Blackraven
Habitué
- Messages
- 23
Hi everyone, I started a thread with a new playthrough at the Beamdog Forums yesterday, but because of the impending migration of the forums, and thanks to some helpful people who pointed me to the Tavern (good name), I'll be posting here from now. The text below and the two posts that follow are copied from the Beamdog Forums.
After a number of attempts in the solo LoB challenge in, I think, January and February, I hadn't played any Baldur's Gate until very recently. Now that the game feels fresh once more, I feel like immersing myself again with a more role-played run. I've grown fond of Clerics in recent years for (a) being an underused class and (b) offering great potential for role-play, especially Helm, with two temples in BG1, the stronghold in BG2, and Watcher's Keep.
Because of this run's focus on role-playing, I've decided to create a separate thread rather than posting in the no-reload thread.
The main character is the halfling Amity. Having having been raised by a human foster father in a predominantly human community, Amity committed to Helm, a deity from the human pantheon, for the strength and the guidance to enable her to further the cause of good and justice.
(Yes, that was a manual roll...)
A lawful good Watcher of Helm, Amity comes about as close to being a paladin without actually being one as BG2's Mazzy, whom she hopes to meet someday. Amity is honest but diplomatic, considerate, benevolent, and intends to have her companions behave in the same virtuous way. This means I'll play with a number of restrictions, similar to those used by people who role-play paladins.
- Amity shall always speak the truth unless doing so endangers innocents.
- There shall be no pickpocketing/stealing by her companions, which is new for me (am a shameless powergamer in this respect), so no Algernon's Cloak, Mace of Disruption etc.
- Certain confrontations may not take place (Kirian comes to mind). However I don't wish to shun too many interesting encounters, so I may tamper a bit with this tenet.
- Amity will not cast Animate Dead since according to the Faiths and Avatars sourcebook "[t]he thought of commanding undead rather than turning them or destroying them is abhorrent to Helm, and so his clergy are not allowed to do so and would never dream of trying." In fact I'm inclined to stay away from all summoning spells. Innocent creatures (animals) and even elementals seem to deserve better than to be used as meat shields. Here's a description of aerial servants from the Forgotten Realms wiki: "Aerial servants never displayed interest in the affairs of other planes and would never voluntarily leave their home plane. This was due in part to the fact that residing in calm weather was known to cause aerial servants to gradually grow weaker and lifeless. They also held no desire to collect treasure. When summoned a summoned aerial servant would obediently complete any task for their conjurers, with the exception of fighting, unless prevented from doing so. While on the Prime Material the aerial servant harbored resentment towards their summoner." Gating in celestials will be ok though, since they can only be banished, not slain.
Even though Imoen herself insists on traveling with Amity, the halfling experiences a strong sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of her dearest friend (who should be with Amity almost all the time thanks to the Imoen 4 ever mod). To maximize the early game fun and the thrill of being vulnerable, Amity will seek to build a full party of her liking as soon as possible, and avoid early power-leveling.
Despite quite a few attempts with single-class Clerics, I've never reached BG2 with one (my best and probably most memorable attempt was with Ansgar the Battleguard of Tempus, who fell in SoD in the battle against Belhifet when his own hammer caused an earthquake and knocked him out). Let's see how Amity will fare.
Notable mods include: BG Mini Quests and Encounters, BG1 NPC Project, Unfinished Business, Brage's Redemption, PnP Free Action, some banter mods, SCS (including IWD spells, on insane difficulty without additional damage), and parts of Anthology Tweaks and aTweaks.
After a number of attempts in the solo LoB challenge in, I think, January and February, I hadn't played any Baldur's Gate until very recently. Now that the game feels fresh once more, I feel like immersing myself again with a more role-played run. I've grown fond of Clerics in recent years for (a) being an underused class and (b) offering great potential for role-play, especially Helm, with two temples in BG1, the stronghold in BG2, and Watcher's Keep.
Because of this run's focus on role-playing, I've decided to create a separate thread rather than posting in the no-reload thread.
The main character is the halfling Amity. Having having been raised by a human foster father in a predominantly human community, Amity committed to Helm, a deity from the human pantheon, for the strength and the guidance to enable her to further the cause of good and justice.
(Yes, that was a manual roll...)
A lawful good Watcher of Helm, Amity comes about as close to being a paladin without actually being one as BG2's Mazzy, whom she hopes to meet someday. Amity is honest but diplomatic, considerate, benevolent, and intends to have her companions behave in the same virtuous way. This means I'll play with a number of restrictions, similar to those used by people who role-play paladins.
- Amity shall always speak the truth unless doing so endangers innocents.
- There shall be no pickpocketing/stealing by her companions, which is new for me (am a shameless powergamer in this respect), so no Algernon's Cloak, Mace of Disruption etc.
- Certain confrontations may not take place (Kirian comes to mind). However I don't wish to shun too many interesting encounters, so I may tamper a bit with this tenet.
- Amity will not cast Animate Dead since according to the Faiths and Avatars sourcebook "[t]he thought of commanding undead rather than turning them or destroying them is abhorrent to Helm, and so his clergy are not allowed to do so and would never dream of trying." In fact I'm inclined to stay away from all summoning spells. Innocent creatures (animals) and even elementals seem to deserve better than to be used as meat shields. Here's a description of aerial servants from the Forgotten Realms wiki: "Aerial servants never displayed interest in the affairs of other planes and would never voluntarily leave their home plane. This was due in part to the fact that residing in calm weather was known to cause aerial servants to gradually grow weaker and lifeless. They also held no desire to collect treasure. When summoned a summoned aerial servant would obediently complete any task for their conjurers, with the exception of fighting, unless prevented from doing so. While on the Prime Material the aerial servant harbored resentment towards their summoner." Gating in celestials will be ok though, since they can only be banished, not slain.
Even though Imoen herself insists on traveling with Amity, the halfling experiences a strong sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of her dearest friend (who should be with Amity almost all the time thanks to the Imoen 4 ever mod). To maximize the early game fun and the thrill of being vulnerable, Amity will seek to build a full party of her liking as soon as possible, and avoid early power-leveling.
Despite quite a few attempts with single-class Clerics, I've never reached BG2 with one (my best and probably most memorable attempt was with Ansgar the Battleguard of Tempus, who fell in SoD in the battle against Belhifet when his own hammer caused an earthquake and knocked him out). Let's see how Amity will fare.
Notable mods include: BG Mini Quests and Encounters, BG1 NPC Project, Unfinished Business, Brage's Redemption, PnP Free Action, some banter mods, SCS (including IWD spells, on insane difficulty without additional damage), and parts of Anthology Tweaks and aTweaks.
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