Well here is the story in a nut shell..I desided to make a wild band of good folks to walk the lands and etc etc etc..Only to find out at the temple that with my infinite wisdom (or lack there of) I never gave my cleric the good domain. Now that's not just for crafting mind you. Not at all I really do enjoy that spell quite a bit, so that's the back ground. The reason. I feel like starting a new game. Mind you. I couldn't even if I wanted to play a min/max game. I did try that and I had to re-roll and replay heh. I am all about the role play factor of the game. So! I wanted some advice. Any thing that you all have found that works well in general. I was going to make a neutral good party. A mix of classes but one thing is a must for me and its a bard (go bards!) Well any whoo I would love to hear your thoughts on ideas for a party or a game play run though *smiles* Thanks for reading Ed
It's somewhat difficult to roleplay with the characters you create, therefore I suggest inviting any 1 - 3 (or more, if you take less than 5 created characters) NPCs into your party as they have their own special roleplay things about them, like quirks and dialogs and prejudices and whatnot. I'm not sure you can do this but it might be interesting to create just 1 character and then invite 7 NPCs into your group. Meleny, Fruella, Ronald, Elmo, Spugnoir, Furnok, Wonnilon, Scorpp, Oolgrist, etc. The list is almost endless! There is a bard NPC (Ziaxis) but he is kind of hard to get. You need to get lucky and get him with a random encounter while traveling.
One thing I always liked to do to approximate roleplay in CRPGs is to start with a completely PC party, then play for keeps (if PCs get killed, they stay dead) and replace your losses with NPCs as necessary. Thus the personality of your group can change dramatically over the course of the game, particularly if your PC leader gets killed. Someone else has to step up and seize the reins ... drama! Whereas you might have started out on a noble paladin-driven quest to destroy the ToEE, you might end up working for them with a bunch of a-holes like Zert hanging on.
Now thats a idea! Thank you to you both. I am used to playing BG2 and IWD(s). I have yet to have the pleasure of trying the npcs in ToEE and Gaear..your my hero I will have to try that
Beware though - ToEE's NPCs are nowhere near as engaging as BG's. Hence the substitute of circumstance for interaction.
I have a lot of fun role playing my all pc party. Granted, most of the role play goes on with very little affect to the game. And concerns my wife some times when I act out the lines where she can hear it. In my head my Pally speaks all proper and gets upset when he sees the captured girls barely dressed in the tower and offers his cloak. My barbarian stands right in Elmo's way when he comes staggering down the dirt path and pushes him to the ground and laughs. My elf wizard draws a pentagram on the stairway wall in the Church of Cuthbert and giggles. My gender confused bard is known for carrying a banana ... well, not in his pocket, when in Nulb. Yuuup, lots of good times and weird stories to be had each and every time my crew departs on their trip to Hommlet.
I find the rolplaying aspect redundant. I never use NPC's as they are always below what I could get myself, and right now I took along Zaxis, levelled him up, and he does not even get to use the 3rd level spells he has been given by me? I am assuming lacking stats, but you cannot even see them....... Or taking along Meleny for cold nights...... not a very strong druid. Other uses perhaps? I take 7 PC's and don't look back. Lot's of blood though.
Zaxis is very strong, wait another level for his attribute gain, you can see his stats then, several 17s and 15s, as an elf he gets bows and longsword, I gave him the +3 longsword and he makes a great backup fighter, excellent archer (he has a few archery feats), as well as backup healer and spellcaster. He is a great charmer for an extra meat shield here and there. I find his only problem is his early spell selection. There are a few time (I think every 3rd level) you can switch out some early level spells, I dropped some duds and added stuff we could use. Since I didn't need him doing any thieving or talking,I had him concentrate his skills on perform, concentration, tumble, and UMD. I gave him a few wands (lightning, fireball, chain lightning) so he is also a backup blaster. He is now my favorite NPC.
