There are several reasons why I haven’t played the BG series before now. I’ve decided to make a point of playing through it now because DDO announced an expansion set in the Forgotten Realms and I enjoyed my recent play through of Mass Effect considerably more than KOTOR or Jade Empire.

I’m not particularly fond of 2nd Ed. and my experience with FR have largely been negative. So, I’m asking veterans of the game for some advice on how I should go about getting most out of BG1 and 2.

Biggest Questions.

1a .How practical is it to play a neutral character that tends to stay out of conflicts unless they feel there’s some personal gain to be had or inaction will lead to larger problems latter on?

1b .How practical would it be to play a “Punisher” style character that has little problem putting down NPCs that they see as particularly threatening or beyond redemption?

2.Are party members particularly whiny about the PC not slaughtering every last paladin or saving every last puppy no matter the cost? Any that you would recommend avoiding for this reason?

3.Do Drizzt and his group get shoved down your throat at any point? Can this be avoided or minimized in any way?

4.How often do the games stray into Always Chaotic Evil territory?

5.Are Mage/Thief style PCs viable? Is it significantly better to daul-class or multi-class in this regard?

1a. You'll get most out of the game if you accept that you are supposed to be good.
I've tried playing a true neutral Druid and an evil bastard, but the game simply does not reward you role playing anything else than a goody twoshoes character.

1b. If you mean attacking neutral NPCs, no. If you mean chosing violence over dialoge, that is generally doable.

2. In general NPCs don't care about individual actions, but they will complain and eventually leave if your reputation is too far from the party members' alignment.

3. Can be minimized.

4. Except for scripted enounters, Hobgoblins, Bandits and many other are always hostile, if that is what you mean.

5. Depends on how you play the character. Why Mage/Thief?


To get the most out of the games I also suggest using the mods BG 1 NPC Project and Sword Coast Stratagems. For the latter you should probably only chose Smarter General AI , Calls for Help and perhaps a few other options (but definitely not prebuffed Mages and Priests) if you haven't played any Infinity Engine games before.
Some of the fixpack mods are also very useful

Not a problem, although most conflicts have a personal gain. Murdering people in front of city guards is probably not a good idea.
But behind closed doors.... No, mostly only whine about you not doing their quests. In BG1 he is on his own, & can be avoided altogeather if you want.
In BG2 you will meet the gang, but if you don't want their help, & don't want to kill them, then the encounter will be brief. I wouldn't dual class at all in BG1, you spend too much of the game being weak.
But I'll leave this one as I usually play single class characters.

1a. If you "stay out of conflicts," there are a lot of quests you'll miss, in both games. There are relatively few quests that actually directly relate to you, and most of these are main story quests that aren't (really) optional. However, almost all quests have personal gain, either cash or items from an RP perspective, or XP from a meta perspective.

1b. Party NPCs can be (mostly) murdered at your leisure. It's also entirely possible to kill 98% of the non-party NPCs and still complete the game... in BG2 at least. In BG1, you can make the game unwinnable. Also, it's possible (though difficult) to stealth-kill people in broad daylight in outdoor areas, because most of them will "shout" when attacked, causing nearby folks to become hostile as well. It usually won't aggro the whole zone, though. If you don't care about getting caught, you can kill whomever you like (with a couple of exceptions) and you'll just have to deal with a low reputation, bounty hunters, and guards.

2. All recruitable NPCs have their own opinions, and will voice them if you do something they like or don't like. There are a few instances where they will actually attack you (or each other) due to decisions you make, or because they just hate each other. My advice would be to just avoid NPCs with different values from yours.

3. Drizzt shows up once in BG1, and can be avoided entirely. Drizzt & Co. show up once in BG2 but can't be avoided, but they don't really do much either. It's possible to ignore him, or kill him, or get his help with a quest, in both games.

4. Not that often, surprisingly. Anything that's sentient generally has its motivations. Often they'll be hostile, and often they'll be Chaotic Evil (just D&D rules, though) but there are several instances of orcs just trying to live out their lives pillage-free, drow who just want to be left alone, and ogres who want to invest in agriculture. This is D&D morality, though, so absolutes are the norm.

5. They're quite viable in both games. Multi-classing is EXTREMELY strong at low levels (BG1) and moderately strong at high levels (BG2). Dual-classing is basically useless at low levels (BG1) and can be insanely powerful at high levels (BG2). It's really personal preference, honestly. If you're going to dual-class, though, ALWAYS go thief to mage.

1a) You'll often have the opportunity to ask what's in for you when getting and most quest items are found accidentally. Half the areas in the game are optional, you can follow the plot and miss half the game if you wish.

1b) It's definitely a good idea to save before attacking someone who doesn't attack you. But choosing dialogue options which lead to combat is usually safe.

2) Party members usually don't mind what you do, reputation affects their behavior. As long as you do nothing, nothing changes. Reputation can be controlled by donating in temples.

3) You'll meet Drizzt but you're really not supposed to fight him which works only with some exploits.

4) Most monsters in the wilderness (including humans) just attack, only some talk and only some of them can be reasoned with.

5) Mage/thief style PCs work quite well. The multiclass has both class options available and improves slowly in both classes all the time.
A dualclass thief/mage is a thief in the beginning, a low level mage during the dualing period and will become a perfect mage with some beneficial bonuses from the thief class.

You might want to choose illusionist instead of pure mage for more spells per day.

I thank you all for responding. It’s especially nice to know that the games don’t force the player to aid Drizzt for a lengthy period of time for the sake of fan service. Well I’ve killed my first non-hostile NPC today. Imoen and I turned Xzar into a pincushion after he threatened to issue a contract against us, but his halfling companion ran off and disapeared without ever entering combat. Will this cause technical issues later or can I continue from my most recent save?

No problems.