, that's for sure.

 

[Amergin]

The problem with SoD is the same as many NPC mods: it takes too many of the untold stories and poorly fills in gaps better done by the player's imagination. Right off the bat, abruptly changing Imoen and Viconia's portraits was completely and unnecessarily jarring.

I get that Beamdog was trying to justify their existence to Hasbro/WotC by producing original content, but obviously (and especially in hindsight) they were no better at it than the plethora of fanfic authors that had years of experience and community feedback. But mostly I will never forgive them for removing community assets, particularly Asc64 and DavidW, whether through appeals to greed/fame or legal persuasion. We never needed Beamdog until the lawyers and accountants showed up.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

But mostly I will never forgive them for removing community assets, particularly Asc64 and DavidW, whether through appeals to greed/fame or legal persuasion.

All opinions can be spoken here whether we agree with them or not, and if the quality of SoD writing is not up to your standards, that's a personal opinion that you are free to have, even if I disagree.

That part above in particular is a different matter though. Accusations or similar statements should be backed up by facts.
So please clarify what you mean. What was the content that was supposedly removed and can you prove your claims?

 

[Trouveur]

I mostly enjoyed SoD but found some pieces of the main story a little lacking.
Luckily, Jastey released some mods which IMHO greatly improve SoD main quest : Road to Discovery, Another Fine Hell and Borarskyr Bridge scene.

For Corwin fans, there is a BG2EE mod in the work.

I personally really like Glint, the gay romance was nicely unfold. I find him less annoying than Jan (sorry to his fans).

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

For Corwin fans, there is a BG2EE mod in the work.

I personally really like Glint, the gay romance was nicely unfold. I find him less annoying than Jan (sorry to his fans).

That's cool, I've always thought it would be nice to have mods for SoD characters in BG2EE.

I played SoD as female so I didn't see Glint's romance, but I also like him a lot and am one of the seemingly few people who only took Jan along once for the experience and otherwise find him annoying.

I was personally OK with the rather linear story of SoD as it was an interlude, but more options are always good.

I have just checked out the description of the "Road to Discovery" mod you mentioned (link to G3 site) and it looks like the introduction of a nice system, to track the various knowledge levels the player can gain about the crusader campaign and intentions and to be able to act and reply accordingly, inform the coalition officers about parts of intel you have gathered and make them react to the actual dangers. Quite cool.

 

[WarChiefZeke]

Going into the enemy armies camp, alone, and solo'ing the entire thing as a Shadowdancer is probably my single favorite IE memory.

That being said, i've only done it once. And it pushed my knowledge of early BG tactics to the max. Was delightful.

I am finally doing another full trilogy run (Berserker 3/Druid) and the sole reason I didn't slip BG1 (blasphemy, I know) was so that I could run through SoD with a fully stat tomed, fully prepared character.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Going into the enemy armies camp, alone, and solo'ing the entire thing as a Shadowdancer is probably my single favorite IE memory.

And that is the kind of thing a Shadowdancer can do. They are really a cool and even OP class if you know how to use them. Far and away my favorite thief kit.