You mean a Master's degree in abnormal philosophy?

Correction accepted. Morte alone is a lecture series.

If someone wants to like BG1 more than BG2, to each their own.
But Irenicus is one of the best done villains ever when it comes to a story for an RPG.
Edit for gram.

I enjoy BG1 more than BG2. I finished BG1 5 times but still haven't finished BG2.

However, I agree with you that Irenicus is an amazing antagonist. Probably one of the best villains every created.

"Ah, the Child of Bhaal has awoken. It's time for more.... experiments..."

"Life... is strength. That is not to be contested, it seems logical enough. You live, you affect your world..."

How many times I randomly uttered those words while talking to someone or giving lecture to my students... Considering I mostly talk Turkish and those words are not, imagine the impact he has on me.

Gram does deserve an edit, I suppose.

It's not Irenicus, or how he's written, it's the voice actor. The same character voiced be any other actor would not be the same, or have the same impact.

We have a great Irenicus in Polish version as well. :) Many of those who played in Polish only can't imagine anyone else in this role. It's something more than a voice actor though. Both versions sound good for me, but they're a little different.

That's what I'm saying. The voice actor did such a good job that anybody else in the roll and it wouldn't be Irenicus, it would be Batman or James Bond or some-such. I'm not saying there's no better voice actors, I'm saying that, to English speakers, Irenicus is synonymous with David Warner and only David Warner speaks like that.

Very true. Mr Warner did a spectacular job giving voice to Irenicus. However, even without the voice, Jon Irenicus is still a lot better written than Sarevok in my opinion and has a much harder impact on the player even tho Kevin Michael Richardson also did a very good job as the voice of Sarevok.

Villains usually want you dead. Saverok

Irenicus wants to torture and if the subject dies that is incidental. The subject was simply too weak. The Torture is his looking for something he can never find because it his own humanity. That makes his character compelling.
The writing spoken by Mr Warner make the character's madness seem reasonable. Reasonable Insanity is always scary ("You see, the brain itself feels no pain if that concerns you, Clarice.")
That Literary quality makes Irenicus a great RPG Villain.

And the final battle is one heck of a magical duel.

From what I recall, Irenicus doesn't actually care either way about torture. The pain he inflicts (or doesn't) on the way to his actual goal(s) is entirely incidental as far as he is concerned; I could easily see him shrugging his shoulders with a "Meh" whether he's told the process is painful or painless. Inflicting pain is an understandable side effect of what he's doing, but it isn't an end goal.

Power is his end goal.

Power was his end goal. ;)

And yes, he doesn't care about the pain as you can clearly see while he casually says "The pain will only be passing, you should survive the PROCESS".

While punishing (inflicting pain, torturing, whatever you want to call it) those who wronged him does become a large factor, he isn't torturing for the sake of torturing. He wants that sweet, sweet god/demi-god power, and damn the consequences!

You and your companions are only of interest as stepping stones toward his original goal of power; I suspect his order to have you killed once you've served your purpose is only to tie up a loose end (rule of thumb: after harming resourceful people, don't leave them behind to seek revenge). If you'd never escaped his first dungeon, he might have left you to rot after he got what he wanted.

All true, but now he has a reason to search for power which is a stepping stone for his NEW end goal.

Damn, it is very hard to write while trying not to give spoilers. I'll stop here :)

I know, right? Granted, these spoilers are for a game almost 20 years old. XD

Anyway. I don't think he had a "Then What?" planned for if his initial power grab was successful, but he definitely has a "Next Steps" planned now.